Implementing learner-centered approach in teaching English at Vietnamese higher education institutions: Benefits and challenges

For all of the issues mentioned above, this paper is designed to discuss some benefits of student centered method in teaching English for tertiary students. At the same time, it also focuses on examining different burdens that stake holders likely encounter when teaching and learning with this method.

ÁP DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP GIẢNG DẠY TIẾNG ANH

LẤY SINH VIÊN LÀM TRỌNG TÂM TRONG CÁC TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC Ở VIỆT NAM:

LỢI ÍCH VÀ THÁCH THỨC

Đào Th Thanh Ho

Trường Đại học Hà Nội

cầu cấp thiết ñặt ra cho hệ thống giáo dục Việt Nam là

thực hiện cải cách, ñặc biệt là ñổi mới phương pháp

dạy và học sao cho học sinh có thể tiếp thu kiến thức

một cách hiệu quả và phát huy ñược hết khả năng của

mình Việc giảng dạy tếng Anh ở trường ñại học cũng

nhằm ñáp ứng nhu cầu ñó Mục tiêu chính của việc dạy

ngoại ngữ ở cấp ñộ này là áp dụng các phương pháp

mới nhằm giúp sinh viên giao tiếp thành thạo, phối hợp

ăn ý và học tập ñộc lập Tuy nhiên, các phương pháp

giảng dạy tiếng Anh truyền thống lấy giáo viên làm

trọng tâm lại không phù hợp ñể ñáp ứng nhu cầu của

người học, vì các phương pháp này khiến việc học

ngoại ngữ trở nên bị ñộng, sinh viên không có nhiều cơ

hội thể hiện bản thân trong lớp Chính vì thế, trong vài

thập niên trở lại ñây, phương pháp dạy và học tiếng

Anh lấy sinh viên làm trọng tâm ñã và ñang ñược sử

dụng khá rộng rãi nhằm giúp việc học chủ ñộng hơn

ñồng thời sinh viên có thể bắt kịp với chương trình học

Rõ ràng phương pháp này có nhiều ưu ñiểm hơn cách

dạy và học truyền thống vì sinh viên ñược tham gia các

hoạt ñộng thiết thực, giao tiếp tự nhiên và có thể học theo

ñúng khả năng cũng như những ñiều mình hứng thú

Tuy nhiên, khi áp dụng vào trường ñại học, phương

pháp lấy sinh viên làm trọng tâm cũng ñặt ra những

thách thức không nhỏ cho các nhà quản lý giáo dục,

các thầy cô giáo và cho chính sinh viên Thách thức

trước hết ñến từ ñặc ñiểm văn hóa của sinh viên Việt

Nam, sau ñó là khả năng tiếng Anh hạn chế của phần

ñông trong số họ Hai nhân tố khác không kém phần

quan trọng là ảnh hưởng của việc tuân theo giáo trình

và hệ thống kiểm tra ñánh giá

Trong bài viết này, tác giả trình bày một số ưu ñiểm

nổi bật của phương pháp giảng dạy tiếng Anh lấy

người học làm trọng tâm, ñồng thời thảo luận những

thách thức chính khi áp dụng phương pháp mới này

trong hệ thống giáo dục tiếng Anh ở trường ñại học tại Việt Nam

Abstract: In the trend of international integration,

there is an urgent need to reform education system, especially in the teaching and learning methodology, so that students can obtain knowledge effectively and develop their own potential ability Teaching English at university is not an exception The main goal of language education at this level is to apply new approaches to help learners master in English communication, fully cooperate with others and learn independently However, unfortunately the traditional way of teaching English (e.g teacher -centered method)

is no longer suitable to meet the needs of students because their learning is very passive and they lack chances to practice the language in class Therefore, over the last few decades, student-centered learning has been introduced to encompass replacing lectures with active learning, integrating self-paced learning programs Student-centered learning environment’s advantages outweigh the traditional teacher-centered ones since the former provides learners with complimentary activities, natural interaction, and fulfillment of their own learning interests

Nevertheless, when being applied and implemented

at university, student- centered approach does pose some challenges for educators, teachers as well as learners The first difficulty comes from Vietnamese cultural characteristic, then followed by Vietnamese students' low proficiency in English Finally, the curriculum and examination system are also two other factors that should not be overlooked

For all of the issues mentioned above, this paper is designed to discuss some benefits of student centered method in teaching English for tertiary students At the same time, it also focuses on examining different burdens that stake holders likely encounter when teaching and learning with this method

IMPLEMENTING LEARNER-CENTERED APPROACH

IN TEACHING ENGLISH

AT VIETNAMESE HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS:

BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES

1 Introduction

In the trend of international integration, we

have witnessed numerous changes in almost all

aspects of life, including higher education Today,

there is an urgent requirement for tertiary learners

to obtain skills to adapt themselves to various

situations and communicate in English with

different people from different cultural

backgrounds For this reason, teaching students

how to communicate effectively, cooperate with

others and learn independently has become the

main goal of language education (Cheng 2003) In

fact, communicative skill "prepares learners to

better communicate through their assessment,

enter into dialogue with peers and academics, and

formulate questions to further their learning"

(Deakin University 2013) Therefore, undoubtedly

once students can master this, they can gain

success in their study and their future career

Unfortunately, the focus of traditional ways of

teaching and learning (e.g teacher-centered and

passive learning approaches) is not suitable to help

students reach such goals As a result, it becomes

crucial to make changes and reforms in the

traditional teaching approach and provide students

with knowledge and skills in a modern way

Over the last few decades, learner-centered

approach has been introduced and implemented in

many Vietnamese universities in teaching students

different subjects in general and English in

particular This is because teachers believe in this

mode’s promising benefits of providing students

with new skills such as activeness, independence,

cooperativeness and creativeness However, this

kind of pedagogy is still new and hard to accept

for many students because it has a connotation of

learning environment and cultural appropriateness,

taking into account the fact that Vietnam is a

society that is culturally oriented towards

collectivism rather than individualism (Hofstede

& Hofstede 2005) Hence, beside significant advantages of learner-centered teaching, there are also many considerations posed for teachers of English and educators that are going to be identified and discussed later

This paper is conducted to address two main issues:

(1) In what way does learner-centered approach benefit learners of English?

(2) What challenges are there in implementing this approach in the Vietnamese context?

2 Learner - centered Approach: The Notion and Benefits

2.1 The Notion of Learner-Centered Approach

The concept of learner-centered or student-centered learning was coined as early as 1905 by Hayward and developed in Dewey’s work in 1956 Another developer Carl Roger (2013), the father

of client-centered counseling, helped expanding this approach into education prospect In his book

‘Freedom to learn for the 80s’, Roger describes the shift from the expert - teacher to the student - learner to meet the need for a change in the traditional environment where students became passive, apathetic and lacked enthusiasm

In fact, learner-centered learning does not own one universally-agreed definition, though it has been a term often used by a number of higher education policy-makers or teachers This is because in different contexts, the approach is taken into account in different ways

However, there is a major principle which has been approved by all proponents and researchers

of the approach This is that, learner-centered

method is based on the philosophy that the student

is at the heart of the learning process In other

words, this approach focuses on each student's

interests, abilities, and learning styles, placing the

teacher as a facilitator of learning By such

teaching style, the student's voice is acknowledged

as central to the learning experience of every

learner, and ideally they can choose what and how

they will learn, and the way they will assess their

own study National Center for Research on

Teacher Learning (1999) even made it clearer by

emphasizing the pro-activeness of students in this

pedagogy They showed that during their learning

process, students are active participants; they

utilise their own strategies and study English at

their pace, which make learning individualized

rather than standardized (1999) Moreover,

learner-centered learning helps develop various

skills such as critical thinking, reflective thinking

and problem solving This is a notion which underlies

all attempts at applying the learner-centered

approach Whilst this means that the student is the

focal point of the process, the role of the teacher

remains paramount, particularly under the context

that students' competencies are not the same

2.2 Conventional Versus Learner-centered

Approach

The differences between conventional

approach and learner-centered approach are quite

easily recognized With the conventional or

teacher/expert approach, learners are viewed as

relatively passive, and external reinforcement

controlled by teachers is necessarily available to

shape their behavior (Skinner1953) What is more,

learners are ‘‘empty vessels to be filled with

knowledge’’, thus, they really need "an expert" to

feed them information (Garfield 1995; Moore

1997) In this light, knowledge is defined as an

entity transmitted and absorbed by students

Therefore, a good teacher should be the one who

transfers information thoroughly and at the right

pace so that learners can receive and "digest" information to make it their own (Moore 1997)

As a result, under this approach, learning is viewed as a linear process, progressing steadily from ‘‘not knowing’’ to ‘‘knowing’’

In the traditional lessons, the predominant use

of formal lectures, seminars and examinations are very powerful Teacher provides structured material during lectures, while students listen carefully and take notes quickly Then, during seminars, students are questioned their understanding on the material Finally, absorbed knowledge is checked and assessed by conducting examinations several times during the term This approach is relatively efficient since it allows educators to teach many students within a rather short period of time Unfortunately, in most of the cases, such methods might focus on the "surface" rather than "deep" comprehension levels and just help the students to get a high score in the test but not evaluate their true competency (Biggs 1999)

On the other hand, learner-center approach is

in contrast to the traditional method mentioned above In this way, learners are not passive receivers of information and knowledge but rather active participants in a complex learning process They have the responsibility to accommodate their own unique learning style so as to structure their own learning Meanwhile, the teacher plays the role of a guide who assists the learner in the process of constructing their individual system of knowledge Broughton (1994) adds that “the language student is best motivated by practice in which he senses the language is truly communicative, that it is appropriate to its context, that his teacher’s skills are moving him forward to

a fuller competence in a foreign language” (p.47)

It can be understood that, the teacher is there not

to explain but to encourage and help students to explore, try out, make learning interesting, and learn from mistakes

Unlike teacher-centered approach, the modern

style puts students into the center, the materials

given by teachers are less significant than the

development of logical or systematic concepts

through social exchange (Vygotsky 1978) This

implies that the social environment surrounding

learners helps encourage the development of their

thoughts, beliefs and behaviors inside and outside

classrooms From a constructivist perspective,

students are actively and individually shaping

their own social knowledge, rather than merely

copying knowledge from teacher (Garfield 1995)

For this reason, the assessment of their

understanding aims to diagnose the problems and

promote learning

2.3 Proposed Benefits of Learner-centered

Approach over Traditional Approach in

Teaching English

Traditionally, teacher-centered English

teaching methodology focuses on accuracy of

grammatical structures and isolated items of

vocabulary Jim Scrivener (2012) stated that “the

teacher spends quite a lot of class time using the

board, materials and explaining things again and

again as if he/she is ‘transmitting’ the knowledge

into learners' brain” (Scrivener 2012, p.16) At the

same time, students are required to learn the rules

and the items of lexis by heart, and make some

sentence examples based on such things However,

most of the time they explore only narrow avenues

of the language since the syllabuses are

grammatical-based and the language is grouped by

purpose (Scrivener 2012, p.16) Meanwhile, other

important skills like listening and speaking which

are crucial for interaction processes are not

appreciated properly and taught effectively When

it comes to assessment, the teacher-approach

seems to judge students' ability based on their

memorization and paper work This might be

inaccurate and subjective because sometimes it is

affected by various factors and contexts

By contrast, learner-centered style does have their advanced uses in teaching English as a foreign language First and foremost, it creates a friendly learning environment for students to be more open and proactive in study In his book named Learning Teaching, Scrivener (2012) emphasized the importance of communicative competence in language learning He meant that students are expected to "be able to use the language for meaningful communication" and a foreign language should be taught in the way so that “not simply for the learner to be able to write

to a foreign pen friend” but to broaden his or her horizons by introducing “certain ways of thinking" in simultaneous real life conversations (Richard 2008, p.4) Under this significance, teacher only plays the role as a guide while learners base on such instruction and perform the task in their own ways They share responsibilities

in class and actively get involved in individual work as well as group work to reach the desired results (Walters 2011) As learners participate in communication with each other and learn from their own mistakes during their performance, they can strengthen their communicative skills, and apply English language into different specific real life contexts In this approach, learners are self motivated and enjoy learning more because they can choose and feel comfortable with the topics without worrying about making mistakes For example, in speaking or writing lessons, students have the right to decide the topics by relying on the wide theme suggested by teacher In this way, they do not major in only one topic but are able to acquire more knowledge in different challenges and settings (Weimer 2013) The eventual result is that fluency and accuracy in English usage gradually improves

Another advantage of leaner-centered method

in teaching English is that students benefit from collaborating, supporting, and co-operating with one another With this methodology, all the

students are required to face the challenges by

helping each other and sharing ideas to solve

problems Teachers choose suitable activities and

guide them into the lesson, then groups of students

must decide what to do and how to deal with the

task on their own Under the instruction of

teachers, learners work in groups discussing the

solution, supporting each other, sharing the

leadership and producing meaningful speech or

statements themselves This is particularly

effective with productive skills like speaking

Long and Porter (1985) indicated that group work

in learner-centered teaching approach is an

"attractive alternative" to the teacher-led mode and

"a viable classroom" that can replace individual

conversations with native speakers In other words,

both of them agreed that by this mode, teachers no

longer get involved too much in the students'

performance but let them practice speaking

together in teams to self improve their skill

In short, learner-centered approach is

obviously more advantageous than teacher-led

mode The former tends to encourage students to

show their potential on their own while

developing the cooperation as well as

pro-activeness in learning In other words, students

feel more comfortable and easier to learn under

learner-centered system because they can master

their own leadership and get experiences from

their mistakes

Approach in Teaching English in Vietnamese

Context

3.1 Current Situation: The Shift from

Teacher-centered to Learner-centered

Approach

Following the trend of contemporary English

teaching pedagogy, the reform of the teaching

English in Vietnam has focused on developing

learners' communicative proficiency and

promoting learners' autonomy and pro-activeness

in language classrooms In fact, the booming of

communicative approach has shifted the teaching process from "language form" to "language function" which is in accordance with the needs of students (Savignon 1997) Inevitably, the language teaching mode has also changed from traditional teacher-centered to more learner-centered (Nunan 1988; Tudor 1996) This communicative language teaching style requires learners' active participation and negotiation to produce meaningful interaction in class and of course this aims to encourage students to interpret and construct meaning by themselves based on the basic guide from teacher (Breen & Candlin 1980) Theoretically, under the learner-centered methodology, students are aware of their objectives and goals so they know what to do and how to do in order to achieve these goals Thus, this model for" language curriculum development shifts from what should be done in a course of study to what is specifically done by language teachers in their classes through the negotiation between teachers and learners in the planning, implementation and evaluation of language courses" (Nunan 1988) However, in most of Vietnamese tertiary institutions, the so called top-down approach is very strict, hence, curriculum is still assigned by the Ministry or teacher board, and

so the negotiation is not very strong Nonetheless, the autonomy of learners in studying a language is emphasized and modified in some aspects Specifically, at the early phase of the course, students’ needs are collected and analyzed so that learning styles can be figured out and used for selecting course content and teaching methodologies During every lesson, more responsibility is placed in the hands of students to manage their study and teachers now just play the role of facilitators to help learners get knowledge

in their own way rather than being "the source of knowledge" Learners' autonomy can be fostered through communicative tasks by which they can develop their English language as well as skills In

a student-centered class, at different times, there are various activities in which students may be working alone to prepare ideas or making notes,

or in pairs, or in groups to discuss their answers,

react to one another‘s written work or share ideas

Also in a student-centered class, students may be

teacher-led, before they work together, their

teacher will help them prepare to work together

with explanations and pronunciation practice

While students are working together, their teacher

will be available to give advice and

encouragement After they’ve finished working

together, and the class is reassembled, their

teacher will give them feedback, offer suggestions

and advice, make corrections, and answer

questions

3.2 Challenges Posed for Educators and

Teachers

The challenge firstly comes from Vietnamese

cultural characteristic Although the

learner-centered approach promotes the autonomy and

activeness of students in class, not in all cases the

methodology obtains successes An important

aspect, particular to Asian cultures, is the

preservation of 'face' which means "a person's

social and professional position, reputation and

self-image" (Go & Mok 1995, p 46) Students are

afraid of losing face when they give the wrong

responses or being unable to answer teacher's

question Therefore, they would rather not express

their personal opinions nor argue with others in

the formal class Commonly, they do not usually

take part in discussions until they are asked to do

so This has a negative impact on the effectiveness

of the lesson in which students tend to be inactive

and reserved

Another burden in implementing the

learner-centered approach is the Vietnamese students' low

proficiency in English In the university where

English is trained professionally, this is not really

the matter because their major is English, thus,

they can use it to actively take part in different

activities such as discussions, arguments, or

sharing ideas, etc This foreign language can be

employed as the main tool of interaction in class

so that students can gain knowledge, and at the

same time, practice their language ability However, in many other tertiary institutions where English is just considered as a "minor subject", the story is completely different Most of students in these universities are at the elementary or pre-intermediate level of English proficiency, so without the thorough and careful instruction from teacher they hardly manage to carry out their tasks

in an independent way Take role-play activities as

a good illustration for this Teacher often finds it difficult to assign these tasks for students however interesting and useful they are because students' vocabulary and structures are limited To be specific, they might have many ideas in their mind but do not know how to express them and argue with classmates in English Therefore, teacher should be available to feed them in and guides them step by step in order to ensure the comprehension of the whole class In this light, students' language competence really challenges any teacher who wants to apply learner-centered approach in his/her class which requires the autonomy and pro-activeness from students Last but not least, the curriculum as well as examinations are also the two factors that have significant impacts on the efficiency of the learner-centered mode In Vietnamese education system, these two issues often own the mutual influence on each other, hence, teacher has to follow the assigned curriculum and make sure students can achieve fruitful results at the end of the course based on their performance in examination As Hopkins (2002, p 281) observes,

“one of the threats to child-centered learning is the narrowing of the definition of effective student learning to test scores It is evident from the case studies that teachers in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania are subject to significant expectations and pressure to ensure student success on national examinations.” In other words, the gap between knowledge and outcomes is serious that both teachers and stakeholders need to bear in mind in

“both pre-service and in-service teacher education

if learners’ communicative skills as well as

learning strategies are to be improved” Obviously,

a shift from traditional approach to

learner-centered approach means a spectacular change in

the way of assessment, otherwise the latter is just

interpreted at the classroom level rather than at the

course or curriculum level in which students are

supposed to have the autonomy in deciding the

course planning, implementation, assessment and

evaluation

4 Conclusion

In conclusion, the learner-centered approach in

teaching English at tertiary level does prove its

strengths in terms of promoting students'

independence and activeness in class Due to this

fact, Vietnamese university education system has

tried to apply this mode as a new method in

teaching English to catch up with the global

integration trend However, what maybe

successful in global contexts may not be equally

appropriate in a particular local settings There are

always some certain contextual factors that put

direct impacts on the implementation of the

methodology In the case of the learner-centered

approach, such burdens are cultural

appropriateness, Vietnamese students’ English

competence, and the mutual relation between

learning and assessment

Therefore, this paper raised a concern about

the way the learner-centered methodology is

implemented at university level in Vietnam to

teach English All educators, education managers

to teacher and learners must get involved in an

attempt to address these challenges because

culture appropriateness, students’ English

competency, and the link between curriculum and

assessment determine the success or failure of the

course Only when reform policy conducted by stakeholders and methodology developed by teachers are consistent and sufficient would the approach gain high achievement

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