luận văn thạc sĩ nghiên cứu về việc dạy tiếng anh như là một ngoại ngữ cho học sinh khiếm thị ở một trường chuyên biệt ở hà nội​

In an attempt to investigate the reality of English teaching and learning in asecondary school for the disabled the Blind and Visually Impaired in Hanoihereinafter called School X, the m

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

Nội)

M.A Minor Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

HANOI – 2020

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

Nội)

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Supervisor: Prof Dr Nguyễn Hòa

HANOI – 2020

I certify that the thesis entitled “Teaching English as a Foreign Language to

students at a Blind school in Hanoi” is the results of my own research for the

Degree of Master of Arts at The University of Languages and International Studies– VNU, Hanoi, and the substance of this research has not been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution wholly or partly

Signature

Hoang Thi TrangHanoi, 2020

In addition, I would like to send my sincere thanks to all of the lecturers of theDepartment of Post Graduate Studies, Vietnam National University for their usefullectures and materials which are great of value to my thesis.

A special word of thanks goes to all the teachers and students at School X for theirparticipation in completing the project

I also want to send my appreciativeness to my family, my friends and other peoplewho have encouraged, assisted and supported me during the process of this project

Finally, due to the limited time to complete this work, it is unavoidable to have themistakes; therefore I am solely responsible for them and would like to havecomments from others who concern to my study

Hanoi, September 2020Hoang Thi Trang

In an attempt to investigate the reality of English teaching and learning in asecondary school for the disabled (the Blind and Visually Impaired) in Hanoi(hereinafter called School X), the main purposes of the research were to find out:(1) the reality in teaching and learning English to blind and visually impairedstudents; (2) the difficulties in teaching and learning English via the teachers andstudents‟ self- reported difficulties they faced with; (3) the reasons why the teachers andstudents have these difficulties in teaching and learning English; (4) the ways to helpteachers and students reduce difficulties they have in teaching and learning English Toconduct the research, I used the descriptive qualitative method The subjects of the studywere eight randomly selected blind and low- vision students and four English teachers atSchool X The data was collected from class observation and interview The results of theresearch shows that: (1) The process in teaching and learning English to visual impairedstudents in inclusion class at School X are still teacher- centered, so the students arelearning depend on the teacher‟s instruction; the English materials for visually impairedstudents are same with normal students; (2) The problems faced by teachers and visualimpaired students in teaching and learning English in inclusion class; (3) The solving ofthe problems faced in teaching and learning English by teachers and visual impairedstudents

It is hoped that this thesis will improve the teaching and learning English processmore successful at School X in particular and all the secondary schools for blindand low vision students in general

Key words: visually impaired students, language learning, language teaching,

challenges

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LISTS OF TABLES

Table 1: Students‟ reasons for learning English (N=8) 28

Table 2: Students‟ opinions about the importance of learning English (N=8) 28

Table 3: Students‟ opinions about the importance of learning English in comparison with other subjects (N=8) 29

Table 4: Students‟ opinions about their passion learning English (N=8) 29

Table 5: Students‟ learning competence (N=8) 29

Table 6: Students‟ opinions about the importance of good marks (N=8) 30

Table 7: Students‟ attitude to English lessons (N=8) 30

Table 8: Students‟ feeling in English lessons (N=8) 30

Table 9: Factors affecting students in learning English (N=8) 31

Table 10: Students‟ opinion when they are learning English in class (N=8) 32

Table 11: Students‟ opinion when having difficulties in learning English (N=8) 32

Table 12: Students‟ opinion about the most difficult aspect (s) in learning English (N=8) 33

Table 13: Students‟ opinions about English learning activities (N= 8) 34

Table 14: Students‟ materials for learning English better (N=8) 34

Table 15: Students‟ evaluation on their textbooks (N=8) 35

Table 16: Students‟ difficulties in learning English (N=8) 35

Table 17: Students‟ solutions to improve their English (N=8) 36

Table 18: Students‟ suggested solutions to improve their English (N= 8) 36

Table 19: Information about teachers participating in the survey (N= 4) 37

Table 20: Teachers‟ years of teaching English and teachers‟ years of teaching English to blind and low vision (N=4) 37

Table 21: Teachers‟ training background (N=4) 37

Table 22: Teachers‟ opinions about the importance of teaching and learning English (N=4) 38

Table 23: Teachers‟ opinion about the importance of learning English in comparison with other subjects (N=4) 38

Table 24: Teachers‟ and students‟ opinions about student‟s passion learning English (N=4) 39

Table 25: Teachers‟ judgment about students‟ learning competence (N=4) 39

Table 26: Teachers‟ attitudes toward English teaching aim (N=4) 39

Table 27: Aspects that teachers‟ focus on in their teaching English (N=4) 40

Table 28: Teachers‟ opinions about the most suitable method for their teaching

English (N=4) 40

Table 29: Techniques are often used by teachers in teaching English (N=4) 41

Table 30: Ways of using the textbook of the respondents (N= 4) 42

Table 31: Frequency of using other materials besides the textbooks in teaching English (N= 4) 42

Table 32: Frequency of using the mother tongue in teaching English of the participants (N=4) 43

Table 33: Some cases of using the mother tongue in teaching English of the participants (N=4) 43

Table 34: Teaching strategies often used in teaching English (N=4) 44

Table 35: Factors affecting the teachers‟ language teaching (N=4) 45

Table 36: Teachers‟ solutions to improve English language teaching (N=4) 45 Table 37: Teachers‟ suggested solutions to improve their English teaching (N=4) 46

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the rationale of the study, the aims of the study, the researchquestions and methods used to achieve the aims The scope and significance of thestudy are also presented Finally, the chapter introduces the structure of the thesis

1.1 Rationale of the study

In the context of integration and globalization, English is now becoming one of themost effective means of communication in the world and Vietnam is also noexception Hence, foreign language teaching and learning, especially English, ismore and more essential and the master of foreign language – English - appears as

an urgent requirement at present As a result, there has been a positive trend ofteaching and learning English in Vietnam People, from children to adults, are beingstimulated to study English for a better life, which takes no exception to the blindpeople

However, it is assumed that blind and visually impaired foreign language learnersexperience more difficulties in their learning process than sighted learners Theobstacles derive mainly from the absence or reduce input of visual informationwhich may negatively influence the teaching/ learning process In addition, theopportunities for incidental/ implicit foreign language learning/ acquisition arelimited in the case of low- vision or blindness As Aiazzi (2005) states in her project

that “eighty percent of learning is through sight”, it could be implied that teaching

English for the blind is confronted with quite a few problems For example, in aclass with blind students, teachers cannot use many teaching techniques such as

“writing on the board, gesturing, miming and showing objects to pupils” (Aiazzi,

2007: 1) Therefore, how to teach English to blind and visual impaired students hasbeen a controversial issue Thus, investigating the reality of teaching English inblind schools should be carried out in order to identify the difficulties that teachersand students there encounter and the factors that affect their English teaching andlearning process

Moreover, concerning “teaching English to the blind people” helps me realize that thisarea has received little attention from the specialists There is not much research carriedout on this problem especially in Vietnam, there is no study conducted to investigatethe difficulties in teaching and learning English to the blind students, which is aconsiderable disadvantage to people with visual limitations

Because of these all above mentioned reasons, I have decided to conduct a research

titled: “Teaching English as a Foreign Language to students at a Blind school in

Hanoi” This study helps us to have a deep understanding about teachers‟ and

students‟ difficulties in teaching and learning English In general, it can be affected

by a variety of factors coming from teachers‟ side, students‟ side and classroomcondition Through this study, I expect to find out some appropriate solutions toovercome the difficulties for more successful teaching and learning English atSchool X

1.2 Aims of the study

This research is designed to explore the difficulties in teaching and learning English

as a foreign language to blind and low vision students at School X through teacherand students‟ self- reported difficulties they encountered in teaching and learningEnglish With the hope to be some of help to improve the effectiveness of teachingand learning English to blind and visually impaired students at School X, it isexpected to achieve the following aims:

(i) To explore the reality of teaching and learning English to blind and visuallystudents at School X and investigate the difficulties in teaching and learning English viathe teachers and students‟ self- reported difficulties they faced with

(ii) To gain understanding of why the teachers and students have these difficulties

in teaching and learning English process in order to suggest some solutions to helpteachers and students reduce difficulties they have in teaching and learning English incontext of a blind school in Hanoi

2 Why do they have those difficulties?

1.4 Methods of the study

This is a survey study, and the major method used for the study is qualitative Datawere collected via interviews for both teachers and students and classroomobservations The study was carried out by some steps as follows:

First, the interviews for both the teachers and students were employed to find outtheir difficulties in teaching and learning English and also help the researcher gaindeep insight into the teaching and learning problems and realize the reasons behinds

them Besides, the students‟ opinions of the solutions that they and their teacherscan do to overcome the problems was revealed through the interviews.

Second, the classroom observation was employed to get information about bothteachers‟ ways of teaching and students‟ ways of learning in class as well as toascertain the prevalent problems forwarded by the teachers during the interviews

After that, the data was collected, sorted, and analyzed qualitatively to obtainrealistic results From that, the researcher will give some suggestions to improve theeffectiveness of teaching and learning English to blind and visually impairedstudents

1.5 Scope of the study

The study aims at finding out the difficulties in teaching and learning English faced

by teachers and students at a blind school in Hanoi in teaching and learning English

as a foreign language There is no intention to generalize the results In other words,what is true to the group of students participating in this study may not be true toother groups of students

There are many types of difficulties that teachers and learners met when they taughtand studied a foreign language However, due to the limitation of time and thenarrow scale, the study only focused on the most common difficulties in teachingand learning English faced by teachers and students at School X from theperspectives of teachers and students in order to offer some suggestions forimprovement

1.6 Significance of the study

Theoretically, the result of this research is expected to give contribution for thescience in English teaching and learning process, especially for visual impairedstudents and their teacher

Practically, this study is expected to be useful for the teachers, for the visuallyimpaired students and for the school For the teachers, it is expected to be kind ofteaching method and reference for the teachers in developing or creating new moreinteresting methods and techniques of teaching English for the visual impairmentstudents especially in inclusive school so that they can learn well For the visualimpaired students, the researcher hopes that the visually impaired students will get

an appropriate treatment in English learning so they can learn English confidently;

they can decrease their difficulties; they can accept the same education right inclass It can motivate visual impairment student to compete with normal students.For the school, this research will be expected to be a reflection for English teachingand learning process, especially in inclusion class As an implementation guide forEnglish evaluation for students with visual impairment, it can be a consideration tochange the best strategy in teaching English; moreover can improve the quality ofEnglish teaching and learning.

1.7 Structure of the thesis

This thesis has five chapters

Chapter One: Introduction This chapter briefly states the rationales of the study, theaims, the research questions, scope, methods, the significance and the design of thethesis

Chapter Two: Literature review provides a review of literature on the theoreticalfoundations for the whole study as well as the concise review of related studiesworldwide

Chapter Three: The methodology contains the core part of the study including thesetting of the study, the methodology, the collection and analysis of the data for theresearch

Chapter Four: Findings and discussion analyze the statistical results from interviewsand class observations which aim at answering two research questions mentioned inthe previous chapter

Chapter Five: Conclusion This chapter addresses the key issues in the study,summarizes the main findings, gives some limitations of the study and offers somerecommendations to improve the quality of teaching and learning English to blindstudents and also some suggestions for further researches

1.8 Chapter Summary

In the Introduction chapter, I have covered the rationale, the aims, the scope, theresearch questions, the methods, the significance and the structure of the thesis Thefollowing section- Chapter two- Literature review will present a review of literature

on the theoretical foundations for the whole study as well as the concise review ofrelated studies worldwide

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter focuses on some of the most important issues in the theories ofdifficulties in teaching and learning English as a foreign language to blind students

in general and in School X in particular Firstly, briefly overview of blindnesstheories will be presented, include the definitions, the types and special educationalneeds in foreign language teaching and learning Secondly, the impacts of visualimpairment on learning and the reality in teaching English to blind students will bementioned After that, some approaches in teaching English as a foreign languageand some problems related to teachers and students in teaching and learning Englishwill be listed The final part will be a review of previous related studies

2.1 Background Information on Blindness Visual Impairment

The terminology to define loss of vision or reduced vision is quite diverse Theterms used more often are: blindness, low-vision, vision/visual impairment, visualdisorder, vision loss and visual disability There are also different definitions in usedepending on whether these terms are used in medicine, rehabilitation or education.And, the two basic criteria to indicate that a person does not have vision, or has onlypartial vision, are vision acuity and vision field

According to the World Health Organization‟s classification (WHO, 2010), aperson is “visually impaired” (or with “low-vision”) if his/her vision acuity in thebetter eye with best possible correction is less than 0.3 (normal vision is 1.0) orvision field from the centre is less than 30 degrees (normal vision field 180°); aperson is totally “blind” (or with “blindness”) if his/her vision acuity in the bettereye with best correction is less than 0.05 (3/60) or his/her vision field from thecentre is less than 10 degrees

In education, „visual impairment‟ and „blindness‟ are conditions which causespecial educational needs; being defined as “an impairment in vision which, evenafter correction, adversely affects educational performance” (Castellano, 2005:15)

In addition to the abovementioned definitions, Castellano suggests to use a skillsdefinition of blindness/visual impairment According to that, blindness/visualimpairment (BVI) means “using alternative skills and tools in place of, or inaddition to, eyesight in order to gain information or perform tasks” (Castellano,2005:16) The simplest definition of visual impairment used in practice is that aperson is visually impaired if s/he cannot read ordinary printed text due to his/hervision loss without special aids or adaptations

In the Update and Revision 2006, WHO divided four levels of visually impaired type:

(1) Normal vision

(2) Moderate visual impairment

(3) Severe visual impairment

to a vision less than 20/200 and a limited range of vision People who are legallyblind cannot see things clearly, whether it is near or far Totally blind means that theperson has no vision at all Their eyes are not able to process images, and they learnthrough non visual resources, including Braille

Even though visual impairment is a low-prevalence disability, it may happen thatthere is a child with blindness or reduced vision in a mainstream classroom.Providing real inclusion does not mean just physical attendance, but the primarygoal should be ensuring them student‟s participation in an effective learningprocess It sounds well in words, but in reality, achieving full participation is acomplicated task influenced negatively by multiple factors

The reasons for difficulties may be caused by students‟ individual characteristics,such as personality, psychological traits and mental abilities, which are veryvariable Those significant factors are related to accessibility issues It is a well-known fact that the ordinary learning process is based on vision to a great extent.Mainstream study materials tend to be visual - in addition to the printed text, thereare illustrations, visual clues and effects, which are designed to support and

motivate learning Also the teaching methods and activities are prevailingly based

on the use of vision

2.2 Visual Impairment and Its Impacts on Learning

Visual impairment can be defined legally and educationally It can be congenital,occurring at or shortly after birth or acquired through other means later in life.Before teaching students with visual impairments, it is important for the teachers toacquire information about how the loss in vision influences the teaching-learningprocesses Visual information is fundamental in helping children observe andinterpret what happens in the environment It is also an important prerequisite forconceptual development in a student‟s learning (Mwakyeja, 2013)

A visual impairment can make learning very difficult Students with visualimpairments have unique educational needs which are most effectively met using ateam approach of professionals, parents and students In order to meet their uniqueneeds, students must have specialized services, books and materials in appropriatemedia (including braille), as well as specialized equipment and technology to assureequal access to the core and specialized curricula, and to enable them to mosteffectively compete with their peers in school and ultimately in society Theteachers, who are working with visually impaired students need to plan theenvironmental conditions based upon the following factors: (Mwakyeja, 2013)

Learning Environment – The learning environment should be created in such a

manner that students should be able to adapt easily and enhance their learning Theavailability of learning materials should be well-organized in order to facilitatelearning When the learning environmental conditions will not be supportive to thestudents, then their learning will automatically get interrupted It should contain thetechnology and the assistive devices, whose utilization will be able to assist students

in the acquisition of education Therefore, there is a need for all the stakeholders ineducation to consider reformation of the education system to enable these studentslearn better

Assessment of Learner’s Needs – Assessment of the learner‟s needs refers to the

systematic procedures of gathering and identifying the needs of the learners Qualityteaching can only take place in an effective manner, when the needs, backgroundsand prior knowledge of the learners is known Assessment of the learning needs ofthe students with visual impairment, prior to the beginning of the study program isimportant for both the students and the teachers The reason being, it allows for an

understanding of the student‟s academic abilities, approaches, strategies andlearning styles.

Individualized Education Plan - Individualized Education Plan (IEP) is a plan of

study taken from the general curriculum, which is structured specifically to meet theneeds of these students This plan of study consists of a list of precise goals to bemet, and the strategies to be used to meet those goals Parents and teachers arerequired to work in co-operation to regulate these specific goals and academic needs

of the students to enable a teacher to plan and implement teaching

Teaching Collaboration (Co-teaching) - Teaching collaboration (Co-teaching) is

an important aspect of inclusive education, because inclusive classrooms comprise

of students with different learning needs A single teacher cannot have all the skillsneeded to meet students‟ diverse needs within inclusive classrooms Co-teachinginvolves two teachers teaching the same class at the same time The regular teachertaking responsibility of the main teaching, and a special needs teacher, dealing withdisability specific needs of the students A teacher, who has specialized in visualimpairments, should help students with visual impairments learn and understand Aspecial teacher will be assisting a general teacher in preparation of teachingmaterials and learning environment for these students A co-teacher will also beresponsible for teaching skills like reading and writing by using Braille, glasses,lenses etc

Collaboration with Parents - Parents make a major contribution to the education

of their children, and are prospective sources of information about the academicabilities of students with visual impairments Parents are the ones, who know theirchildren well; they know their interests and the things that can prove to bebeneficial to them They also know their educational needs, and can plan theirfuture They will provide information about social, physical and emotionaldevelopment

2.3 Teaching English to the Blind and Visually Impaired Students

According to Christidou (2016), the teaching of foreign languages to pupils withvisual impairment presents some peculiarities and difficulties

The Transmission of Meaning - A key feature of language teaching is that while in

other courses communication is used to teach the course content, in foreignlanguages content is used to teach communication The non-verbal methods ofcommunication are key players in the teaching of meaning, while in most classes

where languages are taught, vision plays a dominant if not an exclusive role.Consequently, the teachers of the visually impaired who are unable to use visualmeans to support their teaching, must look for new ways to facilitate the teaching ofthe target language without making compromises regarding the transmission ofmeaning.

Means and Materials- Today foreign language teaching is greatly based on vision.

The meanings are often transmitted visually, using pictures, maps, and diagramswhich are inaccessible to the visually impaired students One solution is to preparedifferentiated material which is though time consuming and costly The studentswho use customized sources and material lose many physical-random learningopportunities and the chances to strengthen the incentives of the secondaryinformation which is contained in the original material In addition, students‟opportunities to choose by themselves the readings which they find pleasurable arereduced

Reading and Writing Skills- The difficulties in reading and writing in all subjects

met by students with vision problems are commonly accepted, but are significantlyincreased in the case of learning a foreign language The readers may have aparticular difficulty with the handwriting of a foreign language Another difficultymight be presented in the use of documents (catalogs, brochures, etc.) to be readwhich vary in font sizes, interpretation codes and sometimes present peculiar textarrangements Moreover, stresses are often not so visible and should be highlighted

The Braille users follow a more unified system, with different types of difficulties.Each language has different abbreviations Despite the use of the first degree Braillefor foreign languages in order to include symbols for stresses and symbols forcommon words, a risk of confusion still remains Students from a point and on willhave to either learn to use the Braille code of the foreign language, which requires avery good command of the Braille code of their mother tongue to avoid confusion,

or to work with recordings

Access to Reference Materials - A particular point of difficulty for students with

visual impairment is their effective access to dictionaries whose use is a majorproblem for both printed text users and Braille users Volunteer readers can be asolution to this In this case, however, the use of the dictionary is a troublesomedependence on others for the students and is not a skill of the student Talking

computers and mobile signs in Braille can help, but what is really needed is acomplete and effective talking pocket dictionary with good pronunciation.

Use of Information Technology Where Appropriate- Despite the students‟ with

visual impairments relative familiarity with the use of computers, the commerciallyavailable software for language learning is mainly visual The sound synthesissystems available for text editing vary in capacity to produce foreign languages andmobile Braille signs are expensive CD-ROMs can provide reading materials withsound, but when it comes to its selection, teachers should make sure that the visualelements are not the dominant ones

Assessment Procedures - Reading comprehension during an assessment may be a

big test for the memory since the student does not have the opportunity to keepnotes in order to be helped The additional time given to the students as to completethe examination is necessary, but it puts to test their physical endurance and theirability to concentrate

2.4 Some Strategies of Teaching English to the Blind and Visually Impaired Students

Mwakyeja (2013) has stated some adaptive teaching methods that teachers arerequired to utilize in order to facilitate learning among visually impaired students

Encouraging Collaborative Learning – Encouragement of collaborative learning

among students with different learning capabilities and learning needs in aninclusive classroom has proved to be effective in promoting academic achievement,positive attitude towards the subjects and in improving social interaction among thestudents When individuals are working in collaboration with each other, they areable to devise solutions to their problems and are able to improve their learning.Teamwork and collaboration also helps the students to generate awarenessregarding the use of innovative techniques and methods Individuals come to knowabout others perceptions and viewpoints, when they work in collaboration

Using Questions and Answers – Verbal communication among the teachers and

the students is regarded as an imperative means of facilitating learning Afterproviding verbal explanation of the concepts, the teachers should encourage thestudents to clarify the doubts that they may have Verbal communication of givinginstructions and obtaining answers from the students is also a helpful technique

The teachers should record the answers given by visually impaired students, so thatthey are able to assess their needs and requirements in a better way.

Sound Projection and Calling Students Names – The teachers need to be clear in

their speaking and in addressing the students The voice of the teachers should bepleasant, he or she should be interesting to listen to, should read out loud and becoherent in providing explanations, and one should avoid the use of vague phrases,such as, this, that or over here The teachers should make use of simple presentationand communication The best teaching method is following up on the tasks of theindividuals to ensure that they are able to understand the lesson plan in a better way

Adapting Written Texts - Teaching materials need to be adapted For example

printed text can be adapted through increasing the font size, bolding the text,increasing contrast, adding colour, adjusting spaces between characters and largewriting text should be used on the blackboard or visual aids However, the extent ofthese adaptations is determined solely by the rigorousness of visual defects and theneeds of the students Therefore, it is important to consult a specialist teacher onpreparation of materials prior to the lesson, the reason being, different students usedifferent materials depending on the degree of their visual impairment

The Use of Audio, Optical and Non-Optical Devices – Verbal learning proves to

be beneficial to the students with visual impairments The incorporation of audiodevices primarily assist the teaching processes, these include audio cassettes andcompact discs Optical devices such as, eye glasses, magnifiers and telescopes uselenses to increase a person‟s residual vision and are normally prescribed by amedical specialist The examples of non-optical devices include large prints, Brailleand Braille writer, tape recorders, book stands, recorded and talking, books andcalculators and computers The role of both optical and non-optical devices is toimprove vision and increase functionality of the students through the use of othersenses It is the role of a teacher to encourage these students to use visual devicesand assistive technologies to help them with vision

The Use of Tactile Materials – Teachers must be aware, that students with visual

impairments experience deficiency in conceptual experiences and understandingdue to non-appearance of visual ability Therefore, adaptations of teaching materialsbecomes principal, if they have to learn all the things other students without visualimpairments learn in class To help this, these students should be taught physicallyusing concrete experiences Tactile diagrams are important to understand the

images and concepts, which are difficult to explain and describe in words.Therefore, they should apparently be used, when figures and designs are important

to understand the concept but also, when the real objects are not available to helpteaching Tactile images or diagrams can be drawn on Braille papers, using aspecial mat and stylus

Extra Time Allowance – The students with visual impairments are slow in

completing their work Therefore, extra time allowance is important for them incompleting their work, to process visual information and complete their writtenassignments Students with low vision take longer time to read a text as compared

to students with normal vision Also reading and writing in Braille as well as gettinginformation from tactile sources for students with blindness is time consuming Atthe same time, students with blindness need much time to integrate informationcoming through hearing Normally, it is adequate to add half of the time for studentswith low vision, and twice as much for students with blindness Many externalexaminations identify this requirement and give them allowance of up to 100%additional time for students with visual impairments

2.5 Factors affecting the process of teaching and learning English

There is a great deal of factors affecting the quality of language teaching andlearning but because of the limited scope of the study, the focus is only on somefactors affecting English teaching and learning process in a blind school in Hanoi.Basing on Larsen-Freemans‟ views, difficulties in language teaching in general anddifficulties in teaching English to student‟s vision loss in particular are examinedfrom internal factors which include factors from teachers‟ view and blind students‟view together with external factors which related to the characteristics of the class/classroom structure and climate, the textbooks/materials, the school facilities andthe extra classes/tutorials

2.5.1 Difficulties from internal factors

Internal factors are those that the individual language brings with him or her to theparticular teaching/ learning situation It means that these are the problems comefrom English teachers and visual impaired students themselves

2.5.1.1 Difficulties from teachers’ view

Teachers’ teaching methods

Through the history we have experienced the existence and development of manyteaching methods that can be divided into two types: teacher- centered and learner-

centered methods Stern (1983) listed out some main methods including: translation or traditional method, Direct method, Audio-lingual method,Audiovisual method Listing out these methods does not mean that we can choose amethod to be perfectly applied to a certain class to increase students‟ involvement.

Grammar-In order to have a suitable method, the teacher should take some of the other factorsinto consideration including learners, teaching purposes and other availableclassroom/ school conditions This method can be one or a combination of thoseabove mentioned methods Choosing an inappropriate or not being flexible inapplying methods to a certain class may have negative effects on students‟ learning/studying

Teachers’ knowledge

In the study “What makes a Good teacher”, Breach (2005) pointed out that moststudents believe that the teacher is a fountain of knowledge and their mainresponsibility is to pass on the knowledge to students: Language, Specialistknowledge, General knowledge of English- (speaking country)

Teachers’ characteristics

Barry (1993) pointed out some characteristics a teacher should have that helpmotivate students in learning/ studying in classroom in general: being natural, beingwarm, being pleasant, being approachable and being tolerant

It should be noted that hardly any teacher can have all the above characteristicsonce starting the teaching job but she/he should bear in mind that her/hischaracteristics partially account for success in her/ his teaching job so she/he shouldtry to obtain them day by day

Teachers’ roles in classroom

With an increasing concern about the CLT approach in foreign language teachingand learning, in which learners are the centre of the lesson, the roles of a teachersare different from those in the traditional grammar- translation method, Harmer(2001) used the term “facilitator” to suggest the teacher‟s roles in a learner-centeredclassroom According to Harmer (2001), a teacher can have the following roles:Controller, Organizer, Assessor, Prompter, Participant, Resource, Tutor, Observer,Feedback provider

Teachers’ teaching strategies/ Experience in teaching Blind students

As for Ming-Nuan Yang (2007), it is important for English teachers to believe thateffective strategy use can determine students‟ success It is believed that both sightand blind students need teachers who inspire them, who have rapport with them,who have high expectations of them, and who can provide them with supportiveenvironments which bolster their confidence Therefore, the teachers need to be

able to communicate with the parents, to modify the curriculum where needed, and

to have the skills and the time to talk with students about life and its problems

2.5.1.2 Difficulties from blind students’ view

Students’ aptitudes

Caroll defines aptitude as the “capability of learning a task” (1981, cited by Ellis,1994: 494) This capability is an additional advantage in language learning but itdoes not guarantee one‟s achievement (Ellis, 1994) Nevertheless, to be able todiscover learners‟ aptitude helps to explain their success in language learning(Williams and Burden, 1997) Examples of language aptitudes are memory for newvocabulary, the ability to memorize new sounds and to understand how wordsfunction grammatically (Lightbown & Spada, 1993: 37) In teaching and learning,students‟ aptitudes provide hints of which teachers can use in selecting activities todevelop students‟ capabilities

Students’ anxiety

Anxiety, simply speaking, is a kind of troubled feeling in the mind Spielberger(1983:1) defines anxiety as- the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension,nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the automatic nervous system(as cited in Brown, 2007:161) More simply, it is associated with feelings ofuneasiness, frustration, self-doubt, apprehension or worry (Scovel, 1978:134) If thestudents are afraid of losing face as making mistakes or being laughed at by otherstudents, they are certain to keep quiet and wait until they are required to speak inEnglish lessons Anxiety is obviously an important factor in the foreign languagelearning Therefore, language educators should strive to promote a non- threateningenvironment and have techniques to reduce students‟ anxiety like: creating arelaxed and safe atmosphere for students, avoiding negative evaluation of students

in classrooms and comment on students‟ behaviors with more encouragement andtaking some measures to relax students‟ attention to exams or evaluation

Students’ attitude and motivation

There have been a large number of researches on the attitude and motivation ofstudents on learning and teaching English According to Gardner (1985), “positiveattitude and motivation are closely related to success in foreign language learning”

An attitude is a mental or neural state of readiness organized through experience,exerting a directive or dynamic influence on the individual's response to all objectsand situations to which it is related (Allport, 1935) Language attitudes may have aneffect on second language or foreign language learning The measurement oflanguage attitudes provides information which is useful in language teaching andlanguage planning (Richard et all, 1993)

Motivation is one of the important aspects of second language acquisition.Motivation has been identified as the learner's orientation with regard to the goal oflearning a foreign language (Crookes and Schmidt, 1991) Brown (2007) considersmotivation as an affective factor that plays a central role in learning a second orforeign language According to Siegel (2003), motivation is affected by learners‟attitudes toward the L2, its speakers, and the speakers‟ culture Motivation is a kind

of desire for learning It is very difficult to teach a foreign language in a learningenvironment if the learner does not have a desire to learn a language The teachingprocess will be success if students have motivation in the learning Because of it,the teacher need grow the student‟s motivation

Students’ learning strategies

Language learning strategies refer to approaches or techniques that learners use toenhance their progress in developing L2 skills and play an essential role in L2learning (Malley & Chamot, 1990) Most of the research indicates that there is apositive association between strategy use and L2 achievements and that both thefrequency of strategy use and the choice of strategies are distinguishingcharacteristics between successful and unsuccessful students Moreover, Holec(1981) claimed that language learning strategies not only enable learners/ students

to learn L2 effectively and efficiently but also help develop their abilities ofindependent and autonomous learning which are believed to be another importantfactor leading to successful learning

2.5.2 Difficulties from external factors

External difficulties come from other elements instead of the teacher and studentsthemselves Some elements of the learning environment and the context of teachingalso cause difficulties to the blind students in learning English These elementsinclude the textbooks/ materials, the classroom structure and climate, the schoolfacilities, and the extra classes/tutorials

plan and teach lessons as well as formats that teachers can use” Moreover, Rivers(1968: 475) states that the textbook plays an important part determining the majorpart of the classroom teaching and the students‟ out-of-class learning.

In Vietnam all the textbooks for schools are produced by the Ministry of Educationand Training and no alternatives are available These course books are used in bothprivate and public schools and all the teachers follow the same syllabus Thus,students and teachers from blind/ special schools have difficulty in learning andteaching English

2.5.2.2 Classroom structure and climate

Classroom structure refers to how the physical environment is organized tofacilitate students‟ success in learning When students enter the classroom, theyshould be able to identify where their workspace or desk is located, and where theplay or break area is located Therefore, classroom structure can be a powerfulfactor in setting up the environment successfully by letting individual knows what isexpected, what to do next, and when they finish with an activity A well-structuredclassroom not only improves learning opportunities, and can increase opportunitiesfor appropriate social interactions but also decreases frustration, which may result infewer challenging behaviors A well-structured classroom should be a positive,pleasant place where students and staff alike want to be

2.5.2.3 School facilities

Most teaching takes place in a specific physical location (a school building) and thequality of that location can affect the ability of teachers to teach, teacher morale,and the very health and safety of teachers Many factors contribute to the quality ofthe school building and, in turn, affect the quality of teachers‟ life, teaching andeducational outcomes Successful teaching and learning take place in schoolbuildings that are clean, quiet, safe, comfortable, and healthy (Blagojevich, IllinoisCapital Development Board, & Illinois State Board of Education, 2006) There aremany factors related to school facilities that affect the quality of teaching andlearning

2.6 Review of related studies

It is admitted that in regard to the topic “Teaching English to Blind Students”, notmuch research has been carried out until now, which is a considerable disadvantage

to people with visual limitations The following are some most recent studies of thetopic which were conducted in the countries where English is taught and learnt as aforeign language They are studies by Lovi (2013), Michael (2013), and Aryanti

(2014) All of these studies share a common purpose in discovering the reality ofteaching and learning English of visual impairment and suggesting possiblesolutions.

The first study “Aspects of Teaching and Learning English as a Foreign Language

in The Case of Blind and Visually Impaired Learners in Estonia” by Lovi (2013)explored the factors influencing the process of teaching/learning English as aforeign language in the case of students with blindness or low- vision and tohighlight the supportive measures used in practice in Estonia The instruments used

in the study were two surveys among learners with blindness/ low- vision andamong foreign language teachers of visual impaired students in Estonia and twodifferent questionnaires for the sample groups The study identified that blind andvisually impaired can achieve same foreign language skills that those without sightproblems The ability of acquiring a foreign language is definitely influenced byindividual characteristics and individual differences of learners However, there arespecific factors caused by blindness/ visual impairment It is assumed that learningforeign languages, including English as a foreign language, maybe morecomplicated for BVI learners in comparison with sighted learners The reasons forpossible difficulties and challenges lie mainly in the absence or loss of vision whichlimits access to information Therefore, information should be adapted intoaccessible format and special skills and techniques are necessary to master for usingtechnical accommodations Lovi (2013) proposed some suggestions that FL teachersshould consider in teaching BVI foreign language learners In particular, theteachers should estimate the factor of time while designing and using reading tasksand activities based on reading Also, it is recommended that while teaching visualimpaired learners in the mainstream environment, teacher should consider the needs

of sighted group members

The second study by Michael (2013), “Teaching Students with Visual Impairments

in Inclusive Classrooms aimed at investigating the way general teachers teachstudents with visual impairments in inclusive classrooms and the challenges facingthem at one of the secondary school located in southern part of Tanzania Itemployed qualitative case study design using four general teachers teaching inclasses having students with visual impairments Data collection was done usingsemi-structured interviews and participants- observation methods The study foundthat general teachers have little knowledge about inclusive education and how itshould be practiced not only for students with visual impairments but for allstudents with special needs The knowledge about inclusion and teaching ininclusive classroom is highly needed among general teachers to practice inclusiveteaching for students with visual impairments in a professional manner Michael

(2013) suggested a lot of recommendations for the teachers, the ministry ofeducation, the government, and future researchers The teachers should havepreparation of teaching resources, like audio and tactile materials, reading braillewritings, and instructing students with visual impairments the proper way of usingtheir visual devices.

Another previous study is taken from journal article, written by Aryanti (2014)under title “Difficulties in Learning English Faced by Visually Impaired Students atCenter of Language Development (P2B) in State Islamic University (UIN) SunanKalijaga” The objectives of this research are to describe some learning strategiesand difficulties faced by Visual Impaired Students (VIS) in learning English at UINSunan Kalijaga and to describe some strategies of the lecturer in dealing withdifficulties in English teaching and learning process for VIS at UIN Sunan Kalijaga.The type of research is descriptive qualitative research in the form of case study Inthis research, the researcher used two instruments They are observation andinterview There are three subjects involved in this research They are two blindstudents and one low vision students The observation was done when theresearcher did teaching and learning process at Class Dakwah R The data weretaken from observation and interview The researcher used the data to analyze theVIS‟ difficulties in learning English The result shows that there are somedifficulties faced by Visual impaired students These difficulties can be put into twodifferent categories: internal and external difficulties Internal difficulties comefrom the VIS themselves which relates to VIS‟ sight conditions and their learningstrategies External difficulties come from the learning environment includingdifficulties from the lecturer, friends, materials and the facilities VIS has differentlearning strategies The lecturer should discuss some classroom adaptations such asseating arrangement, friends‟ assistance and peer teaching, adapted facilities andexam accommodation, for instance exam assistance, longer exam time, inclusiveexamination and larger print for low vision students Finally, the lecturer shouldchoose appropriate teaching strategies, media and teaching aids

Based on the previous studies above, the researcher proposed current research that isdifferent from the previous researches Firstly, in terms of subject and object of theresearch, the current research took challenges faced by English teachers and visuallyimpaired students in inclusive setting as a subject research while previousresearches only focus on problems faced by either teachers or visually impairedstudents The objects of the current research are both teachers and impaired students

at a secondary school for the blind and low vision in Hanoi while previous studiesconducted in the countries all over the world Secondly, in terms of method, thecurrent research is a survey study, and the major method used for the study is

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qualitative while other related studies use case study as the main method Lastly, interms of the way to collect data, the current research use interviews for bothteachers and students and classroom observations as the main data collectioninstruments while the previous studies use questionnaires to collect data.

In conclusion, all the previous studies mentioned above showed many differentdifficulties which are related to different aspects in teaching and learning English ofteachers and students with visual impairments As regards research works in thisarea, there has not been much conducted to explore the reality in teaching andlearning English to the blind and visually impaired students in Vietnam, I conducted

my thesis with the hope to explore more specific difficulties and proposing/findingout possible solutions and make a new and useful contribution to the development

of education system in Vietnamese teaching context

2.7 Chapter Summary

In this chapter, the researcher has presented a number of issues related to theresearch questions These include the definitions, the types and special educationalneeds in foreign language teaching and learning; the reality in teaching and learningEnglish for Blind students and some approaches in teaching English as a foreignlanguage; some difficulties related to teachers and students in teaching and learningEnglish and a review of previous related studies This literature review serves as thetheoretical framework for the researcher to design the interview questions and adaptclass observation checklist with which the investigation of the teachers andstudents‟ difficulties in teaching and learning English at Blind School was carriedout, and then to analyze the data collected as well as to suggest some pedagogicalimplications for learning English at School X

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY

This chapter provides the general description of how the study had been conducted.The chapter includes the following sections, namely, the research setting,participants, data collection instruments, research procedure, and data analysis

3.1 The setting of the study

3.1.1 An overview of the research site

This research was conducted at a secondary school for the disabled (the blind andlow vision)- School X This is a public school which was founded in 1982 Sincethen, it has been virtually the only one place for students with blindness or seriousvisual impairment in Hanoi to receive formal education It means that School X wasapplied inclusion class in which students have visual impaired learnt together withnormal students In the academic year 2018-2019, School X has 33 classes fromgrade 1 to grade 9 (21 classes for primary students and 12 classes for secondarystudents) with 1700 students in which there are 203 blind ones (116 blind studentslive in dormitory) Each class consists of 50 students, in which 6 to 7 are blind

The teaching staff composes 90 in total (both primary and secondary teachers) (70females and the others are males) who are in charge of teaching all the subjects inthe school Most of them are young (from 28 to 37 years old), enthusiastic andcreative Those teachers often attending training or re-training courses organized inthe school or in some others to brush up their professional knowledge, especially theteaching techniques and the adaption of new textbooks Moreover, festivals are heldevery year to encourage students to study not only English but also other subjects.The physical condition in this school is quite good, eighty percent of classroomshave speakers, projectors, but there are not any special rooms for teaching andlearning English

3.1.2 The teachers of English at School X

At School X, there are four teachers of English currently working All of them arefemale and have obtained BA degree in English language teaching Theirexperience of teaching English varies from 3 to 15 years They have over 4 years ofexperience in teaching English and at least 2 years in teaching English to blindstudents They are helpful, enthusiastic, and willing to make some renovations inteaching methodology They often have weekly meeting to discuss and adjust theirlesson plans, to find solutions to the difficult exercises, and to design tests

3.1.3 The students at School X

The school has 12 classes with over 600 students ranging from grade 6 to grade 9,

at the age of 11 to 16 They started learning English from grade 3 on Most of themlive in Hanoi so they are provided with good learning conditions They have enoughtextbooks and almost have reference or supplementary materials

The Blind and visually impaired students at School X

There are about 60-70 blind and visually impaired students studying at School Hanoi every school year In the academic year 2018-2019, there are 69 blind andvisually impaired students who are integrated into 12 classes from grade 6 to grade

X-9 According to the school‟s principal and teachers, all of the students are in thestate of “near-total vision loss” and “total vision loss” (number 6 &7 in theaforementioned Range of Vision Loss) They are equipped with course books in Braille

of the same contents with their classmates Most of the blind students live in thedormitory in School X, where they often receive extra lectures by teachers/volunteers forfurther understanding of the lessons they learnt in class

3.1.4 The current situation of English teaching and learning at School X

3.1.4.1 The materials for teaching and learning/ Textbooks

At School X, English is one of the compulsory subjects in curriculum As in othersecondary schools in Vietnam, the textbooks currently used for teaching andlearning English is a series of textbooks from “Tieng Anh 6” to “Tieng Anh 9”published by Ministry of Education and Training The blind and visually impairedstudents are equipped with course books in Braille of the same contents with theirclassmates

3.1.4.2 The facilities

The facility of the school meets the standards for basic Vietnamese Secondary

classroom with one black board, 20-25 student tables, one teacher table, two big

fans and lights There is one projector but no computer or any high technologyteaching aids Sometimes, laptop and microphone can be provided by teachers toconnect with the projector in order to raise the effective level for their lessons Theclassroom setting follows the type “rows of tablet- arm chairs”, two students in atable, facing the blackboard and the teacher table The blind students do not haveany special or fixed spots in every class, they seat with their normal classmate

3.1.4.3 Tutorials/Extra classes

A number of tutorials/ extra classes have been conducted in School X with the aim

of supporting the blind and visually impaired students in learning English Based on

their different organizers as well as timetables, these tutorials are divided into threemain types: Noon, afternoon and evening tutorials.

Noon tutorials

After finishing their lunch at school canteen, almost all blind and visually impairedstudents come to join in tutorials conducted by foreign volunteers from charityorganization at about 12: 30 three times a week In these extra classes, students areoften involved in fun and useful activities to enhance their background knowledgeand to foster their English competences For example, students are told some stories

in English, learnt new words and join in discussions about some topics raised by thevolunteers

Afternoon tutorials

The afternoon tutorials, known as the extra classes for blind and visually impairedstudents, are in a program set up by the School X staffs, purporting to help thesestudents catch up with their peers in normal official classes which often take place inthe morning Regarding the English tutorials, there are two classes per week and theduration of each class is around 45 minutes There are no assigned rooms for thetutorials; class location is changed continuously, depending on the teachers, thestudents and other surrounding factors The number of students for each class is alsounfixed as their demand in learning is different in time At School X, there are fourEnglish teachers and they all take part in the program Their students in the extraclasses are also their official students in the morning classes The content of the lessonsare flexible in accordance with the student needs Usually, teachers tend to helpstudents revise what have been taught in the morning classes so that they will not staybehind their classmates Sometimes, new lessons can be carried beforehand to make itmore convenient for the blind to follow the lessons in their next classes

Evening tutorials

In the evenings, blind and visually impaired students at this school also receivetutorials by volunteer students from colleges and universities in Hanoi During thetime working with these undergraduates, the blind and visually impaired studentscan raise any questions related to all the subjects they learn, not restricted to onlyEnglish

3.2 Participants

In order to get the data for the study, eight students and four teachers of School Xare the research subjects

Eight blind and low- vision students have been randomly chosen from grade 6 tograde 9 (2 students per grade) Their ages vary from11 to 17 They are 4 femalesand 4 males They have been studying since grade 1 Some of them do not live inHanoi; they are from different cities in the North of Vietnam.

Four teachers who are teaching English at school were invited to participate in theresearch As being stated from the previous section, they were all female and theirtime length of teaching English is different: minimum is 3 years and maximum is 25years

3.3 Data collection instruments

3.3.1 Interview

To allow collection of detailed information from the teachers about how they teachstudents with visual impairments in inclusive classrooms and the challenges facingthem, interview method was used as a main method In this study, the researcherused structured interviews, in which the researcher creates a set of interviewquestions in advance and these questions are asked in the same order so thatresponses can easily be placed in similar categories A structured interview is alsoknown as a patterned interview, planned interview or a standardized interview Thequestions in the interview guide were developed from the research questions andtheoretical literature presented in chapter two They are about the problems faced byvisual impaired students in learning process especially learning English in inclusionclass The duration of interview session for every teacher ranged from 45 minutes to

1 hour, mainly in Vietnamese (with students), only with English words, phrases, or

sentences (with teachers) Basic interview questions were prepared (for details of the interview, see Appendix A and B) With interviewees‟ permission, the interviews

were tape- recorded All interview data were analyzed interpretatively

3.3.2 Class Observation

In order to see the reality of the process of teaching to students with visualimpairments in inclusive classrooms, observation was selected as the secondimportant method In this study, the researcher assumed the role of non-participantobserver This type of observation was chosen because of the limited time that wasavailable for data collection Observation schedule was used to guide and maintainthe focus of the observed behavior The behaviors observed from teachers wererecorded through writing notes immediately as the behavior was occurring From

classroom observation, the researcher wanted to see how English classes were reallygoing on by the teachers of English in an inclusive class such as how they organizedclassroom activities; how teachers conducted their teaching; what challengesteachers coped with their classroom teaching; how teachers actually dealt with thosechallenges Moreover, the purpose of having classroom observation was to ascertainthe prevalent problems given by the teachers during the interviews Theobservations were conducted in 4 English lessons at 6, 7, 8 and 9 grades of 4selected teachers on language skills and language knowledge.

3.4 Data collection procedure

According to Seliger and Shohamy (1989) once the researcher has selected aspecific design for the study which is consistent with the objectives of the research,the next step is to collect the research data In collecting the data it is important touse procedures which elicit high quality data, since the quality of any research studydepends largely on the quality of the data collected and the data collectionprocedure The data of the research was collected by means of interviews andclassroom observations

The informal interviews took place in a face-to-face situation with the teachers andstudents during the second semester of the academic year 2018-2019, and theinterviews were tape-recorded The interviews helped the researcher to get thenecessary information on the challenges that teachers and students faced in teachingand learning English process at school

The observations were conducted in 4 English lessons at 6, 7, 8, 9 grades of fourselected teachers The observations strengthened the information gathered in theinterviews

Concerning the interview for teachers, it is aimed at exploring the difficulties

perceived by the English secondary teachers while teaching English to blindstudents in School X Also, the researchers wish to learn about practical solutionssuggested or experienced by the teachers themselves to overcome mentionedhardships The interview questions for teachers consist of 21 both close questionsand open- ended questions All these questions were focused on the followingcategories:

- Teachers‟ background/ teachers‟ teaching experience and teachers‟ teaching experience to blind and low vision students (Questions 1, 2, 3, 4)

- Teachers‟ attitude towards teaching and learning English (Questions 5, 6, 7, 8)

- Teachers‟ opinion about the most suitable methods, techniques, strategies,activities, materials and conditions for their teaching English at present (Questions 9, 10,

11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)

- Teachers‟ difficulties in teaching English to blind and low vision students.(Question 19)

- Teachers‟ solutions to improve English language teaching (Question 20)

- Teachers‟ suggestions to improve their English teaching (Question 21)

Likewise, the interview for students will also follow the above format of the

students‟ interview which includes three main categories: personal information,

internal factors and external factors Students will be asked about the obstacles they

have to face in and out of class time regarding developing their English learningproficiency Also, the researchers hope to receive their ideas of how to solve theirown existed problems

The interview questions for students consist of 21 both close questions and ended questions in which most of the questions were multiple choices All thesequestions were focused on the following categories:

open Students‟ background and their learning experience

- Students‟ attitude, motivation towards learning English and students‟ linguistic competence and anxiety (Questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

- Students‟ strategies in learning English (Question 10, 11, 12)

- Students‟ learning facilities (Question 13, 14, 15, 16)

- Students‟ access to resources of learning English (Question 17, 18)

- Students‟ difficulties in learning English (Question 19)

- Students‟ solutions (Question 20)

- Students‟ suggestions in teaching English (Question 21)

All the interviews, which were approximately 45- 60 minute long, were audiorecorded with the permission of the interviewees for later references and then weretranscribed for the purpose of analyzing.

3.5.2 Class Observation

As classroom observation has long been believed to effectively aid in the researchprocess and to “help to make the educational research more accessible andpractical” (Hoang & Nguyen, cited in Vu, 2008), it is fully employed at the firststage of the research for two main reasons Firstly, it helps partly to answer the firstand second research questions with some surfaced difficulties such as blind studentscould not hear clearly because of the noisy class, or teachers have some problemswith louder, etc Secondly, observation method is applied with the aim of collectingsome raw data about the behaviors of the teachers and students in teaching andlearning English from which the researcher can find out some problems for deeperinvestigation in the following interview part

The researcher attended the classes, noting down the factors affecting teachers and

students teaching and learning English by completing observation checklist (for details of the class observation checklist, see Appendix C).) I observed the four

classes which are taught by four English language teachers with different abilities.During the process of observations, some aspects taking in class were focused on asfollows:

- Classroom setting

- The participants of VISs

- Delivery of the lesson (classroom management, method of teaching)

- Teachers‟ follow up and motivation

- Availability of teaching and learning materials

CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The previous chapter has clarified the methodology applied in this study,particularly the descriptions and justifications of the choice of participants, theinstruments and data collections and analysis process In this chapter, all the resultscollected from the interviews and classroom observations will be presented anddiscussed in detail

4.1 Findings

4.1.1 Findings from interviews

After having invited the participants to answer the questions in survey interviews, ittook a lot of time for the researcher to collect and analyze the data And here are theresults

4.1.1.1 Findings from interviews with students

a Students’ personal information and English learning background

The participants‟ background information from the questionnaire shows thatstudents are at the age from 12 to 18 They belong to two kinds of visualimpairment: blind and low vision There were 8 blind and low vision students whoparticipated in answering the interview questions Among them, 4 students (50%)were male, and 4 students (50%) were female

Most of blind and low vision students at School X have learnt English for quite along time 50% of the students (4 out of 8 students) have studied English for morethan 3 to 7 years This is the same number with students who claimed that they havelearnt English more than 7 years (50%) However, their English results (averagemarks of English) previous semester were not high, ranking from 4.2 to 8.7

b Students’ attitude, motivation towards learning English and students’ linguistic competence and anxiety (Questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

Reasons for learning English (Question 1)

In the interview, the participants (the blind and low vision students) were asked to response to the question showing reasons for learning English The result was presented in table 1 below:

Students’ reasons for learning English Number of Percentage

respondents (%)

- To have a good job in the future

- To study or work abroad if I have a chance

Table 1: Students’ reasons for learning English (N=8)

The statistic in the above table showed that the majority of students (62, 5%) learnt Englishbecause they wanted to pass the examinations Quite a large number of students (25%)really needed it because it was a compulsory subject It can be seen from statistics that noone really loved English and learnt it as a hobby From this result, we can see that moststudents are not willing to acquire English They learnt it for purposes: pass theexaminations, get a better high school and be a compulsory subject

Students’ opinions about the importance of learning English (Question 2)

The importance of teaching and learning Number of Percentage

Table 2: Students’ opinions about the importance of learning English (N=8)

It can be concluded from the table 2 that half number of students (50%) thoughtlearning English was very essential The number of students considered learningEnglish was quite essential is the same with the number of students found that itwas essential to learn English Only one student found that learning English was notvery essential and no one thought that learning English was not essential at all

Students’ opinions about the importance of learning English in comparison with other subjects (Question 3)

The importance of learning English in Number of Percentage comparison with other subjects respondents %

Table 3: Students’ opinions about the importance of learning English in

comparison with other subjects (N=8)

When being asked about the importance of learning English in comparison with othersubjects (Math, literature, physics,), 25% of the students considered that it was moreimportant than other subjects and 25% considered it was as important as other subjects.The number of students who thought that learning English was less important thanother subjects is very high/ big (4 out 8 students), which made up 50%

Students’ opinions about their passion learning English (Question 4)

Options Number of respondents Percentage %

Table 4: Students’ opinions about their passion learning English (N=8)

As can be seen from the table 4, 12, 5% of them like learning English a lot, 25 % ofthem like learning quite lot while a large number of students assumed that theyliked learning English normally (50%), and a small number of students assumedthat they do not like learning English much (12, 5%)

Students’ English language competence (Question 5)

Options Number of respondents Percentage %

Table 5: Students’ learning competence (N=8)

As presented in the table 5, very few students judged that their English level/competence were good, quite good and very good The percentage of these studentsonly took up for 37, 5% In contrast, 5 out of 8 students which took up for 62, 5%found that their language competence/ level were not very good and not good at all

This information should only be used as reference because some students did nottell the truth about their English competence.

Students’ opinions about the importance of good marks (Question 6)

As for the importance of getting good marks, table 6 shows that nearly half of therespondents (37, 5%) said that they just wanted to get a pass mark, they did not carewhether their mark was high or not Also, 37, 5% of the respondents paid muchattention to good marks Only 25% of them did not care about the marks

The importance of good marks Number of Percentage %

respondents

Table 6: Students’ opinions about the importance of good marks (N=8)

Students’ attitude to English lessons (Question 7)

With regard to students‟ attitudes to English lessons in class, table 7 shows that thatalmost blind and low vision students do not care about the interest of the lessons Asmall of the respondents (25%) found their English lessons interesting while thenumber of the participants who felt excited, interested in and bored with theirEnglish lessons were equal It confirms that a great number of students in the case

of low vision or blindness have a negative attitudes to their English lessons

Students’ attitude to English lessons Number of Percentage %

Table 7: Students’ attitude to English lessons (N=8)

Students’ feeling in English lessons (Question 8)

Students’ feeling in English lessons Number of Percentage

respondents %

I usually feel anxious, especially when my name is called 4 50%

Others (More ideas- Please specify):

- I want to participate but I feel unconfident

- I like learning English but I dare not learn

Table 8: Students’ feeling in English lessons (N=8)