Using students feedback to define the factors that affect their satisfaction with teachers

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES LÊ NGỌC DIỆP USING STUDENTS’ FEEDBACK TO DEFINE THE FACTORS THAT AFFECT THEIR SATISFACTION

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

LÊ NGỌC DIỆP

USING STUDENTS’ FEEDBACK

TO DEFINE THE FACTORS THAT AFFECT THEIR SATISFACTION WITH TEACHERS

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF

THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL

SUPERVISOR: VŨ THỊ PHƯƠNG ANH, Ph.D

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

- D E -

USING STUDENTS’ FEEDBACK

TO DEFINE THE FACTORS THAT AFFECT THEIR SATISFACTION WITH TEACHERS

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in TESOL

Submitted by LÊ NGỌC DIỆP

Supervisor

VŨ THỊ PHƯƠNG ANH, Ph.D

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, my deep gratitude goes to my thesis supervisor, Dr Vũ Thị Phương Anh Her encouragement and constant guidance have helped me overcome all the difficulties in the researching and writing of this thesis Without her invaluable generosity and kind patience, I could not have completed this thesis

I am greatly indebted to all my teachers in the course of M.A in TESOL and

to other respectable scholars who gave me chances to access valuable sources of references

I would like to specially thank Dr Tạ Xuân Tề, Rector of Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry, for allowing me to do this research in the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry,

Without the precious participation of the colleagues and students who took part in the five interviews and the two questionnaire surveys, this thesis would not have been accomplished I offer my most sincere thanks to each of them

I would like to thank my family for their love, understanding and support And I will always be grateful to the helps and encouragement from all of my friends who have proved their affection for me during my hard work on this Master’s thesis

Using students’ feedback for improving the teaching process is only a new trend in Vietnam Although the Ministry of Education and Training now requires school administrators to collect and use students’ feedback to improve training quality, many teachers still dislike this practice and think that students’ feedback can lead to too much pressure on teachers In such a context, the administrators may

do it just to complete the procedures

This thesis, entitled “Using students’ feedback to define the factors that affect their satisfaction with teachers”, endeavors to find a way of using students’ feedback in an effective and constructive way

The setting for this research is Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry, Faculty of Foreign Languages The instruments applied are two questionnaires and five interviews Feedback was collected from 48 students through the first questionnaire and 140 students through the second one Five interviews with one administrator and four teachers of English in HUI were also conducted to find their opinions about the role of students’ feedback in improving teaching

The findings through this research reveal that (1) students can have very constructive attitude and ideas when they are asked to give feedback, and that (2) the students’ feedback can be used positively by education administrators and teachers, for the purpose of improving the teaching process At the end of this thesis, some recommendations are made about how to use students’ feedback constructively

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate of original .i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents .v

List of appendices .ix

List of figures .x

List of tables xi

List of abbreviations .xii

INTRODUCTION 1

0.1 THE PROBLEM .1

0.1.1 The requirement for using students’ feedback to improve the quality of English teaching 1

0.1.2 The use of students’ feedback in relation to the cultural background of Vietnamese education .2

0.1.3 The need for a study about using students’ feedback in the Vietnamese context 3

0.2 AIMS OF THE STUDY 4

0.3 OVERVIEW OF THE THESIS 4

0.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH .5

0.5 LIMITATION OF THE RESEARCH .5

CHAPTER 1: BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY 6

1.1 THE SOCIETY’S REQUIREMENT FOR HIGH QUALITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION 6

1.2 THE HO CHI MINH UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY .7

1.2.1 Introduction .7

1.2.2.1 The vision 8

1.2.2.2 Declaration of the mission 8

1.2.2.3 Quality policy 9

1.3 THE TRAINING PROGRAM OF ENGLISH 10

1.3.1 The intake 10

1.3.1.1 The number of students .10

1.3.1.2 The English level of the student intake 10

1.3.2 The teaching staff 11

1.3.2.1 Degrees 11

1.3.2.2 Training background, age and teaching experience 12

1.3.3 The facilities for English teaching and learning .13

1.3.3.1 The English classrooms 13

1.3.3.2 The language lab 13

1.3.3.3 The school library 13

1.3.3.4 The ERC (none) 14

1.3.4 The curricula .14

1.4 SUMMARY .15

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 16

2.1 THE COGNITIVE DOMAIN AND THE AFFECTIVE DOMAIN .16

2.1.1 The cognitive domain 16

2.1.1.1 Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive objectives .16

2.1.1.2 Some main factors that are related to the cognitive domain .17

2.1.2 The affective domain 19

2.1.2.1 Krathwolh’s taxonomy of the affective domain 19

2.1.2.2 Some main factors that are related to the affective domain .20

2.2 THE ROLES OF THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 23

2.2.1 The teacher as controller .23

2.2.2 The teacher as assessor 24

2.2.3 The teacher as organizer 25

2.2.4 The teacher as prompter .25

2.2.5 The teacher as participant 26

2.2.6 The teacher as a resource .26

2.2.7 The teacher as tutor .26

2.2.8 The teacher as investigator 27

2.3 BROWN’S ECOLOGY: A SUMMARY OF THE LEARNERS’ PROFICIENCY DEVELOPMENT 27

2.4 STUDENTS’ FEEDBACK AND USING FEEDBACK TO IMPROVE COLLEGE TEACHING .30

2.4.1 Reflection in teacher development 30

2.4.2 Viewpoints about students’ satisfaction in relation to quality in higher education 32

2.5 THE GAP IN RESEARCH 33

2.6 SUMMARY .34

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 35

3.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 35

3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN .35

3.2.1 Participants 38

3.2.1.1 Participants who answered Questionnaire 1 38

3.2.1.2 Participants who answered Questionnaire 2 38

3.2.1.3 The interviewees 39

3.2.2 Instruments 40

3.2.2.1 Questionnaire 1 41

3.2.2.2 Questionnaire 2 42

3.2.2.3 The interviews 43

3.2.3 Data collection procedures 44

3.3 SUMMARY .45

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS .46

4.1 FINDINGS THROUGH QUESTIONNAIRE 1 .46

4.1.1 Statistics of scores to Questionnaire 1 .47

4.1.2 An overview of responses to Questionnaire 1 49

4.1.2.1 Positive verbal feedbacks 50

4.1.2.2 Negative verbal feedbacks .51

4.1.2.3 Some notes on the verbal comments .54

4.1.3 Summary of findings through Questionnaire 1 55

4.2 FINDINGS THROUGH QUESTIONNAIRE 2 .56

4.2.1 Background information of participants .56

4.2.2 An overview of statistics from Part 3 of Questionnaire 2 59

4.2.3 Analysis of answers to each question .60

4.2.3.1 Question 8: About teachers’ attitude .61

4.2.3.2 Question 9: About teachers’ management of classes and subjects 66

4.2.3.3 Question 10: About teachers’ teaching methods in the classroom 69

4.2.3.4 Question 11: About the English teachers’ language in the class 74

4.2.3.5 Question 12: About teachers’ knowledge and proficiency .76

4.2.4 Summary of findings from answers to Questionnaire 2 .79

4.3 SUMMARY OF AND ANALYSIS OF THE INTERVIEWS .80

4.3.1 The interview with Ms Đinh Thị Minh Hòa, Vice-Head of the Northern Campus of HUI .80

4.3.2 The interviews with four teachers of English in FFL of HUI 82

4.4 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS .84

CHAPTER 5: IMPLICATONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .86

5.1 IMPLICATIONS 86

5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS .86

5.2 1 Collecting and dealing with students’ evaluations for the highest

effectiveness 87

5.2 2 Periodical application of action research 88

5.2.3 Dealing with the gaps amongst students’ viewpoints about good teaching and learning 89

5.3 SUMMARY .89

CONCLUSION 90

BIBLIOGRAPHY 91

APPENDICES 94

LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1A: Questionnaire 1 in Vietnamese .94

APPENDIX 1B: Questionnaire 1 in English translation .96

APPENDIX 2A: Questionnaire 2 in Vietnamese .98

APPENDIX 2B: Questionnaire 2 in English translation .102

APPENDIX 3A: The curriculum of the three- year college program of English (specializing in Translation-Interpretation) .107

APPENDIX 3B: The curriculum of the three-year college program of English (specializing in English Teaching) 114

APPENDIX 4: Examples of students’ verbal feedbacks to Questionnaire 1 and the related questions made for Questionnaire 2 121

APPENDIX 5: Statistics of answers and students’ extra comments to each question in Part 3 of Questionnaire 2 .133

APPENDIX 6A: The questions prepared for the interview with the Vice-Head of the Northern Campus of HUI 150

APPENDIX 6B: The questions prepared for the interviews with the four teachers of English in FFL, HUI 151

APPENDIX 7A: An interview with an administrative person of the Northern Campus of Ho Chi Minh University of Industry .152

APPENDIX 7B-E: The scripts of the interviews with the four teachers of English in FFL, HUI 154

APPENDIX 8: HUI’S new survey questionnaire for students’ evaluation (since October 2006) 172

APPENDIX 9A: A newspaper article: Trò “chấm điểm” thầy ở xứ người 173 APPENDIX 9B: A newspaper article: Góp ý với giáo viên của bạn như thế nào? 175

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.3 Kinds of correction in the language class 25

Figure 2.2 The Ecology of language acquisition .29

Figure 2.3 Reflective practice model of professional education/development 31

Figure 4.1 Means of answers to questions Question 8.1 to 12.6, with descending values 60

Figure 4.2 Frequencies of answers to questions 8.1 to 8.8 .61

Figure 4.3 Frequencies of answers to questions 9.1 to 9.6 .66

Figure 4.4 Frequencies of answers to questions 10.1 to 10.10 .69

Figure 4.5 Frequencies of answers to questions 11.1 to 11.3 .74

Figure 4.6 Frequencies of answers to questions 12.1 to 12.6 .76

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1 Degrees and majors of teachers of the FFL-HUI 12

Table 2.1 Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive objectives 17

Table 2.2 Krathwolh’s taxonomy of commitment in the affective domain 20

Table 4.1 Means of scores to each question in Questionnaire 1 for each teacher 47

Table 4.2 Summary of the frequencies of means of answers to Questionnaire 1 48

Table 4.3 Gender distribution of respondents to Questionnaire 2 56

Table 4.4 Participants’ age when they entered HUI’s English college program 57

Table 4.5 Participants’ age when they started to learn English .57

Table 4.6 Places where participants attended high schools .58

Table 4.7 The most serious obstacles to participants’ learning of English 58

Table 4.8 Summary of statistics from Question 8 62

Table 4.9 Summary of statistics from Question 9 66

Table 4.10 Summary of statistics from Question 10 70

Table 4.11 Summary of statistics from Question 11 75

Table 4.12 Summary of statistics from Question 12 76

Table 4.13 Summary of findings through Questionnaire 2 79

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ELT : English Language Teaching

FFL : Faculty of Foreign Languages

HUI : Ho Chi Minh University of Industry

TESOL : Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

INTRODUCTION

The study reported in this thesis was undertaken in attempt to comprehend the reciprocal interaction of the English teaching-learning process from the learners’ perspectives The research, indeed, follows the current pedagogical stream that considers the learner-centered approach as the most appropriate in language training The subjects of the investigation, participants of this research are English majors of the three-year college program of English in the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry (henceforth HUI), and a number of HUI’s teachers

In Vietnam, particularly since the beginning of the third millennium, the quality of higher education is facing the demanding requirements of industrialization and modernization and has become a burning problem that is discussed everywhere, on all the media, and in all circles This recognizable amelioration can have a positive effect on the society

In the case of FFL, despite the great efforts of the teaching staff to provide students with a good training program, it cannot be said with certainty that there are

no drawbacks or shortcomings in the implementation of the program Therefore, how to improve the quality of education is a permanent concern of the leaders of HUI and the teaching staff of FFL

In the system of quality accreditation, one of the most important channels of information for evaluating the teachers’ performance is the students’ feedback In Vietnam, the Ministry of Education’s Text of Regulations for Criteria in Quality Evaluation of Universities asserted that “learners are to take part in the evaluation of teachers’ teaching quality at the end of courses, and the evaluation of a program before they graduate.” (Extracted and translated from “Quy định về tiêu chuẩn đánh giá chất lượng giáo dục trường đại học”, promulgated on November 1, 2007

by the Minister of Education and Training) This requirement is part of an innovation in training and education

In HUI, collecting students’ feedback is now a compulsory process in quality management However, the administrating board and the teaching staff of FFL do not seem to take full advantage of this procedure, since students’ feedback is not taken into account in any professional activities

0.1.2 The use of students’ feedback in relation to the cultural background of Vietnamese education

Due to the cultural background of Vietnamese education, the common concepts of the roles of teachers and students are rather conservative During the millennia-old age of feudalism, that highly appreciated Confucianism, the position

of teacher was placed merely after the King in the feudal hierarchy “Quân, Sư, Phụ” (King, Teacher, and Father) Paying deference to teachers and conducting unchallenging behavior was what feudal learners had to follow In Vietnam, the

rooted in their minds, the 21st-century Vietnamese teachers still cling to a sense of untouchability in terms of knowledge conveyance Some teachers are usually afraid that if students are asked for comments, they will utter thoughtless or extreme statements that are not relevant to their scope of knowledge Additionally, they are not in a position to be happy with being commented on or criticized for their existing shortcomings, which they often consider incurable, like their monotonous voice or tedious manner However, with the new trend of treating students like customers who receive a high-class service, students’ assessments become a decisive factor to the success of a program

In that situation, many teachers feel stuck in a dilemma Then the majority of teachers do not collect and deal with students’ feedback until the feedback is collected by some strict administrators who can decide the teachers’ lot, or a critical journalist who brings those “terrible” words into the press On the other hand, many education administrators may tend to collect students’ feedback just for meeting the requirement of the upper rank, but not for effective use in quality improvement

0.1.3 The need for a study about using students’ feedback in the Vietnamese context

The two aspects of the problem mentioned in 0.1.1 and 0.1.2, e g the need for using students’ feedback and the hesitation of administrators and teachers in handling students’ evaluation, are the rationale for this study on defining students’ needs based on students’ feedback In this thesis, the students’ feedback is not mainly used for the purpose of assessing the teaching quality in an institution, but to find how we can use students’ feedback effectively and constructively

0.2 AIMS OF THE STUDY

The aims of this study are:

(1) To find out the most common phenomena that lead to students’

dissatisfaction with teachers in the three-year college program of English in HUI, by analyzing students’ feedback

(2) To make recommendations for using students’ feedback in

improving teaching quality

0.3 OVERVIEW OF THE THESIS

This thesis consists of one introductory chapter, five main chapters, and a conclusion

The present chapter is the introduction to the thesis, stating the problem the research attempts to solve, the aims of the research, and an overview of the thesis

Chapter 1 describes the background to the study with general information about HUI and FFL, e.g HUI’s vision and mission, FFL’s teaching staff, student intake, facilities, and curricula

Chapter 2 presents the theoretical background to the process of teaching and learning English and the issue of using students’ feedback in language teaching

Chapter 3 reports on the methodology employed in the study: the survey research with questionnaires and interviews In this chapter, there is a presentation

of the research question, the research design, the study instrument, a description of the characteristics of the teacher and student participants, and the data collection and procedures

Chapter 4 contains the data analysis and the findings of this study

Chapter 5 offers the implications and recommendations for using students’

The last part of the thesis is the conclusion, which summarizes the meanings and applications of this research

0.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH

The thesis systematically investigates quite a new issue in the context of Vietnamese higher education It helps reveal students’ internal feelings and expectations, which have been viewed with great anxiety by many teachers, but has almost never been studied, due to the worries that students will be given too much authority in such an Asian country and hence they can hurt teachers with their comments This study can instantly help improve the teaching of English in HUI and encourage a more proper use of students’ feedback for continuing teaching development

0.5 LIMITATION OF THE RESEARCH

The first limitation of this study lies in the data collecting procedure, in which the data were collected only once, hence there was no chance for comparing the data of various times of collection over a long period of time Also due to this procedure, the student participants are from the English three-year college program

in HUI only Therefore, the results of the study are highly representative of the English three-year college students in HUI However, the recommendations can still be applied to similar academic settings Hopefully, there will be more studies about students’ feedback of various English programs in many academic institutions

of Vietnam

CHAPTER 1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

This chapter provides the background, i.e the settings of the study, with the purpose of clearer understanding of the issue investigated It will briefly present the efforts Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry have made to upgrade training quality to meet the requirements of Vietnam’s fast-growing society, and some important features of the training program involved in this study, including the teaching staff, the students, the facilities for teaching English, and the curriculum for the three-year English program of the Faculty of Foreign Languages

1.1 THE SOCIETY’S REQUIREMENTS FOR HIGH QUALITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

The issue of quality in education, especially higher education has been a focus in many countries like the United States, Great Britain, Australia, the Netherlands, etc for decades In Vietnam, the whole country has been struggled for the development of the society in all aspects However, the quality of higher education is still generally recognized as “limited” or “bearing a lot of shortcomings”, as can be seen on the media, uttered by members of different circles

in the society In the new trend of socialization in Vietnam, the investment for education is remarkably increasing Consequently, the expectations for the educational system are much higher

The Vietnamese government and the Ministry of Education and Training have been making efforts to upgrade higher education quality One of the measures

is the issue and application of the Text of Regulations for Criteria in Quality

Evaluation of Universities, promulgated on November 1, 2007 by the Minister of Education and Training

Especially, in this text, learners are defined in Article 9, Standard 6 as having the right to evaluate the teaching process

[…] Learners are to take part in the evaluation of teachers’ teaching quality

at the end of courses, and the evaluation of a program before they graduate (Người học được tham gia đánh giá chất lượng giảng dạy của giảng viên khi kết thúc môn học, được tham gia đánh giá chất lượng đào tạo của trường đại học trước khi tốt nghiệp.) (Extracted and translated from “Quy định về tiêu chuẩn đánh giá chất lượng giáo dục trường đại học, ban hành kèm theo Quyết định số 65/2007/QĐ-BGDĐT, ngày 01 tháng 11 năm 2007 của Bộ trưởng Bộ Giáo dục và Đào tạo”, Điều 9, Tiêu chuẩn 6)

This can be seen as one of the advantages the learners have in the era of innovation in education However, how students’ students’ feedback can benefit still depends on the implementation of this policy in each institution

1.2 HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

1.2.1 Introduction

In December 2004, Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry was upgraded from Industrial College No 4 to meet the rising demands for well-trained human personnel for Southern provinces As a result, the Faculty of Foreign Languages of

Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry (HUI) was officially established in 2005

on the basis of HUI’s Foreign Language Center In September of the same year, the first intake of university students was recruited In terms of facilities, HUI possesses five campuses The first campus, where the students of the English program study,

is located in Ho Chi Minh City, about 8 km from downtown The school dormitory

is also located inside the campus, with fairly comfortable living conditions The other three campuses are in the provinces of Dong Nai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Thai

Binh, and Quang Ngai The campus in Thai Binh is also called the Northern Campus

In the demanding educational environment of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh Univesity of Industry’s leaders always emphasize training quality One of the most important steps they have taken is the application of ISO 9001:2000 in the school, with a full set of documents to direct all the procedures in the school, including a Quality Handbook as the most basic material To ensure the quality of the schools’ activities, HUI’s leaders use many ways of inspecting, e.g through the checking of the procedures, through the analysis of students’ learning results, and through collecting and analyzing students’ feedback HUI’s former and present evaluation forms for collecting students’ feedback can be seen in Appendix 1A and Appendix

1.2.2.2 Declaration of the mission

The mission of HUI is stated in HUI’s Quality handbook as follows:

Educating, training and providing high quality human resources in Vietnam with the key majors of Mechanical Engineering, Dynamics, Electricity, Electronics, Refrigeration Electrical Engineering, Chemical Technology, Garment Technology, Information Technology, and Economics HUI is planning to fulfill the mission by permanently upgrading the teaching staff and the system of laboratories and teaching facilities, introducing new

improving the training quality and meeting the needs of learners and labor

users (Translated from Sổ tay chất lượng Trường Đại Học Công Nghiệp

TP HCM 2005: 3)

1.2.2.3 Quality policy

Undoubtedly, high training quality is what the HUI administrators always want to achieve so as to put a gloss on its reputation among Vietnamese universities Thus, the quality reminders or regulations are found everywhere on the campus For instance, in all the faculties’ office in HUI, there is a poster declaring the school’s QUALITY POLICY It is also printed formally in HUI’s Quality Handbook as follows:

Based on the vision and mission of the school, the Rector issues the QUALITY POLICY with commitments as follows:

1 Building up the sense of collectivity and diligence

2 Appreciating all contributions of individuals in the school

3 Constructing a close relationship with customers

4 The school’s philosophy is Quality and Efficiency

5 The school’s motto is, “Integrating into global education and training, and serving the community.”

(Translated from Sổ tay chất lượng Trường Đại Học Công Nghiệp TP

HCM 2005: 4)

We can see that the school leaders set high standards of quality to reach Therefore, it is reasonable when students and students’ parents ask for high quality and permanent improvements of teaching methods and conditions That is also a basis for us to discuss the factors that affect students’ satisfaction, the core of this study

1.3 THE TRAINING PROGRAM OF ENGLISH IN HUI

1.3.1 The intake

1.3.1.1 The number of students

As assigned by the Ministry of Education and Training for annual division of training, in September 2005, the Faculty of Foreign Languages received 60 students for the first 4-year college program and another 63 for the 3-year program –called the junior college program

In September 2006, 100 new students were selected from the national university entrance exam for the college program, and 170 students were selected for the junior college program At the beginning of the academic year 2006-2007, the Faculty of Foreign Languages had nearly 400 students in total, all of whom are

English majors, specializing in Translation and interpretation or English Pedagogy

However, according to the schedule, they will not be divided into these two specializations until the end of Term 4 (for the 4-year program) and Term 3 (for the 3-year program)

1.3.1.2 The English level of the student intake

All of the students in FFL of HUI passed the entrance exam for their chosen program Therefore, basically, they are qualified enough to initiate with the training program However, teachers who take part in the English programs describe many problems with the uneven English level of English majors

In terms of the social background, many of the English majors of FFL-HUI are from other small provinces, or even remote areas, where the facilities and environment for learning English are very limited and out-dated, especially in stark contrast to those from Ho Chi Minh City Hence, they do not have a comprehensive English capability with a balanced development of the four skills Undoubtedly, most of the non-urban students are not able to feel confident with their English

ability when they are juxtaposed with their city peers in the classroom In a causal relationship, this entails the passiveness, inertia and above all the incompetence in fully acquiring English when they move to Ho Chi Minh City to follow this HUI program

Because of the low English knowledge and competence of many freshmen, especially of the junior English college program, the occurrence of obstacles in teaching and learning English is unavoidable In retrospect, the matriculation scores were 17 for the four-year program of English, and 12 for three-year program, counting three entrance subjects in total (Literature in Vietnamese, Mathematics, and English) in year 2005 Although all the students got the required total scores to

be admitted in the faculty, the admittance of many students was based on their good achievements in Mathematics and Literature rather than in English Discrepancies, therefore, pose a lot of challenges to the teachers in handling the class

1.3.2 The teaching staff

1.3.2.1 Degrees

The teaching staff has been increasing in number since the faculty was established However, most of the teachers here do not have much teaching experience in English college programs

This is the table that shows the degrees and majors of teachers of the HUI:

FFL-Major Degree

TESOL Comparative

Linguistics (Vietnamese- based training)

English Education Business

Table 1.1 Degrees and majors of teachers of the FFL-HUI

1.3.2.2 Training background, age and teaching experience

As of 2008, there have been very few visiting lecturers in FFL, HUI The lack of experienced scholarly visiting lecturers is a great disadvantage for the development of the quite young teaching staff in FFL, HUI

Due to some circumstantial reasons, there have been only two English native teachers to take part in the English program of FFL, with only approximately 100 hours in total It is a disadvantage of the training program of language In addition, a sad truth is that none of the teachers of the FFL was trained in an English speaking country With regards to age, the average age of the teachers’ age is 36.4 for the entire faculty The oldest teacher is 58 and the youngest is 27

However, several teachers of the FFL are not taking part in the training programs for English majors, due to their academic degrees or their being assigned

to general English classes So the number of teachers who are participating in the

English college programs is 22, and the average age is 35.7 The number of years of teaching experience in English majors’ class varies from 2 to 15, but the majority only have 2 or 3 years’ experience of teaching English majors

In short, the advantage of the teaching staff of FFL, HUI is their youth and energy; meanwhile the conspicuous disadvantage is their limitations in experience and academic scholarship, which is, at some extent, also due to their youth

1.3.3 The facilities for English teaching and learning

1.3.3.1 The English classrooms

The English classrooms in HUI are in good condition However, the tables in the classrooms are not movable, which can be an obstacle to the conducting of groupwork and other active methods In some of the English classrooms, there is a computer and projector for slide shows, but there is none in the other rooms However, cassette players and microphones are included in all English classrooms

1.3.3.2 The language lab

In August 2007, a language lab was installed with 40 computers with Sanako language lab software This is a great stride for the school in setting up a modern facility to accommodate students’ needs to be exposed to professional training However, the techniques for using the lab are quite new to the teaching staff The effectiveness of the lab can only be judged after it has been used in the new academic year 2008-2009, since it is still in the preparation phase in the academic year 2007-2008

1.3.3.3 The school library

The library of HUI is large and comfortable, but the supply of English books

in the library is limited There are only popular general English coursebooks such as Lifelines or Headway of OUP, several grammar books, such as English Grammar in Use by Raymond Murphy, and some English-Vietnamese and Vietnamese-English

dictionaries It can be said that the school does not meet the demand for extensive readings on par with good facilities Books on linguistics and Anglo-American culture are currently absent from the library of HUI HUI’s English majors have to commute to big bookstores downtown to obtain new coursebooks and other reference books that serve their in-depth research

1.3.3.4 The English Resource Center (none)

HUI does not now possess an English Resource Center or a library for English reading FFL has a bookcase with over 300 books; but it is for teachers’ use only The books are mainly textbooks and teachers’ manuals, not expensive or profound reference books Meanwhile, unfortunately, precious storages of English reference books in Ho Chi Minh City University of Pedagogy, Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Science and Humanities, and most other universities, are not available to students of other schools; so English majors of HUI really lack the

chance to consult as many books as English majors need

1.3.4 The curricula

The curricula and syllabuses were made in 2005, and modified in 2006 In the academic year 2005-2006, students at first were trained in the orientation for Interpretation and Translation for the whole course, but later on, the English majors were transferred into either of two specialized areas, i.e (1) English Teaching and (2) Interpretation-Translation, according to an amendment to the training program, which was issued in late 2006 Thus, it can be said that FFL has two specific fields

of English training for students’ choice after their first-stage academic completion, marking some new progress in FFL’s striving to diversify its training capability In terms of curriculum, the English curricula of HUI were built with the main reference to those of Hanoi University

The goals, objectives, and contents of the curricula for the three-year English

1.4 SUMMARY

This chapter has described the institution and the program that is the setting

to this study When being investigated in relation to that background, the data collected will be more meaningful, and the findings will be significant

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter 2 is constructed to review a rather new wealth of literature related to this thesis, which is entitled “Using students’ feedback to define the factors that affect their satisfaction with teachers”

Since this thesis deals with using students’ feedback for the improvement of English teaching, an overview of basic concepts in language teaching and learning will be helpful for placing the study into the historical stream of language education Then some viewpoints about using students’ feedback will be briefly reviewed

2.1 THE COGNITIVE DOMAIN AND THE AFFECTIVE DOMAIN

In this part, the two important domains in which the teacher influences learners will be presented

2.1.1 The cognitive domain

2.1.1.1 Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive objectives

As defined by Richards, Platt, and Platt (1997), the cognitive domain contains objectives “which have as their purpose the development of students’ intellectual abilities and skills” Going deeper into the categorization of cognitive domain in the 1950s, Bloom and his collaborators provided a so-called Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive objectives, describing six categories of cognitive learning

Category Description

1 Knowledge Ability to recall previously learned material

2 Comprehension Ability to grasp meaning, explain, restate ideas

3 Application Ability to use learned material in new situations

4 Analysis Ability to separate material into component parts and show

relationships between parts

5 Synthesis Ability to put together the separate ideas to form new whole,

establish new relationships

6 Evaluation Ability to judge the worth of material against stated criteria

Note: Many people also call the analysis, synthesis, and evaluations categories

In the next phases, students can analyze and synthesize what they have learned, which means separating, combining, or transforming the material they learn to make new wholes and to find new relationships without distorting it In the highest stage

of the cognitive process, the students can assess the values of the material they learn

2.1.1.2 Some main factors that are related to the cognitive domain

Not only does the process of cognition have many stages, but it is also affected by some innate or learned abilities that help explain the differentiation in

language acquisition speed among learners Brown (2000) presents some crucial

factors that are related to the cognitive domain as language aptitude, intelligence,

styles and strategies

Language aptitude

To put it briefly, language aptitude is “the natural ability to learn a language, not including intelligence, motivation, interests, etc.” A more detailed explanation would be, “language aptitude is thought to be a combination of various abilities, such as the ability to identify sound patterns in a new language, the ability to recognize the different grammatical functions of words in sentences, rote-learning ability, and the ability to infer language rules A person with high language aptitude can learn more quickly and easily than a person with low language aptitude, all other factors being equal.” (Richards et al, 1997)

In reality, some students are recognized by most people around as having high language aptitude, while others may feel they are not born to learn a foreign language The English teacher’s job seems to be helping learners who have good language aptitude to gain the best accomplishment in learning the language, and to help the weaker students to overcome their slowness in acquiring the foreign verbal communicating instrument

Intelligence

Besides, intelligence is also counted as a factor that has a large impact on the ability to acquire language According to the Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary (2005), intelligence is “the ability to learn, understand and think in a logical way about things” and “the ability to do this well.” Up to now, how to measure intelligence is still a big question to scientists

Styles and strategies

Importantly, every individual has his/her own distinct pattern of learning, so this feature should be heeded in order to maximize each person’s acquisition

capability Hence, it is not unwise to say that teachers should employ a wide variety

of pedagogical methods on multifarious learners appropriately to achieve the optimal consequence In detail, Brown (2000:113) expounds:

Style is a term that refers to consistent and rather enduring tendencies or

preferences within an individual Styles are those general characteristics of

intellectual functioning (and personal type, as well) that pertain to you as an individual, and that differentiate you from someone else

Strategies are specific methods of approaching a problem or task, modes of operation for achieving a particular end, planned designs for controlling and manipulating certain information […] Strategies vary intraindividually; each of us has a number of possible ways to solve a particular problem, and we choose one –

or several in sequence – for a given problem

Although the styles and strategies are various amongst learners, we can consider that it would be advisable if the teachers help learners to gain the best from their own styles and strategies, or even to modify the style and strategies for better results

2.1.2 The affective domain

2.1.2.1 Krathwolh’s taxonomy of the affective domain

On top of cognitive domain, affective domain also plays a crucial role in the intensity of learners’ internal and external motivation Richards et al (1997) define the affective domain as the domain of “objectives which have as their purpose the development of students’ attitudes, feelings and values”

For a close-up view, the following taxonomy table of Krathwolh lists levels

of commitment from the lowest to the highest

Level Definition

1 Receiving Being aware of or attending to something in the

environment

2 Responding Showing some new behavior as a result of experience

3 Valuing Showing some definite involvement or commitment

4 Organization Integrating a new value into one's general set of values,

giving it some ranking among one's general priorities

5 Characterization by

Value Acting consistently with the new value

Table 2.2 Krathwolh’s taxonomy of the affective domain

(Affective Domain Taxonomy, para 2) This taxonomy shows that the knowledge any person learns does not stay

still in his brain, but will have a general effect on that person’s characteristics After

knowing, or being aware of something, the learner will have certain behavior as a

result of that perception Then that individual also shows his or her evaluation of

that piece of knowledge, and consequently puts it into his or her available set of

values Finally, as the new piece of knowledge has been integrated into the person’s

set of values with a certain priority, he or she will act in accordance with the new

value

As any teacher, the teacher of English helps students gain new knowledge

For that knowledge to be integrated into the availability of knowledge that students

possess, the teacher should have a suitable pedagogical way to encourage optimal

integration

2.1.2.2 Some main factors that are related to the affective domain

These psychologically and spiritually relevant factors are well recorded by a

group of celebrated researchers with Brown and Richard’s being notable

As being defined above, self-esteem is an important factor of a learner’s characteristics, because it is a subjective experience which the individual conveys to others by verbal reports and other overt expressive behavior, also according to Coopersmith If the learner believes himself to be incapable, his or her performance

in a foreign language surely cannot be effective

Risk-Taking

According to Brown (2000: 149), risk-taking is an important characteristic of successful learning of a second language Learners have to be able to gamble a bit,

to be willing to try out hunches about the language and take the risk of being wrong

As a teacher of language, an English teacher should consider how to encourage the learner to “dare” to use the language they learn

“helpful” anxiety We may be inclined to view anxiety as a negative factor, something to be avoided at all costs But the notion of facilitative anxiety is that some concern – some apprehension – over a task to be accomplished is a positive factor Otherwise, a learner might be inclined to be “wishy-washy,” lacking that facilitative tension that keeps one poised, alert, and just slightly unbalanced to the point that one cannot relax entirely (Brown 2000: 150-151)

Here we can see that anxiety has a remarkable role in the process of language learning The teacher’s role is to maintain the helpful anxiety and to reduce the harmful anxiety that can inhibit students’ growth in language learning

Empathy

According to Brown (2000: 153), “empathy is the process of ‘putting yourself into someone else’s shoes,’ of reaching beyond the self to understand what another person is feeling It is probably the major factor in the harmonious coexistence of individuals in society Language is one of the primary means of empathizing, but nonverbal communication facilitates the process of empathizing and must not be overlooked.”

Motivation

Richards defines motivation as “the factors that determine a person’s desire

to do something In second language and foreign language learning, learning may

be affected differently by different types of motivations.”

According to Richards, two types of motivation that are sometimes distinguished are instrumental motivation and integrative motivation Instrumental motivation is the state of wanting to learn a language because it will be useful for certain “instrumental” goals, such as getting a job, reading a foreign newspaper, or passing an examination Meanwhile, integrative motivation is the state of wanting to learn a language in order to communicate with people of another culture who speak that language (Richards et al, 1997: 238)

Whatever the motivation of each learner is, it is definitely worth the attention

of the language teacher, in order to help learners achieve their wishes in learning a language

2.2 THE ROLES OF THE LANGUAGE TEACHER

As one of the two human components in the classroom interaction between teacher and students, today’s teacher is not merely a knowledge conveyer who is supposed to conduct the class Rather, he/she is expected to perform various tasks in his/her classroom As Harmer (1992: 235) comments, the language teacher can apply a variety of activities that range from tightly controlled accurate reproduction work to free communicative activities; from controlling reading to extract specific information to the more communicative jigsaw of listening and reading Consequently, he points out that the way the teacher behaves will change according

to the nature of the activities The various roles of the language teacher are listed by Harmer as follows

2.2.1 The teacher as controller

A controller stands at the front of the class like a puppet-master or mistress controlling everything Teachers as controllers are in complete charge of the class They control not only what the students do, but also when they speak and what language they use The introduction of new language, where it makes use of accurate reproduction and drilling techniques, needs to be carefully organized Thus

the instruct-cue-nominate cycle is the perfect example of the teacher acting as

controller

A teacher who successfully plays the role of a controller usually possesses a certain indefinable quality which attracts and motivates students They had interesting things to say and do which held students’ attention and provided

enthusiasm In the appropriate stage of the lesson, the teacher, talking at the students’ level of comprehension, is the most important source students have for roughly-tuned comprehensible input

Certainly, the controller role, with all its advantages, should never be the only one that a teacher uses

2.2.2 The teacher as assessor

The role of the teacher as an assessor is not limited to a stage of the lesson Harmer (1992: 237) affirms that a major part of the teacher’s job is to assess the students’ work, to see how well they performed He reports that not only is this important pedagogically, but the students quite naturally expect it, even after communicative activities

Two types of assessment are correction and organizing feedback

Correction can also be divided into two levels namely correction and gentle

correction, while organizing feedback contains content feedback and form feedback

for each activity

Correction is usually used in the accurate reproduction stage, for pointing out where mistakes occur and helping the student to say it right Gentle correction, on the other hand, involves showing students that a mistake has been made, without insisting that the student repeat the correct sentence or word Gentle correction, when appropriately used, will not damage the atmosphere of pairwork or freer conversation

Meanwhile, organizing feedback occurs when students have performed some kind of task, and the intention of this kind of assessment is for them to see the extent of their success or failure and to be given ideas as to how their (language) problems might be solved Not only direct observation and direct interactions, but

also video and tape-recorder can be use for the purpose of analyzing the students’ performance and giving organizing feedbacks in language programs

According to Harmer, on the cline with one end presenting the teacher as controller and the other presenting the teacher as facilitator, the three kinds of assessment are distributed as illustrated in the following figure

Figure 2.1 Kinds of correction in the language class (Harmer 1992: 237)

2.2.3 The teacher as organizer

According to Harmer (1992: 239), perhaps the most important and difficult role the teacher has to play is that of organizer The main aim of the teacher when organizing an activity is to tell the students what they are going to talk about (or write or read about), to give clear instructions about what exactly their task is, to get the activity going on, and then to organize feedback when it is over Harmer

summarizes the work of a teacher as organizer in the sequence of lead-in Æ instruct (demonstrate) Æ initiate Æ organize feedback To achieve the best effects, the

teacher as organizer must think out exactly what they are going to say beforehand

2.2.4 The teacher as prompter

Another psychology-related role of a teacher that Harmer (1992: 241) mentions is the role of teacher as prompter with these words:

Often the teacher needs to encourage students to participate or needs to make

suggestions about how students may proceed in an activity when there is a silence

correction organizing feedback

gentle correction

Facilitative Controlling

or when they are confused about what to do next This is one of the teachers’

important roles, the role of a prompter

However, he also reminds us that the role of prompter has to be performed with discretion, and that teachers should only help when it is necessary

2.2.5 The teacher as participant

Harmer (1992: 241) argues that it is a good idea for a teacher to participate as

an equal in activities, especially in those like simulations It will probably improve the atmosphere in the class, and simultaneously gives students a chance to practice English with someone who speaks it better than they do Nevertheless, the warning

is that the teacher should be careful not to dominate, since the students will both allow and expect this to happen when the teacher participates It is up to the teacher

to make sure this does not happen

2.2.6 The teacher as a resource

Harmer (1992: 242) underlines that even when students are doing genuinely communicative activities, the teacher is not left with nothing to do The teacher becomes an assessor – although discretely – and a kind of walking resource centre

In other words the teacher should always be ready to offer help if it is needed; they make themselves available so that students can consult when (and only when) they wish

2.2.7 The teacher as tutor

According to Harmer (1992: 242), the role of the teacher as a tutor is a broader role than the others that have been mentioned above since it incorporates parts of some of the other roles, i.e organizer, prompter and resource