English language teachers’ perceptions and practices of developing discourse competence through speaking skills for grade 10 students a case study

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS’ PERCEPT

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS’

PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES OF

DEVELOPING DISCOURSE COMPETENCE THROUGH SPEAKING SKILLS FOR GRADE 10

STUDENTS: A CASE STUDY

Supervisor : Vũ Hải Hà, Ph.D Student : Nguyễn Nhã Uyên Course : QH2017.F1.E1 SP CLC

Ha Noi – 2021

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

NHẬN THỨC VÀ THỰC HÀNH CỦA GIÁO VIÊN TIẾNG ANH TRONG VIỆC PHÁT TRIỂN NĂNG LỰC DIỄN NGÔN THÔNG QUA KỸ NĂNG NÓI CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10: NGHIÊN CỨU TRƯỜNG

HỢP ĐIỂN HÌNH

Giáo viên hướng dẫn : Vũ Hải Hà, Ph.D

Hà Nội – 2021

ACCEPTANCE PAGE

I hereby state that I: Nguyen Nha Uyen – QH2017.F1.E1 SP CLC, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (Fast track program) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library.

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

Signature

Date

ABSTRACT

Being one of the compulsory foreign languages in Vietnam and recently regarded

as one of the requirements for higher education enlistment, English received growing attention from Vietnam high school students (Baotuoitre, 2021) In Circular 33, the Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training officially recognised communicative competence to be the primary outcome of the English National Program (MOET, 2018) Although the Program aims to achieve the outcome with more emphasis on listening and speaking skills, Vietnamese high school students remain struggle to form extended spoken discourse (Dantri, 2011) With the view

to gaining insights into the actual state of cultivating discourse competence (DC) through speaking skills in students, the study investigates four Grade 10 teachers with varied backgrounds and teaching styles in a private school renowned for having been successfully adopting CLT After conducting the interview and classroom observation, the results imply that teachers valued the significant role

of DC and advocated an individualised approach to encourage the natural growth

of DC, except for the novice teacher who resorted to teacher-front approaches under the negative washback of the high-stakes written exams The result shed light on meaningful implications about the visible link between perceptions and practice, the possible implementations to curriculum textbooks, and teacher training programs for better DC enhancement

Keywords: English language teachers, discourse competence, speaking skills,

perceptions, practices, Grade 10 students, Hanoi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This research would not have been completed should there be the absence

of support and guidance from a number of people whose contribution is deeply acknowledged by the researcher

First and foremost, the researcher would like to express sincere gratitude towards Dr Vu Hai Ha, my supervisor, for his remarkable insight into the field of TESOL I could never thank him enough for his infinite patience with my inquiries Without his facilitation, this paper might not be finished as satisfactorily as this

Secondly, I would like to give my special thanks to Ms Tran Thi Lan Anh for her invaluable advice on the research methodology Her well-grounded professional and critical mindset have pointed out the potential problems with my previous sampling methods Thanks to her, the method became more well-adjusted that secured the validity of the data

Thirdly, I would love to express my genuine appreciation to all the participants that have taken part in the research Not only their participation played

a crucial role in the completeness of the study, but it also brought numerous thought-provoking ideas into the light

Last but not least, I wish to extend my thanks to my friends and family, who provided the support and encouragement that would be pivotal to complete the study

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT Communicative Language Teaching

DC Discourse Competence

EFL English for Foreign Learners

ELT English language teaching

ICT Information and Communications Technology L1 First language

L2 Second language

MOET Ministry of Educational and Training

TESOL Teaching English as a Second or foreign language

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale for the study, statement of research problem and questions 1

1.2 Scope of the study 2

1.3 Significance of the study 3

1.4 Organization 3

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Key concepts 5

2.1.1 Communicative competence 5

2.1.2 Discourse competence 7

2.1.3 Perceptions and practices of developing discourse competence 9

2.1.4 Teaching English to Vietnamese grade 10 students 10

2.2 Discourse competence and teaching English language speaking skills 11

2.2.1 Discourse competence in teaching English speaking skills 11

2.2.2 Teaching English speaking skills to Vietnamese Grade 10 students 11

2.3 Related studies and research gap 12

2.3.1 Related studies 12

2.3.2 Research gaps 12

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 14

3.1 Research design 14

3.1.1 Qualitative approach 14

3.1.2 Case study 14

3.3 Research site 15

3.4 Sampling and participants 16

3.4.1 Sampling 16

3.4.2 Participants 16

3.5 Data collection instruments 18

3.5.1 Interviews 18

3.5.2 Non-participant observation 19

3.6 Data collection procedure 20

3.6.1 Pilot interview 20

3.6.2 Official interview 21

3.6.3 Observation 21

3.7 Data analysis 22

3.7.1 Thematic data analysis 22

3.7.2 Procedure of data analysis 23

3.8 Ethical considerations and COVID-19 precautions 26

CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 27

4.1 Findings 27

4.1.1 Huong - The Constructor 27

4.1.2 Lan - The Commander 36

4.1.3 Hoa - The Listener 42

4.1.4 Lien - The Conductor 48

4.2 Discussion 56

4.2.1 What are the English language teachers’ perceptions of developing discourse competence through speaking skills for Grade 10 students? 56

4.2.2 What are the teaching practices applied by English language teachers to foster the development of discourse competence through speaking skills for Grade 10 students? 59

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION 66

5.1 Findings summary 66

5.1.1 What are the English language teachers’ perceptions of developing discourse competence through speaking skills for Grade 10 students? 66

5.1.2 What are the teaching practices applied by English language teachers to foster the development of discourse competence through speaking skills for Grade 10 students? 69

5.2 Implications 72

5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 73

REFERENCES 75

APPENDIX A CONSENT FORM PHIẾU ĐỒNG THUẬN THAM GIA VÀO NGHIÊN CỨU 91

APPENDIX B GENERAL INTERVIEW GUIDELINE 95

APPENDIX C THE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS CONCERNING PERCEPTIONS OF DISCORSE COMPETENCE IN THE GENERAL INTERVIEW 100

APPENDIX D PRE-LESSON INTERVIEW GUIDELINE 102

APPENDIX E OBSERVATION NOTE 104

APPENDIX F POST-LESSON INTERVIEW GUIDELINE 108

APPENDIX G INTERVIEW SCHEDULE 110

APPENDIX H OBSERVATION SCHEDULE 112

FIGURE

Figure 2.1 Schematic representation of communicative competence Murcia et al, 1995, p 10) 7 Figure 3.1 Data collection procedure 22 Figure 3.2 Two stages of analyzing data 24

(Celce-TABLE

Table 2.1 Components of discourse competence (Celce-Murcia, Dörnyei, & Thurrell, 1995, p 14) 8 Table 3.1 The profiles of four investigated cases 17 Table 3.2 Data sources and the focus of data collecting instruments and

analysis 19 Table 3.3 Six-step analysis of thematic data by Braun and Clark (2006) 23 Table 3.4 Qualitative coding examples 24 Table 4.1 – the perceptions and practices of Case 1 (Huong – the constructor) 34 Table 4.2 – the perceptions and practices of Case 2 (Lan – the commander) 40 Table 4.3 The perceptions and practices of Case 3 (Hoa – The listener) 47 Table 4.4 The perception and practices of case 4 (Lien – The conductor) 54 Table 5.1 The perceptions of the four cases regarding the development of discourse competence 67 Table 5.2 The practices of the four cases regarding the development of

discourse competence 69

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for the study, statement of research problem and questions

I want to speak English That is the wish I need to fulfil" - this is what most

of my high school students confessed to me when I was working as an EFL teacher

in several English centres and schools I was eager to support them until I soon realised they struggled tremendously to form even a simple self-introduction speech without the stumble, the silence, and the gaze asking for help

With the emergence of globalisation, the demand for a measure to support cross-country communications grows Consequently, people start to focus on language applications rather than language subject learning (Castro, Sercu & Méndez García, 2004) The English language in Vietnam has been given more credibility recently with the observable surge in the number of universities that includes the international language certification into one of its criteria for enlistments (Baotuoitre, 2021) Therefore, students need to make a detailed plan for their English learning since grade 10th to reach level B1 according to CEFR after graduation from high school (MOET, 2018) and increase their chances of getting into a qualified university (Baotuoitre, 2021) To catch up with the status quo, The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has released Circular 33 in

2018, aiming to renovate the National English Program that gave official recognition of CLT with emphasis on listening and speaking skills communicative competence (Vietnam ministry of education and training, 2018) Although speaking is recognised as a critical skill in language learning (Egan, 1999), students are accustomed to a grammar-based approach Quite predictably, they found producing an extended speech an arduous task (Dantri, 2011; Baotuoitre, 2021)

Dating back to the last few decades, numerous efforts have been put into delineating and constructing relevant framework to foster and assess communicative competence, the ultimate outcome of language learning (Canale & Swain, 1980; Celce-Murcia, Dornyei & Thurrell, 1995; Pham, 2017) Among components of communicative competence, discourse competence (DC), the

ability to produce extended text and speech (Pennycook, 1994), is crucial in achieving communicative competence and interacting efficiently in a cross-cultural environment (Castro, Sercu & Méndez García, 2004) Despite the attempts

to lay the theoretical groundwork for actual language teaching practices, research into applications and methods to cultiviate communicative competence in students are limited, especially when it involves the techniques needed to foster a specific component of communicative competence Regarding DC, past studies only focused on writing and reading skills (Maraunen, 1996; Do, Truong & Truong, 2018) Hence, to amend for the possible gap in the body of literature, this study aims at: 1) The Grade 10 EFL teachers, who are at the frontline to be in charge of students’ learning while concurrently facing numerous challenges, such as being inexperienced and the negative washback from the high-impact exams (Bui, 2004; Trang, Dat & Hanh 2017; Hoai & Hoa, 2020 2) The two key concepts, perception and practice Evidently, the relationship between what teachers envisage and their actions is visible (Doyle & Ponder, 1977; Sparks, 1983; Guskey, 1988; Ghaith & Yaghi, 1997), and the former even influence the outcomes of the latter in terms of CLT within Asian contexts (Mowlaie & Rahimi, 2010) Therefore, the two concepts "perceptions" and "practices" are placed beside each other in this study 3) How to foster DC through speaking skills which is crucial to communicate in foreign languages (Egan, 1999) All in all, the research questions of the study are:

1 What are the English language teachers’ perceptions of developing discourse competence through speaking skills for Grade 10 students?

2 What are the teaching practices applied by English language teachers to foster the development of discourse competence through speaking skills for Grade 10 students?

1.2 Scope of the study

This research paper belongs to the field of English Language Teaching (ELT) and Teaching English to Students of Other Languages (TESOL), with attributions to the area of teaching methodology These two fields have been receiving growing attention (Dang, Nguyen & Le, 2013) Its main research subject revolves around discourse competence, a component of communicative

competence, the perceptions and practices of EFL teacher in the teaching of speaking skills in TESOL and Grade 10 students, using qualitative data derived from interviews and observations

1.3 Significance of the study

Admittedly, EFL teachers are standing in the dilemma of the rising demand for communicative teaching and the remnants of the traditional methods (Ellis 1995, Cadierno, 1995) Hence, the findings from this study could be meaningful for these three aspects First, the MOET is currently gathering force to improve the professional standards of EFL teachers as a way to standardise English teaching according to Decision 2080 (MOET, 2017) As a result, the data from this study can enrich the input for teachers' training programs, especially concerning the possible relationship between teachers' perceptions and practices Second, the new MOET textbook for English is in a trial run Therefore, EFL teachers are encouraged to incorporate supplementary materials and ICT into the classroom, which is another focus of the study Thus, the findings could bring suggestions to the material designers and providers of teaching aids

1.4 Organization

The following parts of the paper will consist of four chapters in the order as

presented below:

Chapter II: Literature review

This chapter summarises the past studies and lays a theoretical framework

for the following parts of the study

Chapter III: Methodology

This chapter explains the research design, procedure, and research plan in

details, with ethical considerations and precautions for the COVID-19

Chapter IV: Findings and Discussions

This chapter presents the findings followed by a further discussion

concerning relevant studies

Chapter V: Conclusions

This chapter summarises the study's notable findings and some suggestions and limitations derived from the results

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter will be divided into three main parts to review related studies and provide a conceptual framework for the research The first part highlights certain descriptions and definitions of key concepts relevant to the study The second part continues this chapter by discussing the components of discourse competence, the role of discourse competence in teaching English speaking skills, and the teaching of English speaking skills in Vietnam The chapter will end with the third part, which describes an overview of past studies and introduces the research gap

2.1 Key concepts

2.1.1 Communicative competence

"Competence" is first coined by Chomsky (1965) that views language as existing independently from the context However, it is soon re-considered as a dynamic process to use the language pragmatically (Savignon, 1983; Stern, 1983) Communicative competence can be generally understood as a set of knowledge and skills required to communicate (Canale & Swain, 1980; Savignon, 1983) Although whether communicative competence ensures desirable outcomes in actual communication remain controversial (Kempson 1977), the goal of this concept is to put forward the fundamentals for effective communication (Celce-Murcia, 2008) and establish a foundation for CLT (Canale, 1983) According to Circular 33, communicative competence is “the ability to apply knowledge about language components like lexis, grammar, and phonology to fulfill communication activities in speaking, listening, writing, reading to meet personal or social demands” (MOET, 2018, p 16)

Communicative competence has been delineated through history, from only two components (linguistic and sociolinguistic) (Hymes, 1972) to five ones (Canale & Swain, 1980; Canale, 1983; Celce-Murcia, Dörnyei & Thurrell, 1995) The most updated model presented by Celce-Murcia, Dörnyei and Thurrell (1995) defines the five components as:

1) Discourse competence: Arrangement of words and structures to form a

unified and coherent text

2) Linguistic competence: Understanding of language system fundamental

to communication, such as sentence structures, morphology and phonology, vocabulary and spelling

3) Actional competence: Ability to send messages and understand

messages conveyed by others

4) Socio-cultural competence: Ability to express one's ideas that match the

overall social and cultural setting

5) Strategic competence: Ability to prolong the conversation, deduct and

repair communication breakdowns

Recent experts started to draw the link among the components with discourse competence given the central position (Morrow, 1979; Mauranen, 1996; Celce-Murcia, 2008) According to Celce-Murcia, Dörnyei, and Thurrell (1995) language, users need to have a sound manipulation of the language form (linguistic competence), an adequate understanding of the socio-cultural context (socio-cultural competence), and a sense of what is being conveyed and what compensation they should make (actional and strategic competences) to communicate effectively The relationship is visualised in the diagram below, which is also the model that this study selected:

Figure 2.1 Schematic representation of communicative competence

(Celce-Murcia et al, 1995, p 10)

It is widely accepted that communicative competence is the objective of language teaching This notion was significantly promoted after the description of theories relating to language speech acts by Austin (1962) and Searle, Searler, Willis and Searle (1969) Similarly, communicative competence is officially stated

as the goal of the English Program based on Circular 33 (MOET, 2018)

2.1.2 Discourse competence

Discourse is broadly understood as any utterance larger than a sentence (Kinneavy, 1971; McCarthy, 1991), while competence, concerning discourse, is a dynamic process in which the realization is the speaker's performance in real-life situations (Savignon, 1983) Therefore, discourse competence is the ability to arrange words, phrases, sentences, and other language structures into a well-connected and comprehensible text (Canale, 1983, 1984; Celce-Murcia, 2008) According to Canale (1983), Celce-Murcia, Dörnyei ad Thurrell (1995), four main sectors constitute discourse competence: cohesion, deixis, coherence, generic structure, and conversational structure This will serve as the framework for thematic data analysis in this paper for two reasons First, this is the most detailed

synthesis of what discourse competence includes Second, each component is selected based on what role it plays to constitute the manifestation of discourse and how it links with other competencies (such as linguistic, strategic, and socio-cultural) To be specific, the elaboration of each category is presented as below:

Table 2.1 Components of discourse competence (Celce-Murcia, Dörnyei, & Thurrell, 1995, p 14)

- Spatial (here, there; this, that)

- Temporal (now, then; before, after)

- Discourse/textual (the following chart; the example above)

Coherence

- Thematization and staging (theme-theme development)

- Management of old and new information

- Prepositional structures and their organizational sequences (temporal, spatial, cause-effect, condition-result, etc.)

- Temporal continuity/shift (sequence of tenses)

Genre/Generic structures

- Narrative, interview, service encounter, research report, sermon, etc

Conversational structures (inherent to the turn-taking system in conversation but may extend to a variety of oral genres)

- How to perform openings & reopenings

- Topic establishment & change

- How to hold & relinquish the floor

- How to interrupt

- How to collaborate & backchannel

- How to do pre-closings and closings

- Adjacency pairs (related to actional competence), first and second pair parts (knowing preferred and dispreferred responses)

Among these sub-components, each one is depicted in a different sense Hence, they are all the central subject in a range of studies Namely, the sub-elements in cohesion help bind phrases together, highlighting the textual meaning

of the text and omitting excessive expressions (Celce-Murcia, Dưrnyei and Thurrell & 1995) Meanwhile, deixis creates the connection between the text and the context, the content being discussed and the subjects mentioned (Hatch, 1992) Additionally, coherence refers to the structure of the text on a thematic level and makes the text functional (Grice, 1975) About generic structure, Carrell (1984) has stated clearly that genre is likely to develop in almost every kind of language with its distinct features that language users should grasp (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1983)

2.1.3 Perceptions and practices of developing discourse competence

In general, perceptions are the process of reflecting a real-life event in the subject’s consciousness during interactions with the environment (Noë & Noë, 2004) In educational arenas and language teaching, perceptions often refer to three aspects which are the most directly influenced teachers’ “knowledge, skills, attitude” (Borg, 2006, P 7): 1) teachers’ subject-matter understanding (Shulman, 1986), 2) teachers’ readiness to adopt new practices (Ghaith & Yaghi, 1997), 3) the self-evaluation of its significance and feasibility (Sparks, 1983; Doyle & Ponder, 1977; Guskey, 1988) Within the context of this study, the subject and practices here were underscored as the development of DC in students Moreover, relationship between teacher’s perception and their teaching practices has been proved to be evident in various research (Tobin & Gallagher, 1987; Woods, 1996; Lumpe, Czerniak & Haney, 1998; Williams & Burden, 1997; Prosser & Trigwell, 1999) explaining why the two concepts are placed next to each other in this study The perception of a teacher is a principal contributor to decide the willingness and persistent against challenges when teachers adopt a novel teaching approach

(Castro, Sercu & Méndez García, 2004)

Practice is widely understood as collecting an individual’s mindset, experience, skills, and behaviours (Larrivee, 2008) On top of that, the characteristic of practice is what the participants actively act out their

consciousness in real situations, or in other words, what they do (Ellis, 2002; Grossman et al., 2009; Lampert, 2010) In this sense, teaching practice is when teachers carry out professional tasks based on their perceptions of a matter (Lampert, 2010) Practice entails techniques for facilitating the ability to connect language in alignment with the lesson objectives and some everyday activities to form different stages of classroom discourse like giving presentations, telling stories, etc (Richard, 2005; Legutke, 2012) In outer circle countries' context, the adoption of CLT is often viewed with reluctance by the EFL teachers, which causes hindrance in the actual introduction of the approach in teaching (Mowlaie

& Rahimi, 2010) This is the reason why the examination of the two terms concurrently is necessary

2.1.4 Teaching English to Vietnamese grade 10 students

Grade 10 students are mostly around 15 to 16 years old They are at the door

of adulthood (Legutke, 2012), which leads to significant emotional turbulence and the urge to claim their identities (Hebdige, 1979; Stratmann,Tönnies

Viol, 2000; Blossfeld, Klijzing, Mill & Kurz, 2006) They can deal with more abstract content; however, they need to gain a sense of self-esteem (Scheidecker

& Freeman, 1999), and the topics need to suit their preferences (Puchta & Schartz, 1993) According to Circular 33, students are expected to reach level A2 based on the CEFR framework after finishing secondary school and B1 after high school The textbook has an array of deliberately selected topics familiar with students’ everyday life and necessary for their future education and development (MOET, 2018)

Despite gaining favourable support from the government (Nguyen, 2002;

Le, 2007; Pham, 2004, 2007), much strain is put on the EFL teachers, including negative washback from the National Exam, inadequate facility, large class size, low learners’ motivation, and EFL teachers’ low proficiency (Pham, 2004, Bui, 2004; Do, 2006) The EFL teachers need to exert great expertise and dexterity to overcome the obstacles, which call for investment from the government (MOET, 2019) Likewise, funding allocation and teacher training program design could be

fundamental to raise the teaching quality (MOET, 2019; VOV, 2020) Therefore,

it is justifiable to choose the EFL teachers as the focus of this study

2.2 Discourse competence and teaching English language speaking skills 2.2.1 Discourse competence in teaching English speaking skills

The interconnections among discourse competence and other competencies are universally functional due to discourse competence being the base of the others As a result, the development of DC in learners is crucial in a multicultural environment where a mix of native and English as L2 and L2 speakers is prevalent (Pennycook, 1994; McKay, 2002) For being crucial to enhancing communication and speaking skills (Celce-Murcia & Olshtain 2000; Shumin, 2002), the insights into DC helps set the aims and objectives in learning and teaching English and determine the content and methodology of an English course (McKay, 2002)

2.2.2 Teaching English speaking skills to Vietnamese Grade 10 students

According to Circular 33, Grade 10 students are expected to speak with sufficient accuracy in articulation, intonation; grasp the basic rules of conversations; voice their opinions and give advice; current projects with preparation in advance (MOET, 2018) There are some challenges on the road to achieving these goals, including the negative washback from written exams (Giaoduc, 2018) To amend for that, students who wish to improve their speaking skills have to seek private institutions, which eventually lead to achievement gaps among urban and rural areas The cities have easier access to English private centres and other resources of learning (VOV, 2020) Apart from that, it is common for Asian learners to experience higher tension when verbally communicating in the target language (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1989) and being reluctant to speak due

to affective cultural barriers (Li & Lui, 2011) In Vietnamese culture, students are supposed to show respect by keeping quiet and attentive in class (Nguyen, 2002) That is why they tend to remain passive in class, which is against CLT principles that require peer-to-peer interactions, a foundation of fluency in speaking (Gaudart, 1992) On top of that, teachers lack the hands-on experience to shift from

a teacher-dominated approach, which is deemed to be harmful to oral skill

development (Edwards, 1987; Pace, 1992), to more learner-centred teaching practice (Trang, Dat & Hanh 2017; Hoai & Hoa, 2020)

2.3 Related studies and research gap

of communicative competence, discourse competence is prevalent in research looking into the EFL teaching of writing skills (Belmonte & McCabe, 2004; Yang

& Sun, 2012) reading skills (Cziko, 1978; Mauranen, 1996; Ntuli & Pretorius, 2005), and the integration of ICT to help developing discourse competence (Chun, 1994; Hussein & Elttayef, 2016) The findings implied that students’ performance was improved if with the advent of ICT In Vietnam, Dung (2018) conduct an experimental research that show students’ writing skills have facvourable progress

when being taught about discoursal knowledge

Additionally, discourse competence is also underscored as the goal that language users should attain to communicate effectively in a multicultural environment (Castro, Sercu & Méndez García, 2004; Hoang, 2012; Quang, 2016) with suggestions on diversifying the input of students in the class to enhance DC The input should range from knowledge of the language, knowledge of the field/profession, to the knowledge of the world (Quy, 2009) In addition, the social-cultural knowledge of the speaking context is deemed indispensable from discourse competence Hence, the input relevant to this area is equally vital to cross-cultural interactions (Hoang, 2012)

2.3.2 Research gaps

From the relevant studies, what has been absent from the body of literature becomes noticeable There is countless research that extrapolates the significance

of the concept "discourse competence" and CLT (Canale & Swain, 1980; Canale,

1983; Bachman, 1990; Celce-Murcia, Dörnyei & Thurrell, 1995; Brown, 2000;

Savignon, 2001; Lee & Lee, 2003; Martínez-Flor, Usó-Juan, & Soler, 2006; Littlewood, 2007; Celce-Murcia, 2008) Nonetheless, the execution of CLT in the classroom is much less covered Concerning the development of DC, most studies revolve around reading skills (Cziko, 1978; Mauranen, 1996; Ntuli & Pretorius, 2005; Dung, 2018) and writing skills (Belmonte & McCabe, 2004; Yang & Sun, 2012) The most critical communication skills in a language, speaking (Egan, 1999), is rarely mentioned Therefore, an investigation into the actual state of EFL teachers' practices, to be more specific, is about the measures they take to cultivate

DC in students regardless of prevailing obstacles can be meaningful in improving the quality of EFL education in Vietnam On the other hand, most Asian EFL teachers, including Vietnam, is currently standing in the middle of a dilemma: one side is their willingness to introduce CLT in their classrooms, the other side is the current disadvantage conditions to cater to the operation of the new teaching approach (Fang, 1996; Li, 1998; Gorsuch, 2001; Taguchi, 2002) Due to DC being

a part of communicative competence, which also makes it the goal of CLT (Savignon, 2001), a closer look into what teachers perceive their current position and how it correlates with their practices is crucial to this paradigm shift

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, an overview of the methods applied to this research is presented, starting from the setting of the study, the research design, participants and the sampling method Next, how the data were collected and analysed is discussed with further information on the data collection instruments, data collection procedure and the techniques used for data analysis Finally, the chapter

wraps up with the ethical considerations of the study

3.1 Research design

3.1.1 Qualitative approach

The paper's primary approach is qualitative research design, one of the most common approaches in education (Alasuutari, 2010) A qualitative method is also suitable for research problems that have rich context and multiple influences (Dörnyei, 2007) Therefore, the research phenomena that look into teachers' personal views and practices in their unique classroom settings are compatible with

a qualitative approach (Mertens, 2009) Provided that the internal and external impacts that can shape teachers' perceptions and practices are characteristic of each EFL teacher, qualitative data prove to be more robust in describing social phenomena with the intricacy and nuances that quantitative data can not emulate (Mertens, 2009) This paper selects a case study research strategy, which utilises a qualitative design as the primary data collection method and analysis (Cavaye, 1996)

3.1.2 Case study

One of the standard definitions of a case study is an observation of a phenomenon within its natural context with the recognition of the validity of qualitative data (Weick, 1984; Yin, 2003) The scope of a "case" in the case study can be a person, a group of people, an organisation, or a phenomenon worth investigating (Jacobsen, 2002) Within the context of this study, each case is equal

to each participant/EFL teacher The most notable characteristic of the case study

is that it allows the researcher to look deep into a sophisticated phenomenon (Dönyei, 2007) and is commonly used across social science and education

(Gerring, 2006) The major downside of a case study is its inability to generalise

the findings (Thomas, 2011)

For this reason, a multiple case study is adopted because it can acquire multi-dimensional data compared to the single case study (Yin, 2003), allows comparison across the case, and renders more reliable data (Baxter & Jack, 2008)

It is worth mentioning that this study aims to collect data to gain an in-depth articulation to form plausible hypothesises about the research topic for further investigations, one principal merit of case study (Feagin, Orum, & Sjoberg, 1991) Hence, the case study is a reasonable choice (Kidder, 1982; Eisenhardt, 1989; Gustafsson, 2017)

on the CEFR and the CES with the help of various rating scale (the MBTI, the brain profile) to facilitate the customisation of each student's learning The English curriculum in school A follows a backward design, which means the course objectives are identified first then teachers will refer to it as a benchmark to design their teaching plans (Wiggins & McTighe, 2006) The target clients of such a system are middle-class and above They have the proper financial support to ensure that their offsprings will receive a more comprehensive education regarding knowledge, skills, and attitude Consequently, the student's needs and wants are varied, from passing the National Exam to get English international certification

for studying overseas or international universities in Hanoi

Together with the freedom to be the stakeholders of their teaching plans, the personalised teaching principles put much strain on EFL teachers in this School Hence, apart from extensive expertise, the uniqueness in teachers' worldview and teaching practices are welcomed into their school practices These

facets pave the way for the diversity needed to answer the research questions Moreover, fundings derived from the private sector allows school A to supply its classrooms with cutting-edge technological devices, such as loudspeakers, projectors, and other teaching aids Therefore, the teachers become a subject that can be examined independently from other commonly-found hindrances, such as inadequate facility or large classroom size Finally, the English curriculum's core principles in School A aim to develop communicative competence to function well

as a global citizen; therefore, DC is an indispensable part that they need to focus

on All in all, the aforementioned factors are conducive to the isolation of EFL teachers as an investigated subject with diverse approaches to developing DC in students, which is what this study attempts to discover

3.4 Sampling and participants

3.4.1 Sampling

Given the critical role of a proper strategy in the qualitative case study research (Gable, 1994), the study chose purposive sampling Purposive sampling

is a more favourable choice than non-probability sampling in qualitative research

to avoid accidentally including unrepresentative cases (Ishak, Bakar & Yazid, 2014) Among purposive sampling methods, maximum variation sampling is utilized It is a method of selecting participants that possess qualities as distinct from each other as possible (Patton, 2002) to detect the unique and typical patterns that occur across a wide range of contexts (Suri, 2011) On that ground, the sampling method can render richer data and allow the researcher to compare and

contrast among different participants to strengthen the validity of the findings

3.4.2 Participants

In a similar vein with the sampling method, the participants will be intentionally selected to have features that differ from each other Because the participants are ESL teachers, the set of criteria to pick out potential candidates and distinguish them will cover such factors that might influence their teaching practices According to Wang and Watkins (2008), the has a close tie with the teachers’ ages, educational background, years of experiences, and relevant experiences These contributing factors constitute the "knowledge, skills and

attitudes towards learners" of the teachers, which could shape both the perceptions and practices of the teachers (Borg, 2006, p.7) Apart from that, the teachers also stand under the influence of the contexts within which they function (Celik, 2013) Based on the aforementioned objectives, there are four participants selected The profile of each participant could be presented as follow:

Table 3.1 The profiles of four investigated cases

Profile Huong Lan Hoa Lien

Ages 34 years old 25 years old 31 years old 46 years old

Educational

backgrounds

Local university

Local university

Study abroad since postgraduate

Study abroad since

.Novice teacher Used

public school for 2 years

study abroad for master

TESOL for

1 year

Currently a senior teacher and academic manager Used to be

English department in her previous job

34 students,

18 girls and 16 boys

intermediate level, around B1-

Pre-31 students,

15 girls and

18 boys Upper-intermediate level,

around B2-

32 students,

19 boys and

13 girls Advanced level, around C1-

The four participants were selected on the premise that the differences recorded in their profiles will potentially lead to the distinct perceptions and teaching practices that each of them undertook The discrepancy among four participants also helps shed light on the possible link between perceptions and

practices, as numerous studies have pointed out Despite being in the same professional settings, four teachers were encouraged by School A to bring their style to the teaching Therefore, the heterogeneity could still be preserved

3.5 Data collection instruments

3.5.1 Interviews

The interview is utilised as a wide choice in qualitative research The main reason is that it could delve deep into the personal experience to shed light on the motives behind a person's course of actions phenomena (Kvale, 1996; Kvale, 2003; Schostak, 2006) This is a preferable choice to dig deep into the intricate matter, especially the "perceptions of ESL teachers", to sufficiently tackle the first research question The interview is semi-structured to leave room for unexpected answers, which could unravel new patterns with the help of interview guidelines

to avoid the sessions being off-topic (Berg, 2007)

There are three interview guidelines in total The general interview guideline consists of three main parts: the first part includes the questions about the participants' profile, the second part is about perceptions of EFL teachers regarding discourse competence that interrogate EFL teachers' subject-matter understanding (items number 1, 3, 4) (Shulman, 1986), their readiness to help students developing DC in the lessons (items number 7, 9, 10) (Ghaith & Yaghi, 1997), and their self-evaluation of DC development’s significance and feasibility (items number 2, 5, 6, 8) (Sparks, 1983; Doyle & Ponder, 1977; Guskey, 1988)

The details of each item is displayed in Appendix C The third part is teachers'

practices to develop the competence in students based on the components of discourse competence table by Celce-Murcia, Dörnyei and Thurrell (1995)

(see Appendix B) Apart from this, the pre-observation and post-observation

interviews which occur at the beginning and the end of a classroom observation session, have guidelines that cover several questions about what EFL teachers

intend to do and their thoughts before and after the lesson (see Appendix

D and E)

3.5.2 Non-participant observation

Because observation can offer "insight into interactions between dyads and groups; illustrates the whole picture; captures context/ process; and informs about the influence of the physical environment" (Mulhall, 2003, p 307), it can provide rich data to answer the second research question about teachers' practices In addition to this, the observation can offset the subjectivity in data derived from the interview and form a link between the participant's perceptions and practices ay (Hoyle & John, 1995; Caldwell & Atwal, 2005; Mulhall, 2003) There are six observation sessions per participant In each session, the data is collected using a side note and video recording to make data analysing convenient (Merrell & Williams 1994; Carroll, Iedema, & Kerridge, 2008; Collier, Phillips, & Iedema, 2015) The observation side note is divided into two main parts: the first part collects information about the class's profile and overview of the lesson; the second part is the teaching practices that are intentionally contrived to help accelerate specific aspects of discourse competence according to the components of discourse

competence by Celce-Murcia, Dörnyei and Thurrell (1995) (See Appendix F)

The data sources and focus of each types of data are summarized in the following table:

Table 3.2 Data sources and the focus of data collecting instruments and

analysis

Teachers’ perceptions and practices to develop discourse competence

Data sources Focus of data collection analysis

Teachers’ perceptions and practices to develop discourse competence

Practices of developing discourse competence in class

Reflections on the effectiveness of the materials used in terms of developing discourse competence for students Reflections on possible changes if teachers were given a chance to reteach the lesson

3.6 Data collection procedure

3.6.1 Pilot interview

The researcher distributed the interview invitation, and the consent form for potential candidates based on the criteria clarified earlier This deadline was set to collect the data before all high schools in Hanoi are schools are contemporarily closed for Lunar New Year Holiday The pilot would help the researcher equip firsthand knowledge about the intelligibility of the interview (is the question easy

to understand; is this too broad or narrow to answer) Furthermore, it also

suggested what needed to implement, what needed to give extra attention in the interview guideline On top of that, the researcher had conducted a trial interview with a volunteer to ensure that the interview session went smoothly (for example:

to check if the interviewee understands the instructions; to navigate the conversation; to ensure the recorders will function; to analyse the data from the interview)

3.6.2 Official interview

Before 10/01/2021, the researcher had successfully received consent of joining the participants who voluntarily contributed to the research Initially, each selected case took part in an in-depth semi-structured interview to gain both an overview and critical insights into the phenomenon Apart from this, there was a quick interview before and after each observation session of the participants' EFL classrooms All the interview sessions were conducted in person and via Zoom Meetings For each participant, there is one general interview session with six pre and six post-lesson interview sessions The details of the interview schedule for

the four participants are presented in Appendix G

3.6.3 Observation

Observation will be conducted after the initial in-depth exploratory interview The observations sessions being conducted per teacher are six to ensure that the data collected will be insightful enough to draw persuasive conclusions Before the observation, the observer will ask the participants to overview the lesson objectives and classroom's dynamic During the observation, the observer will both keep on-field note and videotape the classroom What the researcher intends to do throughout the observation session will be clarified in the consent form The observation will stretch for a month The details of the observation

schedule are presented in Appendix H

The data collection procedure for each participant is summarised in the following diagram:

Figure 3.1 Data collection procedure

3.7 Data analysis

3.7.1 Thematic data analysis

Thematic analysis is selected as the primary method to shed light on the qualitative data to answer the research questions According to Braun and Clark (2006), the widespread use of thematic analysis is due to "examining the perspectives of different research participants, highlighting similarities and differences, generating unanticipated insights and summarising key features" (p 45) Hence, it allows dissection within the case and comparison across the cases The fundamental themes for each research question are derived from the theoretical framework The question about teachers' perspectives, the three main themes are teachers' subject-matter understanding (Shulman, 1986), teacher's readiness to adopt new practices (Ghaith & Yaghi, 1997), and their self-evaluation

of its significance and feasibility (Sparks, 1983; Doyle & Ponder, 1977; Guskey, 1988) Regarding teachers' practices, the thematic division for the second research question lists derived from Cele-Murcia, Dorney and Thurrell (1995) components

of DC (including cohesion, deixis, coherence, generic structures, conversational structures) The process is also open to newly emerged themes due to the combinations of two different coding methods explained in the analysis procedure

Given the justifications above, the six-phase framework of thematic analysis designed by Braun and Clark (2006) is applied

General interview

(one session)

Observation (six lessons)

Pre-observation interview

Observation

Post-observation interview

Table 3.3 Six-step analysis of thematic data by Braun and Clark (2006)

Phase Name of the phase Description of the process

data

Transcribing the data and noting down initial pattern

2 Generating initial codes Coding the data

3 Searching for themes Labelling code with possible themes (might

be pre-determined based on the conceptual framework or newly-emerged from the data)

4 Reviewing themes Checking if the themes work in relation to

the coded extracts and the entire data for theme map construction

themes

Reviewing the themes and providing contexts for the new themes

During phase 2 to 6, I identified themes based on both semantic and latent levels of meaning According to Braun and Clark (2016), semantic meaning in this context is the meaning "…within the explicit or surface meanings of the data, and the analyst is not looking for anything beyond what a participant has said or what has been written." (p.84), or in other words, the figurative meaning from the verbal content of the data Meanwhile, latent meaning is "…identify or examine the underlying ideas, assumptions, and conceptualisations – and ideologies - that are theorised as shaping or informing the semantic content of the data" (p.84) The researcher will rely on what can be noticed during the interaction with interviewees, observation, and the framework of discourse competence to further

elaborate the data on the latent level [D1]

3.7.2 Procedure of data analysis

The data analysis will be divided into two main stages The first stage is to analyse the pattern and contradictions within each case and search for new themes based on the six steps of thematic analysis by Braun and Clark, 2006 The second stage is to examine the common and distinct across the four chosen cases on the

basis of the themes that are detected in the first stage The illustration for the

procedure is in the diagram below:

Figure 3.2 Two stages of analyzing data

During the first stage, to generate initial code and define the themes (Braun

& Clarke, 2006), I apply descriptive coding and In Vivo coding to data taken from the interview; process coding to data from observation To be more specific, descriptive coding uses "a word or short phrase the basic topic of a passage" (Saldaña, 2009, p 262) that summarises the passage from the interview transcript Whereas In Vivo coding is "words or short phrases from the participant's language

in the data record" (Saldaña, 2009, p 264) to give an authentic illustration of the findings from the participants' perspectives Combining the two coding methods can pave the way for exploring both mutual pattern and unusual phenomenon Besides the two coding types, I also adopt process coding, particularly towards data from observation sessions, which is defined as the use of gerunds to encapsulate the behaviours, events and activities happening during the observation sessions (Saldaña, 2009) The example of each type of coding is presented in the table below:

Table 3.4 Qualitative coding examples

Quote extract Code - theme Types of code

I saw that my students

still struggled with supporting

their ideas because they could

Insufficient lexical range – lexical cohesion

Descriptive

2009)

Quote extract Code - theme Types of code

not find the words to elaborate

on their arguments

A particular thing that I

know when I’m working with

Vietnamese students is that the

students here are very scared to

After each presentation

session, the teacher always

assigned a particular group of

students in the class to give

feedback to the presenting

group

Monitoring feedback – Generic structures

peer-Process coding (Saldaña, 2009)

I saw that my students still

struggled with supporting their

ideas because they could not

find the words to elaborate on

their arguments

Insufficient lexical range

Descriptive coding

A particular thing that I know

Vietnamese students is that the

students here are very scared to

be wrong And that is one of the

things that need to be changed

After each presentation session,

the teacher always assigned a

particular group of students in

peer-feedback

Process coding

Quote extract Code - theme Types of code

the class to give feedback to the

presenting group

3.8 Ethical considerations and COVID-19 precautions

Fully acknowledge that the participants might feel reluctant to participate

in the research due to several ethical issues, the researcher had adopted a number

of measures to guarantee the safety and confidentiality of the participants Firstly, the overview of the research objectives, research procedures and relevant policies were clarified in details in the consent form The participants could decide whether they would voluntarily engage in the research after reading through the form, and provide evidence for their agreements with signature Secondly, the participants were allowed to withdraw from the project if they felt their rights were violated or their personal safety was not ensured Thirdly, all the participants were kept anonymous and the collected data would not be exposed under any circumstances

In case the third wave of COVID-19 spreads into Vietnam during the data collection phase, full precautions was taken to ensure safe conditions for the participants To be specific, the in-person interview and observation sessions be switched to online format to adhere to social distancing regulations

CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the results of each case will be presented following a case analysis and further discussion to answer the research questions Both inter-cases and intra-cases data and articulation will be presented following the research questions

cross-4.1 Findings

4.1.1 Huong - The Constructor

Most of the time, Huong specialised in facilitating false beginner students with foundational English proficiency, around A1 to A2 according to the CEFR She was given the title “The Constructor” due to her core principle in teaching was

to “help my students by starting small then gradually going up.”

4.1.1.1 What are the English language teachers’ perceptions of developing discourse competence through speaking skills for Grade 10 students?

Huong's subject-matter understanding

Huong believed in the importance of speaking as a pathway to utilising a language and prioritised above other skills and aspects of a language Surprisingly, such a person who valued the roles of developing speaking skills was unable to recall the term "communicative competence" or "discourse competence" She admitted that she had heard the term at certain places during her pre-service training and in-service practices, however, she did not remember how these terms really refer to academically Nevertheless, she underscored the importance of being able to convey intended messages in speaking extensively, as "to get your point across is the ultimate goal of speaking"

Huong's readiness to help students developing DC in her classroom

When being asked to do self-reflection, Huong was confident about assisting her students with developing discourse competence From a personal perspective, she viewed DC as the realisation of linguistic competence and was available to make decisions based on her vision To be specific, DC is "all about syntax, sentence, and phonology, you know, it is your knowledge of how you use the language" So it is understandable that Huong regarded linguistics knowledge

as the foundation of the development of discourse competence In the spirit of this interpretation, Huong wanted to give extra attention to students' grammar and vocabulary, the "blocks" that were conducive to students' mastery of English She expressed concerns over the limit of students' lexical range might prevent them from extending their ideas, so she attempted to supervise her students step-by-step

to build up confidence gradually She believed her students had adequate knowledge about grammar Now they only needed to turn it into uses ad have the courage to practice orally

[Interview extract 1]

I saw that my students still struggled with supporting their ideas because they could not find the words to elaborate on their arguments But we could help them by starting small then gradually going up (Huong)

Huong's self-evaluation of DC development's significance and feasibility

She pointed to as needs adjustments to foster students' discourse competence mostly about the external shortcomings that she found hard to overcome First, she deemed that most students feel unmotivated to study, that is the reason why the input must be interesting, which the textbook, despite being renovated, was not sufficient This stagnation could negatively affect the teachers

as well because it was hard to intrigue the already slacking-off students

[Interview extract 2]

Many students only study because their parents want them to, do you agree? Many adults only want to study because they can get a higher salary instead of wanting to actually learn the language Teaching them is like building blocks, and sometimes the task can

be daunting as you do not want to work with people who already do not intend to study (Huong)

Besides students' motivation, it was the academic and stressful atmosphere

of former English courses that had created an imprint in students' minds As a result, students were afraid of speaking and their natural discourse development in

a language was hindered due to the fear of "not doing well"

[Interview Extract 3]

You should know your students and should not expect them to do really good in the same way, or to prepare for international English exams Some students might learn better in an academic way like

reading, writing, and memorising language structures, but other people are more suitable to do arts, making videos, to find other ways to express themselves using English We should lean towards

a creative English environment instead of an academic English environment (Huong)

Another issue that students were facing right now, to Huong, was the fact that most of the time, the students were not understood and addressed appropriately She complained that even though the MOET had mentioned a

"learner-centred approach" in Circular 33, the reality did not respond that timely Under the pressure of time, most teachers could not gather data of each individual and tend to become mechanic in activity design and instruction delivery For example, almost every teacher asked students to speak in front of the class when doing projects or presentations, while there are other ways to fulfil the task, such

as making videos Public speaking was generally threatening to language users, let alone some students who might not be predisposed to it Hence, if teachers remained rigorous, it would impede students from practising speaking To counter this problem, Huong suggested assessing each student to take advantage of rating scales, such as the brain profile, to customise a suitable learning trajectory

[Interview extract 4]

We need to know the brain profile of all our students That’s why when you were sitting in my class, you will see that I treat students differently because they are different Do you understand? So for one student, I can treat them a certain way and I can’t treat them the same way as other students because they do not really understand whatever I ask them to do (Huong)

4.1.1.2 What are the teaching practices applied by English language teachers

to foster the development of discourse competence through speaking skills for Grade 10 students?

Because Huong usually taught classes at foundational levels, her teaching approach emulated what she thought would be the best for false beginner students She compared her work with these learners to "building blocks", which means starting from small tasks to build confidence before moving up With students who were already anxious about speaking in English, her activities tend to be simple to

leave more room for eliciting She paid efforts to allow students to speak, let students interact with each other, and gave additional information and comments

on students' statements to expand their lexical range based on it In her lessons, she set aside time to elicit the responses or give each student feedback Huong's class felt like an English club, with her being the big sister of the club

In a similar vein, she did not interfere with students' flow of speech but would enrich it when giving instructions In an activity when each student had to stand up and speak, Huong said linking phrases and conjunctions like "first, let us hear from ; next one; you are the following one; you will speak after him; moving

on to you…" Then, students started to add these linking phrases into their speeches She also summarised each student's main ideas with extra emphasis on linking phrases as a form of clarification Thus, students started to notice it and put those phrases in their speech afterwards In terms of mistake correction, she only reminded students of not making mistakes relating to countable or uncountable nouns

[Interview extract 5]

I will correct the mistake only on one condition Is when they don’t say the “s” Because the “s” is the most important in English language, it tells the difference between one and a million So the

“s” is the most important, for example, with “ball”, you know the item is one But if students say some words without the “s”, we cannot know if the item has two, or it can be two billion So it’s an important sound I will only correct them if they make this mistake (Huong)