Factors hindering student centered approach in english pre intermediate classes at ho chi minh city university of technology

If the student-centered approach is to be implemented in the Vietnamese educational system, it is essential that teachers, students and educational administrators change their attitudes

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES

D

NGUYEN HOAI THU

FACTORS HINDERING

STUDENT-CENTERED APPROACH IN ENGLISH INTERMEDIATE CLASSES AT HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

PRE-A Thesis in Master of PRE-Arts Major : TESOL

List of table iv

Certificate of originality v

Retention and use of the thesis vi

Acknowledgement vii

Abstract viii

‰ CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 PROBLEM 1

1.2 ENGLISH TEACHING PROGRAM AT HUTECH 3

1.3 PURPOSE STATEMENT 4

1.4 RATIONAL 5

1.5 THESIS STRUCTURE 6

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 7

2.1 DEFINITION OF LEARNER-CENTEREDNESS 7

2.2 FACTORS IMPACTING THE LEARNING PROCESS 9

2.2.1 Learning styles 9

2.2.1.1 Definition 9

2.2.1.2 Classification of learning styles 10

2.2.2 Teaching styles 13

2.2.2.1 Definition 13

2.2.2.2 Classification of teaching styles 14

2.2.3 Affective factors 16

2.2.3.1 Students’ attitude towards learning a foreign language 17

2.2.3.2 Motivation 18

2.2.3.3 Anxiety 20

2.3 THE HUMANISTIC TRADITION 22

2.4 COMMON ENGLISH TEACHING METHODS IN VIETNAM 23

3.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 27

3.2 HYPOTHESIS 27

3.3 RESEARCH DESIGN 28

3.4 THE STUDY 29

3.4.1 The participant 29

3.4.1.1 The characteristics of the first group: Students 29

3.4.1.2 The characteristics of the second group: Teachers 30

3.4.2 The instruments to collect data 31

3.4.2.1 Questionnaires 31

3.4.2.1.1 Questionnaires for the students 31

3.4.2.1.2 Questionnaires for the teachers 32

3.4.2.2 Observations 32

3.4.3 Data collection procedure 33

3.5 ASSUMPTIONS 33

CHAPTER FOUR: DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS 34

4.1 RESULT OF THE CLASS OBSERVATIONS 34

4.1.1 Teaching styles 34

4.1.2 Students’ learning style 37

4.2 FINDING FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRES 38

4.2.1 Beliefs about language learning 38

4.2.1.1 Students’ beliefs about language learning 39

4.2.1.2 Teachers’ beliefs about language learning 43

4.2.1.3 Similarities and differences between students’ and teachers’ beliefs about language learning 47

4.2.2 Assessment on learning and teaching 48

4.2.2.1 The students’ assessment on their own learning 48

4.2.2.2 The teachers’ assessment on students’ learning 51

4.2.2.3 Comparison of the students’ and teachers’ opinions on students’ learning 54

4.2.2.4 Teachers’ assessment on teaching 54

4.2.2.5 Students’ assessment on teaching 56

4.2.3 Students’ and teachers’ opinions on hindering factors 60

CHAPTER FIVE: SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSION 78

5.1 HOPEFUL SIGNALS 78

5.2 SUGGESTIONS 79

5.3 CONCLUSION 88

5.4 DELIMITATION 89

5.5 LIMITATION 90

5.6 FURTHER RESEARCH 90

BIBLIOGRAPHY 91 APPENDIX 1: The Questionnaire for Teachers 95

APPENDIX 2: The Questionnaire for Students 100

Table 1: Differences of learning interaction 11

Table 2: three views on motivation 18

Table 3: Comparison of two types of motivation 20

Table 4: Gender Rate of Students 29

Table 5: Years of English learning 30

Table 6: Information of the teacher group 30

Table 7: Observation Result about the Teachers 35

Table 8: Observation result about the students 37

Table 9: Students’ Beliefs about Language Learning 39

Table 10: Teachers’ beliefs about language learning 44

Table 11: The students’ assessment on their own learning 48

Table 12: The teachers’ assessment on students’ learning 51

Table 13: Teachers’ assessment on teaching 54

Table 14: Students’ assessment on teaching 56

Table 15: Students’ opinions on hindering factors 60

Table 16: Teachers’ opinions on hindering factors 62

Table 17: Questions about teaching styles 67

Table 18: Questions on learning styles 73

Table 19: Students’ and teachers’ opinions on changes 80

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled:

FACTORS HINDERING STUDENT-CENTERED APPROACH IN ENGLISH PRE-INTERMEDIATE CLASSES AT HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

in terms of the statement of Requirements for Theses and Field study reports

in master’ programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee

Ho Chi Minh City, March 2008

NGUYEN HOAI THU

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, NGUYEN HOAI THU, being the candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL), accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Thesis deposited in the University Library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the University library should be accessible for the purpose of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for case, loan, or reproduction of theses

Ho Chi Minh City, March, 2008

NGUYEN HOAI THU

First of all, my deepest gratitude is to my supervisor, Ms Nguyen Bich Hanh, for her considerate instructions, suggestions, correction and encouragement She offered me helpful comments for my thesis and I learnt

so much from her

I am also grateful to the teaching staff of the master course of which I has been a student for their delivery of good materials and instructions

Next, I wish to thank Ms Nguyen Thi Kim Thu for her hearty review and rational comments

Besides, I would like to thank Mr Le Van Tuyen and my colleagues

at the Foreign Language Department of HUTECH who helped with the class observations, questionnaires and necessary documents and gave me sincere advice and encouragement to complete this thesis

I would also like to thank the students at HUTECH for their participation in the survey with their practical information

I wish to acknowledge the assistance of the staff of the Office of Graduate Studies, The Department of English Linguistics and Literature, and The ERC of the USSH

Post-Finally, I sincerely appreciate my family and friends’ sympathy, assistance and support during my process of doing the research

Though appealed for several years, the process of modernizing teaching and learning seem to occur too slowly because of some negative factors in English elementary and pre-intermediate classes in HUTECH So, this research was carried out with the hope that we can identify negative factors hindering student-centered approach to overcome them

Ten class observations were made to investigate how students really learned English and how teachers organized activities to convey lesson contents Two types of questionnaires, distributed to both teachers and students to collect their information, were used as the instruments for the research

Although this study cannot explore all of the hindering factors that may exist, it can pinpoint the main ones that obstruct the implement of the student-centered approach First, students have difficulty understanding their teachers’ instructions in English and are not used to playing active roles in class activities So their poor performance frustrates themselves and teachers’ attempts to make them more responsive Second, students’ fear of making mistakes and losing face – in other words, they lack confidence – predispose them to emphasize the role of grammar and vocabulary and to depend entirely on textbooks Third, there is also an unavoidable mismatch between teaching and learning styles, which causes some students feel withdrawn Fourth, the scanty time allotted for English is another hindering factor as both teachers and students are pressurized into finishing a unit

process is neglected Sadly, teachers tend to aggravate the situation with their under-estimation of their students’ abilities Most of them perpetuate stereotypes of the traditional class where the teacher is a dominant figure Furthermore, the lack of professional competence and knowledge and the anxiety of losing face of a large number of teachers subtly prevent their attempt to promote the active role of students in class All of these factors result in students’ lack of preference for English

If the student-centered approach is to be implemented in the Vietnamese educational system, it is essential that teachers, students and educational administrators change their attitudes and viewpoints on teaching and learning to pave the way for student-centered approach, which is already

a worldwide trend in teaching and learning

In view of our progress to global integration, the student- centered approach is a must for Vietnamese education to catch up with the advance educational systems in the world

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 PROBLEMS

The new challenges that Vietnam faces when joining the WTO have made education reform the concern of the whole society The new minister of education has done lots of things to improve the national educational system In recent years, heated discussions about the teaching and learning situation in Vietnam have been going on in the mass media The whole society has voiced their worries about the quality of teaching and learning in the Vietnamese context, which sadly has represented a negative picture of the outcome of the training process

Our students, as a result of the current teaching and learning styles, fall short of the required qualifications when they graduate They are passive, uncreative and unable to solve problems in spite of the knowledge they carefully accumulated at college A lot of factors are responsible for this situation, but the focus of attention has been given to the roles of teachers and learners in the process of teaching and learning Most of our classrooms are still organized according to the traditional teacher-centered format that Zophy describes in his article:

‘The desk and chairs are in neat rows facing the teacher who is at the front of the room often hidden from view behind a lectern Students sit ‘attentively’, taking notes, and ready to answer questions posed by the teacher at the end

of the lecture or during discussion sections.’ (J.W Zophy On learner-centered teaching)

Newspapers, especially Tuoi Tre, strongly advocate educational reforms by reflecting public displeasure with our out-of-date teaching and learning styles The classroom scene with the teacher’s dominance over all class activities seems no longer suitable On the other hand, the learner’s role as one who is solely responsible for the learning process is played up Vigorous objections were set against the teaching style, especially at colleges, in which teachers read lessons from textbooks and students only listen and take notes; or sometimes they ignore the teachers and talk to each other, quietly play quiet games or even fall asleep Dissatisfaction is

expressed about students’ habits of rote-learning and mechanical memorization which hinder their creativity and autonomy in the learning process It’s high time the classroom scene changed to give learners the opportunity to plan their own study course, to engage into self-study, to follow the learning style that suits them most Therefore, attention is turned to the learner-centered approach where the learner is the focus of attention and all elements that are meant to facilitate learning such as the curriculum, learning activities and methodology should revolve around the learner

In foreign language classes, the learners seem to be more active as language learning naturally involves learner’s participation and their creative use of language

in real-life situations However, researches in students’ learning style have shown that even in foreign language classes, students’ passiveness is common (Le Phuong Nga, 2000) It seems that the situation is ripe for a radical change in the teaching and learning situation in Vietnam Nevertheless, changes have taken place rather slowly Despite the great concern over the passive role played by learners in the learning process, there seems to be some reluctance to switch from the teacher-centered to learner-centered teaching, and the learner-centered approach remains to be a new concept to both teachers and learners In this situation, the current research is carried out to identify the characteristics of the learner-centered approach In the meantime,

a survey is conducted through questionnaires and observations to find out why the learner-centered approach is not yet developed in the Vietnamese classrooms It is hoped that the findings will point to the factors inherent in the current teaching and learning situation that inhibits the development of the learner-centered approach, which is believed to be the universal trend as lots of educators stated on public newspapers

1.2 INTRODUCTION OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAM AT HOCHIMINH UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

(HUTECH)

As a common trend of most colleges in Vietnam nowadays, English is an obligatory subject of all departments at HUTECH The English program is divided into 2 levels, often referred to as stage 1 (the first two years’ period at college, when students acquire foundation knowledge), and stage 2 (the senior years’ period when students devote their time to subjects of their specialized fields.)

Because of the undeniable importance of English, English courses are designed

to help students brush up their English, which they learned in high school, and raise their level of proficiency to do well in their future jobs with organizations and companies, where some degree of proficiency in English is required Besides, students are supposed to be equipped with enough English in order to be able to read and get information from newspapers, books or professional documents to widen and upgrade their knowledge At last, when finishing the English program, the students at HUTECH are required to take a conditional English test in order to check their English ability before they graduate

In the first year of stage 1, students use American Headway 1 and Basic Tactics for Listening (for classes A, which consists of students whose English ability is at elementary level) and American Headway 2 along with Developing Tactics for listening (for classes B, which is composed of students whose English is

at pre-intermediate level or above) In the second year, students of classes A learn

Barron’s How to Prepare for the TOEIC Bridge test, while those of classes B use Longman Preparation for the TOEIC Test – Introductory course The purpose of

the general English courses at HUTECH is to provide students a good command of

English, which is one of the first requirements they have to meet when they look for

a job after graduation For that reason, in the first stage, all four language skills are taught to help students communicate well in both spoken and written English

In stage 2, students are taught how to use English in the work environment and build up vocabulary of their professions English courses in this stage are supposed

to improve students’ academic reading and writing skills and prepare them for various situations in their future jobs So the textbooks vary according to each major

This research focuses on students who study English in their first stage since they are assumed to have certain English ability to work independently and are the first generation to access to the university’s new policy on teaching method in student-centered classes Moreover, they have chances to apply what they have learnt to communicate with each other in English class activities designed in American Headway rather than in TOEIC or professional ones

The target of this thesis is to collect information from student and teacher surveys and class observation in order to identify some negative factors hindering the implementation of student-centeredness in classes at HUTECH The research will look at learning styles, students and teachers’ attitudes towards student-centeredness and other factors that may limit the efficiency of this approach Besides, we hope to find out some favorable signals for applying student-centered approach in HUTECH though we have approved that student-centered approach has been carried out just in its simple level, rather, with its conceptual content more than with all its requirements in material conditions This may be the most promising part that lots of our English teachers expect Last but not least, the analysis of the data

acquired will serve as a basis for suggestions on how to remove obstacles to implement learner-centeredness to make a radical change in the classroom scene and pave the way for the improvement of the learning and teaching qualities English courses at HUTECH and other institutions with similar situations

English teaching methods have changed a lot nowadays, especially in foreign language schools There is an urgent need among institutions that run English courses to apply modern approaches to replace traditional English methods to compete with each other in attracting students to their institutions With global integration in prospect, students who come to English courses wish to be able to use English in communication, given that later they will either pursue further studies abroad or have a job with foreign companies In this race, Vietnamese schools are evidently slower and weaker although they have government granted resources and funds, and educational experts who can devote a great deal of effort to work toward

a better education for Vietnam

If teachers try to impose student-centeredness on their classes, they immediately meet with a good deal of troubles Students may complain that their teachers do not work enough and make their students work too hard, while teachers may be displeased with the students’ reluctance to participate in group or pair work and their readiness to use Vietnamese when the teachers are not around

Yet, all those dim pictures cannot block bright signs of changes, though fairly ponderous and painful, to get out of inveterate thoughts of teaching There is no denying that we should follow the new flow of development; and in English teaching, all society appeal for us to make changes in teaching and learning, which will provide learners with real efficiency in English communication, not only writing and reading English as before Thus, there is an urge to study more about student-

centeredness and real conditions in Vietnam, particularly at HUTECH, in order to overcome barriers in teaching and learning English Hence, the thesis is oriented to not only hindering factors but also some hopeful and positive signs to establish favorable and suitable environment for teaching and learning English effectively in the Vietnamese context One of the promising indicators is that HUTECH is preparing for credit system and ready for necessary changes in teaching and learning methods

This chapter will be followed by chapter 2, which reviews some literature relevant to the thesis It mentions some theories about learning styles and strategies, communicative approach and student-centeredness, teacher- student interaction and the humanistic tradition to provide the background for the subsequent chapters

Chapter 3 deals with the research design and methodology It consists of research type, procedures for carrying out the research, decisions on research questions, selection of the population and method of collecting data

Chapter 4 presents the analysis and the finding discussion

Chapter 5 concludes the research with some suggestions to English teachers, students and administrators in applying student-centeredness in their classes The limitation and delimitation of the thesis are also stated in this chapter

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents the theoretical background of the research Firstly, the definitions of learner-centeredness are introduced This is followed by the revision

of some relevant factors impacting learning process in class: learning styles, teaching styles, affective factors and humanistic tradition in teaching We also mention the teaching style which is broadly used by Vietnamese teachers in order to examine all aspects of the matter for the purpose of finding out some solutions to effectively apply student -centeredness in English teaching, especially in colleges

Both connotations are explored in the thesis Student-centeredness is contrasted with teacher-centeredness to lay emphasis on the leading role of students as individuals who actively participate in the classroom activities to learn while learner-centeredness is a more abstract concept concerning the act of learning and the learners’ goals, which affect the choice of syllabus and require negotiation between a teacher and his /her learners in the planning and implementation of

language courses (Nunan, 1988) All of these meanings are essential in the

Vietnamese teaching and learning context

Moreover, the research only focuses on English teaching in colleges, and

students at a college are our research subject Thus, the term student-centeredness

should be used, rather than learner-centeredness, to signify that the investigation,

its result and suggestions only aim at applying the modern approach in colleges in

general and at HUTECH in particular, not at all education levels, with a great deal of

divergences among those levels Yet, hereafter learner-centered approach is

reviewed as a basis of the concept of student- centeredness

With dramatic development of educational theories nowadays, teachers and

learners’ roles are viewed in various ways One of the most particular changes is the

concept of learner-centered classes As for this trend, David Nunan (2000: 178)

wrote “a learner-centered approach is based on a belief that learners will bring to

the learning situation different beliefs and attitude about the nature of language and

language learning and that these beliefs and attitudes need to be taken into

consideration in the selection of content and learning experiences.” Nunan (2000)

also explained that “the key difference between learner-centered and traditional

curriculum development is that, in the former, the curriculum is the collaborative

effort between teachers and students, since students are closely involved in the

decision-making progress regarding the content of the curriculum and how it is

taught.” Moreover, “the needs of the learners are considered within the context of

their broader goals for the application of the knowledge they acquire after the course

itself is over As such, assessment tools are designed to most accurately represent the

nature of the tasks to which the learners will ultimately apply their knowledge.”

(Feldon D

http://www.wascsenior.org/wasc/Session%20Materials/FeldonpersPerspectiveslearn

erCentered.pdf )

The major aim of the student-centered curriculum, in Feldon’s opinion, is the

‘development of learning skills including the following:

To provide learners with efficient learning strategies

To assist learners with efficient learning strategies

To encourage learners to set their own subjective

To encourage learners to adopt realistic goals and time frame

To develop skills needed to negotiate the curriculum

To develop learners’ skills in self-evaluation’

One of the most important features of learner-centeredness is that by “using a learner-based approach, the learners themselves are responsible for the information input, thereby ensuring its relevance and topicality for each particular group”, noted Campell and Kryszewska (1992: 5)

Of course, in the Vietnamese context, we have not got sufficient conditions for

a language class completely in accordance with the student-centered approach with all its requirements We hardly equip all English classrooms with modern teaching aids such as computers, projectors, etc., let alone a flexible curriculum for teachers and students to adapt to their own motivations and situations This will be discussed more after the findings of the research have been analyzed However, we still need

to examine what we can afford to apply the approach and to what extent

2.2 Factors impacting the learning process:

They are related to an individual’s preference for the conditions of where, when, with whom or with what in the learning process, and how these influence one’s learning Learners’ perception and response to the learning environment depend chiefly on their own learning preferences Nunan [1999:23] has a similar idea

“learning styles refer to any individual learners’ natural, habitual, and preferred ways

of learning.” The conception is clearer through Keefe’s definition (cited in Nunan [1999:23]) which accentuates the learners’ behaviors affecting his/her reaction to the learning context

Learning styles are characteristic cognitive, affective and philosophical behaviors that serve

as relatively stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact with, and respond to the learning environment… Learning style is a consistent way of functioning that reflects the underlying causes

of learning behavior

In spite of different points of views, those definitions do not conflict each other

On the contrary, they modify each other to create a broader comprehension of the notion It is obvious from above definitions that learning styles are closely connected

to individual characteristics and consistency of learning behaviors They indicate that there are intrinsic trends of human beings in realizing and processing information, which cannot be easily varied by extrinsic factors Thus, it can be said that despite receiving the same language input in the same context, each member in the group of learners conceive their own output of language, leading to their various language competence

2.2.1.2 Classification of learning styles:

The more language education research develops, the more viewpoints of one notion are presented Hence, this part only shows some dimensions of learning styles which relevant to how learners perceive and process information most efficiently Riechmanne & Grasha’s categorization of learning styles (cited in Riding [36:71]) is based on an individual’s learning preferences They pointed out that each

style of learners stands for a set of relatively stable characteristic They identify three opposite pairs describing an individual’s typical approaches to the learning circumstance

Likes to engage in win-lose activities Enjoys group-games

Non-responsive and little curiosity Does the minimum and follow the lead

Table 1: Differences of learning interaction

The description is so obvious for teachers to recognize their students’ types in order to give useful help, especially to avoidant and dependent learners who are very common in the Vietnamese context

However, the descriptions of four types of learners reported by Willing (1988, cited in Nunan [1998:30]) seem to be the easiest to recognize:

Concrete learners: these learners tend to like games, pictures, films, videos, cassettes,

talking in pairs and practicing English outside class

Analytical learners: these learners like studying grammar, English books and newspapers,

studying alone, finding their own mistakes and working on problem set by the teacher

Communicative learners: these students like to learn by watching, listening to native

speakers, talking to friends in English and watching television in English, using English out of class in shops, trains, etc., learning new words and learning by conversations

Authority-oriented learners: these learners prefer the teacher to explain everything, like to

have their own textbooks, to write everything in a notebook, to study grammar, learn by reading, and learn new words by seeing them

From the above categories, we can realize that passive students often belong to the category of analytical and authority-oriented learners Analytical learners usually slow down the learning speed of pairs or groups by their silence and uncooperative attitude Meanwhile, authority-oriented learners are likely to rely too much on their teachers and materials They tend to ask their teachers for directions in each step of

an activity, otherwise they seem not to trust their companions’ help

Another noticeable learning style theory is derived from Kolb ( 1984:17), which concludes two dimensions: perceiving and receiving The former describes concrete and abstract thinking; the latter an active or reflective information-processing activity From the combination of these two dimensions, a structure of four learning styles is described as follows:

The convergence learning style: the student learns through abstract conceptualization and active experimentation His/her greatest strength are problem-solving, decision-making and the practical application of ideas He/ she prefers dealing with technical and problematic rather than social and interpersonal issues

The divergence learning style: the student learns through concrete experience His/ her greatest strength are in imaginative ability He/she emphasizes observation rather than action and tends to be imaginative and feeling oriented

The assimilative learning style: the student learns through abstract conceptualization and reflective observation His/ her greatest strength are to create theoretical models, more concerned with ideas and abstract concepts and s/he values precision of ideas and theory rather than their practical values

The accommodative learning style: the students learn through concrete experience and active experimentation His/her greatest strength are doing things, carrying out plans and tasks and getting

involved in new experiences S/he emphasizes opportunity-seeking, risk-taking and action, is good at adapting her/himself to changing immediate circumstances and sometimes seen as impatient and pushy

Each type of learning has its own characteristics Convergence and divergence learners seem to be more active than the others, whereas assimilation and accommodative ones have their positive and negative features If these two kinds of learners are to work in pairs or groups, they can slow down an activity due to their contrary learning styles

After all, it is easy to realize that students’ attitude and behavior may be noticeably influenced by their own learning styles What seems to suit this kind of learners may turn out to be unsuitable for other kinds of learners The matter is that

if the majority of the class is not interested in certain learning styles, students who are in favor of those styles are inclined to be uncooperative and passive

2.2.2 Teaching styles:

Efficiency of education depends mostly on learning and teaching In this part, teaching styles are defined and classified

2.2.2.1 Definition:

In reality, we hardly ever see two teachers with the same teaching style It can

be said that each teacher has his/her own ways of teaching, which is based on his/ her own characteristics

A teaching style is defined by Wright [45:52] as “the collection of many attitudes and behaviors he [ a teacher ] employs to create the best possible conditions under which learning can take place…Teaching style is a complex amalgam of belief, attitude, strategy, technique, motivation, personality and control.” This is a comprehensive opinion about teaching styles

With a similar conception, Dixon & Woolhouse [10:18] regarded teaching styles as “a system of conscious or unconscious characteristic behaviors, attitudes

and activities provided by that teacher with the intention to induce learning, by the deliberate and systematic creation and control of those conditions in which learning can occur.”

Kathleen [16:47] referred to another aspect of the notion when supposing that a teaching style is “a set of attitudes and actions that open a formal and informal world

of learning to students” She certainly meant that the atmosphere of a class is decided chiefly by what the teacher thinks and does Besides, a teacher’s style also reveals how s/he assumes about teaching and learning

Another characteristic of teaching style stated by Conti [9:31] is “the teaching behaviors that are consistent over time and that do not change regardless of the content being taught”

Due to teachers’ consistent teaching behaviors, it is difficult for them to change their styles, to some extent, to fit modern approaches in order to enhance the quality

of teaching Yet, they can try to adjust their styles by reducing negative points and improving their positive ones

2.2.2.2 Classification of teaching styles:

There are some various classifications depending on different viewpoints of language teaching experts In this part, some typical concepts are listed

First, the two approaches that are very popular in language teaching books are set by Conti [9:311]:

In the learner-centered approach: teachers emphasize activities such as encouraging students to take responsibility for their own learning, personalizing instructions, relating new learning to prior experience, assessing students’ needs, involving students in the learning process and fostering flexibility

In the teacher-centered approach: teachers function as managers of the classroom conditions, which they have been determined as necessary to bring about the desired behavioral change in the students

Sharing the similar opinion with Conti, Hayes [15:5] divided teaching styles into two modes:

A responsive, collaborative, learner-centered mode

A controlling, teacher-centered mode

Of course, we often mention traditional method to infer teacher-centered mode

in which teachers play the dominant roles which determine teaching and learning in class

A different classification was introduced by Dunn R.S & Dunn K.J [12:251] There are six styles of teaching as follows:

1 The task-oriented: these teachers prescribe the materials to be learned Learning to be accomplished may be specified on an individual basis

2 The cooperative planner: These teachers are still “in charge of” the learning process, but with their adult experience and professional background, they guide the students’ learning They listen to learners’ opinions and respect them They encourage and support students’ participation at all level

3 The student-centered: This teacher provides a structure to pursue whatever learners want to do or whatever interests them

4 The subject –centered: These teachers focus on organized content to the near exclusion of the learners By “covering the subject”, they satisfy their consciences even if little learning takes place

5 The learning-centered: these teachers have equal concern for the students and for the curricular objectives, the materials to be learned They develop students’ autonomy in learning

6 The emotionally exciting and its counterpart: These teachers show their own intensive emotional involvement in teaching They enter the teaching, learning process with zeal and usually produce a classroom atmosphere of excitement and high emotion

There is no denying that when teachers try to dominate the class with their power, they also inhibit learning process So students in the class are not allowed to take active roles or show and share their own ideas They have to play the role of information receiver

Furthermore, a great deal of research discovers that students learn better if information is taught in a way close to their favored style of acquiring and processing information In a language class, where learning and teaching styles cannot match each other, students are inclined to be passive, bored, and quiet, get bad results and disappointed about their ability and the course Hence, it is essential

to find out and cover the gap of teaching and learning styles in order to facilitate learning process

2.2.3 Affective factors:

Learning efficiency depends on not only teaching and learning process but also

on students’ attitudes and behaviors, which can be impacted by affective factors Recently, many researches have been carried out to investigate affective factors in language learning and teaching Several kinds of factors may somehow influence students’ subconscious, such as their belief, attitude, self-esteem, anxiety, empathy, inhibition, etc In the limited scope of this research, the affective factors to consider are only students’ attitudes towards learning a foreign language, students’ motivation to learn a foreign language and students’ anxiety

2.2.3.1 Students’ attitude towards learning a foreign language

Learners’ beliefs are influenced by their social and familial background and can, in its turn, affect their attitude toward the foreign language they learn Brown [2000:180] introduced attitude as something that “develops early in childhood and are result of parents and peers’ attitudes, of contact with people who are different in any number of ways, and of interactive affective factors in a human experience.” Taking different aspects of language learning into consideration, Richards, Platt

& Platt [1992:34] defined students’ attitudes as “impressions of linguistic difficulty

or simplicity, ease or difficulty of learning, degree of importance, elegance, social status, etc.” Nunan and Lamb [1996:29] extended the concept as “the attitude of learners toward the target language, the learning situation and the roles that they are expected to play within that learning situation will have an important effect on the learning process.”

Garner and Lambert’s (1972) extensive studies showed that the most important attitude is group-specific, the attitude learners have toward the native speakers of the language they are learning The positive attitude of the English-Canadian learners, in their case study, toward French-Canadians_ a desire to understand them and to empathize with them_ will result in their integrative learning orientation, which was considered as a remarkable correlate of success

To widen the scope of attitudes, Oller, Hudson & Liu (1977) pointed out that proficiency result from learners’ positive attitudes toward self, the native language group and the target language

Hence, if learners keep a positive attitude to a foreign language, they certainly make more progress than their classmates do On the other hand, if they are inclined

to have negative attitudes toward the target language, the culture, the teacher, etc, their learning process must be more or less inhibited, depending on the extremeness

of their attitude

Nevertheless, several linguistic researches showed that students’ attitude are also mostly based on the learning settings The first teacher and the current one play decisive part in forming learners’ attitude toward the target language Besides, students may have undesired attitude if they have no chance or no realistic need to use the language they have to learn, which is rather common in Vietnamese context

2.2.3.2 Motivation:

Motivation seems to be the first factor that accounts for the success or failure of any learning activity It is taken for granted that a second language learner can have more possibility to succeed if s/he has proper motivations Numerous studies and experiments have proved that motivation is a key to learning As a result, during decades of research, various definitions have been suggested in divergent opinions Hilgard, Atkinson & Atkinson, cited in Arnord [2:13] claimed that motivation is

a cluster of factors that “energize behavior and give it direction” Those factors may

be more or less varied in different books of different authors Following the historical schools of thought, there are three main viewpoints on motivation (Brown, 2000:162) as shown in table 2:

• Degree of effort expanded

• Internal, individual forces

Gardner (cited in Williams & Burden [43: 116]) adopted behavioristic and cognitive thoughts in his division of motivation into two orientations:

_ An integrative orientation occurs when the learner is studying a language because of a wish to identify with the culture of speakers of that language

_ An instrumental orientation describes a group of factors concerned with motivation arising from external goals such as passing exams, financial reward, furthering a career or gaining promotion

Only when a student achieves certain language proficiency, does s/he aim at an integrative orientation; whereas an instrumental one is more popular to the majority

Motivation is also viewed by Susan Harter (cited in William & Burden [43:123]) as two ends of a continuum, with five discrete dimensions:

INTRINSIC EXTRINSIC

Preference for challenge Preference for easy work

Curiosity/ interest Pleasing teachers/ getting grades

Independent mastery Depending on teachers in figuring out

problems Independent judgment Reliance on teacher’s judgment about tasks Internal criteria for success External criteria for success

Table 3: Comparison of two types of motivation

A great deal of studies are in favor of the fact that teachers attempt to present tasks which are able to increase learners’ intrinsic motivation both at the stages of generating and fostering motivation

There is no doubt that learners’ motivation is naturally associated with their desire to play an active part in the learning process though it is also related to their learning purposes, which account for their involvement or non-involvement in tasks Thus, students’ intrinsic motivation may diverge even though they are equally motivated

1999) emphasized that language anxiety in classrooms is ‘alarming’ Yet, Sparks & Ganschow (1991, 1993, cited in Young 1999) contradicted them by stating that anxiety research is not much significant to our knowledge of language achievement

In their opinion, language anxiety is just unexpected outcome of difficulties originated from learners’ native language

First, language anxiety can be defined by Scovel (1978: 134, cited in Brown [2000: 151]) as something which is “associated with feelings of uneasiness, frustration, self-doubt, apprehension, or worry.” This kind of feelings can be categorized into different levels by Oxford (1999) At global level, trait anxiety is a predictable and permanent tendency depending on each individual’s characteristics Meanwhile, at a more momentary level, state anxiety is associated with some particular activity or event

Since trait anxiety is not helpful in anticipating language acquisition, most researchers focus on the situational nature of state anxiety

Horwitz et al (1986) and Mac Intyre & Gardner (1989, cited in Brown H.D [2000: 151]) contributed to the researches on classifying foreign language anxiety into three researchable components:

1 Communication apprehension, arising from learners’ inability to adequately express mature thoughts and ideas

2 Fear of negative social evaluation, arising from learners’ need to make a positive social impression on others

3 Test anxiety or apprehension over academic evaluation

In general, foreign language anxiety can result in negative effect on the language learning process Yet, a thorough insight of anxiety, analyzed by Alpert & Haber (1960, cited in Brown 2000) and Scovel (1978, cited in Brown 2000) showed another point of view When they categorized anxiety into debilitative and facilitative anxiety, they pointed out that facilitative anxiety which is a kind of

apprehension over a task to be done has positive influence on learners’ learning process It is similar to the fact that when someone has a little bit tension of accomplishing something, s/he has more awareness and motive to attempt than one who has no tension of the sort Thus, the role of a teacher in a foreign language class is to be aware of the kind of his students’ anxiety and adjust it to a suitable degree to facilitate the learning process

2.3 The humanistic tradition:

The theory of learner-centeredness is solidly based on the humanistic tradition, which may be resulted from Roger’s humanistic psychology first appeared in his

classic work Client-Centered Therapy (1951, cited in Brown [2000:89]) In this

book, he studied the “whole person” as a physical and cognitive, but chiefly emotional, being Roger realized that if a person is given a nonthreatening setting, s/he will visualize the reality that is indeed congruent with reality and will grow and learn Then he can get along well with all his feelings and reactions, which help him

to fully develop his potential Thus, learning to learn is more decisive than being taught what a teacher unilaterally chooses to teach

Therefore, Roger recommended teacher to become a facilitator of learning by realizing three basic principles First, s/he must be true to his/ her students and even her/himself by discarding his/her inherent masks of superiority and omniscience Second, s/he needs to really accept, trust and appreciate students as worthy individuals with their own ideas Third, teachers need to establish open and sympathetical communication to their students Only the teachers with those characteristics can understand her/himself and her/his students better to make suitable adjustment in order to reach true aims of education

Since this work has had crucial implications in education, it has been elaborated

by several language experts Brown (2000) summarized that Paolo Freire (1970),

Curran (1972), Gattegno (1972), Earl Stevick (1982), and others noticeably contributed to the redefinition of the educational process in which the emphasis at all times should be on the learners, not the teacher The obvious reason is that when teachers feed students with a great deal of knowledge, they probably cause an

atmosphere of defensive learning where students attempt to protect themselves

from failure, criticism, competition and even punishment So teachers are recommended to supply nurturing context for learners to construct, discuss and negotiate their meanings, related to the reality, in interaction with others

2.4 Common English teaching methods in Vietnam:

The language educational history has witnessed lots of schools of thoughts that bring diversity to teaching approaches and methods Those teaching trends wax and wane in a successive, restless and endless flow of time Yet, while worldwide education has relentlessly thriven with the most modern approaches, Vietnamese education has plodded along for several decades

There is no denying that English teaching is seemingly striving to catch up with the global tendency But English teaching at colleges and universities seem to be too slow to make essential changes to meet the social needs of human resource capable

of English communication in international trade Since the latter part of the 20thcentury, English teaching in colleges has shown almost one traditional method of grammar-translation with the following features (Brown [2000:15]):

1 Classes are taught in the mother tongue, with little active use of the target language

2 Much vocabulary is taught in the form of lists of isolated words

3 Long elaborate explanations of the intricacies of grammar are given

4 Grammar provides the rules for putting words together, and instructions often focuses on the form and infection of words

5 Reading of difficult classical texts is begun early

6 Little attention is paid to the content of texts, which are treated as exercises

in grammatical analysis

7 Often the only drills are exercises in translating disconnected sentences from the target language into the mother tongue

8 Little or no attention is given to pronunciation

Hence, Nguyễn Xuân Thu (cited in Lê Phương Nga, 2002) affirmed that “rote learning and one –way transmitting of knowledge have been the major methods used

by the majority of Vietnamese teachers.” In this case, students are supposed to listen and take notes rather than speak A great deal of time is only spent in analyzing grammar rules, doing grammatical exercises, explaining vocabulary and translating passages Teachers play the foremost role in most activities and students, thus, are assigned dim and passive roles in class

Since 1990s of the last century, the Communicative approach has been introduced and more and more widely adopted in foreign language school with lots

of changes and more or less success In recent years, educators have recommended a revolutionary shift from the interest in textbooks, teachers and methods to a focus on students and acquisition process (Yule, 1996:47) It means that the emphasis is advisably put on students instead of on teachers as our educational tradition Different from previous approaches, the Communicative one focuses on the use of language as a means of communication

As we can see, learner-centeredness has a close relation to the communicative approach, which aims at ‘learner ability to communicate in the target language’

(Nunan, 1998.) It can be said that if we would like to apply the communicative approach, as we broadly discussed nowadays, learner-centeredness is one of the most basic requirement According to some founder linguists of the approach such

as Hymes (1972) and Halliday (1973), language is first and foremost a system for communication

It is hard to list all various definitions that have been offered from the earlier works in Communicative Language teaching (CLT) ( Savignon 1983, Breen & Candlin 1980, Widdowson 1978b, cited in Brown 2000: 266) to recent teacher education textbooks (Brown 2000, Richard-Amato 1996, cited in Brown 2000) Thus, as Brown (2000: 266) wrote, “For the sake of simplicity and directness, I offer the following four interconnected characteristics as a definition of CLT

1 Classroom goals are focused on all of the components of communicative competence and not restricted to grammatical or linguistic competence

2 Language techniques are designed to engage learners in the pragmatic, authentic, functional use of language for meaningful purposes Organizational language forms are not the central focus but rather the aspects of language that enable the learner to accomplish those purposes

3 Fluency and accuracy are seen as complimentary principles underlying communicative techniques At times fluency may have to take on more importance than accuracy in order to keep learners meaningfully engaged in language use

4 In the communicative classroom, students ultimately have to use the language, productively and receptively, in unrehearsed contexts.”

It is assumed that students often engage in role-play or dramatization to adjust their use of target language to different social contexts Students regularly work in groups or pairs or transfer (and if necessary, negotiate) information other(s) lack Today, it continues to be popular, particularly in Western education, where constructivist views on language learning and education in general dominate academic discourse The essential requirement of the approach is that the teacher should be able to use the target language fluently and appropriately, which is regrettably far from being achieved in Vietnamese context

Unfortunately, CLT was not welcomed and could not obtain desirable result in state schools and colleges for many years As Bock [2000: 5] remarked, it is such a tough problem to apply CLT while most teachers are in favor of the traditional

methods out of their deep-rooted stereotypes To affirm this opinion, Le Van Canh

of Hanoi University of Language [18] claimed that most teachers are interested in CLT at first , but they turn back their out-of -date methods after a while of implementing new methods since most people bear in mind the prejudice that teachers are the unique supplier of knowledge with their dominant roles in class Under the pressure of curricula and exams as well as in the meager condition of facilities, teachers are inclined to emphasize language knowledge more than language use, and receptive skills more than productive skills The author pointed out two basic factors inhibiting the implementation of the CLT, which are class sizes and teaching schedules To, Nguyen Thu Huong [21] of Can Tho University, adding some more causes, claimed that several teachers are unwilling or unable to apply modern approaches due to their bad command of English, apprehension of changes and students’ weak competence of English

Summary

Communicative competence is all learners’ expectation after any language course To attain this objective, individual learning styles play an essential role Teaching styles, as we all know, cannot be parted from decisive aspects of the learning process Besides, a language classroom is also influenced by other factors such as students’ attitudes, motivation and anxiety, which can inhibit learning acquisition to some degree So the functions of a teacher are creating suitable conditions in accordance with different learning styles of his/ her students, guiding and facilitating learning, motivating and arousing positive attitudes towards the target language and culture

Chapter Three: METHODOLOGY

This chapter deals with the methodology of the research It comprises the research questions, the hypothesis, the research design, the description of the participants, the measures and the data collection procedure

Hence, the aim of the thesis is to answer the two research questions:

1 What factors cause difficulties in learning and teaching when implementing student- centered approach in English classes?

2 What can we do to overcome the difficulties so that this approach can

be promoted in teaching and learning English, taking into consideration some hopeful signs in the Vietnamese context?

- Lack of communicative competence hinder students’ progress and their autonomy, even when teachers give them opportunities to be more active in learning

- Undesirable results of English learning and teaching are influenced by negative affective factors

3.3 Research design:

On one hand, this study is aimed at analyzing difficulties in teaching and learning in student-centered structures and finding solution The study belongs to the field of applied linguistics This field is associated with language pedagogy, language teaching and second language acquisition

On the other hand, the study is required to answer the research questions The researcher chose to follow triangulation, which is the combination of quantitative and qualitative research since questionnaires, and observations are used as the instruments for data collection

As I stated above, triangulation design is used because of its advantages to reduce weaknesses if we use either quantitative or qualitative design, and to increase validity and reliability of the study

Qualitative and quantitative designs are combined in the type called mixed methodology design Because as the researcher, I would like to prove my theory and let some fresh perspective emerges

In my study, I supposedly use questionnaires and observations as follows:

Questionnaires are operated to get students’ and teachers’ ideas and to examine what the difficulties in learning and teaching in student-centered are classes and to find out suggestions for solving the problem

Observations are used to identify what difficulties and solutions in genuine and typical cases are

3.4 The study:

The study was carried out in Ho Chi Minh University of Technology (HUTECH) This section describes (1) the participant of the study, (2) the instrument used, and (3) the data collection procedure

3.4.1 The participant:

There are two groups of participants in this study The first group consists of 80 students selected randomly from 4 groups of different majors The second group comprises 10 teachers who were teaching Stage-one English at the time the survey was carried out

3.4.1.1 The characteristics of the first group: Students

One thing that may be justifiable would be the population of students of several departments of HUTECH such as Business Administration, Accounting, Information Technology, Electricity and Electronics and Construction They were chosen as non-majored sample students since they studied in different departments, having different levels of competence, which served for the generalization of the research,

at least in the limited setting of HUTECH They were first and second year students who had studied English for at least 3 years at high schools They are supposed to acquire basic English grammar and vocabulary to express their ideas on common topics The preliminary information of students is shown in Table 4 and 5

Years of English learning Percent

Table 5: Years of English learning

3.4.1.2 The characteristics of the second group : Teachers

The teacher population consists of 10 teachers who were teaching English of Stage One 60 % of the teachers are female 50 % of the teachers are under 40 who are more likely to have chances and flexibility to access new methodologies than the previous generation All of them graduated from Vietnamese universities A few have completed M.A degree Most of them have ten years of teaching experience Table 5 presents some information on the teacher group

Characteristic of the teachers %