VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES -----***----- NGUYỄN THI ̣ PHÚC USING THE TEXTBOOK PRACTICE MATHS 1 TO TEACH MATHS IN ENGLISH TO FIRST GRADERS AT MINH KHAI 1 PRIMARY SCHOOL – DIFFICULTIES AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS (Sử dụng sách giáo khoa “Practice Maths 1” để dạy Toán bằng Tiếng Anh cho học sinh khối 1 trường tiểu học Minh Khai 1- Khó khăn và một số giải pháp) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Hanoi - 2013 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES -----***----- NGUYỄN THI ̣ PHÚC USING THE TEXTBOOK PRACTICE MATHS 1 TO TEACH MATHS IN ENGLISH TO FIRST GRADERS AT MINH KHAI 1 PRIMARY SCHOOL – DIFFICULTIES AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS (Sử dụng sách giáo khoa “Practice Maths 1” để dạy Toán bằng Tiếng Anh cho học sinh khối 1 trường tiểu học Minh Khai 1- Khó khăn và một số giải pháp) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: M. Nguyễn Thị Minh Tâm Hanoi - 2013 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of originality of the thesis ……………………………………………… i Acknowledgements ……………………………………………… ii Abstract ……………………………………………… iii Table of contents …………………………………………….
vii List of figures ……………………………………………. viii List of tables ……………………………………………. ix ’ PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 1. Aims of the study ……………………………………………… 2 3.
Scope of the study ……………………………………………… 3 5. Significance of the study. Methods of the study ……………………………………………… 3 7. Organization of the study ……………………………………………… 4 PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5 Chapter 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5 1.
Content Language Integrated Learning. Overview of Content and Language Integrated Learning………………… 5 1. Core features of CLIL Methodology ……………………………… 7 1. Why CLIL for youngsters ……………………………… 9 1.
CLIL Teacher Competence …. Review of related studies ……………………………… 13 Chapter 2: Research Methodology 14 2. The Current Situation of Teaching and Learning at Minh Khai 1primary school. The Course Objectives …………………………….
The Material Description ……………………………. The research methodology .…………………………… 15 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. The Data Collection Instruments ………………………. Data Collection Procedure ……………………………… 16 2.
Data analysis of the teachers’ survey questionnaire ……………… 16 2. Data analysis of students’ survey questionnaire ……….… 25 Chapter 3: Major findings and Discussion 30 3. Research question 1: To what extend is the textbook Practice Maths 1 used to teach first graders at Minh Khai 1 primary school? ……………………………… 31 3. Research question 2: What are the difficulties that teachers and students face when using Practice Maths 1 ……………………………… 31 3.
Teaching and learning facilities ………………………. Students’ mixed levels of proficiency in English and their motivation … 32 3. Research question 3: What are suggestions solutions to overcome the difficulties in using Practice Maths 1? ……………………………… 32 3. Modifying the teaching syllabus to fit students’ level and teaching context.
Improving the teaching and learning facilities……………………… 33 3. Regrouping students in smaller classes according to students’ level …………………. Professional development program for teachers. Adapting the textbook to fit students’ levels and learning styles….
35 PART III: CONCLUSION 36 1. Limitations of the Study …. Suggestions for Further Study …. 37 REFERENCES 38 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com vi ABBREVIATIONS CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning EBE: English Bilingual Education B.A: Bachelor of Arts M.A: Master of Arts TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: The 4Cs Framework of CLIL (Coyle, 2011).6 Figure 2: The Language Triptych (Coyle, Hood, Marsh, 2010).
7 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Teachers‟ ideas of the implications of using the textbook “Practice Maths 1” Table 2: The teachers‟ ideas about the focus of the course. Table 3: Teachers‟ self-evaluation of their training Table 4: The necessity of being well-trained Table 5: The teachers‟ ideas on language used in the teaching and learning Table 6: Teachers‟ self-report on when to use Vietnamese during the lesson Table 7: Teachers‟ self-reported frequency of using teaching aids in teaching Table 8: The teachers‟ attitude of students‟ language proficiency levels Table 9: Teachers‟ perception of the difficult level of the Mathematics vocabulary in the textbook. Table 10: Teachers‟ attitude on the effectiveness of teaching English for Mathemetics by the textbook “Practice Maths 1” Table 11: Teachers‟ attitude on how to teach the textbook effectively Table 12: The use of different organization types of classroom activities Table 13: The design of the activities in the textbook Table 14: Can students learn English for Maths in Practice Maths 1 Table 15:Teachers‟ difficulties in using the textbook Table 16: The necessity to teach Maths through English to first graders Table 17: Teachers‟ preference in choosing the textbook Table 18:Teachers‟ suggested solutions to overcome their difficulties Table 19:Students‟ preference for learning English for Maths lessó Table 20: The number of English for Maths periods per week Table 21: Do all teachers use Practice Maths 1 Table 22: The language used in the lesson Table 23: Would students choose the textbook if they are allowed to Table 24: Teachers‟ use of Vietnamese in English for Maths lesson Table 25: Vocabulary in Practice Maths 1 Table 26: Students‟ self-report on what they gained after the lesson Table 27: Students‟ preference of textbook exercises Table 28: Students‟ preference of learning activities Table 29: The students‟ affirmation of difficulties TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 1 PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has become the umbrella term describing both learning another (content) subject such as Maths or Science through the medium of a foreign language and learning a foreign language by studying a content-based subject.
In ELT, forms of CLIL have previously been known as 'Content-based instruction', “English across the curriculum” and “Bilingual education”. This approach in education started in Europe in 1970s and has been spreading widely since 1990s. In Vietnam since 1998 when a pilot project involving the teaching of Maths and Science through English at Grade 1 started in Ho Chi Minh, the concept of English Bilingual Education (EBE) or the term Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) was little known. CLIL lessons have only been described as modern subject lessons like those that could also take place in the learners‟ mother tongue.
The question of the linguistic side of CLIL and above all of the integration of content and language requires further considerations. Language plays a central role in the teaching of any subject. It is undeniable that the textbook plays an important role in foreign language teaching since it determines the major part of classroom teaching and student learning. Although choosing a textbook is daunting, it has a significant influence on the ability of students to meet their language learning objectives and affects both the process of learning and outcomes.
Nevertheless, as Swales (1980) states, textbooks, especially course books, exhibit problems and in extreme cases are examples of educational failure. Thus, to have a successful language teaching program, it is necessary to have good materials, and to make the most effective use of a textbook, it is necessary for teachers to carefully examine all aspects of the textbook and compare it against an assessment tool. The present textbook taught at Minh Khai 1 Primary school is Practice Maths 1. To some extent, its content meets the teaching and learning‟s objectives such as the objectives in vocabulary and reading skill development.
However, the best exploitation of the book are not yet achieved. Teachers still find it hard to bridge the gap between language level of proficiency of first graders and the language proficiency level TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 2 required to do all the tasks and activities in the textbooks. The lack of teacher book and teaching facilities also poses a big challenge to the quality of teaching and learning. Though this material has been used at Minh Khai 1 primary school for several years, no evaluation or consultation has ever been conducted to check its strengths and weaknesses and to see how well it can suit the desired and attainable goals of the course.
As a teacher of English at Minh Khai primary school, I myself also use Practice Maths 1 to teach my students Maths through English at their very first grades; and I therefore have first-hand experience in how hard it is to use the textbook Practice Maths 1 to teach Maths through English to the first graders in the school. I am fully aware that, the only way to improve the teaching and learning quality in the Teach –Maths-through-English program here is to conduct a study on the real teaching context and the difficulties that teachers and students are facing. Only when the difficulties are found could solutions to overcome those difficulties be suggested. For those reasons, the topic “Using the textbook Practice Maths 1 to teach Maths in English to first graders at Minh Khai 1 Primary School - Difficulties and some suggested solutions” was chosen as the theme for my minor MA thesis.
Aims of the study. The study is carried out with the hope to be some of help to improve the effectiveness of the teaching other subjects through English at primary school. The major aims of the study are: - to explore the context of using the textbook Practice Maths 1 to teach 1st graders at Minh Khai 1 Primary school - to investigate the difficulties that teachers and learners are facing with in their teaching and learning Maths through the textbook Practice Maths 1. - to suggest some solutions to overcome these difficulties.
The research questions TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 3 The general goal of this research is to look into teachers‟ difficulites in teaching Maths in English to first graders at Minh Khai 1 primary school. To this end, this research tries to answer the following questions: 1. To what extent is the textbook “Practice Maths 1” used to teach 1st graders at Minh Khai 1 Primary school, Thanh Hoa? 2. What are the difficulties that teachers face when using the Practice Maths 1? 3.
What are suggested solutions to overcome the difficulties in using Practice Maths 1? 4. Scope of the study The study is scoped down to collect data from the teaching practice at Minh Khai 1 primary school, with the use of the textbook Practice Maths 1 in the CLIL approach only. The study therefore only focuses on evaluating the appropriateness of the use of the textbook and the objectives of the “Bilingual Program” for first graders, and on the finding difficulties that teachers are facing using this textbook in this program. Solutions suggested in the study are applicable to the teaching and learning context in Minh Khai Primary 1 school only.
Significance of the study The textbook Practice Maths 1 has been used to teach Maths through English to 1st graders of the Bilingual Program in Minh Khai 1 primary school for 3 years now, but there has never been any study on this teaching practice, despite certain facts about the shortcomings of the book and the teaching-Maths-through-English program. This study is therefore conducted as the first effort to check the appropriateness of Practice Maths 1 to the teaching context in Minh Khai 1 Primary school, the effectiveness of using this textbook, the difficulties that teachers and students are facing in the program, and to suggest some solutions to these problems. Methods of the study This study is conducted using descriptive and analytic methods, with survey questionnaires as the data collecting instruments. In general, the analysis and arguments in the thesis is based on qualitative explanation and reasoning.
The survey TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 4 questionnaire as the data collecting instrument provides the writer with the quantitative data needed as the evidence of the real exploitation of the textbook, the teaching aids and class activities.