VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THỊ THƢƠNG TEACHERS’ VIEWS AND EXPLOITATION OF TEXTBOOK IMAGES IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING Quan điểm của giáo viên và cách họ khai thác các hình ảnh trong sách giáo khoa vào việc giảng dạy Tiếng Anh M.A MAJOR PROGRAM THESIS Major: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Hanoi, 2018 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THỊ THƢƠNG TEACHERS’ VIEWS AND EXPLOITATION OF TEXTBOOK IMAGES IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING Quan điểm của giáo viên và cách họ khai thác các hình ảnh trong sách giáo khoa vào việc giảng dạy Tiếng Anh M.A MAJOR PROGRAM THESIS Major: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231. Trần Thị Thanh Phúc Hanoi, 2018 ơ LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “Teachers’ views and exploitation of textbook images in English language teaching” is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, and that this thesis has not been submitted for any other degrees. Hanoi, 2018 Nguyễn Thị Thƣơng i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express the deepest appreciation to my supervisor, Dr. Trần Thị Thanh Phúc for helping me complete this study.
This paper would not have been accomplished without her expert, constant and valuable guidance and encouragement. Her patience and helpful criticism helped me confidently express my ideas into this paper. I also wish to express my sincere thanks to all my lecturers at the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies for their valuable lectures, which have helped me a great deal in gaining a lot of theoretical background as well as practical knowledge. My special thanks also go to my friends and colleagues at the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education for their enthusiastic help and support with my working schedule, which gave me precious time to deal with my thesis.
Finally, I would also like to express my deep gratitude and love to my family who gave me time and encouragement to overcome all obstacles during the completion of this study. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This research aims at investigating teachers’ opinions and exploitation of textbook images in English language teaching as well as their training experiences of textbook image exploitation. This is a mixed method study that uses three main instruments including survey questionnaire, interview and classroom observation to collect data from 276 English language teachers who are currently teaching English in different public schools in Vietnam. It was discovered that even though teachers highly valued textbook images, they did not seem to fully realize the instructive impacts of the resource, which may result from their lack of training in visual literacy instruction.
This explains why textbook images seemed to be employed purely to teach vocabulary in the pre-teaching stage of the lesson, and mostly ideational meaning was employed while interpersonal and textual meanings were neglected. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv PART A: INTRODUCTION.
6 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW. The old literacy and the new literacy. Multiliteracies or multimodal literacy and visual literacy. Integrating visual literacy with language teaching and learning.
Impact of visuals in teaching and learning. Impact of visuals in English language teaching and learning. Integrating visual literacy into English language teaching. Textbook as a multiliteracy resource in English language teaching.
Negligence regarding using visuals in English language classroom. Related studies in Asia and in Vietnam. 20 CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY. Setting and participants.
33 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER III: FINDINGS. Teachers’ views on textbook images in English language teaching. The importance of using textbook images in English language teaching. The impact of textbook images in English language teaching and learning.
The challenges of using textbook images in teaching. Teachers’ exploitation of textbook images in English language teaching. The frequency of using textbook images in English language teaching. The use of textbook images in teaching different skills and sub-skills.
The use of textbook images in different lesson stages. The exploitation of textbook image types. The exploitation of textbook image meanings. The exploitation of ideational meaning.
The exploitation of interpersonal meaning. The exploitation of textual meaning. Summary of teachers’ exploitation of textbook image meanings. The impact of teachers’ exploitation of textbook images in English language teaching from students’ views.
Teachers’ training experiences and their opinion. Teachers’ training experiences. Teachers’ opinion on textbook image exploitation training channels. 67 CHAPTER IV: DISCUSSION.
Teachers’ views on textbook images in English language teaching. Teachers’ use of textbook images in English language teaching. Teachers’ training experiences and their views on training channels. I APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW SCRIPT SAMPLE.
VII APPENDIX C: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION SCRIPT SAMPLE. XV APPENDIX D: MINI-SURVEY QUESTION AND STUDENT’S ANSWER SAMPLE. XVI APPENDIX E: MATERIALS USED BY TEACHERS IN EXTRACTS 1-12. XVII v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com List of abbreviations ELT English Language Teaching ESL English as a Second Language MOET Ministry of Education and Training S Student SD Standard Deviation T Teacher ULIS, VNU University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com List of figures and tables Figure 1.
Integration of visual literacy components in English language teaching (Suryanto, 2014, p. English language teachers’ view on textbook images. English language teacher’s frequency of using textbook images. Material used in Extract 1 (Hoang, 2016, p.
Material used in Extract 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 (Hoang, 2016, p. Material used in Extract 4 and 7 (Hoang, 2016, p. Material used in Extract 5 (Hoang, 2016, p. Material used in Extract 6 (Hoang, 2016, p.
Kress and van Leeuven's (1996) image meaning model. Three dimensions of viewing - Questions to help learners analyze images (Goldstein, 2016, p. Interviewee selection criteria. Result of one-way ANOVA analysis of “Importance” variable by “School” variable.
Difference in teachers' view by teaching level of education. Impacts of textbook images in teaching and learning. Impacts of textbook images in English language teaching and learning. Challenges of using textbook images in teaching.
Result of one-way ANOVA analysis of “Frequency” variable by “School” variable. Result of one-way ANOVA analysis of “Frequency” variable by “Degree” variable. Difference in teachers' use of textbook images by teaching level of education. Difference in teachers' use of textbook images by education background.
Using textbook images in teaching skills and sub-skills. Using textbook images in different lesson stages. Exploitation of textbook image types. Exploitation of textbook image meanings.
Experiences of training to exploit textbook images channels. Usefulness of training to exploit textbook images channels. 67 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Communication has probably always been multimodal, i.
different resources such as language, images or music have their capacity to convey meaning, and these resources are, in fact, often combined in various contexts to generate a message. However, it was not until the late twentieth century when the exponential rise in technology enabled many novel forms or modes of presentation that the term multimodality was treated properly. The New London Group (1996) broadly categorized different modes of communication into five semiotic or meaning-making systems which encompass written-linguistic, visual, audio, gestural and spatial patterns of meaning. They also proposed a new approach to literacy pedagogy called multiliteracies or multimodal literacy which encourages the teaching of all the meaning-making systems.
Since then, literacy was no longer simply the ability to read and write but rather, as defined in the Australian Curriculum (2014), the two overarching processes of comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing, and composing texts through speaking, writing and creating. In this sense, texts are considered as a medium of communication, and they can be spoken, written, visual or multimodal. In the meantime, there exists four knowledge areas that can be applied to both receptive and expressive processes namely text knowledge, grammar knowledge, word knowledge and visual knowledge. According to the Australian Curriculum (2014), visual knowledge, which involves learners understanding how visual information such as images (either still or moving), tables, maps, and graphs contributes to the meaning of a text, has become an integral part of the knowledge areas that students are required to acquire in order to be literate in the twenty first century.
This is becoming even more and more important as mankind has been living in an increasingly visual world. 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com The last two decades have witnessed the shift from the old literacy to the new one in teaching and learning many subjects and areas. In English language teaching, this change can be easily seen in English language teachers’ practices and teaching materials as well. Instead of relying upon solely a print-based textbook, they now have a wide range of options such as photos, drawings, audios and videos to facilitate students’ learning.
Even the traditional textbook itself with words as the predominant meaning-making mode has these days evolved into a new multimodal textbook with different modes including images, words, audios, videos, hyperlinks and interactive CD-ROMs, which are all well integrated with each other. The benefits of multimodal textbooks have been widely discussed among different researchers. For instance, Ajayi (2012) stated that multimodal textbooks usually “foster greater student participation, freedom to communicate, collaboration and negotiation of meanings” (p. They also offer English learners the opportunity to be exposed to various meaning-making modes, enabling them to acquire multiliteracies.
Kress (2000) even claimed that “it is now impossible to make sense of texts, even of their linguistic parts alone, without having a clear idea of what these other features might be contributing to meaning of a text” (p. In Vietnam, the current English textbook seems to be at the crossroads between the new multimodal textbook and the old traditional one. On the one hand, it is full of images and audios combined with linguistic texts, which suggests that it can be regarded as a multimodal textbook as it utilizes several modes of communication. On the other hand, such resources as videos and CD-ROMs are not designed to be part of the textbook.
This is reflected in reality where many schools especially those in mountainous and remote areas, do not have sufficient facilities to enable the use of videos and CD-ROMs, or even audios, in English language classrooms. In those cases, the textbook is compulsory while the audios and other resources can be regarded as optional. Therefore, the textbook with its linguistic texts and images is possibly still considered the main source of 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com English language learning instruction in most of the schools in Vietnam. However, according to Hobbs and Frost (2003), textbook images are often completely neglected or superficially exploited in the classroom.
This negligence, as explained by those researchers, is primarily due to teachers’ loyalty to the old literacy where linguistic mode seemed predominant. Inspired by a presentation of Professor Len Unsworth from an Australian university in a conference about multiliteracies held at ULIS, VNU Hanoi in 2014, as an English lecturer at Faculty of English Language Teacher Education for five years, the author regularly utilizes coursebook images as well as other visual resources in her teaching and receives positive feedback from her students. Some even claimed that they “have never learnt that there exist so many messages underlying each image”.