VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES POST-GRADUATE DEPARTMENT --------------------------------------- ĐINH THỊ THU THỦY AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS’ AND 6TH FORM STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS LEARNING ENGLISH WITH FOREIGN TEACHERS M. THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 hµ néi – N¨m 2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES POST-GRADUATE DEPARTMENT --------------------------------------- ĐINH THỊ THU THỦY AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS’ AND 6TH FORM STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS LEARNING ENGLISH WITH FOREIGN TEACHERS M. THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: Vũ Thúy Quỳnh, M.A hµ néi – N¨m 2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Statement of authorship ……………………………………………………………….iii Table of contents …………………………………………………………………….iv List of abbreviation ………………………………………………………………………vii List of tables ………………………………………………………………….viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ………………….2 The aims of the study and research questions …………………….3 The scope of the study ………………………………………….5 Organization of the thesis …………………………………….…………………2 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW …………………………………………….1 THEORETICAL BACGROUND OD ATTITUDES ……………………….1 Definitions of attitudes ………………………………………………………4 2.2 Characteristics of attitudes ……………….3 Classification of attitudes …………………………………………….4 The role of attitudes in second language acquisition …………………….2 NATIVE ENGLISH-SPEAKING TEACHERS……….…9 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.1 Definitions of Native English-speaking teachers …………………….2 Advantages and disadvantages of Native English-speaking teachers in teaching English as a second or foreign language………………….3 Previous studies on teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards learning English with Native English-speaking teachers……………………………………. Procedures of data collection ……………………………………….4 Methods of data analysis …………………………………………….19 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DICUSSION ……………………………….1 Students‟ attitudes towards learning English with native English-speaking teachers………………………………………………………………………….2 Teachers‟ attitudes towards the teaching English of native English-speaking teachers………………………………………………………………………….31 CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSIONS …………….2 Limitations of the study …………………………………………………………35 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.3 Suggestions for further studies ………………………………………………….……III APPENDIX III ……………………………………………………………….V LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vii LIST OF ABBREVIATION NESTs: Native English-speaking teachers NNESTs: Non-native English speaking teachers ESL: English as a second language LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com viii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1: Items in the questionnaire for students‟ attitudes towards learning English with native English-speaking teachers.
Table 2: Students‟ attitude towards native English-speaking teachers‟ language competence. Table 3: Students‟ attitudes towards native English-speaking teachers‟ teaching styles. Table 4: Students‟ attitudes towards motivation in native English-speaking teachers‟ class. Table 5: Students‟ attitudes towards the disadvantages of native English-speaking teachers.
Figure 1: Students‟ attitude towards native English-speaking teachers‟ language competence Figure 2: Students‟ attitudes towards native English-speaking teachers‟ teaching styles Figure 3: Students‟ attitudes towards motivation in native English-speaking teachers‟ class Figure 4: Students‟ attitudes towards the disadvantages of native English-speaking teachers LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale Nowadays, English has become an international language. Learning English is a must for anyone who wants to access the world. More and more Vietnamese learn English to get knowledge and achieve communicative competence. However, the weakest point of Vietnamese learners is that they are not able to communicate in real situation.
This fact raises the awareness of teaching and learning English communicatively to both teachers and learners. Therefore, teachers at both secondary and high school are now trying to apply new teaching methods to teach English communicatively. The aim is to help students be more confident to communicate in English. Besides, many schools are trying to open new programs which cooperate with other schools from English speaking countries to improve English for their students.
More and more foreign teachers or Native English-Speaking Teachers are employed to teach in these schools. Students and their parents hope that foreign teachers will help them study English better and get more knowledge about culture of English-speaking countries. In the context of the study, Doan Thi Diem Secondary School, where the author is working as a non-native teacher of English, there are bilingual programs in which students from grade 6 to grade 9 are taught by some foreign teachers. Apart from subjects studied in Vietnamese, students study three more subjects in English with foreign teachers.
They are English, Math and Science. In fact, many secondary schools in Hanoi have similar programs. However, in this research only English subject is mentioned. In the last decades, there has been on-going discussion involved in advantages and disadvantages of native and non-native teachers of English (Philipson, 1992; Medgyes, 1994; Lui, 1999).
Nevertheless, in Vietnam there are hardly any studies on the teaching of foreign teachers. The author of the study wonders what the students and teachers actually think of native English teachers‟ teaching English. That is also the reason for the study. The study is expected to investigate the teachers‟ and 6th form students‟ attitudes towards learning English with foreign teachers and give some valuable suggestions for the LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 employment of foreign teachers in the context of the study in particular and in Vietnam in general.2 The aims of the study and research questions The aims of the research are: first, to investigate what are the attitudes of students towards learning English with native English teachers, and the attitudes of non-native English teachers at Doan Thi Diem Secondary School towards the teaching of English by native teachers; then to give some implications for the employment of native teachers in the context of Vietnam and some suggestions for parents when choosing bilingual programs for their children.
Thus, two research questions raised are: 1. What are the 6th form students’ attitudes toward learning English with native English-speaking teachers? 2. What are the non-native English teachers’ attitudes towards the teaching English of native English-speaking teachers? 1.3 The scope of the study Due to the limit of time and the real context of the research where native teachers are put in charge of English, the research focuses on investigating the teachers‟ and 6 th form students‟ attitudes towards native teacher‟s teaching English. Besides, the research only emphasized studying general issues related to the advantages and disadvantages of learning English with native teachers.4 Research methodologies As the main aim of the research is to investigate the teachers‟ and 6th form students‟ attitudes towards learning English with foreign teachers, survey approach is selected, and two main data collection methods employed are questionnaire and semi-structured interview.
Census sampling is used with all English teachers and students from 6s1, 6s2, 6s3, 6s4 and 6s5. The data are collected from 100 students and five non-native English LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. The analysis is carried out in the light of finding out the answers to the research questions.5 The organization of the thesis The thesis consists of five chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction covers the rationale for choosing the topic, the aims and research questions, the scope of the study, research methodologies and organization of the thesis. Chapter 2: Literature Review provides the basic theoretical background of literature on attitudes such as definition, characteristics, classification and role of attitudes in second language acquisition.
Then, concepts, advantages and disadvantages of foreign teachers in teaching English as a second or foreign language are presented. Finally, previous studies related to the topic are reviewed. Chapter 3: Methodology deals with the overall picture of how the research was carried out from the first step of determining the design to the last one of analyzing and collecting results. Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Findings interprets the answer of the posed research questions: What are the teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards learning English with native teachers? The findings end with conclusions and comments after these instruments such as questionnaires, semi-structured interviews are conducted and completed.
Chapter 5: Recommendation and conclusions reviews the main content and findings of the study, some possible implications for the teachers and learners; and giving out some suggestions for further researches. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, the theoretical background for the study will be presented. To begin with, definitions, characteristics, classifications and roles of attitude in language learning are discussed. Next, concepts, advantages and disadvantages of foreign teachers (native English-speaking teachers) in teaching English as a second or foreign language are presented.
Finally, previous studies related to the topic are summarized.1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND OF ATTITUDES 2.1 Definitions of attitudes There are many definitions of attitude.8) admits that the term attitude “is complex. Many definitions have been proposed to describe its essence”.45 as cited in Gardner, 1985) states that “an attitude is a mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting as directive or dynamic influence upon the individual‟s response to all objects and situations with which it is related”. Interestingly, Gibb (1988) also share the same idea as he agrees that attitude is a state of mind, which is influenced by feelings, experiences of the world and belief. Louw and Edwards (1997, p.764) say that the concept “has probably played the most central role in the development of social psychology during the twentieth century”.9), cited in Gardner (1980, p.267), defines the term attitude as “an inference which is made on the basis of a complex of beliefs about the attitude object”.267) adds more details “the sum total if a man‟s instinct ions and feelings, prejudice or bias, preconceived notions, fears, threat, and convictions about any specified topics”.
Fishbein and Ajzan (1975) first say that attitude is the general feeling (ranging from positive to negative) or evaluation (good/bad) a person has towards self, other people, objects or events.4) later provides a more concise definition by stating that attitude is “a disposition to respond favorably or unfavorably to an object, person, institution, or event”. An other technical definition by Baker (1992, p.10) is that “a hypothetical construct used to explain the direction and persistence of human behavior”. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 5 The author also finds another concept of attitude from Wikipedia-online dictionary, which is clear and convincing: “An attitude is a hypothetical construct that represents an individual‟s degree of dislike or like for something. Attitudes are generally positive or negative views of a person, place, thing or event-this is often referred to as the attitude object”.
In terms of language learning, attitudes are considered sets of beliefs possessed by learners about such factors as the target language culture and the learners‟ own culture (Ellis, 1986, p. Gardner (1985) says attitude as of motivation in language learning. According to him, “motivation … refers to the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning the language plus favorable attitudes toward learning the language” (p. Wenden (1991) defines the concept of attitude in more details.
He claims that attitude consists of three components: cognitive, affective and behavioral. Cognitive component include the perceptions, beliefs, opinions, ideas of an individual about the object. Affective component is related to the emotions, feelings, preferences, interest which are normally shown in such words as likes or dislikes, for or against of a person for an object. Behavioral component refers to the intentions and actions of one towards the object.
In short, attitude is a mental state, which expresses an individual‟s degree of likes or dislikes, positive or negative opinions about an object, a person, a thing or an event.84) claims, “positive language attitudes let learner have positive orientation towards learning English”. Therefore, attitude may play a crucial role in language learning.2 Characteristics of attitudes According to Baker (1988, as cited in Gardner, 1985), attitudes have five main characteristics: i) Attitudes are cognitive and affective. For example, attitudes are capable of being thought about and have feelings and emotions attached to them. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 6 ii) Attitudes are dimensional rather than bipolar.
They vary in degree of favorability and unfavorability. iii) Attitudes predispose a person to act in a certain way; however, the relationship between attitudes is not a strong one. iv) Attitudes are learnt, not inherited or genetically endowed. v) Attitudes tend to persist but they can be modified by experience.3 Classification of attitudes Gardner (1985, pp.