VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ---***--- CHU THỊ HUYỀN MI TEACHERS’ USE OF ELICITATION TECHNIQUES TO TEACH SPEAKING SKILL TO FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÁC THỦ THUẬT GỢI MỞ CỦA GIÁO VIÊN ĐỂ DẠY KĨ NĂNG NÓI CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHỆ, ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI M. Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 HANOI, 2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ---***--- CHU THỊ HUYỀN MI TEACHERS’ USE OF ELICITATION TECHNIQUES TO TEACH SPEAKING SKILL TO FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÁC THỦ THUẬT GỢI MỞ CỦA GIÁO VIÊN ĐỂ DẠY KĨ NĂNG NÓI CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHỆ, ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI M. Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Nguyễn Minh Tuấn, M. HANOI, 2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Candidate‟s statement.
iii Table of contents. iv List of figures and tables. vi Chapter 1: Introduction. Aims and objectives.
Scope of the study. Significance of the study. Overview of the rest of the paper. 4 Chapter 2: Literature review.
Key concepts and relevant knowledge. Communicative Language Teaching. Definition of elicitation. Types of elicitation.
Advantages of elicitation techniques. Disadvantages of elicitation techniques. Research settings and participants. Teacher and Student Questionnaire.
Data collection procedure .19 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Data analysis procedure. Data analysis and discussion. Summary of findings.
Contributions of the research. Limitations of the research. Suggestions for future research .XIII LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vi LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1: Frequency of elicitation teaching Figure 2: Shortcomings of elicitation teaching Figure 3: Frequency of using elicitation techniques Figure 4: Degree of students‟ confidence to talk Figure 5: Activation of students‟ background knowledge Figure 6: Increasing students‟ talk time Figure 7: Students‟ embarrassment to listen to their peers‟ talk Figure 8: Students‟ memorization of the lesson Table 1: Categorization of selected students Table 2: Benefits of elicitation teaching Table 3: Teachers‟ elicitation manners LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter aims at stating the rationale, objectives, scope and significance of the research. An overview of the rest of the study is also provided in this chapter.
Rationale According to an article posted on www.vn on 9 December 2009, a large number of Vietnamese fresh graduates are complained about their limited English proficiency at workplace settings, especially their weaknesses in English communication despite their acceptable ability in their own specializations. This problem may stem from some deficiency in English teaching and learning at university and lower academic levels. Therefore, it is about time to take a closer look at the current use of teaching methods which are designed to develop students‟ speaking competence. For the last few years, communicative language teaching (CLT) has remarkably emerged as an innovative teaching approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages throughout the world.
According to Nunan (1991), CLT features interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language. This emphasis involves that students are required to construct a habit of enthusiastically participating in classroom exchanges and real communication to enhance their speaking skill. The new learning strategy can only be enabled when there is a shift between teachers‟ and students‟ roles. Learner-centered learning has reigned in modern classrooms where students are given more autonomy while teachers take the roles of controllers, assessors, organizers, prompters, participants and so forth (Harmer, 2001) who facilitate students‟ participation in a variety of interactive activities.
In an attempt to reverse that dominant status between the two parties, elicitation teaching has been spread into English classrooms on an international scale. On the way of educational integration, the communicative approach has been adapted to Vietnam‟s national curriculums of almost every academic level, ranging from elementary, middle, secondary to post-secondary levels. Although the interest in and development of communicative-style teaching developed statistically worldwide, the adoption in Vietnam has been obstructed by the inherent dominance of grammar- translation approach. It is commonly seen that Vietnamese students are typically passive and shy in language classrooms while teachers tend to embrace the role of "expert" who would impart his or her knowledge or "expertise" to unknowing students, who in turn LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 would be assessed by evaluation instruments intended to measure the amount of transferred "expertise" (Rudder, 2000).
Similarly, while elicitation has been considered an essential tool to teach speaking skill in modern classrooms worldwide, the use of it in Vietnam has turned out not to be as effective as expected. Therefore, the present study saw a need to learn about teachers‟ perception of elicitation teaching and their actual employment to better understand the matter. In addition, the issue of using elicitation techniques in teaching speaking skill has not been extensively studied in Vietnam. The three studies that should be highlighted so far are Pham (2006) which is using elicitation to teach vocabulary to 11th form students in Hanoi, Tran (2007) which is eliciting techniques to teach speaking skill to grade-10 students in Hanoi Foreign Languages Specializing School (HFLSS) and Nguyen (2011) the exploitation of eliciting techniques by fourth-year students in their teaching practicum at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University.
Despite their thorough investigation into the same issue, there is still room for the current study to bridge. To be more specific, the two first researchers worked on the issue of applying elicitation techniques to teach high school students whose learning behaviors and goals are remarkably different from university students‟. The most recent one worked on the use of eliciting techniques by student-teachers among students who major in English, which is totally different from the context of this study. In addition, Pham (2006)‟s study zoomed into the context of vocabulary teaching, thereby excluding other language components and skills.
With a desire to both fill these gaps to a certain extent and follow a different research implementation approach, the present researcher investigated the employment of elicitation in teaching speaking skill to first year non-English-major students. In sum, filling the gaps made by the two earlier studies is another impetus for the researcher to conduct the present one. Lastly, the subject of the current study is really worth taking into consideration. In the status of newcomers to university, first-year students had notable difficulties in adapting to a new academic environment and getting accustomed to new learning strategies.
Also, as English is not their major, these obstacles tend to affect them much worse. If those problems are not completely solved, they may leave long-term bad effects on students‟ academic achievements. Meanwhile, for the past few years, University of Engineering and Technology (UET) has tremendously enforced a number of policies to LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 3 enhance the quality of graduates, one of which is the fulfillment of English proficiency standard as a prerequisite for graduation. Therefore, an investigation into teachers‟ current employment of elicitation in teaching English speaking skill to this population plays a more significant role than ever.
Aims and objectives In doing the research, the author attempted to address three main aspects. Firstly, the study investigated how teachers conceived about elicitation in teaching speaking skill. In addition to the concepts, their actual employment was also closely looked at. Last but not least was students‟ evaluation on the effects of elicitation teaching on their performance.
These objectives were accomplished by answering the following questions: 1. What is teachers‟ concept of elicitation in teaching English speaking skill to first-year students of UET, VNU, Hanoi? 2. How do they employ elicitation in teaching English speaking skill to first-year students of UET, VNU, Hanoi? 3. What effects does the employment have on students? 1.
Scope of the study First and foremost, the research focused on teachers‟ application of elicitation techniques in speaking lessons only in order to foster students‟ talk. Therefore, application into other kinds of lessons and the outcomes of the teaching on other linguistic skills are not taken into consideration. Also, as stated in the earlier part, the research targeted at freshmen of UET, VNU only, which excluded those from other academic levels and institutions. Significance of the study It should be noted that the research was a great attempt to approach an issue which is no longer new but still needs more profound research.
Therefore, once finished, it can bring various benefits to involved parties namely students, teachers, educational administrators and researchers of the relevant fields. Firstly, students and teachers of UET, VNU, Hanoi are those who directly benefit from the information the research provides. Teachers will have a comprehensive look at the situation of their own application of elicitation teaching to increase students‟ talk, realize obstacles that they themselves and their colleagues have encountered and work out LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 solutions to amend their teaching practice. Students are likely to be well aware of their rights and responsibilities to raise voice in class.
Also, they will be offered more speaking chance during lessons. Educational administrators may be provided with a close and comprehensive view into the current situation before implementing necessary amendments in terms of curriculum, facility provision and other policies. Researchers of the relevant fields can also refer to the present work for literature review. In general, students, teachers, educational administrators and researchers are those who are likely to benefit from the study in different ways.
Overview of the rest of the paper The rest of the paper consists of four following chapters. Chapter 2 provides background theories underlying the issue including definition of key concepts and relevant knowledge in accordance with a review of related studies of the same field. Chapter 3 presents the methodology of the research including features of participants, research setting, research instruments, data collection and data analysis procedure. Chapter 4 reports and discusses findings which answer the four research questions.
It also offers recommendations to relevant parties so as to accomplish a higher effectiveness of elicitation teaching. Chapter 5 summarizes major findings, highlights contributions of the research, puts forward practical suggestions for future research as well as addresses noted limitations of the study. In conclusion, the initial chapter has presented basic understanding of the research including rationales for doing the research, objectives, scope, significance and overview of the rest of the paper. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter means to review background theories related to the issue including definitions of key concepts and relevant knowledge.
Several related studies of the same field are also brought to discussion. Key concepts and relevant knowledge Elicitation teaching is a typical execution of communicative teaching approach and has been extensively employed by teachers who are committed to Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). This fact shows a tight relationship between CLT and elicitation teaching. Therefore, before digging deeper into the major concept, it is significant to review the theory of the underlying approach.
Communicative Language Teaching CLT has emerged as by far the most popular teaching approach defaulted in almost every English language classroom worldwide. Kumaravadivelu (1993: 12) affirmed the influential power of CLT that “CLT which started in the early 1970s has become the driving force that shapes the planning, implementation and evaluation of English language teaching programs (ELT) in most parts of the world”.