VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES ĐỖ THỊ NHÂM AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON TEACHERS’ OPINIONS ABOUT MATH AND ENGLISH INTEGRATED TEACHING AND LEARNING PROGRAM AT AN EDUCATISON CENTER IN HANOI (Nghiên cứu thăm dò ý kiến giáo viên về chương trình dạy học theo đường hướng tích hợp Toán - Tiếng Anh tại một trung tâm giáo dục ở Hà Nội) M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Hanoi – 2019 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES ĐỖ THỊ NHÂM AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON TEACHERS’ OPINIONS ABOUT MATH AND ENGLISH INTEGRATED TEACHING AND LEARNING PROGRAM AT AN EDUCATION CENTER IN HANOI (Nghiên cứu thăm dò ý kiến giáo viên về chương trình dạy học theo đường hướng tích hợp Toán - Tiếng Anh tại một trung tâm giáo dục ở Hà Nội) M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231. Huỳnh Anh Tuấn Hanoi – 2019 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I hearby certify that the MA thesis entitled ―An exploratory study on teachers’ opinions about Math and English Integrated Teaching and Learning Program at an education center in Hanoi” is a result of my research for Degree of Master of Arts at University of Language and International studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
The paper has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiary institution. Hanoi, 2019 Đỗ Thị Nhâm i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have owed a number of people for a great deal of support during the time conducting this thesis. First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Huỳnh Anh Tuấn for his whole hearted supervision, his generous intellectual support without which the thesis would not be possible.
I also dedicate my in-depth appreciation to University of Languages and International Studies, the lecturers, the staff members for their precious lectures and their valuable support helping me to complete my paper. I am also immensely grateful to all the teachers for their enthusiastic participation in my questionnaires and interviews. Last but not least, I owe my thesis complement to my family and my close friends who always stand by me with encouragement and spiritual support throughout conducting the thesis. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT The launching of the National Foreign Languages 2020 Project with the task of constructing and implementing other teaching and learning programs in English for Mathematics and other subjects could be seen as the starting point of applying CLIL program in Vietnamese education.
The practice of CLIL in general, Math and English Integrated Learning (MEITL) in particular, since then, has attracted attention from the whole society. However, it is worth noticing that research to date in Vietnamese context has not spend enough concern on teachers‘ opinions – an important in the process of implementing MEITL. This stud, therefore, aims at exploring the teachers‘ opinions about MEITL program‘s benefits, challenges in an education center in Hanoi, as well as their suggestions to improve MEITL‘s effectiveness. For this purpose, firstly, 32 – item questionnaires were used to get response from all 21 teachers of the center.
Semi-structured interviews were then conducted with 6 teachers from different groups: the teachers with more than 5-year experience, the teachers with 1-3 year experice, the teachers graduating from faculty of English Language Teacher Education, the teachers graduating from graduating from faculty of Mathematics Teacher Education. The results from two instruments were compared to each other to validate the study. The results of this research indicated the teachers‘ opinions about MEITL programs‘ benefits in terms of Context, Content, Language, Learning, and Culture. The research also pointed the challenges faced by teachers when teaching this program in the following factors: Collecting and Adapting materials, Designing tasks, Balancing between Math and English knowledge, Applying the program for primary students and the students with low level of English competence, Teaching and learning complex Math themes, Time allocating and Teaching Grammar and Structures.
Besides, significant recommendations were also given to help improve MEITL program. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF TABLES.
viii LISTS OF FIGURES. Research statement and rationale for the study. Aims and objectives of the study. Scope of the study.
Significance of the study. Structure of the thesis .4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Driving forces behind CLIL. Framework of CLIL .19 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Related studies worldwwide. Related studies in Vietnam. Context of the study. Statistics analysis of the questionnaires.
Content analysis of the interviews .34 CHAPTER 4: MAJOR FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. MEITL program‘s benefits, as perceived by the teachers. MEITL program‘s challenges as perceived by the teachers. Collecting and adapting materials.
Balancing between teaching Math and teaching English. Applying MEITL for primary students .57 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Applying MEITL to teach the students with low level of English competence. Teaching and learning complex Math themes in English.
Time allocating and English grammar and structure teaching. The teachers‘ recommendations to improve MEITL program‘s effectiveness. Raising public awareness of CLIL program in general, MEITL in particular. Modifying course books.
Re-organizing classes. Using Information and Communication Technology. The benefits of MEITL program, as perceived by the teachers. The challenges of MEITL program, as perceived by the teachers.
The teachers‘ recommendations concerning improving the MEITL program‘s effectiveness. Limitations and recommendations for further studies. I APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE TEACHERS. I APPENDIX 2: GUIDING QUESTIONS FOR THE INTERVIEWS .V APPENDIX 3: RESULTS FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRES.
VII APPENDIX 4: THE INTERVIEWS’ TRANSCRIPTS. XIV vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABBREVIATIONS CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning ICT: Information and Communication Technology FL: Foreign language GCSE: General Certificate of Secondary Education IGCSE: International Certificate of Secondary Education MEITL: Math and English Integrated Teaching and Learning SL: Second language ITMC: International Talent Mathematics Contest HKIMO: Hong Kong International Mathematical Olympiad World Time: World Talent Invitational Mathematics Examinations T1: Teacher 1 T2: Teacher 2 T3: Teacher 3 T4: Teacher 4 T5: Teacher 5 T6: Teacher 6 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Teachers‘ opinions about MEITL‘s benefits for context Table 2. Teachers‘ opinions about MEITL‘s benefits for content (Math) Table 3.
Teachers‘ opinions about MEITL‘s benefits for Language (English) Table 4. Teachers‘ opinions about MEITL‘s benefits for Learning Table 5. Teachers‘ opinions about MEITL‘s benefits for Culture Table 6. Teachers‘ opinions about MEITL‘s challenges viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LISTS OF FIGURES Figure 1: The Language Triptych by Coyle, Hood, Marsh (2010) Figure 2: The 4Cs framework by Coyle (2015) ix LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
INTRODUCTION This part aims at explaining the reasons for conducting this thesis, its objectives and how it can benefit the stakeholders. Additionally, the method and the structure of the thesis are introduced briefly to illustrate how the study is conducted and how it is organized. Research statement and rationale for the study The issue of the National Foreign Languages 2020 Project by Vietnam‘s Ministry of Education and Training (Decision No. 1400/QĐ-Ttg ―Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages in the National education system, period 2008 – 2020) has greatly contributed to enhance teaching and learning foreign languages in Vietnam.
Among all the objectives suggested by the Project, the implementation of Content and Language Integrated Learning has attracted attention from the whole society. The very first step of implementing the CLIL program is to integrate Math and English in the schools and education institutes. It is obviously seen that in current context of Vietnam, Math and English integrated teaching and learning program (MEITL) has recieved much public attention and feedback from students, teachers, policy makers and the researchers as well. Implicating CLIL in general and MEITL in particular has become the center problem of a number of studies in Vietnam recently.
The paper by Võ Đoàn Thọ (2015) studied the students at University of Economics Ho Chi Minh city and figured out the benefits of CLIL in students‘ perpectives and proposed the suggestions to have the effective lessons applying CLIL approach. Nguyễn Thị Thuỳ Linh (2016), in her work, discusssed four critiques by the policy actors regarding the significance of CLIL in the Vietnamese context, teachers‘ readiness, students‘ readiness and CLIL materials. That paper, also provided a general picture of teachers‘ perceptions of CLIL, how they implemented CLIL and the difficulties they encountered in practice. By examining 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com the current 6th grade Math curriculum and English curriculum in Vietnam, Vũ Đình Phương and Lê Tuấn Anh (2018) found out three solutions to teach Math and English integrated and the 2-step process of preparation for teaching a Math lesson in English by using CLIL approach.
It can be seen that the findings of the above studies are mostly based on the CLIL‘s theories and the researchers‘ view and observations. Those projects‘ outcomes, thererfore, though have pointed out many factors related to the implementation of CLIL, are still quite subjective and and do not provide enough strong ―authentic‖ evidence gathered from the teachers who actually implement CLIL in their teaching. The teachers‘ opinions about MEILT program‘s benefits, challenges and their suggestions for the good MEILT lessons are not spent enough concern although they play an important role in the process of applying MEILT in the large scale. ―What are the teachers’ opinions about MEITL program’s benefits, challenges as well as their suggestions to improve the MEITL program’s effectiveness, therefore, becomes the guiding question for this research.
Aims and objectives of the study The study first and foremost aims at exploring opinions of the teachers at an education center in Hanoi about MEITL‘s benefits, challenges and their recommendations to improve MEITL‘s effectiveness. To be more specific, the inquiry of the teachers‘ opinions is undertaken by answering three following research questions: Question 1: What are the benefits of MEITL program, as perceived by the teachers? Question 2: What are the challenges of MEITL program, as perceived by the teachers? Question 3: What are the teachers’ recommendations for improving the MEITL program’s effectiveness? 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Research method Mixed method with two main instruments – questionnaires and interviews - was applied to figure out the answers for the three research questions. To get the responses from the all participants in the short time, the questionnaires with 32 ―Likert-type‖ with 2 main aspects – MEITL program‘s benefits and challenges - were delivered first.
The teachers were asked to choose 1 from 5 alternatives ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree for each item. Those responses, were then analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics method. After the responses were grouped into MEITL program‘s benefits (with 5 categories) and challenges (with 7 categories), semi-structured interviews with 6 teachers were conducted to get explanations and the answer for the third question. Scope of the study Among various aspects which are essential to investigate around MEITL program, this study more specifically aims at examining the teachers’ opinions about Math and English Integrated Teaching and Learning Program at an education center in Hanoi.
The study is small-scale, the findings, hence are applied for the context studied but not generalized into broad environment. The other aspects are still not researched and need further studies.