VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES BY: LÊ THANH CƯỜNG TEACHERS’ AND INSPECTORS’ PERCEPTIONS OF AN EFFECTIVE ENGLISH LESSON NHẬN THỨC CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ THANH TRA VỀ MỘT GIỜ DẠY TIẾNG ANH HIỆU QUẢ Minor Programme Thesis Field: Language Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 HA NOI – 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES BY: LÊ THANH CƯỜNG TEACHERS’ AND INSPECTORS’ PERCEPTIONS OF AN EFFECTIVE ENGLISH LESSON NHẬN THỨC CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ THANH TRA VỀ MỘT GIỜ DẠY TIẾNG ANH HIỆU QUẢ Minor Programme Thesis Field: Language Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: Lê Văn Canh, MA HA NOI – 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration. iii Table of contents. iv PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Methods of the study.
Scope of the study. The design of the thesis. 3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Observation as a tool to evaluate teaching.
Criteria for evaluating lesson effectiveness. 13 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 2.1 An overview of present curriculum and textbooks in upper-secondary school context ………………………………………………………………………………. Observation and teaching evaluation practice in upper-secondary context. Method of data collection.
18 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Teachers’ general perceptions of MOET’s evaluation criteria. Teachers’ interpretation of MOET’s evaluation criteria. Teachers’ suggestions about criteria for an effective lesson.
Inspectors’ general perceptions of MOET’s evaluation criteria. Inspectors’ interpretations of MOET’s evaluation criteria. Inspectors’ suggestions about criteria for an effective lesson. Convergences and divergences between teachers’ and inspectors’ perceptions.
Discussion of the findings. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research. 40 References……………………………………………………………………………41… Appendices……………………………………………………………………………I-V LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale We are living in a changing world in which new developments are affecting every aspect of life.
Now is the era of global integration with “new social movements that requires special considerations” (Canagarajah, 2006, p. In this context English has occupied its unrivalled position of a language used as a medium of international communication. English becomes “one of the most important means for acquiring access to the world intellectual and technical resources” and it “enables learners to access more advanced and up-to-date resources than they can in their native language” (Canh, 2003, p. The important role of English language in the modern life highlights the need for enhancing the quality of English language learning and teaching.
More and more researchers, scholars, educational administrators and teachers are taking interest in the matter of effective English teaching. The factors that help to promote effective teaching then have received increased attention. Classroom observation is a common practice in every school. It captures information about how teachers deliver their lessons and it is considered as the most commonly used tool not only for evaluating teachers but also for fostering their profession development (Minhis, as cited in Office of Institutitional Analysis & Planning [OIAP], 2007).
According to O’Leary (as cited in Leshem & Bar-Hama, 2008), “classroom observation has occupied a prominent role in terms of its use as a tool by which to jugde and subsequently promote good practice” (p. However, it is becoming more of a challenge to teaching evaluation through classroom observation in the present picture of language learning and teaching. The picture now is very complicated as contextual factors such as different objectives, resources, support for professional development, student motivation, etc …are influential in teaching process (OIAP, 2007). This should be taken into account when teaching evaluation is carried out.
It should be noted that a number of problems arising in the practice of evaluating teachers’ teaching have been identified by lots of researchers. According to Bath (as cited in Sawa, 1995), conventional teaching evaluation often manifests itself as “a meaningless ritual, or even worse, it becomes a recurring occasion to heighten anxiety and discomfort among teachers involved” (p. This may emerge from the fact that observers tend to use themselves as a standard and they observe impressionistically (Sheal, 1989). This is echoed LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 by Bailey (2002) when he states that teachers have sometimes felt like objects whose behaviour and key decisions were shaped by dominant views of observers who may not be aware of the daily practice of a particular language classroom.
Leshem and Bar-Hama (2008) also mention the same problem when they point out that observations tend to be subjective and are based on the observers’ own teaching approach, which can create biased results. In upper-secondary schools in Vietnam, the evaluation of teachers’ teaching is carried out on a regular basis. The most important source of information used to the evaluation is collected by means of classroom observation which has received increased concern from educational administrators, inspectors and teachers themselves. This is because criteria for evaluation are not specific, and evaluation is, therefore, more subjective and based on the evaluators’ intuition.
Also, teaching evaluation in upper-secondary school context is facing challenges on account of considerable changes in language teaching. The new textbooks with new guidelines on teaching have been introduced into this educational environment in replacement of the old-fashioned ones. The evaluation of teachers’ performance in class, however, has not yet responded well to the change. What guides inspectors’ evaluation of teachers’ performance is a set of general criteria for lesson evaluation regulated by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET).
These criteria for teaching evaluation have been administered for all subjects, so they potentially lack subject sensitivity element. It should be noted that sensible teaching evaluation with constructive comments from the observers can exert positive impact on teachers’ teaching skills. The quality of teaching evaluation, to a large extent, depends on teachers’ and inspectors’ perceptions of what constitute effective teaching. This matter has been researched in the field of language teaching.
For example, Griffits (2004) considers teacher perceptions very important as they potentially influence the effectiveness of teaching process. From the reasons mentioned above, it is urgent and necessary to explore the viewpoints that teachers and inspectors hold about criteria for an effective language lesson. Up to now, there has been little research into this thought process in upper-secondary school context. This study is intended to move toward that goal.
It is hoped that the findings of the study will make a positive contribution to the improvement in teaching evaluation practice in high school context, which is of great significance to teacher professional growth. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Research questions The research questions which guide this study are as follows: - What are teachers’ and inspectors’ perceptions of an effective English lesson in upper-secondary school context? - What suggestions are made on the criteria for evaluating an English lesson in upper- secondary school context? - What are the implications for language teaching and teaching evaluation practice in upper-secondary school context? 3. Method of the study The qualitative research method was adopted for this study to explore the upper- secondary school teachers’ and inspectors’ perceptions of an effective lesson.
Specifically, semi-structured interviews with teachers and inspectors were undertaken to collect data for analysis and discussion. Scope of the study The study focuses on discovering teachers’ and inspectors’ perceptions of an effective English lesson in Hai Duong provincial upper-secondary school context. Aspects explored center on the evaluation criteria for an effective lesson mandated by MOET. The design of the thesis The study is divided into 3 parts.
Part A is an introduction to the research, in which matters such as rationale, method of study and research questions are presented. Part B is the development of the study in which there are 2 chapters, chapter 1 and chapter 2. Chapter 1 reviews the relevant literature on the matters of effective teaching, teaching evaluation, observation and criteria for lesson effectiveness. Ideas from the researchers in the field have been discussed to create a theoretical framework for the study.
Chapter 2 presents the context of the study, the participants and data collection method. This is followed by the analysis of the data collected and discussion of the findings. Part C provides conclusions of the study findings and the implications for language teaching and teaching evaluation in upper-secondary school context. Also, in this part, the limitations and suggestions for further research are included.
LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction This chapter reviews the relevant literature on teaching evaluation. It first discusses what effective teaching is, then teaching evaluation. This is followed by a discussion of the limitations of evaluating teaching solely through classroom observations. Finally, criteria for evaluating teaching are reviewed.
Effective teaching Effective teaching is the topic that concerns lots of researchers, educational administrators and teachers. What discussed below is the matter of effective teaching in terms of teaching materials, teaching methods, class management and student learning outcome. Teaching materials Teaching materials are among the components that constitute effective teaching. Teachers need materials to carry out their instructional practice.
Effective teaching needs good materials. Researchers are currently putting a great emphasis on the use of meaningful materials in a language class. According to Siser (2008), meaningful materials are the ones that are relevant to students, reflecting real life issues and problems. The more meaningful materials are to students, the quicker and easier they will be learned.
In addition to this, the content embedded in materials should be varied, natural and authentic, so that students feel they are working on tasks in real life (Kusuma & Powell, 2004). Rivers (2003) also voices his favour of the use of materials that focus on the use of natural language. He states that it is good to provide students with practice in using the language for everyday life communication. This is opposed to the unnatural types of drills and practice exercises which are still widely used in many teaching contexts.
Learners in different contexts vary in their learning styles, language proficiency or learning needs. Rivers (2003) says that learning and teaching are shaped by student needs and objectives in particular circumstances. Therefore, materials should be designed to care about learners’ particularities. They should not be too challenging to students in terms of linguistic knowledge but should be interesting enough to motivate them in their learning.
Similarly, Martin (2005) encourages teachers to take the responsibilities of adapting LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 5 materials to suite their learners. According to him, teachers need to add, for example, extra necessary language knowledge or topics if their students want or need. Teaching methods Effective teaching results from the way the lesson is delivered to students. This requires teachers to have good instructional skills to make it easy for students to attain the target language knowledge as well as to develop their language skills.
Pellino (2009) identifies four loads as barriers to meaningful instructions, namely cognitive load, culture load, language load and learning load, and that it is the job of the teacher to lower these barriers, helping students to overcome them. Appropriate techniques need to be devised to construct understanding, and reinforce their interest in their learning process. Obviously, to teach effectively, teachers need to be flexible in their delivery of the lesson. What guides their teaching practice is not only the body of theoretical knowledge in the field of language teaching but also the reality of their classroom.
According to Rivers (2003) teachers should develop and strengthen their own way of proceeding in relation to the needs and individual strengths of their students in their own context. It is teachers who have control over their decision making process, which vary with changing circumstances. In a similar vein, Martin (2005) emphasizes the need to make changes to the lesson plan because learners vary in learning backgrounds and language proficiency.