VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LUÂN THỊ PHƯƠNG HẢO THE CURRENT SITUATION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING TO THE 10-FORM STUDENTS AT DONG HY SECONDARY SCHOOL: A CASE STUDY Nghiên cứu thực trạng dạy tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp 10 của Trường THPT Đồng Hỷ: Nghiên cứu trường hợp điển hình M. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 SUPERVISOR: Prof. HOÀNG VĂN VÂN 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 LUÂN THỊ PHƯƠNG HẢO THE CURRENT SITUATION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING TO THE 10-FORM STUDENTS AT DONG HY SECONDARY SCHOOL: A CASE STUDY Nghiên cứu thực trạng dạy tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp 10 của Trường THPT Đồng Hỷ: Nghiên cứu trường hợp điển hình M. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 HA NOI - 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Table of contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND TABLES PART A: INTRODUCTION I.
Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Methods of the study. Design of the study.
3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Definition of a communicative activity. Characteristics of a good communicative activity. Communicative language teaching.
Brief history of CLT. The principles of CLT. The characteristics of CLT. Conditions related to CLT.
Advantages of using CLT. Problems of applying CLT. Previous studies related to CLT. 13 Chapter 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2.
Background of the study. Description of the students. Description of the teachers. Setting of the study.
18 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. The classroom observation. Presentation of statistical results. Results of questionnaires.
Results of the class observations. 28 Chapter 3: Findings and recommendation. Difficulties from students. Difficulties from teachers.
Difficulties from the testing. Difficulties from environment. For the students. For the teachers.
Reform of the testing. Improving the environment. Summary of the study. Limitations and suggestions study of the study.
LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com List of abbreviations CLT : Communicative Language Teaching ELT : English Language Teaching DH : Dong Hy LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com List of tables Table 1: Teachers’ ages. 17 Table 2: Teachers’ years of teaching English. 18 Table 3: Teachers’ CLT training background. 18 Table 4: Teachers’ opinions about method.
19 Table 5: Teachers’ information about the enrichment of knowledge on CLT. 19 Table 6: Teachers’ information about perception on CLT. 20 Table 7: Teachers’ point of view about CLT. 20 Table 8: Teachers’ understanding about CLT.
22 Table 9: The frequency of activities used in the classroom. 24 Table 10: Teachers’ error correction. 25 Table 11: The frequency of change the position of students’ seat, tables and benches for the lesson situations. 25 Table 12: Teachers’ opinions about the currently- used textbook.
26 Table 13: Teachers’ difficulties in their teaching. 27 Table 14: Teachers’ self-assessment of their application of CLT. 28 Table 15: Classroom observation (teacher 1). 29 Table 16: Classroom observation (teacher 2).
30 Table 17: Classroom observation (teacher 3). 31 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 Part A: Introduction I. Retionale of the stuty It can‟t be denied that today English is the most widely used means of communication around the world. English is important in almost all sectors, including education, business, industry, and science.
About fifteen years ago, English is compulsory given in our secondary school curriculum and widely taught in our colleges and universities. Many different methodologies have been used by English language teaching in our country; such as, the grammar translation, the direct method. however our students still find it hard to communicate in real life situation. So speaking skill, as a production and interaction skill, is especially paid attention to.
Many years ago, teaching language and especially teaching English in Vietnam experienced many difficulties and we could see this clearly in the secondary school. The curriculum is not unified. Tests are not suitable to teaching so it makes learners despondent in studying. Teachers are not adequately trained.
Students lack motive learning. Books are not communication-based. Learners do not have many chances to use language to communicate with each other although they remember a lot of words, structures and understand grammar well. Teachers mainly teach vocabulary and grammar, etc.
However in 2006, the New English textbook for grade 10 (English 10) has been used to teach next to English 6, English 7, English 8 and English 9 instead of the old textbooks. English 10 is compiled based on “Themes” and follows two current approaches the learner-centered approach and communicative language teaching (CLT). English 10 contains sixteen teaching units. Each teaching unit consists of five 45-minute periods with four skills: reading, speaking, listening, and writing skill, and a language focus lesson.
In the units, teachers teach learners to use language fluently in communication stead of presenting the exact language about grammar, vocabulary. This new trend has opened more chances for students to improve their spoken language. Students have chances to listen to both native and non-native English speakers from the tapes, CDs accompanied with the book. In order to having a look at situation realistically about the usefulness and application of the new method - Communicative language teaching (CLT) in English language LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 teaching at the secondary school through three school years.
In this study, as a teacher of the school, I would like to investigate the current teaching situation of the 10th form students at Dong Hy Secondary School. Aims of the study The study is aimed at finding out the English language teaching and learning at Dong Hy Secondary School in Thai Nguyen. It is expected that the study will be referred to testimony necessity in improving those facts. To be more specific of purposes in this study are: - To investigate the current situation of English language teaching at Dong Hy Secondary School by focusing on studying the following conditions: the teachers with their perceptions of CLT and their CLT practical application, the examination, the new English text book, the students and the teaching and learning environment.
- To find out difficulties that the teachers of English at Dong Hy Secondary School experience when applying CLT. - To offer some suggestions on how to improve the quality of teaching English when using CLT. Scope of the study The study focuses on the investigation of teaching English at Dong Hy Secondary School in Thai Nguyen when applying CLT approach. As set in the aims of the study, I limited to focus on studying the following contents: the teachers with their perceptions of CLT and their CLT practical application, the examination, the new English textbook, the students and the teaching and learning environment.
Due to the limit of time and within the scope of an M.A minor thesis, only grade 10 students and six teachers at Dong Hy Secondary Schools in Thai Nguyen are chosen as the participants of the study. Methods of the study In order to complete this thesis, the quantitative method was used to collect the needed data from the participants. - The questionaire was for six teachers at Dong Hy Secondary School. - The class observations were conducted.
Three classrooms were chosen at random for observation (with no attempt to select the best or the most experienced teachers as well LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 3 as the best or the weakest students). All comments, remarks, recommendations, and conclusions given in this study were based on the data analysis. Design of the study The thesis consists of three parts. Part A - Introduction- Presents the rationale, the aim, scope, methods, and design of the study.
Part B - Development- consists of three chapters. Chapter one-Literature Review- Deals with the theories related to the study: Communicative activities, Communicative language teaching, Advantages of using CLT in teaching foreign language, Problems of the application of CLT in teaching English as a foreign language, Previous studies relating to CLT application, Conditions related to CLT application. Chapter two-Research methodologies- Presents the methodology performed in the study. It provides information about the participants, the instrumentation.
Data collection and findings are also presented in this chapter. Chapter three-Findings and recommendations. Discusses the data of the study and propose recommendations for applying CLT in teaching English to grade10 students at DH secondary school. Part C: Conclusion- Summarizes all the key issues as well as the limitations of the study and suggestions for further study.
LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 Part b: Development CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter briefly covers the concepts related to the study: communicative activities, communicative language teaching, advantages of using CLT in teaching foreign language, problems of the application of CLT in teaching English as a foreign language, previous studies relating to CLT application, conditions related to CLT application. Communicative activities The aim of a CA in class is to get learners to use the language they are learning to interact in realistic and meaningful ways, usually involving exchanging of information. Thus, in order to organize and improve CA the following should be taken into consideration. Definition of a communicative activity According to Harmer (1991), communicative activities are the ones which involve learning through using language for a communicative purpose.
They are the activities in which learners use the linguistic repertoire they have learnt in order to communicate specific meanings for specific purposes. Sharing the same definition, Scrivener (1994) claimed that communicative activities are classroom activities designed to get learners to speak and listen to one another. In other words, whatever activity the students are involved in, if it is to be genuinely communicative and if it is really promoting language use, the students should have a desire to communicate. If they do not want to be involved in communication then that communication will probably not be effective.
The students should have some kind of communicative purpose. That is to say, they should use language in some way to achieve an objective. Then their attention should be centered on the content of what is being said or written not the language form that is being used. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.2 Characteristics of a good communicative activity A communicative activity should have a desire to communicate.
When someone asks a question, they must wish to get some information. There must be either an „information gap‟ or an „opinion gap‟ or some other reason to communicate. For example, when the teacher asks students to describe their house, the teacher is creating an artificial „communicative purpose‟ and making the activity more artificial by asking to do it in English. The teacher also creates „information gap‟ by giving different information to pairs of students so that they can have a reason to exchange information.
Another characteristic of a communicative activity is that there is a focus on meaning not language forms. In real life students do not ask about their friends‟ family in order to practice „have got‟ forms. They ask the questions because they are interested in the information. That means what they are interested is the meaning not the language forms.
According to Littlewood (1981, p.17) a good CA can provide „whole-task practice‟, improve motivation, allow natural learning and create a context that supports learning. The followings are the contributions that a good communicative activity can make to language learning: First, communicative activities provide "whole - task practice".