MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEACHER COGNITION AND CLASSROOM PRACTICES IN ENGLISH SPEAKING INSTRUCTION: A CASE STUDY AT EUROPE VIETNAM AMERICA ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTER A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL) Submitted by NGUYEN MINH HOANG Supervisor: Dr. NGUYEN THUY NGA HO CHI MINH City, May 2017 Tai Lieu Chat Luong MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY ------------------------------ NGUYEN MINH HOANG THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEACHER COGNITION AND CLASSROOM PRACTICES IN ENGLISH SPEAKING INSTRUCTION: A CASE STUDY AT EUROPE VIETNAM AMERICA ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTER Major: TESOL Major number: 60 14 01 11 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL) Supervisor: NGUYEN THUY NGA, Ph. HO CHI MINH City, May 2017 i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that this thesis entitled “The relationship between teacher cognition and classroom practices in English speaking instruction: A case study at Europe Vietnam America English Language Center” is my own work. Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis does not contain material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma.
No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text of the thesis. This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution. Ho Chi Minh City, 2017 Nguyen Minh Hoang ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank this section for giving me the opportunity to thank my loved ones. Nguyen Thuy Nga has been and will always be my VIP.
Her instruction, guidance, and support mean a great deal to me. I would like to thank her for everything she has done for me and, above all, for being part of my life. My special thanks goes to the participants for their generous help and support. Without them, this thesis would not be possible.
I would also like to thank all the teachers at the Graduate school of Ho Chi Minh City Open University. Their lessons have helped me grow, not only in my teaching career but also in my life. The last, but most important, ones are my parents and younger sister. I love them more than I can say.
Thank you for being the world to me. iii ABSTRACT Thinking and actions do not always converge. In teaching, what teachers think they should do is not always executed in their classrooms. Therefore, this study set out to investigate the relationship between teacher cognition (i.
thinking, knowledge, and beliefs) and classroom practices. One teacher teaching English for International Communication at Europe Vietnam America English Language Center participated in this case study. Multiple data collection strategies including one semi-structured interview, five classroom observations, and one stimulated recall interview were utilized to investigate the relationship between her cognition and classroom practices in English speaking instruction. The findings showed that her cognition was both consistent and inconsistent with her classroom practices.
Consistencies were found in all four themes of the study including accuracy and fluency, speaking elements, teacher roles, and teacher feedback. Inconsistencies were seen in fluency-focused activities, teacher roles, and feedback in fluency- focused activities. The study revealed two reasons for the inconsistencies. First, her classroom practices were inconsistent with her ideal-oriented cognition derived from the semi-structured interview, but consistent with her reality-oriented cognition inferred from the rationale behind her classroom practices.
Second, she was not fully aware of the impact of one cognition on her classroom practices. Based on these findings, several recommendations for research on teacher cognition and the teaching of speaking (including textbook writers, teacher educators, and teachers) were made. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Statement of authorship. iii Table of contents.
iv List of figures. ix List of tables .xii Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION .1 Background to the study .2 Rationale for the study .7 Structure of the thesis. 7 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Definitions of teacher cognition.2 Definitions of classroom practices .3 Previous studies on the relationship between teacher cognition and classroom practices .3 Studies on the relationship between teacher cognition and classroom practices in Vietnam .4 Four themes of English speaking instruction .1 Accuracy and fluency. 27 Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .4 Data collection strategies .1 Semi-structured interview .3 Stimulated recall interview .6 Data collection procedure .8 Validity and reliability.
44 Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .1 The teacher’s cognition and classroom practices in terms of accuracy and fluency.1 Cognition in terms of accuracy and fluency .2 Classroom practices in terms of accuracy and fluency.3 The relationship between the teacher’s cognition and classroom practices in terms of accuracy and fluency .4 Discussion of the teacher’s cognition and classroom practices in terms of accuracy and fluency .2 The teacher’s cognition and classroom practices in terms of speaking elements .1 Cognition in terms of speaking elements.2 Classroom practices in terms of speaking elements .3 The relationship between the teacher’s cognition and classroom practices in terms of speaking elements .4 Discussion of the teacher’s cognition and classroom practices in terms of speaking elements .3 The teacher’s cognition and classroom practices in terms of teacher roles .1 Cognition in terms of teacher roles .2 Classroom practices in terms of teacher roles .3 The relationship between the teacher’s cognition and classroom practices in terms of teacher roles .4 Discussion of the teacher’s cognition and classroom practices in terms of teacher roles .4 The teacher’s cognition and classroom practices in terms of teacher feedback .1 Cognition in terms of teacher feedback .2 Classroom practices in terms of teacher feedback .3 The relationship between the teacher’s cognition and classroom practices in terms of teacher feedback.4 Discussion of the teacher’s cognition and classroom practices in terms of teacher feedback .5 Summary and discussion of the key findings about the teacher’s cognition and classroom practices related to four themes of this study .1 Summary of the key findings .2 Discussion of the key findings. 78 Chapter 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS .2 Contributions and limitations .4 Suggestions for further studies. 124 ix LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 2.1 The relationship among four themes of English speaking instruction used in this study .2 Theoretical framework for this study .1 The relationship between the participant’s cognition and classroom practices related to four themes of English speaking instruction .76 x LIST OF TABLES Page Table 2.1 A summary of previous studies on the relationship between teacher cognition and classroom practices .2 Non-communicative activities (audio-lingual drills) .1 The interview guide for the semi-structured interview .1 The relationship between the teacher’s cognition and classroom practices in terms of accuracy and fluency .2 The relationship between the teacher’s cognition and classroom practices in terms of speaking elements .3 The relationship between the teacher’s cognition and classroom practices in terms of teacher roles.4 The relationship between the teacher’s cognition and classroom practices in terms of teacher feedback. 73 xi TRANSCRIPT CONVENTIONS T teacher S, S1, S2 student’s pseudonym W writer I semi-structured interview O observation SR stimulated recall interview … pause <> interpretive comment italics translation of original speech […] skipped text xii ABBREVIATIONS EFL English as a Foreign Language ESL English as a Second Language EVA Europe Vietnam America English Language Center L1 First Language L2 Second Language 1 Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the background to research on teacher cognition will be presented first.
Following Borg (2003, 2006), the term “teacher cognition” will be used in this study to refer to teacher thinking, knowledge, and beliefs interchangeably. Then the rationale for conducting this research paper will be described. After that, I will state the aims, questions, theoretical framework, and significance of this study. At the end of this chapter, the structure of the thesis will be provided.1 Background to the study In this section, I briefly summarize the history and reviews of research on teacher cognition to provide the background to the study.
As learning and teaching are inextricably woven, students’ achievements are undoubtedly influenced by their teachers’ instruction. Studies on teaching over the past few decades have attempted to delineate this mutual relationship. In the 1970s, the process-product model proposed by Dunkin and Biddle (1974) was the predominant approach in research on teaching. It aimed to depict to what extent teachers’ behaviors were causatively linked to students’ learning outcomes.
This model failed to take account of the influence of teachers’ cognition on their classroom practices (Borg, 2006). Then a new shift in studies on teaching arose in the report of a conference organized by the National Institute of Education in the United States in 1975 which stated: “If, however, teaching is done, and in all likelihood, will continue to be done by human teachers, the question of relationships between thought and action becomes crucial” (National Institute of Education, 1975, p. This approach emphasized the need to study teachers’ cognitive processes for a more comprehensive understanding of their classroom behaviors. Teachers were no longer considered as passive technicians who only transmitted prescribed knowledge to students but rather thoughtful decision-makers who reflected on what they thought, knew, and believed for effective instructional behaviors.
2 In the late 1970s, the primary foci of studies on teacher cognition were “teachers’ planning, judgments and decision-making” (Borg, 2006, p. In the 1980s, the most dominant concept investigated by research on teacher cognition was knowledge with practical knowledge (Elbaz, 1981) and pedagogical content knowledge (Shulman, 1987) receiving most attention (Borg, 2009). In the 1990s, knowledge, specifically craft knowledge (Grimmett & Mackinnon, 1992), teacher knowledge (Fenstermacher, 1994), and subject-matter knowledge (Shulman & Quinlan, 1996), continued to be examined. Teacher beliefs were also investigated in this decade.
According to Borg (2006), the most comprehensive review of studies on teacher beliefs was done by Pajares (1992). In this review, he decomposed the term “educational beliefs” into different foci referred to as “educational beliefs about” for subsequent research on teacher beliefs. Studies on L2 teacher cognition have been conducted since the mid-1990s. Borg (2003) reviewed 64 studies following this direction.
The review found that two investigated curricular areas were grammar and literacy instruction. In terms of context, the U. had the largest number of studies on teacher cognition and most of the studies focused on ESL instruction. Borg (2006) did another review of over 180 studies on language teacher cognition.
They were conducted in L1, ESL, and EFL teaching contexts. The review showed that research on language teacher cognition was fragmented. Most of the studies were conducted in the U.; the others came from other countries such as Hong Kong, the U. The studies were split into three broad groups: pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, and specific curricular domains.
The foci of the first two groups were teachers’ experiences, beliefs, decisions, and knowledge whereas those of the third one were grammar and literacy (reading and writing). Borg’s (2003, 2006) reviews revealed that most studies on language teacher cognition were implemented in the U., and only two curricular areas (grammar and literacy) were investigated. In Borg’s (2006) framework for teacher cognition research (see appendix 1), teachers’ schooling and professional coursework influence teacher cognition; and 3 teacher cognition and classroom practice have a dialectical relationship mediated by contextual factors. Due to this nature, Borg (2003, p.
86) proposed three themes for studies on language teacher cognition including “(a) cognition and prior language learning experiences, (b) cognition and teacher education, and (c) cognition and classroom practice”. In terms of curricular areas, most studies on language teacher cognition focused on grammar teaching whereas very few investigated speaking instruction (Borg, 2009). Indeed, in Borg’s (2015) bibliography of research on language teacher cognition from 2010 to 2015, there were only three studies related to speaking instruction including those of Dinçer and Yeşilyurt (2013), Baleghizadeh and Nasrollahi Shahri (2014), and Chen and Goh (2014).