MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ NGUYEN THI NHU AN AN INVESTIGATION INTO TYPES OF CLASSROOM INTERACTION IN TEACHING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS TO YOUNG LEARNERS AT SOME PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN HUE CITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Hue University of Foreign Languages HUE, 2015 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ NGUYEN THI NHU AN AN INVESTIGATION INTO TYPES OF CLASSROOM INTERACTION IN TEACHING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS TO YOUNG LEARNERS AT SOME PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN HUE CITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.11 SUPERVISOR: TRUONG BACH LE, D. HUE, 2015 i BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ -------- NGUYỄN THỊ NHƯ AN ĐIỀU TRA CÁC LOẠI TƯƠNG TÁC TRONG GIẢNG DẠY KỸ NĂNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH CHO TRẺ EM TẠI CÁC TRƯỜNG TIỂU HỌC Ở THÀNH PHỐ HUẾ LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.11 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TIẾN SỸ TRƯƠNG BẠCH LÊ HUẾ, 2015 ii STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself. Signature Nguyen Thi Nhu An iii ABSTRACT This thesis aims to investigate effective ways to improve students’ learning in English classes through classroom interaction at some primary schools in Hue city.
Firstly, it defines the importance of classroom interactions. Secondly, it answers which interaction patterns can be observed in language classroom. Thirdly, how these interactions affect the learner’s participations and learning outcomes. The participants of this study include 50 teachers at 10 primary schools in Hue city.
The data were collected by means of questionnaires, class observations and interviews. The finding of the research projects shows that the teachers are aware of the importance of classroom interaction. The teachers used many types of activities to encourage students to learn and interact so that they have more opportunity to develop their oral skills. From the findings, there are three types of interaction including teacher-student, student-student and student-content.
The survey shows that teacher-student and student-student interaction modes are frequently used in teaching and learning English at some primary schools in Hue city. Finally, some implications and suggestions are made in the hope that teachers will improve spoken English learning through promoting classroom interaction. iv Acknowledgements In the process of choosing and conducting the study, I am fortunate enough to receive valuable assistance and support. My thanks first go to my supervisor, Dr.
Truong Bach Le for his early suggestion of the topic and his warm support throughout the current study. I am really thankful that he has spent time correcting and giving comments to my work. Moreover, I respect the support from 50 English of teachers of ten primary schools in Hue city who completed the questionnaire and the interview with interest and enthusiasm. Equally important, I appreciate the encouragement of my beloved sister, Ms.
Huynh Thi Phuong for her whole-heart help and encouragement when I collected the data. Finally, I would like to show my deep gratitude to my beloved family, my lovely friends who are always by my side, give me mental support and most importantly, more inspirations to finish the thesis after a lot of difficulties. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Pages SUB COVER PAGE STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ABSTRACT ACKOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CONTENTS OF THESIS CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION. Reasons for the research.
Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Structure of the study .4 CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW. Previous studies related to the topic.
What is interaction?. Interaction as a general term. Interaction as a key term in EFL .Teaching and learning activities promoting interaction. Types of classroom interaction.
The Nature of Speaking and Learning Speaking. Definition of speaking. Nature of Oral Communicative Activities in the Classroom. Reason for Teaching Speaking to young learners.
Characteristics of young learners. How children learn language through interaction. Helpful ideas for teaching English to young learners .23 CHAPTER 3 - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .28 CHAPTER 4 - FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. The teachers’ perceptions of the importance of teaching speaking skill to children.
The importance of classroom interaction. Teachers’ perceptions of interaction patterns in language classroom. Data analysis from class observation. Activities used to promote interaction and their advantages.
Kind of activities used to promote interaction. Groups formation and some difficulties in working in groups. Types of activities used by teachers to interact with students. The impacts of classroom interaction.
The impacts of classroom of interaction patterns on learning outcomes .46 vii CHAPTER 5 - CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS. Summary of findings. What are primary school teachers’ perceptions of interaction in developing speaking skills for the learners?. Which types of classroom interaction are used in teaching English speaking skills to young learners at some primary schools in Hue city?.
How do these interactions affect the learners’ participation and their learning outcomes?. Implications and suggestions. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research. 61 APPENDIX 2 - INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS .66 APPENDIX 3 - OBSERVATION CHECK-LIST .67 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT : Communicative Language Teaching EFL : English as a Foreign Language ZPD : Zone of Proximal Development Yls : Young learners ix LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS A.
LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1: The teachers’ perceptions of the importance of teaching speaking skill to children.2: Evaluation of teachers on students’ current speaking ability. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Council of Europe (2001), Language Policy Division .4: The ranking of difficulties that teachers think their young learners might have in learning speaking skills.5: Teacher’s perceptions of interaction. LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4.1: Teachers’ perception of interaction patterns .2: Kinds of activities to promote interaction .3: Teachers’ choices of types of activities from questionnaire .4: Teacher’s views on impacts of classroom interaction .5: The impacts of classroom of interaction patterns on learning outcomes .46 x LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix 1 : Questionnaire Appendix 2 : Interview questions Appendix 3 : Observation check-list xi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. Research background In recent years, the teaching of English as a foreign language has been expanding into every primary schools in Hue.
At the same time course books for children have been published, in which speaking occupies a major part, especially in course books for teens. Along with the growing tendency to learn English in primary schools, methodologies began to be interested in studying on teaching English to children. The proof of this is that a few materials on this matter have come into being, such as “Teaching English in the primary classroom” by Halliwell, (1992). These methodologists focused on the matters such as childern’s characteristics, the challenge of teaching children and how best to teach EFL to children.
It is agreed that how the learning of English language can be made most attractive and relevant to children requires a great deal of attention. First and foremost, let me identify characteristics of young language learners. In Halliwell’s view (1992:3), “children are very good at interpreting meaning without necessarily understanding the individual words. Children also frequently have learned indirectly rather than directly, i.e, they seem to notice something out of the corner of their eyes and to remember it better than what they were actually supposed to be learning.
What is more, children take great pleasure in finding and creating fun in what they do and they especially enjoy a vivid imagination. Another significant characteristic of children is that they take great delight in talking.” In recent decades, we have witnessed the significant changes in the English teaching methods to the communicative language teaching method (CLT). The CLT method to the enables students to improve and develop their communicative competence, especially their speaking skills. However, in reality although many students spend a lot of time and energy learning English, they still fail to use English to communicate effectively.
Classroom interaction can be seen as an effective way for students to learn a foreign language, especially English. It is 1 where students and teacher exchange their knowledge and lessons-related problems. Through interaction students have more chances to practice four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Today with the popularity of CLT in Vietnam.
English learners have access to a more interactive learning environment. Keller & Thrush (1987) stated that the advantages of group or pair activities as a way of centering class attention have become much more obvious. With pair and group activity, the teacher is free, students get constant rather than occasional practice, shy students seem to be highly motivated to learn and students can feel more comfortable to ask questions in learning. Although interaction in language classrooms has also attracted attention of many researchers in the world, this topic has not received enough attention in Vietnam context regardless of the teachers’ broad awareness of the positive effect of CLT on language competence.
For all of reasons above, my choice of this research topic is “ An investigation into types of classroom interaction in teaching English speaking skill to young learners at some primary schools in Hue city”. The present researcher does hope that this research would, to some extent, help teachers of English in classes for children teach speaking successfully. Reasons for the research This research was carried out for the following reasons. Firstly, speaking is perhaps the most demanding skill for the teacher to teach to their own language children are able to express emotions, communication, invention and reactions, explore the language and make fun of it, so they expect to be able to do the same in English.
Part of the magic of teaching young children a foreign language is their unspoken assumption, that the foreign language is just another way of expression, but there are limitations because of their lack of actual language. According to Scott and Ytreberg (1990; pp.2-3) Teaching English to non- English speaking children can be very rewarding and challenging. Many English teachers often put an emphasis on grammar instead of the child being able to verbally communicate in English. After years of studying English in school, 2 although, the non-native speaker may be able to read and write English correctly, he/she is not able to speak English properly because of lack of practice.
Understanding this, the researcher thinks that it is extremely important to teach English speaking to children effectively. Secondly, in language teaching and learning, interaction offers students chances to participate in the class to which communicative language teaching (CLT) are being promoted to teach. In CLT, the learners are centered so interaction helps them develop their communicative skills and it also provides an active learning environment. It creates a collaborative learning, for example.
Clearly, interaction brings success to teaching English language because it makes the learners be confident and gives learners more chances to participate in class. Thirdly, I am myself a teacher. I got into teaching after gaining my language degree in English. I then started teaching at some high schools and especially children and I had about one hundred private pupils between the ages of 7 and 11 taking English lessons from me in their free time.
I always communicate with children. To tell the truth kids teaching isn’t as easy as it may seem. Not every educator can manage it. Children grow very enthusiastic when they are taught by games.
You need to treat them patiently, fairly and reactively so that they can feel that you love them much.