TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Pages Sub cover page Statement of Authorship i Acknowledgements ii List of Abbreviations and Symbols iii List of Tables iv List of Charts v List of Figure v List of Appendices vi Table of Contents. Background of the Research. Purposes of the Research. Scope of the Research.
Significance of the Research. Overall organization of the research. Prior Studies Related to the Research. The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT).
Definitions of CLT. Some Features of Communicative Language Teaching. Principles of CLT. Roles of Teachers and Learners in CLT.
Definitions of Communicative Activities. Characteristics of Communicative Activities. Types of Communicative Activities in EFL Classrooms. The Nature of Teaching Reading in EFL.
Definitions of Reading. Kinds of Reading. Principles for Teaching Reading. Teaching Reading in a Communicative Way.
Textbooks and the Role of Textbooks in a Language Program. What is a Textbook?. The Role of Textbook in a Language Program. What is Textbook Adaptation?.
Why Adapt a Textbook?. Techniques of Adaptation. Framework for Adaptation. Instruments of Data Collection.
Procedures of Collecting Data. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Findings and Discussion. Teachers' Difficulties in Teaching Reading Communicatively with Tieng Anh 12.
Teachers' Opinions on the Reading Texts and Tasks of Tieng Anh 12. Teachers' Opinions on the Teaching Time to Reading Activities. Problems in EFL Classrooms Constraining Teachers from Teaching Reading Communicatively. Teachers' Perception on Using Communicative Activities to Promote .46 Communication in Reading Lessons.
Students' Difficulties in Learning Reading Communicatively with Tieng Anh 12. Students' General Perception on the Reading Texts and Tasks of Tieng Anh 12. Students' View on the Time to Finish Reading Tasks of Tieng Anh 12. Problems Students Face in Reading Lessons.
Students' Frequency of Speaking English in Reading Class. Teachers' Perception on the Necessity of Adapting Tieng Anh 12 for Teaching Reading More Communicatively. Teachers' Adaptation of Tieng Anh 12 for Teaching Reading More Communicatively. Frequency of Adapting the Reading Tasks of Tieng Anh 12.
Ways of Adapting the Reading Tasks of Tieng Anh 12. Teachers' Difficulties in Adapting Tieng Anh 12 for Teaching Reading More Communicatively. Results from Pilot Teaching of Adapted Reading Lesson Plan. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION.
For Educational Authorities. Suggested Further Research .78 APPENDICES 3 ABSTRACT This research studies the adaptation of "Tieng Anh 12" for teaching reading more communicatively at upper secondary schools in Quang Tri Province. The research addresses issues of EFL teachers and students' opinions on the difficulties in teaching and learning reading communicatively with "Tieng Anh 12" and teachers' perception on what part of the textbook needs adapting. The paper also finds out how EFL teachers adapted reading tasks of "Tieng Anh 12" and problems faced by teachers during adapting process.
In this research, both qualitative and quantitative methods were utilized to collect data of real teaching context, teachers' attitudes towards adapting "Tieng Anh 12" and the practicality of teachers' adaptation. The data in this research were collected from 20 EFL teachers and 200 students at upper secondary schools in Quang Tri Province via the research instruments such as questionnaires, interviews and class observations. The findings of the research indicates that a majority of EFL teachers and students encountered many difficulties from "Tieng Anh 12" such as long reading tasks and texts, unsuitable and less communicative tasks, difficult tasks and reading passages to students and so on. Besides, the finding results reveal that teachers' perception on adapting “Tieng Anh 12” was positive.
Many problems faced by teachers during their adaptation were also talked about in this project. Such troubles as lack of facilities, limitation of materials, lack of time for preparation and financial problems directly affected teachers' adaptation. The research also conducts a pilot teaching and gets a feasible result. Hence, together with the research results, the implications contributed to the improvement of teaching and learning reading with "Tieng Anh 12" have already been reflected in the conclusion of this research.
BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCH Together with the present trend of globalization, the government of Vietnam has been implementing the “open-door policy” to integrate into the world community in many fields such as economics, politics, commerce, education and so on. By the same token, many great changes in the educational system of Vietnam have brought about a lot of chances for Vietnamese people to learn English to meet the urgent demands required by their work. This practice requires the English teaching staff of Vietnam to apply Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach to promoting language communication for learners. In the article about “Imported” Communicative Language Teaching: Implications for Local Teachers, Doctor Pham Hoa Hiep [37:3] writes: “In Vietnam, for example, teachers of English recognize that traditional pedagogy, emphasizing the acquisition of grammar and vocabulary rather than communicative competence, does not meet the requirements of English learning in an era of integration and globalization.” Being aware of the important role of CLT in enhancing communicative competence for English learners, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) of Vietnam has compiled various types of textbooks with the communicative approach aiming at helping students to develop their speaking skill.
Since 2000, the MOET has co-operated with Vietnam’s English Teacher and Trainer Network (VTTN) program sponsored by British Council to help Vietnamese Teachers of English (VTOE) apply CLT to creating more communicative activities in classes. The VTTN has held many seminars and workshops to attract VTOE from different provinces with the aim at applying communicative activities to classes and changing teachers' attitudes towards teaching methodologies. That is, it needs to shift the traditional methodology to communicative approach in teaching all skills such as 5 listening, speaking, reading, writing and so on. However, this is still a great challenge for many VTOE.
Currently, the MOET has issued the English textbooks for general education in which the exercises are primarily task-based. Besides communicative tasks, some tasks are not very communicative. Others are very difficult for students to interact or communicate well during their learning. Therefore, it is necessary for VTOE to adapt the current English textbooks to promote communication.
As Cunningsworth [11] said, even the "best" coursebook requires adaptation. Practically, the purpose of the current English textbooks of MOET is to train students with such skills as reading, listening, speaking and writing. Amongst them, reading is, initially, an important skill that lays the basic foundation for other skills. Thus, it requires VTOE to equip students with the communicative competence right from reading lessons.
To reach this aim, reading lessons should be adapted to give students more chance to interact and communicate with each other. As a VTOE at Gio Linh upper secondary school in Quang Tri province, the researcher has witnessed that students encountered a lot of difficulties in learning reading with the current English textbooks and they could not communicate well in reading classes. The majority of my grade 12 students had few chances to interact or communicate with each other in reading lessons and sometimes they talked in Vietnamese or worse, they did not talk at all (M. Tran, personal communication, September 20th, 2009).
This makes the author wonder if teaching reading is actually difficult. Why cannot students have a good competence of communication in English? Are the tasks in the current English textbooks difficult to them in learning reading communicatively? What should VTOE adapt for promoting communication in reading lessons? Personally, adapting these textbooks might be one of the solutions to these problems. Regarding what mentioned above as the matters of prime concern, the researcher has decided upon the implementation of the research entitled “A Study on Adaptation of "TIENG ANH 12" for Teaching Reading More Communicatively at Upper Secondary Schools in Quang Tri Province”. With 6 this study it is hoped to find out how high school teachers of English in Quang Tri have adapted the current English textbook for teaching reading and whether their adaptation is effective or not.
Also, some appropriate solutions and suggestions for VTOE at upper secondary schools in Quang Tri province to adapt the textbook "TIENG ANH 12" for teaching reading more communicatively are expected to be drawn out from this research. PURPOSES OF THE RESEARCH From the aforesaid reasons, the specific aims of the research are as follows: To find out difficulties that teachers and students meet in teaching reading communicatively with the current English textbook "TIENG ANH 12". To find out what need to be adapted in terms of promoting communication in reading lessons. To discover how teachers have adapted "TIENG ANH 12" for promoting communication in reading classes.
To discover the difficulties that teachers have encountered in adapting the current English textbook "TIENG ANH 12" for teaching reading more communicatively. To draw out some possible solutions and suggestions to overcome the difficulties and improve teaching and learning reading communicatively with "TIENG ANH 12". RESEARCH QUESTIONS In order to serve the above-mentioned aims, this research tries to seek the answers to the following questions: 1) What are the difficulties teachers and students meet in teaching and learning reading communicatively with the current textbook “TIENG ANH 12”? 2) What need adapting in terms of teaching reading more communicatively in the currently used English textbook “TIENG ANH 12”? 3) How do teachers of English at upper secondary schools in Quang Tri adapt “TIENG ANH 12” for teaching reading more communicatively? 7 4) What are the difficulties teachers of English at upper secondary schools in Quang Tri encountered in adapting “TIENG ANH 12” for teaching reading more communicatively? 1. SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH This research focuses on investigating teachers' adaptation of Tieng Anh 12 for teaching reading more communicatively at four upper secondary schools in Quang Tri: Dong Ha, Quang Tri, Gio Linh, and Cua Tung.
Due to the limitation of time and constraint of the research, this research is only limited to 20 teachers of English chosen at random and 200 students of grade 12 at 4 schools mentioned earlier. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH The result of this research will bring about some possible solutions, meaningful suggestions and pedagogical implications which are very beneficial for teachers to overcome difficulties mentioned previously and improve English language communication for grade 12 students through reading lessons. Furthermore, after having conducted this research, I myself can develop knowledge, skills and experiences for improving my teaching quality. OVERALL ORGANIZATION OF THE RESEARCH The research consists of five chapters as follows: Chapter 1, the introduction, presents the background of the research including the rationale, the purposes of the research, the research questions, the scope of the study, the research significance and the overall organization of the research.
Chapter 2, the literature review, describes fundamental and theoretical concepts which are relevant to the study. Chapter 3, the research methodology, addresses the subjects, methods to implement the study, research instruments to collect data such as questionnaires, class observation sheets and interviews. The chapter also presents the data analysis and the procedures for conducting the research. Chapter 4 includes the findings and discussion about the results of the investigation.
Chapter 5 briefly presents the conclusion of the study, pedagogical implications, limitations, and suggestions for further studies. 8 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2. OVERVIEW This chapter, first, addresses a brief summary of the prior studies related to textbook adaptation conducted by the educators and researchers both inside and outside Vietnam. Some studies on the application of CLT and communicative activities for teaching reading communicatively with the English textbooks for general education are also mentioned.
Second, the theoretical background relating to the fields of the research such as the Communicative Language Teaching, communicative activities, the nature of teaching reading, textbook, the role of textbook and techniques for adapting a textbook are also mentioned or defined clearly basing on the viewpoints of various researchers around the world. The chapter finally concludes by highlighting the necessity of conducting the research.