MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ---------------------- NGUYEN THI HIEN AN INVESTIGATION INTO HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF USING 10TH GRADE ENGLISH TEXTBOOK TO DEVELOP PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE FOR EFL STUDENTS: CHALLENGES OR OPPORTUNITIES? MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60. TRUONG VIEN HUE, 2014 i BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ---------------------- NGUYỄN THỊ HIỀN NHẬN THỨC CỦA GIÁO VIÊN TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH LỚP 10 ĐỂ PHÁT TRIỂN NĂNG LỰC NGỮ DỤNG CHO HỌC SINH: THÁCH THỨC HAY CƠ HỘI? LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.11 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: PGS. TRƯƠNG VIÊN HUE, 2014 ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine. The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true and have not been published elsewhere.
Author Nguyễn Thị Hiền iii ABSTRACT Pragmatic competence is essential for effective communication and constitutes one of the core components of one‘s ‗communicative competence‘ (Bachman, 1990). Therefore, it is necessary to develop pragmatic competence for students. In EFL context, textbook and teacher‘s use of textbook take the main responsibility for the developments of students‘ pragmatic competences. For this reason, investigating teachers‘ perceptions of using textbook to develop pragmatic competence for students is really important in language teaching and learning.
This article reports on the finding of a study which aims to investigate teachers‘ perception of using textbook to develop pragmatic competence for EFL students. Specifically, the article examines how speech acts are linguistically presented in the 10th grade English textbook and how teachers percept of using these speech acts to develop pragmatic competence for their EFL students. The results show that the pragmatic contents presented in 10th grade textbook are inadequate in quantity and poor in quality. Textbook is neither the reliable linguistic resources nor reliable sources of pragmatic input for teachers.
Teachers admitted using only textbook is not enough to develop pragmatic for EFL students effectively; there is a need of the extra activities and supplementary materials. They also suggested some activities in classroom to surmount textbook‘s shortcomings. Using textbook to develop pragmatic competence for EFL students has some challenges as well as opportunities. However, they are challenges or opportunities depending on the attitude of each teacher.
In the last past of the article, some implications are recommended for helping the development of students‘ intercultural communicative competences. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would have been impossible without the support, help and suggestions of my supervisors, friends, colleagues and family. I would like to sincerely thank the following people who helped me to achieve this milestone. No one has been more influential than Assoc.
Prof Truong Vien during the whole thesis writing process. I sincerely thank my advisor for his insightful comments, professional guidance and detailed advice throughout the development of this thesis. I remain greatly indebted to him again for his fruitful comments and suggestions at the very earliest stage of the thesis. I am very much indebted to the kindness, patience and warm-welcome he has shown me in the course of time.
Without his unfailing help and support, it would have been impossible for me to complete my thesis. All my thanks to him are beyond words. I would also like to express my deep gratitude to my collages: Mrs. Cuu for their generosity in time, advice, support and encouragement.
I appreciate their assistance, understanding and strength. I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to my husband, who took care of my life and gave me great support and encouragement during my whole M. Last but not least, I also gratefully acknowledge all the students and teachers who completed the questionnaires. My thanks especially go to those teachers who allowed me to interview them.
v TABLE OF CONTENT SUB COVER PAGES. i-ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP .v TABLE OF CONTENTS .x LIST OF TABLES. xi LIST OF FIGURES. xiii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.
Background of the study. Rationale for the study. The aims and research questions of the study. Significance of the study.
Scope of the study. Organization of the study .6 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Models of Communicative Competence. The importance of teaching pragmatics.
Teachability of pragmatics in EFL setting. Describing speech acts. Speech acts of apologies. Speech acts of compliments.
Speech acts of complaints. Speech acts of refusals. Speech acts of requests. Speech acts of gratitude/thanks.
Role of teachers‘ uses of textbooks in developing pragmatic competence for EFL students. Significance of teachers‘ perceptions. Related studies on pragmatic competence instruction in textbooks. Design of the study.
Semi-structured focus group interviews. Validity and reliability .46 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Pragmatic Content Analysis of the 10th grade EnglishTextbook. The quantity of pragmatic contents presented in 10th grade English textbook.
The quality of pragmatic contents presented in 10th grade English textbook. Teachers‘ perceptions of the necessity of developing pragmatic competence for EFL students. Teachers‘ views of using the pragmatic contents presented in 10th grade English textbook to develop pragmatic competence for EFL students. Teachers‘ views of the quantity of the pragmatic contents presented in 10th grade English textbook.
Teachers‘ point of views on the availability of the pragmatic contents presented in 10th grade English textbook. Teachers‘ point of views on the amount of the pragmatic contents presented in 10th grade English textbook. Teachers‘ point of views on the variety of the pragmatic contents presented in 10th grade English textbook. Teachers‘ views about the quality of the pragmatic contents presented in 10th grade English textbook.
Teachers‘ point of views on the semantic features of the pragmatic contents presented in 10th grade English textbook. Teachers‘ point of views on the samples, meta-pragmatic information and the explanation of the pragmatic contents presented in 10th grade English textbook. Teachers‘ point of views on the distribution of the pragmatic contents in 10th grade English textbook. Teachers‘ views of the quantity and quality of the pragmatic contents presented in 10th grade English textbook.
General perceptions of teachers on using the pragmatic aspects presented in 10th grade English textbook. The challenges and opportunities of using 10th grade English textbook to develop pragmatic competence for EFL students. Challenges of using 10th grade English textbook to develop pragmatic competence for EFL students. Teachers‘ views on some extra activities to maximize the impact of textbook on developing pragmatic competence for EFL students_oppotunities for develop pragmatic competence for students .83 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS.
For textbook writers. For EFL teachers. For the Department of Education and Training, the Ministry of Education and Training:. For the University of Foreign Languages/ the training centers:.
Suggestions for further research.137 ix ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as a Foreign Language ELT: English Language Teaching ESL: English as a Second Language L1: The first Language L2: The second Language ML: Metalanguage information MP: Metapragmatic information SLA: Second Language Acquisition x LIST OF TABLES Table 3. Design of the study. Demographic variables of the participants (N=45). Demographic representations of participants for semi-structured interviews.
Data collection timeline and place. Item topics of the aspects of the questionnaire. Aspects of pragmatic instruction in overall goals & content. Aspects of pragmatic instruction in each unit.
Teachers‘ perceptions of the necessity of developing pragmatic for EFL students. The frequency of item 5. Mean score of teachers‘ perceptions of the necessity of teaching pragmatic competence for EFL students. Mean score of teachers‘ views on the availability of the pragmatic contents.
The frequency of item 6. The mean scores of teachers‘ perceptions on the amount of the pragmatic contents. The frequency of items 16 .The mean scores of teacher‘ perceptions of the variety of speech acts. The frequency of items 3.
Mean score of teachers‘ perceptions of the semantic features. The frequency of item 19. Mean scores of teachers‘ perceptions of the authentic samples, meta- pragmatic information and explanation. The frequency of item 20.
Mean score of teachers‘ opinions on the guidance to teach pragmatic competence. Mean scores of teachers‘ opinions on the distribution of speech acts. Mean scores of teachers‘ views of the quantity and quality of the pragmatic contents. Mean scores of teachers‘ general perceptions on using the pragmatic aspects.
Mean scores of the frequency of teachers‘ use of 10th grade English textbook to develop pragmatic competence for EFL students. Frequency of item 23. The frequency of the pre-service and in-service courses of teachers. Mean scores of teachers‘ views on some extra activities to maximize the impact of textbook oppotunities to develop pragmatic competnce for students .81 xii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.
Canale & Swain‘s (1980) and Canale‘s (1983) model of communicative competence. 87) model of communicative competence. Leech‘s (1983) and Thomas‘ (1983) distinction between pragmalinguistics and sociopragmatics. Celce-Murcia et al.
10) model of communicative competence .5 Alcón‘s (2000) model of communicative competence. Four elements of research design. Percentage of teachers‘ perceptions of the semantic features. Percentage of teachers‘ opinions on the guidance to teach pragmatic competence.
Percentage of teachers‘ opinions on the distribution of speech acts. Mean scores of teachers‘ reasons for not including pragmatic lesson in their daily lesson plans .78 xiii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In this introductory chapter, first, the background of the present study will be presented. Then, the rational for the study and the aims of the study will be stated. Next, this is followed with the significance and the scope of the study.
Finally, the structure of the study is outlined. Background of the study ―English has now acquired the title of the world‘s leading ―global language‖‖ (Crystal, 2003, p. ―It is used for business, science, and politics‖ (Sonia & Thomas, 2009, p. English is also regarded as the dominant language in the world as globalization comes to be universally accepted in political and academic discourse (Bamgbose, 2001).
English is really important and being a proficient English user is the common goal of many language learners. Vietnamese EFL learners are not the exceptions. In recent years, language teaching has shifted its focus from the traditional approach which focused on the acquisition of linguistic knowledge—vocabulary, pronunciation, and syntax—to facilitating the learners in acquiring communicative competence (Ji, 2007; Kim & Hall, 2002). Therefore, the development of the learner‘s communicative competence is now considered the goal of the language teaching process (Celce-Murcia, et al., 1995; Vellegna, 2004; Garcia, 2004 and Peiying, 2007).
As a component of non-native English speakers‘ communicative competence (Savignon, 1991) pragmatic competence is an important ingredient of language proficiency (Canale & Swain, 1980; Bachman, 1990; Bachman & Palmer, 1996, 2010). Pragmatics plays a very important role in the process of language teaching and learning because it draws the teacher‘s attention to the development of the learner‘s communicative competence (Celce-Murcia, et al., 1995; Vellegna, 2004; Garcia, 2004 and Peiying, 2007). Pragmatic competence is not only an important factor of communicative competence but also an undeniable standard for the 1 success of real communication. In communication, pragmatic errors are more serious than grammatical ones and people who speak with pragmatic errors are often considered impolite; sometimes they could be interpreted as breach of etiquette (Boxer & Pickering, 1995; Bardovi-Harlig & Mahan-Taylor, 2003).
Wolfson (1989) also point out: ―People do not normally take offense or make negative character judgments when a nonnative speaker mispronounces a word or when grammatical errors are made; indeed, such differences as those which result in a foreign accent are often found very charming. Errors in rules of speaking are a very different matter.