MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ PHAN THI MINH THUONG A STUDY ON PERCEPTIONS AND OUT-OF-CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES FOR FOSTERING MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES BY FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING HUE, 2013 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ PHAN THI MINH THUONG A STUDY ON PERCEPTIONS AND OUT-OF-CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES FOR FOSTERING MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES BY FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: PHAM HOA HIEP, D. HUE, 2013 i BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ -------- PH N TH INH THƯ NG NGHI N CỨ VỀ NHẬN THỨC VÀ CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG NGOÀI ỚP HỌC NH PHÁT TRIỂNTR TH NG INH Đ DI N CỦ INH VI N N 1 CH N NGÀNH TIẾNG NH TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ĐẠI HỌC H Ế ẬN V N THẠC ẬN VÀ PHƯ NG PHÁP DẠ HỌC Ộ N TIẾNG NH Ã Ố: 60140111 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: T PHẠ H HI P HUẾ, 2013 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 Phan Thi Minh Thuong iii ABSTRACT This thesis attempts to study the perceptions of first year students majoring in English about Multiple Intelligences Theory (MIT) in language learning as well as to discover the types of out-of-class learning activities that students can do to foster their Multiple Intelligences (MI).
In addition, the thesis also explores the difficulties faced by first year English majors in recognizing and fostering their MI. Questionnaire and interview were two main data collection tools. One hundred questionnaires were delivered to first year English majors and in-depth interviews were also conducted with 10 students, who had score from 3.2 and higher in the first semester of the school year 2012-2013 or who were the most active students recommended by their teachers.0 was used for data analysis to ensure that the results are reliable. The findings show that students were open-minded to accept the new concepts of MIT.
Moreover, they had applied some out-of-classroom activities and recognized the effectiveness of those activities. In specific, some typical out-of-class learning activities such as pair works, group works, and self-studying were preferred. Especially, “listening to music” and “watching films” seemed to be the most advantageous activities. Conversely, some difficulties faced by students in recognizing and fostering their MI were revealed.
iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to thank the Head of Department of Foreign Languages for giving me this precious opportunity to conduct this research. Especially, I would like to express my great appreciation to my supervisor, Dr Pham Hoa Hiep, for his valuable and constructive suggestions during the planning and development of this study work. His advice, guidance, and comments have helped me improve not only the research project but also my professional development. I would also like to show my gratitude to Associate Prof.Dr Le Pham Hoai Huong for her willingness to help enthusiastically and her encouragement during the research time.
My sincere words of thanks also go to Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Bao Chau, Ms. Tran Hoang Lien Thi, Ms. Cao Thi Xuan Lien, who have supported in questionnaires delivery.
Other deeply thanks I want to send to first year English students in Hue University College of Foreign Languages, who were very enthusiastic to answer questionnaires and interview. Finally, I am grateful to my family and my friends who have their own ways for supporting me during the process of conducting this paper. Hue City, October 2013 Phan Thi Minh Thuong v TABLE OF CONTENTS Pages Contents SUB COVER PAGE. i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP .v TABLE OF CONTENTS .i LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.ix LIST OF TABLES .x LIST OF FIGURES .xi LIST OF APPENDICES.xii CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION.
Background of the study. Rationale of the study. Aims of the study. Significance of the study.
Scope of the study. Structure of the study .3 CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW. Definitions of Multiple Intelligences Theory. Multiple Intelligences and English language learning .4 Multiple intelligences and out-of-class learning activities.
Studies on Multiple Intelligences and language learning. The importance of applying MIT to EFL learners by using out-of-class activities in Vietnam. The areas of MIT that needs further exploration. Data collection tools.
Procedure of data collection .19 CHAPTER 4 - FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. Findings and discussions. Students‟ perceptions about Multiple Intelligences Theory. Students‟ perceptions about the opposite ideas between Gardner‟s MIT and the traditional concepts of intelligence.
Students‟ perceptions about the MI‟s view in pedagogy. Students‟ use of MI through out-of-classroom activities. Difficulties faced by students in recognizing and fostering their MI. Difficulties faced by students in recognizing their MI.
Difficulties faced by students in fostering their MI. Effectiveness of using the out-of-classroom activities. Difficulties and solutions in using out-of-classroom activities. Difficulties with out-of-classroom activities.38 CHAPTER 5 - CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS.
Summary of the research. Students‟ perceptions about Multiple Intelligences Theory. Students‟ use of MI through out-of-classroom activities. Difficulties faced by students in recognizing and fostering their MI.
For English majored students. For EFL teachers. For the university. Contribution of the research.
Suggestions for further research.53 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii English as a Foreign Language: EFL Hue University College of Foreign Languages: HUCFL Multiple Intelligences: MI Multiple Intelligences Theory: MIT ix LIST OF TABLES Pages Table 4.1: “Human beings have all of the intelligences, but each person has a unique combination, or profile.2: “People are born with a fixed amount of intelligence.3: “Virtually, everyone has the capacity to develop all eight intelligences to a reasonably high level of performance if given the appropriate encouragement, enrichment, and instruction.4: “Intelligence level does not change over a lifetime.5: “There are many different ways to be intelligent. There is no standard set of attributes that one must have in order to be considered intelligent.6: “Intelligence consists of ability in logic and language.7: “Intelligences usually interact together in complex ways.8: “Multiple Intelligences pedagogy implies that teachers teach and assess differently based on individual intellectual strengths and weaknesses.9: Difficulties in applying out-of-classroom activities. 36 x LIST OF FIGURES Pages Figure 4.1: Mean of frequencies among the clusters.2: I think it is easy to recognize your intelligences .3: Using out-of-classroom learning activities to foster my Multiple Intelligences is very effective.4: Time to pilot an out-of-classroom activity. 37 xi LIST OF APPENDICES 1.
APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (English version for students) 3. APPENDIX 4: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (Vietnamese version for students) 5. APPENDIX 5: RELIABILITY STATISTICS 6. APPENDIX 6: FREQUENCY OF USING MI OUT-OF-CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES xii CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION 1.
Background of the study Credit-based training system has been gradually adopted in many universities and colleges throughout Vietnam. According to Ho and Zjhra (2008), Vietnam‟s higher education transition to a credit-based system is a tremendous challenge involving cultural and organizational transformations that drastically reorganize and redefine the context of the educational process. It means that the teaching and learning process must be changed completely to adapt the new educational environment. For example, in the credit-based transformation program, it is necessary to make some changes in curriculums, teaching methods, learning process, materials, assessments, and even roles of teachers and learners.
Because of these changes, the transformations and innovations are critical in the effort to modernize the educational system in Vietnam. Particularly, in the field of English language teaching, innovations and changes are imperative. In the past decades, language teachers and educators have made their best efforts to find out the more effective methods to teach English and help their students learn English successfully. Especially, teaching methods which are more appropriate to learners‟ needs and nature can enhance the learning process.
Because every student has his/her own unique set of intellectual strengths and weaknesses (Brualdi, 1996). From that, it is necessary to provide the diversities of activities and methods for students in order to promote students‟ potential ability in language learning. In my opinion, studying learners‟ perceptions of Multiple Intelligences Theory (MIT) and identifying out-of-classroom activities for EFL learners are the solutions to improve the effectiveness of self-study skill of learners as well as their potential intelligences. However, during my learning and researching process in Master of Arts course at HUCFL, I recognized that MIT is an interesting issue and it has not been applied reasonably in foreign languages teaching and learning.
Rationale of the study Applying MIT in language teaching and learning is a quite fresh field. Hence, during the exploring this subject, I would like to conduct this research because of the following motives. The first motive comes from the problem of language classroom in practice; teachers may lack accurateness and fairness to evaluate students‟ ability if they can not complete a task given. That may make students feel disappointed and discouraged.
Morgan and Fonseca (2004, p.130) explain: … learners‟ belief about their ability to participate successfully in a language task can be influenced by the way, teachers present material to their students and the steps followed to involve them in language learning influence. The second motive is the changing of role of teachers and students in EFL classroom. At the present, teachers work as facilitators who give instructions for students to self-study in credit-based context. Hence, students have to be more active and responsible towards their learning process.
The last motive is that is to offer a helpful guideline for freshmen in the new educational environment because they like fishes out of water in the first academic year. In reality, teachers who are in charge of these students are willing to introduce learning styles or learning tips. Nevertheless, the consultancies have not established a helpful system that every student can access. Therefore, it is essential to build guidelines as a tool, or means to support first years EFL students to overcome the differences of teaching and learning methods between high school and university, as well as to find appropriate ways for every student in learning English.
Aims of the study Based on the points of view presented above, I conduct this project which focuses on answering the following questions 1. What are first year English majors‟ perceptions of Multiple Intelligences Theory? 2. What are the out-of-classroom activities that students can do to foster their MI? 2 3. What are some difficulties faced by first year English majors in recognizing and fostering their MI? 1.
Significance of the study The researcher hopes that this study will be considered as helpful guidelines for the first year English majors in the credit-based context at HUCFL. In addition, this study will contribute to raise learners‟ awareness ability of their dominant intelligences in a new environment. Furthermore, this study may offer suggestions to improve the multiple intelligences of learners and help EFL teachers deeply understand the nature of learners and EFL learning process. Scope of the study Only some main aspects of MIT applications, namely the study of the perceptions of first year English majors about MIT in language teaching and learning, some out- of-class activities that students can do to foster their MI, and the difficulties, which students will face in recognizing and fostering their MI, are focused on this project.
The data for this research will collected from first year English majors at Hue University College of Foreign Languages in Vietnam. Structure of the study The research paper is divided into 5 chapters (from chapter 1 to chapter 5). Chapter 1 provides the background, the reasons, the aims, the significance, and the scope of the study. Chapter 2 provides key definitions and concepts relating to this study.