CHAPTER I: THE SETTING OF THE STUDY 1.1 Background of the problem: Tra Vinh Community College (TVCC) is one of the nine Community Colleges in Vietnam. It was established in 2001 with many services to meet the demands of studying for Tra Vinh people so that they can study in their hometown. This means many people can study and upgrade their knowledge without having to go far away from their home and they do not have to pay a lot of money for themselves or their children to study far away after graduating from high school. TVCC also gives chances to some people who are working in some industries to study more.
There are 8 majors at TVCC including English, Rural Development, Office Administration, Aquaculture, Information Technology, Electricity Technique, Food Processing, and Mechanical Technique. TVCC provides the learners not only essential knowledge but also required skills and abilities for their future jobs. With this objective, TVCC must focus on the teaching programs, teaching materials and teaching methods. Teaching method is one of the most important things that TVCC teachers must pay more attention to because it plays an important role in the teaching process.
The teachers must find the best way to make the learners more active and confident because today to find a job a candidate needs both knowledge and other skills. They must know how to work in groups or 1 teams, to communicate with others, to solve problems flexibly and to discover new knowledge. As a result, teachers in TVCC realized that they should teach what the learners need, which goes beyond just transferring their own ‘knowledge’. Only by focusing on the learners’ needs and essential skills for their future jobs, can TVCC staffs meet their demands and the society’s.
To achieve this objective, before developing a program the faculty visited many industries and companies to make a survey on the skills they require of their staff not only at the present also in a few years. The skills selected will be classified and identified for the objectives of the program and the learning outcomes for the courses. When the learning outcomes are identified, the curriculum and teaching materials are developed basing on these learning outcomes. Achievement in learner- centred teaching is one of the objectives that TVCC teachers are trying to reach.
And the slogan “Tra Vinh Community College strives for being acknowledged in achievement of learner- centered teaching” is a guideline for all teachers in TVCC. With that guideline, TVCC staff is trying to apply new methods that they have been trained so that they can make their student more active in learning and focus on the students’ needs. However, to make sure that the approaches applying are learner- centered or not, how it went on and how these approaches affected the students and teachers, until now there has been no research or experiment about the situation of 2 applying learner-centered approach at TVCC and its effects on the teaching and learning process at TVCC. This is also the reason why this study was carried out.2 Purpose of the study: The purpose of this study is to investigate how learner-center approach has been used in English classes at TVCC.
This study helps to explore the approach applied in TVCC and what TVCC teachers have been doing, whether they have really focused on students or not. This research is also carried out to discover the situation of applying learner-centered approaches in TVCC and its results as well as the reaction of the students to this approach. Through the surveys of the teachers and the students, the study will show the benefits and the difficulties that the teachers and the students have in the learning and teaching process. As a result, the teachers in TVCC have general ideas about what they have been doing so that they can develop the strong points as well as slow down the weak points and deal with the difficulties in the teaching and learning process.3 Research questions: During a period of applying teaching, TVCC teachers have used many approaches and methods and tried to carry out learner-centred approach in teaching.
They tried to make their students more active especially in the classroom and get them 3 to involve into the lessons. In order to investigate the situation of applying learner- centered approach at TVCC, this research is done to answer the two following questions: 1. How is the learner-centred approach being applied in English classes at TVCC? 2. How is the leaner-centered approach influencing teachers and students of English at TVCC? 1.4 Methodology: This research employed both qualitative and quantitative methods.
Questionnaire and interview are used to collect ideas and to see how the teachers and the students comment on this approach. Collected data was analyzed and synthesized using some statistical measures. To find out the answers for the two research questions, the surveys on the teachers and the students were conducted. Besides, some interviews are carried out to get the ideas and teachers’ thinking in details.
Moreover, classroom activities were observed to see what is happening in the classroom visually.5 Scope and limitation of the study: 1.1 Scope of the study: The concept of learner-centeredness is rather large. Moreover, there are many programs in TVCC and teachers of all these programs are trying to apply learner- centred teaching. So, leaner-centered approach can be used in any programs. Leaner- centered approach is also manifested in many aspects of a program, for example, the content, the textbook, what the students like or do not like to study.
However, to answer the two research questions this research will focus on the English classes only. This means the survey is carried out on what and how the teacher does with his or her English classes. The students related to the study will be major or non- major English students. A comparison between the levels of success of the two groups is done.
The relationship between the teacher and students, students and the teacher is involved in the study. Besides, students’ reaction to this approach can reflect the result of applying this.2 Limitation of the study: Data for this research was collected from the answers from the questionnaire, the interviews and the class observations. So, the research findings are limited to the reliability of the answers collected from the students and what the teachers perform in the observed classrooms. When the teachers were observed, they might prepare the lesson more carefully than usual and try with all their best to get successful.
Therefore, 5 the result of the observation is limited within what the teachers do when they are observed.6 Significance of the study: With this research, English teachers in TVCC can have specific ideas about what they are doing in their classroom, to what extent their teaching is successful, and how much the students like their teaching. Teachers can also identify the difficulties, which trouble their teaching process and reflect on how to improve and deal with these problems. If the teachers can identify the weak points and problems in their teaching and improve them, the students will get benefit from this. The students will be able to study in a better learning environment with a better teaching approach.
As a result, they can get better results in the learning process. This means they have more chances to find a better job in the future. Also, when the teaching approach meets the students’ needs and interest, the students will learn better and get better result. This makes the community and industries trust the school more and more.
In general, this study not only provides the teachers with the reflection of their teaching in order to improve but also the students with the benefits from teacher’s teaching improvement.7 Organization of the study: The thesis is structured with five main chapters as following: Chapter I introduces generally about the thesis. It describes the background of the study, an overview and the objectives of Tra Vinh Community College, purposes of the study, the scope of the study, the method, which is used to carry out the research generally, and the significant of the study. The research questions are also presented in this chapter. Chapter II is covered with literature review.
It presents the theory of learner- centered approach, points of view of previous researchers and what they wrote about learner-centered approach, the roles of the teachers and learners in the learning process, pair work and group work as the ways to make the students learn actively. Chapter III outlines the methodology of the research. This chapter mentions the way data were collected, the instrument used to collect data, how the data are analyzed and synthesized. The study involves getting the information about the ways that the teachers organize and monitor the classroom to consider whether leaner- centered teaching really happen in the classroom, the students work more in the classroom or the teacher dominate the class, what the teacher carry out in the classroom meet the students desire or not.
This information is used to answer the two questions: “How is the learner-centred approach being applied in English class at 7 TVCC? How is the leaner- centered approach influencing TVCC teachers and students?” Chapter IV presents the findings and the results of data analysis based on the results of the questionnaire, the interview and the observation. Chapter V provides the discussion on the findings, the answers for the two research questions, the recommendation on the ways to improve teaching situation, students’ problems. This chapter also presents recommendations for further research. 8 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Learner-centered approach: 2.1 Definition The notion of learner-centered instruction in foreign and second language grew out of the recognition that language learners are diverse, in their reasons for learning another language, their approach to learning, and their abilities.
The implementation of learner-centered teaching has revealed different views regarding how it should influence classroom practice. Learner-centeredness may be considered to have acquired the status of an educational value- a measure by which the appropriateness and effectiveness of teaching methods, tasks, materials and curricula (Wenden, 2002). According to Normandy, learner-centered teaching focuses its attention on what the students is learning, how the students is learning, the condition in which the student is learning, whether the student is retaining and applying the learning, and how current learning positions the student for the future learning. Learner-centered education targets instructional strategies that elicit and build upon students’ interested and skill.
Combs (1976) figured out that to create a learning situation in the classroom the learners must be given frequent opportunities to confront new information. They must be allowed to confront new challenges using their past experiences without the dominance of a teacher / giver of information. 9 Learner-centered education places the student at the center of the education. It begins with understanding the educational contexts from which a student comes.
It continues with the instructor evaluating the student’s progress towards learning objectives (Wenden, 2002). Learner-centeredness is about more than teaching students by developing interesting activities. Learners are able to take responsibility for their own learning. In the classroom, teachers become co-learners with other members of the community of learners (Conti, 2002).
According to Tudor (1996), learner-centered teaching has far more to do with openness to learner variability and to learners’ input than with any one set of teaching procedures. In his book “Learner-centeredness as Language Education”, Tudor (1996) reported an interesting survey of learner-centered activities that learner-centered activities is a means of countering the difficulties caused by large classes, low- tech materials or inadequate course books, a learner-based teaching mode offered a way of coming to the dissatisfied generated by course books which did not meet the real needs and interest of learners” Tudor, (1993), mentioned learner-centered approach as an evidence of the more active and participatory role that is allocated to learners in the development of their study program and the importance given to their subjective needs.