MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ----- ----- HO THI THUY NHIEN AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS AND USE OF CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES TO PROMOTE STUDENTS’ LEARNER AUTONOMY AT SOME HIGH SCHOOLS IN THUA THIEN HUE PROVINCE MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.11 SUPERVISOR: LE PHAM HOAI HUONG, Assoc. HUE, 2015 i BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ----- ----- HỒ THỊ THÙY NHIÊN NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ NHẬN THỨC VÀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG TRÊN LỚP CỦA GIÁO VIÊN TRONG VIỆC THÚC ĐẨY NĂNG LỰC TỰ HỌC CỦA HỌC SINH (LEARNER AUTONOMY) TẠI MỘT SỐ TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG THUỘC TỈNH THỪA THIÊN 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: LÊ PHẠM HOÀI HƯƠNG, PGS. 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.
Date: 19/ 5/ 2015 Ho Thi Thuy Nhien iii ABSTRACT The research paper is an investigation into teachers’ perceptions and use of classroom activities to promote students’ learner autonomy at some high schools in Thua Thien Hue province. The first aim of this study is to explore the perceptions of teachers towards learner autonomy. The second aim is to find out whether and how teachers use classroom activities to promote learner autonomy and to find out what kinds of those activities can be carried out in the contexts of English classes at some high schools in Thua Thien Hue province. The final aim is to provide the suggestions of teachers about using those activities to promote students’ learner autonomy in Thua Thien Hue province.
The participants of this study are 62 teachers from 8 high schools in Thua Thien Hue province. The data were collected by means of questionnaires and interviews. The findings reveal that teachers had highly positive attitudes towards promoting learner autonomy. They also generally understood what the concept is.
However, there is still the contradiction between the perception and support of teachers towards learner autonomy and the practice of using the activities in classroom to promote learner autonomy. The majority of teachers reported they had troubles in this process. The research also reports how teachers deal with the difficulties when experiencing regular classroom activities for the aim and the awareness of fostering learner autonomy. On the basis of the findings, some suggestions to develop learner autonomy were made for teachers, educators and administrators.
iv I wish to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to those persons who have advised and supported me, and made constructive criticism during the research. First and foremost, I would like to express my most heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Le Pham Hoai Huong, who was very enthusiastic, and patient to support me along this work of research. Without her guidance, invaluable advice and persistent help, this thesis would not have been completed.
Second, I am very grateful to the teachers of Vinh Loc high school, Phu Loc high school, Nguyen Hue high school, Quoc Hoc high school, Phan Dang Luu high school, Tran Van Ky high school, Thuan An high school, and Tam Giang high school for carefully completing the questionnaires and sincerely providing me with valuable information for this research in the interviews. Third, I also would like to send my sincere thanks to all the lecturers of the MA in the Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching course in the academic year 2012-2014 at Hue College of Foreign Languages for imparting their knowledge and enthusiasm of their respective areas of specification. Fourth, I especially appreciate the support and advice of MA Pham Thi Xuan Duyen, who helps me a lot in dealing with the difficulties during the research. Last but not the least, I am deeply grateful, as always, to my family members, my close friends who constantly stand beside me, give me emotional support during the time this research was conducted.
Without those encouragement, this study can be hardly fulfilled as expected. v TABLE OF CONTENTS SUB COVER PAGE. i STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY. iii STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY.
iv TABLE OF CONTENTS. vi LIST OF TABLES. ix LIST OF FIGURES AND CHARTS. Scope of the study.
Structure of the study. Definitions of perception. Definitions of learner autonomy. The roles of teachers in promoting learner autonomy.
Roles of teachers in learner-centered approach. Roles of teachers in promoting learner autonomy. Factors to develop learner autonomy. Learner attitudes and motivation.
Steps to develop a degree of autonomy. Promoting learner autonomy through classroom activities. Gaps in literature. Data collection tools.
34 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Perceptions of teachers towards using classroom activities to enhance learner autonomy. Teachers’ understanding of the concept of learner autonomy. An overview of teachers’ attitude toward learner autonomy.
Roles of teachers in promoting learner autonomy. The use of classroom activities to promote learner autonomy. Realities of the use of classroom activities. The possibility and the ways the teachers use classroom activities to promote learner autonomy.
Difficulties in using classroom activities to promote learner autonomy. Difficulties confronted by teachers. Dealing with difficulties. 62 vii CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY.
Summary of the key findings. Perceptions of teachers towards using classroom activities to enhance learner autonomy. The use of classroom activities to promote learner autonomy. Difficulties in using classroom activities to promote learner autonomy.
Limitations of the study. Recommendations for further study. 74 APPENDIX 1 A: QUESTIONAIRE FOR TEACHERS. 74 APPENDIX 1B: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS.
81 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1 Frequency of using classroom activities to foster learner autonomy .2 Frequency of using different kinds of classroom arrangement. LIST OF FIGURES AND CHARTS Figure 4. Teachers' understanding of students’ independence in learner autonomy Figure 4. Teachers' opinions about factors affecting learner autonomy.
Stages of students' involvement in the teaching and learning process. Students' involvement in designing teaching plans together with teachers Figure 4. Importance of learner autonomy. Teachers' attitude towards students’ learner autonomy Figure 4.
Learner-teacher relationship in the classroom. Teachers' contribution for promoting learner autonomy. Teachers' roles in promoting learner autonomy. Handing over responsibility from teachers to learners.
Possibility of using classroom activities to promote students’ learner autonomy. Experience in using classroom activities to promote students’ learner autonomy. Ways to use classroom activities to help to promote students’ learner autonomy. Effectiveness of activities to promote students’ learner autonomy.
Having difficulties in promoting students’ learner autonomy. Difficulties in promoting students’ learner autonomy. Solutions to deal with difficulties in using classroom activities to promote students’ learner autonomy. ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale Since Vietnam joined WTO in 2007, not only economy but also education have made remarkable changes. Learners as well as teachers have more chance to access new technology and new environment but face challenges. WTO accession entailed the process of socialization of knowledge, and globalization. This forces Vietnam education into two orientations: education has to meet the demand of knowledge growth and the products of education have to meet the requirement of strict labor market (Vu, 2007).
Then, students not only need to acquire knowledge but also need to satisfy the requirement of capacity, creativity ability, flexibility, responsibility, work capacity and ability to solve problems in changeable situations. However, evaluating the practice of Vietnam education, in the document of strategies to develop education in the period 2001-2010, the authors concluded that the program, curriculum and methodology develop slowly and are still theoretical and emphasized on the examination (cited in Nguyen & Meier, 2010). From the two above opinions, we can easily see the existing distance between demand, objectives and reality. In order to shorten this distance, we teachers as well as educators have always tried to find new approach to make change for the above problems.
Thanks to this awareness and desire, teachers and educators have made “changing winds and shifting sands” in language teaching methodology (Marckwardt, 1972, p.5, cited in Brown, 2007, p. The teaching process focuses on learners in learner-centered pattern. However, while the general goal of English in schools is to help students be able to use English as a tool of communication at a basic level including listening, speaking, reading and writing (Hoang et al., 2007), the majority of learners who graduated after twelve years or more cannot use English to communicate. The reason for this failure is that fourteen minutes per period in class is not enough for students to practice the skills required.
Besides, for many students, English can be a tool for them to sit in a university. Nevertheless, 1 the classroom lessons are far more to reach the level required in the entrance examination. Teachers still sometimes feel stressed by the gap between what they want to do and what they actually do. Whereas, students are still passive since their wishes to perform are confronted by their lack of use which leads to lack of confidence; their desires are limited by their lack of strategies to learn.
Hence, to achieve the goal of communication as well as passing examinations, students need to escape from the textbooks’ knowledge and find their own ways to learn. They need to “self-help” from the easy to difficult problems, “to take charge of their own learning and to chart their own pathways to success” or in other words, they have to find out the strategies of learner autonomy (Brown, 2007, p. To answer the question whether learner autonomy can lead to learners’ success, Little (1991) summarized the benefits of fostering learner autonomy into three major areas (Little, 1991 cited in Nguyen, 2012, p. Firstly, as the learner participates in setting the goal of courses, learning should be focused and purposeful, and thus more effective both immediately and in the longer term.
Secondly, as responsibility for the learning process lies within the learner, the barriers between learning and living that are often found in traditional teacher-led educational structures should be minimized. Lastly, if there are no barriers between learning and living, learners should have little difficulty in transferring their capacity for autonomous behaviors to all other areas of their lives, and this may make them more useful members of society and more effective participants in the democratic process. For the above reasons, I decided to choose the topic “An investigation into teachers’ perceptions and use of classroom activities to promote students’ learner autonomy at some high schools in Thua Thien Hue province” for my MA thesis. I strongly believe in an ancient proverb that “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day.
Teach him how to fish and he eats for a lifetime”. Guiding learners how to take charge of their own learning will be the same as teach them “how to fish”. They can step on their own foot for their whole study life. Besides, we cannot 2 deny the fact that we have just spent few years in the stream of changing.
Therefore, the beliefs of students and teachers about the responsibilities of students in class are still problematic. My students like other East Asian students in general and Vietnamese in particular, tend to express a strong belief that their teachers should have the responsibility of class management (Sakai, Takagi, & Chu, 2010). As a teacher, the author always wishes to make the change in students’ awareness so that they can really understand what they need and why they need to learn English.