MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY ----------- LE THI VINH TRINH AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF REVISION ACTIVITIES IN TIENG ANH 8 BY ENGLISH TEACHERS AT SOME LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN THUA THIEN HUE MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Hue University of Foreign Languages HUE, 2019 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY ----------- LE THI VINH TRINH AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF REVISION ACTIVITIES IN TIENG ANH 8 BY ENGLISH TEACHERS AT SOME LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN THUA THIEN HUE MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 8140111 SUPERVISOR: TON NU NHU HUONG, Ph. HUE, 2019 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ---------- LÊ THỊ VĨNH TRINH NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG NHỮNG HOẠT ĐỘNG ÔN TẬP TRONG SÁCH TIẾNG ANH 8 CỦA GIÁO VIÊN TẠI MỘT SỐ TRƢỜNG THCS Ở THỪA THIÊN HUẾ LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƢƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 8140111 NGƢỜI HƢỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS. TÔN NỮ NHƢ HƢƠNG HUẾ, 2019 STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP The work contained in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. I certify that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, my thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself.
Author Le Thi Vinh Trinh Date: 9/12/2019 i ABSTRACT The research paper is an investigation into the use of revision activities in Tieng Anh 8 by English teachers at some lower secondary schools in Thua Thien Hue. The purpose of this research is to gain more insight into the use of revision activities in English classes at some lower secondary schools and to find out the difficulties which English teachers might to face in employing these activities. The participants of this study are the English teachers in some lower secondary schools in Thua Thien Hue Province, especially in Phu Vang District. The data for this thesis were collected through the questionnaires, interviews and three classroom observations; and analyzed based on both quantitative and qualitative approaches.
The findings of this study show that a majority of teachers had good awareness of teaching revision activities in English classes. A number of teachers concentrated on both writing and reading skills when teaching revision activities. Therefore, several activities are often used in English classes such as completing the sentences with the words from the box, reading and choosing the correct answer, writing the words under the pictures, using the correct form of the words in brackets to finish the sentences and rewriting the sentences. Concerning the difficulties, teaching and learning time, large- size class, difficult texts, the interests and needs of students are the dominant reasons causing teachers‟ difficulties in teaching of revision activities.
Based on these findings, in-depth implications are suggested at the end of the thesis for teachers to teach revision activities in Tieng Anh 8 more effectively. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my special thanks to my supervisor, Ton Nu Nhu Huong, Ph. for her whole-hearted and devoted guidance, professional and valuable advice and detailed correction from the beginning to the end of the research. My sincere thanks go to my teachers at the MA in the Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching course in the academic year 2017-2019 for their devoting in teaching, which inspired all students in the class to better their teaching career and to my classmates who are always in my side during two school years together, especially, to my colleagues who are willing to help me complete parts of the work.
The data collection for my research paper was supported by the language teachers from some lower secondary schools in Thua Thien Hue Province, especially in Phu Vang District. Without their valuable contributions with truthful ideas, I could not do my research paper well. Last but not least, I am grateful to my family and my friends who have considerate care, both spiritual and material support as well as encouragement in moments of difficulty during the thesis completion. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of original authorship.
iii Table of contents. iv List of tables.vii List of figures. viii List of abbreviations. ix List of appendices .1 Background of the study.2 Rationale of the study .3 Purposes of the study .5 Scope of the study .6 Structures of the study.
3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.1 Introduction to the chapter .2 Definitions of key terms .3 English teaching at lower secondary school level .1 The Vietnamese context of English teaching and learning .2 Textbook selecting and using .4 Theories of language teaching and learning .4 Data collection instruments .5 Data collection procedures. 19 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .1 Teachers‟ understanding of the teaching of revision activities .1 The importance of teaching revision activities .2 The aim of revision activities in Tieng Anh 8 .3 The advantages of revision activities in Tieng Anh 8 in comparison with the previous textbook .4 Students' learning of the revision activities .1 The frequency of using revision activities .2 The difficulty level of revision exercises in students' workbook .4 Teaching revision activities.5 The skills teachers focus on most frequently .6 The tasks in the textbook to be modified or supplemented .7 What teachers often do while students do the tasks .8 What teachers usually do to help students in the revision section .9 The attitudes of students when learning revision sections .10 What teachers often employ to assess students' understanding of the lesson .3 Difficulties in teaching revision activities .1 The difficulties encountered in using Tieng Anh 8.2 The common difficulties when teaching revision activities .3 The difficulty level of teaching revision activities at lower secondary schools .4 The activities teachers often find not easy to implement .5 The most common difficulties teachers usually encounter when teaching revision activities .6 The grammar points teachers find difficult to impart in the revision activities .7 The ways of modification teachers often employ to teach the revision activities. 46 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS.1 The summary of the key findings .2 For the administrators .3 For the textbook writers. 3 Limitations of the study .4 Suggestions for further studies.
53 APPENDICES vi LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1 The attitudes of students when learning revision section .2 The difficulties encountered in using Tieng Anh 8.3 The activities teachers often find not easy to implement .4 The most common difficulties teachers usually encounter when teaching revision activities. 40 vii LIST OF FIGURES Chart 4.1 The importance of teaching revision activities .2 The aim of revision activities in Tieng Anh 8 .3 The advantages of revision activities in Tieng Anh 8 in comparison with the previous textbook .4 Students' learning of the revision activities .5 The frequency of using revision activities .6 The difficulty level of revision exercises in students' workbook.7 The frequency of redesigning revision activities.8 Teaching revision activities .9 The skills teachers focus on most frequently.10 The tasks in the textbook to be modified or supplemented.11 What teachers often do while students do the tasks .12 What teachers usually do to help students in the revision section.13 What teachers often employ to assess students' understanding of the lesson .14 The common difficulties when teaching revision activities 37 Chart 4.15 The difficulty level of teaching revision activities at lower secondary schools.16 The grammar points teachers find difficult to impart in the revision activities .17 The ways of modification teachers often employ to teach the revision activities .18 Solutions to revision activities of the textbook effective. 44 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 1. EFL: English as a Foreign Language 2.
ELT: English Language Teaching 3. MOET: Ministry of Education and Training ix LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix A: Questionnaires for teachers Appendix B: Questionnaires for teachers (Vietnamese version) Appendix C: Interview topics for teachers Appendix D: Interview topics for teachers (Vietnamese version) Appendix E: Classroom observation sheet Appendix F: Classroom observation sheet (Vietnamese version) x CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This chapter firstly presents the background of the study. It then describes its rationale, the purposes of the study, research questions. Finally, the scope of the study is also presented in the chapter.
Background of the study In context of globalization, English is one of the most widely used languages in the world. It has been regarded as a global language that people around the world use for communicating, cooperating and developing the world together. According to David Graddol (1997), there will be two billion people speaking or learning English within a decade. Gradually, more and more countries consider English as a useful mean to communicate successfully with the world outside.
Also, Mark Warschauer (2006) states that English has become the second language of everybody. It is gotten to the point of where almost in any part of the world to be educated means to know English. Every year, a large number of foreigners pay a visit to Viet Nam for many purposes including business, tourism, and education. Therefore, the demand for Vietnamese people to be able to use English fluently is increasing dramatically.
Consequently, the Viet Nam government has supported Vietnamese students to learn English from kindergarten to the tertiary level. According to Richards (2001), textbook has been important and a positive part in teaching and learning of English, textbooks provide the necessary input classroom lessons through different activities. Besides, revision activities are very significant for students at some lower secondary schools in learning a language in general and learning English in particular. Similarly, Davinia Harwick (2015) used to notice that the more you learn, use and practise the language, the more accurate and fluent you become.
Repetition and practice are essential to many skills which are especially true when learning a language. Therefore, besides studying four main skills, students should also focus on revision activities to enhance their proficiency. Teachers are not only responsible for transmitting knowledge to their students, but also introducing different ways to study more effectively. Students themselves, therefore, have to try their best to gain knowledge under teachers‟ instructions.
Thus, the importance of revision activities can be undeniable. Neverthless, it is the fact that revision activities cannot always be well- conducted by teachers. In other words, it can be seen that revision activities in English classes still have not been really effective conducted by teachers in the process of teaching English.2 Rationale of the study In the last half of the 20th century, researchers began to examine nature of student revision in earnest. Some researchers have found that students do not willingly revise their work or revise in a limited way.
Butler and Britt (2011) have shown that teaching students to revise globally can have positive results. Firstly, as a teacher of English, the researcher find that the use of revision activities in English classes play an essential part in the process of teaching English. Revision activities are used by both strong and weak students. However, it seems that not every student can be well aware of the importance part of these activities.
They may also not know to conduct them most effectively as well as improve their English proficiency. Consequently, teachers do not always concentrate on using revision activities. Some effective activities can be necessary for those who are interested in learning English, especially students are good at English. Secondly, learning a language in general and English in particular needs a lot of practice.
Thanks to practice English frequently, both teachers and students can develop the knowledge of the English language in the most effective possible way. Therefore, I would like to explore the use of revision activities in Tieng Anh 8 by English teachers.