VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE TEACHERS’ AND LEARNERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF ORAL DRILLS IN BEGINNER EFL CLASSROOMS: A CASE STUDY AT AUSTRALIA INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH SCHOOL A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature in partial fulfillment of the Master’s Degree in TESOL By HỒ VĂN TIỀN Supervised by CAO THỊ PHƯƠNG DUNG, Ph. HO CHI MINH CITY, AUGUST 2022 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the collection of the data for a long time. I wavered some time. However, with the help of many people, I was dogged to finish this thesis.
It is really heartwarming to see that they are there, as always, to offer me great encouragement and advice professionally and emotionally. First and foremost, I felt a deep glow of thankfulness for my supervisor, Dr. Cao Thị Phương Dung, who provided me with valuable advice and guidance from the proposal to the completion of my thesis. I was also appreciative of her wholehearted proofreading and constructive feedback which were necessary for me to polish my writing skills.
I was very fortunate to have a supervisor like her. Second, the following words are a sincere expression of gratitude to my teachers at EF (USSH, VNU) whose lectures were of great importance to broadening my knowledge and enhancing my critical thinking. Third, my many thanks go to my colleagues at the School where I have been currently working. Without their enthusiasm and support, the collection of the data for this thesis would never have been possible, especially in this pandemic of COVID-19.
Next, I would like to send my thanks to all the learner participants as they actively and wholeheartedly participated in this thesis regardless of the fact that they were studying under me or not. Last but not least, I would like to thank my parents, who are absolute beginners of English (“một chữ tiếng Anh cũng không biết” - as they hilariously admitted) but still held the first print of my proposal with pride. I was truly blessed to be their son since they have been my never-ending stream of love. Thank you, Mom and Dad.
i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify that this thesis entitled “TEACHERS’ AND LEARNERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF ORAL DRILLS IN BEGINNER EFL CLASSROOMS: A CASE STUDY AT AUSTRALIA INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH SCHOOL” is my own work. This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institution. Ho Chi Minh City, August 2022 Hồ Văn Tiền ii RETENTION OF USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Hồ Văn Tiền, being the candidate for the degree of Master in TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for the purpose of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for care, loan, and reproduction of the theses.
Hồ Chí Minh City, August 2022 Hồ Văn Tiền iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. ii RETENTION OF USE OF THE THESIS. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS.
iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vii LIST OF TABLES. viii LIST OF FIGURES. xi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .1 Background and rationale for the study .2 Aims of the study .4 Significance of the study.5 Scope of the study .6 Outline of the thesis.
4 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW.1 Beginner learners of English and teaching beginner learners of English .1 The definition of beginner learners of English .2 Teaching beginner learners of English.2 The Audiolingual Method (ALM) .3 Oral drills (ODs) in English language teaching .1 Definition of ODs.2 Types of ODs .3 Characteristics of ODs .4 Making ODs meaningful, realistic, and communicative .5 Key points about the use of ODs in English language classrooms .6 Previous studies on ODs .2 Context of the study .3 The course book Four Corners 1 .3 Summary of the research tools .6 Data collection procedure .7 Data analysis procedure. 59 CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION .1 Frequency of the use of the ODs in beginner EFL classrooms .2 Teachers’ opinions about the use of the ODs .1 Teachers’ opinions about the use of Repetition Drill (RD) .2 Teachers’ opinions about the use of Dialogue Memorization (DM) .3 Teachers’ opinions about the use of Single-slot Substitution Drill (SSS) .4 Teachers’ opinions about the use of Question-and-answer Drill (QAD) .3 Learners’ opinions about the use of the ODs .1 Learners’ opinions about the use of RD.2 Learners’ opinions about the use of DM .3 Learners’ opinions about the use of SSS .4 Learners’ opinions about the use of QAD .5 Summary of the results .1 Implications for teachers of beginner learners .2 Implications for school administrators .3 Limitations of the study .4 Recommendations for further research. 161 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AIES/the school Australia International English School DM Dialogue Memorization EFL English as a Foreign Language L1, L2, L3, etc. Learner 1, Learner 2, Learner 3 OD(s) Oral drill(s) QAD Question-and-answer Drill RD Repetition Drill S Student SSS Single-slot Substitution Drill T Teacher T1, T2, T3, etc.
Teacher 1, Teacher 2, Teacher 3 the L2 English (the target language) vii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Types of ODs according to different authors .1 The organization of the course book (Four Corners 1) .2 Summary of the teachers’ background information .3 Summary of the learners’ demographic information .4 Item distribution in the teacher questionnaire .5 Cronbach’s alpha values for the scales in the learner questionnaire .6 Item distribution in the learner questionnaire .7 The learner respondents’ background information .8 Summary of the research questions and research tools .9 Timeline for data collection procedure .1 The frequency of the use of each OD in beginner classrooms .2 Teachers’ overall opinions about the use of ODs in beginner EFL classrooms .3 Teachers’ opinions about the functions of RD .4 Teachers’ opinions about how RD should be implemented .5 Teachers’ opinions about the functions of DM .6 Teachers’ opinions about how DM should be implemented .7 Teachers’ opinions about the functions of SSS .8 Teachers’ opinions about how SSS should be implemented .9 Teachers’ opinions about the functions of QAD .10 Teachers’ opinions about how QAD should be implemented .11 Summary of learners’ overall opinions about the use of the ODs in beginner EFL classrooms .12 Learners’ opinions about the effectiveness of RD.13 Learners’ preferences and expectations about how RD should be complemented .14 Learners’ opinions about the effectiveness of DM .15 Learners’ preferences and expectations about how DM should be implemented .16 Learners’ opinions about the effectiveness of SSS .17 Learners’ preferences and expectations about how SSS should be conducted .18 Learners’ opinions about the effectiveness of QAD .19 Learners’ preferences and expectations about how QAD should be implemented. 102 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Terms for different student levels (Harmer, 2007b, p.2 Conceptual framework of the study .1 Learners’ overall feeling from the teachers’ perspective .2 Learners’ opinions about the suitability of the ODs for beginners .3 Learners’ opinions about the importance of the ODs for the early L2 development .4 Learners’ opinions about the frequency of the use of the ODs in beginner classrooms .5 Learners’ overall feeling about the use of the ODs in beginner classrooms .6 The pressure facing the beginner learners when they experience the ODs. 91 x ABSTRACT Oral drills – the main feature of the Audiolingual Method, have long been employed in English teaching and learning, especially to teach beginner learners. Research efforts have centered on examining their influence on various aspects such as vocabulary learning, speaking skills, or grammatical learning; however, there is a surprising shortfall in research dealing with a noteworthy body of literature – how teachers and learners perceive the employment of oral drills in EFL classrooms.
This study is destined for filling this perceptual gap, aiming at exploring teachers’ and learners’ opinions about this phenomenon. To fulfill this goal, a mixed methods case study was utilized with the participation of 92 learners and five teachers at a language school in Dong Nai Province, Vietnam. Triangulation was shown by the researcher’s employing both the questionnaire and interview on each group of participants. The results reveal that teachers and learners both held positive opinions about the employment of oral drills in their classrooms although there were several differences between teachers’ beliefs about how each of the oral drills should be implemented and learners’ preferences and expectations about the implementation.
Keywords: Audiolingual Method, oral drills, beginners, teaching beginners, perception xi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This chapter includes the (1) background to the study, (2) aim of the study, (3) research questions, and (4) significance of the study. At the end of the chapter, an outline of the study is also provided.1 Background and rationale for the study With its role being acknowledged internationally (Graddol, 2006), English has been considered to be the “link language” (Tiwari, 2008, p. 1) commonly used for exchanges between those who do not share the same mother tongue (Harmer, 2007b). In Vietnam, over the past decades, the country has seen a significant increase in the teaching and learning of English both in and outside its formal educational system (Hoang, 2021).
The reason for this upward trend is that Vietnam has received a large amount of Foreign Direct Investment (Nguyen, 2019) and attracted an increasing number of overseas visitors (Hoang, 2021) thanks to its participation in a number of international organizations (Phan, 2017). In the aspect of the formal educational system, the growth of English language teaching is visible through the inclusion of English in the curricula at all educational institutions ranging from tertiary to primary levels (Hoang, 2021; Nguyen, 2012; Nguyen & Phung, 2015). As for English being taught outside the formal education system, numerous private language schools or centers have been established to serve the demand for learning English, offering a wide range of courses at various levels and attracting a high enrollment figure, especially in major cities (Hoang, 2021). The aforementioned large number of English language learners is not homogenous in terms of learner motives, age groups, or levels of proficiency, etc.
These differences would merit great consideration from teachers when it comes to employing teaching techniques, organizing lessons, or providing supplemental materials (Brown, 2000; Jafar & Meenakshi, 2012). Among these variables, the topic 1 of how proficient students has drawn much attention as Brown (2000) asserted “hardly a teaching day goes by without someone referring to students’ proficiency” (p. English language teachers usually categorize levels of learner proficiency into three basic parameters: beginners, intermediate, and advanced (Harmer, 2007a). In these distinctions, teaching beginners, on the one hand, is thought to require little effort (Harmer, 1998) and be motivating to teachers for the reason that learner proficiency tends to improve apparently (Brown, 2000; Harmer, 1998; Pachina, 2020).
On the other hand, many teachers posit that teaching beginners is “the most challenging level of language instruction” (Brown, 2000, p. Several teaching practitioners decide teaching beginners is no easy task (e. Mciver, 2020; Pachina, 2020; Sigworth, 2016; Turner, 2019). The explanation is that learners at this level have not gained any previous knowledge of the English language or have acquired just little.
They are likely to be under great amounts of stress (Harmer, 1998). Some of them even admit that they are no way good at English (Sigworth, 2016). These culprits can cause beginners to drop out of their English learning (Harmer, 1998). Having walked past some beginner classes of the English language at the Australia International English School (AIES) one day, the researcher would easily hear learners repeat words or the lines of a dialogue after their teachers or audio files.