STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify my authorship of the PhD thesis submitted today entitled: “Teachers’ and Students’ beliefs about classroom interactions in large non- English majored classes in Ho Chi Minh city” for the degree of Doctor of Education, is the result of my own research, except where otherwise acknowledged, and that this thesis has not been submitted for a higher degree at any other institutions. To the best of my knowledge, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by other people except where the reference is made in the thesis itself. Hue, October 5th, 2018 Author’s signature Trần Thị Thanh Thương i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my academic supervisor, Assoc. Le Pham Hoai Huong, for her early suggestion of the topic, significantly important suggestions on the analysis of the data and conscientious guidance and supervision throughout the writing of this thesis.
I am indebted to the lecturers of Hue University of Foreign Languages: Assoc. Trần Văn Phước, Assoc. Phạm Thị Hồng Nhung, Assoc. Trương Viên, Dr.
Tôn Nữ Như Hương, Dr. Trương Bạch Lê, Dr. Phạm Hoà Hiệp who have wholeheartedly guided me through each part of the thesis. I own a word of thanks to Assoc.
Lê Văn Canh for giving me suggestions with my early development of the thesis topic. I am thankful to Ms. Hồ Thị Phùng Duyên, MA, Dean of the Foreign Languages Department and my colleagues at HCM College of Foreign Economic Relations for supporting me and taking up my workload while I was doing my study. I also would like to express my thanks to the Admnistration Board of my college for granting me study leave.
I am grateful to the lecturers of HCM University of Law, HCM University of Environment and HCM University of Industry and students of these universities for their participation into the study and for allowing me to record their classes. I thank the participants for filling the questionnaires and answering the interviews. I am also thankful to my former colleague and friend, Trần Thi Thu Trang for helping me with reference materials used in the thesis. My special appreciation goes to my husband, Dũng, and my daughters, Ngọc and Thi, for their support and love.
My husband has been the most patient and supportive partner who in many ways put his own ambitions aside so that I could accomplish mine. ii Last but not least, I owe a special word of thanks to my parents, parents-in-law and all other members in my family, who have always given me encouraging words as well as financial and spiritual support. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
viii LIST OF TABLES .6 Structure of the Thesis. 6 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .2 Definitions of Interaction .3 Teachers’ and Students’ beliefs .5 Major Features of Classroom Interactions. Classroom Interactional Competence. The First Language in Classroom Interactions .6 Approaches to Classroom Interactions.
Interactionism/Interactionist Theory .7 Similarities and Differences between Interactionism/interactionist theory and Sociocultural Theory in terms of Classroom Interactions .8 Teacher-learner Interaction .9 Learner-learner Interaction .10 Interactions in Large Classes .11 Operational Definitions of Classroom Interactions in the Current Study28 2.12 Non-English Majored Students and ESP Teachers in Vietnam. Non-English Majors. In other countries. 36 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .4 Data Collection Methods.
Questionnaire for students. Questionnaire for Teachers. Observation with Audio-recording of Classroom Interactions .6 Research Methods on Classroom Interactions .8 Research Reliability and Validity. 56 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
Teachers’ and Students’ beliefs about Class Size and Classroom Interactions. Teachers’ and Students’ beliefs about the Roles of Teachers in Classroom Interactions in Large Classes. Teachers’ and Students’ beliefs about the Roles of Students in Interactions in Large Classes. Teachers’ and Students’ beliefs about the Roles of the Target Language in Classroom Interactions.
Teachers’ and Students’ beliefs about the Roles of the First Language in Classroom Interactions .3 Discussion on Data from Questionnaires and Interviews. Similarities in Teachers’ and Students’ beliefs about Classroom Interactions in Large Non-English Majored Classes. Differences in Teachers’ and Students’ beliefs about Classroom Interactions in Large Non-English Majored Classes .4 Discussion on Data from Audio Recordings of Classroom Interactions. 118 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION, IMPLICATIONS, LIMITATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY .1 Summary of the Key Findings .4 Suggestions for further study.
148 APPENDIX H MINIMUM-MAXIMUM. 220 Class Size and Classroom Interactions. 220 APPENDIX I MINIMUM-MAXIMUM. 221 Roles of Teachers in Classroom Interactions in Large Classes.
221 APPENDIX J MINIMUM-MAXIMUM. 222 Roles of Students in Interactions in Large Classes. 222 APPENDIX K MINIMUM-MAXIMUM. 224 Roles of the Target Language in Classroom Interactions.
224 APPENDIX L MINIMUM-MAXIMUM. 225 Roles of the First Language in Classroom Interactions. 225 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as a Foreign Language ESP: English for Specific Purposes IRE: Information, Response, Evaluation L1 : First Language L2: Second Language M: Mean SLA: Second Language Acquisition SCT: Sociocultural Theory SPSS: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences viii LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Teacher Participants Table 3.2 Student Participants Table 3.3 Summary of Data Collection Methods Table 3.4 Summary of the Questionnaire Clusters Table 3.5 Cronbach's Alpha Reliability Analysis of Clusters of Teachers' and Students’ responses Table 4.1 Mean Scores of All Questionnaire Clusters Table 4.2 Teachers' and Students’ beliefs about Class Size and Classroom Interactions Table 4.3 Teachers' and Students’ beliefs about the Roles of Teachers in Interactions in Large Non-English Majored Classes Table 4.4 Teachers' and Students’ beliefs about the Roles of Students in Interactions in Large Non-English Majored classes Table 4.5 Teachers' and Students’ beliefs of the Roles of the Target Language in Large Non-English Majored Classes Table 4.6 Teachers' and Students’ beliefs about the Roles of the Mother Tongue in Large Non-English Majored Classes ix ABSTRACT This study was conducted at some universities in Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam. The objectives aimed at finding out the similarities and differences in teachers’ and students’ beliefs about classroom interactions in large non-English majored classes and how teachers’ and students’ beliefs about classroom interactions corresponded to their actual practice.
Data were collected from questionnaires for 100 teachers teaching English to non-English majors and 100 students. Besides, semi-structured interviews were conducted with representative teachers and students from both groups. Additionally, audio-recordings of 45 lesson periods were used to verify the actual practice of classroom interactions in large non-English majored classes. The findings reveal that both teachers and students believed that classroom interactions involved talks between teachers and students, and among students.
Furthermore, teachers and students similarly considered that classroom interactions in large non-English majored classes were restricted because students did not have a lot of opportunities for speaking. The two groups also agreed that teachers should talk less to give opportunities for students to speak. As or language use, both groups tended to think that language is used to provoke thoughts and that students can use the first language when necessary to mediate the thinking process of learning English. However, teachers’ responses achieved higher mean scores on the opinion that students can learn from other peers through interactions.
Also, more teachers thought that peer interactions mediate students’ thinking process and that peer interaction provides language input for students. The audio recordings of classroom reflect teachers’ beliefs of the dominant roles of teachers in managing classroom interactions. Their turns usually included three-part sequential IRE (Information, Response, Evaluation). Additionally, the transcripts confirm teachers’ and students’ belief that in large classes, pair work and group work x were employed to provide speaking opportunities for students.
In excerpts of interactions where only peers participated, the interactions indicate more equal roles of peers in co-constructing knowledge. Despite the fact both teachers and students highly appreciated the opportunities for students to use English in the class, the audio recordings revealed the frequent use of Vietnamese by teachers to facilitate students in completing the given tasks. xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale Researching teachers and students’ beliefs in education is without doubt essential. “It is perfectly legitimate to be interested in the ways in which 'knowledge workers' in general carry out their work, or think and talk about their work” (Havita & Goodyear, 2001, p.
Beliefs about teaching and learning, more specifically, about classroom interactions, can bring about the opportunities for educational change. Studies on the thought processes involved in teaching and learning can give teachers and learners a more realistic view of how interactions in classroom take place. Promoting classroom interactions has always been the target of the English language education. The reason comes from the fact that they can facilitate language communication in the classroom which may lead the development of language competence.
Interactionism or Interaction Hypothesis (Long, 1996) has been embraced in many second/foreign language researches for it emphasizes that language development is facilitated through face-to-face interaction or communication. Besides, it is worth investigating classroom interactions because they serve several important functions including referential function of communicating curriculum content, social function of maintaining and establishing social relationships between teachers and students, and ideational function of helping teachers and students negotiate and express their ideas through discourse (Cazden, 1988).158) regards classroom interaction as a central tool to facilitate, mediate and assist learning. As classroom interactions play essential roles in language teaching and learning, studying teachers’ and students’ beliefs on this topic apparently may shed more light on what leads to how they interact with each other. Additionally, understanding teachers’ and students’ opinions will help promote effective practice in classroom interactions.
Results of such investigation will also assist teachers and 1 students to set more realistic goals in designing activities or adopting classroom management strategies that promote classroom interactions. Studying teachers’ and students’ beliefs about interactions in large classes, to some extent, dwells on some aspects that are rather different from interactions in other classes for several reasons. Firstly, large classes consist of a range of abilities as well as diverse student learning styles (Cleek, 2005). Secondly, students can feel anonymous and voiceless and teachers in large classes often feel compelled to focus on content delivery; therefore, interactions in large classes may become even more challenging (Hall, Binney & Kennedy, 2005).
Lastly, discipline in a large class is another matter in large classes due to a large number of students, teachers might not be able to manage to engage all students into interactions (Vrasidas & McIsaac, 1999). In Vietnam, English holds an important role in the foreign language policy. The Ministry of Education and Training in Vietnam issued Circular 7274/BGDĐT- GDĐH dated 31/10/2012 describing the National Foreign Languages Project 2020 for educational institutions. MOET also issued the framework of six-level foreign language competence for Vietnam in Circular 01/2014/TT-10 BGDĐT dated 24/01/2014.
The circular states that non-language majored university students must reach the level of 3 (B1) in foreign language competence and junior college students at level 2 (A2). These prescriptions indicate the urgent need for teachers and students to work effectively in their English teaching and learning to reach the target. Clearly, in most university and junior college students in Ho Chi Minh city, students need to achieve the level of B1 or A2 in English Proficiency to be able to graduate. For example, at the College of Foreign Economic Relations, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam, students are expected to be able to communicate in English and use English for their majors to serve their jobs (http://www.vn/zone /311/news/2046-chuan-dau-ra-bac-cao-dang-cho-cac-nganh-dao-tao.
2 In recent years, sociocultural theory stressing the interaction between people and the culture in which they live has been well used in educational research (Lantolf, 2000). Its significance in serving as a conceptual framework has proved to be appreciated for its relevance in providing interpretations. The theory applied in classroom research suggests that human learning is largely a social process through classroom interactions.