MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY ------------ NGUYEN THI TRA MY ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING MAJORS’ REFLECTIONS ON DOING TEACHING PRACTICUM AT SOME HIGH SCHOOLS IN HUE CITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfillment 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 ------------ NGUYEN THI TRA MY ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING MAJORS’ REFLECTIONS ON DOING TEACHING PRACTICUM AT SOME HIGH SCHOOLS IN HUE CITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 8140111 SUPERVISOR: Assoc. LE PHAM HOAI HUONG HUE, 2019 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ------------ NGUYỄN THỊ TRÀ MY CHIÊM NGHIỆM CỦA SINH VIÊN NGÀNH SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH VỀ VIỆC THỰC TẬP Ở MỘT SỐ TRƯỜNG PHỔ THÔNG TRUNG HỌC THÀNH PHỐ HUẾ LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 8140111 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: PGS. LÊ PHẠM HOÀI HƯƠNG 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./……/……… i Abstract This research aimed to investigate ELT majors‟ reflections on doing teaching practicum at some high schools in Hue city.
More specifically, it focused on exploring ELT majors‟ perceptions as well as how they carried out their teaching practicum. The study also explored the difficulties faced by student teachers when doing teaching practicum. The participants were 40 fourth year students from Hue University of Foreign Languages. The data were collected by means of the questionnaire, interview and journal.
The findings reveal that the majority of the students were well aware of the importance and benefits of teaching practicum at high schools. Thanks to the practicum, they obtained much experience both pedagogical skills and soft skills. Moreover, the results also show that conducting class observations and teaching practicum were two main duties during their teaching practicum at high schools. Besides, student teachers were assigned to work as form teachers and had to join in some extracurricular activities.
Regarding the difficulties, the student teachers reported to face lots of challenges, including class size, students‟ English proficiency, time management, the application of teaching methods, workload for trainee teachers, the timing of practicum, the evaluation of supervisors, problems in developing rapport with students, and strict high school regulations. From the findings, some solutions were suggested to help future student teachers to do their practicum effectively. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Assoc. Le Pham Hoai Huong for her enthusiastic guidance and helpful instructions that she has given to me at every stage of the development of this study.
Especially, I am absolutely grateful for her careful and detailed correction for my writng. In addition, I am very grateful to the fourth year students at Hue University of Foreign Languages who enthusiastically spent their time writing journals, filling questionnaires and participating in the interviews. I would also like to send my sincere thanks to my beloved friends for sharing ideas and giving useful suggestions during the time I conducted this research. Last but not least, my deepest love goes to my family who have supported me to overcome all difficulties and encouraged me to fulfill this thesis.
iii TABLES OF CONTENTS Page Statement of Original Authorship. iii List of tables. vii List of figures. viii List of abbreviations.
ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .4 Scope of the study .5 Significance of the study. 3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.2 Purposes of teaching practicum .3 The importance of teaching practicum for ELT majors .4 Problems commonly faced by ELT majors in doing teaching practicum .2 Purposes of Reflection .3 Forms of reflection.1 Reflections on teaching observations .2 Reflections on teaching practicum.3 The student teachers.2 Requirements for student teachers in teaching practicum .1 In other countries .3 Gaps in the literature .4 Data collection tools .5 Data collection procedure. 26 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .2 How ELT majors carried out teaching practicum at high schools .2 Conducting class observations .3 Working as a form teacher .3 ELT majors‟ reflections on doing teaching practicum .1 ELT majors‟ reflections on doing teaching practicum at high schools .2 ELT majors‟ reflections on extracurricular activities at high schools .3 ELT majors‟ reflections on students at high schools .5 ELT majors‟ reflections on other peer student teachers at high schools 37 4.6 ELT majors‟ reflections on teaching regulations at high schools .7 ELT majors‟ reflections on the benefits of the teaching practicum at high schools .4 Difficulties faced by ELT majors‟ when doing teaching practicum at some high schools .2 High school students‟ English proficiency .3 Workload for student teachers .4 The application of teaching methods .6 The timing of practicum .7 The evaluation of supervisors .9 Strict high school regulations. 57 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION, IMPLICATIONS, LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY .2 Summary of the key findings .1 For educational administrators at HUCFL .3 For ELT majors .4 Limitations of the research .5 Suggestions for further research.
73 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Distribution of questionnaire items .1 ELT majors‟ reflections on doing teaching practicum at high schools .2 ELT majors‟ reflections on extracurricular activities at high schools .3 ELT majors‟ reflections on students at high schools .4 ELT majors‟ reflections on the supervisor‟ role at high schools.5 ELT majors‟ reflections on other peer teachers at high schools .6 ELT majors‟ reflections on teaching regulations at high schools .7 ELT majors‟ attitudes towards benefits of teaching practicum at high schools. 58 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1 Difficulty due to class size .2 Difficulty due to high school students‟ English proficiency .3 Workload for student teachers.4 Difficulties in applying of teaching methods .5 Difficulty in managing classes .6 Difficulty related to the timing of practicum .7 Difficulty related to the evaluation of supervisors .8 Difficulty in developing rapport with students. 55 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ELT : English Language Teaching HUCFL : Hue University College of Foreign Languages EFL : English as a Foreign Language ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale It cannot be denied that teaching practicum plays an essential role in becoming a teacher. As suggested by Richard and Crookes (1988), all students must join in doing teaching practicum course because it is regarded as an important part of developing teacher‟s profession.
Besides, Ngidi and Sibaya (2003), Marais and Meier (2004), Perry (2004) pointed out student teachers would have a chance to teach in reality through the practicum. Sharing the same idea, Kasanda (1995) claimed that it is also an interesting experience for student teacher to prepare necessary teaching skills before being a real teacher. It is said that teaching practicum is a valuable opportunity for student teachers to apply their initial theoretical knowledge on language learning. Teaching practicum is not only the real time through which student teachers learn to teach and get experiences but also the chance for them to become real teachers for the rest of their lives or not.
Moreover, it also helps student teachers be aware of their lacking experience as well as develop their teaching competencies. Therefore, teaching practicum is an integral part of initial teacher education. The link between theories and practices in teaching is really needed. As Wellman and Wold (2006) noted that the collaboration nature of university and school partnership fosters comprehensive improvements in teacher preparation program and a seamless curriculum from theory to practice.
Thus, Darling-Hammond (2010) recommended that connecting theory and practice cannot succeed without the relationships between universities and schools. To illustrate this point, Lingam (2002) and Williams (1994) said that the success of teachers does not depend on only theoretical knowledge but also it depends on meaningful practicum that provides them with necessary skills and behaviors that develop their teaching practices. More importantly, as Darling- Hammond (2006) suggested, teaching practicum has been seen as an initial base to link theory and practice in teaching education program. 1 In fact, it is obvious that teaching practicum is viewed as the most critical factor in the development of teaching skills and acquiring pedagogical knowledge (Tang, 2003).
As many Vietnamese universities, Hue University of Foreign Languages has emphasized the importance of the practical preparation of their pedagogical graduates, especially English Language Teaching majors. To find out ELT majors‟ reflections during their practicum as well as to help students have awareness needed for effective teaching; this study was set out to investigate “English Language Teaching majors’ reflections on doing teaching practicum at some high schools in Hue city.2 Research objectives This research aims at exploring the ELT majors‟ reflections through the teaching practicum at high schools. Besides, the study attempts to discover the challenges that student teachers face and give some recommendations for the improvement of their teaching skills in the practicum.3 Research questions From the above objectives, the research was designed to answer the following research questions: 1. How do ELT majors carry out teaching practicum at high schools? 2.
What are their reflections on doing English teaching practicum? 3. What difficulties do they face when doing English teaching practicum at high schools? 1.4 Scope of the study This research paper mainly focused on the reflective practice experience of ELT student teachers during practicum at some high schools in Hue city. The participants were fourth year students from Hue University of Foreign Languages who involved in the teaching practicum which lasted for one month, in the academic year 2018-2019.5 Significance of the study Theoretically, the study was conducted with the hope that it would contribute to the teaching practicum course and theories related to teaching reflections. 2 Practically, it hopes to benefit ELT majors because they will see practical experience through teaching practicum.
It shows the way how students acquire skills during their practicum that qualify them to become professional teachers. Moreover, the findings about the problems encountered by student teachers in doing teaching practicum at some high schools in Hue city will provide useful suggestions and a reference material for ELT majors.6 Thesis outline The study consists of five chapters. Chapter one “Introduction” gives a brief description of the research topic as well as the rationale of the study. In addition, the research objectives, research questions, scope of the study and thesis outline are also included in this chapter.
Chapter two “Literature review” provides relevant background theories about the students‟ reflections on doing teaching practicum and reviews previous studies related to the topic. Chapter three “Methodology” presents the methods and the instruments for data collection that the author used to carry out this thesis. Chapter four “Findings and discussion” presents the data on analyzing as well as discussing the results collected from the study. Chapter five “Conclusion and implications” summarizes the main points of the study and give some suggestions for improving students‟ teaching practicum.
3 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction Firstly, this chapter focuses on presenting the theoretical background related to the topic. It begins with defining and clarifying some key concepts, particularly reflection, teaching practicum and student teachers used in the study. Secondly, an overview of the previous studies both in Vietnam and in other countries is followed. Finally, the gaps in the literature are also pointed out.1 Definition The teaching practicum has emerged as an increasingly common feature of ESL/EFL teacher preparation programs (Stoynoff, 1999; Farrell, 2007).
As Barry and King (2002) noted, “Teaching practice (practicum) provides the opportunity to apply the principles of teaching and learning that have been studied during course work” (p.