Background of the research At the present time, English plays an essential role in global communication and economic integration. Thus, English users must acquire both communicative competence and linguistic competence. English has been taught as a compulsory subject in Vietnamese classes at lower and upper secondary schools for many years. Therefore, much attention has been increasingly paid to teaching and learning English and teachers of English have made attempts to teach the language in appropriate and effective way.
Working as a teacher of English receives challenges every day. Teachers have to face many students who are all at different levels of ability, have varying motivation for learning English and have their own special interests and experiences. All teachers have to face the challenge of mixed ability classes because, according to Tomlinson (1999), Berry & Williams (2002) and Shank (1995), every class is multileveled. Some classes can be more multileveled than others can and therefore more challenging for teachers, but all classes are mixed ability classes.
Teachers meet these mixed ability classes all the time when they enter their classes. Especially, mixed ability class has already been a common situation in upper -secondary schools in Vietnam. It is very hard for teachers to manage and motivate students in a class in which there are many levels of proficiency. The questions “How can we teach effectively in such classes?” is always raised in their mind.
Because if teachers focus on the weaker, the stronger will be disheartened and vice versa the weaker can not keep pace with their friends if many of the tasks are suitable to the stronger. According to Baker & Westrup (2000),“weaker students may stop learning because they do not understand; and sometimes the stronger ones stop learning because they find the work too easy and get bored. It is the big challenge to the 1 teacher of the multilevel class to help the weaker students and to keep the stronger ones motivated so that all students succeed”. Practically, Vietnamese teachers of English are facing various difficulties in teaching English to mixed ability classes.
Moreover, the learners’ demands are different while almost all textbooks are homogeneous. Therefore, in addition to the knowledge, a teacher of English must have the ability of organizing, managing the classroom to help students learn better. Lewis (2002) comments that the way of managing the multilevel class is to plan the teacher to work with different groups of students at different time during the lesson. In many schools in Ben Tre, most students are weak in English, especially their grammar proficiency.
There are many reasons for this situation and teaching such poor language students in mixed ability classes is the most challenge of language teachers. The ways of teaching that would be the most appropriate and efficient for mixed ability classes is one of the issues nowadays widely discussed by the teaching community. As far as this problem is concerned, there has been almost no research relating to teaching English in mixed ability classes at high schools in Ben Tre. Rationale Ca Van Thinh High School, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai High School and Che Quevara High School are located in Mo Cay Nam District of Ben Tre Province.
Students of the schools are from some surrounding areas. The Minority of students like learning English because they realize that it is really important to their higher study. Some study English because it is one of the compulsory subjects in the General Certificate of Secondary Education while other students come to classes without paying any attention to the lessons. From the fact above, students’ levels are not homogeneous.
Therefore, teachers have to face a lot of challenges when they teach these students. The above situation of teaching students in mixed ability classes has inspired and encouraged me to carry out this study “An investigation into EFL 2 teachers’ methods to teach grammar in mixed ability classes at some high schools in Ben Tre Province” 1. Purpose of the research Seeking data about how teachers teach students in mixed ability classes in terms of grammar proficiency. Exploring the effective methods to teach students in mixed ability classes in terms of grammar proficiency.
It is hoped that the study will make a small contribution to the improvement of my own teaching English to mixed ability classes and to other teachers who are related to the same situation. What are teachers' perceptions towards teaching mixed ability classes? 2. What are the teachers’ difficulties when teaching English grammar in mixed ability classes? 3. What strategies do teachers use to teach grammar in mixed ability classes? 1.
Research scope This study was conducted at Ca Van Thinh High School, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai High School and Che Quevara High School which are located in Mo Cay Nam District, Ben Tre Province. Although there are many aspects in teaching English in mixed ability classes, this study only focuses on investigating how teachers teach grammar at the three schools in Ben Tre Province. Structure of the research This research consists of five chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction: Presents a general overview of the study. It states the reasons, the importance, the aims, the scope and the organization of the study.
Chapter 2: Literature review: Offers a literature review of the relevant materials. 3 Chapter 3: Methodology: Presents the research design and methodology, participants, data collection and data analysis. Chapter 4: Findings and discussion: Report on the findings from the questionnaires, the interviews with teachers and students and the class observation at Ca Van Thinh High School, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai High School and Che Quevara High School. Chapter 5: Conclusion and implications: Summarize the results of the study.
At the same time, this chapter focuses on the implications of the findings and suggestions for further studies. Beside, the appendixes of the questionnaires, questions for interviewing teachers and students, observation sheet and the reference source list are also included at the end of the research. 4 Chapter II: LITERATURE REVIEW In this part, the researcher will come to the definition of mixed - ability classes first. Then, some causes leading mixed - ability classes will be analyzed.
Finally, some suggestions to handle mixed - ability classes effectively will be mentioned. What is a mixed-ability class? Mixed ability classes means classes where students differ greatly in ability, motivation for learning English, needs, interests, educational background, styles of learning, anxiety, experiences and so on (Ainslie, 1994). Richards (1998) remarks that “Every class we ever teach is mixed ability”. Mixed ability classes are likely to be common in many teaching contexts.
The term “mixed ability” is used to express learners’ different levels of knowledge of language, different learning aptitude and different intelligences; so students in mixed ability classes are different in many ways. Some find it easy to learn a foreign language while others do not. Some are confident to express their ideas, whereas, others are not. Some tend to cooperate effectively with friends but others like working independently.
According to Ur (1999), all classes of more than one learner are heterogeneous because there are no really similar learners and so no homogeneous class. He also points out that there are many kinds of learners in heterogeneous class and opposed to a homogeneous class where learners are similar. In his theory, he states that another definition applied to a heterogeneous class is mixed ability class. However, the term ability includes not only the immediate observable ability to perform of the learners, but also their potential learning ability.
Learning ability may be influenced by various factors such as different previous opportunities for learning, higher or lower motivation, and better or worse learning condition. Some different learners’ factors of mixed ability classes 5 2. Learner differences In general, language learners may differ in many aspects that influence the language learning abilities. Students have different strengths, weaknesses and approaches towards learning.
They respond differently to the specific teaching methods and classroom situations. The more teachers are familiar with students’ differences, the better they are able to satisfy diverse learning needs. Teachers should be flexible, innovative and provide learners with various teaching strategies and attitudes. Whereas some differences are easy to see, others are difficult to discover.
Language aptitude Language aptitude may be characterized as “your innate talent or predisposition for language learning” (Thornbury, 2006). There is evidence in the research literature that some individuals have an exceptional “aptitude” for language learning (Lightbown and Spada, 1999). In the 1950s and 1960s the belief that it was possible to predict students’ future progress on the basis of linguistic aptitude tests was developed. The two most widely used aptitude tests were the Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT), designed by John Carroll, and the Pimsleur Language Aptitude Battery (PLAB), designed by Pimsleur in 1960s.
They measure the ability to identify and memorize new sounds, understand the function of particular words in sentences, figure out grammatical rules from language samples and remember new words (Lightbown and Spada, 1999) These two traditional language aptitude tests became criticized for measuring general intellectual ability rather than linguistic talent and consequently influencing teachers to brand “bad” and “good” language learners. Another negative factor of the traditional language aptitude test was that students who scored badly on aptitude tests could become de-motivated which the test predicted would only contribute to failure. Instead, as Harmer suggests, “it would be much better for both teachers and students to be optimistic about all of the people in the class”. Intelligence and multiple intelligences Language aptitude has a connection with intelligence, which is another factor related to language acquisition.
Intelligence may be described as “general intellectual abilities” (Stern, 1983). According to Lightbown and Spada (1999), people who score well in IQ tests, are expected to succeed in second language acquisition, too. However, IQ tests measure metalinguistic knowledge rather than communicative ability. This suggests that traditional IQ tests measure skills necessary for language analysis and rule learning.
However, this kind of intelligence plays a less important role in classrooms, where the emphasis is put on communication and interaction. Recently, many teachers and other specialists in education have been influenced by a concept introduced by the Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner (1993). According to this concept, people do not possess a single intelligence, but a range of intelligences, which Gardner called multiple intelligences. Linguistic: These learners have highly developed auditory skills and often think in words.
They like reading, playing word games, making up poetry or stories. They can be taught by encouraging them to say and see words, read books together. Tools include computers, games, multimedia, books, tape recorders, and lecture. Visuals: Visual media help students acquire concrete concepts, such as object identification, spatial relationship, or motor skills where words alone are inefficient.
Musical - Sound: A distinction is drawn between verbal sound and non- verbal sound such as music. Sound media are necessary to present a stimulus for recall or sound recognition. Audio narration is recommended for poor readers. They love music, but they are also sensitive to sounds in their environments.
They may study better with music in the background. They can be taught by turning 7 lessons into lyrics, speaking rhythmically and tapping out time. Tools include musical instruments, music, radio, stereo, CD-ROM, multimedia 4. Logical -Mathematical - reasoning, calculating.
Those learners think conceptually, abstractly and are able to see and explore patterns and relationships. They like to experiment, solve puzzles, and ask cosmic questions. They can be taught through logic games, investigations, and mysteries. They need to learn and form concepts before they can deal with details.
Bodily-kinesthetic: These learners can use the body effectively, like a dancer or a surgeon. They like movement, making things, touching. They communicate well through body language and they are taught through physical activity, hands-on learning, acting out and role playing. Interpersonal - understanding, interacting with others: These students learn through interaction.
They have many friends, empathy for others, and street smarts. They can be taught through group activities, seminars and dialogues.