MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ TRAN THI NHU TRANG AN INVESTIGATION INTO EFL TEACHERS’ METHODS TO MOTIVATE STUDENTS IN LARGE CLASSES AT TRAN QUOC TOAN HIGH SCHOOL AND NGO GIA TU HIGH SCHOOL IN DAKLAK PROVINCE FIELD OF STUDY: THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.10 MA THESIS IN EDUCATION SUPERVISOR: TRAN QUANG HAI, D. HUE, 2011 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ------------ TRẦN THỊ NHƢ TRANG NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ BIỆN PHÁP CỦA GIÁO VIÊN NHẰM GÂY HỨNG THÚ HỌC TẬP MÔN TIẾNG ANH CHO HỌC SINH TRONG NHỮNG LỚP ĐÔNG Ở TRƢỜNG THPT TRẦN QUỐC TOẢN VÀ TRƢỜNG THPT NGÔ GIA TỰ TẠI TỈNH ĐĂKLĂK CHUYÊN NGÀNH: LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƢƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.10 LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ GIÁO DỤC HỌC HUẾ, 2011 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine. The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission from associates and have not been published elsewhere. Author Tran Thi Nhu Trang ACKOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr.
Tran Quang Hai, my supervisor, for his enthusiasm and sagacious guidance from the very beginning to the end of the research. I also express my thanks to all the lecturers in the English Department as well as the staffs in the Library of the College of Foreign Languages, who have created the most favorable conditions for me to find relevant materials. The research will not be properly conducted without the help of the teachers of English at Tran Quoc Toan High School and Ngo Gia Tu High School. I will never forget their kindness, enthusiasm and cooperation in completing the questionnaires, taking part in the interviews and giving me permission to observe their teaching of English in class.
Finally, I would like to dedicate this work to my friends and my parents for their love, support and encouragement all the time. Although a lot of time and efforts were devoted to this research paper, mistakes and shortcomings are unavoidable. All valuable advice and suggestions for correcting the shortcomings are highly welcomed and appreciated. Hue, January 2011 Tran Thi Nhu Trang -4- TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Pages SUB COVER PAGE STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS.
1 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. 5 LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS. Background of the study. Purpose of the Study.
Significance of the Study. Scope of the study. Organization of the thesis. 13 CHAPTER II - LITERATURE REVIEW.
Definitions of terms. What is ‘a large class’?. Motivation and learning motivation in the EFL classroom. Learning motivation in the EFL classroom.
Kinds of motivation for learning English. Characteristics of a motivated student. The impacts of large class size on student motivation. Disadvantages of large classes in comparison with smaller ones.
The impacts of large class size on students’ motivation to learn English. The achievements in social psychology, linguistics and technology in recent years and their influences on language teaching. Second language acquisition. A brief overview of recent methods in language teaching.
Overview of recent teaching methods. The shift into CLT. Research on EFL teachers’ methods to motivate upper-secondary students in large classes. Research on EFL teachers’ methods to motivate upper-secondary students in large classes in other countries.
Devoting the first session to needs analysis and goal setting. Establishing basic rules for all learning activities. Creating a safe and constructive learning environment. Helping students be aware of their role and responsibility for learning.
Establishing a good relationship between the teacher and students. Organizing interesting, communicative and challenging activities in class. Giving chances for students to participate in class. Applying different ways for assessing students and giving feedback.
Previous research on EFL teachers’ methods to motivate upper-secondary students in large classes in Vietnam. 43 CHAPTER III – METHODOLOGY. Data Collection and Procedures. Collection of the Questionnaire Data.
Collection of the Interview Data. Collection of the Class Observation Data. 54 CHAPTER IV – FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards teaching and learning English in large classes.
Teachers’ attitudes towards teaching and learning English in large classes. Students’ attitudes towards learning English in large classes. The influences of large class size on student motivation to learn English 63 4. Manifestations of low level of interest of students in large classes from the teachers’ perspectives.
Factors making students lose interest in learning English in large classes from the students’ perspectives. EFL teachers’ methods to motivate students in large classes at upper- secondary schools. Helping students be aware of the responsibility for learning. Organizing interesting, communicative and challenging activities in class.
Helping students set up appropriate learning strategies. Establishing ground rules for all learning activities. Devoting the first session to needs analysis and goal setting. Giving chances for students to participate in class.
Establishing a good relationship between the teacher and students. Creating a safe and constructive learning environment. Applying different ways for assessing students and giving feedback. The efficiency of EFL teachers’ methods.
The efficiency of EFL teachers’ methods from the teachers’ perspectives. The efficiency of EFL teachers’ methods from the students’ perspectives. 89 CHAPTER V – CONCLUSION, IMPLICATIONS, AND LIMITATIONS. Implications and Recommendations.
For English teachers. Promoting students’ autonomy. Organizing inspiring and challenging activities. Keeping different roles in large classes.
Carefully organizing error correction. Using teaching aids and facilities. For English students ……………………………………………………. Limitations of the study ……………………………………………………100 5.
Suggestions for further research ………………………………………….102 APPENDICES -8- LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ALM: Audio-lingual Method BA: Bachelor of Arts CLT: Communicative language teaching EFL: English as a foreign language L1: First language L2: Second language N: Number of participants SLA: Second language acquisition -9- LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS List of tables Table 2.1: Differences between large classes and smaller classes Table 4.1: Students‘ reasons for learning English Table 4.2: Teachers‘ ways of error correction in large classes Table 4.3: Teachers‘ focused language items when making correction in students‘ work Table 4.4: Level of efficiency of teachers‘ methods Table 4.5: Students‘ opinions on teachers‘ ways of teaching and organizing activities List of charts Chart 4.1: Students‘ attitudes towards the English subject Chart 4.2: Manifestations of students‘ low level of interest in large classes Chart 4.3: Factors making students lose interest in learning English in large classes Chart 4.4: Teachers‘ methods to motivate students in large classes Chart 4.5: Learning strategies - 10 - ABSTRACT This study is an empirical investigation into the current status of the teaching of English in large classes at some upper-secondary schools in Daklak Province. This study mainly focuses on identifying EFL teachers‘ methods to motivate students in large classes. The researcher combined three ways to collect the data: questionnaires, interviews, and observations, but the main one is the questionnaires. Interviews and observations were conducted to check the results getting from the questionnaires.
Data analysis is mainly based on quantitative method. The researcher analyzed, compared, synthesized, commented, and presented the collected information under the forms of tables and charts. The findings indicate that most of the students in large classes are highly instrumentally motivated, but their attitudes toward learning English are not distinct and their desire to learn English is not very strong. In other words, students have good reasons to learn English but they lack motivation for learning it.
Some of the students even have low motivation to learn English. Moreover, EFL teachers admitted their difficulties in making students enthusiastic and engaged in activities in crowded class. Each of them has developed a system of teaching methods to overcome the difficulties and motivate the students to learn English in large classes. The top three methods are helping students be aware of the responsibility for learning; organizing interesting, communicative and challenging activities in class; and helping students set up appropriate learning strategies.
To some extents, the efficiency of EFL teachers‘ methods is also checked from both teachers‘ and students‘ perspectives. It is shown that teachers‘ methods have had great influence on students‘ motivation to learn the subject, but they are differently effective in different classes. Based on the findings, some recommendations and implications are made and some limitations are indicated and further researches are thus suggested. - 11 - CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION In this part, the researcher will first describe the motivation for this study.
Then, a short summary of the development of its research background will be given. After that, the purpose of the study will be presented; the research questions will be listed and finally, the significance of this study will be showed. Motivation Two years ago, after graduating from Hue College of Foreign Languages, the researcher got a job as an English teacher at Tran Quoc Toan High School, which was also her former high school. In the school year 2009- 2010, there were 34 classes with approximately 1500 students who were divided into three grades.
There were 11 classes of grade 10, 12 classes of grade 11 and 12 classes of grade 12. The most crowded class had 52 students and the least one had 35. It meant that the average number of students in each class was 43. Among those 34 classes, only 9 of them had less than 40 students.
Discussing the difficulties in teaching English in large classes, most of the teachers complained about their students‘ low level of interest in learning English, which seemed to have some relation to students‘ low learning outcomes. They all agreed about the challenge of how to inspire students to become enthusiastic and motivated students in class, especially in large classes. The questions are raised from here: ―Does large class size really have an important influence on students‘ interest in learning English and concentration in class?; How does large class size influence the students‘ motivation to learn English in high schools? What teaching methods should be employed to reduce the influence of large class size and motivate them to learn English?‖ Unfortunately, due to the shortage of budgets, space, or lack of teachers, most of the upper-secondary schools in Vietnam still offer large classes. In some schools, especially ones in the suburbs or the countryside, large classes may consist of up to 50 students and more.
When the class is too crowded, a teacher's job is not only to - 12 - teach but also to come up with engaging activities that keep all students interested and eager to participate in the learning process. The above findings have made the researcher think a lot about how teachers at upper-secondary schools are dealing with the large number of students in their classes. She becomes curious about the influence of large class size on students‘ attitudes towards learning English and the methods that EFL teachers are using in order to inspire their students and make them enthusiastically engaged into classroom activities. As a consequence, the researcher decides to do research on the following topic: ―An investigation into EFL teachers’ methods to motivate students in large classes in Tran Quoc Toan High School and Ngo Gia Tu High School in Daklak Province.‖ In order to get enough and reliable data for analysis, this research is conducted at two upper-secondary schools in Daklak Province: Tran Quoc Toan High School and Ngo Gia Tu High School.
Background of the study Research findings of the role of students‘ attitudes and motivation in second language learning show that there is a relationship between students‘ success and their positive attitudes and motivation (Gardner, 1985; Vallerand & Senecal, 1993).