VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY , HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ---------- HA LE MAI THE CURRENT SITUATION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING IN THE LIGHT OF CLT TO THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN COLLEGE OF ECONOMICS AND FINANCE: A CASE STUDY NGHIÊN CỨU THỰC TRẠNG DẠY TIẾNG ANH THEO ĐƯỜNG HƯỚNG GIAO TIẾP CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG KINH TẾ TÀI CHÍNH THÁI NGUYÊN: NGHIÊN CỨU TRƯỜNG HỢP ĐIỂN HÌNH M. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 HA NOI - 2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ---------- HÀ LÊ MAI THE CURRENT SITUATION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING IN THE LIGHT OF CLT TO THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN COLLEGE OF ECONOMICS AND FINANCE: A CASE STUDY NGHIÊN CỨU THỰC TRẠNG DẠY TIẾNG ANH THEO ĐƯỜNG HƯỚNG GIAO TIẾP CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG KINH TẾ TÀI CHÍNH THÁI NGUYÊN: NGHIÊN CỨU TRƯỜNG HỢP ĐIỂN HÌNH M. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 SUPERVISER: VŨ THỊ THU THUỶ,MA HA NOI – NĂM 2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS PRELIMINARIES Page TITLE i APPROVAL SHEET ii DEDICATION iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iv ABSTRACT v TABLE OF CONTENTS xi PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 1 Rationale of the study 1 2. Objectives of the study 3 3 Research questions 3 4 Scope of the study 3 5 Methodology 4 5.3 The procedures 5 6 Significance of the Study 5 7 Organization of the study 6 PART B : DEVELOPMENT 7 CHAPTER 1 : LITERATURE REVIEW 7 1.1 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) 7 1.1 Communicative Language Teaching Theories 7 1.2 Communicative Language Teaching Theories 7 1.3 Characteristics of CLT 8 1.2 Communicative language teaching and learning 9 1.1 Conditions related to CLT application 9 1.2 Roles of teachers and students in CLT Classroom 11 1.3 Issues in using CLT approach in the foreign language 12 classroom 1.1 Benefits of using CLT approach in the foreign language classroom 12 1.2 Problems of applying CLT in the foreign language 13 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com classrooms and in second language classroom.3 Previous studies related to CLT application in Viet Nam 13 1.4 Previous studies related to CLT application in Viet Nam 13 CHAPTER 2 : THE STUDY 15 2.1 Background of the study 15 2.1 Description of the students at TCEF 15 2.2 Description of the teachers at TCEF 15 2.3 Settings of the study 15 2.1 Questionnaires for teachers 17 2.2 The classroom observation 17 2.3 Presentation of statistical results.1 Questionnaire for teachers 18 2.1 Teachers‟ teaching experience 18 2.2 Teachers‟ CLT training background 18 2.3 Teachers‟ opinions about the suitable method for their teaching English at present 18 2.4 Teachers‟ background on CLT 19 2.5 Teachers‟ understanding of subjects about CLT 21 2.6 CLT ‟s application in the actual classroom practice 24 2.7 Evaluation of English textbook regarding in CLT 27 application 2.8 Teachers‟ opinions about the difficulties in the 28 implementation of CLT in their context of language teaching 2.9 The degree of success in applying CLT at TCEF 29 2.2 Results of the class observation 30 2.3 Interview 34 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 36 3.1 Difficulties from students 36 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.2 Difficulties from teachers 36 3.3 Difficulties arising from the testing system 38 3.4 Difficulties from the teaching and learning environment 38 3.1 For the students 38 3.2 For the teachers 40 3.3 Reform of the current English testing system 41 3.4 Improving the teaching / learning environment 41 PART C: CONCLUSION 42 1 Conclusions 43 2 Limitations 44 3 Suggestions for further study REFERENCES 44 APPENDIXES I Appendix 1 Questionnaire for the teachers I Appendix 2 Lesson observation sheet VII Appendix 3 Interview questions VIII LIST OF TABLES TABLES Page 1.
Teachers‟ teaching experience 17 2. The teachers‟ experience of teaching 17 3. Teachers‟ CLT training background 18 4. Teachers‟ opinions about the most suitable method for teaching speaking 18 5.
Teachers‟ information about the enrichment of knowledge on CLT. Teachers‟ confidence about perception on CLT 19 7. Teachers‟ point of view about CLT 20 8. Teachers‟ understanding about CLT 22 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
The frequency of activities used in the classrooms 22 10 10. Teachers‟ error correction 24 11 11. The frequency of changing the position of students‟ seat, tables and benches for the lesson situations 25 1 12. Teachers‟ opinions about the currently-used textbook 25 11 13.
Teachers‟ difficulties in their teaching 26 14. Teachers‟ self-assessment of their application of CLT 28 1 15. Classroom observation (teacher 3) 31 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A : INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale for the study It cannot be denied that foreign language teaching from schools to colleges and universities in Vietnam has been granted increasing supports from educational authorities, regarding the demand of Vietnamese young population for a better means of communication with the world.
English is one of the foreign languages that are compulsory and widely taught in our colleges and universities. The most important issue in this field, which has presented various complicated problems for generations of foreign language teachers in Viet Nam as well as anywhere in the world, is the adoption of an appropriate language teaching method. However, there are differences in situations of English language teaching among teachers from different schools or colleges as well as different areas. In the context of Thai Nguyen College of Economics and Finance (TCEF), English has been taught as Business English and a compulsory subject for non-major students.
The teaching methodology, especially in communicative situations therefore is obviously a very significant aspect in foreign language methodology and needs to be taken into much consideration. The textbook “Business Basics” has just been applied widely in a lot of universities and colleges. It has 12 units with interesting topics. Every unit consists of 3 lessons and each lesson includes all four skills (Reading, Speaking, Listening and Writing) and a Language focus one.
This book was designed with various learning tasks, the purpose of which is to set up communicative situations for students to practise English language. Furthermore, the book focuses on learners‟ communicative competence without ignoring learners‟ linguistic competence. It is also accompanied with a great number of team work and group work activities to develop students‟ communicative competence. And students have chances to listen to both native and non-native English speakers from the tapes/ CDs accompanied with the books.
1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Having worked with the book “ Business Basics” for several years, I have noticed that a number of problems faced by the 2nd year students at TCEF still exist in the process of English communicative learning. I have realized from my observation and experience for years that many of the 2nd year students produced various kinds of speaking errors in their English learning. A lot of my colleagues complained that a considerable number of their students could not even give a simple answer or speak a simple sentence. One of the main reasons, found from a quick interview on these students, is that they do not know how to use words and pronounce them correctly and communication seems to be hard for them.
As a result, the students cannot avoid the feeling of much anxiety in their speaking activities and consequently English turns to become a very challenging subject for them to accomplish at college despite the fact that there are listening parts for students to practice in the text book Business Basics. However, students there seem to get nothing after listening. There are some reasons for me to take the application of CLT to speaking teaching into consideration, rather than others. First of all, for some time, English teaching in Vietnam has been strongly influenced by the traditional methods.
Emphasis has been placed on the mastery of language structures rather than on how language is used. That‟s the reason why teachers as well as students are used to concentrating on grammatical items. Students are asked to translate or analyze the text grammatically. Teachers usually spend most of the time in class explaining the form of the language to students who were passive listeners.
The result of this kind of teaching and learning, of course, has been far from satisfactory. That means that students might be structurally competent but communicatively incompetent. They have encountered a lot of problems when dealing with English in real life given in the context of TCEF whose students are trained to be accountants, businessmen. The recent political and economic developments in Viet Nam have stimulated the learners‟ interest in learning English for communication.
So the need for communication in English has changed from an emphasis on teaching grammar to an emphasis on teaching communication. 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Speaking skill nowadays plays a much more important role in modem English than ever before. In order to have a look at situation realistically about the usefulness and application of the new method - Communicative language teaching (CLT) in English language teaching at my college for the second year students, I would like to devote my time and effort to investigating the current speaking teaching situation at TCEF including teaching methods, difficulties faced by the teachers and students, facility… then finding out how CLT is applied to teaching speaking there. Especially, the study will recommend suitable and specific communication activities for the second year students at TCEF.
Objectives of the study The main objectives of this study are as follows: 1. To identify and investigate the current situation of English language teaching at Thai Nguyen College of Economics and Finance by focusing on studying the following conditions: The teachers with their perceptions of CLT and their CLT practical application, the students and the teaching and learning environment. To find out difficulties that the teachers of English at Thai Nguyen College of Economics and Finance experience when applying CLT. To give some suggested solutions on how to improve the quality of teaching English when using CLT.
Research questions The basic research questions for the study are : How is English being taught to the second year students at Thai Nguyen College of Economics and Finance in the light of CLT? What are the dificulties that the teachers of English at TCEF experience when applying CLT ? What are the solutions to improve the quality of teaching English when using CLT? 4. Scope of the study 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com For the limitation of time, conditions, and materials, this study only focuses on some major factors affecting English teaching at TCEF when working with the book “Business Basics” by David Grant (2001) and the second year students in the light of CLT. In addition, this thesis only focuses on studying the following contents: the teachers with their perceptions of CLT and their CLT practical application, the examination, the new English textbook, the students and the teaching and learning environment. Methodology The study is designed using the quantitative method to obtain its aims and objectives.
Below is a description of the subjects, the instruments, and procedures employed for the study. The subjects There are two types of subjects participating in the study. The first type is the teachers who have been working at TCEF.They are both male and female, aging from 25 to 45 and have worked with the book “Business Basics” for at least 3 years The other is the s e c o n d year students at TCEF. First, s i x teachers who are working with students were invited to participate in a questionnaire survey held by the researcher.