MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY --------------- LE DINH HA MY FACTORS AFFECTING TESOL STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT AT HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Major: English Language Course code: 8220201 HO CHI MINH CITY, JULY 2022 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY --------------- FACTORS AFFECTING TESOL STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT AT HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Submitted to the Faculty of English Language in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in English Language 17,953 words Course code: 8220201 By LE DINH HA MY Supervised by TRAN QUOC THAO, Ph. HO CHI MINH CITY, JULY 2022 The thesis entitled FACTORS AFFECTING TESOL STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT AT HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY was successfully defended and approved on ………. at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH). Academic supervisor: Dr.
TRAN QUOC THAO Examination Committee 1.NGUYEN THI KIEU THU, Ph.CAO THI PHUONG DUNG, Ph.PHAM HUY CUONG, Ph.NGUYEN THI NHU NGOC, Ph.NGUYEN THI THU, Ph. Secretary Member On behalf of the Examination Committee Chair (full name, title, signature) i HCMC UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY POSTGRADUATE INSTITUTE Ho Chi Minh City, July 2022 MASTER’S THESIS REPORT Student name: LE DINH HA MY Sex: Female Date of birth: 02/05/1997 Place of birth: Ho Chi Minh City Major: English Language Student code: 1941900034 I- Thesis title: FACTORS AFFECTING TESOL STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT AT HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY. II- Objectives and contents: This study aims at exploring the factors that affect TESOL students’ English language teacher identity development at the context of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH). The research objectives are as follows: - To investigate TESOL students’ perception of English language teacher identity; - To find out factors that affect TESOL students’ English language teacher identity development.
This study was conducted at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH) in Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Thanh District. The participants were the students who were studying TESOL course and in the teaching practicum period at the school. In order to gain the results, I applied the mixed-method: quantitative and qualitative, two instruments were utilized: questionnaire and semi-structured interview so as to collect the data, both of which are applied for the students who have learnt TESOL course. III- Starting date: March 20, 2021 IV- Completing date: September 20, 2021 V- Academic supervisor: TRAN QUOC THAO, Ph.
ACADEMIC SUPERVISOR FACULTY DEAN (full name, signature) (full name, signature) ii CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the Master’s Thesis submitted today entitled: FACTORS AFFECTING TESOL STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT AT HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY. In terms of the statement of requirements for Theses in Master’s programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee of Faculty of English Language, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology. Ho Chi Minh City, July 2022 LE DINH HA MY iii RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, LE DINH HA MY, being a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (English Language) accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my Master’s Thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Librarian for the care, loan, and reproduction for theses.
Ho Chi Minh City, July 2022 LE DINH HA MY iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to convey my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has encouraged, inspired, and assisted me in completing my thesis. First of all, I would like to express my special thanks to Dr. Tran Quoc Thao, who guided me to complete the thesis prosal as well as this thesis. Thanks to the dedicated guidance, patience, advice and encouragement, I was able to complete the thesis as perfectly as possible.
Without his full support, this thesis would not have been completed. Secondly, I would like to show my thanks to Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH) for enabling me to collect data. I would like to thank all the TESOL students who participated in the research, who greatly contributed to the completion of this study. Thirdly, I would like to express my sincere thanks to Dr.
Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu, the Dean of English Language Department of HUTECH University as well as some staffs in the postgraduate institute of this university, who have helped me a lot to complete this MA course. Last but not least, I extend my deep gratitude to my family including my grandmother, my aunt and my uncle for their spiritual support with which I was able to complete this MA course. I would like to dedicate this thesis in the memory of my beloved mother; thanks to her belief I can firmly believe in my ability to complete the course. v ABSTRACT Many researchers have acknowledged that the development of language teacher identity (LTI) plays an important part in the professional development of teachers.
In this context, this study aims at exploring the factors that affect TESOL students' English LTI development at the context of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH). The study included one hundred TESOL students participating in questionnaires and twenty TESOL students participating in semi- structured interviews. The research collected data by using the mixed-methods design. With respect to data analysis, the quantitative data was analyzed through SPSS 20.0 for Windows and the qualitative data was analyzed by using content analysis.
The results of the study revealed the perception of TESOL students is that in order to develop their personal identity, they need to develop their own teaching style, experience their English language teaching (ELT), have positive attitudes towards ELT, and believe in themselves. Besides, in order to develop a professional identity they need to experience, learn, and receive support from colleagues, students, peers, teacher-trainers, materials and facilities. In addition, the results also indicated that three factors: student-teacher related factors, teacher-trainer related factors and learning context-related factors all positively affected the development of TESOL students' English LTI; in which the student-teacher factor has the strongest influence. These results are hoped to contribute to a better understanding of TESOL students' perception on the development of LTI.
Besides, the study made implications that it is necessary to give practical and profound meanings to improve the process of developing LTI of TESOL students. Key words: LTI, TESOL students, personal identity, professional identity, affecting factors. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY. iii RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS.
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS. vii LIST OF TABLES .x LIST OF FIGURES. xi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. xii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION.
Background to the study. Statement of problems. Aims and objectives of the study. Scope of the study.
Significance of the study. Definition of key terms .6 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW. Language teacher identity. Definitions of LTI.
Characteristics of teacher identity. Factors influencing TESOL students’ English LTI development. Student teacher-related factors. Teacher trainer-related factors.
Learning learning context-related factors. Sample and sampling procedures. Semi-structured interview. Data collection procedures.
Data analysis procedures. Vailidity and Reliability .40 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. The perception of TESOL students’ English language teacher on developing personal and professional identity. Factors affecting TESOL students’ English LTI development.
The perception of TESOL students’ English language teacher on developing personal and professional identity. The factors that affect the identity development of TESOL students’ English language teacher. Summary of the main findings of the thesis. Implications of the research.
Limitation of the research. Recommendations for further research .77 APPENDIX B: ORIGINAL QUESTIONNAIRE .85 APPENDIX C: INTERVIEW PROTOCOL (English Version) .87 viii APPENDIX D: SAMPLE OF INTERVIEW DATA ANALYSIS .91 Chapter 1 1,935 words Chapter 2 6,334 words Chapter 3 2,788 words Chapter 4 5,560words Chapter 5 1,336 words Total 17,953 words ix LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Participants’ general information .2: Reliability of Sub-Variables .1: TESOL students’ perceptions of English LTI .2: TESOL students’ perceptions of English LTI in terms of Personal identity .3: TESOL students’ perceptions of English LTI in terms of Professional identity.4: Factors affecting TESOL students’ English LTI development .5: Student-teacher related factors .6: Sub-factors of student-teacher related factors .7: Teacher-trainer related factor .10: Context-related factor .13: Facilities at learning environment.14: Facilities at teaching practicum .55 x LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.2: Characteristics of teacher identity (Akkerman and Meijer, 2011) .3: Conceptual framework of the English LTI .29 xi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS LTI Language Teacher Identity EFL English as a Foreign Language ELT English Language Teaching TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of other Languages HUTECH Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology xii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. Background to the study More than thirty years ago, the lack of a theoretical framework was a concern of many researchers to support language teacher education programs (e., Richards & Nunan, 1990; Crandall, 2000). At that time, most classroom-based studies sought to describe successful teaching methods, effective learning strategies, and teacher- student interactions that were assumed to facilitate successful language learning (Chaudron, 1988).
It is clear that the role of the teacher in language teaching in the past is the learner's input language provider. This view is supported by (Firth & Wagner, 1997) consider teacher as “supplier” for language teaching, and the identity of the teacher is not important. Therefore, the main foundation of language teacher education in this period focuses on the knowledge-based learning to the teaching practices, not in the process of teacher education development. After that, the language teacher education has begun to realize that teachers are also crucial to understanding and enhancing their English language teaching, aside from the strategies or methods they apply (Richards & Nunan 1990; Freeman, 1991).
Particularly, preliminary researches about teachers’ beliefs, attitudes, and so forth (e., Bedir, 2019; Islahi & Nasrin, 2019) also clearly show that these attributes cannot be seen atomically, and the teacher identity considered as a crucial component of determining language teaching methods in the classroom. Teacher education not only involves the application of these new teaching methodologies, but teachers must also “understand their relationship to the world, how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and how people understand their possibilities for the future” (Norton, 1997, p. Therefore, the importance of teacher identity influences the change of teacher education. In detail, while providing appropriate teaching methods, teacher education 1 is also a developing process to create professional teacher identity within schools and in a wider social environment and the professional teacher identity teacher’s self with reality.
This view is supported by Beijaard et al., (2000) who point out that the teacher’s professional identity affects their performance and career development. This shift represents the interaction between teachers and students in the larger social ecosystem; teachers are no longer knowledge input suppliers and feedback providers. As noted by (Kanno & Stuart, 2011), teachers negotiate to accept these roles, recognition has generated increasing interest in the development of the LTI. Regarding to the Vietnam context, English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher education has been a priority task in meeting professional teacher education in recent years.
Therefore, many decrees, decisions, and guidelines have been issued by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) on teaching quality requirements. In particular, the MOET formulated a framework for teachers’ teaching competence, which includes specific areas such as language teaching knowledge; language learner’s knowledge; language teaching practices and so forth (MOET, 2014). It can be seen that language teacher education in Vietnam has many advantages, but it is not enough to help teachers achieve new professional development and ensure the highest quality. The biggest problem is that teacher education agents cannot work asynchronously to meet the improvement needs of teachers (Dede et al.