MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ---------- LE THI THUY TIEN AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS’ PSYCHOLOGY FACTORS AFFECTED BY TEACHING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL TO LARGE MULTILEVEL CLASSES AT SOME ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTERS IN HUE CITY FIELD OF STUDY: THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.10 MA THESIS IN EDUCATION SUPERVISOR: ASSOC.DR LUU QUY KHUONG HUE-2012 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ---------- LÊ THỊ THỦY TIÊN TÌM HIỂU CÁC YẾU TỐ TÂM LÝ CỦA NGƯỜI DẠY BỊ ẢNH HƯỞNG TỪ VIỆC DẠY NÓI TIẾNG ANH CHO LỚP ĐÔNG ĐA TRÌNH ĐỘ TẠI MỘT SỐ TRUNG TÂM NGOẠI NGỮ- HUẾ CHUYÊN NGÀNH: LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY - HỌC MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.10 LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ GIÁO DỤC HỌC NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC PGS. LƯU QUÝ KHƯƠNG HUẾ - 2012 Acknowledgements Above all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Luu Quy Khuong, for his useful guidance, assistance and critical encouragement in supervising this thesis. Without his assistance, this thesis would not have been possible.
Sincerely, I am grateful to the teachers of Foreign Language Centers (Quoc Hoc, Hai Ba Trung, CADAFOLC, and College of Industry FLC) in Hue city who generously spent their time on my interviews, questionnaires and classroom observations. Finally, from the bottom of my heart, I am really thankful to my dear family and my close friends for having supported me both materially and spiritually when I was doing the thesis. STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine. The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with the permission from associates and have not been published elsewhere.
Author Le Thi Thuy tien TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP TABLE OF CONTENTS .5 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .6 LIST OF TABLES .7 LIST OF FIGURES. Background of the Study and the Need of the Study. Aim of the research. The structure of the thesis .12 CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL.
A review of previous studies related to the thesis. Nature of Speaking and Teaching Speaking .1 Definition of Speaking .2 Oral Communication in the classroom .3 Principles of Teaching Speaking. Principles of Teaching Speaking. Speaking Teaching Techniques.
Language Teaching-Learning Conditions. Teacher Psychology factors in the Classroom. Personal Relationship Building. Large Multilevel classes .1 Large class size.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Teaching Large Multilevel Classes. Keeping All Learners Interested and Involved. Effective Learning for All .28 CHAPTER 3 - RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY. Participants and Population.
Data Collection Procedures .33 CHAPTER 4 - FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS .2 Teachers’ Goals of Teaching Speaking skills to LMCs .1 Teachers’ Perception about the Role of Teaching English Speaking Skill to LMCs .2 The purposes of teaching English Speaking skillsto LMCs .3 Teachers’ Perception about Factors Contributing to Making English Large Multilevel Classes .4 Teachers’ Perception about Differences between Teaching English Speaking skill to a LMC and to a Usual One .5 Classroom Practices of Teaching English Speaking Skill to LMCs .1 The Frequency of Using Speaking Activities .2 Types of Task Arrangement .3 Ways of Forming Students Groups .4 Teachers’ Roles in LMCs.5 Error Correction Strategies .3 Teachers’ Psychology Factors Affected by Teaching English Speaking Skill to Large Multilevel Classes .1 Advantages from Teaching English Speaking Skill to Large Multilevel Classes .2 Disadvantages Teaching English Speaking Skill to Large Multilevel Classes .3 Teachers’ Psychology Factors Affected by Teaching English Speaking Skill to Large Multilevel Classes .4 Teachers’ Perception about Psychology Factors Affected by Teaching English Speaking Skill to Large Multilevel Classes .1 Teachers’ Perception about Psychology Factors Positively Affected by Teaching English Speaking Skill to LMCs .2 Teachers’ Psychology Factors Negatively Affected by Teaching English Speaking Skills to Large Multilevel Classes .5 Suggestions Promoting Positive Effects and Reducing Negative Effects on Teacher’s Psychology Factors because of Teaching English Speaking Skill to Large Multilevel Classes. To the Teachers .59 CHAPTER 5 - CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION .2 Summary of the Key Findings .4 Limitations of the Study .65 APPENDICES APPENDIX 1 APPENDIX 2 APPENDIX 3 4 ABSTRACT This research investigates teachers’ psychology factors affected by teaching English speaking skill to large multilevel classes at some English Language Centers in Hue city. First, it attempts to gain insight into teaching English speaking skill to large multilevel classes. Second, it seeks to explore what teacher psychology factors affected by teaching English speaking skill to large multilevel classes.
Third, it aims to find out how teacher psychology factors are affected by teaching English speaking skill to large multilevel classes. Fourth, it attempts to look for suggestions to reduce the negative effects on teacher psychological factors caused by teaching English speaking skills to large multilevel classes so as to promote the quality of teaching English speaking skill in large multilevel classes at some Foreign Language Centers. The participants of this study consisted of 20 teachers of English at some Foreign Language Centers in Hue ( FLCs). The data were collected through questionnaires, interviews, classroom observation and analyzed based on both qualitative and quantitative approaches.
The findings of this study indicate teachers’ goals of teaching English speaking skills to LMCs are varied. Therefore, teachers’ psychology factors such as feelings of the body, emotion, memory, thought, production of language, and motivation had a little difference between experienced and younger teachers. Furthermore, most of the teachers’ psychology factors affected positively and negatively by teaching English speaking skills to large multilevel classes. Finally, in order to reduce the negative influences and increase the positive ones.
Most of the teachers made some suggestions related to aspects such as the teachers and the administrators. Based on these findings, in-depth implications are made at the end of the study with the hope of contributing to the improvement of the process of learning and teaching English speaking skills at some FLCs. 5 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT : Communicative Language Teaching LMLC : Large Multilevel Class LMLCs : Large Multilevel Classes FLC : Foreign Language Center FLCs : Foreign Language Centers 6 LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 The purposes of teaching English Speaking skills to LMCs .2 Teachers’ Perception about Factors Contributing to Making English Large Multilevel Classes .3 The Frequency of Using Speaking Activities .4 Types of Task Arrangement .5 Ways of Forming Students Groups. Teachers’ Roles in LMCs .7 Advantages from Teaching English Speaking Skill to LMCs .8 Disadvantages Teaching English Speaking Skill to LMCs .9 Younger Teachers’ Perception about Psychology Factors Positively affected by teaching English Speaking skill to LMCs .10 Experienced Teachers’ Perception about Teachers’ Psychology Factors Positively Affected by Teaching English Speaking Skill to LMCs .11 Younger Teachers’ Perception about Psychology Factors Negatively Affected by Teaching English Speaking Skill to LMCs .12 Experienced Teachers’ Perception about Psychology Factors Negatively Affected by Teaching English Speaking Skill to LMCs .13 Teachers’ Suggestions to the Teachers .14 Teachers’ Suggestions to Administrators.
59 7 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4. Teachers’ Perception about the Role of Teaching English Speaking Skills to LMCs .2 Differences Between Teaching English Speaking Skills to a LMC and to a Normal Class .3 The Ideal Class Size for Teaching English Speaking skill. Teacher’s Error Correction Strateries .5 Teachers’ Strategies of Correcting Students’ Oral Errors .6 Teachers’ Psychology Factors Affected by Teaching English Speaking Skill to LMCs. Background of the Study and the Need of the Study Along with the development of social relationship and the spread of global cooperation, it raises a need to have a common language in order to interact with each other in a certain situation.
English language considered international language plays an important role in this sense and has been present in all areas as a main tool to communicate and exchange among people from different countries. Therefore, mastering English well is a key feature to catch up the growth of the world. Realizing this, the Vietnam government has paid much attention to teaching and learning English. For the past few years, with the development of communicative language teaching (CLT), it concentrates on developing learners’ communicative competence (Richard & Rogers, 1986, pp.18-22) and has been applied in the English classroom in Vietnam.
However, a sad reality exists that English communication skills of students after graduation, especially speaking skills, is very poor and do not meet the requirements of their job. This situation also has been mentioned a lot on the mass media lately. It raises a question why students do not achieve the necessary language skills even though they have been learning English for a long time. According to Nguyen (2008) stated that “English has become a compulsory subject in junior high schools and high schools.
At these levels, English teaching tends to focus on heavily on grammar, reading, and writing, whereas speaking generally receives little attention. Do (2000) has found that less than 33 % of the Vietnamese learners at tertiary level are fluent in spoken English. Many schools teachers just want to provide students with some knowledge of English grammar, reading and writing” (Nguyen, 2007). In the context of current integration, English has become a truly necessary means in the labor market; a candidate with a strong expertise coupled with fluency in English is always creating publications good for the employer.
Good English skills help candidates get superiority over those who have the same qualifications. As a result, the demand of learning English is higher and higher. To meet this demand, the Foreign English language centers seem good destinations for those who want to master English well. 9 At any language center in Hue, teaching and learning English mainly focuses on four main skills: reading, listening, speaking and writing.11) stated that students of all ages are learning to speak English, but their reasons for wanting to study English can differ greatly.
Some student only learn English because it is on the curriculum at primary or secondary level, but for others, learn English because they think it will be useful in some way for seeking job, international communication and travel. Different though are the reasons, they share the same main purpose that is learn how to speak English well. The number of students at these centers grows up and up. As a result, teachers face challenges of working in large classes from forty to fifty.
Furthermore, level of students is not uniform and there is a large difference in capacity between their English. The class has such a level will cause many problems for teachers, making them hard to manage all students. According to Bell (1991, p.1), there is no doubt that varying language abilities in English are one of the dramatic challenges facing the teacher of the multilevel classes. Share the same idea, Harmer pointed out that one of the biggest problems teachers face is classes where the students are at different levels - some with quite competent English, some whose English is not very good, and some whose English is only just getting started.
Furthermore, in big classes, it is difficult for the teacher to make contact with the students at the back and it is difficult for the students to ask for and receive individual attention. It may seem impossible to organize dynamic and creative teaching and learning lessons. Frequently, big classes mean that it is not easy to have students walking around or changing pairs ect (Harmer. When the teachers work with these classes, they might meet many challenges such as how to prepare lessons, manage the class effectively so as to help the students participate in learning English speaking process as well as get the teaching goals.