THE SCOPE, OBJECTIVE, RESEARCH QUESTIONS, METHOD AND
The scope of the study
The study focuses on applying CLT in teaching speaking to non-English major students in Hanoi University of Industry.
Objectives of the study
The main purpose of my study is to research on difficulties if any experienced by teachers in teaching speaking with CLT From that, some recommendations can be made to deal with these difficulties.
Research questions
The researcher needs to find answers for the two following questions:
- How do the teachers of HaUI apply CLT in teaching Speaking?
- Which difficulties do both teachers and students encounter in the process of implementing CLT?
Firstly, classroom observations are carried out to check whether teachers apply CLT in teaching speaking or not Secondly, questionnaires are given to teachers to collect more information on difficulties that they face
The thesis consists of three main parts as following:
Part A is the introduction, which mentions the rationales, the focus, the objectives, the methods and the design of the study
Part B consists of four chapters:
Chapter I presents two main issues The first is an overview of some methods used to teach foreign language The second one is about communicative language teaching in terms of the definition, characteristics, condition in applying CLT, communicative competence and using CLT in teaching speaking
Chapter II mentions methodology in terms of the background, the subject and research tools Questionnaires are distributed to both teachers and students Besides, the class observation also helps to investigate applying CLT in teaching speaking to non-English major students
Chapter III deals with the data of the study basing on the questionnaires and the class observation
Chapter IV discusses the result drawing from the previous chapter In this chapter, the researcher talks about difficulty as well as solutions to overcome problem in the process of adopting CLT in teaching speaking
Part C is ended with a summary, which summarizes all the issues in the research.
Outline of the study
The thesis consists of three main parts as following:
Part A is the introduction, which mentions the rationales, the focus, the objectives, the methods and the design of the study
Part B consists of four chapters:
Chapter I presents two main issues The first is an overview of some methods used to teach foreign language The second one is about communicative language teaching in terms of the definition, characteristics, condition in applying CLT, communicative competence and using CLT in teaching speaking
Chapter II mentions methodology in terms of the background, the subject and research tools Questionnaires are distributed to both teachers and students Besides, the class observation also helps to investigate applying CLT in teaching speaking to non-English major students
Chapter III deals with the data of the study basing on the questionnaires and the class observation
Chapter IV discusses the result drawing from the previous chapter In this chapter, the researcher talks about difficulty as well as solutions to overcome problem in the process of adopting CLT in teaching speaking
Part C is ended with a summary, which summarizes all the issues in the research.
LITERATURE REVIEW
APPROACHES OF LANGUAGE TEACHING
This method is also called “traditional method” It was used for the purpose of helping students read and appreciate foreign language literature This method has some characteristic such as:
- Reading and writing are the major focus
- Vocabulary is taught through bilingual word lists, dictionary and memorization
This method is easy to apply because it requires few resources It seems to be suitable for the classes with a lot of students
This method concerns itself primary with the written language of classical literature and ignore authentic spoken communication and social variation of language According to River (1981: 31), “there is much stress on knowing rules and exceptions” and “little stress is laid on accurate pronunciation and information; communication is neglect”
1.2 The Audio-lingual Method 1.2.1 Overview
COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING
- Foreign language learning is a process of mechanical habit formation Good habits are formed by giving correct responses rather than making mistakes
- Language skills are learned more effectively if the spoken form is learned before the written form
- Analogy provides a better foundation for language learning than analysis Drills can enable learners to form correct analogies
- The meaning that the words of a language have for the native speaker can be learned only in the context, not in isolation
Moreover, in this method, the teacher acts as a controller selecting the language, the students are to repeat and insisting on acute reproduction of the items
This method develops students’ listening comprehension and fluency in speaking in the target language
When the teacher wants to apply this method, he/she must be a fluent speaker and very resourceful to prevent students from feeling bored
2 COMMUNICATIVE LANUAGE TEACHING 2.1 Definition of CLT
It is pointed out by Brindley (1986: 11) that “the 1970’s and 1980’s could be regarded as the era of communicative language teaching” Nunan (1989: 194) overviews this method as following:
CLT views language as a system for the expression of meaning Activities involve oral communication, carrying out meaning tasks and using language, which is meaningful to the learners Objectives reflect the needs of the learners; they include functional skills as well as linguistic objectives The learner’s role is as a negotiator and integrator The teacher’s role is as a facilitator of the communication process
Materials promote communicative language use; they are task-based and authentic
CLT is based on the theory of language as proposed by Hymes (1972) which brought together two dependent developments: transformational generative grammar and ethnography of communication
CLT was expanded with the development of the notional-functional syllabus (Wilkins:
Canale and Swain (1980) expanded on the theoretical basis of CLT for both teaching and testing
According to Bock (2000), CLT is tailored to get at meaning and learners negotiate meaning in class Meaning is considered as what is communicated
According to Hedge (2000), there are five components of communicative language ability
- Linguistic competence: achievement of knowledge of spelling pronunciation, vocabulary, word formation, grammatical structure, sentence structure and linguistic semantics
- Pragmatic competence: According to Hedge (2000), pragmatic competence includes illocutionary competence and socio-linguistic competence of which the formers shows how to use language to gain some communicative goals or intention, the latter involves social language to select appropriate language forms in different contexts Socio-linguistic competence is related to non-verbal and verbal communication as well
- Discourse competence: achievement of how to understand meanings and forms in a unified spoken or written text through cohesive devices involving forms (such as: pronouns, conjunctions, ellipses, comparisons) and coherent devices involving meanings (such as: repetition, progression, consistency and relevance of ideas)
This competence is called “textual competence” (Bachman, 1990)
- Strategic competence: achievement of verbal and non-verbal strategies to find ways to balance insufficient competence or performance limitations as well as to promote communicative effectiveness
- Fluency: ability to link units of speech with facility and without strain or inappropriate slowness, or undue hesitation
According to Li (1998: 967), CLT has six features as follows:
- Focusing on meaningful tasks rather than on language use
- Trying to make tasks and language relevant to a target group of learners through an analysis of genuine, realistic situations
- Attempting to create a secure and non-threatening atmosphere
2.3 Conditions of applying CLT 2.3.1 Authentic materials
The teacher needs to use authentic materials suitably for the students’ different levels For students with the low level of proficiency in the target language, he/she can use weather forecast and ask them to predict For those with higher level, the authentic material can be newspaper articles, books, live radio and television broadcasts
Teachers play the most important role in applying CLT They are both facilitators of students’ learning and managers of classroom activities When students take part in activities, teachers act as advisors and monitors and sometimes as co-communicator to involve in communicative activities with students
Communicative competence is recognized as primary goal of language teaching It is composed of both grammatical competence and socio-linguistic competence
Communicative language teaching tries to facilitate the integration of these two equally important components for the learners and helps them to acquire communicative competence
2.4.2 The five components of communicative competence 2.4.2.1 Rules of grammar
According to Savignon (1983), “Grammatical competence is the mastery of the linguistic code, the ability to recognize the lexical, morphological, syntactic and phonological features of a language and to manipulate these features to forms words and sentences
Grammatical competence does not link to any single theory of grammar, nor does it assume the ability to make explicit the rule of usage A person demonstrates grammatical competence by using a rule, not by stating a rule.”
It requires an understanding of the social context in which language is used: the role of the participants, the information they share, the functions of the interaction, the degree of formality, setting, topic, channel and purposes of communication so that judgments can be made on the appropriateness of a particular utterance
Competence in rules of discourse is the ability to understand a group of utterances as a whole depending on the cohesive relationship marked by cohesive devices such as pronouns, conjunctions, synonyms, ellipses, comparisons, parallel structures which relate what is about to be said to what has already been said It is also the ability to understand the logical relationship between utterances depending on one’s general knowledge of the world
The competence of probability rules of occurrence is the ability to understand what communicative functions are likely to be expressed in a given context and what not This competence may be acquired more through using the language in real life communication than in classroom practice
They are used to compensate for imperfect knowledge of rules, or limiting factors in their application such as fatigue, distraction, inattention They are also included the ability to adapt when one’s message is not taken, and to sustain communication by paraphrase, circum-locution, repetition, hesitation, avoidance, guessing and shift in register and style.
USING CLT IN TEACHING SPEAKING
3 Applying CLT in Teaching Speaking 3.1 The nature of communication
Communication is a complex and changing phenomenon We can summarize the generalizations about the nature of communication in the following figure:
Speaker/hearer Wants to say something
Has a communicative purpose Selects from language store
Listener/reader Wants to listen to something
Interested in communicative purpose Processes a variety of language
Pattison (1987: 7) finds the characteristics of typical oral practice between teachers and learners in the classroom, and the way foreign and native speakers communicate with each other outside classroom They are listed below:
List 1 FL (oral) Practice in the classroom
List 2 FL (oral) Communication outside the classroom WHAT: content of communication
Content or topic is decided by teacher, textbook, tape, etc the content is highly predictable
Speakers express freely They are fully aware of the meaning conveyed The exact content is unpredictable
WHY 1: reason for communication Students speak to practice speaking; because teacher tells them to; to get to
Students have a reason to speak, to fill an information gap, etc or the information is good mark, etc interesting or useful for the participants
WHY 2: Result of communication The “extrinsic motivation” is achieved as the FL is practiced; the teacher accepts or corrects what is said and good mark is given
The “intrinsic motivation” is satisfied when the aims are reached, information gap is filled, a problem is solved, or a social contact is made, etc
WHO: participants in communication Not everyone pays attention to what is expressed except for the teacher, who pays less attention to what they say than to how well they say it
Two or more people usually face each other, paying attention and responding to what is said, rather than how correctly it is said
HOW: means of communication Language is closely adapted to learners’ level All speech is as accurate as possible and completed sentences Problems in communicating meaning are solved by translation Learners are controlled to use standard forms
Native speaker output is adjusted to foreigners’ level Meaning is conveyed by any means at the speakers’ command
Problems are dealt with by negotiation and exchange of feedback between speakers
Errors not affecting communication are largely ignored
There are many speaking activities for use in the classroom as followings:
This activity is very important in CLT because it gives students opportunities to communicate in different social contexts and in different social roles The students in the class are divided into pairs or groups and given contexts and roles to act out The roles can be shopkeeper, policeman, interviewer, etc who can be in different moods such as: bold or frightened, irritated or amused, etc Situations are usually true to life, so the speech is close to authentic discourse Students also receive feedback on whether or not they have effectively communicated
Problem solving tasks work well in CLT because they usually include the three features of communication: information gap, choice and feedback They can be structured so that students share information or work together to arrive at a solution In this activity, the class is divided into groups of about four students and is given “problem” Each group negotiates with each other and then selects a representative to report in front of the class after working out solution to that problem
Discussion is also very effective in CLT because it gives students a practice in negotiating meaning and chances to express themselves in the target language Groups of four or ten students are working on a topic of common interest for about ten or more minutes and then a representative is chosen to report what they have discussed
Cued story is used effectively with the beginner because it helps them improve their speaking skills and be familiar with speaking in front of the crowd Students work individually, imagine or devise a complete story based on the given cues Then they are invited to speak from their memory with some help from the paper sheet
This is like cued story but students learn to work and negotiate meaning with their partner or people in group to act on the tasks Students work in pairs or in groups, making up a story from a set of pictures Then one of them in the group is summoned up to the front to tell the story
Li (1998) investigates the difficulties experienced by 18 South Korean secondary school teachers of English when CLT is applied in teaching English to secondary pupils in South Korea He carries out his research by delivering the formal questionnaires as well as interviewing all of these teachers to find out the difficulties in implementing CLT in teaching English The hindrances in the result of his survey fall into four categories: by the teachers, by the students, by the educational system and by CLT itself The troubles that the teachers have to encounter are categorized into 6 major constraints such as: deficiency in spoken English deficiency in strategic and socio-linguistic competence; lack of training in CLT; few opportunities for retaining in CLT; misconceptions about CLT; little time and expertise for developing communicative materials The difficulties caused by the students are low English proficiency, lack of motivation for communicative competence and resistance to participating in class The others caused by the educational system are classified into 4 major kinds as large classes, grammar-based examinations, lack of money funding, and lack of support The rest of problems caused by CLT ifself are identified as CLT’s inadequate account of EFL teaching; the lack of effective and efficient assessment instrument in CLT.
METHODOLOGY
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
1 Description of English course in HaUI
The English course in HaUI is divided into two stages:
The first stage is the stage for general English which lasts 450 periods, from the first semester to the fifth semester Depending on the characteristics of each major, different textbooks are used Normally, New Headway the 3 rd edition is used for the most majors in HaUI The textbook develops students’ four skills and have the following features:
- The textbook helps students learn the real things from newspapers, magazines and daily conversations
- The book develops students’ communicative competence They are required to work in pairs, in groups, to practice English in common situations Furthermore, students have chances to listen both to native and non-native English speakers from the tapes or CDs used with the books
- The book focuses on communicative competence without ignoring linguistic competence, so in the book the students are required to master the grammatical structures such as: tenses, comparison, passive voice, conditional sentences, etc
The second stage is the stage for specific purpose which lasts 45 periods in the last semester The course book for this stage is designed by teachers in the English department
2 Description of the physical setting
- The class size: each class has about 25-30 students
- English department has an overhead projector, a cassette player, CD, a television
- There is a library in HaUI but there are not many English books for reference and self-study.
SUBJECTS
3 Description of objectives of the English course
The requirements of students at the end of semester are stated in the syllabus as follows:
- To have general knowledge of English grammar and an active vocabulary of about
- The ability to communicate with foreigners in the target language in some situations such as: showing ways, asking to check foreigner’s suspecting luggage, contacting with someone for special mission, etc
- The ability to understand the professional terms used in their job
4 Description of time allocation of the course
There are 6 periods a week for all four skills whereas a higher proportion of contact hours are needed to develop the speaking skill
1 Description of teachers in HaUI
In HaUI, the English department consists of three groups:
- The first non-English major group: in charge of pupils at vocational level
- The second non-English major group: in charge of students at university and college level
Teachers the researcher mentions here come from the 2 nd non-English major group There are 80 teachers in this group and none of them have ever been to English speaking countries There are 20 male and 60 female teachers ranged from 23 to 38 years in age
Their experience in teaching English varies from 3 to 16 years
The following table shows that the staff members in the 2 nd non-English major group of the English Department in HaUI are very young
Table 1: Description of teachers’ working experience
Years of teaching Age Numbers of staff
2 Description of students in HaUI
They all have passed a rather challenging University Entrance Examination with other subjects except for English They are both male and female from different parts of the country such as: big cities, provinces and mountainous areas
The percentage in table 2 shows the background of English of the students
Table 2: Students’ background of English
Students have learnt English for 7 years 350 58.3%
RESEARCH TOOLS
Students have never learnt English 25 4.2%
Never speak English to the foreigners 500 83.3%
Sometimes speak English to the foreigners 90 15%
Always speak English to the foreigners 10 E1.7%
Students attend English classes in foreign language centers 150 25%
Students participate in English speaking clubs 200 33.3%
There are 39 English classes (only first year), belonging to 10 non-English major faculties in HaUI at the time of class observation and delivering questionnaire To have reliable statistics, more than half of the classes should be included in the survey To be objective, judgmental sampling is not possible because these classes are not at the same level So the classes must be picked by random sampling Therefore, the researcher writes on 20 pieces of paper 20 numbers ranged from 20 to 39 (to be sure that the number chosen is more than half of the classes) and randomly selects one of them The number chosen is 25 Therefore, twenty-five classes are selected
Only first year classes are chosen because there are so many classes at that time
Moreover, students of the other 8 faculties passed University Entrance Examination with English as a compulsory subject Therefore, their textbook is International Express instead of New Headway After the English course, they will get Toefl certification
Two measurement instruments were developed for data collection They are consists of:
The class observation was carried out by visiting 25 classes and recording all activities occurred in each class Basing on the information about CLT and the conditions of applying CLT mentioned in the previous parts, the researcher conducted the class observation with four following criteria:
To design the class observation with these above criteria, the researcher adapted from the ideas of Jack C Richard in the book named “Communicative Language Teaching Today”
(2006) Moreover, in the researcher’s opinion, these above criteria are the typical characteristics of a CLT speaking class
The assessment is divided into two scales: applicable (using CLT) and not applicable (not using CLT)
The two questionnaires were designed by basing on the results of the class observation
They include both closed and open-ended questions
The questionnaire designed for the teachers aimed at seeking information about the teachers’ working experience, teachers’ perceptions of CLT, problems they confronted with in the process of teaching, and way to exploit available teaching aids in teaching English There are ten questions:
- Question 1 requests the matter concerning the teacher’s working experience
- Question 2 is about the teachers’ perception of CLT through the workshops on language teaching
- Question 3, 9 relate to the teachers’ opinion about the implementing of CLT
- Question 4, 5, 6, 7 aim at finding out the problems that teachers confront with in the process of teaching
- Question 8, 10 ask teachers’ solutions for the difficult situations they met
To make sure that the questionnaire has adequate reliability, the second questionnaire is distributed to 750 students This questionnaire consists of 10 questions:
- Question 1 relates to the English background of the learners before entering Hanoi University of Industry
- Question 2, 3, 4 relate to extra-curriculum activities such as English speaking clubs, English evening courses which students have been attending, the opportunities of using English out of the classroom
- Question 5, 6 focus on the students’ needs and wants when attending the English course in the curriculum
- Question 7, 8 are concerning about the difficulties that the students probably face with while learning English
- Question 9 aims at detecting the students’ opinion about the time allotted for teaching and learning English in the curriculum
- Question 10 help to find out the students’ needs in learning English and their suggestions
The questionnaire designed for the students tends to survey on their target needs (what they need to do in the target situation), their learning needs (what they need to do in order to learn), and their motivation in learning English
In short, totally 750 copies of the questionnaires are delivered to students and 80 to the teachers and all of the copies are returned However, incompletely filled questionnaires are rejected, leaving 600 and 75 respectively for analysis
Data analysis is not a single description of the data collected but a process by which the researcher interprets the data In this process, the researcher will identify and note recurrent themes and salient comments in regard to the constraints that the EFL teachers in Hanoi University of Industry has encountered and might have encountered in applying CLT in their classroom.
DATA PRESENTATION & ANALYSIS
CLASS OBSERVATION
The result of the class observation was shown in the below table:
Note: A: Applicable NA: Not Applicable (using CLT) (not using CLT)
Table 3: Result of class observation
Criteria (typical to CLT (Jack, 2006)) A NA
2 Students become comfortable with listening to their peers in group work or pair work tasks
4 Using authentic materials to make real communication the focus of language learning
5 Provide opportunities for learners to experiment and try out what they know
6 Be tolerant of learners’ errors as they indicate that the learner is building up his or her communicative competence
7 Provide opportunities for learners to develop both accuracy and fluency
8 Link the different skills such as speaking, reading, and listening together, since they usually occur so in the real world
9 Let students induce or discover grammar rules 24% 76%
10 Students practice information gap in pairs 48% 52%
11 The class is divided into groups and practice jigsaw activity 48% 52%
12 Students are assigned roles and improvise a scene or exchange based on given information or clues
13 Students use their language resources to complete a task such as puzzles, games, and map-reading
14 Students are required to take information that is presented in one form, and represent it in a different form
The class observation results reflect the reality in which the teacher adopted CLT in teaching speaking As shown in table 3, most of teachers play a good role in CLT speaking class
Contrary to teachers, students did not work well enough with their role Only more than 20% students feel like working in groups or pairs The rest becomes bored with listening to their peers because of their English level or their lack of motivation
Most of teachers (96%) are very tolerant with students’ errors This helps students feel confident for more questions or opinions More than half of teachers (52%) use authentic material in teaching speaking and the rest utilizes the textbook It is also very good to give students chances to experience their own knowledge However, there are a few teachers (16%) do not link other skills in teaching They maybe think that CLT means teaching only speaking Moreover, most of teachers (76%) admit that it is difficult to let students induce or discover grammar rules because in the traditional way of teaching, it is a teacher who provides students with all kinds of grammar rules in the lesson
In general, both teachers and students feel excited when there are games in the lesson
However, it does not always work well as they expect Task-completion activities and role-play are the most popular The other activities such as: information-gap, jigsaw, information-transfer are used by more than 40% teachers Students seem not to be interested in these activities because of their poor source of vocabulary.
QUESTIONNAIRE
1 Questionnaire for the Teachers Question 1
The half of the teachers (40/80) of the English department has taught English from 3 to 5 years They just left their university Therefore, their knowledge seems to be very fresh
They have a lot of up-to-date information about CLT However, they can have difficulty on applying CLT in teaching because they are inexperienced The opposite things maybe happen to the teachers (15/80) with more than 15 years of teaching Therefore, it is a very good idea for the teachers of the English department to share and learn the teaching experience from each other’s to teach better and better
The data of the previous question helps the researcher to understand easily the reason why 75/75 teachers have been trained in CLT in university courses It also shows that all teachers of English are qualified enough to apply CLT in teaching
Therefore, 70/75 teachers have right opinion on CLT when most of them think that CLT emphasizes on fluency more than accuracy, gives students opportunities to communicate with others and use authentic materials These viewpoints will help them to have suitable lesson plan and act in a proper role in lesson
However, there are still a few staffs have misconceptions about CLT In fact, 5/75 teachers think that CLT is not used to teach grammar but only for teaching speaking skill
As a result, teacher talking time was to be minimized whereas student talking time was to be maximized by putting students into pairs or groups and asking them to talk to their friends This misunderstanding prevents teachers from CLT’s benefits
Although the teachers understand or misunderstand CLT, all of them face problems when adopting CLT in teaching speaking The proof is that 75/75 teachers answer the same as what was expected about difficulties they faced with in applying CLT such as:
- lack of authentic materials (69/75) The fact lies behind this data is that most of the books of reference available in the library had been developed under the influence of grammar-translation and audio-lingual methods Therefore, teachers had had to design their own materials or activities to be suitable for their students’ level and interest if they want to use CLT in teaching speaking However, the root of this problem lies in the matter of time There is a proverb that says “time is gold” It is true in this case Because if there are not enough authentic materials, teachers can design them but they do not have enough time In fact, most of them were already overloaded and they are not paid to do that
- lack of students’ motivation, students’ low English level, students’ passive style (72/75) There is an undeniable fact that in Vietnamese not all jobs in the future career of HaUI’s students required fluency in English This is the reason why they become unmotivated to learn speaking English Moreover, when they were in the high school, they chose to enter the University Entrance Exam with three subjects without English As a result, they lost interest in studying English in general and in speaking English in particular Their becoming discouraged to speak results in their passive style
- poor teaching conditions, large class size (75/75) They become more and more passive when they learn in poor teaching conditions and in a class with so many students All teachers consider these things as popular difficulties
It may be easy to realize problems in adopting CLT However, it is not easy at all to find solutions for the problems To overcome the problems caused by lacking of students’ motivation, all teachers (75/75) share the same opinion of creating interesting topics, exercises suitable for students’ level or encouraging them by marks The teachers know their students better than anyone that they are only motivated when they can do something like suitable exercises or when they need something like good marks
To deal with the lack of authentic materials, 50/75 teachers take advantage of the course books We can see that these 50 respondents are very busy and they are often female with a lot of housework Therefore, they choose the way of utilizing the textbook The rest manages to design some tasks or activities or materials The 25 teachers are often still single Therefore, they are so enthusiastic that they spend a lot of time for teaching
As for students’ using Vietnamese during group work or pair work, 50/75 teachers move around to observe and encourage them to speak English The researcher thinks that this way does not work effectively in case of a large class One teacher cannot observe nearly
30 students 25/75 teachers remind them to use English and give them help This group seems to be more confident when they are ready to give students help It shows that they are very confident in their vocabulary and structures to support students when they ask
To deal with students’ low English level, 40/75 teachers move around to observe and help them 30/75 teachers design exercise suitable for students’ levels and encourage them by grade The rest find it hard to improve students’ level It is easy to understand because this group of teachers knows that students’ English level cannot become better after one or two semesters Therefore, they often give instructions in Vietnamese to save time and to make sure that students understand what teachers ask them to do
70/75 teachers agree that the students’ traditional learning style have negative influence on applying CLT whereas 5/75 teachers strongly agree This data proves that all teachers know the key reason why their students are unmotivated and passive in the lesson time
From that, teachers also understand what they need to do is to help their students change the learning style if they want to implementing CLT successfully
All of the teachers are sometimes in the situation that they are not able to answer students’ questions related to the sociolinguistic aspects of English Most of their solutions to this problem are to neglect or to remind students that the question is irrelevant to the lesson
RESULT DISCUSSION
DIFFICULTIES
1 Difficulties from Teachers 1.1 Misconceptions about CLT in terms of grammar and teaching speaking
All teachers reported that teachers’ misconceptions about CLT are of the principle obstacles In mainstream language textbook like New Headway, it represents good contemporary practice However, certain misconceptions about CLT continue to survive, making it difficult for many teachers to see clearly what is happening and to identify the useful innovations that CLT has brought There were two typical misconceptions:
The first one was that CLT meant not teaching grammar because grammar was too complex for the students It could only be acquired unconsciously through exposure to the language
The second one was that CLT meant teaching only speaking This misconception was often translated into the principle that teacher talking time was to be reduced and student talking time was to be maximized by putting students into pairs or groups and telling them to talk to their peers
1.2 Deficiency in Strategic and Sociolinguistic Competence
The teachers report that their low strategic and sociolinguistic competence in English would limit the use of CLT Because the demand of teachers’ strategic and sociolinguistic competence must be greater in a communicative class than in a traditional grammar- focused classroom, they generally feel incompetent to conduct a communicative class
In a communicative class, students often ask more questions than in traditional one
However, teachers feel confident when answering the ones that are related to English grammar but feel confused if they are related to the sociolinguistic aspects of English It is generally thought that a teacher is supposed to know everything and be always correct
If she/he cannot answer all of the students’ questions right away, she/he cannot be a good teacher and she/he soon loses students’ respect Therefore, the teacher’s ability to answer all questions promptly is highly valued The fear of losing face because of not being able to answer students’ questions all the time discouraged teachers from using CLT For that reason, teachers chose to stick to the traditional grammar-centered, text-centered and teacher-centered methods so that they always had a good idea about what was going to happen in every class and made adequate preparations for it
1.3 Little time and expertise for development of communicative materials
Lack of time for and lack of expertise in developing communicative materials were also constraints for the teachers Most of the books of reference available in the library had been developed under the influence of grammar-translation and audio-lingual methods
Therefore, teachers had had to design their own materials or activities to be suitable for their students’ level and interest if they want to use CLT in teaching speaking However, most of them were already overloaded Any demands on their time in addition to their syllabus teaching work were a burden for them This was particularly serious for female teaches because they also had to do their housework However, it was also a hard work though they had time because they lacked expertise in designing communicative activities First, they had never been taught to do that work themselves Second, authentic English materials were not available, which meant they had to create everything and they spent more time than they can afford As a result, the teachers faced many difficulties in adopting CLT
2 Difficulties from Students 2.1 Lack of motivation for Communicative competence
Many teachers complained that students’ lack of motivation in class participation was one of the main obstacles Although they have realized how important it is to be able to communicate in English rather than to know its grammar well, they still care much about the activities that pair work was needed, a good English proficiency student did not want to work with a low English level one If they must, they soon get bored and unmotivated
In addition, illustrations in the textbooks are not attractive to invite students to communicate naturally because at the present time they use black and white version
2.2 Resistance to participating in class
Anxiety, laziness, and unfamiliarity with communicative lessons seemed to be the main culprits Language activities such as role-plays, problem-solving tasks or information gap are strange to our culture of learning Influenced by Confucianism, students feel rude if they interrupt, question, or argue with their teacher In addition, they are worry about what other classmates will think or comment on their ability They are not pro-active enough to initiate interaction In the class, they sit in silence, take notes while the teacher gives lectures, and speak only when teacher calls them However, when a particular student is called upon to speak in class, her response tends to be very brief in the form of either a phrase or a short sentence After so many years of schooling in that way of teaching, students rely on the teachers to give them information directly, making it difficult to get students to participate in class activities When students were not willing to participate in class activities, teachers had little chance of fulfilling the goal of using CLT, thus attempt to adopt CLT in class failed
2.3 Using Vietnamese during group work
Students’ using Vietnamese during group work was one of the constraints in trying CLT
Teachers often run into difficulties when getting students to work in pairs or in-groups because of their resistance to participating in class activities In addition, when they joined into pairs or groups, they often used Vietnamese instead of English in discussions
Anxiety, apathy and unfamiliarity with CLT were the sources of this difficulty
Moreover, many students share that when they take apart in activities like group work or pair work, they often are in the condition of having nothing in their mind Therefore, they know nothing to speak in English They do not have enough vocabularies to maintain conversations with their partners As a result, they found express themselves in English more difficult than in Vietnamese
Low English proficiency was also an important difficulty because the above problems are the results of students’ low English level Some students had learnt English when they were in grade 6; some had not started until they were in grade 10 Therefore, their knowledge of vocabulary and English structures was limited which was a great difficulty for them to express themselves in English when they were appointed to do oral communicative activities Gradually, they lost interest in trying to speak English and became discouraged to speak English any more.
SOLUTIONS
To overcome these above difficulties, the teachers need the support from the administrators If CLT is applied, certain equipment and facilities should be in place
Extra funding is needed to obtain authentic books, materials for communicative activities
Newspaper, magazines, reference books should be available to be easily accessed In addition, classrooms should be re-equipped with at least a sound system, light, overhead projector, and black or white board The seats in the class should be flexible to form groups for discussion
In addition to the physical setting changes, the administrators should change their mind on the syllabus At the beginning of the course, they design the curriculum and set the syllabus and textbooks They then also monitor the implementation of the syllabus The syllabus and the textbooks, once approved by them, become laws that must be strictly followed This makes the teachers feel frustrating if they are committed to CLT because they must teach under pressure to cover the allocated syllabus in the time allowed So, the flexibility in using the syllabus is very essential to the successful use of communicative approach
Moreover, the administrators need to take the following remedies into consideration to enable successful application of CLT:
- Consider increasing teacher’s salary so that teachers do not have to find a part-time job
If teachers do not worry about financial problems any more, they will teach with all their heart and make effort in trying new methods, new materials they will also spend their time developing communicative materials to meet the demands of CLT classes
- Create conditions for teachers to have time to do research work
- Organize more seminars on CLT so that teachers can improve their knowledge and experience
- Give teachers chances to improve knowledge by attending short-term training course about CLT
To introduce CLT successfully in traditional language classroom, students’ attitude toward English needs to change They should consider English as important as other subjects in the curriculum and speaking in their goal in learning English Until CLT becomes a norm in Vietnam, students should not resist this way of learning Therefore, teacher needs consciously reorient students to this methodology In my opinion, there are something needed to do to change students’ toward English learning
Firstly, teachers should enhance students’ motivation by considering the following issues:
- Creating interesting topics because interesting topics motivate the students and create enjoyable atmosphere in the class When they are interested in something, they are eager to take part in it
- Designing exercises, which are suitable for students’ level, because students can finish the tasks suitable for their level Practically, multi-level classes are popular The tasks for the students with limited competence can de-motivate good students So, the tasks in the class should be arranged from easy to difficult scale so that the bad can keep up with the others
- Organizing English speaking club where students can talk and discuss about their interest, exchange experience in learning English (learning grammar, vocabulary, reading, speaking, etc), learning English songs together, etc These activities create English speaking and learning environment for the students to learn
- Downs (2000) suggests some effective ways that the teachers can apply in the classroom to enhance students’ motivation They are: “the teachers call students by names; the teachers appreciate the students’ opinion; tangible instructions and objectives are used in the class; praise and encouragement are produced appropriate to the learners”
Secondly, “students need to relearn their role as learners, teacher’s role in the classroom, and basic nature of language” (Deckert, 1987) Students’ role is no longer passive recipients They are communicators in the class They can take part in class activities, can be free to express their own ideas, to put questions to the teachers, to show their disagreements with the teachers Teachers, on the other hand, are no longer “knowledge- transmitter” They play the role of a facilitator of the students’ learning, a manager of classroom activities, an advisor to answer students’ questions and to control their performance, and a “co-communicator” to engage in the communicative activities along with the students (Littlewood, 1981) The students’ new role and teachers’ role is a new concept for students Therefore, teachers should be flexible to manage the class because it takes time for the students to get use to this role, this concept
Thirdly, students’ resistance in participating in class activities needs teachers’ consideration Teachers needs to be aware of this issue and take steps to lower them so that students are gradually confident in joining class activities Obviously, teacher is a vital factor in the class The teachers should stimulate the students to volunteer to speak, and the passive students need the teachers’ attention They have to be appointed to speak
The easy questions should be given to the bad ones to assure their keeping face Praise from teachers should be given at the right time Negative comments from teachers, which de-motivate students and influence the students’ participation in the classroom, need to be avoided For example, instead of saying “Wrong”, “Nonsense”, teachers should say positive praise such as “Try another time”, “Thank you, what about others?”
Last but not at least, students’ anxiety in public speaking is also a problem To lower it gradually, I think teachers should consider these remedies to manage group work well
Teachers ask students to form groups for discussions To avoid the good students’ dominance in group work, teachers should ask students to change their group leader from this student to another so that all students in a group realize their responsibility for the task progress Also, the information gap in group work should be paid attention to so that each member has opportunities to exchange information Apart from those, to reduce the students’ use of Vietnamese during group work, teachers should move around the class, observe, and give them help if necessary Teachers should pay more attention to correct students’ errors because this stage either helps students learn effectively or de-motivates them and make them lose face in front of the class In students’ error correction, the task of the teachers is “to value students, prize their attempt to communicate, and then provide optimal feedback for the system to evolve in successive stages until students are communicating more clearly” (Brown, 1994) There are some suggestions for teachers on error correction in class:
- Collect errors made by the students and involve the whole class as much as possible in the correction process
- Spend less time correcting what is only problem for one student and more time on problems common to the whole group
- Help students understand why they are wrong by indicating that an error has been made (by gestures), showing the students where the error is and what kind of error it is (wrong tense, wrong-stressed word…), get him/ her try again if he/she can get it right
- Do not interrupt students before he finishes his utterance because he will find it disconcerting or frustrating
- Try not to repeat the errors, even in mocking, astonished way
On the progress to regional and global integration, Vietnam in general and HaUI in particular certainly need more people with good English abilities to participate into the world This trend gives rise to the need to reconsider some traditional values that have become out-of-date and unsuitable to the new social contexts Needless to say, we should adapt what comes from outsides but is thought to be suitable for our needs and our settings, and then create something of our own One of these changes is to reform in the educational system in general and in the area of language education in particular But educational innovation involves many factors that may influence it at different stages and at different levels For practical reason, traditional English language teaching is no longer useful in the new social situations and CLT should be implemented in the educational system to meet the demand of the social contexts However, it should be applied with a close and careful consideration of the cultural values of Vietnam Teachers should have balance between the traditional and modern methods because they face many difficulties in applying CLT
This study set out to investigate the reality of using CLT in teaching speaking to non- English major students in HaUI Based on the instrumentation such as classroom observation and questionnaire, this research has discovered the significant findings with a help to improving the English teaching in HaUI The findings are divided into two groups: problems and solutions