Tài liệu Teachers' perspectives of theme based approach in high schools in dalat city, lam dong province master of tesol

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY --------------- TOPIC TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES OF THEME-BASED APPROACH IN HIGH SCHOOLS IN DALAT CITY, LAM DONG PROVINCE BY TRAN THI THANH THUY Student’s code: 18110094 Supervised by: DUONG MY THAM, Ph.D. VUNG TAU, MARCH 2022 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY --------------- TOPIC TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES OF THEME-BASED APPROACH IN HIGH SCHOOLS IN DALAT CITY, LAM DONG PROVINCE BY TRAN THI THANH THUY Student’s code: 18110094 Supervised by: DUONG MY THAM, Ph.D. VUNG TAU, MARCH 2022 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY Vung Tau, 30th March 2022 MASTER’S THESIS REPORT Student’s name: TRAN THI THANH THUY Sex: Female Date of birth: 11/02/1985 Place of birth: Lam Dong Major: Student code: 18110094 TESOL I- Thesis title: Teachers’ perspectives of theme-based approach in high schools in Da Lat City, Lam Dong province II- Objectives and contents: The overall objectives of the current study are to investigate EFL teachers’ perceptions of implementing the theme-based approach at Dalat City-based high schools, whether there are significant differences in terms of perceptions of the theme-based approach between trained EFL teachers and untrained EFL teachers at Dalat City-based high schools, the challenges EFL teachers encounter when TBA is implemented at Dalat City-based high schools. III- Starting date: 01/08/2021 IV- Completing date: 30/03/2022 V- Academic supervisor: Duong My Tham, Ph.D. ACADEMIC SUPERVISOR FACULTY DEAN i CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the Master’s Thesis submitted today entitled: “TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES OF THEME-BASED APPROACH IN HIGH SCHOOLS IN DALAT CITY, LAM DONG PROVINCE” In terms of the statement of requirements for Theses in Master’s programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee of Postgraduate Institute, Ba Ria Vung Tau University Vung Tau, March 2022 TRAN THI THANH THUY ii RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, TRAN THI THANH THUY, being a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL), 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 origin of my Master’s Thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for study and research purposes, in accordance with the standard conditions established by the Librarian for the care, loan, and reproduction of the thesis. Vung Tau, March 2022 TRAN THI THANH THUY iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Duong My Tham, for her patience, professional leadership, insightful suggestions, and unwavering encouragement throughout the whole study process. Without her enthusiastic encouragement and professional supervision, this thesis would not have been completed. I am grateful to Ba Ria Vung Tau University in general and the Postgraduate Institute in particular for providing me with the opportunity to further my education and for always assisting me whenever challenges arise throughout my studies. My gratitude is especially extended to my colleagues at Xuan Truong secondary and high schools, as well as other Da Lat high schools. They provided me with excellent collaboration and assistance with the data collection and pilot study. I would not have been able to complete all of my tasks on time during the learning process without their help. My gratitude goes out to my loving, warm-hearted classmates who took me out, phoned me, made me laugh, shared experiences, prayed for me, and wished me well on my research path. Above all, I owe my heartfelt gratitude, appreciation, unconditional love, ongoing encouragement, and aid to my family. Thank you again and again from the bottom of my heart for everything I have. iv ABSTRACT Theme-based approach (TBA) is considered one of the innovative foreign language teaching methodologies and brings many benefits. However, the research on TBA, especially teachers' perspectives on TBA to teaching English as a foreign language at high schools in Vietnam, has not been conducted yet. Therefore, the current study aims at exploring teachers’ perspectives and the constraints they have encountered regarding the implementation of TBA. The mixed-method was administrated with 65 participants (native Vietnamese teachers) teaching English at Dalat City-based high schools. The quantitative data from the questionnaire was processed using SPSS (22.0), while the qualitative data from the semi-structured interview was analyzed using content analysis. The findings, in general, revealed that the target participants had positive perceptions of the TBA implementation. It provides EFL learners with advantages, such as increased linguistic opportunities, improved English vocabulary and competency, strengthened cooperation, problem-solving, information technology, and presentation skills, developing English content and cognition, as well as connecting content to the real world and their own needs and interests. However, EFL teachers faced many disadvantages when implementing it. More interestingly, there were several different points of view between trained and untrained EFL teachers on the requirements of activities, as well as the requirements of EFL students and teachers. Their perspectives on the TBA-based classroom's utility for EFL students, on the other hand, did not differ. Keywords: English as a foreign language (EFL), EFL teachers, theme-based approach (TBA), perceptions, constraints, Dalat City-based high schools v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Certificate of originality ........................................................................................... ii Retention and use of the thesis ................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................. iv Abstract .................................................................................................................... v Table of contents ...................................................................................................... vi List of tables ............................................................................................................. ix List of figures ........................................................................................................... xi List of abbreviations ................................................................................................. xii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 1 1.1. Background to the study.................................................................................... 1 1.2. Problem statement ............................................................................................. 5 1.3. Research objectives of the study ....................................................................... 7 1.4. Research questions ............................................................................................ 7 1.5. Scope of the study ............................................................................................. 7 1.6. Significance of the study ................................................................................... 8 1.7. Definitions of the terms ..................................................................................... 8 1.8. Organization of the thesis.................................................................................. 9 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................. 11 2.1. Approaches to EFL/ESL teaching and learning ................................................ 11 2.1.1 Traditional teaching methods ................................................................. 11 2.1.2 Communicative language teaching ........................................................ 12 2.1.3 Task-based language teaching ................................................................ 13 2.1.4 Project-based learning ............................................................................ 14 2.1.5 Content-based instruction ....................................................................... 14 2.2. Theme-based approach (TBA) .......................................................................... 19 2.2.1 Definition of TBA .................................................................................. 19 2.2.2 Learning theories relating to the TBA.................................................... 20 vi 2.2.3 Implementing TBA in EFL/ESL education ........................................... 23 2.2.4 Teachers’ and students’ roles in the TBA-based classroom .................. 25 2.3. Previous study ................................................................................................... 26 2.4. Research gaps .................................................................................................... 30 2.5. Conceptual framework ..................................................................................... 32 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ........................................................................ 33 3.1. Research context ............................................................................................... 33 3.1.1 Learning facilities and conditions .......................................................... 33 3.1.2 EFL learners at Dalat City-based high schools ...................................... 34 3.1.3 EFL teachers at Lam Dong high schools ............................................... 35 3.1.4 Curriculum guidelines and textbooks ..................................................... 35 3.1.5 English teaching quality at Dalat City-based high schools .................... 36 3.2. Research participants ........................................................................................ 37 3.3. Research instruments ........................................................................................ 40 3.3.1 Questionnaires ........................................................................................ 40 3.3.2 Semi-structured interview ...................................................................... 41 3.4. Procedures for data collection and analysis ...................................................... 42 3.4.1 Procedures for quantitative data collection and analysis ....................... 43 3.4.2 Procedures for qualitative data collection and analysis ......................... 44 3.5. Validity and reliability ...................................................................................... 44 3.5.1 Questionnaire .......................................................................................... 44 3.5.2 Interviews ............................................................................................... 46 3.6. Chapter summary .............................................................................................. 47 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ................................................... 48 4.1. Results ............................................................................................................... 48 4.1.1 Research question 1 ................................................................................ 48 4.1.2 Research question 2 ................................................................................ 58 4.1.3 Research question 3 ................................................................................ 68 4.2. Discussion ......................................................................................................... 72 vii 4.2.1 EFL teachers’ perceptions of the TBA implementation......................... 72 4.2.2 Differences in perceptions between trained and untrained teachers ...... 76 4.2.3 The constraints faced by the EFL teachers............................................. 80 4.3. Chapter summary .............................................................................................. 81 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ........................ 83 5.1. Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 83 5.2. Pedagogical implications .................................................................................. 84 5.2.1 Implications for students ........................................................................ 84 5.2.2 Implications for teachers ........................................................................ 85 5.2.3 Implications for administrators .............................................................. 86 5.3. Limitations ........................................................................................................ 87 5.4. Recommendations for further research ............................................................. 87 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................... 88 APPENDIXES ...................................................................................................... 100 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 The high school education rate in English of eleven high schools in Dalat in 2021 ..................................................................................................................... 37 Table 3.2 The high school status in Dalat ............................................................... 37 Table 3.3 Participants’ general information ............................................................ 39 Table 3.4 Reliability Statistics on the terms concerning English teachers' perception of TBA teaching EFL .............................................................................................. 45 Table 3.5 Reliability Statistics on the items concerning the constraints faced by EFL teachers when TBA is implemented at Dalat City-based high schools .................. 46 Table 4.1 EFL teachers’ perceptions of the theme-based approach implemented at Dalat City-based high schools ................................................................................. 49 Table 4.2 The usefulness of the TBA in general ..................................................... 50 Table 4.3 The usefulness of the TBA to EFL learners ............................................ 52 Table 4.4 The requirements of the EFL learners in the TBA-based classroom ...... 54 Table 4.5 The requirements of the EFL teachers in the TBA-based classroom ..... 56 Table 4.6 The requirements of activities in the TBA-based classroom .................. 57 Table 4.7 Differences in terms of perceptions of the usefulness of the TBA between trained EFL teachers and untrained EFL teachers at Dalat City-based high schools .................................................................................................................................. 59 Table 4.8 Differences in terms of perceptions of the requirements of activities in the TBA-based classroom between trained EFL teachers and untrained EFL teachers at Dalat City-based high schools ................................................................................. 61 Table 4.9 Differences in terms of perceptions of the usefulness of the TBA to the EFL learners between trained EFL teachers and untrained EFL teachers at Dalat City-based high schools .......................................................................................... 63 Table 4.10 Differences in terms of perceptions of the requirements of the EFL learners in the TBA-based classroom between trained EFL teachers and untrained EFL teachers at Dalat City-based high schools ....................................................... 64 ix Table 4.11 Differences in terms of perceptions of the requirements of the EFL teachers in the TBA-based classroom between trained EFL teachers and untrained EFL teachers at Dalat City-based high schools ...................................................... 66 Table 4.12 The constraints faced by EFL teachers when TBA is implemented at Dalat City-based high schools ................................................................................. 68 x LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Constructivist theory ............................................................................... 21 Figure 2.2 Second language acquisition theory ....................................................... 22 Figure 2.3 Sociocultural theory ............................................................................... 23 Figure 2.4: Conceptual framework of the study ..................................................... 32 Figure 3.1 Data Collection and Analysis Procedures ............................................. 43 xi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS No. Acronyms Fully written words 1. CBI Content-Based Instruction 2. CLIL Content and Language Integrated Learning 3. CLT Communicative Language Teaching 4. DOET Department of Education and Training 5. EBE English Bilingual Education 6. EFL English as a foreign language 7. ESL English as a second language 8. FL Foreign language 9. GCSE General Certificate of Secondary Education national examination 10. L1 Mother tongue 11. L2 Target language 12. MOET Ministry of Education and Training 13. PBL Project-Based Learning 14. TBI Theme-based instruction 15. TBA Theme-based approach 16. TBLT Task-based Language Teaching 17. ZPD Zone of proximal development xii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1. Background to the study Alongside the mainstream of globalization, mainly since Vietnam gained access to the United Nations, the Southeast Asian Nations Association, the Economic Cooperation in Asia and the Pacific forum, the World Trade Organization and Trans-Pacific Partnership, English has increasingly become a fundamental means of communication and a bridge to connect the domestic context with the international one. Therefore, its role is especially highlighted. In most elementary and secondary schools, English becomes a required subject. According to Vuong (2014), the purposes of learning English as a foreign language (EFL) could make one’s scientific knowledge and techniques advanced, broaden one's cultural knowledge and help people immigrate into the global community. What is more, EFL learners essentially obtain purposeful communication in authentic circumstances during the English teaching and learning process. They do not have to mechanically memorize isolated vocabulary or a specific set of grammar rules. To do this, English teachers have to change their teaching methodology, but EFL learners also need to change their learning methods. In recent years, a wide range of nontraditional EFL teaching and learning methodologies have been flourished and introduced, such as Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Method, Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT), Project-Based Learning (PBL), Content-Based Instruction (CBI) approach or Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). Such appearances are applied to meet the learners’ needs, trigger their motivation, and significantly develop their English language skills to improve their communicative competencies. In practice, when EFL learners tend to use English for communicative purposes, they desire to attend foreign language classes more meaningfully and practically. 1 English teachers need to create a communication-driven environment to utilize English naturally and conceptually to meet their demands. EFL learners can then apply their knowledge and language skills to daily authentic communication settings in the language classroom. Such a state in the EFL context allows themebased instruction (TBI) or theme-based approach (TBA) to exist and flourish. It is the second model of the CBI approach. According to Cameron (2001), TBA emphasized promoting learners’ communicative competence by providing more possibilities for the target language (L2) to be used through various languagerelated activities and content-related activities around a specific theme. In this way, learners can express thematic knowledge in the L2, which they acquired in the L1. This process assists EFL learners in getting a meaningful language learning experience. The appearance of the CBI in general and the TBA in particular is regarded as a giant leap for the EFL teaching and learning methodology. TBA or TBI has been flourished and applied in UK primary schools since the 1960s. In these places, pupils typically implemented different learning activities with the same teacher all day, making them bored. Therefore, the use of TBI provides young learners with exciting learning opportunities (Cameron, 2001). He describes that teachers who apply TBA must plan and design diverse teaching and learning activities related to the theme or the topic they choose. Moreover, TBA has some great advantages such as consistency from one lesson to the next and adaptability in organization, application, as well as individual results and it connects the discovery and growth of the to-be-mastered language (speaking, reading, writing, listening) with the reality of the student's surroundings (Abraham, 1977). Generally, TBA improves EFL learners’ motivation and develops their proficiency in the L2 (Julkunen, 1999) because curricular contents are thoroughly chosen. This choice helps EFL learners experience foreign language learning contextually, meaningfully, purposefully and enjoyably. Remarkably, the effectiveness of TBA was determined in such previous research as Brinton et al.’s (1989) in the university context; Grabe and Stoller’s (1997), Arslan and Saka’s (2010), and Rahmawati’s 2 (2014) at the primary school level; Parkinson’s (2000) in the Science Faculty; Munakata and Vaidya (2015) in the introductory - level physics course; Prasasti et al.'s (2019) at the high school level. In Vietnam, it was not until 1998 that the Department of Education and Training (DOET) in Ho Chi Minh City piloted a project in which Maths and Science at Grade 1 were taught in English. At that time, in Vietnam, English Bilingual Education (EBE) was a relatively new concept. These days, this topic is becoming increasingly widely recognized and addressed under the label CBI or CLIL comprising TBA. Students focus on meaning rather than form in CLIL-based lectures; language becomes an instrument for mastering relevant material and mediating ideas, concepts, and values. In traditional classes, content and language are separated. In 2006, the Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) implemented an innovation in EFL teaching at the upper secondary school level by issuing standard textbooks. In these textbooks, familiar and exciting topics expected to be encountered in learners' daily lives are presented to help EFL learners communicate in an international context (MOET, 2006; Nguyen, 2007). Concerning teaching pedagogy, communicative language teaching (CLT) is mainly utilized to improve the expressive abilities of students through language use. English teachers flexibly play diverse roles in the classroom such as initiator, instructor, activator, motivator, organizer, facilitator, adviser, supporter, assessor and provider of feedback in communicative activities. That the curricular content is reformed leads to innovation in learners' language competence assessment. It comprises formative and summative forms; English teachers are crucial in assessing students' language abilities, assisting students in recognizing their development, and assisting students in overcoming language barriers (Douglas, 2010). In 2013, all teachers were given the opportunity to actively choose content and construct themes, including creative and proactive teaching approaches. This allowance was mentioned in Dispatch No. 3535/2013/BGDĐT-GDTrH (2013) and 3 Dispatch No. 5555/2014/BGDĐT-GDTrH (2014) issued by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET). Until 2015, the MOET administered a training document of theme-based teaching to instruct teachers in social science (consisting of physics, chemistry, geography, literature, history, and civic education) to integrate similar contents in different subjects into topics/ themes to avoid repeating them. Since then, TBA has also applied in the EFL teaching process in a distinctive way in which EFL students could participate in both within and outside the classroom activities, and they ought to make a specific product during the themebased learning process, but not much because there is only one theme per term. Theme-based teaching could last from two to seven periods. It depends on the unity in the English teacher group who systematically, logically and methodically plans their teaching syllabus and obtains approval from the Board of school management before implementing it. In 2017, the Department of Education and Training in Lam Dong organized a oneday training for the leaders of English teacher groups at high schools in the province about theme-based teaching. In that training, all English teachers were randomly divided into groups to choose one specific topic, design activities for that topic, present the topic and then get feedback from other groups despite the fact that they had not been provided with any theoretical framework related to TBA before. TBA implementation was problematic due to a lack of conceptual frameworks surrounding the TBA, as well as concerns regarding what the teacher did in reality. After that, they were necessitated to retrain the rest of the English teachers at their high school in the group meetings. Their English teacher group had to choose one topic per semester to be implemented in the academic school year. That theme ought to be included in their teaching syllabus and approved by the school management board. Then, one teacher would teach that theme period for other English teachers to observe and then give feedback. Up to now, the implementation of two themes has been continued annually. 4 1.2. Statement of the TBA implementation in Dalat City-based high schools EFL teachers in Lam Dong province generally and in Dalat City specifically have implemented theme-based teaching for three years due to the requirements of the DOET. In each term, the English teacher groups at Dalat high schools choose one topic to design various learning activities for EFL learners to join. During the academic year 2017–2018, the first year of TBA implementation, it was pretty innovative. They had little knowledge about it; therefore, they were pretty confused to implement it thoroughly and effectively. If the teachers had taught theme-based periods for other teachers and the leaders to attend and observe, they would carefully have searched for information (knowledge in other subjects like history, geography, music, etc.) to be integrated into their lesson contents. Therefore, they had to prepare many things for their theme-based teaching, and it usually took them more than one week to prepare for it. In contrast, those who did not teach theme-based units did not pay much attention to TBA because of being time-consuming and ineffective. Some schools used TBA twice a year, whereas others did not. In reality, they did not focus on TBA much because high school students are compulsory to take part in the General Certificate of Secondary Education national examination (GCSE) after finishing the general knowledge programs. The results of this examination reflect EFL teaching quality. High school teachers have to “teach to the test" to achieve strong GCSE results. In this way, EFL teachers spend less time on activities that are not part of the test (Kunnan, 2005). Besides, government policies and curricula that favor communicative education are frequently conflicting with national examinations' demands (Li, 1998; Littlewood, 2007), often focusing on reading, syntactic and lexical dimensions. To meet the leaders' requirements, they just prepared the lesson plan of TBA for the Board of school management to check, and they did not put it into practice. In short, the implementation of TBA was first uneven in Dalat Citybased high schools. 5 All English teachers needed to apply to TBA twice a year in the next two years. However, English teachers could choose content-related topics or grammar-related topics to incorporate numerous abilities in a variety of ways. Cameron (2001) asserts that TBI organizes lessons around topics that connect many different activities across other curriculum areas. Richards and Rodgers (2001) also state that theme-based teaching provides an excellent basis to develop an integrated skills approach. Before their theme-based teaching, English teachers announced the main topic, divided it into various sub-topics and EFL students into groups and asked each group to design one particular activity for one sub-topic outside the classroom. That activity was probably a play, a drawing, a role-play, a diagram, a short movie, a presentation, an interview, a video clip, etc., which ultimately depends on the lesson's theme. It was a requirement that they creatively applied the knowledge they studied in the previous periods and the relevant information they searched for that activity. Some theme-based lessons were successful and effective while others were not because of such different reasons as teachers' and students' proficiency, teachers' lack of conceptual clarity surrounding the TBA, teachers' flexibilities and creation, teachers' training, teachers' skills about classroom management, students' needs and interests, support and relevant materials, time constraint, learning facilities and environments, class size, last but not least, teachers' readiness, the requirements and the format of the national examination. Among those things, English teachers' role is very fundamental because they directly organize classroom activities and easily see both TBA's advantages to be endured and its disadvantages to be improved. When English teachers have a positive perception of TBA, they will organize the activities well, employ many different ways to implement them, or overcome difficulties to make it successful. Therefore, teachers' perceptions and practice are a significant reference source for educators, experts, policymakers and researchers to get the whole view of teaching and learning methodologies. 6