Tài liệu Influential intrinsic factors to english homework effectiveness from the perspective of 11th graders at a high school in vietnam

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ---oOo--- NGUYỄN THỊ HẠNH INFLUENTIAL INTRINSIC FACTORS TO ENGLISH HOMEWORK EFFECTIVENESS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF 11TH GRADERS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN VIETNAM (NHỮNG NHÂN TỐ NỘI SINH ẢNH HƯỞNG ĐẾN TÍNH HIỆU QUẢ CỦA BÀI TẬP VỀ NHÀ MÔN TIẾNG ANH THEO NHẬN THỨC CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 11 TẠI MỘT TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG TẠI VIỆT NAM) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi - 2017 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ---oOo--- NGUYỄN THỊ HẠNH INFLUENTIAL INTRINSIC FACTORS TO ENGLISH HOMEWORK EFFECTIVENESS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF 11TH GRADERS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN VIETNAM (NHỮNG NHÂN TỐ NỘI SINH ẢNH HƯỞNG ĐẾN TÍNH HIỆU QUẢ CỦA BÀI TẬP VỀ NHÀ MÔN TIẾNG ANH THEO NHẬN THỨC CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 11 TẠI MỘT TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG TẠI VIỆT NAM) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Assoc.Prof. Dr. Lâm Quang Đông Hanoi - 2017 DECLARATION Title: “Influential intrinsic factors to English homework effectiveness from the perspective of 11th graders at a high school in Vietnam” I certify that no part of the thesis has been copied or reproduced by me from any other works without acknowledgement and that the thesis is originally written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor. Hanoi, 2017 Student’s signature Nguyễn Thị Hạnh i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to sincerely thank my supervisor, Assoc.Prof. Dr. Lâm Quang Đông, for his support, guidance, advices, valuable comments, suggestions, provisions, love and care which benifited me much in the completion and success of this study. Secondly, my sincere grattitude is extended to the respectable teachers and loveable students at the investigated school who allowed me to distribute the questionnaires, enthusiastically answered them and helped me a lot in conducting the interview. My thanks and gratitude also go to all professors and lecturers at Faculty of PostGraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their valuable lectures. Last but not least, I would like to send my gratitude to my parents, all members in my family and my friends for always showing their loving support and encouragement to me when writing this thesis. ii ABSTRACT This study investigated the influential intrinsic factors to English homework effectiveness from the perspective of 11th graders at a Vinhphuc high school. The intrinsic factors mentioned included assignments characteristics and classroom factors. The survey questionnaires were distributed to one hundred and four English specialized 11th graders at a Vinhphuc high school. A follow-up interview with three students was also carried out so as to clarify and elucidate the questionnaires' findings. The results showed differences between students' perceptions of intrinsic factors in reality and students' expectations about them. On the basis of the findings several pedagogical suggestions for teachers and parents were proposed with a view to enhancing the effectiveness of homework in students' English learning. Generally, teachers were suggested to provide students with more choices in their homework and avoid repetition in homework. Regarding parents, they were advised to facilitate students' homework completion by giving them a comfortable study area and carefully consider when and how to involve in students' learning. With significant findings and practical implications proposed, this study was expected to be useful to English teaching and learning of the investigated school in particular and of Vietnam in general. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ....................................................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................... ii ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. iii LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES ....................................................................... vi CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................1 1.1. Rationale ..............................................................................................................1 1.2. Aims and objectives of the study .........................................................................2 1.3. Significance of the study ......................................................................................3 1.4. Scope of the study ................................................................................................4 1.5. Structure of the thesis ...........................................................................................5 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW...............................................................6 2.1. Homework in English language learning and teaching .......................................6 2.1.1. Definitions of Homework .................................................................................6 2.1.2. Factors Influencing the Utility of Homework ...................................................7 2.2. Related Studies .....................................................................................................9 2.3. Conclusive Remarks...........................................................................................12 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ......................................................................13 3.1. Research Design: Mixed-methods research .......................................................13 3.2. Participant selection ...........................................................................................13 3.2.1. Population .......................................................................................................13 3.2.2. Sampling (proportional stratified sampling) ...................................................14 3.3. Data collection procedure ..................................................................................15 3.4. Data collection instruments ...............................................................................16 3.4.1. Questionnaire ..................................................................................................16 3.4.2. Interview .........................................................................................................16 CHAPTER IV: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ..................................................18 4.1. Assigment characteristics ...................................................................................18 4.1.1 Amount .............................................................................................................18 4.1.2. Skills/Knowledge Utilized ..............................................................................19 iv 4.1.3. Purposes of Homework ...................................................................................21 4.1.4. Level of Difficulty...........................................................................................25 4.1.5. Degree of Individualization.............................................................................26 4.1.6. Level of Student Choice ..................................................................................28 4.1.7. Completion Deadlines .....................................................................................30 4.1.8. Social Context .................................................................................................31 4.2. Classroom factors ..............................................................................................32 4.2.1. Initial Classroom Factors ..............................................................................32 4.2.2. Classroom Follow-up Factors ........................................................................35 4.3. Conclusive Remarks...........................................................................................40 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION .............................................................................42 5.1. Summary of the Findings ..................................................................................42 5.1.1. Assignment characteristics..............................................................................42 5.1.2. Clasroom factors .............................................................................................43 5.2. Implications ......................................................................................................43 5.3. Limitations of the Study ....................................................................................45 5.4. Suggestions for Further Studies ........................................................................45 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................47 APPENDICES ........................................................................................................... I APPENDIX 1- Survey Questionnaire ................................................................. II APPENDIX 2: Interview Questions ................................................................. IX APPENDIX 3: Transcriptions of the Interview ..................................................X v LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Table 1: A process model of factors influencing the effectiveness of homework (Cooper, 2007, p. 23) ..................................................................................................8 Chart 1: The number of hour(s)/day spent on English homework ............................18 Table 2: The frequency of skills/ knowledge used to complete homework .............19 Chart 2: The frequency of skills/ knowledge used to complete homework ..............20 Table 3: The purposes of English homework assigned.............................................22 Chart 3: The Purposes of Homework ........................................................................22 Table 4: Other Homework Characteristics ................................................................24 Chart 4: Level of Difficulty.......................................................................................25 Chart 5: Level of Individualization ...........................................................................26 Chart 7: Completion Deadlines .................................................................................30 Chart 8: Social Context .............................................................................................31 Table 5: Initial Classroom Factors ...........................................................................32 Table 6: Follow-up Classroom Factors ....................................................................35 Chart 9: Classroom Follow-up – Feedback – Comment ..............................................36 vi CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1. Rationale Homework is a topic which attracts public attention from students, parents, pedagogues and researchers, etc. Many studies concerning homework have been conducted, yet announced a variety of findings. Some researchers indicate that homework is effective, while some show the contrary, some approve homework assignment, whereas some raise objections. However, no matter if homework is useful or harmful, it is undeniable that “homework is an important part of most school-aged children’s daily routines” (Cooper, Robinson & Patall, 2006, p. 2) and homework occupies a huge part of teachers’ and students’ lives. Until now, there have been a great number of studies on homework, particularly homework for English language learning. Researchers have been working on different aspects of homework such as: the role of homework in foreign language learning, the correlation between homework and student learning achievement, homework from teachers’ and parents’ perspectives, the effects of homework on students’ learning, et cetera, which will be discussed more in the literature review. Generally speaking, they have made big efforts to find out to what extent homework is effective in students’ learning process. Cooper, Robinson & Patall (2006, p. 9) state, “Homework assignments are influenced by more factors than any other instructional strategy.” However, the voice of students in what factors really impact on the effectiveness of homework from their viewpoint has been investigated by only few researchers. In Vietnam, the researcher of this study has not found any research paper concerning the influential intrinsic factors to English homework effectiveness from the perspective of 11th graders at a high school in Vietnam. Due to the important role of students in learner-centered learning, students’ perceptions should have been investigated more thoroughly in order to provide information to assist the design and development of homework and homework policies which meet students’ needs and promote students’ English learning. 1 In Vietnam, although the issues of homework are frequently put to discussion by the mass media or in educational forums, attention is concentrated on homework in elementary schools. In 2008, the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam issued a clear guideline number 7720/BDGDT-GDTH on homework, which asks teachers not to give homework to students in elementary schools who attend a fullday curriculum. There has been no policy guideline on homework for high school students so far, while grade levels exert enormous influence on the effective of homework and homework also has a big positive influence on the achievement of high school students (Cooper, 1989). The issues of homework for English in high school do not seem to be given enough attention by both Vietnamese researchers and educational administrators. As an English teacher, I take a great deal of interest in English homework given to high school students. Giving homework to my students, I receive different responses from them. Students' viewpoints towards the effectiveness of homework are diverse. Therefore, I have a strong desire of investigating what factors influence the utility of homework for students’ English learning from their own perceptions in order to design and set appropriate and effective homework for my students. With all factors above, I decided to conduct a case study of 11th graders at a Vinhphuc high school which thoroughly investigates "influential intrinsic factors to English homework effectiveness from the perspective of 11th graders." This study is hoped to fill the gap in understanding of homework and contribute some practical changes and improvement to Vietnamese education. 1.2. Aims and objectives of the study This research paper aims to provide useful insight into the influential intrinsic factors to English homework effectiveness from the perspective of 11th graders. Being participants of the research, students are expected to show their own thoughts about English homework and share their opinions of the intrinsic factors which may have an impact on the utility of homework for their English learning. First, the 2 researcher investigated how students perceive the intrinsic factors, including: assignment characteristic and classroom factors. Then, it is the researcher’s intention to suggest a number of improvements that should be made to increase the effectiveness of homework by minimizing negative factors and maximizing positive factors. With a view to achieving the aims mentioned above, the ultimate research question that this paper will address is: What are the influential intrinsic factors to English homework effectiveness from the perspective of 11th graders? 1.3. Significance of the study This study provides a description of high school students’ personal viewpoints on the main factors which are considered have an impact on the academic effectiveness of English homework. The perceptions elicited from students in this study are expected to have practical significance to students, foreign language teachers, parents, education administrators and researchers who have intention of developing further studies on this topic. Firstly, this study will be beneficial for foreign language teachers, particularly who teach English at high schools. As the teaching time in class is limited, it is not possible for teachers to thoroughly give lectures about new knowledge, check students’ homework and pay their attention to find out the potential factors which may affect the effectiveness of homework in students’ learning simultaneously. This study is hoped to provide them with the general and clear views of students on the factors influencing the utility of homework for their learning. By increasing awareness of those factors, teachers may understand the advantages and disadvantages that students have while doing homework. Thanks to that, they will be able to make suitable adjustments in assigning and designing homework so as to enhance the effectiveness of homework in student’s English learning. Secondly, as 3 for parents who perform a prominent role in the students’ learning process, especially their self-study at home, the findings of this study may become a guide for them on how to help and encourage their children’s learning by recognizing and minimizing the negative factors and maximizing the positive factors influencing homework effectiveness. Moreover, there are not any national education policies and guideline on what homework at high school should be like, the regulations controlling how homework is assigned and checked in class, etc. Then, with regard to students, they will be the ones who take advantage of all adjustments and improvement in homework for English based on their own needs and perceptions. Finally, regarding researchers, this study will serve as a reliable reference for those who have an interest in the topic of English homework in the future. 1.4. Scope of the study Firstly, although there are two main kinds of factors influencing the effect of homework according to the model of Cooper (2007), in the scope of a graduation paper, it is impossible to cover both extrinsic and intrinsic factors. Correspondingly, the researcher has chosen to investigate only intrinsic factors including assignment characteristics and classroom factors. Secondly, the population size is restricted to 104 11th English specialized graders in the D-stream. The reason is that the total number of 11th graders at the chosen Vinhphuc high school is quite large. It is not recommended to cover such a huge population in a graduation paper which is about 14000 words long. Besides, 11th graders at the chosen high school are divided into three streams of A, D, TN based on students' focused and specialized subjects. Among three streams, students in D-stream classes specialize in English, while Astream and TN-stream students are not. It means that D-stream students are English specialized, A-stream and TN stream students are non-English-specialized. It is obvious that English is taught, learned, tested and perceived differently in two groups of students, which may lead to differences in dealing with their homework. Consequently, if the study covers both groups, the results may not be valid. 4 Therefore, the researcher has to restrict the size of population by focusing on English specialized group. To sum up, the scope of this research is limited to the influential intrinsic factors to English homework effectiveness from the perspective of 11th English specialized students in D-stream at a Vinhphuc high school. 1.5. Structure of the thesis The thesis is organized as follows: CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION – introduces the rationale; aims of the study; research questions; significance of the study; and the thesis structure. CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW – reviews and presents relevant theories and studies to the study. CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY – describes the research design, the participants selection, data collection procedure, data collection instruments. CHAPTER IV: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION – presents an analysis of the data and discusses the results of the study. CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS – summarizes the study, limitations of the study and suggestions for further research. 5 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. Homework in English language learning and teaching 2.1.1. Definitions of Homework Homework has been globally accepted as part of the student routine in a wide range of subjects, including English. Although there are numerous points of similarity between homework of other subjects and homework of English, the researcher only refers to the concept of homework in English language learning and teaching throughout this research with a view to maintaining its consistency. In other words, whenever the concept of homework is mentioned in the research, it is the homework of English learning and teaching, not of other subjects. The term homework is written in the Cambridge Dictionary as “work which teachers give their students to do at home”. This definition has severely restricted the place and the time in which homework is completed to students’ home and students’ span of time at home only. However, this restriction has been removed by researchers when many of them define homework as work intended to be completed outside of school time (Wallingger, 2000). Carlsson (2009, p. 9) states, “homework is assignment to be completed outside of the regular lessons but not necessarily assigned to students by school teachers that are meant to be carried out during nonschool hours” (p. 15). This definition has been clarified by excluding “(a) in-school guided study; (b) home study courses delivered through the mail, television, audio or videocassette, or the Internet; and (c) extracurricular activities such as sports and participation in clubs” (Cooper, Robinson, Patall, 2006, p. 1). The phrase “meant to be carried out during non-school hours” means “students may complete homework assignment during their study, or library time, or even during subsequent classes” (Cooper, Robinson, Patall, 2006, p. 1). 6 Not only the restriction of the place and time is lifted, but the ways how students do their homework are also re-defined by researchers, Kidwell (cited in Pham, 2011, p. 16) offers the definition of homework, which is “homework is any work or activities that pupils are asked to do outside school time, either on their own or with parents or careers”. According to this definition, homework is not necessarily done by the student him/herself. Students can complete their homework with help from their parents, friends, tutors, and carers et cetera. Hong & Milgram (2000) share the same point of view with Kidwell (cited in Pham, 2011, p. 16) when they claim that students can decide if they do homework or not and in which circumstances and surroundings homework is complete, which is the difference between learning at school and at home. In other words, doing homework, they can have their own preferences and choices about “when, where, how and with whom they prefer to do it” (Hong & Milgram, 2000, p. 4). 2.1.2. Factors Influencing the Utility of Homework The success of homework is influenced by many factors. Those factors will be discussed in this part of the study. As Cooper (1989) has highlighted, “because homework goes home, we have to consider variations in out-of-school environments when we think about what might determine the value of an assignment” (p. 87), the factors influencing the effectiveness of homework are considered to be diverse. In his work, Cooper (1989) has formed a process model of factors influencing the utility of homework. Then, in 2007, he made several changes in his model and introduced this new model in his book named “The batted over homework” - the third edition. Certainly, these models cannot cover all of the available factors; however, it shows many outstanding factors that are most often mentioned by educators and parents (Cooper, 2007). The process model of factors influencing the effectiveness of homework is shown in Table 1. Four main factors influencing the success of homework assignment belong to two main categories: intrinsic factors and extrinsic factors. The concept of intrinsic factors and extrinsic factors should be clarified. Extrinsic factors are defined as 7 factors coming from outside something rather than within homework and do not belong naturally to something. Accordingly, extrinsic factors of homework are factors which operate from outside of homework. In the model of Cooper (2007), extrinsic factors include student characteristics, subject matter, grade level and home-community which totally do not belong to homework itself. On the contrary, intrinsic factors belong to or are part of something. In the model of Cooper (2007), assignment characteristics and classroom factors are considered intrinsic factors of homework which have been discussed earlier, the next three columns of the model express the process of homework completion, which is the reason why this model is called the process model. This process involves two classroom stages and the last column discusses final outcomes of homework including: assignment completion, assignment performance and effects of homework. Table 1: A process model of factors influencing the effectiveness of homework (Cooper, 2007, p. 23) Extrinsic Factors Assignment Characteristics Student characteristics + Ability + Motivation + Study habits Subject mater Grade level Competitors for student time Home environment Others’ involvement  Parents  Siblings  Other students  Hotlines After school program Amount + Total amount + Frequency of assignment + Length of each assignment Easy and difficult content Purpose Skill area utilized Degree of student choice Completion deadlines Social context Initial Classroom Factors Provision of materials + Study aids + Use of the computer Suggested approaches Links to the curriculum Incentives for completion 8 Classroom Follow-up Feedback: + Written comments + Grading Testing of related content Use in class discussion Outcomes or Effects Assignment completion Assignment performance Positive effects + Immediate Academic + Long-term academic + Nonacademic + Parental Negative effects + Satiation + Denial of leisure time + Parental interference + Cheating + Increased student differences 2.2. Related Studies As mentioned earlier, the battle over homework never ends and attracts the attention of numerous parents, pedagogues and researchers. Therefore, a great number of studies concerning homework have been carried out. In this part of the study, the researcher will concentrate on reviewing and analyzing the studies which also deal with factors influencing the success and failure of homework assignments, especially the intrinsic ones. It is important to be conscious that there are not many in-depth studies into the factors having an impact on homework assignments’ effectiveness. Researchers tend to investigate only one or a few factors among them. One of the most comprehensive studies on those factors is Cooper (1989). The process model of factors influencing the effect of homework has been developed by him after years spent on reviewing and analyzing other researchers’ studies on homework issues. A more detailed and adequate version of this model is introduced in Cooper (2007). As being completed and edited several times after meta-analyzing a large number of researchers, Cooper’s synthesis in general and his model of factors in particular are invaluable reference to parents, educators and researcher who are interested in homework issues. The new version of this model has been already shown and explained briefly in the previous part of the study. Another study dealing with homework and factors relating to homework is the master’s thesis of Watkins (2012). This study aims at exploring “factors affecting student homework completion – individual skills of language, math, and reasoning along with motivation, quality of the assignment, teacher feedback, and the environment in which homework is completed” (Watkins, 2012, p. 2). The researcher has attempted to cover many factors which may have an impact on students’ homework completion. However, one of the problems is the number of participants in the study. Only 86 out of 401 students participate in the study, which may reduce the reliability of results and conclusions. 9 The first intrinsic factor in Cooper’s model is assignment characteristics, including: amount, difficulty, purpose, skill area utilized, degree of individualization, degree of student choice, completion deadlines and social context. Sharing the same interest with Cooper, Vatterott (2010) attempts to find out what make a homework assignment effective. According to this researcher, there are five characteristics of a good homework: “purposeful, efficient, personalized, doable and inviting” (Vatterott, cited in Carr, 2013, p. 174). It can be easily noticed that both Cooper (2007) and Vatterott (2010) consider purpose a significant feature of homework. Nonetheless, Cooper is concerned with different purposes of assignments involving instructional and non-instructional purposes, while Vatterott pays attention to the purposefulness of homework. “Purposeful” means that homework assignments should be meaningful. “Teachers should give students assignments that are purposeful for them and methods that work for their learning styles” (Carr, 2013, p.174). It means that purposes of homework assignments need to be understood clearly by students and “students should leave classroom with no confusion about either what they are being asked to do or how to do it” (Marzano, Gaddy & Dean, cited in Protheroe, 2009, p.43). The study of Wilson and Rhodes (2010) indicates that 43% of the students in the survey do not complete their homework as they do not understand it. However, homework should never be assigned for the purpose of punishment. Cooper (in Silvis, 2002, cited in Protheroe, 2009, p. 44) warns, “It implies you think schoolwork is averse. Kids will pick up this message.” In order to ensure the purposefulness of homework, Vatterott (2010) suggests that homework should provide teachers with feedback on students’ understanding which will enable teachers to make necessary adaptations to their instructions. Efficiency is the second hallmark of an effective homework which is similar to “amount” feature in Cooper’s list (2007) as it also about the amount of time spent on homework, teachers should customize tasks to suit learning style, interest of each student and provide them with choices in their assignments instead of forcing them to do tasks that teachers want. It is not necessary for teachers to let students choose 10 everything in their assignments. Even “within compulsory homework assignments, students can be given different degree of discretion concerning which or how many parts of the assignment to complete” (Cooper, 2007, p. 17). Students in the study of Watkins (2012) indicate that they want choices in their assignments. With regard to “degree of individualization”, Vatterott (2010) states that one-sizefit-all approach has to be prevented and an effective homework should make students feel competent. An easy assignment to one student may be extremely difficult to another. Several students may have to spend only five minutes doing an assignment which takes other students hours to complete. Therefore, it is necessary for teachers to differentiate assignments so that they will be suitable for students’ needs and abilities in terms of level difficulty. Finally, the last characteristic mentioned by Vatterott (2010) is the aesthetic appeal which is totally absent from the process model of Cooper (2007). The way homework looks should never be overlooked. “Wise teachers have learned that students at all levels are more motivated to complete assignments that are visual uncluttered. Less information on the page, plenty of room to write answers, and the use of graphics or clip art make tasks look inviting and interesting” (Vatterott, 2010, p. 15). In general, the lists of assignment characteristics influencing homework success of both Cooper (2007) and Vatterott (2010) shares numerous things in common. However, it seems that the list of Vatterott (2010) lacks a few important features of homework which have been covered by Cooper (2007), namely skill area utilized, completion deadlines and social context. Nonetheless, there is a shortcoming in Cooper’s list is that Cooper fails to fully acknowledge the significance of assignments’ visually appeal to the utility of homework. Having homework done does not finish the homework process yet. The various ways teachers response when homework assignments are brought back to school should be considered thoroughly. A study performed by Deci, Connell and Ryan (1989) indicates that “if students feel as though they are learning on their own and 11 receive feedback from their teacher about what they are doing correctly and what they need to improve upon, they will be motivated to complete the assignment” (cited in Watkins, 2011), which asserts the importance of different types of feedback in homework completion. Xu (2011) supports this idea by stating in his study that teachers’ feedback has a positive effect on students’ homework completion. With regard to teachers’ response when homework is brought back to class, researchers have many ways to classify feedbacks into different types (Cooper, 1989; Cooper, 2007, Wallinger, 2000). 2.3. Conclusive Remarks In this part, the key terms including homework, classifications, effects of homework and the factors influencing the effectiveness of homework have been presented and discussed. Besides, after reviewing a number of related studies and theoretical frameworks, the research has discovered that the influential intrinsic factors to English homework effectiveness from the perspective of 11th graders have not been investigated by any researcher yet. This is the inspiration for me to choose this topic. Also, the researcher has synthesized all of the information and developed an adapted model of intrinsic factors influencing the utility of homework which will be used as the framework for this study. 12