VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYEN DANH CHIEN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS’ TRAINING NEEDS AT HIGH SCHOOLS IN HANOI (NGHIÊN CỨU NHU CẦU BỒI DƯỠNG GIÁO VIÊN TIẾNG ANH CỦA HÀ NỘI) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: ELT Methodology Code: 60 14 10 HANOI, 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN DANH CHIẾN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS’ TRAINING NEEDS AT HIGH SCHOOLS IN HANOI (NGHIÊN CỨU NHU CẦU BỒI DƯỠNG GIÁO VIÊN TIẾNG ANH CỦA HÀ NỘI) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: ELT Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Dr Hoàng Xuân Hoa HANOI, 2010 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Background to the Study Aims of the Study and Research Questions Significance of the Study Scope of the Study Methods of the Study Design of the Study PART II: DEVELOPMEMT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 New Requirements towards English Language Teachers 1.1.1 Roles of the Teachers 1.1.2 Updating Understanding of CLT 1.1.2.1 General Features and Principles of CLT 1.1.2.2 Common Classroom Activities Used in CLT 1.1.2.2.1 Pairwork and Groupwork 1.1.2.2.2 Role Play 1.1.2.2.3 Information Gap Activities 10 1.1.2.2.4 Group Discussions 10 1.1.2.2.5 Problem-solving Tasks 11 1.2.3 Roles of Learners 1.2 Teacher Training Needs 11 12 1.2.1 Concept of Training Needs 12 1.2.2 Types of Needs 13 1.2.3 Significance of Studying Teachers’ Training Needs 13 1.2.4 Interrelationship Perceptions, Practice and Training Needs 14 iv 1.2.4.1 Perceptions 14 1.2.4.2 Practice 14 1.3 Previous Studies on Teacher Training Needs 15 1.4 Summary 17 CHAPTER 2: THE RESEARCH 18 2.1 Research Questions 18 2.2 Research Settings 18 2.2.1 English curriculum and textbooks for high schools in Vietnam 18 2.2.2 Recent Training Workshop on Implementing the English Curriculum 19 in Hanoi 2.3 Participants 20 2.4 Data Collection Procedures 20 2.4.1 Sampling 20 2.4.2 Instruments for Data Collection 21 2.4.2.1 Teachers Survey Questionnaire 21 2.4.2.2 Teachers Observation Scheme 21 2.5 Data Analysis Procedures 22 2.5.1 Teachers Questionnaire Data 22 2.5.2 Teachers Observation Data 22 CHAPTER : DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION 23 3.1 Results of the Data Collected by Means of Questionnaire 23 3.1.1 Teachers’ Perceptions of CLT 23 3.1.1.1 Teachers’ perceptions of features and principles of CLT 23 3.1.1.2 Classroom activities used in CLT 24 3.1.1.3 Classroom procedures 25 3.1.1.4 Roles of the communicative language teacher 26 3.1.1.5 Roles of the learner in the CLT learning process 27 3.1.1.6 Teachers’ applicability of CLT to their classroom practices 28 v 3.2 Results of the Data Collected by Means of Teachers Observations 29 3.2.2 Using pair and group work activities 30 3.2.3 Conducting fluency-oriented and accuracy-oriented activities 31 3.2.4 Correcting students’ errors and giving feedback 32 3.2.5 Implementing roles of the teacher 33 3.3 Summary 34 CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH FINDINGS 35 4.1 Findings to the Research Question 35 4.2 Findings to the Research Question 36 4.3 Findings to the Research Question 37 4.3.1 Theoretical contents 38 4.3.2 Practical contents 39 4.2 Summary 39 PART III: CONCLUSION 41 Concluding remarks 41 Limitations of the study 41 Suggestions for further study 41 REFERENCES 42 APPRENDICES: APPRENDIX 1: Survey questionnaire for English language teachers at high schools in Hanoi APPRENDIX 2: Teacher observation scheme vi LIST OF TABLES Table Participants‟ profile Table Teachers‟ perceptions of features and principles of CLT Table Teachers‟ perceptions of classroom activities used in CLT Table Teachers‟ perceptions of classroom procedures Table Teachers‟ perceptions of the roles of communicative teachers Table Teachers‟ perceptions of the roles of communicative learners Table Descriptive statistics for the teacher observations Table Descriptive statistics for the teacher observations PART I: INTRODUCTION Background to the Study Nowadays, the role of English as an international language of communication and the current tendency of the exclusive use of target language in the classroom (England, 1998) have called for re-adjustments in the way of English language teaching and learning As a result of the changes, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is well established as the dominant theoretical model in English language teaching (Thompson, 1996) Therefore, this approach has been intensively promoted by the Ministry of Education and Training and has been recently renewed by the introduction of a new English curriculum innovation which places an emphasis on developing learners‟ communicative competence in the English language Following the introduction, a variety of teacher training courses and workshops on CLT has been held in order to enhance the teachers‟ knowledge about CLT and to create more favourable conditions for successful teaching to be achieved However, despite teacher training efforts, communicative teaching is still challenging for most of the English language teachers at high schools in Hanoi They have found it difficult to acquire the new approach or adapt new methods of teaching because, like other EL teachers throughout the country, their English proficiency is low, classes are large, the buildings, furnishings and other facilities are basic, and only low levels of support can be provided in terms of materials, libraries and advisory services (Le, 1999) Additionally, although CLT has become more popular, many of the teachers reportedly advocate traditional methods to language teaching and still play a dominant role in the majority of classrooms where activities not seem to be learner-centred As the implementers of the new approach, the teachers have found it challenging to develop their students‟ communicative competence in the target language or to foster the communicative approach This is similar to the what Kennedy (1999) claimed that in this process of change, the teachers have to face many obstacles and a barrier to the implementation of the MOET‟s innovation that they are required to learn more about their subject areas, to use textbooks that are becoming more and more difficult, and to use new methods in teaching In other words, the teachers need help to tackle a lack of teaching ideas (Goh, 1999) since they may not have a clear understanding of the underlying principles of the new approach, which leads to their running out of teaching ideas when developing learning activities for their students Apart from that, many of the teachers have to struggle to move away from the traditional teaching of rules, patterns and definitions about the language (linguistic competence) towards teaching students how to communicate genuinely, spontaneously and meaningfully in the English language (communicative competence) For those teachers who have moderate proficiency in English, and insufficient understanding of effective teaching methods and techniques, they have to suffer feelings of inadequacy and insecurity in their teaching practices Obviously, this lack of understandings and the ineffective teaching practices, in turn, force the teachers to seek any kind of language and teaching methodology improvement through training workshops or training courses so that they can satisfy the increasing professional requirements and stay secure in their teaching positions Moreover, the intensive changes resulted from the communicative approach and the teachers‟ limitations in teaching in diverse contexts have brought about gaps between their understandings and use of CLT for classroom practices This certainly creates urgent needs for enhancing the teachers‟ teaching, and requires continuous anticipation of training or retraining needs, e.g the needs to be further trained in ELT methods However, up until now, there has not been any investigation into the Hanoi‟s high school teachers‟ needs for being retrained in communicative ELT or any full understanding of the extent to which the teachers‟ perceive the communicative approach The absence of studies related to this subject matter is the basic motive for conducting a survey research into the EL teachers‟ training needs at high schools in Hanoi Hopefully, the knowledge and the result of the study will contribute to the better language policy and more effective English language teaching and learning in Hanoi Aims of the Study and Research Questions The study aims to identify the Hanoi‟s high school EL teachers‟ training needs on communicative language teaching by exploring their perceptions of CLT, their perceived needs as their desires, and their theory-practice gap that should be filled so as to satisfy new demands for communicative ELT In order to achieve the aims of the study, the research was carried out to answer the following questions: (1) What are the EL teachers’ perceptions of CLT? (2) What are the methods and techniques the teachers used in their actual classroom practices? (3) What contents should be included in future ELT methodology training workshops? Significance of the Study The research will be of the theory of ELT management as well as practical significance for three reasons First, when completed, the research results will be used as evidence on the teachers‟ performance, and will show key factors affecting the teaching quality so that decisions could be made on whether teacher retraining courses should be organized Second, the findings of the survey research will be useful for the Hanoi DOET and its ELT specialists in deciding on the extent to which and how retraining courses should be organized if they should be Third, on a larger scale, the research will provide education administrators and high school principles with suggestions for increasing the quality of ELT in diverse contexts Scope of the Study Within the framework of a minor thesis, the study was limited to exploring Hanoi high school EL teachers‟ needs for being trained in CLT by identifying the teachers‟ perceptions of CLT theories - the extent to which they know about CLT in order to use it for classroom practices, and the retraining needs perceived by themselves as their wants or desires Therefore, there would probably be a gap or differences between the teachers‟ perceived needs and the needs resulted from the researcher‟s observations of the teachers‟ in-class teaching practices Methods of the Study The study is an integrated descriptive-analytical, qualitative and quantitative survey research In order to provide sufficient data, information should be collected by a number of effective methods and a variety of techniques Nevertheless, within the scope of the research, the following main techniques are used: - Teachers survey questionnaire, which was conducted to investigate the English language teachers‟ perceptions of CLT theories; - Teachers observations, which was employed to find out some of the techniques and methods the teachers used in their classroom practices in order to identify gaps between their perceptions and use/implementation of CLT Design of the Study The study is composed of three parts, including Introduction, Development, and Conclusion Part I, Introduction, presents the background to the study, aims, research questions, significance, scope, methods, and design of the study Part II, Development, as the main developing part of the thesis, consists of three chapters Chapter One provides a review of literature relevant CLT and such perspectives as training needs, perceptions, and the interrelation between teachers‟ perception and practice Chapter Two gives a general description of the research with relevant aspects Chapter Three is a representation of the research findings and discussion Part III, Conclusion, is a summary of the main issues addressed in the research, limitations of the study, and some suggestions for further study ... NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN DANH CHIẾN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS’ TRAINING NEEDS AT HIGH SCHOOLS IN. .. Teacher Training Needs 11 12 1.2.1 Concept of Training Needs 12 1.2.2 Types of Needs 13 1.2.3 Significance of Studying Teachers’ Training Needs 13 1.2.4 Interrelationship Perceptions, Practice and Training. .. classroom teaching In other words, there are needs for training the EL teachers in implementing CLT for more effective practices 1.2 Teacher Training Needs 1.2.1 Concept of Training Needs In fact,