Vcd as a stimulating factor to increase the young learners’ time-on-task

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Vcd as a stimulating factor to increase the young learners’ time-on-task

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Vcd as a stimulating factor to increase the young learners’ time-on-task

1 CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION I.1 Rationale of the study: Increasing the students’ participation in language classroom activities is very crucial to the success in language learning However, the question of how to increase the young learners’ time-on-task is really complicated As many researchers and studies on the second language acquisition point out that the process of acquiring a second language grammar is not substantially affected by age, but the process of acquiring pronunciation, proficiency and especially, native accents is acquired better by children That means young learners have more advantages when they early start to learn a second language Nevertheless, young learners cannot concentrate for very long on monotonous language learning activities In language teaching, there is a number of ways to involve the young learners such as games, media…, and the use of all those facilities is obviously helpful for motivating learners There are various types of facilities Native speakers can be considered as a facility However, in Vietnamese schools settings it is not easy to have native speakers for students to engage in the real social interaction and to be more exposed to native accents Instead, students can watch native speakers on Videos or VCDs or DVDs (in the latter parts of this study, the term VCDs will be used to refer to all three means) Moreover, young learners usually are more visually oriented Hypothetically, the use of videos in classroom settings could help to prolong young learners’ span of concentration and to motivate them during classroom activities Yet, the issue seems to have been underexplored The reality showed that the use of VCDs in schools was a rare and luxurious thing in the past Nowadays, the use of VCDs and other means is not yet increased in language teaching That is a reason why this study is designed to fill this gap in the literature I.2 Aim of the study This study aims at exploring the possibility of using VCDs to increase the young learners’ timeon-task Specifically, the aims of the study are to explore: • Teachers and learners’ perception of the advantages of VCDs over audiocassettes • The extent to which VCDs increase learners’ time-on-task • The pupils’ attitudes toward using VCDs in the classroom I.3 Scope of the study Definition: VCD stands for Video CD Developed in the early 90's by JVC, Matsushita, Philips, and Sony, VCDs, although having limited success in the U.S., became popular, mostly in Asia, for the playback of video content For this study, the author would conduct a research on 10 English teachers and 50 pupils in Hanoi These 50 pupils are in normal classes of a normal school They are in the labor area their parents all come from the working class - so most of them not have condition to go to extra English courses However, they have enabled to study English at school since grade and have acquired an average level with about 800 word vocabulary There are three types of textbooks used for normal primary schools in Vietnam: Let’s Learn (published with the assistance of a Singaporean publishing house); the textbook officially published by the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam, and Let’s Go Every school has the right to choose what material it likes to teach students The school under this research has chosen Let’s Go because it is a publication of the Oxford University, and it has both cassettes and VCDs while the two other types of textbooks only have cassettes The students under the research study Let’s Go 2B Thus, this research paper only refers to the use of VCDs included with the textbook Let’s Go For the sake of this research, the author selects lessons The VCDs is included with the textbook and is illustrated with the first and second part of every unit (Let’s talk and Let’s sing) I.4 Organization of the study This minor thesis includes five chapters: - Chapter 1: Introduction, which presents the rationale for choosing the topic, the aims, the scope, method and organization of the study - Chapter 2: Setting up some theoretical backgrounds, which are relevant to the purpose of the study - Chapter 3: Methodology, which provides an overview of participants’ background information and method of collecting data - Chapter 4: This part deals with data collection, findings and discussions - Chapter 5: Summary of the thesis, limitation and suggestions for further study CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND II.1 A review of language teaching approaches Teaching language has received much focus for the past few decades So many approaches and methods such as Audiolingual Method, Total Physical Response, Content-based language teaching, Theme-based language teaching have been advanced, but it must be said that they all follow three different theoretical views of language and the nature of language proficiency: the structural view, the functional view, and the interactional view (Richards and Rogers 1996) The structural view see language as systematically structured segments and language teaching is aimed at helping learners learn these segments According to this view, language is seen as an object and learners as students The functional view sees language as a medium for expressing the functional meaning, and language teaching is aimed at helping learners learn language functions such as requests, commands, greetings, thanking, apology, complaints, compliments, invitations, and refusals Like the structural view, however, it is an attempt for implementation of the structural or synthetic syllabus, which requires learners to resynthesize the discrete pieces of language to use in communicative situations, and so language is still seen as an object and learners still as students In contrast with the two above views, the interactional view sees language as a tool for the creation and maintenance of interpersonal and social relations between individuals, and learners are viewed as language users It is an attempt for implementation of the analytic syllabus, which aims to immerse learners in real-life communication The following section will review three different teaching approaches: the oral-situational approach, the notional-functional approach, and the communicative approach, which are based on the three above language theories, respectively According to Ellis (2005), the oral-situational approach is based on a behaviorist learning theory, that is, it assumes that language learning is habit formation and over learning Grammatical structures are carefully selected and sequenced from basic to more complex and then presented inductively Learners are required to experience much controlled practice with manipulative drill types to memorize certain sentence patterns and to minimize errors, which are seen as bat habits This description of the oral-situational approach seems similar to the audiolingual approach because both are based on a structural syllabus However, the former is different from the latter in the sense that it focuses on both meaning ad forms of the linguistic structures It also emphasizes the importance of creating different situational contexts in the classroom for learners to practice the structures The latter version of the oral-situational approach concerns with skill-building theory (Anderson 1993, cited in Ellis 2005), which involves the assumption that declarative knowledge or explicit knowledge can be converted into procedural knowledge or implicit knowledge through practice It is the fact that the latter version is related to PPP model, which is based on the Interface Hypothesis fully developed by Sharwood Smith (1981, cited in Ellis 1994) This hypothesis claims that learners should be taught some language before they can communicate They then practice using learnt knowledge via different types of drill exercises until the learnt knowledge becomes automatic The learners, thereby, acquire the learnt language However, this hypothesis does not take into account the learners’ cognition problems such as cognitive load and cognitive complexity It is the fact that learners’ general cognitive processing capacity is limited, and they are not ready to acquire the structures being beyond their developmental patterns whatever how much they practice (Ellis 1994) The notional-functional approach is derived from the functional view of language described above It is built on a theory of communicative competence and on functional models of language The language functions and language notions are taught to learners at the same time with the assumption that language learning relates to learning formulaic expressions of language as well as learning rules of language Formulaic expressions can be distinguished by routines and patterns (Krashen and Scarcella 1978, cited in Ellis 1994) when the former refers to utterances learnt as memorized chunks (e.g I don’t know) and the latter refers to utterances learnt as ready-made expressions (e.g Can I have a _?) So the notional-functional approach is useful in that it helps learners develop pragmatic competence and minimize pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic errors However, like the oral-situational approach, the notional-functional approach is still based on PPP model, that is, it is accuracy rather than fluency oriented According to Kirkpatrick (1985), communicative language teaching is an idea or a set of principles that owes much to a social view of language and to the concept of communicative competence described by Hymes (1970) The goal of communicative language teaching is to produce people who are communicatively, not merely, linguistically competent That is to say, the more the language learning in the classroom approaches the real-life communication, the more successful it is Communicative language teaching pays much attention to giving students the opportunity to practice in genuine communication Furthermore, the emphasis in teaching language through communication is, therefore, on classroom activities which help learners to acquire the rules (unconsciously) rather than to learn them (consciously) Such activities must require the learners to focus on meaning, rather than on form Linguistic knowledge such as grammar is learnt in an unconscious ways; that is, students learn it through task-based activities or communicative tasks The task-based teaching and learning, which is derived from the communicative approach, aims at helping learners learn language through communication It is built around communicative tasks and so its primary focus is on meaning, that is, focuses on information exchanges The tasks are built on learners’ real communicative demands and this would help learners with intrinsic motivation because the tasks they are doing in the classroom resemble the real-life communication outside the classroom And so learners’ language learning is assessed through the outcome of the task performance Linguistic structures are the secondary focus in the taskbased approach They are embedded in the communicative tasks and taught indirectly Learners’ attention will focus on forms when their communication is broke down When so, they have to utilize different strategies such as negotiation of meaning, recasts, clarification requests, and conformation requests to make their communication smooth And they may learn linguistic forms naturally Hence, the task-based teaching is useful in that it creates opportunities for learners to use language as a tool rather than as an object to satisfy communicative needs It focuses on fluency rather than accuracy but, as described above, linguistic forms can be also learnt as a result of learning to communicate However, it is necessary to distinguish between tasks and exercises According to Ellis (2005, p 5) ‘the latter requires a primary focus on form rather than meaning and typically asks learners to manipulate language given to them rather than to attempt to communicate using their own linguistic and non-linguistic resources.’ In Ellis (2003, cited in Ellis 2005), he also makes a distinction between task-based teaching and tasksupported teaching The task-based teaching occurs when the teaching is based exclusively on meaning-focus tasks, and the task-supported teaching occurs when tasks are incorporated into either an oral-situational or a notional-functional syllabus and used to practice pre-selected and presented linguistic forms II.2 VCD as a language – teaching aid VCDs in the classroom offer exciting possibilities for language teaching and learning The principles of effective teaching and learning are illustrated with examples from a wide range of material, at all levels of language learning Radio and television have made important contribution to foreign language learning The widespread use of video recorders has had two main effects on language - teaching broadcast The first of these is to free teaching institutions and learners from the constraints of the broadcasting timetable Video recorders can be used to store programmes for showing at any convenient time The second change concerns with how television programmes are made Appreciating the benefits that a video recorder brings into the classroom, more producers of language - teaching materials are designing video tape materials with the classroom exploitation in mind Four or five minutes of video tape material can easily provide enough stimulating input for one hour’s teaching The outstanding feature of video films is their ability to present complete communicative situations The combination of sound and vision is dynamic, immediate, and accessible This means that communication can be shown in a context, and the many factors in communication can be perceived easily by viewers - and language learners The speakers in dialogues can be seen and heard; other participants in the situation can be seen The language learner can readily see the ages of the participants; their sex, perhaps their relationships one to another; their dress, social status, and what they are doing; and perhaps their mood or feeling Further, paralinguistic information, such as facial expression or hand gestures, is available to accompany aural clues of intonation Similarly, the setting of the communication is clear: the language learner can see on the screen where the action is taking place This information may help to clarify whether the situation is very formal, or perhaps informal Of course, these audio-visual features of video films are found in cinema films and television broadcasts too But these other media not offer the same facilities for classroom exploitation of the material and content that video recorders A further feature of video recordings – which is shared with other related media – is the use of electronic tricks to create special effects and images These are usually quite beyond the resources of the language teacher to produce, and provide another valuable source of material for use in language teaching and learning Video presentations will be intrinsically interesting to language learners The learner will want to watch, even if comprehension is limited The material should be motivating; the learner should want to see more, to ask question, to follow up ideas and suggestions By generating and motivation, the Video films can create a climate for successful learning In a language – learning context, there is a need for special action: interaction with the video (Jack Lonergan, 1984) II.3 The use of VCD in language classroom This section will discuss some advantages and disadvantages of the use of VCD in language classrooms According to Gallacher there are totally five benefits that video can bring about when used in classroom First, children enjoy language learning with video because video creates an attractive enjoyable learning environment Second, video is an effective way of studying body language as younger language learners are still learning about the world around them Third, children can obtain confidence through repetition when they watch a video several times and absorb and imitate what they see and hear Fourth, video communicates meaning better than other media We can see that video presents language in context in ways that a cassette can’t; that is, learners can see who’s speaking, where the speakers are, what they are doing, etc Last, video represents a positive exploitation of technology This is because young learners always have positive attitude towards television and video, which is considered modern compared to books However, teachers are also advised to watch out for some shortcomings that video can cause in the classroom Video can make children become passive when watching it so teachers should provide as many stimulating activities as possible where the children can interact with and learn from the video Furthermore, children’s parents may get annoyed when hearing their children spend the class watching the video as they can it at home Hence, the time to watch the video should be kept to a minimum and the children should have something concrete and related to the video to show to their parents Beside the pros and cons of the use of video in language classroom, Gallacher also points out four possible roles for video: developing listening skill, providing information, presenting or reinforcing language, and stimulating language production These roles not operate separately but can appear within one lesson For example, learners may watch a video to find out information about a famous person, and this may include work on developing listening skill to enable them to extract the relevant information; it could then be used to develop vocabulary on the topic of lives Gallacher next goes to show criteria for selecting video He argues that an authentic video for use in the classroom should be first watchable; that is, the video should be interesting Next, the video clip should tell a complete story a section of a story This is important as young learners’ primary motivation for watching is enjoyment The length of the clip is important, too It should be between 30 seconds and 10 minutes depending on the learning objectives What is more, the content of the video clip and children’s level of maturity should be compatible, that is, the content should be suitable with each age group of children Related materials that accompany with the video should be available, too In addition, Gallacher claims more that when a video is used for presenting language or comprehension tasks, selecting the video should based on degree of visual support, which means the more visual a video is, the easier it is to understand; clarity of picture and sound; density of language, which refers to the amount of language spoken 10 in a particular time; speech delivery, which includes clarity of speech, speech rate and accents; language content, which consists of linguistic items; and language level, which should be appropriate for the level of the class without the teacher having to explain too much * Teaching Foreign Languages to Children through Video The teaching of foreign languages at the elementary school level has changed immensely over the past two decades Growing public awareness of the benefits of early foreign language learning has led to an increase in both foreign language teaching and professional development for language teachers at the elementary school level (Rhodes & Branaman, 1999) In 1996, the release of national standards for foreign language learning had an extremely positive influence on K–12 foreign language teaching State education agencies developed standards based on the national model, and school districts began to implement these standards at the local level This positive trend, however, has been jeopardized by a shortage of trained language teachers (Duncan, 2000) and by budgetary constraints In addition, parents and educators are increasingly concerned about a lack of equity in elementary school language programs, which are viewed by some as special classes for a select group of students School districts are now looking for ways to provide language classes for all students (Steele & Johnson, 2000) Many administrators who are convinced of the importance of early foreign language education but who don’t have the resources to offer foreign language classes taught by trained language teachers are looking for affordable alternatives Video programs that not require the use of a certified foreign language teacher offer a unique possibility II.4 Time-on-task All the students of the age group 6-14 have not only enrolled but provided education of satisfactory quality It implies that the curriculum objectives for primary and upper primary classes are achieved during their schooling However, what students learn in school depends on 31 pupils achieve good mark – 10 is 55% with VCDs and 26% with cassettes This result is conformity with the study of Balatova (1994), who suggests that unlike a student, who listened in sound only conditions, the use of video and sound conditions were more consistent in their perception of the story, in the sense that difficult and easy passages formed a pattern The study notes that scenes where utterances were backed up by an action and/or body language and that were relatively shorter were considered easier to understand by students Less lively scenes, which involved relatively long stretches of conversation, were labeled as more difficult These comments illustrate that visual cues are important, since they either facilitated or distracted from understanding In addition, her research also notes that "It is also interesting to point out that students in the sound-only conditions in the two experiments were less successful in maintaining the interest and concentration in listening" Our researching result is also in accordance with the following diagram, introduced by MA Nguyen Dang Tru - Institute of education development research – Viet Nam RATIO OF SAVING DATA TO MEMORY THROUGH DIFFERENT FACTORS After days After hours 30% 60% Speech Pictures 10% 20% Speech & Pictures 70% 80% Speech, Pictures & Action 90% 80% Discover by oneself 32 * Teachers’ suggestions The classroom English language teaching has a fixed place and adequate time and relatively stable attendance of students These factors facilitate teachers’ organizing interactive learning activities and fully develop teachers’ imagination and creativity in designing class activities But the resources for both teaching and learning only come from textbooks and related reference books, which are, rather limited resources compared with the vast online information Moreover, teachers’ dominant role in classroom teaching has greatly restrained students’ active interaction and communication So classroom English teaching should re-direct its orientation from teachercentered and textbook-based to learner-centered and multimedia-based The teachers who are used to the pattern of “a textbook, a piece of chalk, and a teacher” ought to have realized the impact of network and computers on the development of modern education They ought to learn computer skills and knowledge of network and become competent in computer and then shall integrate them into their teaching Multi-media teaching aids including VCD, CD, Internet ect ought to be introduced into classroom English teaching More time in class ought to give way to students’ interactive oral practice such as discussion, debate, pair work and group work so that students are motivated to talk in English 33 Using VCD in English teaching is a chance to expose to modern educational concepts, refreshed pupils’ approaches and attitudes towards English teaching and upgraded teachers’ teaching skills in classroom teaching Learning a foreign language is not a matter of reading some grammar rules and memorizing some vocabulary words although those are important activities, not to be ignored Acquiring a language is learning a skill, not a body of information It's as much like learning to swim or ride a bike as it is like learning about the Revolutionary War That is, you must not only understand the ideas and concepts, have information at hand, but you must also make your body accustomed to using that information in physical activity: in this case the physical activity involved is speaking, listening, writing and reading You need, then, not only to memorize and understand, but also to practice! IV.1.3 Result of pupils’ survey The study has also designed a questionnaire to know about pupils’ reactions and psychological feelings about learning English with VCDs The primary purpose of this survey is to test the hypothesis that VCDs can help to increase the young learners’ time-on-task In the first question, the respondents were asked to indicate their approaching with VCDs while learning English Table 12 Pupil’s opinion survey of VCDs using in learning English No Question Do you know anything about using VCDs in foreign language learning Have you ever learnt English with VCDs in your class Answer Y (%) N (%) 64% 35% 58% Note 42% Only 64% of the informants accept that they know about using VCDs in foreign language learning, 36% don’t know 58% of the pupils have learnt English with VCDs and a fairly high 34 percentage of the pupils - 42% - have never learnt English with VCDs These data show that the use of VCDs in foreign language learning is still not popular in primary schools of Vietnam Table 13 Pupil’s opinion survey of VCD using in learning English (If the pupils answer “Yes” for two questions in Table 12) No No 10 Question Answer At home Where you watch VCDs for At school learning English? At language center Entertaining Learning, listening and speaking What VCDs help you? Both Others It is useful for learning English It is a compulsory request from the Why you watch VCDs in teacher It is interesting to see pictures and learning English? images, Others Question Answer Listening and watching help me to What you watching VCDs? learn through develop listening and speaking skills I can relax and enjoy funny and live pictures Others Very much A little Do you like watching VCDs Not at all No idea What time you like watching At the beginning of the English class At the middle of the English class VCDs in your English class? Near the end of the English class Does your teacher always turn the Always Sometimes VCDs on when you are learning Rarely English? What are the subjects you like Films or short scripts Songs to watch most on VCDs to learn Others (advertisements ) English? Total (%) 50 25 31.25 18.75 31.25 50 62.5 6.25 100 Total (%) 62.5 31.25 6.25 100 0 43.75 34.37 21.87 6.25 25 68.75 62.5 12.5 25 35 Role - play Freeze-frame control - Prediction participate in after watching Freeze-frame control - Description Vision only VCDs to learn English? Discussion Exciting, unwind, cheery What is your opinion about Very enjoyable learning English with watching Enjoyable Little enjoyable VCDs? Boring What kind of activities you 11 12 87.55 31.25 15.6 46.87 15.6 93.75 6.25 0 The data summarized in Table 14 implies that the number of pupils who watched VCDs for learning English is not very high Because the students can choose more than one suitable answer for them, so the total percent can be more than 100% in some cases The data in Q3 may be considered unreasonable at first sight However, there is an explanation for that: some pupils only watch VCDs for learning English at home or at school or at language center but some others watch VCDs for learning English at all the three places Therefore, though the total number of pupils who took part in the survey is 50, the added-up number for options of Q3 is much higher than 50 This summarization indicates the use of VCDs in learning English is lowest at school at 25% and highest at home at 50% In responding to Q4 50% of the respondents believed that watching VCDs in learning English helped to entertain themselves as well as it helped to improve listening and speaking; 31.25% of the pupils in the interview when asked what VCDs helped them thought that it was for listening and speaking And the 18.75% of the of remaining only indicated the VCD’s role as a means of entertainment, Q5 explains the pupils’ feeling and attitude towards using VCDs while learning English 62.5% of the pupils watch VCDs for learning English better 3% of the pupils did not share any opinion It also further proves that motivation to learn English through watching VCDs Most of the students in grade are aware of the importance of English and using VCD to learn English However, 100% thought that they watch VCDs primarily for watching nice images and pictures 36 This may cause by the psychology of the young learners They are not able to define their aims or motivation with clear reason Q6 Where 62.5% show inclination to develop listening and speaking skill, only 31.25% of pupils’ opinions show that they like funny and live pictures 6.25% of the pupils have different answers Chart (Q7) Do you like watching VCDs ? Do you like watching VCDs to learn English? 100 80 60 40 20 Very much A little Not at all No idea All the respondents while answering Q7 thought that they liked watching VCDs very much This answer was quite relevant to the children’s psychology At this age group, they are usually attracted by live, funny and colorful images and pictures All of these factors also make pupils understand easier and make teachers explain to pupil clearer with some “hard-to-understand” concepts Q8 is designed discover the most suitable time to apply VCDs in the class-time However, the answers imply that timing is not very important for using VCDs We can use VCDs at any time while teaching English 37 Q9 indicated how frequently teachers use VCDs while teaching English and how many times per month pupils can watch VCDs to learn English From the answer, we can find out that most of teachers (68.75%) rarely use VCDs, a few teachers always use VCDs (6.25%) and 25% of the teachers sometimes use VCDs in teaching English This shows that a lot of teachers in primary school still not use the technology because of some reasons Q10 This question showed the subjects of VCDs that pupils like the most Films or short scripts are the most interesting to pupils (62.5%) Songs would be the last choice (12.5%), while other subjects were considered rather attractive (25%) Chart (Q11) What kind of activities you participate in after watching VCDs to learn English? What kind of activities you participate in after watching VCDs to learn English? 100 50 A B C Note: A: Role – play B: Freeze-frame control - Prediction C: Freeze-frame control – Description D E A B C D E D: Vision only E: Discussion This is the most important question in the survey Like Q3, the data in Q11 may be considered unreasonable at first sight However, there is an explanation for that: some pupils only a single activity which is used in English class but some others all of activities The investigator will collect data on “Tasks” and activities of pupils to assess the time the pupils spend on different types of “tasks” that include both learning and other types of activity in the 38 classroom In the classroom, the activities include Role - play, Freeze-frame control - Prediction, Freeze-frame control - Description, Vision only, Discussion as well as listening attentively to teacher; listening but not attentively and not comprehending what is being taught; doing writing work in the class, answering written test; interacting with teacher by asking and answering oral questions; memorizing what is taught e.g multiplication tables, reading from the textbook; doing some group work; talking with other pupils, fiddling with some objects; being totally inattentive and oblivious of what is going on in the class Q12 confirms again that almost students like watching VCDs with 93.75% says that they are very excited to learn English with VCDs Few of them might watch VCDs for fun only However, they can learn something unconsciously Table 14 Pupil’s opinion survey of VCD using in learning English (If the pupils answer “No” for question in Table 13) No 13 14 Question Answer There are no VCD players in the class The teacher doesn’t have VCDs Why didn’t you watch VCDs I don’t like watching VCDs for for learning English? learning English Others If the teacher turns the VCDs in Yes No your class, would you watch? No idea Total 47.6 38 14.28 100 0 When asked to identify the reasons for not watching VCDs while learning English,47.6% of the pupils think there is no equipment in the class; 38% of them answered this question is teachers not have VCD, cassette and 14.28% have other answers All the respondents think that they are ready to watch VCD for learning English (If any) This proves the advantages of the VCD to the young learners IV.1.4 Class observation 39 In this study, the researcher carried out to observe classes with Units taught by two teachers One of them used cassettes during teaching English, the other used VCDs This is the basis to compare the increasing of pupils’ time-on-task between using cassettes and VCDs while earning English The result showed that total of time when pupils participate in class activities with VCDs is Table 16 Comparison the increasing pupils’ time-on-task between using VCDs and cassettes in English class Using VCDs in English class Total of time, when Total of time, Total of time, Using cassettes in English class Total of time, Total of time, when Total of time, pupils participate in when when voluntarily participate in participate in participate answering teacher’s pair work, team other question work, related pupils role-play, freeze-frame control when pupils to lesson - the pupils participate in when pair work, team work, participate in voluntarily role-play, freeze-frame other activities answering control Prediction, related to the teacher’s freeze-frame control - question activities pupils Description, Discussion) in - pupils lesson Prediction, freezeframe control - Description, 11% Discussion) 55% 11% 0.5% 51% 0.6% From the above table, total time-on-task of students when the teachers using VCD is 77% and only 52.1% when cassette is used It supports some principles are increasing “time-on-task” creating materials and processes that attract students to spend more time in their studies, reducing wasted time (e.g., commuting time, standing in lines, waiting for books), and helping communicate to students how much time and energy you and your institution expect them to invest in their work In what ways has technology been used in your courses or at your institution that, directly or directly, results in students spending more time and energy in their studies? It has been demonstrated that using VCDs can increase time spent on activities Two elements of time spent, as described by Levin & Nolan (1996), are time allocated to teaching a subject, and 40 the students' time spent actively engaged in learning The concept of "time-on-task" has been derived as a measure of the latter variable So when observing the class, the writer has to take note carefully and count the time on task of students in every class The result shows that after students watch VCDs, they feel more elated and want to imitate The percentage of volunteers also increases so the teacher has to spend more time for them to play role or discuss while in the class with cassette the students are quieter, so the teacher should waste time to encourage or explain again As can be seen from the table only 0.5% of time spent on voluntarily answering teacher’s question against 11% of that when using VCDs And the percentages of total of time, when pupils participate in pair work, team work, role-play, freeze-frame control-prediction, freeze-frame control- description, Discussion with VCDs and cassette in turn are only 55% and 51% However, the total of students’ time on-task when using VCDs is 77%, 24,9% higher than that of using cassette The writer’s observation supports the answers of the teachers in the questionnaire that their students work more actively and spend more time when they use VCDs at class 41 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION V.1 Summary of the study While the profession agrees that a qualified language teacher is the most important factor in foreign language instruction, instructional videos show promise as an alternative or supplement to traditional approaches to foreign languages teaching Advances have already been made in the use of video to address some of the goals set by the national standards, in particular those of cultures, connections, and communities Moreover, recent federally funded projects (Rosenbusch, García Villada, & Padgitt, 2003; Tollefson, 2003) have shown great promise in the use of video to overcome some of the obstacles to foreign language instruction in traditionally underserved areas A great advantage of video is that it provides authentic language input It is obvious that the practical implications of video in the classroom in any classroom environment can be easy and useful To pay special attention to a particular point in the programme it is possible to run in slow motion or at half speed or without sound Besides, the learner can concentrate on the language in detail and interpret what has been said, repeat it, predict the reply and so on The learner can also concentrate in detail on visual clues to meaning such as facial expression, dress, gesture, posture and on details of the environment Even without hearing the language spoken clues to meaning can be picked up from the vision alone Using visual clues to meaning in order to enhance learning is an important part of video methodology From the data analysis, this thesis would focus on the following issues: The popularity of VCDs in the classroom VCDs are not widely used in the classroom This is because teachers not have access to the equipment in their school Most of schools are provided with cassette-players rather than VCDs devices This explains why audiocassettes dominate in most classroom lessons The purpose of using VCDs Although VCDs are not widely used, when teachers have accessed to them, they all said that they used them for three main purposes: 42 • Helping pupil to understand the lesson better • Increasing pupils involvement in classroom activities (i.e, increasing their time-ontask) • Making the lesson more exciting to the pupils The advantages of VCDs over audiocassettes The survey showed that teachers believed VCDs were more advantageous than audiocassettes at least in two ways First, VCDs helped pupils to participate more actively in classroom activities According to my own observation, 77% of the class-time was spent on activities This was against 52.1% when audiocassettes were used Second, VCDs helped pupils to understand the lesson better than audiocassettes (55% vs 32%) In general, with VCDs pupils time-on-task was around 70% of the class-time against 45% of the class-time in case of audiocassettes used Languages are not fixed but constantly changing, so is the media; television, radio and newspaper which are an extraordinarily rich source of language in use In order to expose foreign language learners to the target language the use of technology need to be exploited in the classroom as much as possible For that reason a great tendency towards the use of technology and its integration into the curriculum developed by the foreign language teachers has gained a great importance Particularly the use of video has received increasing attention in recent studies on technology integration into teacher education curricula (Özkan, 2002:1) V.2 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study Some limitations are inevitable in most research Due to limited time and knowledge, this study only conducts a survey with a few teachers and students and only four observations The sample size of this study is particularly small A small sample size has a greater probability that the observation just happened to be particularly good or particularly bad Due to data correlation (same hand): As mentioned before, some of the data are correlated The finger data correlations have been overcame of by using the average value 43 Thus, it would be better to include more observations of lessons and other methods in a further research to distinguish the advantages of VCDs so that encouragement of using VCDs is getting better in teaching English for young learners in near future 44 References Brewster, C and Fager, J.( 2000) Increasing student engagement and motivation: From time-on-task to homework http://www.bend.k12.or.us/gbruner/amity/ Brophy, J E (1988) Educating teachers about managing classrooms and students Teaching and Teacher Education, 4, 1- 3 Cook, V 3rd Edition, (2001) Second Language Learning and Language Teaching London : Hodder Headline Crookes, G and Schmidt, R (1991) Motivation: ‘Reopening the research agenda’ Language Learning 41/4: 469 – 512 Dornyei, Z (2001) Teaching and Researching Motivation Harlow: Longman Ellis, R (1994) The Study of Second Language Acquisition Oxford: Oxford University Press Ellis, R 92005.0 Instructed Second Language Acquisition: A Literature Review Wellington : Research Division, Ministry of Education Gallacher, L (undated) Video and Young Learners British CouncilJourna Gardner, R C (1960) Motivational variables in second language acquisition Unpublished Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, McGill University 10 Gardner, R C., Day J B., and MacIntyre P D.(1991) Integrative motivation, induced anxiety, and language learning in a controlled environment Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 14, 197-214 11 Good, T and Brophy, J (1994) Looking in Classrooms New York : Harper Collins 12 Katchen, J E (2004) Analog to Digital: Technology Shift with Classroom Implications Paper presented at the first CELC Symposium for English language teachers, “Paradigm shifts in language teaching and learning: teacher roles and learner responsibilities” Singapore 13 Katchen, J E (2004) Teaching Presentation Skills Using Video as Role Model Proceedings of the MOE Conference on “Developing the Basics of Holistic General Education” Ming Hsin University of Science and Technology 45 14 Kirpatrick,T A (1985) The role of Communicative Language Teaching in Secondary Schools – with Special Reference to Teaching in Singapore, in Bikram K Das (ed.), Communicative Language Teaching: Selected papers from the RELC seminar on “Communicative Language teaching” Singapore , 23 – 27 April 1984 Singapore: Singapore University Press, pp 171 – 194 15 Levin, J and Nolan, J F (1996) Principles of Classroom Management, 2nd edition Boston: Allyn and Bacon 16 Lightbown, P Spada, N (1999) How Languages are Learned Oxford: OUP 17 Moon, J (2000) Children Learning English Oxford: Macmillan Publishers 18 Richards, J C., & Rodgers, T S (1996) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 19 Richards, J Schmidt, R 3rd edition,( 2002) Longman dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics Harlow: Pearson Education Limited 20 Schmitt, R (Ed) (2002) An Introduction To Applied Linguistics London: Hodder Headline 21 Schumann, J.H (1997) The Nuerobiology of Affect in Language Oxford: Blackwell Willis, J 1996 A Framework for Task Based Learning Harlow: Longman 22 Spanjers, D M., Burns, M K., and Wagner, A R (2008) Systematic Direct Observation of Time on Task as a Measure of Student Engagement Assessment for Effective Intervention, 33: 2, 120-126 ... smooth And they may learn linguistic forms naturally Hence, the task-based teaching is useful in that it creates opportunities for learners to use language as a tool rather than as an object to satisfy... for the past few decades So many approaches and methods such as Audiolingual Method, Total Physical Response, Content-based language teaching, Theme-based language teaching have been advanced,... (2005), the oral-situational approach is based on a behaviorist learning theory, that is, it assumes that language learning is habit formation and over learning Grammatical structures are carefully

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