Action research on teaching and assessment for learning service learning for english majors at thu dau mot university

Action Research on Teaching and Assessment for Learning Thu Dau Mot University & Petro Vietnam University

Service Learning for English Majors
at Thu Dau Mot University
Nguyễn Hoàng Tuấn
Nguyễn Kim Hải
Faculty of Foreign Languages
Thu Dau Mot University

Introduction
The Service Learning Project for English Majors at Thu Dau Mot University is a
form of experiential education. The purpose of this project is to help students see the
connections between their service experience and the school curriculum. Students
will also learn how to transfer knowledge and skills from one setting to another.
More importantly, this is an opportunity for students to strengthen their character and
enrich their emotional life.
The project is voluntary in nature. At the pilot stage, 28 senior students in the Foreign
Language Faculty participated in the project under the supervision of the Student
Union leader who is also the faculty lecturer. Two teachers of English who have been
working in the hospitality and tourism industry are invited to give feedback on the
students’ reflection writing.
Preparation and orientation
Classroom based preparation includes a session on the concepts of service learning
and the benefits it brings to the students and the community, discussion on the
implementation plan and the responsibilities of those who are involved in the project
including the faculty members, voluntary teachers from other institutions, and the
English majored students who are going to take a six-week internship.
Students were also asked to respond to the following questions:
What is service learning?
What are you looking forward to?
What are you nervous about?

What do you think you might learn from this project?
One student defined service learning as “a social activity to help poor children and
some poor workers who are facing with school fee problems and staying in [a] low
living condition in Thu Dau Mot city”. With this definition in mind, students were
oriented toward teaching the homeless/poor children between the ages of 7 and 15.

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Action Research on Teaching and Assessment for Learning Thu Dau Mot University & Petro Vietnam University

The participants consider their task as a “mission’ and they find it necessary to equip
themselves with teaching methods and knowledge of the target language and
psychology.
A survey of the organizations for the homeless children in Thu Dau Mot city (Binh
Duong province) is conducted to identify those organizations that need help. There
are 12 English classes in the following communities in Thu Dau Mot city: Phu Loi,
Phu Hoa, Phu My, Phu Tho, Phu Tan, Tan An, Hiep Thanh, Chanh My, Dinh Hoa,
Hoa Phu.
The training workshop conducted by a faculty member empowered them with
confidence. The training workshop lasted 3 morning sessions focusing on teaching
children the four language skills using the textbook titled Super Kids.
Implementation of the project
The pilot project was carried out in 8 weeks in Thu Dau Mot city. Through service
learning, students experienced many different states of emotion. They felt scared at
the idea of delivering their first lessons as reported in their reflection writing.
“I was so nervous when I joined this program. I will take a chance to a new
position which I never had before. I do not know [whether] the children like
me or not. I wonder how I am able to cope with if the children do not come to
my class, and how I deal with them if my teaching method does not work”.

After the first lesson, they felt a little bit confident and they were able to focus on
solving problems in the classroom.
“…Spending the first two days teaching the students, I feel so strange and
confused. I need to study more about the psychology to keep up with their
mind. Moreover, I need to use new teaching method to make them enjoy their
class. Besides, the children [are] sometimes good, but sometimes too naughty,
[which] made me confused. I do not know what method I can use to control
all of their emotions.”
Classroom observation and feedback
Classroom observations reveal the fact that the internship students are very devoted
to their teaching tasks as it can be seen in the time and energy they spent making
teaching aids and hand -made gifts for their children. To them, service learning does
not mean simply a form of internship. It means something more than that. It is a
wonderful opportunity for sharing and caring.
“The special thing today is my teacher, Mrs. Hai, spent one hour observing
my class. I as well as my children felt so nervous. However, we eventually
cooperated well, which makes my lesson successful. It sounds so good for my
attempts.”

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Action Research on Teaching and Assessment for Learning Thu Dau Mot University & Petro Vietnam University

Feedback on students’ reflection writing also indicates progress in their
communicative performance. Their final reports are the result of hard work and
patience that deserve highest grade.
Here are some photos taken from our classroom:

Figure 1. Testing time

Figure 2. Learning time

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Action Research on Teaching and Assessment for Learning Thu Dau Mot University & Petro Vietnam University

Figure 3. Break time
Learning outcomes

 Meet a recognized community need: The students were aware that many
children need help. Through their personal communication with the project
coordinator, they expressed their surprise at the fact that there are too many poor
children around them. Being excessively protected by their parents, they missed the
chance to observe life. It’s fortunate that they joined the project and thus knew more
about the society. They felt that it was their responsibility to help the children with
love and care.
“They hope that I will teach [them] in long time. Because some teachers just
taught them [for] two or three weeks and they do not teach anymore. They
worry about that. They make me love them and love this work. With this class,
I think I need to teach them [with] love and care. They need my love. I won’t
try to work. I will work by my heart.”

 Achieve curricular objectives: The students were required to keep their
teaching journals. Through reflection writing, their writing competence was
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Action Research on Teaching and Assessment for Learning Thu Dau Mot University & Petro Vietnam University

improved. Students also met many writing objectives while completing their
internship report.

 Reflect through the service-learning experience: The students were
encouraged to reflect on the project through class discussions, journal writing, and
social networking.

 Develop student responsibility: The students developed responsibility by
choosing the activities that they found relevant to the learners’ needs and by
organizing fund raising activities.
 Establish community partnerships: The project coordinator contacted the
local authority to maintain continuity of the project.

 Equip students with knowledge and skills needed for their future careers:
Students learned about how to cope with emerging situations:
“I am afraid how many letters they can remember because they not only study
but also sell lotteries. In fact, they don’t have free time to review what they
have learnt on the previous day. Moreover, there are some children [who] are
in grade 1. [….] They only speak out what they think in their mind incorrectly
because they can’t remember anything. I think this is the most problem I need
to find out another method to help them remember new words easily.”

 Enrich their emotional life:

“It was surprising that we received roses from Cò. And at that time, we knew
the reason why he was late. Actually, we didn’t know what to say, we just
know to give many thanks to him and his parent. […] I felt happy not because
of the rose but because of his heart.”
Conclusion

Through this project, students strengthened their communication skills while
discovering their personal power to make positive changes in their communities.
Motivation, communication skills, leadership, and compassion increased through
various service-learning activities.
Students should be placed in challenging situations so that they can move from
observation to experience to leadership. The important thing is to help them make
adjustments at various stages in the process. As one student remarked, “This is an
experience for me. I learned to observe and know how to improvise in many different
situations. This is really necessary for me later. The way I see things around me will
make other people more interested and can help [make] my image more beautiful in
the eyes of other people.”
It is also important to maintain on-going faculty-guided reflection to challenge the
students to analyze their new experiences.

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Action Research on Teaching and Assessment for Learning Thu Dau Mot University & Petro Vietnam University

AWARENESS OF SILENCE IN VIETNAMESE
CLASSROOM
Nguyen Thanh Xuan
Faculty of Foreign Languages
Thu Dau Mot University

Abstract
This paper research draws out several ideas and beliefs about reticence in
language learning context which is challenging to teachers during the teaching
process. Though silence has involved in almost every classroom situation, this aspect
of education has not been significantly exploited. Therefore, in this paper, by using

the questionnaire, interview and observation methodologies, we would like to
explore several factors influencing language learners’ silence. Besides that, two
dimensions of silence, positive and negative sides, are also represented in our overall
finding. When considering silence as basic drawbacks in learning, we acquire
several suggested solutions that help students break their silence as well as teachers’
classroom activities that encourage students’ talking participation. In the theme of
silence in language education, some learning strategies are mentioned and well
described to the contrary.

Introduction
The economic renovation policy, pursued by our Government, has enhanced the
need for English-speaking people who are expected to be able to communicate
fluently with the people from other countries in the world and to collect new
technology. English has been compulsory in school textbooks. According to the
Prime Minister’s Decree, issued in 1995, all the Government officers have to be
competent to communicate in English. However, English language teaching in our
nation, because of its low quality, has not met the need for competent English –
speaking people in the new social context. In fact, Vietnamese teachers show their
great interest in new methodologies, learner-centered one at the beginning, but later
they return to traditional way, teacher-centered one. Which factors make teachers
head back to their traditional ways? There are a variety of reasons: a load curriculum;
over-sized classrooms, lack of technology advances… Especially most of them
attribute their lesson success to their students’ participation. In particular, teachers
sometimes try to break the ice, but learners are too passive to accept in English
classes. What is more, most learners just keep silent in the classes and just learn what
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Action Research on Teaching and Assessment for Learning Thu Dau Mot University & Petro Vietnam University

teachers provide, which makes the communicative teaching and learning method fall
in vain.
Thus, is silence important? Is it good or bad for teaching and learning language?
In this paper, we discuss to what degree such a communicative approach fits
Vietnamese pedagogical contexts on the basic of an analysis of four facts: first,
internal and external factors which consist of positive and negative effects; second,
teachers’ and learners’ perspective on silence; third, learning strategies due to
learners’ silence; and last, suggested solutions for negative effects of silence. The
conclusions we will draw are that the pedagogical contexts in Vietnam are both
supportive of and constraining to communicative teaching practices and that to make
English teaching responsive to the needs of Vietnamese there should be some macrochanges as well as the methodological mediation in silent classes.
Literature review
A great number of linguistic researchers and experts have had various definitions,
concepts and viewpoints of silence in language classroom. In my opinion, the
learners remain silent in class because of internal and external factors.
Internal factors
First of all, learners’ intra-personal intelligence, self smart is one of internal
factors that effects on the silence of language learning (Ken Petress, 2001). The
learners who are strong in this intelligence need times alone for writing, getting deep
into books and thinking much more than giving speech or participating in class
activities. Intra-personally sharp learners will suffer from socialization and
communication, so they always remain silent even they seem to be absentminded,
slow or inactive although they have deep knowledge. Balas (2000) pointed out,
silence does not mean that learners lack of knowledge, so the silence of these learners
is the positive way to learn, to think, to remember and to complete what they want
to access effectively as Picard (1948, 1952) claimed that “silence is nothing merely
negative; it is not the mere absent of speech, it is a positive, a complete world itself”
(p.1). Dauenhauer (1980) claimed that “silence in its own right can be seen to make
a positive contribution in the scope of the meaningful” (p.104). Besides, each
individual has different learning styles. Intra-personal intelligent learners are

interested in silent learning way because they firmly believe that silence as a means
of participation and keeping silent in speaking class is also a learning style. Meyer
(2007), Meyer & Hunt (2004) suggested that learners find silence is a way of
cognitive engagement with course material and some learners prefer to do so rather
than participating orally. It certainly makes intuitive sense that some learners may
learn more by listening to class discussion than by contributing comments orally.
Similarly, Nakane (1970), Dwyer & Heller-Murphy (1996) highlight the preference
of Japanese learners who remain silent because “silence in the speaking class is also
one ways of learning styles”. On the other hand, some learners think that the speaking
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Action Research on Teaching and Assessment for Learning Thu Dau Mot University & Petro Vietnam University

learners know nothing, but the silence learners know everything as Kalamaras (1994)
reiterated Lao-tzu’s observation that “those who know, don’t talk and those who talk
don’t know” (p.218). In general, the intra-personal intelligent learners prefer
thinking much more than what they have ever said, they are involved in deep thinking
while they just seem totally inactive to us, their teachers, and their peers. This
personality shapes their silence learning style in language classroom.
Next, another internal factor that influence on the silent atmosphere in language
classroom is the learners’ reticent personality. These learners have tendency to keep
silent, refuse to participate or talk to their peers, their teachers. They especially prefer
self isolate from learning communicative. According to the article “The Ethics of
Student Classroom Silence” (Ken Petress, 2001), the reticent learners are less likely
to apply, extend, or transfer what is learned than are non-reticent learners. The
reticent learners are typically self-absorbed and needs compassionate, but insistent,
encouragement and enablement to participate. Because of this reticence, they
consider silence as the most powerful learning styles as Picard (1963) “the silence
man seems to be more powerful than the speaking man, silence seems more powerful

than the language; but silence has this power only because it is from silence of the
language comes, because it contains language ” (p121).
Last but not least, the learners who remain silent in language classroom by other
characteristics as Ken Petress (2001) included : (1) anxiety- the learners feel so
nervous or worry so they cannot speak out any word, (2) low self esteem - learners
who think of themselves as unworthy or unable tend to remain silent out of shame;
(3) fear of being ridiculed should they inappropriately or inaccurately respond unfortunately, such fears can manifest themselves in self-fulfilling prophesies where
a learner knowingly answers or responds inappropriately thus validating their fears;
(4) fear of success - this occurs when a learner interacts successfully; self-attributes
their success to luck or accident; (5) to avoid conflict - inexperienced, shy, or less
competent communicators rely upon silence in avoiding conflict scenarios.
Similarly, Hu & Fell-Eisenkraft (2003) break silence in four themes: “silence as a
result of being shy”, “silence as a result of not having correct answers”, “silence as
a result of unfamiliarity with talking to learn” and “silence as a result of lack of
confidence in speaking the English language.
External factors
Together with the internal factors as mentioned above, the external factors much
less have influence on the silence of learners in language classroom. First, different
culture is one view to interpret silence in classroom as considered cultural approach
which points out the culturally different understanding of silence (Hu & FellEisenkraft, 2003). This view point also support by the research of Kato (2001). He
reported that cultural differences in learning styles between Australian exchange
learners in Japan and their Japanese counterparts in Australia contribute to different
styles of participation. Japanese learners tend to remain silent in class more than
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Action Research on Teaching and Assessment for Learning Thu Dau Mot University & Petro Vietnam University

Australian learners. Two opposite points of view while Australian learners are
consider the silence of Japanese learners “immature” since they “do not express their

opinions”; Japanese learners consider Australian learners’ verbosity as “immature”
because “they always express clearly what they want”. Scallon (1985) and Giles et
al., (1992) have shown that silence is associated with the negative values in Western
culture (lack of interest; unwillingness to communicate, rejection; interpersonal
incompatibility; shyness). Johannesen (1974) noted that the meaning of silence
varies one culture to another “the roles assigned to silence in human communication
vary from culture to culture” (p.27). For example, Forestier (1998) quote mainland
Chinese learners as saying that “our culture is very different from western culture,
we are always taught to obey not to invent”, learners just listen, obey and keep
silence, refrain speaking out. In Vietnam, many learners remain silence in classroom
because they have been deep influenced by cultural tradition as our ancestors ever
claimed the important of silence as “silence is golden” or we just give speech when
you know clearly something, if not, keep silent and listen to “the cobbler should stick
to his last”. This makes learners become more passive and unconfident in class
participation. Besides, the Vietnamese tradition of having a deep gratitude towards
teacher, the important role of teacher “no guide, no realization” or teacher autonomy,
is also a factor that controls the learners’ speaking activities. Next, learners are silent
in class because of class organization, inappropriate circumstances and learning
strategies. Like Pond, Goldstein, Schecter (2003) & Losey (1997) argued that
Mexican-American learners keep silent in class because of classroom organization.
They do a research with Mexican American learners studying in a college in Central
California by exploring educational, historical, educational, economical factors and
found out learners’ levels are various such as the level of community, of the college,
of the classroom, and of the individual “focal” learners. These varieties are proved
that the silence of Mexican- American learners emerged from the structure of
interaction between teachers and learners in both the course of assignments and in
class talks. Interactions provide “few opportunities to offer opinions on topics of
interest or importance to them”. Finally, biological sex, degree level and class size
are some ways that influences participation and classroom interaction as Fassinger
(1995, 1996) has been found learner sex is considered a significant component of

learners’ participation. He and his colleagues concluded that “chilly classroom
climate” existed for female college learners (Fassinger, 1995, 1996 & Jone, 1997)
and some previous studies showed that males in the classroom are also more orally
active. However, Howard ad Henney (1998) found little support for the “chilly
climate” hypothesis as females and non-traditional learners participated more than
did males and traditional learners. To the degree level and class size, Aulls (2004)
showed that participation varies by experience, the age of learners, the course level,
and the class size. Due to the nature of course, instruction methods, and previous
classroom experiences common in undergraduate and graduate programs, degree
level of class may have connection to the engagement styles. Specifically, comparing
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Action Research on Teaching and Assessment for Learning Thu Dau Mot University & Petro Vietnam University

to the undergraduate courses, graduate courses often tend to be smaller in size,
frequently use discussion-based instructional methods, and require learners to orally
participate. The size of a class may directly influence the amount of learners’
participation. As the size of the class increases the amount of learner participation
decreases (Constantinople, Cornelius & Gray, 1988).
METHODOLOGY
Research participants and locations
Due to L2 learners’ significantly different perspectives, there is a need to
assemble data from numerous environments including high school and language
centers in HCM city in order to get accurate appraisal. The interviewers include not
only 3-5 year experienced teachers but also 15-22 year-old learners in this research.
All questions for questionnaire, interview, observation and discussion are in the same
thread. The objective of changing questions for an appropriate format is to be
authentic of this research. In particular, questionnaire should be designed following
to the norm so that the statistic can be obvious.

Questionnaire
In order to collect facts and figures, questionnaire is our top priority. It is designed
to get explicit ideas from 6 native teachers (8 questions) and 7 Vietnamese teachers
(7 questions). Besides, there are also two more thought-providing questions. The
items in each question are responded to following four – point – scales:
1. Yes

2. No

3. Other reasons

4. No opinion

Through questionnaire, we are taking a profound interest in the way how teachers
observe their silent learners and the workable solutions as well. These question
papers are delivered and collected within two weeks, each learner and teacher has
approximately three minutes to complete the questionnaires.
Interview
Apart from this, interview is also extremely taken into consideration. There are
thirty- one people participating in our two main interviewed groups encompassing
10 Vietnamese teachers and 24 Vietnamese learners. Thus, there is highly polarity
by diverse ideas why learners remain silent and what solutions should be deployed
to break silence in the language classroom.
We paid attention to interview because we are inclined to believe that Vietnamese
teachers prefer oral communication to written form in sharing their own professional
knowledge on learners’ silence. Moreover, Vietnamese learners were willing to
express their concern about this special field. Approximately seven minutes is used
to interview each teacher and learner so that they can freely express themselves. The
period of time is three weeks respectively.
Teachers’ experience in classroom observation and discussion

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Action Research on Teaching and Assessment for Learning Thu Dau Mot University & Petro Vietnam University

It is popularly alleged that it takes a considerable amount of time to discover silent
learners and find out solutions in teaching process. It is required that teachers observe
all learners day by day through their teaching course in order to be profound thinkers
about silent learners. Teachers’ classroom observation and discussion will become
an effective element in deep discussion and free sharing directly among teachers.
Researchers can smoothly note information; keep significant to discussion of
students’ learning – process and record communication which focus on our group
topic. Some findings, experiences, suggestions and solutions are gathered by dozen
of teachers’ daily discussion. Face-to-face talking and sharing one another are
domination of this research tool.
Data presentation and analysis
According to the data collected, learners were categorized into three groups:
A. Learners who are silent (do not speak at all or speak a little), but consider silence
as a positive aspect (2 learners out of 26; 8%);
B. Learners who are silent (do not speak at all or speak a little), but consider silence
as a negative aspect (17 learners out of 26; 65%);
C. Learners who speak (sometimes/often) in class (7 learners out of 26; 27%).

students' attitude toward
silence

27%
8%

Negative

65%

Positive
Neutral

Apart from that, we still study reasons why our learners remain silent in
classroom. Here are some of them:
Internal reasons:
-

Personalities: self-isolation, keeping space, reticence, shyness, anxiety, low
self-confidence.

-

Language ability: lack of vocabulary and knowledge.

-

Physical manner: tiring, overwhelming.

External reasons:
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Action Research on Teaching and Assessment for Learning Thu Dau Mot University & Petro Vietnam University

-

Boring topics

-

Inappropriate teaching approaches

-

Low concentration on lessons`

Teachers’ perspective
In this section we mainly focus on the perspective of English teachers in Viet Nam
about their learner’s silence. Actually, when carrying on interviewing thirteen
teachers (both Vietnamese and foreign teachers) we have collected the following
various significant opinions:
Question 1: Do you (the teachers) consider some of your students quiet learners? Are they (learners)
passive learners? One hundred percent interviewed teachers who always pay attention to their quiet
students in their class, point out two points of view such as these quite learners are not passive (62
% interviewed teachers agree this view point), these learner maybe passive or not passive (38 %
interviewed teachers express their dilemma- not sure ).
Question 2: In your point of view are they quiet by the nature or are they quiet because of class
circumstances? What are those circumstances? In this question 31% teachers agree that the learners
keep silent because of their nature, 31% teachers believe the learners remain quiet because of
circumstances, and 38% teachers affirm the learners are reticent due to both nature and
circumstances.
Question 3: Is it a good thing to be verbally active during the lesson? Nine teachers (69%) say “yes”
express their agreement but four teachers (31%) say “no”-express their disagreement because they
believe this still depends on the context.
Question 4: Should the teacher encourage all the students to be active in classroom discussion? Why
(not)? Almost interviewed teachers (94 %) express their consensus on the encouragement the all

students become more aggressive in classroom activities. They firmly agree this view point because
of following factors: (1) Learner can learn more through discussion. (2) Leaner can check their
comprehension and improve their skills. (3) Learners have opportunities to express their opinions
and reveal their thinking. (4) Teachers can create the positive learning environment for learner. (5)
Teachers help students be confident to speak out and encourage them to take part in activities. (6)
Teachers have opportunity to work more with learner. (7) Teachers’ monologue is no longer existed,
it means that the teachers’ role is not only as an authoritarian but also as a participant, tutor, etc.
Question 5: How would you describe the rule of classroom participation? When, how and how
much should students participate? In this part, each teacher suggests each different opinion like:
some teachers believe that students should participate when teacher address. Other teachers argue
that depend on the topic , the size of class, we may have various participative rate such as teachers
participate 60% and learners participate 40% over one period or learners can participate as much as
possible. Besides, numbers of teachers consider the freedom of learner to talk and share ideas within
the class is more necessary.

In general, there is a singleness of mind between Vietnamese and foreign teachers
in taking care of silent learners and finding not only originality but also solutions
from most of the interviewed teachers in the classroom. Although silence is not a
complete sign of failure, it is still neglected in class time by teachers’ reflection. In
other words, an active environment should be superior to dead air.
Learners’ perspective
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Action Research on Teaching and Assessment for Learning Thu Dau Mot University & Petro Vietnam University

According to statistic, majority of interviewed people always keep silent confirm
that remaining silent in class is the negative way in foreign language learning
process. In addition, learners also propose their viewpoints of silence as well as the
reasons why they keep reticent concerning: lacking language ability such as shortage

of vocabulary, studying in inappropriate syllabus, losing self-esteem. On the other
hand, they also assert that giving speeches in class is absolutely useful and necessary.
Suggested solutions for negative effects
In the remainder of this data presentation, we attempt to propose a variety of
responses grounded on the realistic research. It is, however, extremely surprising that
all of suggestions we received from the interviews are in the negative perspective in
term of silence. Some solutions are implemented in following ways:
Improving the lesson quality to motivate learners’ learning: it is the most
popularly agreed that teacher should expand the comprehensive input by varying
abundant topics interesting our students’ curiosity. The fact, however, is against our
expectations due to teacher’s dependence on curriculum or institutional policy.
Therefore, there is a must for teachers to adopt, enrich and facilitate the interesting
aspects of boring and difficult topics such as adding more games, exploring what the
topic is related to learners’ surroundings...To sum up, the desirable goals of these
activities about are just to encourage them to expose themselves.
Creating an appropriate and productive learning environment: the classroom
atmosphere plays an essential role in the development of learning target language so
the need of improving the atmosphere quality is required. There are 3 main elements
should be exploited involving: classroom arrangement including choosing
appropriate partners or mixing talking and silent learners one another; peerdiscussion, group discussion.
Conclusion
In this paper, the importance of this topic was analyzed above. Our group also
spent the period of time studying the reflections of silence on learning and teaching
foreign language. On one hand, we find out a lot of reasons to response the confusing
of our thinking why learners are silent how to help learners overcome these obstacles.
On the other hand, many suggestions and findings are mentioned to respect for
raising the effective method for both teachers and learners.

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Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation.

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Action Research on Teaching and Assessment for Learning Thu Dau Mot University & Petro Vietnam University

The Lexical Approach to Second and Foreign Language
Teaching and Learning
Nguyễn Thu Hồng
PetroVietnam University, Ba Ria City
Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, Vietnam

Abstract

The lexical approach, a method of teaching foreign languages popularized by
Michael Lewis in 1990s, rests on the idea that an important part of language learning
is the ability to understand and produce lexical units as chunks. Learners are thought
to be able to perceive language patterns (grammar) as well as acquire meaningful
set of words available when they are taught in this way. Instruction, therefore, should
focus on fixed expressions that occur frequently in spoken and written
language. This paper aim to provide an overview of the lexical approach, its
features, the major debates associated with it, and present the author’s viewpoint to
this approach. Discussing the features and debates surrounding it, this paper shows
that the lexical approach has great potential to improve language pedagogical
practice. Language teachers should be able to incorporate this approach with other
approaches and methods flexibly and creatively in teaching based on their own
judgment and modify them to the realities of the classroom; learners should keep
their options open in order to benefit from both memory-based and rule-based
performance.

An overview
The lexical approach is based on the view that “language consists of grammaticalized
lexis, not lexicalized grammar” (Lewis, 1993, p.34). This is strengthened by the
statements that language is constituted not of traditional grammar and vocabulary
but often of “multi-word prefabricated chunks” (Lewis, 1997, p.3). Language,
therefore, should be taught in meaningful combinations of words and patterns
(Lewis, 2000).
A distinction between grammar, vocabulary and lexis is made by the lexical
approach. Traditionally, grammar consists of rules and patterns, and vocabulary are
understood as individual words with fixed meanings, while lexis includes not only
the single words but also the co-occurrence with other words in particular contexts.
The many-word lexical units have been mentioned in second and foreign language
acquisition research under different labels including “chunks” (Lewis, 1997),

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Action Research on Teaching and Assessment for Learning Thu Dau Mot University & Petro Vietnam University

“lexicalized stems” (Pawley & Syder, 1983), “lexical
(Nattinger&DeCarrico, 1992) and “formulaic language” (Swan, 2006).

phrases”

The existence and importance of these lexical units have been discussed by a number
of linguists. Nattinger (1980) points out that language production is done by piecing
together the ready-made language units suitable for a particular context. Similarly,
Hoey (2005) proposes that learners acquire a word when they encounter it in spoken
or written form and their knowledge of that word includes its co-occurrence with
other words in specific contexts. Instruction, therefore, should focus on the readymade chunks appropriate for a particular situation (Nattinger, 1980). According to

Sinclair (2004), lexis is a complex and systematic structure, and grammar is an
outcome of this structure. Up to 80 per cent of the word occurrence is the result of
co-selections, and only 20 per cent is allocated to the grammar. Hence, grammar can
only teach 20 per cent of the language to the learner.
Main features
Lexis is considered to play a central role in the lexical approach, (Lewis, 1993). With
this in mind, instruction needs to focus on relatively fixed expressions that occur
frequently and naturally in spoken language rather than inauthentic sentences created
for the purpose of modeling the language (Lewis, 1993). Further, instead of overconcentrating on syntax and tense usage, language teachers should teach the phrases
which co-occur in contexts (Harmer, 2001). Thus, in teaching will for the future,
teachers might have students focus on its use in the utterances such as I’ll give you a
ring, I’ll be in touch, I’ll see what I can do, I’ll be back in a minute, etc. (Lewis,
1997).
Furthermore, the key to increasing learners’ lexicon is not formal teaching but
exposure to large quantities of comprehensible input, and that vocabulary is mostly
acquired rather than taught (Lewis, 1997, 2000). This view is echoed by Thornbury
(2006) who recommends that lexical competence comes simply from frequent
exposure, consciousness-raising and memorizing, and by Moudraia (2001) who
emphasizes the importance of intensive and extensive listening and reading in target
language. Learners constantly acquire new lexical items whenever they come in
contact with the language such as listening to the teacher talk in class, watching a
film or using the internet.
Consciousness and noticing are crucial to lexis acquisition. Unless learners are
directed to notice language in a text, there exists a danger that they will fail to achieve
intake (Lewis, 2000). Thornbury (2006), Lewis (2000), Moudraia (2001) and Romer
(2011) suggest a three-step process: to raise their awareness of the lexical nature of
language, then to define the main types of lexical structures (collocations, fixed and
semi-fixed expressions) and finally to develop activities that help them notice the
lexical chunks in spoken and written texts.

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Action Research on Teaching and Assessment for Learning Thu Dau Mot University & Petro Vietnam University

Another important strategy to the lexical approach is regularly recycling and
reviewing the lexical chunks which have been taught. Recycling needs to do more
than repeating the same thing twice (Harwood, 2002). Lexis (Nation, 1990, as cited
in Harwood, 2002) should be recycled between 10 or 12 times, and teaching
vocabulary without sufficient recycling is a waste of effort.
Concerning the teaching and learning materials, researchers suggest the use of
language corpora in the classroom or accessible on the Internet to search for word
partnerships, style, and so on and to design a lexical syllabus (Sinclair, 1987; Willis
& Willis, 1989; Harwood, 2002; Swan, 2006). In order for the course book writer to
avoid distorting the language, it makes sense to let them access the authentic
language via corpora (Harwood, 2002). In fact, due to their frequency and
authenticity, corpora inform pedagogical materials for the lexical approach.
Debates
Persuasive though these arguments are, suggesting that language should be taught in
such a lexical approach is not without problems.
According to Thornbury (1998), there is no indication that what texts and discourses
would be selected for use in a lexical approach. Furthermore, Lewis neglects to offer
guidelines to the selection or grading of language “chunks” (Thornbury, 1998;
Harmer, 2001).
Harmer argues that learning the system is a vital prerequisite of the ability to string
phrases together in a coherent whole (Harmer, 2001). Otherwise, the learner has to
commit to memorize hundreds of thousands of chunks - where do they start?
(Thornbury 1998, p.12). Additionally, the lexical approach has not proposed a set
of pedagogic principles which could be combined into a method (Harmer, 2001).

In spite of their benefits, corpora are the focus of criticism from language pedagogy
researchers. For example, Cook (1998) argues that language learning is
impoverished by corpus data which gives excessive prominence to frequentlyoccurring expressions at the expense of less common but more effective ones.
Windowson (2000) criticizes that a pedagogical perspective for language teaching is
not provided by corpus linguistics, and he questions if the “reality” findings of corpus
linguistics should be the same “reality” that defines what is taught in the classroom.
McEnergy and Wilson (2001) contend that “the corpus could never be a useful tool
for the linguist, as the linguist should seek for model language competence, rather
than performance” (p.19).
Probably those are among the reasons why Lewis’s ideas have not been eagerly taken
up by the mainstream English Language Teaching (ELT). Further, a quick glance at
the available EFL textbook reveals that the main object of Lewis’s attack - a
traditional grammar syllabus -is still alive under this form or the other.
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Action Research on Teaching and Assessment for Learning Thu Dau Mot University & Petro Vietnam University

My ideological position
In spite of facing challenges in many ways, the lexical approach still proves great
potential benefits to both language teaching and learning.
In the first place, learners can simultaneously acquire lexis together with learn and
produce grammar for free as formulaic frames bring grammar with them (Swan,
2006). Take an example as a sentence like I thought I’d start by just giving you some
typical examples of the short of things I want to focus on. This sentence (Swan,
2006) consists of the following patterns: (1) I thought I’d + infinitive; (2) start by
…ing; (3) give you + noun phrase; (4) typical example of + noun phrase; (5) the sort
of thing + that-clause; (6) I want to + infinitive; (7) focus on. As can be seen, learners
can not only enrich their vocabulary but also learn the structures and expressions
embedded in it simultaneously.

As the meaning and functions of the language are made clear in useful and
appropriate contexts, learners have high chances of acquiring the language easily.
Besides, the more collocations and naturally occurring expressions are available for
students to use, the less they need to grammaticalize and they are less likely to make
incomprehensible utterances (Lewis, 2000). Ultimately, these features of the lexical
approach will undoubtedly improve their frequency of using lexical chunks, and
conduce to raise their fluency in writing and speaking in target language.
With regards to teaching and learning materials, corpus research has revealed the
provision of the raw pedagogical materials to the lexical approach. Teachers and
practitioners can use corpus data to adapt, modify and supplement to the teaching
practice. This argument is strengthened by Leech’s (1997) observation that between
teaching and language corpora there is an apparent convergence with three focuses:
the indirect use of corpora in teaching (reference publishing, materials development,
and language testing), the direct use of corpora in teaching (teaching about, teaching
to exploit, and exploiting to teach), and further teaching-oriented corpus
development.
After more than twenty years, it is evident that the central role of lexis in ELT has
been recognized regardless of debates. Collocation boxes and pages with functional
language are routinely included in textbooks. In addition, there have been more and
more reference books aiming at developing spoken and written fluency such as
conversation gambits, key words for fluency, spoken grammar etc. in the EFL books
market.
Conclusion
This paper has focused on a general overview of the lexical approach to second and
foreign language teaching. It has investigated the supporting ideas as well as debates
surrounding this approach in the literature review, and presented the author’s
ideological position towards the lexical approach. I hope to have shown that the
lexical approach has great potential to improve pedagogical practice and that it can
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Action Research on Teaching and Assessment for Learning Thu Dau Mot University & Petro Vietnam University

be used effectively in the language class despite the challenges in many ways.
Adopting the lexical approach does not necessarily mean abandoning others. Rather,
language teachers should be able to use different approaches and methods flexibly
and creatively based on their own judgment and modify them to the realities of the
classroom; learners should be encouraged to keep their options open in order to
benefit from both memory-based and rule-based performance.

References
Cook, G. (1998). The Uses of Reality: A Reply to Ronald Carter. ELT Journal, 52(1),
57-64.
Harmer, J. (2001). The practice of English language teaching. Harlow, England:
Longman.
Harwood, N. (2002). Taking a lexical approach to teaching: Principles and problems.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 12(2), 139-155.
doi:10.1111/1473-4192.00028
Hoey, M. (2005). Lexical priming: A new theory of words and language. New York:
Routledge.
Leech, G. (1997) ‘Teaching and language corpora: a convergence’ in A. Wichmann,
S. Fligelstone, T. McEnery and G. Knowles (eds.) Teaching and Language
Corpora, pp. 1-23. London: Longman.
Lewis, M. (1993).The lexical approach: The state of ELT and a way forward. Hove,
England: Language Teaching Publications.
Lewis, M. (1997).Implementing the Lexical Approach: Putting Theory into Practice.
Hove, England: Language Teaching Publications.
Lewis, M. (2000).Teaching collocation: Further developments in the lexical
approach. Hove: Language Teaching Publications.
Moudraia, O. (2001). Lexical approach to second language teaching. Eric Digest

EDO
FC-01-02.
Retrieved
from
/>
Nattinger, J. (1980). A lexical phrase grammar. TESOL Quarterly 14(3), 337-344.
Retrieved 1 May from Stable URL: />Nattinger, J. R., & DeCarrico, J. S. (1992). Lexical phrases and language teaching.
New York: Oxford University Press.
Pawley, A. & Syder, F. (1983). Two puzzles for linguistic theory: native-like
selection and native-like fluency. In J. Richards & R. Schmidt (Eds.),
Language and communication (pp.191-226). London: Longman. Retrieved
1 May from
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Action Research on Teaching and Assessment for Learning Thu Dau Mot University & Petro Vietnam University

Romer, U. (2011).Corpus research applications in second language teaching. Annual
review of applied linguistics, 31, 205-225.doi:10.1017/S0267190511000055
Sinclair, J. M. (2004). Trust the text: Language, corpus and discourse. New York,
N.Y: Taylor & Francis.
Swan, M. (2006, March 20). Chunks in the classroom: let's not go overboard.
Teacher trainer - pilgrims language courses. Retrieved from
/>
Thornbury, S. (1998). The Lexical Approach: a journey without maps? Modern
English
Teacher,
7(4),
7-14.
Retrieved

1
May
from

Thornbury, S. (2006). How to teach vocabulary. Essex, England: Pearson Longman
Widdowson, H. (2000). On the limitations of linguistics applied. Applied Linguistics,
21(1), 3-25. doi:10.1093/applin/21.1.3
Willis, D. (1990). The lexical syllabus: A new approach to language teaching.
London: HarperCollins.
Willis, J., & Willis, D. (1989). Collins COBUILD English course. London: Collins
COBUILD.

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Action Research on Teaching and Assessment for Learning Thu Dau Mot University & Petro Vietnam University

OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE BARRIERS FOR CLT
COURSE FOR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE
DEPARTMENT AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY
Phạm Ngọc Thúy Dung
Faculty of Foreign Languages
Thu Dau Mot University
Introduction
English language schools have mushroomed in recent years, which offers
great employment opportunities for a large number of students with bachelor degrees
in English in Vietnam in general and Binh Duong province specifically. In addition,
due to the severe competition to be accepted to become official teachers in public
schools, new graduates tend to commence their career paths from working for private
English centers. The main target market of English language schools is school

students aged 5-18 and adults who search for a better learning environment to
practice conversational English to a level of competence which enables them to
pursue further education and careers as well as succeed in today modern world.
Therefore, it is considerably necessary to train university students majoring in
English Language Teaching to master Communicative Approach or Communicative
Language Teaching (CLT) to satisfy the practical need of the job market. CLT course
for students of English Language Department at Thu Dau Mot University was
developed to help students who tend to become English teachers prepare for their
demonstrations and performances orientated to CLT method. However, objective
barriers and subjective limitations arise and overweigh advantages during the course.
Objective and subjective barriers
CLT course at Thu Dau Mot University aims at training university students
majoring in English Language Teaching to design and demonstrate class activities
according to communicative approach in order that they – as future English teacher
are able to enhance their learners’ communicative proficiency in English. Therefore,
the vast majority of the class time is devoted to hands-on activities instructed by
lecturers and performed by students. Lecturers provide students with rich resources
of materials for activity ideas and designs, then demonstrate the activities for students
to observe. Subsequently, students are assigned with lesson materials and are
required to design activities for the target lessons. Students in CLT course are
primarily assessed based on their teaching performances, demonstrations and
participation. Due to the large number of practical activities carried out in class, some
objective and subjective limitations arise, which needs to be pointed out and
suggestions will be mentioned to inhibit the barriers.
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Action Research on Teaching and Assessment for Learning Thu Dau Mot University & Petro Vietnam University

Classroom organization

To start with, the traditional classroom settings with aligned rows of tables
and chairs are the major objective barrier. In a course which requires a great deal of
communicative activities presented by lectures and students, large space for moving
around is considerably essential. Like any traditional, formal university classrooms,
the ones in Thu Dau Mot University are fully occupied with tables and chairs, which
leaves no space for presenters and participants to address or have direct contact with
others. Consequently, a great deal of activities must be conducted in a large, open
area outside the classrooms, which leads to the fact that other classes nearby are
disturbed by the noise produced during the CLT course demonstrations and
presentations.
In order to reach the full effectiveness of CLT course which emphasizes active
learning, such as warm-up activities, collaboration learning like pair and group work,
speaking tasks, physical act, etc. it is necessary that this traditional arrangement be
abolished. Instead, tables and chairs should be arranged in a U shape to erase the
barrier between the students and the teacher, to make it easier for students to move
around, and also for presenters to reach or have direct contact with everyone. This
arrangement is also more conducive to discussion and an open, informal atmosphere
and fosters communication.
Facilities
CLT courses mostly involve hands-on, interactive activities in which diverse
props and technology are utilized in order to assist students’ exposure to real life
conversations. Therefore, it is necessary that visual aids, media technologies such as
the internet, projectors, speakers, DVD players, etc. be provided and established in
each classroom. This not only gives students more advantages and more excitement
in studying a language but also helps them broaden their minds to perceive cultures
of the countries in which English is the first language.
However, at Thu Dau Mot University, technologies are quite inadequate. The
Internet is frequently inaccessible to students in the campus area. Projectors are set
up in each classroom, but speakers, DVD players are not supplied. It is the lecturer
and students’ responsibility to provide their own visual aids such as Powerpoint

slides, flashcards, videos, props and other media devices for their demonstrations
and presentations. This requires students to be well-prepared with rehearsals
beforehand to make sure that the devices are set up properly and technological
problems would not occur to disturb their performances.
To facilitate the teaching and learning process, it is recommended that a
modern classroom equipped with accessible Internet and other media technology be
assigned for the course to maximize the efficiency of lesson presenting and
demonstrating. The assigned classroom needs to be set up similarly to any other

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Action Research on Teaching and Assessment for Learning Thu Dau Mot University & Petro Vietnam University

modern ones in English private centers so that lecturers and students can enhance
their lessons and performances in an ideal teaching and learning environment.
Creativity
The communicative approach has been proved to be the most effective
approach in the ESL/EFL classroom, as communication is the ultimate goal for any
ESL/EFL learner, and this approach promotes the classroom as a practice ground for
the students, where they learn how and when to use the language before they are
expected to use it in real life situations and for a real purpose. Communicative tasks
such as role-plays, conversations, questionnaires, and discussions will help to make
English come alive through real usage. This requires our students – as future English
teachers to be creative in designing activities and materials which are able to elicit a
large number of student responses.
Additionally, English learners of all ages in English private centers do not
approach learning as much enthusiasm and focus because they are heavily burdened
with school work and workload. Therefore, creating a comfortable, positive and
humorous atmosphere in class through practice activities and providing extra topics

for discussion of their interests are necessities. When students find interest in a
subject, their thoughts become more complex and focused and they will respond
more enthusiastically to the lesson. Last but not least, activities that can inspire
students’ creativity and get students to think out of the box are preferable. They will
find excitement in creative, fun activities and always be ready to make the most of
their creative minds. This has become a big challenge for university students to
understand their learners’ psychology and they themselves need to brainstorm to
make up motivating activities that can draw and boost their learners’ attention and
interests.
Most English language teachers still heavily rely on textbooks to provide the
activities they will use in the classroom and most course books do not typically
provide activities which foster creativity (Tomlinson and Masuhara, 2013). This is
the same case for the students in CLT course in Thu Dau Mot University, which is
the major subjective barrier in the course. The students strictly and safely follow the
tasks and instructions with the lesson, which leads to dull and boring teaching. It is
therefore the CLT lecturer’s responsibility to make it clear to their students that it is
crucial to make use of their course book as a resource rather than follow it as a script
and that they develop the confidence, awareness and creativity to adapt course book
activities in way which can enhance creativity. In addition, there is a consensus that
lecturers for CLT courses need to act as role models, working with the students,
modeling, not simply telling them to do things. In order to do this, we, as lecturers,
need to relinquish our excessively “teacher-control” persona, and become part of the
group, not someone who is above it or outside it. Last but not least, establishing a
relaxed, supportive, constructive, non-judgmental atmosphere where students feel
confident enough to not worry that their teaching performances are scrutinized for
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Action Research on Teaching and Assessment for Learning Thu Dau Mot University & Petro Vietnam University

errors is encouraged. In other words, lecturers should attend to what their students
are trying to express and demonstrate through their performances rather than
concentrating on the imperfect way they may perform it.
Conclusion
It is obvious that active learning is strongly emphasized in ESL/EFL
classrooms (Bonwell & Allison, 1991). When students are encouraged to take an
active interest in learning, they are more likely to retain the knowledge they have
accumulated. And CLT course is an effective method which can be considerably
exploited for active learning in English. However, to facilitate the teaching and
learning process of CLT course and to train university students to become future
qualified English teachers that can satisfy the high requirements of private English
centers, the suggestions mentioned above need to be taken into consideration.
Erasing the barriers of classroom arrangement and facilities, as well as encouraging
students to overcome the rigid syllabus, dull course book and enhancing creativity in
lesson planning, we can bring great benefits for English language teaching and
learning in a CLT course.

References
Bonwell, C.C, & Elison, J.A. (1991). Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the
Classroom, ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report No. 1. Washington, D.C.:
The George Washington University.
Tomlinson, B. & Masuhara, H. (2013). Adult coursebooks. ELT Journal 67/2: 233249.

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