Using communicative approach to teach english to standardized teachers at travinh college of education problemsand suggestion

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HO CHI MINH CITY
UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

———

USING COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH TO TEACH
ENGLISH TO STANDARDIZED TEACHERS
AT TRAVINH COLLEGE OF EDUCATION:
PROBLEMS AND SUGGESTIONS

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL

SUBMITTED BY: NGUYỄN HUỲNH TRANG

SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN HOÀNG LINH, M.A.
HO CHI MINH CITY-2008
CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

1


I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled:

USING COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH
TO TEACH ENGLISH TO STANDARDIZED TEACHERS
AT TRAVINH COLLEGE OF EDUCATION:
PROBLEMS AND SUGGESTIONS
in terms of the statement of Requirements for theses
in Master’s Programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee.

This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree
or diploma in any other institution.

Ho Chi Minh City, 2008

NGUYEN HUYNH TRANG

2


RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS
I hereby state that I, Nguyen Huynh Trang, being the candidate for
the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL), accept the requirements of the
University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in
the Library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis
deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and
research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the
Library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses.

Ho Chi Minh City, 2008

NGUYEN HUYNH TRANG

3


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Linh,
for all of his patient guidance, continuing encouragement and keen revision of this

thesis. Without his great help, this thesis would have never been finished.
I would like to express my gratitude to all of my teachers of TESOL 2004 at
the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, HCM City, for their interesting
lectures and whole-hearted guidance from which I greatly benefited in my writing
this thesis.
My special thanks go to Mr. Le Van Don, Principal and Mr. Vo Hoang Khai,
Vice-Principal of TVCE for their support and encouragement in the process of
doing the thesis. I would like to thank all my EFL teaching colleagues and adult
learners (standardized teachers from primary schools) in three classes who were
kind enough and cooperate with me in this study.
I would like to express my gratitude to all of my friends and colleagues for
their precious advice, support and encouragement.
Last but not least, my deepest gratitude and thanks are sent to my parents and
my dear husband who took care of my daughter and my baby son as well as
encouraged and supported me during the time of completing this thesis.

4


ABSTRACT
Communicative Approach (CA) has been more popular in teaching English as a
foreign language at schools, colleges and universities in Vietnam these days.
Although there have been many benefits since CA was in use, adult learners and
teachers at Tra Vinh College of Education still experienced many problems in the
teaching and learning process.
This study aims at: (1) identifying adult learners who are called standardized
teachers in learning English when CA is applied at TVCE; and (2) identifying
problems teachers experienced when CA is used as a teaching methodology to
teach the adult learners. To achieve these objectives, a questionnaire delivered to
125 learners, a series of classroom observations were completed in 3 classes of

adult learners, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers in
charge.
The results of the questionnaire show that the learners encounter various
problems related to the learners’ psychological factors, their limited linguistic
knowledge, the teacher and the learning activities factors, and some other factors
related to the learners’ personal problems, the course book and administrators. The
data also reveal that these learners do not show clear expectations towards CA.
Additionally, it is found out that the teachers of English who are responsible for
classes of adult learners were unwilling to implement CA to teach these learners.
The results demonstrate that a mixture of Grammar Translation method and
Communicative Approach was frequently used in these classes. The results also
reveal that the teachers demonstrated to have different problems when using CA to
teach adult learners. The data reveal that most of the problems were related to the
learners, the teachers themselves and the institutional system.
The study also includes practical recommendations to make the best use of CA
in teaching EFL for the adult learners.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
page
Certificate

of

originality

.....................................................................................................................................
i
Retention and use of the thesis.................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................i
i
Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................i
ii
Abstract ....................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................i
v
Table of contents ......................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................v
List of table ..............................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................i
x
List of figures ...........................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................x
i
List of abbreviations ................................................................................................
xii
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION........................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................. 1
6


1.1. The problem ...............................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................. 1

1.2. Aims of the study ......................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................. 3

1.3. Scope of the study .............................................................................................

3
1.4. Background to the study ....................................................................................
3
1.5. Overview of the study ........................................................................................
8
1.6. Limitation and delimitation................................................................................
8
Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ……………………………………………………
10

2.1 Brief overview of some common English teaching methods in
Vietnam……...10
2.1.1

The

Grammar-

translation

method……………………………………………10
2.1.2

The

direct

method………………………………………………………………11
2.1.3 The audio lingual method …………………………………………………….
13

2.1.4 The Communicative Approach……………………………………………….
14
2.2

Communicative

Language

Teaching……………………………………………….16
2.2.1 Communicative competence………………………………………………….
16

7


2.2.2

The

role

of

the

teacher

and

students

in

communicative

classroom…………17
2.2.2.1 The role of the teacher ..........................................................................
17
2.2.2.2 The role of the students.........................................................................
20
2.2.3 Communicative activities …………………………………………………
20
2.2.3.1

Characteristics

of

communicative

activities…………………………20
2.2.3.2 Types of communicative activities …………………………………
21
2.3

Teaching

adult

EFL

…………………………………………………………….25
2.3.1 The difference between teaching adult and teaching younger learners
……25
2.3.2

Some

problems

of

teaching

adult

learners

………………………………… 26
2.3.2.1 What do adult learners bring to a language class? ………………….
26
2.3.2.2

Problems

of

teaching

adult

learners

………………………………… 28
2.5 Previous research on teaching adult learners and communicative
approach…….. 30
Chapter

3:

METHODOLOGY

………………………………………………………….. 32

3.1. Research questions ...........................................................................................
32

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3.2 Research design ………………………………………………………………...
32
3.2.1 The subjects..................................................................................................
32
3.2.1.1 The learners …………………………………………………………
33
3.2.1.2 The teachers …………………………………………………………
36

3.2.2

Instruments

.....................................................................................................................................
..36
3.2.2.1

Learner

Questionnaire

..........................................................................36
3.2.2.2

Class

observations

..........................................................................................................................
. 38
3.2.2.3 Interviews..........................................................................................
39

3.2.3

Data

collection

procedures

…………………………………………… 40
3.3Summary
………………………………………………………………………… 41
Chapter

IV:

DATA

ANALYSIS

AND

FINDINGS……………………………………. 42
4.1.

Data

analysis

...................................................................................................................................
….42
4.1.1

Learners’

responses

to

questionnaire………………………………42

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the

survey


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4.1.1.1 Learners’ motivation for coming to English classes and their
perceptions

of

having

the

communicative

competence

…………………………………………... 42
4.1.1.2 Learners’ opinions about the Communicative Approach used by the

teacher……………………………………………………………………………
….45
4.1.1.3 Learners’ problems when Communicative Approach was applied as a
teaching

method

………………………………………………………………….. ..48
4.1.1.4

Learners’

expectations

towards

communicative

approach

……………….. 54
4.1.1.5 Learners’ recommendations to the English course at TVCE
……………. .56
4.1.2

Results

from

the

class

observations…………………………………………... 57
4.1.3

Result

from

interviews

...................................................................................................................................
… 63
4.1.3.1 Explanations of three teachers after classroom observations
…………..... 63
4.1.3.2 Teachers’ opinions about learners’ motivation for coming to English
classes

and

teacher

perceptions

of

communicative

competence………………………...... 65

4.1.3.3 The implementation Communicative Approach to teach adult learners
of

teachers

…………………………………………………………………………… 66

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4.1.3.4 Comparing learners’ reports in the questionnaires and teachers’ in the
interviews about the implementation of communicative approach in the classroom
...69
4.1.3.5 Problems preventing teachers in adopting communicative approach to
teach

adult

learners

………………………………………………………………………… 71
4.2

Findings

.....................................................................................................................................

.. 74
Chapter

V:

RECOMMENDATIONS

AND

CONCLUSIONS

.....................................................................................................................................
. 77
5.1 Recommendations
.....................................................................................................................
…

77

5.1.1

Recommendations

to

the

learners…………………………………….. 77
5.1.2

Recommendations

to

the

teachers

and

administrators

……………….. 78
5.2

Conclusions

...................................................................................................................................
… 82
BIBLIOGRAPHY
...................................................................................................................................
… 84
APPENDICES
Appendix 1: Unit structure and organization of Lifelines-Pre-intermediate
by

Tom

……………………………………………………………90

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Hutchinson


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Appendix 2: Questionnaire ..............................................................................................
92
Appendix 3: Observation sheet ........................................................................
106
Appendix 4: Interview questions ……………………………………………
108
Appendix 5: One final examination paper for the standardized teachers at Tra
Vinh

College

of

Education

……………………………………………………... 110
Appendix 6: A copy of unit 8 from the course book “Lifelines-preintermediate”
(Tom

Hutchinson,

OUP,

……………………………………………….. 119

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1997)


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LIST OF TABLES
Table

2.0:

Child

and

Adult

Learning

Characteristics

……………………………….. 26
Table

3.0:

Personal

information

about

the

teachers…………………………………. 36
Table 4.1: Learners’ responses on motivation for coming to English
classes………...43
Table 4.2: Learners’ responses on the ways of practicing language used
by the teacher …………………………………………………………..
.. 45
Table 4.3: Frequency of skills practiced in class
……………………………………. 46
Table 4.4: Frequency of teaching aids and visual aids used by the
teacher…………...47
Table 4.5: Frequency of target language used by teacher in
classroom……………….48
Table 4.6: Learners’ opinions about the frequency of correcting errors used
by the teacher ……………………………………………………………
..48
Table: 4.7: Learners’ use of language during communicative
activities………………49 Table 4.8: Learners’ frequency of experiencing
problems related to psychological
and linguistic

factors……………………………………………………... 50
Table 4.9: Learners’ frequency of experiencing problems related to the teacher

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and the activities
…………………………………………………………….51
Table 4.10: Learners’ frequency of experiencing some other objective
problems……53
Table 4.11: Learners’ expectations towards Communicative
Approach……………...55
Table 4.12: Learner’s recommendations to the English course at
TVCE……………..56
Table 4.13: General description of classroom
observations………………………......58
Table 4.14: Frequency of communicative activities used in the
classrooms………….59
Table 4.15: Teachers’ responses about the methods used in class to help learners
practice
English……………………………………………………………66
Table 4.16: Frequency of teaching aids used by the teacher in
class………………….68
Table 4.17: Frequency of target language used by the teachers in
class………………69
Table 4.18: Frequency of learners’ errors correction used by the teacher in

class……69
Table 4.19: Comparison between learners’ and teachers’ reports in the
questionnaire
and interviews
……………………………………………………………70
Table 4.20: Teachers’ problems related to the
learners……………………………….71
Table 4.21: Frequency of problems related to teachers and institutional system

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experienced by the
teachers……………………………………………..73

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure

3.1:

Learners’

age………………………………………………………..33
Figure

Learners’

3.2:

gender………………………………………………...…. 34
Figure

3.3:

Working

time

as

primary

school

teachers…………………………. 34
Figure

3.4:

Background

of

studying

English

…………………………………...35
Figure

3.5:

Current

work

place

………………………………………………… 35
Figure

4.1:

Learners’

perceptions

of

having

communicative

competence………44
Figure 4.2: Learners’ preference of some common communicative
activities….54

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
For the purpose of simplification and convenience in reference, the following
abbreviations are utilized in the thesis:
TVCE : Tra Vinh College of Education
MOET : Ministry of Education and Training
EFL

: English as a foreign language

CA

: Communicative Approach

CLT

: Communicative Language Teaching

L2

: second language

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
First and foremost, this study investigates problems experienced by
standardized teachers who are called adult learners when Communicative
Approach is utilized. Secondly it investigates problems experienced by teachers
when using Communicative Approach to teach English to adult EFL learners at
TVCE in Tra Vinh Province. It is hoped that the findings will endeavor to improve
the quality of teaching and the quality of learning English for these adult learners.
This introductory chapter states the problem to the study, presents the aims of the
study, discusses the scope of the study, provides the general background to the
study and includes an overview of the thesis.
1.1 The problem
In recent years, with the development of society, the need to have higher
quality on education is rapidly increasing. Especially, one of the most urgent needs
for any school in Vietnam is to standardize the teaching staff. Like other provinces
in Vietnam, Tra Vinh also has to standardize the teaching staff of primary and
junior secondary school. Tra Vinh College of Education (abbreviated as TVCE) is
the institution selected by the Board of Education and Training of Tra Vinh

Province to carry out the standardized program. In this program, the teachers of
the primary schools and secondary schools who do not have a degree of education
at college will be allowed to take an entrance examination at this college and
become in-service students. They will attend two semesters of studying at this
college in a school year and have to study the same subjects with the same total of
teaching periods like the other regular students at this college. Therefore, they are
also required to study English as a compulsory subject.
With the current tendency of globalization and world integration, more and
more Vietnamese learners want to be able to communicate with English-speaking

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foreigners whether in their daily life or in their work. As well, teachers of English
language recognize that the traditional pedagogy, which emphasizes the
acquisition of grammar and vocabulary rather than communicative competence,
does not meet the requirements of learning English communication skills.
Consequently, since the early 1990s, the Communicative Approach (CA) has been
quickly adopted in Vietnam at universities, colleges and schools. Like other
colleges in Vietnam, teachers of English at TVCE have been required to use CA as
a teaching method to teach EFL to their non-English major three-year college
students including standardized teachers (who are called the adult learners in this
study). As required by MOET, all of these students must study English as a
foreign language. This English instruction aims at equipping these students with
the general knowledge of the English language and developing the four language
skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. This instruction is intended to

teach students at the pre-intermediate level and in particular for those who have
followed the seven-year program of studying English at secondary and high
schools. Therefore, the application of CA to teach EFL at this college is
reasonable because it helps the learners practice the four skills of English which
enable them to use English communicatively after finishing the program.
Furthermore, adopting the Communicative Approach encourages the students to
be proactive and participatory in learning English in the classroom.
The application of CA to teach EFL to pre-service students is to some extent
favorable because these students have been familiar with CA when studying
English at schools and adoption of this method would be a progression in their
learning.
In contrast, the teachers often claim that it is difficult to implement CA in
teaching the adult learners. For instance, the learners are said not to participate in
communicative tasks or activities that the teacher assigns. They are described as
appearing very tired when coming to class or that they do not work to learn the
vocabulary taught in previous lessons.
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There are many problems that inhibit the teachers in applying the
Communicative Approach to teach the adult learners at TVCE although this
method can encourage the learners to communicate in English effectively. As
well, the adult learners experience some problems when CA is applied as a
teaching method. Therefore, in order to help the teachers of English and the adult
learners at TVCE achieve a better quality of teaching and learning, this study was
carried out to identify the problems experienced by the teachers of English when

using CA to teach EFL for the adult learners and to identify the learners’ problems
while learning English at TVCE.
1.2. Aims of the study
The aims of the study are:
(1) to identify the adult learners’ problems when Communicative Approach is
applied
(2) to identify teachers’ problems when using Communicative Approach to
teach English to the adult learners at Tra vinh College of Education
1.3 Scope of the study
This research investigates the problems related to using the Communicative
Approach to teach English to standardized teachers known as the adult EFL
learners. The study takes place at TVCE with its findings based on the data
collected from a learner questionnaire to identify the problems they experience
when CA is applied in the English program. In addition, the researcher’s
observational time in specified classes for these adult learners, with the focus on
observing how Communicative Approach is adapted to teach adult learners gives
some more data for the researcher. Then, the study data are further enriched by the
interviews with teachers in charge of these classes to discover their explanations of
communicative activities that they have chosen in their classes as well as their
problems when using CA in teaching these learners.
1.4 Background to the study
1.4.1 English for the adult learners
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Due to the MOET’s requirements in the program syllabus, all students who

follow three-year-college program majoring in Education have to study one
foreign language. English is usually chosen because of its popularity. Those who
follow in-service programs, such as the adult learners included in this study, also
learn the same subjects as pre-service students and English is, of course, taught as
one compulsory subject.
The specific objective of this Basic English Program is to provide some basic
knowledge of English that will prepare them for their future communication and
education endeavors. The learners of the standardized program at TVCE have to
take a course of 150 forty-five-minute periods, which is aimed to consolidate
fundamental grammar and to improve performance competence, especially
listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. The skill levels are equivalent to the
pre-intermediate level by the end of the course. With the above objectives of the
program and also the hope to change to a new pedagogy, the teachers of English at
TVCE have adopted CA to teach English for the non-English major students
including the adult learners.
1.4. 2. The course book for the adult learners
Lifelines-pre-intermediate by Tom Hutchinson (OUP, 1997) has been chosen
as the main course book for the general non-major students at this college and also
for the adult learners. Because of the limited time (only 150 periods for the whole
subject), the Principal of this college has chosen the second book as the main
course book to teach English as a foreign language to the students at this college.
This choice includes the adult learners; therefore, the adult learners also have to
take the English course with Lifelines-pre-intermediate as their course book.
“Lifelines” is a three-level general English course at elementary, pre-intermediate
and intermediate level. According to Hutchinson (1997), the author of the book,
Lifelines pre-intermediate presents and revises the basic structures of English and
develops them through a variety of different contexts. Emphasis is placed on
consolidating and extending the students’ knowledge of vocabulary, and on
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developing the students’ ability to communicate effectively. There is a thorough
regime of reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. In addition, the author
has emphasized that the course is most appropriate for students who have
completed an elementary course or who have had more than one year of English
studying.
Lifelines pre-intermediate, with the series as the student’s book, the teacher’s
book and the workbook, is also accompanied by two class cassettes. The teachers
use the teacher’s book as a lesson plan to help them in their teaching because of its
clear teaching notes with extra ideas and available communicative activities in the
book. The book is theme-based consisting of 14 units which are very varied and
suitable with examples of modern life situations such as everyday life, appearance,
life stories, people and places, food and health, and so on.
All units are designed to develop four basic skills of language learning with
more emphasis to help learners use the language more communicatively. Each unit
has the same format which contains Grammar, Vocabulary, Reading, Listening
and Speaking, Pronunciation and Extension, the latest is an integrated skill part,
including reading and listening skills or listening and speaking skills. One writing
part is added in the workbook.
To sum up, the course book is a communicative one so it is very convenient for
the teachers of English at TVCE to apply CA in teaching.
1.4.3 Problems of adult learners when studying with the course book
In reality, most pre-service students at this college have studied English in their
secondary schools and/or high schools for three or seven school years, thus they
are able to study this course book more easily while the adult learners previously
have never studied English or have studied another foreign language experience

difficulties with this course book. In addition, one of the features of Lifelines is
that it presents and practices the language in contexts relevant to the interests and
lifestyle of modern young adults. Actually, it could be inferred that this course
book may not be suitable for the adult learners who are very busy with their job,
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family, or other relations in their life. Hence, this course book does not seem to
suit them.
Furthermore, time distribution for the whole course is only 150 periods
including 10 forty-five-minute tests and time for consolidation, which means that
the teachers spend only eight or nine 45-minute periods to teach each unit. In
addition, the timetable for the adult learners is “subject by subject’ which means
that they finish one subject before moving to another subject. It is difficult for
adult learners to succeed in learning English in the short time allotted of 150
periods of English studying. They complain that their teacher goes so fast that they
cannot catch up or they usually ask the teacher to translate the texts for them or
ask the teacher to speak more Vietnamese in the classroom.
1.4.4 Characteristics of the learners and the teaching staff of English
language at TVCE:
1.4.4.1. Characteristics of the learners
Most of the students at TVCE study English as a foreign language compulsory
subject; however, one class studies English as their major. The learners in this
study are the teachers from primary schools in this province. They study as inservice students to get a college degree in order to serve their teaching profession
better. They attend college only two semesters a year. The first semester begins in
November or December and the second one begins in May. Each semester lasts

only 8 weeks to 10 weeks of attendance in the classes because they have to teach
in their schools during the other months. That means they are both working and
studying. Therefore, they have to attend classes in two sessions a day, one in the
morning and one in the afternoon, consisting of 35 to 40 periods per week.
Most of them have been teaching in different districts or remote areas in Tra
Vinh province so they rarely have access to the modern technology or have the
opportunity to speak English with foreigners.
The standardized teachers (called the adult learners in this study) range from
the age of 22 to 47. Almost half of the learners were over 37 years old and have
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worked as primary teachers for over 15 years. However, most of them have never
studied English before or they studied English many years ago. Those who studied
English before followed only the three-year program. Over three-fourths of them
attended high school in the countryside where English was not widely taught, or if
any, it was taught mainly by grammar translation method. In addition, most of
them have recently worked in remote rural areas and they think that they will have
no chances to use English in their teaching life. These factors have a big influence
on the learners’ ability and motivation in learning and using a foreign language. In
addition, the learners also face a lot of difficulties during their EFL learning such
as having no ideas to express in English, lacking English vocabulary base or
grammar knowledge.
1.4.4.2 Characteristics of the teaching staff
The English division of TVCE consists of 11 teachers of English, including 2
male teachers and 9 female teachers whose ages range from 27 to 40. All of the

teachers obtained B.A. degrees; six teachers graduated from Can Tho University
and the others were in-service students of Can Tho University. Most of teachers
have been teaching from 5 to 20 years. Four teachers have been taking the postgraduate course. Two female teachers of the English group participated in the
English Learning Teaching Project sponsored by the British Council from 1999 to
2003. In this project, they were sent abroad to improve their level of English
proficiency and to obtain more knowledge on teaching EFL. Therefore, these two
teachers have trained the other teachers and, during an academic year, the teachers
mutually observe classes in order to share teaching experience and to learn from
each other. In addition, the group of English teachers has a meeting once every
two weeks. In these meetings, problems related to teaching and learning English
are discussed and solutions are proposed. This demonstrates that the English
language teachers at this college have gained experience on using CA to teach
English for their students.

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1.4.5 Some thoughts about the English final test for the EFL students at
TVCE
During the course of 150 periods of studying EFL at this college, the students
have to take 10 mini-tests in their classes that are 30% of the total marks used to
evaluate the subject. By the end of the course, they have a final test that makes up
70% of the total evaluation marks. All of the paper tests are used to evaluate only
the learners’ reading and writing skills. Speaking and listening skills are excluded
from assessment. Therefore, these oral skills are practiced in the classroom. The
form of the middle tests and final examinations is multiple-choice. The questions

focus on grammar points, pronunciation, and situational language sentences which
have been taught in the course book and two paragraphs for reading are in
multiple-choice format. The number of questions in the final test is more than the
ones for the in-class tests. Although students are taught by CA, the examination
does not test their communicative competence. This makes the students lack of
motivation to complete the communicative tasks enthusiastically in their
classroom.
1.5 Overview of the study
This thesis is structured in five main chapters as listed below.
Chapter 1 is the introduction of the study. This chapter identifies the problems,
the aims, the scope of the study, the general background and overview of the
study.
Chapter 2 consists of four parts. The first one is the brief overview of some
common English teaching methods in Vietnam. The second part deals with
Communicative Language Teaching. The third section is about teaching adult EFL
and the last part reviews some previous research on teaching adult learners and
communicative approach.
Chapter 3 describes the methodology employed in the study. This chapter
includes a presentation of the research design, a description of the subjects,
instruments and data collection procedures.
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