Tài liệu A study on the exploitation of online resources to develop receptive skills to teenagers in viet nam

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Associate Professor Dr. Ton Nu My Nhat, who was always available to support me not only academically but also spiritually, for her words of encouragement and constructive suggestions, great support, patience, and time in guiding and supporting me throughout the process. I would like to thank the lecturers of the English Pedagogy Department at Qui Nhon University for their support and guidance during the study and research process. I am also indebted to the English teachers in Binh Dinh province who participated in this study. Without their participation, this study would not have been accomplished. The writing of this thesis owes a great deal to the support of others. I would like thank to Van Anh Le and Kim Hoa Huynh for their emotional support and companionship. I dedicate this thesis to my mother Nguyet Thu Nguyen, my father Dang Huy Dao, my brother Trung Quan Dao, and the other members of my extended family for supporting me and enlightening my life. I ABSTRACT The research was to explore to what extent the valuable rich online resources have been exploited to develop the EFL learners‟ receptive skills by the EFL teachers in Vietnam. It was aimed to grasp the teachers‟ general attitudes and their perceived teacher‟s advantages and challenges in exploiting the online resources to develop the EFL learners‟ receptive skills. The study employed the mixed-methods approach. To address the research questions, the data collected by questionnaires was quantitatively analyzed to arrive at the descriptive statistics of the points under focus; the qualitative method, by means of open-ended interviews, was used to triangulate the data, obtaining an in-depth description of qualitative data. The findings indicate that the EFL teachers in Vietnam are eager to exploit and use online resources to develop EFL learners‟ receptive skills. The advantages mentioned are that they are completely free and available anywhere anytime; they are rich and can be applied in nearly all the stages of teaching listening and reading, as supplementary materials both in class and after class. The most common challenge is the inaccurateness or unreliability of most of the sources. The findings also show that there are not so many noticeable differences in using the online resources between teaching reading and listening. The study holds a number of practical implications to the stakeholders and suggestions for further studies. II TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................................... I ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................. II LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ....................................................................................... VI LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................... VII LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................. VIII CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 1 1.1. Rationale .................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2. Aim and objectives ..................................................................................................................................... 3 1.2.1. Aim ..................................................................................................................................................... 3 1.2.2. Objectives ........................................................................................................................................... 3 1.3. Research questions ..................................................................................................................................... 3 1.4. Significance of the study ............................................................................................................................. 4 1.5. Scope of the study ...................................................................................................................................... 5 1.6 . Design of the study ................................................................................................................................. 5 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................... 6 2.1. Theoretical background .............................................................................................................................. 6 2.1.1. The receptive skills .............................................................................................................................. 6 2.1.1.1. The reading skill ........................................................................................................................... 6 2.1.1.2. The listening skill ........................................................................................................................ 12 2.1.2 Teaching receptive skills ................................................................................................................ 14 2.1.2.1. Teaching reading skill ................................................................................................................. 14 2.1.2.2. Teaching listening skill ................................................................................................................ 18 2.1.3. Online resources ................................................................................................................................ 22 2.1.4. Teaching receptive skills using online resources ................................................................................ 23 2.1.4.1. Teaching reading skill with using online resources .......................................................................... 24 2.1.4.2. Teaching listening skill with using online resources ......................................................................... 25 2.2. Previous studies relevant to the present study ......................................................................................... 26 III CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY ................................................................................ 35 3.1. Research design ................................................................................................................................. 35 3.2. Participants........................................................................................................................................ 36 3.3. Data collection and data analysis ....................................................................................................... 37 3.3.1. The questionnaire ............................................................................................................................. 37 3.3.2. The interview .................................................................................................................................... 39 3.3.3. Data analysis ..................................................................................................................................... 39 CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ............................................................. 41 4.1 Findings .................................................................................................................................................. 41 4.1.1. Teachers’ general attitudes ........................................................................................................... 41 4.1.2. Teachers’ advantages and challenges ........................................................................................... 44 4.1.2.1. Advantages ................................................................................................................................. 44 4.1.2.2. Challenges faced ........................................................................................................................ 47 4.1.3. Comparison of use of online resources across the two skills .......................................................... 50 4.1.3.1. Comparison of types of online resources ................................................................................... 50 4.1.3.2. Comparison of using online resources in teaching stages ............................................................... 54 4.1.4. Suggestions for making the best use of online resources ............................................................... 62 4.2. Discussion .......................................................................................................................................... 64 4.2.1. Teacher's general attitudes ........................................................................................................... 64 4.2.2. Teacher's advantages and challenges ........................................................................................... 65 4.2.3. Comparison of teachers’ use across the two skills ......................................................................... 68 4.2.4. Suggestions for making the best use of online resources ............................................................... 70 CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS .................................................. 72 5.1. Summary of findings ................................................................................................................................. 72 5.2. Implication......................................................................................................................................... 73 5.3. Limitations and suggestions for further studies ................................................................................. 74 THIS RESEARCH STUDY WAS CONDUCTED IN A PARTICULAR SETTING WHICH HAD AN IMPACT ON THE LIMITATIONS TO SOME DEGREE. A LIMITATION OF THIS STUDY IS THAT BECAUSE THIS STUDY WAS MAINLY CARRIED OUT IN BINH DINH PROVINCE, THE FINDINGS FROM THE STUDY COULD NOT REPRESENT OTHER PROVINCES, LET ALONE THE WHOLE COUNTRY, OR EVEN FURTHER; WHILE SOME GENERAL CONCLUSIONS HAVE BEEN MADE, THE FINDINGS WERE SPECIFIC TO THIS LOCATION. ................. 74 REFERENCES........................................................................................................... 76 IV APPENDIXES ............................................................................................................ 81 APPENDIX A: ............................................................................................................ 81 QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS ........................................................................ 81 APPENDIX B: ............................................................................................................ 87 QUESTIONS FOR OPEN-ENDED INTERVIEWS ..................................................... 87 APPENDIX C: ............................................................................................................ 88 TRANSCRIPTS FOR INTERVIEWS .......................................................................... 88 V LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as a Foreign Language ELT: English Language Teaching ESL: English as a second language ICT: Information and Communications Technology RS: Receptive skill VI LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: The questionnaire respondents‟ background information Table 3.2: Description of items in the questionnaire Table 4.1: EFL teachers‟ general attitudes Table 4.2: The EFL teacher's advantages Table 4.3: The EFL teacher's challenges Table 4.4: Using online resources to design tests or assignments across two skills Table 4.5: Using online resources to display contents Table 4.6: Mean of using online resources to display the contents Table 4.7: Using online resources to teach RSs Table 4.8: Using online resources to teach the RSs stages in different stages VII LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1: EFL teachers using online resources in pre-stages Figure 4.2: EFL teachers using online resources in while-stages Figure 4.3: EFL teachers using online resources in post-stages VIII CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1. Rationale In modern life, the use of the English language is described as “a global means of inter-community communication” (Kumiko, 2015). English is present in almost all areas of life such as education, work, service, and the like. Vietnam is one of the Southeast Asian countries with rapid international integration in many aspects, from the economic sector to the tourism sector and other key sectors. To be able to integrate quickly and effectively, the role of foreign languages has been significantly enhanced in Vietnam. A number of typical features have been noted in the literature on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching and learning in Vietnam. Firstly, for most learners, especially those in lower and upper secondary school, when the immediate use of English is not apparent, English for them is just one subject in the school's curriculum, no more and no less. Then, the learners are often not exposed to an authentic English learning environment; both the material and the learning environment do not enhance interaction with native culture and native speakers. Regarding Receptive skills (RSs), students' common materials are commonly passages from textbooks and audio recordings/scripts attached to textbooks. Although these materials have been carefully compiled, they may lack practicality. The texts in the reading section and the conversations in the listening section are stereotypical, and non-authentic, which must certainly limit 1 the learners‟ development of communitive competence because the knowledge in textbooks is restricted in terms of the types, languages, and content. That makes them feel depressed and lack confidence in using foreign languages in real life. From another perspective, the rapid development of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is unstoppable, which has been influencing nearly all fields from all corners of the world, especially education. “ICT for education is more critical today than ever before since its growing power and capabilities are triggering a change in the learning environments available for education” (Pajo & Wallace, 2001). The use of the Internet in Viet Nam has facilitated the panorama of learning and teaching English at many ages, especially teenagers, who are grown-up enough to be self-directed in learning. For example, the Internet can provide real-world English learning contexts, cultures, texts, documents, and activities; it can provide a motivating and enjoyable learning atmosphere and materials, encourage student autonomy, and provide opportunities for students to use English for a variety of purposes. Therefore, using online resources to teach the English language has been familiar to EFL teachers. Today, online resources are considered both technological tools and pedagogical devices to promote language teaching and the learning process. On the other hand, online resources help EFL teachers with preparing assignments and testing, assisting students in self-education, and organizing extracurricular activities. Moreover, these resources are available, abundant, and free on Internet so that instead of writing by hand the exercises on the board in the classroom, EFL teachers can be easier to get them from the online resources for students. Given the described context, this study is to investigate how the rich 2 online resources have been used in developing the RSs of Vietnamese lower- and upper- secondary school students. 1.2. Aim and objectives 1.2.1. Aim The primary aim of this study is to explore to what extent the valuable rich online resources have been exploited to develop the EFL secondary school learners‟ RSs by the teachers in Vietnam. 1.2.2. Objectives Given the above overarching aim, this study is going to: (01) Investigate the teacher's general attitudes toward exploiting the online resources to develop the EFL learners‟ RSs; (02) Investigate the teacher's advantages and challenges in exploiting the online resources to develop the EFL learners‟ RSs; (03) Compare the teachers‟ use of the online resources across the two different modes – listening and reading; (04) Put forward suggestions on how to make the best use of these resources in an EFL context. 1.3. Research questions Based on these above aims, the research questions are: (01) What are the teachers‟ general attitudes toward exploiting the online resources to develop the EFL learners‟ RSs? (02) What are the teachers‟ advantages and challenges in exploiting the online resources to develop the EFL learners‟ RSs? 3 (03) To what extent is the teachers‟ use of the online resources different across the two different modes – listening and reading? (04) What suggestions can be made as to how to make the best use of these resources in an EFL context? 1.4. Significance of the study Research has shown that for online resources to be effective pedagogical materials, changes in the exploitation of these resources are needed; these changes are not to eliminate traditional material, but to let the two types of material support each other in English teaching and learning practices. Thus, this study can contribute to the literature on manipulating online resources to develop the English proficiency of EFL learners. It may also contribute to the development of extensive reading and listening skills in a foreign context via the rich available online resources. Furthermore, the difference in exploiting online resources to practice teaching between listening and reading skills of EFL teachers has been partly clarified, which is an original contribution to the literature in this respect, too. This study can make practical contributions as well. It provides the EFL teachers with a model for improving their English language teaching (ELT) practice; this study has provided them with insights into setting up classrooms where students can interact with engaging, authentic materials in the increasingly digitalized world. The findings from the survey provide deep insights into the EFL teachers‟ practice of exploiting the online resources to develop the learners‟ RSs. The attitudes, advantages, challenges, and suggestions that the EFL 4 teachers expressed can be valuable information for other teachers to improve their practice to the benefit of the learners. 1.5. Scope of the study This study involved only the EFL teachers in Binh Dinh province. In addition, it was limited to lower- and upper-secondary education. 1.6. Design of the study This study is organized into five chapters. Chapter One, the introduction, presents the rationale, aims, objectives, research questions, significance, and scope of the study. Chapter Two, the literature review, presents the major theories relevant to the study. The chapter begins with a brief account of RSs and then shows the aspects of the online resources. Finally, the study presents previous studies relevant to the present study. Chapter Three, research methodology, delineates the methods employed to carry out the study, which contains the descriptions of the participants and how the data were collected and analyzed. Chapter Four, findings and discussion, presents the findings and discussion of the findings. Chapter Five, conclusion and implications, closes the paper with a summary of the main findings; it also withdraws some implications and puts forward suggestions for future studies. 5 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter presents the theoretical issues which shed light on the empirical investigation. It begins with a description of the two RSs, reading comprehension and listening comprehension, in terms of definition, benefits, purposes, and types. It goes on with how to teach these two skills – the techniques, principles and stages. The third issue to be dealt with is the online resources – the definition, advantages and disadvantages, and how to exploit them for teaching reading and listening. The final section provides an account of the previous studies closely related to this study. 2.1. Theoretical background Language education is broadly defined in terms of four skills – listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Listening and reading are termed “RSs” and the two others, “productive skills”. 2.1.1. The receptive skills 2.1.1.1. The reading skill Definition of reading skill Reading is one of the four skills to be developed in foreign/second language teaching and learning. According to Urquhart and Weir (1998), reading is the process of constructing meaning through the dynamic interaction among the reader‟s existing knowledge, the information suggested by the written 6 language, the context of the reading situation. Reading skill is a cognitive ability that allows a person to interact with written text. Benefits of reading skill Reading skill plays an important role in general. Other skills are improved through reading, particularly writing, because the ability to write depends on the ability to read (Stahl, 2004, p. 598-609). Reading especially helps learners enhance their writing style and flow. Another important role of reading skill in communication is that it helps learners improve their oral skills. Reading introduces learners to new terms and points of view. It improves verbal fluency and sentence construction and proficiency in the language. All of these things are also necessary for being a successful speaker. Reading skill improves the English levels of students, shows that whether they have a great vocabulary or not. Moreover, reading may help learners shape their identities. Socially, reading assists learners to be well-read individuals as well. The more we read, the more we discover about the world and its inhabitants. One of the many advantages of reading is that it allows us to expand our awareness of the world (Armbruster et al., 2001; Anderson et al., 1985). Purposes of reading skill Ghararah (1998) claimed that in teaching reading skill in a foreign language, the main aim of the process is to help students identify and understand the meaning of written texts. Then, thanks to it, students can be more selfgoverning in their reading. According to Grabe and Stoller (2002, p.29), there are multiple purposes for reading that can be grouped into several main categories. 7 First of all, students read for simple information. It is a rather autonomous cognitive function. Because it is employed so frequently in reading activities, it is probably best viewed as a purpose of reading skill - scanning the text for a specific piece of information or a specific word. Another purpose is reading to skim. Reading to skim is a typical component of many reading activities as well as a beneficial skill in and of itself. It entails a mixture of methods for predicting where relevant information may be found in the text and then applying basic reading comprehension abilities to those portions of the text until a broad concept is formed. The next purpose is reading to learn from texts. Reading to learn from texts takes place when students may need to read many pages of a text to achieve significant knowledge in academic or professional contexts. Therefore, this purpose requires that students must remember the main ideas, recognize and construct rhetorical frameworks that organize textual content, and connect the text to the reader's existing knowledge. Reading is also for integrating information. This purpose necessitates further judgments regarding the relative relevance of complementary, mutually supportive, or conflicting information, as well as the anticipated rearrangement of the rhetorical frame. Besides, reading to write is presented as another reading‟s purpose as well. Reading for writing and reading for the goal of critiquing texts are two frequent academic tasks that need reading abilities required to assimilate knowledge. To integrate information, task variations of reading may be used. It is necessary to be able to construct, choose, and criticize information from a text. The last purpose is reading for general comprehension. There are two concepts of general reading comprehension. The first would be that it is the most 8 fundamental goal for reading, underpinning, and supporting all other purposes for reading. Second, reading for broad understanding is more difficult than is usually thought. It necessitates rapid and automatic word processing, as well as significant skills in generating a broad meaning representation. Types of reading skill Reading skill is commonly divided into two broad types - extensive reading and intensive reading. Extensive reading is a language education strategy that demands learners to independently read multiple, various written materials that are simple and appealing for a variety of reading needs (Day & Bamford,1998). Extensive reading is done to obtain a general grasp of a material and to ensure that the basic principles are understood, not for specific details (Brown, 1989). According to Brown (1989) and Day and Bamford (1998), extensive reading is tremendously beneficial to language learners. First of all, by extensive reading, students can become better readers and develop a reading habit. The most commonly mentioned well-known benefit is that it can help students expand and maintain their vocabulary. Students are unlikely to come across new words frequently enough in the classroom to memorize them. However, if they read extensively a lot, they are much more likely to come across words and phrases in a variety of situations. Besides, students can change their attitudes toward reading and become more inspired to read thanks to gaining more confidence in reading. Furthermore, students can improve their writing skill and overall language competence, more frequently, as a result of extensive reading. Thanks to extensive reading, students can become autonomous learners; in other words, they become more independent readers, be able to read for a variety of 9 objectives, switch reading strategies for different types of texts and become more aware of the reading materials accessible to them and how to obtain them. Because they have read extensively a lot, students can gain background knowledge, improve reading comprehension, and be more prepared for future academic courses. Besides, as maintained by the cited researchers, extensive reading has some main concerns. The first challenge is the limited time on the part of both the teachers and the learners. If materials are not already available, setting up an extensive reading program can be costly and time-consuming. Moreover, extensive reading may not seem like an appropriate approach to learning for students who have only been exposed to the intensive in-class practice. The second type is intensive reading, which is defined as reading with a high level of concentration and focus. Intensive reading, according to Brown (1989), draws attention to grammatical forms, discourse markers, and other surface structure features in order to comprehend literal meaning, implications, rhetorical links, and the like. Students who engage in intensive reading do so with specific learning goals and objectives. It is comparable to extensive reading, in which students read texts for pleasure and to improve their general reading skills; in intensive reading, “the readers carefully and closely read a short text with the intention of gaining an understanding of as much detail as possible” (Scrivener, 1994). According to Scrivener (1994), intensive reading provides several benefits, including boosting reading comprehension, supporting pupils in interpreting sentence structure, and developing critical thinking by asking 10 students to respond to all required questions after reading. It also enhances student collaboration, as it is sometimes done in pairs or groups. However, intensive reading has a number of drawbacks. The first is that due to the short amount of content, there is little actual reading practice. Students may not be able to read at their level in a class with multi-reading abilities since everyone in the class is reading the same content. The second possibility is that the reader will be uninterested in the text because it was in the textbook or chosen by the teacher. Due to the limited amount of text, there is minimal opportunity to learn the language. Finally, because intensive reading is generally followed by activities and assessments, students may come to equate reading with testing rather than enjoyment. Reading strategies Various types of reading can be used to help students improve their reading skills. The most common are scanning, skimming, searching reading, and careful reading (Richards et al., 1992; Urquhart & Weir, 1998)  Scanning is the process of reading selectively in order to achieve very narrow reading objectives, such as discovering a number or a date. It is utilized when a reader wants to find a certain piece of information without having to read the entire text or chapter. The major feature of scanning is that any part of the text that does not include the pre-selected piece of data is ignored. Scanning is usually applied to answer specific questions.  Skimming is a sort of rapid reading that is employed when a reader wants to grasp the key concept or ideas from a paragraph quickly. Skimming can help you save hours spent reading. However, it is not always the best method of 11 reading. It is a great way to get a taste of a more in-depth reading or to go over a lengthy selection.  Search reading is the process of locating information on a specific topic. Readers or students will look for data or answers to specific inquiries. Search reading differs from scanning in that it seeks out specific essential ideas, whereas scanning does not attempt to do so. It also differs from skimming in that the reader's quest for information is guided by predetermined subjects rather than having to read the entire article.  Careful reading requires the reader‟s attempts to handle the majority of the information in the text, i.e., the process is not selective; the reader adopts a submissive role and accepts the writer's organization, and the reader attempts to construct a macrostructure. 2.1.1.2. The listening skill Definition of listening skill Listening is defined as the act of hearing something thoughtfully. Listening is the ability to perceive and comprehend what others are saying. In other words, the active activity of receiving and responding to spoken messages is referred to as listening (Harmer, 2007). Benefits of listening skill Dadzie and Awonusi (2009) claim the benefits of listening in second/foreign language teaching as follows. Listening can enhance speaking skills. Listening is an important skill that we can all focus on in developing speaking skills. Listening also helps review and develop vocabulary and grammar. 12