MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
QUY NHON UNIVERSITY
NGUYEN THI HANG
CHALLENGES IN TEACHING ENGLISH FOR
ETHNIC MINORITY STUDENTS
IN GIA LAI PROVINCE
Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching
Code: 8140111
Supervisor: Assoc, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Hien
BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO
TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN
NGUYỄN THỊ HẰNG
NHỮNG THÁCH THỨC TRONG VIỆC DẠY
TIẾNG ANH CHO HỌC SINH DÂN TỘC THIỂU SỐ
Ở TỈNH GIA LAI
Ngành: Lý luận và phƣơng pháp dạy học bộ môn Tiếng Anh
Mã số: 8140111
Ngƣời hƣớng dẫn: PGS. TS. Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền
i
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
I certify that the thesis “Challenges in Teaching English for Ethnic
Minority Students in Gia Lai Province” is my own work.
No other person’s work has been used without acknowledgement in the
paper.
This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or
diploma in any universities.
Quy Nhon, 2022
Nguyen Thi Hang
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Without the support, encouragement, and contributions from my
supervisor, my professors, my school, colleagues, friends and family, the
successful completion of this thesis work would not have been possible. I take
this chance to express my deepest thanks to them for their support.
First and foremost, I am grateful to my thesis supervisor, Assoc. Prof.
Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Hien, for her amazing supervision. Her outstanding
knowledge and profession inspired me a lot during my academic life at Quy
Nhon University. I appreciate her experienced guidance and suggestions,
great patience in helping me resolve the obstacles during the process I carried
out my thesis. I am gratefully indebted to her for her very valuable comments
on this thesis.
A special thank goes to Gia Lai Department of Education and Training
and Chu Van An High School for giving me the chance to attend a MA course
at Quy Nhon University.
This study was made achievable by the participation of the enthusiastic
teachers at High Schools in Gia Lai, who devoted their time taking part in this
research. I was also thankful to my colleagues for their support during my
study time.
I am also grateful to Quy Nhon University, Post-graduate Department,
and Foreign Languages Department for the administrative assistance.
Last, but not least, I must express my gratitude to my family for
providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement
throughout the course and the study of this thesis.
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ABSTRACT
This study attempted to investigate the teachers’ challenges in teaching
English to ethnic minority students in Gia Lai province from the high school
teachers’ perspectives in terms of school environment and curriculum,
students and parents as well as the teachers’ knowledge and professsional
development. The quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to
answer the research questions. The data were gathered from 53 English from
various high schools in Gia Lai province via a questionnaire, including both
open-ended questions and close-ended items. The study showed the
interesting results. The teachers are challenged by the crowded classes, time
constraints, unequal ability between Kinh and ethnic minority student, and
pressure from curriculum, testing and assessment. Meanwhile, students’ lack
of interest, concentration and active learning, their frequent use of dialects,
parents’ unawareness of the importance of English language, students’ lack of
sufficient learning environment are challenges related to students and parents.
In addition, challenges concerning the teachers’ knowledge and professsional
development are shortage of training, and lack of professional development.
A set of recommendations is presented in this paper which can contribute to
tackle the challenges.
Key words: English Language Teachers, Challenges, School Environment,
Students Community and Parents, The teachers’ knowledge and professsional
development, Ethnic Minority Students.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ............................................................................ i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT ..............................................................................................................iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................... iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................... vi
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................... vii
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................. 1
1.1. Rationale ........................................................................................................... 1
1.2. Aims and objectives .......................................................................................... 2
1.2.1. Aims .......................................................................................................... 2
1.2.2. Objectives .................................................................................................. 2
1.3. Research Questions ........................................................................................... 3
1.4. Scope of The Study ........................................................................................... 3
1.5. Significance of the Study .................................................................................. 4
1.6. Organization of the Study ................................................................................. 4
CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................... 5
2.1. Factors Affecting Second Language Acquisition ............................................. 5
2.1.1. Age factors ................................................................................................ 6
2.1.2. Psychological Factors ................................................................................ 6
2.1.3. Sociocultural Factors ................................................................................. 7
2.1.4. Cross-linguistic Factors ............................................................................. 9
2.2. Schooling of Ethnic Minority Students in Vietnam........................................ 10
2.2.1. An Overview of Ethnic Minority Groups in Vietnam and in Gia Lai
Province ............................................................................................................. 10
2.2.2. Minority School Education in Vietnam .................................................. 11
2.3. Current Situation of English Teaching in Vietnam ........................................ 12
2.3.1. English at General Education Level in Vietnam ..................................... 13
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2.3.2. Current Situation of English Teaching in Gia Lai Province ................... 15
2.4. Roles of Teachers and Students in Teaching and Learning English as a Foreign
Language ................................................................................................................ 15
2.4.1. The Roles of Teachers in English Teaching............................................ 15
2.4.2. The Roles of Learners in English Learning ............................................ 17
2.5. Review of Related Empirical Studies ............................................................. 18
CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY ........................................................................... 23
3.1. Research Methods ........................................................................................... 23
3.2. Participants ...................................................................................................... 23
3.3. Instruments ...................................................................................................... 25
3.4. Data Collection ............................................................................................... 26
3.5. Data Analysis .................................................................................................. 27
3.6. Reliability and Validity ................................................................................... 28
3.6.1. Scale Reliability Analysis ....................................................................... 28
3.6.2. Validity .................................................................................................... 28
CHAPTER 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ................................................... 30
4.1. Challenges in terms of School Environment and Curriculum ........................ 30
4.3. Challenges in terms of Students and Parents .................................................. 42
4.4. Challenges in terms of the Teachers’ Knowledge and Professsional
Development .......................................................................................................... 54
CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS .......................................... 63
5.1. Summary of The Study ................................................................................... 63
5.2. Implications ..................................................................................................... 65
5.3. Limitations ...................................................................................................... 66
5.4. Suggestions for Further Research ................................................................... 67
REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 68
APPENDICES
vi
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
EFL: English as a Foreign Language
ELL: English Language Learner
ELT: English Language Teaching
SLA: Second Language Acquisition
vii
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1. The Vietnam Education System .................................................... 14
Table 2.2. The number of periods of ELT for each level of education .......... 14
Table 3.1. Participants’ background characteristics ....................................... 24
Table 3.2. Reliability Statistics of the questionnaire ...................................... 28
Table 4.1. Challenges in terms of school environment and curriculum ......... 31
Table 4.2. The detail description of in-class equipment ................................. 32
Table 4.3. The detail description of weak emotional and psychological
support from the school board ...................................................... 34
Table 4.4. The detail description of crowded classes ..................................... 35
Table 4.5. The detail description of the unequal ability between Kinh and.
ethnic minority students ................................................................ 36
Table 4.6. The detail description of the time constraint ................................. 37
Table 4.7. The detail description of the negligence of English language
teachers’ suggestions .................................................................... 38
Table 4.8. The detail description of knowledgeable and helpful colleagues .. 39
Table 4.9. The detail description of the pressure from curriculum demands . 40
Table 4.10. The detail description of the pressure of the exams on
teaching contents........................................................................... 41
Table 4.11. Challenges in terms of students and parents ............................... 43
Table 4.12. The detail description of students’ interest in learning English .. 44
Table 4.13. The detail description of students’ comprehensive ability .......... 45
Table 4.14. The detail description of students’ perspective about learning
English .......................................................................................... 46
Table 4.15. The detail description of students’ concentration in class ........... 47
Table 4.16. The detail description of students’ assignment completion ........ 48
Table 4.17. The detail description of monority students’ interaction ............. 49
viii
Table 4.18. The detail description of parents’ attitudes towards teachers. ..... 50
Table 4.19. The detail description of parents’ perceptions of the
importance of English ................................................................... 51
Table 4.20. The detail description of parents’ cooperation with teachers ...... 52
Table 4.21. The detail description of supportive environment for learning
English .......................................................................................... 53
Table 4.22.
Challenges in terms of the teachers’ knowledge and
professsional development ............................................................ 54
Table 4.23. The detail description of teachers’ preparation about material
and knowledge .............................................................................. 55
Table 4.24. The detail description of teachers’ knowledge about students’
cultural and linguistic backgrounds. ............................................. 56
Table 4.25. The detail description of teachers’ participation in training
courses on teaching ethnic minority students.” ............................ 57
Table 4.26. The detail description of teachers’ exchange with students
about their difficulties ................................................................... 58
Table 4.27. The detail description of no workshops related to English
language teaching and learning for ethnic minority students ...... 59
Table 4.28. The detail description of teachers’ eagerness to teach.” .............. 60
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
Learning a foreign language is considered one of the most difficult
learning topics that face people who are interested in learning a foreign
language. Teaching English in a foreign environment is difficult and needs
time. Teaching English in a multilingual context is an enormous challenge for
the English teachers due to linguistic diversity in the classrooms. This stress
has been an issue for long time and it has been documented by some of
researchers over years of research.
Some studies revealed the challenges in the English classroom (F.
Khan, 2021; M. Khan, 2016; Mumary Songbatumis, 2017; Yulia, 2013).
They found that a number of challenges emerged, partly coming from
students, partly from teachers, and partly from the school’s facility. Khan
(2021) and Yulia (2013) found that student’s low motivation is considered
among the most serious problems. Van (2010) and Kizildag (2009) concluded
that classroom constraints are the problems. Other studies showed that
multilingual classrooms are always among the most challenging features for
the English language teachers and students (A Kizildag, 2009; Rasheed, S.,
Zeeshan, M., & Zaidi, 2017). The results of Rasheed (2017) showed that
teaching English language in a multilingual context is an enormous challenge
for the English teachers due to linguistics diversity in the classrooms.
Kizildag (2009) stated that poor institutional, the instructional and sociocultural economic problems are the challenges in teaching English.
In Vietnam, this issue has been taken into consideration for years.
Some researchers conducted the studies in the minorities context (Bui, T. K.
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T, 2014; Huong, V. V, 2019; Vo, T. V. 2017). In the North of Vietnam,
Huong, V. V (2019) asserted that teaching English for ethnic minority
students in remote Northwest area of Vietnam has always been a huge
challenge for educators and teachers. In the South, Vo, T. V. (2017) explored
that socio-cultural and ecological factors influencing the acquisition of
English of Khmer students in Vietnam. In Highland, especially in Gia Lai,
there is no study conducted.
Gia Lai is the second largest province in Vietnam and a highland
province located in the Central Highlands region. Most minority students are
Jrai and Bana who have to learn to speak Kinh language as a second language
and English as a foreign language at the same time. Therefore, in the process
of learning new language, they find it difficult to learn English.
Although many researches have been conducted in this area in many
places, the issue still lacks of concentration in the Central Highland of
Vietnam or more specifically, Gia Lai. It can be seen that it is necessary to
have a study conducted to fill this gap. To investigate the challenges in
teaching English to ethnic minority students, the study entitled Challenges in
Teaching English for Ethnic Minority Students in Gia Lai Province has
been chosen as the topic of the study.
1.2. Aims and objectives
1.2.1. Aims
The main purpose of this study is to investigate the teachers’ challenges
in teaching English to ethnic minority students in Gia Lai province from the
high school teachers’ perspectives.
1.2.2. Objectives
To investigate the challenges in teaching English for ethnic minority
3
from the high school teachers’ perspectives, the specific objectives of this
study are:
- To find out the teaching challenges caused by school environment and
curriculum.
- To identify the teaching challenges caused by students and parents.
- To examine the challenges caused by the teachers’ knowledge and
professsional development.
1.3. Research Questions
Based on the foregoing discussion, this study seeks to answer the
following research questions:
1.
What are the challenges caused by school environment and curriculum?
2.
What are the challenges caused by students and parents?
3.
What are the challenges caused by the teachers’ knowledge and
professsional development?
1.4. Scope of The Study
Due to the limited time, ability and research conditions, the study was
just conducted in a sample of 53 teachers who are teaching at schools in Gia
Lai province where ethnic minority students are attending. The researcher did
not analyze all aspects causing challenges to the teachers but only focusing on
three dimensions mentioned above through the descriptive study with two
main instruments including the close-ended and open-ended questionnaire.
Therefore, the study’s generalization should be limited and the results may
not be representative of a larger same of all teachers in Vietnam.
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1.5. Significance of the Study
By doing this study, the researcher hopes that the findings can
contribute precious values and recommendations for both teachers and
students in teaching and learning journey in the same contexts. Moreover, the
research aims to serve as a beneficial resource in providing information for
the English language teachers to be aware of the reasons of ineffective
learning and teaching. Also, the findings could be used as a data base for
further study.
1.6. Organization of the Study
The thesis will be presented in five chapters: Introduction, Literature
Review, Research Method, Results, and Discussion and Conclusion.
Chapter 1 shows the rationale, the aims, the significance and the organization
of the study.
Chapter 2 establishes the theory foundation for the whole thesis. It provides a
theoretical basis for the study.
Chapter 3 describes the method that the study is conducted. It provides the
questions and hypotheses. Next, it describes the research design and the
participants of the study. Then, it mentions the research instruments and the
materials used for data analysis. Lastly, this chapter will end with the
procedure to conduct the study and the methods of data analysis.
Chapter 4 presents and analyzes all the collected data to find out the answers
to the research questions.
Chapter 5 gives the researcher’s discussion based on the research findings. It
also offers some recommendation for pedagogical purposes. In addition, this
part shows all the major points raised in the thesis. Furthermore, it will
indicate the limitation and some suggestions for further studies.
5
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter provides a thorough review of theoretical and practical
background on challenges in teaching English to ethnic minority students that
serve as a basic for the current study. Firstly, factors affecting second
language acquisition are discussed. This is followed by the schooling of
ethnic minority students in Vietnam and in Gia Lai province. Next, the current
situation of English teaching in Vietnam and in Gia Lao is mentioned.
Besides, roles of teachers and students in teaching and learning English as a
Foreign Language are pointed out. Finally, it gives an overview of previous
studies that involved language teaching challenges facing the teachers in
teaching English. This review is done with the purpose of providing a
theoretical foundation for an investigation into challenges in teaching ethnic
minority students.
2.1. Factors Affecting Second Language Acquisition
This research mainly bases on the theoretical framework of Brown, H.
D., which is the book named Principles of Language Learning and Teaching
(Brown, 2007). First issued in 1980, this book is about both learning and
teaching. The author asserted that learning a second language is a long and
complex undertaking. He added that language is not a set of easy steps that
can be programmed in a quick-do-it-yourself kit. So much is at stake that
courses in foreign languages are often inadequate training grounds, in and of
themselves, for the successful learning of a second language.
If we take a look at second language learners, we will find that some
students learn a new language more quickly and easily than others. However,
even though practice and hard work are mostly welcome in second language
6
acquisition, there are other crucial factors influencing success that are largely
beyond the control of the learner.
2.1.1. Age factors
Age is the first crucial factor that contributes to second language
acquisition. This factor has been a juicy topic for many scholars (Brown,
2007; Moyer, 2004; Singleton & Lengyel, 1995). Collier (1988) claimed that
successful language acquisition depends on the learner’s age. (Harley, B., &
Wang (1997) followed and cited a theory of Lennerberg (1967) that there is a
certain period in acquisition of a second language. In this period, which is
identified critical period hypothesis in language acquisition, Lenneberg
(1967) theorized that the acquisition of language is an innate process
determined by biological factors which limit the critical period for acquisition
of a language from roughly two years of age to puberty. Lenneberg (1967)
believed that after lateralization, which is a process by which the two sides of
the brain develop specialized functions, the brain loses plasticity and
lateralization of the language function is normally completed by puberty,
making post-adolescent language acquisition difficult. Children’s practice and
imitation is a very meaningful activities that is contextualized and purposeful
(Brown, 2007). According to him, adults have developed even greater
concentration, so they have greater ability for rote learning, but this usually
use for short term memory or for somewhat artificial purposes.
2.1.2. Psychological Factors
Understanding how human beings feel, respond, believe and value is an
exceedingly important aspect of SLA (Brown, 2007). Some psychological
factors in human behavior and how they relate to language acquisitions are
taken into consideration.
Firstly, self-esteem is probably the most pervasive aspect of any human
7
behavior. It is claimed that no successful cognitive or affective activity can be
carried out without some degree of self-esteem, self-confidence, knowledge
of yourself, and self-efficacy – belief in your own capabilities to successfully
perform that activity.
Secondly, willingness to communicate is also an important factor in
acquiring a new language. Many learners are afraid of speaking a new
language because they hesitate making mistakes. Nevertheless, in his point of
view, children learning their first language and adults learning a second
language can really make progress only by their mistakes.
Thirdly, it is claimed that risk taking is an important characteristic of
successful learning of a second language. Learners have to be able to gamble
a bit, to take the risk of being wrong.
Moreover, anxiety plays a major affective role in SLA. It is attributed
that some people are predictably and generally anxious about learning. State
anxiety is experienced in relation to some particular event or act.
Besides, motivation is a powerful factor attributing to the success of
SLA. Learning a foreign language requires intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
from the learners. Those who learn for their own self-perceived needs and
goals are intrinsically motivated, and those who pursue a goal only receive an
external reward from someone else are extrinsically motivated.
Identifying the issues of psychological factors can help the teacher
consider how to design of classroom technique and add dimension of factors
in teaching process.
2.1.3. Sociocultural Factors
Culture is a way of life, our continent, and our collective identity
(Brown, 2007). He thought that it might also be defined as the ideas, customs,
8
skills, arts and tools that characterize a given group of people in a given
period of time. Cultures establishes for each person a context of cognitive and
affective behavior, a template for personal and social existence. It is apparent
that culture becomes highly important in the learning of a second language.
He attempted to highlight some of the important aspects of the relationship
between learning a second language and learning the cultural context of the
second language. Some of them are attitudes, second culture acquisition,
social distance, language policy, and culture in the language classroom
presented below.
Attitudes can lead to positive or negative look in learning process.
Attitudes, like all aspects of the development of cognition and affect in human
beings, develop in childhood and are the result of parents’ and peers’
attitudes, of interacting people or affective factors in the human experience.
In Brown’s perspectives, learning a second language implies some
degree of learning a second culture, so it is important to understand what we
mean by the process of culture learning. Second culture acquisition is
significant because culture learning creates shared meaning between cultural
representatives. It penetrates deeply into one’s patterns of thinking, feeling
and acting. Hence, it is essential to explore the target language culture to
understand the culturally derived values, attitudes and outlooks of other
people to avoid cultural shock in communication.
Social distance depicts the dissimilarities between two cultures. It is
hypothesized by Schumann cited in Brown’s book (2007, p. 198) that the
greater the social distance between two cultures, the greater the difficulty the
learner will have in learning the second language.
It is mentioned in his work that language policies influence second
language acquisition. The language education involves by some political
9
entity (e.g., a ministry of education, a state board of education) to offer
education in a designated language. He added that linguistic diversity,
ethnicity, race, power, status, politics, and economics restrict language rights
and tendencies in society.
2.1.4. Cross-linguistic Factors
In the middle of twentieth century, the study of two languages in
contrast – one of the most popular branches of applied linguistics was
blossomed. The stockpile of comparative and contrastive data on pairs of
languages which is known as Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH),
claimed that the principal barrier to second language acquisition is the
interference of the L1 system to L2 system.
It is stressed that the learner language influence affects the second
language acquisition. The learners may consciously test hypotheses about the
target language from a number of possible resources of knowledge. These
may be the native language, limited knowledge of the native language itself,
knowledge about life, people and things around them to produce language.
This may lead to errors that reflect the competence of the learner.
Variation in learner language exists in language classrooms. This can
cause the challenges in SLS process. The problem is that the learners can
change the way they use target language in different context. According to
Tarone (1988) cited in Brown’s work (2007, p. 288), four categories of
variation are linguistic context, psychological processing factors, language
function.
Lastly, context of learning is mentioned as an important factor causing
the errors in second language acquisition. According to Brown, context refers
to the classroom with its teacher, its materials, and facilities that serve the
education activities. In classroom context, the teacher or the textbook can lead
10
the learner to make faulty hypotheses about the language. Students may make
errors because of misleading explanation from the teacher, faulty presentation
from a structure or word in textbook, or even because of a pattern that was
memorized in a drill but improperly contextualized (2007, p. 266).
2.2. Schooling of Ethnic Minority Students in Vietnam
2.2.1. An Overview of Ethnic Minority Groups in Vietnam and in Gia Lai
Province
Vietnam is a multiethnic country with 54 ethnic groups. The
Vietnamese term for minority ethnic groups is “ngƣời thiểu số” and “dân tộc
ít ngƣời” (minority people). Each group has their own language, culture and
lifestyle. EM groups, especially those with small populations, mostly live in
the mountainous and highlands areas with very limited access to modern
infrastructure, health care and education.
The results of the survey to collect information on the socio-economic
status of 53 ethnic minorities in 2019 (UNFPA, 2009) show that on a national
scale, there are 5,468 communes in ethnic minority and mountainous areas,
accounting for 49.0% of the total number of communes in the country. Ethnic
minority communes are mainly distributed in rural areas (87.3%) (UNFPA,
2019). The population of Kinh ethnic group is about 82 million people,
accounting for 85.3%. Among 53 ethnic minorities, 6 ethnic groups have a
population of over 1 million people: Tay, Thai, Muong, Mong, Khmer, Nung
(in which the Tay has the largest population with 1.85 million people); 11
ethnic groups have a population of less than 5 thousand people, of which Ơ
Đu is the ethnic group with the lowest population (428 people). The main
living areas of ethnic minorities are the Northern Midlands and Mountains
and the Central Highlands (UNFPA, 2019). Although there is a significant
difference in population, ethnic groups still consider each other as brothers
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