Luận án: Tiếng Anh Đại học Việt Nam đáp ứng yêu cầu công sở & Cải thiện bằng Action Research

A Study of the Extent to Which University English Education Fulfills Workplace Requirements for Vietnamese Graduates and of the Extent to Which Action Research Can Lead to Improvements in University English Education Vo Thi Hong Le The thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Portsmouth. The University of Portsmouth The School of Languages and Area Studies September 2014 Abstract This study focuses on possible approaches that can be undertaken at university to prepare undergraduate students with English language communicative competence required at the workplace. In exploring how English is taught at a university and whether English education met the needs of business, the main concern of this study is how materials design and teacher education can support learners to develop the skills to communicate effectively in the Vietnamese workplace. The purpose of the study was to (1) learn about the reality of English in the workplace to see what graduates’ needs at the workplace are, (2) undertake observational study at a university to see how needs were being met and (3) explore how minor interventions influence teachers and their English teaching practice.

The study employed a qualitative research methodology. The data collection methods employed were observations and interviews and a survey was undertaken. This is also to provide the basis for the reliability of studies and the validation of findings in terms of their accuracy, checking for bias in research methods and the development of research instruments. The data from these three resources was analysed through discourse analysis in order to address the analytic issues and the concern for an ‘in-depth’ focus on people’s activities of a qualitative research.

There were two main stages of research in the study. In the companies stage, the results reveal that meaningful conversations that required graduates at the workplace are often absent in language classroom and teaching materials. This raises the importance of achieving balance between transactional and relational talk in language teaching materials. It also raises the importance of communicative language teaching at university that can support in various aspects of discourse.

In the university stage of the research, the findings disclose that this was not an environment necessarily conducive to supplying the workplace with suitably communicatively competent graduates. There were various problems identified concerning teacher’s contextual realization, their questioning and their use of CLT activities that did not stimulate communication. By contrast, traditional teaching methods were noted, including the patterns of teacher fronted, form focused practice, with few student-student interactions. Importantly, the analyses of the results indicate that action research can help to bring improvement of teachers’ teaching practice.

Though limited in number, considerable positive changes made by ii the teachers were identified. These changes were primarily in terms of materials adaptation and the number of classroom interactions. The other significant finding was that teachers understanding of the study’s interventions had a positive impact on their practice. They also showed their positive attitude towards the changes and were pleased to engage more students through adopting these changes.

Based on the findings of the study, major issues are identified. The study’s findings have implications for materials development, teacher development and school management. The research also reveals the importance of conducting a needs analysis for stakeholders. Finally, the study’s limitations, together with recommendations for further research based on authentic transcripts/materials of workplace talk, or further interventions, observations and feedback in terms of teachers’ process in engaging action research, are discussed.

iii CONTENTS SECTION 1-INTRODUCTION .2 A Historical Overview of English Teaching in Vietnam .3 Statement of the problem .4 Inauthentic teaching materials.4 Innovations at the university of Information Technology (UIT) to which I contributed and preliminary evaluation .5 Research design and ethical issues .2 My roles as an insider and the consideration of ethical issues .6 Definitions of terms .7 The structure of the study. 15 SECTION 2 - UNDERSTANDING WHAT ENGLISH IS REQUIRED AT THE WORKPLACE. 16 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW - WORKPLACE DISCOURSE .1 The notion of genres.2 Transactional and relational aspects .3 Directives in transactional aspects .4 Politeness strategies in the workplace .5 Relational talk and humour .6 Gender and leadership talk at work. 30 Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODS OF THE RESEARCH AT THE COMPANIES .1 Involving the companies in the research .3 The company participants.

37 Chapter 4: WHAT KIND OF ENGLISH IS REQUIRED AT THE WORKPLACE .1 What English is required at the workplace? .1 Less formal email .2 More formal email .4 Gender, leadership and the use of humour .2 What may cause the breakdowns of a conversation .1 Interviews with the employers .1 Communication strategies and linguistic skills .2 Cultural factors were concerned by the employers .2 Interviews with the employees .62 SECTION 3 - UNDERSTANDING ENGLISH EDUCATION AT UNIVERSITY .64 Chapter 5: LITERATURE REVIEW – ASPECTS OF COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING .1 Popular English language teaching methodology .1 Traditional English instruction .2 Communicative based English instruction .1 Communicative language teaching (CLT) .2 Task-based language teaching (TBLT) .3 English for Specific purposes (ESP) .1 Elements constitute communicative competence for learners .1 Understanding of learners’ needs and principles of language learning .2 Opportunities to use the target language to achieve communicative purposes for learner .3 Aspects of CLT classroom methods .1 Group work and pair work .3 Observing the language classroom .4 Neglected aspects in CLT studies .5 Studies of teachers’ knowledge and beliefs, including about CLT .6 Studies on current CLT in Vietnam higher education .7 Pronunciation as Vietnamese learner need for communicative English use. 93 Chapter 6: RESEARCH METHODS OF THE RESEARCH AT THE UNIVERSITY .1 The teacher participants .4 Data collection and analysis. 100 Chapter 7: HOW ENGLISH WAS BEING TAUGHT AT UNIVERSITY .2 How do the teachers use communicative tasks .1 The teacher’s questioning/elicitation techniques .2 CLT use activities .3 Pairwork and groupwork .3 Teaching pronunciation and with supplementary Pronunciation Practice book. 121 SECTION 4 - INTERVENTING TO IMPROVE.

122 Chapter 8: LITERATURE REVIEW – TEACHER EDUCATION AND TEACHER’S COGNITIONS .1 The implications of studies on teacher’s knowledge for teacher education .2 The impact of teacher education on teacher’s cognitions .3 The implications of interventions for teacher education .1 Interventions encouraging the growth of teacher cognition.2 An insight to inform interventions .4 The considerations of the action researcher in the Vietnamese context .1 The implications of teachers as action researchers.2 Potential approach to teach pronunciation. 129 Chapter 9: RESEARCH METHODS – ACTION RESEARCH .1 Considerations of applying action research in my context .2 Procedure of action research .1 Observations and discussions (feedback) .4 Data collection and analysis. 136 Chapter 10: THE INTERVENTION-THE WORKSHOPS .1 The teachers’ use of supplementary materials compiled and designed by the department .2 Providing teachers examples of materials adaptation and data collected from the companies .1 An example of materials adaptation .2 Data collected from the companies .3 Responding to the follow-up questions on the conception of materials adaptation .1 Lesson planning and consideration of learners .2 Language teaching and learning .3 Classroom observations after workshops 1a and 1b .1 Watching the videos .1 The video of the teachers’ teaching .2 The videos of teaching pronunciation in the company’s training course. 154 Chapter 11: CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS AFTER THE INTERVENTION – HAS THERE BEEN ANY CHANGE .1 The changes can be seen .1 More materials adaptation can be seen .2 Student-student interaction was little more focused by experienced teachers .3 Communicative activities were more employed by one novice teacher to teach grammar .2 The aspects that can be seen with not much change .1 The use of tasks .1 Little effective use of questioning skills .4 Pair work and group work.

169 SECTION 5 – DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS .1 To what extent does English education at university fulfill the workplace requirements for Vietnamese graduates? .1 To what extent do graduates seem able to communicate in English to fulfill their work- related tasks? .1 English required of Vietnamese employees at the workplace .2 Graduates were unlikely to be able to communicate in English to fulfill the requirement.2 To what extent does English education at university provide the support graduates’ need? .1 Teachers’ understanding of CLT .3 Teacher’s practice was influenced by their experience and knowledge .4 Teachers’ practice was influenced by local cultural factors .2 To what extent was action research able to improve English education at UIT in some way? .1 How action research applied in the study .2 How effective was action research in my study .1 The teachers have positive attitudes toward opportunities for professional development .2 The interventions supporting the teachers’ changes .3 The interventions supporting the teachers’ reflection .1 Implications for materials development .2 Integrated pronunciation teaching .2 Strategies and language used at the workplace .2 Implications for teacher development .1 Workshops on material development .2 Workshops on communicative language teaching .3 Implications for school management. 208 Appendices Appendix 1: Invitation letters to participants including the guarantee of confidentiality. 226 Appendix 2: Question guide for company interviews. 228 Appendix 3: Classroom observation checklists.

233 Appendix 4: A lesson plan – English for waiters/waitresses. 234 Appendix 5: Questionnaire for teachers. 240 Research Ethics Review Checklist viii Whilst registered as a candidate for the above degree, I have not been registered for any other research award. The results and conclusions embodied in this thesis are the work of the named candidate and have not been submitted for any other academic award.032 words ix Lists of tables Table 3.1: Company participants in the study, including their participation in the two data collection strategies 36 Table 4.1 Participants’ ideas on factors that could cause the breakdown of a conversation from the interview data 58 Table 6.1: Teacher participants in the study 96 Table 9.1: The timeline for the action research 132 Table 10.1: The teachers’ responses to the reasons for their materials adaptation 143 Table 10.2: The teachers’ responses to what kinds of support that it should be for adapting/ designing materials 145 x Lists of figures Figure 13.1: Chan’s (2009) framework for developing checklist for evaluating materials 196 xi Abbreviations BA Bachelor of Arts CLT Communicative Language Teaching EAP English for Academic Purposes EFL English as a Foreign Language ELF English as a lingua franca ELT English language teaching ESL English as a Second Language ESP English for Specific Purposes FTA Face threatening acts HCMC Ho Chi Minh City IT Information Technology MA Master of Arts PhD Doctor of Philosophy TBLT Task-based language teaching TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages VNU Vietnam National University UIT University of Information Technology UK United Kingdom xii Acknowledgements I would like first to give great thanks to my supervisors for their support and guidance throughout my pursuit of the Doctoral Degree.

My first supervisor, Dr. Mark Wyatt scheduled weekly meetings for data discussions and feedback from the very beginning. His invaluable expertise and interest in my work, his careful reading and concise comments gave me a significant support to work with the thesis. My second supervisor, Marie McCullagh provided me her professional advice and insightful feedback regarding my research.

I am grateful for her contributions to my intellectual growth during my study process. I would also like to thank John Naysmith, who worked as my third supervisor in the first year of my PhD programme. I am very grateful to Juliette Scott for not only her astute feedback but also her constant encouragement when I started my early work for my dissertation. Her words of helpful advice, including positive criticism, will be remembered.

Among all the people who have supported me through this long and sometimes lonesome journey, Mark Field deserves great and special thanks. I am really grateful to his proof-reading and comments on much of my work with his constant enthusiasm. Mark has meant a lot to me with his constructive comments and sustained support.