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

I

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.

II

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.

III

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

IV

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

V

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

VI

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

VII

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

VIII

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

1

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

2

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