THIẾT kế CHƯƠNG TRÌNH NGHE nói có sử DỤNG VIDEO CHO NGƯỜI học TIẾNG ANH TRÌNH độ TIỀN TRUNG cấp hệ

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PART 1 INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale of the study

English as well as other foreign languages has come into its own as a profession in

Vietnam, and so far a great many efforts have been made to improve the quality of

teaching and learning. Using video in the language classroom is one of these efforts, and it

is proving to be advantageous.

The advantages of using video in the language classroom have been recognised by many

researchers in applied linguistics, some of which are listed as follows, while more details

will be discussed later in chapter 2.

Firstly, video motivates students; that is, it can maintain their attention longer and at the

same time lengthen their retention. Secondly, video enhances the meaning of the messages

trying to be conveyed by the speakers through the use of paralinguistic cues; meanwhile,

students are able to see body rhythm and speech rhythm in the second language discourses

through the use of authentic language and speed of speech in various situations. Video

benefits students by providing for real language and cultural information. Thirdly, using

video in the classroom allows differentiation of teaching and learning according to

students’ abilities, learning styles and personalities. Finally, teaching foreign languages

with video may meet students’ needs in their daily life. That is, people want to access to

the world of English-language media: they want to be able to view the news, get

information from advertisements and from other TV programs, films included – in short, to

use these language products like normal consumers. This well is one of students’ major

goals in learning English and in all fairness they ought to be able to get a ‘glimpse’ of their

goals.

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I enjoy video and television myself, and my students are interested in them, too. I have

tried out video for teaching and found it promising; hence, I would like to use it more. I

feel that it is fun and effective, but generally difficult to make the best use of. This question

of difficulty is indeed important and provoking; therefore, I would like to carry out the

study on ‘designing a listening and speaking syllabus using video for English language

non-majors at pre-intermediate level.’ With this study, I mainly aim at building up a

suitable syllabus with audio-visual aids to improve students’ listening and speaking skills.

Not only does the syllabus consist of ‘what to teach’, but it also discusses ‘how to teach’ -

fundamental techniques and video activities in the language classroom will be provided

and discussed.

2. The scope of the study

The syllabus limits its scope to two communicative skills – listening and speaking, and to

its participants of English language non-majors at pre-intermediate level.

Among various aspects of language teaching, I choose listening and speaking skills to deal

with. Firstly, these two skills are the most demanding to most students, even to those with

many years of learning. They require and are worth the biggest efforts, in terms of both

teaching and learning.

In addition, listening and speaking activities in the classroom derived from the use of video

are the most abundant and interesting.

The choice of participants will be further discussed in Chapter 3. In fact, it is quite a matter

of convenience – for I, as a teacher in the School of Graduate Studies – VNU, mostly deal

with such students at this level of English proficiency. Using video in the language

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classroom proves effective to all students’ level of language proficiency. On the other

hand, it has been also pointed out that what determines the difficulty of a teaching material

is not just the material itself but also what the students are asked to do with it (Underwood,

1989).

Materials to be used as language input for the course mostly involve authentic videos that

are all the kinds of programmes one normally sees at the cinema, on (cable) TV, or on

VCD/DVD products: films of all kinds, documentaries, commercials, game shows, etc.

This video resource is a wonderful base that opens up the English-language world and can

be used with great pleasure and profit – and very little sweat (Sherman, J. 2003).

3. The aim of the study

The study aims to reach the following targets:

- To investigate and claim the advantages of using video in the language classroom,

especially in improving students’ listening and speaking skills.

- To design a syllabus for an English speaking and listening course with the use of

video for English language non-majors of pre-intermediate level.

- To suggest some techniques of using video in the classroom to improve speaking

and listening skills for students of pre-intermediate level of English proficiency.

4. The methods of the study

The strategic method is qualitative; that is, comments, remarks, comparisons, suggestions

and conclusions are based on factual research, observation, experience, discussion, as well

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as reference books. Besides, discussing with my enthusiastic and helpful supervisor and

colleagues enables me to complete the thesis.

A survey on actual situations of several language classrooms using video in Hanoi was

carried out. Classrooms to be studied included those for English non-major students of pre￾intermediate level. Questionnaires were sent to students; and a certain number of

interviews were conducted with the teachers as well as several students in such classrooms.

The aims of the survey is to reveal the teaching and learning conditions of such

classrooms, their problems when working with video, if there might be, and their needs for

better use of video in the classroom. Based on the results of the survey, data analysis was

done in order to perform the first step in designing a syllabus: needs analysis.

Finally, a number of sample units were tested on two classes with 15 students each of pre￾intermediate level of English. The remarks of the teacher of the classes and his colleagues

based on their direct observations helped adjust the units of the whole course.

5. The design of the study

The study consists of three parts: introduction, development and conclusion. The

Development part consists of three chapters titled literature review, syllabus design, and

teaching techniques with video in the classroom. Chapter 1 – Literature review involves

two key areas: (1) general concept of syllabus in comparison with curriculum and basic

steps of syllabus designing; (2) advantages of using video in language teaching, and

particularly in improving listening and speaking skills. The next two chapters – syllabus

design and teaching techniques with video in the classroom, are the central parts, where the

content of the course, the participants, the teachers and equipment of the course are

respectively described. The content of the course is introduced followed by time allocation

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and more importantly by suggesting video techniques, classroom activities and other

general guidelines. The study ends in part three– Conclusion, which briefly summarizes

what has been written and suggests further study.

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PART 2 DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

1. Syllabus and curriculum

Syllabus and syllabus designing have been no longer new in the context of education.

Teachers, including those of foreign languages, not only have been fascinated in this field,

but must also take it on fundamental importance.

In spite of its essentiality, it is not an easy task to give out a thorough definition of syllabus

in current literature. Besides, it is sometimes used and/or misused interchangeably with

curriculum. The clarification of these two terms is not just for the sake of naming or the act

of definition, but for the benefit to designers themselves. On well knowing what a syllabus

or a curriculum is, designers should have better guidelines and therefore, is more likely to

conduct their tasks more effectively.

A syllabus is more specific and more concrete than a curriculum, and a curriculum may

contain a number of syllabi. A curriculum, hence, may specify only the goals – what

students are supposed to be able to do at the end of the course; meanwhile a syllabus

specifies the content of the lessons used to help students reach their goals. A curriculum

includes several syllabuses, but not vice verse (Dubin & Olshtain, 1986).

One of the most widely repeated definitions of curriculum is given by Roberton (1987):

“The curriculum includes the goals, objectives, content, processes, resources, and means of

evaluation of all learning experienced, planned for students both in and out of the school

and community.”

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Syllabus, as defined by A.M. Shaw (1986), is “a statement of the plan for any part of

curriculum excluding the element of curriculum evaluation itself.” It can be interpreted that

a syllabus is, said as W. R. Lee (1986), some sort of guide to the teacher: it tells the teacher

what to teach; and it tells others what the teacher is supposed to be teaching.

2. Two major strategies in syllabus design: Synthetic-Analytic syllabus planning

There are different ways in which syllabus proposals of one sort or another might be

analysed. One dimension of analysis which has been the subject of a great deal of

discussions and comments is the synthetic/analytic dimension.

Wilkins (1976), who was first to draw attention to the distinction between these two

strategies, described the synthetic approach as follows:

“A synthetic language teaching strategy is one in which the different parts of language are

taught separately and step by step so that acquisition is a process of gradual accumulation

of parts until the whole structure of language has been built up.”

Though not restricted to grammatical syllabuses, synthetic approaches are apparently

recognised in these types of syllabus, which are specified as discrete lists of grammatical

items and in which the classroom focus is on the teaching of these items as separate and

discrete.

In contrast with synthetic syllabuses, analytic syllabuses are “organised in terms of

purposes for which people are learning language and the kinds of language performance

that are necessary to meet those purposes.” (Wilkins, 1976)