English language teacher education in Vietnam : a case study of localised approaches to the concept of method at a rural Vietnamese college

Nguyen, Dan Tam Thi

English language teacher education in Vietnam : a case study of localised approaches to the concept of method at a rural Vietnamese college

Nguyen, Dan Tam Thi

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Publication Type:: Thesis
Issue Date:: 2018

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Nguyen, Dan Tam Thi
dc.date.accessioned	2018-10-05T04:46:25Z
dc.date.available	2018-10-05T04:46:25Z
dc.date.issued	2018
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/127966
dc.description	University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.	en_AU
dc.description.abstract	Western research has tended to regard English language teaching in Vietnam as traditional and somewhat ineffective. The stereotypical view of Vietnamese learners of English is that they are passive, based on the perception that they are silent in the classroom. However, such studies have failed to consider carefully the impacts of social and cultural factors on teaching contexts. They have also tended to ignore the quality of outcomes achieved in these contexts. In order to address this problem, this research presents a case study with surveys, classroom observations, interviews and focus groups, conducted at a rural teacher training college in Vietnam. This context offered a teaching example involving non-native lecturers, far from ideal Internet connections and minimal opportunities for language practice beyond the classroom. The study of such a context provides a direct and accurate way to investigate the adaptations and outcomes of English language teaching and learning in Vietnam. The findings of this study showed that although the lecturers were fully committed to the notion of a communicative language teaching method, their interpretations of this method were highly localised and highly successful. Despite the limitations in rural areas and the deficiencies in the Western textbooks used, students learnt English effectively through oral interactions in the classrooms. This was the result of the lecturers’ use of scaffolding and sequencing strategies that were designed to maximise the students’ production of quantity and quality interactions through supplementary materials. The students were found to use Vietnamese (the L1 for many of the students) as a tool to mediate material in English. The study also found that English language teaching in the rural Vietnamese context was strongly affected by social and cultural factors, and that those factors had a major impact on the lecturers’ interpretations and adaptations of communicative language teaching.	en_AU
dc.format	Thesis (PhD)
dc.language.iso	en_AU	en_AU
dc.relation	https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/127966/2/02whole.pdf
dc.rights	The author owns the copyright in this thesis including all reproduction and reuse rights for the work. The work may not be altered without the permission of the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from this thesis.
dc.rights	au.edu.uts.lib/ppc
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.subject	English language teacher education.	en_AU
dc.subject	Vietnam.	en_AU
dc.subject	Teaching English in Vietnam.	en_AU
dc.title	English language teacher education in Vietnam : a case study of localised approaches to the concept of method at a rural Vietnamese college	en_AU
dc.type	Thesis	en_AU
utslib.copyright.status	open_access

Abstract:

Western research has tended to regard English language teaching in Vietnam as traditional and somewhat ineffective. The stereotypical view of Vietnamese learners of English is that they are passive, based on the perception that they are silent in the classroom. However, such studies have failed to consider carefully the impacts of social and cultural factors on teaching contexts. They have also tended to ignore the quality of outcomes achieved in these contexts. In order to address this problem, this research presents a case study with surveys, classroom observations, interviews and focus groups, conducted at a rural teacher training college in Vietnam. This context offered a teaching example involving non-native lecturers, far from ideal Internet connections and minimal opportunities for language practice beyond the classroom. The study of such a context provides a direct and accurate way to investigate the adaptations and outcomes of English language teaching and learning in Vietnam. The findings of this study showed that although the lecturers were fully committed to the notion of a communicative language teaching method, their interpretations of this method were highly localised and highly successful. Despite the limitations in rural areas and the deficiencies in the Western textbooks used, students learnt English effectively through oral interactions in the classrooms. This was the result of the lecturers’ use of scaffolding and sequencing strategies that were designed to maximise the students’ production of quantity and quality interactions through supplementary materials. The students were found to use Vietnamese (the L1 for many of the students) as a tool to mediate material in English. The study also found that English language teaching in the rural Vietnamese context was strongly affected by social and cultural factors, and that those factors had a major impact on the lecturers’ interpretations and adaptations of communicative language teaching.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/127966