VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYEN DANH CHIEN

ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS’ TRAINING NEEDS
AT HIGH SCHOOLS IN HANOI
(NGHIÊN CỨU NHU CẦU BỒI DƯỠNG GIÁO VIÊN TIẾNG ANH
CỦA HÀ NỘI)

M.A. MINOR THESIS
Field: ELT Methodology
Code: 60 14 10

Field: ELT Methodology
Code: 60 14 10
Supervisor: Dr. Hoàng Xuân Hoa
HANOI, 2010

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
PART I: INTRODUCTION
1
1. Background to the Study
1
2. Aims of the Study and Research Questions
2
3. Significance of the Study

1.1.2.2.4. Group Discussions
10
1.1.2.2.5. Problem-solving Tasks
11
1.2.3. Roles of Learners
11
1.2. Teacher Training Needs
12
1.2.1. Concept of Training Needs
12
1.2.2. Types of Needs
13
1.2.3. Significance of Studying Teachers’ Training Needs
13
1.2.4. Interrelationship Perceptions, Practice and Training Needs
14
iv

1.2.4.1. Perceptions
14
1.2.4.2. Practice
14
1.3. Previous Studies on Teacher Training Needs
15
1.4. Summary
17 CHAPTER 2: THE RESEARCH
18

23
3.1. Results of the Data Collected by Means of Questionnaire
23
3.1.1. Teachers’ Perceptions of CLT
23
3.1.1.1. Teachers’ perceptions of features and principles of CLT
23
3.1.1.2. Classroom activities used in CLT
24
3.1.1.3. Classroom procedures
25
3.1.1.4. Roles of the communicative language teacher
26
3.1.1.5. Roles of the learner in the CLT learning process
27
3.1.1.6. Teachers’ applicability of CLT to their classroom practices
28
v

3.2. Results of the Data Collected by Means of Teachers Observations
29
3.2.2. Using pair and group work activities
30
3.2.3. Conducting fluency-oriented and accuracy-oriented activities
31
3.2.4. Correcting students’ errors and giving feedback
32
3.2.5. Implementing roles of the teacher
33
3.3. Summary


42

APPRENDICES:

APPRENDIX 1: Survey questionnaire for English language teachers at high
schools in Hanoi
APPRENDIX 2: Teacher observation scheme
vi LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. Participants‟ profile
Table 2. Teachers‟ perceptions of features and principles of CLT
Table 3. Teachers‟ perceptions of classroom activities used in CLT
Table 4. Teachers‟ perceptions of classroom procedures
Table 5. Teachers‟ perceptions of the roles of communicative teachers
Table 6. Teachers‟ perceptions of the roles of communicative learners
Table 7. Descriptive statistics for the teacher observations
Table 8. Descriptive statistics for the teacher observations

1


they may not have a clear understanding of the underlying principles of the new approach,
which leads to their running out of teaching ideas when developing learning activities for
2

their students. Apart from that, many of the teachers have to struggle to move away from
the traditional teaching of rules, patterns and definitions about the language (linguistic
competence) towards teaching students how to communicate genuinely, spontaneously and
meaningfully in the English language (communicative competence). For those teachers
who have moderate proficiency in English, and insufficient understanding of effective
teaching methods and techniques, they have to suffer feelings of inadequacy and insecurity
in their teaching practices.
Obviously, this lack of understandings and the ineffective teaching practices, in
turn, force the teachers to seek any kind of language and teaching methodology
improvement through training workshops or training courses so that they can satisfy the
increasing professional requirements and stay secure in their teaching positions. Moreover,
the intensive changes resulted from the communicative approach and the teachers‟
limitations in teaching in diverse contexts have brought about gaps between their
understandings and use of CLT for classroom practices. This certainly creates urgent needs
for enhancing the teachers‟ teaching, and requires continuous anticipation of training or
retraining needs, e.g. the needs to be further trained in ELT methods.
However, up until now, there has not been any investigation into the Hanoi‟s high
school teachers‟ needs for being retrained in communicative ELT or any full understanding
of the extent to which the teachers‟ perceive the communicative approach. The absence of
studies related to this subject matter is the basic motive for conducting a survey research
into the EL teachers‟ training needs at high schools in Hanoi. Hopefully, the knowledge
and the result of the study will contribute to the better language policy and more effective
English language teaching and learning in Hanoi.

2. Aims of the Study and Research Questions
The study aims to identify the Hanoi‟s high school EL teachers‟ training needs on

perceived needs and the needs resulted from the researcher‟s observations of the teachers‟
in-class teaching practices.

5. Methods of the Study
The study is an integrated descriptive-analytical, qualitative and quantitative survey
research. In order to provide sufficient data, information should be collected by a number
of effective methods and a variety of techniques. Nevertheless, within the scope of the
research, the following main techniques are used:
- Teachers survey questionnaire, which was conducted to investigate the English
language teachers‟ perceptions of CLT theories;
4

- Teachers observations, which was employed to find out some of the techniques
and methods the teachers used in their classroom practices in order to identify gaps
between their perceptions and use/implementation of CLT.

6. Design of the Study
The study is composed of three parts, including Introduction, Development, and
Conclusion. Part I, Introduction, presents the background to the study, aims, research
questions, significance, scope, methods, and design of the study. Part II, Development, as
the main developing part of the thesis, consists of three chapters. Chapter One provides a
review of literature relevant CLT and such perspectives as training needs, perceptions, and the
interrelation between teachers‟ perception and practice. Chapter Two gives a general
description of the research with relevant aspects. Chapter Three is a representation of the
research findings and discussion. Part III, Conclusion, is a summary of the main issues
addressed in the research, limitations of the study, and some suggestions for further study.

5

PART II: DEVELOPMEMT

teachers can also be “managers of classroom activities” (Larsen-Freeman, 1986), assuming
6

responsibility for establishing situations to promote communication. Richards and Rogers
(1986) draw on Breen and Candlin‟s (1980) introduction to teacher roles, expanding the
scope of teacher roles by adding those of needs analysts, counsellors, and group process
managers. As needs analysts, the teachers take a responsibility for determining and
responding to learner learning needs. They note that the teachers can talk to students
informally and personally though one-to-one sessions in order to know students‟
perception of their learning style and learning goals. By so-doing, the teachers can assess
students' needs and attempt to determine students‟ motivation for studying the language.
Then, the teachers are expected to plan group and individual instruction that responds to
the students‟ needs. Serving as counsellors, the teacher are expected to exemplify effective
communicators, which reflects the restrictions of communicative language teaching and
see the learners as managers of their own learning process. In the role of group process
managers, the teachers are required to acquire less teacher-centred classroom management
skills, and to organize the classroom as a setting for communication and communicative
activities. The teachers can also act as researchers who monitor and investigate what is
going on in the classroom and in their own teaching in order to find out appropriate
methods and teaching techniques for better teaching and learning. Other roles of the
teachers explained by Harmer (1991) that the teachers act as assessors, organizers,
prompters, and as resources. In the role of assessors, the teachers are to assess the
students‟ work. A more difficult role is that of organizers, who organize the classroom as a
setting for communication and communicative activities (Richards & Rodgers, 2001,
p.168), because the success of classroom activities depend much upon good organization
and on the students‟ knowing exactly what they have to do. Being in the role of prompters,
the teachers are required to makes suggestions about how students may proceed in an
activity. Fulfilling the role of resources, the teachers provide a range of useful real
resources to connect with the learner‟s own life experiences. Obviously, roles of the
teachers in the communicative classroom have changed significantly, and is less dominant

accuracy or fluency, a distinction first aided by an accuracy-oriented activity such as
pattern drills, which are usually used in the teaching of a new target item. Additionally,
Brumfit (1984) argued that fluency activities provide opportunities for students to produce
and understand tokens of the language which they may have been made aware of, or even
learnt, during accuracy activities. In the view of these considerations, both accuracy-
oriented and fluency-oriented activities should be included in the communicative
classroom in order to achieve communicative competence in the target language. Sharing
this view, Long (1991) and Dought (2001, cited in Ellis et al., 2002, p.422) argue that
form-focused instruction, which aims to develop the target language accuracy, combined
8

with meaning-focused instruction, which aims to develop the fluency of the target
language, works better than meaning-focused instruction on its own. In other words, form-
focused instruction helps develop learners‟ ability to use the linguistic form in a
communicative task.
Moreover, with regard to error correction in CLT classroom, practitioners of the
communicative approach consider “errors” as “a completely normal phenomenon in the
development of communicative skills” (Littlewood, 1981, p.94). In other words, errors are
unavoidable when learning a language and developing communicative competence.
Larsen-Freeman (1986) claims that errors of form are tolerated as learners can be
successful communicators though they have limited linguistic knowledge, which can mean
that if students make errors during their speaking or presentation, these errors can be
tolerated in order to encourage fluency. But this does not mean that the teacher ignore the
errors but save the errors for later corrective feedback that help the students be aware of the
areas they have to improve. Therefore, explicit error correction should be avoided, because
it tends to make students feel they are criticized, and instead teachers should correct errors
in indirect ways (Doyon, 2000), and because when second language learners make errors,
they are demonstrating part of the natural process of language learning (Harmer, 1999,
p.100). It should be realized that error correction should be kept to a minimum and priority
should be given to the errors that hinder communication, as the aim is to develop learners‟

information sharing, negotiation of meaning, and interaction. In other words, CLT includes
all possible activities with given situations that can build up as well as boost up the
learner‟s courage to language learning. These activities can be pair and group work, role-
plays, information gap, discussions, interviews, and problem-solving tasks that require
negotiation and cooperation between learners, and encourage them to develop their
confidence.
1.1.2.2.1. Pairwork and Groupwork
One of common activities promoted by CLT is pairwork and groupwork. In the
classroom, CLT often takes the form of pair and group work requiring negotiation and
cooperation between learners. According to Doff (1988), pair work is a process in which
the teacher divides the whole class into pairs that work at the same time. Group work is a
process in which „the teachers divide the class into some groups to work together, usually
four or five students in each group (Doff, 1988, p137).
Pair and group work are to give students of different background to join classroom
activities in order to share information and ideas and to negotiate meanings. Working in
pairs, students are encouraged to practise the target language more, which increases their
talking time in the class, and promotes their cooperation. Thus, in pair work and group
10

work activities, interaction occurs with meaningful negotiation and increases the
development of the target language by raising learners‟ awareness of learning processes
(Ellis, 1994).
1.1.2.2.2. Role Play
Harmer (1998) defined "role-play activities are those where students are asked to
imagine that they are in different situations and act accordingly" (p.92), which means
students are given roles to act out by imagining themselves in a situation or playing the
role of someone else, using language relevant to the context. Thus, students are the centre
of the class, and become actors and actresses on the stage. They enjoy their performance
and use the target language as a tool for role-playing. In fact, using role play activities in
class is a special technique to wake up students, especially shy students who should be

With problem-solving tasks, students are given some real-life problems which are
interesting and debatable for the class and need solving. They are divided into groups to do
research after class, discuss the result in the class and ask every group report their
conclusion for the whole class, which means students work out solutions to problems.
Through this activity, students can practise both target language and critical thinking
ability.
Generally speaking, the classroom activities discussed above can be used in all
classes and adapted for any kind of CLT lesson. With the activities, the classroom become
like the world outside the classroom, where students are seen using language
spontaneously and communicatively.
1.2.3. Roles of Learners
In CLT, students can practise every situation in daily life, which is a good way for
them use English as a tool to communicate with others. Because of the changes in the
emphasis of CLT, learners have to change their roles in the communicative classroom.
According to Richards and Rodgers (2001), the emphasis of CLT on the processes of
communication rather than the mastery of language forms leads to different roles for
learners from those found in more traditional second language classrooms. Breen and
Cadlin (1980), cited in Richards and Rodgers (2001, p.166) describe the learner‟s role
within CLT as a negotiator – between the self, the learning process, and the object of
learning, emerges from and interacts with the role of joint negotiator within the group and
within the classroom procedures and activities which the group undertakes. As a
negotiator, therefore, the implication for the learner is that he should contribute as much as
he gains, and thereby learn in an independent way. Richards and Rodgers (2001) show that
„learners are expected to interact primarily with each other, rather than with the teacher,
and correction of errors may be absent or infrequent. Apart from that, the learners should
12

be co-operators in their learning processes rather than individuals, for Richards and
Rodgers (2001) point out that successful communication is an accomplishment jointly
achieved and acknowledged. The learners have to see that unsuccessful communication is


teachers feel that they do not meet the required standards of teaching communicatively, the
need for training arises. Training based on such needs will then supply the teachers with
the knowledge and skills to do their job properly. Therefore, the training needs can be seen
as the needs to build specific teaching skills, to acquire the theories of the new approach, to
adapt and apply the theories to effective teaching practices.
1.2.2. Types of Needs
The needs can be subjective, i.e., teachers‟ perceived needs as their wants or desires
for enhancing their teaching practices. The needs can also be objective, i.e., professional
requirements for the teachers to conduct successful teaching, because the teaching job
requires teachers to meet certain standards, and to comply with reach certain levels of
expertise or skills in order to do their job properly.
1.2.3. Significance of Studying Teachers’ Training Needs
In the study, the teachers‟ training needs would be identified by assessing their
understanding of CLT (e.g. perceptions), and how they used CLT for classroom teaching
(e.g. practices), which would then help determine whether there was a gap between their
perceptions and practices of CLT and how big the gap was if there was. If there was a gap,
there would be training needs or necessity to fill it by retraining the teachers so that they
could achieve successful teaching under the light of CLT. In other words, studying the
teachers‟ training needs would help identify the teachers' strengths and weaknesses, fill the
gap, update their knowledge and skills, and increase their teaching job satisfaction.
Moreover, in terms of ELT management, the study would show how successful previous
teacher training workshops were and suggest measures that should be taken by the Hanoi
DOET in order to contribute to increasing ELT quality at high schools in Hanoi, and
demonstrate the challenges facing the teachers while they are implement the
communicative based curriculum.
From these points of view, it is noticeable that using CLT for classroom teaching
requires the needs for support/assistance in the aspects of both theory and practice, which
aims at enhancing the teachers‟ knowledge and teaching skills in order to enable the
teachers to conduct more effective English lessons.

evidence for whether the teachers need to be retrained, and what they need to be retrained.
In summary, it is necessary to have a sufficient understanding of the teachers'
perceptions of CLT and how they use it for classroom practices in order to indentify the
teacher training needs, which reveals the interrelation among the constructs of perceptions,
practices and needs. 15

1.3. Previous Studies on Teacher Training Needs
Because of the influence of perceptions and practices on needs and the relative
interdependence among these three constructs, teachers‟ needs for being retrained in CLT
have been extensively studied. Following are some major studies on this issue.
In South Korean, Li (1998) carried out a study on the perception of CLT of 18
secondary teachers‟ who were at a training program in Canada and found that difficulties
caused by teachers, such as deficiency in spoken English, lack of training in CLT, few
opportunities for retraining in CLT, and misconceptions about CLT, prevented teachers
from implementing CLT successfully during in-class activities in South Korea. He also
discovered that although the teachers had the theoretical notion of CLT, they had no
practical experiences in terms of methodological issues of CLT.
In Bangladesh, Khaled Mahrnud Rezaul Karim (2004) conducted a research into
teachers' perceptions, attitudes and expectations about CLT in post-secondary education,
surveyed 36 ESF teachers, and examined how they defined CLT and implemented it in
their classrooms. It was found that the teachers had very good understanding of the
communicative activities and the general principles of CLT, and that there were positive
relationships between teachers' perceptions about CLT and their classroom practices. The
study revealed that although there were some discrepancies between teachers' perceptions
and practices, these were not remarkable as these were not causing obstacles in the way of
communicative practices or discouraging teachers from practicing CLT, and that although
EFL teachers thought lack of training in CLT as a major difficulty in adopting CLT in

communicative approach fits Vietnamese pedagogical contexts on the basis of an analysis
of Vietnamese learner‟s communicative needs, Vietnamese classroom culture and
discourse, and the constraints on the teacher in teaching English communicatively, and
discovered that although the EL teachers had positive view of the communicative
approach, they feel constrained to implement communicative teaching in their classroom
and found it difficult to use this approach for their pedagogical practice.
To summarize the results of previous research on perceptions of CLT, and actual use
of CLT, it was found that teachers‟ understanding of CLT is different, and that their
classroom teaching was shown not to be communicative under observations. Thus, training
needs for CLT implementation differ in different areas and contexts. Based on the findings
of the studies mentioned above, a comprehension research is needed to identify the Hanoi‟s
high school EL teachers‟ training needs for better communicative EL teaching. 17

1.4. Summary
This chapter has highlighted new requirements towards the teachers while
implementing CLT, which leads to the needs to train and retrain the teachers for more
successful communicative teaching, and has discussed necessary considerations related to
perceptions, practices and training needs.
The literature is a useful source for the research to use for identifying objective and
subjective needs for teacher retraining in the next chapter.
18

CHAPTER 2: THE RESEARCH

This chapter presents a general description of the study with relevant aspects including
data collection, data analysis, and discussions.
2.1. Research Questions:

Hanoi
In order to implement the new curriculum, three short in-service teacher training
workshop have been organized by the Hanoi Department of Education and Training
(DOET). These workshops were run mainly by key high school EL teachers who were
trained at short in-service teacher training workshop held by the Ministry of Education and
Training, and by some invited university teachers and textbook writers. The workshop
participants were all of local teachers who were pursuing their teaching careers at high
schools throughout Hanoi. These teachers were requested to attend the workshops of four
to six days in order to update their teaching methods and perceive guidance on the
implementation of the curriculum. The contents of the first training workshop was
comprised of an introduction to the new English curriculum and the textbook “English 10”,
a preliminary review of the implementation of the new English language curriculum,
theories of the communicative approach, getting to know about sequential stages of a
lesson and new lesson plan models, watching VCDs on model teaching practices, some
basic techniques for teaching language skills and linguistic items, and learning about
evaluation and assessment. The second and the third training workshops consisted of
similar contents, but its emphasis was placed on teaching techniques, textbook adaptation,
and sharing teaching ideas and initiatives.
With regard to the perceived effectiveness of the workshops, most of the teacher-
trainees shared a mutual feeling of positivity about the workshops by giving feedback that
the workshops were useful to some extent in introducing new ideas to them, deepening
their understanding of communicative teaching, techniques for teaching linguistic skills
and knowledge, helping the teachers with textbook and task adaptation as well as the
MOET‟s requirements for implementing the curriculum. However, a considerable number
of teacher-trainees did not feel satisfied with the fact that the workshop contents included
too much of theory while there were few opportunities for them to discuss teaching and
classroom techniques, little time was spend practising and developing the skills necessary
for successful implementation of the workshop ideas, little attention was paid to finding
out solutions to the constraints preventing them from using the communicative approach.
The local teachers also expressed their discontent with the workshop agenda which were