Vietnam national university, Hanoi
University of Languages and international studies
Department of Post-graduate Studies
DIỆP THỊ HỒNG LIÊN
MA. MINOR THESIS Challenges in teaching English To
Ethnic minority students in a mountainous province

(Những thách thức trong việc dạy tiếng Anh cho học sinh dân tộc thiểu số
ở một tỉnh miền núi) Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10
Cohort: MA 17
Supervisor: Phạm Minh Tâm, MA
Hanoi, 2010 iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Headings


2.1.1.1. Introduction ……………………………………………
5
2.1.1.2. Advantages of the Grammar -Translation Method ………
6
2.1.1.3. Disadvantages of the Grammar -Translation Method …….
6
2.1.2. The Audio-Lingual Method

2.1.2.1. Introduction ……………………………………………….
7
2.1.2.2. Advantages of the Audio-Lingual Method ……………….
7
2.1.2.3. Disadvantages of the Audio-Lingual Method …………….
7
2.1.3. Communicative Language Teaching

2.1.3.1. Introduction ………………………………………………
8
2.1.3.2. Advantages of Communicative Language Teaching ……
9
2.1.3.3. Disadvantages of Communicative Language Teaching …
10
2.2. Common classroom activities associated with Communicative v
Language Teaching
2.2.1. Accuracy versus fluency activities ……………… ……… ……
11

3.3. Participants

3.3.1. Population ………………………………………………
20
3.3.2. Sampling ……………………………………………….
20
3.3.3. Detailed description of participants ……………………
21
3.4. Data Collection Instruments

3.4.1. Interviews …………………………………………….
21
3.4.2. Classroom observations ……………………………….
22
3.5. Data Collection Procedure ………………………………….
22
3.6. Data Analysis Procedure ……………………………………
23
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1. Research question 1 …………………………………………
25

vi
4.2. Research question 2 ……………………………………………
29
4.3 Conclusive remarks …………………………………………….
32
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION
vii
ABBREVIATIONS
GTM: Grammar Translation Method
ALM: Audio-Lingual Method
CLT: Communicative Language Teaching
L1: the first language
L2: the second language
L3: the third language 1

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale for the study
The ever-growing need for good communication skills in English has created a huge
demand for English teaching around the world. The result is that its status in education system
and settings is an extraordinary one (Rossner and Bolitho, 1990, p. 5). In correspondence to
this trend, in Vietnam, the importance of English as a language of international
communication has been acknowledged by the Government; English teaching and learning
have been given more and more priority. English is considered as a compulsory subject in the
school curriculum in recognition that “it can contribute to students’ personal, linguistic, social,
and cultural development” (Canh, 2004, p.167).
Ministry of Education and Training in Vietnam (2006) has stated that the objective of
language teaching is teaching learners to communicate fluently, appropriately and
spontaneously in the cultural context of the target language. To meet the demand of learners of
English, teachers of English in Vietnam have been trying to catch up with the world’s latest

learning the language and the quality of English language education for ethnic minority
students remains unsatisfactory for communicative purposes. All of these problems might
make teachers feel frustrated in teaching English to ethnic minority students, and in
developing students' communicative competence in English.
The point is that if we leave this problem unsolved, there will be a likelihood of
loading teachers of English with teaching to ethnic minority students of limited proficiency in
English language, and pushing students into being fed up with learning English. This fact has
given the author an impetus to do the research on challenges in teaching English to ethnic
minority high school students in Hoa Binh province with the hope to find out the solutions to
these problems and to make a small contribution to improve the quality of teaching English to
ethnic minority students in a mountainous province.
1. 2. Aims of the study
The study aims at investigating the areas of challenges in teaching English to ethnic
minority high school students in Hoa Binh mountainous province. Also, it is expected that
some solutions to overcome challenges encountered will be suggested. To be more specific, in
realizing this study, the objectives are:
 To investigate the areas of challenges that the teachers have encountered when
teaching English to ethnic minority students. 3

 To offer some solutions with the hope of helping English language teachers in Hoa
Binh province overcome those difficulties, improve the quality of their teaching, which
later helps improve ethnic minority students’ language learning quality.
1.3. Significance of the study
The study is hoped to be beneficial to both teachers and ethnic minority students in
mountainous high schools. First, findings of the study could be shared among teachers of
English to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the coming years. Next, it might
highlight the rationale for professional development programs for high school teachers of

 Chapter four. Results and Discussion - reports the findings of the study and
discusses the prominent aspects.
 Chapter five. Conclusion – presents the conclusions of major findings,
recommendations, limitations for the study, and suggestions for further studies. 5

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. An overview on Language Teaching Methods
In the discussion of the history of language teaching methods, it can be understandable
that a teaching method which may be effective at one point of time in history may still be
ineffective at the other point. This dynamic character of the language teaching goals makes the
history of foreign language teaching ever-changing, ever- adapting. Moreover, one method is
replaced by another it does not mean that the former is worse than the latter and will be thrown
into the wastebasket of history. It only means that the replaced method fails to correspond to a
certain need at a certain time in history. As a result, the history of foreign language teaching
methods is not the history of replacement of one method by another. Rather, it would be the
history of adding one new method to the treasury of existing methods. A number of methods
have been evolved for the teaching of English and also other foreign languages in the recent
past; however, in Vietnam three methods which enjoy significant use and dominate the
language teaching are the Grammar – Translation, the Audio-lingual method, and the
Communicative Language Teaching. These methods are now discussed in this thesis as
follows.
2.1.1. The Grammar – Translation Method
2.1.1.1. Introduction
Grammar – Translation Method (GMT) was in fact first known in the United States as
the Prussian Method (A book by B.Sears, an American classics teacher, published in 1845 was
entitled The Ciceronian or the Prussian Method of Teaching the Elements of the Latin
Language [Kelly 1969]. The Grammar Translation method embraced a wide range of

2.1.1.3. Disadvantages of the Grammar – Translation Method
This method, however, has certain disadvantages. According to Richard and Rogers
(1986, p. 3), the Grammar – Translation Method obviously focuses on the form rather than the
use of the target language. Students who are in this way do not have a chance to practice their
speaking and listening. Students who learn rules of grammar and vocabulary without much
feeling of progress in the mastery of the target language can lead to the lack of motivation in
learning a language for their having little opportunity to express themselves through it. The
method creates frustration for students, for whom foreign language learning is a tedious
experience for memorization of new words and grammatical rules, while it makes few
demands on teachers. (Richard and Rogers, 1986, p. 4) 7

2.1.2. The Audio-Lingual Method
2.1.2.1.Introduction
The Audio-Lingual Method was widely adopted for teaching foreign languages in
North American colleges and universities. I provided the methodological foundation for
materials for the teaching of foreign languages in the United States and Canada (Richards &
Rodgers, 1996). This English teaching method puts listening and speaking in the first place. It
uses sentence pattern as the base of teaching and try to avoid mother tongue in class. Attention
is paid to the need for practice rather than explanation about the language because the ability
to use the language as a means of communication is the ultimate aim. The scientific base of
this method can be summarized in the following ‘five slogans’ (cited in Diller, 1978, p. 10)
1. Language is speech, not writing;
2. A language is a set of habits;
3. Teach the language, not about the language;
4. A language is what its native speakers say not what some one thinks they ought to
say;
5. Languages are different.

regarded as the era of Communicative Language Teaching” (p.11). Communicative Language
Teaching also marks the beginning of a major innovation within language teaching because of
its superior principles which are widely accepted nowadays.
There is a variety of definitions about CLT; each of them developed her/his own ideas
regarding CLT. Communicative Language Teaching, to some people, means the combination
of structural teaching and functional teaching into a communicative competence oriented form
of teaching. Littlewood (1981) states “one of the most characteristic features of
Communicative Language Teaching is that it pays systematic attention to functional as well as
structural aspects of language” (p.1). To others, Communicative Language Teaching may
mean the use of procedures that develop the four language skills through working in pairs or
groups in problem-solving tasks. According to Brindley (1986),
Language is not a static system. It is created through interaction; language learning does not
consist merely of internalizing a list of structural items. It is a process of learning how to
negotiate meaning in a particular socio-cultural context. Consideration of meaning rather than
form will therefore determine program content; language learning will more effective if they
centered around the needs and interests of the learners; language learning materials should,
similarly, be related to learners’ needs and interests and present learners with the opportunity 9

for genuine communication; effective communication is more than structures accuracy
particularly at the beginning stages of language learning. Errors are a manifestation of the fact
that learning is taking place. (p.12).
In a similar manner, Nunan (1989) acknowledges that
Communicative Language Teaching views language as a system for the expression of meaning.
Activities involve oral communication, carrying out meaning tasks and using language, which
is meaningful to the learners. Objectives reflect the needs of the learners; they include
functional skills as well as linguistic objectives. The learner’s role is as a negotiator and
integrator. The teacher’s role is as a facilitator of the communication process. Materials

skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) are considered as the ultimate goal of
language teaching and learning process. Other language items such as vocabulary
pronunciation and grammar rules are given to students as the means, the conditions to promote
the development of communicative skills.
Communicative language teaching makes use of real-life situations that necessitate
communication. In other words, the goal of communicative language approaches is to create a
realistic context of language acquisition in the classroom. The teachers prepare a situation that
learners are likely to encounter in real life. The focus of this method is on functional language
usage and the ability to learners to express their own ideas, feelings, attitudes, desires and
needs. Students usually work in small groups on communication activities, during which they
receive practice in negotiating meaning. Pair and group work creates enough confidence for
even weak students to join in class discussions. Working in groups to achieve their goals gives
learners a supportive relationship while striving for the target language competence.
2.1.3.3. Disadvantages of Communicative Language Teaching
CLT, however, also has a number of potential disadvantages:
1. It makes greater demands upon the professional training and linguistic and
professional competence of teachers. (Andrews (1983), Richard and Nunan (1991), Stern
(1992) and others)
2. It may perplex students used to other approaches at least in the initial stages. (James
(1983), Berns (1990) and others)
3. It is more difficult to evaluate than the other approaches referred to. (Williams
(1983), Porter (1983) and others) 11

4. Because it appears to go against traditional practice, it tends to meet to meet with
opposition especially from older teachers and learners. (Robinson (1983), Hien (1991) and
others)
2.2. Common classroom activities associated with Communicative Language Teaching

• Require the use of communication strategies
• Produce language that may not be predictable
• Seek to link language use to context
* Activities focusing on accuracy
• Reflect classroom use of language
• Focus on the formation of correct examples of language
• Practice language out of context
• Practice small samples of language
• Do not require meaningful communication
• Choice of language is controlled
Teachers were recommended to use a balance of fluency activities and accuracy and to
use accuracy activities to support fluency activities. Accuracy work could either come before
or after fluency work. For example, based on students’ performance on a fluency task, the
teacher could assign accuracy work to deal with grammatical or pronunciation problems the
teacher observed while students were carrying out the task. An issue that arises with fluency
work, however, is whether fluency work develops fluency at the expense of accuracy. In doing
fluency tasks, the focus is on getting meanings across using any available communicative
resources. This often involves a heavy dependence on vocabulary and communication
strategies and there is little motivation to use accurate grammar or pronunciation. Fluency
work thus requires extra attention on the part of the teacher in terms of preparing students for a
fluency task, or follow up activities that provide feedback on language use.
While dialogs, grammar, and pronunciation drills did not usually disappear from
textbooks and classroom materials at this time, they now appeared as part of a sequence of
activities that moved back and forth between accuracy activities and fluency activities.
And the dynamics of classrooms also changed. Instead of a predominance of teacher-
fronted teaching, teachers were encouraged to make greater use of small-group work. Pair and
group activities gave learners greater opportunities to use the language and to develop fluency.

exchanges of information” (p.62). In so doing they will draw available vocabulary, grammar, 14

and communication strategies to complete a task.
2.2.4. Jig-saw activities
These are also based on the information-gap principle. Typically the class is divided
into groups and each group has part of the information needed to complete an activity. The
class must fit the pieces together to complete the whole. In so doing they must use their
language resources to communicate meaningfully and so take part in meaningful
communication practice.
2.2.5. Other activity types in CLT
Many other activity types have been used in CLT, among which are the followings:
Task-completion activities: puzzles, games, map-reading and other kinds of classroom
tasks in which the focus was on using one’s language resources to complete a task.
Information gathering activities: student conducted surveys, interviews and searches
in which students were required to use their linguistic resources to collect information.
Opinion-sharing activities: activities where students compare values, opinions, beliefs,
such as a ranking task in which students list six qualities in order of importance which they
might consider in choosing a date or spouse.
Information-transfer activities: these require learners to take information that is
presented in one form, and represent it in a different form. For example they may read
instructions on how to get from A to B, and then draw a map showing the sequence, or they
may read information about a subject and then represent it as a graph.
Reasoning gap-activities: these involve deriving some new information from given
information through the process of inference, practical reasoning etc. For example, working
out a teacher’s timetable on the basis of given class timetables.
Role-plays: activities in which students are assigned roles and improvise a scene or
exchange based on given information or clues.

language acquisition is defined as “the process by which humans acquire the capacity to
perceive, produce and use words to understand and communicate. This capacity involves the
picking up of diverse capacities including syntax, phonetics, and an extensive vocabulary.
This language might be vocal as with speech or manual as in sign”. Language acquisition
usually refers to first language acquisition, which studies infants' acquisition of their native
language, rather than second language acquisition that deals with acquisition (in both children
and adults) of additional languages. 16

With regard to second language acquisition, it is portrayed as the process by which
people learn languages in addition to their native language. The term "second language",
"target language", or "L2" are used to refer to any language learned after the native language,
which is also called "mother tongue", "first language", "L1", or "source language". Second
language acquisition also includes third language acquisition (L3).
2.3.2. Influence of proficiency in the native language and the second language on the
acquisition of a third language
Although English is taught in Vietnamese high schools as a foreign language, for
ethnic minority students, learning English is similar to learning a third language. This is
because these ethnic minority students have to learn Vietnamese in addition to their
indigenous or native language. This study was conducted in the Ethnic Minority Boarding
High School and two high schools in remote districts of the mountainous province, where the
majority of the students belong to ethnic minority groups. Thus, what follows is a brief review
of the literature on the influence of learners’ first and second languages on the acquisition of a
third language.
The influence of proficiency in L1 and L2 on the acquisition of a third language has
interested researchers for a few decades, but knowledge about those influences remains
limited. Cummings (2000) stated that according to ‘interdependence hypothesis’, there is a
positive and significant relationship between students’ first language development, specially

especially those who have learnt the L2 in a formal setting, are aware of the language learning
process, and have acquired metalinguistic experiences and learning strategies to facilitate
foreign language learning.
Therefore, for students from ethnic minority groups, studying one more language,
English – the third language, via Vietnamese – the second language might be very challenging.
This is because of the fact that when learning English, they comprehend English lessons by
listening, switching into their native languages - and then translating or changing into
Vietnamese and then English again. Limited literacy or Vietnamese language skills can limit
the acquisition of the third language. As a result, it is observed that a large number of these
students are almost illiterate in English despite many years’ learning the language. 18

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter includes a justification for the approach the author used in conducting the
research. It also provides a thorough description of how the author collected the necessary data
as well as the analytical procedure to draw conclusions based on the collected information. In
the first section the author gives detailed description of the research setting where the study
was conducted. In the next sections, the author puts forward an explanation of the author’s
understanding of the methods used in this research and their advantages.
3.1. Research setting
3.1.1. An overview of the research site
Hoa Binh is a mountainous province in the northwest of Vietnam, where over 80 % of
the population belongs to ethnic minority groups, and where there have been many difficulties
in life as well as in educational development, especially in the development of teaching a
foreign language like English. Not much attention is paid to English learning though it is
among the compulsory subjects in the national final examinations. The infrastructure is poorly
equipped with no specific rooms for learning English. There is no empty space in the
classroom except for the aisle where the teachers can move to and fro. Besides, some schools

they learn it mainly for marks, the only goal is to pass the tests. The time, the input and
exposure to the language are limited to the classroom. Therefore, they seem to be passive in
learning. Students listen to their teachers and repeat passively and give a mechanical response.
They are likely to become demotivated to English learning, depending much on the textbook
and teachers’ method of delivery. Language activities like role plays, problem-solving tasks,
or information gap activities, therefore, seem strange to their culture of learning. Even, when
they fail to understand something, they are not daring enough to ask for clarification in public.
Therefore, “the English learning environment is described as a cultural island where the
teacher is expected to be the sole provider of experience in the target language" (Canh, 1999,
p.74).
3.1.4. The materials of teaching and learning
In terms of the materials of teaching and learning, the textbooks currently used to teach
English are Tieng Anh 10, Tieng Anh 11, Tieng Anh 12 published by Ministry of Education
and Training. The teaching content of English textbooks follows the theme-based approach
and is developed on six broad themes. The six themes are subdivided into 16 topics
corresponding with 16 units and a “Test yourself” after every 3 units. All units have the same 20

structure, starting with the theme of the unit, following four lessons focused on language skills
and ending with language focus. Language skills are developed in parallel with the
development of such language knowledge as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation.
With strengths, the textbooks are expected to contribute better quality of English
learning in Vietnam high schools. In terms of curriculum development, the introduction of the
new textbook can be new fresh air blowing into the teaching and learning situation at
secondary schools in Vietnam. However, to a large number of ethnic minority students, the
English textbooks are very difficult. Very often the amount of new vocabulary in one unit was
too much for students. In addition, many topics in their English textbooks were strange to their
daily lives and background.