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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
 TRƢƠNG THỊ THU HIỀN
M.A. MINOR THESIS Necessary skills of an English teacher in managing English
classes at Thach Thanh 3 High school

(Các kĩ năng cần thiết của giáo viên Tiếng Anh trong việc quản lí lớp học
ngoại ngữ ở trường THPT Thạch Thành 3)
Field: Methodology
Code: 60.14.10 Hanoi, 2011

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
TT: Thach Thanh
TT3: Thach Thanh 3
CLT: Communicative Language Teaching LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: The results of teachers’ attitudes
Table 2: The results of the teachers’ experiences in English teaching
Table 3: The results of dominant roles applied in English classes
Table 4: The results of the roles which are difficult to apply in English classes at TT3
high school
Table 5: Characteristics of the students participating in the English learning survey
Table 6: The results of the students’ attitudes
Table 7: Ranking and percentage of the importance of items contribute to an effective class
manager
Table 8: The results of the students’ experiences


1.5.3. Individual work
1.6. Summary
CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY
2. 1. Background of the study
2.1.1. Description of the English syllabus in TT3 high school
2.1.2. Description of the students at TT3 high school
2.1.3. Description of the teachers at TT3 high school

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2.1.4. Description of physical setting
2.2. Design and methodology of the study
2.2.1. The participants
2.2.2. Research instruments
2.2.3. Methods of data analysis
2.3. Summary
CHAPTER III: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA
3.1. Questionnaires
3.2. Informal Interviews
3.3. Summary
CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS
4.1. Findings
4.1.1. Research question 1: How did English teachers at TT3 high school manage their
English language classes?
4.1.2. Research question 2: What are the difficulties in managing their English classes?
4.1.3. Research question 3: What are some suggestions to manage English classes more
effectively?
4.2. Pedagogical implications
PART III - CONCLUSIONS
1. Summary of the study
2. Limitations of the study

3. Scope of the study
The study is designed to explore the necessary skills of an English teacher in managing
English classes at TT3 high school.
4. Methods of the study
The study employs survey research in which two mains instruments of data collection
namely informal interviews and questionnaire were used. The data collected for the study
came from two sources: the students and English teachers at TT3 high school. The
collected data is, then calculated, analyzed, compared and finally interpreted for the results
of the study.
In addition, document analysis of relevant materials was reviewed which laid the
theoretical foundation for the study.
5. Research questions

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The study searched for the answers of the 3 research questions:
- How did English teachers at TT3 high school manage their English classes?
- What are their difficulties in managing English classes?
- What are some suggestions to manage English classes more effectively?
6. Significance of the study
The significance of the study might be, first, it fills the gap of necessary skills in managing
English classes. Second, it sheds the light on some pedagogical issues in managing English
classes in Vietnam general and in Thanh Hoa particular.
7. Organization of the study
This study consists of three parts:
Part I: Introduction presents the rationale, the aims and objectives, scope, the methods,
significance and organization of the study. The research questions are also mentioned in
this part.
Part II: Development includes four chapters:
Chapter I: Literature review reviews the theory related about roles of an English teacher.
Chapter II: Methodology of the study discusses the methods of the study, i.e. Describes

different teaching methods.
Suggestoptia Lazanov (1982), O’Connell (1982) and Racle (1979) viewed the role
is the authority in the classroom, students must trust their teacher and respect him/her.
Lazanov also showed that students will retain information better if they get it
from someone whom they can trust and who has authority on them.
The role of the teacher as suggested by Gattegno (1972), Madesen (1979) is the
role of an engineer or a technician. The learners are helped by the teacher in their learning.
The teacher will help their students if they need.
Blair (1982) and Curran (1976) indicated that counselor role is the major role of the
teacher. To learn the foreign language, students can be threatened. Thus, the teacher helps
them overcome the difficulties dealt with learning it.
The roles of the teacher according to the communicative approach as suggested by,
Celce-Murcia (1983), Brumfit (1979) and Madsen (1983) that the teacher is seen as
facilitor of the learners’ learning.

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Harmer (1991) showed that the roles of the teacher is to provide students with
different situations related to the real life. Students will have many choice to practice
authentic situations which make them understand more easily. Students are shown how to
perform language functions are decided which functions are more important for which
level.
According to Diller (1978) and Paulston (1971) suggested that in the classroom the
teacher directs the activities and the students’ role is less passive than the others. They are
more like partners in two process: teaching and learning. In this role, the teacher
participates and works with students in activities.
The roles of teachers are different so teachers should base on students’ need in their
learning process to act these roles to get high effectiveness.
Prodromou (1991) also suggested several roles for the teacher, for example, a
manager, a monitor, a counselor, an informant, facilitator, a social and a friend.
Stevick (1996) suggested that teachers and students have many expectations in

misbehavior. Besides these advantages, this role has some disadvantages. Students become
passive because they do not have much chance to speak and do not have experimental
learning. Teacher may be tired and students may be bored. There are no activities so the
classroom atmosphere boring.
Teacher helps students when students work on long projects, directs, guides and
points them. In the role of a tutor, teacher should be careful not to take over. Teacher don’t
focus on the person who he/she likes, distribute your tutoring to everyone who needs it.
In the role of an observe, it is very important for teacher to give students useful
feedback and helpful to take notes. If it is a success, it will give teacher different feelings.
If they are problems, they will help teacher find the ways to help them to solve. Teachers
should be careful not to be intrusive (officious). Teacher should sit in the back not get to
close students or he/she will disturb students when they are thinking.
Organize is one of the most important roles that teacher have to perform in English
class. In this role, teacher organize activities, puts students into groups or pairs, tells them
how to do it, how to start or how to end. When students start activities, teacher gives short
and clear instruction and tells them how much time they have. When students end, teacher
stops the students and gives them feedback.
Arafat, S (687 - 688) (research on the roles of language Teachers) also emphasized
in the study:
Cross (1995) on the other hand emphasized that prospective language teachers
should try their best to be in contact with current affairs, global issues, social concerns,

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local businesses, economic issues and the target culture. Their roles as language teachers is
not limited to the classroom, it should not be separated from real life.
Balderrama (2001) described the teachers’ roles and believed it is basic to the
struggle for educational equity and achievement. She emphasized the attempts to humanize
teachers’ roles in critical examination of schooling. The teacher should actively study and
pay attention to the psychological learning atmosphere and the inner process of learning.
The aim is to enable learners to take much responsibility for their learning.

Harmer (1991) shows that skills in managing classes are very important since they
help to ensure the success of the teachers and the activities which are in used in the class.
However, Davies and Pearse (2000: 117-123) claims that “you can not plan
everything that will happen in a lesson. You need strategies to respond to actual events,
including unexpected ones”. This statement means that teacher doesn’t know the situations
happen unexpectedly in his/her lessons in advance, he/she needs skills to dealt with them.
Therefore, skills in managing English classes are actually essential for teaching and
learning process.
Hension and Eller (1999:45) mentioned that: “In order to be effective, teachers
must be proactive, facilitative, imaginative classroom managers”. Besides many other
factors “the procedures, strategies, and instructional techniques” teachers use to manage
students behaviors and learning activities may affect on the classroom management. The
most important and the most difficult skill a teacher must be creating an environment that
is conducive to learning and by managing the ongoing teaching - learning process.
1.3. Characteristics of a good language teacher.
Effective teachers are born with the skills to teach. It is possible to develop and
train someone to be an effective teacher. (Carr, 1998; Hunt, Touzle, & Wiseman, 1999).
But this is very natural and personal characteristics except being well trained. Many
teachers lack even the most Basic English classroom managements skills. English teachers
at TT3 also have to cope with this matter.
Smith (1995:89) expressed that “what makes a teacher good, is the organization of
a classroom and techniques involved rely heavily on the teaching style”. He seemed to
emphasize the role of teacher as an organizer who organizes activities for students in the
class. When teacher organizes activities well, students will get the things they need.
Nevertheless it depends much on the teaching style that teacher use in the class.
Ince (2000), in his research (on the subject of classroom management), analyzed
and showed that: “Smith looks should happen in an ideal classrooms by attempting to
identify “good” and “bad” teaching style. Also there is a common idea that the better
teacher and the more effective classroom is the quality of teaching and learning process.


- He makes them participate
- He shows great patience
- He insists on the spoken language

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- He makes pupils work
- He used an audio - visual method”
(From Peck A (1988). Language Teachers At Work. Prentice Hall)
Besides the criteria of a good language teacher in general, it also depends upon the
perception of students. A language teacher should show their skills in teaching process in
the role of a class manager. The up above ideas, I aim to raise our awareness about the
various roles of a teacher in my short assumption. The English teachers need good
characteristics to help students do well in classrooms. These characteristics of a good
language teacher may be suitable or inappropriate in Vietnam in general and in TT3 high
school in particular. Because not all the characteristics can be “taught” for all the teachers
but due to the teacher’s individual personality. The fact that the roles of a language teacher
becomes effective only when they support the necessary things which students are in need
of them and authentic context.
1.4. Communicative approach to language teaching
1.4.1. Definitions of Communication.
There are many different definitions of Communication. In Thompson’s book
(2003: 9) “Communication and Language”, he considers that “communication is such a
well-integrated part of our day-to-day existence that we tend to take it for granted rarely
passing to consider what it involves or just how important it is to us”.
Fiske’s ideas (1990) also recognized that: “Communication is one of those human
activities that everyone recognizes but few can definite satisfactorily” (Fiske 1990: 1) and
“communication is too often taken for granted when it should be taken to pieces” (Fiske
1994: 8).
Thompson, N (2003: 10) “I quickly recognized that communication is used in a
number of senses and at a number of levels to indicate the transmission of information or

(Harmer, 2001: 114) mentions: “when people think of teaching and learning they
frequently conjure up a picture of students sitting in rows listening to a teacher who stands
in front of them”. In teaching and learning, there is a big relationship, that is an interaction
between teachers and students. Though whole class teaching has many limitations, it has
many practical advantages.
1.5.2. Pair work/Group work
Students may be organized to do work in pairs or small groups in the classroom.
Especially, it is very important when teacher organizes activities for students. There are
many definitions of pair work/group work.

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Pair work
According to Doff (1998: 137) , the whole class is divided into pairs by the
teacher. Every students works with his or her partner in pairs and all the pairs work at the
same time.
Students works in pair work has some advantages, Harmer (2001: 116) wrote “in
pair wok students can practice language together, study a text, research language or take
part in information-gap activities. They can write dialogues, predict the content of reading
texts, or compare notes on what they have listened to or seen”. Through pair work students
can work together, share ideas and thoughts.
Group work
“Group is a group of students working together. A class can be divided into small
groups to work together (usually four or five students in each group), as in pair work, all
the group work at the same time”. ( Doff: 1988: 137).
“The advantage of small group work is that it promotes maximum participant from
all students”. (Felisa Tibbitts). Group work encourages students to share the thoughts and
ideas when they work with their participants.
When we want to divide the class into teams for games or preparation phase, we
need a larger group for learning activity.
1.5.3. Individual work

could be developed as students can learn and relate to the real things from daily life.
Students are required to work in individuals, in pairs, in groups to practice English in
common situations with English teachers managing classes. Additionally, students also
have chances to listen to both native and non-native English speakers from the tapes used
with these textbooks. These textbooks also aim at developing students’ reading skill and
writing skill. At the end of each term, students have the final test for semester.
2.1.2. Description of the students at TT3 high school
Like many students in other high schools, in order to be 10th form students of TT3
high school, they have to pass a national examination. Students mostly come from
countryside which mainly being 80% students are Muong Ethnic Minority and remote area
with low living-condition in Thach Thach District, Thanh Hoa province. Students there
don’t have similar level of English language proficiency to each other because at many
secondary schools in TT, students have not been taught English yet (students have learnt
French or other foreign language or the lack of English teachers). This led to a big gap
among 10th students when they entered high school. Nowadays students seems to be more
aware of the importance of learning English and they have more motivation in learning it.
Although English is a difficult subject, students at TT3 still like learning it. Besides many
other subjects, students often have three periods of English per week, and take part in 15

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minutes test, 45 minutes test in the examination at the last semester. In class, they are given
many chances to practice mainly four language skills: reading, speaking, listening and
writing skill. They are organized to work in pair or group, given from the teachers’
feedbacks, helped with vocabularies/grammar, corrected and graded.
2.1.3. Description of the teachers at TT3 high school
In TT3 high school, there are eight English teachers aged from 28 to 35, one male
and seven female teachers. Three English teachers have been trained at Hong Duc
University in Thanh Hoa province, three are trained at Vinh University and one teacher
who has been trained at VNU - CFL (as a French teacher and now obtain another
university degree as an English teacher) and one teacher who has been graduated from in-

countryside. They started to learn English from secondary school, it means that they have
learnt English for four years. The teachers are all young, aged 28 to 35.
2.2.2. Research instruments
The researcher employs two following instruments in order to get the needed
information: delivered questionnaires and informal interview.
There are two types of questionnaires, one for the teachers and the other for the
students, There are ten questions in each of them. The questionnaires are mainly used for
exploiting teacher’s and student’s knowledge, behavior, experience and their attitude
toward the roles of teacher in class in managing English classes.
There is an informal interview for two random English language teachers. It is
carried out during the break time the last semester of the school year 2010 – 2011 in two
weeks. It is a friendly conversation in which the researcher asks selected teachers questions
randomly and take notes during the break time.
2.2.3. Methods of data analysis
In fact, the process by which the researcher interprets the data collected from the
survey research are questionnaires and informal interview. The data was collected,
analyzed, compared and finally interpreted for the results of the study.
2.3. Summary
This chapter present the background and methodology of the study. Through this
chapter we can see the participants and research instruments of collecting the data.
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CHAPTER III: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA
This chapter presents the collected data from two instruments: questionnaires and informal
interview.
3.1. Questionnaires.
3.1.1. The results of language teaching survey questionnaires.
No

37.5
c. Not so badly
1
12.5
d. Badly
0
0
5
When students are
organized to do
activities, they
participate…
a. Actively
5
62.5
b. Passively
1
12.5
c. Forcedly
2
25
d. Others:
0
0
6
According to you, an
English class is managed
efficiently when…
a. The teacher plays appropriate roles
8

1
12.5
d. The English language proficiency
of the students
6
75
e. The hard work of the students
7
87
f. The co-operation of the students
4
50
g. The teacher’s good preparation
7
87.5
h. Others:
0
0
(Table 1: The results of teachers’ attitudes in English teaching survey)

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For the question about the importance of the teacher’s roles, most of the teachers
(87.5%) recognized teacher’s roles play the most important in an English language class.
Only one person (12.5%) chose other options and none of them chose option b.
Question 2 is about how the teacher’s roles were used in English language classes.
50% of teachers found they used their roles in English language classes well and 37.5% of
them used it normally and one person admitted using it not so badly. None of them chose
using it badly.
Question 5 mentions about the ways students participate in activities when they are
organized by their English language teacher. Most teachers (62.5%) say that their students

the most successfully, the
teacher has to…
a. Prepare the lessons carefully
6
75
b. Well organize students activities
5
62.5
c. Have good co-operation from students
3
37.5
d. Make the tasks suitable to the students
4
50
e. Set clear goals for students
1
12.5
f. Others:
0
0
4. What are the benefits of
managing English language
classes well?
a. To help the teaching and learning
process run smoothly
8
100
b. To make the class more interesting
4
50

2
25.0
b. Change roles appropriately to the
teaching stages and activities
8
100
c. Maintain discipline in the class
5
62.5
d. Well organize activities naturally
7
87.5
e. Provide clear instruction before the
work with samples
6
75
f. Control the tasks
4
50
g. Others:
0
0

(Table 2: The results of the teachers’ experiences in English teaching)

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In question 3, almost of the teachers (75%) thought that the teacher’s lessons
preparation is the most important factor. It means that in order to manage English classes
successfully, the teacher has to prepare every lesson well before. 62.5% of them considered
the teacher has to organize students activities well. This related to the roles of teacher when

100
Assessor
8
100
Prompter
8
100
Participant
8
100
Resource
8
100
Tutor
8
100
Observer
8
100
(Table 3: The results of dominant roles applied in English classes at TT3 high school)

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Teacher’s roles
Difficult roles in your English classes
Number of people
Percent (%)
Controller
0
0

80
90
100
Dominant roles Difficult roles
percent
Controller
Organizer
Assessor
Prompter
Participant
Resource
Tutor
Observer

This chart describes the results of dominant roles in English language classes and
the difficult roles in English language classes at TT3 high school
As we can see the data on the chart, these results agree with Larsen-Freeman
(1996) who believed that teachers can play different roles in the English language
classrooms. The chart shows that all teachers (100%) have coincidence in 8 dominant roles
that they are in charge of applying to their English classes. However, they still have
difficulties in these roles. On the contrary, of 8 teacher’s roles, 87.5% of teachers

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considered that the teacher’s roles in their as a controller, prompter (75%), participant
(75%) and assessor (62.5%). This means that the teachers at TT3 high school have used
their roles in English language classes but they find some roles difficult to apply in their
English classes. If the English language teacher acts these roles well, students will obtain
what they need through various learning activities. So understanding of the difficult roles
of teachers help teachers adjust to make it suitable for their students English language
proficiency. These data help the researchers see the dominant roles applied and the difficult

9
3
B
20
9
12
2
8
9
1
11
A
20
10
16
0
12
4
2
B
20
5
14
3
7
6
4
12
A
20