Master minor programme thesis English linguistics: Attitudes of Vietnamese teachers of english in universities towards world Englishes in the classroom

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The research concentrates on describing attitudes of teachers of English in Vietnamese universities, with focus on leading universities in foreign languages and international studies. They are the ones with the most influence to current situation and future direction of ELT in Vietnam.

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Nội dung Text: Master minor programme thesis English linguistics: Attitudes of Vietnamese teachers of english in universities towards world Englishes in the classroom

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES **************** DƢƠNG HUYỀN THẮM ATTITUDES OF VIETNAMESE TEACHERS OF ENGLISH IN UNIVERSITIES TOWARDS WORLD ENGLISHES IN THE CLASSROOM (THÁI ĐỘ CỦA GIẢNG VIÊN TIẾNG ANH Ở CÁC TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CỦA VIỆT NAM VỀ WORLD ENGLISHES TRONG LỚP HỌC) M.A. COMBINED PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI – 2016
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES **************** DƢƠNG HUYỀN THẮM ATTITUDES OF VIETNAMESE TEACHERS OF ENGLISH IN UNIVERSITIES TOWARDS WORLD ENGLISHES IN THE CLASSROOM (THÁI ĐỘ CỦA GIẢNG VIÊN TIẾNG ANH Ở CÁC TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CỦA VIỆT NAM VỀ WORLD ENGLISHES TRONG LỚP HỌC) M.A. COMBINED PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Đỗ Thị Thanh Hà, PhD. HANOI – 2016
CERTIFICATE OF AUTHORSHIP This is to certify that the thesis entitled ―Attitudes of Vietnamese teachers of English in universities toward World Englishes in the classroom” has been written by me and the work in it has not previously been submitted for a degree. In addition, I also certify that all information sources and literature have been indicated in the thesis. Hanoi, August 2016 Dƣơng Huyền Thắm i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express the deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Đỗ Thị Thanh Hà, for her invaluable encouragement and useful comments and advice during the whole process of this master thesis. Without her immense help, this study could not have been completed. Also, I am thankful to all my lecturers at Faculty of Post Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, VNU for their great support and suggestions. Finally, my special thanks go to my beloved family and friends for their love, care and support during my MA course, especially on the completion of this thesis. Hanoi, August 2016 Dƣơng Huyền Thắm ii
ABSTRACT The growth of English worldwide has led to the emergence of English as a Lingua Franca (EFL) in English Language Teaching (ELT). This study concentrates on cognitive and behavioral aspects of teachers‘ attitude towards ESL and EFL A questionnaire was delivered to 111 teachers from seven state universities in Vietnam; a semi-structured interview then was carried out with eleven volunteer teachers. Data reveal the following phenomena which apply for both Outer and Expanding Circle varieties. First, the vast majority of Vietnamese teachers are aware of English varieties and/or implications of EFL/EIL in TESOL. Second, they express a positive opinion towards both Outer Circle and Expanding Circle varieties of English and the introduction of them to students. They also believe that it is important to introduce these varieties. Finally, the study indicates that teachers are likely to introduce these varieties to students but it depends on many variables. Implications of this study are expected to be beneficial for researchers, educators, and policy makers in ELT, especially in ELT in Vietnam, iii
LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Number of participants in each university Table 2: Biographic Information of Participants Table 3: Vietnamese students will use English to communicate more often with Table 4: Outer Circle varieties are wrong English Table 5: Outer Circle varieties of English should be introduced to students. Table 6: Importance of being aware of Outer circle varieties of English Table 7: Likeliness of introducing Outer varieties of English to students Table 8: How teachers would introduce Outer circle varieties to students Table 9: Expanding Circle varieties are wrong English Table 10: Expanding Circle varieties of English should be introduced to students. Table 11: Importance of being aware of Expanding circle varieties of English Table 12: Outer vs. Expanding Table 13: Likeliness of introducing Expanding Circle varieties of English to students Table 14: How teachers would introduce Expanding Circle varieties to students iv
LIST OF FIGURES AND CHARTS Figure 1: The Kachru‘s Circle Figure 2: The Kachru‘s Circle revised Figure 3: The British Empire at its greatest extend Table 1: Number of participants in each university Chart 1: Varieties of English teachers are teaching Chart 2: Vietnamese students will use English to communicate more often with Chart 3: Outer Circle varieties are wrong English Chart 4: Outer Circle varieties of English should be introduced to students. Chart 5: Importance of being aware of Outer Circle varieties of English Chart 6: Likeliness of introducing Outer Circle varieties of English to students Chart 7: Expanding Circle varieties are wrong English Chart 8: Expanding Circle varieties of English should be introduced to students. Chart 9: Importance of being aware of Expanding circle varieties of English Chart 10: Likeliness of introducing Expanding Circle varieties of English to students v
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS WEs World Englishes ELT English Language Teaching ENL English as a Native Language ESL English as a Second Language EFL English as a Foreign Language EIL English as an International Language ELF English as a Lingua Franca NS Native speaker NNS Non-native speaker TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF AUTHORSHIP ....................................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... ii ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... iv LIST OF FIGURES AND CHARTS ................................................................................. v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................ vii Chapter I - INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 1 Chapter II: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................ 4 2.1. An Overview of World Englishes ........................................................................... 4 2.1.1. The Concept of World Englishes ...................................................................... 4 2.1.2. Models of World Englishes and Kachru's Circle ............................................... 5 2.1.3 The past, present, and future of English worldwide ........................................... 9 2.1.4. English in South East Asia ............................................................................. 13 2.1.5 The implications of World Englishes for ELT ................................................. 16 2.1.6. ELT in Vietnamese context ............................................................................ 20 2.2. Attitude and the importance of studies on attitude ................................................. 22 2.2.1. Concept, components, and measurement of attitude ....................................... 22 2.2.2 The importance of studies on attitude .............................................................. 24 2.3. Overview of previous researches on attitude toward WEs ..................................... 25 2.3.1. Studies on attitude toward WEs ...................................................................... 25 2.3.2. Studies on attitude toward WEs in Vietnam.................................................... 27 2.4. Concluding remarks .............................................................................................. 28 Chapter III: Research Methodology ................................................................................. 30 3.1 Research questions ................................................................................................ 30 3.2. Participants ........................................................................................................... 30 3.3. Data collection procedure ..................................................................................... 32 3.3.1. Survey ........................................................................................................... 32 3.3.2. Interview ........................................................................................................ 34 Chapter IV: Findings and Discussion ............................................................................... 36 4.1. Attitudes towards Outer Circle varieties ................................................................ 36 vii
4.1.1. Cognitive attitude ........................................................................................... 39 4.1.2. Behavioral attitude ......................................................................................... 44 4.2. Attitudes towards Expanding Circle varieties ........................................................ 46 4.2.1. Cognitive attitude ........................................................................................... 46 4.2.2. Behavioral attitude ......................................................................................... 53 Chapter V: CONCLUSION ............................................................................................. 60 5.1. Conclusion............................................................................................................ 60 5.2. Recommendation .................................................................................................. 63 5.3. Limitations of the study ........................................................................................ 64 REFERENCES................................................................................................................ 66 APPENDIXES ................................................................................................................... I viii
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Chapter I - INTRODUCTION English has become the international language which performs the role of a lingua franca for global communication. The number of non-native speakers of English exceeds that of native speakers. Braine (2006) estimated that ―80 per cent of the English speakers in the world are non-native English speakers.” Together with this phenomenon is the rise in number of countries which adopt English as a Second/Foreign language and use it in the new era and influence it in their own way. As a result, English has been transformed into Englishes (i.e. different varieties of English) and non-native speakers of English are predicted to ―decide the global future of the language” (Crystal 2000, p.10). World Englishes refers to at least two senses: Englishes of different areas in the world (the Caribean, East, South, and West Africa, and Asia, etc.) and the field of study Englishes worldwide (Bolton & Kachru 2005). Since its background was constructed by Kachru, Crystal, Bolton, Jenkins, and other scholars several decades ago, a considerable number of researchers have contributed to the recognition of World Englishes and its study. Thus, the field of World Englishes has been expanded with new branches and more interest from scholars such as Jenkins, Seidlhofer, Firth, etc. on Phonetics and Phonology, Pragmatics, Lexicogrammar; Jenkins, Matsuda, Timmis, etc. on teachers‘ and learners‘ attitude, and so on. Teachers‘ and learners‘ attitude is one of the key factors that contribute to shape the future of English language teaching and learning of a country, as Kachru & Nelson stated: ―It is essential for us to have more sociolinguistic information about the attitudes towards, and domains and functions of English in each context, especially as the use of English intersects with local languages. Users‘ and 1
policy-makers‘ attitudes have impacts on the domains and functions of the language, and all three — attitudes, domains and functions — together determine the future developments in nativization and acculturation of the medium.‖ (Kachru & Nelson 2011, p.323) Therefore, attitudes have attracted attention from a great number of researchers in different countries, such as Chiba, Matsuura, & Yamamoto (1995), Kawanami & Kawanami (2009), and Tokuboto & Shibata (2011) on Japanese‘s attitude. Another example is Ahn (2014) on Korean‘s. However, a small number of studies have been done on attitude of Vietnamese teachers and learners toward World Englishes. In Vietnam, English has become the primary foreign language and the teaching and learning of English is encouraged by the government all over the country. Therefore, the number of Vietnamese with the ability to speak English has been significantly increased. However, few researches have been done about the English of Vietnamese, which belongs to The Expanding Circle in Kachru‘s model of English, or attitude of Vietnamese towards Englishes. This study, based on background theory and researches on attitude towards different varieties of English in other countries, aims to fill in the gap in the study of the attitudes towards World Englishes in Vietnam. It is an attempt to describe the attitudes of Vietnamese university teachers of English towards the introduction of World Englishes into English teaching and learning in Vietnam. Therefore, the results of this study would contribute to the description of what Vietnamese teachers think about the introduction of World Englishes to their students. Findings of the research would also have implications on ELT in Vietnam in terms of the teaching and learning of EIL. Last but not 2
least, it would provide empirical evidence to support or decline results of previous researches on attitudes of Vietnamese teachers and students, for example, Ton & Pham (2012), Ngo (2012), Tran & Moor (2015). The research concentrates on describing attitudes of teachers of English in Vietnamese universities, with focus on leading universities in foreign languages and international studies. They are the ones with the most influence to current situation and future direction of ELT in Vietnam. The goal of the research is interpreted into two research questions as following: 1. What are attitudes of Vietnamese university teachers of English towards the introduction of Outer Circle varieties of English to their students? 2. What are attitudes of Vietnamese university teachers of English towards the introduction of Expanding Circle varieties of English to their students? The thesis has the following chapters: Chapter I: INTRODUCTION, presents statement of the problem and rationale for the study, aims, scope, significance, and outline of the study. Chapter II: LITERATURE REVIEW, clarifies theoretical background and related studies relevant for the research. Chapter III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY, elicits information related to research questions, research methods, data collection, data procedure, and data analysis. Chapter IV: FINDINGS AND DISSCUSION includes the core of the study. Their results of the survey and interview will be presented and discussed to describe teachers‘ cognitive and behavioral attitude. Chapter V: CONCLUSION, summarizes essential findings, provides some linguistic and pedagogical implications, and gives suggestions for further studies. Besides, there are REFERENCES and APPENDIXES at the end of the research. 3
Chapter II: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. An Overview of World Englishes 2.1.1. The Concept of World Englishes World Englishes (WEs), also alternatively used in singular form by a number of scholars, has been used to present a number of concepts. Different scholars suggest and favor different terms which are often duplicated and overlapping, though confusions and misinterpretations are probably limited as Jenkins (2006) pointed out. For example, World English(es), Global English(es), English as an International Language, English as Global Language, etc. This section, therefore, is an attempt to briefly summarize them and identify one that would be the most appropriate and beneficial for purposes of this paper. Bolton (2006, p.241) summarized three major interpretations of WEs among “a plethora of terminology”. First, the notion of WEs includes ―a wide range of differing approaches to the description and analysis of English(es) worldwide.” In other words, WEs in this broad sense refers to different varieties of English worldwide and the branch of research on issues related to them. Second, the term specifies varieties of English in former British colonies including English in the Caribbean, West and East Africa, and some countries and territories in Asia. This sense is regularly used in both research works of the field, such as in Jenkins (2006), and teaching methods publications, such as Celce-Murcia et. al. (2014). Within the scope of this terminology, WEs refers to the varieties of English which are also indicated as ―New Englishes‖ by scholars such as Crystal (1997, 2003) and Schneider (2011), as Kachru‘s ―Outer Circle‖, or as English as a Second Language (ESL). 4
Third, WEs is used to describe the “pluricentric approach” (Jenkins 2006, p. 159) of Kachru and the Kachruvian scholars. This approach inclusively explores aspects of global Englishes with respect to their diversities. To serve the purposes of this research, the researcher would like to adopt the term WEs to refer to varieties of English in former British colonies and in countries where English is used as a foreign language. That means Kachru‘s Outer and Expanding Circle, or ESL and EFL. Other terms such as non-native varieties of English would also be used simultaneously. 2.1.2. Models of World Englishes and Kachru's Circle English has spread to almost every part of the world together with the rapid globalization and industrialization of the world‘s economy. It has been globalized and become the lingua franca for the purpose of international communications. Meanwhile, it has also been localized by a growing number of speakers and their cultures; thus different varieties of English, or Englishes, were created. Scholars hold different opinions toward the glocalization of English; however, Englishes flourish and attempts to distinguish them have yet withered away. Native vs. Non-native The most commonly-known model of Englishes is probably the Native – Non-native model which categorize Englishes into English as a Native Language (ENL), English as a Second Language (ESL), and English as a Foreign Language (EFL). This model, based on the ―long-asserted requirement of exposure in early childhood‖ (Kachru &Nelson, 2011), is a pioneer attempt to differentiate Englishes. 5
 ENL refers to English in countries where English is used by the majority of population as the primary language for every aspect of life, for example, The United Kingdom and The United States.  ESL is the varieties of English in countries where English is used as an important language in communication. In those countries, English could be the official language (for instance, Singapore) or not (for example, Malaysia).  EFL, which has highest number of speaker, refers to varieties of English in countries where English is used primarily in education and international communication. In everyday situations, a native language is in charge. It does have, however, its own issues. The first one is that it suggests a sense of superiority of ENL over ESL and EFL (Kirkpatrick 2007), and apparently, also ESL over EFL. This distinction also affects the learners‘ advance contact with English, learners‘ expectation of success, average level of achievement, and learners‘ and teachers‘ goals for success (Strevens, 1992, cited in Kachru & Nelson, 2011, p. 26). Kachru’s Model of World Englishes, or Kachru’s Circle Based on ―types of spread, the patterns of acquisition and the functional domains in which English is used across cultures and languages (B. Kachru (1985, p.12), he proposed a model of World Englishes in which he divided Englishes into the Inner Circle, the Outer Circle, and the Expanding Circle. 6
Fig. 1: The Kachru‘s Circle, cited in Graddol (2007, p. 100) Kachru himself, as cited in Kirkpatrick (2007, p.28), explained his Circle as followed. First, Inner Circle includes “traditional cultural and linguistic bases of English,” like British English, American English, etc. Second, Outer Circle indicates “institutionalized non-native varieties in the regions that have passed through extended period of colonization,” for example, South Africa, Malaysia, India, etc. Finally, Expanding Circle refers to English in countries where it is used “essentially in EFL context.” In other words, English is used primarily in educational context and in global communication (Schneider, 2011); and another language (in this case is the native language) plays its irreplaceable role in everyday life situations. The Kachru‘s Circle is probably the most influential model by far for researchers of World Englishes. One advantage of this model over the Native – Non-native one is that it does not suggest inequality among varieties of English (Kachru & Nelson, 2011; Kirkpatrick, 2007). This implication of 7
equality, as stated by Schneider (2011, p. 32), contributes to the increase of “self-confidence in localized varieties of English and strongly influenced language teaching and applied linguistics.” In fact, through recognition and description of English in pluralistic context, it proposes and enhances the diversities of English. This model, on the other hand, has its limitations as varieties of English changes together with its rapid expansion. For example, a number of researchers (Graddol, 2007; Jenkins, 2008; Schneider, 2011) stated that the boundary among circles has been blurred and the Circle has failed to take into account growing phenomena like bilingualism. Kachru, therefore, proposed a revised model of Englishes based solely on user‘ proficiency of English. Fig. 2: The Kachru‘s Circle revised, cited in Graddol (2007, p. 100) However, this revised model has not received plethora of applications in the field; thus not as influential as its old version. Generally, multiple models of English varieties have been proposed and discussed. However, the two model summarized above are the most common and influential ones to scholars of the field. To serve the purposes of this study, the researcher would like to adopt the Kachru‘s Circle of Inner, 8
Outer, and Expanding Circle. First, this model categorizes Englishes varieties and proposes equality while retaining diversity as well as the culture associated with them, which other models such as the revised version has failed to describe. Second, its disadvantages is not a considerable hindrance because the study does not particularly involve with bilingualism. Finally, World Englishes/Global English(es) is a new concept to many of the teachers in Vietnam; therefore, this model, which based on the ENL-ESL-EFL model would become more familiar to them. 2.1.3 The past, present, and future of English worldwide This section provides a brief review of the historical background for the spread of English worldwide and description of current situations and predictions about the future of English. The spread of English worldwide Crystal (2003, p.59) addressed two primary elements for the current status of English as a global language: the expansion of the British colonial power and the emergence of the United States as the leading economic power. The spread of English globally started in the 16th century along with the expansion of the British Empire to North America, the Caribbean, and Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, South Asia, and South East Asia. Fig. 3: The British Empire at its greatest extend (Schneider 2011, p. 50) 9