Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemGestures : improving spoken English for Vietnamese tertiary learners of English in Vietnam( 2004)This study investigates the use of co-speech gestures by Vietnamese tertiary learners of English, and the communicative effects of their use of gesture on Vietnamese and native speakers of English. A group of volunteer Vietnamese students were videoed performing three speech acts in English: a monologue, a conversation and a discussion. Two groups of English teachers - one Vietnamese and one American - viewed these performances. The viewers' free and guided responses to each performance were elicited through questionnaires and attitude surveys. Responses were categorised, grouped and frequencies of each were compared to show common trends and differences in their views of the students' body movements and gestures. The types and frequencies of each speaker's gestures were extracted from the videotapes, and looked at in the light of the viewers' free and guided responses. From this, the acceptability of the students' gesture use on the viewers was drawn. The findings of this study show that, with respect to the first part of the enquiry, (i) the students involved all used a range of gestures when speaking English; (ii) students at a lower level of proficiency used Beats and Adaptors more than students at a high level of proficiency; and the male students tended to use more gestures than the females. With respect to the second part of the enquiry, the study shows (i) students' gesture use was generally acceptable to both groups of viewers; (ii) overuse of certain types of gestures, or lack of gestures, were noticed by both groups and aroused negative responses from them both; (iii) native speakers were more strongly negative towards these perceived errors than the Vietnamese viewers were. The study concludes that, contrary to some impressions, Vietnamese students speaking English are physically quite active, albeit males more so than females, but with most meeting a threshold of acceptability from local and native speaker viewers. However, filling gaps in fluency with repeated non-illustrative movements such as Beats, has a negative effect, especially on native speakers.
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ItemTrained in the West, teaching in the East: Vietnamese teachers returning from TESOL courses abroad( 2004)This thesis investigates the beliefs, knowledge and implementation of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) by three Vietnamese teachers of English who have studied in postgraduate TESOL courses in the West. Data were collected through extensive conversations with the teachers, classroom observations and interviews with students. The teachers espoused the communicative theory, but they were doubtful and confused as to how it could be realised in practice. Although they were aware of the need to adapt rather than simply adopt CLT techniques that they had learnt, they lacked the confidence and knowledge to generate independent practices. As a result, they tended to realise only a surface manifestation of CLT through activities such as pair and group work and information gap. In their attempt to use CLT, the teachers made surface changes - changes in activities, practices and materials - rather than deeper changes in beliefs and values concerning the teaching and learning process. The result was dissatisfaction as the surface practices failed due to systemic, cultural, and personal constraints. The findings of this investigation suggest that if CLT is to be used in Vietnam, a new way of defining CLT and an adequate theory of action for Vietnamese teachers need to be articulated. Such a redefinition would represent not only common Western individualist values such as learner choice, autonomy and participation but also the more communal values pertaining to Vietnamese society. At the same time, Vietnamese teachers need to become cognizant of, and make necessary adjustments to their more traditional beliefs, to develop a deeper understanding of new possibilities in teaching approaches. To do this successfully they will need to engage in on-going debate and exchange with their peers.