8 TH ASIA TEFL CONFERENCE 6-8 AUGUST, 2010, HANOI, VIETNAM

1. 8TH ASIA TEFL CONFERENCE6-8 AUGUST, 2010, HANOI, VIETNAM Saturday, 6th August 2010

2. Exploring teachers’ beliefs through interview and stimulated recall: Sociocultural issues in Vietnam Le Van Canh Hanoi University of International Studies and Languages Roger Barnard University of Waikato, New Zealand

3. Exploring teachers’ beliefs(Borg, 2006) • Curricular innovations are often imposed on teachers. • If reforms are to be successful, it is necessary to understand what teachers know and believe. • For example, about the role of grammar in language teaching and learning • The question is – how can one get inside teachers’ minds? • By investigating a few teachers through a case study.

4. Case study (Dörnyei, 2007; Duff, 2008) • “It offers rich and in-depth insights that no other method can yield, allowing researchers to examine how an intricate set of circumstances come together and interact in shaping the social world around us.”(Dörnyei, 2007, p. 155). • “to ascertain selected participants’ perspectives on their actions or behaviours” (Duff, 2008, p. 141). • “The advantage of studying people with whom one is already familiar is that access and informed consent are easier to obtain (Duff, 2008, p. 116).

5. The present study • Setting: a specialised high school in a provincial town • Participants: 8 (out of 10) teachers in • Time frame: 12 months • Practical factors: • Travelling to and from the school from Hanoi • Teachers ‘ limited time and availability • Researcher’s other duties • Unexpected factors (weather, illness, etc)

6. The research cycle • To investigate the relationship between beliefs and practice, project used the following procedures: • Questionnaire to elicit attitudes • Interview to explore beliefs • Observation to see what happens in practice • Stimulated recall to gain teachers’ reflections • Focus groups to co-construct understanding

7. Interview: What is it? (Richards, 2009) • A conversation, usually, one-to-one, to elicit information wanted by the interviewer. • Structured • An oral questionnaire • Semi-structured • A more open-ended conversation • Unstructured • a completely open conversation

8. Semi-structured interview: Why? • More natural and can provide more in-depth information than a questionnaire. • interviewees have the freedom to talk in an open-ended manner in a supportive and non-evaluative environment (Borg, 2006). • The researcher is able to probe issues in depth by following up comments made by the interviewee. • Unexpected , and interesting, issues may arise. • It may help the interviewee • by allowing his/her voiced to be heard (with interest).

9. Interviewing: Issues • How many topics? • How long? • Where and when to interview? • What language to use? Why? • How to record the interview data? • How to establish rapport? • How to probe to get below the surface?

10. Conducting an interview • Starting the interview • Reflecting the speaker’s comments • Interrupting the speaker • Focussing the speaker’s attention • Thematising what the speaker says • Disclosing the interviewer’s experience/point of view • Concluding the interview

11. Stimulated recall: What is it? (Gass & Mackey, 2000) • A focussed discussion between the researcher and a teacher after an observed lesson. • It is important to get the teacher to recall issues accurately. • The teacher’s memory (recall) is stimulated by: • a audio- or video-recording, or • by field notes, or • annotated lesson plans, or • transcript

12. Stimulated recall: Why? • An observer of a lesson can only see behaviour – not the meanings and intentions of the teacher. • To obtain the teacher’s perspective of key events/decisions/interactions in the lesson. • It is necessary to have a minimum time-span between the lesson and the recall session (Gass & Mackey 2000) while the teacher’s mind is still fresh. • This must be done “in a relatively free and open-ended manner” (Borg, 2006, p. 210). • However, it must bed carefully planned (Borg, 2006).

13. Stimulated recall: Issues • 1. How soon after the lesson? • 2. Where? • 3. How long? • 4. Which stimulus? • 5. How to (re) establish rapport • 6. Whether to record the discussion

14. Grammar teaching: Teacher’s views (translated from Vietnamese) • I think in Vietnam the pupils do not have adequate conditions for language learning. They just learn the language inside the classroom, therefore they need to learn grammar. If you just let them use the language for communication without knowing grammar, who do they communicate with? If, for example, they are in the environment where they hear people speaking English frequently, they can imitate them, but here such an opportunity is almost non-existent (T5. I1.23). • Without grammar, pupils would put words together in an ungrammatical way without knowing how to put them in the right order” (T7. I1.25). • Saying that teaching communicative skills without teaching grammar is ungrounded. Without being taught grammar, pupils, at best, can speak pidginized English (T2. I1.02).

15. Grammar teaching: Students’ expectations(translated from Vietnamese) • I think the pupils prefer learning grammar. They are unwilling to learn to speak. In my afternoon lessons, I try to teach them language skills, but they insist that I should teach them grammar. They value it [grammar] more (T4. I2.25). • After each grammar lesson, the pupils seem more satisfied because they have gained something visible while their gains in the skills lessons are more abstract. On the surface, the skills lessons may be exciting, but pupils are just attentive to noting down [grammar] rules in their notebooks, viewing them as their own assets. (T2. I3.68). • The new syllabus allocates only one class period for grammar and pronunciation. That’s why the overwhelming majority of the pupils are interested in learning grammar only (T1. I2.10).

16. Vietnam case study: Summary • Setting • Procedures • Participants • Time frame • Practical factors

17. Implications • Getting willing participation • Practical and technical issues • The value of interviews • The usefulness of stimulated recall sessions • The overall findings • Implications for other studies in Vietnam

18. References • Borg, S. (2006). Teacher cognition and language education. Research and practice. London, England: Continuum. • Dörnyei, Z. (2007). Research methods in applied linguistics. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. • Duff. P.A. (2008) Case study in applied linguistics. New York, NY: Routledge. • Gass, S. M. & Mackey, A. (2000). Stimulated recall methodology in second language research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publisher. • K. Richards (2009) Interviewing. In J. Heigham & R.A. Croker (Eds.), Qualitative research in applied linguistics: A practical introduction (pp.182-199). Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan.