Đề tài A study on some major factors affecting English learning of grade 6 ethnic minority students of a mountainous secondary school to help them learn better

CHAPETR 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1. Rationale It is undeniable that English is one of the major languages in the world. It links people in many fields: science, technology, business, communication, education, etc. Nowadays, English is popular enough to be spoken at every corner of the world. Therefore, teaching and learning English have become the necessity in every country. In Vietnam, English is one of the foreign languages that are compulsory from primary school to university. However, there are differences in English learning results among students from different minorities as well as different areas. Teaching English to ethnic minority students in the remote and mountainous areas of Northern Vietnam has long been a controversial issue. In Sonla, it is a fact that there exists a big gap between students in towns and students from minorities in mountainous areas. . Minority students in mountainous schools are considered to learn English not so well as those in towns. What factors can affect their learning process is my question for that problem. Hence, I have chosen that topic for my thesis namely “A study on some major factors affecting English learning of grade 6 ethnic minority students of a mountainous secondary school to help them learn better”. I hope that this research can give a few benefits to teachers, students and people concerned about this field. 2. Hypothesis Up to now, there are many factors affecting English learning of grade 6th minority students, and different factors affect them in different ways and different levels. 3. Objectives of the study The main objectives of this study are as follows: To identify the present situation of teaching and learning English of teachers and grade 6th minority students at Phỏng Lập secondary school. To find out some major factors affecting their English leaning . To find out which the most important factors are and which the least ones are. To give some suggested solutions, which could be useful for teachers and learners in teaching and leaning English at mountainous secondary schools. 4. Scope of the study For the limitation of time, conditions, and materials, this study only focuses on some major factors affecting English learning of some grade 6 ethnic minority students at Phong Lap secondary school. In addition, this thesis is also carried out on some teachers of English in this school which can help us to see some major factors affecting English learning to grade 6 students in this school more obviously. 5. Methods of the study Carrying out this research, the following methods have been used: Theoretical study Survey (questionnaire) Interview Class observation 6. Research questions In the thesis, the following questions will be answered. What is the present English learning situation of grade 6 ethnic minority students at Phong Lap secondary school? What are some major factors affecting their English learning ? What are the most and the least important ones? What are suggested solutions to the study? 7. Overview of the study The study concludes five main following chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Literature review Chapter 3: Data collection and analysis Chapter 4: Major findings and discussions Chapter 5: Conclusion CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. Introduction This chapter involves different issues in the theories of second language learning: definitions of language acquisition and theoretical background of language learning factors in specific such as intelligence, personality, learning strategies, teaching strategies, attitudes and motivation as well as environment and context of learning. 2.2. Definitions of language acquisition “Language acquisition is one of the most impressive and fascinating aspects of human development” (Lightbown, P.M & Spada, N. 1999). Up to now, there have been many definitions of language acquisition. This term is most often used interchangeable with language learning. In their study, they show that according to Krashen, S. (1982), acquisition represents “unconscious” learning, which takes place when attention is focused on meaning rather than language form. In website on February 28th, 2008, Second language acquisition is the process by which people learn a second language in addition to their native language. The term “second language” is used to describe the acquisition of any language after the acquisition of the mother tongue. There is also research into the similarities and differences of third language acquisition. The term “language acquisition” becomes more commonly used after Krashen, S. (1982) contrasted it with formal and non-constructive “learning”. However, second language acquisition has become established as the preferred term for this academic discipline. Though second language acquisition is often viewed as part of applied linguistics, it is typically concerned with the language system and learning process themselves, whereas applied linguistic may focus more on the experiences of the learners, particularly those in the classroom. Additionally, second language acquisition has mostly examined naturalistic acquisition, where learners acquire a language with little formal training or teaching. 2.3. Theoretical background of language learning factors “Many of us believe that learners have certain characteristics which lead to more or less successful language learning”, (Lightbown, P.M & Spada, N. 1999). There are many factors affecting language learning of the learners. Weiner, B. (qtd. in Williams, M. & Burden, R.L. 1997: 105) suggested that, on the whole, people tend to refer to four main sets of attributions for their perceived success and failures in life: ability, effort, luck, the perceived difficulty of the task with which they are faced. In other field, Spolsky, B. (1998) shows us many other factors: attitude, intelligence, aptitude, learning strategies, personality, material, motivation, memory, training strategies, social context. Many other researchers agree that they can be divided into two groups: internal factors and external factors. Weiner, B. (qtd. in Williams, M. & Burden, R.L. 1997) saw that internal factors arise from inside and external ones are from the outside the learners. For the limitation of time, this study just focuses on some major factors, which have more effects on language learning of the ethnic minority learners of grade 6 in remote mountainous areas in Sonla. 2.3.1. Intelligence It is claimed that intelligence and language proficiency are more or less the same thing (Oller, 1981) (qtd. in Spolsky, B. 1998). This argument follows from his claim for the existence of a general factor in language proficiency and the high correlation of IQ score with the results of language tests. The term “intelligence” has traditionally been used to refer to performance on certain kinds of tests. These tests are often associated with success in school, and a link between intelligence and second language learning (Lightbown, P.M & Spada, N. 1999). In Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learner (2002), intelligence is defined as “the ability to understand and think about things, and to gain and use the knowledge”. Intelligence is inside learners’ mind, helps people think in the best way. Accordingly, IQ (Intelligence quotient) is a number that represents a person’s intelligence, based on the results of a particular type of test. Some people say that the high IQ scores are good predicators of performance on the more academic, literacy-based measures. Intelligence can be divided into seven groups (qtd. in Brown, H.D. 1994): Linguistic intelligence Logical-mathematical intelligence Spatial intelligence (the ability to find your way around an environment, to form mental images of reality) Musical intelligence (the ability to perceive and create pitch and rhythmic patterns) Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence (fine motor movement, athletic powerness) Interpersonal intelligence (the ability to understand others, how they feel and to interact effectively with them) Intrapersonal intelligence (the ability to understand oneself and to develop a sense of self-identify) It is important to keep in mind that “intelligence” is complex and that individuals have many kinds of abilities and strengths, not all of which are measured by traditional IQ tests. “In our experience, many learners whose academic performance has been weak have experienced considerable success in second language learning” (Brown, H.D. 1994). Different people have different kind of intelligence; as a result, have different kind of strength in the life. So when learners know about their strength, they can easily get success in language learning. 2.3.2. Personality characteristics Second language acquisition is defined as the learning and adopting of a language that is not your native language. Once you have acquired a foreign language, you have mastered that language. Second language acquisition may be more difficult for some people than the others. A number of personality characteristics has been proposed as likely to affect second language learning. However, it has not been easy to demonstrate their effects in empirical studies as different studies measuring a similar personality trait produce different results. For example, it is often argued that an extravert (or an unreserved and outgoing person) acquired second language better than an introvert did. Nevertheless, research does not always support this conclusion. Another aspect of personality that has been studied is inhibition. It has been suggested that inhibition discourages risk- taking, which is necessary for progress in language learning. Several other personality characteristics such as self-esteem, empathy, dominance, talkativeness and responsiveness have also been studied. Researchers have shown that personality variables may be a major factor in acquisition of conversational skills, not in acquisition of literacy skills. Despite the contradictory results and the problems involved in carrying out research in the area of personality characteristics, many researchers believe that personality will be shown to have an important influence on success in language learning. This relationship is a complex one, however, in that it is not probably personality alone, but the way in which it combines with other factors that contributes to second language learning. 2.3.3 Learning strategies Successful second language learners are usually people who know how to manipulate strategy levels in their day-to-day encounters with the language. Learning strategies, according to Spolsky, B. (1998:108), are terms to describe identifiable individual approaches to learning situation. Specially, Kneefe (qtd. in Spolsky, B. (1998:108) defines learning strategies as “cognitive and physiological traits that are relatively stable indications of how learners perceive, interact with, and respond to the learning environment”. William, M. & Burden, R.L. (1997: 145) add “A learning strategy is like to tactic used by a player. It is a series of skills used with a particular learning purpose in mind. Thus, learning strategies involve an ability to monitor the learning situation and respond accordingly. This means being able to assess the situation, to plan, to select appropriate skills, to sequence them, to co-ordinate them, to monitor or assess their effectiveness and to revise the plan when necessary. Learning strategies are divided into four groups by Hedge, T. (2000): cognitive, metacognitive, communication, and socio-affective strategies. Cognitive strategies: are thought processes used directly in learning, which enable learners to deal with the information presented in task by working on it in different ways. Examples of other cognitive strategies are repetition (i.e. imitating a model), writing things down, an inferencing (i.e. making guesses about the form or meaning of a new language item). Metacognitive strategies: involve planning for learning, thinking about learning and how to make it effective, self-monitoring during learning and evaluation of how successful learning has been after working on language on some ways. For example, when the learners preview the teacher’s comments on their written work, or review the notes they have made during class, they are using metacognitive strategies. Communication strategies: when the learners used gesture, mine, synonym, paraphrases, and cognate words from their first language to make themselves understood and to maintain conversation, despite the gaps in the knowledge of the second language, they are using communication strategies. The value of these is that they keep learners involves in conversations through which they practice the language. Socio-affective strategies: provide the learners with opportunities for practice. Examples include imitating conversations with native speakers, using other people as informants about the language, collaborating on tasks, listening to the radio or watching TV programmers in the language, or spending extra time in the language laboratory etc. Williams, M. & Burden, R.L. (1997:144) indicate that most of us have probably used some or all of the following strategies in learning a foreign language: Repeating words over again Listening attentively to try to distinguish works Trying to work out the rules of the language by forming hypothesis about how it works Testing yourself to see if you remember words Guessing the meanings of unknown words Using your head what you are about to say Practicing the sounds of the language to yourself Asking a speaker to repeat something Pretending that you understand in order to keep the communication going These are some strategies that people use to succeed in the complex task of learning a language. Good language learners, as suggested in Hedge, T. (2000), are people who: Find their own way taking change of their learning Organize information about language Are creative developing a “feel” for the language by experimenting with its grammars and words Make their own opportunities for practice in using the language inside and outside the classroom Use mnemonics and other memory strategies to recall what have been learnt Use contextual cues to help them in comprehension Learn to make intelligent guesses Learn certain tricks that help to keep conversation going Learn different styles of speech and writing and learn their language according to the formality of the situation, etc. “Learning strategies include both general approaches to studying language and specific techniques or study habit” (Chandrasegaran, A., 1981). A learner’s approach to language study is determined by how he sees language learning. He may see it as habit formation or as the discovery of a rule system. The approach he adopts will influence his choice of learning techniques: whether they are inferencing, inductive learning of linguistic patterns memorization of sentences, pattern practice etc. It is said that learning strategies are very important. It ups to the learners from different “cultures” use strategies in different ways. If the learners choose suitable strategies with the teacher’s help, they will get success in language learning. 2.3.4. Attitude and motivation Attitude and motivation factors play a crucial role in second and foreign language learning. Gardner, R.C and Lambert, W.E. (1972) indicate that affective factors, including attitude and motivation, have statistically independent and significant relationship with foreign language learning achievement. Attitude and motivation have a close relationship, “A learner’s attitudes affect the development of motivation” (Spolsky, B. 1998:23). Before understanding about the learners’ motivations, the attitude should be made clear. There are many different definitions about language attitudes. Language attitudes are defined as the “attitudes which speakers of different languages or language varieties have towards each other’ language or their own language. Expressions of positive or negative feelings towards a language may reflect impressions of linguistic difficulty or simplicity, ease or difficulty of learning, degree of important, elegance, social status, etc. Attitudes towards a language may also show what people feel about the speakers of that language. Language attitudes may have an effect on second language or foreign language learning. The measurement of language attitudes provides information which is useful in language teaching and language planning.” (Richards, J.C; Platt, J and Platt, H. 1993: 199) In Chandrasegaran’s research (1981), attitude refers specifically to states of emotion and thought relating to the English language, to the learning of English and to the culture of English-speaking peoples. Gardner, R.C. (1985:8) adds that individual’s attitude is an evaluative reaction to some referent or attitude object, inferred on the basic of the individual’s beliefs or opinion about the reference. In practical term, an attitude is a construct derived from a subject’s answers to a number of questions about an object. Its establishment is subject to all the normal worries of the validity of the instrument used and the subject’s answers to the questions. Attitudes do not have direct influence on learning but they lead to motivation which refers to the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning a language. Gardner, R.C. and Lambert, W.E. (1959) (qtd. in Spolsky, B. 1998) suggested that an individual’s motivation to learn a second language is controlled by his attitudes toward the other group in particular and by his orientation to the task itself. In other words, motivation comes from attitude. In order to enhance students’ motivational intensity, it is necessary to know what motivation is. Motivation itself is a complex construct, as Gardner, R.C. (1985) remarks that motivation involves four aspects: a goal, effortful behavior, a desire to attain the goal and favorable attitudes towards the activity in question. These four aspects are not unidimensional. According to Williams, M. & Burden, R.L. (1997), motivation may be constructed as: a state of cognitive and emotional arousal which leads to a conscious decision to act and gives rise to a period of sustained intellectual and/or physical effort in order to attain a previously set goal (or goals). It is clear from this that motivation occurs as a result of combination of different influences. Motivation is the extent to which you make choices about goals to pursue and the effort you will devote to that pursuit (Brown, H.D. 1994). Lightbown, P.M & Spada, N. (1999) add that motivation in language learning is a complex phenomenon which can be defined in term of two factors: learners’ communicative needs and their attitudes towards the language community. Motivation in Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applies Linguistics (p.138) is the factors that determine a person’s desire to do something. In second language and foreign language learning, learning may be affected differently by different types of motivation. Two types of motivation are sometimes distinguished: (a) instrumental motivation: wanting to learn a language because it will be useful for certain instrumental goals, such as getting a job, reading a foreign newspaper, passing an examination; (b) integrative motivation : wanting to learn in order to communicate with people of other culture who speak it. It is thought that students who are most successful when learning a target language are those who like to speak that language, admire the culture and have a desire to become familiar with or even integrate into the society in which the language is used. This form of motivation is known as integrative motivation. In other words, integrative motivation is by the learners’ positive attitudes toward the target language group and the desire to integrate into the target language community. In contrast to integrative motivation is the form of motivation referred to as instrumental motivation. This is generally characterized by the desire to obtain something practical or concrete from the study of a second language. With instrumental motivation, the purpose of language acquisition is more utilitarian. It is often characteristic of language learning acquisition, where little or no social integration of the learner into a community using the target language take place, or in some instances is even desired. Motivation can also be divided into extrinsic and intrinsic ones. Brown, H.D. (1994) suggests that extrinsic motivation comes from the learner’s desire to get external reward or cognition of the peers and parents or the avoidance of punishment. Intrinsic motivation comes from the learner’s internal factors. All above definitions seem to be the case that if learners perceive a goal and if that goal is sufficiently attractive, they will be strongly motivated to do whatever necessary to reach that goal. 2.3.5. Teaching strategies The study of the effects of teaching on second language acquisition seeks to systematically measure or evaluate the effectiveness of language teaching practice. Such studies have been undertaken for every level of language, from phonetics to pragmatics and for almost every current teaching methodology. For example, Rosenshine and Furst (1973) (qtd. in Williams, M. & Burden, R. L. 1997) identified nine key factors contributing to effective teaching: clarify of presentations, teaching enthusiasm, variety of activities during lessons, achievement oriented behavior in classrooms, opportunity to learn criterion material, acknowledgement and stimulation of students’ ideas, (lack of) criticism, use of structuring comments at the beginning and during lessons, guiding of student answers. In another study of effective teaching, Brown and McIntyre (1992) (qtd. in Williams, M. & Burden, R. L. 1997) identified ten categories as representing elements of good teaching: creating a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere in the classroom, retaining control in the classroom, presenting work in an interesting and motivating way, providing conditions so pupils understand the work, making clear what people are to do and achieve, judging what can be expected of a pupil, helping pupils with difficulties, encouraging pupils to raise their expectations of themselves, developing personal, mature relationships with pupils, demonstrating personal talents or knowledge. It is impossible to summarize all the findings conducted up to now. However, we can see that teachers’ teaching strategies represent other important issue to take into account in helping students to love a subject. It is important that teachers create different alternatives to teach a lesson rather than relying on traditional books or common lecture classes. It is also important that teachers guide their students’ learning process; that means that they must know what the target to their students is and they are aiming at (which is more than acquiring knowledge). Successful learning requires that teachers not only are good managers but also have an extensive knowledge base about their subject and about learning and teaching strategies. Teachers provide help and support, so students can trust them. It does not matter if students make mistakes at the beginning because their teachers are reliable and they have good strategies like using different kinds of materials and behaving in a friendly way. With that kind of help, students will definitely begin to cover the subject and teachers’ effort. These ideas turn out to be very useful in improving a good feeling for English as a subject. 2.3.6. Environment and context of learning 2.3.6.1. Textbooks Textbooks are key components in most language program. Much of the language teaching that occurs throughout the world today could not take place without the extensive use of textbook. The use of textbooks has many advantages; some of them are pointed out as follows: They provide the structure and a syllabus for program They help standardize instruction They maintain quality They provide a variety of learning resources They are efficient They can provide effective language models and inputs They can train teachers They are visually appealing However, there are also potential negative effects. For example, they may contain inauthentic language; they may distort content; they may not reflect students’ needs; they can deskill teachers and they are expensive. 2.3.6.2. Classroom structure and climate The term “classroom structure” has come to be used in a particular way by some researchers in this field. The emphasis has been upon the ways in which learning experiences have been organized and whether one form of organization is necessarily any better than another. The main debate has been on whether learners learn better in competitive, co-operative or individualistic environments. All these three approaches have been employed effectively by language teachers. We would argue, however, that no one approach can ever be fully effective on its own. Each learner is an individual who must be helped to find his or her own way to become autonomous. Learners are also members of a social world and will need to be given opportunities to work co-operatively with others in order to be successful in such a world. At the same time, an element of healthy competition with oneself and among groups can be highly motivating in the short-term. Therefore, ways of providing a flexible structure in the language classroom which effectively incorporates all three forms of organization should be found out. Apart from structure, classroom climate is also very important in language teaching and learning. In Moos and Trickiest (1974) (qtd. in Williams, M. & Burden, R.L. 1997) it is concluded that classes oriented towards innovation and building relationships help to create learner satisfaction and interest in the subject matter. They enhance social and personal growth, but do less well in facilitating traditional achievement scores; classes which emphasize task achievement at the expense of warmth often do foster high achievement, but fare far less well in facilitating learner interest, morale or creativity; classes that are kept rigidly under the teachers’ control are more likely to lead to dissatisfaction and alienation and do not facilitate personal, social and academic growth; the best result are likely to occur when there is a combination of warmth and accomplishments and reasonably clear, orderly and well structure milieu. 2.3.6.3. School facilities We all know that clean, quiet, safe, comfortable and healthy environments are important components of successful teaching and learning. But which facility attributes affect academic outcome the most and in what manner and degree? Schneider, M. (November, 2002) suggests six categories (indoor air quality, ventilation, thermal comfort; lighting; acoustics; building age and quality; school size and class size) that have effects on English teaching and learning in particular and all other subjects in general. Poor indoor air quality (IAQ) is widespread and its effects are too important to ignore. Temperature and humidity affect IAQ in many ways, perhaps most significantly because their levels can promote or inhibit the presence of bacterial and mold. It has been found that students will perform mental tasks best in rooms kept at moderate humidity levels (40-70%) and moderate temperature in the range of 68-740F ( Harner1974, Anderson and Lundqvist 1979) (qtd. in Schneider, M. 2002). In addition, schools need especially good ventilation because children breathe a greater volume of air in proportion to their body weight than adults do. The purpose of ventilating classrooms and school buildings, at minimum, is to remove or otherwise dilute contaminants that can upside. Apart from that, classroom lighting plays a particularly critical role in students’ performance (Philip 1997) (qtd. in Schneider, M. 2002). Obviously, students cannot learn well unless lighting is adequate and there have many studies showing that appropriate lighting improves test scores, reduces off-task behavior and plays a significant role in students’ achievement. The research liking acoustics to learning is consistent and convincing: good acoustics are fundamental to good academic performance. Higher student achievement is associated with schools that have less external noise. Outside noise causes increased students’ dissatisfaction with their classroom and that excessive noise causes stress in students (Earthman and Lesmasters 1998:18) (qtd. in Schneider, M. 2002). It is also proved that there has a link between levels of classroom and reverberations to reading and listening ability, behavior, attention, concentration and achievement in children (Crandell 1991, and Crandell et al 1995) (qtd. in Schneider, M. 2002). Some other factors such as building quality, school size and class size are also discussed in many studies. They are all shown that newer and better school buildings contribute to higher students’ scores; in small school and small class students have more positive and challenging learning environment. 2.3.7. Social context Because language is primary a social mechanism, it is learnt in social contexts. Even in the learning of a first language where the biological basis is important, there is strong influence from social factors concerned with the special relation of a child and caretaker. Hymes (1972) (qtd. in Spolsky, B. 1998:131) has continually stressed the social nature of language and argues for a wider view of linguistic than one limited to the grammar of sentences. What is needed is a linguistics, which can describe whatever features of speech, proves relevant in the given case, and which can relate linguistics elements to each other in term of relationships of role, status, task, and the like. Such a linguistic requires foundations in social theory and ethnographic practice as well as in practical phonetics and grammar (Hymes, 1985) (qtd. in Spolsky, B. 1998:131). The process of the first language learning can be better understood if the social dimension is included. Social factors have even more importance in the case of second language learning because of the greater complexity of the second language. Learner’s social context and the resulting increase in its ability to cause variability. The process of language learning can be very stressful, and the impact of positive or negative attitudes from the surrounding society can be critical. Community attitudes towards the language being learnt can have a profound impact on SLA where the community has a broadly negative view of the target language and its speakers, or a negative view of its relation to them, learning is typically difficult. Other common social factors include the attitude of parents towards language study and the nature of group dynamics in the language classroom. It is believed that social context influences in SLA in two indirect but essential ways. First, it plays a major role in developing in the learner the set of attitudes towards the language being learnt, its speakers and the language learning situation that are hypothesized to influence motivation directly. Second, it determines the social provision of language learning situation and opportunities (Spolsky, B. 1998:131). 2.4. Summary This chapter has presented relevant literature, which has helped to form the theoretical framework for the study. Different definitions about second language acquisition and different language learning factors have been discussed. Through what have been mentioned in this chapter, it is important to reconfirm that in foreign language teaching process, the teachers should pay attention to many factors affecting students’ learning then solve out their problems to help the students get higher results. In the next chapter, a research will be provided to find out the effects of these mentioned factors on students’ English learning. CHAPTER 3: DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS 3.1. Introduction This chapter consists of two parts. The first part focuses on the context of the study, in which the description of aims and the participants of the study will be given. The second part is an analysis on the data from the survey questionnaire, class observation and the interview. 3.2. Context of the study 3.2.1. Aiming The main purpose of carrying out this study is to investigate the present situation of teaching and learning English in grade 6 at a remote mountainous secondary school in Sonla. Furthermore, the major factors affecting English learning of grade 6 ethnic minority students will be identified. Basing on the results collected, some suggestions which can be useful to helps the students learn English better will be given. 3.2.2. Participants The participants of my study are the 2 teachers and 50 ethnic minority students (40 Thái, 7 Kháng, 3 Xá) who are teaching and learning English in grade 6 at Phong Lap Secondary School- a school in the specially poor religion- where the newly published English book 6 is the main textbook. 3.3. Data collection 3.3.1. The IQ test The IQ test is designed to simply measure the students’ intelligence. The test, which lasts 10 minutes, has ten questions mainly focus on the linguistic and logical intelligence. 1 mark will be given to each right answer. The students’ intelligence will be measured by the scores. High Intelligent: 9-10 marks Intelligent: 7-8 marks Average: 5-6 marks Not intelligent: 3-4 marks Not intelligent at all: under 3 marks 3.3.2. Survey questionnaire To some extent, using survey questionnaire allows the researcher to collect the data needed in “quantitative form”. Besides, the researcher finds it easy to analyse and report the collected data because all informants answer the same questions. The questionnaire consists of 20 questions which belong to 7 parts. At first, the learning results of grade 6 ethnic minority students will be found in part one (question 1). Part two (question 2) aims at exploring students’ personality characteristics. Next, the social contexts will be made clear in part three (questions 3-8). In part four, by answering four questions from question 9 to 12, the students can express their motivation and attitude towards English. The students learning strategies and styles will be shown in part five (questions 13- 15). Then, students’ subjective reflection to their teachers’ teaching strategies is described in part six (questions 16-18). The final part of the questionnaire is made to find out the students’ comments on their English textbook, which can help the researcher give some suggestions later. 3.3.3. Class observation The author of the study chose classes 6A and 6C to observe. All activities, which the teachers and students were performing in real classroom settings, were watched and recorded. These enable the researcher to elicit reliable data. The observation was carried out two times for the same unit in these classes. For each class, the researcher observed a 45 minute lesson. She has set a checklist for her observation including teachers’ performances, students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ activities, their involvement in the lesson, their interaction with each other and the teacher as well as the description of learning condition and classroom facility. The lesson chosen to be observed belongs to unit 4- Big or Small, Lesson 1- A1, 2. This lesson contains a text which is a description of a school and the possessive “s” form. The content of the lesson is considered not to be very difficult. The researcher would like to observe how the teachers deal with this text and new grammatical item as well as what strategies they use to make the students interested in the lesson. 3.3.4. Teacher interview Each teacher was individually interviewed for 10 minutes by the researcher. The interviewer used a list of questions to prompt the interviewees in an effort to elicit useful information. The interview questions were designed to elicit the teachers’ attitudes towards their job, their daily work at a remote mountainous school, their teaching experiences and their ways of teaching English for minority students. These two teachers (their names shown in this study are conventional) take responsibility for 4 classes in grade 6, Ms. Phuong is in charge for class 6A and 6B, Ms. Lan is in charge for class 6C and 6D. 3.4. Data analysis This part of the thesis is the treatment of all the data collected from the IQ test, the survey questionnaire conducted on 50 grade 6 ethnic minority students, the class observations and the teacher interviews. The analysis of the data is presented in three parts: the first part is the results of the IQ test and questionnaire from students, the second part is the results of the class observations and the last part is the results from the teacher interviews. 3.4.1. Data analysis of the survey questionnaire 3.4.1.1. Students’ most recent result of English learning In secondary school, students’ result of each subject in each semester is measured by the formula below: (T1 + T2) + T3 x 2 + T4 x 2 N = M 3 (M: the result of the subject; T1: the oral test; T2: the 15- minute- test T3: the 45- minute- test; T4: the end- of term test; N: the total number of tests before the end- of- term test) The results scale: Excellent: M ≥ 8.0; Good: 6.5≤ M ≤ 7.9; Average: 5.0 ≤ M ≤ 6.4; Bad: 3.5 ≤ M ≤ 4.9; Too bad: M < 3.5 Table 1: The students’ most recent English learning results Among 50 students participated in this study, there are 32 students get Average result (64%) and 18 out of them get Bad result (36%), none of them get Excellent or Good grade as well as Too bad one. Basing on the data, one can see that the English learning quality among the minority students in this school is not very high. 3.4.1.2. Students’ personality characteristics Question 2 a b c d e f g h Frequency 6 4 9 9 15 12 5 10 % 12 8 18 18 30 24 10 20 Table 2: Students’ personality characteristics (a: open- minded, b: sociable, c: ebullient, d: active, e: self-confident, f: reserved and shy, g: quiet, h: unself-confident) Table 2 shows there is a variety in students’ personality characteristics. Many of them have certain characteristics that are considered to let them learn English better than the others. For example, 15 students are self- confident, 9 out of them are ebullient and active, 6 students are open- minded and 4 out of them are sociable while there are 12 students who are shy, only 5 out of them are quiet and 10 are unself-confident. However, as mentioned in Table 1, the data in the survey do not show the distinguished differences in their learning results. Students who are open- minded, sociable, active and self- confident either get average or bad result, and so do the reserved, shy and quiet ones. 2.4.1.3. The social context Question 3 4 5 6 7 8 Choice F % F % F % F % F % F % a 0 0 0 0 3 6 48 96 5 10 3 6 b 50 100 50 100 6 12 2 4 32 64 6 12 c 0 0 0 0 13 26 13 26 21 42 d 0 0 0 0 28 56 20 40 Total 50 100 50 100 50 100 50 100 50 100 50 100 Table 3: The social context to the students’ English learning Table 3 shows the real social factors which affect students’ English learning. Although 50 students come from three different ethnic minorities ( Thái, Kháng and Xá), all of them use the native language of Thai people to communicate in daily life in their community (questions 3,4). It can be clearly seen in question 6 that 48 students (96%) state that their parents agree to support their going to school while only 2 ones are not supported. However, because of their poor economic status, only 13 students do not have to drop out from school to help their parents to do chores, most of them (64%) have to stay at home helping their family instead of going to school occasionally and even 5 out of 50 students (10%) are usually absent from school because of housework and farm work (question 7). Questions 5 and 8 reflect the students’ parents’ different attitudes towards English and their English learning. A lot of parents encourage their children to learn English as much as they can both at home and at school. Meanwhile, there are 3 out of them do not care what language their children are learning and speaking, 6 out of them (12%) have negative attitude towards English as they think that English is not useful for their children, they need to learn and use Vietnamese fluently rather than a luxurious foreign language. 3.4.1.4. Students’ motivation and attitudes towards English Question 9 10 11 12 Choice F % F % F % F % a 11 22 28 56 10 20 6 12 b 15 30 7 14 23 46 17 34 c 23 46 25 50 16 32 25 50 d 1 2 9 18 1 2 2 4 e 17 34 f 20 40 g 6 12 h 4 8 Total 50 100 50 100 50 100 Table 4: Students’ motivation and attitudes towards English Table 4 shows the students’ motivation and attitudes towards English. Data conducted from question 9 indicate that most students have neutral and positive attitude towards English, 11 students like English very much, other 15 ones like English, and 23 out of them have neutral attitude towards this subject, only 1 student dislikes it. Unfortunately, however, together with 2 students find their English lessons boring, half of them do not find English lessons interesting enough (question 12) hence they are not actively involved in the lessons. Obviously in question 11, only 10 students usually raise their voices in the class while other 23 (46%) and 16 ones (32%) respectively sometimes and rarely voluntarily express their ideas. Through the answers to question 10, the researcher learnt that students participated in the study have both two kinds of motivation in their English learning process: integrative motivation and instrumental motivation. We can see that though they are eleven years old, they have many reasons to learn English. Among 50 students, 28 informants (56%) learn English because of English itself, half of them learn English since they want to get good marks and interestingly 17 students (34%) try to learn this subject as they want to talk to the foreigners while they live in a remote area and 40% learn English because of their English teachers. 3.4.1.5. Students’ learning strategies and styles Question 13 14 15 Choice F % F % F % a 9 18 4 8 36 72 b 30 60 20 40 4 8 c 6 12 22 44 10 20 d 4 8 0 0 0 0 e 1 2 4 8 Total 50 100 50 100 50 100 Table 5: Students’ learning strategies Looking at table 5, it is unsurprising that more than a half of the participants surveyed (60%) only learn English whenever they have English homework, nearly one fifth of them (9 students – 18%) practice their English everyday, and the last 10% of them do not pay much attention to their English practicing (question 13). Question 14 is designed to find out how the students learn their English. 23 students think that they need to learn as much vocabulary as possible since knowing the meaning of the new words makes them understand better. About the same number, 20 students (40%) learn by heart all the things their teacher asked them to take notes. Some choose to learn by heart everything in their textbook (8%) or learn through their friends (8%). Especially, no one choose to learn English through playing games or T.V. programs because they do not have opportunities to do that. In the last column, it can be clearly seen that almost students (72%) in the survey have a typical habit of Vietnamese students in the classroom- looking at the board and pay attention to their teacher’s gestures and postures, the other 10 students try to listen and imitate their teachers and friends and only few students are attracted by the pictures in the textbook. In general, it is evident that the students surveyed have the traditional way of learning English. They just passively acquire English from what they learn in the class then practice by doing homework, and they have not found or applied any active strategies to improve their target language. 3.4.1.6. Teachers’ teaching strategies Question 16 17 18 Choice F % F % F % a 0 0 0 0 20 40 b 0 0 50 100 0 0 c 30 60 0 0 0 0 d 20 40 0 0 30 60 Total 50 100 50 100 50 100 Table 6: Students’ reflection to their teachers’ teaching strategies Through the answers to questions 16-18, students show their comments on their teachers’ ways of teaching. It is pointed out obviously to the researcher in question 17 that all the informants occasionally have chances to take part in group work and pair work during their English lessons. The choices to questions 16 and 18 are divided in two groups because the informants are taught by two different teachers. Ms. Phuong’s students show that although she sometimes speak to them in English in the class, she doesn’t use any other teaching aids except for the textbook and the board to make their English lessons more interesting. In contrast, Ms. Lan’s students indicate that despite her only use of Vietnamese, she makes her teaching more vivid by the use of some pictures and posters in their lessons. 3.4.1.7. Students’ comments on their textbook Question 19 Frequency % a 26 52 b 0 0 c 26 52 d 17 34 Table 7: Students’ comments on their textbook Question 19 is aimed at finding out the students’ comments on their textbook. It is made clear that none of them find the tasks in their textbook easy for them. They express that the new English textbook is difficult for them and they are overwhelmed by the amount of new vocabulary in one unit. In addition, the content of the book is remote from their daily lives and their background and is therefore difficult to comprehend. Question 20 is an open- ended question, to answer this one, students can write whatever they want about their English textbook. Half of them expect a textbook which is more focused on their ethnic daily lives, the other half want their textbook to be easier and less vocabulary. 3.4.1.8. Students’ IQ test scores Score 9-10 7-8 5-6 3-4 <3 Total Frequency 1 19 23 7 0 50 % 2 38 46 14 0 100 Table 8: Students’ IQ test scores As mentioned above, this IQ test was designed to identify whether the students have linguistic intelligence or not. Surprisingly, not many students get low scores (only 7 informants) while it shows that 40% of them are intelligent at language and nearly a half of the students are at average level. Looking at this table the researcher looked forward to a difference in the students’ English learning results; nevertheless, there is no significant difference as expected. As shown in Table 1, students were only evaluated at Average and Bad levels while there IQ test scores range from the High intelligent level to the Not Intelligent one. In general, the facts shown in this part lead to the conclusion that although almost students have support from their parents as well as positive attitudes towards English, for some other factors such as their surrounding language environment, their economic status, their unsuitable learning strategies, their teachers’ not very creative and appropriate ways of teaching, and their textbook, the students’ English learning result is not high enough. This learning result is not only particularly in this school but considered to be common in every secondary school in remote mountainous areas. 3.4.2. Data analysis of the class observation The researcher observed two classes (Class 6A of Ms. Phuong’s and Class 6C of Ms. Lan’s) with the same lesson. The most noticeable things to her were not the teachers’ and students’ activities in the classrooms but the classrooms and the learning condition themselves. It was much more out of the imagination to many people that their old school was not solidly bricked built, all the classrooms were simply made of bamboo with thatched or mental roof. It must be very cold in winter. The furniture was old and not very comfortable. In the classroom, there was no electricity. As a result, there were not any lights as well as modern teaching and learning equipments. In general, the learning condition for the students observed was very poor and not suitable for children to learn any subjects, especially in bad and harsh weather. Turning back to the lessons observed, the first observation was taken from class 6A of Ms. Phuong’s with 27 students. It is a listening lesson but because of the poor learning condition, the teacher adapted it into a reading one. As described above, the lesson is about a simple description of a school with possessive‘s’ form. To start with, the researcher saw her use pelmanism to define relationship of that lesson to the previous ones by asking students to match personal pronouns with their possessive pronouns. After that, she introduced the new words (big, small, in the country, in the city) by giving Vietnamese translation and read the reading text once aloud then asked students to work individually to read the text themselves (Task 1). Task 2 in the textbook was aimed at checking students’ comprehension hence Ms. Phuong raised the questions then asked students to stand up to give the answers. She ended her lesson by asking students to write a short paragraph about their school. During her observation within 45 minutes, the researcher did not see the teacher either present overview or summarize major points of the lesson. What is more, in the text there appeared the possessive‘s’ form; however the teacher neither identified the difference between it and the verb to be – “is” form nor the use of ‘s’ possession. Therefore, the students only imitated their teacher to speak Phong’s school or Thu’s school without understanding. It was also observed that the students’ involvement in the lesson was not much. They just looked at the board, took note what the teacher wrote on the board and answered the questions when required. The interaction between students and the teacher as well as among the students themselves was little. The teacher asked some questions and the students passively responded. To cut it short, from the researcher’s observation, although the teacher’s voice was clearly and she sometimes spoke English, the students were not interested in the teacher’s activities in that lesson very much and the class atmosphere was quite boring because of too much dead time. The second observation tool place in class 6C of Ms. Lan’s. She also used pelmanism as the warm-up activity to start the lessons. Then she showed a picture to introduce the new words, which directly described things in the picture. The students learnt and understood the new words without translation. Then she stated that: “Today, we will learn how to use these words to describe our school” in Vietnamese and asked the students to listen to her reading. After that, she had all the class read after her in chorus once and students had chance to read the text individually. Next, the teacher spent 10 minutes introducing the use of “s” possession with clarity in Vietnamese. Ms. Lan passed the task 2 by asking students to work in pairs to answer the questions in the textbook then call them up to give the answers. While checking up, the researcher saw that she did not pay much attention to the students’ accuracy in pronunciation but only the content of the answers. In the last 15 minutes, the teacher showed another picture about a school in the mountainous area. She introduced “in the mountainous area” and asked students to describe their school. The students were willing to take part in the activities. It was admitted that the students in Ms. Lan’s class were more involved in the lesson than those in Ms. Phuong’s one. Though the learning atmosphere was not very English- like because the teacher only used Vietnamese, it was vivid enough to draw the students’ attention. Overall, the observation helps the researcher confirm the fact that the teachers’ teaching strategies plays an important part in the minority students’ English learning success. It seemed that the teachers here had not found an adequate way to certain type of students in certain condition. Furthermore, the researcher realized that the learning condition put a great impact on the children’s learning. In such a poor learning environment like that, it was difficult for students to acquire a foreign language. 3.4.3. Data analysis of teacher interview After observing the two teachers’ teaching, the researcher had informal discussion with them, during which she used questions to elicit information from Ms. Phuong and Ms. Lan as reported below. First of all, the information proved that these two teachers were very young and not very experienced in their teaching. Ms. Phuong was only 22 with only one- year- teaching experience, Ms. Lan was 26 and she had been teaching English in this school for 4 years. It was the first time Ms. Phuong had taught grade 6 and the second time for Ms. Lan. Due to that limitation, the teachers did not have enough time to try out on many ways of teaching; they need time to find out the most suitable and effective methods and techniques to apply in their teaching for ethnic minority students. Secondly, these teachers showed that although they loved the job as a teacher, they had not really kept their minds on their work because of their hard lives and poor working and living conditions. Ms. Phuong said that she got shock when she first came to that school. Almost teachers there lived in the tenement house with the water source is 1-kilometer afar. Those daily disadvantages sometimes made them have not much enthusiasm for their work. Thirdly, when talking about their daily teaching in the class, both teachers agreed that the main hindrance in their students’ learning English is a triangular language environment. Minority students mainly used their mother tongue to communicate inside their families and communities while at school they have to learn Vietnamese to study and communicate with other people. According to them, their students did not thoroughly comprehend what they said in Vietnamese. In the English lessons, they comprehended by listening and reading, switching into their native language and then translating or changing into Vietnamese and then English again. Therefore, studying English via Vietnamese is very challenging. In addition, minority students found it more difficult to pronounce English because their language was greatly different from it. They always mispronounced /d/ with /l/, /v/ with /b/. It was unable for the teachers to change their pronunciation habit. Furthermore, the teaching methods were also mentioned. The teachers agreed that they did not employ many activities in their lessons; especially pair work and group work because it was difficult for them to manage the class and control the students as whenever they have chance, they talked about their personal problems immediately. They also realized that their students did not get involved very much in their lessons because they were quite passive and reserved. Finally, the textbook has been raised for discussion. The teachers did not like to use new English 6 very much since the contents of the book were not familiar with their students’ daily lives. These teachers faced a lot of difficulties in giving explanations to the new information. The activities suggested in the teacher’s book required modern equipment, which was considered to be luxury in this school. Hence, they wished to have a textbook more focused on ethnic students’ daily lives. In short, through talking with the teachers taking charge to the students participated in the study, the researcher understood more about both their lives and their work. She came to a conclusion that the teaching experience, the living and working conditions as the teachers’ attitudes towards their work and their students took a crucial role in how and what they perform in the class. 3.5. Summary Chapter 2 has presented the aims of the study as well as the participants involved in it. Moreover, the data collected from the survey, the class observation and the interview helped the researcher have an overview of English teaching and learning situation in Phong Lap secondary school which is of low quality. With more details, the affecting factors on students’ English learning have been investigated in different levels of impact. Among them, which have been found out to have most impact on the learners’ unsuccessful results are teachers’ teaching strategies, the textbook, school facilities and their native language use as well as the locals’ low living standard. The students’ motivation and attitudes towards the target language and learning strategies are the following important ones. Finally, the intelligence and personality characteristics are the least affecting factors. Hence, major findings and suggestions for teaching and learning English in remote mountainous areas will be touched upon in Chapter 3. CHAPTER 4: MAJOR FINDINGS AND SUGGESTION FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH IN REMOTE MOUNTAINOUS SCHOOLS This chapter consists of two parts. The first part focuses on the majors findings inferred from the data analysis in Chapter 2. From these findings, some suggestions, which can be useful for teaching and learning English in mountainous areas, will be made in the second part. 4.1. Major findings According to the data analysis of the IQ test, the questionnaire, the class observation together with the teacher interview, some points are drawn out as follows 4.1.1. The teacher recognition of the affecting factors in the students’ learning process From what was conducted in the study, the teachers have not emphasized very much on what affects their students’ English learning. They know that their students have hard lives which cannot enable them to spend much time on learning, they recognize the prevention of their mother tongue to the target language as well. Nevertheless, maybe due to their little teaching experience, they have not found out suitable ways to help their students solve out their problems to make progress in study. 4.1.2. The different affecting degrees of the learning factors studied Foreign language learning is a process that is affected by many factors. In certain specific situations, those factors affect the learning process in different degrees. To children of ethnic minorities in the Northern Vietnam, external factors such as teachers’ teaching strategies, the textbook, social context, learning conditions and school facilities seem to have more impact than the internal ones. First of all, teaching strategies must be taken into account. All the data shown in the study prove that the teachers’ teaching strategies are not interesting enough to draw their students’ attention and interest. The techniques and activities employed in their lessons seem to be monotonous. For example, the teachers keep delivering the new language items orally and by writing on the board most of the time in Vietnamese or little English while students just look at the board and take notes. Also, students are frequently asked to work individually. Pair work and group work are rarely used. The interaction among teachers and students is only realized by the teachers’ few questions and students’ answers. It may be concluded that the teachers simply follow the framework of the textbook and teach what is required in syllabus. Hence, the teaching strategies used by the teachers in certain circumstance are not in relevance and effectiveness. Secondly, the textbook makes disadvantages for both teachers and students. As a result, most of the students and the teachers in the study are not in favored of their textbook. All of them find it too difficult for students to learn and for teachers to design and adapt the tasks. They state that the content of the book is remote from the students’ daily lives. Furthermore, the students are overwhelmed by a large amount of vocabulary. They wish to have a textbook which is somehow easier and less communicative ability required so that both the teachers and the students can accomplish their tasks. Thirdly, social context reveals to be another main hindrance to ethnic minority students’ English learning. Minority students mainly used their mother tongue to communicate inside their families and communities while at school they have to learn Vietnamese to study and communicate with other people. In the English lessons, they comprehended by listening and reading, switching into their native language and then translating or changing into Vietnamese and then English again. In addition, the pronunciation of their native language is much different from that of English and Vietnamese. Therefore, studying English via Vietnamese is very challenging. What is more, though most of the students have parental support to go to school (that is more advantageous than those in some other mountainous areas), their poor living conditions and low economic status still prevent them from spending enough time and concentration on learning all subjects in general and English in particular. The following important affecting factor has been found out is learning condition and school facilities. It is a fact that the school in the study is poorly facilitated. Classrooms for students are simply groups of cottages without doors or windows and electricity supply. The furniture is old and not comfortable for children. Though class size is quite adequate (about 27 to 33 students), the students’ sight is limited due to the lack of light. Besides, all the teaching facilities the teachers have is textbook, chalk, and old board. As well, there are not many books, stories, pictures, CDs or cassette tapes in school library. Computers and internet are luxurious to the teachers and far from imagination of the students. Obviously, in such a poor learning condition, the ethnic children cannot acquire a foreign language as well as those who enjoy much better learning conditions. Interestingly, unlike the results from many studies in other foreign teaching and learning situations, learners’ motivation and attitudes towards the target language reveal to have less important effect than the factors mentioned above in this study. The data collected show that English is fairly welcomed by almost students. Each of them also has his or her own reasons to learn it. Their boredom in English lessons may be the results from their teachers’ inappropriate teaching strategies which cannot motivate and attract their interest to the lessons. Another factor mentioned in the study is the learners’ learning strategies. Because of their low living standard together with poor learning condition at school, the students do not have many choices of what strategies they should follow to improve their English. They just passively acquire it like the way they use with other subjects. The data in the survey have shown that the most frequent learning strategies used are looking at the board, taking notes, and learning whenever they have homework. Apart from that, as only eleven- year- old students in a remote religion (which is far from the center town), they need help from their teacher to show them what exactly they must do to learn English better. Surprisingly, before carrying out this research, such factors as intelligence and personality characteristics were supposed to have much impact on the students’ learning scores. However, the data collected from the IQ test and the survey have turned out to be in contrast. There was no correspondence between the data collected term of intelligence and personality characteristics with the students’ English learning results. In the other words, while the students belonged to many kinds of personality and intelligent levels, no great differences have been distinguished in learners’ English scores. A conclusion can be drawn that among the studied factors, intelligence and personality characteristics just have little effects on the students’ language learning in such situation. In conclusion, the grade 6 ethnic minority students’ English learning are strongly affected by some external factors as previously mentioned above. Among them, it is difficult to point out which has the most effects and which has the least one as each of them take an important role in the student foreign language learning process and they are complexly integrated. It is evident that ethnic students fundamentally lack an environment in which to practice English. Almost the students have no English learning equipment, such as records, CDs, or short stories at home. Even in the class, where they are taught English, they do not have many chances to communicate in English either. Hence, it is difficult for the ethnic students get success in English. 4.2. Suggestions for teaching and learning English in remote mountainous situation From these findings the researcher would like to give some suggestions, to some extent, may help the teachers and learners in their teaching and learning process. 4.2.1. Using relevant and useful teaching techniques to deliver interesting lessons The data collected from the study have shown that in the classroom the students were not highly motivated. Most of them participated in the lessons and teachers’ activities passively. Hence, it is crucial to employ some activities and techniques to help the students be attracted to the lessons. First of all, the easiest way is to give the students more chances to play games, sing songs, take part in plays and competitions in English. For students of eleven- year- old, they are usually active and love to join the games and competition to show their ability. In addition, they are in favor of songs and plays. It is easier for them to learn by heart new words through children songs and plays. When they can sing songs or act as a character in a play, they will be more confident to speak English. Games, songs and plays as well can be used both in normal English lessons and everyweek optional lessons. Hence, teachers should organize games, plays, songs and even a small competition to encourage the children and warm up the classroom atmosphere. After such activities, teachers may give good comments and present the winners or the best ones small gifts which will leave sweet memories in students’ mind. Secondly, in the class, the teachers should try to speak and make their ideas understood in English. It seems not very natural to use only Vietnamese in English lessons. It does not mean that they should not use Vietnamese, as sometimes they have to explain abstract and complex things and make sure students understand well what they need to know. However, it is obvious that teachers should use English to communicate with their students in the class in order to make them familiar with the English pronunciation. It also provides opportunities for teachers to practice and improve their English. What is more, visual aids are welcomed in most of the lessons. Students can learn best when they are happy and excited. Because of their little background knowledge and practical experience, the teachers should present their lessons visually and vividly to draw students’ attention and interest by using colorful pictures, diagrams, or real objectives, etc. Additionally, teachers should make sure that all students speak during lessons. One of the most important steps that a student needs to take in order to learn a new language is to speak it. Speaking lets students have a feeling of being involved in the lessons. Therefore, teachers should give students opportunities and time to practice and raise their voices freely. Students are encouraged to ask questions, give suggestions, share ideas, and tell stories. The open and friendly interactions among teachers and students and among students themselves are highly appreciated. Therefore, pair work and group work should be frequently used. Teachers are also advisable to be gentle and sensitive to their students’ errors and mistakes. Children are always afraid of making mistakes and being laughed at in public; if they are hurt once, they will gradually be reserved and quiet. They may no longer dare to have a word in front of the classmates. Therefore, the teachers should be reliable to students for their mistake correction without making them shy. Furthermore, the teachers need to have sense of humor to make good impressions on their students. Another important thing is that teachers should not disregard ethnic minority students but show honest sympathies with their disadvantages to close the gap between the teachers and students. Finally, I would like to recommend that the teachers should be energetic and enthusiastic to associate with other schools in towns or even in cities to ask them for their students’ old stories, CDs, pictures of places in the world and so on then make them available in school library so that the students can make use of them. Adapting the textbook As far as I know, the new English book 6 was designed so that the teachers and learners can take part in activities which focuses on their communicative interactions. The information given in the book is fresh, up date, and contains many different topics. However, some of them seem not very relevant to the minority students’ background and daily lives. There are things they have never experienced, for example beaches, supermarkets, internet, zoos, circus, etc. The students are not interested in learning about vocation destinations while they can remember very well when learning about agricultural products. Therefore, it is necessary for teacher to adapt the textbook to make it interesting to the children. Depend on certain units and lessons, teachers can adapt the their teaching material by omitting, re-ordering, replacing, combining, or adding tasks. For example, when the topic of the lesson is not relevant to students’ background knowledge, the teachers should discover what students know about it prior to teaching and design the lesson based on that knowledge. However, an important thing to remember when adapting teaching materials is everything presented needs to be made clear and specifically. It is better to start teaching the ethnic students from simple to complex things. By doing that, English can help them to boost their confidence and raise their voice in modern society. Having ethnic minority teachers to teach English for students in their communities As shown in the survey, 50 students participated in the study are all ethnic minority students. They all use their native language to communicate in their families and communities. In a triangular language environment, children face difficulties in both learning English and Vietnamese. If the minority teachers of English are available, these ones can teach minority children more effectively as they can understand students’ strengths and weaknesses in learning a foreign language. Furthermore, it is easier for both teachers and learners to exchange ideas. The teaching and learning process will be more successful when the teachers and learners can make themselves fully understood. Improving learning and teaching conditions In general, improving learning conditions such as school buildings, classroom facilities and learning equipments is an important but sensitive problem. The Vietnamese government have set up a plenty of projects and programs to help people especially students in remote mountainous areas. A lot of money has been investigated and many efforts have been made. However, those somehow have not met the demands of ethnic minority people. There living standard as well as background knowledge are still very low. The schools in those areas are in the same situations. To Phong Lap Secondary School, it would be highly recommended that electricity must be supplied in the classrooms. Furthermore, they need to be gradually solidly built and equipped with modern teaching facilities. Summary In conclusion, to make the English learning process of minority students at grade 6 become worthwhile, it depends on not solely the teachers or students but also everybody in our society. Basing on what have been found out in the study, some suggested solutions are therefore given to the teachers and others concerned such as: using relevant and useful teaching techniques to deliver interesting lessons, adapting the textbook, having ethnic minority teachers to teach English for students in their communities and improving teaching and learning conditions. However, in particular circumstance, the teachers and learners themselves have to make all efforts to over come the difficulties. It is hoped that all these suggestions will be taken into consideration so that students can use their English in grade 6 as their background for further learning in their future grades. CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 5.1. Conclusion Springing from the urgent practical reason that the English learning of ethnic minority students in remote mountainous areas in Northern Vietnam is of low quality, the researcher would like to find out what factors can lead to that situation and how to deal with raised problems. A research has been conducted by theoretical study, doing a survey questionnaire, observing classes and interviewing namely “A study on some major factors affecting English learning of grade 6 ethnic minority students of a mountainous secondary school to help them learn better”. The study has been divided into five chapters. The first chapter is the introduction of the study. Literature Review is chapter 2, in which definitions of language acquisition and theoretical background of language learning factors have been presented to set up the theoretical framework for the study. Among them, the research has touched upon such factors as intelligence, personality, learning strategies, attitude and motivation, teaching strategies, environment and context of learning and social context. Chapter 3 (Data collection and analysis) consists of two parts. The first part focuses on the context of the study, in which the description of aims, the participants, and data collection of the study has been given. The second part is analysis on the data from the survey questionnaire, IQ test, class observation and the interview. Data from IQ test have used to identify the students’ variety in intelligent level. Those from survey questionnaire have been analyzed to find out the students’ most recent results in English, the social contexts to the students, their personality characteristics, the students’ motivation and attitudes towards English, their learning strategies, the students’ reflection to their teachers’ teaching strategies and their comments on textbook. The class observation has revealed the teachers’ teaching strategies in real classroom setting. Finally, the teacher interview has confirmed the teachers’ ways of teaching as well as their attitudes towards their jobs and their daily work at a mountainous school. Based on the data collected in previous chapter, some major findings and suggestions for teaching and learning English in remote mountainous schools have been stated in chapter 4. The researcher has found out that the teachers participated in the study have not emphasized very much on which affects their students’ learning. The degree of affecting factors to ethnic minority students has also been made clear. Among them, the teaching strategies, the social context, the textbook, the learning condition and school facilities have most impact. The less affecting ones are students’ learning strategies, motivation and attitudes towards the target language. Intelligence and personality characteristics have the least effects. Therefore, four suggested solutions as using relevant and useful teaching techniques to deliver interesting lessons, adapting the textbook, having ethnic minority teachers to teach English for students in their communities and improving teaching and learning conditions have been given in the end of the chapter. Chapter 5 is the conclusion of the study. A conconclusion can be drawn as the study has reached the objectives mentioned in the first chapter. All the problems arise in the study have been solved, which is matched to the hypothesis. A real situation of teaching and learning English in a mountainous school has been made clear, which is shown that some factors such as teaching strategies, the social context, the textbook, the learning condition and school facilities have much impact, while other factors seem not to take much into account in this hard teaching and learning situation. Suggestions for further study In this thesis, some affecting factors to ethnic minority students of grade 6 have been found, but for the scope of the study, there are still some other factors have not been discussed such as: memory, aptitude, gender, age, background knowledge, religion, teacher and learner’s belief, culture and so on. Additionally, it is also needed to study more about teaching strategies needed to teach English effectively for particular ethnic minority students to make their English learning successful.