An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society CAN THO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION ENGLISH DEPARTMENT AN INVESTIGATION ON THE SATISFACTION OF THE LEARNERS’ NEEDS IN THE COURSE AMERICAN CULTURE AND SOCIETY B.A Thesis Supervisor: Researcher: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong, M.A Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong Student’s ID: 7032500 B.A Class NN0354A1 Course: 29 Can Tho, June 2007 Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ABSTRACT CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 A brief history of the course American Culture and Society at Can Tho University .5 1.2 Problem statement CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Needs of learners 2.2 Course goals and objectives 10 2.2.1 Course goals 10 2.2.2 Course objectives 10 2.2.3 Reasons for course objectives 11 2.2.4 Turning goals to objectives 11 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 16 3.1 Design 16 3.2 Participants 16 3.3 Instrument 16 CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 18 4.1 Data analysis and discussion 18 CHAPTER FIVE: LIMITATION, CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION 29 5.1 Conclusion 29 5.2 Limitation 29 5.3 Suggestion 30 REFERENCES 32 APPENDIX 33 Appendix Course evaluation forms 33 Appendix Questionnaire 34 Appendix Bloom’s taxonomy of learning 36 Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, M.A Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong, who spent time discussing with me some initial research topics that might be of my interest and who gave me close guidance, corrections, and encouragement during the time I worked on the topic I chose I wish to give my best thanks to M.A Thai Cong Dan, M.A Truong Vo Dung, M.A Dang Thi Kim Mai, M.A Truong Thi Kim Lien, M.A Tran Thi Sau and Mr Daniel White for their willingness to be interviewed and for their useful information I also wish to thank M.A Le Cong Tuan, who kindly allowed me to distribute to and collect questionnaires back from the students attending his instruction 72 students of English, both Bachelor and Pedagogy Training, from course 29 and 30, filled out the course evaluation forms, answered the questionnaires and responded my follow-up questions I thank them all for their effective cooperation and kindness Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society ABSTRACT Being knowledgeable of learners’ needs in a given course is of necessity because it helps instructors adapt their instruction, curriculum and teaching materials to be able to achieve desirable results in both teaching and learning This study investigates the satisfaction of the learners’ needs in the course American Culture and Society, in an attempt to find out what students wish to learn from the course so that the teaching of instructors becomes more satisfactory and effective The data were collected from the course evaluation forms and questionnaires administered to 72 students who already completed the course and from the interviews with four instructors who have taught the course Some follow-up interviews with the learners were also conducted for a closer inquiry of the course content and structure The course evaluation forms asked generally about the course content and teaching methods and the questionnaire was almost about course objectives, materials and teaching approaches The finding is hoped to assist the instructors in designing course objectives and assignments, selecting course materials and applying teaching approaches appropriate with the learners’ needs The result showed that learners were not taught authentic materials such as oral history, document films, and scholarly articles and normally did not have choices of what they would study in the course Although the course objective was stated either at the beginning of the course or sometimes during the course, there is no any course evaluation given during the course for learners to express what they wanted to study and perform Learners expressed desire that some classroom assignments and activities like visual aid using, group work or group work discussion, presentation and role play should be still kept in or added to the course and the instruction should be emphasized much more on U.S cultural aspects and less on Vietnamese ones Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 A brief history of the course American Culture and Society at Can Tho University (CTU) American Culture and Society has been taught at CTU for many years It is considered an important part in English teaching and learning because in language teaching and learning language and culture have a close relation Teachers’ guideline often writes that language teaching consists of teaching the four skills “plus culture.” This dichotomy of language and culture is an entrenched feature of language teaching around the world Culture is often seen as mere information conveyed by language, not as a feature of language itself; cultural awareness becomes an educational objective in itself, separate from language Some objectives when the course American Culture and Society was first taught at CTU were to help learners comprehend some particular cultural aspects of the U.S such as geography, living style and history and improve their English speaking skill Later, there was a change in the course objectives; that was “after the course, the students would be able to compare similarities and contrast differences between Vietnam and the U.S in terms of family, government, table manners, marriage and religion, which was interviewed from the course instructors It seems that at this point American Culture and Society functioned as a mean to help learners explore more about Vietnamese Culture and Society Besides, course materials that instructors have used in the course are various British-American Civilization, Spotlight in the U.S.A., Meet the U.S., Aspects of Britain and the U.S.A., Yesterday and Today in the U.S, Cultural Puzzle, and Culturally Speaking have been required course books which have used singly or combined with one or two Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society others At the present, the English Department recommends using the three books Cultural Puzzle, Culturally Speaking and Spotlight in the U.S for the course Over time, the position of American Culture and Society in English teaching at CTU has been strengthened It not only helps widen students’ knowledge about the U.S cultural aspects such as living styles, geography, and government but also enables the students to better study other subjects like Speaking, Reading, and American Literature In fact, according to the English Department Vice Dean Thai Cong Dan, the course will be a foundation for American Studies, a new field of study planned to be offered at CTU in the near future as an elective course It is clear that American Culture and Society is an indispensable part in English teaching and learning 1.2 Problem statement American Culture and Society is a useful subject in the English program However, in an informal survey done in November 2006 in which 72 learners already taking the course responded to the course evaluation forms issued by CTU, more than fifty percent of them felt that the knowledge they obtained from the course was too far from satisfactory They experienced that the course has given them excessive information of the U.S geography, which lessened their attention to the lecture and their interest in the course In addition, no research of learners’ needs of the course has been carried out at CTU These seem to be a lack at some points of the course I would like to investigate if this negative perception is supported by strong data I also would like to investigate what the learners’ needs are Therefore, two research questions were posed: ● To what extend the course American Culture and Society satisfies learners ’ needs in terms of course objectives, teaching materials and teaching approaches? ● What are the learners’ needs in the course American Culture and Society? Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society The data will focus on the course objectives, teaching materials and teaching methods The result of the study is hoped to get instructors informed of learners’ needs; and thus, assist them in designing course objectives, selecting materials and, and applying teaching methods appropriate with the learners’ needs From the informal survey about learners’ general perception of the course, the research questions, and aims, the researcher raises a hypothesis that although the course objectives had been prepared before the course started and were stated either at the beginning of the course or sometimes during the course, the teaching materials and methods were somewhere not at learners’ interest and needs This hypothesis can direct the researcher in designing questionnaire and questions for the interviews and choosing the appropriate data collection method as well as instruments for analyzing the data Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Learners’ needs Becoming a good teacher, one who meets the needs of most learners, is not an easy task Good teachers consider the individual needs of their students, make the necessary modifications and meet those needs (Russell, 2000) This is a high standard to achieve at students with a different range of ability levels These students challenge instructors to meet their needs In a given class, there are at least some students functioning at an advanced level, some other ones functioning at low-basic level, and the other are somewhere in the middle academically Therefore, instructors have to consider how best to convey the information in their lesson to reach all of their students In other words, instructors should take into consideration of multi-level teaching, which exposes all learners to the same lesson as their peers, but at various levels of difficulty (Salend, 1998: 298) It means that instructors will teach all their students the same subject at the same time, but give them assignments based on their ability Collicott’s four-step process for the design of multi-level instructional lessons is cited in Salend: Step 1: Identification of underlying concepts Teachers identify and examine the goals, objectives and materials of the lesson and determine potential content and skill level differences Step 2: Consideration of the method of teacher presentation Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society Teachers consider the different learning styles and cognitive and participation levels of students as well as the various presentation mode that can be used to present the lesson Step 3: Consideration of the methods of student practice and performance Teachers consider the different ways students can practice and show mastery of skills and concepts Teachers also employ methods for teaching students to accept the differing response modes for demonstrating skill mastery and understanding of concepts Step 4: Consideration of methods of evaluation Teachers consider a variety of ways to assess students’ mastery Another important aspect of multi-level education involves creating an effective learning environment Some common characteristics of these environments according to a study by Brain which is cited in Bauer and Shea (1999, 1777) include: ● High expectations for students’ learning ● Clear and focused instruction ● Using incentives and rewards to promote learning ● Enforced high standards for classroom behavior (Bauer and Shea, 1999: 177 ) Another component of an effective learning and teaching environment is teacher enthusiasm By creating a very positive atmosphere, teachers can greatly increase chance for student success (Mercer &Mercer, 1998:39) Creating a positive atmosphere and effective learning environment will be a very worthwhile and rewarding undertaking Meeting the needs of all learners is not easy for teachers The first step in the process is consciousness of the challenge and then makes adaptations when necessary to Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society meet a diverse range of needs If teachers can make adaptations and improvements effectively, they will be reaching all learners in their class In four steps of designing multi-level instruction, course goals and objectives, materials, and teaching approaches are the three most necessary factors Of them, course goals and objectives are the most important component for lesson plans If they are written well, an instructor will have an effective and meaningful structure for course content, method of instruction, reading material and forms for assessment 2.2 Course goals and objectives 2.2.1 Course goals Course goals explain the reasoning behind what instructors will teach in a course They articulate what instructors wish to accomplish and help to map their direction They address the question: what instructors want their students to take with them after the course is completed? Once they have organized their goals, they can decide what content and teaching method will best achieve them ● Goals state what a student should be able to at the end of the course; they not describe the learning process ● Goals for one session are often related to goals for the entire course ● Goals should be clear and reachable, concentrate on naming the most important broad concepts (Goals and objectives, 2004) 2.2.2 Course objectives Course objectives are student performances of the concepts described in the course goals They are often referred to as “learning outcomes” because they define more Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong 10 Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society Ba: uh…The president of the U.S The instructor: Good The president of the U.S., yes In contrast, the learners’ passiveness mostly came from the fact that “they did not have anything to say” which was indicated by 34 responses As mentioned above, the teacher has the power to open and close the classroom interaction, so why learners failed in orally participating in class with an empty mind? It might be because the instructors initiated the interactions with questions that learners did not know how to answer or with questions which were not for the purpose of checking the old lessons Also, the reason for learners’ passiveness might be that learners were not encouraged to show their cooperation by the way the instructors directed them to something or by the way the instructors gave feedback for their responses Therefore, the instructor’s better to take a look in some typical topics that Willis suggested in order to make the classroom interaction more vivid - Informing the class about something - Directing students to or say something - Eliciting a response (asking a question that she or he normally knows the answer to- these are often called display questions) - Checking that something has been done - Evaluating the response The answer to the question about what classroom activities the students were most interested in was quite encouraging Of assignments such as written exam, oral exam, presentation, role-play, homework projects, reading response essay (response to what learners read) and watching response essay (response to the films or videos learners watched), homework projects and presentation were best done by much more students than the other assignments, 26 choices for homework projects and 19 choices for presentation Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong 22 Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society The two assignments were suitable to the two objectives I mentioned in the literature review: knowledge-based objective and skill-based objective It was knowledge-based objective because the homework projects asked from the learners were to respond a particular Vietnamese cultural aspect or similarities and differences between Vietnamese regions in a written form The presentation helped the skill-based objective because learners could improve their English speaking through presenting their task and listening to other performances In addition, before performing their task, learners spent a lot of time at home on practicing speaking to have a fluent presentation Therefore, the two types of objectives should be considered at the same time in the future By this, learners are not only provided knowledge of the field of study but also have chances to develop language skills Besides understanding what learners wanted to study, knowing how to teach content well was the second leg of a tripod of language teaching Each teacher has his or her own teaching method that may be useful to one group of students but not to another For example, humor is culturally specific and will not be perceived the same way by all What the teacher thinks is amusing may be insulting to the students Similarly, classroom assignments are various, some of which may be appropriate to the course and some may not According to learners’ responses, homework projects and presentation were more appropriate to the course American Culture and Society than the others It conveyed an implication that the two assignments should be kept in the course For classroom activities, the researcher suggested nine activities for students to choose: pair-work discussion, group-work discussion, whole class discussion, lecturing, presentation, listening to music, tapes, role-play, translation, and watching films or video clips The result was that watching films, video clips, group-work discussion, presentation and role-play were the four items that learners were more interested in Half of the students Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong 23 Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society chose watching films, video clips as an indispensable part in the course American Culture and Society The second winner was group work discussion with 16 choices The two next one shared the same number of 15 choices were presentation and role-play Learners interviewed told that film or video clip watching was not applied in this course It was clear that they are likely to have film or video watching in the course It is said that students’ individual learning whether alone or in groups should be supported; however, group work is an important element in a multi-level classroom (Ressell, 2000) Weaker students can benefit by hearing what better students say and better students can also improve through having to paraphrase and explain If some groups finish the task before the others, what they have done will be checked and compared to those of the others’ Alternatively, they could find more information from the other groups The term “role-play” includes a wide range of activities, some of which have outcomes to achieve, some of which not Some role-plays are actually problem-solving tasks In a cultural situation based on a case study: correcting misunderstanding, where a group of students one will say some things that are not correct, the others will correct the misunderstanding without making that person embarrassed or lose face, they would genuinely be trying to correct one another When an American corrects someone, he or she often begins with a “softening” sound, such as “uh” or “ohm” or a word or phrase such as “well”, “I think”, or “actually” before disagreeing with some one (Levine, Deena R., Baxter, J., McNulty, P., 1987) Here there is an outcome for each side to achieve However, there are other role-plays where students are simply acting out predefined roles with no purpose, except for practicing specified language forms For example, in an activity like in pairs, ask and answer questions using “do you like…?” “Yes, I do/ No, I don’t” The emphasis is closely focused on getting students to produce the right forms While acting, students are unlikely to mean what they say If there is not outcome to Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong 24 Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society achieve, they have no reason to set themselves goals of trying to correct someone Recording of classes where students are preparing and performing this of role-play shows that there is often far more real communication at the planning stages, especially where students with the same role are put together in groups to plan their strategies, than during the role-play itself It should be identified that the students were enthusiastic to both something with an achieved outcome and something easy with no result, which challenges the instructors to fulfill their diverse needs As mentioned above, presentation is really helpful to learners They study each other through what they have performed in front of the class More supporting the classroom assignments and activities, an open question about the teaching style was posed: “In what ways did and didn’t the teaching style enhance your study?” There were some commonalties among the responses in the teaching style which enhanced learners’ study 11 students indicated the way the instructor presenting new information enhanced their study They said: “…she told extra experiences about the U.S…”, “…the teacher gave specific examples relating to culture for her lecture ”, “…the instructor had some interesting spots and culture that were new to me…”, “…she had various way of giving information…,” etc Other commonalties among the responses were group work or group work discussion: “…she made us work in group that I was interested in sharing information”, “…she created some activities and required the class practicing and discussing in group”, “…the instructor let us discuss in group” and so on It is generally accepted that instruction focusing on conveying cultural knowledge can both raise the level of learners’ attainment and speed up the ultimate rate of language development However, it is not necessary for students to learn all what the instructor Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong 25 Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society teaches them Learners will intake the amount of knowledge that they find interesting and useful during the lecture The more the instructor varies his or her methods of transforming information, the more learners adapt with his or her ways of presenting the lesson Moreover, students one more time determined the role of group work and group work discussion in the classroom They agreed that group work and group work discussion could enhance their study as they could share information and study from each other In contrast, the researcher received a relatively broad range of comments on teaching style but serious issues were common in the answers of several students The first issue came up in of the students’ responses The teaching style did not enhance their study because of the lack of visual aids in class The students said: “We studied so much theory without any illustration such as films or video.” “The teaching style should be more various with watching films and video clips, not just lecturing.” “Using visual aids can enhance my study If the teacher just talk and talk, my study will not be enhanced because learning is very boring.” “There is no picture, no video or music, which cannot enhance my study.” … It was clear that learners hoped to have visual aids in class such as films, video clips, and pictures together with lectures Six other students said that they found task instructions were not very comprehensible They also expressed their desire to be given some feedback for their oral presentations and wished the instructor had allowed them to finish their presentations before any corrections or complementation were given The students responded: “…I got trouble when doing project because of an unclear instruction.” Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong 26 Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society “…We were not sure of the accurate level of the information because we lack instructions.” “…We received an unclear instruction for group tasks.” “…It is so boring when she did not explain anything after students’ presentation.” “…The teacher did not give feedback for our presentation.” “…The teacher often interferes when students are speaking and presenting.” From this comment, an issue seemed to be conducted that students had problems understanding the instructor and the instructor unconsciously discouraged students’ learning motivation when describing the task and giving feedback It might be that learners did not understand the task involved They did not know what its goals were, what outcome was required and what each person should What seemed clear to the teacher might not be clear to the students In addition, it was important for learners to receive positive feedback both of the content and the quality of language used in their presentation They were likely to be given comment on the things they were getting right and on the area in which they were showing improvement However, it would be discouraging if they were interrupted or corrected during the presentation To re-examine what learners had responded, I asked them to answer the ending open question: “If you took this course again, what would you like your professor to do?” There are many commonalties among the responses reminding the researcher of activities most interested in such as visual aids, group work discussion, presentation and role-play 38 respondents suggested having visual aids: watching films, video clips, etc relating to American Culture to help them easily study Group work discussion, presentation and roleplay each received 8-10 agreements from informants to be still kept and provided more Besides, another important issue was common in the responses of 11 students: They were Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong 27 Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society likely to study more about American Culture and Society instead of Vietnamese Culture and Society Some of their extracts were: “The teacher should be more active, let me contact American Culture more Don’t ask me to spend much time on comparing the Vietnamese and U.S cultures to find only differences between the two” “… I‘d like to learn about American Culture and Society, not about Vietnamese Culture and Society.” “The teacher should not attaché Vietnamese Culture all of the time in the lecture.” “The instructor should take more instruction about American Culture.” … This issue reminded the researcher of the assignment best done, homework projects Although the course was about American Culture and Society, homework projects were designed mostly about Vietnamese Culture and Society When asked if learners prefer to learn more about U.S or Vietnamese culture, they revealed that they hoped to be given more instruction on U.S cultural aspect and less emphasis on Vietnamese ones It can be suggested this need of the learners should be taken into consideration when the course is taught Also, homework project should be kept since it is reported to be a desirable task for the learners Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong 28 Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION, LIMITATION, AND SUGGESTION 5.1 Conclusion In brief, it is suggested that three immediate changes should be made for the course to meet learners’ needs First of all, the course objectives should be designed before the course started and stated before learners begin their instructional materials because they allow instructors a method to find how successful their materials have been and to provide learners the means to organize their efforts toward accomplishing the desired study objectives Along with those objectives, the midterm-course evaluation in oral or in written forms should be carried out to examine in what ways the provided materials and teaching method have satisfied learners’ interest In so doing, instructors can make modifications in the materials or adaptation in teaching approaches to better suit learners needs Besides, authentic materials such as oral history, document films and scholarly articles should be added to the existing curriculum which mainly uses textbooks with very general information about U.S cultural aspects The real materials are certainly more vivid to learn and discuss In terms of research, reading scholarly articles about U.S culture and society not only increase students’ knowledge of U.S culture but also helps acquaint them with scientific writing where arguments are made and supported by research Limitation There are two limitations in my research First of all, I spent so much time on figuring out the research topic and less time for the research content, so my research may be not informative enough to persuade readers My first research topic was problematic, so I had to change my topic a second time My limitation was that I did not really know what I wanted to look for Not knowing what I wanted to investigate has indeed slowed down Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong 29 Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society my time for my research However, after changing the research topic twice, I found that I had a better idea of what I should seek for my research field Since I spent so much time on choosing a good topic to start with, I had less time for the research If I had had more time, I could have interviewed students who were taking the course American Culture and Society at the time I was doing my research for a closer look on what knowledge and method of instruction they wished the course to offer 5.3 Suggestion for further research It is drawn from the research on learners’ needs that learners need to be involved in decisions on content selection, methodology and evaluation (Nunan, 1998).They should be provided a right to have their views incorporated into the selection of content and learning experiences and be provided with the appropriate opportunities to make choices So, further research should investigate learners’ needs in which the learner-centered approach should be considered rather than traditional-centered approach: the teacher-centered approach in order to examine how effective the former approach is if being applied at CTU In the later approach, most of the key decisions about course objectives, teaching materials and methodology are made before there is any encounter between teacher and learner (Taba, 1962) Most teachers plan instruction by specifying course objectives, selecting learning activities so as to move learners to the designed objectives and evaluating the outcomes of instruction to improve planning Obviously, there is a mismatch between the demands of learners and the planning instruction The planning model may be too far from learners’ capacity or not interesting enough to learners However, the former approach directs the instructional plan to be centered around learners’ needs and allows learners exercise their own responsibility in the choice of course objectives, content , method, as well as in determining the means used to assess their performance (Brindley, 1984) Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong 30 Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society REFERENCES Books Bauer, A M & Shea, T M (1999) Inclusion 101 – How to teach all learners Baltimore, MD: Paul H Brookes Publishing Co Brindley, G (1984) Needs analysis and objectives setting in the adult migrant education program Sydney: NSW Adult Migrant Education Services Elaine Kirm & Pamela Hartmann, Interaction one- A reading skills book, 3rd, the McGrawHill Companies, Inc New York Jane, W.1996 A Framework for task-based learning Edinburgh Gate, Longman Levine, Deena R., Baxter, J., McNulty, P., 1987, The culture puzzle Cross-cultural communication for English as a second language Prentice Hall Regents, Englewood cliffs, New Jersey 07632 Mercer, C D & Mercer, A R (1998) Teaching Students with Learning Problems 5th Edition Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc Nunan, D.1998 The Learner-centered cirriculum Cambridge Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Salend, S J 1998 Effective mainstreaming – Creating inclusive classrooms (3rd ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall Taba, H (1962) Curriculum development: Theory and practice New York: Harcourt Brace Internet websites Russell, T (January 2000) Toward Meeting the Needs of All Learners, An Action Research Report PROF 191, posted in March, 2000, from http://educ.queensu.ca/~ar/prof191/rpt20001.htm Goals and objectives, July 7, 2004 Retrieved May, 2007 from http://www.lib.utexas.edu/services/instruction/tips/cp/cp_goals.html Schuman, L Reason for objectives, March 9, 1996 Retrieved May, 2007 from http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/EDTEC540/objectives/ObjDefNReasons.html Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong 31 Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society APPENDIX APPENDIX 1: PHIẾU NHẬN XÉT MÔN HỌC (1) Mã số môn học: Tên môn học: Giảng viên: _Ngày: _ Mục đích phiếu nhằm giúp giáo viên Trường biết ưu, nhược điểm để điều chỉnh việc giảng dạy tốt Nhằm bảo đảm thoải mái cho sinh viên ghi nhận xét, em không cần ghi tên vào phiếu Phiếu giao cho giáo viên sau Trường tổng hợp giáo viên chấm xong Cám ơn em dành thời gian giúp Trường công việc quan trọng Mỗi mục nhận xét theo mức độ: 1-Kém, 2-Trung bình, 3-Khá, 4-Tốt Đánh dấu (x) vào ô tương ứng STT 10 Câu hỏi Mức độ hợp lý việc tổ chức môn học? Trình độ kiến thức môn học phù hợp với bạn đến mức nào? Khối lượng công việc môn học phù hợp với bạn đến mức nào? Giảng viên chuẩn bị giảng tốt đến mức nào? Tài liệu giảng viên giới thiệu hữu ích đến mức nào? Giảng viên tương tác với sinh viên trình dạy học (trao đổi ý kiến, giải đáp câu hỏi, hướng dẫn đề án…) tốt đến mức nào? Khối lượng kiến thức bạn tiếp thu môn học này? Mức độ giảng viên thực theo lịch học nghỉ có dạy bù? Mức độ thuận lợi phương tiện phục vụ giảng dạy học tập? Đánh giá cách tổng quát chất lượng dạy giảng viên môn học này? Nếu bạn có đề nghị khác, ghi thêm : …………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………… This course evaluation form was distributed by CTU Office Department and has been applied since June 2006 Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong 32 Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE Dear Friends, My name is Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong and my major is English I am working on my B.A thesis which investigates the satisfaction of the learners’ needs in the course “American Culture and Society.” I would like to receive your help with the following questionnaire Please answer the questions in Vietnamese, English or both as you wish Your cooperation will greatly contribute to success of my thesis Thank you very much! In what semester did you take the course American Culture and Society? What was the required text(s) of the course? Which reading did you like most in the course? Please also indicate why? Which reading did you like least in the course? Please also indicate why? Were the course objectives or outcomes stated clearly at the beginning of the course or sometimes during the course? If yes, please write some of those objectives or outcome that you remember? If no, what course objectives or outcomes did you think the course had achieved? Which of the following course objectives or outcomes would you think are appropriate for the course American Culture and Society? Please circle all the answers that apply to you After successful completion of the course, students will be able to: a Compare the similarities and contrast the differences between Vietnam and the U.S in cultural areas: family, government, table manner, marriage, and religion b Comprehend U.S cultural aspects of family, government, table manner, marriage, and religion c Response a particular U.S cultural aspect in a written form d Present a particular U.S cultural aspect in fron of the class Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong 33 Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society How often did you participate orally in class? a Frequently b Seldom 10 In case you did not often participate orally in class, what would be the reason? a I was usually shy and afraid that my friends would judge my ideas b I did not have anything to say c I preferred to listen and express my thought in a written form d The instructor did not give us a chance to express our ideas orally 11 Which of the following assignments did you best? a Written exam b Oral exam c Presentation d Role-play e Homework project f Watching response essay (response to what you watch) g Reading response essay (response to what you read) h Others (please specify) 12 Which of the following activities were you most interested in? a Pair-work discussion b Group-work discussion c Whole class discussion d Lecturing e Presentation f Listening to music, tapes g Role-play h Translation j Watching films, video clips 13 In what ways did and didn’t the teaching style enhance your study? 14 Did the instructor give some kind of midterm course evaluation? 15 If yes, please indicate how? 16 After taking this course, your interest in the field of study has: a decreased b remained the same c increased 17 If you took this course again, what would you like your professor to do? Please write as much as you would like APPENDIX 3: BLOOM’S TAXONOMY OF LEARNING (1) 34 Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society Skills Demonstrated and key words for writing course objectives and designing assignments: Knowledge • Observation and recall of information • Knowledge of dates, events, places • Knowledge of major ideas • Mastery of s]subject matter • Question Cues: list, define, tell, describe, identify, show, label, collect, examine, tabulate, quote, name, who, when, where, etc Comprehension • Understanding information • Grasp meaning • Translate knowledge into new context • Interpret facts, compare, contrast • Order, group, infer causes • Predict consequences • Question Cues: summarize, describe, interpret, contrast, predict, associate, distinguish, estimate, differentiate, discuss, extend Application • Use information • Use methods, concepts, theories in new situations • Solve problems using required skills or knowledge • Question Cues: apply, demonstrate, calculate, complete, illustrate, show, solve, examine, modify, relate, change, classify, experiment, discover Analysis • Seeing patterns • Organization of parts • Recognition of hidden Meanings • Identification of components • Question Cues: analyze, separate, order, explain, connect, classify, arrange, divide, compare, select, explain, infer Synthesis • Use old ideas to create new ones This handout was distributed at the workshop on course goals and outcomes, held at the English Department on April 1st, 2007 • Generalize from given facts Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong 35 Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society • Relate knowledge from several areas • Predict, draw conclusions • Question Cues: combine, integrate, modify, rearrange, substitute, plan, create, design, invent, what if?, compose, formulate, prepare, generalize, rewrite Evaluation • Compare and discriminate between ideas • Assess value of theories, presentation • Make choices based on reasoned argument • Verify value of evidence • Recognize subjectivity • Question Cues: assess, decide, rank, grade, test, measure, recommend, convince, select, judge, explain discriminate, support, conclude, compare, summarize Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong 36 Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong [...]... describe and explain features of their own culture as well as the class readings By asking them to Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong 12 Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society explain significant similarities and differences, we will be able to determine the depth of their understanding of culture Explanation:... about the needs of learners in the course Based on the result of the CEF, interview questions were designed and answered by participants for more reliable data to analyze learners’ satisfaction of the course 3.2 Participants The participants the researcher chose included four instructors of American Culture and Society and 72 English students who already took the course American Culture and Society The. .. responses of 11 students: They were Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong 27 Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society likely to study more about American Culture and Society instead of Vietnamese Culture and Society Some of their extracts were: The teacher should be more active, let me contact American Culture. .. Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society 3.3.1 CTU Course Evaluation Forms: Questions asked generally about the course content and teaching methods 3.3.2 Questionnaires: questions asked for course materials, objectives, teaching methods and learners’ needs 3.3.3 Interviews: The student interview discussed again questions in the questionnaires... Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY 3.1 Design Descriptive and quantitative approaches are used to investigate the satisfaction of the learners’ needs in the course American Culture and Society The CTU course evaluation form (CEF) was first administered to English students who already took the course to get their general... questionnaires The purpose of this session was to better examine what the students’ responses to the CEF and questionnaire actually meant The instructor interviews were conducted with questions about course objectives, contents and evaluations Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong 17 Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture. .. because of an unclear instruction.” Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong 26 Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society “…We were not sure of the accurate level of the information because we lack instructions.” “…We received an unclear instruction for group tasks.” “…It is so boring when she did not explain anything... groups of students studying the course American Culture and Society in different period with the purpose of examining whether or not the satisfaction of their needs in the course is similar in other that the researcher can get an overview of learners’ needs 3.3 Instruments CTU Course Evaluation Forms, questionnaires, and interviews were used to collect the data Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong 16... BLOOM’S TAXONOMY OF LEARNING (1) 34 Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society Skills Demonstrated and key words for writing course objectives and designing assignments: Knowledge • Observation and recall of information • Knowledge of dates, events, places • Knowledge of major... around learners’ needs and allows learners exercise their own responsibility in the choice of course objectives, content , method, as well as in determining the means used to assess their performance (Brindley, 1984) Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong 30 Researcher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society REFERENCES ... Huong An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society CHAPTER FOUR DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Data analysis and discussion Questionnaires... An Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society Teachers consider the different learning styles and cognitive and participation levels of. .. Investigation on the Satisfaction of the Learners’ Needs in the Course American Culture and Society likely to study more about American Culture and Society instead of Vietnamese Culture and Society