MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES LÊ THỊ THANH HẢI IMPLEMENTING THE COMMON EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK OF REFERENCE FOR LANGUAGES AT TERTIARY LEVEL IN VIETNAM: GENERAL ENGLISH TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS AND RESPONSES DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING HUE, 2019 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES LÊ THỊ THANH HẢI IMPLEMENTING THE COMMON EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK OF REFERENCE FOR LANGUAGES AT TERTIARY LEVEL IN VIETNAM: GENERAL ENGLISH TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS AND RESPONSES DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 14 01 11 Supervisor Assoc Prof Dr Pham Thi Hong Nhung HUE, 2019 DECLARATION I certify that the present dissertation submitted today entitled: ―Implementing the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages at teriary level in Vietnam: General English teachers’ perceptions and responses‖ for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in theory and methodology in English language teaching, is the result of my own research, and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree in any institute, college, or university, and previously published or written by another person, except where due reference is made in the text of the dissertation Signature: i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The road to achievement within this Doctoral Program is paved with the assistance and efforts of the many who worked diligently to assist me, believed in me and guided me to pursue a personal goal I acknowledge those who without hesitation contributed their professional and academic knowledge to this study Without these individuals, this would never have been possible I would like to acknowledge the forbearance of my supervisor Associate Professor Doctor Pham Thi Hong Nhung, who provided instruction and feedback to various steps of the study and to various versions of this dissertation with the support and words of wisdom I was exceptionally fortunate to have her as a mentor for this work Her encouragement allowed me to continue to grow as a person and a researcher She helped me keep things prioritized and in focus Without her, this work would not have taken its final shape I would also like to extend my sincere gratitude to teachers, lecturers and professors of University of Foreign Languages, Hue University for patiently and wholeheartedly guiding me through the process required to complete my program of study Their support, encouragement, and willingness to serve as academic committee members were of huge benefit to me Their knowledge and wisdom inspired me to broaden my scope of investigation I also thank my dear and best friend whom without her support, I would possibly have not accomplished this personal goal A special mention also goes to my colleagues whose understanding, sympathy, and support were invaluable spiritual strength for me during the process of completing this work I owe a great debt to many English teachers at the home university who voluntarily and patiently answered the questionnaire and took part in the in- depth interviews during the data collection process of this study This journey was made possible through the love and support of my mother, my husband and children I would like to express my deep gratitude to my family To my husband, for his unconditional love, support, and encouragement He encouraged me unfailingly, provided ongoing support and kind words, motivated ii me, and had confidence in me To my mother whose life demonstrated that honor is found in hard work and sacrifice I thank her for loving me unconditionally and for providing me with encouragement in my educational pursuits My thanks go to my children, who are a source of strength to me Along the way, they constantly made sacrifices to facilitate me in my endeavors They were persistent in reminding me of my desire to complete the journey and motivated me every step of the way I will be forever grateful and inspired by their love iii ABSTRACT The present study investigates teachers‘ perceptions of the values of the CEFR, the perceived readiness and necessity of its application, and the work involved in its application process Also, it explores teachers‘ responses to the use of the CEFR to renew the general English curriculum, reflected in how they changed their teaching activities, adapted the assigned textbooks and modified their assessment practice The study was a case study applying the mixed method sequential explanatory model (Creswell & Clark, 2007) Data were collected from thirty-six GE teachers at a university in Vietnam by means of a forty-nine-item questionnaire Eight semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted The findings revealed that GE teachers were knowledgeable about the CEFR and its implementation at the research site Specifically, they highly perceived the values of the CEFR, its readiness and necessity for application Their perceptions, however, were not totally and successfully reflected in their responses Although GE teachers made great effort in modifying the CEFR-aligned curriculum, they were dissatisfied with the work involved in its implementation process Encountered challenges included time constraints, incompatible teaching materials, and mismatch between students‘ admission level of proficiency and learning outcome To deal with the challenges, GE teachers made adaptations and modifications in the teaching activities, teaching materials and classroom assessment practice, albeit the activities were merely used as coping strategies In particular, teaching activities were changed There was a lack of adherence to the assigned textbooks The CEFR-aligned tests were favored and students‘ self and peer assessments were focused GE teachers were found to teach ―test-taking strategies‖ and instant techniques to aid students achieving the required learning outcome Due to the limited timeframe, an emphasis on blended learning and learner autonomy was recognized and started to take hold From the findings, methodological and pedagogical implications are made for improvements of the adoption of the CEFR on the implementation level iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CoE : Council of Europe CEFR : The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages CRLs : Common Reference Levels FSL : French as a Second Language GE : General English L1 : First language/ the mother tongue L2 : Second language M : Mean (value) MOET : Ministry of Education and Training NFL : Vietnam‘s National Foreign Languages QUAN : Quantitative QUAL : Qualitative SPSS : Statistical Package for the Social Sciences S.D : Standard deviation v TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION .1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v TABLE OF CONTENTS .vi LIST OF TABLES ix LIST OF FIGURES x CHAPTER 1.INTRODUCTION .1 1.1 Background context of the study 1.2 Rationale of the study 1.3 Purpose of the study and research questions 1.4 Research design overview 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Significance of the study 1.7 Organization of the study 10 CHAPTER 2.LITERATURE REVIEW 12 2.1 Definitions of the key terms .12 2.2 The CEFR in language education 13 2.2.1 A sketch of the CEFR: Definition, content, purpose, limitations and suggestions for good use 14 2.2.2 The spread of the CEFR in language education 18 2.3 Teachers‘ perceptions and responses 25 2.3.1 Teachers‘ perceptions 25 2.3.2 Teachers‘ responses 26 2.3.3 The relationship between teachers‘ perceptions and teachers‘ responses 27 2.4 The CEFR implementation as change management in English language education 29 2.4.1 Educational change management model 29 2.4.2 Factors influential to successful educational change management 31 2.4.3 The implementation of the CEFR in the light of educational change management 34 2.5 Previous studies on the use of the CEFR in English language education 40 vi 2.5.1 Previous studies in the world 40 2.5.2 Previous studies in Vietnam .44 2.6 The conceptual framework 48 2.7 Chapter summary 49 CHAPTER 3.METHODOLOGY 51 3.1 Research approach and research design 51 3.1.1 Research approach 51 3.1.2 Research design 54 3.2 Research questions and conceptual framework 56 3.3 Research setting and sample 57 3.3.1 Research setting 57 3.3.2 Participants 58 3.3.3 Researcher‘s role 61 3.4 Data collection methods .61 3.4.1 Data collection instruments 61 3.4.2 Data collection procedures 67 3.5 Data analysis 70 3.5.1 The pilot phase 71 3.5.2 The official round 72 3.6 Validity .74 3.7 Reliability 76 3.8 Ethical considerations 77 3.9 Chapter summary 78 CHAPTER 4.FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 79 4.1 GE teachers‘ perceptions of the CEFR and its implementation 79 4.1.1 General results 79 4.1.2 GE teachers‘ understanding of the values of the CEFR 80 4.1.3 GE teachers‘ perceptions of the CEFR readiness for application 82 4.1.4 GE teachers‘ attitudes towards the necessity of the CEFR implementation .85 4.1.5 GE teachers‘ dissatisfaction of the work involved in the CEFR implementation process 89 vii 4.1.6 Summary of the first research question‘s findings .95 4.2 GE teachers‘ responses to the CEFR implementation .96 4.2.1 General results 96 4.2.2 GE teachers‘ responses to teaching activities modification 96 4.2.3 GE teachers‘ responses to teaching materials adaptation 103 4.2.4 GE teachers‘ responses to classroom assessment renewal .108 4.2.5 Summary of the second research question‘s findings 113 4.3 Chapter summary .115 CHAPTER 5.CONCLUSIONS 117 5.1 Summary of key findings 117 5.1.1 Teachers‘ perceptions of the CEFR and its implementation process .117 5.1.2 GE teachers‘ responses to the CEFR implementation 122 5.2 Implications 125 5.2.1 Implications for teachers and classroom teaching 126 5.2.2 Implications for administrators 128 5.3 Research contributions .130 5.4 Limitations of the study 131 5.5 Recommendations for further research 132 LISTS OF AUTHOR‘S WORK 134 REFERENCES 134 APPENDICES .146 APPENDIX A: The pilot questionnaire 147 APPENDIX B1: The official English questionnaire 156 APPENDIX B2: The official Vietnamese questionnaire 160 APPENDIX C: The pilot interview protocol-Vietnamese version .165 APPENDIX D: The oficial interview protocol-Vietnamese version 169 APPENDIX E1: Participant information sheet and consent form-English version 172 APPENDIX E2: Participant information sheet and consent form -Vietnamese version .175 APPENDIX F: Sample of interview coding and theming 178 viii ... UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES LÊ THỊ THANH HẢI IMPLEMENTING THE COMMON EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK OF REFERENCE FOR LANGUAGES AT TERTIARY LEVEL IN VIETNAM: GENERAL ENGLISH TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS AND... ―Implementing the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages at teriary level in Vietnam: General English teachers’ perceptions and responses‖ for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy... the world but revolves around Europe, this alien framework may give rise to paradoxes (Le Van Canh, 2015) if it is not well contextualized (Pham, 2017) With the remarkable differences in terms