4th International Science, Social Science, Engineering and Energy Conference
11th-14th December, 2012, Golden Beach Cha-Am Hotel, Petchburi, Thailand
I-SEEC 2012
www.iseec2012.com
Teaching Methods, Approaches and Strategies Found in EFL
Classrooms: A Case Study in Lao PDR
Chutima Intarapanicha
a
Language Center, Udon Thani Rajabhat University, Udon Thani, 41000, Thailand
Abstract
Illustrating a perspective of English language teaching, this research was conducted to investigate the EFL teaching
methods, approaches and strategies found in English as a foreign language classes in Lao PDR. This case study
observed and interviewed five teachers’ teaching in three typical public schools: one primary school and two
secondary schools in Vientiane Municipality. The study found that three major methods/approaches—
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Grammar Translation Method (GTM) and Total Physical Response
(TPR)—were significantly applied in the EFL classroom in Lao schools. Moreover, they generally contained various
activities and strategies. In primary grade level, the activities were short and interesting when the teacher engaged
their students with various learning activities. In the secondary schools, many activities provided the students more
opportunity to communicate and share ideas.
Keywords: English language teaching, teaching method, communicative langauge teaching, teaching strategies
1. Introduction
Worldwide, the English language education was introduced into classes at schools centuries ago. For
the past twenty years, the language influences all kinds of communication and entertainment. It is shown
in many websites that approximately a thousand million of people speak and write English, both in their
daily lives and in their professional fields. Today the language is the most widely learned second language
in the world.
In Lao PDR, in 1986 under the “Chintanakan Mai” (new way of thinking) policy, which represents a
change from a centrally planned economy and Eastern bloc-oriented foreign policy toward a market
economy and an omni-directional foreign policy, English language has been increasingly important in Lao
education. Since the implementation of this policy, an inflow of people from other countries has increased
the demand for English language learning.
Bouangeune and friends (2008) conducted a survey and found that 81.2% of Lao secondary school
students “strongly agree” that English is important. The results of their study suggest only that English
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language education in Lao secondary schools should focus more on the learning of basic vocabulary as
well as basic content.
Goh & Vincohith (2003) (cited from Bouangeune and friends, 2008) mentioned to the improvement in
the quality of English language education there has not kept up with the rapidly increasing demands for
English in Lao secondary schools due to a lack of textbooks, a well-organized curriculum and qualified
English teachers.
2. Method
The study sought to answer the research question: Which teaching approaches, methods and strategies
are found in the EFL classrooms at the subject schools?
2.1 Context of the study
The purpose of this study was to investigate the EFL teaching methods, approaches and strategies
found in English classes through observation of teachers’ teaching and interviews. The study took places
in Lao PDR at three schools under the supervision of Vientiane Municipality Education Office. The
selection of subjected schools, which represented a range of environments where EFL is taught in urban
and rural areas, was based on two conditions: 1) the accessibility of schools and participants at the time of
the study and 2) the school’s representativeness of typical schools in Lao PDR.
Participants of this study included researcher—a non-participant observer, and a total of five teachers
in the three selected schools. The subject’s background of each was investigated through the interview.
To find out the represents of every school levels—primary, lower secondary and upper secondary levels—
teachers at the 3rd, 4th, 9th, 11th and 12th grade levels were purposely selected to participate in the study.
The main two research methods applied to this study are Direct Observation and In-depth Interview.
Data is collected by non-participant observation. The observer identifies which method(s), approach(es)
and strategy(ies) are used in the subjects’ classes, and notes them on an observation form. When
observing the subjects’ teaching, the entire classroom session is video-taped. For the interview, the
questions are open-ended, and come with a checklist of ESL/EFL teaching methods, approaches and
strategies.
2.2 Data collection
To collect data, it took approximately three weeks during the second semester of the 2010 school year.
The primary data sources for this study were observations and interviews with five teachers of English
(Teacher A, B, C, D, E) in the target schools, as well as descriptive field notes of observations of EFL
classrooms.
In this study, each teacher’s class was observed during the 30 to 90 minute class period to convey the
participants’ perspectives on EFL teaching in their classroom. All classroom observations were also video
tape recorded and later transcribed to gather as many details from the classes as possible.
To interview, series of open-ended questions, centered on the topics of English language teaching,
were used to guide the interview that allowed teachers to elaborate on their teaching style and clarify the
teaching methods done in classroom.
Data were collected in English, Thai and Lao depending on each participant’s preference and type of
research tools. Then, all documentation was translated into English. The participants’ philosophy was
noted through interviews.
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3. Findings and Discussion
3.1 Discussion of Primary-Level Findings
During a very short period of language study, Teacher A and Teacher B successfully engaged their
students with various learning activities. The activities were short and interesting. In primary grade levels,
the quantity of new English content introduced was small in each lesson. Having less content enabled
teachers to concentrate on correct pronunciation and grammar.
Spelling related activities were used to start new lessons. Students were asked to spell a word and say
it aloud. This strategy is normally found in elementary education, as part of Grammar Translation Method,
which emphasized written language over spoken language. In this situation, an EFL speaker may actually
develop better spelling ability than native speakers, despite having a poorer command of the language.
Before and after each activity, teachers asked simple questions with different purposes, e.g. reviewing
lesson content, checking understanding, and modeling sentence structure and usage.
To guide classroom activities, Teacher A communicated almost everything bilingually—instruction
and questions were done in English language (L2), and then Lao language (L1). Most of the students
understand her statements. It was assumed that the teacher taught the students classroom instructions and
how to reply them in English at the beginning and always used them in their classes.
Teaching tools or visual aids, such as flash cards, textbooks, worksheets, and chalkboard were
important and a major part of teaching and learning. At each school, it was observed that the typical
classroom teaching tools, besides desks and chalkboards, were quite primitive. Using flash cards, pictures,
and worksheets made lessons more exciting to the students.
Teacher A, paid a significant amount of attention to the students’ grammar knowledge and usage. In
Teacher A’s class, grammatical rules were emphasized. This showed strong influence from the Grammar
Translation method.
Demonstration techniques were used to get students to practice reading and saying words and
sentences. At the primary grade-level, this technique was fun for students, especially ones who enjoy
acting like a teacher and teaching their friends. Taking over the teacher’s role (role-playing) is always
popular in class and doing it helped students gain confidence.
Teacher A focused on pronunciation. Her style of teaching new vocabulary was to explain each word’s
meaning in L1 and then pronounce it correctly. To reinforce what they heard from the teacher, students
practiced, with each other in rows, defining and saying the words. When defining the words, students
used body gestures to “act out” the meaning, which was consistent with Total Physical Response method.
Both teachers used games to motivate and engage the student as well.
3.2 Discussion of Lower-Secondary Level Findings
Observations revealed that Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) was used in EFL class in Lao
PDR. This method generally contains social interaction activities, including conversation and discussion
sessions, dialogues and role-plays, simulations, skits, improvisations, and debates. Conversation
discussion dialogue and role-playing were barely appeared in the classroom. The students’ first language
(L1) appeared many times during conversation between teacher and students; this could happen at the
beginning level.
It was found that the teacher walked around to advise and answer their questions while the students did
their assignments. Acting as an advisor and monitoring student performance were obviously the roles of a
teacher in CLT, as a facilitator of students’ learning.
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Found in CLT, it often takes the form of pair and group work requiring negotiation and cooperation
between students. Like in primary level, role-playing was popular and explicit as a language learning
strategy, in which students practice and develop language functions, as well as judicious use of grammar
and pronunciation in focus activities.
Brainstorming (a technique by which efforts are made to find a solution for a specific problem) was
found when recalling vocabulary and ideas for reading comprehension exercises and follow-up questions.
As in other normal public schools, the classroom was equipped with a teacher’s desk, students’ desks
and a whiteboard with small pillows as the board erasers—without any other teaching devices such as
computer, overhead projector or even a speaker. The students have only textbook and the board.
The structure of a sentence was not explained, but Grammar Translation method was illustrated by
error corrections while checking the students’ answers written on the board.
Questioning was a tool to inquire information and asked as follow-up questions for the students to
clarify the answer in details.
In reading session, reading aloud strategy was found to stimulate the student reader and listener
imaginations and emotions and to make difficult text understandable. The teacher read to model
volunteered students while other students filled in the gaps in an exercise. This is a kind of Audio-lingual
Method (ALM) as of Brooks’ idea of completion when student hears an utterance—that is completed
except for one word, then repeats the utterance in completed form. With limited support from the school,
audio devices, such as media players and speakers, were not available. Because of this, traditional
teaching methods, such as reading aloud, were was used in the class.
3.3 Discussion of Upper-Secondary Level Findings
Dialogue and role-playing activities are normally found in the Communicative Language Teaching
(CLT). Teacher’s showed a strong affinity for CLT, through the learning activities they chose, as well as
their personal teaching/interaction styles with students.
As CLT facilitators in CLT, teacher walked around the classroom and facilitated students during
individual and group work. For example, sometimes the teacher guided students in their assignments:
correcting mistakes, motivating, clarifying things students did not understand fully, etc.
The Lao language was using a good deal of the time, during friendly conversations between teacher
and students as a tool to explain and chat. At this grade level, most students understood the English
instructions, questions and explanations in-between the activities.
It was observed that teachers invested a significant amount of their own money, to provide teaching
and learning tools—especially, media players and speakers for language classroom use. Besides the
materials teachers themselves donated, only simple teaching and learning materials such as a textbook,
whiteboard and markers were available from the school.
Reading aloud and repetition were found in many activities, such as reading and conversation. This
strategy enabled students practice their pronunciation and understand the meaning of words more easily.
Questioning by the teacher was a basic strategy employed to evaluate the students’ comprehension, as
well as their language skills (listening, speaking, and reading-comprehension).
3.4 Discussion of Teacher’s Interviews
From the interviews, findings were illustrated teaching English in Lao schools where simple materials
and tools were brought to the students. This discussion represented the teachers’ professional views of
teaching the language. Different school levels were discussed started from primary level to uppersecondary level.
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Primary Level—Teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) had been done with basic materials
such as pictures, flash cards and chalkboard. Easy and fun games and activities were popular among
teachers and students. At this level, easy sentence structures and questions were tools to deliver new
vocabulary words in every lesson. Sometimes, teachers emphasized grammar and usage as basis of the
language learning. It was believed that TEFL methodology, which the primary school teachers had trained
in, was suitable and effective. Pair-works, group-works, drills, spelling activities games and songs were
favorite strategies, which the teachers generally used in classes. An ideal EFL teacher for young learners
was a professional with knowledge of the language, skills and ability to apply many different activities to
class, and more important he/she should be a good model to them.
Secondary Levels—TEFL strategies found in the classroom were conversation, role-plays, debates and
group-works. These activities provided the students more opportunity to communicate and share ideas. It
was found that teachers at the secondary level were knowledgeable about skills and had the ability to
teach English to teenagers using a variety of language activities (strategies) e.g. games, group-works, or
whatever techniques and fun activities they had been trained at training schools in Vientiane—Lao PDR
and in Australia.
4. Conclusion
The study found that the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), Grammar Translation Method
(GTM), and Total Physical Response (TPR) were the dominant approaches used in EFL classrooms in
these Lao schools. Learning activities and strategies from these approaches and methods were the ones
seen most frequently in the classroom observations.
At the primary grade level, the quantity of new English content introduced in each lesson was small.
The learning activities chosen by teachers at this grade level were short and interesting, which helped
teachers engage students in the lesson content. Examples of these activities include, spelling word games,
demonstration, role-playing, reading aloud, and repetition drill.
In secondary school levels, brainstorming, pair-work, group-work, drills, spelling activities, debates,
games, and songs were the preferred strategies teachers used in their classes. These types of activities
provided students more opportunity to communicate and share ideas.
In classrooms that were observed, simple teaching tools, such as flash cards, textbooks, worksheets,
and chalkboard/whiteboard played a major part in teaching and learning. The instruction and questions
were done in English (L2) and then Lao language (L1).
During the interviews, the Lao teachers expressed their belief that the teaching of English as a foreign
language (TEFL) methodology, which they had been trained to use, was suitable and effective, for
younger students. But in higher grade-levels, teachers sometimes felt it necessary to adapt learning
activities, based upon student abilities and constraints in classroom settings.
From the interviews, it was generally found that an ideal EFL instructor for young learners should be a
professional with knowledge of the language, skills and ability to apply many different activities to
classes—more importantly an ideal EFL instructor should be a good model to students, while teachers at
secondary grade-levels thought that an ideal EFL instructor should also have a positive attitude toward the
teaching profession. In addition, an ideal EFL instructor should be active, friendly, caring, polite and
adaptable.
Acknowledgements
This paper is funded by a grant under the “Faculty and Student Exchange Program between Thailand
and Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) Countries for the Year 2010” project and under a cooperation of
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Udon Thani Rajabhat University, I am grateful for their assistance in carrying out the project and offering
me this honor opportunity to conduct the research in Lao PDR. I would like to thank National University
of Lao—my host university, where prepared me all facilities and assists.
I also would like to thank
Dr. Supatra Wanpen for her advice and Mr. Daniel Keegan for his proofreading.
References
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