The teacher walked along the middle aisle to collect some students‟ homework to correct on the board. While some were talking Vietnamese, some were looking back at what they had done at home. The teacher wrote some of the students‟ sentences on the board, and then walked up and down the middle aisle asking them to look at these sentences and give their ideas. The class was quiet with no responses; all students just looked at the board. Then the teacher corrected the sentences, and students followed by copying down the corrections in their exercise books. For example: „They work economical electricity‟ „They are economical‟, „It has nice sharp and powerful motor‟ „Its engine is powerful and easy to start.‟
After that the teacher introduced a new lesson on „parts of a paragraph‟ and wrote on the board the following:
Topic sentence: topic and controlling idea
He gave verbal examples in both English and Vietnamese to illustrate the structure he was presenting. At this time he began interpreting what he was saying. He also used only Vietnamese sentences to illustrate the meanings. Students listened and wrote in their exercise books.
Supporting sentence: to explain and develop the controlling idea
Here the teacher gave verbal examples such as „save time‟ and „available to wash‟. Students got involved; they listened and took notes in their exercise books.
Concluding sentence: summarizing the main idea
Students listened and wrote in their exercise books. After the explanations, he asked students to refer to the exercises. He asked students to find the „topic‟ and the controlling idea in Vietnamese. Then students found out the answers for requests such as „topic: internet‟ and „controlling idea: useful tool‟.
Students responded to the teacher‟s questions well. At this point the teacher explained the content of the reading and expanded on implicit knowledge. The teacher used both Vietnamese and English and students took notes. Following this he asked students to write down a task and complete it by finding the topic sentence and supporting sentences, but did not ask the students to work in pairs. Instead, he asked them to do the task individually. Then after a few minutes, he asked students to give answers while he was interpreting the passage into Vietnamese. He used Vietnamese to explain some new words in the belief that students could more easily understand the whole passage. During this time, some students were just talking about things that were not related to the topic.
The teacher then let students find supporting ideas for: „using a cell phone while riding is dangerous‟. In response, students expressed opinions including robbery and accidents. Some students were doing different things; they were not involved in this activity. Even though they were not involved, the teacher asked them to write down supporting ideas relating to the topic sentences given. Then the time was over.
4.2. Case study 2
4.2.1. General introduction
According to the documentation / website of Centre 2, it is one of the premier English language centres in Ho Chi Minh City. It has been operating since 1980 employing both local and foreign teaching staff (only local staff at time of data collection) holding Bachelor and Postgraduate degrees and using modern teaching methods. This centre has gained its reputation due to the quality of its teaching. Its functions are
teaching English, preparing for examinations and organizing national foreign language examinations levels A, B, and C.
From observations, each classroom is suitable for classes with a blackboard, three electric fans, four fluorescent lights, a desk for the teacher, and tables and chairs for students in three lines and nine rows. Because of the large area in each room with around 54 seats, teachers use microphones so that students can hear what they present.
4.2.2. Participants
Two female teachers and one manager agreed to join in this study. Of the two
teachers, one was aged in her early 30s and the other was in her early 50s. They were both invited by the centre to participate. The female manager of the program was aged in her late thirties and has a Master degree in Education. Other participants were 77 students chosen from observed classes to answer questionnaires about students‟ attitudes and perceptions of how best to achieve their goals in English learning. Among those students, there were 45 females and 32 males, and only 8 out of the 77 had jobs.
4.2.3. Student questionnaire
The questionnaires for students in this English centre were administered in the same two classes observed. The questionnaire took about 40 minutes of class time, with eighty two questionnaires being delivered. Of these, the researcher received 77 completely answered questionnaires, with five not fully completed. This happened even though the researcher had explained items carefully in Vietnamese and asked participants to respond to each item before going on to the next one. Furthermore after completing the questionnaire, the researcher asked respondents to go over each item again so that they would be sure not to miss or misunderstand anything. More detailed data are shown in Section 5.2.1.