COMMUNICATIVENESS OF ACTIVITIES IN PRIMARY ENGLISH CLASSROOMS AMID CURRICULUM REFORM IN VIETNAM

Tóm tắt

This study investigated the degree of communicativeness in activities conducted in primary English classes, along with the factors influencing their communicative nature. Nine teachers from eight primary schools in a Mekong Delta province, representing urban, semi-rural, and rural settings, participated in the study. Classroom observations and semi-structured interviews were employed, with Littlewood’s (2004) communicative continuum serving as the framework for analyzing activities across 27 video-recorded lessons and corresponding field notes. The findings indicated that most activities exhibited low levels of communicativeness, with urban teachers implementing more communicative activities than their semi-rural and rural counterparts. Teachers across all settings identified exam pressures, large class sizes, varying student proficiency levels, and limited time for communicative practice as major barriers. The study highlights the need to increase teachers and curriculum developers’ awareness of communicative approaches and recommends professional development initiatives to address these challenges in primary English classrooms.