A CASE STUDY ON THE COLLABORATION BETWEEN NATIVE AND VIETNAMESE TEACHERS IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL TO 11TH GRADE STUDENTS IN THANG LONG PRIVATE HIGH SCHOOL IN HAI PHONG =

Abstract

With the shift of English teaching method to the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach in high schools in Vietnam, more and more ideas have been introduced to ameliorate the learning conditions. This study conducted to investigate into the reality of the collaboration between native English speaking teachers (NEST) and Vietnamese teacher of English (VTE) in the secondary context in Hai Phong, Vietnam aims at identifying the nature of collaboration – the extent of cooperating between the two teachers in different stages of a speaking lesson and the impacts of this teaching practice on the students’ performance and on the teachers themselves. To achieve these objectives, three instruments including interviews, observations and reflective journals were employed to obtain data from the two participant teachers and students. Observations were made in five collaborative lessons, after each of which were the interviews with the VTE and weekly reflective journals written by the NEST for each cooperative time were assembled. After five observations, a wrap-up interview was hold separately with the teachers. Results reveal that the collaboration is only potential since the two teachers did not negotiate among themselves how to co-teach effectively to bring the best result for the students. Nonetheless, having NEST and VTE in the classroom are positive to students’ speaking ability since the oral skills are improved and so is their confidence when speaking to foreigners. The teachers also feel the need the have the other in class since they have trust in each other’s ability and believe that the other can be a great help when something bad happens. From these findings, some practical implications were proposed with a view to better encourage teachers’ flexibility and initiative in working with each other.