The teaching of communication strategies to non-English major students in Vietnam

This thesis reports on an investigation into the teaching of communication strategies (CSs) to non-English major students in Vietnam, with special attention to teachers' perspectives, and university curricula and teaching materials used at this level. A mixed-method approach was used. A survey was used to collect data from Vietnamese teachers of English to non-English major students, on the extent to which they were aware of the nature of CSs, and their views on the integration of CSs into the teaching of English to their students. This was combined with an analysis of the English teaching curricula used in all the universities surveyed, and a close analysis of the teaching texts used in one of these universities, in order to further clarify teachers' views on CSs and to see whether the content of the curricula and teaching texts at this level encourages the teaching of CSs. The findings show that, although the vast majority of the respondents supported integrating CSs into their teaching of spoken English to non-major students, many of them had an incomplete grasp of what CSs actually are, and few had been trained in how to teach them. Importantly, the teaching curricula of the universities surveyed did not cover CSs, nor did the teachers use supplementary supplementary teaching materials to teach them. Analysis of the teaching texts used by the majority of the respondents also indicated that these texts do not explicitly introduce the topic of CSs per se, although they do illustrate some CSs in several dialogues. In this way, they do illustrate how they work to some extent and provide some relevant vocabulary and practice. They therefore provide a source from which the teachers can draw in order to teach CSs. However, the teachers were not fully aware of exactly how CSs are treated in the texts, and thus did not fully exploit their potential in their teaching of spoken English to their students. The respondents did, however, offer some suggestions for how CS instruction could be incorporated into the teaching of English. On the basis of these analyses, specific recommendations for the development of appropriate CS practice materials and activities to teach spoken English to Vietnamese non-majors of English are proposed.