Management styles

In classroom observations the researcher noted that classroom facilities are generally very basic, except in Centre 3 where superior facilities have a noticeably positive effect on teaching and learning quality. Centres 1 and 2 have only one cassette player in each classroom which teachers tended to use to give their voices a rest in large classrooms (which included around 50-55 students at the beginning of the course). Furthermore, in these two centres students sat at unmovable tables which prevented teachers from conducting group work and pair work with students. As discussed earlier, these class sizes affect the interaction between teachers and students as well as between students and students. Students in these two centres lacked the chance to familiarize themselves with modern teaching aids such as the overhead projectors and slide projectors, CD and DVD players that interest students. Hence, their centre managers should consider and regularly upgrade their teaching facilities in order to meet increasing learners‟ demands

along with social requirements. The Vietnam MOET (2008b) issued Instruction No.7984/BGDDT-GDTrH on September 1st 2008, which states that teachers should focus on the four macro skills of language in order to improve communication skills, as well as create various teaching styles to make sure students have opportunities to use the target language. It also states that training organizations must be equipped with teaching facilities, particularly visual and audio equipment to assist in improving the four macro skills.

As learning through visual methods helps students know and remember how to use a language more effectively, students should have a library to access in their own study time to borrow books, to access the internet for learning purposes and to use

computers with some language learning programs installed. This equipment would more readily represent the current economic market and information and technology era.

Through interviews with the teachers, the researcher learned that placement tests are an initial tool to evaluate and place students at their appropriate learning levels. However, in reality not many English language centres organize placement tests for students (Doan Truc & Cam Lu, 2005) and if they do these test results do not necessarily reflect the learners‟ needs and social requirements. As a result, most students sit in mixed level classes because of other reasons including being permitted to choose their

preferred teacher and time of class or choosing to be in the same class as their friends. However, to gain the real value of placement tests, students should be placed in a class at their level of English rather than deciding for themselves. In addition, students‟ placement test should consist of the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, with results stored to compare with at the end of the course test to assess students‟ progress. To do this, managers, teachers and students need to fully

understand the value of the placement tests, and use them properly to attain full value in meeting students‟ needs and ensuring the successful teaching and learning of English.

All centre managers interviewed believed that their staff were using communicative approaches, but in reality only some were using them partially, and the others not at all. Ideally, this learner-centred communicative approach should be carried out in an English language classroom environment. As Richards and Rodgers (2001, p.193) point out, this method provides opportunities for naturalistic language acquisition while at the same time enables the teacher to focus learners‟ attention on particular vocabulary and language structures. Therefore, managers should monitor their teachers and make sure that teaching staff are consistently using student-centred approaches to help students have maximum opportunities to develop and practise the skills they require (Xiao, 2006, p.74). If their teachers are in need of in service training to help solve their problems in carrying out these approaches, the manager should organize this.

In order to run an English language centre, one of the important factors to consider is the quality of teaching staff. As Lewis (2002, p.47) points out, teachers are the main factor affecting the effectiveness of students‟ learning because they “manage students and the environment to make the most of opportunities for learning and practicing language”. The researcher discovered through interviews that there was serious competition among English language centres in this area. Most English language centres invite teachers to teach English as casual positions; so teachers can oragnise their teaching flexibly. As a result they are often offered teaching positions at other centres with higher bonuses. Therefore, in this situation centre managers need to consider how on-going staff contribute and devote themselves to the centre‟s work and the development of other teaching staff skills in order to maintain consistency in teaching staff. Doing this may enable the centre to open more English courses to meet the growing social requirements.

The centre should make sure in its recruitment policy that the potential staff understand how to conduct communicative teaching approaches. More practically, potential and new staff should be given time to observe senior teachers‟ classes in order to be able to follow the teaching styles that the manager believes best help meet students‟ needs and the development of the centre. Furthermore, there should be channels of

communication linking the centre management with teachers, students and as appropriate, the students‟ parents. This channel should be established to keep both sides updated with necessary information for maintaining high standards in the teaching and learning process so that the students gain good results. Having built up a good reputation, the centre could then set up a job service network to help students in need of work.

Responses to students‟ questionnaires together with classroom observations and teachers‟ interviews point out that students should have a common place where they can practise English regularly, namely an English speaking club. This is consistent with Donarski‟s (2009) concept that an executive manager could consider recruiting new staff to help Vietnamese students improve their speaking skills by setting up an English speaking club. His research showed that due to the current way English is taught at schools in Vietnam, students are able to develop their communicative skills; so students need extra learning hours that focus on communicative skills. At English speaking clubs they can practise with different people who have the same motivation to learn English, and be able to share the experience they gain at school and at work, and even in their daily lives. Such activities need to be organized with the support of the centre manager who assigns staff to take charge of the discussion topics, guest

speakers, and excursions as required. In this way students will become more confident in using their English.

Administration staff, teachers and students should use English on campus in order to create an English environment where students and teachers become familiar with using English. They will be required to communicate in English to create an English

language environment to help students feel confident in communicating English on campus. According to Toh (2003, p.64), teachers should all cooperate in setting up English environments in which students can work together using English orally. The more students hear and visualize in English, the more confidently they will reproduce the language. Furthermore, as a survey conducted by Liu and Zhang (2007, p.161) found that nearly two thirds of students believe “the foreign teachers‟ class is friendlier and they have less stress in class compared with Chinese teachers classes” because

they “interact more with their students”, managers need to consider employing some skilled foreign teachers to assist in the development of communicative approaches among staff and students. Liu and Zhang (2007, p.163) also point out that the development of fluently face to face interaction, greatly builds confidence in communication.

With an emphasis on the communicative ability of students, managers need to

regularly update their policies on ongoing and end of course assessment. The purpose of this is to ensure that students‟ performance is monitored during their studies of the four skills. Ideally, they should be tested in real life authentic English language

situations in accordance with the Vietnam MOET (2008b) which states that assessment and evaluation are based on language knowledge, cultural understanding and the four macro skills.Testing criteria requires listening and speaking competence to be higher than reading and writing, so teachers and students should focus more on these skills in their teaching and learning. Also, assessment should be explained right at the

beginning of each course and conducted as scheduled. As the end of course test is an important factor that stimulates Vietnamese students‟ efforts, they will work harder if they know that they are going to sit for a test. This is because Vietnamese people are afraid of being judged poorly and having a loss of face.

School fees should be considered in terms of the quality of teaching. As there are differences among English language centres, it is good that each language centre is allowed to manage in its own way in accordance with Instruction No.7984/BGDDT- GDTrH issued by the Vietnam MOET (2008b). This encourages schools to use their own manageable funds to provide students with modern facilities for language learning programs that promote communication skills as well as internet services. Managers can choose their teaching materials and staff and organize courses as long as they can attract students. However, from observations, the researcher learned that in classrooms with fewer students, communication skills were more possible and students were able to use English for interaction more often. Added to this, school fees paying for better teaching allowances positively affects teachers‟ performances which then influences

students‟ achievements. Furthermore, high school fees can be used to attract English native teachers to conduct teaching hours, as well as providing them with enough time to prepare suitable classroom lessons. In general, higher school fees may lead to better students‟ performance when teaching facilities are focused, teaching methods are better, and numbers of students in each class are fewer.

In summary, although the Vietnam government has recently recognized and highly valued the role of English in the current era through policies focusing on

communicative skills (Government of Vietnam, 2008; MOET, 2008a, 2008b), teachers are not yet fully implementing to carry out communicative approaches in their

classrooms. Data showed that although some of the observed teachers at the three private language centres were attempting to use communicative approaches, they had not yet fully mastered the approach. However, it showed that communicative

approaches are definitely moving away from traditional grammar translation methods. Therefore, in order best to assist this movement, there should be a strong will of communicative approach implementation using a combination of the four key factors including teachers, students, teaching materials and centre management.