Những khó khăn của giáo viên trong dạy ngữ pháp theo đường hướng giao tiếp cho học sinh dân tộc thiểu số tại trường trung học y tế tỉnh hà giang

1 Part A: Introduction I Rationale The economic open- door policy pursued by the government of Vietnam has increased a demand for studying English Many people are expected to be competent to communicate verbally with the outside world and to access technology In correspondence to this trend, in almost all of schools, colleges, universities, English is a compulsory subject HGMSS, where I have been working for years, is not an exception Besides the aim of passing their exams and getting some further studies for their future life, all students have a desire to be integrated into the culture, the civilization, and the people of English speaking countries They expect to have a good knowledge of English to read books and magazines, to see films or to sing English songs, etc As a result, learning English now is not only an interest but also a practical need for many people Together with the growing demand for learning English, there has been an innovation in English teaching and learning methods everywhere in Vietnam For a long time, language teaching in Vietnam was strongly influenced by the structuralist tradition Emphasis was placed on mastery of language structures Students have been taught how to form correct utterances and to understand the structures of the language without any consideration of language use Students have been asked to learn every single word by heart, and translate or analyze grammatically every sentence in the text The teacher has often taken up almost all the time in class explaining the form of language to students who were passive recipients As a result, this kind teaching and learning, of course, has been the “production” of students who were structurally competent but communicatively incompetent However, as the result of psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic research, language teaching has moved from the traditional to a more communicative approach In this current approach, language is considered as a form of social behavior The objective of language teaching is teaching learners to communicate fluently, appropriately and spontaneously in the cultural context of the target language Communicative competence, according to Canale and Swain (1980), is made up of grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence With years of experience in teaching English at HGMSS, I find that students have to learn English in two semesters in the curriculum and English is often taught in the first school - year At the end of each semester, the students have to take a written test, not an oral one Therefore, most of the time is spent on grammar points because many of the students have never learnt English before and the teachers have to try to keep to the syllabus, that is, to finish the course- book entitled “Headway Elementary” In addition, many students are too shy to speak in class whereas most of the grammar lessons are carried out in traditional methods That is, the teacher presents new grammar verbally, and then students do, turn by turn, exercises in workbooks As a consequence, the students find it hard to speak out as well as to communicate in the real life naturally The question of how to equip students with grammatical competence so that they can use the language to communicate in any situation has become a matter of teachers of English in general and teachers of English at HGMSS in particular For the above reasons, in this minor thesis, the author intend to figure out what difficulties are experienced by teachers in teaching grammar communicatively and then to give some suggestions to reduce the difficulties II Scope, objectives, significance, method and design of the study II.1 The scope of the study The study is concerned with finding the teachers’ difficulties in teaching grammar communicatively for ethnic minority students at HGMSS The study of others would be beyond the scope II.2 Objectives of the study The objectives of the study are as follows: • To investigate the difficulties of teaching and learning grammar communicatively faced by the teachers and students • To make some suggestions on reducing the teachers’ difficulties in the application of CLT in teaching grammar and make their grammar lessons more successful II.3 Significance of the study This study plays an important role in improving grammar teaching method to ethnic minority students at HGMSS Its implemented suggestions will make the application of CLT at my school successful and effective II.4 Methods of the study In order to the research, a lot of references have been selected, read and filtered for information Furthermore, a survey has been done by providing a questionnaire for teachers of English and another for 215 ethnic minority students at HGMSS Questionnaires are delivered to the teachers to investigate difficulties in teaching grammar communicatively that they face and solutions that should be implemented Questionnaires are delivered to the students to find out the students’ attitudes to learning English grammar, their difficulties confronted and solutions suggested by them All the collected information and data have been analyzed and discussed In addition to these, the research paper will not be completed without the supervisor’s help II.5 Design of the study This thesis consists of three parts: Part A: is the Introduction, which presents the rationale, the scope, the objectives, the significance, the methods and the design of the study Part B: consists of three chapters Chapter I: deals with a theoretical background It starts with grammar and its status in language teaching, then an overview of some language teaching methods- their advantages and disadvantages in applying in the classroom The next is about the CLT which includes the definition, characteristics, and stages in the teaching grammar commutatively The final is some factors to be considered of CLT application Chapter II: presents the survey Firstly, there is a description about the present situation of English teaching and learning at HGMSS Secondly, the methodology is performed in the study It provides participants, instruments and data analysis Chapter III: presents the findings and suggestion Firstly, the findings of the study are analyzed and discussed Secondly, some suggestions for overcoming the difficulties in teaching grammar commutatively to ethnic minority students at HGMSS are proposed Some communicative activities for a grammar lesson are also recommended Part C: is about the conclusion and suggestions for a further study Part B: Development Chapter I: Theoretical background I.1 Grammar and its status in language teaching I.1.1 Definition of grammar There have been various ways of defining grammar- a very common and familiar term in language teaching and learning Grammar can be seen as “the study and practice of the rules by which words change their forms and are combined into sentences" from The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (quoted in Harmer: 1987: 1) There are two concentrated basic elements: the rules of grammar and the study and practice of the rules Similarly, Jeremy Harmer (1988:1) defines grammar as “the way in which words change themselves and group together to make sentences The grammar of a language what happens to words when they become plural or negative, or what word order is used when we make questions or join two clauses to make one sentence.” Jeremy Harmer shares the same point of view with the authors of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary As for Celce - Murcia, M (1988: 16), grammar is “a subset of those rules which govern the configurations that the morphology and syntax of a language assume.” I.1.2 The status of grammar in language teaching The position of grammar teaching in ELT is still controversial Some people refute the place of grammar teaching for the reason that the study of grammar is neither necessary nor sufficient for learning to use a language Meanwhile, the others affirm the importance of grammar for effective language learning “the evidence seems to show beyond doubt that though it is by communicative use in real “speech acts” that the new language “sticks” in the learner’s mind, insight into pattern is an equal partner with communicative use in what language teachers now see as dual process of acquisition/ learning Grammar, approached as a voyage of discovery into the patterns of language rather than the learning of prescriptive rules, is no longer a bogey word.” (Eric Hawkins, 1984: 150-1) In fact, grammar is one of the key elements of a language Therefore, one person can not master a language without the knowledge of its grammar Thanks to grammar, language partly can function as a means of communication, especially in written language One can not write well if he/ she lacks the knowledge of grammar In speaking, though grammatical mistakes are sometimes acceptable, grammar makes one’s speech better and more attractive, especially in formal situations Learners can not use words if they not know how to put these words together Grammar exists to enable us to “mean” and without grammar, it is impossible to communicate beyond a very rudimentary level because “speech is no more than sounds, writing is no more than hieroglyphics” (Peck, 1988: 127) For this reason, the teaching of grammar is very important in ELT I.2 An overview on language teaching methods in teaching grammar There are many influential methods widely used by language teachers in the world in general and in Vietnam in particular The methods are now discussed in this paper as follows: GTM; DM and AM I.2.1 The Grammar- Translation method (GTM) Traditional method or GTM was rooted in the formal teaching of Latin and Greek and become popular in the late 19th century According to Larsen- Freeman (1986:4), the GTM was used for the purpose of helping students read and appreciate foreign language literature Through studying the grammar of the target language, students would become more familiar with the grammar of their native language and this helps them use their language more grammatically I.2.1.1 Advantages of the Grammar- Translation method The strength of GTM is that it requires few resources so it is easy to apply and cheap to administer Thus, the method is still used in many places where the class is large (more than 30 students), and there is a great shortage of teaching - learning facilities and equipment, the teachers with inadequate speaking skill are accustomed to setting teaching procedures I.2.1.2 Disadvantages of the Grammar- Translation method This method, however, has certain disadvantages According to Richards and Rogers (1986:3), GTM obviously focuses on the form rather than the use of the target language Students who are in this way did not have a chance to practice their speaking and listening Students learn rules of grammar and vocabulary without much feeling of progress in the mastery of the target language can lead to the lack of motivation in learning a language for their having little opportunity to express themselves through it They just learn what they have to without any creativeness The method creates frustration for students, for whom foreign language learning is a tedious experience of memorization of new words and grammatical rules, while it makes few demands on teachers (Richards and Rogers, 1986:4) I.2.2 The Direct method (DM) In the late 19th century, increased opportunities among European create a demand for oral proficiency in foreign language The GTM was not very effective in preparing students to use the target language communicatively and a new method, namely DM was born DM is characterized by the use of the target language as a means of instruction and communication in the classroom, and by the avoidance of the use of the first language and translation as a technique I.2.2.1 Advantages of the Direct method It brings the process of learning the target language close to that of first language acquisition Students are exposed to the target language situations Therefore, their ability to think in the target language is developed River (1981) claims that “at its best, DM provides an exciting and interesting way of learning a language through activity It has proved to be successful in releasing students from the inhibitions all too often associated with speaking another tongue, particularly at the early stage" I.2.2.2 Disadvantages of the Direct method Though there is a development in students’ thoughts in the target language, it has two- sided effect Students may develop inaccuracies if they are not properly guided This is the result if their trying to express themselves in the target language with insufficient knowledge about the language Because all statements they learn relate to the classroom The teacher did not generally think of the students using of the language beyond the classroom Any connection with real life was expected to come later and was not the business of the school The graduation and sequences of materials is not based on realistic spoken speech but artificial connected sentences The weakness of the method is also states in River (1983:34): “In the pure form of the DM, insufficiency is made for systematic practice and requesting- practice of structures in a coherent sequence As a result, students often lack a clear idea of what they are trying to do, and they make haphazard progress” I.2.3 The Audio-Lingual method (AM) The AM derived from America during the World War II where there was a need for people to learn foreign languages quickly for military purposes It led to the development of the AM which then has had a considerable influence on English language teaching all over the world This English teaching method puts listening and speaking in the first place It uses sentence pattern as the base of teaching and try to avoid mother tongue in class Attention is paid to the need for practice rather than explanation about the language because the ability to use the language as a means of communication is the ultimate aim I.2.3.1 Advantages of the Audio-Lingual method The first and most successful point of this method is to develop students' listening comprehension and fluency in speaking in the target language Students are encouraged by the sense of being able to use what they have learned in the very early days of their study In addition, the study is reinforced by repetition, so the students have good repetition and this is suitable for learners of different abilities Another point is that, this method provides a good systematic progression of the materials I.2.3.2 Disadvantages of the Audio-Lingual method However, there still remain some problems The success or failure of this method depends largely on the qualities of the teachers and the availability of resources That is why Brumfit (1983:8) comments “the objective is generally the mastery of sentence patterns rather than creative or communicative use of language” I.3 CLT on teaching grammar I.3.1 Communicative competence Communicative competence is now recognized as the primary goal of language teaching Canale and Swain (1980) consider that communicative competence is made up of four factors namely grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence Grammatical competence includes a comprehension of linguistic code, the ability to recognize the lexical, morphological, syntactic and phonological features of a language and to manipulate these features to form words and sentences Sociolinguistic competence is the best described through appropriateness, the degree to which one person understands the social context in which language is used: the roles of participants, the information they share, the functions of interaction Discourse competence indicates the ability to interpret series of sentences or utterances to form a meaningful whole and to achieve a coherent text that is relevant to a given context Strategic competence includes the strategies a person uses to compensate for imperfect knowledge of rules or limiting factors in their application such as fatigue, distraction, inattention, etc These strategies include paraphrasing, circumlocution, repletion, hesitation, avoidance, guessing and shifts in register and style I.3.2 Definition of CLT The latest influence on teaching methodology in Vietnam, at least in English classes, is CLT CLT appears in the 1960s and 1970s and was thought as a resolution against the AM It is pointed out by Bridley (1986: 11) that "the 1970's and 1980's could be regarded as the era of communicative language teaching" A considerable number of books have been published bearing on the label "communicative" in response to social pressures and evidence from socio-linguistic and psycholinguistic research In spite of the popularity of CLT, it is difficult to define it in a satisfactory way There is a variety if definitions about CLT, Nunan (1989: 194) overviews the methods, which are adapted below, contain aspects that are common to many definitions of CLT CLT views language as a system for the expression of meaning Activities involve oral communication, carrying out meaning task and using language, which is meaningful to the learners Objectives reflect the needs of the learners; they include functional skills as well as linguistic objectives The learners’ role is as a negotiator and integrator The teacher’s role is as facilitator of the communication process Materials promote communicative language use; they are task- based and authentic According to Brinley (1986: 12), “Language is not a static system It is created through interaction; language learning does not consist merely of internalizing a list of structural items It is a process of learning how to negotiate meaning in a particular sociocultural context Consideration of meaning rather than form will therefore determine program content; language learning will be more effective if they are centered around the needs and interests of the learners; language learning materials should, similarly, be related to learners’ needs and interests and present learners with the opportunity for genuine communication; effective communication is more than structures accuracy, particularly at the beginning stages of language learning Errors are a manifestation of the fact that learning is taking place.” I.3.3 Characteristics of CLT In CLT, meaning is paramount Wilkins (1972) classifies meaning into notional and functional categories and views learning a second language as acquiring the linguistic means to perform different kinds of functions According to Larsen- Freeman (1986:132), the most obvious characteristic of CLT is that “Almost everything that is done with communicative intent” Students use the language through communicative activities (e.g games, role- plays and problem-solving tasks) From Morrow’s point of view (in Johnson and Morrow, 1981), activities that are truly communicative have three features: information gap, choice, and feedback An information gap occurs when one person exchanges the information he has with the one who does not Another characteristic of CLT is the introduction of authentic material In CLT, it is considered desirable to give learners the opportunity to genuine communicative needs in realistic second language situations so that they develop strategies for understanding language as actually used by native speakers (Canale and Swain, 1980) In addition, “activities in the Communicative Approach are often carried out by students in small group” (Larsen- Freeman, 1986: 132) Students are expected to interact with one another, either through pair and group work or in their writing (Finicchiaro and Brumfit, 1983) CLT favors interaction among small numbers of students in order to maximize the time each student has to learn to negotiate meaning Teachers therefore select learning activities according to how well they engage the students in meaningful and authentic language use rather than in the merely mechanical practice of language patterns Another dimension of CLT is “its learner- centered and experience- based view of second language teaching” (Richards & Rogers, 1986: 69) According to CLT theory, individual learners possess unique interests, styles, needs, and goals that should be reflected in the design of instructional methods (Savignon, 1983) Teachers are to develop materials based on the demonstrated needs of a particular class Students must be made to feel secure, unthreatened and non- defensive in a CLT classroom, so teachers using CLT should avoid adopting a teacher- centered authoritarian posture (Taylor, 1983) Thus, Li (1998: 679) reviews CLT characteristics based on the work of other researchers such as Larsen- Freeman (1986), Richards and Rogers (1986) and Thomson (1986) as follows: A focus on communicative functions A focus on meaningful tasks rather than on language form 10 Efforts to make tasks and language relevant to a target group of learners through an analysis of genuine, realistic situations The use of authentic, from life materials The use of group activities The attempt to create a secure, non- threatening atmosphere I.3.4 Stages in teaching grammar communicatively In a CLT classroom, the teacher pays more attention to enable students to work with the target language during the lesson and communicate in it by the end of it The following is the typical procedure of a grammar lesson according to a CLT author- Adrian Doff (1981) The teacher uses visual aids to present the grammar structure to be taught Students deduce the meaning, the form and the use of it The teacher gets students understanding by asking yes/ no questions focusing on form, meaning and use The teacher gets students to practice the structure through Repetition and Substitution Drills, Word Prompts, and Picture Prompts The teacher tries to provide maximum practice within controlled, but realistic and contextualized frameworks and to build students’ confidence in using the new language The teacher provides students with opportunities to use new language in a freer, more creative way The teacher creates activities in which students can integrate new language with the previous learnt language and apply what they have learnt to talk about their real life activities What makes this kind of lesson different from the traditional is that the teacher tries to make the language used in the lesson real and true The teacher creates real or like- real situations in which the language can be used This will enable students to communicate in English outside the classroom During the CLT lesson, the teacher often plays the important role of facilitator who facilitates activities to work with the target language I.4 Factors to be considered of CLT application I.4.1 Teachers’ beliefs and attitudes Freeman (1998) claims that “teachers’ beliefs are the strongest guiding influence on teachers’ instruction” Teachers’ beliefs are founded on the goals, values teachers hold 27 use visual aids to present the structure, let your students to figure out the form and then give examples to illustrate Most of the teachers get used to applying the traditional methods in teaching grammar For example, 80% of the teachers use AM by giving examples, then letting their students practice using substitution drills or 80% of them apply GTM by presenting the structure, analyzing the structure and then giving examples to illustrate These teachers may not be trained in CLT or the way they teach grammar matches their aims of teaching “enable students to well in the exams” No teachers choose DM in teaching grammar This method seems unfavorable to them It is possible that the students’ English proficiency is not good enough to understand lessons in English completely or the teachers are not competent enough in speaking English e The teachers’ opinions about grammar mistake correction Question discovers the teachers’ opinions about grammar mistake correction All of the participants have the same idea that it is necessary to correct students’ mistakes However, they give different opinions about how and when to correct the mistakes 4/5 (80%) of the teachers always stop the students and correct mistakes at once because they want to prevent their students from forming bad habits 40% of them expect to correct students’ mistakes during focused practice so that students can control the correct form These teachers are affected by the traditional methods In fact, interruption can make students de-motivate More than a half of the participants (60%) agree with not interrupting students to correct their mistakes during communication practice, but correct later Interruption discourages students from speaking or preventing them from speaking fluently because they are afraid of making mistakes or being threatened their face with other students in the class whenever they speak out In general, students are regarded as passive recipients in class It is the reason for that only 1/5 (20%) of the teachers give their students a chance to self- correct f The teachers’ opinions on CLT Question 2, 3, focus on the teachers’ opinions on CLT According to Question 2, 3, 2/5 teachers have been trained in CLT in University course, and the rest have never trained in CLT Only out of have had chance to be retrained in CLT by attending a workshop organized by World Mission Organization held in July, 2006 in Hanoi or in M.A course 28 Question discovers how the teachers are aware of the characteristics of CLT The results are illustrated as follow: Teachers’ opinions on CLT CLT emphasizes language functions more than form CLT creates a lot of opportunities for students to communicate CLT always emphasizes on both fluency and accuracy CLT creates a secure, non- threatening atmosphere in the classroom CLT uses authentic materials In CLT, language items are necessarily contextualized Translation may be used where students need or benefit from it The final goal of CLT is students’ communicative competence Students can work on four skills from the beginning CLT reduces teachers’ work Table 12: Teachers’ opinions on CLT (N0) 2 4 (%) 40 100 40 40 60 80 80 100 60 40 According to the data in Table 12, teachers’ knowledge of CLT is not sufficient All the teachers share the same ideas that through CLT, a lot of opportunities are created for students to communicate and students’ communicative competence is the final goal of CLT 80% agree that in CLT, language items are necessarily contextualized and translation may be used where students need or benefit from it 60% think that CLT uses authentic materials so that students can work on four skills from the beginning Only 40% believe that emphasizing language functions more than form, emphasizing on both fluency and accuracy, creating a secure, non- threatening atmosphere in the classroom and reducing teachers’ work are the characteristics of CLT g The teachers’ problems when applying CLT in teaching grammar to non- English major students at the school Question attempts to find out the teachers’ problems when adopting CLT in teaching grammar to non- English major students at the school The results are stated as below Teachers’ problems Misconceptions about CLT Lack of training or retraining in CLT Few opportunities to learn how to use CLT Deficiency in strategic and sociolinguistic competence in English Lack of authentic teaching materials Students’ low English proficiency Students’ lack of good attitudes to learning Grammar Students have passive styles to evaluate communicative competence Students’ uneven participation in class activities Too little time and expertise to develop CLT materials Teaching facilities are poor Class sizes are too large to conduct CLT Multi-level classes (N0) 4 3 5 (%) 80 100 60 80 20 80 100 60 60 20 40 100 100 29 The school’s grammar- based exams not justify using CLT 100 Students use Vietnamese in work- group or pair- work 100 Table 13: The teachers’ problems when adopting CLT in teaching grammar to non- English major students at the school As can be seen in Table 13 above, all of the teachers presented that they confronted certain constraints in their teaching The results are stated as follows 5/5 asked reported that teachers’ lack of training and retraining in CLT, students’ lack of good attitudes to learning grammar, large class sizes to conduct CLT, multi-level classes, the school’s grammar- based exams and students’ preference in speaking Vietnamese in work- group or pair- work are the most difficult in their teaching 4/5 of teachers agreed that misconceptions about CLT, deficiency in strategic and sociolinguistic competence in English and students’ low English proficiency are also other problems More than a half of the teachers believe that few opportunities to learn how to use CLT, students’ passive styles to evaluate communicative competence and students’ uneven participation in class activities influence on applying CLT As can be seen in Table 13, 40% of the teachers think teaching facilities are poor and only 20% find teaching materials are not authentic enough A similar proportion of the teachers expect more time and expertise to develop CLT materials h The teachers’ recommendations for the difficult situations they met Question 10 is about recommendations for the difficult situations confronted by the teachers The results are illustrated as follows Teachers’ recommendations have further training on teaching methods be trained and retrained on sociolinguistic competence motivate students more to learn English Attend workshops or seminars on CLT so that teachers can share their teaching experience Follow the guide for the teacher have self- improvement in their English level and teaching methods be provided with sufficient teaching facilities encourage collaborative work from students Give open – ended questions that allow weaker students to give their answers too give encourage and positive correction and feedback on their students’ mistakes use more authentic materials use the language which is suitable with the students’ level in the classroom Divide the class into pairs or groups and point out the monitor to control the group Table 14: Teachers’ recommendations for the difficult situations they met (N0) 5 5 5 4 (%) 60 80 100 100 60 100 40 100 100 100 80 80 80 The data in Table 14 show that all the teachers (5/5) give the same idea that they expect the students to be more motivated to learn English Obviously, besides the teachers’ help, the students will be successful at their study when they pay much attention to it Also, 30 the highest percentage of the teachers believes that they should have self- improvement in their English level and teaching methods 100% agree that attending workshops or seminars on CLT is very necessary because through workshops or seminars, they can share their teaching experience and improve their knowledge on strategic and sociolinguistic competence in English In addition, 5/5 favored giving open – ended questions that allow weaker students to give their answers too and encouraging collaborative work from students Also, giving encouragements and positive correction and feedback on their students’ mistakes is considered as a solution to motivating and encouraging students to participate in communicative activities 100% chose this way to overcome the problem Most of the teachers (80%) expect to be trained and retrained on sociolinguistic competence because they see the importance of them To success at teaching, the teachers meet a lot of demands, for example, 80% believe that they should use more authentic materials by adapting the course book and using real teaching situations and use the language which is suitable with the students’ level in the classroom and divide the class into pairs or groups and point out the monitor to control the group These recommendations are useful for the teachers to control big and multi- level classes 60% asked need further training on teaching methods because an effective way of teaching is as important as good knowledge of language 60% think that they should follow the guide for the teachers Only 40% of them expect that they should have been provided with sufficient teaching facilities i The teachers’ suggestions for grammar lessons Question 11 attempts to find out how to make grammar lessons more interesting and effective 5/5 (100%) of the participants agree that the application of the following activities: using boards, realia, using work cards and worksheets, picture description and using stories can make grammar lessons more interesting and effective 31 Chapter III: Findings and suggestions III.1 Findings Data analysis of questionnaire for both teachers and students at the school show difficulties faced by the students in learning grammar and their expectations and difficulties faced by the teachers in teaching grammar communicatively and their own solutions The results are presented as follow III.1.1 Difficulties faced by the students in learning grammar and their expectations Generally, most of ethnic minority students at HGMSS have not paid much attention to learning English in general and grammar in particular These are the reasons for this Firstly, they not have positive attitude and motivation towards English They consider English as a non- major subject in the curriculum Furthermore, they confront with problems in learning grammar such as lack of chance to apply the learnt structures to communicate, the differences in the way of expressing ideas between English and Vietnamese, being afraid of making mistakes when using English, over- crowded class etc In order to overcome the difficulties as well as to improve the grammar learning quality, the students want to be given various kinds of grammar exercises Also, they expect their teachers to supply them more communicative opportunities in class and encourage them to take part in class activities In addition, the students wish to be provided with pictures, visual teaching aids to make the lesson more interesting and lively Suitable teaching materials, sufficient teaching facilities, reasonable curriculum arrangement are their expectations Especially, the students agree that they themselves should join in communicative activities actively and positively III.1.2 Difficulties faced by the teachers in teaching grammar communicatively and their own solutions All the teachers said that they have faced certain constraints in their teaching They also have given some suggestions to solve the problems These are main difficulties confronted by the teachers at HGMSS * Lack of training or retraining in CLT Lack of training or retraining in CLT is one of the main difficulties for the teachers at the school in applying CLT As teachers’ report in Question 2,3, less than a half of them have been trained in CLT in University course but they all agree that they have not 32 practiced frequently Some teachers reported that they learnt the term CLT but few opportunities to learn how to use CLT and how it works Also, there are few in – service chances for retraining in CLT * Students’ lack of good attitudes to learning Grammar All the teachers believed that the students’ lack of right attitudes towards learning grammar has influence on teaching It can be shown clearly in the results of questionnaire for students: 29.3% of the students find English unprofitable and a compulsory subject only in the training program Thus they have born in their mind that passing the exams is their final goal Therefore, many of the students seem not to spend enough time learning English In terms of the teachers’ suggestions, most of them want their students to be more motivated to learn English * Large class size Large class size is also a big problem that all the teachers face up with Normally, a class contains more than 50 students With big classes, the teachers find it very difficult to manage when using CLT because they were afraid of the noise from students during class activities In addition, it is not possible for the teacher to give each of them individual attention and to be sure that they are on task As a result, the teacher feels lost interest in introducing CLT in their classes because they are unable to control class activities * Multi- level classes Multi- level classes are considered as a constraint in implementing CLT In general, there is a wide rage of students in each class so it is difficult to have cooperation among them In pair- work, a good English proficiency student is not keen on working with a low one When it is a must, she/ he will get bored soon In group- work, if some students are overwhelmed but others keep quiet or are bored, it will be hard for them to complete an exercise For these reasons, designing lessons to meet the needs of communication seems out of the teachers’ competence If students at the same level were placed in classes, it would be helpful In fact, it is impossible to carry out because English is a non- major subject to the students at the school * The school’s grammar- based exams not justify using CLT As mentioned in II.1.4, Headway Elementary by John and Liz Soars is used as the material for both teachers and students at the school The 15- unit textbook is taught in semesters with 120 periods During a period of one semester, tests are required to which 33 are based on grammar only not other skills of listening or speaking This affects the teaching and learning a lot * Students use Vietnamese in work- group or pair- work Students’ preference of speaking Vietnamese during group- work or pair- work causes difficulties for them in their teaching When students are asked to have a discussion, they often discuss in Vietnamese in stead of English In addition, when they join communicative activities, they often speak Vietnamese (they only use English when the teacher manages them) Low English proficiency also makes students feel harder to express themselves in English than in their mother tongue To some extent, work- group or pair- work seems to be good opportunities for them to chat with each other in Vietnamese * Deficiency in strategic and sociolinguistic competence in English This is a limit for teachers to use CLT A communicative class demands teachers’ strategic and sociolinguistic competence more than in a traditional grammar- focused one Therefore, the teachers not feel competent and self- confident enough to conduct a communicative class in general In a communicative class, questions are given more than in traditional one However, except questions that are relating to grammar, the teachers often get confused when answering questions relating to the sociolinguistic competence Commonly, it is believed that a teacher is supposed to know everything and to be always correct If a teacher cannot answer all the students’ questions, she/ he will be thought not to be a good one For this reason, choosing to stick to the traditional teaching methods such as grammar- centered, text- centered etc is a good way for the teachers to keep their face * Misconception about CLT A majority of the teachers thought that teachers’ misconceptions about CLT are of the main problems The first misconception is that CLT is not teaching grammar because grammar is difficult for the students Secondly, CLT means teaching speaking only Furthermore, CLT expecting too much from the teacher is another misconception Such misunderstandings make the teachers believe that CLT contradicts their beliefs about language learning and does not allow them to prepare students for the various exams that are critical to their future careers As a result, the teachers refuse to accept CLT * Students’ low English proficiency Students’ low English proficiency is also another constraint for the teachers As mentioned in the results of Question in Questionnaire for students, 78.1% of students are 34 ethnic minorities, 71.6% of them from the remote communes of Hagiang and their English level is different before entering the school Therefore, their knowledge of vocabulary and English structures are limited This causes great difficulties for them to express themselves in English as well as listen to their teachers’ explanation in English * Other problems Besides the mentioned problems above, there are other difficulties for the teachers in implementing CLT in teaching grammar such as few opportunities to learn how to use CLT; lack of authentic teaching materials, students’ passive styles to evaluate communicative competence, students’ uneven participation in class activities, lack of time and expertise to develop CLT materials and poor teaching facilities To overcome the constraints, many suggestions are given by the own teachers One of the most favorable solutions is that teachers should self- improve their English level and teaching methods as well as enhance their sociolinguistic competence by attending workshops or seminars on CLT Another effective way to solve the difficulties is motivating students more to learn English because students are regarded as an important factor in the process of teaching and learning Besides these, giving open – ended questions that allow weaker students to give their answers too, encouraging collaborative work from students and giving encouragements and positive correction and feedback on their students’ mistakes are considered as useful techniques to encourage students to participate in communicative activities In addition, the teachers hope to have further training on teaching methods and be provided with sufficient facilities and authentic materials III.2 Suggestions III.2.1 Suggestions for overcoming the difficulties in teaching grammar communicatively a Training and retraining teachers in CLT One of the reasons why the teachers may be reluctant to applying CLT in teaching English in general and grammar in particular is that they are not trained and retrained in CLT sufficiently To overcome the problem, the cooperation between the administrators and the teachers should be had Firstly, the administrators should give the teachers assistance, support and encouragements in applying new ideas and materials Also, they need provide the teachers opportunities to be trained and retrained in CLT and to improve 35 strategic and sociolinguistic competence in English In addition, more workshops and seminars should be held so that the teachers can share their teaching experience as well as improve their knowledge about it Thus their misconceptions about CLT might be solved For these reasons, the administrators obviously play a very important role in tacking the constraint In terms of the teachers, besides the administrators’ assistance and support, they need to try their best to self- study and self- improve their knowledge and teaching methods Self- study is an effective way because the teachers may achieve knowledge from various sources such as books, magazine or media b Redefining students’ role and teachers’ role Students’ role and teachers’ role should be re-learnt On the one hand, students are not passive recipients any longer They become communicators in the class They can join in class activities and are free to express their ideas, to give their disagreements with the teachers or to put the teachers their questions On the other hand, teachers are no longer “knowledge- transmitter” They perform the role of a facilitator of the students’ learning, a manager of classroom activities, an advisor to answer students’ questions and to control their performance, and a “co-communicator” to engage in the communicative activities along with the students (Littlewood, 1981) The students’ new role and teachers’ new role is a new concept for students Thus, teachers need to be flexible to control the class because it takes time for the students to get familiar to the new role c Changing students’ attitude towards learning English In order to apply CLT effectively in a traditional language classroom, changing students’ attitude towards learning English in general and grammar in particular is essential to be changed English should be considered as important as other subjects in the training course and communication should be their final goal of learning English Besides the students’ own efforts, teachers play a very important role in changing students’ attitude Obviously, CLT is a “Western method”- a new method so they need to let their students have opportunities to get used to it From my point of view, to change students’ attitudes, improving students’ motivation in learning grammar needs to be considered d Improving students’ motivation in learning grammar Some effective ways for the teachers can be applied in the classroom to improve students’ motivation in learning grammar 36 * Creating interesting topics, games and communicative activities This may make the students enjoy learning English as well as create enjoyable atmosphere in the class When the students find something interesting, they are willing to join in * Designing suitable exercises It is necessary for the teachers to design exercises that are suitable with the students’ level In fact, at HGMSS, big and mixed- ability classes are popular Therefore, exercises need to be arranged from easy to difficult ones As a result, good English proficiency students not feel de-motivated with the limited competence tasks and low ones can also catch up with the others * Organizing English speaking club It may be a good chance for the students to exchange their experience in learning or discuss about their interests or learn English songs together e Encouraging students’ participation in class activities Students’ lack of participation in class activities is of teachers’ concern Obviously, the teacher plays a vital role in class Teachers should encourage students to take part in class activities and speak out Also, teachers must spend more time giving their care to low English proficiency students who are often passive and shy Exercises given should be suitable with students’ level so that the weak students can Furthermore, positive praise from the teachers should be given at the right time in stead of negative ones For instance, teachers should say “try another time” or “thank you” in stead of “wrong” or “nonsense” This is an effective way for the low students to keep their face with other ones in the class Students’ anxiety in public communication is another problem In order to minimize it, teachers need to encourage students to work in pairs or in groups so that they can have chance to share their experience as well as improve their speaking in English To avoid the dominance of good students in group work, changing the group leader from this student to another one should be carried out It is a good way for all students in a group to realize their duty for the task group In addition, the information gap in group work is sure to be considered so that each student can have chance to exchange their thoughts Besides those, teachers should go around the class, observe and give students his/her assistance This partly contributes to reduce the students’ Vietnamese speaking during group work f Correcting students’ mistakes with a positive attitude 37 Mistakes can be seen as indispensable and inevitable to students in the process of language learning Mistake correction is necessary but which correcting techniques are more positive and effectively largely depend on teachers, not on students Teachers should also decide when and how to correct Mistake correction is also considered to be a positive way if students themselves correct mistakes, not just by their teachers In students’ mistake correction, the duty of the teachers is “to value students, prize heir attempts to communicate, and then provide optimal feedback for the system to evolve in successive stages until students are communicating more clearly” (Brown, 1994) There are some suggestions for teachers on mistake correction in class: - Collecting mistakes made by the students and involving the whole class as much as possible in the correction process - Spending less time correcting what is only problem for one student and more time on problems common to the whole group - Helping students understand why they are wrong by indicating that a mistake has been made (by gestures), showing the students where the mistake is and what kind of mistake is (wrong tense, wrong- stressed word…), getting him/her try again if he/she can get it right - Not interrupting the student before he/she finishes his/ her utterance because he will find it disconcerting or frustrating - Trying not to repeat the mistakes, even in mocking, astonished way g Presenting grammar in context Teachers should present grammar in context to make clear the relationship between grammatical forms and communication functions This can help students a lot in guessing and memorizing the words and phrases If words, phrases, sentences or structures are taught in isolation, students may fail to produce English correctly and effectively in real situations For example, when the teacher teach the structure There is + a/an + N(sing) in page 34 of Unit 5, she/ he can point at the picture in the book and ask a student to say There is a dog/ a table II.2.2 Suggestions on communicative activities for a grammar lesson In order to attract students’ attention to learning grammar communicatively, the research would like to introduce some communicative activities for the practice of some lessons in Headway Elementary by John and Liz Soars 38 a Using boards Boards are regarded as the most popular activity in teaching grammar communicatively in class in case the teacher does not use realia An example is given to illustrate boards as an effective way for communicative practice of Unit 10 After presenting comparatives and superlatives and giving students to focused exercises in the textbook, the teacher draws simple boxes as symbols of famous cars with some characteristics that people are willing to know (see in Appendix C) Then the teacher divides the class into groups (each of groups consists or students) and asks them to work in groups to make sentences comparing among cars and using comparatives and superlatives of short or long adjectives The activity lasts or 10 minutes Finally, the teacher calls one of members in each group to share their ideas with other groups From my point of view, students are willing to take part in this activity b Realia Realia are useful for communicative practice of Unit and Unit 10 in the textbook From my teaching experience, this activity is beneficial because it encourages students to pay attention to others’ speaking and practice the target language * Unit 5: Prepositions of place After introducing prepositions of place, the teacher divides the class into groups (may be each group consists of 5-10 students) and ask them to work in group Then he/ she puts the objects in any places he/ she wants and asks his/ her students to make sentences using the prepositions they have been learnt to describe the positions of the objects In this activity, realia may be bags, textbooks, notebooks, and chalks etc that are brought to class by the teacher or students * Unit 10: Comparatives and superlatives Besides the exercises in the textbook, to improve students’ interest, after giving clear instructions of comparatives and superlatives, the teacher asks each of students to make two sentences including both comparatives and superlatives of short or long adjectives to talk about people in the class For instance, “I am shorter than Mai” or “I am shortest in my class” The teacher is sure to point another student in class after a student finishes his/her task c Picture description 39 Using pictures to teach grammar is considered as an effective way for communicative practice of exercise 4, page 143 of Unit in the textbook After presenting the present simple tense of normal verbs with she/he/it, students can be asked to tell about the Pamela’s day based on the events in the picture which are removed the given words (see in Appendix D) d Work cards and worksheets Work cards and worksheets can be applied for many activities of different lessons in the textbook Here is an example using their use for Unit 12 * Unit 12: Be going to After presenting Be going to, the following cards are given to students as a replacement for exercise 4, page 191 in the textbook The worksheets can be used with information gap activity The students are asked to work in pairs in stead of working individually to find out information for the gaps Here is the example John is going to ….where… next summer He is going to there …how… He is going to stay … where… how long… He is going to …what/do… when he is in Budapest Mark and Lucy are going to Florida of the USA next summer They are going to there by plane They are going to stay in a motel for 10 days They are going to visit Disney World and go to Cape Canaveral when they are in Florida John is going to Budapest next summer He is going to there by boat and train He is going to stay in the Hotel Gellert for days He is going to swim in the spa water and go sightseeing when he is in Budapest Mark and Lucy are going to ….where… next summer They are going to there …how… They are going to stay …where… how long… They are going to …what/do…when they are in Florida e Using stories Both teachers and student can tell stories “Our students are marvelous storytellers as well as listeners, and this ability can be used to good advantage.” Celce- Murcia (1988:55) For example, for communicative practice of the past simple tense of Unit 7, students can be asked to complete a story with the following sentence “Once upon the time/ It was a Sunday evening… ” In this way, students not only feel free and selfconfident to speak English but also develop their grammar as well as imagination 40 Part III: conclusion and suggestions for further study III.1 Conclusion On the trend to regional and global integration, good English proficiency people in both grammatical competence and sociolinguistic competence are certainly needed to participate into the world In order to meet the demands of practical needs and settings, the educational system in general and in the area of language education should be reformed For these reasons, traditional English teaching methods seem not to be suitable and useful in the new social situations so finding another method for innovation is essential Naturally, CLT should be a suitable alternative to the traditional ones and be implemented in the educational system to meet the demands of the social contexts However, it should be applied with a close and careful consideration of the cultural values of Vietnam This research is an attempt to find out the teachers’ difficulties in applying CLT in teaching grammar to ethnic minority students at HGMSS Based on the instrument as questionnaires for both teachers and students, the study has figured out the important findings with a help to improving the English teaching at the school The findings are divided into two categories such as difficulties and suggestions The main constraints confronted by the teachers are lack of training and retraining in CLT, students’ lack of good attitudes to learning grammar, large class size, multi- level classes, the school’s grammar- based exams, students’ preference of speaking Vietnamese in work- group or pair- work, deficiency in strategic and sociolinguistic competence in English, misconception about CLT and students’ low English proficiency In order to overcome the problems, the suggestions for the difficulties are as follow Firstly, the students’ attitude towards learning English should be changed Teachers can make a change in students’ attitude by enhancing students’ motivation To solve the students’ lack of motivation in learning English in general and grammar in particular, interesting topics, suitable exercises and speaking clubs should be created so that the students feel motivated to learn Moreover, by asking easy questions, giving positive praise and giving mistake correction at the right time, the teachers may encourage low English proficiency students to take part in class activities The teachers also need to reduce the students’ anxiety in public speaking by forming groups, pairs including both good and bad students, changing group leader respectively so that each student can have a chance to 41 speak to their peers and have responsibility to the task Working in pairs or in groups can also deal with the problem of students’ low English proficiency Last but not least, to avoid students’ using their mother tongue during pairs or groups, teachers should move around the class and observe and give their students assistance if they need In addition, the administrators should provide the teachers with more opportunities to expose to CLT by attending workshops or seminars about CLT The teachers themselves should self- study to improve their knowledge on sociolinguistic competence as well as teaching method so that they will feel self- confident enough to manage communicative activities in class They also can overcome the lack of teaching aids by taking advantage of genuine situations, designing games or being flexible in managing group works in class To apply CLT in teaching grammar effectively, some of useful class activities are recommended such as using boards, realia, picture description, work cards and works sheets and using stories In conclusion, the implementation of CLT at the school will be successful if there is contribution and cooperation of the administrators, teachers and students Among these factors, teachers are central to long- lasting changes that can affect the success or failure of the innovation Besides the administrators’ support and assistance, the teachers must try their best to adapt themselves to use CLT Good communicative competence, creativity and enthusiasm are necessary for the teachers to apply CLT in teaching effectively III.2 Suggestions for further study The study sets out to investigate the difficulties that teachers face when using CLT in teaching grammar to ethnic minority students at HGMSS Some recommendations are given with hope to achieve more benefits for teaching English at the school in terms of CLT application - There should be study on material design to match the local context - Study should be implemented to define what difficulties confronted by teachers in terms of CLT application in teaching other aspects: reading, listening, vocabulary and writing - Study should be produced on the usefulness of CLT in attaining its educational goals - Further study should be carried out to figure out better ways to introduce students to the new concepts of CLT and this way of learning These recommendations should be accomplished with the purpose of improving English teaching at the school ... and fluency in speaking in the target language Students are encouraged by the sense of being able to use what they have learned in the very early days of their study In addition, the study is reinforced... National University- Hanoi and Training Teacher University of Thai Nguyen) They are teaching to non- English major students at the school They are from 25 to 36 years of age with at least years of teaching... regularly 16 However, the students at HGMSS are rather highly motivated by some practical reasons If they not learn English carefully, they will fail the exams and can not graduate from the school