INTRODUCTION
Rationale
In recent years, English has become an important language It is not only spoken by native speakers but also the second language and official language in many countries As we can see in
Vietnam, teaching and learning English as a foreign language has taken an important part and English has become a compulsory subject in most national curriculum, however, foreign language teaching in general and English language teaching in particular is said to be grammar-focused, and for many teachers of English, teaching English means teaching grammar
Along with traditional approaches, teachers of foreign languages in many countries, including Vietnam, have been encouraged to adopt an approach known as communicative language teaching (CLT) This approach advocates the development of communicative competence as a primary goal via the extensive use of the foreign language as a means of communication during classroom sessions Understandably, education authorities and teachers are keen to know why CLT becomes the most favorable approach in foreign teaching language currently and how it motivates both teachers and students as well
In Hanoi General College where I have been teaching for seven years, the students‟ levels of English is limited so teaching grammar for all students is the most important task Then, we create meaningful situations for students to practice using new English grammar structures, for example, describing pictures to partners, role-play, listening to a short dialogue or writing a paragraph and speaking with other students in order to help students both develop grammatical competence and communicative competence In my real teaching, I have tried my best to apply communicative language teaching techniques that I think are suitable to my real context However, with the difficulties I often meet in teaching, the application of CLT techniques in teaching in general and teaching grammar in particular is far from satisfactory
For the reasons mentioned above, I choose “A study on how to apply Communicative language teaching techniques in teaching grammar to First – Year non major English students at Hanoi General
College Reality and recommendations” as the title for the thesis in the hope that I can contribute a small part in helping my students and my colleagues to improve their learning and teaching English especially in learning and teaching grammar that they may need for further study, work or leisure.
Aims and objectives of the study
With the above-presented rationales, the specific aims and objectives of the study are the followings:
Firstly, the study carries out an investigation in to the reality of the teachers‟ application of CLT techniques in teaching grammar
Secondly, through the investigation the research will find out the difficulties the teachers encounter with their application of CLT techniques in teaching grammar
Thirdly, the study will provide practical recommendations for the possibility of CLT techniques in order to narrow the gap between teaching styles and learning styles, thereby increasing the students‟ motivation in grammar learning as well as heightening the effectiveness of English language teaching
More specific, this study is to answer the following questions:
1 What are CLT techniques applied in teaching grammar to first-year non- English major students?
2 How are CLT techniques employed in terms of frequency and purposes?
3 What are the difficulties in applying CLT techniques in teaching grammar?
4 To what extent do teachers feel satisfied with the use of CLT techniques?
5 What are the suggestions recommended by teachers to applying CLT techniques in teaching grammar?
Scope of the study
The scope of this thesis is limited to the teaching grammar at elementary level and types of CLT techniques applied in teaching grammar with difficulties Along with these, the frequency and purposes of CLT techniques with satisfaction and recommendation for possible problems are also mentioned
With the minor thesis, I limited myself to focus on a group of teachers teaching English for first-year non major students at Hanoi General College.
Methods of the study
This is a survey in nature During the study the research uses the questionnaire and class observation to select information to answer the research questions about different types of CLT techniques applied in teaching grammar, the frequency and purposes of applying these techniques in order to find out the difficulties in applying CLT techniques in teaching grammar in the college selected and recommend solutions for these The methodology will be discussed more detail in the next chapter.
Structure of the study
This paper has three main parts:
Part one : Introduction , this part will provide my reasons for choosing the topic, aims of the study, methods and design of the study
Part two: Development , this part has three following chapters:
Chapter 1: Literature review, dealing with some definitions about the important terms relating to the study as: grammar, the important of grammar teaching, different approaches to grammar teaching, CLT and concepts related to CLT, CLT techniques and teaching grammar, potential difficulties affect teachers and students in allying CLT techniques in grammar lessons
Chapter 2: Methodology Firstly, it is an overview of teaching and learning English of the first-year students in Hanoi General College Secondly, the methodology performed in the study is presented The subject and instruments used in the research will be discussed
Chapter 3: Results and discussions of the study This part presents the findings of the study and proposes some recommendations for the findings
Part three : Conclusion , this part summarizes what are addressed in the study, points out the limitations and provides some suggestions for further study.
DEVELOPMENT
Literature review
In recent years much emphasis has been put on the teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL) using Communicative Approach This has brought about a lot of changes in the approach to
EFL The learner is considered to be an active participant in the process of language learning in the classroom Teachers who are in favor of the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) are expected to use techniques or activities that would promote self-learning, group interaction in authentic situations and peer teaching That is not an easy task for the teacher, especially in the circumstance of most colleges in Vietnam where teaching grammar is the most emphasis Therefore, the use of communicative activities is a technique to make learning English grammar more interesting and meaningful in order to achieve one of the aims of the communicative approach, the grammatical competence
The purpose of this chapter is to relate the use of CLT techniques in teaching grammar The first part of this chapter discusses the teaching of grammar Then the second part provides general ideas about CLT and CLT techniques The third part is about the use of CLT techniques in teaching grammar with a review of various difficulties when teachers apply CLT techniques in teaching grammar
Traditionally, grammar has been concerned almost exclusively with analysis at the level of the sentence Thus a grammar is a description of the rules that govern how a language‟s sentences are formed The study of grammar consists, accordingly, of looking at the way words are arranged or patterned to make sentence By contrast, recent views of grammar are expanded to cover both texts and words to the extent that texts and words are organized according to rules For the purpose of this study,
I will assume grammar to mean grammar at the sentence level; the definitions of grammar are followed by a presentation of different views of grammar and the importance of it in teaching a foreign language
There have been many ways of defining grammar – a very common and familiar term in language teaching and learning
The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (quoted in Harmer: 1987; 1) defines grammar as “the study and practice of the rules by which words change their forms and are combined into sentences” From this definition, there are two basic elements to which attention should be paid to: the rules of grammar; the study and practice of the rules
David Nunan has a very common definition of grammar: “Grammar is a set of rules specifying the correct words at the sentence level” (D.Nunan, 2003:154) This definition represents a typical prescriptive grammar view It lays down the law, saying what is right and what is wrong
Similarly, from Penny Ur‟s view (1996:87), “Grammar is a set of rules that define how words
(or parts of words) are combined or changed to form acceptable units of meaning within a language”
All the ideas mentioned above agree on a point that is grammar is a set of rules which form words and make sentences from words This help to orient language teachers to the focus of grammar teaching
1.1.2 The importance of teaching grammar
Most language learners and teachers agree that mastering the grammar of a language may form part of the knowledge of it Eric Hawkins (1984;150) affirms the value of grammar: “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 see as the dual process of acquisition Grammar, approached as a voyage of discovery into the pattern of language rather than the learning of prescriptive rules, is no longer a bogey word” According to his ideas, he sees grammar as an interesting thing to learn (“a voyage of discovery”) Although it is not always certain that all students may find an intrinsic interest in learning grammar, it is such a sharp view of him that grammar can be an effective means to help and boost language learning
However, there exist some controversial opinions about the teaching of grammar One of the biggest challenges to the necessity of grammar teaching comes primarily from Krashen, whose insistence on the primacy of acquisition has tended to downplay the value of deliberate grammar teaching In Krashen and Tarrel‟s influential Natural Approach, it is claimed that learners need to be exposed to a lot of comprehensive and meaningful input at a level just above their own for acquisition to take place The study of grammar has only secondary role in the language program with the goal to produce optimal monitor –user, programmers who can use grammar as a supplement to acquisition when they have time, when the focus is on form, and when they know the rules (the Monitor
Hypothesis, Krashen and Tarrel:1983) Put another way, grammar can be acquired naturally from meaningful input and opportunities to interact in the classroom and grammatical competence can develop in fluency – oriented environment without conscious focus on the language forms
Admittedly, some learners acquire second language grammar naturally without being taught
Immigrants to the United States (especially young ones) who attain proficiency in English on their own can be a good example of naturalistic acquisition (Lightbown and Spada: 1999: 60) But this is not true for all learners Among the same immigrants are learners who may achieve the proficiency in English but those English is far from accurate
In fact, grammar is one of the key components of a language Thus, one cannot master a language without the knowledge of its grammar Partly thanks to grammar, language can function as a means of communication, especially in written language A person cannot write well if he lacks the knowledge of grammar From my observation and my experience, I find it necessary to teach grammar in all types of English course and especially in technical and vocational colleges like those colleges I intend to carry out my study The first reason is that almost the students in technical and vocational colleges come from rural areas where they never have chance to learn grammar sufficiently Furthermore, the main objective of these students after leaving the colleges is to read materials such as manuals or instruction in English With the two reasons mentioned above, they can hard do it without grammar
Moreover, Grammar exists to enable us to „mean‟ and without it, 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 all these reasons, the teaching of grammar is quite important in
1.1.3 Different approaches to grammar teaching
In the last over one hundred years, language teaching methodology has changed in approaches and methods of grammar teaching From the mid to late 19 th century, the dominant trend was a non communicative approach It was Grammar Translation Method With this approach, grammar was taught deductively in an organized and systematic way, by studying grammar rules Learners were instructed to do exercises involving translation from the second language to the first language and vice versa River (1981:31) comments this method as follows: “There is much stress on knowing rules and exceptions” and “communication is neglected”
Methodology
The previous chapter has presented a brief look into grammatical theory in general This chapter provides the setting of teaching and learning English grammar at Hanoi General College, which lays a foundation for the study However, the primary focus of this chapter is to describe the methods of the study, how the data is analyzed
Hanoi General College was found in 1999 It provides eight training programs for all kind of students as: accounting, office secretary, applied arts and crafts, electronics and telecommunication, informatics, business administration and tourism The students have full-time training in two years
After that they go out for work There are two semesters for them to learn English with fifteen weeks in each semester It means that they just learn English in the first year There is one lesson per week This lesson consists of four periods and one period lasts around forty-five minutes It means that the teachers have only three hours per week to teach English The aim of the course is at the end of two semesters the students have a basic knowledge of grammar as well as vocabulary, and they can communicate in meaningful situations The textbook is New Headway English Elementary
The number of students in each class is from fifty to sixty The students are all from different provinces in Northern part of Vietnam such as: Nam Dinh, Bac Ninh, Thai Binh, etc Most of the students are diploma The large population have just graduated from high schools; the others left school some years ago Their English proficiency levels are mixed Most of them are from rural areas so their level of English is limited Some of them can speak English, but just a few simple sentences The rest are unable to speak English They often feel ashamed when speaking English with their friends as they are not confident enough
Because English is a minor subject in the whole curriculum, all of the students do not pay much attention to learn English They learn it as they are forced to learn Some of them can have good mark
(as mark 8, 9 or 10) because they like English and they practice it every day; others have lower mark
(as mark 4, 5 or 6) Otherwise, using English to communicate is a big challenge for most of them who think that learning a language means learning grammatical rules or a list of irregular verbs and so on
As a result, they either keep silent all the time or are not willing to participate in class activities
Because of time limited and large class, the two main factors in our English program, teaching grammar for all students is the most important task As a result, it is difficult for the teachers to monitor the class and the students do not have enough time to practice in the class Furthermore, the students hardly have opportunities to communicate with foreigners, especially with native speakers
There are 10 teachers of English at Hanoi General College They are believed to play an important role in the study of their students They are energetic and are willing to devote their time and energy to teaching Two of them have acquired an M A degree and two are following a postgraduate course or an M.A course The rest are university bachelors However, none of them has attended a training course in English speaking countries To a certain level, it shows their limitations of communicative competence in language teaching
The participants in this study were all teachers who are teaching English for first year non major students at Hanoi General College
The study was divided into two phases In phase one the researcher aimed at a general description of teachers‟ frequency and purposes of using CLT techniques in teaching grammar, what possible difficulties they might meet and their recommendations In phase two, the researcher moved into closer investigation of the teachers‟ real teaching process in which they applied CLT techniques in teaching grammar Therefore, two different instruments were used in the two phases to collect the need data in order to answer the research questions In phase one, the researcher used survey questionnaires with 10 participants to seek answers to the five research questions In phase two, the researcher conducted class observations with three teachers selected to check the results of the questionnaires
The aims of this phase were to answer the research questions:
1 What are CLT techniques applied in teaching grammar to first-year non- English major students?
2 How are CLT techniques employed in terms of frequency and purposes?
3 What are the difficulties in applying CLT techniques in teaching grammar?
4 To what extent do teachers feel satisfied with the use of CLT techniques?
5 What are the suggestions recommended by teachers to applying CLT techniques in teaching grammar?
There are 10 teachers involved in the survey Of the 10 teachers, 2 are master holders, 2 are doing master course at the National University, and the rest have graduated from University of
Languages and International studies and Hanoi University They are aged from 23 to 42 and their experience varies from 1 year to 20 years All of the teachers have been trained in CLT Most of them have the knowledge about CLT in University method course and the others get the knowledge through reading English teaching books Over two third of the teachers have been retrained in CLT because they have had the opportunities to attend English teaching conferences on CLT or they have learnt it in
Post – graduate teaching courses At the time of the research, they are all teaching New Headway
Elementary to first-year non major students in Hanoi These teachers were asked to complete a questionnaire and handed it in three weeks
Years of teaching Number (No) Percentage (%)
Table 1: the teachers’ experience of teaching English
The questionnaire (see Appendix A, p) was designed for 10 teachers in order to collect information about their age, their experience of applying CLT in teaching English grammar The questionnaire also aimed at to find information about what types of CLT techniques and the frequency, the purposes and the satisfaction of applying these techniques in teaching, the difficulties they meet in the process of teaching as well as recommendations to improve their teaching grammar lessons It contained 8 closed and open ended questions in English in accordance with the five research questions
The questionnaire focuses on the following categories:
- The teachers‟ reality of practice (Question 4,5,6,7)
- The teachers‟ recommendations for the difficulties they met (Question 8) The procedure of data collection consists of three steps as the followings:
Step 1: Preparation The questionnaire items were designed by the researcher and the organization of the items in accordance with the research questions and the layout were decided
Step 2: Revising the questionnaires and selecting participants After piloting the questionnaires, the researcher selected 10 teachers of English at her college to attend the survey and do the questionnaires
Step 3: Delivering the questionnaires The questionnaires were delivered to 10 chosen teachers and collected within 3 three weeks
All the data from questionnaires were calculated by electronic calculator The data were fairly easy to calculate due to their being quantitative by nature Each item in the questionnaires was treated as a distinct variable The interpretation of the data from questionnaires was based mainly on the calculation of the frequency and the mean to answer different research questions
2.2.2 Phase two: The class observation
The aims of this phase are to confirm and recheck the information collected from questionnaire
A class observation was carried out to evaluate how the teacher would apply CLT techniques in teaching grammar in terms of frequency and purposes, whether she would give the lesson successfully, and what difficulties she would face during the lesson
Table 2: Time schedule for class observation
Hoa C1/09 1 Week 3, 8 am, Monday, 15 th March, 2010 Nam C2/09 1 Week 3, 8 am, Tuesday, 16 th March, 2010 Nhan C3/09 1 Week 3, 8 am, Wednesday, 17 th March, 2010
Along with the survey questionnaire, the author attended three lessons by three teachers at Hanoi General College to witness the reality in which the teachers applied CLT techniques in their grammar teaching process Then, the result of the observation would be compared with the result of the questionnaire Three of the teachers were chosen based on the convenient sampling
A lesson observation sheet (see Appendix B, p) was developed which consists of 3 parts: Part one aimed to find out the quality of teachers‟ preparation, Part two concerned with the quality of teachers‟ presentation (types of CLT techniques used in classroom, the frequency and purposes of using them, the difficulties occurred in the classroom), Part three related to the levels of satisfaction of the teacher after the lessons finished The assessment was divided into two scales: yes (for using), no
The procedure of data collection consists of two steps as the followings:
Results and findings of the study
In the previous chapter, the subject and instruments of the study have been described This part presents the results and findings from the questionnaire and classroom observation
This question aims at gathering information about different CLT techniques used in language classrooms There were a variety of techniques used in grammar teaching and they were divided into two types in term of fluency and accuracy The techniques belong to fluency activities were having a debate or role- play, practice speaking in pairs, story - telling in front of the class, describing picture to a partner, games, and information – gap The techniques belong to accuracy activities were filling in the blank, looking up words in the dictionary, writing an essay in English, reading dialogues, and grammar exercises
Activities focus on fluency Activities focus on accuracy
Having a debate or role-play Filling in the blank Practice speaking in pairs Looking up words in the dictionary Story-telling in front of the class Writing an essay English
Describing picture to a partner Reading dialogues
Table 3: Types of CLT techniques used in classrooms
This question concerns about the frequency and purposes of using different CLT techniques in teaching grammar in language classrooms In term of frequency, data collected from this question (see table 4, p 24) shows that the teachers have tried to apply some of the communicative activities when they teach English grammar in their classes For example, 100% “practice speaking in pairs” was at work and used mostly 90% “having a debate or role-play”, “group discussion on the grammar point”,
“describing a picture to a partner” and “game” are often used in their classes However, some activities belong to traditional methods have been used regularly in grammar lessons as 8 (80%) of 10 teachers usually chose “filling in the blank” as the primary activities in the lesson “Reading dialogue” and
“grammar exercise” were sometimes used when teaching new grammar structures to students
Information-gap was also a kind of activities sometimes used in grammar lessons which accounts for
60% of teachers Other techniques like “looking up words in the dictionaries”, “writing an essay in
English” and “story telling in front of the class” were the activities that teachers seldom use in their daily teaching However, these data would need further confirmation from class observation, because there is always a possibility that what they said they often do may not be what actually happens in their classrooms
Table 4: The frequency of CLT techniques used in the classroom
No % No % No % No % N o % Mean a Filling in the blank 2 20 8 80 3.6 b Looking up words in the dictionaries 7 70 3 30 2.3 c Writing an essay in
English 6 60 3 30 1 10 1.5 d Having a debate or role-play 1 10 9 90 3.9 e Group discussion on the grammar point 9 90 1 10 4.1 f Reading dialogues 1 10 3 30 6 60 2.5 g Practice speaking in pairs 10 10
0 5 h Story telling in front of the class 6 60 3 30 1 10 1.5 i.Grammar exercises 5 50 3 30 2 20 2.7 j Describing picture to a partner 2 20 8 80 3.6 k Games 2 20 8 80 3.8 l Information- gap 2 20 4 40 6 60 2.8
Table 5: The purposes of CLT techniques used in classroom
For the purposes of using CLT techniques, as we can see in table 5, all of the teachers (100%) share the same idea that the aim of using CLT techniques in teaching grammar was to help students practice the grammar point and they always used them in their grammar lessons A majority of the teachers think that they apply CLT techniques in teaching grammar in order to help students use the target grammar point to communicate However, only 20% of them use regularly and nearly half of them sometimes use these techniques in the classroom The result also reveals that although almost all of the teachers expect to help students both manipulate the form and understand the meaning of the
Never Only occasionally Sometimes Usually Always
No % No % No % No % No % Mean
To introduce the new grammar point 1 10 5 50 4 40 4.3
To help Ss manipulate the form of grammar points
To help Ss understand the meaning of the grammar point
To help Ss practice the grammar point 10 100 5
To help Ss use the target grammar point to communicate with others
5 50 3 30 2 20 3.7 grammar point, these teachers focus on the form more than the meaning Half of the teachers usually use CLT techniques to introduce the new grammar point and 40 % of them always use in the classroom It means that all of the teachers have awareness of aims in applying CLT techniques in teaching grammar
Research question 3 Table 6: The teachers’ difficulties when applying CLT techniques in teaching grammar
Never Only occasionally Sometimes Usually Always
No % No % No % No % No % Mean
Lack of authentic teaching materials 5 50 3 30 2 20 3.7
Few opportunities for retraining in CLT 4 40 2 20 2 20 2 20 2.2
Little time and expertise in materials development 1 10 5 50 4 40 3.3
Ss„ lack motivation in learning English 3 30 5 50 2 20 2.9
As we can see in the table 6, all of the teachers stated that they have encountered certain difficulties in applying CLT techniques to teach grammar to Students 80% of the teachers mentioned multi-level classes as the biggest problem they always meet in their teaching Over crowed classes,
Students‟ low English proficiency and students‟ passive styles in class activities rank the seconds that constrain them in teaching process Poor teaching condition is another difficulty for the teachers (4o%)
Another 40 % of the teachers said they have little time and expertise in materials developments
Besides all the above mentioned problems, there are some other difficulties for the teachers in their teaching such as lack of authentic teaching materials, unsuitable syllabuses, and deficiency in spoken
English and students‟ lack motivation in learning English However, they are barriers just for a few teachers
This question aims at to find out the levels of the teachers‟ satisfaction when they applied CLT techniques in teaching English grammar
Two third of the teachers (70%) said that they are satisfied with the employment of CLT techniques in their teaching grammar lessons And the rest are not very satisfied with the effort that they have made to involve students in their lessons
Table7: Teachers’ self-assessment of their employment of CLT techniques
Not very satisfied Satisfied Very satisfied
No % No % No % No % No % Mean
It‟s an open-ended question which aims at selecting teachers‟ suggestions about some matters as: material, assessment, organization of the classes and others
With the matter “Material” 80% of the teachers said that teaching material should be more authentic and 100% of them think that these materials should be suitable to students‟ English levels
For assessment, 9/10 (90%) of the teachers suggested that syllabuses should be changed toward developing students‟ communicative competence and the final test should be communicative – based
Others gave the idea that they would need more time to give daily assessment rather than only final test for the whole assessment In order to overcome the difficulties in teaching CLT to students all of the teachers thought English classes need to reduce the number to 30-35 Furthermore, the teachers themselves should have self improvement in their English level and teaching method 100% of the teachers suggested that they should have time to attend workshops or seminars on CLT where they could share their teaching experience and improve their knowledge on strategic and sociolinguistic competence in English Some recommended that giving encouragements and positive correction and feedback on their Students‟ mistakes were considered as a solution to motivating and encouraging students to participate in communicative activities in the classroom Others expected that they should have been provided with sufficient teaching facilities like over head projectors, computers, TV and others equipments
After observing three different lessons by three teachers at Hanoi General College, the author had some comments as the followings:
Teachers’ preparations: Three teachers prepared the lessons well They had clear objectives of their lessons and tried to reach those objectives throughout the lessons
Teachers’ presentations: All of the teachers did try to use CLT techniques in their classes They introduced the form inductively in English through games and visual aids; they used questions to elicit the students in the teaching Therefore they could help their students to manipulate the grammar points
Beside that the teachers delivered handouts to make something different from the textbook They also organized group work and role-play work for the students to take part in and the students did exercises orally in order to practice the grammar point
In all classes observed, teachers tried their best to carry out their lesson plans, but not all of them succeeded There are some difficulties for them Because of the large classes, there was a fact that the teachers‟ talking time was too much whereas students‟ talking time was limited When the teachers asked the students to do some tasks in English, most of them sat quietly, pretended to concentrate on the book but they had no answers or did nothing Only a few of them were ready to take part in the activities in the classroom Another problem was that students had low English proficiency
As a result, when the teachers talked in English it seemed that they did not understand what the teachers said Apart from this, in most of the class, the teachers did not have enough time for students to join in CLT activities in the class Students joined timidly and used Vietnamese during their tasks
Sometimes, they made noises in the classrooms Therefore, the CLT techniques did not work effectively and the students became bored quickly and a few of them started chatting in Vietnamese