Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS effectiveness of teaching grammar with the use of dictogloss for students of k37a maths class, at hanoi college of education an action research

Rationale

Grammar has long rooted in the curriculum of English Language Teaching (ELT), with no or very little introduction of speaking and listening From its first introduction, grammar was seen as “the center of language pedagogy” and teachers were encouraged to take as much grammar input to the students as possible (Nassaji, H and Fotos, S, 2011:2), so in general, the students were totally or mostly exposed to taught-in-isolation grammar lessons By that way, they gradually felt demotivated in such traditional classes

By contrast, in the 1970s, the rise of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) led to a tendency of de-emphasizing the role of grammar in classes although it is believed to be “a means to improving master of the language” (Penny Ur, 1991:78)

Many teachers are more likely to orient students to such English skills as speaking and listening Unfortunately, in the absence of grammar, it is hard for learners of English to acquire accuracy in producing English (Francis J Noonan III, 2004)

Teaching grammar, therefore, has become a challenging and boring task for many teachers and likewise learning grammar seems to be a burden for learners Grammar lessons often go boring in English classes and achieve less efficiency The context of Non-English major Division, at Hanoi College of Education (HCE) is not an exception Non-English major students are assessed to be poor at grammatical competence Through long courses of grammar, they are still generally weak at producing the correct sentences using the perceived language points In addition, they appear to express low interest in pure grammar lessons Meanwhile, researchers reach a consensus that grammar is too important to be ignored; in absence of good knowledge of grammar, “learners‟ language development will be severely constrained” (Hedge, 2000) It is also widely agreed by language practitioners and theoreticians on the significance of developing learners‟

2 grammatical accuracy (Dickins & Woods, 1988 cited in Storch, 2001) That is why grammar is chosen to be focused at Non-English major Division, HCE The tests for non-English major students at HCE are considerably composed of grammar items

Be aware of the situation, the researcher finds that there is a need for a teaching technique which could address the students‟ two primary problems: Poor grammatical competence and low motivation for learning grammar

Teaching grammar in an interesting and communicative way has been always given some concern by the practitioners of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) in general, and even the author of this study in particular While many attempts have been given to this task, there is still room for more attention to innovative methods of grammar instruction which gives chance for learners to practice grammar via working on a combination of meaning and form which makes grammar learning more meaningful Dictogloss, one of the recently-developed techniques, is introduced as an alternative method of teaching grammar (Wajnryb,

1990) It is claimed to encourage learners to concentrate on the form of language on basis of communication (Ellis, R, 2003:156–157) This seems to be appropriate for its application into the English course at Non-English major Division, HCE because in the textbook “New English file – pre-intermediate”, it can be observed that each file centers on grammar section, on which almost other parts are based This is the inspiration for the researcher to carry out the research entitled “Effectiveness of

Teaching Grammar with the Use of Dictogloss for Students of K37A Maths Class, at Hanoi College of Education: An Action Research”.

Aims of the study

First and foremost, this study is aimed at empirically assessing the effectiveness of teaching grammar in K37A Maths class with the use of Dictogloss in terms of students‟ improvement in grammatical competence and their motivation for learning grammar In light of the findings, seek possible pedagogical recommendations with the hope of further enhancing the effective use of this technique in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes

To fulfill the purposes above, this study will be conducted to address the two following research questions:

1 To what extent does dictogloss influence the students‟ grammatical competence?

2 How does it affect the students‟ motivation for learning grammar?

Scope of the study

First, the scope of this research is confined in its population Only one non-English major class at HCE (consisting of 28 students) is investigated

Besides, the action research only covers several files (starting with file 7C) in New English File (pre-intermediate) The last file (file 9B) is obmitted because it is not perfectly suitable for the use of dictogloss (see timetable p 47) Additionally, it is quite complex

Lastly, the effectiveness of teaching grammar using Dictogloss is measured only in terms of the improvement in students‟ grammatical competence (with the grammatical points specified in the files) and their attitudes to learning grammar

All (except interviews) are measured in written form only as the researcher does not have chance to examine the effects of dictogloss in oral form (for example, speaking test).

Significance of the study

Theoretically, the effects of dictogloss in promoting second language grammar knowledge has been empirically examined in many studies; nonetheless, as far as the researcher is concerned, no studies, up to now, have examined the effects of such technique in teaching grammar in Vietnam‟s context Hopefully, this thesis will be a small contribution to the theory of ELT on the effectiveness of teaching grammar using dictogloss in EFL classrooms

Practically, this study is also expected to provide the researcher as a teacher with an alternative way with the use of dictogloss) to expose the students to the more active and collaborative grammar lessons, and hopefully help students enhance their grammar acquisition, and then improve their grammatical competence as well as their attitudes to learning grammar.

Overview of the thesis

The thesis consists of the following main parts:

PART A: INTRODUCTION - states an overview of rationale, aims of the study, research questions, the scope, the significance and the overview of the study

Chapter 1: Literature review - illustrates some related studies conducted by other researchers as well as their gaps in the field which inspire the writer to conduct her study This chapter also provides background knowledge of grammar and teaching grammar, dictogloss and motivation

Chapter 2: Methodology - describes in detail the participants and describes all instruments employed by the researcher as well as procedure to collect data

Chapter 3: Findings and discussions - analyzes gathered data from described instruments

PART C: CONCLUSION - Presents the conclusion of the study, some further implications for teaching, along with the limitations and suggestions for further study

LITERATURE REVIEW

Theoretical background

According to Penny Ur (1991), as a starting point, grammar is generally referred as to the set of rules which describes the way words and groups of words can be arranged to form correct sentences in a particular language Hence, it explains why the sentence “We are not at home” is grammatically true (Scott Thornbury, 2002:1)

This term could also be applied to smaller units such as phrases (a handsome boy, for example, not a boy handsome), single words (for instance, the past simple tense of go must be went, not goed), and minimal components, namely affixes In particular, grammar can be understood in terms of structure and meaning Rules of past tense, plural, or comparison are the examples of structure meanwhile grammatical meaning is one perceived from the structure

Based on the definition of grammar, the notion of grammatical competence is raised Grammatical competence is one of four areas of the communicative competence theory which was founded by Canale and Swain (Gao, 2001) Carol J

Orwig (1999) defined “Grammatical competence is the ability to recognize and produce the distinctive grammatical structures of a language and to use them effectively in communication” Hence, it can be said that grammar competence is not just limited to knowing grammar The learners should know how to apply it into real situation to communicate something The aim is to acquire knowledge of, ability to use, and forms of expression which are grammatically correct (Díaz-Rico

& Weed, 2010) It acts to promote accuracy and fluency in second language production (Gao, 2001)

1.1.1.2 Changing views of grammar Instruction

Historically, approaches to grammar teaching have undergone many changes due to a number of theoretical and empirical developments in the fields According to the synthesis of Nassaji, H and Fotos, S (2011), there have been the following approaches: Grammar-based approaches (traditional approaches), communication- based approaches, and recently-developed approaches

Language teaching was equated with grammar teaching for ages It was believed that language was mainly composed of grammar rules and that knowing those rules would be sufficient for learners to acquire a language There are various traditional grammar-based approaches such as the Grammar Translation Method, and other structure-based methods In spite of their differences, those methods are all based on the assumption that the primary obstacle in learning a language is acquiring its structures However, this approach is considered as a deductive and linear presentation of these rules That way, because the learners were exposed to too much mother tongue and rules, there was little chance for them to practice the target language So, this kind of instruction fails to satisfy the communicative needs of L2 learners

Since it was widely recognized that knowing a language was more than knowing its grammar, it has shifted from “an exclusive focus on language forms to a focus on meaning and language use in communicative contexts” (Nassaji, H and Fotos, S, 2011: 6) With the rise of communicative language teaching in the 1970s, grammar teaching was seen undesirable It was believed that grammar instruction was out of date, uninteresting, and best avoided Researchers claimed that teaching grammar did not make much progress in communicative competence; The communicative approach indicated the purpose of language learning to be acquiring communicative competence in real life (Widdowson, 1978), not just grammatical rules; therefore, according to Krashen (1981) and other scholars (as cited in Nassaji, H and Fotos, S,

2011), it ought to be eliminated from second language classrooms

However, authors in language teaching have become more aware that the approaches with the primary focus on meaning with little attention to grammatical forms are inadequate, which was proved in several empirical research by Harley &

Swain (1984), Lapkin et al., (1991), and Swain (1985) (as cited in Nassaji, H and Fotos, S , 2011) The rise of communicative approaches led to negative reactions to grammar teaching among a great many L2 teachers and educators who were encouraged to believe that their students‟ failure was mainly due to their exposure to too much explicit grammar instruction

Recently-developed approaches – Communicative focus on form

As aforementioned, there is evidence for the significance of form-focused instruction However, current form-focused instruction refers to grammar instruction that takes place in communicative contexts This has been widely advocated in ample research a/ Focus on form (FonF)

Recent research in second language acquisition has resulted in a reconsideration of the significance of grammar Currently, a great number of researchers believe that grammar teaching should not be ignored in second language classrooms According to Sharwood Smith (1993), the claim that language can be acquired with little consciousness of grammar has been proved to be theoretically problematic Recent SLA research has demonstrated that instructed language learning has major effects on second language acquisition

FonF was proposed by Long (1991) It is defined as an attempt to “overtly draw students‟ attention to linguistic elements as they arise incidentally in lessons whose overriding focus is on meaning or communication” Long (1991: 45–46) That is,

FonF refers to the learners‟ attention on particular linguistic forms in the context of meaningful communication It is “an instructional option that calls for an integration of grammar and communication in second language teaching” (Nassaji, H and Fotos, S, 2011:1) In contrast, FonFs is the traditional approach which is based on the assumption that language comprises of a range of grammatical forms to be acquired in sequence b/ Communicative approaches revisited

In response to the current trend, recently, many educators, even the advocates of CLT, have supported the inclusion of FonF in language learning Savignon (2001:645), concluded that “for the development of communicative ability, research findings overwhelmingly support the integration of form-focused exercises with meaning focused experience.” Many authors have developed frameworks for grammar teaching that emphasize the incorporation of a focus on grammar into meaningful communication (Ellis, R, 1995) c/ Task-based approaches revisited

Nunan (1989:10) defined a task as “a piece of classroom work which involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form.”

Traditional task-based approaches have been a strong form version of CLT with very little focus on grammar forms (Hossein Nassaji and Sandra Fotos, 2011)

Nonetheless, a purely meaning-focused approach is often proved problematic in the foreign language context, where real-life needs for the target language seldom exist

Previous studies

The effectiveness of dictogloss has been studied in several fields of language teaching like listening, writing, and translation Nonetheless, it was originally introduced by Wajnryb, R (1990) as an alternative method of teaching grammar

This paper aims to examine the effectiveness of teaching grammar with the use of this approach To lay the background for the thesis, several pre-studies are demonstrated

First, Shak (2006) conducted a 2-day experimental research published in Reflections on English Language Teaching investigating children‟s attitudes towards dictogloss By delivering attitude questionnaires at the end of each lessons to 78 children (from 5 classes) from three primary schools, she discovered that there was a general trend of positive attitudes among children However, to a number of students, task complexity results in low motivation and frustration on the first day

Additionally, some variations towards preference of task features existed This can be explained by the level of difficulty of the texts or tasks assigned Proficiency also seems to affect the tasks performance of low-level students So, the students hardly make much progress There are some points for consideration First, the author, Shak, conducts his research within quite a short period – just two days, one hour each It is hard for the young students to get familiar and promptly improved

Therefore, that they find the tasks challenging and not very interesting is understandable As suggested from the findings, further classroom research is necessary to find ways for teachers to adapt the focus on form (FonF) approach to their specific classes Thus, the texts chosen for this study should be modified (less dense with information but denser with recurrences of target structures) to take into account these problems

Secondly, Christopher Harwood (2008) conducted an experimental research on using dictogloss There are two groups including control and experimental class To collect the data, he employed colleague‟s observation and post lesson questionnaire (for students) to rate the four stages of the procedure for enjoyment, difficulty and usefulness It is reasonable that the researcher uses an established resource instead of experimenting with producing his own materials as dictogloss is new to him

Overall, the experiment was a success The students found dictogloss both very useful and enjoyable in spite of difficulties in listening and writing at the same time and vocabulary All the groups were able to identify and correct much of the lexis and grammar Nonetheless, he somehow fails to give clear difference between the result of control class and that of experimental class

Next, Dina M M Al-Sibai (2008) examines the effects of using the dictogloss task procedure whether the students better perform in grammar exams, particularly with regards to verb tense accuracy, together with their attitudes towards the activities

There are three groups of 116 participants: Group A doing traditional textbook exercises only, Group B traditional textbook exercises and dictogloss tasks in pairs, and Group C traditional textbook exercises and dictogloss tasks in small-groups To collect the data, the author uses a Likert response scale questionnaire, a pre-test, and a post-test The results showed that subjects who received dictogloss in small- groups displayed the most short-term improvement on the weekly post-dictogloss tests, while those receiving dictogloss in pairs had the most lasting improvements on the post-test They also slightly outperformed the control group From the questionnaire, experimental groups expressed positive attitudes toward the dictogloss

Similarly, Mojgan Rashtchi and Pooneh Khosroabadi (2009) compared the impacts of explicit focus on form and Dictogloss task on learning English tenses An experimental research was conducted on 64 female EFL learner randomly assigned to two groups receiving different kinds of instruction These subjects were selected based on the results of the placement test Apart from the placement test, data were collected via a test of 40 items on English tenses, which could be seen as a pre-test and a post test (the same as the pre-test) There were not any significant differences between the two, which implies that both instructions are effective tools for teaching target grammatical forms Strictly speaking, this research is well- constructed with proper methodology First, his participants were chosen very carefully, that is, he selected 64 students from a pool of 70 However, he didn‟t explain why all of them are female All variables such as time, duration of lessons, students‟ proficiency, and level of difficulty of tests were controlled pretty well

26 during the research Using the same test for pre-test and posttest seems to be not a good idea since subjects may remember the items of the pre-test and know the answer through discussing with friends This will make the results of the post-test not reliable enough

Next, the research “Using the Dictogloss in the high school foreign language classroom: Noticing and learning new grammar” conducted at a public high school, by Amy J Hornby Uribe (2010) aims at differentiating the amount of target grammar (demonstrative adjectives and the imperfect tense) noticed, learned and used by 56 students in the three treatment groups: Group 1 (completing a traditional Dictogloss with the last phase - a self-reflection activity), Group 2 (like Group 1, but with written texts during the first reading when still hearing the text) Group 3 (given both written text and a whole class discussion during the last stage of the Dictogloss) Instruments include student surveys and teacher interviews, pre, immediate post and delayed post-tests The findings show that although there are with-in group improvements in noticing learning the target grammar, no significance difference found between groups, which implies that addition of the written text and class discussion did not increase the amount of target grammar learned by the students The fact that many participants couldn‟t gain above-chance- level scores indicates that dictogloss is not an effective stand-alone activity for teaching target grammar

Kanmani a/p Gopal (2012) examines “The effect of Dictogloss as a language task in enhancing students’ grammatical competence” with regards to students‟ improvement of knowledge on simple past tense and their attitudes to dictogloss A quasi-experimental study was conducted in 12 weeks, one hour each week, on 30 year-five students from 2 classes, which is divided in two groups: control group (taught with traditional method) and experimental group (taught with dictogloss)

Data from pretest and posttest indicates that experimental group outperforms the control group and positive attitudes towards dictogloss are also investigated by means of analysis of questionnaire The study provides language teachers with background on dictogloss, which assists them to use dictogloss as a teaching procedure at a primary level effectively The findings also positively advocate the use of dictogloss in the theory of language teaching However, its research questions should be reconsidered as they are predictable with yes/ no answer, like

“Does teaching grammar through traditional method and dictogloss technique result in gains in scores in a test of grammar?” Besides that, the second question

“Between the two methods, the traditional method of teaching grammar and teaching grammar through dictogloss technique, which is the most effective method in acquisition of grammar?” seems to be problematic, and it can be evaluated as an unsuccessful question

Kanmani‟s findings are also agreed by Alireza Akbari (2012), who seeks the answer as to how dictogloss method enhances EFL learners‟ grammatical competence This is an over 11-week experimental research with a pre-test post-test control group design Sixty intermediate EFL students, aged 14-16, studying English at Puyesh Language Institute, took part in the research The participants were delivered the TOEFL Barron test, which is claimed to be reliable and valid enough The author explained it was to “ensure that the two groups were at a similar proficiency level in order to minimize any effects resulting from differential proficiency level”

Nonetheless, it seems that to have two similar-in-proficiency classes is not easy

A summary

In summary, this chapter has provided a review that spans English-language sources covering research from around the world judged to be relevant to dictogloss tasks in the language classroom within the FonF theory to language learning and teaching

The dictogloss procedure is only one of the many modern language teaching procedures that embody the current FonF theory in SLA whereby learners‟ attention is drawn to form in meaning-based contexts The dictogloss is of particular interest since it brings together the traditional and transitional aspects of language teaching methodology As presented, most of the studies above illustrate the effects of Dictogloss in teaching grammar, which is really needed for the researcher‟s situation However, in different environments, this technique may work differently in the contribution to the effectiveness of teaching grammar That‟s why the researcher desires to conduct this research to examine its effects in her own environment and improve the existing the situation

For the success of the research, a number of factors should be put into consideration From the review, those major factors emerge with regards to the dictogloss task such as the positive roles of interaction Secondly, studies also remind the author of the requirements for the preparation phrase for the present research Two elements appear to play a causal role in determining the success of the task:

 Participants need to be gradually well-equipped with the notions of dictogloss as well as necessary skills so that they are no longer unfamiliar with the tasks

 Level of language covered in the dictogloss text ought to be compatible with the learners‟ linguistic competence

METHODOLOGY

Definition of action research *

A great deal of action research has been proposed for ages by many scholars

Typically, it is conducted in a school setting and it is a kind of process in which educators examine their pedagogical practice, using the techniques of action research (Watts, 1985:118)

Nunan (1992) defines, action research is problem-focused and concerned with a particular situation in which finding the solutions to the problem is put at the top of the research, which fosters the teachers to adapt the existing ideas in their teaching environment In other words, action research is a “solution-oriented investigation”

(Kemmis & McTaggart, 1982), also a collaborative activity among educators and colleagues seeking solutions to real problems they face in classes and schools, and then finding the ways to improve the situations and increase students‟ achievement

Instead of the theoretical issues, action research helps practitioners address concerns closest to them, and make changes, according to Eileen Ferrance (2000)

In an attempt to distinguish action research from other forms of research, Kemmis and Mc Taggart (1988) offer three defining characteristics of action research as follows:

(1) It is implemented by practitioners (for example, classroom teachers) rather than outside researchers This research is undertaken within the context of the teacher‟s environment, which means that they test a hypothesis on their students and at the school in which the teacher works to see whether it comes to any improvement

* Research: According to Oxford Dictionary, it is originally used as an uncountable noun, but now, many use it as a countable noun, particularly in non-native English

(2) It is collaborative because it may involves the collaboration of a group of teachers or educators searching for solutions to the problems Besides, the researcher and those being researched are in partnership They share the aims, practices, strategies and findings of the research at each stage, according to Wisker,

(3) It is aimed at changing things Kemmis & McTaggart (1982) emphasizes that the linking of „action‟ and „research‟ highlights the essential features of this method: trying out ideas in practice as a means of increasing knowledge about and/or improving curriculum, teaching, and learning By using the principles and practices of action research, the researcher tests an innovation with the students and evaluates its effects, then looks for ways to tackle the problem to make progress.

Rationale for choosing action research

Although there are many types of research to be undertaken, action research is a kind of research which is becoming significant in language education (Nunan, 1992:17) In reality, a great number of MAs, MPhils, and PhDs have been using action research strategies or “totally action research – based” (Wisker, G, 2001:158) This author also claims that as action research is based on “practice and therefore avoids the problem of needing to be implemented”, it is “practical” and

“critical” (Wisker, G, 2001:159) Cohen and Manion (1980) also agreed that action research should be of a choice when a single teacher faces a particular problem which needs tackling in her own class in order to bring improvement in her teaching situation Actually, after a short period of working with my students, the researcher found out that the students were still weak in grammatical competence Something must be done to improve the situation The second reason for the application of action research is that it is beneficial to both researchers (specifically a teacher conducting this research) and their students For researcher, it is a chance to critically overhaul the situation of the class and the need to solve the existing problem for better “pedagogical development” (Gibbs, 1995:125)

Process of action research

A number of action research cycles have been illustrated However, in general, action research is characterized by “spiraling cycles” including problem identification, systematic data collection, reflection, analysis, data-driven action taken, and, problem redefinition (Kemmis & McTaggart, 1982)

On the basis of that, the author of this paper conducts her action research entitled

“Effectiveness of Teaching Grammar with the Use of Dictogloss for Students of K37A Maths class, at Hanoi College of Education: An Action Research” in a period of 12 weeks in the second semester of the academic year 2012-2013 The research week 1 (hereinafter referred as to week) started from the third lesson of the class Two first lessons are the pre-research period when the researcher directly worked with the participants and recognized the main problem

This action research follows 7 primary steps proposed by Mc Bride & Sckotak model (1989)

This is seen the foremost step in action research as the researcher needs to study carefully the existing problem among her students As aforementioned, before the research period, the researcher had time to work with them in the class This two- week period with a course entry test is long enough for her to have a glance at the problem occurring in the class

(2) Collecting data (initial data) (research week 1)

In this step, the researcher delivers the students a pre-test on grammar to confirm the problem earlier stated in step 1 In addition, they are required to complete a pre- questionnaire right after they finish the pre-test After the lesson, several students are randomly selected for an in-depth interview The aims of the three instruments are to identify the students‟ real problems in grammar, teachers‟ teaching method they have been exposed before, as well as their behaviors towards those lessons

(Adopted and adapted from McBride & Sckotak, 1989)

(3) Analyzing data and generating hypotheses (research week 1)

After the first week, the researcher has one month off because the participants has a field trip After reviewing the initial data, the researcher interprets the data collected to indicate whether grammar is their big problem and shows that the method used in the previous semester may not match the students‟ level and interest Thereby, a hypothesis is formed as follows:

Applying dictogloss which can be more appropriate for the students’ level would raise the students’ interest and grammatical competence

This work was done in the period when the subjects went on their field trip Based on the explored problems, an action plan was developed to lead the students to a new method of teaching grammar

Dictogloss is considered a new and complicated method with many steps, so all the necessary skills (such as note taking) and materials (such as at normal speed, length, topic, and appropriate complexity) based on the text book New English file – pre- intermediate should be well- prepared in advance To help students be more familiar with note-taking and dictogloss, a training session was also held a/ Skill preparation

Note-taking involves recording ideas and facts for remembrance and later use It is really vital, but challenging This skill was hardly trained in the previous semesters

Thus, right at the week after the field trip, students were given an initial training session in which the procedure of the dictogloss task was introduced by a simple activity and note-taking was trained carefully The simple exercises will prepare the participants with some necessary skills to enter the research period

The training session lasted 2 class periods (equal to 90 minutes) They need to get accustomed to some very popular ways of fast writing, using key words, abbreviations and symbols (see appendix 1) Because of the level of students, the listening tasks were also selected to be simple but still related to the lessons These tasks are not as difficult and long as those which were chosen in some research (often taken from textbook “Contemporary topic”) The dictogloss tasks just require the learners to be able to write down the key words from which the texts are reconstructed That‟s why the learners just need to grasp at some primary skills of note-taking

The training period was first spent on introducing note-taking, and then the participants had the chance to practice note-taking with three short sentences so that they can get acquainted with note-taking When they finished, two students were chosen for writing what they had written The researcher, at that time, checked and highlighted some words which should be replaced by symbols or abbreviations

Finally, she provided them with a system of common symbols and abbreviations that might be used in the whole research period Some are personally agreed by both teacher and learners

The rest of the lesson was used for introducing dictogloss, followed by the steps suggested by its author and they had chance to practice a real dictogloss task with note-taking skills In this task, they had to follow the dictogloss procedure with a simple text still read at a very low speed The aim of this exercise is to familiarize students with what the real dictogloss is and help them to imagine what they are going to do in the course b/ Material selection

First of all, the selected material should be as much authentic (1) as possible with appropriate speed and complexity It was graded from the simple and familiar topics to the more complicated ones Also importantly, they should be related to the lessons and target grammar (2) However, because of the limited time and difficulty in finding those texts which could perfectly satisfy both requirements, some listening texts are taken from the textbook “New English file pre-intermediate”; some are chosen from outside Each recording only lasts about two or three minutes so that there is enough time for reconstruction and feedback in the same lesson If the text has some new words, they must be introduced before the dictogloss task This eases the task for the students and ensure the task can be accomplished in an appropriate time

What to be taught with dictogloss in the whole research period is based on the grammatical points given in the text book “New English file pre-intermediate” published by Oxford First, this book has been already chosen as the unique text book for non-major English classes at HCE Secondly, this book could well satisfy the dictogloss tasks as its each file is structured with a grammatical point as the focus around which every other skills (such as listening and speaking) circles

Furthermore, the students are quite familiar with this book as they had opportunity to study with it in the previous semesters Choosing this book will ensure the unity and continualness of the students‟ level

(5) Implementing the action plan (research week 3 – research week 10)

In this period, the detailed plans of action were carried out Because students were just initially trained dictogloss and note-taking, the teacher continued to gradually trained her students with these necessary skills from easy to more complicated tasks Adapting from Wajnryb‟s model (1990), each dictogloss task conducted in the class underwent four steps, namely, preparation, dictation, reconstruction, and correction Each stage was divided into several specific steps The preparation stage consisted of warming-up, directing, and grouping The dictation stage involves three times of dictation The reconstructions stage included grouping discussion, writing (also including checking) The correction stage composed of correcting as well as analyzing mistakes and errors from which the target knowledge was acquired

The two lecturers were also invited to attend the class The first teacher joined the lesson dealing with file 7C; the other attended file 7D

(6) Collecting data to monitor changes (post-data) (research week 11)

Participants of the study

Twenty eight second-year students majored in Maths at HCE were chosen to take part in the research HCE is the place where the writer of this paper directly involves in teaching, so the participants are also her students She probably better understands the participants due to the prior contact with them Before the research period, the researcher has worked with the students for two weeks These subjects are taking the textbook “New English file – Pre-intermediate” during 15 weeks in the 2 nd semester of school year 2012-2013

This class was chosen as the target population of the paper since they have already experienced the two first parts of the course (English 1 and 2) in the previous semesters They are quite familiar with the book and the book‟s structure After the two first semesters, now they are supposed to be at pre-intermediate level

Therefore, these participants may acquire some listening skills and grammatical points However, all listening exercises are in the form of true/false and multiple choice questions (not note-taking skills) and their grammar test results in the entry test are still quite out of perspective

Only two teachers in the Faculty of English were invited to the research Inviting only two teachers is advantageous as the researcher has more time to work with the teachers and therefore they must be more deeply-interviewed More intensive recommendations are collected Each was asked to attend one lesson with dictogloss, which was prepared by the researcher After that, they observed and gave comments on the lessons as well as recommendations

Their qualifications are also ensured They both obtained Master‟s degree and have much experience in teaching English in the faculty One is the head of Division of Non-major English and the other is a lecturer with 7-year experience of working with the textbook and students at HCE The latter lecturer is the person who inspires the researcher with the use of dictogloss in the grammar class Therefore, she must understand this technique well.

Data Collection Instruments

The research was carried out in 12 weeks during the second semester in the academic year 2012-2013 Five instruments were employed in order to gather data, including qualitative analysis of textbook, class observation, tests (course entry test, a pre-test and a post-test), questionnaires (a pre-questionnaire and a post questionnaire), and interviews

2.3.1 Qualitative analysis of textbook “New English file – Pre-intermediate”

2.3.1.1 Reasons for using qualitative analysis of the textbook

Analyzing the textbook “New English file – Pre-intermediate” is one of the two main tasks to address the research questions of this study since course book analysis are closely concerned with the dictogloss technique and it is necessary for both teachers and students to understand clearly what they are going to study in the period Hence, the researcher needs to analyze all the components of each file, including listening texts, covered in “New English file – Pre-intermediate” under the light of dictogloss technique so as to ensure the applicability of dictogloss into teaching

2.3.1.2 Description of qualitative analysis of “New English file – Pre- intermediate”

The author of this thesis first analyzed the course book “New English file – Pre- intermediate” before designing other instruments because after analyzing the course book, the researcher was well aware of how it satisfies the required features of dictogloss technique or whether it needs further adaptations To know that, the researcher would focus on some main elements such as grammar, listening, and speaking In addition, the researcher designed other data collection instruments based on the results of course book analysis

2.3.2 Class observation 2.3.2.1 Reasons for choosing class observation

Observations are implemented during the whole period providing the researcher an overview of the selected participants‟ performance on grammar tasks as well as the whole classroom atmosphere in grammar lessons These initial eye-witnessed data are also essential for her to see students‟ responses towards dictogloss activities

This lets the researcher know whether the activities are properly carried out or suitable to the students‟ level so as to give implications and promptly adjust the way to carry out the technique

2.3.2.2 Description of the observation sheet

For effective observation, the observation sheet (Appendix 2) will include 7 questions, grouped into the following main parts:

Questions 1 – 5 are in the form of Likert scale The researcher just needs to tick into the column in response to the points from the lowest mark (mark 1) to the highest (mark 5) for each criterion The questions request information about student‟s behavior to dictogloss, performance on dictogloss, and grammatical competence

Question 6 collects all data about problems arisen in the class related to dictogloss and class atmosphere, and possible recommendations will be asked in question 7

Observation is a useful instrument, nonetheless, there are potential problems related to the use of observation, thus other data gathering instruments are also employed

2.3.3 Tests 2.3.3.1 Reasons for choosing tests

Tests are useful tools in giving solid evidence of the effectiveness of the use of dictogloss Hence, the three different English tests are developed to assess the students‟ grammatical competence before and after the treatment

At the very first day of each course, an entry test (Appendix 3) was delivered to assess the level of entering students and help the teacher somehow understand the existing situation and have appropriate methods for the rest of the course

There are totally 40 questions, divided into three sections: Section 1 (use of English), section 2 (reading) and section 3 (writing)

Part 1 comprises task 1 with 15 four-option multiple choice questions and task 2 with 5 questions which require students to identify and then correct the mistakes

Each question in task 2 is counted as 2 questions (one for identifying the mistakes and one for correcting the mistakes) Part 2 includes 5 reading questions and part 3 consists of five questions (build the sentence with the given words) which are counted as two questions each

The form of the entry test was designed based on the end-term test proposed by the non-English Division at HCE and the test covers most of grammatical elements in the target files

Pre-test and post-test

The pretest was given at the beginning of the research period before the treatment and its result was used to compare with that of the post-test which was administered at the end of the period The post test was designed to test learners‟ achievement after the intervention in order to find out the result of the whole treatment and to see the difference between the two results before and after the treatment

To ensure the reliability and validity, the pre-test (Appendix 4) and the post-test (Appendix 5) are the same in structure, test items, target grammar, and level of difficulty The two tests cover all grammatical components in the target files They comprise of four parts as follows:

Part 1 - Use of English: There are ten multiple choice questions with four options

Each question accounts for two points

Part 2 – Mistake correction: The students are asked to identify the underlined word or phrase A, B, C or D that must be changed and then correct them There will be 2 points for identifying the mistakes and 2 points for correcting them

Part 3 – Building full sentences: It tests learners‟ ability to make full sentences with the given words There are five questions and 4 points for each correct answer

Part 4 – Sentence transformation: Rewrite five sentences without changing the meaning with 4 points for each correct answer

Part 5 – Paragraph writing: Students must write a short paragraph (about 50 words) to talk about what they used to do in the past including 10 uses of target components The mark will be counted down from 20 to 0 for each mistake

The grammar pre-test and post-test were designed based on grammatical points suggested in the Pre-intermediate New English File Test booklet by Jenny Quintana

(2005) and New English File – workbook (pre-intermediate) by Clive Oxeden et al, which is reliable enough to examine the differences between the two results They are examined by the invited MA teachers The reason for using the two different tests is to avoid the chance that the students may remember the key of the pre-test

42 when they did the second test at the end of the course All records from the two tests were kept for later analysis

2.3.4 Questionnaires 2.3.4.1 Reasons for choosing questionnaires

Procedure of dictogloss in class

Basically, during the research period, the researcher adapted Wajnryb‟s model

(1990) with four steps, namely prepararion, dictation, reconstruction, and correction The table below illustrates the detail description of the procedures and steps of dictogloss

Procedure Specific description of steps

Warm-up: Tell what they are going to do; introduce related background information of the text; Teach new vocabulary

Directing: Inform the students of the next step Grouping: Put 4 or 5 students in a group

Dictating at normal speed: Ss try to understand the main ideas Dictating at normal speed: Ss take note the key words and phrases Dictating at normal speed: Ss check the gists and complete the notes

Discussing: Ss share the notes and discuss in groups about the main idea of the text, key words and phrases

Writing: T asks each group to reconstruct the text in their own group in ther own word based on what the have noted

Checking: Members in group check their version together

Correcting: T and the whole class correct the mistakes

Analyzing: Both T and Ss analyze the mistakes and draw the rules

Table 1: Basic procedure of dictogloss in class

2.4.2 Variations of dictogloss in class

The researcher applied the basic procedure above for most of the period However, to to avoid boredom among students and based on the characteristics of the target grammatical points and topics, some variations of dictogloss (rather than standard dictogloss) were employed in research week 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10 as follows:

 Research week 5: Student-Controlled Dictation

 Research week 8: Scrambled Sentence Dictogloss

A Summary of Methodology

The data collection procedure is briefly recorded as follows Prior to the research period, a course entry test was analyzed The first week was spent for the analysis of the textbook, pre-test, the first questionnaire and the first interview for students in order to help the researcher have background quantitative and qualitative results and descriptive knowledge about the participants Direct observation was carried out throughout the research period During this time, the researcher witnessed how the activities were organized in the class From research week 3 to week 10, action plan was implemented On week 3 and 4, two teachers were interviewed right after their attendance On week 11, the learners were asked to do the post-test which measures students‟ improvement in grammar competence after the treatment The second questionnaire and the 2 nd in-depth interview were be also transferred to several students The researcher analyzed the post data in the last week

Here is the timetable of the study:

Week 0 (pre-research period): Problem identification via direct contact with the subjects

Research week 1: (No treatment) Initial data collection

(Analyzing initial data and make plans)

Research week 2: Training session (plus with making plans) Research week 3: Dictogloss task 1 with “used to”

Research week 4: Dictogloss task 2 with “passive”

Research week 5: Dictogloss task 3 with unidentified nouns such as something…

Research week 6: Dictogloss task 4 with “ADJ (ed/ing)”

Research week 7: Dictogloss task 5 with “Quantifiers, Too / not enough”

Research week 8: Dictogloss task 6 with “Phrasal verb”

Research week 9: Dictogloss task 8 with “so, neither”

Research week 10: Dictogloss task 9 with “Past perfect”

Research week 11: Collecting post data Research week 12: Analysis of post-data

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Initial data

The results of the entry test are one of the foundations for the researcher to initially work out that students have poor grammatical competence Actually, it is out of perspective that it pushes the researcher to take practical actions

The outcomes of the entry test were categorized into four groups as follows:

Under 5 Mark 5 - 6.9 Mark 7 - 7.9 Mark 8 - 8.9 Mark 9 - 10

Figure 2: Students' results of the entry test

The pie chart shows the overall results of the students in the entry test The most striking feature is that the range from 5 to 6.9 accounts for a considerable portion (46.4%) while the excellent mark (9-10) only takes up more than 10% From the data collected, there is no student obtaining the maximum score The highest mark (9.5) belongs to only one student Even though the percentage of students with the score from 7 to 8.9 is quite significant (totally 28.6 %), mark 7 greatly outnumbers mark 8 The analysis points out that the overall outcome is still under par as they have gone far to English 3 Actually, they are able to grasp at some grammatical components They can choose the correct answers in multiple choice questions, but unluckily, they seem to fail to assemble what they‟ve learned into large units such as sentences or short paragraphs When looking into the details, the researcher finds out that the students have trouble with the tasks which are more complicated such as correct the mistakes and building full sentences

There is a gap in the students‟ ability Some students are outstanding and some are weak, which is both a challenge and a chance for the researcher in her research She must satisfy these learners, but in dictogloss she can also make use of the good students in each discussion group to support the weakers

3.1.2 Analysis of Text book “New English Files – Pre-intermediate”

Analyzing the target book takes a significant role as it helps the researcher to ensure the applicability of dictogloss technique As stated in the scope of the thesis, only some files in the textbook were chosen, namely from file 7C to file 9A File 9B was eliminated because it was assessed to be complicated and uninteresting for the researcher to apply dictogloss The main grammatical points to be taught in each research week are demonstrated as follows:

Table 2: Target grammatical points to be taught

In general, each file in the textbook is structured in accordance with the following parts: Grammar, vocabulary, listening, reading, speaking, and pronunciation (except file 9) Of all, most skills center on grammar as the core, especially listening and speaking It means that the target grammatical points happen very often in the texts, which is highly suitable for applying dictogloss However, the listening texts are often long and they are in the form of conversations This will make the students difficult to take note and the dictogloss is hard to be successful Therefore the researcher ought to revise and shorten the texts before reading to the students

Regarding the target topics, apart from some challenging and uninteresting ones which are removed out by the researcher, the topics in the textbook are generally familiar and interesting enough To gain more persuasion and efficacy of the application of dictogloss into the course, the data on students‟ interest on 7 target topics was also collected by means of the pre-questionnaire The chart below presents the collected results

Table 3: Students’ evaluation on topics

The table above clearly presents students‟ assessment on the interest of seven topics Overall, there is a positive evaluation in which “interesting” and “very interesting” outnumber the other two levels (very boring and boring) This is quite important because if students feel excited about these topics, they will be more involved in the activities in the class

3.1.3 Data from the Pre-test

After two normal class weeks working with the students, the researcher delivered them a pre-test, a pre-questionnaire, and an interview in the third lesson to officially identify the real problem

The results of the pre-test are classified into five levels of performance as follows:

Weak (Under mark 5); Average (Mark 5 – 6.9); Fair (Mark 7 – 7.9); Good (Mark 8

- 8.9); and Excellent (mark 9 – 10) First, let‟s look at the results from the pre-test

The chart (see figure 3) provides information on the students‟ results of the pre-test

It is obvious that nearly 50% of the students have got mark in the range from 5 to 6.9, followed by the percentage of weak students (21.4%) while the number of fair, good, and excellent marks only accounts for 10.7%, 14.3%, and 7.2% correspondingly In general, students‟ grammatical competence was relatively low with a total of 67.8% of students

Figure 3: Students’ results of the pre-test

Specifically, like the findings from entry test, the participants outperform in the multiple choice questions whereas they show their weakness in the other tasks especially exercise 3, 4 and 5) The table below compared their performance in different tasks in the pre-test

Tasks score 80-100% correct 50-79% correct Under 50% correct

Table 4: Comparison the students’ performance in pre-test tasks

It can be seen from the table that in task 1, most of the students get high scores, especially up to ten reach the maximum score in exercise 1 meanwhile no students have got under-50% correct answers Their performance in the second task is also positive with 42.8% students obtaining good marks and 53.6% gaining fair marks

The situation gets worse with the next three tasks when the percentage of the lowest mark is always the most considerable with 60.7%, 67.8%, and 39.3% respectively

General speaking, only very good students could somehow satisfy all these tasks

In the four last exercises, students are required to do more than circling the correct answers, which needs real understanding of grammar In the second task, they need to identify and then correct the mistakes A great many students have difficulties in this correction task Some can choose the correct mistakes, but fail to make them correct The third task looks harder as it requires the participants to recognize the grammar needed in each sentence and then use them to build full meaningful sentences Some can recognize the target structures, but not all of them remember the structures Take the sentence “I / not be / safe / enough / walk here at night.” for example Some make the following answers:

 I am not safe enough walking at night

 I am not enough safe to walk at night

 I am not enough safe walk at night

Task 4 is a little bit more challenging This is also the task which students omit the second most, just after the last task With just a few suggested word for each sentence, students have to relate it to the correct structure Therefore, nearly ten students hardly finish all the questions of this exercise

To complete the last task, student must write a short paragraph with 10 uses of the target grammar Merely 21.4 % of the students well satisfy the tasks compared with a total of 78.6% of weaker performers Even though this exercise is of greater requirement, according to the data collected, no students leave blank for this questions because it is quite flexible Students could freely express their ideas with

54 simple sentences In the poorest performance, only one sentence is written: “I used to go to Ha Long Bay.”

3.1.4 Data from the pre-questionnaire

A ten-item questionnaire was first developed to collect descriptive data on the participants Some students think speaking and listening are emphasized, but 27 out of 28 responses indicate that grammar is much of focus in the previous semester

Therefore, there is no denial of the importance of grammar in their learning of English

Not important Quite important Important Very important

Table 5: Students’ responses on the importance of grammar

Post data

The teachers were invited to attend the two lessons and then they were asked to give comments and recommendations right after the lessons The interview was held in the form of a personal talk, which lasted only about 20 minutes

Data from the first teacher (attending file 7C)

She states that dictogloss is still a new but interesting method She has never known it before From the lesson attendance, she also expressed that this may be a little complicated for students because they are not English-major ones They might find it very difficult to to listen and take note in English

In the dictation stage, she advised that the teacher should let the students listen for the main ideas in the second time of listening In the last time, it is necessary to pause at one or two sentences so that the students could keep pace with the text She suggests, “The listening text is in the form of a conversation, so it‟s difficult to for the students to identify what to take note The teacher should re-write it into make it a short text Before the teacher dictates, students should be exposed to native-accent voice.”

Data from the second teacher (attending file 7D)

In agreement with the first teacher, the second teacher points out that it may be a promising technique in teaching grammar, but it may also take time She also states that dictogloss helps enhance teamwork very well if the teacher knows to arrange and control the groups In the class she attends, there is one group whose strong members dominated the weak ones; they mainly perform the task Here are her recommendations for the lesson file 7D:

 After learning the target grammar from the text, finally, each group will present their inventions again This will give them the chance to practice speaking

 I think the teacher should only choose one or two reconstruction works randomly to analyze in front of the whole class This will make the class more focused and the teacher has more time to check the works

3.2.2 Data from the Post-test

Like the pre-test, post-test‟s results are also divided into five levels of performance as follows: Weak (Under mark 5); Average (Mark 5 – 6.9); Fair (Mark 7 – 7.9);

Good (Mark 8 - 8.9); and Excellent (mark 9 – 10)

Weak Average Fair Good Excellent

Figure 5: The results of the post-test

It is worth saying that the percentage of the students with average marks still stays the first place with approximately 40%, followed by that of fair students (25%)

Weak marks account for the lowest rate of 7.1% Excellent marks also take up a large proportion, which is a promising sign

With the aims of answering whether the students have made any improvement in grammatical competence, the results of the pre-test and post-test have been analyzed, transferred into percentage and put into bar chart for comparison

It can be seen from the chart (see figure 6) that there is a remarkable change in the results of the pre-test and the post-test

There is a trend that the percentage of weak, average, and good marks has a fall while that of fair and excellent marks drastically increase The rate of students with weak marks drops most sharply from 21% to 7 %, followed by the rate of average mark (a decrease of 7.1%) This fall shows a positive change in students‟ grammatical competence Among weak students in the post test, there is only one student who did not make any improvements She kept the same score in the two tests The other students had a little rise in her mark

Figure 6: Comparison of pre-test’s and post-test’s results

Even though the percentage of good scores slightly drops (less than 4%), more students with mark 9-10 were recorded (a huge rise of 10.7%) According to the data, many of good students, after the intervention, could gain excellent marks This can explain why the percentage of well-competent students goes down So, both this fall in good marks and the rise in excellent marks are of great significance

Specifically, look into the participants‟competence in different tasks in the post test

Table 7: Comparison the students’ performance in post-test tasks

As can be seen from the table above, the students in this class seem to perform the multiple choice task best with 92.9% of the students who can get more-than-80%- correct answers whereas paragraph writing takes the last place with only 21.4%

Noticeably, in the first and the second tasks, none of them obtained lower-than-50% correct answers However, the comparison chart will illustrate how the scores are improved after the treatment

Pre-test Post-test under 50%

Figure 7: Comparison of students’ performance on task 1 in pre and post-test

Supposedly, under-50% correct mark is weak; 50-70% is fair; and 80-100% is good

In the multiple choice exercise, no sharp differences are recognized as students performed quite well in this exercise in both pre-test and post-test There is a 3.6% rise in the percentage of good marks and also 3.6% fall in fair marks The gaps between weak and good marks are very considerable

Likewise, good and fair marks in task 2 (see figure 8) follows the same trend as task

1 The percentage of 50-70%-correct answers drops to 39.3%; weak marks drop from 3.6% to 0% in the post-test while good mark gains a drastic increase of approximately 18%

Figure 8: Comparison of students’ performance on task 2 in pre and post-test

Regarding task 3 – building full sentences, it is more promising when the rate of poor marks considerably decreases from 60.7% to 28.6% the proportion of good scores rise about 14.3 % This means that more students grasp at the competence to do this kind of task

Regarding task 4 (see figure 9), obviously, the percentage of the lowest group of mark in the post test remains high (39.3%), down 28.5% from 67.8% in the pre-test

This is considered a prospective sign More importantly, after the intervention, there is an upward tendency in the number of fair and good mark (from 17.9% to 25 %; and from 14.3% to 35.7% respectively) The students began to better perform on this open task as they recognize what grammar to be needed in each sentence and remember its usage and structures

Figure 9: Comparison of students’ performance on task 4 in pre and post-test

No more students can move up to good performance on paragraph writing task This can be illustrated by the unchanged percentage of 80-100% correct answers

However, the period also experienced a 25% increase in fair marks and also 25% decrease in weak marks

Table 8: Comparison of students’ performance on task 5 in pre and post-test

It can be concluded that 25% of the students can better acquire the grammar rules and improve their score from the lowest level (under 50% correct answers) to higher level (50-79% correct answers)

3.2.3 Data from the post-questionnaire

Besides quantitative data from the pre-test and the post-test, qualitative information on students‟ attitude towards what they have just experienced is also investigated

The comparison between the results of pre-test and those of the post-test indicates that there is a recognizable improvement in the students‟ grammatical competence

However, let‟s look at the diagram (see figure 10) below to see what the participants themselves evaluate their grammar improvement after the intervention

Option 1 Option 2 Option 3 Option 4 Option 5

Figure 10: Students’ evaluation on their grammar improvement

As can be seen, the responses to question 1 range from the lowest level (no change) to the higher levels

The percentage of students with no improvements is the lowest (5%); meanwhile, as many as 37.5% feel pleased with their achievements They stated that they now could deal with popular grammar exercises One fourth of the students reported that they are quicker in building long sentences with few mistakes and up to 20% are able to basically make use of grammar rules in communication According to students‟ self- assessment, in total, the number of positive responses (accounting for

82.5%) outnumbered the responses from those who made no or little progress after the treatment (17.5%) This strongly agrees with the analysis of the post-test‟s outcome

A summary of findings

In this chapter, the researcher collected and discussed all the data in the action research The result of the entry test was analyzed to help the researcher identify the existing problem and it was checked again by the analysis of pre-test, a pre- questionnaire, observation and an interview After all, she concluded that the students of k37A Maths class at HCE had poor grammatical performance and low interest towards grammar Therefore, the hypothesis of the study was formed as followed:

Implementing dictogloss would raise the students’ grammatical competence and motivation in learning English grammar

An action research project was then conducted The data to monitor change were collected through the post-questionnaire, the post - grammar test and the interviews (for teachers and students) An evaluation of the action research was made by comparing the data of the initial stage and the post-stage after the intervention of the action plan The findings reveal that the use of dictogloss in grammar lessons could not only somehow improve their grammar performance but also their attitudes towards learning grammar

This last chapter concludes with the conclusion of the study Furthermore, the theoretical and practical implications of this thesis are presented Afterwards, limitations of this research are critically addressed The final section proposes suggestions for future research.

Conclusion

Many language educators would probably agree that applying dictogloss into teaching grammar is promising in theory, but somewhat challenging in practice On the theoretical background of grammar, dictogloss, and motivation, the researcher has conducted the action research, which lasts 12 weeks, to investigate whether the incorporation of this technique into English grammar lessons could bring positive effects on the students‟ learning outcomes on grammar and motivation

The research results revealed that the students going through the grammar course with the use of dictogloss could make recognizable progress in their grammatical competence Thanks to the motivating activities in the dictogloss procedure, students are naturally involved in order to work out the grammar rules and see its real usage in the context and they are also given chances to practice the language

They now could initially do some types of exercises that they have not performed well before such as rewriting the sentences and building sentences Furthermore, by working in groups after listening, while the weaker students stood a better chance of learning from the others to complete the tasks which was still very challenging when they had to deal individually, the stronger could actively engage in completing the tasks and help the others Even though several difficulties such as their inability to keep up with the fast pace of the speakers to take notes or reconstruct the texts, or work in groups exist, through cooperative activities, learning grammar becomes less stressful and boring, which helps to keep them finding motivation in learning grammar intrinsically

Compared with the results of pre-studies, maybe, the persuasiveness of the findings of this paper is still restricted However, due to the scope of the study and different contexts, these results are worth being recognized Although students‟ satisfaction with dictogloss has hardly been addressed in any previous studies in Vietnam investigating the dictogloss procedure, the writer does believe that this area of inquiry is crucial to the overall success of implementing the dictogloss technique and it benefits EFL educators in terms of promoting learners‟ grammatical competence and interests in learning grammar In summary, EFL teachers should be aware that Dictogloss are feasible and appropriate for teaching grammar throughout the design and implementation of meaningful tasks.

Implications for teaching

This paper‟s emphasis deals with the significant impacts of dictogloss technique on students‟ grammatical competence and interest in learning grammar On the basis of that, the researcher hopes to study several useful implications to enhance the effectiveness of teaching grammar

First, dictogloss is assessed to be quite complex and difficult to be conducted (Dunn, A, 1993) Therefore, the teachers should study carefully to ensure that they deeply understand the techniques before using it in the lessons In addition, all materials should be well-prepared beforehand; otherwise the teachers will easily fail in this lesson Also, to refresh the lessons from boredom and stress, teacher should not forget to include some games or videos when necessary Or right at the beginning, the lesson can be hold as a competitive game with prize and gifts

Second, applying dictoloss into the lessons will be time-consuming if preparation skills for students are skipped Those preparation includes note-taking skill, listening skill, and group work so that they are not nervous and confused when delivered the tasks If possible, it is highly recommended that those skills should be gradually built in the previous courses Warm-up and vocabulary take a key role in determining whether students could catch the key words Vocabulary should be

76 delivered to the students with stress and clearly pronunciation And it should be repeated out loud a couple of times to make sure that the students could naturally acquire them all

Speaking of the time limitation, in fact, when conducting this action research, the researcher often needs more time than usual (typically 10 minutes) Hence, it is advisable that one class hour should be extended to 50 minutes, instead of 45 minutes Furthermore, to achieve the best efficacy, the size of the class ought to be small enough so that the teacher has more time to take care of all groups That way, she is also able to check more reconstruction works

Also importantly, due to the fact that some students lack confidence in their English proficiency, they are quite reluctant to take part in the group work; meanwhile better students may try to dominate the group Each group should comprise of no more than four students with a mixture of students levels so that they could help one another Of course, their equal participation will be assessed Besides, the teacher needs to control and observe more carefully to be able to pay sufficient attention to these learners In teaching grammar with dictogloss, whole-class setting or pair work may not very preferable (Harmer, J, 2001) because the teacher will be lost in dozens of reconstruction versions Moreover, the class will be probably out of control since some students elsewhere may have chances to separate themselves from your activities According to Harmer, J (2001), there are a number of factors for the teacher to consider when arranging the class in groups:

 Friendship or closeness: A key consideration when putting students in pairs or groups is to make sure that we put friends with friends, rather than risking the possibility of people working with others whom they find difficult or unpleasant

 Streaming: First, students could be arranged according to their ability It is a recommended suggestion is that groups should have a mixture of weaker and stronger students In such groups the more able students can assist their less knowledgeable members; the process of supporting will help such strong students to understand more about the language themselves The weaker students will benefit from the assistance they receive

Besides, the class might also be streamed on the basis of participation If some students participate less than others, they may form a group of weak participators As a result, they will find it impossible to hide behind their more talkative friends

 By chance: This way allows the teacher allocate students in groups randomly, regardless of friendship, ability, or level of participation This is by far the easiest way since it demands little pre-planning There are a variety of ways to do it such as: grouping students who sit next to each other or grouping students with the same thing like numbers, color, or letters

In all, each way of grouping has their own advantages and disadvantages; each is more or less appropriate for different activities What the teachers have to do is selecting the most suitable one based on the students and characteristics of activities and lessons

The next recommendation for teaching when using dictogloss is that in spite of receiving positive feedbacks from the students, dictogloss is still recommended not to be used too much in the whole course This will easily cause the boredom among learners Dictogloss should be only used as an alternative technique to teach grammar Whether using dictogloss or not depends much on the feature of the courses, the text-book and available materials, and students

Regarding the selection of texts, the first requirement is the length of the texts They should be short enough (this depends on the level of students) with appropriate vocabulary More importantly the target grammatical features should be made visible to the participants with the recurrences of those features within the text If necessary, before listening, the teacher may remind students to take notice of the target grammar points reoccurred in the text so that they could reconstruct the text

78 more easily Secondly the dictation texts should also be selected from easy to more complicate so that it naturally involves students in its procedure Therefore, at the beginning, the teacher should assess the students‟ levels and then adjust the texts according to their competence As some students complained that a few topics were not very interesting and note-taking caused troubles, teacher may change the topics or keep the topics but investigate another aspect of the topic For example, regarding the topic “The weekends”, instead of talking about busy weekends and hating weekends, the teacher can approach another interesting aspect such as

“Going on a picnic at the weekend” which talks about making plan for a picnic with family or friends and what they are going to do It is so much fun

Lastly, during the period, the researcher found out that the continual change of dictogloss variations according to the characteristics of the lessons helps to avoid the triteness Some variations make the learners more active in the class such as student-controlled dictation, picture dictation or student-student dictation Apart from the change of dictogloss variations, some other factors need also to be in consideration For example, dictation by videos is also a good idea Besides, instead of students listening to their teacher only or the tape only, these two means could be combined This helps students both acquire native accents and find easier to note down because the teacher dictation pace is slower

For a suggested grammar lesson with the use of dictogloss, please see Appendix 11.

Limitations

Although the researcher has tried her best to complete this thesis, it should be pointed out that there are certain limitations to this study when it is carried out First of all, the population of the study is comparatively small, refined to only twenty eight students in k37A Maths class at HCE

Besides, it is the inexperience of the researcher in teaching grammar with the use of dictogloss that may restrict the outcomes of the study This is the first time she has experienced this technique Meanwhile, dictogloss is quite challenging and not very popular, so the sources of materials suitable for a particular lesson are quite limited

Regarding the material preparation, even though it is claimed that authentic materials are widely available, in limited time, the researcher could not find enough authentic ones with the repeated target grammatical points Hence, she must use and revise the available texts in the books and dictate to the students.

Suggestions for further study

As a result of the findings from the research and the limitations of the study, several issues are worth considering for future research Firstly, a similar investigation should be implemented with a larger number of participants so that the results will be more reliable In addition, there are some gaps which need more detailed investigation For example, it might be a good idea if there is a research comparing the impacts of dictogloss variations on students‟ grammatical competence to see which should be highly recommended for a particular type of learners

Some suggestions for researchers who are interested in investigating the use of dictogloss techniques are then proposed First, as aforementioned, beside its impacts on grammatical competence, dictogloss also helps to improve other fields such as vocabulary, listening, speaking, and writing Therefore, it is advisable to explore how the techniques can perform as a tool to teach those parts

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Huyen Trang, T (2013) The Effects of Dictogloss on Students’ Listening Comprehension Skill at University of Economic and Business, Vietnam National University: An Action Research (MA thesis) Hanoi University.

Time allowed: 90 minutes No of students: 28

Handouts, laptop, speaker, board and chalks, 6 A0 papers and markers …

Objectives: By the end of the lessons, the students will be able to:

- Have some knowledge on dictogloss and note-taking

- Have gained some listening and writing skills

- Have never taken note in the previous courses

Time Main contents Class arrangement

“Note-taking is the practice of recording information captured from another source By taking notes, the writer records the essence of the information, freeing their mind from having to recall everything”

(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Note-taking)

Another source includes lectures and speeches, so on You must quickly write down the very important words and phrases only, so that you can get the main idea

Important words are words which carry important information such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs…

You could use linear note-taking (headings, numbers, and alphabet to classify the ideas) or

(10 minutes) non-linear note-taking (charting, mapping…)

Now you have three sentences I will read it at normal speed and you have to write them fast with key words and phrases only

Sentence 1: I‟m at university and I don‟t live on the university campus I live in a flat and I share the room with a girl

Sentence 2: My friend never pays for anything When we have a drink, first, he says he has little money, but then he says he has forgotten his money

Sentence 3: Yesterday, she took a white sweater of mine and she didn‟t tell me When I

IV wanted to wear it, it was dirty I was very angry

From New English file (pre)

 T calls two students on board to write down what they have taken

 T calls some students to give comments and then T gives the correct answer with symbols and abbreviations

Sentence 1: I @ unive & X live unive campus in flat & share room w/ 1 girl

Sentence 2: My frie X pays for anyth We drink, (1) he says little $, (2) forget $

Sentence 3: Yeste, she took a white sweater & X tell me I want wear, dirty Very angry

3 Common system of symbols and abbreviations

& OR and or ↑ increase or improvement

> greater than → or ↛ Cause or does not lead to

< Less than ↓ Decrease or deterioration

# or no number = Equal to

X not Eg or ie for example or that is etc and so on ♂ / ♀ Male / female

@ at asap as soon as possible

Am or pm Morning or afternoon w/ or w/o With or without vs against 2 to, two, too s/o or sth Someone or something b/4 before

Sources: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/writingcentre/learning_guides/learningGuide_note-takingAbbreviations.pdf http://www.ilile.org/events/past/Seminar_08_03/lesson_plans/Wheelersburg/NoteTakingSymbolsandAbreviations.htm

It is a technique that the teacher reads a text aloud repeatedly, and then the students note down what is being said, try to reconstruct the text, followed by checking their their version with the original one and correct their errors

Step 1– Preparation: Set the scene, informs Ss of the aim of the task, warm-up discussion, establish vocabulary

Step 2– Dictation - the text should be dictated at normal speed three times

- The 1 st time: Ss are not allowed to take notes or write anything They just listen to the general idea of the text

- The 2 nd time: they are advised to take note of the very important words

- The 3 rd time: check and complete the notes Step 3 – Reconstruction – Ss work in small groups on their version

Step 4 - Analysis and correction - Ss are required to analyze the similarities and differences with the original version, and then correct their texts

Now, we are going to practice by join a dictogloss activity

Dictation text “Louise goes swimming three times a week at lunchtimes with friends At home, he never does gardening because he hasn‟t got a garden He lives in a flat Sometimes, at weekends, he goes to the bar, plays tennis and volleyball, or goes fishing and does Judo at the gym He has two holidays a year (in the summer and around Christmas) He usually goes somewhere in Asia.”

Adapted from Face2face (pre) by Redston, C., & Cunningham, G (2005)

 T shows some photos of free-time activities and asks Ss what they are

Set the scene: In free time, people often relax by joining some activities First let‟s look at some vocabulary:

1 Gardening (n) / ˈgɑːd(ə)nɪŋ /: Activities you do with a garden

2 Volleyball (n) / ˈvɒlɪbɔːl /: A game for two teams of six players, in which a large ball is hit by hand over a high net

3 Judo (n) / ˈdʒuːdəʊ /: A sport of unarmed combat

 T asks students to repeat after her twice

 T divides class into 6 groups according to their own selection

 T tells the Ss that they are going to listen to the a text They are not allowed to write anything, just try to understand the main idea

 T asks Ss: What is the text talking about?

Suggestion: “It talks about free-time activities”

 T dictates the text at normal speech and asks Ss to note down key words and phrases, especially pay attention to the main verbs and the nouns after them

 Remind them not to worry those words they could catch and use some kinds of fast- writing abbreviations

 T dictates the text the third time and asks Ss to check the key information and words that they have missed in the 2 nd time

Now it‟s time for you to discuss and reconstruct the text by your own words based on what you hear a Discussing

 T asks the Ss in the same group to share their notes and discuss in group the main ideas, keywords, and phrases

 T goes around the class to ensure the equal contribution of all members in one group and gives help if necessary b Writing

 T gives each group 1 A0 paper and a marker

 T asks each group to reconstruct the text in their own words (those in this lesson or those which they have known before)

 T goes around the class and gives help if necessary

 T collects two A0 papers randomly and ticks onto the board

 T dictates again once (upon the class) and then check sentence by sentence

 T highlights the phrases with go, play, and do

 T asks Ss to look at the board and correct each reconstruction word by analyzing sentence by sentence with the teacher and then draw the rules

 T gives each student a copy of transcript so that their further reference at home

Rules with go, play, do

Go Sports that end in –ing

Do Martial arts and activities in a gym Play Sports with a ball

 Summarize the lessons: Note-taking & Dictogloss

This class observation is designed for my study “The effectiveness of teaching grammar with the use of dictogloss for students of

K37A Maths class, at HCE: An Action Research”

For each criteria, the researcher ticks (v) into the column with the corresponding mark from the lowest mark (mark 1) to the highest mark (mark 5)

1: Strongly disagree 2 Disagree 3 Agree 4 Strongly agree

1 They are familiar with dictogloss

2 They feel interested in dictogloss activities and the atmosphere is motivating

3 They could catch the key words

4 They could understand the target grammar

5 They could apply the target grammar in longer units

Task 1: Choose the best answers for each sentences

1 If Jack _ now, he his bus a doesn‟t leave / would miss b leaves / will miss c doesn‟t leave / will miss d leaves / would miss

2 The train _ when we arrived at the station a was already leaving b has left already c had left already d had already left

3 Sophie had long hair when she was at school, but now she doesn‟t a Sophie used have long hair when she was at school b Sophie used to have long hair when she was at school c Sophie is used to have long hair when she was at school d Sophie is used to having long hair when she was at school

4 – I haven't been to Spain – a so am I b Neither am I c So have I d Neither have I

5 It‟s too noisy Please _ your music down a turn b take c put d get

6 In skiing, you go _ hills very quickly You fix two long thin objects to your boots a up b down c along d through

HANOI COLLEGE OF EDUCATION ENTRY TEST

7 We _ him if he wanted to go to the cinema with us a told b talked c asked d said

8 Three men by the police a have arrested b was arrested c have been arrested d arrested

9 I don't remember _ the front door when I left home a to lock b lock c locked d locking

10 Tomorrow is your day-off You _ get up too early a have to b must c mustn‟t d don‟t have to

11 Sarah was disappointed _ her poor exam results a at b on c about d with

12 If you haven‟t got _ money, I can lend you a some / some b any / some c some / any d any / any

13 Every morning, at 6:30 AM, I _ dressed and then I go to work a get b put c take d make

14 He _ have a lot of friends at school He wasn‟t very popular a don‟t used to b didn‟t use to c used to d didn‟t used to

15 He is _ to do such work a not strong enough b strong not enough c not enough strong d enough strong

Task 2: Identify the one underlined word or phrase A, B, C or D that must be changed and then correct them

16 I couldn‟t concentrate on my lesson at school today because I was very tiring

17 We have been living here for we got married, so we don‟t want to sell it

18 It took three and a half hours flying to Singapore

19 Even though we are not twins, I look exactly the same with my sister

20 In football, you have to pass the ball to other players with your foot and hit the ball into the goal A B C D

Choose the best answer for each question below

Along with jogging and swimming, cycling is one of the best all-round forms of exercise It can help to increase your strength and energy, giving you more efficient muscles and stronger heart But increasing your strength is not the only advantage of cycling Because you‟re not carrying the weight of your body on your feet, it‟s a good form of exercise for people with painful feet or backs However, with all forms of exercise it‟s important to start slowly and build up gently Doing too much too quickly can damage muscles that aren‟t used to working If you have any doubts about taking up cycling for health reasons, talk to your doctor and ask his/her advice

Ideally you should be cycling at least two or three times a week For the exercise to be doing you good, you should get a little out of breath Don‟t worry that if you begin to lose your breath, it could be dangerous and there must be something wrong with your heart This is simply not true; shortness of breath shows that the exercise is having the right effect

However, if you find you are in pain then you should stop and take a rest

21 According to the writer, it is best to go cycling

A once a week B at least two or three times a month

C at least two or three times a week D every day

22 All forms of exercise must be started

23 People with back problems might go cycling because

A it enables them to carry the weight of their body on their feet

B it helps them to relieve their backache

C it helps to make their backs become stronger

D it does not make them carry the weight of their body on their feet

24 You should not worry about the shortness of breath because _

A it is a sign of exercise having the right effect

B it shows that you should stop and take a rest

C it shows that there is something wrong with your heart

D it is a sign of your getting rid of your heart problem

25 Which of the following is NOT included in the advantages of cycling?

A Giving you a stronger heart B Increasing you strength and energy

C Making you look younger D Giving you better muscles

Task 1: Use the words to make complete sentences

26 George Washington / become / first president / the United States / in 1789

28 He / not have / much education During his life / he / have / 3 jobs

29 He / work hard/ but / he / also like / dance and go to the theater

30 In 1759 / he / get married / Martha Custis / and they / be / happy together

1 I‟m going to _ this week a look after my neighbour‟s cat b look my neighbour‟s cat after c look at my neighbour‟s cat d A & B

2 He can‟t reach the top shelf because he is not very tall a He is tall enough to reach the top shelf b He is too tall to reach the top shelf c He isn‟t tall enough to reach the top shelf d He isn‟t tall, so he can reach the top shelf

3 She really long hair but she's had it all cut off a is used to have b used to have c is used to having d didn‟t use to have

4 – I get on with my boss very well – _ a So I do b neither do I c So am I d So do I

5 Walking around the shopping center was quite I need a rest! a tire b tiring c tired d tires

Hanoi College of Education PRE-TEST

6 Before I to class this morning, I my homework a come / did a came/had done c come/ had done d came/ have come

7 Can you _? I want to watch the film a turn the TV on b turn the TV in c turn off the TV d turn the TV off

8 I‟m bored I don‟t have to do a anything b nothing c everything d anyone

9 The electric light bulb by Thomas Edison in 1879 a was invented b invented c is invented d invents

10 I usually have milk in my coffee I don‟t want to gain weight a too many b a few c little d enough

Identify the underlined word or phrase A, B, C or D that must be changed and then correct them

11 This coffee isn‟t enough hot for me to drink in this cold weather

12 He used wear a uniform when she was at school

13 Your father‟s asleep Don‟t wake up him! He will be very frustrated

14 My daughter was particularly impressing by the dancing

15 Even though we are not twins, I look exactly the same with my sister

III Make full sentences with the given words (20p)

16 It / is not / safe enough / walk here at night

18 This / is / first time / I / meet / him

19 Every morning / I / turn / my computer / and check my e-mail

20 Yesterday after / Kathy and Tom / do exercise, / they have a shower

IV Rewrite the sentences without changing the meaning (20p)

21 The police arrested fifteen people

22 It is tiring to study late at night

23 I got dressed, and then she went to work

24 He often walked to the park in the evening when he was a child, but now he doesn‟t

25 Those shoes are too small for me to wear

Write a short paragraph (about 50 - 60 words) to talk about what you used to do in the past In the paragraph, you must include 10 uses of the following components (each can be used maximum twice) For each component used, please underline them

 Quantifiers (much/many/a few/ few/ a little/ little/ too…to / enough … to)

 Similarity (similar, same, either , neither, so, too, look like)

 Some (body /thing / where), any (body /thing / where); no (body /thing / where)

1 I was late for school this morning because my alarm clock didn‟t

A go off B go up C go away D go on

2 She doesn‟t know much about French She cannot read a newspaper in French

A She doesn‟t know enough French not to read a newspaper in French

B She doesn‟t know French enough to read a newspaper in French

C She knows too much French to read a newspaper in French

D She doesn‟t know too much French to read a newspaper in French

3 There a petrol station there When was it built?

A used to be B used being C didn‟t use to be D didn‟t used to be

4 – A: He didn‟t know that she had been married – B:

A so did I B So I did C Neither did I D Neither didn‟t I

5 She supposed the trip would be very _

Hanoi College of Education POST-TEST

6 The film _ by the time we _ to the cinema

A had already started/ got B already started/ had gotten

C had already started/ had gotten D has already started/ got

7 I was late for school this morning because my alarm clock didn‟t

A go off B go up C go away D go on

9 English _ in many parts of the world

A is speaking B speaking C is spoken D speaks

10 If you can wait, we‟ll be there in _ minutes

Identify the underlined word or phrase A, B, C or D that must be changed and then correct them

11 We couldn‟t go sailing yesterday There wasn‟t wind enough for both of us

12 He used smoke 40 cigarettes a day but he doesn‟t smoke any more now

13 Your clothes are on the floor Why don‟t you put away it? We‟re having guests

14 It was an extremely frightened experience in my life

15 Dr Bouchard didn‟t expect them to be so similar with each other

III Make full sentences with the given words (20p)

16 He / was / too / old / ride / the bumper car

17 Television / invent / John Logie Baird / in 1925

18 We / not have / a good meal / for / three weeks

19 I‟ve lost / my glass Can / you / help me/ look / them?

20 The man / lend / me / his newspaper / after / he / read / it

IV Rewrite the sentences without changing the meaning (20p)

21 Nobody sent us any tickets

22 He found this book boring

23 Daisy and John did some exercise Then they had a shower

24 Jim was my best friend, but we aren't friends any more

25 He was too poor to buy a bicycle

Write a short paragraph (about 50 – 60 words) to talk about your interesting visit in the past In the paragraph, you must include 10 uses of the following components (each can be used maximum twice) For each component used, please underline them

 Quantifiers (much/many/a few/ few/ a little/ little/ too…to / enough … to)

 Similarity (similar, same, either , neither, so, too, look like)

 Some (body /thing / where), any (body /thing / where); no (body /thing / where)

CÂU HỎI ĐIỀU TRA SỐ 1

Bảng câu hỏi điều tra dưới đây nhằm phục vụ cho nghiên cứu “The effectiveness of teaching grammar with the use of dictogloss for students of K37A Maths class, at Hanoi College of Education: An Action Research” Câu trả lời của bạn chỉ được dùng cho nghiên cứu này

1 Trong học phần trước, những kĩ năng / yếu tố nào được tập trung nhiều nhất?

(Có thể chọn nhiều hơn 1 phương án) a Từ vựng b Ngữ âm c Ngữ pháp d Nghe / nói

2 Em đánh giá như thế nào về tầm quan trọng của ngữ pháp? a Không quan trọng b Khá quan trọng c Quan trọng d Rất quan trọng

3 Em đánh giá như thế nào về độ khó của ngữ pháp? a Rất khó b khó c Khá dễ d dễ e Rất dễ

4 Hãy nêu những khó khăn của em trong việc học ngữ pháp? (Có thể chọn nhiều hơn 1 phương án) a Tôi không có khó khăn nào b Có rất nhiều quy tắc ngữ pháp mà tôi không thể nhớ được c Tôi không hiểu gì cả nên tôi cảm thấy không hứng thú học ngữ pháp d Các phương pháp của giáo viên chán, nên không tạo được cảm hứng cho học sinh e Tôi thấy khó trong việc sử dụng ngữ pháp vào giao tiếp (như viết 1 lá thư) f Ý kiến khác:

5 Bạn có thường bị điểm kém trong bài kiểm tra ngữ pháp? a Chưa bao giờ b Hiếm khi c Thing thoảng d Thường xuyên e Luôn luôn