Difficulties encountered and strategies used by students in learning english grammar a study at nguyen tri phuong secondary schoo

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY - NGUYEN HOAI AN Difficulties Encountered and Strategies Used by Students in Learning English Grammar: A Study at Nguyen Tri Phuong Secondary School Major: English language Course code: 8220201 HO CHI MINH CITY, April 2021 i MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY - Difficulties Encountered and Strategies Used by Students in Learning English Grammar: A Study at Nguyen Tri Phuong Secondary School Submitted to the Faculty of English Language in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in English Language Course code: 8220201 By NGUYEN HOAI AN Supervised by Dr LE VAN TUYEN HO CHI MINH CITY, April 2021 ii The thesis entitled: Difficulties Encountered and Strategies Used by Students in Learning English Grammar: A Study at Nguyen Tri Phuong Secondary School was successfully defended and approved on september 23rd 2021 at Hochiminh City University of Technology (HUTECH) Academic supervisor : Lê Văn Tuyên Ph.D Examination Committee Nguyễn Thị Kiều Thu Ph.D Chair Dương Mỹ Thẩm Ph.D Reader Trịnh Ngọc Thành Ph.D Reader Cao Thị Phương Dung Ph.D Member Nguyễn Thị Như Ngọc Ph.D Secretary Member On behalf of the Examination Committee Chair iii HCMC UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY POSTGRADUATE INSTITUTE HCMC, … ……………2021 MASTER’S THESIS REPORT Student name: Nguyễn Hoài An Sex : Male Date of birth: 11/11/1989 Place of birth : Ho Chi Minh city Major: English Language Student code: 1741900002 I- Thesis title: Difficulties Encountered and Strategies Used by Students in Learning English Grammar II- Objectives and contents: - To explore difficulties that NTPS students encounter in learning English grammar - To explore strategies that NTPS students use in learning English grammar III- Starting date: Octorber 2020 IV- Completing date: April 2021 V- Academic supervisor: Lê Văn Tuyên Ph.D ACADEMIC SUPERVISOR FACULTY DEAN iv CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled Difficulties Encountered and Strategies Used by Students in Learning English Grammar: A Study at Nguyen Tri Phuong Secondary School In terms of the statement of requirements for theses in Master’s programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee of Faculty of English Languistics, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology Ho Chi Minh City, April 2021 NGUYEN HOAI AN v RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Nguyen Hoai An, being a candidate for the Degree of Master of Arts (English Languistics), accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s thesis deposited in the Library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my Master’s Thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Librarian for the care, loan, and reproduction for theses Ho Chi Minh City, April 2021 NGUYEN HOAI AN iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my sincere thanks to those who have supported, encouraged and assisted me in my thesis completion First of all, I would like to express my special appreciation and thanks to Dr Le Van Tuyen, my supervisor, for his great patience, careful guidance, insightful advice, and constant encouragement through the whole research process Without his support and guidance, this thesis would never have been completed Secondly, I am grateful for the assistance and support of all teachers and staff members of the Faculty of English Linguistics, particularly Dr Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu, as the Dean of English Language major, who have helped me greatly to complete this master course Thirdly, I would like to express my thanks to the school board staff, including the principal and the vice principals at Nguyen Tri Phuong secondary school who have given me encouragement, support of time and finance and permission to implement this thesis there I thank all of the research participants, my students, who have contributed to this study Last but not least, my deepest and sincerest gratitude goes to my family with their unconditional love, understanding and help I would like to dedicate this dissertation to my beloved family who has provided me strong spiritual and material support iv ABSTRACT There has always been a growing awareness of the importance of learning English grammar in Vietnamese secondary schools Grammar is part of the English curriculum; and learning English grammar is one of the main activities in every lesson However, students at secondary schools usually get difficulties in learning English grammar It is necessary to analyze difficulties that the students encounter This study, therefore, was conducted with the aim of analyzing difficulties encountered by students at Nguyen Tri Phuong secondary school and exploring strategies that they have used in learning English grammar A mixed method design was employed and both qualitative and quantitative data were collected through the employment of two instruments, namely the questionnaire and the interview 160 students from 7th grade were purposively selected to participate in the study However, only 150 participants corresponding to 150 hand outs were valid To analyze quantitative data, descriptive statistics with mean scores and standard deviation were calculated To analyze qualitative data, content analysis was employed The findings of the study showed that there were four groups of difficulties that students encountered in learning English grammar, including student-related difficulties; grammar-related difficulties; teacherrelated difficulties; and textbook-related difficulties Among them, grammar-related difficulties caused most difficult to the students teacher-related difficulties; and textbookrelated difficulties generally almost no problem to the students in learning English grammar The findings also revealed that five strategies that students have used in learning English grammar, including memory grammar learning, cognitive grammar learning, metacognitive grammar learning, affective grammar learning, and social grammar learning strategies.Among five grammar learning strategies, affective grammar learning strategies were not preffered by the students Keywords: difficulties, grammar, strategy, secondary school, learning English v Table of Contents Pages CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY ii RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv ABSTRACT v TABLE OF CONTENTS vi LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1.Background of study 1.2 Statement of the study 1.3 Aims and objectives of the research 1.4 Research questions 1.5.Scope of the research 1.6 Significance of the research 1.7 Definition of key items 1.8 Organization of the thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Grammar and its role in language acquisition 2.1.1 Definition of grammar 2.1.2 The role of grammar in English language acquisition 2.2 Learning English grammar 2.3 Language learning strategies 11 2.3.1 Definition of learning strategies 11 2.3.2 Importance of learning strategies 12 2.4 Grammar learning strategies 13 vi 2.4.1 Definition of grammar learning strategies 13 2.4.2 Categories of grammar learning strategies 15 2.4.2.1 Direct grammar learning strategies 15 2.4.2.2 Indirect grammar learning strategies 18 2.5 Difficulties in learning English grammar 21 2.5.1 Student-related difficulties 21 2.5.2 Grammar –related difficulties 22 2.5.3 Teacher-related difficulties 23 2.5.4 Textbook-related difficulties 24 2.6 Previous studies 25 2.7 The conceptual framework of the study 29 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 31 3.1 Research design 31 3.2 Research site 32 3.3 Sample and sampling procedures 33 3.4 Research instruments 35 3.4.1 Questionnaires 35 3.4.2 Semi-structured interview 36 3.5 Data collection procedures 37 3.6 Data analysis procedures 37 3.6.1 Questionnaires 37 3.6.2 Semi-structured interview 38 3.7 Reliability and validity 39 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 41 4.1 Results of the study 41 4.1.1 Difficulties encountered by students in learning English Grammar at NTPs 41 4.1.2 Strategies used by students in learning English grammar at NTPs 47 4.2 Discussion 55 4.2.1 Difficulties encountered by students in learning English Grammar at NTPs 55 vii - S7: Yes, I Because I like English and if I get good marks, teacher and my parents will praise me - S8: Yes, I When I get good marks my parents will buy me a lot of presents - S9: Yes, I Because I can speak English better if My English grammar is good, and I feel more confident when I go to school - S10: Yes, I Because of learning English is really fun - S11: No, I don’t It has too much homework and I don’t have enough time to relax - S12: No, I don’t ( I hate it) Because the structures are too long and hard to remember How you - S1: Quite bad It’s very difficult for me rate your - S2: very well I’m good at English and I like it English grammatical - S3: It’s good I always confident with my knoglede knowglede ? - S4: It’s okay I can’t get from to point for each test - S5: I think I can get 6/10 points about my grammar - S6: very bad I don’t unederstand about grammar - S7: quite good I can the simple exercise of my English teacher - S8: quite good I think I can understand the explanation of teacher but not as fast as my friends - S9: quite good I can use it to speak with the forgein teacher and I’m happy to that - S10: quite hard to understand grammar I always ask my teacher ask 91 again, but it’s very easy to forgot if I don’t homework - S11: bad I don’t understand anything although I try to every exercise of the teacher - S12: It’s okay I can understand the grammar but It really quite hard to remember if my teacher use English to explain the lessons Do you - S1: I think English grammar is difficult because I don’t understand it think it very much When I homework I don’t know how to use the difficult to structures learn English - S2: In my opinion, it’s not difficult I always get good marks in grammar ? English why ? - S3: No, I can learn grammar easily I always get good marks in English at school - S4: Yes, It’s very difficult I can’t remember exactly the grammar stucture - S5: Yes because I don’t understand grammar I can’t remember exactly the grammar stucture - S6: It’s hard to remember or understand English grammar English has a lot of tenses and it is not easy to know and remember the tenses of English verbs - S7: English grammar is quite difficult because it has a lot of things to remember, and it has too many exercises - S8: It won’t be difficult if we try to study harder I don’t have any trouble with the stuctures - S9: No, I don’t think so My English is not bad at school and I always 92 want to more exercise - S10: Yes, It’s very hard because I can’t focus on the lesson I think it is quite boring - S11: No, If I try, I will be good at grammar It don’t hard to remember if I spend enough time to study - S12: It belongs to the lesson in the book Some structures are very simple but almost of them are too long and have too many structures in a test Therefore, it makes me bored to learn English grammar with this kind of textbook What are the - S1: I don’t know how to use it when I exercise or homework, I difficulties can’t it if teacher don’t stand near me you think they - S2: It’s hard to use in the situation in real life I sometimes use wrong are ? tenses - S3: It’s very easy to make wrong If I don’t focus on the lesson, I will forget it immediately - S4: Everything is very hard to me The structures are too long Prepositions, tenses, articles are too hard and complicated to know how to use them Many of them not have any rule - S5: I don’t know about the tenses I don’t know when I use “will” or “ be going to”, simple present or present continuous - S6: It’s very long, hard to remember or understand It has a lot of tenses and the verb is not easy to know the tense of them - S7Referring to the tenses, tenses are very hard and have many things to remember for each tense In present simple, the subject “I” is used like plural noun but in simple past, the subject “ I” is used like single 93 noun I always make mistakes in verb forms - S8: how to arrange the wordIn my test always has from to questions I must arrange them into right sentences - S9: I can’t remember the structures when I write the present countinuous but I usually forget “ to be” just only have “Ving” - S10: Can’t learn grammar because I don’t learn vocabulary I like English, but it has a lot of thing to study grammar, vocabulary… butI don’t have much time and I feel tired after school, so I don’t learn English much - S11: I can’t read or understand grammar It has a lot of structures, the exception for each of them, I can’t remember all of them - S12: Grammatical structures are hard to remember or use English grammars has too much exception and does not follow any rule What are the - S1: preposition Sometimes I think it right whem I use in Vietnamese most difficult but it wrong in English Ex: “nói với” I think “talk with” but the right aspects of answer is “ talk to” I don’t understand why ? English - S2: I don’t have any problem I’m very good at English and I always grammar ? E.g confident to use it at school or in my life tenses ? prepositions ? … - S3: I don’t feel it hard just mistaken the tenses - S4: Everything is very hard to me The structures are too long, prepositions are too hard to know how to use it and I don’t know what is the preposition - S5: both tenses and preposition The tenses are too hard to and I usually use wrong tenses especially “ simple past” and “ simple present” The preposition I only study from the exercise which is 94 corrected by my teacher - S6: both tenses and preposition The preposion is very hard to know what is the preposition I always ask teacher which word is the preposition - S7: about the tenses The tenses are very hard and have many things to remember for each tense In present simple “I” is used like plural noun but in simple past “ I” is used single noun I always make mistakes in verb form - S8: I don’t have any problem English is not difficult subject I feel relaxed and confident when I the test, Just only 30 minutes to finish 60 minute – test and my mark is always from to 10 - S9: Can’t remember exactly the structures Sometime I use wrong structure in my test Ex: I always write “ took + time + ving” but the right answers is “ to Vinf “ - S10: Teachers don’t transalate to Vietnamese so I don’t understamd grammar - S11: Don’t want to learn grammar It’s very hard and boring and the test in class is very long I think I just only learn new words and try to listen to understand what the people say - S12: preposition I always the test or exercise of perposition badlly How you - S1: Try to understand and all exercise of my teacher and after learn a new fixing it, I learn from the exercise English structure ? - S2: I speak English to my family everyday When I speak English I try to use the new struture that I learnt at school If I use wrong my 95 family will help me fix it - S3: I write everything on the board or on the notenook, After that I will think and write some example for each structure to remember them and ask again my teacher to help mecorrect them - S4: go to school and try to study hard At home I all my homework I use many colour pen to write the structure and underline the importants words in a sentence - S5: I study in class and ask teacher or my friend explain again for me if I don’t understand it and try to read it until I remember them - S6: I write the structure on the notebook, learn by heart them and try to speak loudly - S7: I go to the extra classes and try to a lot exercise to remember them - S8: I exercise as much as possible at home or on internet, when I homework I try to remember the structures - S9: I search on internet about the structure I don’t understand in class, write down on the note and make underline the important words, and learn by heart - S10: I always focus on the lesson in class, and ask my teacher if I don’t understand - S11: I go to the extra classes and try to a lot exercise to remember them - S12: I go to the extra classes and try to a lot exercise to remember them 96 What - S1: I usually review the old lessons by learn by heart again and read you often to again the fixed exercise When reading a grammatical structure, I will remember the new structure ? for exam: underline the key words to remember the structure - S2: I speak to my friends or family everyday to remember the structures, and I can practice English regularly using it in a sentence … - S3: I learn by heart structures at school or home when I have freetime I usually the homework or read again the example sentences - S4: I try to study harder and each sentence from the old lesson I write about or times to remember the structure of them I also speak grammatical structures loudly and repeat many times - S5: I a lot of homework and exercise as much as possible to remember structures - S6: I a lot of homework and exercise as much as possible to remember structures - S7: In order to remember a grammatical structure, I will review the lesson regularly and rewrite it many times - S8: I homework and find more information about the grammar - S9: I learn by heart structures at school or home when I have freetime I usually the homework or read again the example sentences - S10: I write on the notebook and learn them by heart, make underline the importants words and try to remember them - S11: I learn by heart and try to talk to the teacher if I have something 97 wrong, teacher will help me fix it - S12: I learn by heart structures at school or home when I have freetime I usually the homework or read again the example sentences 10 What are - S1: I usually review the old lessons by learn by heart again and read the strategies again the fixed exercise you often use to increase your garmmar - S2: I watch English programs on TV such as: movies, listen to English songs, etc The purpose is to improve my English grammar By doing that, I can learn more grammatical structures knowledge ? - S3: when I have free time, I read English books like novels, comics, or again the exercise of teacher It is a good way to learn English grammar through books, newspapers, journals, etc because the authors of these materials use many different grammatical structures Moreover, the grammatical structures are used in particular situations Therefore, learners can learn grammar easily and better - S4: I try to study harder, and each sentence from the old lesson I write about or times to remember the structure of them - S5: I try to study harder by read the dialouge in text book, try to learn by heart and review again the old lessons - S6: I more exercise on the internet or the exercise books I usuallu ask my friend to check the answers on the internet after I finish them - S7: I try to study harder by review the old lessons, and try to again the old exercise I try to think example sentences for the structures and underline the important words It helps me remembers the structures better 98 - S8: I try to study harder read again and again the old lessons and more exercise on the internet or teachers in my extra class explain again for me the hard structures - S9: I read the reference books and on the internet, I rewrite again the old lessons (structures and exercise) until I remember them I always learn English from different sources This is the way help me to widen my English grammatical knowledge - S10: My parents took me to extra classes In there teachers give me a lot of exercise and test for each struture and teacher will explain my questions about the strutures - S11: I search the structure on the internet and compare with structures I learnt at school and write down in a small notebook I ask my teacher the difference between the structures on the internet and at school if I have any trouble about the structures - S12: I try to listen to the teacher at, exercise, go on the board the answer Next teacher will fix my mistakes and I write down the true answers finally I learn by heart At home I read the reference books 11 What - S1: I eat or drink something Food and sweet help me feel less you often neverous and give me more energy to countinue my study when you feel tense or nervous when - S2: I never feel nervous when I learn English I am always confident and I love to study English When I feel tired I try to speak in English or sing English songs learning English - S3: I often go around my room or my house, or watch TV in a few grammar ? minutes to relax after that I try my best to study again - S4: When I feel never, I usually eat candy or sweet food If I don’t 99 have any thing to eat, I will drink softdrink or cold water - S5: I try to calm down myself I always say :” nothing is too hard, I can everything by myself “ I always forcus 100% to finish my work After that I will listen my favorite song to reward for myself and I will revise my old lesson on Saturday or Sunday when I don’t go to school - S6: I go outside, play games with my neighbors When I feel better, I continue to study my lesson If it rains, I play moblie phone to play games or listen to music in 30 minutes after that I countinue to study my lessons - S7: I try to talk to my friends, it makes me feel better or I can watch youtube, tik tok or something fun After 15 minutes, I continue my study - S8: I listen to music and dance like my idol on youtube, I usually sing my favorite songs I feel happier and less stress and then I can go on my work - S9: I always feel nervous when I have a new grammar I usually try to talk to my close friends at school, at recess I play more game with them At home I watch cartoon or listen to music to help me relax - S10: I ask teacher to help me when I feel nervous Teacher always gives me a small candy and talks to me: “ don’t worry, you will be good If you feel nervous, try to deep breath and drink water or eat a small candy” - S11: I surf the net, play games with my friends and listen to music until I feel better 100 - S12: I never feel worried about the grammar I try my best to study and when I feel tired I listen to my favorite songs or I chat with my friend 12 who - S1: I often ask my mother, she is very good at English, she will you often ask expain for me the hard question and tell where is my mistake and why for support when you find it difficult to - S2: I ask my cousin because he is a good student and very good at English He knows everything When I talk to him in English, he can fix my mistake It is very fun and good for me understand a new structure ? - S3: My parents Because they are very good at English They always hepl me study English better When I get good marks, they give me a small gift, when I get bad marks, they explasin for me my mistake and tell me the test again - S4:I search google to find the answer But sometimes I ask a question on the internet, It give me lots of answer I don’t know what is the true - S5: I ask my teacher, Teacher will explain and help me the exercise In the case that I not understand his explanation about new structures, I will ask him for clarification - S6: I often ask my father, he is very good at English, he will expain for me the hard question and tell where is my mistake and why - S7: I often ask teachers or friends Whenever, I am not sure about structures of sentences, I will ask them When they give feedback, I will listen carefully so that I can know the reason why I am wrong in my structures - S8: If I have and trouble, I will ask my teacher to help me They are very enthusiastic and ready to explain for me They also give feedback 101 about my grammar The teacher’s explanation is easy to understand - S9: I usually ask my sister She is an English teacher too, she always help me to study and review my old lesson before important tests - S10: I often ask teachers or friends When doing the exercise and homework, the teacher will help me to fix the mistakes The teacher speaks very softly and openly; so, I feel very comfortable The teacher motivates me to try to learn English very much I learn many things from the teacher because her profession is very good - S11: I often ask teachers or friends We usually together study to help each other fix the mistakes We the exercise, homework - S12: I ask cousin to help me He is a student and he can my homework easily But he is busy or go outside I will search google to find the answer 102 APPENDIX D: PLAGIARISM REPORT 103 104 105