Teaching grammar sections in language focus lessons in english 10

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VINH UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

NGUYEN THI TUYET NHUNG

TEACHING GRAMMAR SECTIONS IN “LANGUAGE FOCUS” LESSONS

IN ENGLISH 10

MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION

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VINH UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

NGUYEN THI TUYET NHUNG

TEACHING GRAMMAR SECTIONS IN “LANGUAGE FOCUS” LESSONS

IN ENGLISH 10

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION

Supervisor: Dr TRAN BA TIEN

VINH - 2013

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DECLARATION

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am, first of all, particularly indebted to my supervisor, Dr.Tran Ba

Tien, for his invaluable advice, instructions and correction, excellent

suggestions and constant encouragement during the research period Without his guidance and help, this work would not have been accomplished

Secondly, my sincere thanks also go to all the lecturers who have been teaching K19 MA course in Vinh University and the post-graduate staff for their administrative assistance to the success of the course

Besides, I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to all the teachers and the students at Huu Nghi High School in Vinh city, who willingly participated in the study I thank them for their time, patience and willingness in completing the questionnaires, answering the questions and sharing their classrooms with me

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ABSTRACT

The thesis deals with the difficulties in teaching and learning grammar to students in Language Focus lessons at Huu Nghi high school It also points out the reasons leading to those difficulties and the solutions to overcome them as well In details, the study will be divided into five chapters

In Chapter 1, the rationale, the aims of the study,the scope, the significance, the method of the study and the design of the study are considered

In Chapter 2, some theoretical background is given A description of the study and a detailed analysis on the study results are also provided Apart from that, the study goes into the English teaching and learning situations at Huu Nghi high school in Chapter 3 There are various types of problems that both students and teachers have to cope with Their difficulties range from background knowledge to their main expertise It is therefore the duty of the thesis to do a thorough research into the difficulties, classify them and find the best solutions Based on the findings, some suggestions for reducing the teachers’ difficulties in teaching and learning grammar more effectively to students at Huu Nghi high school are also mentioned in Chapter 4

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DECLARATION SH HH HH Ho HH HH trệt 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS S2 HH HH Hye ii LÝ.) (8koi4 1H TABLE OF CONTENTS L2 SE nH nh HH Hà He 1 LIST OE TAB.LES -.- cece Sàn SH HH HH HH tệ 4 LIST OEF ABBREVIATIONS Q0 SH He Hee 5 Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION - S522 re 6 1.1 Rationale of the Study - ¿2 2 22212221122 5115251 155111151151 xe+ 6 1.2 t0Ể 0 TS 7 1.3 Research questions

1.4 Scope of the Stud|y - 2 22211222112 22511 22511118111 1251 118511128111 re 8 1.5 Significance of the Study + - 22 2222 3122211225111 585111551 11551151 xe 8 1.6 Method of the Studịy -. 2c 2221222511 22511 3121111821 11521 1128115 ke 8 1.7 Design of the Study . - 2 2c 22221222211 1251 131511118511 1881 11 811 mrvy 9 Chapter 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ằ 10 2.1 Delnition oŸ gramimAï - - c5 2211211122513 8251 1155115851111 xe 10 2.2 The role of grammar in teaching and learning English 11

2.2.1 For-grammar perSp€€fIV€S - c1 22 2122211212211 xxx e+ 14

2.2.2 Against-grammar perSp€CfIV€S . - - 2 2 22 2222233222122 s+ 15 2.3 Explicit and Implicit approaches to grammar teaching 16 2.4 Deductive and Inductive approaches to grammar instruction 18 2.5 Grammar teaching in the major teaching methods

2.6 ConcÏusSIon c 5c c2 ‡+sxkssrxssxes .23 Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .- 552555: <<++ 24

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3.1.1 The school cont€XK 5c 22c 1222211125113 121 1115111551115 e+ 24 3.1.2 The textbook English 10 (the standard textbook) and its Language FOcus S€CfIOI . 5 22 2 22112 2211212211 1251158511111 eexrg 25

3.2 Methodology . - -+++5+ Error! Bookmark not defined

3.2.1 Research questions .- Error! Bookmark not defined

3.2.2 SubJects of the study c2 122221122211 3121 1112511151115 1 ty 28 3.2.3 Data collection 1nsfrumenfs - c5 5-2 +2+*+z + £ssxszsxz 29 3.2.4 Data collection procedurce - - + 2c 2322231222 £ xxx ey 32 3.2.5 Data analyS1S prOC€dUTC€ - E12 2122211212511 112511 s+ 32 EENeuni onaaÁẲỶẲIỒỘ - 33 Chapter 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 34 4.1 Findings from questionnaires for the teachers and the students 34

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4.4 Discussions of the Índings 5 c2 2222121233122 2+ 51 "90 on 54 Chapter 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 56 5.1 Summary of the sfudy - - - 5 2 2S 1312211125135 1511115 2111521 xE 56 5.2 Pedagogical ImplicatiOnS - -: 2-2 222 22222222223 E2Esseesxes 57 5.3 Limitations of the stUdy - - c1 2211222211 1251 1151111511111 xe+ 58 5.4 Suggestions for further s(udy - - 55-2322 *2xsssxkssrxes 59 REEFERENCES nho Hà HH He He 60 APPENDICES Appendix 1: Appendix 2: Appendix 3: Appendix 4: Appendix 5: Appendix 6:

Grammar items in the Language Focus sections in the textbook English 10

Survey questionnaire for the teachers Survey questionnaire for the students Class observation transcripts 1-4 Interview questions

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Table 4.1 Table 4.2 Table 4.3 Table 4.4 Table 4.5 Table 4.6 Table 4.7 Table 4.8 Table 4.9 Table 4.10 Table 4.11 Table 4.12 Table 4.13 Table 4.14 LIST OF TABLES

The teachers’ and students’ perceptions on the importance

of grammar English teaching and learning 34

The teachers’ and the students’ opinions about grammar parts In the textbook English I0 55255 S+2c‡++x+s+ 36 The level of difficulty of the grammar exercises to the students as perceived by the teachers and the students 37

Teachers` methods of presenting ørammar - 37

Teachers’ ways of giving grammar instructions 38

Teachers’ grammar practice activities - Frequency of use 39

Tteachers’ techniques of dealing with students’ errors 40

Factors influencing the way the teachers teach grammar .41

Students’ level of understanding of grammar structures presented in the Language Focus lessons 42 The students’ impressions of grammar lessons .0.55 43 Students’ preferences for the teachers’ grammar presentation methods -:- 2: 2 22212223222 zvEcsxccsz 43 Students’ favourite grammar practice activities in the Language Focus lessons 0.cccccceeeceeeeteeeeteceneeeeeeeesees 44 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching grammar in_ the Language Focus lessoms 0.:cccccececeeeceeeeseeeseeeeesteeesseees 45 Students’ difficulties in learning grammar in the Language

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

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Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale of the Study

As English has become the gate-keeper in today’s academic world, it is very necessary to teach English in school of all levels That is the reason why in 2002, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has set out new aims for English language teaching for secondary educations as well as introduced new series of English textbooks from grade 6 to grade 12.The new English textbooks for high school students are claimed to adopt the latest teaching and learning approaches: communicative approach and learner- centered approach and aim at developing both language skills and language knowledge for students Each unit in the new English textbooks consists of five parts: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing and Language Focus

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Moreover, after 6 years of teaching English with the new English textbooks at Huu Nghi High School, I observed that the teachers and learners there faced a number of difficulties not only in teaching and learning the four language skills but also in teaching and learning grammar during the Language Focus lessons

For the above reasons, I have decided to conduct the study:

“Teaching grammar sections in Language Focus lessons in English 10” It is hoped that this study will discover the difficulties in teaching and learning grammar in Language Focus lessons at Huu Nghi high school in order to contribute some immediate solutions to make grammar lessons more successful

1.2 Aims of the Study

The aims of the study are as follows:

(1) to find out the teachers’ and students’ perceptions on the importance of grammar teaching and learning

(2) to find out how the teachers and the students deal with grammar in the Language Focus lessons

(3) to investigate the difficulties in teaching and learning grammar in the English 10 textbook

(4) to propose some solutions to teach grammar in” language focus” lessons in the English 10 textbook more effectively

1.3 Research questions

In order to achieve the above - mentioned aims, the study was designed to seek answers to the following research questions:

1 How do the teachers and the students at Huu Nghi high school perceive of the importance of grammar teaching and learning?

2 How do the teachers teach and the students learn grammar in the

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3 What are the difficulties teachers and students at Huu Nghi high school encounter when dealing with grammar in Language Focus lessons in the English 10 textbook?

4 How might these difficulties be solved in the context of Huu Nghi high school?

1.4 Scope of the Study

As mentioned earlier, this study is only aimed at investigating the difficulties of teaching and learning grammar in Language Focus lessons and giving some solutions to make grammar lessons more effective

This study is limited to the teaching and learning difficulties with regard to teaching and learning grammar in Language Focus lessons

This study is a survey at Huu Nghi high school in Vinh city Therefore, the findings of the study are not intended to be generalized to other school

contexts

1.5 Significance of the Study

This study aims to identify the problems and suggests ways of improving them; therefore, it is hoped that this study will be beneficial in many ways First, participants in the study (the teachers and the learners at Huu Nghi high school) will benefit immediately from the experience of reflection Secondly, the findings of the study will contribute information to textbook writers and educators to determine curricula and program direction

1.6 Method of the Study

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- survey questionnaires to investigate the difficulties in teaching and learning grammar in Language Focus lessons

- class observations to get information about both the teachers’ methods of teaching and students’ ways of learning grammar in the classroom

- interviews with the teachers and students to get in-depth information about the teachers’ and the students’ suggestions to improve the teaching and learning of grammar in the Language Focus lessons in English 10

1.7 Design of the Study

The study is divided into five chapters: chapter 1- Introduction; chapter 2- Theoretical background chapter 3 - Research Methodology,

chapter 4 - Data analysis and discussion and chapter 5 - Conclusion

The Introduction presents an overview of the study including the rationale, aims, scope, significance, methodology and design of the study

The major part of the study consist of five chapters Chapter two provides theoretical background for the study Chapter three presents the methodology of the study and chapter four is devoted to analyzing and discussing the findings of the study

The Conclusion chapter provides a brief summary of the findings in correspondence with the four proposed research questions as well as offering some recommendations for better grammar teaching and learning The limitations of and suggestions for further study are also discussed in this chapter

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Chapter 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.1 Definition of grammar

There have been various ways of defining grammar- a very common and familiar term in language teaching and learning

Grammar can be seen as “the study and practice of the rules by which words change their forms and are combined into sentences” from The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (quoted in Harmer: 1987, p 1) There are two concentrated basic elements: the rules of grammar and the study and practice of the rules Similarly, Harmer (1988) defines grammar as “the way in which words change themselves and group together to make sentences The grammar of a language is what happens to words when they become plural or negative, or what word order is used when we make questions or join two clauses to make one sentence.” (p 1) As for Murcia (1988), grammar is “a subset of those rules which govern the configurations that the morphology and syntax of a language assume.” (p 16)

According to Fromkin and Rodman (1998), “The sounds and sound patterns, the basic units of meaning such as words and the rules to combine them to form new sentences constitute the grammar of a language” (p 14)

I am in favour of Widdowson (1990) with the claim that “grammar is not just a collection of sentence patterns signifying nonsense” (p 81)

For Thornbury (1999), grammar is not just rules on how to combine

words at the sentence level, but it also takes into account the role of context in

which a sentence is made He says that “when we process language we are not only trying to make sense of the words and the grammar, we are also trying to

infer the speaker’s (or writer’s) intention” (p 6)

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“grammatical statements that do not take account of such contextual features are inadequate and unable to support grammar teaching effectively.” (p 265)

For the purpose of the study, I use the definition of Richards, Platt, and

Platt (1992) in their Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics: Grammar is a description of the structure of a language and the way in which linguistic units such as words and phrases are combined to produce sentences in the language It usually takes into account the meanings and functions these sentences have in overall system of the language It may or may not include the description of the sound of a language (p.161)

In this definition, grammar is viewed as descriptive, which refers to the

structure of a language as it is actually used by speakers and writers Moreover, this definition shows both linguistic and social features of grammar as it refers to not only rules to make correct sentences but also meanings and functions of such sentences in the language, which is necessary for the teaching and learning of foreign language

2.2 The role of grammar in teaching and learning English

It is quite reasonable to see the importance of grammar according to

Harmer’s viewpoint (1987):

“Without some understanding of Grammar, students would not be able

to do anything more than utter separate items of language for separate functions The expression of functional language is only possible through the use of the Grammar of the language” (p 12)

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teaching of grammar means providing students with opportunities to use English in a variety of realistic situations to learn to communicate effectively Appropriate grammar techniques are embedded in meaningful, communicative contexts then contribute positively to communicative goals and they also promote accuracy within fluent communicate language use

Secondly, according to Smith (2001), if teachers neither pay attention to grammar nor create opportunities for learners to improve grammar, learners are likely to stand the risk of fossilization or reach a point where they can cope with level of communication that is demanded of them by making use of their existing grammatical resources and communication strategies and probably with sufficient fluency Surely, they do not see the need to develop their linguistic abilities any further (p.!5)

In favour of the importance of grammar, Larsen - Freeman (1986) affirms that grammar is regarded as a skill rather than an area of knowledge Learners do not simply store knowledge about the language and its use, they need also develop an ability to do something They must have a chance of learning situations to overcome the knowledge problem It is true to say that grammar is the fifth skill besides four skills reading, writing, speaking, and listening Skill development as well as learning grammar takes practice Grammar might not be taught only when the students already possessed the knowledge and the ability to use the grammar item in speech, writing and listening comprehension In fact, grammar is the basis for mastering four language skills When we have concrete foundation of grammar, we feel easy to advance (p.13)

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asserts that “in fact, no other issue has so preoccupied theorists and practitioners as the grammar debate, and the history of language teaching 1s essentially the history of the claims and counterclaims for and against the teaching of grammar” (p 14) The debate has brought about an extreme split

of attitudes, namely, those who hold that grammar should receive a central

attention in language teaching and those who hold that grammar should not be taught at all

In general, grammar is acknowledged to be of importance in language study and in language teaching and learning in particular Grammar is acquired naturally from meaningful input and opportunities to interact in the classroom More especially, learners can improve their grammar competence in a suitable environment without conscious focus on language forms However, this partly depends on the learning circumstances As a result, grammar teaching gains its significant role in English Language Teaching because highly developed language skills are difficult to achieve without some knowledge of grammar

The position of grammar teaching in ELT is still controversial Some people refute the place of grammar teaching for the reason that the study of grammar is neither necessary nor sufficient for learning to use a language

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For this reason, the teaching of grammar is very important in ELT

However, this view is not shared by all researchers, scholars, and second

language acquisition researchers The following sections review two opposing views on the role of grammar

2.2.1 For-grammar perspectives

Many scholars in the field of language teaching and learning emphasize the role grammar plays in language learning For instance, Savignon (1991), one of the leading advocates of communicative language teaching, emphasizes that “communication cannot take place in the absence of structure, or grammar” (p 268) In agreement with Savignon, in their communicative competence model, Canale and Swain (1980) clearly view grammar as one component of communicative competence and without grammar, learners can communicate effectively only in a limited number of situations

After reviewing ideas on the role of grammar teaching, Nunan (1991) came to a conclusion that “grammar exists to enable us to 'mean', and without grammar it is impossible to communicate beyond a very rudimentary level.”

Furthermore, Wilkins (as cited in Nunan, 1991, p 152), one of the architects

of communicative approach to language teaching, also points out that “acquiring the grammatical system of the target language is of central importance, because an inadequate knowledge of grammar would severely constrain linguistic creativity and limit the capacity for communication”

The list of supporters of grammar is still going on Long and Richards (1987) assert that grammar plays a central role in the four language skills and vocabulary to establish communicative tasks Brown (2007) points out that “grammatical competence occupies a prominent position as a major component of communicative competence” (p 348)

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been of such interest, then the fault must be in the failure to recognize its importance within this essentially human activity” (p 9)

2.2.2 Against-grammar perspectives

Due to the fact that many language learners know the grammar rules of a language well, but they cannot communicate effectively in that language (Hinkel & Fotos, 2002), several scholars do not believe that grammar teaching will have any impact on communicative purposes and therefore neglect it Prabhu (1987), for example, believes that development of competence requires the creation of conditions in which learner engage in an effort to cope with communication, not a systematization of planned grammatical input

The strongest advocate of this view is Krashen (1983, 1987), who is

famous for his learning and acquisition hypothesis and his Monitor theory Based on his learning and acquisition hypothesis, Krashen argues that from learning the learners obtain conscious knowledge of grammar which is not responsible for actual L2 performance On the other hand, acquisition is the underlying process which is responsible for the actual performance and this can only happen unconsciously through natural exposure to comprehensible inputs What’s more, according to his Monitor theory, consciously-learned grammar can only function as monitoring and monitoring overuse will only disturb the flow of production Consequently, this grow-up holds that formal and conscious study of grammar should be strongly rejected if the objective of learning the language is productive competence However, Krashen has received many strong criticisms from other researchers as his acquisition theory seems to be merely based on his own observation without supporting evidence

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rejected, but as Richards (2002) says, in recent years grammar teaching has regained its rightful place in the language teaching and “grammar is too important to be ignored” (p 145) The debate is now not on whether grammar competence is important but rather on how to teach grammar Therefore, the rest of this chapter is devoted to presenting two core approaches to grammar teaching and critically looking into the teaching of grammar in some major teaching methods

2.3 Explicit and Implicit approaches to grammar teaching

As mentioned earlier, the issue related to grammar is not whether to teach it but how to teach it Concerning the latter, two distinctly different approaches to teaching grammar have emerged over the years These are the explicit and implicit approaches to grammar teaching According to Scott (1990), the implicit approach emphasizes that students should be exposed to grammatical structures in a meaningful and comprehensible context in order that they may acquire as naturally as possible the grammar of the target language In contrast, Scott (1990) describes the explicit approach as insisting upon the value of deliberate study of a grammar rule in order to organize linguistic elements efficiently and accurately In DeKeyser’s words (1994), implicit teaching of grammar means that no rules are formulated; explicit means rules are formulated (either by the teacher or the student, either before or after examples/practice) (p 188)

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between “learning” (a conscious process) and “acquisition” (a subconscious process) forms the basis of his theory of implicit teaching strategies He maintains that second language acquisition can take place in the classroom without the explicit study of grammar if students are exposed to enough comprehensible input Moreover, according to him, the conscious study of grammar does not aid in the natural acquisition process as “ grammar exercises can be valuable as tool to encourage learning However, it should be kept in mind that while their function is important, very little acquisition will take place during their use” (Krashen & Terrell, 1983, p 146)

However, Krashen’s hypothesis has been criticized by many scholars as it is not validated by experimental evidence Moreover, Celce-Murcia (1991) warns that the implicit approach “can lead to the development of a broken, ungrammatical, pidginized from of the target language beyond which students rarely process” (p 162) Such learners, she explains, are often said to have fossilized in their acquisition of the target language

On the other hand, there are many advocates for the explicit method of grammar instruction Mclaughlin (1990) supports the value of explicit grammar teaching by distinguishing between controlled processing and automatic processing in learning a foreign language He stresses that language skills are learned and become automatic only after the use of controlled process In other words, students develop automatic control of a grammatical structure after passing through a deliberate, conscious stage of learning grammatical rule and their application In addition, Sagvinton (1991) points out that while involvement in communicative event is seen as central to language involvement, this involvement necessarily requires attention to form or explicit language teaching

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1994; Scott, 1990; Lopez, 2004; Andrews, 2007) The results from these

studies show that students who were taught the target structures explicitly performed better than those who received the implicit method of instruction

In short, it is hard to say which approach to grammar teaching is better The writer of this thesis is in support of explicit approach as she thinks that it is useful and suitable to the teaching and learning situation in Vietnam where getting students exposed to comprehensible input is hardly achievable

2.4 Deductive and Inductive approaches to grammar instruction While evidence for the need for formal instruction has been established through such research studies, there is still some controversy regarding how

and how much instruction is necessary From this debate, a broad distinction is

often made between deductive and inductive approaches (Thornbury, 1999)

= Deductive approach

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= Inductive approach

In contrast to deductive approach, inductive approach, which is labeled as rule-discovery learning, starts with examples from which a rule is inferred (Thornbury, 1999) The procedure is similar to the process of children acquiring their mother tongue First, learners are exposed to comprehensible language input and they will acquire the system of the rules subconsciously through peripheral attention to language forms Eisenstein (as cited in Long & Richards, 1987) maintains that the inductive approach tries to utilize the very strong reward value of bringing order, clarity and meaning to experiences This approach involves learners’ participating actively in their own instruction In other words, this approach attempts to highlight grammatical rules implicitly in which the learners are encouraged to conclude the rules given by the teacher

Brown (2007) says that in most contexts, inductive approach is more appropriate because of several reasons First, it is more in keeping with natural language acquisition and conforms easily to the concept of interlanguage development Second, it allows learners to get a communicative feel for some aspects of language and builds more intrinsic motivation through discovery learning Even though inductive approach has several advantages, it is obvious that it will work well only in the setting where there is sufficient language input In the context of English as a foreign language like in Vietnam, where English is not used outside the English class setting, providing sufficient comprehensible input constitutes a hard challenge for

teachers In addition, there is another important decision that teachers have to

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In conclusion, the deductive approach is related to the conscious learning process, while the inductive approach relates to the subconscious learning processes similar to the concept of language acquisition Whether grammatical rules are taught inductively or deductively rely much on the cognitive style of the learner and the language structure presented (Brown, 2007) Therefore, the language teacher’s job is to identify which approach is appropriate for which grammar items and for which learning styles And

sometimes, the question is not which one to choose but how well the two

approaches are combined As according to Corder (as cited in Celce-Murcia, 2001, p 264)

“What little we know about second language learning suggests that a combination of induction and deduction produces the best result The old controversy about whether one should provide the rule first and then the examples, or vice versa, is now seem to be merely a matter of tactics to which no categorical answer can be given”

Indeed, the combination of two approaches to presenting grammatical rules both provides students with more active learning environment and prevents them from inducing inaccurate rules for themselves

2.5 Grammar teaching in the major teaching methods

Along the history of language teaching methodology, different teaching methods have perceived grammar differently, especially its role and its teaching methods In this study, the researcher intends to present the teaching of grammar in four major teaching methods, namely Grammar-Translation method, Direct Method, Audio-lingual Method and Communicative Language Teaching approach

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method used grammar as the starting point for instruction The class under this method began with explicit grammar rules presentation, followed by practices involving translation into and out of the student’s mother tongue (grammar is taught deductively) Students’ native language is the language of instructions and mistakes and errors must be avoided at any cost The syllabus used was structural syllabus (Richards and Rogers, 2002) Briefly, in this method grammar is considered essential in foreign language teaching and there is an attempt to teach it in an organized and systematic way The best point of this method is that it helps learners produce grammatically correct sentences and is easily used in large-sized classes; however, learners taught with this method find it difficult to communicate in real life and tend to be passive recipients of knowledge

The Direct method emerged to challenge the way Grammar-Translation Method focused exclusively on written language The basic premise of the Direct Method was that one should attempt to learn a second language in much the same way as children learn their first language The method emphasized oral interaction, spontaneous use of language, no translation between first and second languages, and therefore rejected explicit grammar teaching Grammar is taught inductively in the target language by asking and answering questions between teachers and students in small and intensive classes (Richards and Rogers, 2002) An advantage of the Direct method is that learning in the target language enables students to think in the target language Beside, it may be advantageous to a teacher using this method not to know his students’ native language However, the complete avoidance of students’ native language may lead to the misunderstanding of rules and frustration from students

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performance consists of a set of habits in the use of language structures and patterns Grammar is taught inductively with little or no grammatical explanations Dialogues and drills form the basis of audio-lingual classroom practice After a dialogue has been presented and memorized, specific grammatical patterns in the dialogue are selected and become the focus of various kinds of drills and pattern-practice exercises The focus of instruction rarely moves beyond the sentence level (Celce-Murcia, 1991) It is important to prevent learner from making errors because errors lead to the formation of bad habits When errors occur, they should be corrected immediately by the teacher The strong point of this method is that students can develop listening and speaking proficiency at the same time they learn new structures; however, the explicit use of the target language often leads to time consuming and students might get bored with mechanical repetition or become well-trained parrots

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), which views language as an instrument of communication, has been the dominant language teaching methodology since the mid-1970s There exist two versions of CLT: weak version and strong version The weak version of CLT argues that an explicit focus on forms has an important -but not primary- role to play in second language learning and aims at using grammar and vocabulary to achieve communicative goals Whereas, the strong version of CLT rejects grammar teaching when they argues that attention to forms is not necessary; learner can acquire an implicit understanding of grammar by using the language in a system of meaningful tasks Concerning the teaching of grammar, Celce- Murcia (1988, p.27) introduces four stages of a grammar lesson in the light of

CLT: Presentation, Focused practice, Communicative practice, and Teacher

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manipulate the structure in question so as to gain control of the form for communication The next stage is communicative practice in which learners practice the target structure by engaging in communicative activities such as information gap, role-play, discussion Although teacher feedback and correction is the final stage, it must take place throughout the lesson as Celce- Murcia (1988, p.28) states that “during the second part of the lesson, correction should be predominantly straightforward and immediate During

the third part, however, communication should not be interrupted Instead,

teachers should take not of errors and deal with them after the communicative exercises”

2.6 Conclusion

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Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Overview of the current situation of teaching and learning

English at Huu Nghi High School 3.1.1 The school context

Huu Nghi high school was founded fifteen years ago as a result of the increasing demand to go to school of the students in the area At the time of

foundation, there were few students choosing to learn in this school because

most of the students chose to study in a more prestigious school not far from this school However, the school has gradually built up its prestige; more and

more students enroll in the school The school has 13 classrooms, a small

library and a computer-equipped room

Concerning the students, when entering grade 10, they learn English as one of the compulsory subjects in the high school Students study English in three periods a week (each period lasts forty five minutes) All students at Huu Nghi high school had studied English for four years at the secondary school and they used the new English textbooks designed by the MOET There is a fact that most of the students at Huu Nghi high school learn English just to pass the school exams

In terms of teaching materials, the textbooks used for teaching English at the school are “English 10, 11, and 12” by the MOET These English textbooks are designed to aim at developing students’ communicative competence

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3.1.2 The textbook English 10 (the standard textbook) and its Language Focus section

“+ The textbook English 10 (the standard textbook)

The new textbook English 10 was developed based on the new national

curriculum The book is claimed to adopt a theme-based syllabus However,

this syllabus may be more appropriately described as a ‘multi-strand’ one

since there is almost everything in it: topics, tasks, functions, notions, skills,

grammar, vocabulary and sounds The methodologies the book is claimed to follow are the “learner-centered approach and the communicative approach with task-based teaching being the central teaching method” (English 10, Teacher’s Manual, p.12) This textbook is accompanied with cassette tapes, student’s workbook and teacher’s manual

There are 16 teaching units and six review units in the book Each teaching unit covers one topic and is structured into five sections: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing and Language Focus Each section is supposed to be taught in one period of 45 minutes The sixteen topics are derived from

six themes: You and me, Education, Community, Health, Recreation, The

world around us

“+ The Language Focus section in English 10

The Language Focus sections in English 10 includes two parts: Pronunciation and Grammar and Vocabulary The Pronunciation part

focuses on practice of sounds (vowels and consonants) These sounds are

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The content of this study relates to Grammar in “Language Focus” The book includes 16 units (see Appendix)

3.2 Methodology

3.2.1 Method of the Study

The study employs both quantitative and qualitative methods The quantitative analyses are used through the process of data collected from pretest and posttest, pre-questionnaires and post-questionnaires In addition, the qualitative approach is employed to deal with the data gathered from think-aloud reports and interviews with the volunteer students before and after the treatment in order to obtain more in-depth understanding The combination of these data collection methods will help the author achieve the aims of the study

Apart from quantitative method I also use the qualitative methods as some reasons follow:

Obtaining a more realistic feel of the world that cannot be experienced in the numerical data and statistical analysis used in quantitative research;

Flexible ways to perform data collection, subsequent analysis, and interpretation of collected information;

Provide a holistic view of the phenomena under investigation;

Ability to interact with the research subjects in their own language and on their own terms;

Descriptive capability based on primary and unstructured data

Then, various instruments will be used to collect the data for the study

from different sources:

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Questionnaires are a common tool to collect data in language acquisition research They do not take much time to administer as other

procedure And the data are more uniform, standard and accurate

Additionally, questionnaires can be easily quantified because multiple-choice questions are used Due to these advantages questionnaires were used as a main data collection method in this study

However, one of the biggest problems with questionnaires is that constructing a reliable one is extremely time consuming The researcher must be very careful when designing questions as the ambiguity in the questions may lead to irrelevant answers Furthermore, responses may sometimes not reflect exactly what students think, or implement

To deal with these problems, the questionnaires were carefully designed and tried out with some students in other classes to examine whether they helped to elicit the kind of data necessary for the study Based on the feedbacks from those students, some questions, which were inappropriate and ambiguous to the students, had been improved In addition, before delivering the questionnaires to the subjects, they were informed that the study would only be valuable if they gave true answers to the questions in the questionnaires

- Class observations to get information about both the teachers’ methods of teaching and students’ ways of learning grammar in the classroom

- Interviews with the teachers and students to get in-depth information about the teachers’ and the students’ suggestions to improve the teaching and learning of grammar in the Language Focus lessons in English 10

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students and process the obtained information Another disadvantage is that they may introduce elements of subjectivity and personal bias, and rapport may cause the interviewee to response in a certain way to please the interviewer To avoid these problems the students were noticed that their honest answers were very vital for the study

3.2.2 Subjects of the study

The subjects of the study consisted of 5 teachers of English and 120 grade — 10 students at Huu Nghi high school in Vinh city

Five teachers (aged from 33 to 41) who are currently teaching English at Huu Nghi high school were chosen as the subjects of the study Among these teachers, two were teaching grade 10 at the time of delivering the questionnaire; three teachers taught tenth graders the previous school year Four teachers with more than ten years of teaching experience graduated from Vinh university The teacher, who have taught English for nine years, graduated from Vietnam National University None of them has a Master of Art degree

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I employed a cluster random sampling technique to select the sample for the study The reason was that it was difficult and time-consuming to select a random sample of individuals and gather these subjects because they had been already assigned to different classes with different timetables In this case, according to Fraenkel and Wallen (2003), cluster random sampling was

more feasible Besides, with regard to the sample size, Fraenkel and Wallen

(2003) noted that “samples should be as large as researcher can obtain with reasonable expenditure of time and energy A recommended minimum number of subjects is 100 for a descriptive study” They also pointed out that a common error made by beginning researchers is randomly selecting only one cluster as a sample, which provides unreliable results With the above

reasons, I decided to randomly select three classes First, I wrote the numbers

of classes from 10A to 10D on four cards respectively and put them in a hat After mixing the cards thoroughly, I randomly took out three cards The

numbers chosen were 10A, 10B, 10D The total numbers of students from

these three classes were 120 students 3.2.3 Data collection instruments

Information about the reality of teaching and learning grammar in the Language Focus lessons at Huu Nghi School was collected from three sources: questionnaire, classroom observation, and interview with the hope to guarantee the reliability and the objectiveness of the study

3.2.3.1 Survey questionnaire

To gather data for this study, two questionnaires were administrated to the respondents: one for the students and the other for the teachers The questionnaires were tested with a sample of three teachers and fifteen students for feedback on interpretation and any ambiguities After analyzing the data in the piloted study, the final and formal questionnaires were established

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The questionnaire designed for the students was distributed to them in the middle of the second term All questions and their items were written in Vietnamese to make sure that the students have a clear understanding of the questions and answers before they give out their choices Furthermore, using their native language the students were able to express their thought more easily in open-ended questions The questionnaire consisted of two parts One was intended to collect personal information of the participants, such as their age, gender, years of learning English Part two of the questionnaire consisted of 9 questions both close and open-ended questions The purpose of the questionnaire was to investigate:

- The students’ general attitudes towards learning English

- Their perceptions on the importance of grammar teaching and learning - Their opinions about the grammar parts in English 10

- Their evaluation of grammar teaching in the Language Focus lessons - Their ways of learning grammar in the Language Focus lessons - Their difficulties in learning grammar in the Language Focus lessons + Survey questionnaire for the teachers

The survey questionnaire for the teachers had two main parts which were written in English The first part was to get personal information including the teachers’ gender, age and years of teaching English The second one that consisted of 9 questions was about:

- The teachers’ perceptions on the importance of grammar teaching and learning

- Their opinions about the grammar parts in English 10

- Their methods to teach grammar in the Language Focus lessons, particularly with regard to the following:

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= Their language of grammar instructions

= Their ways of helping the students to practice grammar = Their techniques of correcting grammar errors

- Their difficulties in teaching grammar in the Language Focus lessons 3.2.3.2 Classroom observation

Along with two survey questionnaires for the teachers and the students, classroom observation was also applied The purpose of observation in the context of the present study was not to evaluate the teaching and learning Rather, observing the teachers in action in this study was aimed at discovering how the teachers and students taught and learnt grammar in the actual classroom This can help me to double check the validity and reliability of the data that was collected through the questionnaires and also gain more information concerning the research questions The observation was carried out in the Language Focus lessons of four random classes before and after the questionnaires Each class was observed in one lesson I acted as non- participant in the class and took notes about the teachers’ and students’ activities during the lessons

3.2.3.3 Interview

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3.2.4 Data collection procedure

All the participants were informed in Vietnamese about the purposes, methods and requirements of the collection of data to make sure they were clear about what they would have to do and were willing to participate in the study

Two sets of questionnaires - one for teachers and one for students - were distributed to 120 students and 5 teachers of English at Huu Nghi high school when they were dealing with unit 13 of the new textbook English 10 To reduce the pressure of time, the participants were allowed to finish the questionnaires at home in one week After one week of delivering, all 125 copies were collected

The classroom observation was also implemented in four random classes for over one month, both before and after the delivery of the questionnaires

The interviews were conducted with the teachers at the teachers’ room when they had free time I also invited the 12 students to the waiting room with their teachers’ permission to ask them several questions The contents of the interviews were taken by the researcher

3.2.5 Data analysis procedure

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and interpretively 3.3 Conclusion

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Chapter 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter is divided into five main parts The first part presents the findings from questionnaires for the teachers and the students; the second part analyzing the findings from class observation while the third part deals with findings from the interviews The fourth part is devoted to discussing the findings of the study in correspondence with the four proposed research questions The last part is an overall conclusion of this chapter

4.1 Findings from questionnaires for the teachers and the students 4.1.1 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions on the importance of grammar teaching and learning

Table 4.1 The teachers’ and students’ perceptions on

the importance of grammar English teaching and learning

Question 1 Number | Teachers (%) Number | Students (%) Very important 5 100 105 87.5 Important 0 15 12.5 Unimportant 0 0 Very unimportant 0 0 No idea 0 0

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examinations at the school by two teachers (40%) Secondly, two teachers (40%) believed that grammar helps students not only to pass examinations but also to express their ideas and opinions Thirdly, one teacher (20%) thought that in order to learn the four skills of English, students should master English grammar

“+ The students’ perceptions on the importance of grammar learning

From the results in table 4.1, it is clear that the students responded

positively to the question concerning the importance of grammar, with all of the students thinking that grammar is either very important or important Their reasons for the necessity of grammar were very much similar to those expressed by the teachers The majority of the students emphasized the role of grammar in helping them to do the exercises or pass the exams Besides, some students said that mastery of grammar facilitates them in learning language skills and makes them confident in communications Below is what they said:

- Mastery of grammar helps me get high marks in the exams

- Grammar is an important part of every test at school If I want to do

the test well, I have to know grammar structures

- Because without grammar, we can’t do the exercises that the teachers gave us

- Knowing grammar helps me express my ideas clearly

- Grammar helps me to learn language skills, especially speak and write English correctly