adapting grammar lessons in the textbook tiếng anh 10 in the light of the communicative approach

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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I here acknowledge that this study is mine The data and findings discussed

in the thesis are true, used with permission from associates, and have not been

published elsewhere

Author

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ACKNOWLEDEMENTS

First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Assoc Prof Dr Truong Vien for all the friendly support and assistance at all stages of this thesis I would like to acknowledge humbly that his constant guidance inspired me all through the study Without his help and careful guidance, this thesis would not have been possible

Second, I am greatly thankful to Assoc Prof Dr Ngo Dinh Phuong and all teachers of English Department from whom I have received a lot of useful knowledge during the years I study here

I would also like to express my sincerest gratitude to all teachers at some upper secondary schools in Nam Dan where the investigation was carried out for their endless enthusiasm, valuable advice and great cooperation

At the same time, I would like to send my special thanks to all the 10" graders at some upper secondary schools for their willingness to participate in my study and their valuable input

Also, I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to all of the friends in my group for their support and encouragement during the time this paper was written

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ABSTRACT

This research investigates the students’ and teachers’ awareness of using communicative activities in teaching English grammar to the 10" graders at some upper secondary schools The research addresses some issues of students’ attitude towards learning grammar, the frequency of communicative activities teachers used in grammar teaching, difficulties confronted students and teachers Also some useful implications are recommended to the teaching grammar to the 10" graders at upper secondary schools in Nam Dan and similar teaching contexts

The methods for empirical investigation in the study includes students’ and teachers’ questionnaire survey, teachers’ interview, classroom observation Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed to create a realistic and detailed description of the real teaching context and the attitudes, assessments of teachers and students involved It also presents an evaluation of class observation as an evidence of effective use of communicative activities in teaching grammar to the 10" graders at upper secondary schools in Nam Dan

The results of the study show that most of the teachers and students had positive attitudes and motivation to the uses of communicative activities in learning and teaching grammar, yet the scope was still limited It also indicates that some of difficulties and objective causes hindered them from extreme benefits which directly impacted on the use of communicative approach in teaching English grammar After attended class using communicative activities, I find the students’ interest in learning English The participants not only improved their English grammar but also overcame some problems resulted from their personal characteristics to communicate with the others in English

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Content Pàe b8;5e©9à5:02 (6a 1 }ý'Y.V/129009)00.4006:/9).4) 000 0S5 ” ii _.\0.919À1403))0)10 1611015 11 ABSTRACT IV TABLE OF CONTENTTS cà Sàn HH HH HH hư 1 APPENDICES SH TT HH nen HH ke 5 LIST OF ABBREYVIATIONS thuê 6 01) 19)á09021Đ5 7 01 19)33i60.421001515 8 Ð:71402).000049490)))0/ 09/0) 4 9 1.1 RATIONALE ằ HH HH re 9

12 PURPOSES OF THE STUDY Error! Bookmark not defined 143 SCOPE OF THE STUDY Error! Bookmark not defined

1.5 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY :575-55-5c+cccxcssxssesex 12 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW - tình 13

2.1 ADAPTINGError! Bookmark not defined

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2.2

2.3 GRAMMAR TEACHING 5á Si 18

2.3.1 Definitions ofGrammar Teaching ¿5:5 552222 +‡E‡+zEvzxvxvsxerrsrx 18 2.3.2 Primciples for Grammar Teaching - s- 5 cstSc+xtsxeExerxrrkrerrrev 19

2.4 COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH 25-555-22ccstcttrrrrrrrrrerrree 20

2.4.1 Background of communicative approach

2.4.2 Communicafive language teaching (CLT) 525552 sxszvzxsr+ 24 2.4.2.1 Definition of CLT - e cece cnet eee như 24 2.4.2.2 Characteristics oŸ CL/T' - - S222 eee eee naneeeesesees 26 2.4.2.3 Teachers' and learners' roles in CLT -. -<+ 28

2.5 COMMUNICATIVE ACTTVITIES (CAs) 2- 55c ‡cccxeceserrev 29 2.5.1 Definitions of CAS 29 2.5.2 Characteristics Of CAS oe cccceceesseseessecseeseesesseesseeseeseseeesneeseenesseesnsaeeeesneeseeanees 30 2.5.3 Types of Classroom 9 ra 334 2.5.3.1 Classification of LifleWood «cà cà cà sec 34 2.5.3.2 Classification of Harmer .-. -c c c5: 4I

2.6 USINGC.As TO TEACH GRAMMAR c5 cccsteteerieeerrev 41

2.6.1 The PPP paffern QQQ ST net 41 2.6.2 Deep-End approach - ch nh nhớ 42

2.7 PRIOR RESEARCHERS RELATED TO THE STUDY 45

CHAPTER 3 REASEARCH METHODOLOGY

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3.3.1 The QuesfionnaIres - t2 S91 5ESE£E2212EE9252121E 112212111 xe 50 3.3.2 Class observation49 ¬— 50 kh 50 Ấy VvvYv 04) —.- H 501 3.5 3210004090900) 51

3.6 ETHICAL CONSIDERATION .00.00cc00eceeceeeeee eee eeeeeeeeeeee es 52 CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION - so se se 53 4.1 TEACHERS? PERCEPTIONS OF USING C.AsIN TEACHING ENGLISH

GRAMMAR (IN TIENG ANH 10) AT SOME HIGH SCHOOLS IN NAM

000910232 5 53 42 CONSTRAINS THAT THE TEACHERS EXPERIENCE IN TEACHING

GRAMMAR LESSONS .0 0 cecccesscecss cess ees eesseesesessseesseesneesesseessvesanseanessneesenete 58

4.2.1 Main problems in grammar teaching - eeseeseseeseeseeseeseereesneenees 58 4.2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of available tasks in the textbook_ 62 4.2.3 Teachers” sources of CAs used In grammar lessons 65 4.2.4 Teachers” implementation OŸ C As ¿5:5 St ‡vcxtzEvkvsrrrkrrrsrrrsrv 66 4.2.5 Teachers’ assessments on the contribution oŸCAs 73 4.2.6 Types of CAs used to teach English grammar in some 10 grade classes

Error! Bookmark not defined 74

4.2.7 Roles ofthe teachers In CAAs - cty 81 4.2.8 Difficulties the teachers encounter when conducting CAs in teaching

Ben 83

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5.I CONCLUSION à Hee 88 5.2 PEDAGOGICALTMPLICATIONS -2 555555ccsccecsrrecrek 91

5.2.1 Implication for CAs Application .cccceceecececeeseseeseseeeseesesseeteseeeesneeeeseeeenne 92 5.2.2 Suggested Teaching Techniques Error! Bookmark not defined.94

5.3 LIMITATION ả.ĂĂĂ HH HH he 99 5.4 SUGGESTED FURTHER RESEARCH

13993490109 ã0000Đ5 1Ị 101

APPENDICES Appendixl : Questiomnarre for Teachers 104

Appendx2 : Questions for Teachers” Interview 109

Appendx3 : Questions for Studenfts” Interview 110

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CAs CLT Ql Q2 % LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS : Communicative Activities : Communicative Language Teaching : Number of Informants

: Questionnaire Number One : Questionnaire Number Two : Teacher

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LISTS OF TABLES

Page

Table 3.1: Teachers’ Background Information 49

'Table 3.2: Students” Background Information -: - 49

Table 4.1: The main problems in prammar teaching 59

Table 4.2: The advantages of using the available tasks in the textbook 62

Table 4.3: The disadvantages of using the available tasks in the textbook 63

'Table 4.4: Teachers”sources of C.As used in grammar lessons 66

Table 4.5: Teachers’ Perception towards the Aims of CAS cà, 667 Table 4.6: Teachers’ Feedbacks on the Lessons without CAs 72

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LISTS OF FIGURES

Figure 4.1: C.As are very important for English grammar teaching 53 Figure 4.2: C.As are often used to teach English grammar in the 10" grade classes Figure 4.3: Teachers’ opinions about the efficient and communicative of available grammar exercises in Tieng Anh 10 oo ececceececeeeeseeneseetesseeeeseeeeeneeeeneeeeeee 57 Figure 4.4: The frequency of adapting grammar activities designed in the textbook

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale

Nowadays, teaching and learning a foreign language for communication is a matter of much concern by language educators and instructors The new series of textbooks and many other materials for Vietnamese high schools are also designed with the aim to improve the learners’ abilities to use the target language to communicate with others through tasks and activities In language classes like English class, teachers try to set up many various activities to involve students in the lesson Those activities must be communicative enough to help students develop their communicative competence However, the matter here is how students are led to real communication Making students have an actual communication is a concerning issue to every teachers

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in learning and teaching in our country in general and in Nam Dan in particular Many schools are focusing on developing students’ communicative competence by organizing and setting different activities that are truly communicative for the students to take part in Like any other teachers, I find this is really an important and interesting matter that is worth being found out

In Vietnam, there is a fact that our Vietnamese teachers and students are so familiar with the Classical method of grammar translation instruction, which in the

nineteenth century came to be known as the “ Grammar- Translation Method” This isa “traditional” method in language teaching that, in various manifestations and adaptations, has been practised in language classrooms worldwide for centuries The Classical Method that was used to teach Latin focused on “grammatical rules, memorization of vocabulary and of various declensions and conjugations, translation of texts, doing written exercises” (Brown, 1994) With this traditional method, the grammar of the target language, particularly English grammar, is transmitted to students with the purpose of helping them read and appreciate foreign language literature Students are also expected to become more familiar with the grammar of their native language and that it would help them speak and write their native language better However, from the problems that Brown pointed out in his study and from the practice of grammar teaching and learning in most high schools in Nam Dan, I find that students rarely use English or apply the English grammar points they have learnt to real communication in the classroom On the other hand, students may understand and use grammar without communicative competence Most of us are quite familiar with the phenomenon of the structurally competent but communicative incompetent students

The problems mentioned above are the points the researcher wants to focus on in the study:

“ADAPTING GRAMMAR LESSONS IN THE TEXTBOOK "

TIENG ANH 10" IN THE LIGHT OF THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH”

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hopes the research can partly help teachers and students to be more aware of increasing real communication in the class As using the new teaching approach, communicative approach, teachers may improve students’ communicative competence through using communicative activities in the classroom

2 Purposes of the study

This research paper is done with several following purposes Firstly, this research paper aims to explore how teachers can apply and organize communicative activities to teach grammar in English 10, basing on common textbooks The results or findings may partly reflect the effects of communicative activities on teaching and learning, especially grammar teaching and learning, which is always a concerning issue Secondly, it can help us understand teachers’ perceptions and students’ attitudes towards communicative activities in English classes at some upper secondary schools in Nam Dan district Also, through this research, teachers and learners can probably have full awareness of the advantages as well as the limitations when they apply the communicative activities and find out the suitable explanation for the problems From that, teachers can also withdraw some strategies to apply communicative activities more properly Finally, the research paper makes some suggestions to cope with problems and to enhance good points of using communicative activities in English classes at some senior high schools in Nam Dan

3 Scope of the study

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investigating the CAs used to motivate the 10h graders in teaching grammar at some seniors high schools in Nam Dan district in Nghe An

4 Organization

The study will consist of the following parts: Chapter I Introduction

This part will introduce the problem leading to the study, purpose, scope, and organization of the study

Chapter IT: Literature Review

Theoretical background related to the topic and surveys of articles, books and other resources relevant to a particular the study topic will be presented This part will also provide description, summary, and critical evaluation of each work quoted Chapter III Methodology

This part presents the detailed procedure of the study: the methodology, population

selection, data collection and analysis

Chapter IV Findings and Discussions

The part deals with the findings drawn out from the analysis of data The findings and discussion are based on describing the data collected through research instruments

Chapter V Conclusion

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CHAPTER2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The theoretical background of the study will be fully developed later in the thesis The following is an overview of adapting, grammar, grammar teaching , communicative approach , communicative activities and using communicative activities to teach English grammar

2.1 Adapting

2.1.1 Definition of adapting

There are a lot of definitions of adaptation in different aspects However, in this thesis, researcher only considers it in teaching language — that is adapting material

Materials adaptation means matching materials with the learner’s needs, the teacher’s demands and administration’s purpose

2.1.2 The reasons for adapting

In spite of the great effort that textbook writers make to meet the needs of the intended users, textbooks are subject to adaptation when they are actually used in

the classroom Because not every textbook appeals to every ESL class Some content may be too difficult or challenging There also might be topics that are not particularly motivating for students What makes the matter worse is

that sometimes the teachers are compelled to use certain materials, that is, materials

imposed by authorities Therefore, adapting textbook activities is not just something teachers should do as the need arises but also for appealing to the lower, middle and strong student levels

Materials adaptation should be based on the results of materials evaluation Of course different materials have different potential areas for adaptation The following are some common deficiencies of existing ELT materials:

@ fail (unable) to fulfil the goals and objectives specified by national or local syllabuses or curricula

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® require facilities or equipment or other supporting materials that are not available

@ not engaging the learners’ personality @ detrimental to the learners’ culture @ not cater for the learners’ interests

The most important reason is that there is mismatch between what is needed and what is provided by materials

2.1.3 Principles of materials adaptation

Grant (1987) has listed the following principles for materials adaptation: 1) Making dialogues communicative

2) Making learning activities relevant and purposeful

3) Meet your learners’ needs, both external and psychological 4) Use models of real, authentic language

Very often, adaptation involves supplementation, that is, teachers add materials from other resources to the textbook they are using It is believed that authentic materials are better than non-authentic materials for supplementation So teachers who make a point of collecting authentic materials find it much easier to adapt textbooks This is especially true in ELT contexts where authentic English materials are not always readily to hand

Beside, Grant (1987) also shows some things that should not be done in materials adaptation:

1)Teachers should not adapt materials too casually, e.g based on his or her own

preferences or tastes;

2)Materials adaptation should not be done at the expense of completeness and overall framework of the materials

3)Materials deleted or added should not go beyond a reasonable proportion, otherwise consider alternative materials

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2.1.4.1 Level of materials adaptation Textbook adaptation can be done at three levels:

> Macro adaptation

This is ideally done before the language programme begins After comparing what is covered in a textbook and what is required by the syllabus or examination, the

teacher may find that certain areas or even whole units of the book can be omitted,

and certain contents need to be supplemented Macro adaptation is very important because it helps to avoid waste of time and energy of the teacher and the students as well It also helps the teacher to see in advance what he or she needs to supplement so that he or she can keep an eye on materials that could be used

> Adapting a unit

This could be reordering the activities, combining activities, omitting activities, rewriting or supplementing exercise material, etc Unit adaptation helps to make the classroom teaching more smooth and cohesive It also helps the teacher to better

fulfil the aims of a unit

> Adaptation of specific activities

Occasionally an activity is regarded as valuable, but it is not well-designed or it is not feasible in a particular class If the teacher does not want to give up the activity, he or she needs to adapt it

2.1.4.2 Specific adaptation

Maley (1998:281, in Tomlinson, 1998) suggested the following options for materials adaptation:

® Omission: Deletion is an adaptation procedure which involves removal of some of the linguistic items and activities which are found to be extra and unnecessary So, deletion is a process in which materials are taken out rather than added Materials should be reduced through omission when the following

situations are faced:

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- There are too many tasks on a particular area/point - The item/area concerned is not a priority

- The item/task is not well designed

- The item/task is not well-suited to its aim(s) - The topic is not appropriate for learners

® Addition: Addition is an adaptation procedure which involves supplementation of extra linguistic items and activities to make up for the inadequacy/ insufficiency of materials Addition of extra materials 1s necessary/applicable/appropriate when the following situations are faced:

- Areas are not covered sufficiently - Texts/pictures/tasks are not provided - Texts/pictures/tasks are fewer than needed - Tasks are limited in scope

- Tasks are of limited range

® Reduction: where the teacher shortens an activity to give it less weight or emphasis

e@ Extension: where an activity is lengthened in order to give it an additional dimension (for example, a vocabulary activity is extended to draw attention to some syntactic patterning.)

© Changing/modification: Modification means changes in different aspects of

materials, such as linguistic level, exercises, assessment system and so on

Modification of materials is applicable/ appropriate in the following situations: - Texts are of inappropriate length

- Materials are inappropriate to the aim

- Materials are inappropriate to the learners’ age/ experience - Materials are unclear, confusing or misleading

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from other resource materials

e@ Re-ordering/ rearrangement: Rearrangement is a procedure of materials adaptation through which different parts of a course book are arranged in a different order or sequence Rearrangement of materials helps to make them comparatively more interesting and appropriate for the learner as well as the teacher Learners may reorder materials by:

- Matching their aims

- Using a practice task for lead-in and elicitation - Revising an area earlier than the course book does - Comparing and contrast areas

- Providing thematic unity

- Providing an appropriate follow-up

© Branching: teachers may decide to add options to the existing activity or to suggest alternative pathways through the activities (for example, an experiential route or an analytical route.)

2.2 Grammar

Definitions of grammar:

So far there have been various studies to explore the nature of grammar ( e.g

Corder, 1967, Newmark, 1979; Krashen, 1981, etc )

Traditionally, linguists define grammar as a set of components: phonetics (the production and perception of sounds), phonology (how sounds are combined), morphology (the study of forms, or how elements are combined to create words), syntax ( how words are strung together into sentences), and semantics or meaning

However, grammar is not always defined in these terms A description made by Harmer goes:

Grammar, then, is 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

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(Harmer, 1987, p.1)

Here grammar is understood to be a set of rules that govern language It is thought as the way how words combine to make sentences This definition is also used today by many teachers and leaners who loosely consider grammar as a set of morphology and syntax But morphology and syntax are only two components of the larger grammar On this issue, Ur’s (1988) point of view is brief but concise According to Ur’s point of view (1998) grammar was considered as the way a language manipulates and combines words (or bits of words ) in order to form longer units of meaning Meaning is now mentioned

The researcher thought that the definition of grammar by Ur (1988) is meaningful and will be used for whole thesis because it mentions all areas that the teaching of grammar should aim to and the study would deal with

2.3 Grammar teaching

2.3.1 Definitions of grammar teaching

Traditionally, grammar teaching is considered as the presentation and practice of discrete grammar patterns As illustrated by Cook (1994), the mainstay of grammar teaching has been the technique of grammatical explanation That is to say language teacher explains the rules to the learners and give them examples of it in order that they first get a conscious understanding of it and then start to use it automatically On this issue, Ur (1996), in her chapter entitled Teaching Grammar, has sections on presenting and explaining grammar and GPAs (cited in Ellis, 2006) It is certainly true that grammar teaching can include presentation and practice of grammatical patterns

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discovering grammatical rules for themselves ( Ie., no presenfafion and no practice)

The definition of grammar teaching that informs this study is a broad one:

Grammar teaching involves any instructional technique that draws learners’

attention to some specific grammatical form in such a way that it helps them

either to understand it metalinguistically and/ or process it in comprehension and/ or production so that they can internalize it

(Ellis, 2006, p 84)

2.3.2 Principles for grammar teaching

The two principles such as efficiency and appropriacy highlighted by Thornbury (2000) realize sufficiently what language teachers should do in their teaching of grammar

+ Efficiency

When considering an activity for the practice of grammar, it is suggested that teacher should raise the first question “How efficient is it?” In Thornbury (2000) viewpoint, efficiency here can be broken down into three components: economy, ease and efficacy

According to Thornbury (ibid), economy is a key factor in language teaching If the teacher sets up too many activities in a language class, it would cost time and make students tired A sound rule is the shorter the better

The ease factor recognizes the fact that a majority of teachers are very busy teaching many classes, and simply cannot have free time preparing elaborate classroom materials Of course, the investment of time and energy in preparing materials is often spent in hope to make them work However, in reality the teacher’s preparation is not always going smoothly Generally, the easier an activity

is carried out, the better it is

The last component concerning the success of grammar teaching is the

efficacy, that is, “will it work?” The teachers need to motivate their students in

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s* Appropriacy

Teachers cannot apply a grammar activity for any classes of learners

because of the differences in the students’ needs, interests, levels, goals beliefs and

so on Thus, classroom activities must follow not only the criteria of efficiency, but of appropriacy as well Thornbury (2000, p 26) lists criteria that instructors need to care for in teaching grammar as follow:

> The age of the learners

Their level

The size of the group

The constitution of the group, e.g monolingual or multilingual What their needs are, e.g to pass a public examination

The learners’ interests

The available materials and resources VV VV VV WV The learners’ previous learning experience and hence present expectations

> Any cultural factors that might affect attitudes, e.g their perception of the role and status of the teacher

> The educational context, e.g private school or state school, at home or abroad

In Vietnam, not always do language teachers pay enough attention to the aforementioned principles, It is often the case that the teachers usually complain

about their large classes, time pressure, low-level students, lack of teaching aids or

badly-equipped The researcher thought that if the instructors were truly aware of following the principles in their language teaching they would have ways of dealing with the problems

2.4 Communicative approach

2.4.1 Background of communicative approach

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demand of learning and teaching is therefore also more and more diversely changing along with the educational realities Many new pedagogical approaches have been founded and applied in teaching and learning in order to meet this demand of the society Among the new approaches is Communicative one which may be characterized and considered as an important and modern approach in the world until now Savignon ( in Le Van Canh, 2001) state that the perspective is international Communicative Language Teaching ( CLT) is seen to be not a British, European, or U.S phenomenon, but rather an international effort to respond to the needs of present- day language learners in many different contexts of learning

Savignon also talked about the beginnings of communicative language teaching which we can see as a method in communicative approach In his opinion, in the early 1970s, the term “communicative competence” has prompted reflection and has become an useful concept The term continues to represent a concept which attracts researchers, and curriculum designers or developers, offering a framework for integrating linguistic theory, research, and teaching practice In Europe, during the 1970s, the rapidly increasing of the immigrants and guest workers, and a rich British linguistic tradition including social as well as linguistic context in description of language behavior with their language needs led to the development of the new syllabus for learners based on functional- notional concepts of language

use, which was viewed in terms of “what learners should be able to do with the

language” (cited in Ek, 1975) The term “communicative” was used to describe programs that used a functional- notional syllabus based on needs assessment And the movement of using language for specific purposes started

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used in many courses and workshops to guide curriculum change The exercises aimed to exploit the variety of social meanings contained within particular grammatical structures Meanwhile, in the U.S, reacting to Chomsky’s characterization of the linguistic competence of the native speaker, Hymes (1971) proposed the term communicative competence to represent the use of language in social context, the observance of sociolinguistic norms of appropriacy Communicative competence in Hymes’ viewpoints may be seen as a meaning potential and the focus was not language learning but language as social behavior

At the same time, Savignon (1972) used the term “communicative competence” to characterize the ability of language learners to interact with other speakers, to make meaning, as distinct from their ability to perform on discrete- point tests of grammatical knowledge On the other hand, communicative competence was measured in terms fluency, comprehensibility, effort and amount

of communication in the unrehearsed communicative tasks or activities Besides, a

collection of role plays, games, and other communicative classroom activities were developed subsequently for inclusion in the U.S adaptation of the French CREDIF materials (Le Van Canh, 2001) The collection of the communicative activities also makes the efforts like Candlin and his colleagues did in European EFL context with the focus on classroom process and learner autonomy

Savignon (in Le Van Canh , 2001) asserted that:

The inadequacy of a four skills model of language use is now recognized And the shortcomings of audiolingual methodology are widely acknowledged There is general

acceptance of the complexity and interrelatedness of skills in both written and oral

communication and of the needs for learners to have the experience of communication,

to participate in the negotiation of meaning The language teaching profession has responded well to the call for materials and programs to meet learner communicative

needs Theory building continues Communicative competence has shown itself to be a

robust and challenging concept for teachers, researchers, and program developers

alike (pp 262-263)

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language teaching, including English teaching Communication approach opens a lot of orientations for researchers, syllabus and program developers, and especially teachers who directly take part in the process of teaching in the real classroom and directly apply the approach to their real teaching While communicative approach has been getting so popular in Western language teaching, one of the challenges created by the approach is that how this new approach could be made culturally appropriate and suitable for Eastern education, especially for Asian conditions as well Le Van Canh (2001) continued to point out Greg Ellis’ viewpoints of the communicative approach in Asia:

In a study of the appropriateness of the communicative approach in Vietnam conducted by the author (Ellis, 1994), it was founded that the methodology courses,

which were offered by a group of Australian ELT aid volunteers, closely resembled the

language teaching model proposed by Canale and Swain (1980) The model is

underprinned by the notion that communicative competence is both linguistic knowledge

and the skill in using this knowledge It also addressed the ways in which a learner can bridge the gap between underlying competence and actual performance, and for Canale

and Swain, this ability to apply knowledge in actual situations is crucial Thus, the

instrumental aim of a communicative approach is to produce students who can communicative both orally and in writing with native speakers in a way appropriate to their mutual needs (2001, p 285)

However, when discussing this approach in terms of ESL and EFL, the author mentioned the distinction between ESL and EFL, which highlights a mismatch for Asian learners between the instrumental aims of the communicative approach and their own situations For Vietnamese EFL teachers, one of the most important things is that how they create more real communicative situations so that their students can have more opportunities to communicate in the target language While ESL takes place within an English- speaking environment, the ESL students can have a much greater need to communicate as well as to practice new language

skills in authentic situations And the teacher will provide more structures, explanations, and a matter for discussion EFL, on the other hand, is a “cultural

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target language” (Le Van Canh, 2001, p.74) The classroom is still not an English- speaking environment which can give students natural motivation to communicate in English Besides that, EFL is a part of the school curriculum and is designed suitably for the national curriculum goal So EFL teaching of teachers as well as EFL learning of students are partly influenced by the educational demands and the pressure of examinations This may lead to students’ “lack of motivation and high level of anxiety, manifest in a fear of failure in exams” (Le Van Canh, 2001) By looking at this point, we can see that the application of communicative approach in language teaching in different social contexts or cultures does not always follow the same methods Moreover, the approach always depends on many elements When looking at communicative approach in terms of “a culture-sensitive approach”, Le Van Canh (2001) showed the readers some very important elements which refer to “a whole range of aspects of the approach: Teaching communicative competence, teaching language as communication, having students communicate with each other and with the teacher, and ensuring that the methodology communicates with the student and other concerned parties” (p 167)

Under the light of Communicative Approach, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has become “a term for methods and curricula that embrace both the goals and the processes of classroom learning, for teaching practice that views competence in terms of social interaction and looks to further language acquisition research to account for its development” (Savignon, 1972)

2.4.2 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) 2.4.2.1 Definition

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other teachers, communication entails the exchange of unknown information between interlocutors And finally, some teachers understand communication in the

most global, anthropological terms, that is, as a cultural-bond system for making meaning Despite their various definitions of CLT, all the module instructors seem to advocate for a communicative approach

(http://coerll.utexas.edu/methods/modules/teacher/03)

According to Brown (1994), since the last two decades of the twentieth century, a new wave of interest in teaching second language has focus on CLT- teaching second languages for the ultimate goal of communication with other speakers of the second language One glance at current journals in the second language teaching reveals quite an array of material on CLT Numerous textbooks for teachers and teacher trainers expound on the nature of communicative approaches and offer techniques for different ages and purposes Whenever we look

in the literature today, we will find reference to the communicative nature of

language classes CLT may be best understood as an approach instead of a method Richards defines that CLT can be understood as a set of principles about the goal of language teaching, how learners learn a language, the kind of classroom

activities that best facilitate learning, and the role of teachers and learners in the

classroom

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According to Brown “We are exploring pedagogical means for ‘real life’ communication in the classroom” and “We are concerned with how to facilitate lifelong language learning among our students, not just with the immediate classroom task”( Brown,1994,p 77)

There are many interpretations of what CLT actually means and involves However there are still some misconceptions about CLT “Many teachers of English believe that CLT means not teaching grammar, or CLT means teaching only speaking not writing, listening and reading” (Thompson, 1996) As a result, this approach may be applied inappropriately

Although the various definitions of CLT have been offered, all of these also claim that the goal of teaching language is to develop learners’ communicative competence which involves the ability to use the language appropriately to a social context These components can be seen as linguistic competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence In order to help readers see what CLT means deeply and completely, some characteristics of CLT would be addressed in the next section

2.4.2.2 Characteristics of communicative language teaching

Four interconnected characteristics of CLT were offered by Brown as follows:

- Classroom goals focus on all of the components of communicative competence and not restricted to grammatical or linguistic competence

- Language techniques are designed to engage learners in the pragmatic, authentic, functional use of language for meaningful purposes Organizational language forms are not the central focus but rather aspects of language that enable the learner to

accomplish those purposes

- Fluency and accuracy are seen as complementary principles underlying communicative techniques At times fluency may have to take on more importance than accuracy in order to keep learners meaningfully engaged in language use

- In the communicative classroom, students ultimately have to use the language,

productively and receptively, in unrehearsed contexts

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In some ways, these four characteristics reveal some departures which are also a product of the growth of knowledge and integration of numerous teaching methods In other ways those characteristics show departures which are radical parts since the grammatically (structurally) sequenced curricula were almost the most important part of language teaching for centuries CLT suggests that grammatical structure might better be subsumed under various functional categories Also, in CLT people pay considerably less attention to the overt presentation and discussion of grammatical rules than they did in the traditional method The use of authentic language is usually implied in CLT as we attempt to build fluency in the process of learning However, the author also had an emphasis that “fluency should never be encouraged at the expense of clear, unambiguous, direct communication And much more spontaneity is present in communicative classrooms Students are encouraged

to deal with unrehearsed situations with the guidance, but not control, of the

teacher” (Brown,1994, p.245) In the practice, communicative language teaching has had great effects on the effectiveness of process of language teaching and learning, more particularly on the practice and materials in the classroom

Sharing the same view, Nunan (1991: 279) also proposed five common characteristics of CLT classrooms:

-An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language

- The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation

- The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also on the learning process itself

- An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning

- An attempt to link classroom language learning to language activation outside the classroom

Nolasco and Arthur also emphasized some of the most important characteristics of CLT:

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- Activities in which students have the chance to determine what they want to say independently of the teacher (the fluency of activities)

- Exposing the students to examples of natural language rather than material which has been written for language teaching purposes (authenticity)

From the points that these researchers discussed in their studies, we can see that

Communicative Language Teaching has some common characteristics which are, in the viewpoints of the most educators, very important and essential in CLT They are: the focus on the use not the usage of form, e.g functional language; fluency; authenticity; natural learning and natural communication in the class

2.4.2.3 Teacher’s and Learner’s Roles in CLT s* Teacher”s Roles

CLT focuses on the important of providing learners with activities which give them the opportunity to use target language for their communicative purpose The type of classroom activities in CLT, therefore, requires teachers' new roles in the classroom Rather than being a model for correct speech, teachers have responsibility to facilitate the communication among learners, they establish the CAs in order to supply their students the chance to share their ideas and opinions on a regular basis In another word, this involves students in realistic communication

According to Harmer (2001,p.56-57), teachers performs multi-roles which vary for different activities such as controller, organizer, prompter, counselor,

informants, assessor, participant, observer, tutor, performer, and as a resource Additionally, some other authors view teacher’s role as facilitator (Nunan,

1991), need analyst (Richards and Rogers, 1994), instructor, co-communicator (Littlewood, 1991), researcher (Breen and Candlin, 1980), manager (Freeman,

1986)

Obviously, teachers play many new roles in CLT However, it depends on the teaching context in which some roles are more prominent than others

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A great deal of use of authentic language is implied in CLT CLT employs learner-centered approach in which students are communicators It is supposed that learners now participate in classroom activities that base on a cooperative rather than individualistic approach to learning They should feel comfortable with listening to their peer in pair work or group work tasks

Furthermore, Breen and Cardlin (1980, p.110) describe learner’s role in CLT as “negotiator — between the self and learning process and the object of learning — emerges from and interacts with the role of joint negotiator within the group and within the classroom procedures and activities which the group undertakes’

In order to achieve the aim of communication successfully, learners are supposed to work as communicators and negotiators They are also claimed to take on more responsible for their own learning

2.5 Communicative activities (CAs) 2.5.1 Definition of CAs

Communicative activities, as they are defined by Littlewood (1981), are those which exhibit the characteristics of the communicative activities and continuum Students are involved in the activities that give them both the desire to communicate and the purpose which involves them in various use of language Such activities are vital in language classrooms in which students can try their best to use and apply the target language at degree of language autonomy and keep the balance of focus between language forms and meanings Littlewood also gave an example of dialogues that learners had to start from a specific functional meaning and produce acceptable language With such an activity, it is impossible to state whether an individual learner sees his purpose as being primarily to communicate meanings intelligibly, to produce correct language or to do both at the same time in equal proportion The results will depend a lot on how the teacher presents the activity and whether the learner expects his performance to be evaluated according to its

communicative effectiveness, its grammatical accuracy, or both Similarly, in a

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the teacher may often have students perceive the interactions as more

communicative if he responds to the content of what they say as well as to its

linguistic form

The outstanding point here is that communicative activities can be considered

to help students practice in a free way as practical as real communication with various uses of language

2.5.2 Characteristics of Communicative Activities

Before coming to the characteristics of communicative activities, we should go through the nature of communication Michael Canale, in the document of Jack C Richards and Richard W Schmidt (1983), pointed out some characteristics of communication as following: Communication

> is a form of social interaction, and is therefore normally acquired and used in social interaction;

> Involves a high degree of unpredictability and creativity in form and message;

> Takes place in discourse and socio-cultural contexts which provide constraints on appropriate language use and also clues as to correct interpretations of

utterance;

> Is carried out under limiting psychological and other conditions such as memory

constraints, fatigue and distractions;

>» Always has a purpose ( for example, to establish social relations, to persuade, or to promise) ;

> Involves authentic, as opposed to textbook- contrived language; and

> Is judged as successful or not on the basis of actual outcomes.(For example, communication could be judged successful in the case of a non-native English speaker who was trying to find the train station in Toronto, uttered “ how to go train” to a passer-by, and was given directions to the train station.)

(Richards & Schmidt, 1983, p3-4) Some characteristics of CAs are offered by Nicolas and Arthur (1998) as follows

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communication always has at least a particular purpose The target language, English, for example, must be purposefully used in the communicative activities

e They create a desire to communicate This means there must be some kinds of “gap” such as “information gap” and “opinion gap” which students seek a bridge

e They encourage students to be creative and to contribute their ideas Some students may be very active and creative in studying They usually take part in the lesson, give a lot of ideas and solve the matters given by the teacher in their own ways However, some others seem very passive in the class, especially in finding a solution for a problem These students usually join the activities passively and follow every teacher’s directions without any individual ideas This is maybe not because they are bad at studying or have little knowledge but simply because they do not want to think and contribute their ideas in the class One reason may be their passive habit of studying, but another one may be that the way the teacher are using

to teach cannot make them be interested in the lesson Therefore, using CAs in

teaching can help the teacher encourage students to be more creative and to make contributions to the lesson

e They focus on the message and the students concentrate on “what” they are saying rather than “how” they are saying it Similarly, Littlewood (1981) also

mentioned that, in CAs, students have to activate and integrate the pre-

communicative knowledge and the skills which the teacher has provided and helped them practice separately before in order to use them for the communication of meanings However, there is still immense variation in the demands that may be posed by different types of communication situation

e The students work independently of the teacher This means that students are becoming more and more responsible for their own learning This also helps them become more and more active and creative in learning

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designed to control what the students will say Here, teacher is only the guide, instructor, gives students the situation so that students can use their own language to practice

In a different way, Morrow (Johnson & Morrow, 1981) pointed out three features of CAs: information gaps, choice, and feedback, which, according to him, will make the activities truly communicative

In real life, communication takes place between two (or more) people People exchange information through the communication An information gap exists when one person in the exchange knows something while the other person/people does/do not know about that (Johnson & Morrow, 1981) So, for example, if we both know that you live in Nghe An and I ask you, “Where do you live?” and you answer, “I live in Nghe An”, our exchange will not be really communicative

In the classroom, an information gap exists in an exercise or activity when one student must be in a position to tell another something that the second student does

not already know In other words, the second student needs to know the information

which may be new to them Morrow gave an example that, if two students are looking at a picture of a street scene and one says to the other, “Where is the dog?” when he knows that the dog is sitting outside the post - office because he can also see it as clearly as the other student can, then there is no information gap here So, this activity is not communicative But if a student has a picture of the street scene and the other has a similar one with some features missing which he must find out

from the first student, then he must ask the first student some questions and he will

be given the suitable information The question he asks and the answer he gets from the other becomes real, meaningful and communicative

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speaker means that there is always doubt in the listener’s mind about what is to

come next” (Johnson & Morrow, 1981, p 62-63) This means that if the exercise or

the activity is tightly controlled so that students can only say something in one way, the speaker has no choice and the exchange in the activity is not communicative If a student must reply to another student’s question in the same ways as his friend (the content and the form) he really wants to say Therefore, the exchange is not meaningful and the activity does not bring about any real communication in the class Let us look at the following example to see that there are many ways for us to express the same meaning:

- I love to! - Yes, I would

- Yes, I free then

- Sounds great!

- Would you like to come to my birthday party this weekend? - You would come to my birthday party this weekend, wouldn’t you? - I wonder if you you'd like to come to my birthday party this weekend

- have birthday party this weekend Come with me? Mai An

According to Morrow (1981), the third and the final process of communication is

feedback which is also a crucial characteristic of communicative activities, in

general In true communication between two speakers, there is normally an aim of some kind in their minds What Morrow referred to is as the “operation or task which might form the basis of a classroom activity, successful completion of the

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task is the aim the participants have in mind” (p.63) For example, daily conversation also includes feedback:

Speaker A: Would you like to go to the cinema tonight with me? Speaker B: I’d love to (acceptance) What film is on?

Speaker A: It’s “Gone with the wind” (give in formation) Speaker B: Sounds great! (agreement)

In an information exchange, the speaker can thus evaluate whether or not his purpose has been achieved based on the information he receives from his listener If the listener does not have an opportunity to provide the speaker with such feedback, then the exchange in the activity is not really communicative

2.5.3 Types of Classroom CAs

Researching different documents of different authors, we can find that there

are a lot of different classifications of communicative activities It is not easy to decide how many types of communicative activities there are However, we can come to the classifications of the two authors Littlewood (1981) and Harmer (1991)

2.5.3.1 Classification of Littlewood

Littlewood (1981) offered two main categories of CAs which are “functional communicative activities” and “social interaction activities” (p 20-21) The activities of this type mainly emphasize the functional aspect of communication The main purpose of the activity is that students should use the target language to get meanings across as effectively as possible through the sharing and processing of information The effectiveness of the activity will be measured primarily according to whether students can cope with the communicative demands in the immediate situation And social interaction activities place focus on social as well as functional aspects of communication Students must pay greater attention to the social context

in which the interaction and communication take place Besides, communication

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effectiveness of the language, but also in terms of the acceptability of the forms that are used” (Littlewood, 1981, p.21)

a Functional communicative activities

According to Littlewood (1981), the principle of functional communicative activities is that situations are structured so that learners have to overcome an information gap or solve a problem He groups these activities into four types: sharing information with restricted cooperation, sharing information with unrestricted co-operation, sharing and processing information, processing information

e Sharing information with restricted cooperation

In this kind of activities, information is known by one student (or group) and the other have purpose to discover the unknown information In order to keep the interaction forward, the knower is not allowed to cooperate fully and he has to respond to information appropriate to cues The participants complete the task of communication by sharing the information These activities are often identifying pictures, discovering identical pairs, discovering missing information, missing

features or secrets

e Sharing information with unrestricted co-operation

These activities aim to reduce the conventions that restrict the cooperation in interaction among students The result is many realistic patterns of interaction are used and they produce a wider variety of communicative functions Learners use language not only to ask and answer but also for describing, suggesting, asking for clarification, helping each other and so on

e Sharing and processing information

In these activities, learners seem to have successful communication when

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express ideas for which they have not been prepared These activities also lead to more scope for disagreement and negotiation Some activities in this type are reconstructing story-sequences, pooling information to solve a problem

° Processing information

Learners have access to all the relevant facts which stimulate them to communicate in order to discuss and evaluate these facts, in pairs or groups They

now can solve a problem or reach a decision In these activities, in order to reach a

common decision, learners have to analyze information, argue, justify and persuade with each other They therefore develop skills in managing the interaction at interpersonal level

We can see how learners benefit from functional communication activities when they use language to solve communication problems However, the situations that they practice in the classroom sometimes they hardly meet outside the classroom such as finding, matching pictures or sorting out jumbled sentences In addition the learners’ social role is unclear and irrelevant to the functional purpose of the interaction Litterwood (1981) therefore suggests the wider range of CAs which is called ‘social interaction activities’

b Social Interaction Activities

Classroom is often seen as an artificial environment for learning and using foreign language According to Littlewood (1981), however, the classroom is also a real social context in its own right, where learners and teachers enter into equally real social relationships with each other He offers four approaches to exploit the classroom environment as a social context for foreign language use as follows:

e Using the foreign language for classroom management

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communication in the classroom It is therefore important for the teacher to provide the students as soon as possible with the language needed for classroom affairs, in order to establish the foreign language as the medium for organizing learning activities

e Using the foreign language as a teaching medium

Littlewood (1981) argued that “ For the young school learner, it is generally true the foreign language lessons are more concerned than any other with the development of communicative ability Their syllabus contains the least amount of concrete, nonlinguistic subject matter which might give them the motivation to communicate” (p.45-46) Therefore, it is necessary to introduce into language lessons the element that they lack: nonlinguistic subject matter which must be learnt and explored through the foreign language

e Conversation or discussions sections

The conversation sessions can be regarded as a source or relief from more serious language work This can be help to develop communicative ability For example, as Littlewood (1981) mentioned in his study, it provides a rich stimulus for communicative interaction with varied experiences, interests and opinions of the

students; it widens the range of communicative functions and domains of meaning;

and it provides students with more opportunities to express their own personality and experience through using the foreign language as a means of handling their own social relationships In the activity, the teacher must perform role as “co- communicator” rather than “director”

e Basing dialogues and role-plays on school experience

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these wider functional and social needs, we must look for ways of extending the possibilities for communicative interaction in the classroom

According to Littlewood (1981), some social interaction activities we can apply are simulation and role-playing with a variety of techniques: role- playing controlled through cued dialogues, role-playing controlled through cues and information, role-playing controlled through situation and goals, role-playing in the form of debate or discussion, and large-scale simulation activities With simulation and role play, students are prepared for real context outside the classroom These activities can be well-organized for organizing controlled, pre-communicative language practice

2.5.3.2 Classification of Harmer

Harmer (1991) classified communicative activities into oral communicative activities and written communicative activities

a Oral communicative activities

This kind of activities is designed in order to provoke communication between students and maybe between the students and the teacher The author divides the activities into seven categories: - reaching a consensus - discussion - relaying instructions - communication games - problem solving - talking about yourself - simulation and role play

For these activities, we can see that the organization seems quite complicated and the teaching stages have been included Now we try finding out two of the

activities, discussion and communication games, as example