Grammar plays an important role in teaching and learning English language. However, how to teach grammar effectively is not easy, and it is of constant concern of most high school teachers. In the context of grade 11, Yen Hoa High School, Hanoi, there have been virtually no studies about teaching grammar, especially in the light of Communicative Approach. Therefore, the current study was carried out to contribute to this area of research. The participants of the study were 91 students of class 11D3 and 11D5 as well as their two English teachers at Yen Hoa High School. Data was collected in three methods: classroom observation, teacher interview and questionnaires. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis strategies were employed to investigate the collected data. The results of the study suggest that the teachers in Yen Hoa High School are trying to apply Communicative Approach in grammar teaching, yet due to several major factors they sometimes could not follow the theory strictly. As a result, the Practice stage is mostly mechanical and the Production stage was omitted. Additionally, the study reveals several difficulties encountered by the teachers in which the most prominent difficulties were (1) time management, (2) heavy workload, (3) lack of creativity and (4) the requirement of current education and examination system in Vietnamese context. Besides, the research presents some recommendations and suggestions from both teachers and students, for instance, the syllabus should be redesigned to agree with the teaching method and examination system should be changed into more communicative, rather than paper-based.
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER TEACHING ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN THE LIGHT OF COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH TO 11TH GRADERS IN BLOCK D AT YEN HOA HIGH SCHOOL, HANOI Supervisor: Trần Thị Hiếu Thủy (MA) Student: Kim Thúy An Year: QH2010 HANOI – 2014 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP DẠY NGỮ PHÁP TIẾNG ANH THEO ĐỊNH HƯỚNG GIAO TIẾP CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 11, BAN D, TRƯỜNG THPT YÊN HÒA, HÀ NỘI Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Trần Thị Hiếu Thủy Sinh viên: Kim Thúy An Khoá: QH2010 HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2014 2 ACCEPTANCE PAGE I hereby state that I: Kim Thúy An, class QH2010.F.1.E1, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper. Signature Date May 4, 2014 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest and most sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Ms. Trần Thị Hiếu Thủy, for her continuous support and encouragement. Especially, without her precious consultation, careful guidance and feedback, this graduation paper would not be completed. With no less sincerity, my thanks should go to my senior, Mr. Trần Quốc Trung, who is currently a lecturer of Faculty of English Language Teacher Education for his support and guidance. Moreover, I owe 91 students and 2 teachers from Yen Hoa High School, Hanoi that agreed to take part in this research. Their active and responsible participation overtime has been a great encouragement for me to continue my work. Last but not least, all my heart is dedicated to my parents, my lover, Nguyễn Tuấn Hải, and my best friend, Nguyễn Hà My, who have been providing me every piece of care and support to complete this study. 4 ABSTRACT Grammar plays an important role in teaching and learning English language. However, how to teach grammar effectively is not easy, and it is of constant concern of most high school teachers. In the context of grade 11, Yen Hoa High School, Hanoi, there have been virtually no studies about teaching grammar, especially in the light of Communicative Approach. Therefore, the current study was carried out to contribute to this area of research. The participants of the study were 91 students of class 11D3 and 11D5 as well as their two English teachers at Yen Hoa High School. Data was collected in three methods: classroom observation, teacher interview and questionnaires. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis strategies were employed to investigate the collected data. The results of the study suggest that the teachers in Yen Hoa High School are trying to apply Communicative Approach in grammar teaching, yet due to several major factors they sometimes could not follow the theory strictly. As a result, the Practice stage is mostly mechanical and the Production stage was omitted. Additionally, the study reveals several difficulties encountered by the teachers in which the most prominent difficulties were (1) time management, (2) heavy workload, (3) lack of creativity and (4) the requirement of current education and examination system in Vietnamese context. Besides, the research presents some recommendations and suggestions from both teachers and students, for instance, the syllabus should be redesigned to agree with the teaching method and examination system should be changed into more communicative, rather than paper-based. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATION A: Answer Block A: Specializing in three subjects: Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry Block D: Specializing in three subjects: Mathematics, Literature and English. Block Science: Specializing in Science subjects: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology CLT: Communicative Language Teaching EFL: English as a Foreign Language ESL: English as the Second Language PPP: Presentation – Practice – Production Q: Question 6 Ss: Students T: Teacher TBT: Task-based - Teaching TTT: Test – Teach – Test YHS: Yen Hoa High School, Hanoi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES No. Name Page Graphs 1 Graph 1: The normal procedure of a grammar lesson 21 2 Graph 2: The aspects teacher normally address when presenting a new grammar structure 24 3 Graph 3: The activity students mainly do in a grammar lesson 25 4 Graph 4: The method teacher normally uses to present a new grammar structure 28 5 Graph 5: Students’ assessment of the interest of grammar lessons 29 6 Graph 6: Students’ assessment of the effectiveness of grammar lessons 30 Tables 7 Table 1: The activity students have taken part in the Practice stage 25 8 Table 2: The activity students have taken part in the 27 7 Production stage 8 PART 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter justifies the statement of the research problems, the rationale and significance of the research. Also in this chapter, the aim and scope of the study and research questions are presented. A brief introduction to proposed structure is also included. 1. Statement of research problem and rationale for the study It has widely been accepted that grammar structures are tremendously important since they construct the framework of a language. (Lin, 2008) Students, with good grammar competence, not only produce sentences grammatically but also have the ability to express their ideas, thoughts and feelings in certain contexts. By teaching grammar, teachers not only provide students with the means to express themselves, but also fulfill students’ expectations of what learning a foreign language involves. However, how to teach grammar effectively is not easy, and it is of constant concern of high school teachers. In the past, English learning and teaching at Vietnamese school mostly concentrated on grammatical structures and rules. Yet, recently, there have been certain improvements in English language teaching in the light of Communicative Approach which is adaptable to required objectives and help students get more opportunities to communicate in English. However, at many high schools in Vietnam, teaching English grammar still has not been successful in developing students’ communication ability, activeness and motivation. (Tran, 2013) So far, a number of studies have been conducted to assist teachers in teaching English grammar communicatively in the Vietnamese context. These include “A Study on teaching English Grammar Structures communicatively to 10 th Form students in Hanoi” (Vu, 2004) , “Techniques to Present New Grammar Communicatively to Grade 10 Students in Hanoi” (Pham, 2008), “Teachers’ Difficulties in Teaching Grammar Communicatively for Ethnic Minority Students at Hagiang Medical Secondary School” (Vuong, 2008) and “Using Communicative Activities to Support Grammar Teaching for Large Multilevel Cases at Electric 9 Power University” (Trinh, 2010), to name but a few. However, not many of them have been made in the scope of grade 11 at high schools in Hanoi. The two rare studies on this subject (Vu, 1998) was conducted 16 years ago, and therefore, may not provide up-to-date information to other educators and researchers who share the same interest. This situation has offered the researcher a chance to conduct a study on: “Teaching English Grammar in the Light of Communicative Approach to 11 th Graders in Block D at Yen Hoa High School, Hanoi.” 2. Aims and objectives of the study Primarily, by taking a closer look at the issue, this research paper expected to investigate the current situation of teaching English grammar (hereafter mentioned as grammar) to 11 th -grade students in block D at YHS (hereafter addressed as students). Moreover, the researcher also aimed at finding out the difficulties faced by the teachers when teaching grammar communicatively to the 11 th graders in block D. Basing on the results of the study, the researcher proposed several recommendations in the hope of enhancing the effectiveness of grammar lessons at YHS. In brief, this paper addressed the following research questions: Question 1: From the perceptions of teachers’ and 11 th -grade students’ in Block D at YHS, is the current method of their teaching and learning English grammar communicative? Question 2: What are the difficulties when teaching grammar communicatively to 11 th -grade students in block D at YHS, as perceived by teachers? Question 3: What are possible recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of teaching grammar communicatively at YHS, as perceived by teachers and students? 3. Significance of the study 10 [...]... (Teaching English as a Foreign Language: Grammar Translation Method, 2013) Because of its weak points and inefficient outcome, this method is rarely used in learning and teaching foreign language in schools in the world nowadays Even in Vietnam, although grammar translation method used to be popular for a long time, the use of this method in schools has proved many drawbacks and hence needs to be changed... beginners (Teaching English as a Foreign Language: Grammar Translation Method, 2013) Disadvantages However, this method has some shortcomings and has been strongly criticized because “it is based on language study (grammar, literature) and written exercises (translation) rather than real life communication and speech” (To et al., 2 011, p.19) Students are considered to be passive recipients of the given... researcher had the six-week-internship time to work with 11th graders in block D at Yen Hoa High School, Hanoi, therefore, collecting data from this population was the most convenient and time-saving to the researcher Investigation into any of the following issues: • • • • other methods of teaching grammar other high schools other blocks (such as block A or Science) other grades (such as grade 10 or 12) 11... of Vietnam Specifically regarding to Vietnamese high schools where the focus of learning English is on grammar; however, there are not much analysis on the perception of teachers and students as well as the difficulties encountered by teachers when applying Communicative Approach into their teaching In addition, students like 11th graders in block D, YHS who are required to communicate in English more... classmate(s) in all activities Last but not least, regarding the recommendations for applying CLT more effectively in teaching grammar in high schools, each teacher interviewed had distinctive suggestions Teacher A suggested that the syllabus should agree with the method, which is CLT The textbook and curriculum should be re-designed to make it less boring and ambitious, so that teachers could be easier to... study 12 PART 2: THE STUDY CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter explains the key concepts, as well as provides a review on the works relevant to the topic A gap for the research would also be indicated, creating the path for this study to be implemented 1 Key concepts 1.1 Traditional Second Language Teaching Methods 1.1.1 The Grammar Translation method: Advantages & Disadvantages The grammar-translation... This approach became dominant in the United States during World War II and then was applied to the teaching of ESL in many other places Here is a summary of the key features of the Audio Lingual method, taken from Brown (1994) and adapted from Prator and Celce-Murcia (1979), Harmer (2002), Richards & Rodgers (1996) 1 The primary objective is oral proficiency Writing is avoided in the early stages 2... making mistakes 13 There is great effort to get students to produce error-free utterances 14 There is a tendency that language us often manipulated without regard to meaning and context (To et al., 2 011, p.22) Advantages: Vu (2004) offered some plus points of Audio-Lingual method as follow: • The primary objective is oral proficiency Writing is avoided in the early stage • The focus is on phonological... judgments about oneself and others) 4 A level of individual learning needs (remedial learning based on error analysis) 5 A general educational level of extra-linguistic goals (language learning within the school) 1.3 Grammar competence in CLT 1.3.1 Concepts According to Celce-Murcia (1988, cited in Trinh, 2010), grammar is a field of linguistics involving a variety of items that constitute the rules of language... writing Besides, the grammar of a language in CLT is also defined as “the description of the way in which words change their forms and are combined into sentences in that language If those rules are violated, communication suffers” (Nunan, 2003, cited in To et al., 2012, p.52) Clearly, grammar makes up all the words and structures in a sentence There is a set of rules which governs how units of meaning may . form and inflection of words. (5) Reading of difficult classical texts is begun early. (6) Little attention is paid to the content of texts, which are treated as exercises in grammatical analysis. (7). creativity and (4) the requirement of current education and examination system in Vietnamese context. Besides, the research presents some recommendations and suggestions from both teachers and. grammatically but also have the ability to express their ideas, thoughts and feelings in certain contexts. By teaching grammar, teachers not only provide students with the means to express themselves,