A study on how oral practice can change TNH 10th graders' attitudes towardsgrammar learning

i A study on how oral practice can change TNH 10 th graders' attitudes towards grammar learning TABLE OF CONTENTS A study on how oral practice can change TNH 10th graders' attitudes towards grammar learning i TABLE OF CONTENTS i DECLARATION iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv ABSTRACT v TABLE OF CONTENTS vi LIST OF GRAPHS ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS x CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. Rationale 1 1.2. Aims of the study 3 1.3. Research questions 3 1.4. Scope of the study 3 1.5. Significance of the study 3 1.6. Outline of the study 3 CHAPTER II- LITERATURE REVIEW 5 2.1. Attitudes 5 2.1.1. Definition of attitude 5 2.1.2. Attitude change 6 2.2. The role of attitudes in language learning 7 2.3. Ways that help to change students’ attitudes 8 2.3.1. Oral grammar practice creating teaching techniques 8 2.3.2. Narrowing the gap between teaching style and learning style 9 2.4. Grammar teaching from a CLT perspective 10 2.5. The role of oral grammar practice in grammar teaching 12 ii 2.5.1. Definition of oral grammar pracice 12 2.5.2. Classification of oral practice activities in teaching and learning grammar. .13 2.6. Conclusion 23 23 CHAPTER III : METHODOLOGY 24 3.1. Study design 24 3.2. Research questions 24 3.3. Subjects of the study 24 3.4. Data collection instruments 25 3.4.1. Questionnaires 25 3.4.2. Interviews 26 3.5. Study procedures 26 3.6. Data analysis 27 CHAPTER IV- DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 28 4.1.Questionnaires 28 4.1.1. Data analysis of the students’ experiment questionnaires 28 4.1.2.Comparison of students’ attitudes towards grammar learning between pre- experiment questionnaire and post- experiment questionnaire 41 4.2. Interviews 42 4.2.1. Pre- treatment interview 42 4.2.2. Post- treatment interview 43 4.3. Discussion 44 4.4. Summary 45 CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION 46 5.1. Summary and conclusion: 46 5.2. Limitations of the study: 46 5.3. Suggestions for further study: 47 REFERENCES I APPENDICES III Appendix 1: III Pre - Experiment questionnaire on English grammar learning III Appendix 2: VI iii PHIẾU ĐIỀU TRA TIỀN THỬ NGHIỆM VIỆC HỌC NGỮ PHÁP TIẾNG ANH. .VI Appendix 3: X POST- EXPERIMENT QUESTIONNAIRE X ON ENGLISH GRAMMAR LEARNING X Appendix 4: XIII PHIẾU ĐIỀU TRA SAU THỬ NGHIỆM HỌC NGỮ PHÁP TIẾNG ANH XIII Appendix 5: XVI PRE-EXPERIMENT INTERVIEW XVI Appendix 6: XVII PHỎNG VẤN TIỀN THỬ NGHIỆM XVII Appendix 7: XVIII POST-EXPERIMENT INTERVIEW XVIII Appendix 8: XIX PHỎNG VẤN SAU THỬ NGHIỆM XIX DECLARATION I certify that this minor thesis entitled “A study on how oral practice can change TNH 10 th graders' attitudes towards grammar learning ” is submited in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts is the results of my own work, except where otherwise acknowledge and that this minor thesis or any part of the same has not been submitted for higher degree to any other University or Institution. Hanoi, 3/2009 Signature Nguyen Thi Chuc Ha iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am, first of all, particularly indebted to my supervisor, Ms. Nguyen Bach Thao, MA for her invaluable advice, instructions and correction, excellent suggestions and constant encouragement during the research period. Without her guidance and help, this work would not have been accomplished. Secondly, my sincere thanks also go to all lecturers and staff of the department of Post- Graduate studies for their valuable lessons and precious helps. Thanks to their lessons as well as needed helps, I could overcome enormous obstacles when doing the study. Besides, I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to my colleagues and my students at Tran Nguyen Han High School who have participated in this research and many others who helped me during my study at Tran Nguyen Han High School. Last but not least, I would like to convey my deepest gratitude to my husband, my children, and my parents for their constant support and thorough understanding.Their great encouragement and love have helped me to overcome the difficulties during my study. v ABSTRACT As far as I’m concerned, grammar is central to the teaching and learning of languages . It is also one of the most difficult aspects of language to teach students perfectly.At Tran Nguyen Han High School where many English teachers prefer traditional approaches in teaching grammar, students seem not to pay attention to their study and show negative attitudes towards learning. This study is therefore conducted with the hope to find out whether communicative approach helps students change their attitudes towards grammar learning. So as to reach this aim, the study sets out to test the hypothesis that oral grammar practice can change students’ attitudes towards grammar learning. The study is applied to 200 students at 10 C1, 10 C2, 10 C3, 10 C4-Tran Nguyen Han High School, Hai Phong City.The data is collected through interviews , questionnaires . By doing this, we can compare the changes of students’ attitudes towards grammar learning. Findings show that students have positive attitudes towards the use of oral grammar practice in grammar lessons. Moreover, students can absorb grammar rules as they hear and use the language through oral communicative activities. And they remark that the use of communicative activities in grammar lessons helps them acquire grammar more efficiently. This way of teaching grammar may be a good solution for the 10 th grade students in particular and other graders in general. Based on the findings of the study, some practical recommendations are derived for the application of communicative activitives so that it can help teachers teach grammar better. It is also hoped that this study will provide an effective way of teaching grammar and thanks to it, students at Tran Nguyen Han High School will be more interested in learning grammar to gain a better result. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS A study on how oral practice can change TNH 10th graders' attitudes towards grammar learning i TABLE OF CONTENTS i DECLARATION iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv ABSTRACT v TABLE OF CONTENTS vi LIST OF GRAPHS ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS x CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. Rationale 1 1.2. Aims of the study 3 1.3. Research questions 3 1.4. Scope of the study 3 1.5. Significance of the study 3 1.6. Outline of the study 3 CHAPTER II- LITERATURE REVIEW 5 2.1. Attitudes 5 2.1.1. Definition of attitude 5 2.1.2. Attitude change 6 2.2. The role of attitudes in language learning 7 2.3. Ways that help to change students’ attitudes 8 2.3.1. Oral grammar practice creating teaching techniques 8 2.3.2. Narrowing the gap between teaching style and learning style 9 2.4. Grammar teaching from a CLT perspective 10 2.5. The role of oral grammar practice in grammar teaching 12 2.5.1. Definition of oral grammar pracice 12 2.5.2. Classification of oral practice activities in teaching and learning grammar. .13 2.6. Conclusion 23 23 vii CHAPTER III : METHODOLOGY 24 3.1. Study design 24 3.2. Research questions 24 3.3. Subjects of the study 24 3.4. Data collection instruments 25 3.4.1. Questionnaires 25 3.4.2. Interviews 26 3.5. Study procedures 26 3.6. Data analysis 27 CHAPTER IV- DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 28 4.1.Questionnaires 28 4.1.1. Data analysis of the students’ experiment questionnaires 28 4.1.2.Comparison of students’ attitudes towards grammar learning between pre- experiment questionnaire and post- experiment questionnaire 41 4.2. Interviews 42 4.2.1. Pre- treatment interview 42 4.2.2. Post- treatment interview 43 4.3. Discussion 44 4.4. Summary 45 CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION 46 5.1. Summary and conclusion: 46 5.2. Limitations of the study: 46 5.3. Suggestions for further study: 47 REFERENCES I APPENDICES III Appendix 1: III Pre - Experiment questionnaire on English grammar learning III Appendix 2: VI PHIẾU ĐIỀU TRA TIỀN THỬ NGHIỆM VIỆC HỌC NGỮ PHÁP TIẾNG ANH. .VI Appendix 3: X POST- EXPERIMENT QUESTIONNAIRE X ON ENGLISH GRAMMAR LEARNING X viii Appendix 4: XIII PHIẾU ĐIỀU TRA SAU THỬ NGHIỆM HỌC NGỮ PHÁP TIẾNG ANH XIII Appendix 5: XVI PRE-EXPERIMENT INTERVIEW XVI Appendix 6: XVII PHỎNG VẤN TIỀN THỬ NGHIỆM XVII Appendix 7: XVIII POST-EXPERIMENT INTERVIEW XVIII Appendix 8: XIX PHỎNG VẤN SAU THỬ NGHIỆM XIX ix LIST OF GRAPHS Graph 1: Students’ opinions of the importance of English grammar for language learning. Graph 2 : The reasons why English grammar is important in language learning. Graph 3: Students’ opinions of learning English grammar. Graph 4: Students’ impression of learning English grammar at school. Graph 5 : Factors influence students’ attitudes towards grammar learning. Graph 6 : Students’ opinions of English grammar teaching at school. Graph 7 : Teaching techniques to present a new English grammar structure. Graph 8 : Activities students get involved in class to practise new grammar structures. Graph 9 : Students’ expectations Graph 10 : Oral English grammar practice makes English grammar lessons more lively, interesting and stimulate students to learn English. Graph 11: Oral grammar activities students got involved in. Graph 12 : Ranking oral grammar activities according to students’ preference. Graph 13 : Frequency of students’ involvement in oral grammar activities. Graph 14 : Students’ preference with regard to oral grammar activities organization. Graph 15: Students’ difficulties when doing grammar practice orally. Graph 16: Students’ opinions of oral grammar activities. Graph 17: The usefulness of oral grammar practice in students’ language learning. Graph 18: Students’ preference in oral grammar practice in the coming time. Graph 19: Reasons for continuing oral grammar practice in the coming time. Graph 20: Reasons for not continuing oral grammar practice in the coming time. x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS A : Answer B.C : Before Christ CA : Communicative Approach CLT : Communicative Language Teaching E : English M.A : Master of Art Q : Question Q&A : Questions and Answers TNH : Trần Nguyên Hãn T : Teacher Ss : Students [...]... investigate Tran Nguyen Han 10 th grade students’ attitudes towards grammar learning when grammar is practiced orally instead of through written exercises 1.3 Research questions a What are Tran Nguyen Han 10th graders’ attitudes towards grammar learning when traditional teaching methods are used? b How can oral practice change positively Tran Nguyen Han 10 th graders’ attitudes towards English grammar learning. .. and learning It consists of two parts The first part is concerned with major issues regarding attitudes, the roles of attitudes in language learning and factors that affect the attitudes change The second one discusses communication approach in teaching grammar as well as oral grammar practice 2.1 Attitudes 2.1.1 Definition of attitude According to Hallorah (1967) , attitude represents an individual’s... because oral grammar practice not only meets the demands of communication but also supports students’ needs as well 2.2 The role of attitudes in language learning Attitudes and learning go hand in hand Garder and Lamber (1972) all agree that “ success in mastering a foreign language would depend not only on intellectual capacity and language aptitude , but on one’s attitudes towards representatives of that... teaching Particularly, the focuses on the attitude change and the application of grammar oral practice to change students’ attitudes in learning grammar III Methodology The actual procedures of the study are presented in this :Study design, subjects of the study, the data collection method, instruments as well as process of data collection and data analysis IV Data analysis and discussion This focuses on. .. proficiently, if at all” In brief, it is clear that attitudes play an important role in learning so students will see themselves achieving greater and greater result in language learning in general and in grammar learning in particular whereas negative attitudes will hinder their learning 2.3 Ways that help to change students’ attitudes 2.3.1 Oral grammar practice creating teaching techniques Eagly and Chaiken... of oral grammar practice in grammar teaching 2.5.1 Definition of oral grammar pracice A grammar lesson consists of different stages, which are suggested differently by different methodologists Ur (1988) organizes grammar teaching into four stages: presentation, isolation and explanation, practice, and test, whereas according to CelceMurcia and Hilles, a grammar lesson goes through four following phases... not really mastered it yet Practice may be defined as any kind of engaging with the language on the part of the learners, usually under the teachers’ supervision, whose primary objective is to consolidate learning Practice involves both spoken and written practice (Ur, 1988:11) 2.5.2 Oral practice in grammar teaching and learning Nunan (2007) agees that oral grammar practice gives learners increasing... Games Without games in class , lessons can t be attractive to students Games can be an integrated part of the teaching syllabus At any stage of language teaching process –when teaching new language items (presentation, controlled practice, communicative practice, or 22 consolidation) or when revising previously presented language items ,teachers can use games ,provided that they are suitable to each... make must be grammatically correct and make sense After finding out the winner, T stops the activity and gives feedback The game not only helps Ss to practise a grammatical item but also creates a relaxing environment and motivation for them to do the practice effectively In summary, when grammar is taught with oral practice activities and used as a means of communication rather than as a means for correcting... students’ attitudes towards grammar learning when traditional teaching methods are used? b How can oral practice change positively Tran Nguyen Han 10th graders’ attitudes towards English grammar learning ? 3.3 Subjects of the study The subjects of the study were 200 students from class 10 C1,C2,C3,C4 at Tran Nguyen Han High School All of them were born in 1993 in Hai Phong and they are both male and female . . 13 2.6. Conclusion 23 23 CHAPTER III : METHODOLOGY 24 3. 1. Study design 24 3. 2. Research questions 24 3. 3. Subjects of the study 24 3. 4. Data collection instruments 25 3. 4.1. Questionnaires 25 3. 4.2 grammar. . 13 2.6. Conclusion 23 23 vii CHAPTER III : METHODOLOGY 24 3. 1. Study design 24 3. 2. Research questions 24 3. 3. Subjects of the study 24 3. 4. Data collection instruments 25 3. 4.1. Questionnaires. ABBREVIATIONS x CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. Rationale 1 1.2. Aims of the study 3 1 .3. Research questions 3 1.4. Scope of the study 3 1.5. Significance of the study 3 1.6. Outline of the study 3 CHAPTER