a case study on vietnamese primary school teachers’ grammar teaching = một điển cứu về việc dạy ngữ pháp của giáo viên tiếng anh tiểu học tại việt nam

the specific aims as follows: - To understand teachers‟ awareness of teaching English grammar to primary students - To investigate the real situation of teachers‟ English grammar teachin

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

-*** -

HOÀNG THÙY LINH

A CASE STUDY ON VIETNAMESE PRIMARY SCHOOL

TEACHER’S GRAMMAR TEACHING

(MỘT ĐIỂN CỨU VỀ VIỆC DẠY NGŨ PHÁP CỦA GIÁO VIÊN

TIẾNG ANH TIỂU HỌC TẠI VIỆT NAM )

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

-*** -

HOÀNG THÙY LINH

A CASE STUDY ON VIETNAMESE PRIMARY SCHOOL

TEACHER’S GRAMMAR TEACHING

(MỘT ĐIỂN CỨU VỀ VIỆC DẠY NGŨ PHÁP CỦA GIÁO VIÊN

TIẾNG ANH TIỂU HỌC TẠI VIỆT NAM )

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

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DECLARATION

I declare that the thesis entitled “A case study on Vietnamese primary

school teachers’ grammar teaching” is the result of my own research and the

substance of this thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for a degree to any universities or institutions

Hanoi, August 2014

Hoàng Thùy Linh

Last but not least, my special gratitude is for my family and my friends from whom I have received a lot of spiritual and material support

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ABSTRACT

This paper deals with English grammar teaching of teachers at Vietnamese primary schools In Vietnam, English language in general and grammar in particular are no longer taught in traditional method because that did not give learners ability

to communicate in real life situations Moreover, teaching grammar to young learners, who owns special psychological and perceptional characteristics, requires much more effort from teachers in seeking new attractive teaching activities However, the application of modern method, which is known as Communicative language teaching (CLT) in real grammar teaching in primary schools showed some shortcomings when teachers do not understand what CLT actually means As the result, majority of students found it difficult to remember and use sentence patterns they had introduced in class Within the scope of this paper, only two teachers and a small number of students of Anh Dung primary school participated in the study Through different instruments such as teacher interview, class observation, and questionnaire for students, the underlying reasons for the above problem have been revealed Finally, this paper suggested some suitable techniques that teachers can apply in their English classroom in order to improve the quality of grammar teaching in Vietnamese primary schools

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Declaration i

Acknowledgement ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

Part A: Introduction 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the study 3

5 Research methods 3

6 Design of the study 3

Part B: Development 5

Chapter 1: Literature review 5

1.1 An overview of grammar and grammar teaching 5

1.1.1 Definition of grammar 5

1.1.2 Teaching grammar using communicative approach 5

a Communicative language learning 6

b Grammar in CLT classroom 7

c Teaching grammar in CLT classroom 7

1.1.3 The implementation of CLT in teaching grammar in Vietnam 8

1.2 Teaching English grammar to young learners 8

1.2.1 Characteristics of young learners 8

1.2.2 Techniques to teach grammar to young learners 9

1.3 Previous study on teaching grammar to young learners 10

Chapter 2: Methodology 13

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2.1 Participants and setting of the study 13

2.1.1 Participants 13

2.1.2 Setting of the study 14

2.2 Data collection 15

2.2.1 Data collection 15

2.2.2 Data collection procedure 16

2.2.3 Data analysis procedure 17

Chapter 3: Findings, discussion and suggestions 19

3.1 Findings and discussion 19

3.1.1 The results of teacher interview and questionnaire for students 19

3.1.2 The results of class observation 21

3.2 Suggestions on improving teachers‟ grammar teaching in Anh Dung Primary school 27

3.2.1 Raising teachers‟ awareness of teaching grammar in CLT 27

3.2.2 Improving teachers‟ teaching methods 28

Part C: Conclusion 37

1 Recapitulation 37

2 Conclusions 37

3 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study 39

References 41 Appendices I

To meet the demand of industrialization and modernization, Vietnam education has made great efforts to train high quality human resources who have enough ability to survive in international environment That means the workers must be able

to use English well enough to work successfully with foreigners Therefore, English became an obligated subject taught in almost schools from primary level to higher education in the S-shaped country

In the past, English is taught with grammar-translation approach in which grammatical knowledge is considered most important Its prime position however changed when communicative approach was approved by linguistics and educators English textbooks in Vietnam nowadays mainly focus on developing the four skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing It seems that students‟ learning becomes more pleasant Nevertheless, it is not believed that grammar is neglected Through interesting themes, students also learn to use practical sentence patterns which serve particular functions in particular contexts Without grammar knowledge, students cannot communicate successfully One problem raised in reality is that many teachers feel it difficult to teach grammar to young learners and preferred to teach older ones Although the target structures introduced in children‟s books are much simpler than those in high school textbooks, primary school

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teachers said they often get confused when trying to find a good way to explain a grammatical phenomenon to their students While there are abundant researches studying vocabulary and the four skill teaching, how to teach grammar effectively and attractively to young learners is definitely a big question whose answer needs to

be found as soon as possible

Like many other primary school, Anh Dung primary school requires students to learn English from grade 3 to grade 5 Using the new textbook provided by Ministry

of Education and training, students really like this subject because of its less stressfulness and fun activities However, grammar is still the challenge that teachers of English in the school often meet in their classroom Teachers‟ grammar teaching is problematic, and, as the result, students‟ learning is not effective

Rooted from that issue, we need to carry out a study entitled as “A case study on

Vietnamese primary school teachers’ grammar teaching with practical aims and

sensible solutions

2 Aims of the study

The study is implemented with the specific aims as follows:

- To understand teachers‟ awareness of teaching English grammar to primary students

- To investigate the real situation of teachers‟ English grammar teaching at Anh Dung primary school, find out the positive factors and problems that affect the quality of teaching and learning English grammar at Anh Dung primary school

- To suggest some doable solutions to improve the quality of teaching and learning English grammar at Anh Dung primary school

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- What are suggestions to improve English grammar teaching and learning at Anh Dung primary school?

4 Scope of the study:

Because of limitations of time and other research conditions, the study is only carried out among 2 teachers and 40 students at one primary school Also, the study mainly focuses on investigating grammar teaching Other matters of English teaching would be beyond the scope of this thesis

5 Research methods: Case study – Qualitative

In order to conduct a deep investigation into the situation, the thesis is conducted with qualitative method which consists of the following tasks:

- Analyzing the context of grammar teaching of teachers at Anh Dung primary school and then determining research questions

- Choosing the case and research techniques

- Collecting data and information from the students and the teachers at Anh Dung primary school

- Assessing the real situation of learning and teaching English grammar in grade 4 and grade 5 at Anh Dung primary school

- Evaluating the techniques that best fit the teachers and students at Anh Dung primary school Besides, this thesis is also carried out through a variety of instruments such as class observation, informal interview with the teachers and questionnaire for students at Anh Dung primary school

6 Design of the study

The thesis is divided into three parts:

Part A introduces the reason for the choice of the study, aims of the study as

well as the scope and methodology of the study

Part B comprises four chapters

Chapter I presents an overview of the theoretical background of the research

It is concerned with various linguistic concepts most relevant to the research

topic Also it provides a brief summary of the previous studies of the same topic

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Chapter II shows the context, description of instruments, data collection and analyzes the results which reveal the present situation of teaching and learning

English grammar at Anh Dung primary school

Chapter III draws the findings and offers some suggested techniques to improve English grammar teaching in primary schools in Vietnam

Part C summaries what is addressed in the study, conclusions drawn from the findings, limitation of the study, some suggestions for further research

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature review

1.1 An overview of grammar and grammar teaching

1.1.1 Definition of grammar

Grammar, the issue which is being discussed in this study, is a very familiar term to language learners Every language has its own grammatical system According to Longman Dictionary of contemporary English, grammar is: “The rules

by which words change their forms and are combined into sentences, or the study or use of these rules.” (Longman Dictionary of contemporary English, 2001, p 619) Similarly, Jeremy Harmer (1987:1) 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.” More practically, Jim Scrivener shared that “grammar is not just a dry list of facts and rules It is in our heads and it is a living resource that gives us the ability to communicate our ideas and feelings and to understand what other people say or write to us.” (Scrivener, J., 2003)

In short, grammar can be recognized as the system of rules which are used to construct our language so that it is meaningful and comprehensible No matter how

it is viewed, grammar still exists as an indispensable element of language whose values are always appreciated There is no doubt that no one can master a language without learning its grammar Without grammatical knowledge, our speech and writing will be useless in communicating to other people Therefore, grammar teaching cannot be neglected in any language schools, especially in EFL classroom

1.1.2 Teaching grammar using communicative approach

There are many influential methods which are widely used by language teachers in the world in general and in Vietnam in particular In the late of 19thcentury, traditional method or Grammar – Translation Method (GTM) which was

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used for the purpose of helping students read and appreciate foreign language literature became popular In the late 19th century, the GTM was found not very effective in preparing students to use the target language communicatively and a new method, namely Direct Method was born Latter, the Audio-Lingual method in which speaking and listening skill are put at the first place was preferred Despite some advantages, each of these above methods has its own weaknesses so that they are not advised to use widely in EFL classrooms in today‟s world Instead, Communicative method, which shows great effectiveness in developing learners‟ skills and knowledge without reducing their motivation and creativeness, is approved by almost linguistics

a Communicative language learning

Berns, an expert in the field of communicative language teaching, wrote that

"language is interaction; it is interpersonal activity and has a clear relationship with society In this light, language study has to look at the use (function) of language in context, both its linguistic context (what is uttered before and after a given piece of discourse) and its social, or situational, context (who is speaking, what their social roles are, why they have come together to speak)" (Berns, 1984, p 5) In other words, Communicative language teaching (CLT) makes use of real-life situations that are necessary to communication The teacher sets up a situation that students are likely to encounter in real life Unlike the audio-lingual method of language teaching, which relies on repetition and drills, the communicative approach can leave students in suspense as to the outcome of a class exercise, which will vary according to their reactions and responses The real-life simulations change from day to day Students' motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate in meaningful ways about meaningful topics(Galloway, 1993) Moreover, CLT can be said the learner-centered classrooms in which teachers will find themselves talking less and listening more, and becoming active facilitators of their students' learning (Larsen-Freeman, 1986) The teacher sets up the exercise, but because the students'

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performance is the goal, the teacher must step back and observe, sometimes acting

as a referee or monitor

b Grammar in CLT classroom

Communicative competence, according to Canale and Swain (1980), is made up

of grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence This means grammar still has an important position in CLT classroom Besides, many scholars emphasized that form focused instruction and communicative activities should be combined If students learn from context by combining grammar in CLT, they pay more attention to target forms and this results in successful language learning

However, grammar in CLT is viewed a little differently from it is in traditional methods Grammar which is taught for students is not only linguistic rules and grammatical categories such as tenses, aspects, number, gender…but also practical forms which serve specific functions Grammatical phenomena are not rough and dry to students because they are not introduced separately from the context in which they are used

c Teaching grammar in CLT classroom

Teaching grammar communicatively means that the teacher should present the language in situations in which it is used, and he/she must control the activities that follow, allowing learners to practice it in a controlled situation, then in more

communicative activities, and finally in fluency activities

According to authors of Methodology Handbook for English teachers in Vietnam, there are some key principles for teaching grammatical structures:

1 Most often, teach structures implicitly In other words, present examples of the structure and allow students to focus on the meaning without teaching grammar

2 Present a structure orally before presenting a written form and an explanation When listening, it is easier to focus on meaning When reading It is easier to focus on the form Listening first will help the learners to understand the meaning communicated by the structures

5 De-emphasize the use of special terms Use common words but not lots of fancy ones to describe language

6 Along with correction, give positive feedback and emphasize communication rather than just grammatical accuracy

7 After practicing a structure in a controlled exercise, give students opportunities

to use the structures in more free communicative

1.1.3 The implementation of CLT in teaching grammar in Vietnam

Vietnam is not an exception from the spread of English and CLT Many schools and universities are attempting to employ CLT into syllabus design, examinations, and teaching However, these attempts face resistance from language policy-makers, researchers, teachers and learners According scholars in Vietnam, teachers‟ misconception of CLT and poor methodology are two of the problems which lead to low effectiveness of CLT implementation in Vietnam In particular, teachers do not understand what exactly CLT means so that they only try

to increase students‟ talking time and neglect grammar teaching in classroom Students are not considered the center but teacher as Le (1999) stated the environment of English learning in Vietnam can be compared to “a cultural island where the teacher is expected to be the sole provider of experience in the target language”

1.2 Teaching English grammar to young learners

1.2.1 Characteristics of young learners

The study is carried out in a primary school whose students are from 6 to 11 years old They are called, according to linguistics, young learners Slattery and

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Willis say that generally we can characterize all young children by these characteristics They:

- are developing very quickly as individuals

- learn in variety of ways, by watching, listening, imitating, doing things

- are not able to understand grammatical rules and explanations about language

- try to make sense of situations by making use of non-verbal clues

- talk in their mother tongue about what they understand and do – this helps them learn

- can generally imitate the sounds they hear quite accurately and copy the way adults speak

- are naturally curious

- love to play and use their imagination

- are comfortable with routines and enjoy repetition

- have quite a short attention span and so need variety (Slattery, Willis, 2006) The above list includes psychological and perceptional factors which affect students in this group when they learn any subjects Having awareness of these characteristics, teachers will be able to find the most suitable methods for the students

1.2.2 Techniques to teach grammar to young learners

Unlike adults, children are not self-motivated to learn English, their world is their daily games, events of interest to them, and teachers should capitalize their curiosity, the desire to play and explore Teaching must be planned in such a way that learning becomes an interesting, at times even entertaining process Developing such interest will lead children to a spontaneous use of language forms The teacher‟s participation in games and activities helps children to overcome any inhibitions they may have If we want teaching to be successful we should consider the learners‟ interests and motivations, because they will pay more attention if they are motivated

In Teacher books of the series Tieng Anh 3, 4, 5 which are using in Vietnamese primary schools, the authors provided helpful recommendation for teachers “Young learners of English begin their English grammar learning based on formulaic sequences and unanalyzed chunks of language met in the context of dialogues,

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readings, chants, songs, rhymes, stories, and games Through activities, students develop a sense of achievement and gradually transfer chunks to new contexts and use them creatively One way to enable students‟ language awareness is drawing their attention to specific language pattern or features of grammatical forms and, if necessary, comparing or contrasting these with other patterns and forms in

Vietnamese The appropriate steps to be used to teach students are:

 Focusing students‟ attention on the new grammatical patterns in the texts;

 Playing the recording for students to listen and follow in their books, and asking them some questions to check their comprehension;

 Playing the recording again for students to listen the second time;

 Providing models for students to practice the new grammatical item in a spoken or written activity, using the cued pictures or prompts in their books;

 Reinforcing the new grammatical item with a variety of spoken and written activities.” (Teachers‟ book)

Indeed, teaching grammar to young learners is not an easy job Teachers need to use different techniques to teach structures without reducing students‟ happiness and comfortableness In a limited time in class, much more pressure will be put on teachers‟ shoulders if he/she really wants their students understand and use grammar well

1.3 Previous studies on teaching grammar to young learners

While there have been many studies working teaching English vocabulary in primary schools, numbers of studies, which also paid attention to teaching grammar

to young learners, have been introduced recently

In 2009, a study named “Grammatical awareness among Primary School English language teachers” was launched in GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies by Munir Shuib from School of Humanities, University Sains Malaysia In particular, the study examined the English language teachers‟ nature and level of grammatical awareness He emphasized that teachers‟ low grammatical awareness can influence students‟ grammar competency The study had valuable findings; however, it did not pay much attention on teachers‟ methodology in grammar teaching

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In 2010, Le Thi Ngoc Phuong reported a study entitled “An investigation into teaching English grammar to children learning English as the second language at primary level in Da Nang.” The research was conducted to explore how English grammar was taught to children learning English as a second language at primary level and to study factors influencing grammar teaching and to offer some suggestions to help improve grammar instruction The study was carried out in larger scale involving many teachers and students at different schools in Da Nang Moreover, the schools are using two textbooks Let‟s learn English and Let‟s Go

In 2011, a study named “Effectiveness of using games in teaching grammar to young learners” was designed as a descriptive study with the aim of exploring the beliefs and habits of Turkish EFL teachers‟ towards using games in young learners‟ English classes The author found that while Turkish EFL teachers accepted the effectiveness of using games in grammar teaching, they did not use games as frequently as expected in their classrooms However, the study only pointed out the problem without any particular solutions or suggestions

In 2012, Alexandra Povjakalová from Masaryk University in Brno conducted the study named “Teaching Grammar to Young Learners using Interactive Whiteboard” The main aim of his work is to design teaching objects for Interactive Whiteboard to teach English grammar in the 5th grade of primary school and to find out how this technical tool helps learners in the complex process of education In this study, the author approved the use of modern technology in today‟s schools, particularly Smart Board or Interactive Board, which can raise students‟ motivation

in learning grammar because he found that grammar is still taught in standard way where students sit passively working with their books and worksheets 21 teaching objects including useful activities were designed to provide teachers with available interesting lessons to teach grammar in a new way However, this can be said a kind

of expensive solution which is hard to apply widely in Vietnamese schools

One more study which also investigated into teaching grammar communicatively was implemented by Vuong Thi Hai Yen in 2008 Although

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focusing on Ethnic Minority students at Ha Giang Medical Secondary School, the research provided many valuable findings about the application of CLT in teaching English grammar in Vietnam

In the scope of this study, I conduct the research on real situation of English grammar teaching of primary school teachers to students of grade 4 and grade 5 The study focuses on finding out problems in teachers‟ methodology and conception of teaching grammar in CLT Finally, I am going to suggest some teaching techniques which are effective and easy to apply in Vietnamese primary schools in order to improve the situation

Summary

In this chapter, an overview of grammar and grammar teaching is considered Useful techniques to teach grammar are also mentioned in detail Teacher, however, find it difficult to teach grammar to young learners because of their insufficient development of psychology and perception Therefore, to improve the effectiveness

of students‟ learning grammar, there is a need for great effort from teachers Teachers should adjust their way of teaching so that it is not only easy to understand but also can motivate students to learn grammar better

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Chapter 2: Methodology

The study was carried out with case study methodology According to Yin (1984), a case study is an inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context, when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident, and in which multiple sources of evidence are used Dobson (1981) also described “The most common type of case study involves the detailed description and analysis of an individual subject, from whom observations, interviews, and histories provide the database.” Talking about characteristics of case study, Merriam (1988) stated that “Case studies are particularistic, descriptive, and heuristic and rely heavily on inductive reasoning in handling multiple data sources This case study was implemented with the aim of conducting a deep investigation into the real situation of English grammar teaching of the two teachers at Anh Dung primary school

2.1 Participants and setting of the study

2.1.1 Participants

The participants are 2 teachers who are teaching English at Anh Dung primary school Both of them are female; one is married, one is single The older teacher is Ms Pham Thanh H who has 8 year experience in teaching English However, she has been working with primary school students for 2 years Before that she taught in an English center Now she is teaching 8 classes with 16 periods per week The younger one who has just graduated from university, Ms Tran Thi T,

is the teacher in 7 classes Both of them are qualified enough to teach primary school students

Observed class

Pham Thanh

H

31 Female B1 8 years 4A, 5A Tran Thi T 23 Female B2 6 months 4B, 5B

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Besides, the study was carried out among 40 students who are randomly chosen from class 4A, 4B, 5A, 5B

2.1.2 Setting of the study

The study is conducted at Anh Dung primary school in Duong Kinh district, Hai Phong city This is a small school with about 600 students and 24 teachers of all subjects As other schools, English is obligated for students from grade 3 to grade 5 The students have 2 periods of English per week most of which are arranged in one school day The course books used are Tieng Anh 3, 4, 5 approved by the Ministry of Education and Training in August, 2010 The book follows a systematic, cyclical and them-based syllabus with twenty units of familiar topics Each unit consists of three lessons each of which provides materials for two periods of class contact However, in reality, teachers only have 1 period of 35 minutes for each lesson Without any exception, the observed classes also happened in that period of time with a lot of activities Because of some school‟s activities, the two teachers did not follow the same schedule Teacher H taught lesson 1 of unit 20 while teacher T taught lesson 1 of unit 16

In every lesson 1, a new topic is introduced with chosen vocabulary and target sentence patterns The lesson is divided into 4 parts:

- Look, listen, and repeat: This part is colorful illustrated to set up the situation in which English is used The input language is presented in the form of a dialogue or conversation

- Look and say: The second part picks out the model sentences to be learnt Besides, it provides words/phrases of related topic which can be used to practice the model sentences by substitution technique It means in this part teachers have to teach both vocabulary and grammar, including the presentation and practice

- Talk: This part provides students with an opportunity to speak English freely, using the recently practiced language in different contexts It also helps to reinforce students‟ understanding and memory

During a school year, students have 2 mid-term tests and two final tests All

of them are in written form with typical exercises such as choose the best answer, rewrite the sentences, complete the sentences, read and answer questions

b Teacher interview

Teachers were also interviewed with 6 questions about their awareness toward grammar teaching in primary school Question 1 explores teachers‟ knowledge of English teaching for young learners in Vietnamese in general In this question, teachers were asked about how English is taught in primary school and what matter teachers should take into consideration while working with children.Question 2 examines teachers‟ methodological knowledge when asking about steps in teaching grammar basing on PPP model The answers of teachers will

be used to compare with their real teaching The next question requires teachers to report main methods and techniques they are applying in teaching grammar The answers of question 4 and 5 reveals problems and difficulties teachers often meet

2.2.2 Data collection procedure

a Implementing class observation and teacher interview

After deciding to study the teachers at Anh Dung primary school, I had a formal meeting with them to present my intention The aims and scope of the study were also introduced The most important thing is how to persuade them to agree to

be observed The study was carried out at the end of the school year when teachers and students were out of examination pressure Moreover, teachers were explained that the results of class observation and interview were used for scientific purpose only, not related to their work at school

The class observation was implemented first in order to get an honest picture

of teachers‟ grammar teaching Teachers would teach normal lessons in their normal ways I sat at the last table in class and recorded all activities of the lesson

by a digital camera without any participation or interruption

The interview was conducted after each teacher was observed 2 classes All the questions were about English teaching theory and teachers‟ real experiences At first, I tended to ask in English; however, the teacher wanted to answer in Vietnamese because this would be easier for them to express their ideas Their

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answers which was used later to compare with their teaching were recorded by a mobile phone

b Conducting questionnaire for students

The questionnaire for students was the last instrument to be conducted The chosen students were those who belonged to observed classes As predicted, a very carefully and thoroughly explanation was given in order to make sure the young children all understand what to do and how to do I instructed students to answer question by question After about 30 minutes, the results were collected

2.2.3 Data analysis procedure

To find out he answers for research questions, the collected data need to be analyzed and evaluated carefully

First, teachers‟ answers in the interview which were recorded by a mobile phone were transcribed later What they presented was compared with theoretical knowledge and recent trend of teaching English in the country to clarify their awareness of the subject Moreover, their own opinions and teaching habits were also shown clearly when answering different questions These points would be considered in order to see whether they were reflected in their real teaching and how they influenced on their teaching Besides, the problems that teachers often meet when teaching grammar were studied to find out the reasons and best solutions for those

Second, the class observation results which are the most difficult things to analyze were brought under the lights Of course, not all aspects of the teaching were necessarily worked on However, I mostly focused on how teacher taught students a new sentence pattern in each part of a PPP lesson, including presentation, practice, and production In the comparison with theoretical background, teachers‟ weaknesses would be revealed Furthermore, I would consider the influence of teachers‟ teaching and students‟ learning to figure out what is the real reason for all the problems

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Last, students‟ responses which were really honest were very important to be concerned because these will be evidences to make sure what the teacher said were trustworthy The number of chosen answers would be presented by percentage which was easier for the readers to imagine Here, I would know more about the real situation of grammar teaching and learning

Summary

The methodology in which the study was carried out has just been presented

in this chapter This is a case study with the 2 main participants who were teachers

at Anh Dung primary school However, to clarify the problem, three different instruments were used involving both teachers and students of the school The data was collected directly in classroom in several days The results which were analyzed thoroughly will be given in the next chapter with further discussion

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Chapter 3: Findings and discussion

3.1 Findings and discussion

3.1.1 The results of teacher interview and questionnaire for students

The teacher interview and questionnaire for students aim at finding out teachers‟ awareness of teaching English grammar to primary students Being asked

6 questions about English teaching in Vietnam in general and grammar teaching in detail, the two teachers had some similar and also different answers

a Teachers’ responses on how English is taught in Vietnamese primary school

First, the interview started with the question about how English is taught at primary school Both of the teachers reported that teaching English for primary school students is to aim at getting students acquaintanted with a foreign language and a different culture In classroom, teachers should pay more attention to teaching communicative skills About this matter teacher H said that besides speaking and listening, the two other skills also need to be considered whereas teacher T added phonics as another issue According to teacher H, teachers should not neglect reading and writing skill because, at the present, English tests are mainly in written form They also shared that teaching very young students is a hard job because they always like exciting activities but are easy to get distracted, or they can remember things really fast but quickly forget them later Therefore, they should not be taught

in the way adults are taught And teachers have to play the role of very enthusiastic and patient guides who can get all students involved in all the activities of the lessons

b Teachers’ responses on how English grammar should be taught to primary school students

The second question whose responses will be used to compare with teachers‟ teaching to see what the problems are is actually aimed to check teachers‟ methodological knowledge Several sub-questions about teaching activities and teachers‟ role basing on a PPP model lesson were suggested in order to help them give detailed answers The two teachers both agree on using interactive

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communicative activities and games in practice and production stage In the former stage, teacher controlled the whole class working tightly In the latter one, this controlling should be reduced and students should speak more freely However, in the presentation stage the two teachers shared different views While teacher H said teachers should not analyze the information of a sentence with such elements as S,

V, O, …, teacher T answered they should For teacher H, primary school students are too young to understand such linguistics terms Teacher should only make a model sentence for repetitions and substitution drills On the other hand, teacher T said students need to know those in order to compare with their equivalents in Vietnamese Although processing some different points of view, they both agree that teachers should be the people who introduce the structures to save time and they should explain such things as usage, form, meaning, and phonics

c Teachers’ response on methods and techniques

The two teachers were quite hesitant when answering the question about which methods and techniques they are applying in teaching grammar They just said they were using communicative methods with mostly interactive speaking and listening in the form of pair work or group work As reported, teachers only follow tasks in textbooks beginning with a dialogue, teaching model sentences, and then practicing them by asking and answering with a partner Game is said to be a time-wasting activity so that it is rarely used in classroom Teacher T added that the important thing is how to explain and instruct students to work rightly According to her, teacher should give a clear and simple presentation about target structures including its form, usage…Giving as many examples as you can in the allowance of time because this can help students to understand better than your words

d Teachers’ responses on problems they often meet when teaching grammar

As reported, the students of both two teachers do not remember all the structures they have learnt Many of them often forget or confuse model sentences after the lessons Some even cannot use the structures well in class The teachers explained that this is one of their psychological characteristics Moreover, there are

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too many things to teach in 35 minutes While the text book is designed with 6 periods for each unit, teachers only have a half of the time in reality

e Teachers’ responses on what they need to support their grammar teaching

When being asked about what the teachers need to support their grammar teaching, they just said that the school‟s leaders should distribute more time/periods for English subject Besides, they also need to be trained on some techniques or activities of teaching grammar

In conclusion, the two teachers have had some general ideas of English teaching methodology Basically, they know how to teach young learners and their roles in a PPP lesson However, they did not agree with each other on the views of teaching grammar Teacher H said any analysis about form is unnecessary because students can easily repeat model sentences and make a similar one by replacing information On the other hand, teacher T always pointed out separate sentence elements in the new structures However, both of the two teachers seemed to have little things to say about their methods and techniques To know more about this, we will consider the result of class observation which may reveal the real grammar teaching in the school

3.1.2 The results of class observation

In order to have better understanding of how English grammar is taught in Anh Dung primary school, I observed some classes of two teachers and recorded all the activities during the lessons After four class observations, the real situation of grammar teaching was clearly identified with several certain problems which need

to be improved in the future Moreover, students were also asked questions to ensure the observation result was reliable

a Teachers’ using of traditional method in presentation stage

Teaching foreign structures to children is not an easy task because they have not been ready for linguistics terms yet The simpler the explanation is, the more easily they understand However, a presentation with insufficient knowledge makes the structure unusable to students

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In reality, the way of presenting grammar of each teacher is very different The two observed teachers‟ teaching showed some problems which need to be improved

First, teacher H‟s presentation is revealed She said to the students in Vietnamese: Teacher H: “Today, I am going to teach you a new structure To ask for the way to somewhere, we use the question: „Where‟s + (the place you want to go to)?‟ And the answer is: „It‟s + (position).‟ Ok, now…example…if I want to ask the way

to Hoa Mai primary school, how can I ask?”

Then she called a student to answer:

Ngan: “Where‟s primary school Hoa Mai?”

Teacher: Wrong… Where‟s Hoa Mai primary school? And then, how to answer?… We show directions: Go straight ahead It‟s on your right.”

Then she repeated the target structure:

Teacher: “To ask for the way to somewhere, we use the question: „Where‟s + (the place you want to go to)?‟ And the answer: „It‟s + (position)‟ Ok, now the whole class read after me the example ….”

The example was read one time only After that, teacher asked students to practice the structure with four pictures in the book

As being observed, teacher H started to teach new structure from the meaning, then the form, the pronunciation, and example comes the last Teacher was the person who talked all the time and provided everything Students just sat and listened; however, it was not sure to say they all understood

The second teacher, Miss T, also presented in Vietnamese:

Teacher: “Ok, the question today is „What‟s the matter with you?‟ Now class, listen and repeat „What‟s the matter with you?‟ … Again… Louder….Ok, this question is used to ask about other people‟s health matter Now, look at the board.”

Then she wrote the structure on the board

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Teacher: “To answer this question, I have the subject „I‟, the verb is „ve got‟ Now listen and repeat „ I‟ve got‟ Again…again…Ok After this phrase, we use a noun to describe a health matter But we need an article „a‟ or „an‟ before that noun

In the dialogue in your book, Tom has got a headache, we will say

„I‟ve got a headache.‟ Now, listen and repeat „ I‟ve got a headache.‟ Again…again

Ok

To talk about other matters, we replace the names of illnesses to the blank after „I‟ve got‟ Now I will ask question, and you answer with the words

of illnesses which are printed in the flashcards that I point to

T: „ What‟s the matter with you?‟ …S: „I‟ve got a headache.‟ T: „ What‟s the matter with you?‟ …S: „I‟ve got a backache.‟ T: „ What‟s the matter with you?‟ …S: „I‟ve got a cold.‟

Alright, let‟s practice the structure with pictures in your book.”

Differently from Miss H, teacher T presented grammar structures from the pronunciation, the meaning, the form, to the examples However, teacher‟s talking time still held the longest length of time More noticeably, she used many linguistic concepts such as subject, verb, noun, articles while analyzing the form of the answer This can make the knowledge more complicated to students and actually is unnecessary to be introduced

In summary, the ways of teaching grammar of the two teachers cannot be considered to be communicative approach as they reported, but traditional one which has low effectiveness to students Teachers seemed to limit students‟ ability

to discover new knowledge when she always plays inappropriate roles in her classroom Hall (1998) stated: “Teachers who perceive themselves as authorities

of knowledge and students as passive recipients of their knowledge are more likely to use the standard I-R-E [I: Teacher initiates; R: Students response; E: Teacher evaluates]”As you can see, students were not put at the centre of the teaching and learning process, which may reduce students‟ interest and involvement

in the lesson Moreover, the steps in presenting grammar were disordered and

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happened really fast While teacher believed that what they often did saved much time, it may result in less understanding of students that takes teachers much time latter to correct mistakes and reinforce knowledge Besides, some phonological elements such as the stress and intonation of the target question and answer are not mentioned here Unsurprisingly, the students cannot use the structures well and then they quickly forget them because they did not understand them Clearly, the reason for this problem is not totally due to students or class time but the teacher themselves Teachers misunderstood what CLT really means and chose the way they believed to be right to teach under time pressure This is actually a worrying matter which should be changed as soon as possible

b Teachers’ inappropriate mistake correction method

Teacher H‟s presentation and instructions are not clear enough for students to follow As a result, students felt it difficult to make up the sentences Many mistakes were made while they practiced However, the way teacher corrected mistakes cannot help students to make progress

When the called student 1 said: “Where‟s bookshop?”

Teacher: “Where‟s the bookshop? You need to put „the‟ here.”

Student 1 repeated: “Where‟s the bookshop?”

Student 2: “uh…”

Teacher: “Lan Anh, answer quickly…”

Student 2: “next to …uh ”

Teacher: “What are you saying? Let me see Ok, … Turn right.”

Student 2: “Turn right.”

Teacher: “What‟s next? … It‟s ….”

Student 2: “It‟s….”

Teacher: “It‟s next to the post office.”

Student 2: “It‟s next to the post office.” …

Teacher: “Sit down The other pairs….”

Obviously, both of the two teachers did not pay much attention to correct students‟ mistakes They just asked students to makes the sentences and then called them to present in turn after practicing in pairs Then the activities finished when the last pairs sat down without any consolidation from teachers Consequently, students repeated their mistakes in both speaking and writing and easily forgot the exact forms

c Teachers’ poor activities in practice and production stages

According to student‟s response to the question of activities of practicing and

producing target structures, the answer with the least choice was „practice through

fun games and activities‟ while „do ask and answer tasks in textbook’ accounted

for 100%

This result totally coincided with observed situations in which there was not any activity outside the book to be introduced Of course, the book provided available interesting tasks for students to practice the structures The tasks were put

in certain context with colorful and fun pictures However, teacher forgot to set the scene or build the context, which can raise students‟ excitement and creativeness before they practice In both two classes, teacher H just gave instruction as „work in pairs, ask and answer with your partners using pictures in task 2…‟ without any introduction or exploitation Besides, she added only one more task which asked

It can be concluded that the students‟ grammar learning cannot gain the highest effect because they were not practiced enough Only two tasks (look and say; talk) in textbooks do not provide full opportunities for students to expose new language They need more and diverse activities to produce sentences by themselves, to make mistakes, and then found out and correct them The saying

“Practice makes perfect” is always valuable in learning a foreign language because

by only this way they are able to understand, use and remember knowledge Clearly, what the teacher did and what they said in the interview was not related when they mentioned the importance of using various kinds of activities, especially fun and competitive ones, but neglected them in reality of teaching

d Teachers’ irregular recycling of learnt structures

One more thing that should be concerned here is the frequency of using learnt structures inside the classroom After one or two years learning English, students must know a number of structures which are already described in their syllabus In order to help students not to forget them, teacher should regularly ask the old questions again In contrast, the two teachers did not do that well in every lesson

As observed, at the checking old lesson or warm-up time, teacher only required students to recall knowledge of vocabulary Structures are almost not mentioned Another part in which teacher can use learnt questions to ask students is the conversation To exploit the context from the pictures, Ms H asked questions in Vietnamese Not better, Ms T only used the two questions: „How many people?, and who are they?‟ while students are able to answer many others such as : „Where

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are they? What are they doing? What are they talking about? Are they happy? What can you see in the pictures…?‟ Or in the Talk part, the two teachers did not encourage her students to produce as many sentences as they could but the target one

Indifferently, 27 out of 40 asked students responded that their teachers

sometimes check their using of learnt structures The rest, which accounted for

32.5% of the students, said rarely, and no one chose often or usually Clearly,

teachers did not provide students opportunities to recycle the structures regularly Therefore, each grammar phenomenon was practiced separately and boringly Students might repeat the model sentences like machines and then easily forget what they have been taught

To sum up, after observing classes and conducting questionnaires to teachers and students, many interesting things about English grammar teaching at Anh Dung primary school were revealed There were varied problems that need to be improved but most of them related to teachers‟ methodology They reported that they are applying communicative approach to teach students; however, their real teaching went on another way Probably, teachers have not realized the importance of teaching grammar, which were often neglected in CLT Instead, they got used to using „traditional but pleasure method‟ in which teacher did not have to prepare much Necessarily, there should be some changes in teachers‟ awareness and practice Surely, if positive actions are made, students‟ grammar learning will be more effective

3.2 Suggestions on improving teachers’ grammar teaching in Anh Dung Primary school 3.2.1 Raising teachers’ awareness of teaching grammar in CLT

The first and very important thing which is necessary to teachers is the knowledge of CLT Through interview and class observation, it is clear that teacher have an insufficient understanding of CLT purpose and methodology CLT is a communicative approach which aimed to develop communicative competence It does not mean teachers only teach speaking without grammar and using pair-work

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as much as possible Grammar should be taught in an appropriate way so that students can understand and use it in real life situations Teacher should not only exploit tasks in textbooks but also design a variety of activities to help students practice However, an overuse of games in classroom also does potential harms when students do not learn anything Moreover, CLT can also be considered learner-centre approach in which teachers‟ roles are different from those in the traditional ones Breen and Candlin (cited in Richards and Rodgers (1986) [13]) claim: “The teacher has two main roles: the first role is to facilitate the communication process between all participants in the classroom, and between these participants and the various activities and texts The second role is to act as

an independent participant within the learning-teaching group…A third role for the teacher is that of researcher and learner, with much to contribute in terms of appropriate knowledge and abilities, actual and observed experience of the nature of learning and organizational capacities.”

Possibly, educational institutions should hold more teachers training programs which focus on providing teachers with CLT knowledge and teaching methods CLT may be more interesting and fun, but definitely not easy to apply when teachers do not know it well If our teachers know what CLT actually is, they may be more confident to use given tasks textbook as well as self-designed activities in their classroom

3.2.2 Improving teachers’ teaching methods

In this part, I would like to recommend some useful techniques and activities which teachers can apply in classroom It is important to say that teachers are recommended to apply PPP approach to their lesson It means they need to follow three stages: Presentation, Practice, and Production

a In presentation stage

To improve teachers‟ weaknesses in the presentation stage, teachers should sit together and discuss the techniques employed for introducing new structures so that they can reach an agreement on that Basing on theory of CLT and grammar

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teaching, teachers should follow these following steps:

- Give students chances to explore target structures in the provided contex:

Our textbooks which are designed basing on communicative approach created many dialogues at the beginning of every lesson with the aim of setting the context in which sentence patterns were used Teachers, therefore, need to do only one more job that is to ask students to find out the structure instead of introducing it

themselves

- Focus students’ attention on target structures through listening: After

students speak out the sentence patterns, teachers should play the recordings several times (2 or 3 times is appropriate) to focus the attention of the whole class In the case that many other students are too slow to complete teacher‟ requirement, it is the right time to help them recognize the target language Listening first will help the learners to understand the meaning communicated by the structures Moreover, listening provides natural sounds and intonation of the sentence patterns which is

also very important to learn

- Ask students’ simple questions to explicit the target structure: From the

illustrated pictures and the listening, students can understand the context in which the target structures were used Quickly, they can produce some general ideas about the grammatical phenomenon they are going to learn Teacher and students can

exchange in Vietnamese the usage and the form of the sentence pattern

- Represent and reinforce necessary knowledge of the target structure:

After the discussion, teachers need to represent knowledge of the target structure in simple words to make sure all the students understand and use it well Such matter

as usage, form, phonics (pronunciation, stress, intonation) should be always mentioned Necessarily to remember, complicated linguistics terms such as present simple tenses, continuous aspect, third person singular… should be avoided in primary classroom because students are not ready to understand them After that, teachers can ask the whole class to repeat the sentence patterns several times and

giving similar examples