Nghiên cứu tác động của đường hướng giao tiếp trong việc dạy ngữ pháp tiếng Anh.PDF

NGUYỄN THỊ HIÊN A STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH TO GRAMMAR TEACHING ON STUDENTS’ INTEREST AT THE INSTITUTE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES- HANOI UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE NGH

NGUYỄN THỊ HIÊN

A STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH TO GRAMMAR TEACHING ON STUDENTS’ INTEREST AT THE INSTITUTE

OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES- HANOI UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE

(NGHIÊN CỨU TÁC ĐỘNG CỦA ĐƯỜNG HƯỚNG GIAO TIẾP TRONG VIỆC DẠY NGỮ PHÁP TIẾNG ANH TỚI SỰ HỨNG THÚ CỦA SINH VIÊN TẠI TRUNG TÂM NGOẠI NGỮ - ĐẠI HỌC NÔNG NHGIỆP HÀ NỘI)

M.A MINOR THESIS

University of Languages and International studies

FACULTY OF Post - Graduate STUDIES

-  -

NGUYỄN THỊ HIÊN

A STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH TO GRAMMAR TEACHING ON STUDENTS’ INTEREST AT THE INSTITUTE

OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES- HANOI UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE

(NGHIÊN CỨU TÁC ĐỘNG CỦA ĐƯỜNG HƯỚNG GIAO TIẾP TRONG VIỆC DẠY NGỮ PHÁP TIẾNG ANH TỚI SỰ HỨNG THÚ CỦA SINH VIÊN TẠI TRUNG TÂM NGOẠI NGỮ - ĐẠI HỌC NÔNG NHGIỆP HÀ NỘI)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Supervisor : Trần Hiền Lan, M.A

HANOI – 2011

PART A: INTRODUCTION

I Rationale

II Aims of the study

III Research questions

IV Scope of the study

V Methods of the study

VI Design of the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

I.1 An overview on language teaching methods in Teaching grammar

I.1.1 The Grammar – Translation Method with teaching grammar

I.1.2 The Audio – lingual Method with teaching grammar

I.2 Communicative language teaching (CLT) in teaching grammar

I.2.1 An overview of communicative language teaching (CLT)

I.2.2 Characteristics of CLT

I.2.3 Status of Grammar in CLT

I.2.4 Teaching grammar in the light of CLT

I.3 Students’ interest

I.3.1 Concept of students’ interest

I.3.2 Factors affecting students’ interest in the class

I.4 The impact of CLT to grammar teaching on students’ interest

I.4.1 Grammar teaching techniques in CLT

I4.2 Teachers’ personal qualities and characters

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

II.1 Setting of the study

II.2.3.1 Questionnaires

II.2.3.2 Class observation

II.2.3.3 Interview

II.3 Data analysis and findings

II.3.1 Questionnaires

II.3.2 Class Observation

II.3.3 Interview

CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS

III.1 Recommendations for Teaching

III.2 Suggested communicative Activities for a Grammar lesson

III.2.1 Using games and problem-solving activities

III.2.2 Using songs

III.2.3 Role play

III.2.4 Interview

III.2.5 Telling stories

PART C: CONCLUSION

1 Summary of the study

2 Limitations of the study

3 Recommendations for further study

REFERENCES

APPENDIXES

PART A: INTRODUCTION

English is considered to be the most common and important language of the world today in which a great number of people understand and use it

In Vietnam, the economic open-door policy pursued by the government has increased a demand for studying English English is also seen as a necessary means for any graduate who wishes to find a good job, especially in foreign companies In correspondence to this trend, at almost all colleges and universities, English is taught as a compulsory subject Additionally, there are many evening English classes at foreign languages centers opened to serve the explosion in the demand for English

However, both teaching and learning English in Vietnam are said to be not effective because, as a matter of fact, the traditional method of teaching is still applied in many universities in general and at Hanoi University of Agriculture (HUA) in particular, which fails

to get students involved in the lessons, especially in grammar lessons

The questions of how to make the grammar lessons more interesting and how to make students interested in the grammar lessons have become a concern of teachers of English in general and those at HUA in particular

From my experience, my students are more interested in the grammar lessons when teachers use games, songs, pictures, and other communicative activities to present the new

items For the above reasons, I have decided to conduct a research entitled: “A study on the

impact of the communicative approach to grammar teaching on students’ interest at IFL – Hanoi University of Agriculture” This study is an attempt to look into the matter of how

Communicative Language Teaching is applied in teaching grammar at IFL - HUA and the

impact of CLT on students’ interest in grammar learning It is believed that the insights into

these areas will help to address the matter of teaching grammar effectively at universities and

at foreign language centers as well

To achieve the aims of the thesis, the following questions were proposed:

1 What is the fact of grammar teaching and learning at IFL – HUA?

2 To what extent does CLT affect students’ interest in the context of IFL –HUA?

The thesis consist of three parts: A- Introduction, B- Development, and C-Conclusion

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

I.1 An overview on language teaching methods in teaching grammar

I.1.1 The Grammar – Translation method (GTM) in teaching grammar

The Grammar-Translation method dominated from the late 19th century to the early 20th century and although it has been generally acknowledged as the least effective teaching methodology, the method is still widely used in many countries including Vietnam Obviously, the best point of this method is that it helps learners become good translators and use English accurately In addition, it requires few recourses and it is also easy to apply and cheap to administer That is why the method is still used in many classrooms where there is a great shortage of teaching and learning facilities and equipment aids, where the class is large of about 30 students, and where the teachers’ inadequate speaking skill are accustomed to teaching procedures and where the exams still emphasize knowledge of grammar Nevertheless, the biggest disadvantage of this method is the learners find it difficult to communicate in real-life situations, or their utterances are correct but inappropriate This is the result of the process of learning form and usage, but not use, and learning about the language, not using the language to learn through authentic tasks Furthermore, this method makes the learners really passive in the process of getting knowledge They just listen to the teacher’s explanation and do not participate in the exploration of new knowledge

I.1.2 The Audio – Lingual Method

The Audio – Lingual Method was derived from “ Army Method” during the World War II where there was a need for people to learn foreign languages quickly for military purposes It later developed into the so called Audio – Lingual method, which then has had considerable influence on English language teaching all over the world This method puts listening and speaking in the first place It uses sentence pattern as the base of teaching and tries to avoid mother tongue as in class Attention is paid to the need for mechanical practice rather than explanation about the language because the ability to use the language as a means

of communication is the mastery of the linguistic system of the target language

I 2 Communicative language teaching (CLT) in teaching grammar

I.2.1 An overview of communicative language teaching (CLT)

Towards the end of the 1960s there was a growing dissatisfaction among applied linguists and foreign language teachers with the language theories and teaching methods American

Linguist Noam Chomsky demonstrated that the current standard structural theories of language were incapable of accounting for the fundamental characteristics of language -the creativity and uniqueness of individual sentences Then, British applied linguists emphasized another fundamental dimension of language that was inadequately addressed in current

approaches to language teaching at that time -the functional and communicative potential of language Consequently, the teaching produced structurally competent students who were often communicatively incompetent Communicative (CLT) emerged as a response to that judgment The term CLT covers a variety of approaches that all focuses on helping learners to communicate meaningfully in target language Brindley (1986: 11) pointed out that: “ the 1970’s and 1980’s could be regarded as the era of communicative teaching.” And it is

probably the approach most used by trained teachers today (Paul Davies, 2000: 193)

I.2.2 Characteristics of CLT

In CLT, meaning is paramount Wilkins (1972) classifies meaning into notional and functional categories and views learning a second language as acquiring the linguistic means

to perform different kinds of functions According to Larsen-Freeman (1986: 132) the most

obvious characteristic of CLT is that “ Almost everything that is done is done with communicative intent” Students use the language through communicative activities (e.g

games, role-plays and problem-solving tasks)

I.2.3 Status of Grammar in CLT

Many linguists and researchers have advocated grammar instruction in language teaching and learning The communicative competence model of Canale and Swain (1980) clearly illustrates the significance of grammar In this model grammar is seen as one component of communicative competence One person cannot master a language without the knowledge of its grammar Thanks to grammar language partly can function as a means of communication, especially in written language In speaking, though grammatical mistakes are

sometimes acceptable, good grammar makes one’s speech better and more attractive, especially in formal situations Referring to the importance of grammar teaching,

To sum up, the rationale for teaching grammar is multifaceted and grammar is acknowledged to be of importance in language study in general and in language teaching and learning in particular

I.2.4 Teaching grammar in the light of CLT

To date, teachers of English as a Second Language (ESL) are still confronted with the crucial issue of choosing the best approach to improve their students' grammatical accuracy It cannot be denied that there has been a lot of progress in English language teaching since the introduction of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Obviously, applying CLT to grammar teaching is necessary in order to deal with the disadvantages of Grammar Translation method when being used to teach grammar such as the learners’ inappropriate utterances and passive learning style Nunan (1991) in the section “Focus on form: the role of grammar” discusses the place of grammar in the recent language teaching.While grammar played a dominant role in traditional classroom, it was just of marginal importance in earlier communicative classrooms, which drew merely on meaning rather than form Unlike in traditional approaches, where grammatical mastery was ultimate learning objective, grammar now is important but just as a means to the end and hence, is always put into context and learned for the sakes of social functions Communicative language classrooms, which focus on both form and meaning, truly reflect the view of learning grammar as both processes and products

There are two main approaches to teach grammar These are the deductive and inductive approach In deductive approach, the teachers give the rules and then students give examples In contrast, an inductive approach is when the rule is inferred through some forms

of guided discovery The teacher gives example and asks the students to find out the rules from themselves A deductive approach often fits into a lesson structure known as PPP (Presentation – Practice – Production) And PPP approach is a common one to communicative language teaching that works through progression of three sequential stages

I 3 Students’ interest

I.3.1 Concept of students’ interest

Ellis (1994) (cited in Keller, 1984) states that interest is one of the main elements of motivation and a positive response to stimulate based on existing cognitive structures in such

a way that learners’ curiosity is aroused and sustained In other words, interest shows learners’ desire to learn the target language It can be seen that students who are given opportunities for communication will be interested in the lesson

I.3.2 Factors affecting students’ interest in the class

- Students’ learning style

Students’ learning style is one of the factors we should take into consideration to see the particular approach by which students try to learn According to Keefe (1979:4), learning style can be seen as cognitive, affective and physiological features that are relatively stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact with and respond to the learning environment Major factors conditioning the ways learners think and study are the educational system, the socio-cultural background and personality variables

- Students’ motivation

Motivation is popularly considered to play a very important role in learning In Jeremy

Harmer’s view (1991) “Motivation is some kind of internal drive that encourages somebody to pursue a course of action”

I.4 The impact of CLT on students’ interest in grammar learning

CLT appearing between the 1960s and 1970s marks the beginning of major innovation within language teaching and it has been widely accepted nowadays because of its superior principles Obviously, grammar plays an important role in ELT because learners cannot communicate effectively without grammar Furthermore, the understanding of grammar helps

us build up confidence in using the target language and encourages us to use the language accurately and appropriately Grammar is an integral part of language, so the more we can find out about how grammar is learned and used, the more effectively we will teach it In fact, there have been many researches on grammar as well as grammar teaching The problem here is that how to teach grammar and which approach to grammar is appropriate Nowadays, CLT, with

its foundation and on recent achievements in the field of linguistic and psychology, has been considered to be the most effective approach to grammar teaching

I.4.1 Grammar teaching techniques in CLT

It is obvious that different techniques create different degree of students’ participation and interest in the lesson For example, techniques which focus on grammatical and phonological like choral repetition, drilling substitution, content explanation will result in learners’ passiveness and limit their participation in learning In contrast, the techniques that involve students in communicative activities such as role-play, games, problem-solving, pair and group work, discussion etc can encourage students to participate in the lesson

I.4.2 Teachers’ personal qualities and characters

Teachers are considered as a significant source of intrinsic motivation A teacher’s personality matters a lot because if it matches learners’ expectations, it helps build the learning environment with good relationship between teacher and learners, one which may increase learning motivation

In addition, in order to get students involved in the lesson, teachers should be ones that students trust and respect Barry (1993) points out some characteristics a teacher should have

as follows: being natural, being warm and being tolerant

In this literature review, the writer has presented different basic issues relating to some methods of teaching grammar which serves as the theoretical framework for the study Different grammar teaching methods such as Grammar-Translation method, Audio-lingual method have been reviewed to find out advantages and disadvantages of each method The author also has a brief look at CLT, its characteristics, the status of grammar in CLT as well as the teaching of it in the light of CLT To serve the study, at the same time, the writer has paid attention to the concept of students’ interest, factors affecting students’ interest in class as well

as the impact of CLT to students’ interest in grammar learning In the next chapter, the writer reports the study for the answer to the proposed research questions

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY