Nghiên cứu thái độ của giáo viên đối với việc dạy ngữ pháp theo đường hướng giao tiếp cho sinh viên không chuyên năm thứ nhất tại trường ĐHKT Y tế Hải Dương

Vietnam National university, noi UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES Post graduate department NGUYEN THI THANH LOAN TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS GRAMMAR TEACHING IN THE LIGHT OF COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH TO FIRST YEAR NON-MAJOR ENGLISH STUDENTS AT HAIDUONG MEDICAL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY (Nghiên cứu thái độ giáo viên việc dạy ngữ pháp theo đ-ờng h-ớng giao tiếp cho sinh viên không chuyên năm thứ Tr-ờng ĐHKT Y Tế Hải D-ơng) M.A minor thesis Field: english teaching methodology Code: 601410 Hanoi, 2009 Vietnam National university, noi UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES Post graduate department NGUYEN THI THANH LOAN TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS GRAMMAR TEACHING IN THE LIGHT OF COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH TO FIRST YEAR NON-MAJOR ENGLISH STUDENTS AT HAIDUONG MEDICAL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY (Nghiên cứu thái độ giáo viên việc dạy ngữ pháp theo đ-ờng h-ớng giao tiếp cho sinh viên không chuyên năm thứ Tr-ờng ĐHKT Y Tế Hải D-ơng) M.A minor thesis Field: english teaching methodology Code: 601410 SUPERVISOR: LE VAN CANH, M.A Hanoi, 2009 TABLE OF CONTENTS Pages Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Abbreviations iv CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION Rationale Aims of the study Significance of the study Scope of the study Research questions Methods of the study Design of the study CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definitions of attitudes 2.2 Definitions of teachers’ attitudes 2.3 Factors affecting teachers’ attitudes 2.4 The interplay between teachers’ attitudes and their teaching 2.5 Previous studies on teachers’ attitudes to grammar 2.6 The interplay between teachers’ attitudes and their grammar 11 teaching 2.7 Conclusion 14 CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 An Overview on the Context of Study 15 3.2 Participants 15 3.3 Instrumentation 16 3.3.1 The Interviews 16 3.3.2 Classroom observations 17 3.4 The procedures 17 3.4.1 The interviews 17 3.4.2 Classroom observations 17 CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Introduction 19 4.2 Data analysis and Discussion 19 4.2.1 Interviews 4.2.1.1 Teachers’ attitudes towards grammar and grammar 19 4.2.1.2 23 teaching Teachers’ attitudes towards teaching grammar communicatively 4.2.1.3 Factors affecting teachers’ attitudes towards grammar 27 and grammar teaching 4.2.2 Classroom observations 4.2.2.1 Communicative grammar teaching 31 4.2.2.2 Non-communicative grammar teaching 34 4.2.3 Conclusion 4.3 Conclusion 36 37 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION 5.1 Summary of major findings 38 5.2 Implications 38 5.3 Limitations of the study 39 5.4 Suggestions for further study 39 5.5 Conclusion 40 References Appendix 41 CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION Rationale: English language plays many roles in the modern era of globalization In Vietnam, English is taught as a compulsory subject in many schools and universities For many teachers of English, teaching English means teaching grammar Linguists have pointed out a lot of methods to teach English At present, there are many different views on grammar teaching One of the most effective ways to teaching English grammar is through an approach called Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) In my workplace, Haiduong Medical Technical University, English teachers have used many teaching methods CLT is not a new approach for them to teach their students English grammar However, different teachers have different attitudes Some teachers view grammar teaching as unnecessary while some other teachers are obsessed by it Some teachers have positive attitudes, but some have negative attitudes towards grammar teaching through CLT In order to understand the reason why the teachers in my university have various attitudes, I would like to study the teachers‟ attitudes towards grammar and grammar teaching in general and their attitudes towards grammar teaching through CLT approach with their textbook, New Headway Pre Intermediate in particular Aims of the study: The aims of the study are as follows: - To investigate into teachers‟ attitudes towards grammar and grammar teaching - To find out factors affecting teachers‟ attitudes towards grammar and grammar teaching communicatively - To find out the interplay between teachers‟ attitudes towards grammar and their grammar teaching communicatively with reference to the New Headway PreIntermediate Significance of the study: It is hoped that this study will be of some use in understanding teachers‟ attitudes towards grammar teaching to first-year non English major students through CLT in Haiduong Medical Technical University The findings of the study will also contribute to my understanding of how grammar should be treated communicatively in the context of my university Scope of the study: As it has been stated above, the study is only designed to investigate the teachers‟ attitudes towards grammar teaching through communicative approach at Haiduong Medical Technical University Research questions: What are the teachers‟ attitudes towards grammar and grammar teaching? What are the factors affecting teachers‟ attitudes towards grammar and grammar teaching communicatively? What is the interplay between teachers‟ attitudes towards grammar and their grammar teaching communicatively with reference to the New Headway Pre- Intermediate? Methods of the study: In order to the research, I selected a number of reference books and articles Six teachers of English at Haiduong MTU were interviewed about their attitudes towards grammar teaching communicatively In addition, a classroom observation was carried out to investigate how teachers dealt with grammar using the course book New Headway Pre Intermediate All the collected data were analyzed and discussed Design of the study: The minor thesis consists of chapters: Chapter I is the introduction, which presents the rationale, aims, significance, scope, methods and design of the study Chapter II, Literature Review, is aimed at exploring theoretical background for the thesis This chapter will focus on six main points: definitions of attitudes and teachers‟ attitudes; factors affecting teachers‟ attitudes; previous studies on teachers‟ attitudes towards grammar; the interplay between teachers‟ attitudes and their teaching in general and their communicative grammar teaching in particular Chapter III, Research Methodology, presents an overview on the context of the study, participants, instruments used to collect the data, and the procedure of data collection Chapter IV, Data Analysis and Discussion, is devoted to a detailed description of data analysis and a discussion of the findings of the study Chapter V is the conclusion of the thesis, which concludes some major findings, gives some implications, limitations of the study and suggestions for further study CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definitions of “attitudes” There are various definitions of “attitudes” The Oxford Advance Learners‟ Dictionary of Current English(1995:66) defines attitudes as “…the way that you think and feel about somebody or something; the way that you behave towards somebody or something that shows how you think and feel” This definition centers mainly on how a person believes, feels and then behaves in a certain way that reflects his established belief and feeling Richardson (1996) provides comprehensive definition, which is adopted in this study, attitudes and beliefs can be used interchangeably, "Attitudes and beliefs are a subset of a group of constructs that name, define, and describe the structure and content of mental states that are thought to drive a person‟s actions" (p 102) From this definition, attitudes are defined within the framework of social psychology as a subjective or mental preparation for action Attitudes are outward and visible postures Attitudes determine what each person will see, hear, think and Attitudes can be positive and negative According to Good (1973), attitudes are “The predisposition or tendency to react specifically towards an object, situation, or value, usually accompanied by feelings and emotions; attitudes cannot be directly observed but must be inferred from overt behavior, both verbal and nonverbal” Lastly, Petty and Cacioppo (1986) describe attitude and behavior comprehensively as “individuals‟ general evaluations about himself/herself, others, other objects, events and problems” 2.2 Definitions of teachers’ attitudes It is known that attitudes have a profound impact on teacher practices and behaviors Teachers‟ attitudes mean teachers‟ view and behaviors in school There is now agreement in general education studies that teaching is a cognitive activity and that teachers' beliefs greatly impact their instructional decisions in the classroom (e.g., Shavelson, & Stern, 1981; Tillema, 2000) Within second language education, teaching is also now viewed as a complex cognitive activity (Borg, 2003) As Borg (2003) suggests, "teachers are active, thinking decision-makers who make instructional choices by drawing on complex practically-oriented, personalized, and context-sensitive networks of knowledge, thoughts, and beliefs" (p, 81) Indeed, research has indicated that teachers possess a vast array of complex beliefs about pedagogical issues including beliefs about students and classroom practices (Berliner, 1987; Borg, 1998, 2003; Burns, 1992; Shavelson & Stern, 1981) These beliefs are said to form a structured set of principles and are derived from a teacher's prior experiences, school practices, and a teacher's individual personality (Borg, 2003) Furthermore, and as noted by Shavelson and Stern (1981), what teachers in the classroom is said to be governed by what they believe and these beliefs often serve to act as a filter through which instructional judgments and decisions are made Johnson (1994) has suggested that teachers‟ attitudes or beliefs are neither easy to define nor study because they are not directly observable What we know is that teachers‟ attitudes or beliefs consist of tacitly held assumptions and perceptions about teaching and learning (Kagan, 1992), that they are generally stable and that they reflect the nature of the instruction the teacher provides to students (Hampton, 1994) According to Johnson (1994: p.439), educational research on teachers' attitudes share three basic assumptions: (1) Teachers' attitudes influence perception and judgment (2) Teachers' attitudes play a role in how information on teaching is translated into classroom practices (3) Understanding teachers' attitudes is essential to improving teaching practices and teacher education programs In the area of language teaching, teachers‟ attitudes have been examined to see how personal attitudes and knowledge of the pedagogical systems of teaching have informed the instructional practices and decisions of teachers of English as a second language (e.g., Borg, 2003; Burns, 1992; Golombek, 1998) In addition, the study of teachers‟ attitudes, as Richards, Gallo, and Renandya (2001) have pointed out that "forms part of the process of understanding how teachers conceptualize their work" (p.42.) Finally, Ng & Farrell, ( 2003) and Yim (1993) investigate on teachers‟ attitudes and suggest that what teachers say and in the classroom is governed by their attitudes In conclusion, teachers‟ attitudes are teachers‟ view and behaviors in school These attitudes are implicit and unconscious, teachers‟ personal pedagogical knowledge These attitudes also include cognitive and affective components; create links between practice, experience and decisions which have to be made These attitudes greatly impact their teaching in class 2.3 Factors affecting teachers’ attitudes As I have mentioned above, teachers‟ attitudes determine their actions in the classroom Different teachers can have positive and negative attitudes to their teaching because there are different factors their attitudes to teaching In this part, I only mention factors affecting teachers‟ attitudes towards grammar communicative language teaching to prove that there have been many factors affecting the teachers‟ attitudes As KaravasDoukas (1996) stated, “one of the first factors affecting many teachers‟ attitudes is culture values” EFL teachers' attitudes and practices are related to cultural values and their practices According to Gamal and Debra, teachers are seen as knowledge holders and they might consider that if they play games with students or ask students to role-play in class, they might not be seen as doing their job This finding corresponds with Burnaby and Sun's (1989) findings that Chinese teachers felt they were not teaching when they use CLT activities and anticipated that the students would complain against them Ellis (1994) investigated the appropriateness of the communicative approach in Vietnam It was found that one of the basic problems in implementing a communicative approach in Vietnam was the teachers' holding on to the deep-rooted tradition This problem, according to Ellis, was compounded by two traditional practices: the cultural reluctance of the Vietnamese to challenge written words, and the focus on grammar translation in the examination system The study also reported that Vietnamese teachers believed that they did not have necessary knowledge of the target language culture Therefore, they felt CLT does not culturally fit Based on the findings of the study on Vietnamese pedagogical beliefs, Ellis (1994) concluded that CLT approach in its original form is not suitable for Vietnamese conditions and that "although there is a strong demand for communicative competence in Vietnam, it is not matched by adequate teacher training, communicative language materials and suitable learning environments" (p 69) He has suggested that, "the ways of making communicative approach culturally acceptable to the Vietnamese are in keeping with their own cultural values embedded and reflected in their language they use" (p.71) Another factor affecting teachers‟ attitudes is teachers' experience in English language learning As teachers practices can be affected by their own language learning experience, this may form a vicious cycle in which the pedagogic style of potential teachers are moulded by the style of their own teachers and when they become teachers, their traditional style will be passed on to the next generation of teachers As noted by Freeman (1992:3), language teachers' own language learning experience affects their future thinking and practices He states that 'the memories of instruction gained through their "apprenticeship of observation' function as de facto guides for teachers as they approach what they in the classroom' Freeman (2002) puts forward that English and foreign language teaching is mediation between how the teacher conceives of, and represents, content to students ' (p.9) and the past 'becomes one more vantage point on current activity' Thus, prior experiences are likely to be integrated into the teacher's present thinking This means that the grammar learning experience of a teacher affects the teacher's belief about the value of learning and teaching grammar This view is supported by Bailey et al (1996) who studied language teachers' own experiences as language learners and examined the potential impact these experiences had on each individual's teaching philosophy and practice They found that teachers had been witnesses to both 'good' and 'bad' teaching and these different styles of teaching influenced teachers and contributed to their beliefs about the kind of teachers they wanted to be in the future As language teachers, we usually have a 'purposeful selection of the best traits of the teachers we most admired' (p.15) Thus, teachers would adapt a grammar teaching approach that they experienced as effective in helping them to acquire grammar knowledge and tend to ignore approaches that they could not benefit from during their grammar learning stage Johnson (1994) also found that pre-service ESL teachers' beliefs were based largely on their images of their own formal and informal language learning experiences, and such images represented their dominant model of action during their teaching practices Experiences in teachers own grammar learning play a central role in formulating teachers' images and thus affect their beliefs about and practices of grammar pedagogy The argument that a teacher's experience in learning and teaching grammar plays a major part in formulating his own grammar pedagogic practices is supported by Borg (1998) who found that his subject's experience of her own language education played a powerful role in defining her position and her belief about grammar teaching She learnt her own LI at a time when England adopted the anti-grammar system Thus, her LI education did not involve her into detailed and formal analysis and description of the language At the same time, her foreign language learning experience also affected her greatly Her experience of learning French was meta-linguistically-rich and grammar played a central role in her French lessons It was frustrating for the subject and did not enable her to develop any communicative competence in French Such negative feelings about studying grammar limited her teaching practices to dealing with grammar only superficially and promoting the use of meta-language was not a priority in her lessons 29 Students‟ communicative skills also much affect the teachers‟ attitudes Some teachers in this study confirmed that they found difficult to apply communicative approach to teach their students grammar because of their low students‟ communicative competence “Sometimes I use traditional teaching method instead of communicative approach because my students‟ communicative skills are not good When I explain them grammar rules or structures in English, most of them don‟t understand, so I have to translate into Vietnamese” (Mai) Another teacher added, “If I ask my students to work in pairs or groups to practice their grammar knowledge, they rarely use English Or during listening parts, some students feel boring and not interested because they find them too difficult, then they don‟t concentrate on the listening, they can make noises which make me disappointed to teach them grammar through listening skill” (Thoa) Like Mai and Thoa‟ responses, Ha and Tuan thought that the students‟ communication competence prevented them from taking part in dynamic activities in class “The students with low communicative competence feel worried or embarrassed to take part in all activities in class That‟s the reason why I don‟t give them many opportunities to take part in many kinds of dynamic activities” (Tuan) The final factor affecting teachers‟ attitudes towards grammar and grammar teaching communicatively is the teachers‟ experiences The responses of the teachers in this study support the finding by Borg (1998) who found that this subject's experience of her own language education played a powerful role in defining her position and her belief about grammar teaching Although teachers are aware of existing trends and theories in grammar teaching, the influence of their own experiences as learners have a greater influence on their teaching practice, than the formal training they received during their studies Ha made the following comment: “The focus on grammatical forms is much more important in grammar learning In my experience, it is very difficult to get students to realise or learn the forms very clearly from the communicative approach They need to practise a lot and we can‟t afford this time.” (Ha) It can be seen from her comment that her support of form-focused instruction seems to have been due to her experienced difficulty in drawing her learners‟ attention to 30 the target forms when the primary focus fell on exchange of meaning Also, her concern of students‟ unfamiliarity to communicative grammar learning approach and limited instructional time seem to have influenced her choice of grammar instruction Her preference for form-focused instruction was clearly reflected when she spent two whole double lessons teaching passive voice exclusively Like Ha, Huong seemed to stress the importance of form-focused instruction as she found meaning-oriented instruction not suitable for her students “Well, for my students, they seldom communicate with one another in English They don‟t know how to express themselves in English How can I expect them to learn grammar through communication? It just scares them So, I have to tell them the forms first before asking them to use the forms to make meaning.” (Huong) In sum, there were a range of constraints that hinder the possible implementation of CLT The most common impediments documented by teachers were: large class size, low level of students' abilities and lack of motivation, lack of resources (facilities), students' expectations and attitudes, students' low level background knowledge, the textbook, teaching loads, examination pressures, cultural influence, influence of colleagues and teachers' English speaking abilities (proficiency) Almost all the interviewees agreed that these factors exerted powerful influence on their classroom instructions The majority of the constraints categorized by the teachers were external, i.e., problems that are beyond teachers' control There were also some respondents who attributed the difficulties to internal factors (to their language abilities), this is to say that the low level of competency they have in English language was one of the likely impediments that act against the implementation of communicative language teaching in their classrooms The analysis of the observations will indicate that most of the constraints forwarded by teachers exist in the actual classrooms 4.2.2 Classroom observations After interviewing six teachers to get data from their attitudes towards grammar and grammar teaching communicatively, I visited six grammar lessons taught by six different teachers in Haiduong Medical Technical University Based on the observations of the six teachers‟ lessons the following tendencies have emerged on these teachers‟ grammar teaching practices, compared with their responses in the interviews in terms of communicative grammar teaching and non-communicative grammar teaching 31 4.2.2.1 Communicative grammar teaching It is also found that there are positive relationships between teachers' perceptions about CLT and their classroom practices as teachers in this study report practicing some of the major communicative activities in their classes Some of the most frequently used activities by the teachers in this study are: call on students to orally respond to any issues/topic, group discussion, listening to audio tape and answering questions, pair work, and simulations/role play Communicative grammar teaching may be effective when pair work and English are always used as illustrated in Extract Extract 1: (Ha) Teacher: Look at the conversation in your book Work in pairs and find out seven count nouns and four uncount nouns Students: (work in pairs) Teacher: (calls some pairs) What are seven count nouns and four uncount nouns? Students: Seven count nouns are “apples, grapes, vegetables, carrots, onions, crisps, nephews Four uncount nouns are “coffee, tea, orange juice and money” Teacher: That‟s good Teacher: Now, please complete the table in your book by finding examples of use in the conversation (Observation – Unit 4, ĐHĐD1A) In the interview, Huong said that she often taught her students through structure She asked the students to look at the structures and find out the rules by themselves The following extract proves that teaching In this extract, I can find the communication between the teacher and her students in English This also makes the teaching more communicative Extract 2: (Huong) Teacher: (writes on the board the name of present perfect tense) Teacher: (asks students to look at two sentences on the book) (1) Claudia has been in France (2) Claudia went to France in 1998 Teacher: Can you find the difference between these two sentences? 32 Student A: The use of verbs Teacher: Thank you She said that the difference between two sentences is the use of verb Is it correct? Students: Yes Teacher: Look at the sentence again How we form the present perfect tense at affirmatives, negatives and interrogatives? Student B (in Vietnamese): We use “have/ has” with “past participle” in affirmatives; use “haven‟t / hasn‟t” with “past participle” in negatives, and change “have/ has” before the subject to make questions (Observation 2: Unit 7, ĐHVL 1A) Tuan taught his students with using a lot of communicative activities for controlled, less-controlled and free practice in order to get his students feel confident with the language he/ she is producing This can be seen clearly in Extract Extract 3: (Tuan) Teacher: Look at the people in your book Work in pairs and discuss how they feel Students (work in pairs)……… Teacher: Please, make a conversation about the people‟ feelings Teacher: (calls some pairs of students) Students A: How does the person in picture feel? Student B: I think he feels very happy Student A: Why you think that? Student B: Because he‟s laughing (Observation 3: Unit 5, ĐHĐD 1B) Mai said that depending on the students‟ competence, she could choose suitable teaching approaches When I observed her lesson, I found her attitudes consistent with her teaching method Here is an extract from a class with many good students She made her lesson effective and her students more active with CLT Extract 4: (Mai) Teacher: Look at the conversation in the book and fill in the questions Students (Fill in the question) Teacher: Have you finished? 33 Students: Yes Teacher: Who can make the complete conversation? Student A&B (make the conversation) Teacher: What are the tenses in the questions? Who can answer this? Student C: The first question is in the present simple, the second is in the present perfect tense, and the third is in the past tense Teacher: Well done, thank you Now, all of you will listen to the tape and check that, then practice other conversations using the same tenses with your partner Teacher (Plays the recording) Students (Listen to the recording, then practice conversations with the partner) Teacher (Goes around the class and observes) (Observation 4: Unit 7, ĐHXN 1A) During the class, the students were active, and they feel confident to practice with their friends The teacher gave them many chances to practice their language skills and she encouraged them to take part in every activity in class This teaching approach proved her positive attitudes about grammar teaching communicatively Finally, the extract also proved the communicative grammar teaching In this lesson, the teacher made use of many teaching aids (map, tape recording) Extract (Trang) Teacher: (Show the map of Sweden to the class) Teacher: (in English) Look at the map Which country is it? Students (in Vietnamese): England, France, Sweden, Italy…… Teacher (in English): This country is the third largest country in the European Union ……….The capital city of this country is Stockholm…… Students (some in Vietnamese, some in English): Sweden Teacher: That‟s correct What you know about Sweden? Students: Not much Teacher (in English): Now, please discuss the sentences in Exercise in your book about Sweden Students (discuss in both Vietnamese and English) (5 minutes later) 34 Teacher: Have you all finished? Now, please listen to Jane Bland in exercise 2, talking about her life in Sweden to check your answers in exercise Students (listen twice) (Oservation : Unit 6, ĐHXN 1B) 4.2.2.2 Non-communicative grammar teaching The inconsistencies in teachers' perceptions about CLT activities and their classroom practices demonstrated that although teachers in this study report practicing some major communicative activities in their classrooms they also practice some noncommunicative teaching activities Some classroom teaching remained traditional, teacherfronted and textbook-centred Grammar rules were still presented in Vietnamese Although, the teachers asked many questions, they answered all of them themselves The students hardly involved in the classroom discourse, as it illustrated in Extract Extract (Huong) Teacher: (write on the board the name of the present perfect tense) Students: (silent) Teacher: (in Vietnamse) We make the Present Perfect Tense with auxiliary verb Have + Past Participle Teacher: (Writes the structure of the present perfect tense on the board) Teacher: (in English) when we use the present perfect tense? Teacher: (explains in Vietnamese) The present perfect tense is used to talk about indefinite time, and to talk about an action which happened some time before now Students: (write on the notebook) (Observation 2: Unit 7, ĐHVL 1A) During this class, I found students very boring They were not interested in the lesson After the observation, I asked Huong for the reason why she always had explained in Vietnamese, which contradicted her responses in the interview She explained that the students in this class have worse English proficiency She had already applied CLT in teaching them, but they did not understand at all, then she had to change the approach, came back to the traditional methods From this observation, I can find that although the teacher had a positive attitude towards grammar teaching communicatively, her teaching is not mainly affected by her attitudes, but many other factors 35 Thoa said that, “I usually introduce the grammar topics through communicative approach and help the students get their own conclusions about them My next step is to present them the rules and discuss about them and then we have some practical exercises” (Thoa) However, when I observed her lesson about the Present Perfect Tense, I found that her grammar teaching was probably not communicative-oriented She sometimes spoke to her students in English, but her students always spoke in Vietnamese Extract : (Thoa) Teacher: Now, can you give any other examples using the present perfect tense? Students (Silent) Teacher: (in Vietnamese) Can you give me any other examples using the present perfect tense? Students: (some are silent, some make too much noise) Teacher: Now who can? Teacher: For example, “I have been to HCM city many times” Students (take note) (Observation 6: Unit 7, ĐHHA1) In addition, the interaction between the teachers and the students, the students and the students are not good The students are silent and write down on the books They did not communicate with the teacher or the friends in English When the teacher gave the students chances to speak, they still kept silent They always answer the teacher‟s questions in Vietnamese Look at another extract from the observation Extract 8: (Tuan) Teacher (in English, then in Vietnamese): After reading the full text, each of you answers the question in exercise Students (write down the answer on the notebooks)… Teacher: Have you finished? Who can answer the first question? Students (silent) Teacher (in Vietnamese): Who can answer the first question? “What you think of their parents?” Students (still silent) Teacher (in Vietnamese): Oh, Who can answer? 36 Student A (in Vietnamese): They are not good parents because they don‟t take care of their children (Observation 3: Unit 5, ĐHĐD 1B) 4.2 Conclusion The data obtained from the interviews and observations revealed that, all of six teachers in MTU had positive attitudes towards grammar and grammar teaching They said that grammar was very important for their students Mastery of grammar could help the students easy to exercises, pass the final grammar-based examinations When they were good at grammar, they could be confident to communicate with others, and improve their language skills and communicative competence Because the teachers in this study found the important role of grammar, they also expressed their positive attitudes towards grammar teaching They all liked teaching grammar because it would help their students to improve their grammar knowledge to meet their demands In the interviews, all teachers expressed their interest in CLT methods in class, two of whom liked non-communicative activities better (Ha and Huong), and four preferred communicative activities (Mai, Trang, Tuan, Thoa) Some thought the combination of communicative and non-communicative activities was better After analyzing the data from the interviews and the classroom observations, I find that there is interplay between the teachers‟ attitudes and their practices in class, that is, the teachers‟ attitudes affect their teaching This similar to the arguments by Ellis (1997) and Richard (1994, 1998) that teachers have positive attitudes towards grammar teaching effectively through communicative tasks, they apply this communicative approach in class In contrast, some teachers‟ attitudes does not affect their teaching This supports research by Richards, Gallo and Renandya (2001) Although many respondents in that research followed a communicative approach to teaching, “Many of the respondents still hold firmly to the beliefs that grammar is central to language learning and direct grammar teaching is needed by their EFL/ESL students” (p.54) To sum up, the findings of this study has shown that the majority of the respondents have mildly favourable attitudes towards communicative language teaching, but faced a number of constraints that hamper them from effective implementation of communicative methodology in the classrooms 37 4.3 Conclusion This chapter analyzes and discusses the findings of the study in order to answer the three research questions Firstly, the analysis of the data reveals that the teachers in Medical University have different attitudes towards grammar and grammar teaching communicatively Surprisingly, they all have positive attitudes Secondly, they all confirmed the importance of English grammatical knowledge not only to their students‟ learning in the class, but also to their language use for communication outside the class Without grammar, learners can communicate effectively only in a limited number of situations They may be able speak sentences with simple structures, mostly about daily life conversational sentences Thirdly, it has been discussed in this chapter that there is interplay between teachers‟ attitudes towards grammar and their grammar teaching communicatively with reference to the New Headway Pre Intermediate All of them had positive attitudes towards grammar teaching communicatively with this course book Some teachers normally taught their students grammar points through CLT Some other teachers found the effect of CLT to teach grammar, however, due to some difficulties, they applied both translation approach and communicative approach 38 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION 5.1 Summary of major findings The study has highlighted some important findings Firstly, teachers in Medical Technical University have positive attitudes towards English grammar and grammar teaching They all see the importance of grammar and grammar teaching to their first year non English major students Mastery of English grammar helps the students in grammar-based examinations Secondly, all teachers have positive attitudes towards grammar teaching communicatively They said that grammar was an essential component in the model of communicative competence Without grammar their students can communicatively only in a limited number of situations Besides, some other teachers found that there were some difficulties for them to teach grammar commuicatively although they all understood that approach was very effective Finally, from the interviews and classroom observations, I found that the teachers‟ attitudes towards grammar teaching communicatively with reference to the New Headway Pre Intermediate and their teaching in class might be same or might be different It means that teachers‟ teaching in class sometimes affected, sometimes not affected by their attitudes 5.2 Implications No matter how grammar is viewed in the English language teaching literature, teachers are strongly inclined to grammar teaching because of their beliefs about the important role grammar plays in language learning As it is showed in this study, teachers‟ beliefs about grammar are derived from many sources such as their opinion of the students‟ proficiency levels, the examination requirements and the available resources As they are very positive towards grammar and grammar teaching, they seem to be very enthusiastic about grammar teaching This explains why their teaching appears to be grammar-centred Although they valued a communicative approach to grammar, their classroom teaching focused more on the teaching of discrete grammar using a more explicit approach to grammar The implications of this study are, therefore, that teachers favour a more grammaroriented approach to English language teaching In order to change their teaching approach much has been done to change not only their beliefs about grammar and language teaching, 39 but also the contextual factors which are more supportive of a more communicative approach to grammar 5.3 Limitations of the study Although the study has been conducted carefully and offered some findings, like many other studies, limitations are unavoidable In terms of methodology, the study is limited in the fact that the data may not fully reflect all aspects of teachers‟ evaluation of the current grammar teaching in Haiduong Medical Technical University For example, the teachers‟ responses to the open-ended questions in the interview may not fully reflect the teachers‟ attitudes and reactions to grammar and grammar teaching through communicative approach In addition, the data collection period took place nearly at the end of the school year when the teachers were busy preparing for their students‟ end-of-years examinations As a result, the teachers might not have spent sufficient time thinking over the questions in the interview before responding Moreover, classroom observation were also conducted, so both the teacher and his/ her students may behave differently during the observed lesson 5.4 Suggestions for further study On the basis of the findings and limitations of the study, there are some suggestions for further study to be conducted Further research should be conducted to affirm what difficulties teachers meet in applying CLT in teaching grammar and teaching four language skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing Since the population of this study was EFL teachers in haiduong Medical Technical University, additional research with EFL teachers in other universities and colleges in Haiduong might be a useful correlational study Additional quantitative research can enhance the result of the present study by investigating teachers' beliefs and practices from a different angle, because foreign and second language teaching is a complex phenomenon (Ellis, 1994) These suggestions should be accomplished in the light of enhancing the English teaching in Medical Technical University 40 5.5 Conclusion In conclusion, the present study though at the preliminary level, has not only helped us understand MTU teachers‟ attitudes towards grammar and grammar teaching, but also provided insightful information about the teachers‟ attitudes towards grammar teaching in the light of communicative approach with the course book New Headway Pre Intermediate to first –year non major English students 41 REFERENCES Anderson, J Is a Communicative Approach Practical for Teaching English in China? 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Dictionary of Current English(1995:66) defines attitudes as “…the way that you think and feel about somebody or something; the way that you behave towards somebody or something that shows how you... Technical University The findings of the study will also contribute to my understanding of how grammar should be treated communicatively in the context of my university 2 Scope of the study: As it has