Nghiên cứu thực trạng dạy và học ngữ pháp trong các tiết Language focus trong sách giáo khoa mới Tiếng Anh 10 (Ban cơ bản) tại trường THPT Đội Cấn, Vĩnh Phú

Difficulties in teaching and learning grammar in the Language Focus lessons as perceived by the teachers and the students ………..30 3.2... Table 4: Teachers‟ methods of presenting grammar

L;VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*****************

PHÙNG THỊ HUÊ

THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING

GRAMMAR IN LANGUAGE FOCUS PERIODS IN THE NEW “ENGLISH 10” (BASIC STREAM) AT DOI CAN HIGH

SCHOOL IN VINH PHUC

NGHIÊN CỨU THỰC TRẠNG DẠY VÀ HỌC NGỮ PHÁP TRONG CÁC TIẾT “LANGUAGE FOCUS” TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA MỚI “TIẾNG ANH 10” (BAN CƠ BẢN) TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT ĐỘI CẤN, VĨNH PHÚC

M.A Minor Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60 14 10

Hanoi - 2010

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*****************

PHÙNG THỊ HUÊ

THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING

GRAMMAR IN LANGUAGE FOCUS PERIODS IN THE NEW “ENGLISH 10” (BASIC STREAM) AT DOI CAN HIGH

SCHOOL IN VINH PHUC

NGHIÊN CỨU THỰC TRẠNG DẠY VÀ HỌC NGỮ PHÁP TRONG CÁC TIẾT “LANGUAGE FOCUS” TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA MỚI “TIẾNG ANH 10” (BAN CƠ BẢN) TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT ĐỘI CẤN, VĨNH PHÚC

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, Ph.D

Hanoi - 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION ……… …….i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……….………….ii

ABSTRACT ……….iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ……….iv

LIST OF TABLES ……… …vii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS……….viii

PART I: INTRODUCTION………1

1 Rationale of the study……….1

2 Aims of the study……… ………2

3 Research questions……….2

4 Scope of the study……….……….3

5 Significance of the study………3

6 Method of the study………3

7 Design of the study……….4

PART II: DEVELOPMENT ……….………….5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ……… …………5

1.1 Definitions of grammar……….… ……… 5

1.2 Role of grammar in English language teaching and learning…… ………6

1.2.1 For-grammar perspectives ……….……7

1.2.2 Against-grammar perspectives ……… 7

1.3 Explicit and Implicit approaches to grammar teaching……….…8

1.4 Deductive and Inductive approaches to grammar instruction ……… … 10

1.5 Grammar teaching in the major teaching methods……… 12

1.6 Conclusion……… ……14

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY……….………15

2.1 Overview of the current situation of teaching and learning English

at Doi Can High School ……….……….15

2.1.1 The school context ……… 15

2.1.2 The new textbook English 10 (the standard textbook) and its Language Focus section……… ……… …16

2.2 Methodology……… ………16

2.2.1 Research questions……… ………16

2.2.2 Subjects of the study ………17

2.2.3 Data collection instruments……….………….18

2.2.3.1 Survey questionnaire………18

2.2.3.2 Classroom observation ……….……….19

2.2.3.3 Interview……….20

2.2.4 Data collection procedure……….20

2.2.5 Data analysis procedure………20

2.3 Conclusion ……… 21

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ………22

3.1 Findings from questionnaires for the teachers and the students ………… … 22

3.1.1 The teachers‟ and the students‟ perceptions on the importance of grammar teaching and learning………22

3.1.2 The teachers‟ and the students‟ opinions about the grammar parts in the new English textbook……… …… ……23

3.1.3 The teachers‟ methods of teaching grammar in the Language Focus lessons………24

3.1.4 The students‟ ways of learning grammar in the language focus lessons ……… 28

3.1.5 Difficulties in teaching and learning grammar in the Language Focus lessons as perceived by the teachers and the students ……… 30

3.2 Findings from class observations ……… ………33

3.3 Findings from interviews……….34

3.3.1 Findings from interviews with the teachers ……… ….34

3.3.2 Findings from interviews with the students ……… ……… 35

3.4 Discussion of the findings ……… 35

3.5 Conclusion ……… 37

PART III: CONCLUSION ……… ………39

1 Summary of the study ……… ……….……….39

2 Pedagogical implications ……….……… 39

3 Limitations of the study ……….41

4 Suggestions for further study……… … 41

5 Conclusion……… 42

REFERENCES ……… ……… 43

APPENDICES……… I Appendix 1: Grammar items in the Language Focus sections in the new textbook English 10 ……… I Appendix 2: Survey questionnaire for the teachers ……….…III Appendix 3: Survey questionnaire for the students ……… VII Appendix 4: Class observation transcripts 1-4 ………X Appendix 5: Interview questions ……… ………XXV Appendix 6: Interview transcripts ……… ……… XXVI

Table 4: Teachers‟ methods of presenting grammar

Table 5: Teachers‟ ways of giving grammar instructions

Table 6: Teachers‟ grammar practice activities – Frequency of use

Table 7: The teachers‟ techniques of dealing with students‟ errors

Table 8: Factors Influencing the way the teachers teach grammar

Table 9: Students‟ level of understanding of grammar structures presented in the Language Focus lessons

Table 10: The students‟ impressions of grammar lessons

Table 11: Students‟ preference for the teachers‟ grammar presentation methods

Table 12: Students‟ favourite grammar practice activities in the Language Focus lessons Table 13: the teachers‟ difficulties in teaching grammar in the language focus lessons Table 14: the students‟ difficulties in learning grammar in the language focus lessons

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

MOET: Ministry of Education and Training

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

It cannot be denied that English has nowadays become a common means of communication of human being all over the world Integrating into that trend of the global integration, Vietnam has been more and more active to train active and dynamic Vietnamese, who can use English fluently for communicative purposes That is the reason why in 2002, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has set out new aims for English language teaching for secondary education as well as introduced new series of English textbooks from grade 6 to grade 12

The new English textbooks for high school students are divided into two sets: the advanced and the standard They are claimed to adopt the latest teaching and learning approaches: communicative approach and learner-centered approach and aim at developing both language skills and language knowledge for students Each unit in the new English textbooks consists of five parts: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing and Language Focus, among which the Language Focus sections are to consolidate students‟ pronunciation and grammar

Since their nation-wide implementation in the school year 2006-2007, a great deal

of research have been carried out to evaluate these new textbooks as well as to find out how these textbooks are actually implemented or the difficulties that teachers and students

at high schools have to face when teaching and learning by the new textbooks However, most of these studies have dealt with the teaching and learning of the four language skills which are believed to be new for both teachers and students There is still a lack of research on the teaching and learning of language elements in the Language Focus part More importantly, the question whether teachers actually teach grammar communicatively

or in the traditional methods has not been answered yet Therefore, it is necessary to carry out more research on how teachers and students teach and learn grammar in the actual classroom

Moreover, after two years of teaching English by the new English textbooks at Doi Can High School, the researcher observed that the teachers and learners there faced a

number of difficulties not only in teaching and learning the four language skills but also in teaching and learning grammar during the Language Focus lessons

Stimulated by the above reasons, the researcher has decided to conduct this study

It is hoped that this study will discover the reality of teaching and learning grammar in Language Focus lessons at Doi Can high school in order to contribute some immediate solutions

2 Aims of the study

The aim of this study is to examine the current teaching and learning of grammar in Language Focus lessons in the new standard textbook English10 at Doi Can High School

In order to achieve the aim, the study seeks to find out:

(1) The teachers‟ and students‟ perceptions on the importance of grammar teaching and learning

(2) How the teachers and the students deal with grammar in the Language Focus lessons (3) Whether the teaching and learning of grammar correspond with the new teaching method underlying the new textbook

(4) The teachers‟ and students‟ perceived difficulties in teaching and learning grammar

in the Language Focus lessons

4 What are the difficulties in teaching and learning grammar in the Language Focus

lessons as perceived by the teachers and students?

4 Scope of the study

As mentioned earlier, there are two sets of the new English textbooks for grade 10: the advanced and the standard sets This study is only aimed at investigating the reality of teaching and learning grammar in Language Focus lessons in the standard set

This study is limited to the teaching and learning reality with regard to teaching and learning grammar in Language Focus lessons The investigation of teaching and learning language skills and pronunciation will be beyond the scope of this study

This study is a detailed survey at Doi Can High School in Vinh Phuc Therefore, the findings of the study are not intended to be generalized to other school contexts Indeed the findings may not apply beyond the actual participants in this particular study

5 Significance of the study

This study helps to identify the problems and suggests ways of improving them; therefore, it is hoped that this study will be beneficial in many ways First, participants in the study (the teachers and the learners at Doi Can High School) will benefit immediately from the experience of reflection Secondly, the findings of the study will contribute information to textbook writers and educators to determine curricula and program direction

6 Method of the study

The study was designed to use both quantitative and qualitative methods Then, various instruments were used to collect the data for the study from different sources:

- survey questionnaires to investigate the teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards grammar, their teaching and learning habits and their difficulties in teaching and learning

grammar in Language Focus lessons

- class observations to get information about both the teachers‟ methods of teaching and students‟ ways of learning grammar in the classroom

- interviews with the teachers and students to get in-depth information about the teachers‟ and the students‟ suggestions to improve the teaching and learning of grammar in the Language Focus lessons in the new English 10 - the standard textbook

7 Design of the study

The study is divided into three parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion

The Introduction presents an overview of the study including the rationale, aims,

scope, significance, methodology and design of the study

The major part of the study, the Development, is divided into three chapters

Chapter one provides theoretical background for the study Chapter two presents the methodology of the study and the last chapter is devoted to analyzing and discussing the findings of the study

The Conclusion part provides a brief summary of the findings in correspondence

with the four proposed research questions as well as offering some recommendations for better grammar teaching and learning The limitations of and suggestions for further study are also discussed in this chapter

Besides, the survey questionnaire for the teachers and students, the classroom observation transcripts and the interview transcripts are included in the Appendices

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Definitions of grammar

Concerning the terms “grammar”, several researchers have attempted to define it Apparently, depending on one‟s theoretical orientation, different people define grammar differently

The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (as cited in Harmer, 1987, p.1) defines grammar as “the study and practice of the rules by which words change their forms and are combined into sentences.” There are two basic elements in this definition: the rules

of grammar; and the study and practice of the rules Here grammar constitutes a subset of rules relating to word formation (morphology) and sentence formation (syntax)

Huddleston (1984) shares the similar view when seeing grammar as consisting of morphology and syntax According to him, morphology deals with forms of words while syntax deals with the ordering of the words to form sentences (p 1)

As can be inferred from the two definitions above, grammar is conventionally seen

as the study of morphology and syntax of sentences

Cobbett (1984) regards grammar as “constituting rules and principles that help a person to make use of words or manipulate and combine words to give meaning in a proper manner It concerns with form and structure of words and their relationships in sentences”

According to Fromkin and Rodman (1998), "The sounds and sound patterns, the basic units of meaning such as words and the rules to combine them to form new sentences constitute the grammar of a language" (p.14)

There are several similarities among two above-cited definitions The first thing is that according to these authors, grammar is assumed to be a guide through which words are put together to make correct sentences Secondly, grammar is composed of rules not only relating to word formation (morphology) and sentence formation (syntax) but also concerned with the meaning of the sentence (semantics) and the sound system (phonology) within a language

However, one drawback that all four definitions above (in both the first and second categories) have in common is that grammar has been concerned almost exclusively with the analysis at the level of the sentence I am in favour of Widdowson (1990) with the claim that “grammar is not just a collection of sentence patterns signifying nonsense” (p 81)

For Thornbury (1999), grammar is not just rules on how to combine words at the sentence level, but it also takes into account the role of context in which a sentence is made He says that “when we process language we are not only trying to make sense of the words and the grammar, we are also trying to infer the speaker‟s (or writer‟s) intention” (p 6)

Hughes and McCarthy (1998) view grammar as discourse not as sentence and coined the term discourse grammar They argued that “grammatical statements that do not take account of such contextual features are inadequate and unable to support grammar teaching effectively.” (p 265)

For the purpose of the study, I use the definition of Richards, Platt, and Platt (1992)

in their Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics:

Grammar is a description of the structure of a language and the way in

which linguistic units such as words and phrases are combined to produce

sentences in the language It usually takes into account the meanings and

functions these sentences have in overall system of the language It may or

may not include the description of the sound of a language (p.161)

In this definition, grammar is viewed as descriptive, which refers to the structure of

a language as it is actually used by speakers and writers Moreover, this definition shows both linguistic and social features of grammar as it refers to not only rules to make correct sentences but also meanings and functions of such sentences in the language, which is necessary for the teaching and learning of foreign language

1.2 Role of grammar in English language teaching and learning

Along the history of second language teaching, the role of grammar has been an issue of controversy According to Richards (2002), it is “perhaps the most controversial issue in language teaching” (p 145) Thornbury (1999) asserts that “in fact, no other issue

has so preoccupied theorists and practitioners as the grammar debate, and the history of language teaching is essentially the history of the claims and counterclaims for and against the teaching of grammar” (p 14) The debate has brought about an extreme split of attitudes, namely, those who hold that grammar should receive a central attention in language teaching and those who hold that grammar should not be taught at all

1.2.1 For-grammar perspectives

Many scholars in the field of language teaching and learning emphasize the role grammar plays in language learning For instance, Savignon (1991), one of the leading advocates of communicative language teaching, emphasizes that “communication cannot take place in the absence of structure, or grammar” (p 268) In agreement with Savignon,

in their communicative competence model, Canale and Swain (1980) clearly view grammar as one component of communicative competence and without grammar, learners can communicate effectively only in a limited number of situations

After reviewing ideas on the role of grammar teaching, Nunan (1991) came to a conclusion that "grammar exists to enable us to 'mean', and without grammar it is impossible to communicate beyond a very rudimentary level.” Furthermore, Wilkins (as cited in Nunan, 1991, p 152), one of the architects of communicative approach to language teaching, also points out that “acquiring the grammatical system of the target language is

of central importance, because an inadequate knowledge of grammar would severely constrain linguistic creativity and limit the capacity for communication”

The list of supporters of grammar is still going on Long and Richards (1987) assert that grammar plays a central role in the four language skills and vocabulary to establish communicative tasks Brown (2007) points out that “grammatical competence occupies a prominent position as a major component of communicative competence” (p 348)

For Palmer (1984), the central part of a language is its grammar, and this should be

of “vital interest to any intelligent educated person If it has not been of such interest, then the fault must be in the failure to recognize its importance within this essentially human activity” (p 9)

1.2.2 Against-grammar perspectives

Due to the fact that many language learners know the grammar rules of a language well, but they cannot communicate effectively in that language (Hinkel & Fotos, 2002), several scholars do not believe that grammar teaching will have any impact on communicative purposes and therefore neglect it Prabhu (1987), for example, believes that development of competence requires the creation of conditions in which learner engage in

an effort to cope with communication, not a systematization of planned grammatical input

The strongest advocate of this view is Krashen (1983, 1987), who is famous for his learning and acquisition hypothesis and his Monitor theory Based on his learning and acquisition hypothesis, Krashen argues that from learning the learners obtain conscious knowledge of grammar which is not responsible for actual L2 performance On the other hand, acquisition is the underlying process which is responsible for the actual performance and this can only happen unconsciously through natural exposure to comprehensible inputs What‟s more, according to his Monitor theory, consciously-learned grammar can only function as monitoring and monitoring overuse will only disturb the flow of production Consequently, this grow-up holds that formal and conscious study of grammar should be strongly rejected if the objective of learning the language is productive competence However, Krashen has received many strong criticisms from other researchers

as his acquisition theory seems to be merely based on his own observation without supporting evidence

In conclusion, grammar plays a very important role in language teaching, even though there was a time when grammar was severely rejected, but as Richards (2002) says,

in recent years grammar teaching has regained its rightful place in the language teaching and “grammar is too important to be ignored” (p 145) The debate is now not on whether grammar competence is important but rather on how to teach grammar Therefore, the rest

of this chapter is devoted to presenting two core approaches to grammar teaching and critically looking into the teaching of grammar in some major teaching methods

1.3 Explicit and Implicit approaches to grammar teaching

As mentioned earlier, the issue related to grammar is not whether to teach it but how to teach it Concerning the latter, two distinctly different approaches to teaching

grammar have emerged over the years These are the explicit and implicit approaches to grammar teaching According to Scott (1990), the implicit approach emphasizes that students should be exposed to grammatical structures in a meaningful and comprehensible context in order that they may acquire as naturally as possible the grammar of the target language In contrast, Scott (1990) describes the explicit approach as insisting upon the value of deliberate study of a grammar rule in order to organize linguistic elements efficiently and accurately In DeKeyser‟s words (1994), implicit teaching of grammar means that no rules are formulated; explicit means rules are formulated (either by the teacher or the student, either before or after examples/practice) (p 188)

On the one hand, scholars who support an implicit approach to grammar instruction, argue that students will develop “naturally” all the grammar competency they need to communicate effectively if they are exposed to comprehensible, meaningful linguistic input Indeed, Krashen and his colleagues (Krashen, 1987; Krashen & Terrell, 1983) led the evolution against explicit grammar instruction The distinction that Krashen makes between “learning” (a conscious process) and “acquisition” (a subconscious process) forms the basis of his theory of implicit teaching strategies He maintains that second language acquisition can take place in the classroom without the explicit study of grammar if students are exposed to enough comprehensible input Moreover, according to him, the conscious study of grammar does not aid in the natural acquisition process as

“…grammar exercises…can be valuable as tool to encourage learning However, it should

be kept in mind that while their function is important, very little acquisition will take place during their use” (Krashen & Terrell, 1983, p 146)

However, Krashen‟s hypothesis has been criticized by many scholars as it is not validated by experimental evidence Moreover, Celce-Murcia (1991) warns that the implicit approach “can lead to the development of a broken, ungrammatical, pidginized from of the target language beyond which students rarely process” (p 162) Such learners, she explains, are often said to have fossilized in their acquisition of the target language

On the other hand, there are many advocates for the explicit method of grammar instruction Mclaughlin (1990) supports the value of explicit grammar teaching by distinguishing between controlled processing and automatic processing in learning a

foreign language He stresses that language skills are learned and become automatic only after the use of controlled process In other words, students develop automatic control of a grammatical structure after passing through a deliberate, conscious stage of learning grammatical rule and their application In addition, Sagvinton (1991) points out that while involvement in communicative event is seen as central to language involvement, this involvement necessarily requires attention to form or explicit language teaching

The benefits of explicit approach over the implicit approach have been reported in a number of research studies over the past two decades (Dekeyser, 1994; Scott, 1990; López, 2004; Andrews, 2007) The results from these studies show that students who were taught the target structures explicitly performed better than those who received the implicit method of instruction

In short, it is hard to say which approach to grammar teaching is better The writer

of this thesis is in support of explicit approach as she thinks that it is useful and suitable to the teaching and learning situation in Vietnam where getting students exposed to comprehensible input is hardly achievable

1.4 Deductive and Inductive approaches to grammar instruction

While evidence for the need for formal instruction has been established through such research studies, there is still some controversy regarding how and how much instruction is necessary From this debate, a broad distinction is often made between deductive and inductive approaches (Thornbury, 1999)

 Deductive approach

Deductive approach is often called rule-driven learning (Thornbury, 1999) In this approach, a grammar rule is explicitly presented to students and followed by practice applying the rule The deductive approach maintains that a teacher teaches grammar by presenting grammatical rules, and then examples of sentences are presented Once learners understand rules, they are told to apply the rules given to various examples of sentences Giving the grammatical rules means no more than directing learners‟ attention to the problem discussed However, deductive approach to grammar teaching receives less support than inductive approach As Ellis in Richards (2002) reported, there has not been

convincing empirical verification as well as theoretical validation that the acquisition of grammar structures involves the process of learning the rules and practicing them through gradual automatization of production Even so, deductive approach is often used by many teachers due to its advantages such as time-saving for teachers and respect for students‟ expectations about classroom learning

 Inductive approach

In contrast to deductive approach, inductive approach, which is labeled as discovery learning, starts with examples from which a rule is inferred (Thornbury, 1999) The procedure is similar to the process of children acquiring their mother tongue First, learners are exposed to comprehensible language input and they will acquire the system of the rules subconsciously through peripheral attention to language forms Eisenstein (as cited in Long & Richards, 1987) maintains that the inductive approach tries to utilize the very strong reward value of bringing order, clarity and meaning to experiences This approach involves learners‟ participating actively in their own instruction In other words, this approach attempts to highlight grammatical rules implicitly in which the learners are encouraged to conclude the rules given by the teacher

rule-Brown (2007) says that in most contexts, inductive approach is more appropriate because of several reasons First, it is more in keeping with natural language acquisition and conforms easily to the concept of interlanguage development Second, it allows learners to get a communicative feel for some aspects of language and builds more intrinsic motivation through discovery learning Even though inductive approach has several advantages, it is obvious that it will work well only in the setting where there is sufficient language input In the context of English as a foreign language like in Vietnam, where English is not used outside the English class setting, providing sufficient comprehensible input constitutes a hard challenge for teachers In addition, there is another important decision that teachers have to make when using an inductive approach to teach grammar as Celce-Murcia (2001) points out that “if a teacher has chosen an inductive approach in a given lesson, a further option exists – whether or not to give or have students articulate an explicit rule” (p 263)

In conclusion, the deductive approach is related to the conscious learning process, while the inductive approach relates to the subconscious learning processes similar to the concept of language acquisition Whether grammatical rules are taught inductively or deductively rely much on the cognitive style of the learner and the language structure presented (Brown, 2007) Therefore, the language teacher‟s job is to identify which approach is appropriate for which grammar items and for which learning styles And sometimes, the question is not which one to choose but how well the two approaches are combined As according to Corder (as cited in Celce-Murcia, 2001, p 264)

What little we know about …second language learning … suggests that a combination of induction and deduction produces the best result The old controversy about whether one should provide the rule first and then the examples, or vice versa, is now seem to be merely a matter of tactics to which

no categorical answer can be given”

Indeed, the combination of two approaches to presenting grammatical rules both provides students with more active learning environment and prevents them from inducing inaccurate rules for themselves

1.5 Grammar teaching in the major teaching methods

Along the history of language teaching methodology, different teaching methods have perceived grammar differently, especially its role and its teaching methods In this study, the researcher intends to present the teaching of grammar in four major teaching methods, namely Grammar-Translation method, Direct Method, Audio-lingual Method and Communicative Language Teaching approach

The Grammar-Translation Method derived from traditional approaches to the teaching of Latin and Greek in the nineteenth century This method used grammar as the starting point for instruction The class under this method began with explicit grammar rules presentation, followed by practices involving translation into and out of the student‟s mother tongue (grammar is taught deductively) Students‟ native language is the language

of instructions and mistakes and errors must be avoided at any cost The syllabus used was structural syllabus (Richards and Rogers, 2002) Briefly, in this method grammar is considered essential in foreign language teaching and there is an attempt to teach it in an

organized and systematic way The best point of this method is that it helps learners produce grammatically correct sentences and is easily used in large-sized classes; however, learners taught with this method find it difficult to communicate in real life and tend to be passive recipients of knowledge

The Direct method emerged to challenge the way Grammar-Translation Method focused exclusively on written language The basic premise of the Direct Method was that one should attempt to learn a second language in much the same way as children learn their first language The method emphasized oral interaction, spontaneous use of language, no translation between first and second languages, and therefore rejected explicit grammar teaching Grammar is taught inductively in the target language by asking and answering questions between teachers and students in small and intensive classes (Richards and Rogers, 2002) An advantage of the Direct method is that learning in the target language enables students to think in the target language Beside, it may be advantageous to a teacher using this method not to know his students‟ native language However, the complete avoidance of students‟ native language may lead to the misunderstanding of rules and frustration from students

Evolving from the work of structural linguists and behavioral psychologists, the Audio-lingual approach proposes that language performance consists of a set of habits in the use of language structures and patterns Grammar is taught inductively with little or no grammatical explanations Dialogues and drills form the basis of audio-lingual classroom practice After a dialogue has been presented and memorized, specific grammatical patterns in the dialogue are selected and become the focus of various kinds of drills and pattern-practice exercises The focus of instruction rarely moves beyond the sentence level (Celce-Murcia, 1991) It is important to prevent learner from making errors because errors lead to the formation of bad habits When errors occur, they should be corrected immediately by the teacher The strong point of this method is that students can develop listening and speaking proficiency at the same time they learn new structures; however, the explicit use of the target language often leads to time consuming and students might get bored with mechanical repetition or become well-trained parrots

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), which views language as an instrument

of communication, has been the dominant language teaching methodology since the 1970s There exist two versions of CLT: weak version and strong version The weak version of CLT argues that an explicit focus on forms has an important –but not primary- role to play in second language learning and aims at using grammar and vocabulary to achieve communicative goals Whereas, the strong version of CLT rejects grammar teaching when they argues that attention to forms is not necessary; learner can acquire an implicit understanding of grammar by using the language in a system of meaningful tasks Concerning the teaching of grammar, Celce-Murcia (1988, p.27) introduces four stages of

mid-a grmid-ammmid-ar lesson in the light of CLT: Presentmid-ation, Focused prmid-actice, Communicmid-ative practice, and Teacher feedback and correction In the presentation stage, a grammar structure is introduced inductively or deductively In the focused practice, the learners manipulate the structure in question so as to gain control of the form for communication The next stage is communicative practice in which learners practice the target structure by engaging in communicative activities such as information gap, role-play, discussion… Although teacher feedback and correction is the final stage, it must take place throughout the lesson as Celce-Murcia (1988, p.28) states that “during the second part of the lesson, correction should be predominantly straightforward and immediate During the third part, however, communication should not be interrupted Instead, teachers should take not of errors and deal with them after the communicative exercises.”

1.6 Conclusion

In this chapter, the researcher has presented a number of issues related to the research questions These include the definitions of grammar, the roles of grammar in language teaching, two approaches to grammar teaching, two approaches to grammar instruction as well as the teaching of grammar in some teaching methods This literature review serves as the theoretical framework for the researcher to build up two sets of questionnaires, then to analyze the data collected as well as to suggest some pedagogical implications for the teaching and learning of grammar at Doi Can high school The next chapter will provide the readers with the information about the context and methodology of the study

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 Overview of the current situation of teaching and learning English at Doi Can High School

2.1.1 The school context

Doi Can high school was founded seven years ago as a result of the increasing demand to go to school of the students in the area At the time of foundation, there were few students choosing to learn in this school because most of the students chose to study in

a more prestigious school not far from this school However, the school has gradually built

up its prestige; more and more students applied study in the school The school has 28 classrooms, a small library and a computer-equipped room

Concerning the students, when entering grade 10, they can choose to pursue one of three streams: the Natural Science Stream, the Social Science Stream and the Basic Stream English is one of the compulsory subjects for students in the high school Students who choose the Basic Stream or the Natural Science Stream study English in three periods and those who choose the Social Science Stream learn English in five periods a week (each period lasts forty five minutes) All students at Doi Can high school had studied English for four years at the secondary school and they used the new English textbooks designed

by the MOET There is a fact that most of the students at Doi Can high school choose to pursue the Natural Science Stream; therefore, English is not their favorite subject They learn English just to pass the school exams

In terms of teaching materials, the textbooks used for teaching English at the school are “English 10, 11, and 12” by the MOET These new English textbooks are divided into two sets: the standard textbooks and the advanced textbooks The standard textbooks are intended for students studying in the Basic stream and Natural Science Stream The advanced textbooks are for those who study in the Social Science Stream These textbooks are designed to aim at developing students‟ communicative competence

With regarding to teaching staff, there are six teachers of English whose ages range from 23 to 47, two males and four females Among them, four older teachers graduated from College of Pedagogy of Vinh phuc and took part in a four-year course to get a university degree These teachers have a great deal of teaching experience, but they are familiar with the Grammar-Translation teaching method Two younger teachers, aged 23

and 26, graduated from Vietnam National University, College of Foreign Languages All the teachers are enthusiastic and supportive to their students and to one another

2.1.2 The new textbook English 10 (the standard textbook) and its Language Focus

section

 The new textbook English 10 (the standard textbook)

The new textbook English 10 was developed based on the new national curriculum

The book is claimed to adopt a theme-based syllabus However, this syllabus may be more appropriately described as a „multi-strand‟ one since there is almost everything in it: topics, tasks, functions, notions, skills, grammar, vocabulary and sounds The methodologies the book is claimed to follow are the “learner-centered approach and the communicative

approach with task-based teaching being the central teaching method” (English 10,

Teacher‟s Manual, p.12) This textbook is accompanied with cassette tapes, student‟s workbook and teacher‟s manual

There are 16 teaching units and six review units in the book Each teaching unit covers one topic and is structured into five sections: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing and Language Focus Each section is supposed to be taught in one period of 45 minutes The sixteen topics are derived from six themes: You and me, Education, Community, Health, Recreation, The world around us

 The Language Focus section in the new textbook English 10:

The Language Focus section in the new textbook English 10 includes two parts:

Pronunciation and Grammar and Vocabulary The Pronunciation part focuses on practice

of sounds (vowels and consonants) These sounds are firstly practiced in isolated words and then repeated in sentences The Grammar and Vocabulary part aims to consolidate the target forms covered in the unit There are usually from one to three grammatical items introduced in each unit These grammatical items are practiced in exercises such as sentence completion, sentence writing, change of verb forms, word formation and so on Most of the exercises in the grammar parts are the structural ones Grammatical items in the Language Focus section are presented in the appendix

2.2 Methodology

2.2.1 Research questions

In order to find out the reality of teaching and learning grammar in the Language Focus lessons at Doi Can high school, the research focuses on answering four following questions:

1 How do the teachers and the students at Doi Can High School perceive the importance of grammar teaching and learning?

2 How do the teachers teach and the students learn grammar in the Language Focus lessons?

3 Does the teaching and learning of grammar in the Language Focus lessons match the new teaching methodology underlying the new textbook?

4 What are the difficulties in teaching and learning grammar in the Language Focus

lessons as perceived by the teachers and the students?

2.2.2 Subjects of the study

The subjects of the study consisted of 6 teachers of English and 135 students at Doi Can high school in Vinh Phuc

Six teachers (aged from 24 to 46) who are currently teaching English at Doi Can high school were chosen as the subjects of the study Among these teachers, four were teaching grade 10 at the time of delivering the questionnaire; two teachers taught tenth graders the previous academic year Four teachers with more than ten years of teaching experience graduated from College of Pedagogy of Vinh phuc and took part in a four-year course at university to get a part-time degree The two teachers, who have taught English for two years, graduated from Vietnam National University, College of Foreign Languages None of them has Master of Art degree

The target population of the students consisted of 450 grade 10 students at Doi Can high school in Vinh Phuc These students, aged from 16 to 17, belonged to ten classes They had already learnt English from grade 6 to grade 9 at secondary school by the new series of English textbooks before entering high schools At high school, they all pursued the Basic Stream and studied English by the new standard English 10 textbook Each class has three English lessons a week There is an important fact 73% of these grade 10 students got the marks under five in English test in the high school entrance exam The researcher employed a cluster random sampling technique to select the sample for the study The reason was that it was difficult and time-consuming to select a random sample

of individuals and gather these subjects because they had been already assigned to different classes with different timetables In this case, according to Fraenkel and Wallen (2003), cluster random sampling was more feasible Besides, with regard to the sample size, Fraenkel and Wallen (2003) noted that “samples should be as large as researcher can obtain with reasonable expenditure of time and energy A recommended minimum number

of subjects is 100 for a descriptive study” They also pointed out that a common error made

by beginning researchers is randomly selecting only one cluster as a sample, which provides unreliable results With the above reasons, the researchers decided to randomly select three classes First, she wrote the numbers of classes from 10A1 to 10A10 on ten cards respectively and put them in a hat After mixing the cards thoroughly, she randomly took out three cards The numbers chosen were 10A2, 10A5, and 10A10 The total numbers of students from these three classes were 135 students

2.2.3 Data collection instruments

The researcher intended to collect the same information about the reality of teaching and learning grammar in the Language Focus lessons at Doi Can School from three sources: questionnaire, classroom observation, and interview with the hope to guarantee the reliability and the objectiveness of the study

2.2.3.1 Survey questionnaire

To gather data for this study, two questionnaires were administrated to the respondents: one for the students and the other for the teachers The questionnaires were tested with a sample of three teachers and fifteen students for feedback on interpretation and any ambiguities After analyzing the data in the piloted study, the final and formal questionnaires were established

 Survey questionnaire for the students

The questionnaire designed for the students was distributed to them in the middle

of the second term All questions and their items were written in Vietnamese to make sure that the students have a clear understanding of the questions and answers before they give out their choices Furthermore, using their native language the students were able to express their thought more easily in open-ended questions The questionnaire consisted of two parts One was intended to collect personal information of the participants, such as

their age, gender, years of learning English Part two of the questionnaire consisted of 9 questions both close and open-ended questions The purpose of the questionnaire was to investigate:

- the students‟ general attitudes towards learning English

- their perceptions on the importance of grammar teaching and learning

- their opinions about the grammar parts in the new standard textbook English 10

- their evaluation of grammar teaching in the Language Focus lessons

- their ways of learning grammar in the Language Focus lessons

- their difficulties in learning grammar in the Language Focus lessons

 Survey questionnaire for the teachers

The survey questionnaire for the teachers had two main parts which were written in English The first part was to get personal information including the teachers‟ gender, age and years of teaching English The second one that consisted of 9 questions was about:

- the teachers‟ perceptions on the importance of grammar teaching and learning

- their opinions about the grammar parts in the new standard textbook English 10

- their methods to teach grammar in the Language Focus lessons, particularly with regard to the following:

 their methods of presenting grammar structures

 their language of grammar instructions

 their ways of helping the students to practice grammar

 their techniques of correcting grammar errors

- their difficulties in teaching grammar in the Language Focus lessons

2.2.3.2 Classroom observation

Along with two survey questionnaires for the teachers and the students, classroom observation was also applied The purpose of observation in the context of the present study was not to evaluate the teaching and learning Rather, observing the teachers in action in this study was aimed at discovering how the teachers and students taught and learnt grammar in the actual classroom This can help the researcher to double check the validity and reliability of the data that was collected through the questionnaires and also gain more information concerning the research questions The observation was carried out

in the Language Focus lessons of four random classes before and after the questionnaires Each class was observed in one lesson The researcher acted as non-participant in the class and took notes about the teachers‟ and students‟ activities during the lessons

2.2.3.3 Interview

The formal interviews used in this study were structured ones Structured interviews were carried out with a group of 12 students chosen from the sample on the basis of accessibility and the six teachers The language of the interviews was Vietnamese with the belief that the participants would feel more comfortable to express their opinions and judgments The questions in the interviews which were mainly based on those in the questionnaires were open-ended questions to get information about the students‟ and the teachers‟ suggestions to improve the teaching and learning of grammar in the Language Focus lessons

2.2.4 Data collection procedure

All the participants were informed in Vietnamese about the purposes, methods and requirements of the collection of data to make sure they were clear about what they would have to do and were willing to participate in the study

Two set of questionnaires - one for teachers and one for students - were distributed

to 135 students and 6 teachers of English at Doi Can high schools when they were dealing with unit 14 of the new textbook English 10 To reduce the pressure of time, the participants were allowed to finish the questionnaires at home in one week After one week

of delivering, all 141 copies were collected

The classroom observation was also implemented in four random classes for over one month, both before and after the delivery of the questionnaires

The interviews were conducted with the teachers at the teachers‟ resting room when they had free time The researcher also invited the 12 students to the waiting room with their teachers‟ permission to ask them several questions The contents of the interviews were taken notes by the researcher

2.2.5 Data analysis procedure

Data collected from three different sources were analyzed under four main items: (1) the teachers‟ and the students‟ perceptions on the importance of grammar teaching and

learning, (2) the ways the teachers teach grammar in the Language Focus lessons, (3) the ways the students learn grammar in the Language Focus lessons, (4) the difficulties that the teachers and the students face in teaching and learning grammar in Language Focus lessons The quantitative data were presented in the form of tables while the qualitative data collected from open-ended questionnaires and interviews were presented by quoting relevant responses Then the data were analyzed both descriptively and interpretively

2.3 Conclusion

This chapter presented the context and the methodology of the study Concerning the context of the study, some characteristics of the school such as the teaching and learning conditions, the students, the teaching staff and the overall information about the new textbook English 10 were mentioned In the methodology part, the research questions, the subjects, the instruments, and data collection and data analysis procedures were described in detail To obtain the aim and objectives of the study, two questionnaires, classroom observation and interview were used

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter is divided into five main parts The first part presents the findings from questionnaires for the teachers and the students; the second part analyzing the findings from class observation while the third part deals with findings from the interviews The fourth part is devoted to discussing the findings of the study in correspondence with the four proposed research questions The last part is an overall conclusion of this chapter

3.1 Findings from questionnaires for the teachers and the students

3.1.1 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions on the importance of grammar teaching and learning

Question 1 Teachers (%) Students (%)

 The teachers’ perceptions on the importance of grammar teaching

As can be seen from table 1, all of the teachers (100%) expressed that grammar is very important to the foreign language teaching and learning Their reasons for thinking so were varied Firstly, grammar is seen to be very important if students want to succeed in doing exercises or in taking examinations at the school by two teachers (33.3%) Secondly, three teachers (50%) believed that grammar helps students not only to pass examinations but also to express their ideas and opinions Thirdly, one teacher (16.7%) thought that in order to learn the four skills of English, students should master English grammar

 The students’ perceptions on the importance of grammar learning

From the results in table 1, it is clear that the students responded positively to the question concerning the importance of grammar, with all of the students thinking that

grammar is either very important or important Their reasons for the necessity of grammar were very much similar to those expressed by the teachers The majority of the students emphasized the role of grammar in helping them to do the exercises or pass the exams Besides, some students said that mastery of grammar facilitates them in learning language skills and makes them confident in communications Below is what they said:

- Mastery of grammar helps me get high marks in the exams

- Grammar is an important part of every test at school If I want to do the test well, I have to know grammar structures

- Because without grammar, we can’t do the exercises that the teachers gave us

- Knowing grammar helps me express my ideas clearly

- Grammar helps me to learn language skills, especially speak and write English correctly

From the above findings, it can be concluded that all the teachers and the students had a positive attitudes towards the necessity of grammar teaching and learning Besides communicative purposes, exam success is the main reason for their high attention to grammar It is can be explained by the fact that even though grammar and four language skills were taught and learnt at the same time at school, it was grammar that was mainly tested in the school exams Apparently, this fact affects the ways grammar was taught and learnt in the classroom

3.1.2 The teachers’ and the students’ opinions about the grammar parts in the new English textbook

Options Teachers (%) Students (%)

common comment of 50% of the teachers and 52% of the students that the grammar parts are normal It is not surprising when a considerable number of the teachers and the students found this part monotonous and boring, 33.3% and 29.5% respectively, because all grammar exercises in the textbook are structural ones without any pictures or communicative tasks This indicates the negative attitudes towards the grammar parts in the new textbook Only 16.7% of the teachers and 18.5% of the students expressed their satisfaction with the grammar parts

The level of difficulty of the grammar exercises to the students was also questioned

3.1.3 The teachers’ methods of teaching grammar in the Language Focus lessons

 Teachers’ methods of presenting grammar

The responses to the question about the teachers‟ ways of presenting grammar were

presented in table 4 below:

D Other ways: ……… 0

Table 4: Teachers’ methods of presenting grammar

Even though deductive approach often makes the class atmosphere a bit boring, it is time-saving This may be the reason why a high percentage of the teachers (66.6%) declared that they used deductive approach in comparison to 16.7 % using inductive approach to present grammar Within forty five minutes, the teachers have to do too much work, so going straight to the points is their best choice Combination of the two approaches means that teachers confirm the rules after they give examples containing grammar rules and elicit those rules from students Though this combination both makes the students feel involved in the lessons and helps them avoid any misunderstandings, only one teacher (16.7%) usually taught grammar in this way

 Teachers’ ways of giving grammar instructions

Teachers (%)

C Sometimes explain in English and sometimes in Vietnamese 33.3

D Explain grammar structures in English and then translate into

Table 5: Teachers’ ways of giving grammar instructions

As can be seen from table 5, when teaching grammar in the Language Focus lessons, the number of the teachers who usually used Vietnamese as the language of grammar instructions rated the highest, at 50% As described in the previous part, the majority of the grade 10 students got the marks under 5 in English in the high school entrance exam It means that English proficiency level of these students is rather low If the teachers tried to explain grammar structures in English, their students might not understand This may also be the reason why only 33.3% of the teacher explained grammar

sometimes in English and sometimes in Vietnamese and the same percentage of the teachers stated the rules in English first but then they had to translate into Vietnamese so as

to make sure that the students could fully grasp the use and meaning of new structures No teachers solely presented grammar rules in English

 Teachers’ grammar practice activities

Frequently (%)

Occasionally (%)

Rarely (%)

Never (%)

A Ask students to do written grammar

exercises in the textbook

B Ask students to do written grammar

exercises that you designed or

adapted from the textbook

C Ask students to do translation exercises

from English into Vietnamese and

E Ask students to engage in

communicative activities such as

information gap, role-play, discussion,

etc

Table 6: Teachers’ grammar practice activities – Frequency of use

As seen from table 6 above, written grammar exercises in the textbook appears to

be the most frequently used activity with 100% of the teachers claiming to frequently resort to it, followed closely by translation exercises with 66.6% of the teachers occasionally using it The high percentage of the teachers using grammar exercises in the textbook indicated their maximum dependence on the textbook This reality was further evidenced by the fact that 66.7% reported that they rarely designed or adapted the exercises for the students It is noteworthy that communicative activities and games or puzzles rate

as the most seldom used activities, with 100% and 83.3% of the teachers admitting to never or rarely use them respectively

 Teachers’ techniques of dealing with the students’ errors

Frequently (%)

Occasionally (%)

Rarely (%)

Never (%)

B Help students to find out and

correct their own errors

Table 7: Tteachers’ techniques of dealing with students’ errors

Based on these results, helping the students to correct their errors is by far the most used correcting technique, which was frequently employed by 83.3% and occasionally used by 16.7% of the teachers 33.3% of the teachers usually corrected the students‟ errors

on their own and 66.7% of the teachers occasionally did this Asking the students to do peer-correcting appears to be the least used technique with only 33.3% of the respondents adhering to it It is also interesting to note that none of the teachers ignored the students‟ errors

 Factors affect the ways teachers teach grammar in the Language Focus lessons

In order to determine factors that affect teachers‟ decisions, the teachers were presented with a list of eight factors and asked to access how important each of these factors were to them personally in deciding how to teach and the type of activities to use Their responses to this question are shown in table 8:

The most important (%)

The least important (%)

Not important

at all (%)

E Availability of materials 50 33.3 16.7

G Innovation goals and requirements 16.7 33.3 50

Table 8: Factors influencing the way the teachers teach grammar

Based on these results, the teachers‟ own perceptions on the students‟ level of English proficiency seems to be the most influential factor behind their decisions in the classrooms, closely followed by time allowance (83.3%) and availability of materials (50%) The teachers appeared to be slightly influenced by the nature of grammar structures

to be presented and their students‟ interests, with percentages of 33.3 and 33.3 respectively Their personal beliefs (16.7%) and innovation goals and requirements (16.7%) had little impact on the ways the teachers teach grammar It is interesting to note that the way other colleagues teach rates as the least important factor with a percentage of

100, followed by innovation goals and requirements and availability of materials

3.1.4 The students’ ways of learning grammar in the language focus lessons

 Students’ evaluations of the grammar teaching and learning in the Language Focus lessons

Questions 4 and 5 in the questionnaire for the students investigated their evaluation

of grammar teaching in the Language Focus lessons The results of their responses were presented in two tables below:

the Language Focus lessons is less than those having vague understanding, with the percentages of 29.6 and 60 respectively It is a warning for the teachers to know that the proportion of the students who don‟t understand the grammar structures after the lessons accounted for 10.4%

Table 10: The students’ impressions of grammar lessons

The results from table 10 shows that in contrast to a few students thinking grammar lessons as interesting and relaxing, most of the students reporting that grammar lessons were boring (51%) and stressful (67.4%) The majority of these students specified their opinions as follows:

- My teacher usually urged me to do the exercises quickly So I just applied the forms

of the structures to do the exercises but didn’t have time to think why

- Every lesson, my teacher came in and explained the grammar and asked us to do exercises in the textbook

- When I hadn’t understood the first grammar structure yet, my teacher moved to the second one The lesson was very fast

 Students’ preferences for the teachers’ grammar presentation methods

Table 11: Students’ preferences for the teachers’ grammar presentation methods

Table 11 reveals the variety in the students‟ preferences for the teachers‟ teaching methods It is significant that the students who wished their teachers to combine both deductive and inductive approaches when introducing new grammar structures made up

45% of the total respondents The findings also indicate that the percentage of the students preferring to induce the rules for themselves was much higher than for those wanting their teachers to state grammar rules straightforward (32% compared to 23%) These figures suggest the students‟ desire for becoming more active in the grammar lessons

 Students’ favorite grammar practice activities

Students (%)

A Do written grammar exercises in the textbook 84.4

B Do written grammar exercises that their teachers

designed or adapted from the textbook

9.6

C Do translation exercises from English into Vietnamese

and vice versa

35.5

Table 12: Students’ favourite grammar practice activities in the Language Focus lessons

Among the five activities mentioned in the question, doing the written grammar exercises in the textbook is the most preferable activity which was chosen by 84.4% of the students The next highly rated activity which 78.5% of the students wanted to do is engaging in communicative tasks In the third place, playing games or puzzles was loved

by 68.9% of the total respondents It is also worth mentioning here that 48 out of 135 students (35.5%) showed their interests in doing translation exercises, from English into Vietnamese and vice versa, while doing adapted exercises rates as the least favorable activity, with only 9.6% of the students claiming to like it

3.1.5 Difficulties in teaching and learning grammar in the Language Focus lessons as perceived by the teachers and the students

 Difficulties as perceived by the teachers

Difficulties Teachers (%)

C C Too many grammar structures to be taught in one lesson 83.3

D Students‟ low level of English proficiency 66.7

F Lack of students‟ interest in learning grammar 66.7

G Lack of conducive facilities (reference books, projectors…) 50

Table 13: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching grammar in the Language Focus lessons

It is not surprising to find out that the biggest difficulty the teachers (100%) faced

in teaching grammar is the shortage of time This can be explained that during a forty-five minute lesson, they have to deal with not only grammar but also pronunciation, which takes them a great deal of time

Besides the time constraint, a considerable number of the teachers (83.3%) complained that they have to deal with too many grammar structures in one lesson This difficulty really confuses the teachers On one hand, if the teachers try to cover all grammar structures within one lesson, they will have to speed up the lessons, which results

in the students‟ lack of understandings On the other hand, if the teachers want to explain grammar items carefully to the students, they may end up in failure to finish the lessons as required

Additionally, 66.7% of the teachers who responded to this question noted lack of students‟ interest to be a major obstacle in teaching grammar Therefore, besides teaching grammar, motivating students and keeping them interested in the lessons appeared to be the key problem that teachers faced

Students‟ low level of English proficiency is also a common difficulty encountered

by two thirds of the teachers (66.7%) As mentioned early, even though before entering the high school, the students had learned English for four years, their results in the high school entrance exam were not very good This may make the teachers feel that can‟t teach the students at the right level as prescribed by the new textbook for English 10

The number of the teacher who found it difficult to teach grammar in the language focus lessons because of the lack of conducive facilities accounted for 50% Indeed, it is

understandable when the teachers found little help from the available textbook and the teachers‟ manual as they offer no clear grammar rules and limited exercises and activities Furthermore, Doi Can high school is situated in the rural area; therefore, it is poorly equipped with a small library and one computer-equipped room for language learning This lack of resources forced teachers to limit themselves to using largely textbook-based activities

Large class size is the problem that was experienced by only two teachers (33.3%)

As described in the previous part, the class size at Doi Can high school was between 43 –

47 students, which negatively affected the teachers‟ teaching as they were unable to pay individual attention to students and control the classes

 Difficulties as perceived by the students

A Lack of time to do grammar exercises in class 83

B Few opportunities to use the grammar structures to

communicate

77

E Learning too many grammar structures in each lesson 56.3

Table 14: Students’ difficulties in learning grammar in the Language Focus lessons

Table 14 presents the difficulties that the students had in learning grammar in the Language Focus lessons The biggest problem faced by 83% of the students is that they do not have enough time to practice grammar structures in the exercises in the textbook Also, many of them (77%) confessed that they have few chances to apply what they have learnt

in communications Similar to 83.3% of the teachers, 56.3% of the students found that they have to learn too many grammar items within forty-five minute lessons It is a common difficulty of 47 respondents (34.8%) that their teachers‟ teaching methods do not help them much in learning grammar in the class Large class and lack of learning facilities did not

cause many difficulties to the learning of grammar in the Language Focus lessons as they are mentioned by only 11% and 14% of the students, respectively

3.2 Findings from class observations

During five weeks, the researcher visited four Language Focus lessons taught by four teachers at Doi Can high school The researcher acted as non-participant to observe how the teachers and the students actually taught and learnt grammar in the classrooms She took notes of the classroom procedures and activities in details After analyzing four class observation notes, she pointed out some following results

Firstly, similar to the data gained from questionnaire, the data from class observations reveal that the teachers mainly used Vietnamese to explain the use and meaning of grammar structures The way the teachers in all four class observation tried to explain the use and form of the grammar items illustrates this phenomenon

The class observations also show that the teachers did not have enough time to go through all the stages, from presentation to focused practice to communicative practice All

of the teachers observed just concentrated on the first two stages as they engaged in only presentation and controlled practice The teachers did not have chances to organize any communicative activities because they were in a repeated cycle of explanation and exercise A grammar lesson often began by the teachers‟ explaining the rules, with examples followed by an exercise from the textbook There were no instances of free production Most of the class time, the students were asked to do the written exercises to remember the forms of the target grammar structures rather than to use the language for communications

In my observations, when teaching grammar structures, instead of providing the

students with examples and opportunities to be exposed to the new structures and letting them induce the rules by themselves; three out of four teachers stated the rules right at the beginning Out of total eight grammar structures taught in four Language Focus lessons, six structures were presented deductively to the students Inductive method was just found

in the lesson where there was a must to present only one grammar structure It can be inferred that the pressure to cover all knowledge required to transfer to the students pushed