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

Based on the findings of the study, some practical recommendations are derived for the application of communicative activitives so that it can help teachers teach grammar better.

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

grammar learning

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF GRAPHS vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the study 3

1.3 Research questions 3

1.4 Scope of the study 3

1.5 Significance of the study 3

1.6 Outline of the study 3

CHAPTER II- LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Attitudes 5

2.1.1 Definition of attitude 5

2.1.2 Attitude change 6

2.2 The role of attitudes in language learning 7

2.3 Ways that help to change students’ attitudes 8

2.3.1 Oral grammar practice creating teaching techniques 8

2.3.2 Narrowing the gap between teaching style and learning style 9

2.4 Grammar teaching from a CLT perspective 10

2.5 The role of oral grammar practice in grammar teaching 12

2.5.1 Definition of oral grammar practice 12

2.5.2 Classification of oral practice activities in teaching and learning grammar .13 2.6 Conclusion 23

CHAPTER III : METHODOLOGY 24

3.1 Study design 24

3.2 Research questions 24

3.3 Subjects of the study 24

3.4 Data collection instruments 25

3.4.1 Questionnaires 25

3.4.2 Interviews 26

3.5 Study procedures 26

3.6 Data analysis 27

CHAPTER IV- DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 28

4.1.Questionnaires 28

4.1.1 Data analysis of the students’ experiment questionnaires 28

4.1.2 Comparison of students’ attitudes towards grammar learning between pre-experiment questionnaire and post- pre-experiment questionnaire 41

4.2 Interviews 42

4.2.1 Pre- treatment interview 42

4.2.2 Post- treatment interview 43

4.3 Discussion 44

4.4 Summary 45

CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION 46

5.1 Summary and conclusion: 46

5.2 Limitations of the study: 46

5.3 Suggestions for further study: 47 REFERENCES I APPENDICES III Appendix 1: Pre - experiment questionnaire on English grammar learning III Appendix 2: Phiếu điều tra tiền thử nghiệm việc học ngữ pháp tiếng Anh VI Appendix 3: Post - experiment questionnaire on English grammar learning .X Appendix 4: Phiếu điều tra sau thử nghiệm học ngữ pháp tiếng Anh XIII Appendix 5: Pre - experiment interview XVI Appendix 6: Phỏng vấn tiền thử nghiệm XVII Appendix 7: Post - experiment interview XVIII Appendix 8: Phỏng vấn sau thử nghiệm XIX

I certify that this minor thesis entitled “A study on how oral practice can change

TNH 10 th graders' attitudes towards grammar learning ” is submited in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts is the results of my own work, exceptwhere otherwise acknowledge and that this minor thesis or any part of the same has notbeen submitted for higher degree to any other University or Institution

Hanoi, 3/2009

Signature

Nguyen Thi Chuc Ha

I am, first of all, particularly indebted to my supervisor, Ms Nguyen Bach Thao, MAfor her invaluable advice, instructions and correction, excellent suggestions and constantencouragement during the research period Without her guidance and help, this workwould not have been accomplished

Secondly, my sincere thanks also go to all lecturers and staff of the department ofPost- Graduate studies for their valuable lessons and precious helps Thanks to theirlessons as well as needed helps, I could overcome enormous obstacles when doing thestudy

Besides, I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to my colleagues and my students atTran Nguyen Han High School who have participated in this research and many otherswho helped me during my study at Tran Nguyen Han High School

Last but not least, I would like to convey my deepest gratitude to my husband, mychildren, and my parents for their constant support and thorough understanding.Their greatencouragement and love have helped me to overcome the difficulties during my study

As far as I’m concerned, grammar is central to the teaching and learning of languages

It is also one of the most difficult aspects of language to teach students perfectly.At TranNguyen Han High School where many English teachers prefer traditional approaches inteaching grammar, students seem not to pay attention to their study and show negativeattitudes towards learning This study is therefore conducted with the hope to find outwhether communicative approach helps students change their attitudes towards grammarlearning

So as to reach this aim, the study sets out to test the hypothesis that oral grammarpractice can change students’ attitudes towards grammar learning The study is applied to

200 students at 10 C1, 10 C2, 10 C3, 10 C4-Tran Nguyen Han High School, Hai PhongCity.The data is collected through interviews , questionnaires By doing this, we cancompare the changes of students’ attitudes towards grammar learning

Findings show that students have positive attitudes towards the use of oral grammarpractice in grammar lessons Moreover, students can absorb grammar rules as they hearand use the language through oral communicative activities And they remark that the use

of communicative activities in grammar lessons helps them acquire grammar moreefficiently This way of teaching grammar may be a good solution for the 10th gradestudents in particular and other graders in general

Based on the findings of the study, some practical recommendations are derived forthe application of communicative activitives so that it can help teachers teach grammarbetter It is also hoped that this study will provide an effective way of teaching grammarand thanks to it, students at Tran Nguyen Han High School will be more interested inlearning grammar to gain a better result

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF GRAPHS vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the study 3

1.3 Research questions 3

1.4 Scope of the study 3

1.5 Significance of the study 3

1.6 Outline of the study 3

CHAPTER II- LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Attitudes 5

2.1.1 Definition of attitude 5

2.1.2 Attitude change 6

2.2 The role of attitudes in language learning 7

2.3 Ways that help to change students’ attitudes 8

2.3.1 Oral grammar practice creating teaching techniques 8

2.3.2 Narrowing the gap between teaching style and learning style 9

2.4 Grammar teaching from a CLT perspective 10

2.5 The role of oral grammar practice in grammar teaching 12

2.5.1 Definition of oral grammar practice 12

2.5.2 Classification of oral practice activities in teaching and learning grammar .13 2.6 Conclusion 23

CHAPTER III : METHODOLOGY 24

3.1 Study design 24

3.2 Research questions 24

3.3 Subjects of the study 24

3.4 Data collection instruments 25

3.4.1 Questionnaires 25

3.4.2 Interviews 26

3.5 Study procedures 26

3.6 Data analysis 27

CHAPTER IV- DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 28

4.1.Questionnaires 28

4.1.1 Data analysis of the students’ experiment questionnaires 28

4.1.2 Comparison of students’ attitudes towards grammar learning between pre-experiment questionnaire and post- pre-experiment questionnaire 41

4.2 Interviews 42

4.2.1 Pre- treatment interview 42

4.2.2 Post- treatment interview 43

4.3 Discussion 44

4.4 Summary 45

CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION 46

5.1 Summary and conclusion: 46

5.2 Limitations of the study: 46

5.3 Suggestions for further study: 47 REFERENCES I APPENDICES III Appendix 1: Pre - experiment questionnaire on English grammar learning III Appendix 2: Phiếu điều tra tiền thử nghiệm việc học ngữ pháp tiếng Anh VI Appendix 3: Post - experiment questionnaire on English grammar learning .X Appendix 4: Phiếu điều tra sau thử nghiệm học ngữ pháp tiếng Anh XIII Appendix 5: Pre - experiment interview XVI Appendix 6: Phỏng vấn tiền thử nghiệm XVII Appendix 7: Post - experiment interview XVIII

Appendix 8: Phỏng vấn sau thử nghiệm XIX

LIST OF GRAPHS

Graph 1: Students’ opinions of the importance of English grammar for language learning Graph 2 : The reasons why English grammar is important in language learning.

Graph 3: Students’ opinions of learning English grammar.

Graph 4: Students’ impression of learning English grammar at school.

Graph 5 : Factors influence students’ attitudes towards grammar learning.

Graph 6 : Students’ opinions of English grammar teaching at school.

Graph 7 : Teaching techniques to present a new English grammar structure.

Graph 8 : Activities students get involved in class to practise new grammar structures Graph 9 : Students’ expectations

Graph 10 : Oral English grammar practice makes English grammar lessons more lively,

interesting and stimulate students to learn English

Graph 11: Oral grammar activities students got involved in.

Graph 12 : Ranking oral grammar activities according to students’ preference.

Graph 13 : Frequency of students’ involvement in oral grammar activities.

Graph 14 : Students’ preference with regard to oral grammar activities organization Graph 15: Students’ difficulties when doing grammar practice orally.

Graph 16: Students’ opinions of oral grammar activities.

Graph 17: The usefulness of oral grammar practice in students’ language learning.

Graph 18: Students’ preference in oral grammar practice in the coming time.

Graph 19: Reasons for continuing oral grammar practice in the coming time.

Graph 20: Reasons for not continuing oral grammar practice in the coming time.

CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

It has widely been accepted in language teaching and learning that grammar structuresare very important because they make up the skeleton of a language Without grammar,words hang together with no real meaning or sense So as to be able to use a language tosome degree of proficiency, we need to master some grammatical knowledge Grammar is

an important and necessary part in students’ learning because it forms the basis for thedevelopment of four skills: reading skill, speaking skill, listening skill and writing skill.Students, with good grammar mastery, not only produce sentences grammatically but alsoacquire the ability to apply grammatical knowledge in certain contexts to express theirthoughts and feelings as well as to receive feedback By teaching grammar, teachers notonly give students the means to express themselves, but also fulfill students’ expectations

of what learning a foreign language involves

However, how to teach grammar effectively is not very easy and it is of constantconcern of high school teachers So far, a great number of studies have been conducted toassist teachers and students in teaching and acquiring English grammar

Research and teaching practice have revealed that there’s a close relation betweenteaching methods and learners’ attitudes towards learning, which in turn have greatinfluence on the learning results This study, therefore, is carried out to investigate how theshift from traditional methods to communicative ones affect the attitudes towards Englishgrammar at Tran Nguyen Han High school

When teaching grammar, teachers of English at Tran Nguyen Han High School seem toprefer traditional teaching methods in which grammar rules are taught deductively because

of the great influence on teaching habit caused by Haiphong environment and the formerobjectives of teaching The common practice of some senior teachers is just giving theexplanation of new words and grammar structures, asking students to learn by heart andmake sentences, reading the structures, texts or conversations aloud, asking students torepeat and in general making students passive Even younger teachers rarely organizecommunicative activities in their lessons because they are afraid of making noise whichmay influence the neighbouring classes and also they find it difficult to control the classthen That’s why teachers seem to be interested in giving students a lot of written exercises

to do in class This makes students have no interests in learning grammar at all Studentsoften do their grammar exercises reluctantly and passively.

The fact is that the 10th grade students at Tran Nguyen Han High School have lots ofdifficulties in learning grammar They are taught grammar through repetition and writtenexercises Students are required to repeat the models and memorize the rules Lasen-Freeman (2005) points out that such activities in class are boring and not effective Furthermore, many teachers approach grammar far too seriously, with unsmiling faces,particularly during the first phases of a new lesson when students are trying to grasp aninitial understanding of the form and meaning of the grammar structure

The shortage of useful materials and high technology equipment also makes students’learning slower and uninteresting According to Beatty(2003: 248), if a language learnercan make use of high technology equipment such as a computer, his language will beimproved much more and faster

In terms of teaching schedule, the 10th grade students are currently required to attendonly one period (45 minutes) of grammar per week The students depend on the textbooks

In class, students do not have a chance to use grammar in communicative activities Theyare just asked to do grammar exercises in the textbooks after the teacher’s presentation andexplanation of a new grammar point and at home they have to do grammar exercises in theworkbooks without having them corrected because the teachers have no time for it It’sdifficult for teachers to finish their teaching successfully because of the time constraint, thelarge class size, and the students’ mixed level As the result, the students can producecorrect forms when doing exercises and taking tests, but consistently make errors whiletrying to produce their own free writing or speech It’s obvious that the students do notmaster grammar structures thoroughly And of course, this way of teaching and learningmay result in the students’ negative attitudes towards English grammar acquisition whichsurely hinders their language learning conduct

This situation also provides another good reason for the study to be conducted with thehope to identify whether oral practice can change positively Tran Nguyen Han High schoolstudents’ attitudes towards English grammar learning

1.2 Aims of the study

The purpose of this study is to investigate Tran Nguyen Han 10th grade students’attitudes towards grammar learning when grammar is practiced orally instead of throughwritten exercises

1.4 Scope of the study

Due to the time limit and financial constraint, the author was unable to carry out theinvestigation on a large scale The researcher, therefore, would like to focus on the realteaching and learning English grammar at Tran Nguyen Han High School, restricted to the

10th graders only

1.5 Significance of the study

The study was conducted with the expectation that its results would be useful forteachers of English at TNH High School Based on the finding, conclusion could be made

on whether oral grammar practice should be applied or not Hence, it could be aconsiderable contribution to teaching and learning English grammar effectively andenjoyablely at TNH High School

1.6 Outline of the study

I Introduction

This gives an overview of the study including the study background This provides abrief description of the thesis topic and information related to English grammar teachingand learning atTNH Upper Secondary School The aims, the research questions, the scope

of the study and the outline of the minor thesis are also included in this

II Literature review

This reviews the relevant literature related to the communicative language teachingmethods especially oral practice in English grammar teaching Particularly, the focuses onthe attitude change and the application of grammar oral practice to change students’attitudes in learning grammar

III Methodology

The actual procedures of the study are presented in this :Study design, subjects of thestudy, the data collection method, instruments as well as process of data collection and dataanalysis

IV Data analysis and discussion

This focuses on presenting, analyzing and discussing the results obtained from thestudy

V Conclusion

This provides the summary of the findings, some recommendations on how to teachEnglish grammar through oral practice at Tran Nguyen Han High School The conclusionand limitation of the study will also be presented in this

CHAPTER II- LITERATURE REVIEW

This focuses on some theoretical grounds of attitude and grammar teaching and

learning It consists of two parts The first part is concerned with major issues regardingattitudes, the roles of attitudes in language learning and factors that affect the attitudeschange The second one discusses communication approach in teaching grammar as well

as oral grammar practice

2.1 Attitudes

2.1.1 Definition of attitude

According to Hallorah (1967) , attitude represents an individual’s like or dislike for anitem Attitudes are positive, negative or neutral views of an “attitude object” i.e a teachingstyle, person, situation or event People can also be “ambivalent” towards a target, meaningthat they simultaneously possesses a positive and a negative bias towards the attitude inquestion

In Gibb’s opinion (1988) attitude is generally defined as a state of mind, which isinfluenced by feelings, experiences of the world and belief

Fazio (1986) states that attitude comprises of three components: “an affectivecomponent involving feelings about and evaluation of the object, a cognitive componentinvolving belief about the object and a behavioral intentions component”

The above definitions show people’s attitude towards certain referent object, abehavioral intentions component and a cognitive component involving belief about theobject In language learning, we can see students’ attitudes in their feelings and beliefabout the way of acting towards the lessons,learning style, teachers and the course books Briefly, attitudes have three main components : affective, behavioral and cognitive.The affective components are easily assessed by monitoring physiological signs such asheart rate whereas the behavioral aspects may be assessed by direct observation On theother hand, the cognitive aspects of attitude are generally measured by interviews, surveyand other reporting methods This study concentrates on affective and cognitivecomponents It relates to students’ feelings and belief about communicative teaching aswell as evaluation of grammar learning

2.1.2 Attitude change

According to Hovland (1973), attitude change is a response to communication.Listeners will keep positive attitudes if the communication is successful and interesting.Otherwise, negative attitudes of the listeners will be formed if the communication isunccessful and unattractive The success of communication depends on several factors.The first of these is the interest of the communicator of a message To get interest, thetasks and topic are very important A frequent change of topic not only makes everystudent get something that interests him or her sooner or later, but also helps to maintainstudents’ attention and motivation Further more, teachers should make sure that maximumlanguage use in fact takes place in every task To be effective, a communicator must havecredibility based on his or her perceived knowledge of the topic, and also be consideredtrustworthy The greater the students have perceived similarly between the audience andthe communicator, the greater the communicator’s effectiveness becomes

Hallorah (1967:60-61) states that formation and change of attitude are not two separatethings , but they are interwoven People always adopt, relinquish and modify attitudes to fitthe ever- changing needs and interests Simple education can’t change attitudes.Acceptance of new attitudes depends on who presents the knowledge, how it is presented,how the person is perceived, the credibility of the communicator, and the conditions bywhich the knowledge is received

In Sherif’s view (1975: 16) , we can understand that attitude will be changed based onhow a person sees the communication and the communicator Less commited people willchange ideas more frequently According to Hallorah (1967:60-61) ,attitude change alsohas to do with other personality characteristics such as susceptibility to persuasion,intelligence, readiness to accept change, ect We are more likely to accept information if

we feel the communicator has no intent to change our attitudes and opinions

Attitudes are expected to change as a function of experience Hereditary variables mayaffect attitudes- but believes that they may do so indirectly For example, if one inherits thedisposition to become an extrovert, this may affect one’s attitude to learning a foreignlanguage ( Tesser, 1993) Abelson (1968) argues that there are numerous theories ofattitude formation and attitude change such as Consistency theories, which imply that we

must be consistent in our beliefs and values Heider (1959) states that when beliefs areunbalanced, stress is created and there is pressure to change attitudes.

Attitudes can be changed by a number of sources including other people, media,family or other subject itself In 1968, McGuire developed steps to change an attitude.Thesteps are attention, comprehension, retention, yielding, and action Traindis (1971:144-

146 ) agrees that in analyzing the attitude –change process, we must consider the effect ofwho says what, how to whom, with what effect.According to him, attitudes change :

- When a person receives new information from others or media - Cognitive change.

- When a person is forced to behave in a way different from normal - Behavioral

be changed from negative to positive because oral grammar practice not only meets thedemands of communication but also supports students’ needs as well

2.2 The role of attitudes in language learning

Attitudes and learning go hand in hand Garder and Lamber (1972) all agree that “success in mastering a foreign language would depend not only on intellectual capacity andlanguage aptitude , but on one’s attitudes towards representatives of that language aswell” In fact, attitudes play an important role in students’ learning If they maintain apositive attitude, they will carry out their learning to the best of their ability and vice versa.Students’ attitudes have an effect on their classroom behaviour, learning style and learningresults

Lightbrown and Spada (1999) state that attitude is fundamental to the success or failurethat we experience in learning Depending on the learners’ attitudes, learning language can

be a source of enrichment or a sourse of resentment Agreeing with the role of attitudes,Brown (1994) says that language learners benefit from positive attitudes while negativeattitudes may lead to unsuccessful attainment of proficiency Moreover, Gardener (1985:41) emphasized that favourable attitudes would be expected to result in better performancethan negative attitudes If the students hold positive attitudes to learning, they will bewilling to participate in it This attitude will be helpful for them in their learning Marzano

et all (1994) mentioned the importance of positive attitude in learning that “withoutpositive attitudes and perceptions or holding negative attitudes towards the learning,students have little chance of learning proficiently, if at all”

In brief, it is clear that attitudes play an important role in learning so students will seethemselves achieving greater and greater result in language learning in general and ingrammar learning in particular whereas negative attitudes will hinder their learning

2.3 Ways that help to change students’ attitudes

2.3.1 Oral grammar practice creating teaching techniques

Eagly and Chaiken (1993) all claimed that students’ attitude in language learning ingeneral and grammar in particular may be influenced by oral practice because oral practicenot only brings students favourable feeling but also the belief in learning As mentioned in2.1.1 attitudes relate to cognitive and affective components A cognitive componentinvolves belief in the object; an affective component involves feeling towards the object.So

we can state that attitudes will be affected by oral practice

Attitude reflects an individual’s like or dislike for an item (see 2.1.1)- (Hallorah, 1967) Meanwhile, oral practice provides students positive attitudes in learning In other words,the relationship between interests and positive attitudes is claimed

Nunan (2007) emphasized that students’ interests may derive from oral grammarpractice because when involving in oral practice activites, students may change theemphasis or intonation of their sentences as they wish, use their facial expression, physicalmovement ect…This makes the lesson not only more lively but also more interesting , and

it also makes students more interested in learning Besides, personalization will increasestudents’ interest if students provide responses that are true for them.

In Ur’s view (1998) we can understand that when learners discuss issues with eachother, they will use the target language in a realistic manner This transmission of newideas encourages students to express their personal experiences, opinions and feelingswhich improve learners interests Pennington (1995) states that as learners increase theirinterests and their need to communicate with different individuals for different purposes,they require additional communicative resources

In summary, when grammar is taught and practiced as a means of communicationrather than as a means for correcting the mechanics and accuracy of sentences, it becomesmore purposeful so there is a more motivating focus for classroom learning Students aremore interested in learning Therefore, they will acquire more knowledge of grammar Thismeans that oral grammar practice brings positive attitudes towards grammar learning

2.3.2 Narrowing the gap between teaching style and learning style

Zhenhui (2001) emphasized that narrowing the gap between teaching style andlearning style is also necessary in attitude change because it plays an important role inenabling students to maximize their classroom experiences in favourable psychologicalstate

Nunan (1989) agrees that students will have positive attitudes if their subjective needsand perception related to the learning process are recognized by teachers This is echoed byKumaravadivelu (1991:98), who claims “ the narrower the gap between teacher intentionand the learners interpretation, the greater the chances of achieving desired learningoutcomes”

In order to narrow the gap between teaching style and learning style, there should be acompromise between teachers and students For teachers , they should find the suitableteaching style for the students.When teachers apply suitable teaching style, students willkeep positive attitudes towards their learning Kirkegaard (quoted in Larsen-Freeman,1997) proclaims that “ Real education begins when the teacher learns from astudent” This idea is also shared by Larsen- Freeman (1997), who stresses that “…theextent to which you (a teacher) are open to learning your students is the extent to whichyou are likely to meet with success in the classroom- because learning your students will

inform how you respond at a particular moments in the lessons” Things that teachersusually learn from the students may include the following: students’ attitudes, motivationand preferences in a particular situation In the part of students, they need to cooperate withteachers in matching teaching and learning styles Also they should be open- minded tomove from one learning style to another in order to become more autonomous learners.

To sum up, the author has discussed the major factors affecting students’ attitudechange in grammar learning Among these factors the researcher chooses oral practice toput in experiment The next point will be the discussion on the communicative approach aswell as oral grammar practice in teaching English grammar

2.4 Grammar teaching from a CLT perspective

As we know, communicative language teaching (CLT) has greatly influenced foreignlanguages teaching and learning for at least two decades now.The very term

‘communicative’ carries an obvious ring of truth : we ‘ learn to communicate bycommunicating’ (Larsen – Freeman, 1986:131) Of course the fundamental intution behindthis approach is far from new In the fourth century B.C Aristotle wrote : “ What we have

to learn to do, we learn by doing” (Nicomachean Ethics, Bk II) As for Karavas- Doukas1996) , most teachers now claim to use a communicative approach in some way or other,and it is hardly surprising that no-one wishes to be called a non- communicative teacher.Communicative practice encourages students to connect form, use and maeningbecause multiple correct responses are possible In Nunan’s view (1989) , its purpose is toestablish and maintain interpersonal relations, and through this to exchangeinformation ,ideas, attitudes, opinions, and feelings, and to get things done.Communicative activities can be classified into two main categories, which are called ‘functional communication activities’ and ‘social interaction activities’ by Nunan (1989).Communicative activities can be devised for the classroom which emphasizes thefunctional aspect of communication For example, there may be a problem which learnersmust solve, or information which they must exchange, with whatever language they have

at their disposal.The main target of this activity is that learners should use the languagethey know in order to get meaning across as effectively as possible For the second type ofcommunicative activities, the activity can be devised in such a way that they placeemphasis on social as well as functional aspects of communication Students must still aim

to convey meaning effectively, but must also pay greater attention to the social context inwhich the interaction takes place Simulation and role playing are examples of importanttechniques for creating a wider variety of social situations and relationships than wouldotherwise occur.

Communicative practice has many advantages, as discussed by Harmer (1987), theyare usually enjoyable; they give students a chance to use their language; they allow bothstudents and teachers to see how well the students are doing in their language learning; andthey give a break from the normal teacher and students’ arrangements in a classroom

In the modern time, the world is changing very quickly, the tendency towardsinternationalization and globalization is developing very fast So everyone needs to use acommon language So far, many people have learnt and used English as an internationallanguage.Vietnam is a developing country that is trying to catch up with the growth rate ofthe world Learning English has become the most highlighted task English study ,however, is still far from being satisfactory Learners often get embarrassed in Englishcommunication Therefore, nowadays communication is emphasized world widely Westudy a foreign language not only to understand it but also use it in different contexts andfor different purposes, that is, we use it as a means of communication

Similarly, in grammar teaching and learning, on the one hand, students need to know the rules On the other, with more opportunities to work with foreigners and the increasing number of foreign visitors, or oversea study, there is a good need for communication in a second language That is why grammar should be taught with communicative practice In other words, there must be occasions when students in the classroom use language to communicate ideas, not just to practice language

To conclude, from the principles of CLT, the goal of teaching grammar is to help thelearners to speak with organized sentence structures in order to make themselvesunderstood Teaching grammar therefore doesn’t mean we do grammar drills Grammarteaching can have fun through communicative activities

2.5 The role of oral grammar practice in grammar teaching

2.5.1 Definition of oral grammar pracice

A grammar lesson consists of different stages, which are suggested differently bydifferent methodologists Ur (1988) organizes grammar teaching into four stages:presentation, isolation and explanation, practice, and test, whereas according to Celce-Murcia and Hilles, a grammar lesson goes through four following phases : presentation,focused practice, communicative practice, teacher- feedback and correction Harmer(1987) discusses the question of how to teach grammar in three aspects: presentation,practice and testing Thus, however different such suggestions are, practice as a stage isalways present, it comes after the initial presentation and explanation when learners havetaken knowledge into short term memory but have not really mastered it yet Practice may

be defined as any kind of engaging with the language on the part of the learners, usuallyunder the teachers’ supervision, whose primary objective is to consolidate learning.Practice involves both spoken and written practice (Ur, 1988:11) 2.5.2 Oral practice ingrammar teaching and learning

Nunan (2007) agees that oral grammar practice gives learners increasing opportunitiesand motivation to interact with other communicators, to raise their awareness of the formsand functions of English grammar Grammatical patterns are matched to particularcommunicative meanings so learners can see connection between form and function.Learners learn how to choose the right pattern to expess different communicativemeanings They will incorporate various grammatical structures in their performance.Students, for successful language use, need not only to be exposed to the structures andfunctions of communication but also to practise applying grammatical knowledge in realcontexts To reach the goals, the application of grammar in the classroom should be morecreative and open-ended Creative language activities provide more opportunities for thelearners to use language more flexibly than receptive language tasks Creative languageuse involves learners in recombining familiar words, phrases and structures in new andunfamilar ways When students have enough time and enough opportunities tocommunicate and to receive feedback on attempts at producing meaningful language, theerrors will gradually diminish (Corder, 1981; Selinker,1972, 1992) Thanks to that studentswill learn grammar better

Teaching grammar communicatively or using communicative activities meansteaching grammar effectively In other words, oral grammar practice provides for effectivegrammar acquisition.But how to organize oral practice successfully is a hard question.According to Ur (1988: 15) , “Interest is an essential feature of successful oral practice”.Without properly getting involved in practising grammar orally and communicatively,students feel bored and find it difficult to concentrate , their attention wanders, and theymay spend much of the lesson time thinking or dreaming of other things So the poorquality of effort and attention will reduce their learning results Besides, because ofbordom, students may start out -of- focus talks often talk or produce unruly behaviour,therefore more valuable learning time may be wasted on coping with discipline problems.

On the contrary, if students are interested in what is done, they will not only learneffeciently, they are also likely to enjoy the process and want to continue learning

Nunan (2007) emphasized that oral practice activities ,in grammar learning andteaching, not only maintain learners’ interests but also sustain their attention in the longterm process of acquiring grammatical knowledge and skills in English Oral practice willoffer students opportunities to practice and use grammar realistically and meaningfully so

as to activate learners’ knowledge of grammar Oral grammar practice also increase therealism and usefulness of grammar lessons Moreover, for many teachers, correctinggrammar errors in students’ written work is quite a time consuming task

In brief, grammar should be taught through oral practice activities to increase students’interests which results in more effective grammar acquisition

2.5.2 Classification of oral practice activities in teaching and learning grammar

2.5.2.1 Drills

In Harmer’s view (1999), drills are “fairly mechanical ways of getting students todemonstrate and practice their ability to use specific language items in a controlledmanner” Usually oral grammar practice is done with the whole class rather than withstudents in pairs and the teachers are able to get students to ask and answer questionsquickly and efficiently The advantage of this technique is that teachers can correct anymistakes that students make and can encourage them to concentrate on difficulties at thesame time However, the problem with drills is that they are often not very creative , towhich a solution initiated by Harmer (1999) is that teachers should make sure not to

overuse them and that they do not go on for too long As soon as students show that theyare able to make correct sentences with the new item, the teachers should move on to morecreative activities Riverers and Temperley (1991) classified oral drills into six types :

a.Repetition presentation drills :

In this part, the teacher gives a model sentence containing a particular structure orform to be manipulated and the students repeat the sentence with correct intonation andstress Repetation drills are not , in one sense, a special category of exercises which will beused for practicing certain type of structures; they represent, rather, a commonly usedtechnique for familarizing students with a specific structure For this reason, they aresometimes called presentation drills This oral exercise can be illustrated as below:

MODEL :Where is the bank ? Oh, I see it

STUDENT:Where is the bank? Oh, I see it

MODEL: Where are the banks? Oh, I see them

STUDENT:Where are the banks ? Oh, I see them

This activity is judged as unreality and lack of application to the students’ situation Insuch above example, unless the students are looking at a picture showing a scene in a city,

it could become completely mechanical, with students attending only to the cue words ‘it’,

‘them’ ,or merely repeating them absentmindedly with the rest of what is fed to them Thisactivity can be made real and applicable by introducing some reality like referring toobjects the students can see and having them point to things as they reply

verb in the present tense, the changing forms of the verb be , irregular verbs, the inflection

of the verb after relative pronouns, the forms of the plural and possessive morphemes, and

certain sequences of tenses in related clauses To some extent, this activity is stillmechanical and it’s suggested that the cue be designed with a natural sounding tag whichelicits a response that completes a conversational interchange to make it more realistic Another subdivision of substitution drills is called multiple substitution drills inwhich , to make the substitutions in the appropriate slots, students have to think of themeaning of the whole sentence For this reason, students need to be very alert to performthis exercise successfully.

MODEL : Nam brings many dics to class

CUE: Jane and Mary RESPONSE : Jane and Mary bring many dics to class.

CUE : books RESPONSE : Jane and Mary bring many books to class.

CUE: The lecturer RESPONSE : the lecturer brings many books to class.

This activity can be a testing tool to see if students can continue to make a certain

grammartical adjustment they have been learning while they are distracted by otherpreoccupations

c Conversions

This term is used for exercises in changing sentence type , in combining two sentencesinto one , in moving from one mood or tense to another, in changing word class (e.g.,replacing nouns by pronouns), substituting phrases for clauses or clauses for phrases (e.g.,adverbial phrases for adverbial clauses, infinitive phrases for clauses), or substitutingsingle words for phrases or phrases for single words (e.g.,adverbs for adverbial phrases,adjectives for adjectival phrases) Conversions can be classified into three subdivisions :general conversions, combinitions and restatement

- General conversions:

Example: Change the following sentences into questions:

CUE: a Smith and Tom are reading books in the library now RESPONSE : -> Are they reading books in the library now?

CUE : b The actor lives in The USA

RESPONSE : -> Does the actor live in the USA?

This traditional type of elementary conversion exercise requires the student to attend

to a number of different aspects of the formation of general questions in a very few items.Students are required to use subject-inversion with ‘be’, doperiphrasis with single and withpopular subjects, and with main verbs including ‘have’ and ‘do’ and ‘a modal’ This is aformidable task for an elemetary-level student

Conversion exercises like the following are also used:

Example : Listen carefully to each of the following sentences and replaced the wordswhich are repeated by pronouns in the appropriate form and position the words which arerepeated You may need to add a preposition:

MODEL: Tom gave his mother a pen His mother

RESPONSE: Tom gave her a pen

CUE: Mary calls her friends a pig.Her friends

RESPONSE: Mary calls them a pig

As far as I’m concerned, those conversion exercises should be made more vivid byassociating structure with action Students may be asked to reply to instructions andquestions by making statements of their own invention

*Combinations

“Combinations” is a form of conversion exercise which has also been used for ages Itinvolves a process which reflects certain features of transformational grammatical analysisand can be very illuminating in differentiating some aspects of the rules For example,students usually have difficulties in understanding whether the relative pronoun must beretained or it can be omitted

For example: Combining each of the following pairs of sentences into one acceptable

sentence, using or omitting that where it is possible to do so Make the first sentence the

main clause :

a Give me the books CUE: I left you the books RESPONSE: -> Give me the books which/ that I left you

b Don’t touch the window

CUE: The window has just been painted RESPONSE: ->………

This type of exercise can also be used for creating dependent phrases beginning withpresent participles (She came home; She went straight to the toilet -> Coming home, shewent straight to the toilet.), or with prepositions such as ‘ before’ and ‘after’

*Restatement

Restatement is another kind of conversion exercises One frequently used type ofdirected dialogue is a restatement exercise

Example : CUE: Tell Jane your name is Tom

RESPONSE : Jane, my name is Tom CUE : Ask Nam where he is going RESPONSE : Where are you going , Nam ? All kinds of restatements can be intended to practice different grammatical features Arealistic note is added if one student pretends to be giving directions to a third party bytelephone , while a second student is supplying the necessary information

Another type of replacement (sometimes called a contraction) consists of replacing alonger expression with a shorter one (eg: a clause with prepositional phrase, a prepositionalphrase with a noun phrase …)

Example : Restate each of the following sentences by replacing the relative clause with

an infinitive construction , the words italicized with a noun phrase

a.I need a backpack that I can put my picnic- food in.

RESPONSE: I need a backpack to put my picnic- food in.

b.The man who owns the villa is a famous doctor.

RESPONSE: The owner of the villa is a famous doctor

Example: You will hear the model sentence : If I see her, I’ll tell her

Throughout the exercise, you will retain the same concluding notion, varying thesegment from future tense to conditional as the introductory segment changes

MODEL : If I see her, I’ll tell her about that CUE : If I saw her…

RESPONSE: If I saw her, I’d tell her about that

CUE : If You took it…

RESPONSE : IF you took it, I’d tell her about that

For vocabulary learning, this kind of exercise is also useful

Example: Complete the following statements with the appropriate occupation- term,considering the following model :

MODEL : A person who does the gardening is a gardener CUE :A person who gives lectures …

RESPONSE : A person who gives lectures is a lecturer

Moreover, completion exercises allow students to make their personal semanticcontribution within a syntactically fixed framework It is useful for practising such things

as restrictive and non- restrictive relative clauses

Example : Invent a completion containing an infinitive construction for each sentence

you hear , according to the model : He was the second man … He was the second man to

ask her that question.

CUE : Mr Smith has decided…

RESPONSE: Mr Smith has decided to go to Ha Long Bay this

summer.

Or : Mr Smith has decided not to go to Ha Long Bay this summer

Or : Mr Smith has decided to give a birthday party next Sunday.

RESPONSE: He rarely leaves home for work early.

Students can practise many other grammartical features in this way such as position ofadjectives in modifying nouns Further more, expansions also give students the opportunity

to create new and original sentences from a basic one ,often in a competitive atmosphere

CUE: The lady is crossing the street now.

STUDENT A : The tired old lady is crossing the quiet street now STUDENT B : The boy is crossing the main busy street at the moment.

* Deletions

Deletions are the reverse of expansions

Example : Delete the negative elements in the following sentences, making any necessarychanges

CUE : We don’t like coffee.

RESPONSE: We like coffee.

CUE : He didn’t leave.

RESPONSE : He left.

e.Response practice:

We all know that all oral exercises are forms of response practice In the particulartypes referred to here, question- answer or answer- question procedures are used Responsepractice can be devided into three sub- classes:

* Question- answer practice :

Students can practise the structure of questions through conversion exercises This type

of exercise is useful for such things as forms and uses of tenses, pronouns and cleftsentences, which make clear information focus It’s usually associated with a picture, slide,

or film reading material, film, some project or activity, or a game

Example : Students have been reading about or viewing a film of the adventures of agroup of young people in Boston Through this conversation, a lot of situations can becreated in the classroom for both asking questions and obtaining answers

Q Why didn’t they come home before midnight?

A They didn’t come home because there were fireworks over the river It was the Fourth of July.

Q Do you often stay out late at night ?

A No, I go home early because I’m always hungry.

* Answer- question practice:

Answer- question practice takes place when the teacher, or a student, has the answerand the others have to find out what it is This kind of exercise happens naturally and

excitingly in such games as Twenty Questions, Who and What In this game, a student

thinks of someone or something The players, by asking questions to which A may replyonly yes or no, narrow the field of possibilities until they are able to guess the person orobject in questions Before the game is lost , twenty questions may be asked only

* Rejoinders :

In English and in other languages, there are conventional ways of responding to theutterances of others which ease social relations and make communication less effortful :ways of agreeing, disagreeing, expressing surprise, astonishment, pleasure,…Theseresponses are often not taught in any systematic way to students of English Somerejoinders will be learned incidentally because teachers will use them very often , otherscan be practised in an oral exercise from time to time

Example : Listen to the following sentences and respond to each with an appropriaterejoinder or exclamation

CUE: Good bye and see you at the cafe’ near the school.

RESPONSE : ok

f Translation exercises :

River and Temperly indicate that translation exercises have slipped into disfavor lately.This is not because translation itself is reprehensible In fact, it is a natural process withmany practical uses

Oral translation drills can be useful where the students learning English share the samefirst- language background A series of sentences in the native language is given to elicitrapid formulation of the English equivalents We may design the series in order to elicit aseries of utterances in a tense being practised (e.g., she’s leaving, we are reading, they aresinging, etc )

Briefly, such kinds of oral practice are very structured way to introduce students to anew grammatical item However, most of the oral drills tend to be mechanical and lesscommunicative as requires little free communication from students

2.5.2.2 Personalized activities

This activity is made in a way that students practise grammar while being required totalk about themselves in an involved way at the same time Teachers ask students todiscuss things that affect their personality and to use this subject matter as focus for theirgrammar practice In order to make practice drill more involving , teachers can getstudents to contribute something of their own with teachers’ instructions andencouragement

Example : Students are practising the present progressive tense They work in groupsand one after the other has to say something which is happening at the moment of speaking

-> This is Kim Anh She is talking in class now.

-> This is Minh Quan He isn’t talking now He is drawing.

This activity is named chain drill, it is not very mechanical For this activity, students

can practise the form of a grammatical item they have just learned

2.5.2.3 Interactive activities

One of the problems, as mentioned earlier, about drills is that they are fairly

monotonous Some ways must be found to make controlled language practice moreenjoyable and more meaningful , one of which is by using interactive activities These aredesigned in such a way that students work together , exchanging information in apurposeful and interesting way The following example of using charts can illustrate aninteractive activity :

Example : Students have to write down one of their classmate’s name Then they askthat student the following questions:

What’s your favourite T V programme ?

When did you last see your favourite T Vprogramme ? How often do you see your favourite T V programme ?

Students can move round the classroom asking as many classmates as possible thesequestions and fill in the chart with their answers After finishing the survey, students canreport the findings

2.5.2.4 Games

Without games in class , lessons can’t be attractive to students Games can be anintegrated part of the teaching syllabus At any stage of language teaching process –whenteaching new language items (presentation, controlled practice, communicative practice, or

consolidation) or when revising previously presented language items ,teachers can usegames ,provided that they are suitable to each stage’s purposes.

Students can gradually realize the English grammar structures by doing games- likeactivities During the lesson, students can explore the context and discover the newlanguage rules themselves Students have many chances to play games- to practisecommunicating through oral activities If the topics of the game chosen are suitable andinteresting , students can take part in the lesson more actively and enthusiastically and thusfind the grammar lesson very useful to them

For example: In Unit one- A DAY IN A LIFE OF…- Writing period (sgk lớp 10 –ban

cơ bản)

Teacher (T) warms students (Ss) up by having them play a game called Noughts andCrosses T divides the whole class into 2 groups : Noughts and Crosses T puts the poster

on the table Ss look at the poster :

T asks Ss to choose word by word in the cells and make sentences with each word.The 2 groups take turns to choose word by word to make sentences A correct sentencegets one O or X The group with 3 O or X vertically, horizontally, or diagonally first will

be the winner Of course, the sentences they make must be grammatically correct and makesense After finding out the winner, T stops the activity and gives feedback

The game not only helps Ss to practise a grammatical item but also creates a relaxingenvironment and motivation for them to do the practice effectively

In summary, when grammar is taught with oral practice activities and used as a means

of communication rather than as a means for correcting the mechanics and accuracy of

sentences, it becomes more purposeful so there is a more motivating focus for classroomlearning Students are more interested in learning English As the result, they will acquiremore knowledge of English grammar It means that oral English grammar practice bringspositive attitudes towards learning English grammar.

2.6 Conclusion

Briefly, this presents the literature related to the study Not only the definition, therole of attitudes as well as the factors influencing students’ attitudes towards Englishgrammar learning, but also Communicative Language Teaching and oral grammar practiceare also viewed to figure out the most suitable techniques for effective English grammarteaching Applying these techniques, the researcher wishes to discover how they canchange Tran Nguyen Han High School students’ attitudes towards grammar learning Thefollowing will focus on the research methodology

CHAPTER III : METHODOLOGY

In the preceding , the literature on the research topic was briefly reviewed to form thetheoretical basis for the whole study Turning to the practice side, this study was carriedout with strict adherence to justified methods of data collection and analysis in order tomaximize its vavidity and reliability This claim would be subtaintiated in this as theparticipants, the instruments as well as the data analysis are discussed in detail

3.1 Study design

This study aims at measuring the effect of oral grammar practice on students’attitudes The researcher gives pre- questionnaire and post-questionnaire The followingdesign is applied to carry out this study

Pre-treatment questionnaire :O

Treatment : X compare

Post- treatment questionnaire :O

O is dependent variable (attitude) and X is independent variable (oral English grammarpractice) X is the treatment administered to the subjects The difference between the pre-and post- questionnaire scores is taken as an index of the effectiveness of the treatmentcondition

3.2 Research questions

a What are the 10 th grade students’ attitudes towards grammar learning when

traditional teaching methods are used?

b How can oral practice change positively Tran Nguyen Han 10 th graders’ attitudes towards English grammar learning ?

3.3 Subjects of the study

The subjects of the study were 200 students from class 10 C1,C2,C3,C4 at Tran

Nguyen Han High School All of them were born in 1993 in Hai Phong and they areboth male and female Many of them come from comparatively poor families so theirlearning condition is not good enough Their parents can hardly afford to pay evensmall amount of money for their children’s schooling A dictionary, a cassette player or

even some English books are beyond their reach Their tools are “Grade 10 English books”only In addition to this, their lack of awareness of the importance of English as well astheir teachers’ teaching method leads to their negative attitudes towards learning English.Although most of them already learnt English for at least four years at lower secondaryschool, their knowledge of English is still poor and limited Hardly can they say a correctsentence in the target language.

3.4 Data collection instruments

The data was obtained with different instruments : experiment questionnaires andinterviews

3.4.1 Questionnaires

As for Gillham (2000), questionnaire is considered the most appropriate researchinstrument for gathering information concerning the attitudes of the respondents There arethree reasons Firstly, as the respondents want to remain anonymous, information fromquestionnaire can be confidential It is hoped that people will undoubtedly fell freer in ananonymous style of responding Secondly, a questionnaire is easy to administer enablingthe researcher to survey a large number of respondents Thirdly, the respondents cancomplete the questionnaire whenever it suits them Moreover, this is a confirmatoryresearch study To gather data for the research, two questionnaires were administered : thepre- questionnaire focused on students’ conventional attitudes towards grammar learning;the post- treatment questionnaire was given to measure possible changes in studentsattitudes as the result of actual use of oral grammar practice in class

* Pre- treatment questionnaire

There are10 items in the pre-questionnaire The purpose of this research is toinvestigate the students’ conventional attitudes towards English grammar learning.Students have to choose the best option which best describles their opinions

* Post- treatment questionnaire

The 10 items of an attitude scale were used to find out changes in students’ attitudestowards English grammar learning in the post- treatment phrase

3.4.2 Interviews

This study aims at finding out the students’ attitude towards grammar acquisitionwhen it’s taught either in traditional way or through oral grammar practice It is not ofnaturalistic inquiry by nature, therefore the researcher choses the structured interview so as

to achieve consistence In the pre- treatment interview, students are asked 5 questions Thequestions focus on students’ awareness of the importance of grammar, students’ interests

in grammar learning as well as their comment on grammar teaching

Students are asked 5 other questions in the post- treatment interview after oralgrammar practice was applied in teaching

3.5 Study procedures

The experiment was conducted in 15 weeks from the beginning of October Thesubjects are students from 4 grade 10 classes.The procedures to carry out the study are asfollowed:

Week 1 and week 2 : Pre- treatment questionnaire and interview

Pre- treatment questionnaire and pre- treatment interview were conducted with theinvolvement of 200 students in week 1 and week 2 to identify the students’ currentattitudes towards English grammar learning

Week 3 -14: Experimental lessons

The time for experimental teaching was 12 weeks Each week had 1 period ofgrammar (45 minutes) The researcher herself was in charge of teaching 12 lessons to thesefour experimental classes with the application of oral grammar practice Three or four oralcommunicative activities were used in each lesson and the students were encouraged toparticipate in These oral English grammar practice activities were taken from differentsources such as textbooks, reference books, and magazines

Week 15 : Post- treatment questionnaire and post- treatment interview

After the application of oral grammar practice, the post – treatment questionnaire andinterview were given to the same 200 students of the 4 experimental classes to identifychanges in the students’ attitudes towards English grammar learning

3.6 Data analysis

Data were collected from different sources : questionnaires , interviews Pre- treatmentquestionnaire and interview were used to find out students’ conventional attitudes towardsEnglish grammar learning After that the results of post – treatment questionnaire andinterview were compared to find out whether there were changes in students’ attitudestowards grammar learning after the application of oral English grammar practice

The interviews data served to support the data obtained from the survey questionnaires

CHAPTER IV- DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

4.1.Questionnaires

4.1.1 Data analysis of the students’ experiment questionnaires

4.1.1.1 Data analysis of pre- questionnaires

The data obtained from the students’ questionnaires will be discussed to find out thestudents’ conventional attitudes towards English grammar before the application of oralEnglish grammar practice

Source: Question 1, pre- experiment questionnaire.

As can be seen in graph 1, most students (97.5%) state English grammar is necessaryfor their language learning Only 2.5% of the students have opposite ideas with that point

of view Thus, the majority of the students realizes the importance of English grammar intheir language learning