Some suggestions to teach grammar lesons in english 11 at pham hong thai high school

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY PHAN THỊ THANH HƯƠNG SOME SUGGESTIONS TO TEACH GRAMMAR LESSONS IN ENGLISH 11 AT PHAM HONG THAI HIGH SCHOOL MASTER'S THESIS IN EDUCATION Nghệ An, 2014 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY PHAN THỊ THANH HƯƠNG SOME SUGGESTIONS TO TEACH GRAMMAR LESSONS IN ENGLISH 11 AT PHAM HONG THAI HIGH SCHOOL Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Code: 60 14 01 11 MASTERTHESIS IN EDUCATION SUPERVISOR: TRẦN BÁ TIẾN, Ph.D. Nghệ An, 2014 DECLARATION I certify that this study is entirely my own work. I have provided fully documented references to the work of others. The material in this study has not been submitted for assessment in any other formal course of study. Author Phan Thị Thanh Hương i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am, first of all, particularly indebted to my supervisor, Dr.Tran Ba Tien, for his invaluable advice, instructions and correction, excellent suggestions and constant encouragement during the research period. Without his guidance and help, this work would not have been accomplished. Secondly, my sincere thanks also go to all the lecturers who have been teaching K20 MA course in Vinh University and the post-graduate staff for their administrative assistance to the success of the course. Besides, I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to all the teachers and the students at Pham Hong Thai High School in Hung Nguyen, who willingly participated in the study. I thank them for their time, patience and willingness in completing the questionnaires, answering the questions and sharing their classrooms with me. Last but not least, I would like to convey my deepest gratitude to my parents, my husband and my son, and for their constant support and thorough understanding. Their great encouragement and love have helped me to overcome the difficulties during my study. ii ABSTRACT Grammar always plays an important part in teaching and learning English. However, how to create students’ motivation in learning grammar lesson is not simple. This study is concerned with the communicative activities in teaching grammar as an effective method to create students’ motivation and improve students’ understanding of the lesson. The benefits of using communicative activities are affirmed again in this thesis through the former grammarians’ studies and the researcher’s carried out at Pham Hong Thai High School, Hung Nguyen district. These benefits bring considerable effectiveness to teachers and students in teaching and learning grammar. In order to achieve this aim, the researcher carries out observing classes, interviewing, questionnaires closely both teachers and students, giving questionnaires to them, etc to have necessary findings and analysis. The researcher also suggests the suitable measures to overcome difficulties in using communicative activities in class successfully, and the examples of using communicative activities to teach grammar points in Tieng Anh 11. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS 4.6.3.4. Picture Dictation 59 4.6.36. Information Gap 61 4.6.3.7. Telling Story 63 4.6.3.7. Responding game 64 4.6.3.9. Matching game 65 ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative Language Teaching ELT: English language teaching GTM: Grammar- Translation method DM: Direct method AM: Audio-Lingual method Audio iv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES 4.6.3.4. Picture Dictation 59 4.6.36. Information Gap 61 4.6.3.7. Telling Story 63 4.6.3.7. Responding game 64 4.6.3.9. Matching game 65 v Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1. Rationale of the study Today, English has become one of the most important languages to communicate from this country to another country and people focus on learning this language with different purposes .For whatever purposes they have, English is the most useful means to achieve the goals. Besides the aim of passing their exams and getting some further studies for their future life, all students have a desire to be integrated into the culture, the civilization, and the people of English speaking countries. The more society develops, the more important part communication plays in every field of life: home school, work and beyond. Through communication, we can change our thoughts, opinions, and information by speech, writing or signs. It is only through communication that collaboration and cooperation occur. Therefore, the author has really been interested in communication in learning language through which people of different nations can communicate or exchange the materials and spiritual values, make their knowledge and culture richer and more diversified. Aware of language’s function as a means of communication, many researchers have been involved in the study of how to develop communication to language learners. This is the first time the author has had a chance to learn “Language teaching theory” and she has found that it is a very important material for everyone who becomes teacher of English since it is a good way to help learners practice communicative skills. In addition, in my experience, after 7 years of teaching English by using the new English textbooks at Pham Hong Thai High School, the researcher observed that the teachers and learners have to face 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. Specially, one of the problems 1 generally faced by most of the teachers of English at the secondary school is the poor standard of the students. Students are even ignorant of the basic rules and structural patterns which they are supposed to have learnt at the school level .Some students are shy to use Enghlish in class, these are so serions prollems that the reasearcher has been thinking about the question: Why do students fail in communicating? How do teachers apply communicative language teaching in grammar lessons? What activities can help them to motivate in learning Enghlish well? For the above reasons, the researcher decides to choose the topic: “Some suggestions to teach Grammar lessons in English 11” It is expected that this study will find out the problems of teaching and learning grammar in Language Focus lessons at Pham Hong Thai High School in order to contribute some immediate solutions to make grammar lessons more successful and effective 1.2. Purposes of the study The aims of the study are as follows: - Investigate the difficulties in teaching and learning grammar - Find out how the teachers and the students deal with grammar in the “language focus” lessons - To help teachers aware of the importance of grammar and applying activities to teach grammar communicatively. - To get some information about the real situation of teaching and learning grammar with creating and applying activities. - To suggest some useful activities to motivate students and improve the ability of communication for learners in grammar lessons. 1.3. Research questions Making the aims of study is more effective, the system of the research questions has to be clear. Here are the rearch questions. 1. What are the learners' attidutes toward language focus lessons? 2 2. What are the difficulties in teaching and learning grammar in the Language Focus lessons as perceived? 3. What is real situation of teaching and learning English grammar at Pham Hong Thai High School? 4. What are communicative activities to be applied in grammar lessons? 1.4. Scope of the Study As mentioned earlier, this study is only aimed at investigating the difficulties of teaching and learning grammar in Language Focus lessons and giving some solutions to make grammar lessons more effectively. This study is limited to the teaching and learning difficulties with regard to teaching and learning grammar in Language Focus lessons. This study is a detailed survey at Pham Hong Thai High School in Hung Nguyen district. 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. 1.5. Significance of the Study This study plays an important role in improving grammar teaching method to students at Pham Hong Thai School. It aims to identify the problems and suggests ways of improving them; therefore, this study mainly focuses on communicative activities .It is hoped that this study will be beneficial in many ways. First, participants in the study (the teachers and the learners at Pham Hong Thai High School) will benefit immediately from the experience of reflection. Secondly, the findings of the study will contribute information to make the application of CLT at my school successful and effective. 1.6. Method of the Study For the sake of the teaching and learning of English, as this study is carried out, the author has applied the two methods: quantitative and qualitative. Then, various instruments will be used to collect the data for the study from different sources: 3 [...]... situation of learning and teaching English at Pham Hong Thai High School 3.1.1 Pham Hong Thai High School Pham Hong Thai High School was founded in 1979 in Hung Chau village, Hung Nguyen distrist, Nghe An province It has a long history of nearly 35 years of foundation Like most of other schools, English is an important and compulsory subject for all students Teachers of English are all experienced in teaching... 11 Table 3.1: Distribution of time, units and contents in 2 semesters 3.1.4.3 Learning and teching grammar at Pham Hong Thai High School It can be said that grammar is considered the most important content for students in high school but seems to be the most boring of all Teaching and learning grammar at Pham Hong Thai high school is no exception As mentioned above, since the main goal of Communicative... observation was chosen in this research since just the class activities related to grammar teaching and learning was observed and recorded The observation was carried out in some 11 th form classes in Pham Hong Thai high school and it was kept in the form of diary Instrument 3: Interview - Interviews with the teachers and students to get in- depth information about the teachers’ and the students’ suggestions. .. difficulties in teaching grammar communicatively that they face and solutions that should be implemented Questionnaires are delivered to the students to find out the students’ attitudes to learning English grammar, their difficulties confronted and solutions suggested by them -After that, she conducts a survey to get information about the real situation of teaching and learning English grammar at Pham Hong Thai. .. teaching They have approached the change in teaching method and have been trying to apply it in their language classrooms At Pham Hong Thai High School, learning and teaching activities are mostly carried out in the classroom It is equiped with goood conditions for English teaching and learning as well as other subjects All teachers have to be acquainted with the new teaching technology, learning how to. .. not interested in learning English Although most of them have already learnt English for four years at lower secondary school, their 23 knowledge of English in general and grammar in particular is still poor and limited, only some students are good at this subject 3.1.3 English teachers at Pham Hong Thai high school With regarding to teaching staff, there are 6 teachers of English, including the researcher,... analysis of genuine, realistic situations - use the authentic from life materials - use group activities effectively - attempt to create a secure, non- threatening atmosphere 2.4 Some General Principles of Grammar Teaching According toThornbury.S $ Harmer J (1999) in “How to teach grammar , the basic principles for grammar teaching are the E- factor (economy, ease, efficacy), and the A- factor (appropriacy)... questionnaires to investigate the difficulties in teaching and learning grammar in Language Focus lessons In order to do the research, a lot of references have been selected, read and filtered for information Furthermore, a survey has been done by providing a questionnaire for 5 teachers of English and another for 116 students at Pham Hong Thai Questionnaires are delivered to the teachers to investigate difficulties... data collected from reviewing theories and collecting information associated with teaching and learning English grammar from different sources: references, books, and internet In addition, the qualitative approach is employed to deal with the data gathered from think-aloud reports and interviews with the volunteer students before and after the treatment in order to obtain more in- depth understanding... result, grammar teaching gains its significant role in English Language Teaching because highly developed language skills are difficult to achieve without some knowledge of grammar The position of grammar teaching in ELT is still controversial Some people refute the place of grammar teaching for the reason that the study of grammar is neither necessary nor sufficient for learning to use a language In fact, . 2014 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY PHAN THỊ THANH HƯƠNG SOME SUGGESTIONS TO TEACH GRAMMAR LESSONS IN ENGLISH 11 AT PHAM HONG THAI HIGH SCHOOL Major: Teaching English to Speakers. MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY PHAN THỊ THANH HƯƠNG SOME SUGGESTIONS TO TEACH GRAMMAR LESSONS IN ENGLISH 11 AT PHAM HONG THAI HIGH SCHOOL MASTER'S THESIS IN EDUCATION Nghệ. them. -After that, she conducts a survey to get information about the real situation of teaching and learning English grammar at Pham Hong Thai High School. All the collected information and data have