a study on the impact of the communicative approach to grammar teaching on students interest at the institute of foreign language hanoi university of agriculture

iii TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION I Rationale II Aims of the study III Research questions IV Scope of the study V Methods of the study VI Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW I.1 An overview on language teaching methods in Teaching grammar I.1.1 The Grammar – Translation Method with teaching grammar I.1.2 The Audio – lingual Method with teaching grammar I.2 Communicative language teaching (CLT) in teaching grammar I.2.1 An overview of communicative language teaching (CLT) I.2.2 Characteristics of CLT I.2.3 Status of Grammar in CLT I.2.4 Teaching grammar in the light of CLT I.3 Students’ interest I.3.1 Concept of students’ interest I.3.2 Factors affecting students’ interest in the class I.4 The impact of CLT to grammar teaching on students’ interest I.4.1 Grammar teaching techniques in CLT I4.2 Teachers’ personal qualities and characters CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY II.1 Setting of the study II.2 Methodology II.2.1 Subjects II.2.2 Methods and Procedures II.2.3 Survey Instruments iv II.2.3.1 Questionnaires II.2.3.2 Class observation II.2.3.3 Interview II.3 Data analysis and findings II.3.1 Questionnaires II.3.2 Class Observation II.3.3 Interview CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS III.1 Recommendations for Teaching III.2 Suggested communicative Activities for a Grammar lesson III.2.1 Using games and problem-solving activities III.2.2 Using songs III.2.3 Role play III.2.4 Interview III.2.5 Telling stories PART C: CONCLUSION Summary of the study Limitations of the study Recommendations for further study REFERENCES APPENDIXES v ABBREVIATIONS IFL: The Institute of Foreign Languages HUA: Hanoi University of Agriculture CLT: Communicative Language Teaching CA: Communicative activities ESP: English for Specific Purposes vi LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Table 1: Students’ profile Table 2: Students’ awareness of the role of grammar in learning English Table 3: Students’ attitudes towards the grammar learning Table 4: Students’ reasons for learning grammar Table 5: Students difficulties in learning grammar Table 6: Teacher’s profile Table 7: Teachers’ awareness of the role of grammar in teaching English Table 8: Teachers’ attitudes towards the grammar teaching Table 9: Teachers’ aims of teaching grammar Table 10: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching grammar Table 11: Students’ opinions about learning grammar through communicative activities Table 12: Students’ interest in learning grammar through communicative activities Table 13: Students’ frequency of learning grammar through communicative activities Table 14: Students’ evaluation of the effectiveness of communicative activities in learning grammar Table 15: Teachers’ frequency of communicative activity application in teaching grammar Table 16: Teachers’ evaluation of the effectiveness of communicative activities in teaching grammar PART A: INTRODUCTION I RATIONALE English is considered to be the most common and important language of the world today in which a great number of people understand and use it In fact, English has proved its self to be an international language which not only helps people in the world communicate more easily but also encourages cultural exchanges among countries In Vietnam, the economic open-door policy pursued by the government has increased a demand for studying English Many people are expected to be competent to communicate verbally with the outside world and to access science and technology English is also seen as a necessary means for any graduate who wishes to find a good job, especially in foreign companies In correspondence to this trend, at almost all colleges and universities, English is taught as a compulsory subject Additionally, there are many evening English classes at foreign languages centers opened to serve the explosion in the demand for English However, both teaching and learning English in Vietnam are said to be not effective because, as a matter of fact, the traditional method of teaching is still applied in many universities in general and at Hanoi University of Agriculture (HUA) in particular, which fails to get students involved in the lessons, especially in grammar lessons The role of grammar in language teaching in general and in foreign language classroom in particular has been debated for a long time among educational researchers, linguists, methodologists and teachers It goes from playing a major role to basically no role and now an important role together with changes in language pedagogy In Vietnam, grammar teaching is obviously necessary mainly because learners need the knowledge of the target language to pass national examinations which still focus on grammar In addition, most learners and teachers agree that mastering the grammar of a language may form an important part of the knowledge of it However, grammar is often misunderstood in the language teaching field and teaching English grammar can be hard going for the teacher and the students At HUA, grammar teaching plays an important role as it supplies students with basic knowledge for end-term exams and finish the ESP course in the second year In addition, before starting to enroll university subjects, all the fresh students have to take a BASED-ORIENTED TOEIC PLACEMENT TEST, in which grammar is tested The fact that majority of the students come from rural areas with low level of English leads to the need of careful grammar teaching to heal their “grammatical holes” In this setting, the traditional way is commonly used so that the students can receive a systematic and accuracy of language The result of this kind of teaching and learning, of course, makes a grammar lesson boring and tiring and does not get students interested in learning Furthermore, it has created the “production” of students who are structurally competent, but communicatively incompetent The questions of how to make the grammar lessons more interesting and how to make students interested in the grammar lessons have become a concern of teachers of English in general and those at HUA in particular Teaching grammar in the light of CLT is becoming a new approach and designing suitable communicative activities to teach grammar is necessary From my experience, my students are more interested in the grammar lessons when teachers use games, songs, pictures, and other communicative activities to present the new items For the above reasons, I have decided to conduct a research entitled: “A study on the impact of the communicative approach to grammar teaching on students’ interest at IFL – Hanoi University of Agriculture” This study is an attempt to look into the matter of how Communicative Language Teaching is applied in teaching grammar at IFL - HUA and the impact of CLT on students‟ interest in grammar learning It is believed that the insights into these areas will help to address the matter of teaching grammar effectively at universities and at foreign language centers as well II AIMS OF THE STUDY To investigate how CLT is applied in teaching grammar at IFL-HUA and the impact of CLT to students‟ interest in learning grammar III RESEARCH QUESTIONS To achieve the aims of the thesis, the following questions were proposed: What is the fact of grammar teaching and learning at IFL – HUA? To what extent does CLT affect students’ interest in the context of IFL –HUA? IV SCOPE OF THE STUDY The study only focuses on the impact of the communicative approach to grammar teaching on students’ interest at IFL – Hanoi University of Agriculture, so the results of the study are not for all students of all universities V METHODS OF THE STUDY The aims of the study are to find out how teachers apply CLT to teach grammar as well as its effectiveness to the students‟ interest in learning, so it is inevitable to investigate into teachers‟ and learners‟ attitudes towards, difficulties of, preferred techniques and their evaluation of teaching and learning grammar To so, the main methods of study is survey questionnaire, in which two types of questionnaire are designed and distributed to the learners and teachers In addition, the writer also collected information based on her class observation and interviews to make sure that the data is more accurate and reliable A combination of different methods above will provide reliable data, based on which the conclusions and suggestions will be made in the next parts VII DESIGN OF THE STUDY The thesis consist of three parts Part A is the introductions, which presents an overview of the study in which the reasons for choosing the study is focused It also includes the aim, research questions, scope, methods and design of the study Part B: is the development of the study, aiming at building the theoretical background for the thesis This part consists of three main chapters Chapter I: namely literature review, starts with an overview of some methods in grammar teaching – their advantages and disadvantages in applying in the classroom The next is about Communicative Language Teaching which includes the definition, characteristics, status and how to apply this approach to teach grammar The third part deals with students‟ interest in learning Here concepts of students‟ interest and factors affecting students‟ interest are mentioned The final part discusses the impact of CLT to grammar teaching on students‟ interest, which includes the concept of students‟ interest and the factors affecting students‟ interest in grammar lessons Chapter II: aims to describe background information about the current teaching and learning of English at IFL –HUA and to present the methodology underlying the research including data collection instruments, procedures A detailed data analysis and discussions are also given Chapter III: proposes some recommendations for teaching grammar in the light of CLT to the students at IFL – HUA PART C: CONCLUSION gives a summary of the study, the limitations and suggestions for further study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW I.1 An overview on language teaching methods in teaching grammar I.1.1 The Grammar – Translation method (GTM) in teaching grammar Traditional method was rooted in the formal language of Latin and Greek and become popular in the late 19th century and early 20th century It was considered to be the key to the thought and literature of a great and ancient civilization As the name suggests, the Grammar – Translation method requires students to translate whole texts word by word and memorize numerous grammatical rules and exceptions as well as enormous vocabulary lists The goal of this method is to enable learners to read and translate literary masterpieces and classics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammar_translation) Under the Grammar –Translation method (Richards and Rodgers, 1986:3) grammar is taught deductively through detailed analysis of grammar rules and translations of sentences and texts into the target language or vice versa The Grammar –Translation method lays the focus on teaching the form rather than the use of the target language According to Prator and Celce-Murcia (1979:3), the key features of the GrammarTranslation method are as follows: (1) Classes are taught in the mother tongue, with little active use of the target language (2) Much of vocabulary is taught in form of lists of isolated words (3) Long elaborate explanations of the intricacies of grammar are given (4) Grammar provides the rules for putting words together, and instruction often focuses on the form and inflection of words (5) Reading of difficult classical texts is begun early (6) Little attention is paid to the content of texts, which are treated as exercises in grammatical analysis (7) Often the only drills are exercises in translating disconnected sentences from the target language into the mother tongue (8) Little or no attention is paid to pronunciation In this method, the learners are the passive recipients of the explicit grammar rules and engaged in practice activities and translation exercises which requires the application of those rules Listening activities take in form of dictation and speaking practice is accomplished by having students read a passage aloud in front of the class In other words, communication skills are ignored Consequently, students learn rules of grammar without much feeling of progress in the mastery of the target language which will lead to the lack of motivation in learning it because they have little opportunity to express themselves in it They just passively learn what they are taught And after several years of studying, students may have a fairly good knowledge of grammar and translating skills, but can hardly communicate Besides, in the Grammar-Translation method, the teacher holds an authoritative role, or he is seen an ideal language model and commander of the classroom activities It is worth noticing that mistakes and errors are seen as a failure and they must be avoided at any cost Whenever the learners make mistakes or errors, the teachers correct immediately to make them produce grammatically correct sentences, which makes the learners reluctant to speak English As the name suggests, grammar is the key component, and taught deductively from rules to example which cause boredom to many learners The Grammar-Translation method dominated from the late 19th century to the early 20th century and although it has been generally acknowledged as the least effective teaching methodology, the method is still widely used in many countries including Vietnam Obviously, the best point of this method is that it helps learners become good translators and use English accurately In addition, it requires few recourses and it is also easy to apply and cheap to administer That is why the method is still used in many classrooms where there is a great shortage of teaching and learning facilities and equipment aids, where the class is large of about 30 students, and where the teachers‟ inadequate speaking skill are accustomed to teaching procedures and where the exams still emphasize knowledge of grammar Nevertheless, the biggest disadvantage of this method is the learners find it difficult to communicate in real-life situations, or their utterances are correct but inappropriate This is the result of the process of learning form and usage, but not use, and learning about the language, not using the language to learn through authentic tasks Furthermore, this method makes the learners really passive in the process of getting knowledge They just listen to the teacher‟s explanation and not participate in the exploration of new knowledge I.1.2 The Audio – Lingual Method The Audio – Lingual Method was derived from “ Army Method” during the World War II where there was a need for people to learn foreign languages quickly for military purposes It later developed into the so called Audio – Lingual method, which then has had considerable influence on English language teaching all over the world This method puts listening and speaking in the first place It uses sentence pattern as the base of teaching and tries to avoid mother tongue as in class Attention is paid to the need for mechanical practice rather than explanation about the language because the ability to use the language as a means of communication is the mastery of the linguistic system of the target language For a number of reasons the ALM enjoyed decades of popularity The first strong point of this method is to develop students‟ listening comprehension and fluency in speaking in the target language Students are encouraged by the sense of being able to use what they have learned on the very early day of their study In addition, the knowledge learned is reinforced by repetition, so students have good memory of what they learn and this is suitable for learners of different abilities Another point is that, this method provides a good systematic material However, the popularity finally faded away due to the shortcomings of this method Firstly, the success or failure of this method depends largely on the qualities of the teachers and the availability of resources It can be clearly noticed that if the teacher does not diversify his techniques to make the lessons more interesting and meaningful, his students will get bored with mechanical repetition or become “well-trained parrots” as commented by Rivers (1981: 47) Furthermore, the teacher must be a fluent speaker as most of his work is done orally in the target language And more importantly, ALM failed to teach long-term communicative proficiency because the language it taught was de-contextualized and carried little communicative function I Communicative language teaching (CLT) in teaching grammar I.2.1 An overview of communicative language teaching (CLT) Towards the end of the 1960s there was a growing dissatisfaction among applied linguists and foreign language teachers with the language theories and teaching methods American Linguist Noam Chomsky demonstrated that the current standard structural theories of language were incapable of accounting for the fundamental characteristics of V .Students‟ lack of good attitudes to learning grammar .Reference books are not available Part 3: The teachers’ attitudes towards teaching grammar in the light of CLT and their evaluation of the effectiveness communicative activities in grammar lessons Question 5: How often you use communicative activities in teaching grammar?  Always  Often  Rarely  Never  Sometimes Question 6: How you evaluate the effectiveness of communicative activities in grammar lessons? Evaluation of the effectiveness of the CA in No Communicative activities grammar lessons Done None Little Average Much Extreme Using songs Games and problem – solving activities Role play Picture description Interview Telling stories Others Question 7: Can you give suggestions as well as recommendations which might be helpful for the teachers in teaching grammar? ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… Thank you for your co-operation! VI APPENDIX 3: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION Date: May, 20th, 2011 Unit – 2nd period Course book: English Know How – Elementary Grammar focus: Comparative Adjectives Class size: 40 students Length: 45 Brief description of classroom activities Warm-up activity: (5’) - Divide students into groups of 20 - Give the introduction of the game: “Guessing the countries” “You are going to discover some countries in the world by answering my questions And of course if you can give me all the correct answers, I will have a small gift for the whole class For each country, I will give you maximum suggestions After suggestions, if you cannot find the answer, no gift Remember that So are you ready to join the game now?” Give the suggestions and let SS guess the names of the countries Give some more information about each country Presentation: (10’) - T shows the pictures of Chicago and Santiago with temperature in February - and asks students “What is the temperature in Chicago in Feb (23.90C); What is the temperature in Santiago in Feb (29.10C); - SS look at the pictures and answer the questions - T presents the model: “Santiago is warmer than Chicago in February” - T asks SS to try to find how to form the comparative of short adjectives - Present the irregular forms by eliciting questions Practice: (20’) Controlled practice: - Divide SS into small groups and complete the comparative forms of the adjectives in the textbook - Check: Call student to write down the answer on the board Less controlled practice - SS work in pair, look at the picture and make comparative between the two cities as the example - T goes round the class and give help if necessary Production: (8’) SS work individually to compare their own cities with other cities they know, using comparative adjectives Homework: (2’) VII APPENDIX 4: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION Date: April, 15th, 2011 Unit – 2nd period Course book: English Know How – Elementary Grammar focus: Have to / Has to Class size: 40 students Length: 45 Brief description of classroom activities Warm-up activity: (5’): Game: “Job Quiz” - Divide the class into small groups and instructs the game - Lead in the lesson by eliciting questions Presentation: (10’) - Ask SS to read the article in the textbook and find the sentences with have to  We have to go where the paint is in bad condition  You have to be careful all the time - Ask SS the use and the meaning of have to by questions - Show some more sentences on the screen and let students find the different forms of have to in affirmative form I have to work at night You have to take notes We have to bring the camera with They have to work very long hour He has to fix the car She has to get up early - Give the form Practice: (20’) Controlled practice: task b (textbook): Less controlled practice: task c (textbook) Production: (10) Asking and answering about the students‟ obligation using have to/ has to VIII APPENDIX 5: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION SHEET Tick the things you observe during the lesson CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES  Students ask the teacher and ask each others  There is the interaction pattern and turn-taking is managed  Participants talk to one another (active listening, interrupting, building on what another says)  Participants talk about (lesson activities, personal experiences)  Silences are handled  Multiple perspectives are handled  There are some disagreements The instructors handle disagreements  Students work in pairs  Students role play practice  Students have group activities TEACHER’S TALK  Teacher greets students  Teachers asks different kinds of questions  Teacher direct questions to his / her students  Teacher gives feedback to questions  Teacher shows how she / he is listening  Teacher encourages the discussion LEARNER’S TALK  Students ask different kinds of questions  Students give different kinds of answers  Students often initiate new topics/ offer opinions and make connections  Students response to teacher‟s feedback LEARNER ENGAGEMENT  Students interact with each other  Students receive equal amount of contact with the teacher  Learners help make decision about the class activities and lesson topic IX APPENDIX 6: QUESTIONS FOR THE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THE STUDENT INTERVIEW Em có thích cách dạy ngữ pháp giáo viên không? Tại có? Tại không? Em thường làm học ngữ pháp? Em mong muốn thầy cô dạy ngữ pháp để học sinh động hiệu hơn? QUESTIONS FOR THE TEACHER INTERVIEW Do you often use communicative activities or techniques in a grammar lesson? Why? Why not? Which communicative activities you often use in the grammar lesson? (games, songs, role play, picture description, information gap, telling stories…) What should the teachers to improve their teaching grammar as well as to attract the students to the lesson? X APPENDIX USING GAMES AND PROBLEM SOLVING ACTIVITIES PRESENT SIMPLE Aim: to practice present simple tense with daily routine and action verbs Level: Elementary Grammar points: To practice the present simple with the daily routine and action words This game is suitably applied for production stage Before carrying out this game, teacher should review the daily routine vocabulary by the Guessing game Guessing game with the action verbs Aim: to review the daily routine vocabulary Procedure: - Divide SS into groups, give each group a name and then appoint a representative of each group The two players of two groups back to the board - Teacher writes a word on the board The rest of the class will explain the word by body language ( not to speak the words on the board or translate them into Vietnamese) The two players guess and speak out the word Who has the correct answer first will get one point for his /her team Change the players after each turn For example: get up, exercises, get dressed, brush your teeth, - Have the whole class read the words in choral CHAIN GAME: Type of activity: group work, whole class Procedure: - Divide SS into group of 10 sitting in a circle and number the student from 1-10 - The first student in every group start the chain by repeating a sentence the teacher has given - Then student repeats what student said and adds his/her own idea to it - Student repeats what student and have said and adds to it For example: S1: I usually get up at 6.30 o‟clock S2: I usually get up at 6.30 o‟clock and then I exercises for 15‟ S3: I usually get up at 6.30 o‟clock, I exercises for 15‟and then brush my teeth S4: etc - If the student gives the wrong repetition, they are out of the game Play until there is one student and he /she will become the winner XI APPENDIX 8: LEMON TREE Listen and circle the words you hear in the song sitting meeting doing stepping standing hanging driving waiting turning Listen and fill in the numbered blanks I'm (1) here in the boring room It's just another rainy Sunday afternoon I'm (2) my time I got nothing to I'm (3) around I'm waiting for you But nothing ever happens and I wonder I'm (4) around in my car I'm driving too fast I'm driving too far I'd like to change my point of view I feel so lonely I'm (5) for you But nothing ever happens and I wonder I wonder how I wonder why Yesterday you told me 'bout the blue blue sky And all that I can see is just a yellow lemon-tree running looking eating wasting going XII I'm (6) my head up and down I'm turning turning turning turning turning around And all that I can see is just another lemon-tree I'm sitting here I miss the power I'd like to go out taking a shower But there's a heavy cloud inside my head I feel so tired Put myself into bed Well, nothing ever happens and I wonder Isolation is not good for me Isolation I don't want to sit on the lemon-tree I'm (7) around in the desert of joy Baby anyhow I'll get another toy And everything will happen and you wonder I wonder how I wonder why Yesterday you told me 'bout the blue blue sky And all that I can see is just another lemon-tree I'm turning my head up and down I'm turning turning turning turning turning around And all that I can see is just a yellow lemon-tree XIII APPENDIX – ROLE PLAY Safe at last! Types of activity: pair work, group work Aim: To practice the past simple tense Level: Elementary Preparation: one copy of the newspaper article per student; one set of role card per pair of students  Pre teach the following items of vocabulary: to sail, a sailor, on island, sand, to rescue, a pilot, a reporter, to interview someone  Give each student a copy of the newspaper article to read and check they have understood the main points  Divide the class into pairs Give half the pairs Reporter‟s role cards and the other half Sailor role card  Students prepare questions and answers in their pairs, following the instructions on the cards Allow ten or fifteen minutes for this and help SS with vocabulary if necessary  Rearrange the class so that each pair of “reporters” can interview a pair of “sailors” (with a strong class, reporters can interview sailors individually)  Reporters tell the whole class the most interesting things they have found out about their sailor  Finally, each reporter can work with one of the sailors they interviewed and write the newspaper article together (Adapted from Cutting Edge Elementary – Teacher’s Resource Book) XIV XV APPENDIX 10 THE SUPERLATIVE SURVEY Aim: to practice the superlative adjectives and adverbs in a fun and real situations by carrying out the survey Grammar point: THE SUPERLATIVES Level: Elementary This activity is used for production stage THE SUPERLATIVE SURVEY Preparation: one card for each student (If you have more than twelve students in the class, use duplicate cards) Procedure: - Give each student one card - Give the instructions: students must find out the answer to the question on the card by talking to all the other students in the class and then report back to the class - Allow student time to write one or two questions they need to interview the other students For example, a student with card A will need to ask two questions: Have you got any bothers or sisters How old are they? Make sure that they have the appropriate questions before the make the survey - Students move around the room and ask the question they have prepared They must talk to every student in class, and should make brief notes of the answers - Students work out the answers to the questions on the cards and report to the class For example: - A student with card A: Lan has got the oldest sister She is 35 years old - A student with card G: Long usually wakes up earliest in our class He wakes up at a.m (Adapted from Cutting Edge Elementary – Teacher’s Resource Book) XVI XVII APPENDIX 11: Getting to know This activity concentrate on asking questions of a more personal nature Because of this, it is important for the teacher to tell the group that they don’t have to answer all the questions they find too personal Grammar point: Asking questions in order to complete a form (various tenses, mainly Wh- questions) Level: Elementary / Intermediate Procedure:  Divide the class into pairs and give each student a copy of the handout  Students now take it in turns to ask questions and fill in the form  Set a definite time limit and stop the students at the end of it, whether they have finished or not  As a follow up, each person finds a new partner and tells him or her one or two things about the person he / she interviewed (Adapted from Grammar Games and Activities for Teachers) XVIII XIX APPENDIX 12: TELLING STORIES Type of activity: group work, whole class Aims: To encourage students to tell a story by ordering the sentences Grammar point: Simple narrative in the past Preparation: Copy the worksheet and cut into strips  Divide SS into groups of seven and hand out the strips of paper Each group needs a group leader  Without looking at each other‟s papers, the students should read their own strips out at random and then discuss the order of the story until all the strips are organized into the correct order  When they have finished, explain that the story is actually a quiz Ask SS to exchange theirs ideas to find out the answer This is a point to attract students into the activity  Answer: The doctor is the boy‟s mother  Have students stand / sit in the correct order, ask them to memorize their strip and tell the story Or each reporter from each group will retell the story, using their own languages (Adapted from Ready-made English by Kurt Scheibner ) STRIP QUIZ THE DOCTOR A father and his son were driving on the highway They had a credible accident ………………………………………………………………………………………… The father was killed instantly and the sun was injured ………………………………………………………………………………………… The son was taken to a hospital by ambulance ………………………………………………………………………………………… At the hospital the doctor walked into the operating room ………………………………………………………………………………………… The doctor looked at the boy and said: ………………………………………………………………………………………… „Oh, no! This boy is my son!” ………………………………………………………………………………………… How was this possible? [...]... Efforts to make tasks and language relevant to a target group of learners through an analysis of genuine, realistic situations 4 The use of authentic, from life materials 5 The use of group activities 6 The attempt create a secure, non-threatening atmosphere I.2.3 Status of Grammar in CLT Many linguists and researchers have advocated grammar instruction in language teaching and learning The communicative. .. grammar teaching when she states that teachers are required to create a chance of real communication in the classroom so that learners can actually use the target grammar form in a meaningful way Furthermore, when referring to the limitations of Grammar Translation method (form-based) and Communicative Approach (meaning –based), Pavel V Sysoyev (1999) argued for a combination of formbased and meaning-based... many researches on grammar as well as grammar teaching The problem here is that how to teach grammar and which approach to grammar is appropriate Nowadays, CLT, with its foundation and on recent achievements in the field of linguistic and psychology, has been considered to be the most effective approach to grammar teaching In fact, teaching grammar in the light of CLT makes the grammar lesson more exciting... model of Canale and Swain (1980) clearly illustrates the significance of grammar In this model grammar is seen as one component of communicative competence One person cannot master a language without the knowledge of its grammar Thanks to grammar language partly can function as a means of communication, especially in written language In speaking, though grammatical mistakes are sometimes acceptable,... and disadvantages of each method The author also has a brief look at CLT, its characteristics, the status of grammar in CLT as well as the teaching of it in the light of CLT To serve the study, at the same time, the writer has paid attention to the concept of students interest, factors affecting students interest in class as well as the impact of CLT to students interest in grammar learning In the. .. communicative The five methods relate to games, natural contexts, balancing skills, personalization and adjustment of teacher role Obviously, grammar has play a central role in language teaching, and the question “how to teach grammar ” is far from being satisfactorily answered Nevertheless, the tendency of applying CLT to grammar teaching is in dispensable in order to improve the drawbacks of the traditional... observation Classroom observation gives a clear picture what you see about the application of CLT to grammar teaching and how it motivates students to take part in the lesson In order to test the validity of the information on using CLT in teaching grammar, the author attended two grammar lessons by two different teachers of two different classes (see Appendix 3, 4 ) The grammar point of the first lesson... us to understand the diversity of human culture Like Hannan, Lewis (1986), Garner (1989) gives strong support to grammar teaching Garner believes that grammar gives us a means to analyze and describe our language To sum up, the rationale for teaching grammar is multifaceted and grammar is acknowledged to be of importance in language study in general and in language teaching and learning in particular... place of grammar in the recent language teaching According to him, there has been a shift in the role of grammar as the view of language learning changed at different times While grammar played a dominant role in traditional classroom, it was just of marginal importance in earlier communicative classrooms, which drew merely on meaning rather than form Recent years have seen the returning of grammar. .. learners to use the language they are learning to interact in realistic and meaningful ways, usually involving exchanges of information” While doing this they will draw available vocabulary, grammar, and communication strategies to complete a task In communication, the speaker has a choice of what to say and how to say If this activity is tightly controlled and there is one way to say something, the ... knowledge of the target language to pass national examinations which still focus on grammar In addition, most learners and teachers agree that mastering the grammar of a language may form an important... mechanical practice rather than explanation about the language because the ability to use the language as a means of communication is the mastery of the linguistic system of the target language. .. detailed analysis of grammar rules and translations of sentences and texts into the target language or vice versa The Grammar –Translation method lays the focus on teaching the form rather than