The effectiveness of task based language teaching on learning to use grammatical structures a case study

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HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

VŨ THƠ MAI

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING ON LEARNING TO USE GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURES: A CASE STUDY TRUONG DAL HOC Md TP.HCM Major: TEACHING ENGL! Major code: 60140111 THU VIEN RS OF OTHER LANGUAGES

MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL Supervisor: PHAM VU PHI HO, Ph.D

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ABSTRACT

In Vietnam, teaching English in general and teaching grammar in particular is dominated by the Grammar- Translation Method in which the ultimate goal is how to help the learners gain the knowledge of the language form Though grammatical knowledge can undoubtedly help the learners get good marks and pass the exams centering on language forms successfully, it does not guarantee their ability to communicate in English Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the question of whether the implementation of Task-based language teaching could help grade 12 students in Tri Duc High school in learning to use grammatical structures in terms of offering them necessary grammatical knowledge and giving them the opportunity to use grammatical structures in communicative

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situations

The research was conducted at Tri Duc High school from early September to early December of the school year 2013- 2014 Like any other quasi- experimental research, this study was carried out with one control group and one experimental

group, in which the former was taught with the traditional method whereas the

latter was trained with the new treatment, i.e Task-based language teaching The data collected and analyzed was from research instruments such as pre-and post- tests (both grammar and oral tests), audio recording, and questionnaires

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHOR.SHIP - - n SH Thy hy HH H101 18 10111 11101 xu i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS - 2 n9 HH TH HH hư Hư ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS - nàn HH HH HH HH TH 11111 01kg tr iii F120 iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS HH“ HH kg 2 K0 80000010 4 k4 K1 51101415 10011502040 v

LIST OF TABLES 0.00 cccccescesseseeseeseesecsesseeeesseseescscsessersceserseseeesssesessescaeseseseeeeessasaeerensasseseeseassseesensas ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .ceccccessessesecsssscesesesecsecesesoneeseeeesessecessensesessssasessaeaseeesececseerensesatss xi l8 101508088156910)9)0/0919))00Ẻ017 2 1.1 Background to the StUỦY - 7à HT HH ng TT HH th to TT TT HH Tiện 2

1.2 Statement of the problem: ¿- + 5 c5ccsccxececerrrxee 3

IESSnoiioongog00 3 1n 5 1.4 Research Qu€SfIOTS - uc nh nh HT ng TH nh TT kiệt 5 1.5 The significance bố 5 1.6 Overview of thesis 3) hố ằ ằ 6

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW HH HT HH HH HT TH ng 7

2.1 Theoretical Background to the RĐesearCH cong HH TH HH kiệt 7

2.1.1 Dimensions and knowledge oÝ grammAr ác 2 xi rưy 7

2.1.2 The role of teaching grammar in a foreign language ccìseoeheeneec 8

2.1.3 The situation of teaching grammar in Vietnam ĩc eu 10

2.1.4 I0 v.u 7n 12

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3.3 2-0809 PP 31

3.4 Matcrials and teaching DrOC€dUT€S s2 ngọn HH Hà nh th HH th Hiện 32 3.4.1 Grammar lesson plan for the Control QrOUP .s:cssessessesetseesessececeeseeeetereneneeseney 34 3.4.2 Teaching procedure for the controÏ gTOup - - sec ceceieieierrerrse ke 35 3.4.3 Grammar lesson plan for the experimental grOUP - - «c2 sneehierrrreerie 39 3.4.4 Teaching procedure for experImenfaÌ g7OUp . - sec seeeeseeirerirHrrrerriee 41 3.5 Measurement ÍnstrumenifS - - su HT HH TH KH kg KT Hy cr 47 3.5.1 Pre- test and DOS{-[©SỂ - cong TH ng H115 ET7E710 48 3.5.2 ˆW'b is 2v) 20Ẻ0 0788 52 3.5.3 9)).-00i0ì 10: nadỖ 52 3.6 Procedures of data colÏ€cfIOn kg ng nen HH HH Hit 56 3.6.1 k0 Số e 56 3.6.2 Procedures of data collection .- — 56 “na ` ca 57

3.7.1 Research question 1: Does TBLT improve students’ grammatical knowledge? 57

3.7.2 Research question 2: To what extent does TBLT enhance students’ using grammatical structures through oral performanc€? -.-c++ccccccsrseteeririerrrrrrirrre 58 3.7.3 Research question 3: What are the students’ attitudes towards the impact of TBLT on their learning to use grammatical síTUCtUT€S + Sàn HH TH HH ghe 59 3.8 0 2i202)0000 0 e 60

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS/ FINDINGS càng HH TH HH ng HH HT Hưng re 61 4.] Research question 1: Does TBLT improve learners’ grammatical knowledge’? 61

4.1.1 Before the treafIm€ni( ĩc HH ng TH TH TT HH TH kg 61 4.1.2 After the treafImenI( càng HT HH HT TT việt 63 4.2 Research question 2: To what extent does TBLT enhance students’ using grammatical structures through oral performanC€? - c1 TT HT HH TT HH KH 1x ky 68 4.2.1 Before the tr€afIm€T( sánh nh ng HT TT 9k 68 4.2.2 [Wi200580xx200/102) 8080080686 69

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4.4 Chapter summ4rVy su HH HH HH HH KH TH kg TH 11111181 1 101

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION OF THE FINDING nen Hee 103 5.] Discussions on the students’ grammatical knowledge -c share 103 5.2 Discussions on the studenfs” oral perÍOrImance -‹- sách the 104

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: LIST OF TABLES

TABLES Page

Table 3.1: Summary of the characteristics of the experimental group 30 Ÿable 3.2: Presentation of the grammatical structures used for the research 33 Table 3.3: Main Teaching Stages and Procedures for the Control Group 34 Table 3.4: Summary of five typical TM lesson pÏans -csscccccsecssersee 38 Table 3.5: Main Teaching Stages and Procedures for the Experimental Group 40 Table 3.6: Summary of five typIcal TBLT lesson plans . c7 45 Table 3.7: The format of the pre- and post- grammar paper tesf -«- 50 Table 3.8: The format of the pre- and post- oral test oo ccc ceseeseceneeeesettetteeeeeesneeees 51 Table 3.9: Summary of the pre-and-post questlonnair€s . - «cv, 54 Table 3.10: Summary of the attitudinal questionnaire -c con scsssesvreee 55

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Table 4.1: Group Statistics on pre- grammar paper test of Control Group and Experimental Table 4.2: Results of Independent Samples T- test on pre- grammar paper test of Control Group and Experimental GrOup ch ng H191 1g ng nngện 62 Table 4.3: Paired Samples Statistics of Control Group on grammatical knowledge after the 21019 011 1 64

Table 4.5: Paired Samples Statistics of Experimental Group on grammatical knowledge

after the treatment .0 ccceseesscccecececececsesessscncececccceceecceesesneceecnnrsnttauaasusescssesesenserss 65

Table 4.7: Group Statistics on Post- grammar paper test of Control Group and

Experimental Group scecscsescscssssseseescnecseeseesesesecsacsecaesaussessessseaseseeseasenesaeeaesseeseeees 66 Table 4.8: Results of Independent Samples T- test on Post- grammar paper test of Control Group and Experimental Group cceecesesssssesseesessecseceseesessessssesscssesseceecsesaeesseeneeaes 67 Table 4.9: Group Statistics on Pre- oral test of Control Group and Experimental

Table 4.10: Results of Independent Samples T- test on Pre- oral test of Control Group and

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Table 4.11: Paired Samples Statistics of Control Group on oral performance after the 7 70 Table 4.12: Results of Paired Samples Test on oral performance for Control 900177 31 3›)ƯƯ›5344Ý 71 €0 11 72 Table 4.15: Group Statistics on Post-oral test of Control Group and Experimental GLOUP 1777 (43335 73 Table 4.16: Results of Independent Samples T- test on Post- oral test of Control Group and Experimental GTOUP LH nàn HH TH ng nu ni HH Hà HT TH 73 Table 4 17: Frequency in using five grammatical structures before and after the I3 75 Table 4.18: Methods of learning grammar before and after the treatment 78 Table 4.19: Presentation of the students’ opinions on grammar before and after the {T€AfIT€TIĂ - Gà ng HH TH kh 81 Table 4.20: Presentation of the students’ purposes of learning grammar before and after the {T€AfIT€TIẨ Go HH ng ng TT E0 E0 T6 82 Table 4.21: Presentation of the students’ suggested ways for learning to use grammatical Structures effectively " 85 Table 4.22: Presentation of the students’ reflections on the pre-task stage 90

Table 4.23: Presentation of the students’ reflections on the ten items in the task

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL English as a Foreign Language ESL English as a Second Language GTM Grammar Translation Method

L2 Second Language

MOET Ministry of Education and Training

SD Standard Deviation

SLA Second Language Acquisition TBLT Task-based Language Teaching

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Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study

Regarding the teaching of English to EFL/ESL students, the question of how to teach grammar to achieve proficiency has always been a big concern to educators and researchers as well for many centuries (Nassaji & Foto, 2004) In this respect, Ellis (1985) draws a distinction between two types of second language as “declarative” and “procedural” in which the former concerns the learners’

knowledge about the language, i.e the grammatical rules, the latter refers to the

ability to process the target language and use it In addition, Ellis remarks declarative language cannot convert into procedural language if no attempt is made

to use it in real-world context for communication purposes Furthermore, in the

book entitled “Teaching language: From grammar to grammaring”, Larsen-Freeman (2003) mentions the notion of “grammaring” as a new look on teaching grammar She asserts that the teaching of grammar should provide learners with the ability to use the grammar structures correctly, meaningfully and appropriately instead of merely presenting grammatical rules to them Morever, Ellis (2006), when talking about the importance of grammar teaching, argued “the grammar taught should be one that emphasizes not just form but also the meanings and uses of different grammar structures” (p 102) Therefore, it can be seen that in order to ensure the possibility of applying the knowledge of grammar into communicative situations, the teaching of grammar should focus not only on the form, the meaning but also on the use of the structures

Seen as a development of Communicative Language Teaching (Nunan, 2004; Willis, 1996), Task-based language teaching (TBLT) first emerged in the early 1980s and has probably received the most attention in the literature (Prabhu,

1987; Foster & Skehan, 1996; Robinson, 2001) since then In fact, TBLT has been

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very important part in the three phases of a TBLT lesson In other word, TBLT trains learners in a way that not only linguistic form and accuracy but also meaning and fluency are taken into full consideration In addition, TBLT offers the learners the opportunity to express their own opinions as well as share their experiences with their peers while solving any given tasks It is also from such exposing to meaningful interaction that communication skills of the learners develop (Willis &

Willis, 2009) Moreover, TBLT creates a favorable learning atmosphere for the

learners when they can feel free to use the language they know without being afraid of being penalized for failures in accuracy (Willis & Willis, 2007)

In reality, over the past two decades, numerous studies have been conducted

to investigate the impacts of TBLT on improving accuracy and fluency These studies reveal that TBLT are successfully implemented in teaching context in many countries in the world, including Brazil (Lopes, 2004), Israel (Murad, 2009), Japan (Thompson & Millington, 2012), Algeria (Moumene, 2010) and China (Choo &

Too, 2012)

1.2 Statement of the problem

Although it is revealed that TBLT is as a good choice for learning and using grammar effectively - the learners trained with this approach get many benefits from it when they not only obtain the knowledge of the forms but also have the opportunity to use them in communicative context, how to use TBLT to teach English grammar in the context of Vietnamese high schools is really a challenge when teaching English in general and teaching grammar in particular is still dominated by the traditional method, i.e Grammar- Translation method (GTM)

(Tomlinson & Bao, 2004; Le Van Canh , 2009) and school system is overshadowed

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rather than communicative competence Besides, there existed some contradictions

between the teachers’ understanding and their teaching practice Concerning this issue, Barnard and Nguyen (2010) conducted a research to get reflective comments about the attitudes of Vietnamese teachers towards TBLT The finding of the survey showed that although they considered communicative activities as an effective way to strengthen their students ‘motivation to study, most of them had a strong belief in the indispensable role of explicit form-focused instruction As a result, many Vietnamese students have not been successful in communication though they may even be very good at grammar knowledge with high grades in examinations Hoang

Van Van (2000) added that Vietnamese students feel embarrassed, confused, and

unconfident in using English for communication

This was similar to the situation of students at Tri Duc high school where the current study took place The teaching staff here was in particular favor of the GTM in their teaching, especially in teaching grammar for grade 12 students who had to sit for an English test in the final examination that puts much emphasis on accuracy over fluency This truth is proved by the researcher’s six years of teaching in this school, through many class observations as well as personal communication with other English teachers Specifically, at the beginning of the grammar lessons, the teacher presented the rules explicitly and explained their formation as well Then students worked with blank filling or translation exercises to reinforce the structures As a result, the learning atmosphere was somehow dull because the students had no opportunity to raise their ideas or express their feelings More importantly, what students gained from such grammar lessons was dozens of rules that they found hard to utilize them in real context and easily forgot unless they

used them frequently (classroom observation, 2013)

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study, TBLT is an introduced approach that can bring great benefits in learning grammar for the learners Hence, the purpose of the current study was to investigate whether TBLT could help Tri Duc High school students gain grammatical knowledge as well as enhance their oral performance in using those grammatical structures

1.3 Statement of purpose

The purpose of this study was to find out the answer to the question of whether the implementation of TBLT really fostered the learning to use grammatical structures of 12 graders at Tri Duc High school Besides, this study aimed to get the learner’s reflections on grammar lessons with this new approach as well as to examine if the learners had any changes in their attitudes towards learning grammar after a period of being taught with TBLT

1.4 Research questions

In order to achieve the purpose stated above, three research questions were

addressed as follows:

1 Does TBLT improve students’ grammatical knowledge?

2 To what extent does TBLT enhance students’ using grammatical structures through oral performance?

3 What are the students’ attitudes towards the impact of TBLT on learning to use grammatical structures?

1.5 The significance of the study

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The success of this study puts forward that TBLT is the right choice for teaching grammar Through taking part in activities of task-based grammar lessons, the students not only gain grammar rules but also have the opportunities to interact with each other a lot As a result, the learners trained with TBLT can cope well with grammar paper tests with their knowledge of grammar More importantly, they will be able to apply what they have learned into communication, which is necessary for

their future life

1.6 Overview of thesis chapters

This current thesis is comprised of six chapters as follows:

Chapter | is the introduction to the current study Specifically, this chapter begins with the background of the study, statement of the prablem_and-the purpose of the study Then, the three research questions are raised together with the presentation of the significance of the study This chapter ends with an overview of thesis chapters Chapter 2 presents literature review of the theoretical dimensions of the research and relevant previous studies The research gap is also stated in this chapter as a bridge leading to the current study

Chapter 3 deals with the research methodology employed for the study This chapter starts with the description of the research site and the participants Then, it continues to present the research approach, materials, and procedures of the study and measurement instruments The section of data analysis for the three research questions is also illustrated in this chapter

Chapter 4 analyzes the data collected from the instruments namely pre-tests and post-tests for grammar and oral checking, and questionnaire

Chapter 5 discusses the findings drawn out from the preceding chapter

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Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This section of the study consists of two main parts, namely theoretical background to the study, and the review of previous studies including the research gap The conceptualization begins with many important grammatical issues i.e dimensions and knowledge of grammar, the role of teaching grammar in a foreign language, the situation of teaching English in Vietnamese High schools This part

continues with the definition of TBLT as well as its characteristics; the definitions

of Tasks and types of tasks and the framework of a task-based lesson This chapter ends with the research gap that leads to the current study

2.1 Theoretical Background to the Research 2.1.1 Dimensions and knowledge of grammar 2.1.1.1 Dimensions of grammar

According to Larsen- Freeman (2003), in order to create a link between

grammar and communication, grammar should not be approached as a set of

discrete meaningless- items, decontextualized, static structures, but a_three-

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2.1.1.2Two types of language knowledge

The notion of three dimensions of grammar recommended by Larsen- Freeman (2003) concurs with the distinction about two types of language defined as explicit knowledge and implicit knowledge by Ellis (1985) According to Ellis (2004), explicit knowledge refers to the knowledge of features of an L2 such as the phonology, lexis, grammar and pragmatics together with the metalanguage used to label this knowledge Learners gain this knowledge type through doing controlled practice consciously like learning grammar rules Besides, Krashen (1982) argues that explicit knowledge is used when the learners are monitored and have enough time to recall the knowledge In a word, they cannot respond spontaneously in communication with this grammatical knowledge On the contrary, implicit knowledge deals with the ability to communicate in L2 fluently in an unconscious and automatic way without any focus on form Krashen (1981) also claims that explicit cannot convert into implicit knowledge unless learners are offered many opportunities as possible to use it in communicative contexts

From the distinction drawn out clearly by Ellis, it can be pointed out the the traditional way of teaching grammar only supplies learners with explicit knowledge while what is necessary for successful communication is implicit knowledge With TBLT, this knowledge of grammar can be achieved through students’ taking part in

communicative activities

2.1.2 The role of teaching grammar in a foreign language

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competence Among them, linguistic aspect is also known as grammatical competence concerning the use of lexis, syntax and structure Consequently, learners cannot gain fluency and accuracy if the linguistic aspect is not taken into consideration In addition, Williams (2005) remarks that the exclusion of form- focused instruction will lead to the lack of accuracy in the output of the speaker

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emphasized the way of teaching grammar with the purpose of achieving the meaning, which is totally in agreement with the role of grammar in TBLT

Talking about TBLT, Skehan (1992) claims that key point with TBLT is how to assure that “the acquisition of fluency is not at the expense of development in structure” (p.197) In order to help learners acquire both linguistic structures and use them for meaningful interactions , TBLT offers tasks designed to help learners develop communication ability through negotiating meanings with their partners while form-focused instruction still receives considerable attention at the right

time

2.1.3 The situation of teaching grammar in Vietnam

Teaching English in Vietnam as general and teaching.English grammar in particular has been conducted under the grammar- translation method (Liu & Littlewood, 1997) The steps of the typical traditional grammar lesson in Vietnam are presented as follows (Do, 2013)

- The teacher writes down the name of the grammar point on the board - The teacher presents the rule and structure

- The teacher illustrates the rule given through isolated examples

- The teacher asks the students to make up their own sentences based on the rule

- The teacher gets the students to do exercises that are only at sentence level and decontextualized

- For homework, the teacher reminds the students to learn the grammar rules by heart and make some further sentences

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whose prime focus is on communication purposes In order to attain this ultimate goal, a task-based grammar lesson does not start with a list of rules but a series of tasks that require the learners to interact with each other a lot so that the solutions to each task can be found In addition, Do (2003) adds that in English course books (Tieng Anh 10, Tieng Anh 11, Tieng Anh 12), teaching grammar is not integrated into language skills but taught in a separate lesson and presented out of context, which also means that prescriptive grammar is still common and is the final goal that many Vietnamese high school teachers wish to transmit to their students Because of this fact, the students in Vietnam failed to use their grammatical

knowledge in communication (Hoang, 2000) In a study conducted in 2004,

Tomlinson and Bao discovered that many Vietnamese teachers were not ready to change their grammatical teaching methods and some teachers believed that their own students were not eager for joining communicative tasks It is the national examinations, which mainly test the learners’ language knowledge such as reading comprehension; combining sentences with the knowledge of grammatical structures, rather than language use that shapes the teachers’ way of teaching In order to prepare their students for such exams, the teachers failed to employ communicative approaches in their classroom, but were required to meet the student’s needs of passing the exams (Tran, 2013) In addition, Wright (2002) states that the method in which accuracy is overemphasized fluency is inappropriate for many Vietnamese today and needs to be reconsidered

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2.1.4 Task- based language teaching 2.1.4.1General introduction to TBLT

TBLT belongs to the category of analytic syllabus With this syllabus model, language is viewed as inseparable unit and taught in chunks at one time Through exposing to the input, learners are able to recognize the rules without any explicit explanation In other words, learners need to employ their analytic capabilities to acquire the language rules (Long & Crookes, 1993)

TBLT incorporates findings from SLA research Among SLA researchers, Stephen Krashen (1982) is known with a list of hypotheses, namely the acquisition- learning hypothesis, the monitor hypothesis, the natural order hypothesis, the input hypothesis, and the affective filter hypothesis Making _a_distinction between acquisition and learning, he asserts that learning cannot convert to acquisition and that only acquired language is available for fluent and natural communication According to Krashen (1982), learning is the process that learners learn a language consciously through focusing on forms and functions explained explicitly On the contrary, acquisition only takes place when learners are exposed to the target language used in meaningful interactions and they are assumed to get the language rules naturally and unconsciously Crookes and Gass (1993) are in agreement with Krashen (1982) when saying that language is learned most effectively when it is used in meaningful communication Based on this hypothesis, TBLT sets out its own characteristics, one of which is the role of communication in enhancing the learning process The input hypothesis is viewed as the core of SLA Krashen (1982) claims that only when understanding the target language does the acquisition occur He moves on to emphasize that the language input must be not only understandable but should go a bit beyond their current level of language development, which is called “comprehensible input’ Therefore, with TBLT, tasks

should be designed in a way so that learners can solve them, and at the same time

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He emphasizes the importance of the low-anxiety learning atmosphere as well as self-confidence, self-esteem of learners in the process of acquiring a second language In a word, learners are not forced to produce a word through doing meaningless drills Instead, they should have a silent period to digest the input before producing Moreover, Pica (1994) suggests that interaction fosters conditions for SLA Through participating in conversations containing interactional modifications, learners get the input necessary for acquisition (Long, 1983; Foster, 1998) Stemming from the basic elements of SLA, tasks in TBLT are designed to provide learners with as many opportunities to exchange information in their interactions as possible in order that they can take in the comprehensible input and produce the output

2.1.4.2Characteristics of TBLT

Defined by Nunan (1999) as “an approach to the design of language course in which the point of the departure is not an ordered list of linguistic items, but a collection of tasks” (p.24), TBLT can be adopted as a way of teaching grammar for communication purposes because of its five characteristics (Nunan, 1991) and five principles offered by Willis (1996) Specifically, Nunan outlines five characteristics of TBLT as follows: - An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language - The introduction of authentic texts (teaching materials) into the learning situation

- The provision of opportunities for learners to focus not only on language but also on the learning process itself

- An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning

- An attempt to link classroom language with language activation outside the classroom

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Obviously, TBLT is implemented with the great focus on the learning process that requires lots of interaction from the learners to fulfill the communication purposes In addition, those who learn with TBLT cannot be passive learners who just receive what the teacher transmit to them, but actively raise their voices, share their own experiences in order to accomplish a given task At the same

time, the authentic texts should be recommended as teaching materials in order to

make a link between classroom languages with the outside world It is also because of these characteristics that make TBLT different from GTM With GTM, the fact that the language forms receive the full attention at the expense of the meaning and use fails to help the learners improve their oral skill in utilizing grammatical structures Besides, learners under the light of GTM have no opportunities to express their attitudes towards a certain topic because the grammatical structures are

presented restricted to sentence level, not in a communicative situation As a result,

the learners passively get the knowledge from their teachers without any interaction among them What is more, the students have no ideas about how the structures are used in contexts because of decontextualized presentations Although the key difference between the two approaches is pointed out, it does not mean that TBLT ignores the role of the grammatical forms In fact, the focus on form still has its own way in this approach This is made clear in the five principles offered by Willis (1996)

- Learners should be exposed to worthwhile and authentic language - Learners should be encouraged to use the target language

- Tasks should motivate learners to engage in language use

- Language form should receive sufficient attention at some points in a task- cycle

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2.1.55 Tasks in TBLT

2.1.5.1 Definitions

Viewed as the main units in TBLT, tasks are activities that help to gain the communication purposes like the definition offered by Willis (1996, p.23) i.e tasks are “activities where the target language is used by the learner for a communicative purpose in order to achieve an outcome” Additionally, tasks are approached in different respects Williams and Burden (1997, p.168) define a task as “any activity that learners engage in to further the process of learning a language.” Here, communicative purpose is not mentioned Continually, Estaire and Zanon (1994, p 13-20), distinguish the two main categories of task, including “communication tasks” and “enabling tasks” While the former is to focus on.meaning rather than form, the latter is devoted to linguistic aspects such as grammar, vocabulary,

pronunciation, functions, and discourse Moving further, Stern (1992) stresses the

importance on “realistic language use” in accomplishing in a task Also, a task is defined as an activity in which the meaning is principally focused (Nunan, 1989) and the role of the outcome is greatly emphasized (Prabhu, 1987) Although there are varied definitions around tasks, the salient point is that the design of the tasks must ensure that the target language is used meaningfully in communication by the learners so that the set outcome is gained

2.1.5.2Criteria for a task:

Together with the definition of Task by Willis (1996), Ellis offers six criteria for a task, which once illustrate the mandatory characteristics of a task, of which the focus on meaning and the communicative outcome are considered the most important The six features are listed as follows:

- A task is a work plan

- A task involves a primary focus on meaning

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- A task engages cognitive processes

- A task has a clearly defined communicative outcome

(Ellis, 2003, p.16) In brief, considered as the main units in employing TBLT, tasks are the activities that have always set the communicative outcome clearly Additionally, during the process of using the language to achieve the outcome, the learners can use any of the four language skills and make the best use of their own knowledge 2.1.5.3 Types of Tasks

Nunan (1989, p 44), classifies tasks into two main categories, namely “real- world tasks” and “pedagogical tasks” The former is concerned with tasks related to the future needs of learners that are rehearsed beforehand in the.classroom whereas the latter refers to tasks practiced in the classroom and do not necessarily reflect the real world as well as the learners’ needs In addition, types of tasks are categorized based on activities for accomplishing a task (Pattison, 1987; Willis, 1996)

According to Pattison (1987), tasks are labeled into seven activity types including “Questions and answers, Dialogues and role plays, Matching activities, Communication strategies, Pictures and pictures stories, Puzzles and problems, Discussion and decisions” Similarly, Willis listed six types of tasks, namely “listing”, “ranking items”, “comparing or contrasting items”, “problem-solving activities”, “sharing personal experiences” and “creative tasks” Each of these types has its own feature and is specified as follows

l Listing: this type of task is employed to brainstorm ideas from learners about a certain topic This also veils a general picture about the topic they are going to study

2 Ranking items: with this type of task, learners use their logical ability to order the items in rank of importance

3 Comparing or contrasting items: here, learners work in groups to figure out

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4, Problem- solving activities: in this task, students have opportunities to give advice on a certain problem

5 Sharing personal experiences: those open tasks offer a chance for learners to exchange their own personal experiences and attitudes towards the given topic

6 Creative tasks: these types of tasks pose a challenge to learners because it requires a higher level of preparations and skills integrations

(Willis, 1996)

Depending on the lesson and the proficiency level of learners as well, these different types of tasks are employed in the lesson with TBLT Through completing the tasks, the learners are exposed to lots of meaningful interaction and achieve the communicative outcome These types of tasks once reaffirm the fundamental contradiction between TBLT and GTM While activities in GTM are controlled ones such as multiple choice items, error- recognition items, gap-filling, sentence transformation that aim to train learners with accuracy, tasks in task-based lessons primarily focus on meaning and help to promote interaction among learners This is also clarified in each stage of a TBLT lesson design

2.1.5.4The lesson design with TBLT

In his book entitled “Task-based Language Learning and Teaching”, Ellis (2003) cites that there are many models of lesson designs proposed about implementing tasks into teaching a second language (Prabhu 1987, Estaire and Zanon 1994, and Skehan 1996) However, all of them agree that a task- governed lesson should comprise the three principal phases, namely: “pre-task”, “during-

task” and “post-task” In the first stage, teachers and learners can take various

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to work under time limit or not The final “post- task” phase refers to activities following up on the task performance

Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, Willis (1996) offers five principles for implementing the task-based approach which reaffirms that in lessons with TBLT, although the use of the language is considered as the primary goal, the form of the language gets sufficient attention and plays a prominent role, depending on different stages in a task-cycle It is also because of this feature that TBLT is recommended as an innovative approach of teaching grammar Together with these crucial criteria for the implementation of this approach, Willis (1996) also worked out a model for designing a task-based lesson which was also the model that this current research followed a Pre-task Introduction to topic and tasks Task-cycle - Task - Planning - Report Language Focus - Analysis - Practice

According to Willis (1996), the first stage which is called pre-task is necessary preparations for the task completion, including the goal, the limitation of time, and some activities to help learners familiarize with the topic as well as some useful language for task accomplishment In one word, in this stage, learners are provided with comprehensible input and necessary language support to do the task successfully The task- cycle comprises the three components, namely Task, Planning, and Report The task is the stage in which learners do the main learning activity through processing, producing, or interacting in the target language (Nunan, 1985) The tasks are varied ranging from meaning- oriented and form-focused,

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target language through using it for communication solely and those wanting to learn the language with the support of grammar instruction (Priyana, 2006) In order to complete a task, learners need a lot of cooperation during pair work or group work and they also try their best to exchange information as well, hence their communicative ability improves At the same time, the feeling of success in achieving a goal motivates the learners a lot Planning is the time the learners prepare to report the task in front of the whole class and rehearse what they are going to say or write The learning process continues with the Report stage in which the learners are asked to perform briefly their spoken or written products The task- cycle ends with the Language Focus As mentioned by Willis (1996), the language form has a certain role in the task-based activities Therefore, in this last stage, form-focused activities such as consciousness- raising activities (Willis, 1996) are used to help learners identify the specific linguistic items used The learners then do further practice like practice of words, phrases, patterns, and sentences (Willis, 1996) to be confident in language use From these activities, the learners are expected to acquire accuracy while trying to use the target language for communication purpose

This model of grammar teaching is completely different from the traditional way governed by GTM All of the three stages in a grammar lesson based on GTM namely Presentation, Practice, and Reinforcement aim at providing the learners with grammatical forms through controlled activities Therefore, the teacher is the authority in the classroom and the learners play the part as passive learners who solely do as what the teacher says (Larsen- Freeman, 2000) By contrast, with TBLT, activities are employed to stimulate interaction among learners and accuracy is achieved on the ground of meaning Moreover, in response to different stages of the task-based lessons, both the teacher and the learners perform various roles The roles of the teacher as well as those of the learners are analyzed in the following

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2.1.6 The roles of the participants during a task-based lesson 2.1.6.1 The roles of learners

According to Richard & Rodger (2001), a learner is involved in many different roles in the task completion, including three main as follows: a group participant, a monitor, or a risk-taker and an innovator He is a group participant because it seems that nearly almost tasks are conducted in pair work or group work, each learner has his own responsibility to join hands for the accomplishment of the given tasks At the same time, he has to draw attention to the message conveyed in

tasks and the form as well, being the role as a monitor Furthermore, in order to

complete a task, a leaner has to make full use of their own experiences and they sometimes face some situations they have no prior experience.and linguistic items

related, in here he takes the role of a risk-taker and innovator

2.1.6.2The roles of teacher

In order to help the learners successfully accomplish the tasks, the teacher is expected to take on many different roles i.e selecting and sequencing the tasks; preparing learners for tasks and conducting consciousness- raising activities (Richard & Rodger, 2001) Specifically, the teacher acts as a selector and sequencer

of tasks because he has to select, adapt or create the tasks for the learners on the

basis of their needs, their interests as well as language skill levels Besides, the teacher has to.make sufficient preparations for the learners before they perform a task Some activities recommended for this preparation includes introducing the topic, helping students recall useful words or phrases, and giving a similar task if

necessary With the final role, the teacher guides the learners to notice the features

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22 Review of related literature

2.2.1 Summaries of previous studies

There have been a number of studies examined the influence of TBLT into teaching English, specifically on achieving forms and meaning of the language For the purpose of this current study, only some works conducted in many countries in the world as well as in Vietnam are mentioned including Lopes (2004), Moumene (2010), Rahimpour (2006), Murad (2009), Thompson & Millington (2012), Choo & Too (2012), Vo Hoang Sang (2012), Le Do Ngoc Hang (2013) and Pham & Nguyen (2014)

In order to find out whether TBLT brings positive effects on the learners’

at

using language for communication over Presentation-Practice —Production (PPP), Lopes (2004) carried out a research in two classes at a private school in the south of Brazil called British House where the teachers had been accustomed to PPP The result of the experiment showed that TBLT was more effective in teaching English than PPP approach Lopes observed that learners trained with TBLT could use the target language to solve problems, to exchange information and to talk about their own experiences In addition, learners could apply what they had been exposed to the situations outside the classroom It was also from the success of the implementation of TBLT that this program had attracted a number of 1,000 students compared to a small project of two classes at the beginning Although the study pointed out that TBLT effectively insists the students use the language for communication, it did not mention the accuracy in the language that the students used as well as get their attitudes of towards the learning process with TBLT

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were 91 students of grade 11 consisting 37 boys and 54 girls In order to draw the conclusion about the significant differences between the control group and the experimental one, some instruments were used such as the pre-test and post-test of speaking skills and the attitudinal questionnaires The study exhibited the results that TBLT helped improve students’ speaking skills and change their attitudes positively towards learning English Moreover, the finding made it clear that the girls’ speaking skills improved more than that of the boys when classroom practice was organized in case of TBLT Compared to the study carried out by Lopes (2004), this study had a good point in concerning about the learners’ attitudes towards learning speaking with TBLT

In harmony with Lopes and Murad in figuring out the-effeetiveness of TBLT on communication skills, Thompson and Millington (2012) conducted their research

in Japan However, this research was conducted under some special circumstances

such as teaching with large size classes, inadequate financial support and time constrains, a typical feature of English teaching practice in Asian context The study took place at a Japan international university in Japan with 36 participants in an English level of lower- intermediate They aged from 18 to 21 years old, studying a wide range of academic subjects besides their major studies The 36 participants worked in 6 groups, one of which was chosen randomly for data collection The data for this study was collected from a regular class On the basis of TBLT

framework, the researcher himself designed tasks to facilitate oral communication

and use of vocabulary taken from a module focusing on money as well as to draw

students’ attention to the form of articles a, an, the Among the activities for task

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of big-size classes This study was remarkably useful in the way that it pointed out the grammatical point examined as well as the types of tasks used in the lessons with TBLT

The emergence of TBLT also stirred up the interest of many researchers in China Choo and Too (2012) conducted a study to find out the teachers’ perceptions to using this approach for the teaching of grammar, and how to make some adaptations to the course book to reflect TBLT Eight teachers from a Chinese private school joined this study as participants, six of whom had a certificate in TESOL All of them had the teaching experiences ranging from two to twenty years and they were teaching Pre- intermediate English classes Before the participants

actually carried out a lesson plan based on TBLT framework~-in-their own classes,

all of them were quite sure about this method under the instruction of the researcher The grammar structure chosen was on modals of obligations The findings of the

study were derived from survey, interview, and textbook analysis and showed that

the teachers had a positive attitude toward TBLT because it helped their students engage more in the lesson In addition, although not all of them viewed TBLT as a suitable approach for teaching grammar, they agreed that it would be an alternative approach to their teaching However, they also emphasized that the grammar structures to be examined in this survey were not new to the students who were average to good; the results would be different if the conditions changed Although the findings of the study revealed that TBLT engaged the students in learning grammar, it did not examine their improvement in gaining grammatical knowledge and how efficiently the students used the structure after they learned with TBLT In addition, this study only reflected the positive attitudes of the teachers, not those of the students towards the implementation of TBLT on learning grammar

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-of fluency, complexity, and accuracy The participants involved two groups of male ‘and female English majors with 10 members for each group All of them were at the ‘intermediate level and were chosen randomly The control group was taught with TBLT in which instruction mainly focused on the task completion, without explicit explanation about grammar rules The experimental group was exposed to the structural- based approach, in which the instruction focused on the explicit teaching and learning of the grammatical rules of the language alone The results of the research indicated that TBLT led to greater fluency and complexity, but structural- based approach entailed greater accuracy One strong point of this study was that it took accuracy and fluency into examination when investigating the effects of TBLT and the structural-based approach However, it failed to seck for the students’

eee eee

reflections on the learning process with the two approaches

In an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of TBLT over the traditional approach on Algerian students’ learning grammar in terms of grammatical accuracy,

interaction, autonomy, and motivation, Moumene (2010) did a research at an

Algerian university The sample of the study consisted of 66 first year students of English, making up 2 groups i.e 31 students for the control group and 35 students

for the experimental group and the grammatical selected for this research was all English tenses The researcher used some instruments for his own study, including the proficiency tests, classroom observation, and questionnaire The results of the study indicated that the students in the experimental group outperformed the control group in gaining grammatical accuracy Moreover, it was revealed that TBLT was more effective in fostering negotiated interaction among learners than the traditional method Finally, the finding showed that TBLT helped to increase the students’ self-confidence and generate their motivation in learning grammar Because of all the benefits that TBLT brought, the students showed their like to this approach and expected to learn with it in the future One of the strong points of this study is that it examined the impacts of TBLT on learning grammar in various aspects:

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examine the use of grammatical structures and the results were drawn out from the experiment with students of university level

Like many other researchers in the world, those in Vietnam have been attracted by the adoption of TBLT in teaching and learning English, especially employing this approach for improving accuracy and fluency

In order to explore the impacts of task-based activities on high school students’ retention of grammar, Vo Hoang Sang (2012) did a research in Go Den High school, a semi- public school, in Ben Luc district, Long An province The study lasted from September of the year 2011 to December of the year 2012 with 92 participants from two classes of grade 10 The instruments used in this research consisted of pre-test and post-test, pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire It is revealed from the study that the experimental group gained significant improvement in grammar performance in terms of grammar retention Additionally, the implementation of TBLT caused changes in the students’ attitudes toward learning English grammar Specifically, before the treatment, the students perceived grammar lessons as boring and difficult to remember rules while after the treatment, the students considered learning of grammar to be fun and easy to take in grammatical rules However, this study is only involved in the investigation of the students’ retention of grammar, excluding examining the students’ ability of using the grammatical structures in communicative contexts

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appreciation towards learning speaking with TBLT because it gave them lots of chances of practicing speaking with partners as offered them necessary vocabulary and speaking patterns before they engaged in the discussion, which made them feel confident and comfortable in communication Despite the positive results that this study brought about, it still exposed some gaps i.e the samples were English-

majored freshmen Therefore, there should be other studies conducted to explore the

impact of TBLT on other groups of learners such as high school students

One year later, Le Do Ngoc Hang carried out a research at Vietnam USA

Society (VUS) to examine whether TBLT enhanced the learners’ oral

communication performance The participants in this study were 46 students aged from 14 to 16 years old at VUS The experiments began on March 25 and finished on July 13, 2013 Following an experimental design, the instruments employed in

this study were composed of tests, questionnaires, and classroom observation As

pointed out by the findings, the students’ oral communication competence was considerably enhanced thanks to the adoption of TBLT Moreover, the results specified that of four investigated criteria, except for accuracy, the rest including fluency, comprehensibility, and task achievement gained improvement In other words, the teacher in this research failed to balance forms and meanings when implementing TBLT Consequently, other studies should be conducted to explore the effectiveness of TBLT on both accuracy and fluency

2.2.2 Implications for the present study

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according to Skehan (1992) “the key with task-based learning is how to preserve a controlled approach to language development, and ensure that the acquisition of fluency is not the expense of development in structure” (p 197) Secondly, some studies only concerns about the performance of the students without seeking their reflections on the learning process with TBLT Thirdly, some studies did explore the students’ attitudes towards learning with TBLT, they failed to scrutinize whether the adoption of TBLT brought about any changes in their attitudes after the treatment compared to before the treatment

Developed from those gaps, this current study was conducted to explore the effectiveness of TBLT on the students’ learning to use grammatical structures in terms of knowledge of grammatical forms and oral performance as well as their attitudes towards the impacts of this approach i.e the changes in their attitudes towards learning grammar after being taught with TBLT and their reflections on task-based grammar lessons

2.3 Chapter summary

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Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter reports the design of the current study Firstly, it offers all necessary information about the research site and the participants Next, it presents other essential components such as research approach, materials, teaching

procedures, measurement instruments and data analysis

3.1 Research setting

Tri Duc High school is among many private schools in Tan Phu District, Ho Chi Minh City and is under the management of Tri Duc education services joint stock Company It was first established in 2006 under the Decision No 1210/QD — UBND with the first campus located in 1333A Thoai Ngoc Hau Street Since then, the students from many provinces have enrolled in this school New, Tri Duc school has two campuses named campus | and campus 2, ranging from lower to upper secondary educational levels This current study was conducted at campus 1 In this campus, all of students were from grade 10 to grade 12 and they belonged to two main categorizations: one group spent their whole day studying at school and the other group only attended lasses in the morning and just a few classes in the afternoon On the contrary, students in campus 2, which was also named a boarding school, were between grade 6 and grade 12 They both studied and made this campus their house

In this school, all students used the series of textbooks designed by the MOET together with some materials for internal use and follow the national curriculum including the periods of teaching However, like other private schools, the curriculum in Tri Duc High school was a little flexible For main subjects such as Mathematics, Literature, English, Chemistry and Physics, the students had some more extra periods of learning for revision and consolidation in addition to the required periods set by the MOET

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school leaders had been aware of the importance of integrating information and technology into education They encouraged teachers to use electronic lesson plans to teach students if necessary because each of the classrooms was well- equipped with a projector

3.2 Participants

There are two ways of selecting a sample, including probability and non- probability Probability samples are selected in such a way that every of the learners has the chance to take part in the research randomly while in non-probability sampling, the participants are not chosen by random but based on the researchers judgement in order to gain a specific goal of the research at hand (Henry, 1990) In Tri Duc high school, all the classes were arranged by the school authorities on the ground of the students’ level Therefore, it was impossible for the

researcher to select the participants randomly, which also meant that non-

probability sampling strategy was chosen when this current study was conducted In the school year 2013-2014, there were 11 classes, ranging from grade 10 to grade 12 in Tri Duc High School, campus 1 Specifically, there were 2 classes of

10" graders, 4 classes of 11" graders and 5 classes of 12" graders On average, the number of students in each class was 35 members Of the five classes of grade 12, the researcher as well as the instructor was assigned two classes named 12 Al and 12 A4 By random, class 12 Al became the control group with 29 members (13 males and 16 females) and class 12 A4 became the experimental group with 30 students The average age of the participants from these two groups was 17 and they came from different provinces in Vietnam The majority of them lived in Ho Chi Minh City, and the rest of them were from other places such as Binh Phuoc Province, Vung Tau Province, and Dong Nai Province, etc

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good at natural subjects but quite bad at English and vice versa All the necessary information related to the experimental group was from the pre-questionnaire is summarized in the table 3.1 below

Table 3.1: Summary of the characteristics of the experimental group Experimental group Items (N= 30) Frequency Percentage Male 16 53.3 % Gender Female 14 46.7 % 17 years old 29 96.7 % Age Others 1 3.3 % 2 years 0 0%

Years of learning 6 years 28 93.3 % English More than 6 2 6.7 % years Excellent 0 0% Self- assess of English Good 11 36.7 % grammatical Average 12 40% knowledge Bad 7 23.3 % Excellent 0 0%

Self- assess of English | Good 3 10%

oral skill Average 13 43.3 %

Bad 14 46.7 %

Taking other English | Yes 3 10%

courses outside No 27 90 %

As presented in table 3.1, most of the students in the experimental group

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they enrolled in centers of preparing the learners for the entrance university examination Therefore, the results gained by this group after the treatment was not

intervened by external factors, but due to the treatment In addition, the participants

self-assessed their grammatical knowledge better than their oral skill Specifically, in reference to grammatical knowledge, 11 out of 30 students said that they were good at knowledge of grammar structures, and 7 of them admitted that they were bad at English grammar However, the situation was quite different to the self- assessment of oral skill Only 3 students were confident in their oral skill whereas up to 14 students revealed that their oral skill was quite bad From this point, it can be seen that being good at grammatical knowledge and the ability to use this knowledge in communication are two different things This was also a typical

-

feature of grade 12 students at Tri Duc High school 3.3 Research Design

In order to find out the effect of the intervention i.e TBLT on enhancing the learners’ learning to use grammatical structures, the current study followed the quasi- experimental design in terms of using one experimental group and one control group According to Kerlinger (1970), quasi-experiment is applied to educational researchers when selecting samples randomly is nearly impracticable

In the experimental design, there are two groups: an experimental group and a control group (Vaus, 2007) These two groups extend over time so that the data are collected at two points of time before and after the treatment During the experiment, the two groups share many things in common such as the learning

context i.e school, curriculum, course- books, facilities, lecturers except for one

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in this control group because this group is not exposed to the experimental intervention

Based on the experiment format, the two classes of grade 12 assigned to the researcher were chosen as the two main groups for the experiment By random, class 12 A4 served as an experimental group and class 12 Al became the control group During the research, the control group was not exposed to any new treatment or intervention In other words, they were taught with the traditional method, i.e GTM like other classes at Tri Duc High school On the contrary, as an introduced treatment- TBLT was introduced to the experimental group At the end of the semester, the participants from the two groups did a post-test If there were any differences in the student’ performance between the pre-test and post-test in the experiment group, it was because of the interventional factor- TBLT At the same time, any change in the performance of the control group was measured However, since this group was not exposed to the interventional factor; any change in this group was not due to the treatment offered but the normal training curriculum Finally, a comparison between the changes in the achievement of the two groups

was examined The treatment was seen as an effective factor when there is a

significant change in the experimental group compared to the control one 3.4 Materials and teaching procedures

The demonstration of the course book used in the current study together with the samples of lesson plans for the control group as well as the experimental group is provided in this section The course book English 12, which belongs to the series

of course books designed by the MOET, was first introduced in the school year

2006- 2007 English 12 was a theme-based textbook, including 16 units divided into 6 themes, namely You and Me, Education, Community, Nature, Recreation, and

People and Places Each unit of this course book contains five parts: Reading,