APPLYING TASKBASED APPROACH IN TEACHING ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR THE GRADE 11 STUDENTS OF BASIC CURRICULUM AT THANH SON HIGH SCHOOLPHU THO PROVINCE

---HA THI NINH APPLYING TASK-BASED APPROACH IN TEACHING ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR THE GRADE 11 STUDENTS OF BASIC CURRICULUM AT THANH SON HIGH SCHOOL-PHU THO PROVINCE... ---HÀ THỊ NINH APPLYING

-HA THI NINH

APPLYING TASK-BASED APPROACH IN TEACHING

ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR THE GRADE 11

STUDENTS OF BASIC CURRICULUM AT THANH SON

HIGH SCHOOL-PHU THO PROVINCE

-HÀ THỊ NINH

APPLYING TASK-BASED APPROACH IN TEACHING

ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR THE GRADE 11

STUDENTS OF BASIC CURRICULUM AT THANH SON HIGH SCHOOL-PHU THO PROVINCE

(Áp dụng phương pháp dạy Tiếng Anh theo nhiệm vụ trong dạy ngữ pháp

Tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp 11 theo chương trình dạy học cơ bản tại trường

THPT Thanh Sơn - Phú Thọ)

B.A Graduation Paper Field: Teaching methodology

SUPERVISOR: MA NGUYỄN THỊ HOA

Phu Tho, 2016

Secondly, I would like to thank all the lecturers, teachers, and staff at Hung Vuong University, especially those in the Department of Foreign Language who have created favorable conditions for me to study and write the graduation paper.

Thirdly, my particular thanks are due to the teachers and the students

of Thanh Son high school for their cooperation and assistance in implementing the survey and test.

Lastly, I would like to express my grateful appreciation to my family,

my dear friends for their support and encouragement throughout this study.

I hope to receive further comments and advice from readers to make my paper better

With all my appreciation Signature

Ha Thi Ninh

This thesis was carried out with an attempt to improve the teaching andlearning of English grammar of the teachers and students in class 11A5 aswell as all grade 11 students at Thanh Son high school-Phu Tho Province

The purposes of the thesis were to investigate the current situations ofapplying task-based approach in teaching- learning English grammar Besides,after investigating the current situations, the researcher did an experimentabout applying task-based approach to improve the effectiveness of learningEnglish grammar and then got some results from experiment by some datacollection instruments such as survey questionnaires, class observation antest

The subjects involved in the study were 40 students in class 11A5 atThanh Son high school These students were invited to join the survey, toanswer the questionnaire, do the test and to provide the source of observation

The study suggests that teachers should be aware of the students’problem, adapt to their need, and help them minimize these difficulties anduse task-based approach to improve the effectiveness of teaching-learningEnglish grammar

LIST OF ABBREVIATION

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Table 1.1 The framework for task-based learning

Table 3.1: Data collected from pre-task survey questionnaire

Table 3.2:Students’ difficulties in studying English grammar

Table 3.3: The main causes of students’ difficulties in learning English grammar

Table 3.4: Results of the test before experiment

Figure 3.1: Students interest in grammar teaching method that their teacher has been applying

Figure 4.1: Students’ opinion towards the tasks that the teacher uses in grammar lessons

Figure 4.2 The advantages of using TBA in grammar classes

Table 4.1 Students’ attitudes towards teachers’ application TBA

Table 4.3 Result of the test after experiment

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i

ABSTRACT ii

LIST OF ABBREVIATION 3

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Previous studies 2

2.1 In the world 2

2.2 In Vietnam 4

3 Research purposes 4

4 Research questions 5

5 Methodology 5

5.1 Research procedure 5

5.2 Method of data collection 6

6 Hypotheses 6

7 Significance of the study 6

8 The scope of the study 7

9 Design of the study 7

PART B: MAJOR CONTENT 8

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .9

1.1 The Importance of Grammar in Language Teaching and Learning 9

1.1.1 Definitions of grammar 9

1.1.2 The role of grammar in English language teaching and learning 10

1.1.3 The importance of teaching grammar 11

1.1.4 Approaches to grammar instruction 11

1.3 Tasks 13

1.3.1 Defining tasks 13

1.3.2 Characteristics of Tasks 14

1.3.3 Classifying tasks 14

1.4 Task-based language teaching 17

1.4.1 What is task-based language teaching? 17

1.4.2 Principles of the task-based language teaching approach 20

1.4.3 The basic characteristics of task-based language teaching 21

1.5 Task-based grammar teaching 22

1.5.1 Why we use Task-based grammar teaching? 22

1.5.2 Steps in Task-based grammar teaching 23

1.5.3 Characteristics of the Task-based Grammar Class 25

1.6 Summary 25

CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODS 27

2.1 The subject an object of the study 27

2.1.1 The subject of the study 27

2.1.2 The object of the study 27

2.2 Participants of the study 27

2.2.1 The teacher and teaching situation 27

2.2.2 Students and their background 27

2.3 The data collection instruments 28

2.3.1 Survey questionnaire 28

2.3.2 Classroom observation 30

2.3.3 Test 31

2.3.4 Data collection procedure 32

2.4 Research procedure 34

2.5 Conclusion 34

CHATER 3 THE CURRENT SITUATIONS 35

IN TEACHING ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN GRADE 11 STUDENTS 35

AT THANH SON HIGH SCHOOL 35

3.1 An overview of the current situation of teaching and learning English at Thanh Son High 35

3.1.1 The school context 35

3.1.2 The new textbook English 11 (the standard textbook) and its Language Focus section 36

3.2 Findings from the current situations 37

3.2.1 Results from questionnaires 37

3.2.2 Results from observation 41

3.2.3 Results from the pre-test 42

3.4 Solution 43

CHAPTER 4: EXPERIMENT AND RESULTS 45

4.1 Participants 45

4.2 Data collection instruments 45

4.3 Experiment procedure 45

4.4 Results 52

4.4.1 Results from questionnaires 53

4.4.2 Results from observation 57

4.4.3 Results from post-test 58

4.5 Findings 59

PART C: CONCLUSION 61

1 A summary of findings 61

2 Implications of the research 62

3 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study 64

3.1 Limitation of the study 64

3.2 Suggestions for further research 65

4 Conclusion 65 REFERENCES

APPENDIXES

PART A: INTRODUCTION

Title: “Applying task-based approach in teaching English grammar for the grade 11 students of basic curriculum at Thanh Son high school- Phu Tho province”.

1 Rationale

In the process of globalization, English has played an increasinglyimportant role in various fields, such as: science, business, education, cross-cultural communication and especially, method to communicate verbally withthe outside world and to access technology

In addition to the growing demand for learning English, there has beeninnovation in English teaching and learning methods everywhere in Vietnam

A long time ago, language teaching in Vietnam was strongly influenced by thestructuralism tradition Emphasis was placed on mastery of languagestructures Students were taught how to form correct utterances and tounderstand the structures of the language without any consideration oflanguage use However, regarding the psycholinguistic and sociolinguisticresearch, language teaching has moved from the traditional to a morecommunicative approach In this current approach, language is considered aform of social behavior The objective of language teaching is teachinglearners to communicate fluently, appropriately and spontaneously in thecultural context of the target language as well as helping students get a goodcommunication when they have opportunities to use English in a cross-cultural environment

Recognizing the educational trend and the special need for languagelearning of the students, teachers and administrators at Thanh Son high schoolalso hold extra-curricular of English, English clubs, the group discussion, andevaluation of annual teaching experiences to find the teaching methodsincreasingly improved and more efficient However, language teaching instudents has many difficulties Many students neglected and do not like this

subject During the process of teaching and studying this subject, both theteachers and students at Thanh Son high school do not feel satisfied withteaching English grammar implied in the course books.

Additionally, many students are too shy to speak in class because theyare not good at grammar and the grammar lessons are carried out intraditional methods In each lesson, the teacher presents new grammarverbally, and then students do, turn by turn, exercises in workbooks.Moreover, in teaching practice, there exist some limitations in conductingPresentation - Practice - Production grammar lessons Touching thispedagogical context, this study emphasizes on the investigation into theapplication of task-based approach to teaching English grammar at Thanh Sonhigh school The task-based approach might come as an effective teachingmethod for the language teachers at Thanh Son high school A research intothe task-based introduction will help them to interpret and have a thoroughunderstanding of the task-based approach, its theories and characteristics,hence providing an effective application to teaching grammar at Thanh Son

high school in pedagogical context From these opinions, I have decided to

choose this paper with the name: “ Applying task-based approach in

teaching English grammar for the grade 11 students of basic curriculum at Thanh Son high school- Phu Tho province ” with the hope that it will make

certain contributions to the existing knowledge of the field under the studyand help the grade 11 students at Thanh Son high school- Phu Tho provincemaster English grammar well to use it confidently in four skills and get goodmarks in the exams

2 Previous studies

2.1 In the world

During the past decade, it can have been addressed the necessity ofbeing able to communicate effectively in English as students mastery isdirectly associated with future educational opportunities, career and income

In National English Curriculum Standard in Vietnam, one of the most

essential changes is the implementation of student-centered, task-basedlanguage teaching However, the task-based approach has been a controversy

of many method experts

Firstly, in the discussion of getting learners to acquire English throughtasks, it was initiated in India by Prabhu in the 1980s.Prabhu noticed that hisstudents could learn language just as easily with a non-linguistic problem aswhen they were concentrating on linguistic questions Assessment primarilybased on task outcome (in other words the appropriate completion of realworld tasks) rather than on accuracy of prescribed language forms Thismakes task-based language learning especially popular for developing targetlanguage fluency and student confidence As such, task-based languagelearning can be considered a branch of Communicative Language Teaching

The next view mentioned by Harmer about task-based learning is that,

“Many methodologists have concentrated not so much on the nature oflanguage input, but on the learning tasks that students are involved in.” Heargued that there seemed to have been an argument that pure rote learning orde-contextualized practice is giving way to language learning that is required

as a result of richer experiences in life

However, historically reviewed, task-based learning appears to havegained its currency since the 1996 publication of Willis’s “A Framework forTask-based Learning” (Longman), in which she defined how tasks can beused as the central focus in a supportive methodological framework In thisbook, she outlined a mode for task-based learning in which she referred tothree stages: the pre-task, the task-cycle, and the language focus

Torky (2006) researched on “the effectiveness of a task-based

instruction program in developing English language speaking skills of secondary stage students” It mentioned the importance of providing ELF for

the first year students with the activities and opportunities to raise awareness ofspeaking skills

The more important thing is that Jeon and Hahn (2006) addressed theirstudy to the English as Foreign Language teachers’ perceptions of task-basedlanguage teaching in a Korean secondary school context They appreciatedthe emphasis on learners’ communicative abilities with task-based teachingand learning in terms of designing communicative tasks to promote learners’actual language use Tseng (2006) indicated the differences between task-based instruction and traditional teacher-led, whole class instruction at twoprimary school classrooms in terms of four-skill performances of the students.Also the factors that influenced the implementation of task-based learning atprimary school were discussed.

2.2 In Vietnam

According to the study of Phan Thi Mai (2011) explored “Applyingtask-based instructions to teach for Second-years Nursing students The studyinvestigated the attitude of teachers and students toward task-based approach

in teaching reading as well as suggested extra useful texts for developing readingskills

Duong Thi Le Thuy (2004) made an investigation into task-basedapproach, which was used in the field of English for Specific Purposes, forthe current English course book for construction engineering

Additionally, Vo Phuc Anh Vu (2009) studied the application of based language teaching and learning to teaching English speaking skills inupper secondary schools In his research , he provided a list of speaking skillsfor language teacher s which helped them plan and design speaking activitiessuitable for students as well as evaluated students’ speaking performance

task-3 Research purposes.

The purposes of this study are:

Firstly, the study carries out an investigation into the reality of theteachers’ application of task-based approach in teaching grammar thanks toexperimenting teaching grammar through communicative tasks for grade 11students and testing its result

Secondly, through the investigation the research will find out thedifficulties the teachers encounter with their application of task-basedintroduction in teaching grammar and some suggested solutions.

Thirdly, the study will be to aim at experimenting teaching grammarthrough task-based introduction for grade 11 students and test its result andinvestigating the experimental students' attitudes towards teaching grammarthrough communicative task at Thanh Son high school

Lastly, the study will provide practical recommendations for thepossibility of task-based introduction in order to narrow the gap betweenteaching styles and learning styles, thereby increasing the students’ motivation

in grammar learning as well as heightening the effectiveness of Englishlanguage teaching

4 Research questions

The research will find the answers for the main following questions:

1 “What is the current situation of applying task-based approach inteaching English for the grade 11 students of basic curriculum at Thanh Sonhigh school- Phu Tho province?”

2 “What are the feasible solutions in teaching grammar by applyingtask-based approach to the grade 11 students at Thanh Son high school?”

3 “How effective is task-based approach in helping students improvetheir grammar?”

Thirdly, carry out the experiment by applying task-based approach inteaching English grammar to evaluate the effectiveness of this method

5.2 Method of data collection.

Theoretical method: Study the related documents to give someknowledge about grammar, task-based approach and applying task-basedapproach in teaching grammar for students as well as teachers

With the aim of finding out the current situation and getting someresults after experiment in teaching – learning English grammar of thegrade11 students at Thanh Son high school, this study adopts quantitative,qualitative and experimental methods To identity the problems, the study hasbeen carried out with the data collected from different instruments:

- Survey questionnaire for students in class 11A5 at Thanh Son HighSchool to collect information about their views of the current situations andtheir feelings about lessons which are used language games

- The results of tests to check the grammar ability of the students inclass 11A5 at Thanh Son High School

-Beside these instruments, classroom observation is used to recordmore information from teachers and students during lessons

Last but not least, constant discussions with the supervisor andcolleagues are of great significance

6 Hypotheses

If the application of task-based approach in teaching English grammar

to the grade 11 students at Thanh Son high school- Phu Tho province issuccessful, this will help students in grade 11 improve their grammar

7 Significance of the study

Theoretical significance of the study: the study will supply the Englishlanguage teachers with the understanding of grammar and task-basedapproach, advantages when employing this method

Practical significance of the study: the research will help the teacher ofEnglish use task-based approach effectively, which will make language focuslessons more successful as well as help students in the grade 11 studentsimprove their grammar

8 The scope of the study

This research focuses on investigating how Thanh Son languageteachers exploit TBA in teaching English grammar in their classes Due to thelimitation of time, the author only fulfilled the study with forty grade 11students at Thanh Son high school

9 Design of the study

This paper is divided into three main parts:

PART A is the INTRODUCTION In this part, the rationale, previous

research, research purpose, research questions, research methods, significance

of the study, the scope of the study and also its design are presented

PART B is the MAJOR CONTENT which includes four chapters Chapter I: Deals with the literature review and the theoretical background

Theoretical background related to the topic and surveys of articles, booksand other resources relevant to a particular the study topic will be presented.This part will also provide description, summary, and critical evaluation ofeach work quoted and present the previous studies related to the thesis andsome concepts as theoretical basis for the study

Chapter II: Research Design and Methodology

This part describes the research design, instruments for data collection,data collection, data analysis, reliability and validity, and research procedures,which gives details of the research method and describes how the hypothesis

of the thesis is interpreted and explained

Chapter III: Findings and Discussions

This part presents the results and discussions developed after thelinguistics figures are analyzed

Chapter IV: Experiment and results

Doing experiental teaching in which some suggestions on applying based approach are made and some task-based approach exploited during all

task-stages of the lesson are provided as well as some results after doingexperimental teaching.

PART C is the CONCLUSION which concludes some

recommendations of the study, limitations of the study, suggestions for the study, main findings, implications and conclusion of the study

REFERENCES and APPENDICES are presented in the last pages of

the study

PART B: MAJOR CONTENT

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL

BACKGROUND 1.1 The Importance of Grammar in Language Teaching and Learning 1.1.1 Definitions of English grammar

Concerning the terms “grammar”, several researchers have attempted todefine it Apparently, depending on one’s theoretical orientation, differentpeople define grammar differently

The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (as cited in Harmer,1987) defined grammar as “the study and practice of the rules by which wordschange their forms and are combined into sentences.” There are two basicelements in this definition: the rules of grammar; and the study and practice ofthe rules Here grammar constitutes a subset of rules relating to wordformation (morphology) and sentence formation (syntax) Huddleston (1984)shared the similar view when seeing grammar as consisting of morphologyand syntax According to him, morphology deals with forms of words whilesyntax deals with the ordering of the words to form sentences

As can be inferred from the two definitions above, grammar isconventionally seen as the study of morphology and syntax of sentences

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

According to Fromkin and Rodman (1998), "The sounds and soundpatterns, the basic units of meaning such as words and the rules to combinethem to form new sentences constitute the grammar of a language"

There are several similarities between two above-cited definitions Thefirst thing is that according to these authors, grammar is assumed to be aguide through which words are put together to make correct sentences

Secondly, grammar is composed of rules not only relating to word formation(morphology) and sentence formation (syntax) but also concerned with themeaning of the sentence (semantics) and the sound system (phonology) within

a language However, one drawback that all four definitions above (in boththe first and second categories) have in common is that grammar has beenconcerned almost exclusively with the analysis at the level of the sentence I

am in favor of Widdowson (1990) with the claim that “grammar is not just acollection of sentence patterns signifying nonsense”

Thornbury (1999) claims that grammar is not just rules on how tocombine words at the sentence level, but it also takes into account the role ofcontext in which a sentence is made He says that “when we process language

we are not only trying to make sense of the words and the grammar, we arealso trying to infer the speaker’s (or writer’s) intention”

Richards, Platt, and Platt (1992) in their Longman Dictionary ofLanguage Teaching & Applied Linguistics: Grammar is a description of thestructure of a language and the way in which linguistic units such as wordsand phrases are combined to produce sentences in the language It usuallytakes into account the meanings and functions these sentences have in overallsystem of the language It may or may not include the description of thesound of a language

In this definition, grammar is viewed as descriptive, which refers to thestructure of a language as it is actually used by speakers and writers.Moreover, this definition shows both linguistic and social features of grammar

as it refers to not only rules to make correct sentences but also meanings andfunctions of such sentences in the language, which is necessary for theteaching and learning of foreign language

1.1.2 The role of grammar in English language teaching and learning

Along with the history of second language teaching, the role of grammarhas been an issue of controversy Brown (1994) viewpointed “grammar hasplayed a central role in language teaching often being the only activity in

language classrooms” Richards (2002) indicated that it is “perhaps the mostcontroversial issue in language teaching” Thornbury (1999) asserted that “infact, no other issue has so preoccupied theorists and practitioners as thegrammar debate, and the history of language teaching is essentially the history

of the claims and counterclaims for and against the teaching of grammar”.The debate has brought about an extreme split of attitudes, namely, those whohold that grammar should receive a central attention in language teaching andthose who hold that grammar should not be taught at all

1.1.3 The importance of teaching English grammar

It is quite reasonable to see the importance of grammar according toHarmer’s viewpoint (1987):

“Without some understanding of grammar, students would not be able

to do anything more than utter separate items of language for separatedfunctions The expression of functional language is only possible through theuse of the grammar of the language”

Firstly, teaching grammar helps students understand how the languageworks Apart from vocabulary, students need to know grammar to understandhow it is written or how words are combined together to understand theproper meaning Without grammar or with a poor knowledge of grammar,they may get confused with complicated expression

Secondly, according to Smith (2001), if teachers neither pay attention

to grammar nor create opportunities for learners to improve grammar, learnersare likely to stand the risk of fossilization or reach a point where they cancope with level of communication that is demanded of them by making use oftheir existing grammatical resource and communication strategies andprobably with sufficient fluency

1.1.4 Approaches to grammar instruction

1.1.4.1 Deductive approach

Deductive approach is often called rule-driven learning (Thornbury,1999) In this approach, a grammar rule is explicitly presented to students and

followed by practice applying the rule The deductive approach maintains that

a teacher teaches grammar by presenting grammatical rules, and thenexamples of sentences are presented Once learners understand rules, they aretold to apply the rules given to various examples of sentences Giving thegrammatical rules means no more than directing learners’ attention to theproblem discussed However, deductive approach to grammar teachingreceives less support than inductive approach As Ellis in Richards (2002)reported, there has not been convincing empirical verification as well atheoretical validation that the acquisition of grammar structures involves theprocess of learning the rules and practicing them through gradualautoimmunization of production Even so, deductive approach is often used

by many teachers due to its advantages such as time-saving for teachers andrespect for students’ expectations about classroom learning

1.1.4.2 Inductive approach

In contrast to deductive approach, inductive approach, which is labeled

as rule-discovery learning, starts with examples from which a rule is inferred(Thornbury, 1999) The procedure is similar to the process of childrenacquiring their mother tongue First, learners are exposed to comprehensiblelanguage input and they will acquire the system of the rules subconsciouslythrough peripheral attention to language forms Eisenstein (as cited in Long &Richards, (1987) maintains that the inductive approach tries to utilize the verystrong reward value of bringing order, clarity and meaning to experiences.This approach involves learners’ participating actively in their owninstruction In other words, this approach attempts to highlight grammaticalrules implicitly in which the learners are encouraged to conclude the rulesgiven by the teacher

In conclusion, the deductive approach is related to the consciouslearning process, while the inductive approach relates to the subconsciouslearning processes similar to the concept of language acquisition Whethergrammatical rules are taught inductively or deductively rely much on the

cognitive style of the learner and the language structure presented (Brown,2007) Therefore, the language teacher’s job is to identify which approach isappropriate for which grammar items and for which learning styles Andsometimes, the question is not which one to choose but how well the twoapproaches are combined As according to Corder (as cited in Celce-Murcia,

2001, p 264)

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

1.2 Tasks

1.2.1 Defining tasks

Since the last decade of the 20th century, tasks have been widely used as

a vehicle to elicit language production, interaction, and negotiation ofmeaning and processing of input The proposes of the notion of “task” areknown as a core unit of planning and teaching

In a number of books, the word “task” has been used as a label forvarious activities, including grammar exercises, practice activities and roleplays In some other books, tasks are defined as activities where the targetlanguage is used by the learners for a communicative purpose (goal) in order

to achieve an outcome

Long (1985) stated that task is “a piece of work undertaken for oneself

or for others freely or for some reward: The task may be paint a fence, dress achild, fill out a form, ask for help, borrow a pen, buy clothes …In otherwords, “task” means the things people do in the daily life at work, at play an itbetween

Nunan (1989:10) gave another definition of task: “is a piece ofclassroom work which involves learners in comprehending, manipulating,producing, or interaction in the target language while their attention isprincipally focused on meaning rather than form The task should also have asense of completeness, being able to stand alone as a communicative act in its

own right” In this view, we can see that the authors take a pedagogicalperspective He claims that the aim of tasks is get learner’s attention onmeaning instead of linguistic structure Tasks are the things familiar with ourreal world.

Prabhu (1987:12-17), one of the first methodologists raising interestand support for TBA, defined: “a task is an activity which requires learners toarrive at an outcome from given information through some process ofthought, and which allowed teachers to control and regulate that process” Heemphasizes the process of learning, and he confirms that when following thetasks, the learner will get effective communication

In summary, the definitions of tasks vary in TBA However, all of themhave a common characteristic They all suggested the tasks are concernedwith communicative use In other words, they refer to undertakings in whichthe learner comprehend, interact, produce in the target language in thecontexts and focus on meaning rather than form

 There is some communication to solve

 There is some sort of relationship to comparable real-worldactivities

 Task completion has some priority

 The assessment of the task is in terms of outcome

1.2.3 Classifying tasks

Many researchers attempts to group tasks into categories:

1.3.3.1 Prabhu’s categories

The first types of tasks was set by Prabhu (1987) which was used for

the primary age learners of English in Bangladore, Southern India It containsten task types as follows:

 Diagrams and formations: the learners base on the diagram to do the

tasks such as: naming parts of diagram with numbers and letters as instructed

 Drawing: the learner follow the instruction of the teachers (read, tell

or play a tape) to do the task like draw the summary

 Clock faces: base on the clock, watch to show the time.

 Monthly calendar: use the calendar to set or arrange the time for

traveling or to do any work

 Maps: the teacher lets students construct house, garden, floor with

the maps given

 School timetable: students may have a chance to talk and share about

the timetables with teacher or their classmates

 Programs and itineraries: construct itineraries from descriptions of

travel

 Train timetables: selecting train appropriate to given needs.

 Age and year of birth: talk about age or the birthday party

 Money: with the available of money, what they decide to buy.

1.2.3.2 Willis’s type of task

Willis (1996) proposed six types of tasks on more or less traditional

knowledge hierarchies

 Listing, i.e where the completed outcome is a list.

 Ordering and sorting, i.e tasks that involve sequencing, ranking,

categorizing and classifying items

 Comparing, i.e tasks that involve finding differences or similarities

in information

 Problem-solving, i.e tasks that demand intellectual activities as in

puzzles or logic problems

 Sharing personal experience, i.e tasks that allow learners to talk

freely about themselves and share experiences

 Creative tasks, i.e projects, often involving several stages that can

incorporate the various types of tasks above and can include the need to carryout some research

1.2.3.3 Pica, Kanagy and Fladun’s types of task

According to Pica, kanagy and Fladun (1993) cited in Jack andThoedore (2001:234) tasks are classified into five types

 Jigsaw tasks: these involve learners combining different pieces of

information to form a whole, i.e three individuals or groups may have threedifferent parts of a story and have to put the piece of the story together

 Information-gap tasks: one student or a group of students has one set

of information and another student or group has a complimentary set ofinformation They must negotiate and find out what the other party’sinformation is in order to complete an activity

 Problem-solving tasks: students are given a problem and a set of

information They must arrive a solution to the problem There is generally asingle resolution of the outcome

 Decision-making tasks: students are given a problem for which there

are number of possible outcome and they must choose one throughnegotiation and discussion

 Opinion-exchange tasks: learners engage in discussion and exchange

of ideas They do not need to reach agreement

1.2.3.4 Nunan’s types of task

Nunan (1989) suggested there were two types of tasks: real-world tasksand pedagogical tasks

 Real-world tasks

Real-world or target tasks that reflect real-world use of language and arefound to be important in a need analysis and useful for the real world.

In other words, they are proposed to use language in the reality beyond theclassroom or classroom is the environment to practice real tasks: “the hundredand one things people do in everyday life, at work, at play and in between”(Long) A role-play in which students practice a job interview would be a task

of this kind Nunan and Burton ( 1989) made clear that real-world tasks arethings that learners are expected to do in the world outside the classroom likefilling a form or asking specific information

According to Nunan (1989), real-world tasks include daily activities,such as: filling out of a form, making airline preservation, borrowing a librarybook, taking a reservation hotel, etc, TBA view real-world tasks as the source forpedagogical tasks in the classroom, which is referred to as classroom tasks

 Pedagogical tasks

The pedagogical tasks are distinguished by specific goals that pointbeyond the language classroom to the target tasks They may include bothformal and functional techniques The amount of classroom activities that thelearners deal with in classroom contexts is called pedagogical tasks They are

no things that students practice or rehearse for performance in real life.According to Nunan (1989) classroom tasks are defined in terms of “what thelearner do in the classroom rather than in the outsides world

1.3 Task-based language teaching

1.3.1 What is task-based language teaching?

Littlewood (2004) indicated that TBA is a development withincommunicative approach It is not at all, Brown (1994) also claims that “TBA

is a perspective that can be taken within a CLT framework” Besides, hestated that what various understandings of TBLT emphasize is the centrality

of task itself in a language course and, for TBLT as an overall approach, theimportance of organizing a course around communicative tasks that learners

need to engage in outside the classroom Also, Foster (1999) pointed out thatthere are different task-based approaches, which share a common idea: givinglearners tasks to transact, rather than items to learn, providing anenvironment, which best promotes the natural language learning process.Candlin (1987) said that “Task-based learning continues with and developsrecent attention to learner-centered approaches, and in particular the ideas ofdifferentiation and learner interdependence”.

Nunan (1991) gave out five characteristics of a task-based approach tolanguage teaching as follows:

 An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in thetarget language

 The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation

 The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only onlanguage but also on the learning process itself

 An enhancement of the learners’ own personal experience asimportant contributing elements to classroom learning

 An attempt to link classroom language learning with languageactivation outside classroom

Task-based syllabus which is considered the cornerstone of TBLT isdefined by Richards (1991) as syllabus which is organized around tasks,rather than in terms of grammar or vocabulary In task-based learning,learners are free to choose whatever language forms they wish to convey whatthey mean, in order to fulfill, as well as they can, the task goals

According to Long and Crooks (1992), the task-based syllabuses are

“distinguished from earliest syllabus types by the fact that theirrationale derives

from what is known about human learning in general and secondlanguage learning in particular rather than, as is the case with lexical,structural, notional, functional, and relational syllabuses primary from an

analysis of language and language use In addition, while differing from oneanother in important ways, all three reject linguistic elements (such as word,structure, notion or function) as the unit of analysis and opt instead for someconceptions of tasks” (P 27).

An example of a task-based learning framework, from Willis (1996), ispresented in Table 2.1 below

Table 1.1 The framework for task-based learning

* Introduction to topic

and task:

The teacher explores the

topic with the class,

highlights useful words

and phrases to help

students understand task

instructions and prepare

Students may hear a

Teacher monitors from adistance

* Planning:

Students prepare toreport

to the whole class(orally

or in writing) how theydid the task, what theydecided or discovered

The pre-task phase introduces the class to the topic and the taskactivating topic related words and phrases The pre-task phase will usually bethe shortest stage in the framework It could last between two and twentyminutes, depending on learners’ degree of familiarity with the topic and thetype of task If there is a pre-task recording to set the scene, it would takeslightly longer Willis (1996) also identifies three steps for pre-task stage:Introducing the topic, Identifying topic language and giving task instructions.

The task cycle: Within this stage, there are three sub stages: doing thetask, engaging in planning post-task, and reporting The task cycle offerslearners the chance to use whatever language they already know in order tocarry out the tasks, and then to improve that language under the teacher’sguidance., while planning their reports to the task Feedback from teachercomes when they want it most, at the planning stage and after the report.Exposure to language in use can be provided at different points, depending onthe type of task Either before or during the task cycle students might listen torecordings of other people doing the task, or read the text connected with thetask topic, and relate this to their own experience of doing the task In general,the task cycle offers learners a holistic experience of language in use

The language focus phase: This is the last phase in the TBA framework

It allows a closer study of some of the specific features naturally occurring inthe language used during the task cycle By this point, the learners will havealready worked with the language and processed it for meaning, so they areready to focus on the specific language forms that carry that meaning Thusthe study of these forms is clearly contextualized through the task itself Thisfinal stage, which includes analysis and practice components, fulfils the fourthdesirable extra condition for learning- explicit study of language form

1.4.2 Principles of the task-based language teaching approach

Nunan (1991) defined that there are eight principles of TBLT asfollowing:

 Scaffolding: That is content of lesson and supplements related to

 Active learning: In that task, learners acquire the language by

actively using it

 Integration: That is expectation of learners’ literacy

 Reproduction to creation: Learners reproduce language models

provided Learners should be encouraged to move from reproductive tocreative language use

 Reflection: Learners get chances of reflecting on their work.Learners should be given opportunities to reflect on what they have learnedand how well they are doing

content

1.4.3 The basic characteristics of task-based language teaching

According to Nunan (1998) task-based language teaching has somecharacteristics

 Meaning-focused instead of form-focused

It is for the accomplishment of certain tasks that students use certainlanguage forms to communicate meaningfully with someone The students do

not note down all the rules any more Instead, they are involved in themeaningful and interesting activities

 Authenticity

The task given to students should be clear and authentic to the lifereality and have some information transfer Make sure the task designed isreal in daily life And tasks can be available everywhere from having dinner tomaking a paper plane

 Teamwork

Cooperation is greatly valued during the process of reaching anoutcome of a task Students should help others, rely on others and learn fromeach other

 Feedback and evaluation

Teachers should pay much attention to the process of feedback Givestudents a chance to report on their findings and experience theirachievements

Without this step, a task can hardly called a task in a TBA class.Teachers should give appropriate evaluation to their outcome as well

 Inside and outside class

Often an in-class task can lead to post-class tasks It is natural that theexcitement of the whole class may lead to a further discussion after class

1.4 Task-based grammar teaching

14.1 Why we use Task-based grammar teaching?

The idea of getting learners to acquire English through tasks wasdeveloped in India by Prabhu in the 1980s Prabhu made a strongcommunicative approach project in Banglore, South India He puts forwardsmany kinds of tasks, and design the learning contents into all kinds ofcommunicative tasks He thinks learners may learn more effectively whentheir minds are focused on tasks, rather than on the language they are using

Task-based language teaching approach can be viewed as within theframework of communicative teaching and the study of task-based languageteaching stems largely from communicative language teaching (Nunan, 1989).

It puts tasks at the center of the methodological focus It considers thelearning process as a set of communicative tasks that are directly linked to thecurricular goals It emphasizes the development of students' communicativeability and communication takes place through using the grammatical system

of the language It combines the teaching of language forms with teaching oflanguage skills

Therefore, it may have significance or it may be effective in grammarteaching There have been many opinions about task-based grammar teaching,some thought that teaching grammar following task-based approach was noteffective while others said that teaching grammar following task-basedapproach was effective I myself have thought much about this and havewondered why language skills were designed following TBA in the newtextbook whereas grammar was not designed following TBA To knowwhether teaching grammar through communicative tasks is possible or not, Idecided to make an experiment on teaching grammar to grade studentsthrough communicative tasks for my MA thesis

1.4.2 Steps in Task-based grammar teaching

According to Willis (1996) there are three main steps in task-basedgrammar teaching

1.4.2.1 Pre-task

Aim: To prepare student for the task, to engage their attention Topicsand tasks are introduced in the pre-task stage Teachers introduce tasks tolearners They present necessary knowledge, explain the requirements andprocedures of the task in detail and help learners familiarize with the topic,vocabulary and expressions In this stage, teachers should take the individualdifferences among learners into account

1.4.2.2 While- task

 Planning the task:

Aim: for the Ss to discuss about the works related to grammar points ingroup of six Set a limited time of three or four minutes to discuss this.Circulate and listen to the Ss doing the task, but do not correct any language

at this moment

 Doing the task:

Aim: For students to prepare an oral report of their task

Stop the task Tell the students to work together preparing a summary oftheir discussion for later report to the whole class They must write notes forthis summary and be prepared to report this orally to the rest of the class Set

a time limit of five minutes for them to do this When the students are ready,ask a spokesperson from each group to do report Rest of the class listenscarefully

 Presenting the product of the task:

Aim: For students to get a provision of useful language input

1.4.2.3 Post-task

 Language focus :

Aim: To raise students’ awareness about the target language

Let the students look at the passage again, picking out those sentenceswhich contain grammar points and write them on the board

Check that the Ss understand the meaning of sentences (if necessary) ask Ss to write down the rules of form for grammar point

 Language practice

Aim: To give the students some restricted written practice in the targetlanguage

1.4.3 Characteristics of the Task-based Grammar Class

With accomplishing tasks and activities in real-life like situationsbecoming the focus of each class, grammar class will show the followingcharacteristics (Willis, 1996):

 The process of learning is a process of obtaining information, dealingwith information, analyzing problems and solving problems When thestudents’ attention is focused on the problems or activities, it is much easier tolearn the grammar items well

 The purpose of language learning is not just learning grammarknowledge, but the practical use of grammar knowledge It is quite clear thatgrammar is the fundamental knowledge in English learning, since “practicemakes perfect”, the best way to learn it well is to practice, to use them in ourdaily life

 Cooperative learning becomes accessible In order to make the tasksmore meaningful and interesting, the grammar class asks for the students’cooperation The students can make great ideas by discussion and argument in

a group with their partners

 Student-centered class is highlighted A teacher is no longer adominator in class but a facilitator of learning The new class modelwelcomes different idea from every student The class focuses more on thestudents’ behavior and everybody has their own right to express themselves

 Students’ individuality (creative way of thinking and personal views inunderstanding and solving problems) is appreciated In task-based class, there

is not only one answer to every question and there is no set answer Weappreciate new ideas from the students As long as the answer given bystudents is reasonable, it is acceptable

1.5 Summary

This chapter has presented the issues relating to grammar teaching interms of the role of grammar in foreign language learning with both positive

and negative points Some approaches to grammar including deductiveapproach and inductive approach as well as the different approaches havebeen presented In addition, the chapter reviews some theoretical issues oftask-based language teaching and task-based grammar teaching The rationalefor applying a task-based approach to teaching grammar as well as studies onthe task-based approach applicability in various contexts has been reviewed.The next chapter presents the research methodology employed in the presentstudy.

CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODS

In the previous chapter, the researcher found out the theoreticalbackground of the study This chapter provides detailed information about theparticipants of the study, and then focuses on some reasons for choosing andgive some information of the data collection instruments and researchprocedure

2.1 The subject an object of the study

2.1.1 The subject of the study

The subjects of the study are the students in class 11A5at Thanh Sonhigh school as well as the textbook “ Tieng Anh 11”

2.1.2 The object of the study

The object of this study is some tasks used in teaching Englishgrammar It includes the current situations in using some language games.After analyzing the result from the fact, researcher gives some solutions.Finally, experiment teaching is to analyze the success of the study

2.2 Participants of the study

2.2.1 The teacher and teaching situation

The teacher in this study is Mr Nam who is directly teaching English toclass 11A5 at Thanh Son high school He graduated from Thai NguyenUniversity 10 years ago and she has been teaching English using PPP model.Although he has been working very hard on the lessons, he may not makestudents feel interested in English grammar lesson He is not much creative inteaching lessons so that the effectiveness of lessons is not high He teachesstudents the content of the lessons but she does not change the teachingmethods As a result, students cannot improve their English grammar

2.2.2 Students and their background

The study only focuses on all students in class 11A5 at Thanh Son highschool Class 11A5 is non-English major who specialize in natural subjectssuch as: Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry There are 40 students in thisclass Most of them are not good at English, especially grammar; they are not

interested in English lessons According to the English teacher of the class,only 20% students in class are interested in English and they are better thanthe others Most of English lessons, students always sit in silence As a resultfrom the first semester, there are 60% students getting mark from 5.5 to 6.0.Only 30% students get mark over 6.0 The rest are under 5.5.

2.3 The data collection instruments

The researcher intended to collect the same information about thereality of teaching and learning grammar based on TBA at Thanh Son highschool from three sources: questionnaire, classroom observation andinterview with the hope to guarantee the reliability and the objectiveness ofthe study

2.3.1 Survey questionnaire

2.3.1.1 Reasons for choosing survey questionnaires

To address and explore the research questions, a quantitative method,which includes questionnaires for the students in class 11A5 at Thanh SonHigh School, was exploited Survey questionnaires were chosen because ofsome following reasons:

The first reason for choosing questionnaires is that it is not consuming as it can reach a large number of people in a very short time Infact, in this study, the researcher had only two weeks to deliver thequestionnaires as well as to collect the data According to Richards (1994:22),

time-questionnaires are “useful ways of gathering information about effective

dimensions of teaching and learning, such as beliefs, attitudes, motivation, preferences and enable a teacher to collect a large amount of information relatively quickly”.

Moreover, not only time-consuming but also data collection isrelatively easy to collect summarized and reported as all participantsanswered the same questions Most importantly, the questioner gave theparticipants opportunities to express their opinions and feelings without feareither to be embarrassed or to be spoken their mind Because the

confidentiality was ensured by not mentioning participants’ names, they werefree to give impartial answer This was very important to this study since itsupplied some realistic, exact and valuable information to conduct thisresearch.

Obviously, it was not a waste of money for the researcher to apply thismethod The collector only wasted a little money on the preparation Such asituation has helped me a lots to solve problems of finance

For those advantages, the author chose to use this method because itwas easy to do, economical, time-consuming and effective

2.3.1.2 Describing survey questionnaires

It is divided into two parts Part I is pre-survey questionnaires thatconsist of 06 questions for students related to their attitude and evaluation tothe teaching and learning English grammar

Part II consists of 06 questions (they are three open-ended questions andthree closed-ended questions) after applying the new teaching method inEnglish grammar lesson in class 11A5 at Thanh Son high school proposed bythe researcher Clear instructions were given at the beginning of thequestionnaires to make sure that they could decide to respond the questionhonestly

Before experiment, in the middle of March 2015, 40 photocopies of thequestionnaires were distributed Before giving the questionnaires to the

respondents and answers any questions asked by respondents (Appendix 1)

The questionnaires were distributed to the whole class, 40 students, tofind out some current situations in using language games in teaching –learning English speaking skill After applying task-based approach to teachthem, the other questions were used to find out students’ attitudes towards theeffectiveness of suggested solutions

The survey questionnaires include closed questions It is designed tosurvey the student’ attitude and purpose towards English grammar, students’background: Their majors and English learning experience, their attitudes

towards English grammar learning, their current situations of studying

English grammar and the students’ preferences and expectation towards

teacher’s teaching other method in English grammar lesson

Questions 1 and 2 of this study relate to students’ attitudes towardsEnglish grammar learning

Questions 3, 4 are used to find out the students’ current situations ofstudying English grammar

Questions 6, 7 are used to find out the students’ preferences and

expectation towards teacher’s teaching other method in English grammar lesson

After the experiment, other questionnaire, 40 photocopies of thequestionnaire were distributed to 40 students They are designed to survey the

effectiveness of the lessons used some language games (Appendix 2)

Questions 1, 2 of this study relate to the students’ feelings and attitudestowards the new teaching exploited by the teacher

Questions 3 is used to find out the students’ evaluation of theadvantages of task-based approach used in English grammar lessons

Questions 4, 5, 6 are open-ended questions used to find students’feedback toward task-based approach

2.3.2 Classroom observation

2.3.2.1 Reasons for choosing the observation

In the research, the researcher chooses observation to check the currentsituation of learning speaking skill of the students in class 11A5 at Thanh SonHigh School because of strengths of observation data Richards (1994)pointed out that observation method is good procedure and techniques that arebased on systematic observation of events and often used in the studyinglanguage use and classroom events Observation is aimed neither atassessment not general findings, but exploring through observation aspects ofwhat goes on in our classroom for the benefit of the teacher’s owndevelopment