This paper presents a study which aims at analyzing the approach to grammar in the textbook New Headway Pre-intermediate and giving implications for English grammar teaching and learning at the Department of Chemistry and Environment of Hung Yen University of Technology and Education (UTEHY).
TẠP CHÍ KHOA HỌC Khoa học Xã hội, Số 11 (12/2017) tr 26 - 34 AN ANALYSIS ON GRAMMAR APPROACH IN THE TEXTBOOK NEW HEADWAY PRE-INTERMEDIATE AND IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING A CACSE STUDY IN THE DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY AND ENVIRONMENT OF HUNG YEN UNIVERSITYOF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy1, Dang Thi Huong Thao2, Do Thi Oanh24 Tay Bac University Hung Yen University of Technology and Education Abstract: This paper presents a study which aims at analyzing the approach to grammar in the textbook New Headway Pre-intermediate and giving implications for English grammar teaching and learning at the Department of Chemistry and Environment of Hung Yen University of Technology and Education (UTEHY) Then, it reports the findings of the study which indicated that both teachers and students at UTEHY have positive attitudes towards grammar and the approach to grammar in the New Headway Pre-intermediate is Presentation-Practiceproduction (PPP) approach From these findings, practical implications are proposed to improve the English grammar teaching and learning at the Department of Chemistry and Environment of UTEHY Keywords: Grammar, PPP, approach Introduction According to Penny Ur (1988), grammar may be roughly defined as the way a language manipulates and combines words (or bits of words) in order to form longer units of meaning Grammar is a field of linguistics that involves all the various things that make up the rules of language Different linguistics schools have different views on grammar depending on their particular fields of interests How grammar is defined is very important because it will influence the way grammar is to be taught Fromkin et al (1990) defined grammar as: “The sounds and sound patterns, the basic units of meaning such as words and the rules to combine them to form new sentences constitute the grammar of a language These rules are internalized and subconsciously learned by native speakers” Grammar here refers to the knowledge of how words are arranged to form sentences Nunan (2003) defined: “Grammar is a set of rules specifying the correct ordering words at the sentence level” Richards, Platt and Platt (1992) defines grammar as: “a description of the structure of a language and the way in which linguistic units as words and phrases are combined to produce sentences in the language It usually takes into account the meanings and functions these sentences have in the overall of the language It may or may not include the description of the sounds of a language” It means that grammar implied both meaning and functions and showed both linguistic and social nature of grammar This definition is appropriate with our view on grammar Ngày nhận bài: 01/03/2017 Ngày nhận đăng: 5/6/2017 Liên lạc: Nguyễn Thị Thu Thuỷ, e - mail: thuthuy2822003@yahoo.com 26 The role of grammar in ELT is still controversial due to different views on the relationship between explicit and implicit knowledge Some researchers say that we not need to teach grammar because learners can acquire by themselves, it means that acquisition is separate from learning In fact, learners can articulate second language grammar rules but cannot use them correctly in natural communication What is more, there are cases of acquisition where there is no learning For instance, many immigrants to the United States can acquire the new language without being taught formally (Lightbown and Spada, 1990) According to Krashen, explicit grammar instruction is not necessary in language teaching However, other researchers think we should teach grammar because we cannot master a language without the knowledge of grammar Bialystock, who has advanced the interface position, has proved that explicit knowledge can be converted into implicit knowledge if learners are exposed to much communicative practice In recent years, the view on teaching grammar has changed According to Canale and Swain (1980), grammar competence is one of components in the model of communicative competence that reflects the importance of grammar Many researchers have proved that it is necessary to teach grammar Ellis (1992) shows that: “grammar teaching does aid L2 acquisition” Rutherford and Smith (1988) report that grammar teaching can be beneficial to learners in the sense that raises learners’ consciousness concerning the difference and similarities of L1 and L2 Hannan (1989) and Garner (1989) give strong support to grammar teaching Hannan (1989) points out that grammar is highly valuable as an important part of the study of language, of ideas and of writing According to Garner (1989), grammar gives us a means to analyze and describe our language To sum up, the place of grammar in English language teaching is currently rather uncertain because of the development of communicative approaches to language teaching However, grammar still plays an important role in ELT because learners cannot communicate effectively without grammar In fact, there have been many researches on grammar as well as grammar teaching The problem here is that how to teach grammar and which approach to grammar is appropriate Approaches to grammar in ELT can be seen as a historical sequence of revolutions and evolutions, and also a growing range of teaching options However, new approaches have never totally invalidated or replaced The contents of the study 2.1 Research methods 40 first-year students at the Department of Chemistry and Environment and 10 English teachers of Department of Foreign Languages to comprehensive questionnaires and those of 30 first-year students and English teachers to interview questions In addition, five class observations were carried out to gather more reliable data Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to carry out the study The following methods were applied to collect data for this study: 27 Survey questionnaires were specifically designed for 10 English teachers of Department of Foreign Languages teachers and 40 first-year students who have experienced using this book to find out their attitudes towards the approach to grammar in the textbook Interview of teachers was to find out the advantages and disadvantages of the approach to grammar in the New Headway Pre-intermediate Class observations were carried out with teachers and students to gather the most reliable data for the study The combination of different methods above provided reliable data, based on which the conclusions and implicaions are made in the next parts 2.2 Data Analysis Data collected from three different sources were categorized into (a) teachers and students’ attitudes towards grammar learning and teaching at UTEHY, (b) the approach to grammar in the New Headway Pre-intermediate and at UTEHY (c) techniques should be used to improve the English grammar learning and teaching at Hung Yen university of Technology and Education and then the writer found the appropriateness and inappropriateness of the approach to grammar in the New Headway Pre-intermediate to the current grammar teaching and learning at Hung Yen university of Technology and Education The quantitative data was presented in the form of charts while qualitative data from the interview and class observation were presented by quoting relevant responses from the respondents The data were analyzed both descriptively and interpretively 2.3 Data analysis from questionnaires There is a high level of agreement about the significance of grammar in teaching and learning English All teachers and learners agree that grammar is very important in teaching and learning English Remarkably, none of the teachers thinks that teaching and learning grammar unimportant It means that grammar should be taught and learnt Discussing about the learning and teaching grammar, nearly all teachers (90%) and students (95%) say that learning and teaching grammar is interesting and very interesting The statistics show that almost all of teachers (90%) and students (80%) agree that grammar items in the New Headway are difficult and very difficult They think there are too many grammar items in each lesson so it is hard for teachers and students to teach and learn grammar It is shown in the study that there is a similarity between the students and teachers’ purpose of learning and teaching grammar Half of the teachers (50%) agreed that teaching grammar was to help students to communicate better and the most purpose of learning grammar was also to communicate better The second choice was to read and translate materials better Only 10% of students and teachers thought that learning and teaching grammar was to get the good results And another 10% of teachers and students thought that teaching grammar was to help students to improve their writing skills The purpose of 28 grammar teaching and learning affects teachers’ teaching approach and students’ learning style It is very necessary to know the purpose of grammar teaching and learning because that helps teachers know students’ needs to have appropriate teaching approaches The highest percentage of the teachers (70%) belongs to those who choose PPP approach It means that PPP approach to grammar is the most favourite one comparing with other approaches The biggest number of the students also thinks that PPP approach is often used the most by the teachers This data shows that the students and the teachers have same idea with each other about the approach to grammar teaching In general, the findings reflect the fact that PPP approach is often used by most of the teachers at the university because there are only 30% of the teachers and 15% of the students choose Communicative Language Teaching and Grammar Translation Discussing about the approach to grammar in the New Headway Pre-intermediate, 80% of the teachers and 87,5% of the students choose PPP approach While only 20% of the teachers and 12,5% of the students think that the approach to grammar in the textbook is Communicative Language Teaching The reason why most of the teachers use PPP approach to grammar teaching is the fact that PPP approach is a common approach to communicative language teaching It is necessary to assess the teaching approach because it helps teachers know the approach is effective or not, then they can renovate the teaching approach From the raw and percentage result of the questionnaires, we can see that most of the teachers (80%) and students (75%) believe that PPP approach to grammar teaching is effective There is only 10% of teachers and students think that it is not effective It means that PPP approach brings some advantages for English grammar teaching and learning process PPP stands for Presentation-Practice-Production and each stage has its own importance The findings show there is a difference between teachers and students’ choice Most of the teachers (60%) pay attention to practice stage while most of the students (70%) think that production stage is the most important Teachers often ask students to exercises in the practice part in the textbook They think that the more students practise, the more they remember the grammatical points In contrast, students want to have more time for the production stage Teachers not pay much attention to this stage so we can see the techniques they use in this stage are not various They never use charts and texts for contrasts in the presentation The technique they use the most is using texts for grammar explanation with 70% of teachers always use it and 30% of them usually use it They often use the texts in the textbook for the grammar explanation Otherwise, dialogue and mini situation techniques are used but only 30% of teachers usually use dialogue and 40% of teachers usually use a mini situation Most of students not have much time for the oral practice stage so not many techniques are used in this stage The involving the personality technique is used the most with 50% of teachers usually use 40% of teachers sometimes use games in this stage The 29 fact shows that all teachers never use drills and interaction activities so students not have opportunities to express their opinions Some of teachers think that speaking and grammar separate from each other so this stage is not paid much attention The results shows that all techniques are used but with different frequency Gap-filling exercises is used with highest percentage (90% of teachers always use it) The second is word order with 70% of teachers always use and 30% of teachers usually use The third is split sentence with 60% of teachers always use and 40 % of teachers usually use The techniques for the written practice stage are available so teachers can get them easily from many English books Teachers believe that the written practice helps students learn and remember grammar points better than the oral practice That also explains why teachers spend most of time on this stage There are only two techniques are used in this stages which are problem - solving and personalization activities 40% of teachers usually use problem - solving and 70% of teachers usually use personalization activities Teachers only use something simple such as asking students to talk about their free time, daily work, hobbies, childhood, etc All teachers never use such activities as information gaps, interviews, simulations, find someone who, spot the differences between two pictures and picture cues This stage is very important because it helps teachers check the students’ understanding Teachers only follow the parts in the textbook so it is easy to explain why most of the teachers not spend much time on this stage because this stage is not presented in the textbook 2.4 Data analysis from interviews In order to obtain more reliable data, 30 students and teachers were selected randomly among the respondents for a structured interview These students were asked and answered the interview questions in Vietnamese to make sure the reliability of the information Each student answers three questions For question 1, twenty five respondents said that they were not interested in the grammar teaching approach of the teachers because of some reasons Firstly, the teachers did not give them much time to express their opinion They only did the parts in the textbook Secondly, they felt stressed because they had to follow the teachers’ requirement Lastly, the teachers did not use extra activities and techniques in the lessons that made the lesson boring For question 2, Twenty one of respondents stated that they only sat, listened to the teachers, wrote some important information and did what the teachers asked In general, they learnt grammar very passively Some of them kept silent during the lessons For question 3, they all expected teachers to use games, situations, role-plays, visual aids, realia in grammar lessons The teachers should let them more time express their opinions as well as pay more attention to what they need to make the lesson more comfortable and effective It means they would like their teachers to spend more time on the production stage They think that this stage is time for them to check their outcome to know what they have gotten from the lessons They have chance to use language in the practical situation 30 All the teachers also were asked three questions and the results showed as followings: For question 1, five out of six teachers answered that they did not often use extra activities or techniques in grammar lessons because they did not have enough time to such activities and the class was too crowded for them to use these activities or techniques They often followed the parts which were presented in the textbook For question 2, all teachers stated that there were only two stages presented in the New Headway Pre-intermediate which are presentation and practice That means the production stage is not presented here For question 3, all teachers agreed that they should use more techniques and activities in each lesson to create a comfortable learning environment for the students The teachers should share the teaching experience with each other as well as attend the teaching approach courses to update the new teaching approaches 2.5 Data analysis from class observation During three weeks, the author observed five grammar lessons taught by five different teachers for first-year students at the Department of Chemistry and Environment at UTEHY The author only took notes of the classroom procedures as detailed as possible due to technical constraints Through five lessons, it is seen that all teachers used PPP approach to grammar teaching, two of them presented the grammar points by writing down the examples on the blackboard and analysed these examples to help the students discover the form, use and time expressions of the grammar points while the rest used the text to get students perceive the structure - its form and meaning, and then asked some of students give some more examples The last activity the students did in the grammar lesson was doing the exercises in the practice part in the textbook or some extra exercises which were prepared by the teachers One of the teachers used the games in the lesson that made the lesson more exciting Only two stages were paid attention, the students did not have time for the production stage The teachers talked much more than the students, the students were not much interested in the lessons, some of them still talked to each other and did nothing in the lesson The students were passive in the lesson because they only did what the teachers asked them They seemed so tired after the lesson There was no chance for the teachers to check students’ ability to use English Research findings Firstly, the analysis of the data shows that both teachers and student at UTEHY have positive attitudes towards grammar and they are aware of the importance of grammar to their teaching and learning of English Grammar is necessary for students to communicate better Both teachers and students are interested in grammar learning and teaching However, they meet some difficulties in grammar teaching and learning because of grammar points which are presented in each lessons Secondly, both teachers and students agree that the approach to grammar in the New Headway Pre-intermediate is PPP approach that also explains why most of teachers at 31 UTEHY use this approach in grammar teaching Most of teachers and students believe that PPP approach to grammar teaching is effective However, there is a difference between teachers and students’ thinking Teachers pay attention to practice stage while students think that production stage is the most important Thirdly, the authors suggested some techniques for each stage, namely for the production stage to improve the English grammar teaching and learning at UTEHY such as interview, find someone who, information gap, board games, role-play, etc Lastly, each grammar teaching approach has its own advantages and disadvantages Through the analysis of the data reveals that the approach to grammar in the New Headway Pre-intermediate is PPP approach This approach is used by 70% of teachers at UTEHY It is a common communicative language teaching and is good for grammar teaching Students are easy to follow the stages of this approach that makes the grammar lesson clear so students can remember the grammar points easily Otherwise, we find some inappropriateness in grammar teaching at UTEHY According to most of the teachers at UTEHY, the purpose of teaching grammar is to help students communicate better, however, they not let students much time to use the language They not use many techniques for each stage They seem to ignore the production stage that explains why not many techniques are used here The written practice stage is paid attention most so students are good at doing grammar exercises but not good at speaking They are reluctant to speak English Although they think that grammar is very necessary and interesting, most of students are not interested in the grammar teaching approaches so they feel bored with the grammar lessons In fact, most of students when they graduate from the university cannot speak English It means they cannot meet the demands of the course objectives completely Implications for teaching and learning Based on the findings stated above, some suggestions for improving grammar teaching and learning at UTEHY are given There are three stages in PPP approach, however, the teachers at UTEHY and the textbook only focus on two stages: Presentation and Practice Although the production stage is necessary for both students and teachers, it was not paid much attention so the writer would like to give some techniques for this stage Information gaps: Information exchange is useful and crossing these gaps, students become more involved into the lessons that helps themselves become the content of the lesson That brings English into the students' real contexts and the students know how to get information from others Role-play technique: Role-play is used to refer to all sorts of activities where students imagine themselves in a situation outside the classroom, sometimes playing the role of someone other than themselves, and using language appropriate to this new context For example: ask and answer questions, one student can play the teacher and the other plays the student, etc Find someone who: Students have a list of questions, they stand and circulate, asking the questions to a partner When a partner says yes, they write that person's name and move 32 on another partner It is actually a series of pair interactions and creates a comfortable learning environment for students Picture cues: Students have to guess what happens basing on the pictures Teachers can provide some new words for students to make sentences This technique is so interesting because students can express their own ideas From that, they know what they have gotten from the lesson Interview: It is very useful for students when they interview each other Especially, it is necessary for them at the first lesson when they have to get to know each other It also helps students know how to ask and answer in the interview It is good for their future job interview Spot the differences between two pictures: Students ask and answer questions to try to find out what is different It is the chance for them to use the grammar points that they have just learnt and develop their speaking skill Using this technique makes the grammar lessons more interesting because students feel comfortable to spot the differences between two pictures These are some of the techniques that the authors would like to introduce with the hope that they will make the grammar lessons more interesting and effective How to use these techniques effectively depends so much on the teachers Each teacher should decide which technique, how, when and where to use to get their purpose Teachers should use them flexibly Teachers can create the new ones basing on the learning and teaching context In conclusion, the analysis of the approach to grammar in the New Headway Preintermediate is very useful for both teachers and students at UTEHY Especially, the study helps the teachers find the appropriateness and inappropriateness in their grammar teaching approaches From that, they find the best way to teach grammar effectively That also explains why the students are interested in learning grammar but they are bored with grammar lessons They are not satisfied with the grammar teaching approach being taught at the university PPP approach is a good approach to teach grammar but how to use it effectively is not easy In fact, the teachers not explore all the advantages of this approach One of the reasons that makes the grammar lessons boring is not many techniques are used in the lessons The study highlights the importance of using varied techniques in each stage of grammar teaching, especially, in the production stage such as using information gaps, role-plays, interviews, picture cues, etc The teachers can see the students’ needs that make the gap between teaching and learning styles narrowed so the students will be more motivated in learning grammar However, the students have different learning styles for grammar learning so the teachers cannot use only one approach to grammar teaching The teachers have to know how to combine the teaching approaches to make the grammar teaching more effective In general, the study provided insightful information about the approach to grammar in the New Headway Pre-intermediate that is necessary for the teachers at UTEHY REFERENCES [1] Canale M and Swain M (1980) “Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing” Applied linguistics, 1: - 47 33 [2] Ellis R (1992) Understanding Second Language Acquisition Oxford University Press [3] Ellis R (1988) The Role of Practice in Classroom Learning: AILA review, 5: 20 - 39 [4] Ellis R (2002) Grammar Teaching - Practice of Concious-raising In J.C Richards & W.A Renandya (Eds).Methodology in Language Teaching.An anthology of Current practice Cambridge: Cambridge University Press [5] Fromkin V Et al (1990) An Introduction to Language (2nded) Sydney: Holt, Rinerhart & Winston, [6] Garner M (1989) Grammar: Warts and All Melbourn: River Seine [7] Hannan, B (1989) I Should Say I Education Victoria, 4(9) [8] Harmer, J (1987) Teaching and Learning Grammar Longman Group UK Limited [9] Krashen, S.D (1982) Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition Oxford: Pergamon Press [10] Jack C Richards (1985) The context of language teaching Cambridge: New York : Cambridge University Press [11] Jack C Richards and Theodore S Rodgers (2001) Approaches and methods in language teaching (2nded) New York: Cambridge University Press [12] Lightbown, P.M and Spada N (1999) How Languages are Learned (Revised Ed) Oxford: Oxford University Press [13] Nunan, D (2003) Practical English Language Teaching.Higher Education Press [14] Penny Ur (1988) Grammar Practice Activities: A Practical Guide for Teachers Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers [15] Richards, J.C (1985) The Context of Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press [16] Rutherford, W.E., Sharwood Smith, M (1988).Grammar and Second Language Teaching: A Book of Readings New York: Newbury House Publisher PHÂN TÍCH PHƢƠNG PHÁP DẠY NGỮ PHÁP TRONG GIÁO TRÌNH NEW HEADWAY PRE-INTERMEDIATE VÀ GỢI Ý CHO VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU ĐIỂN HÌNH TẠI KHOA HỐ VÀ MƠI TRƢỜNG TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƢ PHẠM KỸ THUẬT HƢNG YÊN Nguyễn Thị Thu Thuỷ1, Đặng Thị Hƣơng Thảo2, Đỗ Thị Oanh2 Trường Đại học Tây Bắc Trường Đại học Sư phạm Kĩ thuật Hưng Yên Tóm tắt: Bài báo trình bày nghiên cứu với mục đích phân tích phương pháp dạy ngữ pháp giáo New Headway Pre-intermediate đưa gợi ý cho việc dạy học ngữ pháp tiếng Anh cho sinh viên khoa Hóa Môi trường Trường Đại học Sư phạm Kỹ thuật Hưng Yên Bài báo trình bày kết nghiên cứu cho thấy giáo viên sinh viên có thái độ tích cực việc dạy học ngữ pháp phương pháp giáo viên sử dụng chủ yếu phương pháp thuyết trình - luyện tập sản sinh Từ kết trên, số gợi ý đưa nhằm nâng cao hiệu việc dạy học ngữ pháp tiếng Anh Khoa Hóa Môi trường Trường Đại học Sư phạm kỹ thuật Hưng Yên Từ khóa: Ngữ pháp, PPP, phương pháp 34 ... each grammar teaching approach has its own advantages and disadvantages Through the analysis of the data reveals that the approach to grammar in the New Headway Pre-intermediate is PPP approach. .. that grammar should be taught and learnt Discussing about the learning and teaching grammar, nearly all teachers (90%) and students (95%) say that learning and teaching grammar is interesting and. .. English All teachers and learners agree that grammar is very important in teaching and learning English Remarkably, none of the teachers thinks that teaching and learning grammar unimportant It means