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

Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Languages and International studies FACULTY OF Post - Graduate STUDIES -  - NGUYỄN THỊ HIÊN A STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH TO GRAMMAR TEACHING ON STUDENTS’ INTEREST AT THE INSTITUTE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES- HANOI UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE (NGHIÊN CỨU TÁC ĐỘNG CỦA ĐƯỜNG HƯỚNG GIAO TIẾP TRONG VIỆC DẠY NGỮ PHÁP TIẾNG ANH TỚI SỰ HỨNG THÚ CỦA SINH VIÊN TẠI TRUNG TÂM NGOẠI NGỮ - ĐẠI HỌC NÔNG NHGIỆP HÀ NỘI) M.A MINOR THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 601410 HANOI – 2011 Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Languages and International studies FACULTY OF Post - Graduate STUDIES -  - NGUYỄN THỊ HIÊN A STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH TO GRAMMAR TEACHING ON STUDENTS’ INTEREST AT THE INSTITUTE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES- HANOI UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE (NGHIÊN CỨU TÁC ĐỘNG CỦA ĐƯỜNG HƯỚNG GIAO TIẾP TRONG VIỆC DẠY NGỮ PHÁP TIẾNG ANH TỚI SỰ HỨNG THÚ CỦA SINH VIÊN TẠI TRUNG TÂM NGOẠI NGỮ - ĐẠI HỌC NÔNG NHGIỆP HÀ NỘI) M.A MINOR THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 601410 Supervisor : Trần Hiền Lan, M.A HANOI – 2011 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION I Rationale AI Aims of the study BI Research questions V Methods of the study VI Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW I.1 An overview on language teaching methods in Teaching grammar I.1.1 The Grammar – Translation Method with teaching grammar I.1.2 The Audio – lingual Method with teaching grammar I.2 Communicative language teaching (CLT) in teaching grammar I.2.1 An overview of communicative language teaching (CLT) I.2.2 Characteristics of CLT I.2.3 Status of Grammar in CLT I.2.4 Teaching grammar in the light of CLT I.3 Students’ interest I.3.1 Concept of students’ interest I.3.2 Factors affecting students’ interest in the class I.4 The impact of CLT to grammar teaching on students’ interest I.4.1 Grammar teaching techniques in CLT I4.2 Teachers’ personal qualities and characters CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY II.1 Setting of the study II.2 Methodology II.2.1 Subjects II.2.2 Methods and Procedures II.2.3 Survey Instruments iv II.2.3.1 Questionnaires II.2.3.2 Class observation II.2.3.3 Interview II.3 Data analysis and findings II.3.1 Questionnaires II.3.2 Class Observation II.3.3 Interview CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS III.1 Recommendations for Teaching III.2 Suggested communicative Activities for a Grammar lesson III.2.1 Using games and problem-solving activities III.2.2 Using songs III.2.3 Role play III.2.4 Interview III.2.5 Telling stories PART C: CONCLUSION Summary of the study Limitations of the study Recommendations for further study REFERENCES APPENDIXES PART A: INTRODUCTION English is considered to be the most common and important language of the world today in which a great number of people understand and use it In Vietnam, the economic open-door policy pursued by the government has increased a demand for studying English English is also seen as a necessary means for any graduate who wishes to find a good job, especially in foreign companies In correspondence to this trend, at almost all colleges and universities, English is taught as a compulsory subject Additionally, there are many evening English classes at foreign languages centers opened to serve the explosion in the demand for English However, both teaching and learning English in Vietnam are said to be not effective because, as a matter of fact, the traditional method of teaching is still applied in many universities in general and at Hanoi University of Agriculture (HUA) in particular, which fails to get students involved in the lessons, especially in grammar lessons The questions of how to make the grammar lessons more interesting and how to make students interested in the grammar lessons have become a concern of teachers of English in general and those at HUA in particular From my experience, my students are more interested in the grammar lessons when teachers use games, songs, pictures, and other communicative activities to present the new items For the above reasons, I have decided to conduct a research entitled: “A study on the impact of the communicative approach to grammar teaching on students’ interest at IFL – Hanoi University of Agriculture” This study is an attempt to look into the matter of how Communicative Language Teaching is applied in teaching grammar at IFL - HUA and the impact of CLT on students’ interest in grammar learning It is believed that the insights into these areas will help to address the matter of teaching grammar effectively at universities and at foreign language centers as well To achieve the aims of the thesis, the following questions were proposed: What is the fact of grammar teaching and learning at IFL – HUA? To what extent does CLT affect students’ interest in the context of IFL –HUA? The thesis consist of three parts: A- Introduction, B- Development, and C-Conclusion PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW I.1 An overview on language teaching methods in teaching grammar I.1.1 The Grammar – Translation method (GTM) in teaching grammar th The Grammar-Translation method dominated from the late 19 century to the early 20 th century and although it has been generally acknowledged as the least effective teaching methodology, the method is still widely used in many countries including Vietnam Obviously, the best point of this method is that it helps learners become good translators and use English accurately In addition, it requires few recourses and it is also easy to apply and cheap to administer That is why the method is still used in many classrooms where there is a great shortage of teaching and learning facilities and equipment aids, where the class is large of about 30 students, and where the teachers’ inadequate speaking skill are accustomed to teaching procedures and where the exams still emphasize knowledge of grammar Nevertheless, the biggest disadvantage of this method is the learners find it difficult to communicate in real-life situations, or their utterances are correct but inappropriate This is the result of the process of learning form and usage, but not use, and learning about the language, not using the language to learn through authentic tasks Furthermore, this method makes the learners really passive in the process of getting knowledge They just listen to the teacher’s explanation and not participate in the exploration of new knowledge I.1.2 The Audio – Lingual Method The Audio – Lingual Method was derived from “ Army Method” during the World War II where there was a need for people to learn foreign languages quickly for military purposes It later developed into the so called Audio – Lingual method, which then has had considerable influence on English language teaching all over the world This method puts listening and speaking in the first place It uses sentence pattern as the base of teaching and tries to avoid mother tongue as in class Attention is paid to the need for mechanical practice rather than explanation about the language because the ability to use the language as a means of communication is the mastery of the linguistic system of the target language I Communicative language teaching (CLT) in teaching grammar I.2.1 An overview of communicative language teaching (CLT) Towards the end of the 1960s there was a growing dissatisfaction among applied linguists and foreign language teachers with the language theories and teaching methods American Linguist Noam Chomsky demonstrated that the current standard structural theories of language were incapable of accounting for the fundamental characteristics of language -the creativity and uniqueness of individual sentences Then, British applied linguists emphasized another fundamental dimension of language that was inadequately addressed in current approaches to language teaching at that time -the functional and communicative potential of language Consequently, the teaching produced structurally competent students who were often communicatively incompetent Communicative (CLT) emerged as a response to that judgment The term CLT covers a variety of approaches that all focuses on helping learners to communicate meaningfully in target language Brindley (1986: 11) pointed out that: “ the 1970’s and 1980’s could be regarded as the era of communicative teaching.” And it is probably the approach most used by trained teachers today (Paul Davies, 2000: 193) I.2.2 Characteristics of CLT In CLT, meaning is paramount Wilkins (1972) classifies meaning into notional and functional categories and views learning a second language as acquiring the linguistic means to perform different kinds of functions According to Larsen-Freeman (1986: 132) the most obvious characteristic of CLT is that “ Almost everything that is done is done with communicative intent” Students use the language through communicative activities (e.g games, role-plays and problem-solving tasks) I.2.3 Status of Grammar in CLT Many linguists and researchers have advocated grammar instruction in language teaching and learning The communicative competence model of Canale and Swain (1980) clearly illustrates the significance of grammar In this model grammar is seen as one component of communicative competence One person cannot master a language without the knowledge of its grammar Thanks to grammar language partly can function as a means of communication, especially in written language In speaking, though grammatical mistakes are sometimes acceptable, good grammar makes one’s speech better and more attractive, especially in formal situations Referring to the importance of grammar teaching, To sum up, the rationale for teaching grammar is multifaceted and grammar is acknowledged to be of importance in language study in general and in language teaching and learning in particular I.2.4 Teaching grammar in the light of CLT To date, teachers of English as a Second Language (ESL) are still confronted with the crucial issue of choosing the best approach to improve their students' grammatical accuracy It cannot be denied that there has been a lot of progress in English language teaching since the introduction of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Obviously, applying CLT to grammar teaching is necessary in order to deal with the disadvantages of Grammar Translation method when being used to teach grammar such as the learners’ inappropriate utterances and passive learning style Nunan (1991) in the section “Focus on form: the role of grammar” discusses the place of grammar in the recent language teaching.While grammar played a dominant role in traditional classroom, it was just of marginal importance in earlier communicative classrooms, which drew merely on meaning rather than form Unlike in traditional approaches, where grammatical mastery was ultimate learning objective, grammar now is important but just as a means to the end and hence, is always put into context and learned for the sakes of social functions Communicative language classrooms, which focus on both form and meaning, truly reflect the view of learning grammar as both processes and products There are two main approaches to teach grammar These are the deductive and inductive approach In deductive approach, the teachers give the rules and then students give examples In contrast, an inductive approach is when the rule is inferred through some forms of guided discovery The teacher gives example and asks the students to find out the rules from themselves A deductive approach often fits into a lesson structure known as PPP (Presentation – Practice – Production) And PPP approach is a common one to communicative language teaching that works through progression of three sequential stages I Students’ interest I.3.1 Concept of students’ interest Ellis (1994) (cited in Keller, 1984) states that interest is one of the main elements of motivation and a positive response to stimulate based on existing cognitive structures in such a way that learners’ curiosity is aroused and sustained In other words, interest shows learners’ desire to learn the target language It can be seen that students who are given opportunities for communication will be interested in the lesson I.3.2 Factors affecting students’ interest in the class - Students’ learning style Students’ learning style is one of the factors we should take into consideration to see the particular approach by which students try to learn According to Keefe (1979:4), learning style can be seen as cognitive, affective and physiological features that are relatively stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact with and respond to the learning environment Major factors conditioning the ways learners think and study are the educational system, the socio-cultural background and personality variables - Students’ motivation Motivation is popularly considered to play a very important role in learning In Jeremy Harmer’s view (1991) “Motivation is some kind of internal drive that encourages somebody to pursue a course of action” I.4 The impact of CLT on students’ interest in grammar learning CLT appearing between the 1960s and 1970s marks the beginning of major innovation within language teaching and it has been widely accepted nowadays because of its superior principles Obviously, grammar plays an important role in ELT because learners cannot communicate effectively without grammar Furthermore, the understanding of grammar helps us build up confidence in using the target language and encourages us to use the language accurately and appropriately Grammar is an integral part of language, so the more we can find out about how grammar is learned and used, the more effectively we will teach it 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 Nowadays, CLT, with its foundation and on recent achievements in the field of linguistic and psychology, has been considered to be the most effective approach to grammar teaching I.4.1 Grammar teaching techniques in CLT It is obvious that different techniques create different degree of students’ participation and interest in the lesson For example, techniques which focus on grammatical and phonological like choral repetition, drilling substitution, content explanation will result in learners’ passiveness and limit their participation in learning In contrast, the techniques that involve students in communicative activities such as role-play, games, problem-solving, pair and group work, discussion etc can encourage students to participate in the lesson I.4.2 Teachers’ personal qualities and characters Teachers are considered as a significant source of intrinsic motivation A teacher’s personality matters a lot because if it matches learners’ expectations, it helps build the learning environment with good relationship between teacher and learners, one which may increase learning motivation In addition, in order to get students involved in the lesson, teachers should be ones that students trust and respect Barry (1993) points out some characteristics a teacher should have as follows: being natural, being warm and being tolerant In this literature review, the writer has presented different basic issues relating to some methods of teaching grammar which serves as the theoretical framework for the study Different grammar teaching methods such as Grammar-Translation method, Audio-lingual method have been reviewed to find out advantages and disadvantages of each method The author also has a brief look at CLT, its characteristics, the status of grammar in CLT as well as the teaching of it in the light of CLT To serve the study, at the same time, the writer has paid attention to the concept of students’ interest, factors affecting students’ interest in class as well as the impact of CLT to students’ interest in grammar learning In the next chapter, the writer reports the study for the answer to the proposed research questions CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY This chapter discusses the contextual conditions that determine the study of motivation The author begins with the description of the situation where the study was conducted and informants involved in the study After that, the research method followed by the data collection procedures and scheme for data interpretation are mentioned II.1 Setting of the study The study was carried out at the Institute of Foreign Languages (IFL) – Hanoi University of Agriculture (HUA), which was established in 2004 in order to meet the growing demand for learning English of students as well as to help them improve their English Since then IFL, the official language center of HUA, has become a reliable address for all students in HUA It offers a wide range of English courses from general to specific courses with elementary to advance level Besides, students can take other courses in French, Chinese and Japanese II.2 Research Methodology II.2.1 Subjects The subjects of the study were 100 students who were studying at IFL at that time and 10 teachers who were both at IFL and The Department of Linguistic and Foreign Culture They were selected randomly by the researchers II.2.2 Methods and Procedures The researcher used both quantitative and qualitative methods in the study As mentioned in the above section, to collect information and data, three instruments: questionnaire, interview and observation were used All the subjects were informed of the purpose of the study and willing to help the researcher to fulfill the author’s task II.2.3 Survey instruments II.2.3.1 Questionnaires - To gain data for the research, two kinds of questions were designed One was designed for 100 students who were taking different English courses at IFL and the other was for the teachers The second questionnaire was delivered to 10 teachers of English at HUA II.2.3.2 Class observation To make the data more valid and reliable, the class observations were conducted in order to gather further information and to witness the reality in which the teachers applied CLT in their grammar teaching progress and how the students get interested in the activities in the lesson Then, the results of the observations would be compared with the results of questionnaires II.2.3.3 Interview Both teachers and students would be respondents to the researcher’s interview to discuss for further information to have deep understanding of their evaluation to the impact of CLT to grammar teaching Their answers were copied and then translated into English The questions for the interviews are included in the Appendix II Data analysis and findings This part presents and discusses the findings which are resulted from the analysis of three sources of data collected: questionnaires, classroom observation and interviews The data collected from these sources This part also gives the answers to two research questions Research question 1: What is the fact of grammar teaching and learning at IFL – HUA? In order to answer the first research question, the data collected from the survey questionnaires will be categorized into: (a) the teachers’ and students’ experience of teaching and learning English, (b) the teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards grammar teaching and learning, the aims of, and the difficulties in grammar teaching and learning Research question 2: To what extent does CLT affect students’ interest in the context of IFL –HUA? In order to work out the answers to research question 2, the data collected from the questionnaires analyzed into three aspects (a) the students’ opinions, interests in learning grammar through communicative activities as well as their frequency to these activities (b) the teachers’ frequency of communicative activity application in grammar teaching (c) the teachers’ and the students’ evaluation of the effectiveness of communicative activities in teaching and learning grammar CHAPTER III: RECOMMENDATIONS III.1 Suggestions for teaching 9 Firstly, to apply CLT successfully in traditional language classrooms, students’ attitude about learning English in general and grammar in particular needs to be change The teachers need consciously get their students familiar with communicative approach through every lesson Students’ anxiety in public communication is another problem In order to minimize it, the teachers need to encourage the students to work in pair and in groups so that they can have chance to share their ideas as well as improve their speaking in English In addition, to have a successful grammar lesson in a communicative way, the teachers need create a friendly atmosphere between the teachers and the students, and give them more praise and encouragement Apart from that, the training courses in CLT should be held regularly to help teachers update their knowledge and exchange their teaching experience so that they can apply CLT to teaching grammar to their teaching grammar effectively III.1 Suggested Communicative Activities for a grammar lesson In order to apply CLT to teaching grammar effectively, a variety of techniques and activities should be used at different stages of a grammar lesson In this thesis, the author just suggests some popular techniques and classroom activities for the communicative practice III.1.1 Using games and problem solving activities The latest concern of the foreign language teachers is to make the students use the target language communicatively Among the activities or techniques, games and problem solving activities are the most preferable communicative activities III.1.2 Using songs Songs and music always create relaxing and non-threatening atmosphere for students, who are usually tense when speaking English in a formal classroom setting In any case, students find the lesson challenging and interesting as evident from songs III.1.3 Role play 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 rather than themselves, and using language appropriate to this new context 10 This activity is often used at the production stage III.1.4 Interview Interview is also a learning activity that can be used to teach grammar Students interview each other and they can say true sentences about themselves In that way, students learn and practice the structures and they also get to know about their partners Interview is usually suitable for the production stage III.1.5 Telling stories Both teacher and students can tell stories “Our students are marvelous storytellers as well as listeners, and this ability can be used to good advance.” Celce – Murcia (1988:55) Telling stories is suitably applied for the production stage when students are free to say what they want and what they think In that way, they can develop their imagination and self confidence at the same time PART C: CONCLUSION Summary of the study In the literature, grammar is an important part of learning and we cannot master a language without the knowledge of grammar However, students are not interested in the lesson The question here is how grammar should be taught in order to get students involved in the lesson This research is an attempt to draw the fact of applying CLT in grammar teaching and learning at HUA, as well as the students’ evaluation of the effectiveness of this method Based on the instruments as questionnaires for both teachers and students, class observation and interview, the study has figured out the important findings with a view to improving the English teaching at IFL - HUA However, while applying CLT in teaching grammar teachers in IFL in particular and HUA in general have met some obstacles, which make the lessons less interesting and attractive To overcome these difficulties needs the great efforts form both teachers and students Firstly, the students’ attitude towards learning English should be changed Teachers can make a change in students’ attitude by enhancing their motivation Teachers should maintain a friendly, relaxing and interactive classroom atmosphere with interesting topics, 11 suitable exercises Besides, teachers’ explanations, instructions together with the choices of suitable activities for each lesson should be taken consideration so that their students get interested in the grammar lessons More importantly, the gaps between grammar teaching styles and learning styles need to be narrowed Teachers also need to reduce the students’ anxiety in public speaking by letting them work in groups, in pairs of mixed – ability students .Working in pairs or in groups can also deal with the problem of students’ low English proficiency In addition, to help teachers overcome the difficulties in the application of CLT, the administrators should provide the teachers with more opportunities to expose to CLT by attending the workshops or seminars about CLT The teachers themselves should self-study to improve their sociolinguistic competence as well as their teaching methods so that they will feel self-confident to manage communicative classes In conclusion, it is undeniable that teaching CLT in the light of CLT makes a great impact to the students’ interest in learning The students are really motivated to learn with a lesson in which grammar is taught in a real context and in communicative activities To manage a successful grammar lesson in a communicative way depends on many factors including teachers, students, administrators, Among which, teachers are the central to longlasting changes that can affect the success this renovation The study has been made with great efforts to improve grammar teaching and learning at IFL of HUA Hopefully, it will get a lot of supports, advice and feedback from the teachers of English, who are implementing CLT to teach grammar Limitations of the study This study, though carefully done, has some limitations Firstly, the research was only conducted with a small number of students (100 out of 12.000 students of HUA) who were studying at IFL not for all students at HUA The study only focused on the impact of CLT to the students’ interest in grammar learning and only some techniques were recommended Suggestions for further study On the basic of the findings and the limitations of the study, the following recommendations are made for further research 12 This study only focuses on the impact of CLT to grammar teaching, which has both advantages and disadvantages so more grammar teaching approaches should be study to find the best way to get students interested in the grammar learning Moreover, as mentioned above, the subjects of the study were only 100 students at IFL and 10 teachers of English, so it is unbelievable to apply the results of the research for all the students at the university It would be better to conduct a similar study on the students from other faculties or universities REFERENCES Brown, H.D (2001) Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy Addison Wesley Longman 13 Brindley, G (1986) Some Current Issues in Second Language Teaching Prospect, Vol No April 1986 Canh, L.V (2004) Understanding Foreign Language Teaching Methodology Hanoi: Hanoi National University Publishing House Canale, M & Swain, M (1980) Approaches to Communicative Competence SEAMEO Regional Language Center Celce – Murcia, M (1988) Techniques and Resources in Teaching Grammar Oxford University Press Chung, Siaw-Fong (2005) A Communicative Approach to Teaching Grammar Theory and Practice The English Teacher.34 Selangor: Malaysian English Language Teaching Association (MELTA) Pp.30-50 David Seymour and Maria Popova (2005) 700 Classroom Activities Macmillan Publisher Limited Eliis, R (1992) Understanding Second Language Acquisition Oxford University Press Finochiaro, M & Brumit, C (1983) The Functional – Notional Approach: From Theory to Practice Oxford: Oxford University Press 10 Garner, M (1989) Grammar: Warts and All Melbourn: River Seine 11 Harmer, J (1991) The Practice of English Language Teaching Longman 12 Harmer, J (1987) Teaching and Learning Grammar Longman Group UK Limited 13 Jane Comyns Carr & Sarah Cunningham & Peter Moor New Cutting Edge – Elementary – Teacher’s Resource Book (2005) Longman 14 Larsen, D & Freeman (1986) Techniques and Resources in Teaching Grammar Oxford University Press 15 Lee, W.R (1997) Language Teaching Games and Contests, Oxford: Oxford University Press 16 Nunan, D (1991) Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom Sydney: Macquarie University Press 17 Nunan, D (1995) Language Teaching Methodology A Textbook for Teachers New York: Phoenix ELT 14 18 Prator, C.H and Celce –Murcia, M (1979) An outline of Language Teaching Approaches In Celce-Murcia, M and McIntosh, L (Ed.), Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Languages New York: Newbury House 19 Richards, J.C & Rodgers, J.S (1986) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching Cambridge University Press 20 River, W (1981) Teaching Foreign Language Skills Chicago: The University of Chicago Press 21 Rutherford, W and Smith, M (1988) Introduction In W Rutherford and M Smith (Eds) Grammar and Second Language Teaching New York: Newbury House 22 Savigno, S.J (1983) Communicative Competence Theory and Classroom Practice Reading Addison – Wesley Publishing Company 23 Smith, M (2001) Making Content Classes more Communicative Teachers’ Edition (p.14-17) 24 Wilkin, D.A (1972) Grammatical, Situational, and Notional Syllabuses Oxford University Press 25 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammar_Translation 26 Songs, Verses and Games for Teaching Grammar from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Saricoban-Songs.html  ... decided to conduct a research entitled: ? ?A study on the impact of the communicative approach to grammar teaching on students? ?? interest at IFL – Hanoi University of Agriculture? ?? This study is an attempt... about the language because the ability to use the language as a means of communication is the mastery of the linguistic system of the target language I Communicative language teaching (CLT) in teaching. .. to say what they want and what they think In that way, they can develop their imagination and self confidence at the same time PART C: CONCLUSION Summary of the study In the literature, grammar