Nghiên cứu ứng dụng các thủ thuật theo đường hướng giao tiếp đối với việc dạy ngữ pháp cho sinh viên

1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES **0** VÕ THỊ HƯƠNG GIANG A STUDY ON HOW TO APPLY COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING TECHNIQUES IN TEACHING GRAMMAR TO FIRST – YEAR NON MAJOR ENGLISH STUDENTS AT HANOI GENERAL COLLEGE (Nghiên cứu ứng dụng thủ thuật theo đường hướng giao tiếp việc dạy ngữ pháp cho sinh viên năm thứ không chuyên Trường Trung cấp Tổng Hợp Hà Nội) PROGRAM I M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Methodology Code: 60 1410 Hanoi, 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES **0** -VÕ THỊ HƯƠNG GIANG A STUDY ON HOW TO APPLY COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING TECHNIQUES IN TEACHING GRAMMAR TO FIRST – YEAR NON MAJOR ENGLISH STUDENTS AT HANOI GENERAL COLLEGE (Nghiên cứu ứng dụng thủ thuật theo đường hướng giao tiếp việc dạy ngữ pháp cho sinh viên năm thứ không chuyên Trường Trung cấp Tổng Hợp Hà Nội) PROGRAM I M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Methodology Code: 60 1410 Supervisor: M,Ed, Phung Ha Thanh Hanoi, 2010 LIST OF TABLES AND ABBREVIATIONS LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The teachers‟ experience of teaching English Table 2: Time schedule for class observations Table 3: Types of CLT techniques used in classrooms Table 4: The frequency of CLT techniques used in the classroom Table 5: The purposes of CLT techniques used in classroom Table 6: The teachers‟ difficulties when applying CLT techniques in teaching grammar Table 7: Teachers‟ self-assessment of their employment of CLT techniques ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative language teaching VNUH: Vietnam National University, Hanoi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGES i ABSTRACT ii LIST OF TABLES iii PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims and objectives of the study Scope of the study Methods of the study Structure of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature review 1.1 Grammar teaching 1.1.1 Definition of Grammar 1.1.2 The importance of teaching grammar 1.1.3 Different approaches to grammar teaching 1.2 CLT and conceptions related to CLT 1.2.1 Concepts of CLT 1.2.2 Characteristics of CLT 1.2.3 CLT techniques 10 1.3 CLT techniques and teaching grammar 13 1.3.1 The use of CLT techniques in teaching grammar 13 1.3.2 Difficulties in applying CLT techniques in teaching grammar: 14 1.3.2.1 Difficulties from Teachers 15 1.3.2.2 Difficulties from Learners 15 1.3.2.3 Difficulties from Educational system 16 Chapter 2: Methodology 18 2.1 Setting of the study 18 2.2 Design of the study 19 2.2.1 Phase one: The survey 19 2.2.1.1 Sampling 20 2.2.1.2 Data collection 20 2.2.1.3 Data analysis 21 2.2.2 Phase two 21 2.2.2.1 Sampling 21 2.2.2.2 Data collection 21 2.2.2.3 Data analysis 22 Chapter 3: Results and findings of the study 23 3.1 Results of the study 23 3.1.1 Results from the questionnaire 23 3.1.2 Results from the class observation 28 3.2 Findings of the study 29 3.2.1 Difficulties from the teachers 29 3.2.1.1 Teachers‟ misconceptions about CLT 29 3.2.1.2 Deficiency in speaking English 30 3.2.2 Difficulties from the learners 30 3.2.3 Difficulties from the education systems 31 3.2.3.1 Class size 31 3.2.3.2 Poor teaching condition 32 3.2.3.3 The testing system 32 3.3 Recommendations 33 3.3.1 Using Visual aids 33 3.3.2 Group work 35 3.3.3 Role-play 36 3.3.4 Games 37 3.4 Suggestions in teaching a grammar lesson with the application of CLT techniques 37 PART III: CONCLUSION 38 Conclusion 38 Limitations and Suggestions for further study 39 REFERENCES 40 APPENDIX A 42 APPENDIX B 46 10 PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale In recent years, English has become an important language It is not only spoken by native speakers but also the second language and official language in many countries As we can see in Vietnam, teaching and learning English as a foreign language has taken an important part and English has become a compulsory subject in most national curriculum, however, foreign language teaching in general and English language teaching in particular is said to be grammar-focused, and for many teachers of English, teaching English means teaching grammar Along with traditional approaches, teachers of foreign languages in many countries, including Vietnam, have been encouraged to adopt an approach known as communicative language teaching (CLT) This approach advocates the development of communicative competence as a primary goal via the extensive use of the foreign language as a means of communication during classroom sessions Understandably, education authorities and teachers are keen to know why CLT becomes the most favorable approach in foreign teaching language currently and how it motivates both teachers and students as well In Hanoi General College where I have been teaching for seven years, the students‟ levels of English is limited so teaching grammar for all students is the most important task Then, we create meaningful situations for students to practice using new English grammar structures, for example, describing pictures to partners, role-play, listening to a short dialogue or writing a paragraph and speaking with other students in order to help students both develop grammatical competence and communicative competence In my real teaching, I have tried my best to apply communicative language teaching techniques that I think are suitable to my real context However, with the difficulties I often meet in teaching, the application of CLT techniques in teaching in general and teaching grammar in particular is far from satisfactory For the reasons mentioned above, I choose “A study on how to apply Communicative language teaching techniques in teaching grammar to First – Year non major English students at Hanoi General College Reality and recommendations” as the title for the thesis in the hope that I can contribute a small part in helping my students and my colleagues to improve their learning and teaching English especially in learning and teaching grammar that they may need for further study, work or leisure 11 Aims and objectives of the study With the above-presented rationales, the specific aims and objectives of the study are the followings: Firstly, the study carries out an investigation in to the reality of the teachers‟ application of CLT techniques in teaching grammar Secondly, through the investigation the research will find out the difficulties the teachers encounter with their application of CLT techniques in teaching grammar Thirdly, the study will provide practical recommendations for the possibility of CLT techniques in order to narrow the gap between teaching styles and learning styles, thereby increasing the students‟ motivation in grammar learning as well as heightening the effectiveness of English language teaching More specific, this study is to answer the following questions: What are CLT techniques applied in teaching grammar to first-year non- English major students? How are CLT techniques employed in terms of frequency and purposes? What are the difficulties in applying CLT techniques in teaching grammar? To what extent teachers feel satisfied with the use of CLT techniques? What are the suggestions recommended by teachers to applying CLT techniques in teaching grammar? Scope of the study The scope of this thesis is limited to the teaching grammar at elementary level and types of CLT techniques applied in teaching grammar with difficulties Along with these, the frequency and purposes of CLT techniques with satisfaction and recommendation for possible problems are also mentioned With the minor thesis, I limited myself to focus on a group of teachers teaching English for first-year non major students at Hanoi General College 12 Methods of the study This is a survey in nature During the study the research uses the questionnaire and class observation to select information to answer the research questions about different types of CLT techniques applied in teaching grammar, the frequency and purposes of applying these techniques in order to find out the difficulties in applying CLT techniques in teaching grammar in the college selected and recommend solutions for these The methodology will be discussed more detail in the next chapter Structure of the study This paper has three main parts: Part one: Introduction, this part will provide my reasons for choosing the topic, aims of the study, methods and design of the study Part two: Development, this part has three following chapters: Chapter 1: Literature review, dealing with some definitions about the important terms relating to the study as: grammar, the important of grammar teaching, different approaches to grammar teaching, CLT and concepts related to CLT, CLT techniques and teaching grammar, potential difficulties affect teachers and students in allying CLT techniques in grammar lessons Chapter 2: Methodology Firstly, it is an overview of teaching and learning English of the first-year students in Hanoi General College Secondly, the methodology performed in the study is presented The subject and instruments used in the research will be discussed Chapter 3: Results and discussions of the study This part presents the findings of the study and proposes some recommendations for the findings Part three: Conclusion, this part summarizes what are addressed in the study, points out the limitations and provides some suggestions for further study 13 PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW In recent years much emphasis has been put on the teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL) using Communicative Approach This has brought about a lot of changes in the approach to EFL The learner is considered to be an active participant in the process of language learning in the classroom Teachers who are in favor of the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) are expected to use techniques or activities that would promote self-learning, group interaction in authentic situations and peer teaching That is not an easy task for the teacher, especially in the circumstance of most colleges in Vietnam where teaching grammar is the most emphasis Therefore, the use of communicative activities is a technique to make learning English grammar more interesting and meaningful in order to achieve one of the aims of the communicative approach, the grammatical competence The purpose of this chapter is to relate the use of CLT techniques in teaching grammar The first part of this chapter discusses the teaching of grammar Then the second part provides general ideas about CLT and CLT techniques The third part is about the use of CLT techniques in teaching grammar with a review of various difficulties when teachers apply CLT techniques in teaching grammar 1.1 Grammar teaching Traditionally, grammar has been concerned almost exclusively with analysis at the level of the sentence Thus a grammar is a description of the rules that govern how a language‟s sentences are formed The study of grammar consists, accordingly, of looking at the way words are arranged or patterned to make sentence By contrast, recent views of grammar are expanded to cover both texts and words to the extent that texts and words are organized according to rules For the purpose of this study, I will assume grammar to mean grammar at the sentence level; the definitions of grammar are followed by a presentation of different views of grammar and the importance of it in teaching a foreign language 1.1.1 Definition of Grammar There have been many ways of defining grammar – a very common and familiar term in language teaching and learning 44 addition, visual aids provide students with chances of exposing to the reality Therefore, students will learn the language as a means of communication, not only the language itself Visual aids motivate students much, especially when they are tired of doing too many written grammar exercises Finally, as for Betty Morgan Bowen (1982:1), visual aids “allow the teacher to talk less by dismissing the importance of verbal stimuli provided by the teacher’s voice…this visual rather than verbal approach results in less teacher’s talking time and more students’ participation” This matches with CLT approach which is learner- centered Visual aids are various in types In this thesis, I not intend to cover all types of visual aids but just focus on some common types which exist in my college like: pictures, charts and maps Using pictures in teaching grammar especially in presenting grammar items motivates students a lot Pictures can be taken from magazines, books, on the Internet or prepared by teachers themselves Most students enjoy looking at pictures and they bring variety into lessons because each picture suggests one kind of activity There is no need to be limited by a picture; with some imagination the teacher will be able to explore many uses from it, as a cue for language, in information gap activities, or as part of a story Pictures are versatile and useful resources for teaching aspects of grammar that require a structure-meaning match Interesting and entertaining pictures motivate students to respond in ways that more routine teaching aids, such as a textbook or a sentence on the board, cannot Pictures can also be used in various configurations to enhance learning and practice They introduce a great deal of variety into the classroom Using pictures allows the teacher to focus on temporal forms and sequences in the target language There are many kinds of picture like: wall pictures, work cards and work sheet.etc Wall pictures are good prompts for static or momentary description, evoking and describing a mood of feeling and conjecturing Although the students may be distracted because of the detailed scenes, the complexity of wall pictures is quite helpful for some activities This exploitation of this kind of visual aids sounds suitable for whole class On the contrary, work cards and work sheets are suitable for both individual and small group work However, work card not only provide various range of tasks but also are permanent and reusable whereas worksheets are disposable- though of course more copies can be made As for Andrew Wright and Safia Haleem (1992:65), work cards and work sheets “provide an extremely useful base for the development of all four skills without the teacher’s immediate involvement” They can be used for a variety of purposes: to cue answers to the questions, to provide cues for substitution in sentences, to describe people and things, etc 45 Charts and maps are also helpful teaching tools, especially in class with lowest level if the teacher focuses on the students themselves rather than on technical information that involves a lot of numbers or statistics Charts and maps are useful devices for clarifying relationships This visual aid is very useful because it does not take much time to prepare but brings great results Students can practice requesting and providing information in situations such as asking for directions in a city and ordering meals in a restaurant Charts are very useful to promote interaction between students; in order to complete them students have to question each other and note down the replies 3.3.2 Group work This technique is suitable to solve the problem of less participation in large classes and it is well-matched with CLT, which focuses on communicative competence and learner- centeredness The fact is that, the need to provide experiences to promote students interaction inside and outside classroom is the heart of CLT Learners need to use language authentically and teachers‟ role is to encourage and organize the classroom for communication However, large classes not allow the teachers to create enough opportunities for all learners to enter the communication at the same time Group work is commonly the choice of large class teachers In group work, the teacher divides the class into small groups to work together, and all the groups work at the same time In spite of the fact that teacher has to invest much time and energy in preparing teaching materials, this technique is likely to bring a positive effect on teaching and learning process The strong evidence is that, if teacher‟s talk in traditional language classes is dominant and each student might get a few second of class period to talk, then in group work students have greater opportunities to talk, to practice in negotiation of meaning, to extend conversational exchanges, in general, to develop communicative which is the goal of CLT That is the reason why group work is selected among other techniques for increasing students‟ participation in communicative activities in large classes There are certain disadvantages when group work is conducted For example, the teacher is no longer in control of the class; the students will use Vietnamese and make noises However, group work can be conducted successfully if an appropriate task is selected Typical group work tasks including: games, drama, project, interview brainstorming, information gap, jig saw, problem solving, decision making and opinion exchange These activities will be more effective if the teachers follow some guidelines on organizing group work: a Introduce the technique: teachers give brief explanation of the task to indicate the purpose of the group work, so that students can apply all other directions to that objective 46 b Justify the use of small groups for the technique: teachers remind their students the important of using group work for the task, their chance to speak up in security in small groups c Model the technique: for a new and rather difficult task, teachers show students an example and tell them what they are expected to Then one group is chosen to simulate a discussion with teachers‟ help d Give explicit detailed instruction: teachers give students specific instructions on what they are to including: a statement of the purpose; rules that they are to follow; a time frame; assigning roles e Divide the class into group: teachers can divide the class into small groups of four or five to fulfill the tasks basing on different criteria f Check for clarification: teachers ask students some questions to ensure that all of them understand and know how to the tasks g Set the task in motion: by using an action or utterances, teacher let students start working (Brown, 1994) 3.3.3 Role-play Role-plays are very important in CLT because they give students an opportunity to practice communicating in different social contexts and in different social roles It can also provide information gaps since students cannot be sure what the other person or people will say Students also receive feedback on whether or not they have effectively communicated Role-play gives the students the opportunities to practice the real language aspects which they may need outside the classroom Besides, this technique can be used for both focused and communicative practice because it presents the students a real life situation in which the students assume roles The students must think how to use structures appropriately to express their ideas in order to act out their solution Three students can make a group and does a role play practice as follows in order to use the past simple tense: There are three people at the police station; one of the students is a policeman, another one is the victim whose wallet was stolen, the third student is the person who the victim thinks has stolen the wallet Now, the policeman begins to ask for information How the victim describes the situation he has lost the wallet and how the person who is thought as the thief explains They all have to deal with the problem by using the past simple tense 47 3.3.4 Games In all classes in Vietnam, students are often motivated when learning through games CelceMurcia (1988:133) stated that “well-planned games can teach and reinforce grammar point very successfully if the activities are geared to students‟ proficiency, age and experience and are not presented condescendingly” Therefore, when using games, the teachers must be sure that students are familiar with the words and structures needed to carry out the tasks 3.4 Some suggestions in teaching a grammar lesson with the application of CLT techniques Here is some suggestions in teaching a grammar lesson with applying some CLT techniques that the author has experienced and thinks that it may helpful for language teachers It has steps that are designed based on the PPP model that is presentation, practice, and production: Step 1: Give situations and examples for students first The situation are either from real life, in class or out class, or funny stories relating to what students have learnt or are learning (this is also a warming up stage) Step 2: Showing the uses and forms of the grammatical point or structure There are many techniques for showing the uses: to show the uses visually such as objects, the classroom, the teachers, the students themselves, pictures, work cards, etc; to show through situations in which the structures can naturally be used by giving different examples so that the students can build up a clear idea of what the structure means and how it is used Step 3: Giving situations so that the students can give examples of grammatical point they are learning The situations can be real or imaginary They can also be provided with a series of questions, a dialogue, a text, a story, an article or a set of pictures Step 4: proving controlled practice which may be repetition, substitution, fill-in-the-blank, reordering words or sentences (Students can work on their own, in pairs, or in-groups) Step 5: providing free practice including such activities as guild oral practice, topic free talk, language games, picture stories, pictures description, role play, information gap, etc 48 PART III: CONCLUSION Conclusion The economic open- door policy pursued by the government of Vietnam has increased a demand for studying English Many people are expected to be competence to communicate verbally with the outside world and to access technology This trend gives rise to the need to reconsider some traditional values that have become out of date and unsuitable to the new social contexts Naturally, CLT should be a suitable alternative to the traditional ones and be implemented in the educational system to meet the demand of the social contexts However, in the process of applying CLT in teaching English in Vietnam, the teachers have encountered certain difficulties This study is an attempt to find out the teachers‟ difficulties in applying CLT techniques in teaching English grammar to first – Year non major students at Hanoi general school Through the study instrumentations such as the teachers‟ questionnaire, classroom observation, this research has found out some significant findings with a help to improve the teaching of English in general and teaching of English grammar in particular at the college Based on the survey results, the main difficulties the teachers often encounter are: those from teachers themselves, those from the students and those from the education system The difficulties from teachers are: the misconceptions of CLT, deficiency in speaking English The difficulties from students are: lack of motivation, low English proficiency, over use of Vietnamese in the activities The constraints from the education system are: class size, poor teaching condition and the testing system 49 These difficulties are not solved easily in a short time It needs much effort from both the teachers and the administrators However, in order to help the teachers to reduce the difficulties in their teaching at the present, the author has suggested some CLT techniques in teaching grammar as: using visual aids, group work, role play, and games In summary, according to the difficulties and recommendation, it can be concluded that there should be contribution of many factors including the administrators, teachers and students Among which teachers play a central role which can affect the success or failure of their teaching process In order to meet the demand of the society, teachers have tried their best to adapt themselves to the new methodology and find a suitable method in their teaching so that they can help students get progress much and involve in the lessons In addition, the administrators should give the teachers opportunities to promote knowledge as well as facilities to make use of them Limitations and suggestions for further study Because of the limitation of time for research and limited knowledge of the author, the present study unfortunately has certain inevitable shortcomings The matters for analyzing are rather small and simple Hence, rigorous conclusion cannot be made through the findings of the study However, at least it is a pilot study at our colleges and it has several implications that are possibly suitable for language teaching in our settings For better research, other matters as the followings should be taken into consideration with a view to gain more benefits for teaching English in my college through the application of CLT: - There should be research on teachers‟ role and students‟ role in the process of applying CLT - Material should be adapted to be suitable to the students‟ needs and levels and match the local context - More CLT techniques and the variety of using them should be conducted in other research tin order to make the lesson both interesting and effectively 50 REFERENCES Andrew, Wright, (1992), Visual Materials for The Language Teacher, Lowe and Brydone Printers Limited Bastone, R (1994), Grammar, Oxford: Oxford University Press Brown, DH (1994), Principle of Language Learning and Teaching, Prentice Hall Regents Brumfit, J.C and John, K (1981), The Communicative Approach to Language Teaching, Oxford University Press Canale, M and Swain, M (1980), Approaches to Communicative Competence, Seameo Regional Language Centre Canh, L.V (2004), Understanding Foreign Language Teaching Methodology, Hà Nội, Nhà xuất Đại học Quốc Gia Hà Nội Canh, L.V (Novemver 2001), “Language and Vietnamese pedagogical Contexts”, Teacher‟s Edition: p34-40 Celce-Murcia, M (1988), Techniques and Resources in Teaching Grammar, Oxford University press Doff, A (1988), Teach English: A training course for teachers, Cambridge University Press 10 Dublin, F (1995), The Craft of Material Writing, Boston: Heinle &Heinle 11 Ellis, R (1985), Understanding Second language Acquisition, Oxford University Press 12 Ellis, R (1994), The Study of Second Language Acquisition, Oxford: Oxford University Press 13 Giao, N Q and Hoa, N.T (March 2004), “Applying communicative methods to teaching grammar: An experiment”, Teacher‟s Edition: p16-24 14 Harmer, J (1987), The practice of English Language Teaching, Longman 15 Hedge, T (2000), Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom, Oxford University Press 16 Hymes, D.H (1972), In Richards.J.C & Rodgers, T.S (1986), Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 17 John and Liz Soars (2000), New Headway Elementary: Student‟s book and Workbook, Oxford University Press 18 Johnson, K & Morrow, K (1981), Communication in the Classroom, Essex: Longman 19 Larsen-Freeman, D (1986), Techniques and Principles on Language Teaching, Oxford University Press 20 Lightbown P M & Spada N (1999), How Language are learned, Oxford University Press 21 Littlewood, W (1981), Communicative Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press 51 22 Nolasco, R & Arthur, L (1988), Large Classes, Hong Kong: Modern English Publications 23 Nunan, D (1989), Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom, Cambridge University Press 24 Nunan, D (1991), Language Teaching Methodology: A textbook for teachers, Prentice Hall Regents 25 Richards, J.C (1983), Communicative needs in Foreign Language Learning , ELT Journal, V37 (1993) 26 Richards, J.C and Rodgers, T S (1986), Approaches and Methods in language Teaching, Cambridge University press 27 Richards, J.C (2003), Communicative Language Teaching Today, Cambridge University press 28 River, W (1981), Teaching Foreign Language Skills, University of Chicago Press 29 Stern, H.H (1983), Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching, Oxford: Oxford University Press 30 Uyên, Nguyễn Thị (2009), “Improving teaching and learning English Grammar for the nonEnglish major 2nd semester students”, Teacher‟ edition, Trade University 31 Wilkin, D.A (1972), Grammatical, Situational and Notional Syllabus, Oxford: Oxford University Pres 32 Wilkin, D.A (1976), Notional Syllabus, Oxford: Oxford University Press 33 Widdowson, H.G (1978), Teaching English as Communication, Oxford: Oxford University Press 52 APPENDIX A QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS A survey on the teaching grammar with the application of CLT techniques The questionnaire aims at surveying the reality of teaching grammar with the application of CLT techniques to First – Year non major students at Hanoi general high school Your completion of this questionnaire is highly appreciated The data collection is used in the research paper only, not for any other purposes Please complete the following questions as appropriate You may tick more than one option A Teaching experience: How many years have you been a teacher of English?…………years Have you ever been trained in CLT? Where? Never, Yes In University method courses In English teaching conferences In English teaching books Others Please list here………………………………………… Have you ever been retrained in CLT? Where? Never/ Yes Once in Post-graduate teaching courses Twice in English teaching conferences Many times Others Please list here………………………………………… 53 B Reality of practice From question to question 6, please tick in the box and circle the number that describes your practice of teaching grammar What are CLT techniques you apply in teaching grammar and how often you use them? information-gap having a debate or role - play group discussion on the grammar point 5 5 5 5 5 5  reading dialogues going on the Internet or a chat room practice speaking in pairs story telling in front of the class grammar exercises describing a picture to a partner games map-reading Other techniques( Please list here)    54 What you use CLT techniques for and how often you use them? To introduce the new grammar points To give short explanation To help Ss manipulate the form of grammar point To help Ss understand the meaning of the grammar point To help Ss practice the grammar point To help Ss use the target grammar point to communicate with others How often encounter the following difficulties when applying CLT techniques in teaching grammar? Multi level classes Over crowded classes Lack of authentic teaching materials Unsuitable syllabuses (Grammar-based examination) 5 Deficiency in spoken English Lack of training in CLT Few opportunities for retraining in CLT Little time for and expertise in material development Ss‟ lack motivation in learning English Ss‟ low EnGlish proficiency Poor teaching conditions ( no cassette or overhead projector, noise from outside) 55 Ss‟ passive styles in class activities Other difficulties Please, list here 5 How satisfied you feel with your employment of CLT techniques? Circle the number that best describe your feeling? Not satisfied at Not very all satisfied Satisfied Very Completely satisfied satisfied C Suggestions What are your recommendations for the following matters? Materials: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………… Assessment: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… Organization of classes: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 56 Others: APPENDIX B LESSON OBSERVATION SHEET Time: Class: Name of the observed: I Preparation Well- prepared and well- organized in class Appropriately prepared-objectives II Presentation 1.Types of CLT techniques used in the classroom information-gap having a debate or role - play group discussion on the grammar point  reading dialogues going on the Internet or a chat room practice speaking in pairs story telling in front of the class grammar exercises describing a picture to a partner Yes No 57 games map-reading Others:……………………………………………………………… The frequency of using CLT techniques - Never - Only occasionally - Sometime - Usually - Always The purposes of using CLT techniques To introduce the new grammar points To give short explanation To help Ss manipulate the form of grammar point To help Ss understand the meaning of the grammar point To help Ss practice the grammar point To help Ss use the target grammar point to communicate with others 58 Difficulties in applying CLT techniques in the teaching process Multi level classes Over crowded classes Lack of authentic teaching materials Poor teaching conditions ( no cassette or overhead projector, noise from outside) Deficiency in spoken English Little time for and expertise in material development Ss‟ lack motivation in learning English Ss‟ low English proficiency Ss‟ passive styles in class activities Other difficulties III Levels of satisfaction of the lesson - Not satisfied at all - Not very satisfied - Satisfied - Very satisfied - Completely satisfied ... NON MAJOR ENGLISH STUDENTS AT HANOI GENERAL COLLEGE (Nghiên cứu ứng dụng thủ thuật theo đường hướng giao tiếp việc dạy ngữ pháp cho sinh viên năm thứ không chuyên Trường Trung cấp Tổng Hợp Hà... on the theory that the basic categories of language were notions and functions rather than grammatical categories such as nouns, verbs or adjectives Canale and Swain (1980) expand on the theoretical... propose a theory of communicative competence that includes four dimensions: grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic They make the point that though “there seem to be no strong theoretical