Teaching english grammar to tenth graders through speaking activities luận văn thạc sĩ giáo dục học

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ THANH PHONG Teaching English grammar to tenth graders through speaking activities Master Thesis in Education Vinh, 2011 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ THANH PHONG Teaching English grammar to tenth graders through speaking activities Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code: 60.14.10 Master thesis in Education Supervisor: TRẦN BÁ TIẾN Vinh, 2011 Candidate’s statement I certify that the minor thesis entitle “Teaching English grammar to tenth graders through speaking activities” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master is the result of my own work. Acknowledgements To accomplish this study, Iam indebted to many people for their thoughtful help. First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest thank to my supervisor, Mr Tran Ba Tien for his valuable guidance, critical feedback and enomous encouragement without which my thesis would be far from completion. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all my lecturers at the Department of Post- graduate Studies of Vinh University as well as other lecturers from College of foreign languages, Vietnam National University for their guidance and enthusiasm during my course. My sincere thanks go to all my colleagues and my students at Nghi loc 2 high school who have helped me in answering the survey questionnaire and making constructive and insightful comments as well as suggestions. Last but not least, I would like to express my thanks to my friends who were willing to help me during the course. In particular, I find myself indebted to my family especially my husband for their love, care and tolerance when I was in the process of writing this thesis Abstract This thesis aims at investigating the reality of using speaking activities in teaching and learning grammar in the light of communicative language teaching. In order to find out the answers, the researcher uses two method of data collection, survey and class observation which bring about both qualitative and quantitative data. After analysing the collected data, some major findings have been revealed. The first finding is that students are really interested in learning grammar through speaking activities, and all the teachers are well aware of the benefits of speaking activities in teaching grammar. However, teachers and students are facing some difficulties in teaching and learning grammar. The problems and its solutions are mentioned in the folowing chapters. In practice, teachers and students have applied this method and gained some certain successes. It is hoped that this thesis will be useful for all teachers and students in teaching and learning English grammar. List of abbreviations CLT: Communicative language teaching List of table and charts Tables Table 1: Personal information of students Table 2: Students’ comments on teachers’methods Table 3: The frequency of using speaking activities Table 4: Teachers’ traditional method in Grammar teaching Table 5: Teachers’ assessment on students’result Charts Chart 1: The importance of English grammar Chart 2: Students’ interest toward English grammar Chart 3: Students’ difficulties in leraning English grammar Chart 4: Students’ frequent errors Chart 5: Teachers’ personal information Chart 6: Teachers’ attitude toward English Grammar Chart 7: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching English grammar Chart 8: Teachers’ adapting exercises Chart 9: Form of interaction Chart 10: Students’ reaction Chart 11: Students’ progress Table of contents Candidate’s statement Acknowledgements Abstract List of abbreviations List of table and charts Table of contents Table of contents Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1. Rationales for the thesis 1.2. Aims of the study 1.3. Research questions 1.4. Scope of the study 1.5. Design of the study Chapter two: Theoretical background 2.1. A brief review of methods in English Grammar teaching 2.1.1. Grammar translation method 2.1.2. Direct method 2.1.3. Audiolingual method 2.1.4. Communicative language teaching (CLT) 2.1.4.1. Definition of CLT 2.1.4.2. Communicative competence 2.1.4.3. Characteristics of CLT 2.1.4.4. Principles of CLT 2.1.4.5. The roles of teacher and students in CLT 2.1.5. Teaching English Grammar in the lights of CLT 2.2. Teaching English Grammar 2.2.1. Definition of Grammar 2.2.2. Different views on teaching Grammar 2.2.3. The importance of Grammar in learning a foreign language 2.2.4. The Psychological characteristics of grammar skills 2.2.5. The contents of teaching Grammar 2.2.6. Some general principles of grammar teaching 2.2.7. Common stages of grammar teaching 2.2.7.1. Presentation 2.2.7.2. Practice 2.2.7.3. Production 2.2.7.4. Differences between Practice and production stages 2.2.7.5. Similarities between practice and production stages 2.2.8. Techniques for teaching English Grammar 2.3. Speaking activities 2.3.1. Types of speaking activities 2.3.1.1. One on one speaking (student – student or student – teacher) 2.3.1.2. Small group or team based oral work 2.3.1.3. Full class discussion 2.3.1.4. In class debates and delibration 2.3.1.5. Speeches and presentation 2.3.1.6. Oral examinations 2.3.2. Some speaking activities in English grammar teaching 2.3.2.1. Reaching a concensus 2.3.2.2. Relaying instructions 2.3.2.3. Communication games 2.3.2.4. Problem solving 2.3.2.5. Interpersonal exchange 2.3.2.6. Story construction 2.3.2.7 Simulation and roleplay 2.3.3. The advantages of using speaking activities in teaching English grammar 2.3.4. Games 2.3.4.1. Definition 2.3.4.2. The roles of games in teaching English Grammar 2.4. Difficulties in teaching and learning English Grammar 2.4.1. Difficulties from teacher 2.4.2. Difficulties from students 2.4.3. Difficulties from objective factors 2.4.4. Difficulties from syllabus 2.5. Overview about teaching and learning grammar 2.5.1.Teaching grammar at Vietnamese high school. 2.5.2. Contents of grammar in the English 10 th grade textbook. 2.5.3. Description of grammar exercises and activities in the 10 th grade textbook. 2.5.4. Real situation of teaching and learning grammar at Nghi Loc 2 high school. 2.5.4.1. Description of the school 2.5.4.2. Description of students 2.5.4.3. Description of teachers 2.5.4.4. Description of physical setting Chapter three: Research methodology 3.1. Sample and sampling: 3.2. Instruments for collecting the data 3.2.1. Instrument 1: survey questionnaires 3.2.2. Instrument 2: Class observation Chapter four: Data analysis and finding 4.1. Data analysis of the students’ survey questionnaire 4.2. Data analysis of the teachers’ survey questionnaire 4.3. Class observation 4.4. Post – students’survey questionnaire Chapter five: Conclusion Appendix . Teaching English grammar to tenth graders through speaking activities 1.2. Aims and objectives - To investigate how useful speaking activities are to. THỊ THANH PHONG Teaching English grammar to tenth graders through speaking activities Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code: 60.14.10