A study on the use of communicative activities in teaching grammar at newstar international language center in vinh city masters thesis in education

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY -  - TẠ THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO A STUDY ON THE USE OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES IN TEACHING GRAMMAR AT NEWSTAR INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE CENTER IN VINH CITY Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Code: 60140111 MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION SUPERVISOR: LÊ PHẠM HOÀI HƯƠNG, Assoc Prof., Ph.D NGHE AN, 2014 STATEMENT OF AUTHOR I here acknowledge that this study is mine The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission from associates, and have not been published elsewhere Author Supervisor Ta Thi Phuong Thao Assoc.Prof.Dr Le Pham Hoai Huong i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Assoc Prof Dr Le Pham Hoai Huong for all the friendly support and assistance at all stages of this thesis Her constant guidance has inspired me all through the study Without her help and careful guidance, this thesis would not have been possible Second, I am greatly thankful to Dr Tran Ba Tien and all teachers of English Department from whom I have received a lot of useful knowledge during the years I studied here I would also like to express my sincerest gratitude to all teachers at Newstar International Language Center where the investigation was carried out for their endless enthusiasm, valuable advice and great cooperation Also, I would like to send my special thanks to all students at Newstar international language center for their willingness to participate in my study and their valuable input I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to all of the friends in my class for their support and encouragement during the time this paper was written Last but not least, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my beloved family who have constantly supported me in various ways ii ABSTRACT This paper investigated the perceptions of teachers and students of communicative activities in teaching and learning at Newstar International Language Center in Vinh City The participants of this research consist of two groups: teachers and students The first group includes 40 teachers, and the second group comprises of 100 students chosen from classes at Newstar International Language Center The methods for investigation in the study included student and teacher questionnaire, interview, and classroom observation The results of the study show that most of the teachers and students had positive attitudes and motivation to the use of communicative activities in learning and teaching grammar Many of the English teachers at Newstar international language center recognized the importance of communicative activities in communicative language teaching because they could help students have natural learning and communication, and become more self-reliant Furthermore, it is found that if no communicative activities were made use of, grammar lesson for students in the center were less successful In most of English classes observed, the communicative activities facilitated teaching and learning grammar Besides, the results also indicate some of difficulties and objective causes that hindered the teachers and students from using of communicative activities in teaching English grammar Based on the findings of the study, suggestions were made to enhance the use of communicative activities in teaching and learning grammar effectively iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page STATEMENT OF AUTHOR i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ABBREVIATION vii LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES ix CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE 1.2 PURPOSES OF THE STUDY 1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 1.5 ORGANIZATIONS OF THE STUDY CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Definitions of Key Terms 2.2.1 What is Grammar Teaching? 2.2.2 Issues in Teaching Grammar 2.2.3 Goals and Techniques for Teaching Grammar 2.2.4 Principles for Grammar Teaching 2.2.4.1 The Given-to-New Principle 2.2.4.2 The Awareness Principle 11 2.2.4.3 The Real-Operating Conditions Principle 15 2.2.5 Approaches and Procedures for Teaching Grammar 19 2.2.5.1 Two Core Approaches in Grammar Presentation 19 2.3 Communicative Activities (CAs) 22 2.3.1 Definition of CAs 22 2.3.2 Communicative Activities and the Use of Real Context 23 iv 2.3.3 Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Communicative Activities 24 2.3.3.1 Advantages of CAs 24 2.3.3.2 Disadvantages of CAs 24 2.3.4 Characteristics of CAs 24 2.3.5 Examples of Communicative Activities 25 2.3.6 Types of Classroom CAs 26 2.3.6.1 Classification of Littlewood 26 2.3.6.2 Classification of Harmer 30 2.3.7 Using CAs to Teach English Grammar 33 2.3.7.1 The PPP pattern 33 2.3.7.2 Deep-End Approach 35 2.3.8 Prior Studies 37 2.4 Summary 40 CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 41 3.1 Introduction 41 3.2 Aims of the Research 41 3.3 Participants 42 3.4 Data Collection 43 3.4.1 Questionnaire 43 3.4.2 Class Observation 43 3.4.3 Interview 43 3.5 Data Analysis 44 3.6 Summary 44 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 45 4.1 Introduction 45 4.2 Teachers‟ and Students‟ Perceptions of Using Communicative Activities (CAs) in Teaching and Learning Grammar 45 4.3 Teachers‟ Implementation of CAs 56 4.3.1 Sources of CAs Used in Grammar Lessons 56 v 4.3.2 Types of Communicative Activities Used to Teach English Grammar 57 4.3.3 Roles of the Teachers in Communicative Activities 64 4.5 Teachers‟ Procedure to Make Grammar Lessons Become more Communicative and Effective 74 4.6 Summary 75 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION, IMPLICATIONS, LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 76 5.1 Conclusion 76 5.2 Implications for Teachers 79 5.3 Implications for Students 80 5.4 Limitations 81 5.5 Suggestions for Further Research 81 APPENDICES 87 Appendix 1: Questionnaire for Teachers 87 Appendix 2: Questionnaire for Students 92 Appendix 3: Questions for Teacher Interview 96 Appendix 4: Questions for Student Interview 97 Appendix 5: Observation Sheet 98 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATION CAs: Communicative Activities vii LIST OF TABLES Page Table 4.2.4: Teachers‟ perceptions towards the aims of CAs 50 Table 4.3.1: Sources of CAs used in grammar lessons 56 Table 4.3.3: Roles of the teachers during the CAs 65 Table 4.5: Ways to promote CAs 75 viii LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 4.2.1: Teachers and students' perceptions of the importance of CAs in English teaching and learning 45 Figure 4.2.2: Grammar lessons without CAs in comparison with those with the 47 Figure 4.2.3: CAs help students to perceive the grammar point after the lesson 49 Figure 4.2.5: Students' perceptions towards their more active participation in the grammar lesson with CAs 54 Figure 4.3.2: Teachers' favourite communicative activities 57 Figure 4.4: Teachers' difficulties in implementing CAs 66 ix 38 Lenka Temerová (2007) How to improve students‟ communicative skills 39 Lewis, M (1993) The Lexical Approach LTP Teacher Training 40 Littlewood, W (1981) Communicative Language Teaching: An Introduction Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 41 Long, M.H (1996) The role of the Linguistic environment in second language acquisition Richie, W.C., Bhatia, T.K (Eds.), Handbook of Language Acquisition Second Language Acquisition, vol Academic Press, San Diego, CA, pp 413–468 42 Loschky, L., Bley-Vroman, R (1993) Grammar and task-based methodology In: Crookes, G., Gass, S (Eds.), Tasks and Language Learning: Integrating Theory and Practice Multilingual Matters Clevedon 43 Louanne Piccolo (2013) Tips for Teaching ESL Grammar 44 Retrieved from http://www.brighthubeducation.com/esl-teaching-tips/71825 tips-for-teaching-esl-grammar/ 45 Lynch, T (2001) Seeing what they meant: transcribing as a route to noticing ELT Journal, 55, 124–132 46 Lyster, R (1998) Recasts, repetition, and ambiguity in L2 classroom discourse Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 20, 51–81 47 Mackey, A., Gass, S., McDonagh, K (2000) How learners perceive interactional feedback? Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 22 (4), 471–497 48 Mocanu Elena (2010) Presenting and Explaining a New Grammatical Structure in the 8th grade http://www.slideshare.net/elena27/presenting-and-explaining-grammar (Dec 04, 2011) 49 Nolasco, R and Arthur, L (1988) Large Class Mc Millan Publisher Ltd 50 Onwuegbuzie, A J., & Johnson, R B (2006) The “Validity” Issue in Mixed Methods Research Research in the Schools, 13(1), 48-63 51 Patricia Byrd (1998) Grammar in the foreign language classroom: Making principled choices Modules for the Professional Preparation of Teaching Assistants in Foreign Languages, Grace Stovall Burkart, ed.; Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics 85 52 Pham, H.H (2001) Teacher development: A real need for English departments in Vietnam English Teaching Forum, 43 (4) Retrieved 13 August, 2010 from http://eca.state.gov/forum/vols/vol39/no4/ p30.htm 53 R Batstone & R Ellis (2009) System 37, 194–204 54 Richards, J C & Rodgers, T S (2003) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 55 Robby (2010) Reasons Why Studying English at School Won‟t Make You a Fluent English Speaker Retrieved from http://englishharmony.com/academic-english-studies/ 56 Sarwani (2014) TSL 3018 teaching of grammar in the primary classroom Retrieved from http://vi.scribd.com/doc/202814352/Tsl3108-Teaching-of- Grammar-in-the-Primary-Classroom 57 Schmidt, R (2001) Attention In: Robinson, P (Ed.), Cognition and Second Language Instruction Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 58 Schutz., Bartz (1983) Survey Questionnaire-ULIS Retrieved from http://data.ulis.vnu.edu.vn/jspui/bitstream/123456789/ 419/3/3noi%20dung%20chinh.doc 59 Sharwood Smith, M (1981) Consciousness-raising and the second language learner Applied Linguistics, 2, 159–169 60 Soars, J., Soars, L (1986) Headway Intermediate Oxford University Press, Oxford 61 Ur, P (1996) A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory, Cambridge University Press 62 Van Patten, B (1996) Input Processing and Grammar Instruction Ablex Publishing Corporation, Norwood, New Jersey 63 Van Patten, B (2004) Input processing in second language acquisition Van Patten, B (Ed.), Processing Instruction, Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ, pp 5–31 64 Widodo (2006) H.P Approaches and Procedures for Teaching Grammar English Teaching: Practice and Critique, (1), 122-141 86 APPENDICES Appendix 1: Questionnaire for Teachers This questionnaire is designed to collection information for the study: “A Study on the Use of Communicative Activities in Teaching Grammar at Newstar International Language Center in Vinh City” Your answer will be used as important data for the research not for any other purposes Please put a tick (√) on the answer you choose Thank you very much for your cooperation! ……………………………………………………………………………………… I Teacher’s profile -Your qualification: BA MA Ph.D - Years of teaching: < years 5-10 years > 10 years II Questionnaire of using communicative activities in teaching grammar at Newstar International language center in Vinh city Put a tick in the proper box: Statements SA The use of communicative activities to teaching grammar is very important I think communicative activities should be used in teaching grammar to encourage students to use the target language I think communicative activities should be used in teaching grammar to stimulate the students‟ motivation I think communicative activities should be used in teaching grammar to have the students get out of shyness and to increase students interact I think communicative activities should be used in teaching grammar to create a comfortable atmosphere in the class and make the grammar lesson more 87 A N D SD motivating and interesting I think communicative activities should be used in teaching grammar to help students practice and master the grammar points I think communicative activities should be used in teaching grammar to meet the demand of students‟ communicative purposes If no communicative activities are made use of, my grammar lesson for students in the center will be less successful If no communicative activities are made use of, my grammar lesson for students in the center will be as successful as periods used communicative activities 10 If no communicative activities are made use of, my grammar lesson for students in the center will be more successful 11 I often use the activities in the textbooks to design communicative activities for grammar lessons at Newstar center 12 I myself often design communicative activities for grammar lessons at Newstar center 13 I often use the activities in the reference books to design communicative activities for grammar lessons at Newstar center 14 I often use the activities I collect from colleagues to design communicative activities for grammar lessons at Newstar center 15 I often use the activities I collect from the Internet to design communicative activities for grammar 88 lessons at Newstar center 16 My favorite communicative activities in teaching grammar are simulation and role-play 17 My favorite communicative activity in teaching grammar is discussion 18 My favorite communicative activities in teaching grammar are language games (lucky numbers, noughts and crosses, etc) 19 My favorite communicative activity in teaching grammar is information gap 20 My favorite communicative activity in teaching grammar is interview 21 My favorite communicative activity in teaching grammar is guessing 22 During a communicative activity in a grammar lesson, teachers should not interfere 23 During a communicative activity in a grammar lesson, teachers should interfere whenever students make mistake 24 During a communicative activity in a grammar lesson, teachers should collect students‟ common mistakes without interfering them 25 During a communicative activity in a grammar lesson, teachers should join the activities with students as a participant 26 During a communicative activity in a grammar lesson, teachers should encourage all students to participate in the activities 27 Teachers should make good preparation to get 89 effectiveness of communicative activities 28 Teachers should encourage students to get effectiveness of communicative activities 29 Teachers should discuss and share the experience with colleagues to get effectiveness of communicative activities 30 Teachers should organize the class work appropriately to get effectiveness of communicative activities 31 When designing and using communicative activities in teaching grammar for students in the center, I face difficulty in time limitation to prepare 32 When designing and using communicative activities in teaching grammar for students in the center, I have difficulty in time limitation to apply in classroom 33 When designing and using communicative activities in teaching grammar for students in the center, I have difficulty in using the tasks in the textbooks which are not communicative 34 When designing and using communicative activities in teaching grammar for students in the center, I have difficulty in managing large class size 35 When designing and using communicative activities in teaching grammar for students in the center, I have difficulty because the students lack knowledge of English to express themselves 36 When designing and using communicative activities in teaching grammar for students in the 90 center, I have difficulty as the students are passive and shy 37 When designing and using communicative activities in teaching grammar for students in the center, I have difficulty due to lack of teaching facilities and teaching aids 91 Appendix 2: Questionnaire for Students Statements SA The use of communicative activities to learning grammar is very important I think communicative activities should be used in learning grammar to encourage students to use the target language I think communicative activities should be used in learning grammar to stimulate the students‟ motivation I think communicative activities should be used in learning grammar to have the students get out of shyness and to increase students interact I think communicative activities should be used in learning grammar to create a comfortable atmosphere in the class and make the grammar lesson more motivating and interesting I think communicative activities should be used in learning grammar to help students practice and master the grammar points I think communicative activities should be used in learning grammar to meet the demand of students‟ communicative purposes If no communicative activities are made use of, teacher‟s grammar lesson for students in the center will be less successful If no communicative activities are made use of, teacher‟s grammar lesson for students in the center will be as successful as periods used communicative 92 A N D SD activities 10 If no communicative activities are made use of, teacher‟s grammar lesson for students in the center will be more successful 11 Teachers often use the activities in the textbooks to design communicative activities for grammar lessons at Newstar center 12 Teachers myself often design communicative activities for grammar lessons at Newstar center 13 Teachers often use the activities in the reference books to design communicative activities for grammar lessons at Newstar center 14 Teachers often use the activities they collect from colleagues to design communicative activities for grammar lessons at Newstar center 15 Teachers often use the activities they collect from the Internet to design communicative activities for grammar lessons at Newstar center 16 My favorite communicative activities in learning grammar are simulation and role-play 17 My favorite communicative activity in learning grammar is discussion 18 My favorite communicative activities in learning grammar are language games (lucky numbers, noughts and crosses, etc) 19 My favorite communicative activity in learning grammar is information gap 20 My favorite communicative activity in learning grammar is interview 93 21 My favorite communicative activity in learning grammar is guessing 22 During a communicative activity in a grammar lesson, teachers should not interfere 23 During a communicative activity in a grammar lesson, teachers should interfere whenever students make mistake 24 During a communicative activity in a grammar lesson, teachers should collect students‟ common mistakes without interfering us 25 During a communicative activity in a grammar lesson, teachers should join the activities with students as a participant 26 During a communicative activity in a grammar lesson, teachers should encourage all students to participate in the activities 27 Teachers should make good preparation to get effectiveness of communicative activities 28 Teachers should encourage students to get effectiveness of communicative activities 29 Teachers should discuss and share the experience with colleagues to get effectiveness of communicative activities 30 Teachers should organize the class work appropriately to get effectiveness of communicative activities 31 When teachers use communicative activities in grammar lessons, I often don‟t see the relevance of learning grammar 94 32 I can often very controlled oral practice activities correctly However, when teachers use communicative activities in grammar lessons, I often get the target grammar wrong 33 When teachers use communicative activities in grammar lessons, I find that I lack knowledge of English to express myself 34 When teachers use communicative activities in grammar lessons, I want more feedback on the language I produce 35 When teachers use communicative activities in grammar lessons, I want to more speaking in my classes 95 Appendix 3: Questions for Teacher Interview - What you think about using communicative activities in teaching grammar? - How you use communicative activities to teach grammar? - What are some of the difficulties you have faced when using CAs in teaching English grammar? - In your opinion, what should be taken into account to make grammar lesson become more communicative and effective? 96 Appendix 4: Questions for Student Interview - What you think about using communicative activities in learning grammar? - How you your teachers use communicative activities to teach grammar? - What are some of the difficulties you have faced when using CAs in learning English grammar? - In your opinion, what should be taken into account to make grammar lesson become more communicative and effective? 97 Appendix 5: Observation Sheet Observation Sheet: Date:…………………………… Lesson:……………………………… Class:…………………………… Teacher:……………………………… Level: ………………………………………………………… Stages Yes/ No Simulation and role-play Yes No Discussion Yes No Language Information games gap Yes No Yes No 1.Presentation Practice 3.Production Stages Interview Guessing Yes/ No Yes No Yes 1.Presentation Practice 3.Production 98 No Teacher’s Teacher’s interference encouragement Yes No Yes No Stages Students’ active participation Yes/ No Yes No 1.Presentation Practice 3.Production 99 ... communicate meaning All of the above reasons have inspired me to choose ? ?A Study on the Use of Communicative Activities in Teaching Grammar at Newstar International Language Center in Vinh City? ?? 1.2... What is Grammar Teaching? Traditionally, grammar teaching is considered as the presentation and practice of discrete grammar patterns As illustrated by Cook (1994), the mainstay of grammar teaching. .. became “standard” in learning a foreign language and known as the Grammar Translation Method which dominated second/foreign language teaching In the Grammar Translation Method, the goal of second/foreign