VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES --------------------- LÊ THỊ THU PHƢƠNG A STUDY ON TEACHING GRAMMAR WITH THE USE OF “FLIP TEACHING” TO CHILDTEN AT POPODOO ENGLISH CENTER (Nghiên cứu dạy ngữ pháp áp dụng phƣơng pháp Flip Teaching cho trẻ em tại Trung tâm Anh ngữ PoPoDoo) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI – 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES --------------------- LÊ THỊ THU PHƢƠNG A STUDY ON TEACHING GRAMMAR WITH THE USE OF “FLIP TEACHING” TO CHILDTEN AT POPODOO ENGLISH CENTER (Nghiên cứu dạy ngữ pháp áp dụng phƣơng pháp Flip Teaching cho trẻ em tại Trung tâm Anh ngữ PoPoDoo) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr. Tô Thi Thu ̣ Hƣơng HANOI - 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled: “A study on teaching grammar with the use of “Flipped teaching” to children at PoPoDoo English Center” submitted in partially fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MA in English Language Teaching Methodology.
Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‘s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis. Hanoi, 2017 Lê Thi Thu ̣ Phƣơng i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My thesis cannot be successfully completed without dedicated instructions and assistance of several people as follows: My first sincere thanks should be given to Dr. To Thi Thu Huong, my instructor. She was unfailingly available for my questions and concerns, and always ready with thoughtful suggestions and valuable insights.
With her special expertise, she provided me with extensive advice, encouragement, and careful guidance. I wish to acknowledge the support of all students in Dolphin and Penguin classes at PoPoDoo English Center for their continuous cooperation. With their enthusiastic participation, I was able to carry out my study. Lastly, I am greatful to all of my friends who continuously support me in searching for ideas and necessary materials for the research.
ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This action research is aimed to investigate the effects of flipped teaching method on the students‘ grammatical competence and motivation for learning English grammar. Twenty four students aged from 8 to 10 at PoPoDoo English Center were chosen to take part in the research. The initial observation before the research period showed that the students‘ poor grammatical competence and low motivation in learning grammar may be attributed to their exposure of uninteresting traditional way of presenting grammar in the class. A plan of action using flipped teaching was implemented to motivate and improve students‘ English grammar learning.
By the analysis of data from observation, a pretest and a post test, an interview, the researcher could confirm the situation from the finding of the pre-data and collect the results of the treatment by comparing it with the data collected by means of post-data collection instruments. The analysis revealed that the use of flipped teaching in English grammar teaching did improve not only their grammatical competence (measured by the pre- and post tests) but also their attitudes towards learning English grammar. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY………………………………………………. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
vi LIST OF TABLES .vii LISTS OF FIGURES. Aims and research questions of the study. Significance of the study. Scope of the study.
Overview of the thesis. 4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Grammar and grammatical competence. Notions of blended instruction. Models of blended learning.
Definition of motivation. Types of motivation. Roles of motivation in teaching and learning a language. Definition of flipped teaching.
Model of flipped teaching. Traditional and flipped teaching. 11 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Rationale for choosing action research.
Subjects of the study. Data collection instruments. A Summary of data collection procedure. 20 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
Data from observation. Data from tests. Data from pre-test. 23 Table 1: Results on spoken test (pre-test).
Data from post-test. Summary of findings. Implications for teaching. Suggestions for further study.
I v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as a Foreign Language ELT: English Language Teaching SLA:Second Language Acquisition vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Results on spoken test (pre-test) Table 2: Results on the spoken test (post-test) Table 3: Students‘ responses to the flipped teaching vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LISTS OF FIGURES Figure 1: Blended learning/ Flipped teaching Figure 2: Models of blended learning Figure 3: Key elements of a flipped classroom Figure 4: Differences between traditional and flipped teaching Figure 5: Action research cycle Figure 6: Number of students did not watch videos at home Figure 7: Students‘ written pre-test results Figure 8: The student‘s results in the post-test Figure 9: Comparison of students‘ results in the pre and post-test viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Rationale In the 21st century with technical booming, it has been widely encouraged that the integration of technology should be included into teaching. A great number of teachers are gradually taking this innovative achievement to improve their teaching methods and language teachers are no exception. This leads to the rise of a teaching strategy named ―flipped teaching‖ where the students obtained their lessons online in the form of a video or power point for prior preparation, then apply their knowledge in classroom activities.
In a flipped classroom, the time spent in class is seen to take more significance than the videos recorded. Now, it gives room for engaging activities, discussing, and working on the hard-to-understand information, which converts the classroom an environment in which active learning takes place. The classroom now becomes more student-centered. It is the opposite of the traditional lecture-based class.
Bergmann and Sams (2012) described activities in a flipped class as ―which is traditionally done in class is now done at home, and that which is traditionally done as homework is now completed in class‖. This method appears to be working for the author‘s situation where the learners are too young to learn English grammar in traditional lecture-based context. Psychologically, they need something really interesting and attractive. To young learners, grammar presentation should be neither too focused nor ignored.
It should be a minor part of a lesson. If grammar presentation takes a large amount of time in the only-90-minute class, there is not much time for engaging students in practicing the language. Furthermore, as aforementioned, because of the much exposure to grammar, those students are more likely to be bored. Those will limit the success of the lessons.
Be fully aware of the existing problem, the author of this thesis, in her capacity as an English teacher trying to solve the students‘ boredom in learning English grammar, conducted a research entitled “A study on teaching grammar with 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com the use of flipped teaching to children at PoPoDoo English Center” to improve the situation. Aims and research questions of the study The researcher would like to investigate the impacts of flipped teaching on students‘ English grammar learning and their attitudes towards the new method - Flipped teaching - in her own environment. Thus, the study was conducted to address the two following research questions: 1. To what extent does flipped teaching effect the students‘ English grammar learning? 3.
Significance of the study Theoretically, this thesis is a small contribution to the theory of ELT on the impacts of flipped teaching in grammar teaching in EFL classrooms. Practically, this study is firstly expected to be an alternative way to expose the students to more student-centered English lessons, and secondly to help enhance students‘ grammar learning as well as their motivation in those classes. Scope of the study Firstly, in terms of English grammar learning, the scope of this research is confined to the teaching-learning of the following grammatical items due to time constraint: - Singular and plural nouns - Present simple of Be: affirmative and negative - Prepositions of Location - How many? There is/ There are…. - This/ That/ These/ Those - Possessive adjectives 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com - Present simple with I, you, we, they - Present simple with he, she, it In this study, English grammar learning is considered to be leading to the desired English grammatical competence as measured by the pre- and post – tests.
Secondly, the study only focused on students aged from 8 to 10 (the majority of the student population) at PoPoDoo English Centre in Hanoi. Overview of the thesis The thesis comprises of the following main parts: PART A: INTRODUCTION - states an overview of rationale, aims of the study, research questions, the scope, the significance and the overview of the study. PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature review - illustrates some related studies conducted by other researchers as well as gaps in the field which inspire the writer to conduct her study. This chapter also provides background knowledge of grammar and teaching grammar, flip-teaching and motivation.
Chapter 2: Methodology - describes in detail the participants and all instruments employed by the researcher as well as procedure to collect and analyze data. Chapter 3: Findings and discussions - presents results of data analysis and discussion of the findings. PART C: CONCLUSION - Presents the conclusion of the study, some further implications for teaching, along with the limitations and suggestions for further study. REFERENCES APPENDICES 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, the author lays the foundation for the research by presenting some major terms in the theoretical background as well as related previous studies.1 Grammar and grammatical competence According to Penny Ur (1991), at its simplest, grammar is generally defined as a set of rules which describes the way words and groups of words can be arranged to form correct sentences in a particular language.
The term can also be applied to smaller units such as phrases (a beautiful girl, for example, not a girl beautiful), single words, and minimal components, namely affixes. Particularly, grammar can be understood not only through structure but also meaning. In other words, a correct grammatical structure must convey meaning within the rules and structure of the target language. On this basis, the notion of grammatical competence is raised.
It is one of the four areas of the communicative competence theory claimed by Canale and Swain (as cited in Gao, 2001). The teaching and learning of grammar in a language aims to develop learners‘ grammatical competence in that language. According to Orwig (1999), those who have grammatical competence are able to recognize and produce the distinctive grammatical structures of a language and to use it effectively in communication. Hence, the learners should master their usage in real situations to communicate messages.
They should aims to acquire knowledge of, ability to use, and forms of expression in the language which are grammatically correct (Díaz- Rico & Weed, 2010). 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Notions of blended instruction At its simplest, blended learning, also called hybrid learning, is the integration of classroom face-to-face learning experiences with online learning experiences (Garrison & Kanuka, 2004). George-Palilonis and Filak (2009) defined blended learning as a combination of traditional and digital content delivery.
They supported the idea that traditional models usually fail to address all students‘ learning styles. If properly-used technology work well in a blended classroom, it can reach more students through various methods of instruction.