MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY ------------ NGUYEN HUU GIA HAN A STUDY ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ACTIVITIES TO PRACTISE ENGLISH GRAMMAR AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN HUE CITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Hue University of Foreign Languages HUE, 2019 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY ------------ NGUYEN HUU GIA HAN A STUDY ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ACTIVITIES TO PRACTISE ENGLISH GRAMMAR AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN HUE CITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 8140111 SUPERVISOR: Assoc. LE PHAM HOAI HUONG HUE, 2019 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ------------ NGUYỄN HỮU GIA HÂN NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG ĐỂ THỰC HÀNH NGỮ PHÁP TIẾNG ANH Ở MỘT TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG TẠI THÀNH PHỐ HUẾ LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ : 8140111 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: PGS. LÊ PHẠM HOÀI HƯƠNG HUẾ, 2019 STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP The work contained in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. I certify that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, my thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself.
Signed Date: December 7st 2019 i ABSTRACT This study was conducted to investigate the perceptions of students towards classroom activities in English grammar classes and the strategies in managing these grammar classes. It employed both the quantitative and qualitative research approaches. The analysis of data from questionnaire, class observations and interviews indicates the highest agreement from participants for the fact that teachers should organize different activities in grammar classes to make grammar lessons more interesting. Also, the findings from interviews and questionnaires reflect that most of teachers and students are aware of the necessity and importance of adding further practice activities in Grammar lessons following Presentation-Practice-Production method (PPP).
For grammar activities, it was found from the questionnaire that classroom arrangement techniques preferred by most students were full class interaction, and group work or pair work. Besides, classroom observations confirmed that effective English grammar lessons usually had three stages with frequent use of group work and pair work in different activities. Based on the findings of the study, suggestions were put forward to a systematized list of grammar learning and teaching strategies as well as what teachers and learners should do when encountering. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my very affectionate and deeply-felt thanks to my supervisor, Assoc.
Le Pham Hoai Huong, for giving effective instructions and invaluable advice during the preparation and completion of this graduation paper. She encouraged critical and independent thinking, and shared valuable research and professional insights that enabled me to develop as an independent individual. Her wide knowledge and logical way of thinking have been of great value for me. I would like to say thank her for guiding me not only in research but also in other facets of my life despite her so busy schedule.
In addition, I am thankful to her for being available whenever needed and helping me out from various crises. I cannot imagine how hard it would have been for me to successfully complete my work without her leadership. I owe her a dept of gratitude that cannot be measured. I also wish to acknowledge my debt to all the teachers of the Foreign Languages Department at Hue University whose lectures and ideas have inspired my thesis and whom it is impossible to thank individually.
My appreciation also goes to the teachers and students at a high school in Hue city for their valuable assistance in completing my survey questionnaire and providing me with a lot of useful information. Finally, I would like to send my great thanks to my family, my friends who have directly or indirectly helped me with their encouragement and advice. On the whole, without all these helps my graduation paper would not have possibly been completed. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP.
iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF TABLES. vi LIST OF FIGURES .1 Rationale of the study .2 Aims of the study .4 Significance of the study .5 Scope of the study .6 Organisation of the study .1 Definition of grammar .2 The role of grammar teaching and learning .3 Overview of grammar teaching approaches .2 Procedures of grammar teaching .1 The presentation stage .2 The practice stage .3 The production stage .1 Definition of CAs.2 Characteristics of CAs .3 Some types of CAs .2 In other countries .1 The research approach .1 Research setting and participants.2 Material: TIENG ANH 10 NEW VERSION. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .1 The perceptions of grammar activities in English classes .1 The presentation stage of grammar lessons .2 The classroom arrangements in grammar lessons .3 The activities in grammar lessons.4 Kind of techniques students get involved in class to practise new grammar structures in Tieng Anh 10 new version.5 Students’ activities in practice of new grammar structures .2 Reality of teaching and learning grammar at a high school in Hue city .1 Activities and their frequency used in the production stage of grammar lessons .2 Teachers’ feedback or corrections on students’ answers .3 Students’ opinions about the activities in grammar lessons .4 Difficulties of students in grammar lessons.
CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS .1 Summary of the key findings .1 Implications for teachers .2 Implications for students. 46 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1: The activities in grammar lessons .2: Activities to practise new grammar structures .3: Teachers’ feedback or corrections on students’ answers. 32 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1: The presentation stage of grammar lessons .2: The classroom arrangements in grammar lessons.3: Kinds of techniques in grammar lessons .4: Activities and their frequency used in the production stage of grammar lessons .5: Students’ opinions about activities in the presentation stage of grammar lessons .6: Students’ opinions about activities in the practice stage of grammar lessons .7: Students’ opinions about activities in the production stage of grammar lessons .8: Difficulties of students in grammar lessons. 36 viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study In recent years, the world has been witnessing the dramatic change of education, with regard to teaching and learning foreign languages.
There is a strong expectation that people learn English to communicate with most of the outside world and keep pace with human’s sustainable global advancement; therefore, the demand of mastering this international language is increasing significantly. Vietnam has experienced a gradual shift from the old tradition ways of teaching to more advanced ones. Since school year of 2012-2013, the Ministry of Education and Training has made great efforts to innovate English teaching and learning by applying New version of Tieng Anh textbooks which show up various changes, especially in Grammar.279) pointed out “Grammar and structure is the heart of learning language”. It is clearly regarded as the foundation for any skills acquiring and even for communicative competence.
For the person who has blind knowledge of grammar, it seems to be acceptable when using simple languages. On the other hand, the person who strives for communicating in the professional way with well-defined structures must go for the greater depth of understanding and proficiency what the study of grammar offers. In fact, a person cannot learn a foreign language accurately only through a process of unconscious assimilation.1) claimed “The way Grammar considered has a direct and decisive influence on pedagogical grammars, learning processes and many other areas involved in foreign language teaching”. It is obvious that many Vietnamese students are quite good at grammar rules, but constantly make mistakes while trying to use English in context.
Actually, most of them cannnot apply what they learn into the situational settings in their daily life. Although they have acquired enough English 1 linguistic knowledge during many years at school, they can neither speak nor listen to it or even understand it. The reason for their failure is that students are made to do Grammar exercises in textbooks as much as possible, and then take part in paper tests at each semester after being explained forms and structures.279) claimed “language is acquired through communication”. The language competence means that one has a good knowledge of grammar and words, he or she can speak, read and write a foreign language.
The purpose of the new teaching approach is to improve the students’ communicative competence; therefore, it is essential to try to enhance students’ capability of using the proper language in communication in different real occasions. From this view, teaching Grammar in the way of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), which has already been launched in many countries in the world, overcomes the disadvantages of traditional teaching approach. There is no doubt that Tieng Anh new version published by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) wishes to engage students in communicative-based activities of real-life situations in which students can absorb themselves in an integrative language use. While applying it into teaching grammar; however, teachers seem to pay little attention to grammar activities.
If teachers encourage students to do a lot of exercises mechanically on paper and fail to help them to summarize the characteristics of the sentences as well as put it flexibly into a less controlled environment, the result will surely be that students find it difficult to produce new sentences in context and mistakes are unavoidable. This is the key reason for collapses of English-used communication between Vietnamese learners and foreigners. In Hue, teaching and learning grammar used to be done with traditional methods which means teachers gave an explanation of the grammar rule and then had students apply the rule by answering some questions. However, there has been an attempt to improve the quality of grammar classess recently.
Teachers tend to use different exercises to help the students understand 2 grammar rules. For example, “Class survey” is considered one of the most effective activities conducted in the production stage of grammar lesson. This activity is strongly believed to give students chances to practise what they have learned in context. They know how to apply grammar structures into practical situations.
Moreover, students can interact with others while joining this activity. Besides, teachers spend time asking students to work in pairs or small groups so as to encourage students and help the weaker to integrate with their classmates. One has the impression that all languages are easier to learn by practice than from rules, and particular activities play a very important part in grammar lessons to decide students’ capability of using the proper language in communication in different real situations. Some research proves excellent values of activities in teaching grammar.
Generally speaking, using games is needed for promoting students’ motivation and improving their comprehension of the lesson. It has been indicated that language learning performed in a “playful” atmosphere resulted into a) stimulating students’ motivation, b) making students feel confident and c) creating their positive attitudes to foreign language learning” stated Griva, Semoglou and Geladari (2010, p. "Problem-solving activities. have a purpose beyond the production of correct speech, and are examples of the most preferable communicative activities" said Saricoban and Metin (2000).
Obviously, students are more eager and motivated to join games than they are with doing numerous exercises. The authors also state that students not only enhance knowledge but also apply in their learning when studying with relevant grammar activities. Grammar activities in general encourage students to learn in creative and meaningful ways as well as promote fluency. From this background, there is a question “How should activities in grammar lessons be applied to help students practise English grammar effectively?