MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES ---------------- NGUYỄN LƯU ĐÔNG TRÚC TEACHING ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR 11 GRADERS AT THU KHOA NGHIA HIGH SCHOOL IN AN GIANG PROVINCE A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULLFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL Supervisor Dr. Nguyen Tien Hung HO CHI MINH CITY 2007 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled TEACHING ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR 11 GRADERS AT THU KHOA NGHIA HIGH SCHOOL IN AN GIANG PROVINCE In term of the Statement of Requirements for theses in Master Programs issued the Higher Degree Committee. Ho Chi Minh City, September 2007 NGUYỄN LƯU ĐÔNG TRÚC i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Nguyen Luu Dong Truc, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal condition established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses.
Ho Chi Minh City, September 2007 NGUYỄN LƯU ĐÔNG TRÚC i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. NGUYEN TIEN HUNG, who has provided me with his precious advice, assistance, and encouragement so that I can finish this thesis report. I should not forget all the cooperative subjects whom I used for my data. They are the indispensable assets of these studies.
Although I cannot list all the names of people involved in this project, my sense of gratitude toward them is enormous. My special thanks to all my friends for their support, friendship and enjoyable company. Finally, I express my thanks to my parents, my sisters and all my close friends for their love, care and support that helped me complete my study and this thesis. i ABSTRACT The thesis examines how the grammatical items are taught for 11 graders at Thu Khoa Nghia High School in order to find out problems and also ways to solve them to support the teaching and learning process there.
English is an obligatory subject at high school and all the students need to know the English grammar for both accuracy and fluency (Accuracy helps in getting better results as we all know that tests and exam at high schools evaluating mostly on grammar; Fluency helps in communication). The suggestions come from the real need of both students of grade 11 and teachers of English at Thu Khoa Nghia high School identified from the survey, which was carried out with 191 students of grade 11 and 10 teachers of English at Thu Khoa Nghia High School. The results were then presented in tables. They revealed that teacher faces a lot of difficulties in applying the Communicative Approach to the teaching and that students are not very familiar with using English effectively.
Therefore, some communicative activities are recommended in this thesis in the hope that teachers can make the teaching and learning process at Thu Khoa Nghia High School more effective, enjoyable and interesting. i TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of originality ………………………………………………………………………… Retention and use of the thesis ……………………………………………………………… Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………………………………… Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Table of content……………………………………………………………………………………………… List of Charts …………………………………………………………………………….………………………… List of Tables ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… List of Abbreviations……………………………………………………………………………………… CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ……………………………………… 1. Significant of the study …………………………………. Overview of the thesis ……………………………………….… CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ………………………………… 2.
What grammar is and the need of grammar in language acquisition ………………………………………… 2. Definition of grammar …………………………………………. The need of grammar in language acquisition …………… 2. The relationship between grammar and communication 2.
Principles for grammar teaching …………………………………. The E – Factor: Efficiency = economy, ease, and efficacy 2. The A – Factor: Appropriacy …………………………… 2. Types of grammar exercise ………………………………… 2.
The main contemporary methods of teaching English ……… 2. Grammar –translation method …………………………… 2. Audio-lingual method …………………………………. Communicative language teaching ………………………… 2.
What is Communicative Language Teaching (CTL)? 2. Principles of communicative language teaching 2. The role of the teachers ………………………………. The role of the learners …………………………….
The role of the technology …………………………………. Techniques in teaching structures ……… ……………………. Linguistics skills and communicative abilities …………… 2. The need for integration …………………………………… 2.
Motivation in the classroom …………………………… 2. Prior research on the study ………………………………… CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ………………………………… 3. About the Questionnaire for teachers …………………… 3. About the Questionnaire for students …………………… 3.
About the class observation sheet …………………. About pilot study …………………………………………………… 3. The Data Collection Procedure ………………………….……… CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ………………. Questionnaire for students …………………………………………… 4.
Question 1: What is (are) your aim(s) in studying English? 4. Question 2: Why do you feel in need of studying grammar? 4. Question 3: How do you want your teacher presents a new grammar rule?……………………………… 4. Question 4: How do you like to practice the new structure? 4.
Question 5: Which equipment do you prefer learning with? 4. Questionnaire for teachers ………………………………… o Part 1: The problems 4. Question 1: How long have you been teaching English at high schools? ……………………………………… 4. Question 2: Have you ever been trained in Communicative Language Teaching Methodology? Where? ………………… 4.
The teachers’ understanding of CLT………………… 4. Question 4: How do you usually present a new grammar rule? 4. Question 5: Which of the following do you do in practising stage? ………………………………………… 4. Question 6: What are the difficulties you have in teaching grammar to students at the high school when you apply i Communicative Language Teaching? ………… o Part B: Solutions 4.
Question 1: When your students lack of motivation to study English in communicative way, you: ………. Question 2: What should you do to prevent your student from using Vietnamese during pair or group work? ………… 4. Question 3: What do you do low English proficient students? You: 4. Question 4: What should you do to overcome your students’ passive learning style? ……………………………… 4.
Question 5: To surmount your misunderstanding of CLT, you: ………………………………………… 4. Question 6: What would you prefer if you lack to be trained in CLT? …………………………………… 4. Questions 7: To overcome lack of authentic teaching materials, you: …………………………………………… 4. Question 8: What should the administrators to solve lack of authentic materials? They should: …………………… 4.
Question 9: What should you do if your students like to work alone? You: ………………………………… 4. Question 10: To overcome the state of crowded and multilevel classes, you: ……………………………… 4. The results of the observation sheet ………………………… 4. The results of pilot test …………………………………… 4.
Pre-test and post test of the classes taught by traditional method ………………………………… 4. Pre-test and post test of the classes taught by CLT 4. Difficulties caused by teachers and solution ……………… 4. Difficulties caused by students and solution …………… 4.
The four main problems …………………………………… 4. Solutions to difficulties caused by students ………… 4. Difficulties caused by the educational system …………… 4. Solutions to the difficulties from the educational system ………………… 4.
Discussion of pilot study …………………………………… 4. Conclusion ……………………………………………… CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ………………………………………… 5. The summary of the main findings ………………………………… 5. Limitation and recommendation for further research REFERENCES …………………………………………………………… APPENDICES …………………………………………… LIST OF CHARTS Chart Pages 1 Students’ Aims in Studying English 38 2 Students’ Reasons of Studying Grammar 39 3 Students’ Like In Presenting a New Grammar Point 41 4 Students’ Like in Practice New Grammar Rules 42 5 Students’ Like in English Learning Equipment 43 i 6 The Teachers’ Understanding of CLT 46 7 Teachers’ Ways in Presenting New Grammatical Rules 47 8 Teachers’ Ways in Giving New Structure Practice 48 9 Teachers’ Difficulties in Applying CLT 51 10 Solutions to students’ low motivation 52 11 Solutions to “using Vietnamese in pair and group work” 53 12 Solution to low English proficient students 54 13 Solutions To Students’ Passive Learning Style 55 14 Solutions to teachers’ misunderstanding of CLT 56 15 Solutions to teachers’ lack to be trained in CLT 57 16 Solutions to lack of authentic teaching materials 58 17 Solutions of administrators to lack of authentic materials 59 18 Solutions to students’ own habit of learning 60 19 Solution to crowded and multilevel classes 61 20 The Comparison of Pre-test and Post-test of the Classes Taught by Traditional Method 65 21 The Comparison of Pre-test and Post-test of the Classes Taught by CLT 66 i LIST OF TABLES Table Pages 1 Students’ information 32 2 Teachers’ profile 33 3 Students’ Aims in Studying English 38 4 Students’ Reasons of Studying Grammar 39 5 Students’ Like In Presenting a New Grammar Point 40 6 Students’ Like in Practice New Grammar Rules 42 7 Students’ Like in English Learning Equipment 43 8 Teachers’ Knowledge on CLT 45 9 The Teachers’ Understanding of CLT 46 10 Teachers’ Ways in Presenting New Grammatical Rules 47 11 Teachers’ Ways in Giving New Structure Practice 48 12 Teachers’ Difficulties in Applying CLT 49 13 Solutions to students’ low motivation 51 14 Solutions to “using Vietnamese in pair and group work 52 15 Solution to low English proficient students 53 16 Solutions To Students’ Passive Learning Style 54 17 Solutions to teachers’ misunderstanding of CLT 55 18 Solutions to teachers’ lack to be trained in CLT 56 19 Solutions to lack of authentic teaching materials 57 20 Solutions of administrators to lack of authentic materials 58 21 Solutions to students’ own habit of learning 59 22 Solution to crowded and multilevel classes 61 23 The Results of the Observation Sheet 62 i 24 Result of the Pre-test (traditional method) 64 25 Results of the Post-test (traditional method) 64 26 Result of the Pre-test (CLT) 65 27 Result of the Post-test (CLT) 66 i LIST OF ABBREVIATION CLT: Communicative Language Teaching L2: Second Language ALM: Audio-lingual Method i CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.
The problem Nowadays, learning a second language is found useful in all areas in the modern society. English is one of the compulsory subjects being taught at schools. Thus, the needs of learners, their parents, and the needs of using English should be put into consideration in the process of teaching and learning English at high schools. As a result, English became one of the ‘main’ subjects among other subjects being taught at high schools.
Therefore, there is a real need to equip learners with a good method of learning as well as teachers with new interesting ways to teach lessons in order to motivate learners and to get more effective results. In addition, it has been accepted with no doubt that, communicative competence is the aim of language teaching. We can achieve this aim with the aid of grammar since the first component of communicative competence is ‘knowledge of grammar and vocabulary of the language’ (Richards & Roger, 1992:9- 10). However, in most high schools in An Giang province, teachers still apply the traditional method and sometimes apply the traditional method and some activities of other methods in teaching English grammar.
This method results in long explanation in teaching vocabulary and grammar and the lack of time to practice English in real situations. Therefore, learners try as much as possible to learn grammatical items and vocabulary taught by their teachers and going to colleges is what most learners desire, but it seems a real challenge for them to speak meaningful English sentences and to read English materials. As a result, a communicative foundation needs to be established as soon as possible to help learners master such a language as a means to serve various purposes like widening knowledge, using the language in life. 2 Many teachers of English at Thu Khoa Nghia High School in An Giang province find it difficult to apply the communicative approach to large class, ranging from forty to more than fifty students.