i DECLARATION I, Trần Hoàng Yến, certify that this thesis is the result of my own research and the substance of this thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for a degree to any university or institution. Hanoi, September 2011 Trần Hoàng Yến TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis has been in development for nearly a year, and during that time I have benefited a great deal of support from a number of people. First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Tô Thị Thu Hương, who has provided me inspiration to do this research, given me interesting lectures and whose concern, enthusiasm and whole- hearted guidance encouraged me much in the fulfillment of this thesis.
Secondly, I am grateful to all my colleagues for their kindness and assistance to me in the data collection process. I would like to express my thanks to all the teachers and students of the classes I have visited in order to gather information for my class observation. Thanks to my husband, who has given me so much love, patience and encouragement, who spent hours working with the computer to help me with computer data entry and processing in the dark midnight hours. These people deserve all the credit.
I alone am responsible for any failings. Eventually, the study has been completed to the best of my knowledge; however, mistakes and shortcomings are unavoidable. Therefore, I am looking forward to receiving comments and suggestions from any readers for the perfection of the course work. Hanoi, August Trần Hoàng Yến TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com iii ABSTRACT It is clear that the development of language teaching, especially grammar teaching has brought about great challenges in teaching English in all Vietnamese schools in general and at Sao Do University in particular.
However, the way teachers teach grammar and the way students learn grammar are not similar. This study was conducted to seek answers to the question of what teachers’ and students’ view toward grammar presentation in the course book “English for Chemical engineering” at Sao Do University. The finding from the study indicated that a balanced between explicit instruction in which a target form is presented formally together with information about how it is used, followed by practice and implicit instruction in which students’ attention may be drawn to a target form and they may be have to induce the rule or system underlying its use should be encouraged. In other words, a blend of both traditional and communicative approaches to grammar could be a good solution to the question of grammar teaching at our university.
This study is nothing but a first step towards a more rigorous study of the issue of the grammar teaching at our university and other training centers where English is taught as a curriculum subject. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com iv LIST OF THE TABLES Chart 1: What do you think of the role of grammar in learning English? 23 Chart 2: How do you find grammar presentation in the course book “English 24 for Chemical engineering” at Sao Do University? Chart 3: How difficult do you find grammar points in the course book “English 25 for Chemical engineering” at Sao Do University? Table 1: How do you think about these grammar points in the course book 25 “English for Chemical engineering” at Sao Do University? Table 2: Students’ style preferences for grammar learning 27 Chart 4: What do you think of the role of grammar in teaching English? 30 Chart 5: How do you find grammar teaching? 31 Chart 6: Do you spend much time on teaching grammar? 31 Table 3: Teachers’ style preferences for grammar teaching 32 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com v TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii List of tables iv Table of contents v PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Aim of the study 2 3. Scope of the study 3 6.
The setting and background 3 7. Design of the study 4 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. What is grammar? 5 1. How is grammar viewed? 7 1.
What is the role of grammar in English language teaching? 9 1. Two approaches to grammar teaching 13 1. The importance of understanding teachers’ and students’ views to grammar 17 teaching and learning TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. The role of course book in language teaching and learning 18 1.
Summary 19 CHAPTER II: RESULTS OF DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS 2. Methodology orientation: questionnaire 22 2. Students’ awareness of the importance of grammar learning 23 2. Students’ evaluation of current grammar presentation in the 26 course book “English for Chemical engineering” at Sao Do university 2.
Teachers’ awareness of the importance of grammar learning 29 2. Teachers’ evaluation of current grammar presentation in the 32 course book “English for Chemical engineering” at Sao Do university 2. Summary 34 PART C: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION 1. Summary of the findings 35 2.
Suggestions for grammar presentation in the course book “English for chemical 35 engineering” and grammar teaching at Sao Do University 3. Limitations of the study 38 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Recommendations for further research 39 5. Conclusion 39 REFERENCES 41 APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 III TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 1 PART A: INTRODUCTION In this part, I would like to present the rationale, the aims and objective, the research and methodology adopted for this study, the scope, the setting and background of the study and the design of the study.
Rationale Grammar teaching has been has been a focal point of foreign language teaching and it has aroused a great deal of controversy and even debate among educational researchers, linguists, methodologists and teachers. Currently, there are several points of view on grammar teaching issues. In Vietnam, foreign language in general and English teaching in particular is said to be grammar-focused, and for many English language teachers, teaching English means teaching grammar. There are good reasons for this.
This can be traced back to the national examinations which measured candidates’ linguistic or grammar competence in written form. Therefore, the teaching of English is still directed towards preparing students for such sort of examinations. In this process, students are supposed to learn whatever teachers “give”. That’s why not only knowledge but also learning styles are imposed on students by teachers.
Unfortunately, research findings have proved that students come to a language class with particular profiles of interests, intelligence, learning habits, purposes and so on. All these learner factors may affect their learning styles and learning process. Because of learner variables, the departure of this study is the claim that function and presentation of the grammar explanation is a complex issue and a single approach will be far from being satisfactory in all teaching situations. An investigation into teachers’ and students’ views towards grammar presentation in the course book “English for chemical engineering” is an attempt to deal with this under-researched area.
Another reason is related to my personal profession. Although teaching grammar seems “synonymous with teaching foreign language”, (Rutherford, quoted in Celce-Murcia and Hilles: 1988: 1) teachers have different attitudes and approaches to grammar in the classroom. There are teachers who view grammar teaching as unnecessary while there are teachers who obsessed by it (Canh, 2004). From my personal observation and professional TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 2 experiences as a five year English teacher at Sao Do University, I have realized that how to make grammar teaching satisfactory to students is really a great challenge facing every English teacher.
For several years, I have been haunted by the question of how to deal with grammar more effectively at our university. The answer to this question would be good help to me as well as to my colleagues. Aims of the study With the above-presented rationale, the specific aims of the study are: • To investigate into teachers’ views towards grammar presentation in the course book “English for chemical engineering” at Sao Do University. • To investigate into students’ views towards grammar presentation in the course book “English for chemical engineering” at Sao Do University.
• To find out in what ways the teacher can make their grammar teaching more suitable to students’ expectations and learning styles. It is hoped that the findings from this study will help English teachers in Vietnam, especially those who are engaged in grammar teaching. The study can highlight the extent to which current grammar teaching at our university meets the students’ expectations and style preferences. The findings of the study will also contribute to our understanding of how grammar should be treated in the context of Vietnamese schools or training centers where English is taught as a foreign language.
Research questions To achieve the aims and objectives of the thesis, the following research questions were proposed: 1) What are the teachers’ views on grammar presentation in the course book “English for chemical engineering” at Sao Do University? 2) What are the students’ views on grammar presentation in the course book “English for chemical engineering” at Sao Do University? TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 3 3) In what ways can the teachers make their grammar teaching more suitable to students’ expectations and learning styles? 4. Research methodology The main method utilized in this study was a survey using questionnaires, one for teachers and one for students (research questions 1 and 2). In addition to that, interviews with teachers helped to support data collected from questionnaires and provide insights into ways that teachers can take to make their grammar teaching even more suitable to students’ expectations and learning styles (research question 3). Data collected from the questionnaires and interviews were analyzed qualitatively (for themes and recommendation using Hatch’s (2002) “interpretive model”) and quantitatively (for descriptive statistics).
Scope of the study As it has been stated above, the study is designed to explore teachers’ and students’ view towards grammar presentation in the course book “English for Chemical engineering” in order to make some methodological recommendations for grammar teaching. The study is, therefore, explorative by nature. Given the aims of the study, I limited myself to focus on the first year students of Chemical engineering and Food science at Sao Do University. The setting and background Sao Do University is a famous university in Hai Duong province located in Chi Linh town.
The school is over 40 years of foundation. It has more than 500 teachers and 15. It is known all over country with electrical and mechanical field. Chemical engineering and Food science Faculty is a young one- only 5 years old.
The number of students is only about 300 students. The students related to this study are 50 students of the first year. The program of English for Chemical engineering consists of 45 periods. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 4 The program composes of 4 parts: Reading is to provide students with general knowledge of chemistry.
Vocabulary is to provide students with new words that occur in the reading parts. Practice is to give students some kinds of exercise to help students understand the text (reading part) well. Grammar is to provide students with some main structures, forms and grammatical points that happen in the text. The design of the study The thesis contains three parts.
Part one, the introduction, provides an overview of the study with specific reference to the rationale, the aims, and the methods, the background of the study and the significance of the study. In part two, there are two chapters. Chapter one is aimed at exploring the theoretical background for the thesis. This chapter will focus on three main points: types of grammar, approaches to grammar, and learners’ style preferences.
The chapter first examines the notion of grammar, different types of grammar such as prescriptive grammar, descriptive grammar, and pedagogical grammar.