MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY ------------------- LE NGOC BAO TRAN THE EFFECTS OF COMMUNICATIVE GRAMMAR TEACHING ON EFL STUDENTS’ COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL Ho Chi Minh City, 2021 Tai Lieu Chat Luong MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY ------------------- LE NGOC BAO TRAN THE EFFECTS OF COMMUNICATIVE GRAMMAR TEACHING ON EFL STUDENTS’ COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE Major: TEACHING ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES Major code: 8 140 111 MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL Supervisor: Dr. NGUYEN HUY CUONG. Ho Chi Minh City, 2021 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that this thesis entitled “The effects of communicative grammar teaching on EFL students‟ communicative competence” is my own work. Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains any material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma.
No other person‟s work has been used without due acknowledge in the main text of the thesis. This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution. Ho Chi Minh City, 2021 LE NGOC BAO TRAN i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my special thanks to all the following people for helping me complete the thesis: Firstly, I am very grateful to my supervisor, Dr. Nguyen Huy Cuong, who spent his precious time on giving me conscientious assistance, useful advice, insightful and constructive comments, and encouragement.
This thesis would not have been finished without his great support. Secondly, I would like to thank all lectures and staff at Open University, Ho Chi Minh City, who instructed me and provided me with applicable information and knowledge. Thirdly, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Ton Duc Thang High School in Ninh Thuan Province, the principal, the English teaching staff and the students in the academic year of 2019-2020 who willingly and enthusiastically supported me to complete this thesis. Finally, words cannot reveal my appreciation to my family: my father, my mother, my sister, and my husband.
Without their endless love and encouragement, I could never overcome the difficulties in my life to complete my thesis. ii ABSTRACT There are many studies which were conducted to explore the effectiveness of communicative grammar teaching on EFL students‟ communicative competence; however, few studies have targeted the written aspect of communication. Basing on the findings of previous studies, this study was carried out to investigate the effects of communicative grammar teaching on EFL students‟ written communicative competence at Ton Duc Thang high school, Ninh Thuan province as well as to ascertain their attitudes towards this instructional approach. The quantitative method was employed.
The samples of the study were 66 students of grade 10, who were divided into two groups, i. the experimental group and the control group. The control group learned grammar with GTM whereas the experimental group learned grammar with the CLT intervention. The research instruments used in this study were a pre-test, a post-test and a questionnaire.
The research findings revealed that communicative grammar teaching had a positive impact on EFL students‟ written communicative competence, and most participants had positive attitudes towards communicative grammar teaching. For further details, results from the tests showed that students in the experimental group achieved considerable progress in written communicative competence compared to those in the control group, while responses from the questionnaire indicated that the students were interested in taking part in the communicative grammar lessons. Key words: Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), communicative grammar teaching, communicative competence, written communicative competence. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP.
iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF TABLES & FIGURES. ix Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION. Background of the study.
The aims and research questions of the study. Significance of the study .2 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definition of grammar and communicative grammar teaching. Definition of grammar.
Definition of communicative grammar teaching. Written communicative competence. The role of grammar in communicative competence. Approaches to grammar teaching.
Approaches to grammar teaching. Two different trends of grammar teaching: GTM vs. Benefits of communicative grammar teaching. Communicative activities in grammar teaching.
Types of communicative activities. Benefits of communicative activities. Integrating communicative activities in grammar teaching. Procedures for communicative grammar teaching.
The presentation stage. The practice stage. Feedback and correction. Conceptual framework of the study.
Summary of the literature .17 Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLODY. Research site and participants. Description of the text book “Tiếng Anh 10”. Grammar points taught in the experiment.
The pre-test and post-test. Marking scales for the pre-test and post-test. Grammar teaching procedures. Grammar teaching procedures for the control group.
Grammar teaching procedures for the experimental group. Methods of data analysis. Validity and reliability of the instruments. Data analysis methodology .34 Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
Data analysis of the tests. Normality of the pre-test and post-test. Pre-test analysis. Comparison of the pre-test and post-test.
Pre-test and post-test of the control group. Pre-test and post-test of the experimental group. Comparison of the post-test. Students’ demographic information.
Students’ attitudes towards communicative grammar teaching. On grammar lessons. On effects of communicative grammar teaching. The effects of communicative grammar teaching on high school EFL students’ written communicative competence.
The attitudes of high school students towards communicative grammar teaching.50 Chapter 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS. Main findings of the study. Pedagogical implications and suggestions. Implications for school administrations.
Implications for teachers of English. Implications for textbook designers. Implications for testing system. Recommendations for further research.
87 vii LIST OF TABLES & FIGURES Page Table 3.Grammar points of the second semester in English 10. Specifications of the pretest and the posttest. The scoring rubric for letter-writing tasks. Time allocation for the study.
Teaching techniques between the control group and the experimental group. Item total statistics of the questionnaire. Shapiro-Wilk test of normality. Independent sample t-test of the pre-test.
Paired samples t-test of the control group. Paired samples t-test of the experimental group. Independent sample t-test of the post-test .Distribution of students by gender .Students‟ responses to grammar lessons. Students‟ response to the effects of communicative grammar teaching.
Qualitative data from question 11 and 12. Conceptual framework of the study. Years of learning English. 40 viii ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative Language Teaching DM: Direct Method EFL: English as a Foreign Language ESA: Engage – Study - Active GTM: Grammar Translation Method P-P-P: Presentation – Practice – Production SPSS: Statistical Package for Social Sciences TTT: Teach – Test – Teach ix Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION Chapter 1 begins with background of the study, followed by the aims, research questions, significance and organization of the thesis.
Background of the study It cannot be denied that grammar holds a prominent position in language instruction since communication may be interrupted, even made impossible, without a good knowledge of grammar (Hashemi & Daneshfar, 2018). In simpler terms, not only is grammar considered as an essential foundation for accurate language use but it can also operate as an integrative skill and lead learners to some extent of proficiency (Nunan, 1989; Hashemi & Daneshfar, 2018). Thanks to grammar, learners can deeply comprehend the language. Consequently, the practice of teaching and learning grammar poses huge challenges to teachers as well as students.
Day by day, they have to struggle with each grammar lesson for the purpose of meeting the requirement of written exams, i. final exams or high school graduation exams, which are considered as a decisive factor, even a great milestone, in the academic process of Vietnamese students. Moreover, in recent years, the structure of these exams simply consists of multiple-choice questions; therefore, students‟ improper perception of studying grammar is getting more and more obvious (Nguyen-Nhi, 2007). In simpler terms, students learn grammar in such a way to overcome the exam, so they spend time on form, not meaning and use of grammar points.
Thus, many English teachers in Vietnam ignore the communicative elements in teaching English and instead teach grammar in a mechanical way so as to help their students get high marks and pass the conventional tests (Khuong, 2010). As a matter of fact, most teachers just focus on grammatical forms, ask students to learn by heart the rules, and sometimes translate the texts from English into their mother tongue. After that, they give students some grammar exercises to practice with. As a result, students quickly get bored with the discrete items of grammar lectures, and most importantly, they are not able to use English for simple authentic communication tasks such as writing an email to their pen pal friend, a letter of recommendation or an application for a job although they are good at English grammar (Pham & Nguyen, 2014).
It is no doubt that 1 this traditional instruction method, namely Grammar Translation Method (GTM), limits students‟ communicative capabilities, i. written communicative competences which are indispensable to their future personal and professional lives. As being asserted by Larson (2006), achieving written communicative competence is a significant opportunity because it allows students to access further goals of higher education, i. humanistic and intellectual goals.
Nevertheless, with the growth of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), more and more students in Viet Nam have had the opportunities to learn foreign languages in communicative and innovative classroom settings (Badilla & Chacón, 2013). More and more teachers are starting to employ the advantages of CLT in teaching grammar, believing that using communicative method in grammar teaching not only enhances students‟ communicative competence but also receives positive attitudes from them (Nguyen-Giao & Nguyen-Hoa; Khuong, 2010; Pham & Nguyen, 2014; Adam, 2016). Contrary to this fact, Thompson (1996) claims that communicative grammar teaching is not extensively used in EFL classes owning to some teachers‟ misconceptions about CLT. In line with Thompson, Nisrane (2008) asserts that communicative grammar teaching is not effectively applied due to the long-lasting dominance of mechanical drills over meaningful and communicative activities.
All of these factors motivate me to conduct a study on the impact of CLT on teaching grammar to high school students. The aims and research questions of the study This study examines how communicative grammar teaching affects EFL high school students‟ written communicative competence and determines their attitudes towards communicative grammar teaching. In order to achieve these aims, the study addresses the following two research questions: 1. To what extent does communicative grammar teaching affect high school students‟ written communicative competence? 2.
What are their attitudes towards communicative grammar teaching? 1. Significance of the study The study is expected to bring about both theoretical and pedagogical significance. With regard to theoretical implication, this study contributes to the literature on English grammar teaching 2 and learning and offers teachers great insights into the benefits of communicative grammar teaching. With respect to pedagogical implication, the findings of the study will remove any doubts about the effects of communicative grammar teaching and encourage the use of communicative grammar teaching approach in Vietnamese classrooms.
Finally, this study will give more information for researchers with the same interest. 3 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter briefly provides a theoretical background to the research. First, definition of grammar and communicative grammar teaching are presented. Then, communicative competence as a key notion in this research is defined to clarify the scope of study.
Followed by an overview of approaches to grammar teaching, benefits of communicative grammar teaching are reviewed in section 4. Besides, communicative activities in grammar teaching and procedures for communicative grammar teaching are also included. Finally, conceptual framework of the study, previous studies and summary of the literature are respectively presented in the last three sections of this chapter. Definition of grammar and communicative grammar teaching 2.