iii ABSTRACT This study was aimed to investigate Chi Lang High School 10th graders’ perceptions of the importance of grammar in English learning and find out their difficulties in learning English grammar so as to give some recommendations for English grammar teaching at the named school. The data for the study were collected through a survey questionnaire for 125 grade 10 students and a structured interview with 10 students voluntarily chosen from the respondents of the questionnaire. The data were first analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively and then discussed to find out answers to the research questions. The study revealed that the students had positive perceptions of the importance of grammar in English learning.
Besides, it indicated some difficulties encountered by the students in learning English grammar. Moreover, it also found out that the students preferred a combination of inductive and deductive (or implicit and explicit) grammar teaching with some additional communicative activities. These findings were the basis for the researcher to give some recommendations for teaching English grammar to the 10th graders at Chi Lang High School with the hope that they will be of some help to improve English grammar teaching in Chi Lang High School in particular as well as that at other high schools nationwide. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION …………………………………………………………………….iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………………………………….iv LIST OF TABLES AND ABBREVIATIONS………………………………………….vii PART A: INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………….
Objectives of the study……………………………………. Scope of the study…………………………………………………………………. Significance of the study……………………………………………………………3 7. Design of the study………………………………………………………………….5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW …………………………………….
Definitions of grammar ……………………………………………. The place of grammar in foreign language teaching ……………. For-grammar perspectives ……………………………………………. Against-grammar perspectives …………………………………………….
Some approaches to grammar teaching …………………. Implicit and explicit approaches to grammar teaching …………………. Deductive and inductive approaches to grammar teaching …………….1 The deductive approach …………………………………………….10 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.2 The inductive approach ……………………………………………11 1. Some research on learner perceptions of grammar teaching …………………….15 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY …………………………………….
Setting of the study …………………………………………………. Subjects of the study ………………………………………………………17 2. Data collection instruments……………………………………. Data collection procedures………………………………………………….
Data analysis procedures……………………………………………………20 2.20 CHAPTER 3: DATA, DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ……………………. Data of and findings from the questionnaire …………. Students’ perceptions of the necessity of learning English …………………21 3. Students’ purposes for learning English …………………………………….
Students’ perceptions of the importance of grammar in English learning. The ways a grammatical point is usually taught ………………. Students’ level of understanding of the teachers’ grammar instruction ……………………………………………………………………25 3. Students’ evaluation of the teachers’ presentations of grammar ……………26 3.
Students’ evaluation of grammar parts in the new standard textbook - Tieng Anh 10 ……………………………………………….27 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Students’ difficulties in learning grammar …………………………. Students’ evaluation of the most effective way of learning grammar …………………………………………………………………. Students’ preferred styles of grammar teaching ………………………….
Data of and findings from the interview ……………………………………………31 3. Discussion of the findings …………………………………………………………. Summary of the main findings………………………………………………. Recommendations for teaching English grammar to the 10th graders at Chi Lang High School.
Limitations of the study ………………………………………………………………39 4. Suggestions for further study ………………………………………………….I Appendix 1: Survey questionnaire ……….………………………………………………I Appendix 2: Interview questions …………………………………………………….V Appendix 3: Interview transcripts ………………….V Appendix 4: Some communicative activities .VII Appendix 5: Some examples of using games, pictures, and songs to introduce grammatical points……………………………………………XI TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com vii LIST OF TABLES AND ABBREVIATIONS I. LIST OF TABLES - Table 1: Students’ perceptions of the necessity of learning English - Table 2: Students’ purposes for learning English - Table3: Students’ perceptions of the importance of grammar in English learning - Table 4: The ways a grammatical point is usually taught - Table 5: Students’ level of understanding of the teachers’ grammar instruction - Table 6: Students’ evaluation of the teachers’ presentations of grammar - Table 7: Students’ evaluation of grammar parts in the new standard textbook –Tieng Anh 10 - Table 8: Students’ difficulties in learning grammar - Table 9: Students’ evaluation of the most effective way of learning grammar. - Table10: Students’ preferred styles of grammar teaching II.
ABBREVIATIONS - EFL: English as Foreign Language - ESL: English as Second Language - MOET: Ministry of Education and Training TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 1 PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale The value of grammar instruction has been argued by numerous people involved in the field of language teaching. In fact, no other issue has so preoccupied theorists and practitioners as the grammar debate, and the history of language teaching is essentially the history of the claims and counterclaims for and against the teaching of grammar (Thornbury, 2004). In the early twentieth century, priority was given to grammar teaching with the argument that if one knew the grammatical rules of the language, he would be able to use it for communication.
However, this argument was called into question in the early 1970s for it was thought that in order to be considered a competent user of a language, one needed to know not only the rules of grammar, but also how the rules were used in real communication. Therefore, grammar teaching became less prominent, and in some cases, was abandoned during this period. In recent years, a growing concern about accuracy in learners’ language has resulted in a reassertion of the role of grammar in syllabus design and the content of lessons, and even in giving explicit attention to grammatical forms and rules (Ellis, 1993c quoted in Hedge, 2000). It is clear from this brief history of language teaching that grammar teaching has had such a crucial role in language instruction that it can not be neglected.
Foreign language teaching in Vietnam, particularly English language teaching, has long been considered to be grammar-focused. It can be inferred from this that grammar teaching has always been central to foreign language teaching. In fact, teachers of English at Chi Lang High School always pay much more attention to teach grammar than language skills and other language knowledge. This is mainly due to the school final examination, which is mainly grammar-based with their students’ pass rate as an indicator of the teachers’ success.
And for many of the students here, learning English is synonymous with learning its grammar. Therefore, when learning English, they chiefly focus on grasping its grammar. However, they have not been much successful in mastering it for, in reality, they often speak and write ungrammatically, and mistake grammar structures, especially when they do English written tests and exams which contain different grammar structures. Obviously, these students value TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 2 grammar learning and spend much time on it, but they have difficulty distinguishing and memorizing grammar structures.
Moreover, up to now, there has not been any research on this problem at Chi Lang High School. All of these reasons inspired me to conduct the survey research entitled “Chi Lang High School 10th graders’ perceptions of the importance of grammar in English learning and their difficulties in learning English grammar. Objectives of the study With the above-mentioned rationale, the objectives of the study are: To investigate Chi Lang High School 10th graders’ perceptions of the importance of grammar in English learning; To find out Chi Lang High School 10th graders’ difficulties in learning English grammar; To give some recommendations for teaching English grammar to the 10th graders at Chi Lang High School. Research questions To achieve the objectives of the study, the following research questions were proposed: 1.
What are Chi Lang High School 10th graders’ perceptions of the importance of grammar in English learning? 2. What are Chi Lang High School 10th graders’ difficulties in learning English grammar? 3. What are Chi Lang High School 10th graders’ preferred styles of teaching English grammar? 4. Research methods This is a survey research which utilized both quantitative and qualitative methods.
And two sources of data were used to achieve the objectives of the study and answer the research questions: Investigating students’ perceptions of the importance of grammar in English learning, finding out their difficulties in learning English grammar as well as their preferred styles of teaching English grammar through a questionnaire. The questionnaire included both closed and open-ended questions to ensure deep data. The data from the questionnaire were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 3 Interviewing 10 students to get more in-depth information for the study as well as get their suggestions for grammar teaching lessons at school.
The interview was a structured one. Scope of the study The study is only aimed at investigating Chi Lang High School 10th graders’ perceptions of the importance of grammar in English learning, finding out their difficulties in learning English grammar, and giving some recommendations for teaching English grammar to the 10th graders at Chi Lang High School. Therefore, their perceptions of the importance of language skills and other language knowledge as well as their difficulties in learning them will be beyond the scope of this study. And the findings of the study are not intended to be generalized to other high school graders in Vietnam.
Significance of the study It is hoped that the results of the study will help the teachers of English in Chi Lang High School clearly understand the 10th graders’ perceptions of the importance of grammar in English learning, their difficulties in learning English grammar, and their preferred styles of teaching English grammar. And the recommendations for English grammar teaching will be beneficial to the teachers here in particular as well as those who concern English grammar teaching at high schools nationwide. Design of the study The study includes three parts: the Introduction, the Development and the Conclusion. Part A: Introduction - deals with the rationale, objectives, research questions, methodology, scope, significance and design of the study.
Part B: Development – consists of three chapters Chapter 1: Literature review – provides some theoretical background about grammar, grammar teaching, learner perceptions of teaching grammar, and learner variables. Chapter 2: The study – presents the setting of the study, research questions, subjects of the study, data collection instruments, data collection procedures and data analysis procedures. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 4 Chapter 3: Data, Data Analysis and Discussion – shows data of and major findings from the questionnaire and interview, and discussion of the findings. Part C: Conclusion - presents conclusions, recommendations for teaching English grammar to the 10th graders at Chi Lang High School, limitations of the study, and suggestions for further study.
TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 5 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW Throughout the history of foreign language teaching, grammar and grammar teaching have always been of a big concern among educational researchers, linguists, methodologists and language teachers. Different definitions of grammar, views of and approaches to grammar teaching have been proposed. This chapter deals with some definitions of grammar, the place of grammar in foreign language teaching, some approaches to grammar teaching, some research on learner perceptions of grammar teaching, and learner variables.1 Definitions of grammar As cited in Harmer (1987), The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English defines grammar as “the study and practice of the rules by which words change their forms and are combined into sentences”. Accordingly, the rules of grammar, and the study and practice of the rules are two basic elements in this definition; and the rules of grammar are about how words change and how they are put together into sentences.
Celce-Murcia and Hilles (1988) have the same opinion of grammar: “we can think of language as a type of rule-governed behavior. Grammar, then, is a subset of those rules which govern the configurations that the morphology and syntax of a language assume”. It can be drawn from the two definitions above that grammar just refers to rules to combine words to make sentences. But a question needs answering is that what these sentences are used for?