L;VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST — GRADUATE STUDIES SBS 8 218 8 2K 28 2 28 2 3k OK 3k k 2 OK 3 sk PHUNG THI HUE THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING GRAMMAR IN LANGUAGE FOCUS PERIODS IN THE NEW “ENGLISH 10” (BASIC STREAM) AT DOI CAN HIGH SCHOOL IN VINH PHUC TRONG CAC TIET “LANGUAGE FOCUS” TRONG SACH GIAO KHOA MOI “TIENG ANH 10” (BAN CO BAN) TAI TRUONG THPT DOI CAN, VINH PHUC M. Minor Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Hanoi - 2010 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST —- GRADUATE STUDIES OB OR OBS OR OB ROB 2 OR ORR OK RK RE THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING GRAMMAR IN LANGUAGE FOCUS PERIODS IN THE NEW “ENGLISH 10” (BASIC STREAM) AT DOI CAN HIGH SCHOOL IN VINH PHUC NGHIEN CUU THUC TRANG DAY VA HQC NGU PHAP TRONG CAC TIET “LANGUAGE FOCUS” TRONG SACH GIAO KHOA MOI “TIENG ANH 10” (BAN CO BAN) TAI TRUONG THPT DOI CAN, VINH PHUC M. Minor Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, Ph.D Hanoi - 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS z@0.QQQQQQQ SH HH Tnhh nh nh rhg 1 s50. 1H TABLE OF CONTENTS.
SH ST TT nh Tnhh nh he iv LIST OE NS) D Sh cc vil LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. eee ee ee ee eee HH TT Tnhh vềVili PART I: INTRODUCTION.---- ch HH HH HH ni Hi nh mi 0 1 1. Rationale of the Study. c2 SH HH nh ng 1 2.
Aims of the Study. Research QU€SfIO'S. SH eee SH nh nh ng 2 4. Scope of the ỌỆNNNẠỌẠậẳiiiiiiaiiiiẳiiẳẳiẳẳẳiẳiẳ 34.
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Design of the StUỦy. SH SH SH HH ĐK HH km kh kg 4 PART II: DEVELOPMENT.- - on nọ HS K1 m ki pm 5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIENW. Definitions of ørammar.---c ch nà se 5 1. Role of grammar in English language teaching and learning.
For-ørammar perspectives .- eee nee e nh xa 7 1. Against-grammiar Perspectives. eee eee enone een enna eae 7 1. Explicit and Implicit approaches to grammar teaching.
Deductive and Inductive approaches to grammar instruction. Grammar teaching in the major teaching methods. @X0) 10) 1115) (0) 0 cc 14 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. Overview of the current situation of teaching and learning English at Doi Can High School.
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Research que€stIO'S. Subjects of the study .- c2 HS SH nh nh kh na 17 2. Data collection Instrumenfs. SUTVEY qUM€SfÏOHHQÏT©.
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Data analysis pFOC€dUTe. 21 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION. Findings from questionnaires for the teachers and the students. The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions on the importance of grammar teaching and learning.
The teachers’ and the students’ opinions about the grammar parts in the new English texXtbOOK.c con ee eeeeeeeeeeeneeenes 23 3. The teachers’ methods of teaching grammar in the Language Focus Ï€sSONS. The students’ ways of learning grammar in the language focus lessons. Difficulties in teaching and learning grammar in the Language Focus lessons as perceived by the teachers and the students.
Findings from class observations. Findings from 1nf€TVICWS.c SH ST ST Tnhh nà 34 3. Findings from interviews with the teachers. Findings from interviews with the students.
Discussion of the findings. 37 PART IIT: CONCLUSION .-- con HH HH HH HH ni mi 39 1. Summary of the study .- CS SH HH nh nh, 39 2. Limitations of the study .--- c2 2n SH Tnhh nen 4I 4.
Suggestions for further study.- SH HH ng 41 hÄ.- con HH HH HH HH KH II BI BI BI 00009 0588 43 APPENDICES.-- -- c con HH HH Ki BI 0i 0998I Appendix 1: Grammar items in the Language Focus sections in the new textbook English 10. ence ne ene ence eneI Appendix 2: Survey questionnaire for the teachers .-- Il Appendix 3: Survey questionnaire for the students. VI Appendix 4: Class observation transcripts Í-4. Xx Appendix 5: Interview questions.
c2 SH nha XXV Appendix 6: Interview transcripts. SH nh een ene XXVI LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The teachers’ and students’ perceptions on the importance of grammar English teaching and learning Table 2: The teachers’ and the students’ opinions about grammar parts in the new English 10 textbook Table 3: The level of difficulty of the grammar exercises to the students as perceived by the teachers and the students Table 4: Teachers’ methods of presenting grammar Table 5: Teachers’ ways of giving grammar instructions Table 6: Teachers’ grammar practice activities — Frequency of use Table 7: The teachers’ techniques of dealing with students’ errors Table 8: Factors Influencing the way the teachers teach grammar Table 9: Students’ level of understanding of grammar structures presented in the Language FOocus lessons Table 10: The students’ impressions of grammar lessons Table 11: Students’ preference for the teachers’ grammar presentation methods Table 12: Students’ favourite grammar practice activities in the Language Focus lessons Table 13: the teachers’ difficulties in teaching grammar in the language focus lessons Table 14: the students’ difficulties in learning grammar in the language focus lessons 10 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS MOET: Ministry of Education and Training CLT: Communicative Language Teaching 11 PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study It cannot be denied that English has nowadays become a common means of communication of human being all over the world. Integrating into that trend of the global integration, Vietnam has been more and more active to train active and dynamic Vietnamese, who can use English fluently for communicative purposes.
That is the reason why in 2002, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has set out new aims for English language teaching for secondary education as well as introduced new series of English textbooks from grade 6 to grade 12. The new English textbooks for high school students are divided into two sets: the advanced and the standard. They are claimed to adopt the latest teaching and learning approaches: communicative approach and learner-centered approach and aim at developing both language skills and language knowledge for students. Each unit in the new English textbooks consists of five parts: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing and Language Focus, among which the Language Focus sections are to consolidate students’ pronunciation and grammar.
Since their nation-wide implementation in the school year 2006-2007, a great deal of research have been carried out to evaluate these new textbooks as well as to find out how these textbooks are actually implemented or the difficulties that teachers and students at high schools have to face when teaching and learning by the new textbooks. However, most of these studies have dealt with the teaching and learning of the four language skills which are believed to be new for both teachers and students. There is still a lack of research on the teaching and learning of language elements in the Language Focus part. More importantly, the question whether teachers actually teach grammar communicatively or in the traditional methods has not been answered yet.
Therefore, it is necessary to carry out more research on how teachers and students teach and learn grammar in the actual classroom. Moreover, after two years of teaching English by the new English textbooks at Doi Can High School, the researcher observed that the teachers and learners there faced a 12 number of difficulties not only in teaching and learning the four language skills but also in teaching and learning grammar during the Language Focus lessons. Stimulated by the above reasons, the researcher has decided to conduct this study. It is hoped that this study will discover the reality of teaching and learning grammar in Language Focus lessons at Doi Can high school in order to contribute some immediate solutions.
Aims of the study The aim of this study is to examine the current teaching and learning of grammar in Language Focus lessons in the new standard textbook English10 at Doi Can High School. In order to achieve the aim, the study seeks to find out: (1) The teachers’ and students’ perceptions on the importance of grammar teaching and learning (2) How the teachers and the students deal with grammar in the Language Focus lessons (3) Whether the teaching and learning of grammar correspond with the new teaching method underlying the new textbook (4) The teachers’ and students’ perceived difficulties in teaching and learning grammar in the Language Focus lessons 3. Research questions: To achieve the aim and objectives of the study, the following research questions were proposed: 1. How do the teachers and the students at Doi Can High School perceive the importance of grammar teaching and learning? 2.
How do the teachers teach and the students learn grammar in the Language Focus lessons? 3. Does the teaching and learning of grammar in the Language Focus lessons match the new teaching methodology underlying the new textbook? 4. What are the difficulties in teaching and learning grammar in the Language Focus lessons as perceived by the teachers and students? 13 4. Scope of the study As mentioned earlier, there are two sets of the new English textbooks for grade 10: the advanced and the standard sets.
This study is only aimed at investigating the reality of teaching and learning grammar in Language Focus lessons in the standard set. This study is limited to the teaching and learning reality with regard to teaching and learning grammar in Language Focus lessons. The investigation of teaching and learning language skills and pronunciation will be beyond the scope of this study. This study is a detailed survey at Doi Can High School in Vinh Phuc.
Therefore, the findings of the study are not intended to be generalized to other school contexts. Indeed the findings may not apply beyond the actual participants in this particular study. Significance of the study This study helps to identify the problems and suggests ways of improving them; therefore, it is hoped that this study will be beneficial in many ways. First, participants in the study (the teachers and the learners at Doi Can High School) will benefit immediately from the experience of reflection.
Secondly, the findings of the study will contribute information to textbook writers and educators to determine curricula and program direction. Method of the study The study was designed to use both quantitative and qualitative methods. Then, various instruments were used to collect the data for the study from different sources: - survey questionnaires to investigate the teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards grammar, their teaching and learning habits and their difficulties in teaching and learning grammar in Language Focus lessons. - class observations to get information about both the teachers’ methods of teaching and students’ ways of learning grammar in the classroom.
- interviews with the teachers and students to get in-depth information about the teachers’ and the students’ suggestions to improve the teaching and learning of grammar in the Language Focus lessons in the new English 10 - the standard textbook. Design of the study The study is divided into three parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion. The Introduction presents an overview of the study including the rationale, aims, scope, significance, methodology and design of the study.