VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE FACTORS INFLUENCING GRAMMAR LEARNING OF IN-SERVICE STUDENTS OF ENGLISH AT USSH A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL by LE THI THANH LAN Supervised by Senior lecturer: PHAN THI KIM LOAN, M., HO CHI MINH CITY, JULY 2011 i CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: FACTORS INFLUENCING GRAMMAR LEARNING OF IN-SERVICE STUDENTS OF ENGLISH AT USSH in terms of the statement of Requirements for Theses in Master’s Programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee. Ho Chi Minh City, July 14, 2011 LE THI THANH LAN i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Le Thi Thanh Lan, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University 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 the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for care, loan or reproduction of theses. Ho Chi Minh City, July 14, 2011 LE THI THANH LAN ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms.
Phan Thi Kim Loan, who inspired initial ideas for the thesis in me, devoted her valuable time to reading my thesis with great care, gave thoughtful comments and raised critical questions in completion of this thesis. I am grateful to the teachers who spent their precious time responding to the questionnaires and sharing with me their teaching experience. I also wish to thank the students who were responsive to the survey questionnaires and the in-depth interview. The thesis could not have been completed without them.
My special thanks go to Ms. Pham Thi Ngoc Hoa, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Linh, Dr. Le Hoang Dung, who gave me useful advice and helped me think through the problems at the beginning of conducting the survey.
Finally, I appreciate my best friends for their help in terms of references and ideas. I am greatly indebted to my parents, who have always been wholeheartedly supportive and understanding so that I could devote all the time to the writing of the thesis. iii ABSTRACT This thesis discusses factors which influence grammar learning of in-service students of English at USSH. Data were collected through two survey questionnaires: one for teachers, another for in-service students who have just completed the grammar program; and the interview for two different groups of students: high-performing and low-performing students.
The problems were identified and categorized under five factors in descending order of influence: learners, methodology, materials and syllabus, learning environment, and assessment. However, there is a contrast between the two groups in choice of the influence of the factor learners. This factor has the most important influence on grammar learning for the high-performing students whereas the low-performing ones consider it less important than the factor materials and syllabus. The results of the study also show some real existing problems in in-service grammar teaching and learning, which are (1) lack of teaching facilities for grammar teaching and learning, (2) lack of matching the meaning of English structures to their equivalents in Vietnamese language, (3) students’ low frequency of practice, (4) a problem rising from program innovation, (5) inappropriateness of materials, and (6) lack of application of grammar to speaking and writing.
Based on the findings of the study, the thesis contributes some reasonable recommendations to facilitating grammar teaching and learning. On the one hand, learning environment should be well-equipped for teaching and learning better and more interestingly. Students should be provided with the appropriate materials (coursebooks or textbooks) and syllabus. On the other hand, grammar learning should be taught in the light of integrated approach.
It needs good input not only for presentation and practice of form and meaning but also for production in term of speaking and writing. Obviously, teachers are responsible for carrying out changes of teaching methods to help students apply grammar to speaking and writing. More importantly, students play a crucial role in serious practice and frequent application of what they have learned. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of originality.i Retention and use of the thesis .iv Table of contents.v List of tables .ix Chapter 1: Introduction .Rationale of the study .Background to the study.Aims of the study.
The significance of the study. Overview of the study .4 Chapter 2 Literature review. Definitions of grammar; the importance of grammar in English teaching and learning. Definitions of grammar.
The importance of grammar in English teaching and learning. Perspectives about grammar teaching and learning. Principles for grammar teaching. Different points of view about grammar teaching and learning.
Difference between traditional method and communicative approach. Explicit and implicit teaching. Teaching grammar as product and as process. Teaching grammar in combination of traditional structures and communicative functions.
The role of materials and syllabus on grammar learning. Definition of materials and syllabus. The necessity of a coursebook in learning. Teaching grammar to adult learners.
Differences between teaching adult learners from teaching younger learners. Some characteristics that adult learners bring to class. The importance of motivation for grammar learning. The need for integration of grammar teaching and learning.
Advantages of the integrated-skill approach. Grammar and speaking. Grammar and reading. Grammar and writing.
Local researches on grammar teaching and learning. Instruments: questionnaires and in-depth interview. Questionnaires for students. Questionnaires for teachers.
In-depth interview. Data collection procedures .37 Chapter 4: Data analyses and findings. The in-service students’ background. Factors influencing grammar learning of in-service students.
Summary from the in-depth interview. The reasons for students’ learning result. The degree of influence of the five factors on students’ grammar learning. Other influential factors on students’ grammar learning besides the five above-mentioned factors.
Learning environment factor: Lack of teaching facilities. Lack of matching English structures’ meaning to their equivalents in Vietnamese language. Students’ low frequency of practice. Assessment factor: A motivational factor.
Syllabus and materials factor. A problem rising from program innovation. The inappropriateness of materials. Methodology factor: Lack of application of grammar to speaking and writing .73 Chapter 5: Implications and recommendations.
To the institution. Some techniques for teaching grammar to in-service students.95 Appendix 1: Questionnaire to students (Vietnamese version) .100 Appendix 2: Questionnaire to students (English version) .104 Appendix 3: Questionnaire to teachers (Vietnamese version) .108 Appendix 4: Questionnaire to teachers (English version).112 Appendix 5: In-depth interview .116 Appendix 6: The in-service student respondentss’ occupation .117 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Grammar program to in-service students at USSH Table 3. Questionnaire for in-service students Table 3.
Questionnaire for teachers Table 4. The in-service students’ gender, age and occupation Table 4. The main purposes of learning English Table 4. The in-service students’ and teachers’ comments on learning conditions affecting grammar class Table 4.
The in-service students’ ideas about the influence of instructors’ attitude toward grammar teaching on grammar learning Table 4. The in-service students’ and teachers’ opinions about the importance of grammar learning to English learning Table 4. The reasons for the importance of grammar learning Table 4. The influence of Vietnamese language on English grammar learning Table 4.
The influence of age (older learners) on English grammar learning Table 4. The influence of class attendance and participation score on grammar learning Table 4. The influence of final exam score on grammar learning Table 4. The in-service students’ views on Practical English Grammar 1 Table 4.
The in-service students’ views on Practical English Grammar 2 Table 4. The inservice students’ views on Mosaic 1 Table 4. The in-service students’ views on Mosaic 2 Table 4. The in-service sudents’ and teachers’ views on the amount of time for grammar class Table 4.
Exploration of techniques used to present a new structure Table 4. Exploration of techniques used in practice and production stage ix Table 4. Techniques that students believe to be helpful for their learning in presentation stage Table 4. Techniques that students believe to be helpful for their learning in practice and production stage x CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This thesis reports the results of a survey on factors which influence grammar learning of in-service students of English at USSH and gives some suggestions to facilitate grammar teaching and learning.
This introduction presents rationale of the study, background to the study as well as aims and overview of the study. Rationale of the study Talking about learning English grammar, some students like learning it because they think it is helpful and interesting. On the contrary, other students do not like grammar since they believe that to learn and remember it is not easy. Lewis & Hill (1985:86) state, “Very often, learners think of grammar as an unpopular and difficult part of their language lessons.
Even more worryingly, that attitude is one they have usually caught from their teachers”. However, these two authors stress that grammar can be fun because grammar practice can be both lively and amusing. Moreover, grammar is an indispensable part of learning and using language as Bowen and Marks (1994:83) say, “Grammar organizes language structures and makes a language understandable for a learner”. In other words, grammar helps learners speak out well-organized and structural sentences in order to make themselves be understood and understand what interlocutors mean.
Like adult learners rushing to numerous foreign language centers to take up English courses, in-service students come to USSH with a hope that they can use English well enough to serve their own purposes such as their work, promotion, getting better scholastic achievement and even academic success; or simply with a desire to study English to be able to communicate with other people in their real life. Two skills for their good communication are speaking and writing. Unfortunately, a common phenomenon is that many of them, after four years, taking graduation exams, fail to write grammatically. Their writing skill is not expectedly good enough.
This may result from different causes, and one undeniable factor which has a huge 1 impact on their writing quality is grammar. Moreover, although grammar can be underestimated in conversation or communication as long as communicators understand and are understood, speaking grammatically is more appreciated. When I taught grammar to in-service classes, I noticed that some students tried to speak fluently regardless of grammar and others unconsciously spoke out ungrammatical sentences. Accordingly, some questions are raised - whether they pay attention to grammar in speaking and writing, if they apply grammar to speaking and writing during grammar learning process, and how they learn and are taught grammar.
More importantly, there has been no local reseach on grammar teaching and learning of in- service students at USSH so far. Therefore, the researcher’s interest is aroused to find the answers to the above-raised questions in this study. Background to the study This section is a brief description of In-service students and grammar teaching coursebooks at USSH. The purpose is to provide the necessary background information for discussion of the issues in this study.
Being in-service students, most of them work at day time and go to class after work; a few work on shift and they are all over 20. The in-service grammar program at USSH includes four stages in the first two years, and each stage lasts 45 periods. The first two stages, Grammar 1 and 2 are for first-year students. The students have “Practical English Grammar” (textbook 1 by Nguyen Viet Thu, 2006 and textbook 2 by Nguyen Huynh Dat and Pho Phuong Dung, 2008) as their grammar coursebooks.