(LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ) The effect of consciousness-Raising activities on the 10th grade students'' grammatical competence at Tran Nhat Duat upper secondary school001

The results o f the study reveal that 1 students had a positive attitude towards the necessity o f English grammar learning; 2 the tradỉtional methods were mainly used in this school and

F A C U L T Y O F POST - G R A DƯ A TE STU D IES

AT TRAN NHAT DUAT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

(Tác động của các hoạt động nâng cao nhận thức đối vói năng lực ngữ

phap của học sính lóp 10, trường T H P T Trần Nhật Duạt)

ra isin g activities on g ra d e 10th s tu d e n ts ’ g ra m m a tic a l com petence a t T ra n N hat D u at

U p p e r S eco n d ary School” and su b m itte d in p a rtia l fulfiU m ent o f th e re q u ire m e n ts fo r

th e degree o f M aste r o f A rts in English teach in g m ethodology is th e re su lt o f my own

re se a rc h T he su b stan ce o f th e thesỉs has not, w holly o r in p a rt, been su b m itted fo r a

d eg ree to any o th e r universities o r in stitu tion s

T he re sea rc h re p o rte d in this thesis was a p p ro v e d by M s P h am T hi H an h ,

M A., V ietn am N ational U niversity o f H anoi

H anoi, S ep tem b er, 2011

Đ inh T h ị T h a n h V ân

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Ms Pham Thi Hanh, M A., for her continual guidance, com m ent, and especially her sym pathy throughout the w hole research process.

I am also grateful to all teachers at the Postgraduate D epartm ent, Ư LIS,VNU, w hose lectures and guidance have contributed to my understanding o f the problem and led to the com pletion o f this thesis My special thanks w ould also go to D r Le Van Canh, who helped

us update the m odem approaches in English teaching m ethodology and suggested this thesis

I am indebted to my beloved friend, To Thi N goe Nga, ULIS, VNU, for her encouragem ent She was so helpful and dedicated in spite o f her illness Thanks also go to

my colleague, Ly Tuan Anh for his support in collecting the data for the study

Especially, I wish to express my appreciation to my students o f class 10 A l, TN D U SS,

w ho have been really helpíul and cooperative in the im plem entation o f the study

Last but not least, I w ould also like to send my w hole-hearted thanks to my family, my parents and my husband who took care o f my two little sons and supported me spiritually during my study

With an investigation into the reality of teaching and leaming grammar at Tran Nhat Duat Upper Secondary school, this thesis is aimed at working out an appropriative, effective,

su itable and p ractical ap p ro ach in a m o u n tain o u s co n tex t, n o t to p in p o in t the rig h t or

correct method to teach grammar Upon carrying out a preliminary investigation and literature review, it is found that CR activities, which integrate instructional assumptions and components of traditional and communicative methods, can work well in the context

of a mountainous school CR activities were then designed and implemented in the second term o f the school year 2010-2011 with the participation o f 41 students from class 1 OA 1

In order to collect the data, a num ber o f instrum ents w ere em ployed including: (a) a semi- structured group interview to the tw enty students o f grade 10,h in that school; (b) classroom

observations; (c) a questionnaire aíìer applying CR and (d) a test The results o f the study reveal that (1) students had a positive attitude towards the necessity o f English grammar learning; (2) the tradỉtional methods were mainly used in this school and (3) CR activities vvere effective on ỉmproving students' grammaticaỉ competence. As far as the study suggests, it can be concluded that CR activities can be an effective tool for the improvement of Engiish grammar teaching practices.

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CR: C onsciousness-raising

CC: C om m unicative com petence

GC: G ram m atical com petence

LC: Linguistic com petence

CLT: C om m unicative language teaching

L2: Second language

L l: First language

SSLE: Second School Leaving Exam ination

TNDƯSS: Tran Nhat Duat ưpper Secondary School

T: teacher

Sts: students

TABLE OF CONTENTS

D E C L A R A T IO N i

K N O W LE D G E M E N TS ii

A BSTRA CT iii

LIST OF A B B R EVIA TIO N S iv

PA R T I IN T R O D U C T IO N 1

1 Rationale for the study .1

2 Aims o f the s tu d y 2

3 Scope o f the s tu d y 3

4 Signiíìcant o f the study 3

5 M ethod o f the study 4

6 Organization o f the study 5

PA R T II D E V E L O P M E N T 5

C h a p te r 1: L IT E R A T U R E REVIEVV 6

1.1 C o m m u n ỉcativ e com petence an d g ra m m a tic al co m p eten ce 6

1.1.1 Communicative co m p eten ce 6

1.1.2 Grammatical com petence 8

1.2 M ethodology fo r teach in g g ra m m a r 10

1.2.1 Pro and Anti-Gram m ar Perspectives 10

1.2.2 The Evolution o f Language Teaching M eth o d o lo g y 12

1.2.3 Consciousness-raising approach 17

C h a p te r 2: R E S E A R C H M E T H O D O L O G Y 21

2.1 B ack g ro u n d o f the s tu d y 21

2.1.1 The c o u rs e 21

2.2.2 The s tu d e n ts 21

2.2.3 The teachers 22

2.2 R esearch q u estio n s 23

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2.3 R esearch a p p ro a c h 23

2.4 P a rtic ip a n ts 25

2.5 Instruments 25

2.6 D ata collection p r o c e d u r e s 27

2.7 D ata anaiysis p ro c e d u re s 29

2.8 S u m n ia r y 29

C h a p te r 3: T H E P R A C T IC A L ST U D Y 30

3.1 P re lim in a ry in v estig ation 30

3.1.1 Interview s 30

3.1.2 Class observations 32

3.2 In te rv e n tio n 34

3.2.1 The design and aims o fC R activities 34

3.2.2 Procedures o f the CR lesso n s 34

3.3 E v a lu a tio n 36

3.3.1 Data presentation of the evaluation questionnaires 3 6 3.3 2 Data presentation of the quizzes and the test 4 0 3.4 S u m m a r y 39

C h a p te r 4: D ISC U SSIO N O F T H E F IN D IN G S 40

4.1 R esearch q u estion 1 40

4.2 R esearch q u estion 2 40

4.3 R esearch question 3 41

P A R T III: C O N C L U S IO N 41

1 C o n clu sio n 41

2 R e c o m m e n d a tio n s 42

3 L ỉm itatio n s o f th e stu d y and suggestions fo r ĩ u r t h e r s tu d y 43

4 Suggestions fo r th e fu r th e r s tu d y 44

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

P A R T I: IN T R O D U C T IO N

1 R atio n ale o f th e stu d y

English has become a common means of communication of human beings all over the world Integrating into that trend of the global integration, Vietnam has been more and more active to train hard-working and dynamic Vietnamese, who can use English íluently for communicative purposes Much effort has been spent on improving Vietnamese students’ competence to be able to communicate in English The most signiíicant solution can be the implementation of the new series of English books started in 2 0 0 6 by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) for secondary high school which claimed to develop both language skills and language knowledge for students There are two types of textbook sets: the advanced and the Standard ones 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.

Once the new textbooks have been implemented, the teaching approach has also changed However, the teaching approach of grammar has always been the most complex and controversial aspects It has taken a long but not easy time for teachers to change their traditional ways of teaching to so-called communicative approach But after several years applying communicative language teaching (CLT), although seeing a lot of its advantages, many teachers have wondered vvhether CLT is really effective, suitable and practical in Vietnamese context, which rarely has “the opportunity to take part in meaningíul communication interaction with highly competent speakers of the language, i.e to respond

to genuine communicative needs in realistic second language situations” (Canale and Swain (1 9 8 0), cited in Canh, 2 0 0 0); and in which most of the national examinations whose sole objective is to measure candidates’ linguistic or grammatical competence in vvritten form Especially, in the context of a mountainous upper secondary school in Yen Bai province, teaching English is not a simple task because of many reasons Firstly, the students in this school have a low level of English; every student with the English score at the school entrance examination above zero can enter the school Secondly, the size of the class at the school is big with average of over 4 0 students in one class, which makes teachers diffícult to take control Furthermore, other problems are compounded by poor living conditions, poorly-fumished classrooms, scarce access to supporting materials and facilities, limited access to the target language As a result, many students fail to make

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progress in leam ing the language and the quality o f English language All the above- mentioned ĩactors seem to be disadvantageous to teaching Engỉish, especially in dcveloping students' com m unicative com petence In the context o f this school, teaching gram m ar, therefore, should be done and needs to be done appropriately.

A fter tw elve years o f teaching English in which five years by the new English textbooks in this m ountainous school, the researcher observed that the teachers and leam ers there faced a num ber o f difficulties not only in teaching and leam ing the four language skills but also in teaching and leam ing gram m ar during the Language Focus lessons, especially for grade 10' , the starter in upper secondary school program The researcher o f this study has alw ays w ondered how she should present gram m ar to be effective beíore a preparation for a gram m ar period Luckily, during the course as a post graduate student at U niversity o f Languages and International Studies, she has been considering the ‘consciousness-raising’ approach, w hich she subjectively thinks appropriate to her school context C onsequently, she decided to do an action research on applying consciousness-raising activities and investigating their effect on students’ gram m atical com petence with the hope to m ake a small contribution to im prove the quality

o f teaching English gram m ar in a m ountainous province The research was entitled “The effect o f consciousness-raising activities on grade 10lh students’ gram m atical com petence

at Tran Nhat Duat U pper Secondary School”

O v erall, the re sea rc h er hopes th at th is stu d y w ould p ro v id e a p o ssib le so lu tio n

to teach in g g ra m m a r in e v ery d ay c lassro o m situ a tio n ; th u s, it vvould be h e lp íu l to not

o n ly the re sea rc h er h e rs e lĩ in m ak in g b e tte r teach in g d e cisio n s in h er c lasses but also

to the school a d m in istra to rs and p o licy m ak ers for íu rth e r im p ro v em en t o f E nglish teach in g and learning

2 A im s o f th e stu d y

With the above-presented rationale, the aim s o f the study are:

• To investigate attitudes tow ards gram m ar lessons o f m ountainous stuđents w ho are considered as w eak gram m atical com petence, to find out their diíĩĩculties and their desires in teaching and leam ing grammar

• To fmd out how teachers in a m ountainous school context treat gram m ar lessons and identify the problem arising in gram m ar lessons

• To offer some consciousness-raising activities and to fínd out vvhether they are suitable and effective to grammar lessons, may or may not improve mountainous students’ gramm atical competence.

It is hoped that the íìndings from this study will be o f some benefits to the teachers

in Vietnam ese secondary schools, especially those who are engaged in grammar teaching

3 Signiíicance o f the study

The study is hoped to be beneíĩcial to both teachers and students in mountainous high schools First, íĩndings o f the study could be shared among teachers o f English to

improve the quality o f teaching and leam ing in the coming years Next, it might highỉight the rationale for proíessional developm ent programs for high school teachers o f English in mountainous areas in Vietnam Finally, the ĩindings could be used as a data base for further study

4 Scope o f C he stu d y

There are two sets o f the new English textbooks for grade 10: the advanced and the

Standard sets This study only aimed at investigating the reality o f teaching and leam ing gram m ar in Language Focus lessons in the Standard set

This study, as early stated, was designed to investigate how mountainous teachers treat gram m ar lessons; mountainous students’ attitudes towards gram m ar teaching, their difficulties and desires in order to make some changes by using C-R activities and find out

w hether C-R activities effective or not; may improve or may not improve the quality o f teaching and learning

To keep the study in a manageable size, the study has been delimited only to three English language teachers and a group o f grade 10 students at Tran Nhat Duat ư p p er Secondary School in Yen Bai

5 M ethodology

The study was conducted as an action research This type o f research was chosen for the following reasons In the first place, being a teacher o f English, the researcher herself actually experienced traditional methods and saw their advantages on tests and disadvantages on communication; she then tried the comm unicative methods vvith a lot o f difficulties in a mountainous school and deeply wanted to take some actions for improvement However, teaching o f gram m ar is the most controversial and each teacher

has their own reasons to choose a suitable gram m ar teaching approach for their own

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context Thereíore, the activities which the researcher applied may be appreciated in this context but unappreciated in others and the results need a reílective phase for action during the next circle.

This study employed both qualitative and quantitative data collection Instrum ents

including interview, class observation, questionnaire and test

Firstly, a review o f literature was conducted, critically examining the various theoretical issues concem ing comm unicative competence, grammatical competence, and approaches on gram m ar teaching, especially consciousness- raising approach

Secondly, an intervievv was conducted with some guided questions The interviewees were given the questions before for better preparation o f ideas and thoughts Because the questions gathered information o f a rather diffícult topic to the students and it involved a great recall o f gramm ar teaching and leam ing experiences, they obviously needed time to prepare The prepared questions also kept the intervievver as an inexperienccd researcher ííom losing tract Besides, students’ interviews were taken to provide preliminary data on their thinking for the researcher to identify their difficulties and their desires tovvard gram mar teaching and leam ing beíore CR activities were applied

Furthermore, to identify once again the problem, class observation was etnployed

to investigate teaching approaches in gram m ar lessons and students’ ways o f leaming in class, and to compare betvveen what the students said and the fact Three grammar lessons taught by three different teachers were observed and then transcribed in details to identify gaps betvveen what the students said in the intervievv and what actually happens in class The grade 10,h Language Focus lessons, not other lesson skills, were chosen because the researcher prefers a real picture o f gramm ar teaching and the gram m ar teaching cannot be conducted carefully in any lesson, but only in Language Focus lessons

Then, a questionnaire after eight lessons applying CR was carried out to provide triangulated data on students’ grammar leam ing preference and their reactions to CR activities

Last but not least, quantitative data o f a quiz after each lesson and a test after all eight lessons applying CR were analyzed to confirm the effect o f CR activities on students’ grammatical competence

6 O rg a n iz atio n o f the study

This study consists o f five parts: Introduction, Literature Review, M ethodology, Results & Discussion, and Conclusion

• P a rt one: In tro d u ctio n - presents the rationale, aims, signiíìcance, scope, methodology, and organization o f the study

• P a rt tw o: D evelopm ent

C h a p te r one: Literature Review - provides a theoretical basis for the study

C h a p te r tw o: Research M ethodology - includes an overview o f the approach used

in conducting the study It also provides a thorough description o f the data collection procedure as well as the analytical procedure

C h a p te r th re e : The Practical Study

C h a p te r four: Discussion o f the íìndings - reports the íĩndings o f the study and discusses the prominent aspects

• P a rt th re e : C onclusion - presents the conclusions o f major íindings, recom m endations, limitations for the study, and suggestions for further studies

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PA R T II: D E V E L O P M E N T

C H A P T E R O N E: L IT E R A T U R E R E V IE WGram m ar teaching methodology and consciousness raising approach needs to be theory driven Tliis chapter reviews prominent literature to support the research The principal areas to be discussed are com municative com petence, gram matical competence,

CR approach and CR activities

1.1 C o m m u n icativ e com petence an d g ra m m a tỉc a l com petence

1.1.1 C om m u n icativ e com petence

The íĩrst challenge with which the researcher has to be encountered is how to detlne communicative competence As far as her restricted knovvledge, the term was originally coined by Hymes (1966), reacting against the perceived inadequacy o f Chom sky's (1965) linguistic competence with the distinction between competence and

performance. For Chomsky, linguistic com petence (LC) was deíĩned as the innate system

o f linguistic knowledge possessed by native speakers o f a language This is in contrast to linguistic períbrm ance which refers to the actual use o f a language A ccording to Chomsky,

it is the 'ideal' language system that makes it possible for speakers to produce and understand an iníìnite number o f sentences in their language, and to distinguish grammatical sentences from ungrammatical sentences This is unaffected by

"gram matically irrelevant conditions" such as speech errors LC includes components such

as phonetics, phonology, syntax, semantics and morphology

For Hymes, competence is integral to attitudes and values concem ing language and other codes o f com munication Here is reíerence to "social factors" which he exem pliíìes

as positive productive aspects o f linguistic engagement in social life: “there are rules o f use without which rules o f grammar vvould be useless” (Hymes, 1972) Hymes was interested

in what degree o f competence speaker/hearers needed in order to give themselves membership o f particular speech communities Hymes exam ined what factors-particularly socio-cultural ones in addition to "grammatical competence" are required for speaker/hearers to participate in meaningful interactions He asserted that a sentence must not only be gram m atically correct but it must be appropriate in reaction to the context in which it is used as well For Hymes, what an individual needs to know in order to be com m unicatively com petent in a speech community is to understand the rules o f use,

vvhich determ ine “ when to speak, when not, and as to talk about with whom, when, where,

in what m anner” (Hymes, 1972, p 277)

As much as there has already been much debate about linguistic competence (LC) and communicative competence (CC) in the second and íòreign language teaching literature, the outcome has always been the consideration o f c c as a superior model o f language following Hymes’ opposition to Chomsky's LC

Other linguists strongly coníìrin H ym es’ theory Canale and Svvain (1980) deíìned

c c in terms o f three components: grammatical competence: (words and rules), sociolinguistic competence (appropriateness), strategic com petence (appropriate use o f com m unication strategies) and in 1983, Canale reíìned the above model, adding discourse com petence (cohesion and coherence). Canale and Svvain (1980, pp 35-36) imply c c could be used as a signiíìcant basis to helping students produce target language as a Central

feature o f th eir social interaction They State that one o f the m any aspects o f c c w hich

must be investigated, more rigorously, before a com m unicative approach can be implemented fully in the areas o f second language teaching and testing is: development o f administratively feasible cỉassroom activities that can be used to encourage meaningful action in target language use That is the reason why c c is considered One o f the most important theories that underlie the communicative approach to foreign language teaching

Savignon (1985, p 130) also views c c as:

' the ability to function in a truly communicative setting that is a dynamic exchange in which LC must adapt itself to the total information input, both linguistic and paralinguistic o f one or more interlocutors c c includes GC (sentence level grammar), socio-Iinguistic com petence (an understanding o f the social context in which language is used), discourse competence (an understanding

o f how utterances are strung together to form a meaningful whole), and strategic competence (a language user's employment o f strategies to make the best use o f what s/he knows about how a language works, in order to interpret, express, and negotiate m eaning in a given context).’

Bachman (1990) divides c c into the broad headings o f "organizational competence," which includes both grammatical and discourse (or textual) competence, and

"pragmatic competence," which includes both sociolinguistic and "illocutionary" competence Through the iníluence o f CLT, it has become widely accepted that c c should

be the goal o f language education, Central to good classroom practice This is in contrast to

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previous views with prominent representative Noam Chomsky in which GC vvas com m only given top priority.

In relatively simple terms, there has been a change o f emphasis from presenting languagc as a set o f forms (grammatical, phonological, lexical) which have to be leam ed and practiced, to presenting language as a fùnctional system which is used to íulíill a range

o f com m unicative purposes This shift in emphasis has largely taken place as a result o f íairly convincing arguments, mainly from ethnographers and others who study language in its context o f use, that the ability to use a language should be described as cc.

To conclude, communicative competence is a term in linguistics which refers to a language user's grammatical knowledge o f syntax, morphology, phonology and the like, as well as social knovvledge about “when, where and how to use language appropriately” Díaz-Rico and W eed (2010, p 58) The notion o f c c intended by Hymes does not provide any priorities for any does not need to have an accurate knovvledge o f linguistic form or usage, but rather claimed that the perfect knowledge o f linguistic form is not enough to make hiin/her a com municatively competent language user WoIfson (1980) points out that

GC is an intrinsic part o f c c but in many cases, the term c c m isinterpreted for language teachers and curriculum developers as the separation o f GC from cc.

1.1.2 G ra m m a ỉic a l com petence

It is necessary to determine the term grammar as well as grammatical competence

in vvhich the latter needs more emphasis G ram m ar is known as a íìeld o f linguistics that involves all the various things that make up the rules o f language Subíĩelds o f linguistics that are considered a part o f gramm ar include syntax, phonetics, morphology and sem antics G ram m ar is also used as a term to the prescriptive rules o f a given language, vvhich may change over time or be open to debate

Different linguists deíine gram m ar in different ways depending on their particular field o f interest: A traditional grammarian might see gram m ar as the “part o f speech” together with a set o f rules govem ing how they can be combined, often accompanied by pointers as to what is considered “correct” and “ incorrect” usage A structural linguist might see gram m ar as the sum total o f sentence pattem s in which the words o f particular language are aưanged A cognitive linguist might see gram m ar as our innate knowledge o f the structure o f language A íunctional linguist might see gram m ar as a resource used to accom plish com m unicative purposes in speciĩic contexts According to Brum íit & Johnson

(1979), a grammar describes and attempts to account for the ability o f the speaker to understand an arbitrary sentence o f his language and to produce an appropriate sentence on

a given occasion Bastone (1994) divides grammar into product: the component parts o f rules that make up the language, and process: the way in which gram m ar is depỉoyed from

m om ent to moment in communication These authors do not only consider the vital role o f gram m ar in writing but also in speaking W iddowson (1990) also cỉaims that “Grammar is not ju st a collection o f sentence pattems signiíying nonsense, something for the leam er’s brain to puzzle over.” For him, grammar should be viewed as linguistic rules ílinctioning in alliance with words and context for the achievement o f meaning

As impressive as the various deíĩnitions o f grammar, grammatical competence is deíìned in diíTerent ways One o f the most significant deílnitions is “grammatical competence is One among four components o f communicative competence” (Canale and Swain, 1980) such as above reference Thombury (1999) writes that from "a leamer's perspective, the ability both to recognize and to produce well-formed sentences is an essential part o f leaming a second language" (Thombury, 1999, p 3), but points out that there exists a lot o f controversy and debate on how this ability is best developed and achieved GC is a massive íìeld, and the syllabus outlines the grammatical content to be taught and is usually represented in the course books vvhich then in tum are the basis for the language teachers' decisions in regards to what to focus on and what to teach in a grammar context More speciíìcally, GC íocuses on command o f the language code, including such things as the rules o f word and sentence /ormaíion, meanings, speỉling and pronunciation

(Gao, 2001) (my emphasis) The goal is to acquire knowledge of, and ability to use, forms o f expression that are grammatically correct and accurate (Díaz-Rico & Weed, 2010; Gao, 2001) Grammatical competence acts to promote accuracy and Ịỉuency (my emphasis) in second language production (Gao, 2001), and increases in importance as the leamer advances in proíĩciency (Díaz-Rico&W eed, 2010) Fotos (1994) also has the same idea

In short, GC is not an opposite extreme o f c c but it is an important part o f cc It is the students’ ability to recognize the distinctive grammatical structures o f a language and then to use them to communicate effectively, accurately and íluently However, to

m otivate students successfully, it depends a lot in teacher’s methods More importantly, gram m ar needs to be taught in context As Larsen-Freeman (2000) points out, we need to pay attention to the three dimensions o f grammar: form, m eaning and use Simply teaching

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gram m ar rules and/or having student m em orize verb conjugations will not help students acquire gram m atical com petence.

1.2 Methodology for teachỉng g r a m m a r

M ethodology in language teaching has been characterized in a variety o f ways

W ithin m ethodology is a distinction often made betw een m ethods and approaches, in which m ethods are held to be íixed teaching system s w ith prescribed techniques and practices, and approaches are language teaching o f different w ays in the classroom Teachers may follow the sam e approach but use various m ethods to reach the íĩnish

To make an analysis o f gram m ar teaching m ethodology, let’s start the point with Ellis (20 0 2 )’s questions: 1 Should we teacher gram m ar at all?

2 I f we should teach gram m ar, how should w e teach?

R utheríord and Smith (1985) report that gram m ar teaching can be beneíìcial to leam ers in the sense that it raises leam ers’ consciousness concem ing the differences and sim ilarities o f LI and L2 Therefore, gram m ar teaching can be used as a “ linguistic m ap” with the road signs to help students as they explore the “topography” o f the new language

Hannan (1989), Lewis (1986) and G am er (1989) also gi ve strong support to gram m ar teaching Hannan argues that gram m ar is highly valuable as an im portant part o f the study o f the Ianguage, o f ideas and o f w riting G am er believes that gram m ar gives us a means to analyze and describe our language

To sum up, the rationale for teaching gram m ar is m ultifaceted and gram m ar is acknow ledged to be im portant in language teaching and leam ing W hen teaching a íbreign language, gram m ar cannot be neglected because if the leam ers do not study gram m ar, they

do not have the base to use a language U nless leam ing o f gram m atical system is begun, the leam ers will have no foundation on w hich íurther leam ing can be based once they are

in the language community It must be the aim to create the conditions for communicative and gramm ar facts to be leam ed simultaneously.

One o f the biggest challenges to pro-gram m ar perspectives comes from Krashen, who has intended to downplay the value o f deliberate grammar teaching The study o f gram m ar has only a second role in the language program with the goal to produce optimal monitor-user, programmers who can use grammar as a supplem ent to acquisition when they have time, when the focus is on form, and when they know the rules In Krashen and Tarrel (1983)’s Natural Approach, gram m ar can be acquired naturally from meaningful input and opportunities to interact in the classroom and GC can be developed in a íluency- oriented environment vvithout conscious focus on language forms O f course, some leam ers may acquire second language gram m ar naturally without being taught such as immigrants to the United States, who attain proíìciency in English on their own can be a goođ example o f naturalistic acquisition (Lightbovvn and Spada, 1999), but this is not true for all leamers

Gregg (1984) criticizes K rashen’s acquisition hypothesis that “ Krashen him self seems to be aware o f this: The idea that we first learn a new rule, and eventually, through practice, acquire it, is widespread and may seem to some people to be intuitively

o bvio u s It was, I thought, exactly the way I leam ed languages m y s e lí ” Gregg sees him self as a typical example o f the process which consists o f knowing the rules, being aware o f them and ending up with an ability to talk about them This is a perfect process o f acquiring through leam ing, opposed to K rashen’s claim that leam ing need not precede acquisition

Personally, I think it is important to teach gram m ar in secondary schools, especially

in Vietnamese settings because o f these two reasons: Firstly, the English language exam inations that secondary students have to take have a lot o f grammatical elements in spite o f the fact that these exams have been improved Secondly, students are not leam ing English just for basic oral communication, motivated students will continue to study in the universities for academic purposes

1.2.2 T h e E v o lu tio n o f L a n g u a g e T e a c h in g M e th o d o lo g y

Linguists and those involving in language have seen a lot o f exciting developm ents

in language teaching Some have been at the level o f syllabus design; others are concem ed

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vvith niethodology as we are seeing the growth o f new procedures and techniques, many o f which challcnge our traditional views o f what should happen in the classroom.

The history o f language teaching methodology is the history o f never-ending search for effective teaching methods with different approaches, especially for grammar, a focal point which has aroused a great deal o f controversy among educational researchers, linguists, methodologists and teachers Opinions differ not only with reference to whether

or not to teach grammar, and if so, how to teach it Language teaching methodology has changed in approaches and so do methods o f gram mar teaching W hat follows is a b rief description o f gram m ar is taught

From a traditional point o f view, the goal should be to teach language from a formal perspective Since the mid to late 19th century, the dom inant trend was a non- comm unicative approach With the Gram mar Translation Method, gram mar was taught deductively, by studying gram m ar rules and translating from L2 to LI and vice verse Richards and Rodgers (1986) noted that it is a method without theory or without any literature

The Direct M ethod was introduced by the German educator W ihelm Vicktor in the early 1800s as a reaction to the Grammar Translation M ethod, based on the belief that language could best be taught by its vivid use in the classroom There is no translation anymore and the silent study o f literature was replaced by actual use o f spoken language practice, and explicit and deductive grammar instruction was replaced by an implicit and inductive approach It emphasized the importance o f listening and speaking the íòreign language Lessons begin with a dialogue in the target language M eaningful contexts for leam ing, inductive teaching o f grammar and avoidance o f translation are among these principles “The Direct M ethod provides an exciting and interesting way o f leaming a language through activities” Rivers (1981) made comments

The Reading M ethod was a reaction to the impracticality o f the direct method In this method, reading was viewed as the most usable skill to have in a foreign language and developed for both practical and academic reasons Stem (1983) gave a comment that the reading method grew out o f practical educational considerations in America in the 1920s Despite criticism against this method for not paying adequate to speaking, it has gained interest in the teaching o f languages for speciíìc purposes such as reading scientiíĩc literature

The Audio-lingual M ethod derived from structural linguistics in the u s in the 1950s, laid emphasis on mimicry o f forms and memorization o f certain sentence pattem s which are used intensively instead o f grammatical explanation or talking about the language Question and answer in open class or close pairs to practice a particular form can

be also argued to have its basis in the Audiolingual method “In the early sixties audio- lingualism had raised hopes o f ushering in a golden age o f language leam ing.” Stem (1983) assessed this method

The mix between transformational gramm ar and cognitive psychology created Cognitive-code leaming As Krashen (1982) states, it is the case with G ram m ar Translation, the assumption o f cognitive code is that conscious leam ing can be accomplished by everyorie, that all rules are leamable, and that conscious knowledge should be available at all times G ram m ar was acquired inductively The most important o f these ideas was that leam ing must be meaningful and relatable to an individual’s cognitive structure if it was to become a permanent part o f his or her understanding o f the world Language leaming thereíbre is “an active, intelligent, rule-seeking, problem solving process in which leamers are encouraged to reílect upon and discuss the way the target language operates” (Nunan,

1991, p 233)

Another prom inent method is Community Language Leam ing vvhich was prim arily concem ed with converting the classroom into a warm and supportive “com m unity” in which leam ers were helped to move from complete dependence on the teacher to complete autonomy It is referred to as an aíĩectively-based method For Brown (1994b): what is íĩrst needed is for members to interact in an intemational relationship in which students and teacher join together to facilitate leam ing in a context o f valuing and prizing each individual in the group Although it has been attacked for its non-directiveness, lack o f cohesion, its valued contributions assumes that leam ing takes place best in an environm ent

o f mutual trust, mutual support and cooperation between teacher and leam ers and among leam ers themselves

Other language teaching methods that iníluence a lot are The Silent Way, Suggestopia, Total Physical Respond and Natural Approach Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages; the problem is that how teachers choose or combine appropriated and relevant methods to the aims and objectives o f their language course, their leamers and their own teaching context

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CLT, which aims at íocusing on communicative proficiency by replicating contextual features o f real communication in the classroom , has been the dominant language teaching methodology emerged in the mid 1970s and 1980s However, different and even contradictory views emerged during the latter h alf o f the twentieth century.

As W inddowson (1990) mentions “ Knowing a language does not mean to understanđ, speak, read or write sentences, it means to know how sentences are used to comm unicate effect.” Since the purpose is to accept language as a tool for communication, the teachers should tum this principle into action by using íiinctional syllabus in their language class

CLT is grounded on a theory o f language as communication The goal o f CLT is to create a realistic context for language acquisition in the classroom in order to develop what Hymes (1972) reĩerred to as “comm unicative com petence” His theory o f c c o f w hat a speaker needs to know in order to be com m unicatively com petent in a speech community

A nother linguistic theory o f communication favored in CLT is H alliday’s íìinctional account o f language use The focus o f CLT is on functional usage and leam ers’ ability to express their own ideas, feelings, attitudes, desires and needs Open-ended questioning and problem -solving activities and exchanges o f personal information are utilized to enable leam ers to develop leam ers’ c c In this approach, “skill” has become more important than

“content” “A com petent speaker not only knows how to use linguistic form coưectly, but

is also able to use language appropriately with respect to context, interlocutor, and register Hymes (1972) argues

Since then, teaching methods have changed from “accuracy” to “ íluency” A view

o f teaching language as communication is a view in which meaning and the use to which language is put plays a center part “ M aster o f language use” is the way teaching students how “to m ean” as well as how “to form” Knowledge o f how the language functions in com m unication does not automatically follow from knowledge o f sentences Once we accept the need to teach language as communication, vve can obviously no longer think o f language in terms o f only sentences We must consider the nature o f discourse, and how best to teach it Teaching materials in the past have been largely derived from the products

o f theoretical sentence grammar We now need materials that derive from a description o f discourse; materials that affect the transfer from grammatical com petence, knowledge o f sentences, to what has been called c c , knowledge o f how sentences are used in the

períbrm ance o f communicative acts o f different kinds New series o f secondary textbooks provide us, the teachers, what we have expected for a long time With the design o f gram m ar lesson lastly after reading, listening, speaking and writing, grammar which appears in different contexts is Consolidated in some other forms o f exercises Teachers only need to design some suitable techniques such as using games, songs to make it more interesting GC remains in a perceptual State o f potentiality unless it is realized in communication The study o f discourse might indicate the nature o f such rules, and give us

som e clues as to Ỉ10W we m ight approach teaching them.

The diĩílculty is that the ability to compose sentences is not the only ability we need to communicate Knowing what is involved in putting sentences correctỉy is only one

part of what we niean by knowing a language, and it has very little value on its own: It has

to be supplem ented by a knovvledge o f what sentences count as in their normal use as a mean o f communication Teacher’s role in CLT is supporting and assisting the students in their production o f acceptable responses rather than towards assessing and correcting Teacher should be alert to sense vvhen and where help is needed and what form it should take “I, the teacher, am here to help you, the leam ers succeed and progress in your leam ing, not to judge, scold or make you feel inferior” (Ur, 1998) Leam ers’ activation depends on teacher’s organization A well-designed grammatical activity should be based

on task that has clear objectives and entails active use o f the structure being practice; and it should maintain leam ers’ interest and motivation through careful choice o f topic, with different kinds o f suitable activities

Unlike the traditional methods o f leam ing and teaching, in a CLT approach, leam ers are required to take part in a num ber o f m eaningíul activities with different tasks This is to improve leam ers' c c by encouraging them to be a part o f the lessons themselves

O ur students can use the foreign language to deíĩne, classify, generalize, promise, predict, describe, and so on They can aware o f how the language is used for the particular kind o f com m unication they are concem ed with, special the nature o f different com municative acts, the way they are realized, the way they combine in diíĩerent varieties o f language use

This way can enable leam ers to manage the new structures and develop their comm unicative skills at the same time However, the question is whether CLT is appropriate to local contexts and cultures, and how it might be adapted and used by teachers and leam ers in relevant ways Communicative needs are diversiíied in diíĩerent

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settings or c c can mean different things for different groups o f foreign language leamers One size doesn’t fit all Canh (2000, p 77) finds out:

‘Although Vietnamese teachers take a positive view o f the communicative approach to language teaching, they find it difficult to use this approach for their pedagogical practice There are various reasons for this constraint in using communicative methods but the most important ones are the diữìculty in creating

“realistic second language situations” for their students who have no real-life

conimunicative needs in the target language on the one hand, and the pressures to prepare their students for the discrete-point examinations, on the o th er To facilitate innovations in teaching methodologies, there must be some macro-changes, the most significant o f which is to reform the testing system Communicative teaching should be supported by com m unicative testing It is crucial that teachers should be made to be aware that Canale and Sw ain’s (1980) model o f communicative competence is not applicable to every context’

A common misconception is that CLT does not include the teaching o f gram mar (Thom pson, 1996) Some teachers believe that it is good to limit their students only in doing something like improving the com municative com petence o f their students They pay little attention to the grammatical structure o f their students’ speaking This is only one side o f the coin We all know that grammar is not only the core o f a language, but a theoretical tool in regulating language Those above- mentioned teachers ignore this idea; they pay their attentions only to the communicative function o f the language and reject grammar

AU in all, “to have an effective period o f grammar teaching, teachers must bear in mind that the purpose o f teaching grammar is to help the students ỉeam the language, and the teachers must be wary o f making grammar end o f their teaching Teachers should also consider altem atives to traditional grammar instruction, such as gram m ar consciousness- raising tasks" (Fotos & EIlis, 1991; Fotos, 1994) For Fotos (1994), gram m ar CR task can

be a valuable technique in prom oting GC in com m unicative classroom : can understand gram m ar structures and use them in com m unication Teachers should also leam “how to treat gram m ar more communicatively in the classroom and how to match grammar instruction with leam ers’ needs as well as their preferences” (Canh, 2004, p 147)

1.2.3 Consciousness-raising approach

CR is often claimed to hold a 'm iddle-ground position' betxveen two extreme approaches to teaching L2 grammar (Yip, 1994, p 124; see also Nunan, 1991, p 151) At one end o f the scale is the zero approach advocated by Krashen's vvork, at the other

traditional grammar based approaches This rather static view can be challenged by a different One considering the evolution of language teaching methođology through the past decades: The claim that the teaching of grammar is a waste o f time is thus to be seen as a reaction to older approaches using extensive grammar drilling and consequently Rutherford's C R stands for the pendulum svvinging back but taking into account more recent findings of second language acquisition research as well as benefits of communicative approaches.

It has to be pointed out, however, that grammatical C R cannot be considered simply as a movement 'back to grammar’ because it is characterized by several important differences to older approaches: First of all, it does not aim the production of the target structure in the short term but íbcuses on long-term leaming objectives, accepting that at the moment a structure is taught it may not be leamable for the leamer Furthermore, grammar does not have to be taught in the form o f explicit rules, the leamer may also be led to grammatical insights implicitly (this is not a new ideal but seems to have been overlooked in strictly grammar-based approaches) Thirdly, the focus on meaning introduced by the communicative movement is not abandoned and texts that have been produced for communication are preferred over concocted examples (W illis & W illis, 1996) Reíerring to what has been said about the term C R in its everyday use meaning, one might dare to say that grammatical C R postulates that 'the language is grammatical' rather than 'the language is grammar'

1.2.3.1 W hat is C R ?

Most authors using the tenrn 'grammatical consciousness-raising' rely on Rutheríord (1987) C R is an important topic throughout Rutherford’s book, but interestingly he also offers a strikingly brief (while very broad) explanation of the term in his glossary: "the drawing o f the learner's attention to /ea tu res o f the target language" (my emphasis) Hence the ĩunction of grammar C R is to highlight certain grammatical topics for the leamer to develop his or her awareness of them for the moment he or she wil! be ready to insert this specific feature into the developing L2 system, thus to acquire it While a considerable number o f such topics can be handled by the leamers themselves, grammar

C R can indeed help to prevent the fossilization of eưors where the language would provide only negative evidence to the leamer (Rogers, 1994) and can also accelerate the acquisition

ĐA! HỌC QUÓC GIA HÀ NỘI TRUNG TAM THÒNG TIN ĨHƯ VIỀN

Ũ Ị 0 Â M Ề Ễ U

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of grammatical structures in L2 leaming He consequently sees grammatical CR as a means of “ illuminating the leamer’s path from the known to the unknovvn”.

According to Nunan (1991, p 149), C R rẹịects the split between conscious leaming and subconscious acquisition However, it also contrasts with traditional grammatical instruction in a number of important respects Unlike traditional approaches to teach grammar, C R fu!fíls a process rather than product role: it is a ĩacilitator, a means to an end rather than an end in itself Leamers must ‘notice the gap between their own production and that o f native speakers’ (Schmidt and Frota, 1986, cited in Nunan, 1991) One function for CR is to assist leamers to ‘ notice the gap’ Taking a rather diííerent line from Nunan, Smith (1981) arguing that ‘traditional’ instruction is one type of CR

CR can be realized in many different ways, and there are numerous Creative techniques for sensitizing leamers to grammatical principles within a communicative context There are many ways of teaching grammar, and it is wrong to imply that teachers are conữonted with two mutually exclusive choices when it comes to teaching grammar: either avoiding the teaching o f grammar altogether, or retuming to a ‘traditional’ form- focus approach

Ellis (1993) contrasts C R with practice activities Among the characteristics of

C R he lists:

The ‘attempt to is o la te a speciíìc linguistic feature for íocused attention’ From the wealth of language data to which leamers are exposed we identify particular features and draw the leamer’s attention speciĩically to these

The provision o f ‘d a t a which illustrate the targeted feature’ It is our contention that this data should as far as possible be drawn from texts, both spoken and written, which leamers have already processed for meaning, and that

as far as possible those texts should have been produced for a communicative purpose, not simply to illustrate íeatures o f the language

The requirement that leamers ‘ utilize in te ỉỉe c t u a l e ffo r t’ to understand the targeted íeature There is a deliberate attempt to involve the leamer in hypothesizing about the data and to encourage hypothesis testing

1.2.1.2 \V h a t a r e C R activities?

According to W illis & W illis (1996), teacher provides C R activities which encourage leamers to think abouí samples of language and to draw their own conclusions about how the language works Leamers could be left to work out the grammar for themselves C R activities have been a part of language teaching for a long time Indeed the grammar-translation approach to language teaching certainly embodied CR, leamers work from language data to formulate rules for language production These are C R activities which we can use:

Step 1: Identify/ Consolidate

Students are asked to search a set of data to identiíy a particular pattem or usage and the language forms associated with it

Step 2: Classify (semantic; structural)

Students are required to work with a set of data and sort it according to similarities and differences based on formal or semantic criteria

Step 3: Hypothesis building/ checking

Students are given (or asked to make) a generalization about language and asked to check again this against more language data

Step 4: Cross-language exploration

Students are encouraged to íìnd similarities and differences between patteming in their own language and patteming in English

Step 5: Reconstruction/ Deconstruction

Students are required to manipulate language in ways vvhich reveal underlying pattems

natural follow-up (o a CR task would be a communicative task using the target structure This gives the teacher an opportunity to assess how well the students are able to use the grammar C R is thereíore considered as a combination or a key to bridging the gap betvveen traditional grammar íòcused teaching and CLT.

'Do both Those are the two words I write most often in margins when I read academic articles about the teaching of grammar in second- language instruction Focus on íluency or accuracy? Do both, in proper balance give the students’ needs and goals? Have students work with grammar structures inductively or deductively?

Do both: you never know where any particular student’s “Aha” is going to come from Use authentic or adapted language? Students need both Work with sentence- level vs connected-discourse material? Both can have good pedagogical purpose and eíTect Engage in open-ended communicative interaction or controlled respond exercises? Both are beneíìt for students Explicit instruction or communicative exposure? Both.“Focus on awareness rather than períbrmance” in teaching grammar? (Ellis, 2002: 29) My handvvritten note in the margin: Do both ’

B eíty (2007)

Betty (2007) helped the researcher come to the end of the literature review Through this chapter, the researcher was provided a better understanding the phenomenon and that could help her do the research more scientiĩically The researcher took these criteria to measure her students’ GC In fact, to improve mountainous students’ GC, beíòre

C R were applicd, the researcher investigated the reality of grammar teaching and leaming

at her school, then she measured the students by asking them doing quizzes and tests; to know how her students communicate accuraíely and íluently, she created communicative situations and encouraged them to speak as much as they can The next chapter will be the place for restating the research questions and discussing the research method used

CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2.1 Background of the study

2.1 ỉ The course

By the publication of new series of textbook in 2006, the Vietnamese Ministry o f Education and Training (M O ET) has promoted the use o f communicative teaching methodology in the English classroom, especially syllabus approach to grammar teaching: the ability to communicate set as the syllabus goals To stress the importance of developing students’ ability to use English for the purpose of everyday communication, MOET shows that teaching English in secondary schools is to help students to use English as a tool to communicate at a basic level in the forms o f listening, speaking, reading and writing

The textbooks currently used to teach English are Tieng Anh 10, Tieng Anh 11, Tieng Anh 12 with two sets: the advanced and the Standard ones The teaching content o f English textbooks follows the theme-based approach and is developed on six broad themes The six themes are subdivided into 16 topics coưesponding with 16 units and a “Test yourseir’ after every 3 units A li units have the same structure, starting with the theme o f the unit, following four lessons íocused on language skills and ending with language focus Language skills are developed in parallel with the development o f such language knovvledge as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation

With strengths, the textbooks are expected to contribute better quality of English leaming in Vietnam high schools In terms o f curriculum development, the introduction o f the new textbook can be new fresh air blowing into the teaching and leaming situation at secondary schools in Vietnam However, to a large number of mountainous students, the English textbooks are very difficult Very often the amount of new vocabulary in one unit was too much for students In addition, many topics in their English textbooks were strange

to their daily lives and background Grammar lesson is a part of Language Focus, which also includes Pronunciation and it takes at least 15 minutes, hence there are only 30 minutes for grammar Comparing to other periods of skill development, Language Focus lessons seem to be the most difficult and the most uninteresting

2.1.2 The students

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The study was conducted in a mountainous school where mạịority of students have a lot of difficulties both in living and studying condition Most o f the students in this mountainous school do not have much time and good conditions for studying like students

in Hanoi They do not also have good physical construction compared to those in cities due

to the poor living condition Many students’ English level is low and Vietnamese language skills are limited In fact, the students have been entered the school by an entrance examination including Math, Literature and English with total marks for all three subjects just over zero Besides, the lack of modem school equipment and qualifíed teaching facilities also affect their study For them, English is simply an obligatory subject; they leam it mainly for marks, the only goal is to pass the tests The time, the input and exposure to the language are limited to the classroom Thereíore, they seem to be passive

in leaming Students listen to their teachers and repeat passively and give a mechanical response They are likely to become demotivated to English leaming, depending much on the textbook and teachers’ method of delivery Language activities like role plays, problem-solving tasks, or iníbrmation gap activities, thereíore, seem strange to their culture of leaming Even, when they fail to understand something, they are not daring enough to ask for clariíĩcation in public Thereíore, the teacher seems to be the sole provider o f experience in the target language in this English leaming environment

2.1.3 The teachers

M OET has stated that the objective of language teaching is teaching leamers to communicate íluently, appropriately and spontaneously in the cultural context of the target language To meet the demand of leamers o f English, teachers o f English in Vietnam have been trying to catch up with the world’s latest frameworks o f English Language Teaching

as well as to ĩind out the most suitable and effective method of teaching English with the hope o f providing leamers with a means of communication, namely English which is vital for thern to be successful in their job and to fulfill their social demands in the time o f globalization

At TNDUSS, there are 10 teachers o f English currently working, nine íemales and only one male Their ages range from 28 to 36 Their experience in teaching English varies from 6 to 14 years They are considered young to meet the need of updating the new methods of teaching With regard to teaching methods, as teachers of English in many other provinces in Yen Bai, teachers of English at TNDUSS are now more communication-

oriented However, some get used to speech dominated education by a teacher-centered, book-centered, Grammar Translation Method and an emphasis on rote memory.

At time the researcher drew up the problems in the teaching staff meetings and shared the same opinions from other teachers of English in this school, she then tried out some small changes with a hope that her students would be more motivated with the new materials and those worked Thus in the study she was strongly determined to make a well- planned project on the area o f applying some C R activities in teaching grammar in second term units in English 10

2.2 Research questions

With above objectives, the research questions developed for the study were:

ì) What are the s tu d e n ts ' attitudes tow ards gram m ar lesso n s?

2) H ow do teachers treat gram m ar lessons in a m ountaỉnous schooỉ?

3) What are the s tu d e n ts ' reactions to C-R activities applied in gram m ar lessons? How C-R activities ạffect s tu d e n ts ’ gram m atical com petence?

To answer to these questions would serve to give insight into the effective of C R activities

on secondary students’ grammatical competence

2.3 Research approach

In order to fmd out the answer to the research questions, the researcher decided to conduct an action research The action research vvas chosen because it is a systematic, reílective study o f researcher's actions, and the effects of these actions, in her workplace context It involves deep inquiry into her professional practice The researcher examined her work and sought opportunities for improvement As a designer, she worked with colleagues

to propose new courses of action that help their community improve work practices As a researcher, she sought evidence from multiple sources to analyze reactions to the action taken She recognized her own view as subjective and sought to develop her understanding

o f the events from multiple perspectives She used đata collected to characterize the íorces in ways that could be shared with practitioners This leads to a reílective phase in which the designer formulates new plans for action during the next cycle

Beíore discussing the compatibility o f the thesis’ aims with action research, some literature of action research should be presented íìrst Reason & Bradbury (2007) deíĩne action research as “ an interactive inquiry process that balances problem solving actions implemented in a collaborative context A teacher could not begin to practice vvithout

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some knowledge of the situation in which they are operating and some idea of what it is that needs to be done The researcher chose action research to understand, to improve and

to see the effect o f planned change in her practice

According to Elliott (1991), action research investigates everyday problems experienced by teachers In the other words, action research involves the gathering of evidence about practice “ I experience a problem when some o f my education values are negated in my practice” (Whitehead, 1985) And then, action research proceeds through a process of planning, action and reílection upon action This can be thought o f as an action- reílection “cycle” :

la<c Action

co CC1 aTdATa'yzo Evioonoe

Co oc: a-ứ

a V2C Lvĩccrcc

Reílect

CO OC! aTd A'i3 yzc LviOOrx»

P'ogress ve Prob e n Solv ng w t" ActiO'' Research

(Source: From Wikipedia, the fr e e encyclopedia)

This form o f research then is an iterative, cyclical process o f reílecting on practice, taking an action, reflecting, and taking ĩurther action Thereíore, the research takes shape while it is being performed Greater understanding from each cycle points the way to improved actions The results of this type o f research are practical, relevant, and can iníòrm theory Critical reílection is at the heart o f Action Research and when this reílection

is based on careful examination of evidence from multiple perspectives; it can provide an

effective strategy for improving the organization's ways o f working and the whole organizational climate Action research takes place in cycles Each cycle is a discrete experiment—taking action as a way o f studying change.

An action research is a design experiment It is designed with an eye toward deeper understanding o f change However, from the researcher’s point o f view, an action research alvvays provides insights into a complex instance and contribuíes, more or less, to the íìeld

it belongs to

2.4 Participants

This study was carried out within class 10A1 consisting o f 41 male and female students at TNDUSS in Yen Bai A ll o f them are at the same age o f flfìeen to sixteen The reason for the choice of this class because this is the best group among others, it was hoped that they could easily catch up with the application; they have also had four years’ experience at ]ower secondary school and half a year at upper secondary school, they are believed to have more to say about grammar teaching and leaming Grade 11 and grade 12 are more preoccupied with examination preparation so their response to the research questions might be influenced by their examination-biased perspectives

Students in class 10A1 are considered better than their ửiends at the same grade Most of them share their joy o f leaning English and make their active participation in practicing Speaking, Reading, Listening and Writing tasks and activities, except for Grammar During the time the researcher has been vvorking with her students, she has made some intervievvs and observations to fínd out the reasons Students used to study grammar with traditional methods which really made students bored and tired For any of them do not like some tasks and activities in their textbooks because they are too long, too difficult and uninteresting

2.5 Data Collection Instruments

In order to get inĩormation, the main data collection instruments for this study were interviews, classroom observations, a questionnaire for students and a test

2.5.1 ínterviews

Selinger and Shohamy (1989) point out that the use o f intervievv as a data collection instrument permits a level o f in-depth infonnation, free response, and ílexibility that cannot be obtained by other procedures Although an interview usually requires considerable time commitments from both the interviewer and interviewees, it is an

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excellent way to collect data In other vvords, interview is an extremely useful and valuable way to get in-depth and comprehensive information.

In this study, the iníbrmal interviews with 2 0 voluntarily students were held in ordcr to obtain the iníòrmation on their attitudes towards grammar lessons In so doing, the researcher aimed to íĩnd out their difficulties and desires in teaching and leaming grammar Each iníbrmal interview lasted for about 15 minutes on average and was conducted only in Vietnamese, for the interviewees felt comfortable and easy to express Basic intervievv questions were prepared (see A ppendix 2). With interviewees’ pemiission, the intervievvs werc note-taken A ll interview data were analyzed interpretatively (j'or details o f the inter\’iew, see A ppendix 4).

The observations were conducted in three Language Focus lessons at grade 10 of three teachers The teachers vvere asked for permission beíore being observed The observations strengthened the iníormation gathered in the interviews

2.5.3 Questionnaire

The questionnaire designed for the students was distributed to them aíìer C R were applied A1I questions and their items were written in Vietnamese to make sure that the students could have a clear understanding o f the questions and ansvvers Furthermore, using their native language the students were able to express their thought more easily in open- ended questions The questionnaire consisted o f two parts Part one was intended to collect personal information of the participants, such as their age, gender, years o f leaming English Part two consisted o f 8 questions both close and open-ended questions The purpose of the questionnaire was to investigate the students’ awareness o f the importance

o f grammar, their evaluation of cuưent grammar teaching in the Language Focus lessons and C R activities.

2.5.4 Quizzes and Tests

For Elana (2002), a language test is a procedure or device for measuring and evaluating a person’s language knovvledge A language test today attempts to tap language use, communicative ability, connected discourse and períòrmance o f real authentic language There are many types of tests but the researcher chose achievement test in this study The achievement evaluate “ the test-taker’s language in relation to a given curriculum or material vvhich the test-taker had gone through in a given course” (Elana,

2 0 0 2) Quizzes were carried out immediately in five minutes after the lessons had been íìnished; tests were designed after all eight lessons and done in 45 minutes: Beíòre the real test was prepared, a sample test had been done for the students to get used to the model

2.6 Data Collection Procedure

According to Selinger and Shohamy (1989), once the researcher has selected a speciíìc design for the study which is consistent with the objectives o f the research, the next step is to collect the research data In collecting the data it is important to use procedures which elicit high quality data, since the quality o f any research study depends largely on the quality o f the data collected and the data collection procedure

This study started in the school year 2010-2011 Firstly, the researcher analyzed the English curriculum and the instructions for teaching and assessing English provided by MOET The purpose vvas to identify the teaching approach used in the syllabus, the level

of students’ English that the curriculum wishes students to achieve During the íìrst semester, the researcher decided to conduct a group intervievv to get the íìrst data The researcher also observed some English Language Focus lessons sections in order to have the second input at what actually happened in class associated with grammar teaching, then she applied what she planned, collected and analyzed the evidence

Group interview was chosen as the íirst data collection instrument because of the two main reasons Firstly, group intervievv was time saving to both the researcher and the students interviewed Secondly, it allovved the intervievvees to share their ideas, to explain their leaming practices Thereíòre, it was hoped to provide the researcher with a rather deep understanding o f grammar from different points o f view

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The intervievv questions aimed at getting information about the students’ attitudes tovvards grammar, their diffículties as weỉl as their ideas to have better grammar periođs The data from the interview were converted into text in a way that was easy to write, easy

to read and easy to comprehend

To investigate the reality o f grammar leaming and teaching, the đata collected from interviewing the student is far from enough That is the reason why after finishing the interview, the researcher observed some more classes in order to collect more evidences for the conclusion o f the intervievv data analysis The three observed lessons are only involved Language Focus lessons with three grade 10 classes The researcher only acted as

a non-participating observer and took íìeld notes o f the classroom procedures These notes were then transcribed and analyzed to assess grammar teaching in the classroom in terms

of teachers’ methods and students’ reactions to the way grammar structures were taught

After eight periods of applying CR, a questionnaire on students’ opinions and comments on grammar teaching as well as their style preĩerences, both closed questions and open questions are composed The closed questions for factual and fairly predictable answers whereas open questions are for the answers in terms of opinions, beliefs and judgments, allow the respondents to feel that they can contribute more individual points o f view and more detail information The qucstions íòcus on the followings:

• Assess of the importance o f grammar(Q 1)

• Students’ evaluation o f current grammar teaching(Q2) and their styles preferences (Q3)

• Students’ reactions to C R activities applied in grammar lessons(Q4,5,6,7, 8 ) Besides, a five minute-quiz after each lesson vvas carried out to reílect partly whatstudents received from what they had just leamt, whether they understood the lessons or not And then the tests were designed to assess how C R activities aíĩected on students’ grammatical competence, to fínd out they are effective or not Due to the shortage of the time, the pilot test was conducted immediately before the achieved test with the aim to make students get used to with the test-form The tests were taken after eight periods of C R application with 35 questions covered all aspects of grammar the students had leamt on both language skills and language knovvledge The fírst four questions are about relative pronouns; the second four are about “ v v iir and “going to” ; the next four are about ing”

or “ iníinitive” ; and then are about conditionals and passive voice From questions 21 to 25 are for reading comprehension which íocuses on comparatives Students had to choose one word or phrase that must be changed in order for the sentence to be correct from questions

26 to 35 Through these achievement tests, the researcher could check the students’ understanding by their results, compare to their subjective perspectives through the questionnaire, and she could have more reliable data

2.7 Data Analvsỉs Procedure

lnterview data, class observation were then analyzed in accordance with data gathered from the questionnaire, the quizzes and the achieved test Data collected from these three sources were categorized into 1) mountainous students’ attitudes towards grammar, 2) mountainous teachers’ methods o f grammar teaching 3) students’ reactions tovvards C R activities and its affect to students’ grammatical competence The data were categorized to seek answers to the research questions established for this study The data were then analyzed both descriptively and interpretively

2.8 Summary

This chapter presented the research questions, the research methodology and instruments o f data collection By employing above four different instruments, the researcher hoped to achieve more reliable, valid data The next chapters w ill present the practical study and discuss the íìndings

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C H A P T E R T H R E E : T H E P R A C T IC A L STUDYThis chapter w ill describe carefully how the practical study happened by comparing and contrasting the enriched and various data.

3.1 Preliminary investigation: Data presentation of the interview and observation 3.1.1 Intervievv

To answer the íìrst research question, intervievvs were conducted with some guided questions The students were asked in Vietnamese and they answered the interview questions also in Vietnamese This was to guarantee the truthfulness o f the infoimation in case the students were not coníìdent enough in answering in English or they might get coníused in understanding the questions and in giving ansvvers to these questions {The f u l l transcript o f the interview ìs given in Âppendìx 4).

•Students ’ attitude towards ỉearnỉng Engỉish grammar.

The íìrst question asked the respondents whether they like English grammar or not The results showed a mạịority o f the students responded íavorably to the leaming English grammar (60%), still many o f them did not like (35% ), and one answered neither liked nor đisliked Most o f the students were aware o f the beneíĩts o f leaming grammar Typical reasons they gave for their interest in leaming grammar included: Grammar is a key to successful communication, more easily and more accurately- good understanding of grammar helps a lot in reading and translating books, in vvidening the knowledge; Grammar also helps students much in doing their homework and tests; and English grammar is simpler, clearer and more logical than Vietnamese grammar

With regard to their negative attitudes tovvards leaming grammar, some students explained that they did not And grammar interesting, sometimes because of the methods the teacher employed to teach them For them, English grammar was too diffícult, too complex, and not easy to remember and apply in doing exercises or in real Iife Interestingly, One among them did not like English grammar but he could see the active side of the Language Focus lesson; he said he liked this period because it helped him understand more the structures The student who neither liked nor disliked gave the reason that the grammar lesson didn’t motivate him, many lessons he couldn’ t understand The one who answered didn’t like grammar very much because he had not got much grammar knovvledge since primary and secondary school

• S tu den ts ’ difficu ỉties in ỉearning English gram m ar

A ll students stated that they íầced a lot o f difficulties in leaming grammar Many of them complained that English words were too difficult to pronounce, and because of their lack of vocabulary knovvledge, they met a lot of diffìculties in understanding and changing English word forms This supported the “ strong relationship that exists betvveen grammar and vocabulary” (Hedge 2000, p 145) For them, the English structures were difficuỉt to use, to apply in doing exercises; diffícult to remember, easy to forget Also, they had a few opportunities to apply the leamed structures to communicate because the exercises were not easy; they often had not enough time to practice the structures they had leamed, and those were the reasons why they knew the structures and words but failed to express them

Moreover, many of them said that the way o f expressing ideas in English was different from Vietnamese; thereíore they were afraid o f making mistakes when using English Furthermore, the way their teacher presented grammar structures was not really interesting, so it was not attractive enough for students to concentrate- their teacher mainly took examples in the text book, gave the structures or íòrms, explained in Vietnamese and then asked students to do the exercise; sometimes they let them play a game but only in left time and in fear o f affecting neighbored classes Large class size also caused difficulty for their study, so they did not have much chance to practice or get teacher’s attention Finally, teaching aids were not available and the leaming facilities were poor, vvhich made more difficult to study effectively

• Students ’ contributed ỉdeas to have an effective English g ra m m a r period.

When responding the suggestion of giving ideas for a better English grammar period, all o f the students expressed their motivation and actively vvanted to make some contributions to it Exams was paid attention to, so they expected their teacher to explain the structures carefully, gave more examples, especially in communicative situations and revised the leamed knowledge as well as practiced the new ones; many o f them suggested the teacher giving them more grammar exercises as well as provided them key words

As they mentioned above, they had a few communicative opportunities to use English, many o f them expected their teacher to create more communicative situations and encouraged them to join Some of them found grammar lessons stressful, sometimes boring with ineffective activities which were repeated day by day Some wished their teacher more comfortable, more easy-going, and more Creative in methodology such as using

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pictures, visưal teaching aids, more games and outdoor activities which imitated T V game- shows They expressed their preoccupation with teacher’s mood: 'W e do not like learning One reason is that we fear the teacher because the teacher som etim es enters the cỉassroom bringing with her tenseness and frustration We aỉl fe e l stressful

Not surprisingly, unless the teacher created a relaxing atmosphere in the classroom, the students could not motivate in leaming Although they expected some eíĩorts from their teacher, they themselves realized that they had to make effort too, and they highly appreciated self -studying One student did not take care how their teacher taught, because

he thought that it depended on the students themselves; if they worked hard, they would have better results and vice verse Another student expressed his satisfaction vvith the present method of his teacher A student, may be a good one, wished to leam more other structures in a period but another wished to have reduced knovvledge Therefore one student bravely suggested that teachers shouid have suitable methods for diíTerent levels of students Generally, they íound the teaching materials authentic and suitable to them Only several students vvished the teaching materials less diffìcult and more interesting

From the students’ response, we can see that most of the students recognized the importance of grammatical knowledge not only to their study in the classroom but also to their use o f the language for communication outside the classroom A focus on grammar is obviously a necessary or a desirable part of classroom language leaming

3.1.2 Class observations

To have more authentic data from what the students said, three classroom observations were carried out to provide second data During two weeks, the researcher visited three grammar lesson taught by three different teachers at TNDUSS Due to technical constraints, the researcher did not videotape or audiotape the lessons she observed Instead, she took notes of the classroom procedures and activities in the most possible đetailed manner to co mpare to field notes of the interviews After analyzing three class observation notes, she pointed out some following results:

3.1.2.1 R esults/rom observations o f classes I0A 2 and Ỉ0A4

Similar to the data gained from questionnaire, the data from class observations revealed that the teachers presented grammar in different vvays but still mainly traditional methods, used a lot of Vietnamese to explain the use and meaning of grammar structures, then tried to explain the use and form of the grammar items illustrates this phenomenon

Students could master the structures rather well, might apply in doing exercises quickly but thc lessons were not different much from a natural Science subject The class observations also shovved that the teachers did not have enough time to go through all the stages, from presentation to focused practice to communicative practice A1I of the two teachers observed just concentrated on the íìrst two stages as they engaged in only presentation and controlled practice The teachers did not have chances to organize any communicative activities because they were in a repeated cycle of explanation and exercise There were no instances o f free production Most o f the class time, the students were asked to do the written exercises to remember the forms o f the target grammar structures rather than to use the language for Communications.

3.1.2.2 Result /r o m observation o f class 10B4

In this period, the teacher used visual teaching aids, used questions to elicit the students’ knovvledge in her teaching, and delivered handouts to make something different from the text book She also organized pair work, group work, games or role playing for the students to take part in The teacher gave comments when the students did something good which encourage them to participate in the class activities The students đid exercises orally and actively joined the pair vvork, group work or role playing The teacher created exciting, relaxing, supporting and ửiendly atmosphere in the class but the students seemed

to have some vague knovvledge and thereíore could not do the exercises well

After collecting data from interviews and observations, the researcher could identify the problems more clearly and she strongly wanted to make intervention for these problems

3.2.1 The design and aỉms of CR activities

As you have seen above, there are seven main steps with numerous Creative techniques in a C R lesson (W illis & W illis, 1996) to sensitize leamers to grammatical principles within a communicative context C R activities encourage leamers to think about samples o f language and to draw their own conclusions about how the language works C R activities are to help students to identiíy or recall and remember eíĩectively English structures through communicative contexts and practice in communicative situations

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