A study on difficulties in studying grammar of english majored students at faculty of english, thuongmai university

This study aimed to investigate the difficulties in grammar learning perceived by majored - students at Faculty of English, Thuongmai University.. This study also find out the factors af

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THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH FACULTY

ABSTRACT 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 4 CHAPTER 1: Overview of the study _ 5

1, Rationale of the study 5

2, Aims of the study 5

3, Research questions _ 6

4, Research subjects 6

5, Scope of the study: _ 6

6, Reasearch methodology: _ 6

7, Design of the study: _ 6

CHAPTER 2: Literature review 7

2.1: Definitions of grammar _ 7 2.2: Role of grammar in English language teaching and learning _ 8

2.2.1: For-grammar perspectives 9 2.2.2: Against-grammar perspectives 10

2.3: Explicit and Implicit approaches to grammar teaching 10 2.4: Deductive and Inductive approaches to grammar instruction _ 12 2.5: Grammar teaching in the major teaching methods 14 2.6: Conclusion: _ 16

CHAPTER 3: Research methodology: 16

3.1: Methodology: _ 16

3.1.1: Subject of the study: _ 16 3.1.2: Research instruments: _ 17 3.1.4: Data analysis procedure 18

3.2 : Research results: _ 19

3.2.1: Findings from questionnaires for the students _ 19 3.2.2: Findings from interviews _ 27

CHAPTER 4: Recommendations and suggestions 28

4.1 Summary of the findings 28

This study aimed to investigate the difficulties in grammar learning perceived by majored - students at Faculty of English, Thuongmai University The results of this study show that the students have specific problems in learning grammar, such as lack of

English-fundamental knowledge, ineffective learning strategies, lack of intrinsic motivation and unsuitable materials This study also find out the factors affecting language acquisition and suggests some solutions to reduce their grammar difficulties and help students to

obtain desirable results in learning grammar

lessons to me during my study

Besides, I would like to show my sincere thanks to all the third-year students in the English Faculty at Thuongmai University for their enthusiastic participation and completing the survey questionnaire Their cooperation is a significant contribution to the sources of data in this study In addition, I'd like to express my gratitude to all of the writers of the books, papers, and other materials listed in the reference section for their insights and knowledge, which have been reflected and expanded upon in this research Finally, I would like to extend my sincerest thanks to my family and friends They are the people who have always been by my side, supporting and encouraging me throughout

my study and growth They are always a great motivation to overcome challenges in the process of doing this research And I will never forget how grateful I am to my parents for lending wings to my dreams

There will be some flaws in this study due to the limited knowledge, practical abilities, and time As a result, I am hoping for further suggestions and feedback to help

me strengthen this graduation paper

Hanoi, April 14th, 2022

Phuong

Nguyen Minh Phuong

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CHAPTER 1: Overview of the study

1, Rationale of the study

It is impossible to deny that English has become a widespread medium of communication for people all around the world As part of the global integration movement, Vietnam has been increasingly active in training active and dynamic Vietnamese who can communicate effectively in English That is why, in 2002, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) established new goals for English language instruction in higher education as well as introduced new series

of English textbooks from grade 6 to grade 12

The new English textbooks for students are divided into two sets: the advanced and the standard They are claimed to adopt the latest teaching and learning approaches: communicative approach and learner-centered approach and aim at developing both language skills and language knowledge for students Each unit in the new English textbooks consists of five parts: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing and Language Focus, among which the Language Focus sections are to consolidate students‟ pronunciation and grammar

Since their nationwide implementation in the 2006-2007 school year, a significant amount of research has been conducted to evaluate these new textbooks, as well as to learn how they are actually implemented and the challenges that teachers and university students face when teaching and learning using the new textbooks The majority of these research, on the other hand, have focused on the teaching and learning of the four language skills, which are thought to be novel to both teachers and students In the Language Focus section, there is still a dearth of research on the teaching and learning of language aspects More significantly, it has yet to be determined whether teachers genuinely teach grammar communicatively or via traditional approaches As a result,, it is necessary to carry out more research on how teachers and students teach and learn grammar in the actual classroom

Moreover, after four years of studying English at Thuongmai university, the researcher observed that the teachers and learners there faced a number of difficulties not only in teaching and learning the four language skills but also in teaching and learning grammar during time

Stimulated by the above reasons, the researcher has decided to conduct this study It is hoped that this study will discover the difficuties in learning grammar

of English-majored students in order to contribute some immediate solutions

2, Aims of the study

With the rationale above, my study was conducted with the aims:

- To investigate the difficulties of English-majored students in learning English grammar

- To investigate factors affecting the grammar acquisition

- To recommend some solutions for students to overcome these difficulties

3, Research questions

The research was carried out with an attempt to find out the answers to the

following questions:

1 What are the main difficulties in learning English grammar?

2 What are the causes of these difficulties?

3 What are the suggested solutions to overcome the difficulties?

4, Research subjects

The study was conducted on 110 students studying English major at Thuongmai University They are the English- majored students Because they have almost had experience in English major, so most of them have a quite good command of English written communication including grammar knowledge From that, the researcher hope to reveal the general view on other subjects who are students in other colleges and universities

5, Scope of the study:

As mentioned earlier, there are two sets of the new English textbooks for students: the advanced and the standard sets This study is only aimed at investigating the reality of teaching grammar in the standard sets

This study is limited to the teaching and learning reality with regard to teaching and learning grammar in Language Focus lessons The investigation of teaching and learning language skills and pronunciation will be beyond the scope

of this study

This study is a detailed survey at English-majored students Therefore, the findings of the study are not intended to be generalized to other school contexts Indeed the findings may not apply beyond the actual participants in this particular study

6, Reasearch methodology:

The research is done by both quantitative and qualitative methods The instruments were used to collect data from the English- majored students at Thuongmai University with the intention of addressing the aims of the study

Questionnaire instrument was used to investigate the current situation of learning English grammar of students, their difficulties, the causes for the difficulties

Class observation was employed to get information about the teacher’s methods and the students’ ways of learning English grammar The researcher observed three

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The major part of the study, the Development, is divided into three

chapters Chapter one provides theoretical background for the study Chapter two presents the methodology of the study and the last chapter is devoted to analyzing and discussing the findings of the study

The Conclusion part provides a brief summary of the findings in

correspondence with the three proposed research questions as well as offering some recommendations for better grammar teaching and learning The limitations

of and suggestions for further study are also discussed in this chapter

Besides, the survey questionnaire for the teachers and students, the classroom observation transcripts and the interview transcripts are included in the Appendices

CHAPTER 2: Literature review

2.1: Definitions of grammar

Concerning the terms “grammar”, several researchers have attempted to define it Apparently, depending on one‟s theoretical orientation, different people define grammar differently

The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (as cited in Harmer,

1987, p.1) defines grammar as “the study and practice of the rules by which words change their forms and are combined into sentences.” There are two basic elements in this definition: the rules of grammar; and the study and practice of the rules Here grammar constitutes a subset of rules relating to word formation (morphology) and sentence formation (syntax)

Huddleston (1984) shares the similar view when seeing grammar as consisting of morphology and syntax According to him, morphology deals with forms of words while syntax deals with the ordering of the words to form sentences (p 1)

As can be inferred from the two definitions above, grammar is conventionally seen as the study of morphology and syntax of sentences

Cobbett (1984) regards grammar as “constituting rules and principles that help a person to make use of words or manipulate and combine words to give meaning in a proper manner It concerns with form and structure of words and their relationships in sentences”

According to Fromkin and Rodman (1998), "The sounds and sound patterns, the basic units of meaning such as words and the rules to combine them

to form new sentences constitute the grammar of a language" (p.14)

There are several similarities among two above-cited definitions The first thing is that according to these authors, grammar is assumed to be a guide through

which words are put together to make correct sentences Secondly, grammar is composed of rules not only relating to word formation (morphology) and sentence formation (syntax) but also concerned with the meaning of the sentence (semantics) and the sound system (phonology) within a language

However, one drawback that all four definitions above (in both the first and second categories) have in common is that grammar has been concerned almost exclusively with the analysis at the level of the sentence I am in favour of Widdowson (1990) with the claim that “grammar is not just a collection of sentence patterns signifying nonsense” (p 81)

For Thornbury (1999), grammar is not just rules on how to combine words

at the sentence level, but it also takes into account the role of context in which a sentence is made He says that “when we process language we are not only trying

to make sense of the words and the grammar, we are also trying to infer the speaker‟s (or writer‟s) intention” (p 6)

Hughes and McCarthy (1998) view grammar as discourse not as sentence and coined the term discourse grammar They argued that “grammatical statements that do not take account of such contextual features are inadequate and unable to support grammar teaching effectively.” (p 265)

For the purpose of the study, I use the definition of Richards, Platt, and Platt (1992) in their Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics:

Grammar is a description of the structure of a language and the way

in which linguistic units such as words and phrases are combined to

produce sentences in the language It usually takes into account the

meanings and functions these sentences have in overall system of

the language It may or may not include the description of the sound

of a language (p.161)

In this definition, grammar is viewed as descriptive, which refers to the structure of a language as it is actually used by speakers and writers Moreover, this definition shows both linguistic and social features of grammar as it refers to not only rules to make correct sentences but also meanings and functions of such sentences in the language, which is necessary for the teaching and learning of foreign language

2.2: Role of grammar in English language teaching and learning

Along the history of second language teaching, the role of grammar has been an issue

“communication cannot take place in the absence of structure, or grammar” (p 268) In agreement with Savignon, in their communicative competence model, Canale and Swain (1980) clearly view grammar as one component of communicative competence and without grammar, learners can communicate effectively only in a limited number of situations

After reviewing ideas on the role of grammar teaching, Nunan (1991) came

to a conclusion that "grammar exists to enable us to 'mean', and without grammar

it is impossible to communicate beyond a very rudimentary level.” Furthermore, Wilkins (as cited in Nunan, 1991, p 152), one of the architects of communicative approach to language teaching, also points out that “acquiring the grammatical system of the target language is of central importance, because an inadequate knowledge of grammar would severely constrain linguistic creativity and limit the capacity for communication”

The list of supporters of grammar is still going on Long and Richards (1987) assert that grammar plays a central role in the four language skills and vocabulary to establish communicative tasks Brown (2007) points out that

“grammatical competence occupies a prominent position as a major component of communicative competence” (p 348)

For Palmer (1984), the central part of a language is its grammar, and this should be of “vital interest to any intelligent educated person If it has not been of such interest, then the fault must be in the failure to recognize its importance within

this essentially human activity” (p 9)

The strongest advocate of this view is Krashen (1983, 1987), who is famous for his learning and acquisition hypothesis and his Monitor theory Based

on his learning and acquisition hypothesis, Krashen argues that from learning the learners obtain conscious knowledge of grammar which is not responsible for actual L2 performance On the other hand, acquisition is the underlying process which is responsible for the actual performance and this can only happen unconsciously through natural exposure to comprehensible inputs What‟s more, according to his Monitor theory, consciously-learned grammar can only function as monitoring and monitoring overuse will only disturb the flow of production Consequently, this grow-up holds that formal and conscious study of grammar should be strongly rejected if the objective of learning the language is productive competence However, Krashen has received many strong criticisms from other researchers as his acquisition theory seems to be merely based on his own observation without supporting evidence

In conclusion, grammar plays a very important role in language teaching, even though there was a time when grammar was severely rejected, but as Richards (2002) says, in recent years grammar teaching has regained its rightful place in the language teaching and “grammar is too important to be ignored” (p 145) The debate is now not on whether grammar competence is important but rather on how to teach grammar Therefore, the rest of this chapter is devoted to presenting two core approaches to grammar teaching and critically looking into the teaching of grammar in some major teaching methods

2.3: Explicit and Implicit approaches to grammar teaching

As mentioned earlier, the issue related to grammar is not whether to teach it

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teaching grammar have emerged over the years These are the explicit and implicit approaches to grammar teaching According to Scott (1990), the implicit approach emphasizes that students should be exposed to grammatical structures in a meaningful and comprehensible context in order that they may acquire as naturally as possible the grammar of the target language In contrast, Scott (1990) describes the explicit approach as insisting upon the value of deliberate study of a grammar rule in order to organize linguistic elements efficiently and accurately In DeKeyser‟s words (1994), implicit teaching of grammar means that no rules are formulated; explicit means rules are formulated (either by the teacher or the student, either before

or after examples/practice) (p 188)

On the one hand, scholars who support an implicit approach to grammar instruction, argue that students will develop “naturally” all the grammar competency they need to communicate effectively if they are exposed to comprehensible, meaningful linguistic input Indeed, Krashen and his colleagues (Krashen, 1987; Krashen & Terrell, 1983) led the evolution against explicit grammar instruction The distinction that Krashen makes between “learning” (a conscious process) and “acquisition” (a subconscious process) forms the basis of his theory of implicit teaching strategies He maintains that second language acquisition can take place in the classroom without the explicit study of grammar

if students are exposed to enough comprehensible input Moreover, according to him, the conscious study of grammar does not aid in the natural acquisition process as “…grammar exercises…can be valuable as tool to encourage learning However, it should be kept in mind that while their function is important, very little acquisition will take place during their use” (Krashen & Terrell, 1983, p 146)

However, Krashen‟s hypothesis has been criticized by many scholars as it

is not validated by experimental evidence Moreover, Celce-Murcia (1991) warns that the implicit approach “can lead to the development of a broken, ungrammatical, pidginized from of the target language beyond which students rarely process” (p 162) Such learners, she explains, are often said to have fossilized in their acquisition of the target language

On the other hand, there are many advocates for the explicit method of

grammar instruction Mclaughlin (1990) supports the value of explicit grammar teaching by distinguishing between controlled processing and automatic processing

in learning a foreign language He stresses that language skills are learned and become automatic only after the use of controlled process In other words, students develop automatic control of a grammatical structure after passing through a deliberate, conscious stage of learning grammatical rule and their application In addition, Sagvinton (1991) points out that while involvement in communicative event is seen as central to language involvement, this involvement necessarily requires attention to form or explicit language teaching

The benefits of explicit approach over the implicit approach have been reported in a number of research studies over the past two decades (Dekeyser, 1994; Scott, 1990; López, 2004; Andrews, 2007) The results from these studies show that students who were taught the target structures explicitly performed better than those who received the implicit method of instruction

In short, it is hard to say which approach to grammar teaching is better The writer of this thesis is in support of explicit approach as she thinks that it is useful and suitable to the teaching and learning situation in Vietnam where getting students exposed to comprehensible input is hardly achievable

2.4: Deductive and Inductive approaches to grammar instruction

While evidence for the need for formal instruction has been established through such research studies, there is still some controversy regarding how and how much instruction is necessary From this debate, a broad distinction is often made between deductive and inductive approaches (Thornbury, 1999)

 Deductive approach

Deductive approach is often called rule-driven learning (Thornbury, 1999)

In this approach, a grammar rule is explicitly presented to students and followed

by practice applying the rule The deductive approach maintains that a teacher teaches grammar by presenting grammatical rules, and then examples of sentences are presented Once learners understand rules, they are told to apply the rules given to various examples of sentences Giving the grammatical rules means no more than directing learners‟ attention to the problem discussed However, deductive approach to grammar teaching receives less support than inductive

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Richards (2002) reported, there has not been convincing empirical verification as well as theoretical validation that the acquisition of grammar structures involves the process of learning the rules and practicing them through gradual automatization of production Even so, deductive approach is often used by many teachers due to its advantages such as time-saving for teachers and respect for students‟ expectations about classroom learning

 Inductive approach

In contrast to deductive approach, inductive approach, which is labeled as rule- discovery learning, starts with examples from which a rule is inferred (Thornbury, 1999) The procedure is similar to the process of children acquiring their mother tongue First, learners are exposed to comprehensible language input and they will acquire the system of the rules subconsciously through peripheral attention to language forms Eisenstein (as cited in Long & Richards, 1987) maintains that the inductive approach tries to utilize the very strong reward value

of bringing order, clarity and meaning to experiences This approach involves learners‟ participating actively in their own instruction In other words, this approach attempts to highlight grammatical rules implicitly in which the learners are encouraged to conclude the rules given by the teacher

Brown (2007) says that in most contexts, inductive approach is more appropriate because of several reasons First, it is more in keeping with natural language acquisition and conforms easily to the concept of interlanguage development Second, it allows learners to get a communicative feel for some aspects of language and builds more intrinsic motivation through discovery learning Even though inductive approach has several advantages, it is obvious that it will work well only in the setting where there is sufficient language input

In the context of English as a foreign language like in Vietnam, where English is not used outside the English class setting, providing sufficient comprehensible input constitutes a hard challenge for teachers In addition, there is another important decision that teachers have to make when using an inductive approach

to teach grammar as Celce-Murcia (2001) points out that “if a teacher has chosen

an inductive approach in a given lesson, a further option exists – whether or not to give or have students articulate an explicit rule” (p 263)

In conclusion, the deductive approach is related to the conscious learning process, while the inductive approach relates to the subconscious learning processes similar to the concept of language acquisition Whether grammatical rules are taught inductively or deductively rely much on the cognitive style of the learner and the language structure presented (Brown, 2007) Therefore, the language teacher‟s job is to identify which approach is appropriate for which grammar items and for which learning styles And sometimes, the question is not which one to choose but how well the two approaches are combined As according

to Corder (as cited in Celce-Murcia, 2001, p 264)

What little we know about …second language learning … suggests that a combination of induction and deduction produces the best result The old controversy about whether one should provide the rule first and then the examples, or vice versa, is now seem to be merely a matter of tactics to which no categorical answer can be given”

Indeed, the combination of two approaches to presenting grammatical rules both provides students with more active learning environment and prevents them from inducing inaccurate rules for themselves

2.5: Grammar teaching in the major teaching methods

Along the history of language teaching methodology, different teaching methods

have perceived grammar differently, especially its role and its teaching methods In this study, the researcher intends to present the teaching of grammar in four major teaching methods, namely Grammar-Translation method, Direct Method, Audio-lingual Method and Communicative Language Teaching approach

The Grammar-Translation Method derived from traditional approaches to the teaching of Latin and Greek in the nineteenth century This method used grammar as the starting point for instruction The class under this method began with explicit grammar rules presentation, followed by practices involving translation into and out of the student‟s mother tongue (grammar is taught deductively) Students‟ native language is the language of instructions and mistakes and errors must be avoided at any cost The syllabus used was structural syllabus (Richards and Rogers, 2002) Briefly, in this method grammar is considered essential in foreign language teaching

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and there is an attempt to teach it in an organized and systematic way The best point of this method is that it helps learners produce grammatically correct sentences and is easily used in large-sized classes; however, learners taught with this method find it difficult to communicate in real life and tend to be passive recipients of knowledge

The Direct method emerged to challenge the way Grammar-Translation Method focused exclusively on written language The basic premise of the Direct Method was that one should attempt to learn a second language in much the same way as children learn their first language The method emphasized oral interaction, spontaneous use of language, no translation between first and second languages, and therefore rejected explicit grammar teaching Grammar is taught inductively in the target language by asking and answering questions between teachers and students in small and intensive classes (Richards and Rogers, 2002)

An advantage of the Direct method is that learning in the target language enables students to think in the target language Beside, it may be advantageous to a teacher using this method not to know his students‟ native language However, the complete avoidance of students‟ native language may lead to the misunderstanding of rules and frustration from students

Evolving from the work of structural linguists and behavioral psychologists, the Audio-lingual approach proposes that language performance consists of a set of habits in the use of language structures and patterns Grammar

is taught inductively with little or no grammatical explanations Dialogues and drills form the basis of audio-lingual classroom practice After a dialogue has been presented and memorized, specific grammatical patterns in the dialogue are selected and become the focus of various kinds of drills and pattern-practice exercises The focus of instruction rarely moves beyond the sentence level (Celce-Murcia, 1991) It is important to prevent learner from making errors because errors lead to the formation of bad habits When errors occur, they should be corrected immediately by the teacher The strong point of this method is that students can develop listening and speaking proficiency at the same time they learn new structures; however, the explicit use of the target language often leads

to time consuming and students might get bored with mechanical repetition or become well-trained parrots

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), which views language as an instrument of communication, has been the dominant language teaching methodology since the mid- 1970s There exist two versions of CLT: weak version and strong version The weak version of CLT argues that an explicit focus

on forms has an important –but not primary- role to play in second language learning and aims at using grammar and vocabulary to achieve communicative goals Whereas, the strong version of CLT rejects grammar teaching when they argues that attention to forms is not necessary; learner can acquire an implicit understanding of grammar by using the language in a system of meaningful tasks Concerning the teaching of grammar, Celce-Murcia (1988, p.27) introduces four stages of a grammar lesson in the light of CLT: Presentation, Focused practice, Communicative practice, and Teacher feedback and correction In the presentation stage, a grammar structure is introduced inductively or deductively In the focused practice, the learners manipulate the structure in question so as to gain control of the form for communication The next stage is communicative practice in which learners practice the target structure by engaging in communicative activities such

as information gap, role-play, discussion… Although teacher feedback and correction is the final stage, it must take place throughout the lesson as Celce-Murcia (1988, p.28) states that “during the second part of the lesson, correction should be predominantly straightforward and immediate During the third part, however, communication should not be interrupted Instead, teachers should take not of errors and deal with them after the communicative exercises.”

2.6: Conclusion:

The researcher has provided a variety of concerns relating to the study topics in this chapter These include grammar definitions, grammar roles in language education, two approaches to grammar teaching, two approaches to grammar training, and grammar instruction in various teaching methods This literature study serves as a theoretical framework for the researcher to construct two sets of questionnaires, analyze the data collected, and suggest some pedagogical implications for grammar teaching and learning at Thuongmai University The reader will learn more about the study's setting and methodology

in the following chapter

CHAPTER 3: Research methodology:

3.1: Methodology:

3.1.1: Subject of the study:

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3.1.2: Research instruments:

The researcher intended to collect the same information about the difficulties in learning grammar at Thuongmai University from two sources: questionnaire, and interview with the hope to guarantee the reliability and the objectiveness of the study

3.1.2.1:Survey questionnaire:

The questionnaire designed for the students was distributed to them in the middle of the seccond term All questions and their items were written in English to make sure that the students have a clear understanding of the questions and answers before they give out their choices Furthermore, using their native language the students were able to express their thought more easily in open-ended questions The questionnaire consisted of two parts One was intended to collect personal information of the participants, such as their age, gender, years of learning English Part two of the questionnaire consisted of 9 questions both close and open-ended questions The purpose of the questionnaire was to investigate:

- the students‟ general attitudes towards learning English

- their perceptions on the importance of grammar learning

- their opinions about the grammar parts in the new standard textbook

- their evaluation of grammar teaching in the English lesson in class

- their ways of learning English grammar

- their difficulties in learning English grammar

3.1.2.2: Interview

The structured interviews included in this investigation were formal interviews A set of

12 students was chosen from the sample on the basis of accessibility for structured

interviews The interviews were conducted in Vietnamese in the hopes that the

participants would feel more at ease expressing their thoughts and ideas The open-ended questions in the interviews, which were mostly based on those in the questionnaires, were designed to elicit information on the students' proposals for improving English grammar learning methods

3.1.3 Data collection procedure

All the participants were informed in Vietnamese about the purposes, methods and requirements of the collection of data to make sure they were clear about what they would have to do and were willing to participate in the study

Set of questionnaires for students were distributed to 110 students at Thuong Mai university when they were dealing with Enlish grammar homework

at class To reduce the pressure of time, the participants were allowed to finish the questionnaires at home in one week After one week of delivering, all 110 copies were collected

The interviews were conducted with the students at the sudent’s‟ resting room when they had free time The contents of the interviews were taken notes by the researcher

3.1.4: Data analysis procedure

Data collected from three different sources were analyzed under four main items:

(1) the students‟ perceptions on the importance of grammar