Luận văn teachers' attitudes towards grammar teaching in the light of communicative approach to first year non major english student at haiduong medical technical university

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES POST GRADUATE DEPARTMENT NGUYEN THI THANH LOAN TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS GRAMMAR TEACHING IN THE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

POST GRADUATE DEPARTMENT

NGUYEN THI THANH LOAN

TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS GRAMMAR

TEACHING IN THE LIGHT OF COMMUNICATIVE

APPROACH TO FIRST YEAR NON-MAJOR ENGLISH

STUDENTS AT HAIDUONG MEDICAL TECHNICAL

UNIVERSITY (Nghiên cứu thái độ của giáo viên đối với việc dạy ngữ pháp theo điờng hilớng giao tiếp cho sinh viên không chuyên năm thứ nhất

tại Trilờng ĐHKT Y Tế Hải DIlơng)

M.A MINOR THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410

HANOL 2009

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

POST GRADUATE DEPARTMENT

NGUYEN THI THANH LOAN

TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS GRAMMAR

TEACHING IN THE LIGHT OF COMMUNICATIVE

APPROACH TO FIRST YEAR NON-MAJOR ENGLISH

STUDENTS AT HAIDUONG MEDICAL TECHNICAL

UNIVERSITY (Nghiên cứu thái độ của giáo viên đối với việc dạy ngữ pháp theo điờng hllớng giao tiếp cho sinh viên không chuyên năm thứ nhất

tại Trilờng ĐHKT Y Tế Hải Dilơng)

M.A MINOR THESIS

CODE: 601410 SUPERVISOR: LE VAN CANH, M.A

‘Aims of the study

Significance of the study

| Scope of the study

Design of the study

CHAPTER Il: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Definitions of attitudes

2.2 Definitions of teachers’ attitudes

2.3 Factors affecting teachers’ attitudes

2.4 The interplay between (cnchars’ alliludes and thoi (caching,

2.5 Previous studies on teachers’ attitudes to grammar

2.6 The interplay between teachers’ attitudes and their grammar

teaching

2.7 Conclusion

CHAPTER WL: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 An Overview on the Context of Study

16 17

4.3 Cơnelusion

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION

5.1 Summary of major findings

5.2 Implications

5.3 Limitations of the study

5.4, Suggestions for further study

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale:

English language plays many roles in the modem era of globalization, In Vietnam, English is taught as a compuisory subject in many schools and universities For many teachers of English, leaching Fnglish means leaching grammar Linguists have pointed out

a lot of methods to teach English, At present, there are many different views on grammar teaching, One of the most effective ways to teaching English grammar is through an approach called Communicative Language Teaching (CET) In my workplace, Haiduong Medical Technical University, English teachers have used many teaching methods, CLT is not a new approach for them to teach their students English grammar However, different

teachers have different attiludes Some louchers view grammar teaching: as unr

sary while some other teachers are obsessed by it Some teachers have positive attitudes, but some have negative altitudes towards grammar teaching through CLT In order to understand the reason why the teachers in my university have various attitudes, I would like to study the teachers’ attitudes towards grammar and grammar teaching in gencral and their attitudes towards grammar teaching through CLY approach with their textbook, New Meadway Pre Tnlermediate in particular

2 Aims of the study:

‘The aims of the study are as follows:

- To investigate into teachers’ attitudes towards grammar and grarmvar teaching

- To find out factors affecting teachers’ attitudes towards grammar and grammar teaching communicatively

- To find out the interplay between teachers” attitudes towards grammar and their grammar touching conmmumestively with reference 10 the New Headway Pre- Intermediate

3 Significance of the study:

It is hoped that this study will be of some us in understanding tcachers’ attitudes towards grammar teaching to first-year non English major students through CLT in Maiduong Medical Technical Universily The findings of the study will also contribule to

iy understanding of haw gratamur should bs treated communicatively in the context of

my university

4 Scope of the study:

As it has beon stated abave, the study is only designed to investigale the teachers? attitudes towards grammar teaching through communicative approach at Haiduong Medical Technical University

5, Research questions:

‘What are the teachers’ attitudes towards grammar and gramunar teaching?

What are the factors affecting teachers’ attitudes towards grammar and grammar

caching cormunnigalively?

What is the interplay between teachers’ attitudes towards grammar and their grammar

teaching communicatively with reference to the New Headway Pre- Intermediate?

6 Methods of the study:

In order to do the research, I selected a number of reference books and atticles Six

teachers of Linglish at Llaiduong MIU were interviewed about their attitudes towards

grammar teaching communicatively In addition, a classroom observation was carried out

to investigate how teachers dealt with grammar using the course book New Headway Pre Intermediate Al the collected data were analyzed and discussed

7 Design ef the study:

The minor thesis consists of 3 chapters:

Chapter 1 is the introdetion, which presents the rationale, aims, significance, scope, methods and design of the study,

Chapter Il, Literature Review, is aimed at exploring theoretical background for the thesis This chapter will focus on six main points definitions of attitudes and teachers”

attitudes, factors affecting teachers’ attitudes; previous studies on teachers’ attitudes

towards grammar; the inlerplay between Icachers’ attitudes and their teaching in general and their communicative grammar teaching in particular

Chapter IIL, Research Methodology presents an overview on the context of the study, participants, instruments used to collect the data, and the procedure of data collection

Chapter LV, Data Analysis and Discussion, is devoted to a detailed deseription of data

analysis and a discussion of the findings of the study,

Chapter V is Iho conclusion of the thesis, which concludes some major ndings, gives

some implications, limitations of the study and suggestions for fiuther study

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1, Definitions of “attitudes”

There are various definitions of “altiludes” The Oxford Advance

mers’ Dictionary

of Current English(1995:66) defines attitudes as “ the way that you think and feel about

somebody or something, the way that you behave towards somebody or something that

shows how you Ihink and feel” This definition centers mainly on how a person believes,

feels and then behaves in a certain way that reflects his established belief and feeling

Richardson (1996) provides comprehensive definition, which is adopted in this sindy,

attitudes aud belicfs can be used interchangeably, "Attitudes and belics arz a subsct of a

group of constructs that name, define, and describe the structure and content of mental states that are thought to drive a person's actions" (p 102) Krom this definition, attitudes are defined within the framework of social psychology as a subjective or mental preparation for action Attitudes are outward and visible postures Attitudes determine what each person will see, hear, think and do Attitudes can be positive and negative

According to Good (1973), attitndes are “The predisposition or tendency to react specifically towards an object, situation, or valuc, usually accompanied by foclings and

emotions, attitudes cannot be directly observed but must be inferred from overt behavior, both verbal and nonverbal”

Lastly, Petty and Cacioppo (1986) describe attitude and behavior comprehensively as

“individuals” general evaluations about himself/herself, others, other objects, events and problerus”

2.2, Definitions of feachers’ attitudes,

It is known that attitudes have a profound impact on teacher practices and behaviors

‘Teachers’ attitudes mean teachers’ view and behaviors in school ‘here is now agreement

in genoral cducation studios that lcaching is a cognitive activity and that teachers’ beliefs gteatly impact their instructional decisions m the classroom (e.g., Shavelson, & Stem, 1981; Tillema, 2000) Within second language education, teaching is also now viewed as a complsx cognitive activity (Borg, 2003) As Borg (2003) suggests, "teachers arc active, thinking decision-makers who make instructional choices by drawing on complex

practically-oriented, personalized, and cuntsxt-sensitive nalworks of knowledge, thoughts, and boticts" (p, 81) Indeed, rescarch has indicaled thal teachers possess ø vøsl array of complex belief about pedagogical issues including, belietS about students and classroom

practices (Berliner, 1987; Borg, 1998, 2003: Bums, 1992; Shavelson é& Stem, 1981) These

beliefs are said to form a structured set of principles and are derived from a teacher's prior sxperine

Furthermore, and as noted by Shavelson and Stem (1981), what teachers do in the classroom is said to be governad by what they believe and these beliefs offen serve to act

, school practices, and a Icacher’s individual personatity (Borg, 2003)

asa filler (hrough which instructional judgments and decisions are rede

Johnson (1994) has suggested that teachers’ attitudes or belief are neither easy to define nor study because they are not directly observable, What we do know is that isachors? altitudes or bolich consist of tacitly held assumplions and percaplions aboul teaching and learning (Kagan, 1992), that they are generally stable and that they reflect the

nature of the instruction the teacher provides to students (Hampton, 1994) According to

Johnson (1994: p.439), cducational roscateh on loachers' attitudes shara three basic assumptions: (1) Teachers’ attitudes influence perception and judgment, (2) Teachers! attitudes play a role in how information on teaching is translated into classroom practices (3) Understanding teachers’ attitudes is essential to improving teaching practices and teacher education programs In the arca of language teaching, tcachers’ attitudes have been examined to see how personal attitudes and knowledge of the pedagogical systems of leaching have informed the instructional practices and decisions of leachers of English as a second language (¢.g,, Borg, 2003, Bums, 1992; Golombek, 1998)

In addition, the study of teachers’ attitudes, as Richards, Gallo, and Renandya (2001) have poinled oul that “forms part of the process of understanding how teachers conceptualize their work" (p.42.)

Finally, Ng & Farrell, ( 2003) and Yim (1993) investigate on teachers’ attitudes and suggest that what teachers say and do in the classroom is governed by their attitudes

Tn conclusion, teachers” alfiludes are (eachers’ view and behaviors in school These attitudes are implicit and unconscious, teachers’ personal pedagogical knowledge These attitudes also include cognitive and affactive components; create links between practice, cxperionec and decisions which have to be made, Those attitudes arcatly impact their teaching in class

2.3 Factors aflecting teachers’ attitudes

As T have monlionod above, teachers’ altitudes delormine their actions inthe classroom, Different teachers can have positive and negative attitudes to their teaching because there are different factors their attitudes to teaching, In this part, 1 only mention

factors affecting teachers’ attitudes towards grammar communicative language teaclting to prove thal there have boon many factors affecting the teachers” altitudes As Karavas- Doukas (1996) stated, “one of the first factors affecting many teachers’ attitudes is culture values” EFL teachers’ attitudes and practices are related to cultural vatues and their practices According la Garnal and Debra, teachers are sent as knowledge holders and they might consider that if they play games with students or ask students to role-play in class, they might not be seen as doing their job his finding corresponds with Bumaby and Sun's (1989) findings that Chines toachars felt they wore not teaching when they use CLT activities and anticipated that the students would complain against them Ellis (1994) investigated the appropriateness of the communicative approach in Viemnam Ht was found thal one of the basic problems in implementing a communivalive approach in Vietnam was the teachers’ holding on to the deep-rooted tiadition, This problem, according, to Ellis, was compounded by two traditional practices: the cultural reluctance of the Vietnamese to challenge written words, and the focus on grammar translation in the examination system The study also reported that Vietnamese teachers believed that they did not have neecssary knowledge of the target language culture ‘Therefore, they felt CLT does not culturally fit

đagogical beliefs, Fllis (1994) concluded that CLT approach in its original form is not suitable for Vietnamese conditions

Based om the findings of the study on Vietnamese pe

and that “although there is a strong demand for communicative competence in Vietnam, it

is nol malched by adequate teacher Iraining, conmunmicative language materials and suitable leaning environments" (p, 69) He has suggested that, "the ways of making communicative approach culturally acceptable to the Vietnamese are in keeping with their own cultural vahies embedded and reflected in their language they use” (p.71)

Another (acter affecting teachers’ attitudes 1s teachers’ experience in English language learning As teachers practices can be affected by their own language learning experience, this may form a vicious cycle in which the pedagogic style of potential teachers are moulded by the style of their own teachers and when they become teachers, their traditional style will be passed on to the next generation of teachers As noted by Freeman

(19923), languag:

hơi

* own language learning experience affecls thoir fature thinking

He states that ‘the memories of instruction gained through their

“apprenticeship of observation’ function as de facto guides for teachers as they approach

what they do in the classroom reeman (2002) puts forward that English and foreign

language teaching is tediation between how the tzachor conceives of, and repres

s,

conteni to students ' (p.9) and the past "becomes one more vantage point on current

activity Thms, prior experiences are likely to be integrated into the teacher's present thinking, This means that the grammar Icarning cxpericnee of a teacher affects the teacher's belief about the value of learning and teaching grammar This view is supported by Bailey

et al (2996) who studied language teachers’ own experiences as language learners and cxamined the potential impact theso exporicnces had ơn cach individual's teaching philosophy and practice, They townd that teachers had been witnesses to both ‘good’ and

‘bad! teaching and these different styles of teaching influenced teachers and contributed to their beticts about tho kind of teachers thoy waned to be in the falure As language teachers, we usually have a ‘purposetill selection of the best traits of the teachers we most admired’ ¢p.15) ‘Thns, teachers would adapt a grammar teaching approach that they experienced as effsotive in helping them to acquire grammar knowledge and tend to ignore approaches that they could not benefit from daring their grammar learning stage

Johnson (1994) also found that pre-service ESL teachers’ beliefs were based largely on their images of their own formal and informal language Icaming cxpcricnecs, and such images represented their dominant model of action during their teaching practices Experiences in teachers own grammar learning play a central role in formulating teachers’ images and thus affect their beliefs about and practices of granuren pedagogy

‘The argument that a teacher's experience in Isarning and teaching grammar plays a major part in fornmiating his own grammar pedagogic practices is supported by Borg (1998) who found that his subje s cxpariomee of her own Tanguay

ducation played 4 powerful role in defining her position and her belief about grammar teaching, She learnt her own LI at a time when England adopted the anfi-grammar system ‘hus, her LI

education did vot involve her into detailed and formal anelysis and desoriplion of the language At the same time, her foreign language learning experience also affected her greatly Ier experience of learning French was meta-linguistically-rich and grammar played a central role in hor French lessons It was frustrating for the subject and did not enable her to develop any comununicative competence in French Such negative feelings about studying grammar limited her teaching practices to dealing with grammar only superficially and promoting the use of metatanguage was not a priority in her lesson

Apart from the oultural values and the teaching experience of teachers affecting

icachers’ altitudes, thore are many other factors as follows, different English proficiency

and communication skills of the students, lack of resources and large-sized unequipped classrooms, Many researchers find that teachers’ attitudes have been affected by large— sived classrooms in applying CIT to teach grammar, Garval and Debra (2001) have found that the limited resources made Egyptian EFL teachers difficult prepare and present the teaching according to the CLT approach, ‘They also find that EFL teachers’ lack of English proficioney and finited knowledge of CLT pedagogy as constraints,

Inconelusion, there are various factors affecting teachars’ attitudes, namely, traditional culture, students” proficiency, teaching experience or physical facilities (lack of resouress,

large-sized unaquipped elassroors)

2.4, The interplay between the teachers’ att des und their teaching

‘As discussed in the previons section, teachers’ attitudes are affected by various factors This section is extended to the argument that teachers’ attiimdes affect their teaching, Teachers bring their personal characteristics into the style of thir teaching Those characteristics include attitudes that have developed over their lifetimes, and are the result

of accumulated events and knowledge of the world These attitudes ars firmly entrenched

by an individual Teachers’ educational attitudes have an effect on their teaching, styles

‘Teachers’ styles, and mainly their attitudes, are strong context outcomes, rooted in experience and do not become automatic routine conducts, in the sense that they are developed via very slow interactions action’ reaction) In that sense, attitudes can be modified only by each individual,

Burns (1996), Clark and Yinger (1979) believe that what teachers do is affected by

whal they think and the kinds of pedagogical belicls that they hold She claborales that thinking and belief teachers hold are ‘fundamental in motivating classroom interactions They determine what is represented for learning and how the representation of content takes place! (p.154), She proposes that tcachcrs' thinking coheres around interconnecting and interacting ‘contextual’ levels - ‘the intercontextuality of teacher thinking and beliefs" (7,158) in which the second contextual level involves the personal philosophies, inking, attitudes, belie® and expectations that the teacher had developed about language, learning, and leamers ‘'hns, she argues that critical insights into what constitutes language teaching need 1o give voice to the perspectives of teachers themselves

Wray (1993) studied student-teachers’ knowledge and heliefs about language and he

notes thal teachers’ bel

about various aspeuls of language and fitzracy might strongly intluence their approaches to teaching these areas Woods (1996) holds similar views that teachers’ interpretations of classroom events were greatly influenced by their belisfs Similar conclusions were drawn by Johnson (1994) and Tudor (1996) Johnson (1994) found that the pre-service teachers’ images of teachers and teaching formed a model for their instructional practices and even though these pre-service teachers wanted to alter their instructional practices, their lack of allcrnative images in their mnind Hirrited them to make changes ina practicum environment, Tudor (1996) suggested that teachers have subjective needs and perceptions of the classroom and these influence their attitudes and behaviour in the classroom Thus, Icachers have their own private agendas and sels of beliefs about language teaching which they bring with them to the language classroom

It can be obvious that different factors affect either positive or negative attitudes of the icachers Baily (1992) and Golombek (1998) affirm the notion that changes ii teacher” attitudes precede changes in their teaching practices Similarly, Hampton (1994) notes that teachers’ beliefs or “personal construct” determine how they approach their teaching These beliefs may be general or very specific Tarte, Woodword, and Burke (1984) identified that teachers’ beliefs strongly affect the materials and activities they choose for the classroom, As a result, teachers” attitudes have relationship with their teaching in class Teachers” altitudes determine their teaching, the methodology they choose for their students in elas

2.5, Previous studies on teachers’ attitudes to grammar and grammar teaching

As T have mentioned above, icachsrs” altitudes affect thair (caching stytes Englisti language teachers have difterent attitudes towards grammar and grammar teaching Some

have positive attitudes, others have negative attitudes to grammar and grammar teaching

Some applied linguists have argued strongly that grammar is not important and grammar teaching should be minimized

Even applied linguists have different stances to grammar and grammar teaching, Some have argued that the teaching of grammar is either impossible (e.g Prabhu, 1987) or unnecessary (¢g Krashen, 1988 and Nassaji & Fotos, 2004), Others think teaching grammar is necessary (e.g Rutheford, 1987)

Prabhu (1987) has argued that prammar teaching is impossible for the knowledge used ina langnngs by a speaker is too complex

For Krashen (1988), grammar teaching is unnecessary as knowledge is a kind that can not be passed on with rales, but can only be acquired unconsciously through exposure to the language

Nassaji & Fotos (2004), agree with Krashen (1988), claim that language learning is not conscious, but mconscious He supports his argument with cases where speakers of different nother tangucs leant English morphemwes in a similar sequence According to this result, it can be said that the same process lies behind both L1 and L2 leaning Consequently, if learners do not need formal instruction to obtain LI but can acquire it through nalure exposure, they also do ol require grammar lessons to learn 1.2

For those who support grammar teaching, grammar is “a necessary component of any language teaching programme” (Rutheford, 1987-9) and thns plays an important role in language teaching However, the focus on grammar in language teaching was challenged with the cmergence of teaching methodologies bascd on different Icarning thcorics, Such a challenge influenced not only the content and the curriculum in language teaching, but also the implication far teaching grarumar

According to Chandler (1988), 84% of the teachers taught some grammar, many of these said their own language learning experiences at school were their main source of

grammatical knowledge (and hence, Chandler conchiled, of their inevitably outdated practices) On the basis of teachers’ responses to questions about the importance of knowing about language for their work, Chandler was also very critical of teachers’ lack of awareness of the role of language understanding in all facets of their work, leading him to describe the attitude of the icachors in his sludy as one of ‘confident ignorance’ (Chandler, 1986: 23)

Teachers’ firm attitude of the importance of grammar is also found in the study by Burgess & Etherington (2002) who found that the majority of teachers in this study appreciated the value of grammar for their students and agreed that grammar could be viewed as a ftamework for the rest of the language and thal grammatical accuracy is inlsgral to language and comumumication, Toachers also fell that explicit toacting of grammar is favored by the students because of expectations and feelings of secwity

In the model of communicative competence, which was proposed by Canale (1983)

to present in formal situations, such as a graduation seminars, they will not be able to create complete sentences which they would only be able to produce until they have accumulated a certain amount of grammar knowledge In “fhe Place of Grammar Instruction in the Sccond/ Foreign Language Curriculum”, Rod Filis points to much recent research on ESL/ EFL learning and aequisition and notes that without grammar instruction, learners frequently fail to achieve advanced level of grammatical competence He farther finds that il is possible to inchade a grammar component in the language tcaching curriculum together with the instruction centered around communicative tasks, He emphasizes that research has shown that grammar instruction can improve the quality of second and foreign language learning

Some linguists take a middle point view, They arguc that grammar can still be taught, but less systematically, im traditional ways alongside more innovative approaches,

Savignon (2002:7) says " for the development of commumicalive ability [communication depends on grammar], research findings overwhelmingly support the integration of form- focused exercises with meaning-focused experience" Grammnar is important, and learners

seem fo Ibcus best on grammar when it relates lo their communicative needs and

experiences Disregard of grammar will virtually guarantee breakdown in communication (Savignon 1991, 2001; Thompson 1996), Savignon (2002:7) remarks that, “coummnicative language teaching does not necessarily mean the rejection of familiar materials [grammar]" Rivers int her farnous stalcment strengthened Savignon’s remark in thal "Saying thal we do not need to teach grammar is like saying that we can have a chicken walking around without bones" cited in Arnold (1994:122) Nowadays, it seems that educators accept that

an appropriate amount of class time should be devoted to grammar, but this docs not mean

a simple return to a traditional treatment of rules Rather "ths focus has now moved away from the teacher covering to the learners discovering gramnur" (Thompson 1996.11),

Rogarding Icachers’ altitudes on grammar and grammar Leaching was conducted by Eisenstein Ebsworth and Schweers (1997), who used questionnaires with a total of 60

university teachers of ESL in New York and Puerto Rico, and informal interviews with

41

eight of these, to explore their views about conscious grammar instruction ‘The majority of

the teachers fell grammar should be taught at Teast soroctimes, with the Puerte Rico

teachers more in favor of conscious instruction than the New York group, This was explained partly in terms of the more traditional approach to language teaching generally advocaled in Puerto Rico, as one teacher in the Taller group explained, ‘grammar has always been part of our language learning experience We see no reason to abandon it

totally (Hisenstein-Ebsworth & Schweers, 1997: 247) Forty-one of the teachers reported

having a welldefinad approach to toacking grammar that (hoy ware confident in Tn a tone strikingly more positive than Chandler (1988), the authors report that: teachers’ ideas regarding eraramar were generally well-developed ‘This was confirmed by their abilities to express char and cohoronl, rationales for thọt approachzs to cunienhmn and pzdagogy (Eisentein-Ebsworth & Schweers, 1997: 251)

Jinally, Burgess and Litherington (2002) used a questionnaire to examine the beliefs

about grammar and grammar teaching held by 48 teachers of English for academic purposes (EAP) in UK universitics, Overall, the teachers in this study reported positive attitudes towards formal instruction, they felt it had a contribution to make to the development of their (normally advanced) RAP students’ proficiency and that conscious knowledge of gramunar played a role in these students’ use of language (as the authors note, the absence of detailed qualitative data precluded fiwther insight into these views) Over 90% of the teachers in this sludy felt that their students expected them to present grammar points explicitly,

2.6 The interplay between teachers’ attitudes and their grammar teaching

Some teachers have positive attitudes towards grammar and grammar teaching, ‘They argue (hat there are a Tol of suilable gracmmar teaching methods which depend on their attitudes to students’ levels, classtoom sizes, equipped materials and other things Ellis expresses that beginning students whose language base is comparatively small may not be ready for explicit grammar instruction and that exposure to structural work can begin once learners have had an opportunity to increase their lexical repertoire and language base Ellis” model for granmar teaching al subsequent tevels can be designed to address learner problems with grannar dircetly by focusing on the arcas thal, have beon identified as particularly difticult to acquire He emphasizes that the primary goal of explicit and focused grammar instruction is to heighten learners’ awareness of grammatical features

42

and systems, and most importantly, to promote leamers “noticing” of grammar regularities

He points out thal traditional ways of leaching grarmmar, in which rules are presented and

students are engaged in communicative tasks He points out that in task work, noticing

linguistic forms and the cnvironments in which they occur oficn leads to learners’ increases abilities to identify the grammatical systems of the second and foreign Ianguape

In addition, task work can allow students to experiment and restructure their hypothesis aboul tho larget tangunge and stresses that the grammar gap in task wark needs to be proactively addressed In his view, language instruction needs to include focused tasks to facilitate learners’ noticing grammatical forms and to promote accuracy in commmmicative teaching

New Perspectives (2002:240) experts also agrcc that grammar should be taught communicatively, meaningfully, and in the context of use and that it should not be treated

ov laught separately from discourse Mosl instructors realize this to varying degrees, though they also see how tough it is to carry out the creed, While both teachers and students may experience inadequate Janguage facts to bolster all the established grammalical principles, they can also argue (hat a greal many of language delails contrive

to stand out against the unity of any such principles even with the limited learning material

at hand

According to Thompson (1996), teachers have different attitudes towards grammar

toaching beeanse of their miseanceptions of CLT Onc of the persisten! tisconceptions is that CLT means not teaching grammar although "the exclusion of explicit attention to

grammar was never necessary part of CLT" (Thompson 1996:10) In CLT involvement in

communicative event is scen as central to language devclopment, and this involvement

necessarily requires attention to form (structure) In fact, it is certainly understandable that

there was a reaction againsl (he heavy emphasis on strucuurs al the expense of natural

communication Nonetheless, it would seem foolish to make mistakes on the side of using communicative approach exclusively and totally disregard grammar teaching In this

regard, Celee-Murcia (1991) comments:

‘ungrammatical, pidgenized form of the target language beyond which students rarely progress (p 462)

Positive attitudes towards communicative language teaching and positive intentions to

do it in the classroom may be influenced by factors that may be divided into two broad catagories: (1) internal and (2) external constraints, Internal constraints represonl, thase

factors that come from within teachers themselves, such as poor subject knowledge,

Lxtemal constraints refer to factors that come from structural and organizational factors,

which teachers have no control over like students and parents’ beliefs, lack of resources or administrative obstacles The two scts of constraints arc interdependent, Hui (1997)

classifies constraints in CLI into five: economic, administrative, cultural, population, and

the leachers' academic abilily By economic factors, Mui means thal the unavailabilily of resources such as; photocopying, overhead projectors and computers, absence of enough English books, etc ‘Lhe influence of administrators is observed, especially when teaching parformncss are evalualcd, the focus is on the teachers Chow well they speak English, how well they use the blackboard, ete.) rather than students and their learning processes "As a result, teachers are more active than students, who simply follow their teachers rigidly and

mechanically (199738) Anderson (1993) says the most obvious obstacle to teaching

commmumeatively is the groat demands it places upon the teacher Similarly, Maley (1993) argues that CLT is demanding to teachers in many ways, including the students’ unfamiliarity to the approach Ie goes on to state that this [communicative] approach porhaps the greatest [difficulty] of all

‘The effect could be recognized by teachers through practices in teaching, CLI does

grammar is

never refuse grammar teaching Some lin and teachers always st

necessary for communication Rat at the same time, others put stress on pair work,

However, it is an issue about how to learn grammar Perhaps the view is too simplistic that grammar is impossible to teach for it is too complex Students will learn mors efffctively if

44

they participate in communicative activities actively about what they are learning It means

thal the studenis will discover grammar not their leachors, They talk al most of lime under the teachers’ guidance about the language knowledge,

Richards, Gallo, and Renandya (2001) using a self — report questionnaire with participanls in an inservice ave found thal although many stated they followed a communicative approach to teaching, "many of the respondents still hold firnily to the belief that grammar is central to language learning and direct grammar teaching is needed

by their BFI/ESL students" (p 54)

2.7 Conclusion

“Teachers differ in their attitudes towards grammar and grammar teaching because they arc influenced by a varicty of different fielors First, the lack of consensus among applicd linguists on the rele of grammar confuses teachers about the role of grammar Second, teachers’ limited pedagogical knowledge and the target language proficiency also influences they way they view grammar Finally, contextual constraints such as lack of resources and work pressure may make teachers resist to new options for teaching

grammar

CHAPTER Ill: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 An overview on the context of study.

45

llaidueng Medical ‘echnical University was founded in 1960 ‘The aim of the

universily is to train suacessfid fature medical technicians who arc well

medical technical specialized knowledge In addition, English is also considered as an important subject in the training program because it is a means of international

communication which is very helpfit to the students afler their gradhalion:

‘The university has always provided good conditions for English leaning and teaching, Overhead projectors, videos, cassettes are available which enable the teachers and the students to porformn their teaching and learning,

However, there have been some problems that should be solved The classes are quite big ‘There are more than 50 or even 65 students in each class, As a result, it is too difficult

The final goal of English teaching program at MTU is that the students are able to communicate with foreigners both in spoken and written English at intermediate level In order lo do this, the students need general knowledge of English grannmar They are taught

‘New Headway Pre Intermediate in three terms At the end of each term, the students are required to take written tests only That is why some of the teachers focus on teaching grammar in the way so that the students can pass the exams

3.2 Participants

Thus study was cared out with six teachers of English, aged ftom 25 to 50, who are working at English — Informatics Department, MTC Their experience of teaching English varics fiom 3 years to 27 years Of the six teachers, two are master holders; one is doing a

master course af Vietnam National University ‘he rest have graduated fiom universities of

Toreign Languz

This is a profile of the participants:

16

Experience

3.3 Instrumentation

‘This study, as indicated in Chapter one, was intended to find out the attitudes of the English language teachers in MTU towards the cormunicative approach to English grammar teaching For this purpose, theretbre, a descriptive research method was chosen

as it is used to describe a phenomenon Interviews and classroom observations seamed to

bo appropriate instruments lo collect data, for the study, The interview was a structured one

in which the “agenda is totally predetermined by the researcher, who works through a list

of set questions in a predetermined order” (Numan 1992: 149) According to Nunan (ibid),

“the type of interview one chooses will be determined by the mature of the rescarch and the dcgrce of control the interview wishes to cxcrt” (p.149), This study was aimed at finding out the teachers’ attitades towards grammar teaching through CLT Therefore, I chose the interview in order to have more in-depth information Beside the interview, classroom observation was conducted to clarify and test the validity of the obtained information about the teachers” attitudes towards grammar teaching through CLT

3.3.1 The Interviews

All six teachers of English were asked to follow the textbook New Headway Fre

Intermediate to teach the first-year non English major students ‘hey are completely aware

of grammar points presented in the book ‘Thus, the interviews were camied out to

investigate the {cachers’ altilndes (owards graromar tcaching and their current methods of

teaching grammar

3.3.2 Classroom observation

7

Along with the interview, classroom observation was also conducted in order to

bolster Ihe quantitative 1

teaching, The observation was conducted in several English periods with different classes

of first year students who were leaming New Ieadway Pre Intermediate at MTU

The observation im this study was dons through

3.4 Procedures

3.4.1 The Interviews

Selinger and Shohamy (1989) point out that the use of interview as a data collection instrument pontils a tovel of in-depth information, fee response, und Mexibility that can not be obtained by other procedures The interview questions were designed to elicit information about the teachers” attitudes regarding grammar and grammar teaching, and

aboul 1 hers? altitudes to the approach CLT (Q1, Q6, Q8) Other questions were

aimed at obtaining information about factors affecting teachers’ attitudes towards

grammar and grammar teaching communicatively (Q2, Q3) as well as interplays between

teachers’ attitudes towards grammar and their communicative grammar teaching with reference to the New Headway Pre Intermediate (Q4, Q5, Q7), Before being interviewed, the six teachers were briefed about the aim of the interviews, ‘lhen they were asked to express Iheir opinions, Rach of [he interviewee was asked 8 questions (see Appendix), The interview lasted from 30 45 minutes in length, All the interviews were audio-recorded and then transcribed in written form In order to make the participants be confident and easy lo express their opinions as much as possible, all the interviews were conducted in Vietnamese and then translated into English

3.4.2 Classroom observation

It is true that observation has always been considered as a major data collection tool

in second language acquisition rsscarches, because it flows the study of a phenomenon al close range with many of the contextual variables present (Selinger and Shohamy 1989; Koul 1984) Thus, the main purpose of having classroom observation was to ascertain the prevalent problems given by the teachers during the interviews, This is to say that the observation was mainly done to cross-check whether the problems forwarded by teachers

exis or not, The observation bad nothing lo do with the Jes ons Laught tather ils purpose

was lo confirma how far the fcachors? responses during the infsrvicw wero serious enough

to affect the teaching process Six classroom lessons were observed In each lesson, one

teacher (who took an interview) was observed In all the observations made | took the

detail descriptions of the interviews and observations’ result

4,2 Data Analysis and Discussion

4.2.1 The Interviews

4.2.1.1 Teachers’ attitudes towards grammar and grammar teaching

In order to study the teachers” attitudes about issues of grammar and grammar teaching, T inlerviewod six teachsrs six questions (Questions 1,2,3,4,6 and 8) For the first question about the role of grammar in learning English, all of six teachers have positive attitudes towards grammar and grammar teaching ‘They all say that grammar is very important for their students in learning English This contradicts Krashen (1988)’s view

that grammar tcaching is unucccssary as knowledge is a kind that cannot be passed ơn with

mules, but can only be required unconsciously through exposure to the language One teacher said in the interview that,

“Grammar is an important role in leaming foreign language in general and

in learning English in partioutar In order to study well any foreign language, sludemts must know how to use the simple structures of that language.” (Mai)

Most of the teachers participating in the interviews stated their beliefs that knowledge of grammar would help their students analyze grammatical elements of utterances and senlznees Their sludents could make correelly grammmulical sentences

“T think that grammar is important for my students Mastery of grammar helps my students analyze grammatical elements of utterances and

sentences When they arc good at grammar they can make scntences

correctly” (Ha)

“Ta my opini

n, grammar is very important because it helps learners speak

or write logically and grammatical correctly Gramamr is especially important to my students for some reasons Firstly, all exercises are designed to test the students’ usage of correct structures and the final