Luận văn using group work in english grammar lessons for first year students in the college of technologies and economics in trade

The combining arrangement 2.6.4 ‘The individual arrangement 2.6.5 The grammar activities for group work 2.6.5.1, Doing grammar exercises Chapter TTT: Develupment of the research 3.1 The

HOÀNG THỊ MINH PHƯƠNG

USING GROUP WORK IN ENGLISTI GRAMMAR LESSONS FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS IN THE COLLEGE OF

TECHNOLOGIES AND ECONOMICS IN TRADE

NGHIEN CUU VIEC 8U DUNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP HỌC NHÓM TRONG VIỆC

DẠY NGŨ PHÁP TIENG ANH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THU NHAT TRUONG:

CAO PANG KINE TA-KY THUAT THUONG MAT

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 601410

HANOI — 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOT

COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES,

To eB ay

HOÀNG THỊ MINH PHƯƠNG

USING GROUP WORK IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR LESSONS FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS IN THE COLLEGE OF

TECHNOLOGIES AND ECONOMICS IN TRADE

NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP HỌC NHÓM TRƠNG VIỆC

DẠY NGỮ PHÁP TIỀNG ANH CHO SINH VIÊN NAM THỨ NAAT TRƯỞNG

CAO ĐẲNG KINH TẾ-KỸ THUẬT THƯỜNG MẠI

M.A MINOR TIIESIS

Wield : Knglish T'caching Methodology

Code : 601410

Supervisor : Lê Văn Canh, M.A

HANOT — 2010

1.4, Methods of the study

1.5 Scope of the study

1.6 Design of the study

Chapter II: Literature review

2.1, The role of grammar in ELT

2.2 Definition of group work

2.3 Group work in CLI: advantages and limitations of using group work

2.3.1 Advantages of using group work

2.3.1.1, Group work increases students’ talking time

2.3.1.2, Group work creales a more scoure and positive classroom atransphere 2.3.1.3, Group work gives chance for students learning ftom each other

2.3.1.4, Group work motivates learners

2.3.1.5, Group work has positive effect on the teachers

2.3.2 Limilations of using group work

2.3.2.1 Students often speak in their native language

2.3.2.2 Students do not take the same equal responsibilities in the group

2.3.2.3 Using group work can make noise and indiscipline

2.3.2.4, Teacher may lack of tims

2.4, Studies on the use of group work in foreign language teaching and learning, 2.5 Reasons of using group work int grammar leacting

2.5.1 Challenges in teaching grammar

2.5.2 Reasons of using group work in grannmar leaching,

tot tà

2.6 Design group work activities for grammar lessons

2.6.1 The co-operating arrangement

2.6.2 The superior inferior arrangement

2.6.3 The combining arrangement

2.6.4 ‘The individual arrangement

2.6.5 The grammar activities for group work

2.6.5.1, Doing grammar exercises

Chapter TTT: Develupment of the research

3.1 The context of the study

3.1.1 The students and the Lext book

3.1.2 Problems and issues in English language teaching al CTET

3.2 Methodology

3.2.1 The subjects

3.2.2 The instruments and procadures

3.2.2.1 The questionnaires

3.2.2.2, The classroom observation

3.3 Data analysis and discussions

3.3.1 Questionnaire

3.3.1.1 Pre-treatment questionnaire

3.3.1.1.1 Students’ awareness of the importance of learning English grammar

3.3.1.1.2 Students’ altitudes towards learning Pnglish grammar

3.3.1.1.3 The students” evaluation of English grammar teaching they have

3.3.1.1.4 The students" attitude †owards tsing group work for Linglish

grammar lesson 3.3.1.2 Post-treatment questionnaire

3.3.1.2.1 The personatity of students in learning penerally 3.3.1.2.2 ‘The students’ preference of learning styles

3.3.1.2.3 The students’ general attitude towards using group work to

learn English grammar 3.3.1.2.4 The students’ cvalualion of the cflectiveness of using group

work in grammar lessons 3.3.1.2.5 The students’ justification of benefits and limitations of using

group work to leam grammar 3.3.2 Classroom observation

3.4, Summary of the findings

Chapter 4: Suggestions and conclusion

4.1, Suggestions for grammar teaching for the first-year-student in CTLIT

42 Limilations of the shudy

4.3 Recommendations for further research

4.4, Conclusion

References

Appendices

Appendix 1: Pre-treatment questionnaire

Appendix 2: Post-treatment questionnaire

26

29

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: Factors involved in group work

Table 2: The sturtent’s justification of the learning atmosphere in grammar fessens

Table 3: The reasons lead to boring leaming atmosphere in grammar lessons

Table 4: Students’ attitude towards using group work for grammar lessons

Table 5: The personality of students in learning generally

‘Table 6: The changes in students” attitudes towards using group work

Table 7: Students’ evaluation of using group work lo learn grammar

Figure 1: Students’ participation in grammar lesson before and after using group work

vii

30

T choose the topic also because of my own interest as ä loacher af English, T arm myself always interested in teaching grammar and 1 have never stopped finding new ways

of teaching cach grammar items I have observed teachers in my college and in other places teaching grammar, cach of thom have different ways of teaching; however, it is so difficult to make grammar teaching satisfactory to all students It is not easy to find that if only follow some unchanged ways to teach grammar, students and teachers themselves wilt [eel monotonous Thal’s why il is always haunled in my mind how to make teaching and learning English grammar easier and ¡more interesting for myself and my students, Applying group work in teaching grammar lessons is new ideas and maybe it is the best

answer Lo Ty question By

ing group work, sludents are supposed to participate more im the leaning process, so they would be more motivated and successfill, Of course, there is

no single method that satisfies all teaching and leaming situations but at least, | know that |

am on the way of improving my teaching method

1.2 Aims of the study

‘The specific aims of the study are

«To ind out the students’ attitudinal changes about grammar and grammar learning

* To find out the students’ evaluation about the effectiveness of applying group work

in teaching English grammar

1) What are the first-year-students’ allitudes towards grammar?

2) Llow does grammar practice in groups affect the students’ attitudes towards grammar?

3) What do studenis perceive of the henefils and litnitations of using group work in Jeamning grammar?

1.4, Methods of the study

The main methods used in this action research are questionnaires survey and classroom observation A survey on the use of group work in teaching English prammar was conducted for two classes with about 85-first-year non-English major students in CET College Besides using questionnaires, classtoom observation is also used to observe the elassroom behavior and students” parformance on the grarmmnar tessons

15 cope of the study

Using group work in English teaching methodologies is one of the most popular

for all of the

methods of commomicative language touching and it can be appliod wi

language teaching skills, However, due to the time and length constraint of the study, this thesis only focuses on the use of group work in English grammar lessons for first year

students in CTET College.

1.6 Design of the study

‘This thesis consists of four main chapters:

Chapter one, the introduction, provide an overview of the study with brief information aboul the reasons of choosing the lopic, the aims, (he scope of the study, the methods as well as the design of the study

Chapter two, the litcraturc review, is aimed at giving the theoretical background for the thesis In this chapter, an overview on the role of grammar in ELT is first mentioned Afier thal, the key factors about group work are presented I wilt mention some definitions about group work activitics, the advantages as well as the limitations of using group work

in English grammar lessons, the reasons why | choose using group work in English grammar lessons and some main group work acivilies are also highlighled in this part

Chapter three, the development of the research, is the hackbons of the thesis It conlains the background of teaching and learning grammar in CTET College, the detail description of data collections, data analysis and the discussions of the findings

Chapter four proposes some suggestions for using group work effzctively when

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews the literature on general aspects of group work in the light of ELY and the use of group work in grammar practice, Lirst, a review of the role of grammar

in foreign language teaching is prescnicd This is followed by a discussion af using group work in teaching grammar

2.1 The role of grammar in ELT

Over the past few years, whether or not grammar should be taught explicitly or implicitly has been a controversial issue Until now two main opposing opinions exist among many linguistics and re

rehers, The first view is agains! tcaching: grammar Extensive grammar research has shown that grammar should be neglected in teaching

English ever since communicative methodology appeared in 1970s It was claimed that

language should be acquired through natural exposure, not through formal instruction (Krashen as cited in Nassaji & Fotos) In Natural Approach ( Krashen and Terrell: 1983), Krashen distinguishes leaning ( explicit knowledge) and acquisition ( implicit knowledge)

Te points out that these are cases where tearting bas taken place, bul some learners are still unable to use what have learnt in the conversation, because he has not yet acquired them

So, according to him, teachers should give a lot of communication activities in class so studenis can acquire kmguage Opposing with the views abave, recent sludies have demonstrated that grammar instruction enables learners to attain high level of proficiency, both in accuracy and dmency Without grammar, learners can communicate effectively

only in limited munber of situation (Vlorez, 1999) Giving strong support to grammar

icaching, Smith (2001) claimed that if we do nol pay allention lo grammar nor create opportunities for learners to improve their grammar, they are likely to stand the risk off fossilization,

As for me, through my cxpericnee and observation, poor English grammar hinders the pace and quality of learning English, Students can obtain English much more easily if they pay enongh allention to granwnar right fom the beginning Further tore, grammar teaching ean be beneficial to learners in the sense that it raises learner’s consciousness conceming the differences aud similarities of the fist language and the second language

‘This will help students to avoid making mistakes when learning English

Among many new teaching methods in the world today, some of researchers think

thal it docs not need to teach grammar for students

is they oan draw the grammar structures for themselves, I totally agree that it will much more eftzctive if students can have the grammar structures for their own thanks to the special teaching methods, as they can memorize and use them betier (an lo be tanghl Tlowever, that method earmot be applied in every learning context, especial in Vietnam, With the leaning environment like Vietnam, 1 believe that teaching grammar explicitly for students plays important role for Vietnamese students understanding and using Engtist language woll Thore is no single

method to teach grammar that can satisfy all students so the combination of difterent methods of grammar teaching may be is the best choice to satisfy different students” level

at difforont leaching contex!

2.2 Definition of group work

Thare are many definitions of group work have been suggested by a number of

researchers

According to Slavin, (1986, as cited in Dunkin, ed 1987: 238) group work is “a division of the class into learning groups of four to six members who are all levels of ability These groups also have mix of boys and girls and students of different racial, cthnie background in about some proportion, they represent in the class as a whole.”

In Beard’s (1978, as cited in Dunkin, ed 1987: 288) opinion, “Group work is a discussion of academic work that affords stndents the opportunity to organize their

ion and

thinking by comparing idzas and interpretation with cach olher and to give exqm

hence form to their understanding of a subject.”

The list of definition of group work is still going on It also has been suggested by

Bennett and Dunne (1989, as cited in Galton and Williamson, 1992: 10) that “In

collaborative work, all the pupils arc expacted lo work together to produce a single out come and the group has to debate a social or moral issue and produce agrzed solutions or

recommendations,”

‘To put it briefly, we can see some common factors of group work are: it consists of several sluffenis working together for a common goal and they share recomses and ideas

together Groups can be homogeneous or heterogeneous on the basis of students” physical

characlerislics, gender, race, clhnie origin, individual differences and inferests On the

other hand, teachers plan, organize and supervise them

2.3 Group work in CLT: advantages and limitations of using group work

2.3.1: Advantages of using group work

2.3.1.1 Group work increases students’ talking time

The first and foremost benefit of group work is Uhat they inercase the amour! of student practice Long and Porter (1985) estimated that in a 50 minute lesson with 36 students, if the students talked only to the teacher, they would get 30 seconds of talking time per lesson, They calculate that this cquals “Just onc hour por student per year” (p.208)

‘This amount of time is not enough for students to practice the new language, which cause

to low achievement by many classroom SL learners Tubert Skrvytiski (2005) proved thal using group work can help to solve this problem When working in groups, instead of only one student speaks to the teacher, ä lot of other students can talk and exchange ideas to

cach other al (he same tite, andl il substantially inercases the opportumilics the studerls

to tatk English

2.3.1.2 Group work creates a more secure and positive classroom atmosphere

According to Yasemin Godek (2004), another extremely important advantage of using group work is the Teammer’s confident, With numy students, iL can be a fightening cxpericnec when being called on by teacher to answer a question in front of the whole class Martine, L (2006) proved that even if students know the answer to the question, they are oflen not sure if it is correct and do nol wanl to give their opinion (p 35) As a result, the atmosphere of the class is often very boring and stressful, which is counterproductive to language learning However, in a small group, there is a sense of security as students feel inch more comfortable ta spsak in a forcign language fo just for some pouple thin to the whole class and to the teacher Especially timid students or ones who are not good at manipulating the language yet, feel more relaxed and self-confident to come up with answer that reflect their own thinking (Ilubert Skrzynski, 2005)

2.3.1.3 Group work gives chance for students learning from each other

Working in group, students can help each other a lot A group usually consists of a mixture of different ability levels, therefore, when given tasks, students cam leach their ñiends (Yasemin Godek, 2004) What is more, they give an enormous number of new items and expressions for their friends By this way, students are able to share knowledge, comacling each other mistakes in a very miatural way, So they can lean to work interdependently and uot be dependent on them teacher In group work the importance of

teacher is the planner, supervisor and organizer ‘The more important point is that students

learn to become aclive and palicn|, carn to enoperate with other peopk: They respect cach other, their ideas and weaknesses They become social but not individualist, (Yascmin Godek, 2004: 30)

2.3.1.4 Group work motivates learners

Long and Porter (1985) highlights that group work can help te cngage the students fully in their language acquisition This is because group work can make the classroom an entertaining and lively environment in group, students can use the language fteely and express their opinions and thoughts wilhout any restrictions, Tl is not difficull to ses that involving in the group gives students the atmosphere of independence and in the state of

2.3.1.5 Group work has positive effect on the leachers

According lo Yasomin Godek (2004), not only the shudsnis benofil from group work

in English lessons, but also the teachers, First of all they save time, “The teachars do not need to teach every student separately but they can make the entire students do the exercise

at the same time by dividing the olass

teaching time economically and efficiently This is intended to improve quality of learning.” (p31) When timed is saves, the teacher can let their students do more exercise

inlo groups As a resull, teachers can use their

"

and activities, ‘itis way of teaching will be for sure appreciated by students and the teacher will be liked by his sludents, and he will cnjoy their work because it brings him satisfaction, pleasure, and fulfillment

2.3.2: Limitations of using group work

Resides mentioned advantages, using group work also brings sbout a lol af lintitations These are four main limitations

2.3.2.1, Students often speak in their native language

Inher study, Martine, L (2006) shows that it i

the same group use their mother tongue to speak English, especially when they find the activities is difficult or boring, or even when they do not understand the instruction ftom

yery common problem that students in

the teacher, Howsver, itis usually because of the inability of sludonts lo express their ideas

in English that leads to the overuse of mother tongue between students So the solution is that teacher should choose activities that relevant, interesting and fun for the students ‘Phe teacher should also encourage students lo neo Erglish to disonss by giving very clear instructions, moving around the class to control and give help to students when necessary

Yascmin Godck, (2004) in his rescarch also pointed out some more problems of using

group work as follow:

2.3.3.2 Students de not take the same equal responsibilities in the group

One of the main disadvantages for the learners is that shy or weak students can be eliminated from the practice; because of better students who are always tend to dominate Subscquently, low achicving students may not have chance to take part in the discussion and show their opinion so they may feel discourage or less confident The situation becomes worse when students in the group do not help each other

2.3.2.3 Using group work can make noise and indiscipline

It is usually more troublesome for the teacher than for the students that using group

work can cans noisa and indiscipline Students in group work activilics arc usually not aware of noise, and they even do not care about what other group are doing However, this can be considered as good noise or productive noise because it means that students

participate in learring tasks One problem of this noise is that if can cause frustration for the surrounding classes

2.3.2.4, Teacher may lack of time

It is common that each English lesson last for forty-five minutes and it usually needs a lot of time for sindents to do their activities in group So if the group work takes so much tims, teacher can not finish the lesson or he’ she can teach only some of the lesson plans

‘To avoid this, teacher shoukd arrange time for group work suitably with limited number of sludenis in cach grang (Yasemin Ciodek, 2004: 31)

2.4, Review of previous studies on the use of group work in foreign language leaching and learning

There are so many rescarches have been conducted in the field of teaching English in generat and teaching grammar through group work activities Below is the review of the

studies already conducted in this field

Long and Porter (1985) proved that group work allows for a greater quantity and richer variety of language practice, practice that is better adapted to individual needs and conducted in a more positive affective climate Students are individually involved in Iessons more offen and at a more personal level Group work also motivates the classroom learners (p 212)

‘The study conducted by Long, Adams, Mclea, and Castanos (1976) was designed to contrast lockstep teaching with group work and the results showed enhanced quality and varicly of student speech in groups, 2

The lis! of rescarches ant studies support using group work in English (caching is still going on In the field of using group work to teach English grammar lessons, Aisha Bibi (2002), Ney (1989) and Davidheiser (1996) have valuable researches

‘The research study conducted by Aisha Bibi (2002) concindes that: teaching of English grammar through group work activitios has positive effect on the avadernie achievement of students, By using group work, not only students can significantly improve the ability of applying the rule of prammar, they can also improve reading, writing, listening and speaking ability Moreover, the alliiudes of studenls toward using group work

to learn English grammar are very good,

Ney, James (1989) exunined the efiizctiveness of collaborative learning models for the teaching of a modern Linglish class at the college level According fo the author, the

collaborative

learning r:

afied in a more adcquate mastery of the subject matter and in

better attendanec for the class

Davidheiser (1996) explored a successfid student-centred method of grammar instruction in second language elasses He concludes that by using group work and pair work, leachers can improve the quality of grammar instructions and the ability of recalling

the grammar structures of the students

There arc so many other valuable studics related to using group work to teach English

in general and English grammar lessons that it is unable to list down in my small research,

‘Thanks ta these researches, T can gain precious knowledge for my own research

2.8, Reasons of using group work in grammar teaching

2.5.1 Challenges in teaching grammar

English grammar is considered especially important in Vietnamese school fom secondary to higher education; however, it seems to contain a lot of problems in both teaching and Icaming methods Although grammar is not so difficult to understand, students find it hard to perceive More seriously, students could hardly apply grammatical rules to make real communication ‘Ihe traditional method of teaching English grarnmat is mostly the deductive method, i.e, definition af the aspect of grammar is dictated and its examples are illustrated (Richards & Rodgers, 1986; 6) This way can help students know how to label certain sentence elements but cannot prodnce any English themselves, illustrate the fact that just teaching grammar in itscl Cis not exactly effective,

10

of different aspects of grammar in reading, wriling, speaking, ele Lamguage is a skill, which needs a lot of practice, Only learnmg the rules of grammar or mere memorizing the meanings of words and phrases would not help learning the foreign language Especially, the attitude of students towards this way of touching grammar is poor They aflon gel bored very quickly with the monotonous grammar items and the boring atmosphere in the class

‘This situation calls for a change in the grammar teaching methods and the use of different

techniques in teaching grammar

2.5.2 Reasons of using group work in grammar teaching,

The aim of this research is to find out whether the problem of teaching English grammar can be solved by adopting the method of teaching it in communicative way It is better if we want to tcach structure, we should at least provide a realistic context and relate

it to communicative situations The best thing to do is probably to integrate all different aspects of language By afl the advantages mentioned above of group work, it is supposed thal using group work is the gond choice for teaching gramamar

According to Gee, (2005) “ the theory of language is thal langnage has meaning only in and through social practices” (p.8) Long and Porter (1985) in their research proved that “group work improves the quality of students talk by creating genuine communication” (p.209), and by using group work, we can create communicative situations in the classroom and at the same time make these situations rescmble reall life because “face-to-face communication in a small group is a natural setting for conversation” (9.209), In such case, @ ceriain grammatical language ilem is practiced in a more realistic situation and students are unich more actively involved in such activities, and therefore, remember things more easily ‘That’s why we can suppose that teaching English grammar

through group work has significanlly improved the ability of students te apply the tules of grammar Above all, because using group work is interesting and effective (Martine, 2006),

T1

the attitude of students toward if is positive Thay are motivated and can help each other to

make progr

in learning through group

Thal’s why group work is supposed to be a very suitable way to teach English grammar

2.6 Design group work activities for grammar lessons

According lo Nation, Paul (1989), “a useful way of classifying group work activities

is to look at the distribution of the information needed to do the activity."(p 20), He divides group work activities into the four following types:

2.6.1, The co-operating arrangement

Tn this type of group work activilics, learners have cya access to the same rnalcrial

or information and co-operate to do the task,

This type of activity can have more effective result if it is carried out follows Robert Slavin (1991) method, called “Student teams-achievement divisions”, In this method, students are assigned to four or five member in a group, called learning teams Rach team

is a microcosm of the entire class, made up of high, average, and low-pertorming students

‘These students may take tums quizzing each other, discuss problems as a group, or use whatever means they wish to master the material By this way, students can help each other and ereale exeiting learning atmosphere

3.6.3 The superior-inferior arrangement

one member off

Tn this type of gronp work activil evoup has information thal all the others need, This student presents this information for the group

2.6.3, The combining arrangement

In this type, each learner has a different piece of information that all the others need

‘This method can be called the Jigsaw method In this type, students are assigned to four or

five members, academic material is braken into some sections

12

2.6.4, The individual arrangement

In this activity, each learner has access to the same information but must perform or deal with a different part of it

Nation (1989) pointed out that the four different types of group work achieve diffzrent learning goals, are best suited to different kind of tasks; require different kinds of seating

arrangement, and draw on or encourage different kinds of social relationship Below is the

table that describes the factors involved in group work,

Combining ‘Cooperating Superior -Inferior | individual

One or more All eamers AILlearners have equal

Distribution | Bach learner bas Jeamers have have the same

accessto the same

of mnique essential =| | information that | information but

information and to

information | mformation, le others du nol | use a different

cach ollier’s viow of il,

knowers are ina

superior position

performance

Most suitable ‘Negotiation of

New lnnguage tems, New language

vluency, new

learning input, mastering items, mastering

Completion, ordain providing, | Ranking, completion, | Dala galbering, |

Astrip story Arranking exercise An interview

Table 1: Factors involved in group work (Nation, 1989: 21)

2.6.5 The grammar activities for group work

According to Hubicka (1985), Williams (1980), and Braughton (1969) (as cited in Aisha Tibi, 2002: 17), the following activities can be used for graup activities in practicing grammar:

2.6.5.1 Doing grammar exercises

Teacher can design exercises suitably for each kind of grammar items These exercises can be easily found in a lot of grammar textbooks and they can be done either in the class or al home Shudents will do these exercises in group, helping each other anc discussing the answers

pronunciation, stress and intomation

2.6.5.3 Practicing using language according to situations

‘Teachers can give situation suitably for each kind of grammer item and then ask students lo practic, og inviting and rosponding amd using maps for giving dircetions, telling a story about the past event, etc

2.6.5.4 Playing games

Students can play games, using tha grammar ilems they have jearnt, Thess games can

be simple games that can be done tor the whole class, or mote complex games like “teams- games-tourmnament” (Slavin, 1991), where students play academic games to show their

individual mastery of the subject malier, In lcams-games-foumament, sludents play these games in weekly toumaments in which they compete with members of other teams about the subject matter

2.6.5.5 Discussion

According to Penny Ur (1996), discussion is the most natural and cffeetive way for students to talk freely in English by thinking out some problems or situations together through varbal interchange of idsas, The word “discussion” here includes anything fom

14

the simplest questions to the most political and philosophical debates In Bnghsh grammar

As other Linglish skills, using group work far grammar lesson also has a lot of

classroom atmosphere, motivates learners, ete, Beside, group work also has some limitations when being used, such as teacher may lack of time to teach the whole lesson plan, students may not take the same cqual responsibilities in the group Some will dominate the group and some will talk too little To make the groups work well, the activities for group work must be carefully planed by the teacher

CHAPTER III: DEVELOPMENT OF THE RESEARCH

In this chapter, firstly the context of the studies is presented, and then is the research methodology which describes how fo achieve the aims and objeclives of the study and the data collection procedures Finally are the data analyses as welll as the discussion of the findings

3.1 The context of the study

3.1.1 The sturents and the text bank

Most of my sludenls follow group A, which means they are suppased fo be nore English major students and they have to take the general English training course during their first year before studying English for Special Purpose in their second years, As their major 1elalzs lo trade and economy, we choose the lexthook Power Base by author David Evans to provide them with basic English for trade and economy After studying these two books, students are expected to be fluent in English commmnication, especially they can

understand antl usc words relalc to their majors Because of Ihe aims, using group activities in practicing grammar may be useful to help students to increase the ability of comminicating in English

The text book I use to teach my students is “powerbase — pre intermediate”, it inchides of 10 lessons written from easy to difficult ones All the lessons begin with the introduetion part, and then come gramumat, working life, and real world, In this text book, the main grammar items that students have to Jean are: the present simple and continnous, the future simple, and the past simple, modal verb, comparative and superlative, the order

of adjective, the prosont perfect, and tho first and socond conditional Among these grammar items, the first five grammar items will be chosen to teach during the treatment time of the research

3.1.2 Problems and issues in English language teaching at CLET

Like most other schools in Vietnam, English language teaching in CTHC also have the sam probloris, such as: There are too much sturfents in one elass, desks and chairs are

fixed or difficult to move, there is little space for both teacher and students to move around

16

the class during the lesson, eto ‘These factors may cause some difficulties when organizing

shudders in group

A normal class in our College usually has from sixty ta eighty students with mixed

level of English learning, which means some are very good at English while the others may

have never learnt Knglish before As a result, one single teaching method may hardly salisfy all of the students Using group work to leach grammar far these students is not

exceptional method and it may also cause dissatisfaction for some students, For example, if

a group consists of both too excellent and too bad students at Unglish, they may feel frustrated when leming togelber

3.2 Methodology

3.2.1 The subjects

The subjects of this research were two classes of the first-year non-English major students Bach class has about 40 students, both male and female and they all follow the same course of Friglish The class meets two times per week, each wack has five periods, and each period lasts 50 minutes The students in each class worked in 8 permanent mixed- ability groups for the whole period of the research

3.2.2 The instrumenis and procedures

3.2.2.1 The questionnaires

In order to obtain data for the research, two cycles questionnaires for students were

employed: pre-treatment and post-lreatment questionnairss

The pre-treatment questionnaire was carried ont before using group work to teach English grammar with 8 questions They worc designed to find out the attitudes of studonts about English grammar and the use of group work in English grammar lessons T'he questions ermphasives on the following categories

- The students’ awareness of the importance of English grammar (Ql)

- ‘The students’ general attitude toward leaning Knglish grammar (Q2 and 3)

-'The students’ attitude toward using group work for l¿nglish grammar lessons (Q7-8)

‘rhe post-treatment questionnaire was carried out after using group work fo teach

English grammar with 1] questions They were designed to find out the differences in students’ attitude toward leaming English grammar before and after using group work as well as their evaluation about the effectiveness of using group work to learn grammar ‘The

Along with the survay questionnaire

data for the study My observation falls on the classroom procedures as well as the students’ behavior and performance in the grammar lessons During the research period, L actad as a nonparticipant obsorver and my obsorvation was noted down in my teaching journals aiter each lesson

3.3 Data analysis and discussions

3.3.1 Questionnaire

3.3.1.1 Pre-treatment questionnaire

3.3.1.1.1 Students’ awareness of the importance of learning English grammar

Question one in the questionnaire relating to the students’ awareness of the importance of learning English grammar The results showed that the majority of students agtced it is very important to know English grammar Specifically, among 85 students were asked, 95.3 % of them said that leaming English was important or very important, 4.7% said il was not important! but rece:

y to leam Tìnglish grammar There wersw’t any

students who had no idea or said that learning English grammar was not important at all

As we can sce [rom the result above, nearly all students are aware of the important of learning English grammar When being asked why they think learning English grammar is important, the typical reasons of them are:

18

- Mastering of Linglish grammar helps students to do exercises well, so they can get good marks at their English cxainations (15 answers),

- Mastering of English grammar helps students to produce correct sentences, so they don’t “lose fhce” when speaking before the crowd (7 answers)

- Knowing grammatical tule

is very important to wrilc correct sciences (32

answers)

- Linglish grammar is very important to communicate successfully because using right

English grarmmar can make other people understand ns easily (42 answers)

- Good understanding of grammar helps a lot in academic reading and translating from English to Vicnamese and vise versa (3 answers)

Raside 95% of studsuts who realize the important of English grammar, there was 4.7% who thought grammar was not important to leam, With them, they leamt grammar only because it was a must in the school curriculum, Luckily, most of students find grammar is important to learn English well, which means focusing on grarnmar is still a desirable part of language learning,

3.3.1.1.2 Students’ attitudes towards learning Iinglish grammar

The second and the third questions in the survey questionnaire asked the students whether they tiked or disliked Icamiing English grammar and how difficulty they felt when learning it The answers among 85 students to the second question: “Do you like to Jearn English grammar?” are

- 17.6 % of students liked learning Linglish grammar very much,

70.6 % of students neither liked nor disliked learning English grammar

9.4 % of students didn’t like leaming English grammar at all

- 12% of'stadents felt very bored with learning English grammar

- 1.2 % of students had no idea at all

To my surprise, although all students were aware of the important role of learning English grammar, 70.6% of them said they neither iked nor disliked learning English