000034001 THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURES AT NGUYEN DUC CANH SECONDARY SCHOOL IN THAI BINH: AN EXPERIMENT (Giảng dạy cấu trúc ngữ pháp tiếng Anh tại trường THCS Nguyễn Đức Cảnh, Thái Bình: Một thí nghiệm)

000034001 THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURES AT NGUYEN DUC CANH SECONDARY SCHOOL IN THAI BINH: AN EXPERIMENT (Giảng dạy cấu trúc ngữ pháp tiếng Anh tại trường THCS Nguyễn Đức Cảnh, Thái Bình: Một thí nghiệm)

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN STUDIES

LE THI NHUNG

THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURES

AT NGUYEN DUC CANH SECONDARY SCHOOL

IN THAI BINH: AN EXPERIMENT

OF REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEGREE

TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS .:ccscsssssessssesseessesesneesseeessesesneeesseesesseees V LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLEG c:cssesssssssssssssesssvesssssssssssssessssenseensscsesseeerseeee V

ABSTRACTssccnotecsentoottGitegtttagtSqttGB)GIGEGIRSRGRGSEESSEEĐIGASRGiBuaistasg VỊ CHAPTER [I: INTRODUCTION .eccàs<ccessertirttrtrrrrrrirrrririrrarerrasrire 1

1.2 Aim of the study

1.4 Overview of the study

CHAPTER IF: LITERATURE REVIEW Jm 5

Zi Lisl GAT AEA trryyntyinY R0 HNNNGUMINNAi-GGGISBGIUDNGAHEHAskkesssipsAikeiatlsdlit3Asad 5

2.1.2 The role:of erammar sssssssssssssssssoonsssssaseasssswssussssecscsossusansssersssadeseaabececsstel 6

2.2 The relationship between grammar and communication

2.3 The Traditional Grammar- Translation Method

2.3.1 Definition

2.3.2 Characteristics Of TÌM óc nh nh HT Hư 9

2.3.3 Advantages and disadvantages of GTM -. cc«ccecceecreercee 9

2.4.1 The concept of CA

2.4.2 Characteristics of CLT

2.4.3 The advantages and disadvantages Of CA .cssesesssesesssesssteseseeneeeeenee 13

2.5.1 Deductive method in the light of traditional grammar-translation method

a)

2.5.2 Inductive method in the light of communicative approach

2.6 Tests as a means to collect data

2.7 Previous study: strength and weaknesses .s.cssssscsssesseessesesssssessesesesesees 19

2.7.1, Comfirmation ssssssssscscsssssessceesssesersnsnesecsnssnesesennnsecensnseessceneseseersennesesess 19 t2nII02+°BÄTRCÌTTẾ Su: so sex tv3010311050100614013130016441010000117901913010910164045413100417199040000680 19

2.7.3 Limitation and suggestion for further research

2.8 Literature summary

CHAPTER Ts: METHODOLOGY sssssscssosscvssesscsecavesvassnsossssssssesavessussssvasesssteusnsssssoisnies 22

3:22: D§pEhilent Vaf14BlES cssssizgttitgitsxl4\aGGlNi0x6480sygsxase24

28 30

3.5 Procedures

4.1.2 Result of the spoken test cscccsssssssssssssseeesssssssssessssessesesssstnssssssseeeeeeeeee 32

4.2 The application of inductive and deductive methods in the two classes 33

4.4.1 Comparison of the pre-test and the post-test results of the experimental CIASS i noserernsrorstaneernesrensesnersentasennasecensaseananeeoinsnanéntoiotnnsesessbansesqndosarssdnedssstaensth 39 4.4.2 Comparison of the pre-test and the post-test results of the control class 41

4.5 Pre-test result analysis according to each section scores icsesenesvsnssnesusscensaseasesel 43

.43 44 46

4.5.1 The written test scores

5.2.3 Attitude towards teaching and learning English grammar through real COMICKUS sisssccsssscactesserceessnsvevesecesenvesanenssvessavesseeue on

APPENDICES teeenoccctittttgteliLG1G00133981601540130681830514336361446134014918138603444144.0130 ST

iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Duc Hoat, who has provided me with his precious knowledge, assistance, consideration, and

encouragement without which this thesis could not have been completed

I am particularly grateful to the teachers of the Department of Post-Graduate Studies

who helped me a great deal in conducting the thesis

My thanks also go to the headmaster of Nguyen Duc Canh secondary school, Thai Binh Department of Education and Training, and my colleagues for their assistance, encouragement during my participation in M A course

My special thanks are expressed to my teacher Pham Quang Khai who gave me

valuable documents, and my friends who spent much time reading my thesis and gave

me many good ideas Their suggestions played an important role in the preparation and completion of the thesis

Last but not least, I owe a debt to my colleagues for their willingness to participate in the research and to 90 students in classes 11A1 and 11A2 who studied hard for 14

weeks Without their help, I certainly could not have implemented the thesis

iv

MOET

CA

GTM

CLT

ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS

The Ministry of Education and Training Communicative Approach

Traditional Grammar — Translation Method Communicative Language Teaching

LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES

4.1 Pre-test scores in written of the experimental class (11A1) and the control

GORTOILGĂASÑ6uecooendikiiaiivEEiiSE001121661363001046106016104851036033419401144070121613038378v850138 39 4.5 The pre-test and the post-test result in written of the experimental class 40

4.6 The pre-test and the post-test result in spoken communication of the

experimental class

4.7 The pre-test and the post-test result in written communication of the control

4.8 The pre-test and the post-test result in spoken communication of the control GLASS secvssocionensesosanunenesecensasnonvnnsasssevapacscdiannsovespvannnssnansssunesnennsosxennsossponsancoesses 42 4.9 Pre-test result analysis in written communication according to each section

rsddhnesis sheet nan sesssesstavnnsntaeenastneseuetsstuasantessecdussrrasrsarvusaeasteenaiteesieaeens AT 43

4.10 Pre-test result analysis in spoken communication according to each section

ABSTRACT

Grammar has been learned by millions of school students all over the world It is considered as an integral part of everyday language Together with other elements such as vocabulary, pronunciation grammar plays an important role in learning languages, especially for basic levels Even if someone speaks with clear pronunciation and

appropriate vocabulary he or she may still be unintelligible without grammatical accuracy and thus cause misunderstanding

Communicative language teaching (CLT) attracts a variety of experts’ consideration

Vietnamese learners of English nowadays have numerous communicative course books,

and Communicative Approach (CA) has been applied much in many schools and universities However, most teachers in Nguyen Duc Canh secondary school and other

schools in Thai Binh province still apply Grammar Translation ‘Method (GTM) in teaching

grammar for students Therefore, the objective of this thesis is to help the teachers find out

whether the application of CA in teaching grammar in the comparison with that of GTM

will be better or not In details, the researcher endeavors to exploit the problems and give

out the recommendation so as to improve the effectiveness of teaching English grammar in

Nguyen Duc Canh secondary school in particular and other schools in Thai Binh province

in general

The instruments of data collection are a three and a half month experimental course and the

classroom observation The experiment is conducted in order to evaluate the effectiveness

of teaching grammar through communicative activities such as games, role- plays as opposed to GTM The experiment is implemented in two classes 11A1 and 11A2 in

Nguyen Duc Canh secondary school with two different methods applied- CA and GTM

Obse:vation is taken during the lessons to see how the methods are applied

The study has revealed that grammar is still of great importance for learners to master

English language and CA can motivate the students better Both of CA and GTM raise the

students’ grammar competence, but CA does a little better and CA is also much better in increasing communicative competence for students Finally, the twelve recommendations

are g.ven out based on the theory, the experiment and the observation

vi

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study

Recently, the essential role of foreign languages in the development process has been

confirmed and the development in economy, culture, and politics, which leads to the wide

use of foreign languages, especially of English, has fueled the desire to learn languages

In Vietnam, learning English as a foreign language has been carried out on an ever- wider

scale, becoming an indispensable demand that most students are aware of and that the society needs in the process of industrialization and modernization It is for this reason

that English as well as other foreign languages has been compulsory in curricula in

primary schools, and in secondary schools for a long time

Like other secondary school subjects, English is considered a major subject in Nguyen Duc Canh secondary school in Thai Binh It is taught based on the aims and requirements

of teaching and learning foreign languages in schools issued by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) It is said in the sixth form guiding book for teachers (Education Publishing House - 2003) that students in schools should be taught to build and improve their basic knowledge of English so that they can use it in the future, Students are supposed to gain main results of the course

- An acceptable mastery of basic knowledge of English

- The ability to use English like a means of communication

- General knowledge of some English speaking countries

For basic levels, especially for school students, grammar plays an important part in learning languages It is noted that grammar is the backbone of a language, so if students study grammar thoroughly, they can comprehend much better and avoid making many mistakes in speaking and writing Therefore, it helps students have the basic knowledge of English and the ability to use it as a means of communication

Nowadays, teaching and learning English are being conducted with many methods and

approaches in order to achieve the best results However, in many secondary schools in

Thai Binh, teachers still exploit and consider the traditional grammar-translation method

as the best one to present grammatical structures in class The way of teaching is still

deductive, from form to use and the main technique is translation from English into Vietnamese and vice versa Students try to grasp only grammatical structures taught by teachers, so students acquire nothing but what the teacher reviews at the end of each

semester with the purposes: to pass exams or do well in their grammar tests Therefore, most of the students cannot utter words out owing to their shyness or lack of self- confidence since they might never practice speaking in class

In the current movement of reforming the teaching method, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is an approach that has attracted a great variety of experts and teachers’ interest CLT is not a method, but “it involves an emphasis on communicating by means

of the foreign languages” (Thomson, 1996: 9) The aim of the implementation of CLT in teaching English is to help the students gain the communicative competence, which is suitable with the MOET’s requirements However, many teachers of English in Thai Binh find it difficult to apply the CLT because they themselves do not have communicative competence and they are also not trained to use CLT in classrooms Only a few of them are trained for one or two weeks a year In addition, there are some other reasons, such as

the great size of the classes, which can number more than 5O students, the evaluation

system, and textbooks, which still lead the students to learn English not so

communicatively Accordingly, deductive method is welcomed and teachers spend most

of the time teaching grammatical structures, and little time developing communicative competence This does not meet the real demand of the society Because of these reasons, the researcher aims to study the way of teaching to improve grammatical competence in both spoken and written for secondary students, especially at Nguyen Duc Canh

secondary school

1.2 Aim of the study

There are many investigations into the application of CLT in teaching English to university students of English, but no studies have been conducted on secondary school students, especially secondary school students in Thai Binh Hence, with the purpose of investigating whether inductive method based on the light of communicative language

teaching approach is better than deductive method based on the traditional grammar —

translation or not when teaching grammatical structures for students at secondary schools,

the writer plans to do research with two aims

1 To evaluate the effectiveness of teaching English grammatical structures when applied inductive method in the light of CLT compared to that when applied the deductive method

based on GIM

2 To give some recommendations in teaching English grammatical structures to students

in Nguyen Duc Canh secondary school in Thai Binh, and then, to present five samples of

extra activities in 7 lessons based on the 11'" form textbook

This research is carried out with the following hypothesis:

The students can improve their grammatical competence in both spoken and written communication with the inductive method

1.3 Scope of the study

In communication, it is impossible to accomplish a skill without another, so “integrating

skills” is a notion that the teachers should pay attention to However, this study does not mention skills; it is limited to English grammar only It aims to find out whether teachers

should apply inductive method or still use deductive method to teach grammatical structures to secondary students in Thai Binh The recommendations are inferred from a three-and-a-half- month experiment with the participation of 90 students of the 11" form and the researcher, a teacher of English at Nguyen Duc Canh secondary school

The researcher wishes that the hopefully successful results of the study could be applied in teaching grammatical structures to students at Nguyen Duc Canh secondary school, and other schools in Thai Binh, so that the teaching and learning of English can be improved

in order to meet the aims and requirements of the MOET’s

1.4 Overview of the study

The study consists of five chapters, a list of references, and appendices

Chapter I provides the background to the study, containing the problems in teaching and learning English of the teachers and the students in secondary schools in Thai Binh It also

includes the aims, the scope, and the overview of the study

Chapter II aims at reviewing the relevant literature, starting with the issues about

grammar, CLT, and GTM, inductive and deductive method in the light of CLT and GTM The next is tests as a means to collect data The last part of this chapter studies previous

research related to the same topic in order to recognize their strengths and weaknesses

Chapter III presents the methodology and procedures performed in the study to conduct the research and collect data It includes three parts: the description of the subjects and

Chapter IV shows the results of the study in details

Chapter V summarizes the major findings of the study and gives nine recommendations that are expected to be of some help to the teaching and learning of English grammar in secondary schools in Thai Binh

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

Among a large number of studies and researches concerning Grammar, Grammar Translation Method (GTM), and Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), this chapter

only reviews the ones relevant to this studies’ domain so as to provide them with a theoretical background It consists of the main parts concerning grammar, CLT, GTM, deductive method, inductive method, tests as a means to collect data, previous researches and a summary of the chapter

2.1 Grammar

2.1.1 Definitions of grammar

As above-mentioned (p1), for basic levels, especially for school students, grammar plays

an important part in learning languages It is noted that grammar is the backbone of a language, so if students study grammar thoroughly, they can comprehend much better and avoid making some mistakes in speaking and writing Therefore, it helps students have the basic knowledge of the language and the ability to use it as a means of communication This is the reason why we should spend time having a careful look at grammar in order to have its definitions

There have been some definitions of grammar stated by many linguists The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English defines grammar as the rules of grammar and the study and practice of the rules The rules of grammar are about how words change and how they are put together into the sentences Harmer (1987:1) shows that grammar is the way in which words change themselves and group together to make sentences The grammar of a language is what happens to words when they become plural or negative, or what word order is used when we make questions or join two clauses to make one

sentence And Richards er al (1992:161) notes that: “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.”

In addition, in English grammar teaching, there are also two definitions of grammar,

which should be distinguished: covert and overt According to Harmer (1987), covert

grammar teaching is where grammatical facts are hidden from the students even though they are learning the language The students, for instance, may be asked to do an

information gap activity, or read a text where new grammar is practised or introduced, but their attention will be drawn to the activity or to the text and not to the grammar Teachers

do not draw conscious attention to any of the grammatical facts of the language; they help the students to acquire or practise the language, whereas overt grammar teaching allows the teacher to provide the students with grammatical rules and explanations Therefore, with overt grammar teaching teachers are explicit and open about the grammar of the language, but with covert teaching they simply get students to work with the new language and hope that they will be more or less subconsciously absorbed in grammatical information, which will help them to acquire the language as a whole

In short, it is clear that grammatical factors are overt when deductive method is applied,

since these are taught separately between forms and uses; whereas, these factors are often

covert when applying inductive method However, there is no doubt that knowledge of

grammar is essential for the mastery of a language, so it should be presented in the

following part

2.1.2 The role of grammar

In recent years, the emphasis has shifted away from the teaching of grammar As a result, many teachers have concentrated on the issues, such as how people learn languages and what they want to say, and a new way of teaching which has been attracted is called the

communicative activities Some people felt that teaching the grammar of the language did not necessarily help people to use the language Language itself is used actually to do things, to perform certain functions, such as inviting, apologizing, introducing, suggesting, expressing, and so on Therefore, instead of teaching grammar, we should teach functions However, the problem, of course, is that the sentences that perform functions are made up

of grammatical elements In addition, in secondary schools English is being taught as a foreign language to students, who learn English only 3 periods per week, so students do

not have much time to practise Moreover, they live in their community, speaking their

native language all the time, so they do not have English language environment As a

result, a good grammatical base is very necessary for them

In short, grammar is a very important factor - the bone of language in English language mastering A question raised is the way to teach grammar and the procedure through which grammar is attained to make learning English meet the recent communicative requirements

2.2 The relationship between grammar and communication

Grammar has traditionally had a central role in language teaching And according to

Kirkpatrick (1985), the goal of communicative language teaching is to help students

become communicative, even linguistically competent as native speakers We have also seen from many other resources that grammar helps us communicate and “using ‘good’

grammar means communicating well” (Woods, 1995:31) Thus, we have to look at how

grammar relates to communication

It is said by Carter (1991: 60 - 64) that in order to meet the recent communicative

demand, grammar should be taught communicatively, and then English language learners will have the ability to produce the language with not only grammatical accuracy but contextual suitability ‘as well However, it is known that grammar and communication are paradoxical to each other When we mention grammar, we mean long lecture learning There are boring and exhausting theories, and numerous exercises to practise On the contrary, communication refers to freedom of the students They can grasp knowledge in various ways like talking information, sharing ideas, etc Therefore, according to Carter (1991:20), to make grammar relevant to English teaching, especially CLT, it should:

- Relate to language in use

- Be described with reference to actual purposes and real contexts rather than

part of a set of decontextualised exercises

- Focus on function as well as on forms

In summary, it is not in doubt that “grammar and communicative language teaching need

not be enemies but can work together quite happily” (Kirkpatrick, 1985) However, the question raised here is the way to teach grammar and the procedures to reach the targets

of the MOET as above-mentioned (p1) In teaching reality, teachers of English in Nguyen Duc Canh secondary school have only applied GTM, but this thesis is concerned with not only GTM but also CLT, a most widely used approach, which the writer would like to have a study on They will be discussed in the next parts of this chapter (2.3 and 2.4) 2.3 The Traditional Grammar - Translation Method

2.3.1 Definition

This method arose out of the traditional teaching of classical Latin and Greek, when living languages began to be widely taught in the nineteenth century It was the dominant method until the end of the century and has continued to be used in one form or another until the

present day It is based on language study (grammar, literature) and written exercises

(translation) rather than real-life communication and speech Therefore, languages are seen

as systems of rules for the construction of correct sentences and believed to be learnt best by memorizing the rules, along with bilingual vocabulary lists, and applying them when constructing sentences, mostly in writing The teacher’s role is to explain grammar rules and the meaning of words in the students’ native language to organize practice and correct students’ mistakes The students’ role is to pay careful attention to the teacher’s

explanations and corrections, to memorize rules and vocabulary lists, and to carefully do the practice tasks the teacher sets Hubbard, et al, (1984:328) define:

“The traditional deductive method of language teaching, based on classical studies of dead languages, which consisted of giving rules, paradigms, and vocabulary, and getting the students to apply this new knowledge to

translation (to and from L1) and to grammatical analysis.”

As it can be seen above that GTM is an old method but it is today still applied popularly in many schools To learn about this, the researcher would like to discuss its characteristics (part 2.3.2), its advantages and disadvantages (part 2.3.3)

(1994) explores some features of GTM:

language

focus on the form and inflection of words

- Little attention is paid to the content of the texts, which are treated as

exercises in grammatical analysis

2.3.3 Advantages and disadvantages of GTM

GTM is a way of teaching and learning language based on detailed analysis of language data and application of the translation of sentences, texts It is often a quick and effective way of teaching difficult or abstract words Similarly, a short explanation in the native tongue is often better than a long strenuous one in the target language, especially for beginners The purposes are to help students read and appreciate foreign literature It is hoped that through studying the grammar of the target language, learners could become more familiar to the grammar of the native language and then speak and write their native

language better Richard et al (1985), Hubbard, ef a/, (1984) as well as Brown, HD (1995)

discuss some advantages of GTM as the following:

9

The atmosphere of the classroom is not usually stressful for teachers because of

the use of mother tongue at any time

The teaching of grammar and translation puts students in the problem-solving

process

It brings the direct contact with the world and ideas of great thinkers

Translation is essential for translators/ interpreters

From their points of view, some disadvantages of GTM are drawn when applying this method to EFL teachers and students as follows:

- Communicative skills such as listening and speaking cannot be improved because of

negligence

- There is negative transfer from the mother tongue into the target language

There are some reasons that make this method common in schools in Vietnam, especially

in Thai Binh First, it requires fewer specialized skills on the part of teachers Moreover, tests of grammar rules and of translations are easy to construct and can be objectively

scored In addition, the comprehensibility is considered as a fundamental and necessary

factor in the first stage of learning a foreign language The grammar-translation method emphasizes this aspect of learning a foreign language It makes use of the students’ first language in order to make them understand words, phrases, sentences or concepts in the target language, (Grady, W., Dobrovolsky, 1993, p.4-5) However, Brown H.D (1994; p.52) says: “Most focus was on grammatical rules, memorization of vocabulary and of various declensions and conjugations, translations of texts, and doing written exercises In other words, languages were not being taught primarily to learn oral/ aural communication but to learn for the sake of being “scholarly” ” Consequently, this method makes less motivation Students do not have enough chances to use their target language, because the classroom activities are not abundant and enjoyable It can hardly apply activities such as

communicative approach

2.4 Communicative approach (CA)

2.4.1 The concept of CA

The communicative approach was designed and developed by British applied linguists (e.g Wilkins) and later the Council of Europe It is built up on the two bases of the language theory and of the language learning theory Their target group was in the first place European adults, European businessmen, or European business officials of the various E.U administrators in Brussels, Luxembourg

CLT is probably said to be the most widely used approach in the teaching and learning of English today However, it is implemented in different ways by different teachers working

in different contexts, so it is an approach with wide variations, not a well-defined method

As a result, although many researchers (Brown, 1994; David & Pearse, 2000; Halliday,

1994; Li, 1998 ) have discussed CA, no explicit definition has been made However,

most of them have the general idea that CA emphasizes communication in a foreign language and improves the students’ communicative competence through communicative activities as games, role-play Hubbard, et.al (1984:326) indicate:

“The communicative approach to language teaching takes as its starting point the use or communicative purpose of language This approach therefore strongly advocates careful attention to use rather than merely form/ meaning It would also favor functional! notional organization of teaching materials It might tend to support a ‘deep-end’ approach to presentation of new language, in which students are first to cope with the communication task as best as possible before being given the new, necessary form.”

The communicative approach is a long process of acquisition through exposure to and communicative use of language, with many inevitable mistakes It has the following main

characteristics

I

2.4.2 Characteristics of CLT

It is believed that the characteristics of CLT help the teacher and the students understand

what is happening in a CLT classroom Accordingly, the teacher can take advantage of this approach and promote her/his students’ learning

Many researchers (Bock, 2000; Larsen- Freeman, 1986; Richards & Rodgers, 1986; Thompson, 1996) and others are interested in CLT, but they only discuss CLT partially Li (1998) collects the opinions from many linguists and reviews the characteristics of CLT as follows:

- A focus on communicative function;

- A focus on meaningful tasks rather than on language per se ( e.g grammar and

vocabulary study);

- Efforts to make tasks and language relevant to a target group of students through

an analysis of genuine, realistic situations;

- The use of materials from authentically

- The use of group activities; and

- The attempt to create a secure, non- threatening atmosphere

The review shows that communicative function is considered the most important characteristics of CLT because the goal of CLT is to help the students gain the communicative competence (see 2.5./) (The communicative function is the way we use a language to accomplish some functions such as arguing, persuading, or promising, etc) CLT concentrates on the communicative function since it was created

on the foundation of the communicative language theory in connection with that of the language learning theory

More specifically, from Christopher Brumfit’s point of view (1988), some characteristics should be reviewed to have a more understanding of CLT They are:

centeredness and Needs Analysis)

- Anemphasis on the content of the activity, rather on overt language learning (A concentration on the message rather than on the medium)

syllabuses) of speech acts (‘functional’ syllabuses), rather than in terms of

structure/ lexis (Function, rather than form)

extent of mixing mother tongue and target language use

rather than Grammatical Accuracy)

suspension of the teacher’s judgmental role

— group and pair-work, role-play, simulation and information-gap exercises

(Use, rather than Usage; Discourse, rather than the sentence)

- Materials which are either ‘authentic’ (i.e not originally intended for language

teaching at all,) or which simulate authenticity

language is to be used by learners, because they will be engaged in simulated

‘natural’ language activity — whether reading, listening, conversing of writing

The list of the characteristics of CLT indicates that although CLT possesses many good points by nature, the application of CLT still has been defected, especially for teaching

grammar in secondary schools Teachers should be aware of those so that the teaching and

learning of English grammar can be more improved Therefore, the advantages and

disadvantages should be discussed

2.4.3 The advantages and disadvantages of CA

The purpose of the CA application in teaching and learning English is to help students gain communicative competence CA can be said to have a beneficial effect on both

teachers and students Harmerly (1991, p.1) shows surprising results that students can learn to convey most of their feelings and ideas He and many other linguists draw the conclusion that the CA has many advantages They can be reported as follows:

Teachers do not waste time teaching students things that they do not need to know

As its result, both students and teachers can save time and energy

Functional communicative activities are much more interesting and useful for students than the simple drills in which all they have to do is to repeat some patterns

It is more likely to produce the four kinds of competence: grammar,

sociolinguistics, discourse, and strategy

Students are offered the opportunity to use the language for their own purposes, to take part in communication

In the long term, it should equip the students with appropriate skills for tackling the language in a real world, since CLT is based on a close approximation to such uses

Often there are no texts in which grammar rules are not presented; classroom arrangement

is nonstandard, students are expected to interact primarily with each other rather than with the teacher, and correction of errors may be absent or infrequent Besides, the teacher has only two main roles: the first is to facilitate the communication process among all participants in the classroom, the second is to act as an independent participant within the learning - teaching group Therefore, from the theory of CLT, and the reality of teaching and learning English in Nguyen Duc Canh secondary school, the writer draw some disadvantages when applying CA in teaching and learning English

It is only applicable to students who have mastered the basic vocabulary and grammar rules

In such an Asian culture like the Vietnamese one, it is impossible for a class to

consist of students who are all so outgoing that they can communicate with their

friends rather than with the teacher

14

- It is extremely difficult to have enough teachers who can meet the requirements of this approach It needs the professional training and linguistic competence of the teacher

Even though there are such disadvantages, CA has still been considered a good approach

in teaching and learning for its beneficial effect It makes students more enjoyable since they have chances to use their target language Both students and teacher can see how well the students are doing in their language learning All of these encourage them to improve their language competence in both their language learning and their mother

tongue

2.5 Deductive versus inductive methods

The deductive and inductive methods are the two different ways of teaching grammar and each of the methods is often based on one language teaching approach Deductive method

is often based on traditional grammar-translation method and inductive method is applied

in the light of communicative approach (Celce-Muria, 2001) What needs mentioning here

is that the deductive method is applied in teaching grammar at Nguyen Duc Canh

secondary school, and the inductive method that follows communicative approach will be

applied in the experiment

2.5.1 Deductive method in the light of traditional grammar-translation method

In keeping with language form approaches, traditional grammar teaching has employed deductive method and lessons composed of three phases In the first phase-the presentation stage, the teacher may write the forms of the new language item on the board with examples to illustrate the form The form understood here is the means by which an element of language is expressed in speech or writing (Richards, 1992) The underlying rules are explained, both in the mother tongue and in the target language For example, when teaching the structure: “be going to do something”, in the presentation stage, teacher often presents its forms, positive, negative, and interrogative by giving some examples illustrating these forms Then the teacher underlines the rules and explains these rules

After that, he or she may ask some students to give their own examples based on the rules,

all the forms of the structure, the teacher explains its use He/she may list all the uses or only refer to some main uses, and ask students to give their own examples to make these uses clear The next two stages are the practice and production stages, which are mainly

based on practice drills and sentence production Students are asked to memorize the rule

by doing some meaningless mechanical drills Finally, students do some recognition and production exercises orally and in writing ‘Little attention is paid to the value of the

message’ (Nunan, 1999) In other words, the grammatical structures are not put in the

context; using the target language in real-life communication is not the goal of grammar lesson Having the students get the correct answer is considered very important If students make errors or do not know an answer, the teacher supplies them with the correct

answer (Larsen-Freeman, 1985)

In brief, a typical deductive grammar lesson consists of deductive presentation of grammatical rules, and students are told to memorize the rules and then asked to apply the rules to make more other examples Students are often inactive in the classroom and not all of them involve in the learning activities Teacher dominates all the classroom activities He/she spends too much time explaining As a result, the amount of time left for

students’ cognitive activities and classroom interactions is not sufficient The classroom

interaction is one-way direction from teacher to students only It leads to the fact that learners who are taught by this method are often good at reading and studying, but they find it difficult to communicate with others by the target language

2.5.2 Inductive method in the light of communicative approach

These days the emphasis tends to be on the “communicative” teaching of grammar through inductive discovery of rules and principles and the provision of opportunities for group discussion (Nunan, 1999) This way of teaching grammar is called inductive method, or discovery oriented It can be described as follows

In the first phase, the teacher demonstrates the meanings to the class by contextualizing grammatical items, i.e., put the grammatical items in contexts For example, when

presenting present continuous tense they may show students a picture and say, “Now, look

at the picture! This man is reading a book, Two men are talking What are other people in

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the picture doing?” When students describe the picture, the teacher writes all the examples

on the board and asks the other students to give their comments on these examples Afterwards, without the picture the teacher may ask some questions to check students’

memory and to practise speaking

Then the teacher writes down some of these examples on the board The next step is to get the students to produce the grammatical forms by describing what is happening in the classroom at that moment The grammar points are shown on the board only after extensive practice of the present continuous tense Explanations are not always made, though they may be elicited from the students themselves The models are copied and the class may be required to write sample sentences from the models

After the presentation phase, the teacher leads to practice and production phases, in which

practice might include activities such as reading/listening materials containing many uses

of the target grammar structures and having the students ask and answer questions, which require production of the structures and subsequent communicative exposure to the grammar points Then the learners are provided with opportunities to produce the grammar points themselves

When applying inductive method in the light of communicative approach, the teacher’s

role is less dominant than in deductive method, students are seen as more responsible managers of their own learning (Nunan, 1999) The teacher is the initiator of the activities, but he does not always himself interact with the students Sometimes he is a co- communicator, but more often he establishes situations that prompt communication between and among the students (Larsen-Freeman, 1985) Such an approach shows learners how grammar enables them to make meanings of increasingly sophisticated

kinds, how it enables them, not only to report events and states of affairs, but to

editorialize, and to communicative their own attitudes towards these events and affairs (Nunan, 1990)

2.6 Tests as a means to collect data

For language researchers, tests are necessary instruments to collect data Seliger and Shohamy (1989: 176) define a test as a procedure used to collect data on subjects’ ability

of knowledge of certain disciplines Students can be tested their ability of writing, reading, speaking, or listening comprehension skills Many tests include all these elements, especially public exams like those from the University of Cambridge or the Oxford Delegacy, for example, which have four or five separate papers However, it has been known that marking written tests is easier than marking oral tests, and written tests take

less time and are easier to administer, so that most tests are based on the written skills,

especially when they are designed for schools’ students

It is normal that tests in secondary schools are designed to find out how well students have

done, to measure students’ achievement, to grade students, to discover students’ problems and weakness, and even to measure the ability of the teachers These are called achievement tests, which are given after four or six weeks’ study, or after three or four

units of a course book, or after a semester or a year’s work The aim of such tests is to see

if the students have learned and acquired the language they have been studying Tests are usually written by heads of departments or by teachers of individual classes

Harmer (1987: 58-59) considers that writing a test is an important job that demand skill and patience A good test does not fail students unnecessarily and it gives every student a chance to show how much they have learnt Tests can often go wrong, not just because of the students’ lack of knowledge, but also because of the problems in writing of the tests themselves He, therefore, proposes four rules that a teacher should bear in mind when

writing a test:

- Do not introduce new techniques in tests

- Do not just test accuracy

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Linguists (e.g Seliger& Shohamy, 1989: 177-179 or Harmer, 1987: 60-62) give out a

number of examples of testing techniques used for collecting language data They are multiple choices, true or false, fills- in, transformation, translation, completions, and so on

In short, a good test should have some characteristics such as having objectivity, existence

of reliability and validity information

2.7, Previous study: strength and weaknesses

There have been previous works concerning CLT and grammar in Vietnam Nguyen Quynh Giao (2002), for instance, discussed the teaching of English grammar structures to Technical first-year students in Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology, while Ho Thi Mai Lan’s thesis (2003) had the application of communicative language teaching in teaching speaking to non - English major students at Kon Tum teachers’ training college It is believed that these good works have been contributing much to improving teaching and learning English effectively

2.7.1 Confirmation

All of these studies are aware of the importance of communicative approach and the Necessity to apply it to teaching skills It is a ‘prominent phenomenon’ in language teaching that many linguists and researchers have been involved in for several decades 2.7.2 Findings

Nguyen Quynh Giao (2002) conducted a research study in Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology The participants were SO first-year students chosen from 74 students of two non-major English classes of regular programs She shows some major findings as follows:

English in particular may cause the doubt whether teaching grammar is of any use to the students The answer is that grammar is still of great importance for the knowledge of grammatical rules is essential to mastering a

language

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- The students in PTIT can get somehow better achievement with communicative grammar lessons than with traditional grammar translation lessons Communicative activities such as language games, role- play can help to improve students’ grammar appropriateness and accuracy

students, which the grammar-translation lessons often cannot do They would make the students enjoy learning English more, for to some students learning

it is difficult and uninteresting

Ho Thi Mai Lan’s thesis (2003) helps the readers easily grasp the main difficulties and the solutions: the difficulties from students and teachers The difficulties caused by the teachers are limited in CLT and misunderstanding of it To overcome the teachers’ limited training in CLT, the administrators should make effort to create opportunities for the teachers to enroll in short- term courses of CLT From the students there are four constrains which the teachers perceived as low English proficiency, limited motivation in learning, using Vietnamese during pair work or group work, and passive learning style

Tu overcome the students’ low English proficiency, the teachers should divide the

students into pair work and group work including good and bad students However, the teachers must grasp the way to manage pair or group work effectively To motivate students in learning, communicative activities, interesting topics, and fun learning activities should be added in the class Moreover, to limit “passive style of learning”, communicative activities and a variety of activities can bring benefits to the situations In addition, the students’ passive learning benefits originate from their low English proficiency, and cultural background In summary, her idea is that there must be cooperation between the administrators and the teachers The former should give the latter chances to promote knowledge as well as good facilities to make use of them

Nguyen Thi Hue’ s thesis contributes to the educational level with some suggestions for the way to communicate through structural items by using interactive activities such as games, songs and stories Her report shows that teachers in primary schools were looking for a more attractive and exciting class, but because of the lack of classroom activities,

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they found ¡t hard to complete their course teaching successfully She recommends the ways to present grammatical items needed for primary grades excitingly through

communicative activities in the hope to provide a suggestion of classroom activities for teachers in Tra Vinh primary schools

2.7.3 Limitation and suggestion for further research

Although the researches are quite successful, they only consist of communicative teaching methods applied to students in colleges, or primary schools There is no study for

secondary school students However, not many researchers conducted experiments, which

could be more trustworthy and get information that is more exact Therefore, a research

on how to teach grammar communicatively to secondary school students should be done

studying for several decades, while GTM, a traditional method, also has many advantages

In the light of CLT and GTM, the theory of inductive method and deductive method are

drawn And a concerned problem, tests as a mean of data collection, is defined clearly The strengths and weaknesses of previous studies on the related field are shown in the last part of the chapter The theory can help readers achieve further comprehension of teaching English grammar when applied deductive and inductive method

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY

Experiment method is chosen for the study and involved the control of the four basic components of the experiment In the following part, these components are described,

consisting of (1) the subjects and subject assignment, (2) variables, (3) data collection instruments, and (4) procedures for carrying out the study

3.1 Subjects and subject assignment

3.1.1 Subjects

The subjects of the study are the researcher, a teacher of English in Nguyen Duc Canh secondary school and ninety students chosen from 106 students of two 11" forms (11A1 and 11A2) The researcher is a female teacher of English, aged 29, and qualified with BA

in English She has been teaching English in the school since 1996 and confirmed as a good teacher of English by Thai Binh Department of Education and Training She has

been attending an M.A course in the Department of Post-Graduate Studies since 2001

3.1.2 Subject assignment

There are 90 students in two classes: 11A1 (experimental class) and 11A2 (control class),

each of which contains 45 students The subject assignment followed three steps The first step was based on the result of the first term examination The researcher chose two classes, which had the equivalent result, and 45 students were chosen from 53 students in each class The second is conducting pre-tests in both written and spoken to check the students’ grammar competence before the experiment The researcher needs to confirm

the equal English levels between two classes based on their performance in both written

and spoken tests They took part in a course of 40 periods (2™ term) lasting 3.5 months from 5 January 2004 to 29 April 2004, with three periods a week per class

3.2 Variables

The variables of the experiment are the independent variables and the dependent variables, which are causally related These issues will be discussed in details as follows

ey n

3.2.1 Independent variables

The English grammatical structures are taught in two ways: deductive method in the light

of GTM for the control class, and inductive method based on the theory of CLT for the experimental class Therefore, independent variables of this experiment are the inductive teaching and deductive teaching, which are called the treatments The framework of grammar lessons of both classes is PPP (presentation, practice, and production)

3.2.1.1 Inductive teaching

The inductive teaching method in the light of communicative approach presents English grammatical structures in contexts to the experimental group, in which students are not taught grammar or other types of rules directly, but are left to discover or to induce rules from their experience in using English grammar It emphasizes the use of language rather than the presentation of information about the language The grammar lessons are

organized in such a way as to help learners recognize how messages are constructed and

how structures reflect meanings and functions, and create chances for the learners to practice or to produce new language items in meaningful contexts (See inductive method part 2.5.2 p.16 and the samples of inductive grammar lesson plan p.36)

For the purpose of the research, in presentation phase grammatical structures are presented inductively It means that the teacher contextualized these structures when teaching them to her students Grammatical structures are presented through a text, a

exercises, which help them use language in context Games, pair work, or group work

are main techniques during the lessons

3.2.1.2 Deductive teaching

The deductive method in the light of grammar-translation method presents English

grammatical structures to the control group, in which grammatical rules and uses are taught directly with a number of examples to illustrate these rules and uses

The practice stage of deductive grammar lessons used for the control group mainly

provides students plenty of recognition and production exercises, which help them

mechanically practise and consolidate the English grammatical structures they have

learned (See the sample of deductive grammar lesson plan p.36)

3.2.2 Dependent variables

Dependent variable is a variable, which changes or is influenced according to changes in one or more independent variables The dependent variable considered in this experiment

operationalization of the dependent variable will be indicated

Many theorists (Hymes, 1971; Odlin, 1994; Green and Hecht, 1992; Chomsky ) discuss competence, in which some concepts of competence are defined The ideas of grammar competence as well as communicative competence are abundant and various These followings are some concerned concepts:

Communicative competence is defined by Hymes (1971) as appropriate rule- governed

language behavior Odlin (1994, p.318) argues competence as the knowledge of language,

which is dependent on its use According to Ellis (1985, p.294), some linguists (e.g Chomsky) share the same view when they consider competence linguistic, while others

(like Hymes) view it communicative That is, ‘communicative competence’ consists of

both knowledge of linguistic rules and knowledge of how these rules are used for communicative meanings

Grammar competence of students is interpreted by Green and Hecht (1992, p.169) as the degree of accuracy achieved by students when their attention is focus on form Richards,

et al define that grammatical competence is a person’s internalized grammar of language This means a person’s ability to create and understand sentences, including the sentences they have never heard It also includes a person’s knowledge of what are and what are not

sentences of particular language

However, in the definition of communicative competence by Canale (1983), there are four different components: grammar competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse

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competence, and strategic competence Grammar competence is considered an important one, which is the speaker’s knowledge of the syntactic, lexical, morphological, and phonological features of the language, as well as the capacity to manipulate these features

to produce well-formed words and sentences It provides the linguistic basis for the rules

of usage, which normally result in accuracy in performance

When mentioning performance, Odlin (1994) notes that it refers to language production that we actually use in listening, writing, reading or speaking It refers to the degree of skill with which a second or foreign language is used in carrying out different communicative tasks in the target language Performance is usually contrasted with competence Performance is subject to variations in specific situations, purposes, or tasks, whereas competence, at least for the mature native speakers, is more stable

However, in this study, the researcher measured the students’ performance only through speaking and writing tests, not reading, nor listening And the instruments to measure the dependent variables are the pre-tests, and the post-tests in both written and spoken communication They will be discussed in details in the next part

3.3 Data collection instruments

The instruments used to collect data were a three and a half month experimental course, including the pre-tests, and the post-tests in both written and spoken communication

These tests aim to measure students’ ability to recognize appropriate grammatical

structures and use them in the meaningful contexts

1 The pre-tests

The pre-tests were designed to choose two classes, which are equivalent in vocabulary, knowledge of English, and ability in expressing sentences with appropriate grammar, in both spoken and written According to Herbert W.Seliger and Elana Shohamy (1995), a pre- test is efficient and necessary because it controls a number of extraneous variables, which can affect the homogeneity of subjects when more than one group is involved To some degree, the design of a pre-test also controls for attrition or loss of subjects in addition, Jeremy Harmer (1993) shows that “to assure to produce a good grammatical test

the testers should consult books or materials concerned as well as other testers who can

help spot mistakes or problems.” He also points out some criteria of a good test, and based

on them the researcher designed the pre-tests with two following criteria:

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~ Test only what has been taught in order to find out how well students has achieved what they have been studying

- Use old techniques in tests (types and techniques of items in tests should be seen

before in class.)

The researcher used ready-made test items from some reliable books with the

characteristics of objectivity, reliability, and validity The format of the pre-tests and the post-tests are described in 3.3.1.1 and 3.3.1.2

3.3.1.1 Format of the pretests

3.3.1.1.1 The written test

The pre-tests consist of a written test and an oral test The written test lasts forty-five minutes based on three main sources: grammar in use (Raymond Murphy, 1985), Revision and tests English 11" grade (Nguyen Thi Chi, 2002), the textbooks (English 10th and 11th forms) There are four exercises (see Appendix 7), the forms of which the students are familiar when tested in the last tests

Section 1: Use the simple present, simple past, or present continuous of the verbs

in brackets (3 marks) It is designed to test the students’ ability to recognize the forms of different structures

Section 2: Write questions for the answers (2.5 marks) It aims to test how students can apply these structures to make questions

Section 3: Choose the right answer (2.5 marks) It checks the students’ ability to distinguish the uses of some grammatical structures

Section 4; Rewrite the following sentences (2.0 marks) It is designed to test the flexible application of the structures in different sentences

3.3.1.1.2 The oral test

The oral test aims to measure the ability to use English grammar in spoken communication Nevertheless, it has never been tested in Nguyen Duc Canh secondary

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school, and other schools in Thai Binh The reason is that the task is considered too difficult with such a large number of students in a school (about two thousand students) However, an oral test usually improves the overall accuracy of assessment It could define

what is to be learned, therefore, orientate the students towards practising and developing their communicative competence In addition, the ability of using English as a means of

communication is one of the requirements of the MOET in teaching and learning English

in schools It is also suitable to the common tendency of learning a foreign language in our country and in the world Thus, the researcher wished to set up an oral test for two classes in the experiment to measure grammar competence in spoken communication

The oral tests are designed based on Clifford Walker’s points of view in his journal in

west Sussex Institute of Higher Education They are: an oral test needs to cover what has been taught; the testers have to avoid drifting beyond what has been taught; topics need in security and avoid boring the testers; and students should not be informed of the full range

of potential topics, which leads to attempt at rote learning of that topic In the light of the theory, the researcher designed questions based on the 10" and 11" English textbooks from lesson | to lesson 10 (see samples of questions in appendix 9)

The students were reported to test the grammatical structures, which they had learnt in the textbook with the following mark range, which was discussed among all the teachers of English in Nguyen Duc Canh secondary school:

- Appropriate grammar: 5 marks

- Ideas; 2 marks

- Pronunciation: | mark

- Fluency: 1 mark

- Manner (greeting, eye contact, self confidence ): 1 mark

The reason why using appropriate grammar gets 5 marks among 10 marks is that the major aim of the test is to test the students’ ability to use English grammar in spoken communication Therefore, accuracy is very important However, since it is the oral test, ideas, fluency, pronunciation, and manner are also appropriated

3.3.1.2 Format of the post-tests

Like the pre-tests, the post-tests also have two parts: written and spoken The written test (see Appendix 8) consists of three exercises selected in Grammar in use (1985), First

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certificate (1996), English textbook for 11" form students, Review and Test for 11" form students of English It lasted 45 minutes and aims to test the ability of the students to recognize English grammatical structures which they have learnt, and their ability to use

them in context It consists of three following parts:

Section 1: Use the Simple present, simple past, past continuous or “be going to” of the verbs in brackets (3.0 marks) It is designed to test the students’ ability to recognize the forms of different structures

(4.0 marks) It aims to check how students can apply these grammatical structures in their own situations

Section 3: Make all the changes and addition necessary to produce sentences from the following sets of words and phrases Write each sentence in the space provided (3.0 marks) It aims to test the students’ ability to produce complete sentences, using different structures with the guiding words

The oral post-test has the same criteria as in the pre-test, and the questions are designed

based on what the students learnt during the experiment in the 11" textbook from lesson

11 to lesson 17 The samples of questions are presented in Appendix 10

3.4 Description of the material used in the experiment

The main material used in the experiment is from lesson 11 to lesson 17 in the English 11" textbook republished by the Education Publishing House in 2000 This material is being used in all of the secondary schools in Thai Binh for 11 form students There are two reasons for this choice: firstly, lessons 11 to 17 of the English 11" textbook contain more grammatical structures than other lessons; secondly, it matches the time of the study

of the researcher

Each lesson in the textbook consists of a topic, which may be a conversation, or a short story to present the new grammatical structures, exercises for practice, and homework And the followings are the aims of 7 lessons

going to’ and ‘have birthday party - Giving the advice

to’

Lesson 12 6 -Unreal condition - With a patient ina | - Giving real/ unreal

clause

past

(a) few, (a) little, in the past

countable and uncountable nouns

Lesson 17 6 - Passive voice: to be | - At the exhibition made of / in materials, the places, - Expressing the

something was made

of / in

However, in both classes, the researcher designed some more activities from Peter Watcyn- Jones (1995), Penny Ur (1988), and Raymond Murphy (1985) (see appendix 11), which focus much on speaking, and writing The teacher can apply techniques like pair- work, or group-work to present these activities

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In short, the teacher uses the same material to teach in both classes, but with the different

methods, deductive for the control class, and inductive for the experimental class And the

followings are the experiment’s procedures

3.5 Procedures

The procedures, which were used to collect data, were carried out with the following stages:

Week 1: The pre-tests

The written test and oral test were given to 90 students in two classes 11A1 and 11A2 The written test lasting 45 minutes was carried on the same day with the researcher’ observation The oral test was conducted during two days after the written test, in which the testers were the researcher and another teacher of English in Nguyen Duc Canh secondary school This step aimed to confirm the same level of grammar competence in written and spoken between two classes

Week 2 to week 13: Experimental teaching

It was based on the aims of the lessons by MOET as mentioned in part 3.4

Week 14: The post-tests

The major aim of the study is to measure the students’ ability of performance through grammar tests in both spoken and written Therefore, the post-tests also consist of two tests: a written test and an oral test The written test lasted 45 minutes with the researcher’s observation and the oral test was carried out during two days after that The results were compared with the pre-tests’

CHAPTER IV: THE STUDY AND ITS RESULTS

In this chapter, the study and the results of the experiment will be reported The results

were collected from the pre-tests, the post-tests, and the comparison among these results

The chapter consists of four sections: (1) the pre-tests, (2) the application of deductive and inductive methods in two classes, (3) the post-tests, (4) the comparison between the pre- tests’ and the post-tests’ results and (5) conclusion

4.1 The pre - tests

4.1.1 Result of the written test

The pretest’s result of the 90 participants in the two classes is displayed in Appendix 1 and 2 According to the pretest’s results, the students in each class can be divided into four following groups:

+ Group 1: the weak students (1 - 4 marks)

+ Group 2: the medium students (5 - 6 marks)

+ Group 3: the good students (7 - 8 marks)

+ Group 4: the best students (9 - 10 marks)

Table 4.1 Pre-test scores in written of the experimental class (11A1)

and the control class (11A2)

As can be seen in the table, the two classes have the same number of good students (20), which is nearly half of each class (44.4%) The percentage of medium and weak students

in the experimental class (11,3% + 35.5%) is a bit higher than that in the control class

The number of best students in the experimental class (4) is lower than that in the control

class As its result, there is no great difference existing among the two classes’ pretest scores In general, the students in two classes performed the pretest rather similarly

4.1.2 Result of the spoken test

and the control class (11A2)

Based on the result above, it can be seen that two classes have more than half of students

who get mark 5 and 6 (62.2% in 11A1, and 55.6% in 11A2) The number of good students and best students in 11A2 (10 + 3) is a bit higher than in 11A1(9 + 2) In the contrary, the number of medium students and weak students in 11A2 (25+7) is a little less than in IIAI

(28+6) Consequently, the experimental class and the control class have the equal levels of the students’ grammar competence before participating the experiment