teaching grammar to first - year non - english major students at phuong dong university through meaning - focused tasks = dạy ngữ pháp cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất không chuyên tiếng anh

LIST OF GRAPHS AND TABLES Table 1: Sample table of distribution of summed scores items 1-12 Table 2: Sample table of distribution of summed scores items 13-17 Table 3: Distribution of

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Hanoi university of languages and international studies

DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

Nguyễn thị h-ơng lan

Teaching grammar

TO first-year non-english major students

at phuong dong university through meaning-focused tasks

(dạy ngữ pháp cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất không

chuyên tiếng anh tại tr-ờng đại học ph-ơng đông thông qua các hoạt động chú trọng vào nghĩa

của cấu trúc)

Field : English Methodology Code : 601410

Supervisor : Lờ Văn Canh, M.A

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATIONS i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF GRAPHS AND TABLES iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v

TABLE OF CONTENT vi

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

I.1 Rationale 1

I.2 Aims of the study 1

I.3 Significance of the study 2

I.4 Scope of the study 2

I.5 The research questions 2

I.6 Method of the study 3

I.7 Design of the study 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Introduction 5

1.2 Approaches to grammar 5

1.3 Forms-focused vs Meaning-focused grammar instruction 7

1.3.1 Definitions of terminologies 8

1.3.1.1 Forms-focused grammar instruction 8

1.3.1.2 Meaning-focused grammar instruction 8

1.3.2 Forms-focused activities 9

1.3.2.1 Definitions of forms-focused activities 9

1.3.2.2 Classification of forms-focused activities 9

1.3.2.2.1 Repetition presentation drills 10

1.3.2.2.2 Substitution drills 11

1.3.2.2.3 Conversions 12

1.3.2.2.4 Sentence modification 14

1.3.2.2.5 Response practice 15

1.3.2.2.6 Translation exercises 17

1.3.3 Meaning-focused activities 17

1.3.3.1 Definitions of meaning-focused activities 17

1.3.3.2 Classification of meaning-focused activities 18

1.3.3.2.1 Interactive activities 18

1.3.3.2.2 Persionalized activities 18

1.3.3.2.3 Games 19

1.4 Previous studies on meaning-focused grammar instruction 20

1.5 Conclusion 21

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 22

2.1 Design and methodology 22

2.1.1 Subjects of the study 22

2.1.2 The instruments 22

2.2 Data Analysis 23

2.2.1 Distribution of summed scores (items 1-12) 24

2.2.2 Questionnaires 25

2.2.2.1 Students’ feelings about grammar learning 25

2.2.2.2 Students’ evaluation about the effects of grammar practice 27

2.2.2.3 Students’ belief in grammar teaching method 29

2.2.2.4 Students’ tension with grammar learning 29

2.2.3 Comparison of students’ attitudes towards grammar learning between pre-questionnaire and post pre-questionnaire (items 1-12)

31 2.2.4 Comparison of students’ attitudes between pre-questionnaire and post questionnaire (items 13-17)

33 2.3 Discussion 34

CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS AND LIMITATIONS 36

3.1 Recommendations 36

3.2 Limitations and suggestions for further study 36

PART III: CONCLUSION 38 REFERENCES 40 APPENDICES I

Appendix 1: Student questionnaire on grammar leaning I

Appendix 2: Sample of grammar lesson plan VI

LIST OF GRAPHS AND TABLES

Table 1: Sample table of distribution of summed scores (items 1-12)

Table 2: Sample table of distribution of summed scores (items 13-17)

Table 3: Distribution of summed scores: Students (n=31) attitudes

Table 4a: The result of students’ feelings about grammar learning in the pre and

post-questionnaire

Table 4b: Mean scores of students’ feelings about grammar learning

Table 5a: The result of students’ evaluation about effects of grammar practice

Table 5b: Mean scores of students’ evaluation about effects of grammar practice

Table 6: Mean scores of students’ belief in grammar teaching method

Table 7: Distribution of summed scores (items 13-17)

Table 8: Mean scores of students’ tension to grammar learning

Table 9: Comparison of students’ attitudes between pre-questionnaire and post questionnaire

(items 1-12)

Table 10: Comparison of students’ attitudes between pre-questionnaire and post questionnaire

(items13-17)

Graph 1: Sampling distribution of sample mean differences (items 1-12)

Graph 2: Sampling distribution of sample mean differences (items 13-17)

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

PDU: Phuong Dong University

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

CA: Communicative Approach

PART I: INTRODUCTION I.1 Rationale

It is a fact that English has become more and more popular and vital in Vietnam in recent decades There have been more and more people rushing to study English in language centers in the last few years because they hold a belief that English helps them be more exposed to better job opportunities In correspondence with this trend, in almost of schools, colleges and universities, English has become a compulsory subject Phuong Dong University (PDU), where I have been working for five years, is not an exception

During my five-year teaching English at this university, I find that most of students are weak at expressing their thoughts in the right way That means what they say are the words put together without grammar rules Their weakness at expressing ideas in the correct way is that teacher often spends more time on explaining new grammar verbly than letting students practice new grammar items orally In other words, the grammar sections in the course book (New Headway Elementary, by Liz and John Soars, third edition) are explained verbly and grammar exercises are done passively by students So that students are not interested in learning grammar and they find grammar rather difficult to master Their weakness at uttering

a right sentence does not meet the target of teaching and learning English- fluent communication Much worse, most of them put the words together rather than use the learned grammar structures in speaking In addition, many students are too shy to speak in the class whereas most of the grammar lessons are carried out in traditional methods This fact has urged me to find out the way to help students apply their learned grammar knowledge in getting the meanings across Thus, in this thesis, I intend to investigate the effect of teaching grammar through meaning-focused tasks

I.2 Aims of the study

As far as we know, the key purpose of learning a language is always to communicate fluently That means, students can communicate Therefore, in order to learn English well, learners first have to master its grammar system The fact at my university is that almost

students are better at learning grammar especially doing grammar exercises than using the learned grammatical structures in expressing their thought in both writing and speaking This observation urges the researcher to bring some changes into those students In this study, the researcher wanted to test the hypothesis that applying meaning-focused practice activities in grammar learning may help the students improve their communicative ability

I.3 Significance of the study

This study is first hoped to be helpful to both teachers and students at Phuong Dong University because its findings will enable not only the teachers but also the students to see whether their ways of teaching and learning English in general and grammar in particular is appropriate and effective The practical meaning of this study is to suggest some ways for combining teaching grammar in form-focused task with meaning-focused tasks to situation students apply English grammar structures into expressing their opinions well when they speak English

I.4 Scope of the study

This study is set out to test the hypothesis that teaching grammar through focused activities may help the students to change their attitudes towards grammar learning so that they find grammar learning more interesting and useful The researcher, therefore, did not intend to test the effectiveness of meaning-focused grammar instruction by means of a pre-test – post-test experiment It is the researcher‟s belief that if grammar teaching can bring about positive changes in students‟ attitudes, they will find grammar learning more interesting and useful The outcome of this attitudinal change will be students‟ greater investment in grammar learning

meaning-I.5 research questions

This study intends to address the following two research questions:

1 What are students‟ initial attitudes towards grammar learning?

2 How have students‟ attitudes changed after the application of meaning-focused activities?

Especially, the following hypothesis was investigated:

Meaning-focused practice activities (mainly oral practice) help to change students‟ attitude towards grammar learning

I.6 Method of the study

This research aimed at measuring the effect of meaning-focused activities (mainly oral practice) on students‟ attitudinal changes Of many research methods, a survey design was appropriate to the purpose of the study One-Group Pre-questionnaire – Post-questionnaire which is equivalent to One-Group Pretest – Posttest Design was applied to carry out this study

This design can be diagrammed as follows:

Pre-treatment questionnaire Treatment Post – treatment questionnaire

questionnaire scores is taken as an index of the effectiveness of the treatment condition

- The one-group pre-treatment – post-treatment questionnaire design is weak because it does not ensure the internal validity However, it does provide some information in that it lets you know if a change occurred between pre-treatment and post-treatment questionnaire

I.7 Design of the study

This study is divided into three parts as follows:

Part one, introduction, deals with the reason for the research and the aims, scope and

methodology of the study The research questions are also raised in this part

Part two, development, consists of three following chapters:

- Chapter one gives some theoretical background relating to approaches to grammar,

forms-focused vs meaning-forms-focused grammar instruction, forms-forms-focused grammar instruction, meaning-focused grammar instruction, forms-focused activities, meaning-focused activities, and some previous studies on grammar teaching as well

- Chapter two provides an analysis on the attitudes of the first-year non- major students at

Phuong Dong University towards the use of meaning-focused activities (mainly oral practice)

in teaching and learning grammar And the change in students‟ attitudes after applying meaning-focused activities is also mentioned in this chapter

- Chapter three focuses on some recommendations about using meaning-focused activities

(mainly oral practice) in teaching and learning grammar and some limitations as well

Part three, conclusion, addresses the key issues in the study, summarizing some shortcomings

revealed during the process of completing this research paper and giving a suggestion for a further research

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Introduction

It can not be denied that the role of teaching and learning grammar in learning a language

is very important, because grammar helps learners express their thought in a clear way It is considered as a skeleton of any languages Thus, if learners master the grammar knowledge that they are learning, it is much easier for them to acquire that language However, for such a long time, grammar has been a word that often freezes the hearts of students and teachers, because the approaches of teaching grammar are too mechanical Most approaches to grammar teaching focus on individual constructions which have often been taught as a separate skill disassociated from the rest of language learning The students learning them have to do a large number of grammar exercises in the form of multiple choice that are less helpful to communicate These pieces are never put together into a structural pattern that enables students to discuss in English they are learning So they will soon forget what they have learned Grammar learning is not funny and is not meaningful either It, of course, is not memorable As Burner said: “Perhaps the most basic thing that can be said about human memory, after a century of extensive research, is that unless detail is placed into a structural pattern, it is rapidly forgotten” (Web, 2004)

* Teaching grammar through context

Old-fashioned grammar teaching was often decontextualized and pointless – the exercises led nowhere, and the terminology was never used except in the exercises Harris and Rowan show quite convincingly that a conscious grasp of grammatical concepts requires deep

understanding that is not often gained through practice exercises alone (Harris, 1962, pp 41) Traditional drill and practice will be the most meaningful to students when they are anchored in the context of writing assignments or the study of literary models Students find grammar most interesting when they apply it to authentic texts It is a good idea to try using texts of different kinds, such as newspapers and the students‟ own writing, as sources for grammar examples and exercises This approach makes grammar relevant and alive It also avoids the artificiality of studying sentences isolation, a problem with grammar books So, in real texts, students can see how sentences connect and contrast to each other through their grammar

21-* Teaching grammar in a communicative approach

While grammar can be thought as static knowledge, it can also be considered a process Language teachers would not be content if their students could recite all the rules of language grammar but apply them That means they were able to communicate in the right way The goal of grammar learning is that students can apply grammar in an unselfconscious fashion to achieve their communicative ends Littlewood suggests that students understand functional meaning and relate structure to communicative function (Littlewood, 2000, pp 4-10)

* Teaching grammar according to the sequence of language acquisition

Much of the frustration with most current approaches results from attempts to teach too much too soon Researchers such as Lyster maintain, “Considerable evidence has accumulated that much grammar acquisition occurs in a relatively fixed order; learners are not able to master one aspect until they have mastered certain others” (Lyster, et al., pp 457- 467)

* Conflating inductive approach and deductive approach

The value of deductive and inductive approaches in teaching grammatical rules has been a long debated subject Deductive approach advocates a prior exposure of the students to language fundamentals in a very systematic and logical method The inductive approach represents a more modern style of teaching where the new grammatical structures or rules are presented to the students in a real language context (Goner, Phillips & Walters, 1995, p.135) The students learn the use of the structure through practice of the language in context, and

later realize the rules from the practical examples In both approaches, students practice and apply the grammatical structures

* Meaning, context and form should be integrated

Some people have the misconception that grammar is only about form It, of course, is about accuracy of form, but it is also about meaning and use For example, the students need

to learn how to form the verb tenses in English But unless they also know what they mean and when to use them, they can never use the verb tenses accurately, meaningfully, and appropriately in communication Grammar dimensions enable teachers to focus their students‟ attention on the specific learning challenges that a grammatical structure presents so that the benefits of their teaching can be maximized Meaning must be clear There is no point learning

“grammar” if the meaning of the language item is not clear

1.3 Forms-focused vs Meaning-focused grammar instruction

Forms-focused instruction contrasts with meaning-focused instruction The instruction was formerly described where there is some attempt to draw learners‟ attention to linguistic forms – Stern‟s (1990) “analytic strategy”, but afterwards it is referred to instruction that requires learners to attend only to the content of what they want to communicate

As Widdowson (1998) has criticized this distinction and argued that so-called focused instruction has always presented segments of various kinds (phonemes, words, collocations, morphemes, sentence patterns, tones and so on) to the learners in models, whereas meaning-focused activities still expect learners to process forms in order to decode and encode messages According to him, the key difference lies in the kind of meaning that learners must think of whether it is semantic meaning (as in the case of language exercises) or pragmatic meaning (as in the case of communicative tasks) Widdowson‟s point is well taken, but there has been an argument that it is nothing new

forms-In addition, Second Language Acquisition researchers have always used the term “form”

to refer not just to form (e.g, - ed in the regular past tense in English), but also to the semantic meaning(s), a form realized in use (e.g, completed action in the past)

Ellis (2000) has argued that the essential difference between forms-focused and focused instruction lies in how language is viewed and the role the learner is invited to play In this respect, it should be noted that attention to lexical forms and the meanings they realize, where words are treated as objects to be learned, constitutes forms-focused instruction As said

meaning-at the beginning of this introduction, “form” involves more than grammar

Of course, many interactions that occur inside the classroom will be neither entirely focused nor meaning-focused but a combination of both, although achieving a dual focus is not easy (Seedhouse, 1997b)

forms-In effect, then, it is possible to distinguish types of forms-focused instruction according

to whether attention to form primary or secondary, as when it is intergrated into focused instruction

meaning-1.3.1 Definitions of terminologies

In this part, the researcher wants to give definitions of some terminologies that are used in this study with a hope that the readers find it easier to understand

1.3.1.1 Forms-focused grammar instruction

Forms-focused instruction is traditionally defined that “Forms-focused grammar instruction is that in which learners are typically encouraged to master each linguistic item in synthetic syllabus one at a time, to native speaker levels using synthetic materials, methodology and pedagogy" (Wilkins, 1976, in press-b, p 4)

1.3.1 2 Meaning-focused grammar instruction

There have been existed various ways of defining meaning-focused task, a very common and familiar term in language teaching and learning

According to Ur (1996,p.83) one of the teacher‟s tasks is to help his or her students make the

„leap‟ from form-focused accuracy work to fluent, but acceptable, production, by providing a

„bridge‟ He argues that a variety of practice activities that familiarize them with the structures

in context can do this by giving them practice both in form and communicative meaning

Dr Tony Hung, the Head of the English Language Centre, Baptist University, in Hong Kong,

in response to Sunga‟s interview question on the place of grammar in a meaning-focused communication system, claims that „It ensures accuracy of form, which is as important as

appropriateness of utterance for purposes of communication While it has to be acquired mainly in the course of communicative activities rather than in isolation, it need not be left entirely to take care of itself, but may be „focused on‟, as and when the need arises‟ (Sunga,

2001, p.47)

Belgar and Hunt (2002) state that tasks that generate greater negotiation of meaning appear to

be more benificial for interlanguage development Engaging in negotiation should produce higher degrees of comprehension as it will result in more finely tuned input as a result of paraphrasing and lexical substitution It should also promote greater flexibility in the learner‟s rule system by encouraging the exploration of new hypothesis about the structure of the target language

1.3 2 Forms-focused activities

One type of practicing activities applied in grammar teaching and learning is forms-focused activities Thus, what forms-focused activities are and what types there are The answers for these questions are mentioned in this part

1.3.2.1 Definitions of forms-focused activities

According to Thornbury (Thornbury, 1999, p.91), to achieve accuracy, the learner needs to devote some attention to form, that is „getting it right‟ When learners take care of form, they will not be more worried about meaning than about uttering their thought in a right order That suggests practice activities focused on accuracy should work best if learners are already familiar with the meanings they are expressing

A practice activity which is good for improving accuracy will have these features:

- Containing forms that motivate learners to express their accurate ideas, so they will

focus on what they are saying and they have no left-over attention to how they are saying

- Creating familiarity in expressing ideas of the learners

- Making class-time the most effectively In other words, activities can monitor

accuracy more easily and more successful if time is sufficiently managed

- Stimulating learners to avoid their previous ambiguous message and to produce out

right sentences

1.3.2.2 Classification of forms-focused activities

Normally, this kind of drill activities is a controlled practice, which aims at giving students rapid practice in using a structural pattern This is often done by the whole class rather than pairs of students, and the teacher is able to get students to ask and answer questions quickly and effeciently The chief advantage of this technique is that teachers can correct any mistakes that the students make and can encourage them to concentrate more on the given patterns, overcoming difficulties But these activities do not help students be more creative in expressing their ideas To avoid this disadvantage, Harmer (1991) advises teachers neither to overuse nor to spend much time on such uncreative activities That is as soon as students show their abilities to make correct sentences with the new language item, the teacher should move onto creative activities

Drills, in the Harmer‟s viewpoint (1991:43), are “fairly mechanical ways of getting students to demonstrate and practice their ability to use specific language items in a controlled manner” And Rivers and Temperly (1991) classified oral drills into the six following types:

1.3.2.2.1 Repetition presentation drills

In simple repetition drills, the instructor gives a model sentence containing a particular structure or form to be manipulated and the students repeat the sentence with correct intonation and stress Repetition drills are not, in one sense, a special category of exercises which will be used for practicing certain types of structure; they represent, rather, a commonly used technique for familarizing the student with the specific structure For this reason, they are sometimes called presentation drills This oral exercise can be illustrated as below:

Student Can you drive a car? No, I can‟t

(Unit 6: Can You Speak English?, New Headway – Elementary, by Liz and John Soars, Third edition )

However, this activity seems unreal for students to apply to the certain situation The above example indicates that unless the students are looking at a picture of a city, it could become completely mechanical when they attend only to the clue words, or merely repeat them

absentmindedly According to the authors, this activity should be real and applicable That means this activity must refer to real-life objects the students can see and respond

Respond You bring your lunch

Cue Jane and Mary

Respond Jane and Mary bring their lunches

(Unit 1: Hello everybody!, New Headway – Elementary, by Liz and John Soars, Third edition)

This drill in terms of correlative substitution, the authors think it is an effective way for learning these items: possessive, reflexive, the –s ending of third person singular verb in the present tense, the changing forms of the verb be and so on To some extent, this activity is still mechanical so the authors suggest designing the cue with a natural sounding tag helping students concentrate on the meaningful conversation

Another subdivision of substitution drills is called multiple substitution drills These drills require students replace odd items with appropriate slots On the other hand, students have to think more of the whole meaning of the sentence rather than the meaning of individual word forming that sentence For this reason, students need to be very alert to perform this exercise successfully

Example: Students have to find out the use of “many / much”

Model She brings too many pencils to schools

Respond Students bring too much money to school

(Unit 5: Where do you live?, New Headway – Elementary, by Liz and John Soars, Third edition)

This activity can be a testing device to see whether students can continue to make a certain grammatical adjustment they have been learning while they are distracted by other preoccupations

- General conversions:

Example Change the following statements into questions Cues a John and I are in the classroom

b I am a student

c The actress lives in Canada

d My aunt and uncle have their breakfast early

e We can‟t work together

This traditional type of elementary conversion exercise requires the student to attend to a number of different aspects of forming yes-no questions These five items require the student

to use subject-inversion with be, do periphrasis with singular and with plural subjects, and with main verbs including have and do and modal verb This is a formidable task for an

elementary-level student

Another example of conversions exercises is that students have to use an appropriate pronoun

to replace a noun phrase after listening carefully to each of the statement and the promted nouns or noun phrases

Model This is my girl friend I told you about my girl friend My girl

friend is good My girl friend works as a nurse I love my girl

friend very much

According to the authors, practicing those conversion exercises could be more vivid when structures are associated with action So students can have chance to make their own invention

- Combinations:

Combinations are a form of conversion exercises which have also been used for many years They involve a process which reflects certain features of transformational grammatical analysis and can be implemented in some differential aspects of the rules For instance, students often have difficulty in understanding when the relative pronoun either must be retained or can be omitted

The following Example requires students to combine each pair of sentences into one

by using that or omitting it

a Give me the book

I lent you the book two weeks ago

b I gave you the book

The book is about wild animals

- Restatement:

Another kind of conversion exercises is restatement which means learners use another structure to express the same idea

Model I don’t agree with you

Respond My idea isn‟t the same as yours

Respond It isn‟t my idea

All these kinds of restatements can be invented to practice different grammatical features

Model Tom decided to buy a new car

Respond Tom made decision to buy a new car

Another type of replacement (sometimes called a contraction) consists of replacing a longer expression with a shorter expression

Example: Restate each of the following sentences by replacing an infinitive

construction for the relative clause, the words italicized with a noun phrase

Model : I need a desk that I can put my books on

Respond: I need a desk to put my books on

1.3.2.2.4 Sentence modification

Rivers and Temperly (1991) subdivide sentence modification into three kinds of activities such as expansions, deletions and completions

- The first kind is expansions which require strictly grammatical manipulation They are

suitable for learning how to use adjectives and adverbs They can be directed by either a teacher or a student

Basic sentence She leaves the house

Respond She rarely leaves the house early

Additionally, expansions give students the opportunity to create new sentence from a basic one This activity often creates more competitiveness in learning among students themselves

Cue The man crosses the street

Student A The tired old man crosses the busy street

Student B The businessman crosses the main street hurriedly twice a

day

- The second one is deletion activities in which learners have to change the forms of the

sentence That means students have to transfer negative into affirmative, changing the other grammar items concerned

Example: Delete the negative elements in the following sentences, making any

necessary changes

Cue They haven’t got any coffee

Respond They have got some coffee

Cue She doesn’t like Sandwiches

Respond She likes Sandwiches

- The last one is completions When students do these activities, they are to complete the

uncompleted sentence given as a cue The students finish the sentence either with a semantically constant segment in which some syntactic or morphological change must be made according to the cue, or with a suitable segment which is to some extent semantically governed by the cue, or with a segment of their own invention

For example, when students practice the first conditional sentence, they will hear the

half of the sentence “If I study hard ”, then finish it And from the finished sentence another

student can make some inventions relating to the cue

Cue If I study hard,

Respond If I study hard, I will get good marks

Cue If I get good marks,

Respond If I get good marks, I will be a good student

In addition, completion exercises allow students to make their personal semantic contribution within a syntactically fixed framework It is useful for practicing such things as restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses

For instant, students have to complete the unfinished sentences with any suitable

infinitive constructions after hearing the cue

Cue She has decided

Respond She has decided to marry him

Or She has decided not to marry him

Or She has decided to take a job 1.3.2.2.5 Response practice:

In fact, all useful exercises in term of meaning are forms of response practice These activities are often question-answer or answer-question ones divided into three sub-classes: question-answer practice, answer-question practice, and rejoinder

- In question-answer practice, the structure of questions can be practiced through conversion

exercises which are useful for practicing tenses, pronouns and cleft sentences It is most frequently associated with pictures, slides, or films, reading materials, some projects or activities, or games

For example, the students have just met each other and want to know each other

Q Where are you from, Lisa?

(Unit 1: Hello every body ! New Headway, Elementary, by Liz and John Soars, Third edition)

- While answer-question practice takes place when the teacher or some students has the

answer and the others must find out what is its question This type of exercise is done naturally

and interestingly in games as Twenty Questions, Who and What

- And rejoinder is often the interaction of communicating The activities help students know

how to interchange ideas on the restricted topic Basing on the real communication, they show either their agreement, or disagreement, or pleasure These responses are frequently not taught

in any systematic way to students of English Some rejoinders will be learned incidentally because teacher will use them frequently, others can be practiced in an oral exercise from time

Cue I‟m sorry I‟m late The traffic is bad today

Respond Don’t worry Come in and sit down

(Unit 4 : Take it easy New Headway, Elementary, by Liz and John Soars, Third edition)

1.3.2.2.6 Translation exercises

According to Rivers and Temperley (1991), translation exercises have slipped into disfavor in recent years This is not because translation itself is comprehensible In fact, it is a natural process with many practical uses

Oral translation drills can be useful when the students learning English share the same language background A series of sentences in the native language is given to elicit rapid formulation of equivalents in English

first-In short, such types of oral practices are very structured way to introduce students to a new grammatical item However, most of the oral drills tend to be mechanical and less communicative as they require little free communication from students Most of these exercises can be, to some extent, converted into written practice

1.3.3 Meaning-focused activities

Another type of grammar practicing activities discussed in this study is meaning-focused activities, the definition and the classification of which are made clear in the following sections

1.3.3.1 Definitions of meaning-focused activities

There are many activities on grammar learning in which meaning-focused activities seem to be the most effective These activities can be defined as any kinds of practicing the language on the part of the learners, and usually under the teachers‟ supervision

Meaning-focused activities are classroom activities that associate with using English grammar in real situations These activities enable students to apply exact grammar structures

to express their ideas successfully These activities also create students interest in learning grammar as Ur (1988:15) states that „Interest is an essential feature of successful practice‟

Meaning- focused activities in grammar teaching is a process that enables learners to get fluency in communication And meaning-focused activities satisfy the target of learning a language Practice activities with the aim at developing fluency need to divert attention away from forms To do this, these tasks are designed according to these features: attention to meaning, authenticity, communicative purpose and repetition

When activities ensure attention to meaning, students pay attention more to what they

are saying rather than how the sentence is formed

And activities are also authentic That means what students interact in class is the

same as with the real-life situation

Furthermore, activities should not go far away from communicative purpose though

these activities are only chunks which are easily memorisable

To help students remember their learned grammar knowledge, repetition of the

activities can not be lacked

1.3.3.2 Classification of meaning-focused activities

1.3.3.2.1 Interactive activities

As noted above, one of the problems about drills is that they are fairly monotonous Some ways must be found to make the controlled language practice more meaningful and more enjoyable One of them is using interaction activities which are designed in such a way that

students can work together to exchange information in a purposeful and interesting way

For example, students have to write down another student‟s name in the chart, then ask that student these questions:

What is your favorite leisure activity?

Where do you often (do your favorite leisure activity)?

How often do you (do your favorite leisure activity)?

(Unit 4: Take it easy New Headway, Elementary, by Liz and John Soars, Third edition)

Students can move around the class questioning various classmates and fill in this chart according to the answer When students have finished, they can compare the results

1.3.3.2.2 Personalized activities

This type of activity is designed in a way that students can not only practice grammar but also talk about themselves in an involved way Besides, they are asked to discuss things that affect their personality and to use this subject matter as focus for their grammar practice One way of making practice drill more attractive is to get students to contribute something of

their own to it by their teacher‟s instruction and encouragement During the practice, they will

be more involved in the activities

For example, students are practicing “Can/ Can not” They work in groups and one after the other has to say about their ability:

I am Ha I can sing but I can‟t dance

I am Mai I can ride a bike but I can‟t drive a car

I am Minh I can play the guitar but I can‟t play the piano

(Unit 6: Can You Speak English? New Headway, Elementary, by Liz and John Soars, third edition)

This activity is named chain drill, it is not very mechanical For this activity, students can practice the form of a grammatical item they have just learnt

1.3.3.2.3 Games

Games can be integrated part of teaching syllabus Teachers can use games at any stage of language teaching process When they teach new language items (presentation, controlled practice and communicative practice) or when they revise previously presented language items, provided that games are suitable to the purposes of each stage

Practicing game-like activities, the learners can gradually realize English grammar structures During the lesson, learners can explore the context and discover the new language rules themselves They can have many chances to practice communicating through game-like activities If the topics of the selected games are suitable and interesting, learners can take part

in the lesson more actively and enthusiastically Moreover, these games enable students to understand the lessons easily, and then draw the conclusion of the structures from the contexts which may create in game-like activities As a result, it is possible for them to use the most suitable language structures in various kinds which have been used in language teaching for a long time and they are especially useful for grammar work

Example: Noughts and Crosses/ tic-tac-toe

This game is very popular in the classroom – as it is in real life The class is divided into teams Team A uses the nought (0) and team B uses the cross (X) The teacher draws a

grid on the board and fills each space with a word or phrase For example, if the teacher wanted to practice question words, the board might look like this:

Team A chooses one of the squares and one of the team has to make a sentence or a question with the word or phrase in that square If they succeed, they put “0” on that square Team B tries to do the same with another square; if they are successful they put a cross on their square The first team to get a straight line of three noughts or crosses wins the game The game, on the one hand, it creates relaxing environment and motivation for them to do the practice effectively

In brief, when grammar is taught with meaning-focused activities and practiced as a means of communication rather than as a means for correcting the mechanics and accuracy of sentences, it becomes more purposeful so there is a more motivating focus for classroom learning Students are more interested in learning As a result, they will acquire more knowledge of grammar This meant that meaning-focused activity brings positive attitude towards learning

1.4 Previous studies on meaning-focused grammar instruction

In fact, meaning-focused activities are not applied widely and popularly So, the data are just the collection of what is relative to meaning-focused grammar instruction which someone has

studied previously

There have been numerous MA degrees in Hanoi University and Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies which are related to communicative grammar teaching in Vietnam as well

In Ms Hue‟s research, she indicates some effective methods on communication competence in teaching and learning grammar She also suggests that interactive grammar activities should

be taught through games, songs and stories Her thesis, furthermore, recommends communicative activities to present grammatical items in an exciting way

While Ms Quynh Giao, in her thesis, shows considerable success in applying communicative activities such as role-play activities and games in teaching grammar to the first-year students According to her, the CA has proved to be effective but it has not been popular in Vietnam due to the passive language learning style of the students She points that the communicative lessons should be applied to improve learners‟ grammar appropriateness and accuracy better than grammar translation activities

The studies mentioned above only deal with the effects of communicative activities in teaching grammar They mainly focus on mechanical not on meaningful practice Moreover, the application of meaning-focused practice has not been explored and carried out That is the reason why the researcher decides to study the students‟ attitude to learning grammar through meaning-focused practice activities

1.5 Conclusion

As a whole, linguistists and some researchers show that there are many grammar teaching approaches, in which form-focused grammar instruction and meaning-focused grammar instruction are more applied than others Nevertheless, the meaning-focused grammar instruction has the more advantages which are also quite distinctive The first distinction of meaning-focused practice activities is that students are engaged in communication where the primary effort involves the exchange of meaning and where there is no conscious effort to achieve grammatical correctness The second one is the activities encourage students to focus

on semantic processing The ability to afford the learner an opportunity to listen and then perform a greater range of language function is the last advantage of meaning-focused grammar instruction While forms-focused grammar instruction does not have these

advantages

Therefore, the researcher takes much interest in meaning-focused grammar instruction with a hope that students are able to apply grammatical structures in communicating well, which is very important for them in the real life