Thực hành ngữ pháp tiếng anh thông qua các hoạt động ngôn ngữ sáng tạo cho học sinh khối 10 tại trường trung học phổ thông lê chân

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGESTRAN THI XIEM PRACTICING ENGLISH GRAMMAR THROUGH CREATIVE ACTIVITIES FOR STUDENTS IN GRADE 10 AT LE CHAN HIGH... THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

TRAN THI XIEM

PRACTICING ENGLISH GRAMMAR THROUGH CREATIVE ACTIVITIES FOR STUDENTS IN GRADE 10 AT LE CHAN HIGH

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

TRAN THI XIEM

PRACTICING ENGLISH GRAMMAR THROUGH CREATIVE ACTIVITIES FOR STUDENTS IN GRADE 10 AT LE CHAN HIGH

THE CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT

I hereby declare that this graduation project is based on my own original work exceptfor quotations and citation that have been duly acknowledged I also declare that ithas not been previously submitted for any other courses/degrees at Thai NguyenUniversity or other institutions

Thái Nguyên, ngày 23 tháng 9 năm 2019

Trần Thị Xiêm

Supervisor

Dr Duong Duc Minh

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to those who gave me the

possibility to complete this dissertation

First and foremost, my gratitude goes to my supervisor, Dr Duong Duc Minhfor his patient guidance and insightful advice throughout the duration of the studydespite his busy schedule Without his assistance, motivation, enthusiasm andimmense knowledge, this study would not have been completed

Secondly, I do appreciate the tremendous support from my school – Le ChanHigh School I would like to give many thanks to the students who directly engaged

in the lessons throughout the process of data collection Their enthusiasm andserious contribution made the process of data collection effective and reliable I alsoacknowledge my thankfulness to my headmaster who helped facilitate my researchconducted smoothly

Last but not least, my endless thanks approve to my parents, my husband, myson and daughter for their time, encouragement, motivation and support me on myway of study

Tran Thi Xiem,

The present study aims to investigate the situation of learning English grammaramong the students in grade 10 at Le Chan High School and to determine theeffectiveness (if any) of the teaching English grammar with creative languageactivities A quasi-experimental research designs with pre-test and post-test as maindata collection instruments A questionnaire was also administered to obtain students’interest on using language games in teaching grammar Results show level of Englishgrammar achievement in both experimental group and control group, and there were

no statistically significant differences in students’ score between experimental andcontrol group However, results from the questionnaires show students’ interest andmotivation in learning English grammar with language games In specific, it is foundthat creative language activities applied by the English teachers for 10th gradestudents have had better impacts on their learning motivation and interest Based onthese results and findings, the study also proposes some recommendations forteachers to enhance the students’ motivation in learning English grammar

Key words: grammar, quasi-experimental research, high school students,

language games, CL

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

LIST OF TABLES vivii

LIST OF FIGURES viii

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale for the study 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Significance of the study 2

5 Scope of the study 3

6 Structure of the thesis 3

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Overview of grammar 5

1.1.1 Definitions of grammar 5

1.1.2 Forms of grammar 5

1.2 Overview of grammar teaching methods 7

1.2.1 The grammar-translation method 7

1.2.2 The Direct Method 8

1.2.3 The Audio - Lingual Method 9

1.2.4 Communicative language teaching (CLT) 10

1.3 The application of creative language activities in teaching English grammar 12

1.3.1 Definition of creative language activities and learner’s motivation 12

1.3.2 The impacts of creative language activities to the learners’ motivation 12

CHAPTER2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 14

2.1 Research design 14

2.2 Participants 14

2.3 Instrument 14

2.3.1 Pre-test 14

2.3.2 Post-test 15

2.3.3 Questionnaire 15

2.4 Data collection and analysis procedures 16

2.4.1 Data collection procedure 16

2.4.2 Data analysis 17

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 18

3.1 Findings from pre-test and post-test 18

3.1.1 Describing the implementation steps 18

3.1.2 Results from pre-test and post-test 19

3.2 Results from questionnaires 21

3.2.1 Students’ reaction to the teaching method 21

3.2.2 Students’ belief on the values of CLA application in English grammar teaching and learning 23

3.2.3 Students’ thoughts about the effectiveness of CLA in English grammar teaching and learning 25

3.2.4 Level of satisfaction with CLA methods 26

3.2.5 Students’ attitudes toward their English grammar learning 27

3.2.4 The current level of motivation for their learning English 28

3.3 Discussion on research’s findings 29

PART 3: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 32

1 Conclusion 32

2 Recommendations 33

2.1 Recommendations for English teachers 33

2.2 Recommendations for the students 33

3 Limitation of this study and suggestions for further studies 34

REFERENCES 36 APPENDIXES I APPENDIX 1: PRE-QUESTIONNAIRE I APPENDIX 2: POST-QUESTIONNAIRE III APPENDIX 3: PRE-TEST VII APPENDIX 4: POST-TEST IX APPENDIX 5: THE LESSONS PRACTICED WITH CLA XI

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLA: Creative language activities

CLT: Communicative language teaching

DM: Direct method

GTM: Grammar – translation method

vi

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1: Description of the Pre-test and Post-test score 20Table 3.2: The analysis of Independent Sample T-Test of pre-test grammar score 20Table 3.3: The analysis of Independent samples T-Test of post-test grammar scorebetween experimental and control class 20Table 3.4: The analysis of Paired Samples T-test between pre-test and post-test score

on students’ grammar for the experimental group 21Table 3.5: Students’ reaction to activities with communicative language games whenlearning grammar 22Table 3.6: Students’ belief on the values of CLA application in English grammarteaching and learning 24Table 3.7: Students’ thoughts about the effectiveness of CLA in English grammarteaching and learning 25

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1 : Level of satisfaction with the current method 27

Figure 3.2 : Students’ behaviors to their English grammar learning 28

Figure 3.3 : Students’ opinions to CLA methods 29

Figure 3.4 : The level of motivation with CLA method 30

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

Nowadays, there is no doubt about the crucial role of English in most of thefields in the society such as economy, education, science, technology, etc… Alongwith the context of globalization, English has become one of the internationallanguages that help promote foreign trade and integration among the countries,especially developing countries such as Vietnam

Recognizing the importance of the foreign language, currently in Vietnamteaching and learning English has been more and more considered significantly.Accordingly, most of English teaching methods have been continually improved andlearner-cantered, in particular, focused on enhancing the communicative skills forEnglish learners besides the main skills such as Reading and Listening (receptiveskills) and Speaking and Writing (productive skills) Besides, the grammarknowledge has been also played an important part in teaching and learning English

as well as practicing it in the communicative purposes

However, teaching of English grammar in most of Vietnam public schools oftenonly focuses on tasks and excercises in the textbook, lack of other creative languageactivities, which leads to the boredom and be difficult for motivating students Hence

in order to improve the teaching English grammar in the classes effectively andefficiently, it is time for us to innovate the English teaching methods throughdesigning more creative activities for the students

Being aware of this urgent problem, I have had a great desire to research onapplying the creative languages activities in teaching grammar, especially thestudents in grade 10 at Le Chan high school To this date, there has been no singleattempt to study on practicing these activities in teaching grammars in this school,hence it is the reason why I have chosen the topic: Practicing English grammarthrough creative activities for students in grade 10 at Le Chan high school As anEnglish teacher, I expect that this study can contribute a part in enhancing the quality

of teaching and learning English grammar for the 10th students in particular and allthe students in Le

Chan high school in general

2 Aims of the study

Accordingly, this study aims to achieve the main objectives as followings:

 To investigate the current situation of learning English grammar among the students in grade 10 at Le Chan high school

 To determine the effectiveness (if any) of the teaching English grammar with creative language activities

3 Research questions

In order to achieve the above objectives, this study also needs to answer theresearch questions as followings:

1 What is the current situation of teaching and learning English grammar at grade

10 at Le Chan high school?

2 To what extent do creative language activities have effects on students at Le Chan high school?

4 Significance of the study

The significance of this study is expressed in its contribution to the innovation

of English grammar teaching methods for the students in 10th grade at Le Chan highschool in particular and Vietnam public schools in general It is also expected that theresearch findings in this study can help the English teachers as well as theadministrators in Le Chan high school in evaluating the impacts of practicinggrammar through creative language activities on the learning motivation of theirstudents, as well as understanding the students’ perspective on the aspects of thisteaching method And based on that, the recommendations given in this study willsupport for the English teachers in designing their teaching methods and programs,through adding creative language activities to enhance their students’ Englishlearning motivation and interest The author also hopes that this paper will serve as auseful source of reference for other researchers and English teachers whole studiesrelate to the same topic

5 Scope of the study

This study focused on practicing English grammar with creative languageactivities for the 10th students at Le Chan high school, Dong Trieu district,QuangNinh province Accordingly, the scope of this research included the students

in 2 classes:

10A1 and 10A2 with a total of 80 students Besides, this study was also carried outwithin eight grammar lessons of which the English teachers applied some of thecreative language activities in teaching English grammar for these students

6 Structure of the thesis

Part 1: Introduction

This part is the introduction which contains the rationale, aims and specificobjectives of the study, research questions, methods, scope of study and proposedorganization of the thesis

Part 2: Development

Chapter 1: Literature Review.

This chapter is the literature review which includes a review of previous studiesand of theoretical background with an overview of English grammar, teachinggrammar approaches and other related concepts This chapter sets out the generaltheoretical issues as the basis for understanding the different teaching methods

Chapter 2: Research Methodology

This chapter presents the research methodology which presents in details aboutthe method approaches used in the study, the sampling techniques, data collection,and analysis procedures

Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion

This chapter focuses on the results of the tests and questionnaires that aim tocompare the impacts between traditional teaching and CLA methods to the students’learning English grammar In addition, this section also provides discussion about theeffectiveness of CLA on both English grammar teaching and learning in grade 10 at

Le Chan high school

Part 3: Conclusion and recommendation

This part includes the conclusions, recommendation, limitations of the study andsome suggestions for further research

As can be seen from the above definitions, grammar is not an unimportant set ofrules that can be ignored without consequences In general, it is a very complexphenomenon and even though learners may find it a difficult thing to master, the timedevoted to that is certainly not wasted In the scope of this thesis, the definition ofgrammar is based on Ur’s (1991) view as the rule of language to arrange words intothe meaning units.

1.1.2 Forms of grammar

According to Thornbury (1999, pp.66-70), grammar is “not only the study ofwhat forms (sounds, words, sentences, texts) are possible in a language but also thestudy of the meanings these forms convey” These two parts of grammar can besimply called “grammatical structures” and “grammatical meaning” (Ur, 1991, pp.73-85)

1.1.2.1 Grammatical structures

Grammatical structures are texts, sentences, words, and sounds In linguisticmetalanguage, these are called morphology and syntax, where morphology means astudy of the form of words and syntax means a study of the way words and phrasesare put together to form sentences (Hornby, 2000) Here are some examples of

grammatical structures: plurals of nouns (e.g house – houses, or mouse – mice), countability (e.g How much money? but How many coins?), present simple tense,

and others

In fact, all English teachers need to be aware that not all languages have thesame structure A typical example is the differences in grammatical principles ofEnglish and Czech (Ur, 1991) Whereas Czech nouns have seven cases, Englishnouns have just two: common and genitive and where Czech distinguishes things of

feminine, masculine, or neuter gender, English uses only the neutral pronoun it.

Moreover, there are also structures that are present in English and absent in Czech,such as perfect tenses, or the use of articles Clearly, each language has variousgrammatical structures, which make significant differences among the languages Toillustrate this, Ur (1991, pp.73-85) states that “those structures that are not present, orjust less frequent, in a mother tongue tend to cause any learner more trouble thanthose structures he or she is used to”

present situation Therefore, if they say something like Thirsty! Drink!they will

probably be given a drink even without knowing the structures needed

However, in almost all written (and sometimes even with spoken) utterances,there is not enough context, and therefore, grammar needs to be used to communicatethe meanings we mean This can be also illustrated through the example of theforeigner mentioned above If he or she had a wish to talk about this experience the

1.2 Overview of grammar teaching methods

1.2.1 The grammar-translation method

As being one of the most classical ones, the grammar-translation method(GTM) was applied popularly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries The nature ofthis method is to focus on the grammatical rules into the translation process from thesecond to the native language Hence its main characteristics are the position ofgrammar in a lesson, in which teachers give long and form-focused explanations ofthe grammatical rules, and little attention to the context of texts

English was taught in the same way as the classical languages Greek and Latin, but of course, English as part of the European syllabuses was not accepted before the1890s According to Richards and Rodgers (1986), GTM is a method without theory

in areas such as linguistics, psychology, or education Nonetheless, there are sometypical characteristics of the GTM, some of which have survived to this day First andforemost, abstract grammar rules were taught deductively, i.e the rules werepresented before practical examples of the rules were given This method is alsoreferred to as explicit grammar teaching Lists of words and grammar rules weretypically used in the classroom The point of departure in grammar was the sentence,whereas, before the GTM, the focus could be on the smaller parts of a sentence TheGTM claimed that, by focusing on the sentence, the process of language learningwould be easier

Therefore, it can be stated that grammar plays the most important part of the method However, it has been limited in the effectiveness of the teaching language, as

it has less focus on real language to promote communicativeness in grammar lessons,such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and prepositions Although the method is still astandard method for a long time, it is essential to find out another method to innovatelanguage teaching and learning.

1.2.2 The Direct Method

A movement called the Reform Movement provided the impetus needed toconsiderably weaken the GTM At the end of the nineteenth century, teachers turned

to linguists because they believed the science of linguistics would offer them newideas needed to develop new methods of teaching The material used by theproponents of the GTM was criticized as being unauthentic Hence, sentences were to

be presented in context Moreover, because of the naturalistic view of languagelearning, abstract grammar learning was considered unnecessary Grammar was to betaught inductively, i.e through sentences and text presented to the learner fromwhich s/he would infer grammatical rules A last important point concerning theReform Movement is its opposition to translation Out of this reforming approach,came a new method which was to be called the Direct Method (Richards andRodgers, 1986)

Along with the Grammar – Translation Method (GTM), the Direct Method (orcalled the Natural Method) is also popular It is considered as a reply to thedissatisfaction with the older GTM, in which direct translations are applied inteaching English grammar through focusing on the written language Due to thelimitations of the GTM in developing the learners’ communicative ability, the DirectMethod was used widely (Freeman, 2000) There are some principles of the DirectMethod as followings First of all, it includes an inductive approach togrammar Second, classroom instruction is conducted in the target language Andthird, the teaching covers every vocabulary Last but not least, pictures and objectsare exploited to teach concrete vocabulary while the association of ideas is used toteach abstract vocabulary

The DM had its drawbacks as well Despite the great popularity of DirectMethod at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, it

seems to be challenging to use because of the obstacles in budget, time andclassroom size Most importantly, since the aim was teaching in the second language,the teachers had to be

very fluent in English, and preferably natives This was an unrealistic goal in itself,given that the English language had a status far from what it has today and, as aresult, the competence of the average non-native English teacher was normally farfrom native-like Since it was very teacher-oriented, the method was in additioncriticized for its complete neglect of the textbooks In the DM, the presentation ofgrammar was totally abandoned, which could have been adequate at elementarylevels, but what about more advanced learners? Thus, the method declined after aperiod of time, leading to the introduction of a new method, the Audio-lingualMethod.

1.2.3 The Audio - Lingual Method

Due to the perceived decline of the Direct Method in the 20th century, theaudio- lingual method was adopted and used popularly in the 1950s and 1960s In anattempt to overcome the limitations of the former methods, the Audio-lingualMethod is still similar to the Direct Method but it leads learners in the use ofgrammatical sentences patterns Being an oral-based approach, it was also based onlinguistic and psychological theory and one of its main premises was the scientificdescriptive analysis of a wide assortment of languages (Freeman, 2000)

According to Freeman (2000), the American method had a lot in common withthe British Oral Approach, but also differed from it in a substantial way; it had stronglinks to structural linguistics and applied linguistics In structural linguistics, attention

is paid to sentences and their constituents Grammar was again open for explanations,albeit shorter explanations, and of course not before the sentences had been practicedorally Sentences were put into substitution tables and practiced over and over again,preferably in language laboratories, in order to let the learners listen to their ownpronunciation as well Dialogues were also a favored form of classroom activity.Thus, the goal was not accuracy, but fluency in the language Language skills wereranked according to their importance: listening, speaking, reading, and writing

However, the audio-lingual method also met with criticism from several points

of view Firstly, the techniques used were considered monotonous and hence boring

by the learners In the audio-lingual context, learners were more like parrots thancreative and critical language learners Secondly, learners were not appropriately

prepared for communication outside the classroom They could follow instructions inthe classroom without difficulties, but when they were faced with the real-lifesituation their language performance was unsatisfactory.

Therefore, the audio–lingual method was still ineffective in motivating thelearners’ communicative ability because there was a shortage of right attention tomemorization and drilling Moreover, it also ignored the involvement of languagecontext, the world knowledge in grammar and language learning Additionally, it wasinvestigated that language didn’t depend on the habit formation and errors Since itsobstacles were explored in performing, along with the attack of the theories onlanguage learning as a set of habits, the audio-lingual method became unpopular andrarely used as the method of instruction today

1.2.4 Communicative language teaching (CLT)

According to Richards and Rodgers (1986), CLT is defined as an approachrather than a method because comparing with most methods it is expressed in muchmore aspects for individual interpretation at the levels of design and procedure Inspecific, the communication process is highlighted in this approach instead of themastery of language forms, in which the learner’s role will be different from those ofother traditional language teaching

Sharing the same opinion, Freeman (2000) also refers to CLT as an approach,not a method, which aims to develop the learners’ communicative competence andsupport procedures for the teaching of four main language skills including reading,listening, writing and speaking, and help promote the integration of language andcommunication

In a different viewpoint, Lewis (2002) stated that the nature of CLT isillustrated through terms such as authenticity, cooperative learning, and task-basedinstruction Similarly, Harmer (2001) believe that the communicative approach orCLT is the name which was given to a set of beliefs which included not only a re-examination of what aspects of language to teach but also a shift in emphasis on how

to teach

In general, CLT is well defined as the teaching approach rather than a teachingmethod The approach is mostly used by foreign language teachers today in widelyvarying contexts, which is in line with the definition of Davies and Parse (2000)

For the goals and objectives of CLT, Saengboon (2006) summarized that thefundamental goal of CLT is to promote the learners’ communicative ability.However, Larsen & Freeman (2000) affirmed that CLT aims to help students beaware of choosing the best forms that meet their needs because a lot of differentforms can be used to perform a function and a variety of functions can be served with

a single form

According to Widdowson (2003), the objectives of CLT are in line with thedevelopment of learners’ responsibility In the viewpoint, through the application ofCLT, the language teachers can develop the students’ ability to cope with naturallyoccurring language in various contexts In addition to this, the students will also feelmotivated in self-learning and team-working with the content which is drawn fromnatural and authentic occurrences Generally speaking, in the scope of this study, themain purpose of CLT is to help students produce authentic language andcommunicate with others, which does not mean developing speaking skills only butintegrates multiple skills, such as listening and writing

According to Rashtchi & Keyvanfar (2007), CLT has numerous techniques;some of the major ones can be listed in the followings:

 Games, role-playing, discussion, and problem-solving tasks are often used inthe language practice to help students experience real-life interactions

 Article, news, movies, telephone conversations, books, magazines, onlinecourses, etc are applied in presenting authentic language

 Interactions among students are to encourage the learners’ motivation incooperative learning with each other such as pair-work, group-work or classdiscussing, etc

 The role of teachers as a facilitator and advisor is one of CLT techniques in thecase of group activities among the learners

1.3 The application of creative language activities in teaching English grammar

1.3.1 Definition of creative language activities and learner’s motivation

There are a variety of related studies in the field of learners’ motivation Asmentioned above, motivation is said to have a significant influence on students’language learning Accordingly, it is investigated that there is a correlation betweenlearners’ motivation to learn a foreign language and their results in this learningprocess, which can be positive or negative (Kouritzin, Piquemal& Renaud, 2009)The definition of learning motivation is also various in many different types ofresearches According to Kouritzin et al., (2009), learners’ motivation refers to theirpositive attitude toward his or her interest in a target language’s community and itsculture, which is their desire to be a part of this community In addition, motivation isalso distinguished between integrative and instrumental motivation, especially interms of a learner’s objective or orientation (Carrasquillo, 1994; Krashen, 1981).Regarding creative language activities (CLA), there are also various definitionsabout the teaching method In the scope of this study, CLA is understood as theteaching strategies or methods used for making up for lack of language in acommunicative situation e.g miming, drawing, paraphrasing used for gettingmeaning across, which is applied creatively and in the imaginative ways ofexpression

In summary, several research studies were conducted to discover students’beliefs concerning the importance of foreign language learning, and moreover, which

is in line with their motivation and arguments for studying

1.3.2 The impacts of creative language activities to the learners’ motivation

In regard with the application of creative language activities in teaching Englishgrammar, it is stated that these activities help maintain learners’ interest with learningand motivate them to sustain their efforts in a long period of time (Wright et al, 1984)Concerning the importance of creative language activities with English grammarteaching, a number of related studies and works were conducted in various context

Most of them agreed that the involvement of creative activities not only help teachershave their better lectures but also benefit students a lot (Cameron, 2001; Borg, 1998;

Cook, 2008; Ellis, 2006) Based on the researches, the author can list some of the common benefits of CLA as followings:

The first advantage of CLA is that through its application the learners feelhighly motivated because its patterns are interesting and amusing and the same timechallenging For example, the actions in a game gather all of the students to movearound, raise their mental capabilities and neutral networks, hence maintain learners’attention to the lessons In this situation, even the shy students are willing to take part

in the activities and enjoy the fun Hence, the games add interest to what studentsmight not find interesting Sustaining interest can mean sustaining effort (Wrightet.al, 2005)

And second, they promote interaction among learners As Jacobs & Kline Liu(1996) express, many activities can be carried out in pairs or in small groups, therebyproviding a venue for students to develop their skills in working with others such asthe skill of disagreeing politely and the skill of asking for help Naturally, whenparticipating in these activities, students are trying to win or to beat other teams forthemselves or on the behalf of their team They are so competitive while playingsince they want to have a turn to play, to score points and to win In the class,learners will definitely participate in the activities Therefore, in groups or in pairs,they are more willing to ask questions, communicate and discuss with their partnersand think creatively about how to use English to achieve the goal

In conclusion, this chapter has provided related theories to research subjectbased on a variety of previous studies and literature review Through these theories,the definition, form, and structure, along with the teaching method of grammar can

be clarified In addition to this, this chapter also mentioned the use of creativelanguage activities as an English grammar teaching method in the related studies andemphasized that CLA has positive impacts on students’ learning motivation when it isapplied in teaching English grammar The research methodology used in the researchwould be illustrated in the following parts

quasi-2.2 Participants

The participants in this study comprised of 80 students in grade 10 (40 femalesand 40 males) at Le Chan high school Most of these students come frommountainous villages in Dong Trieu district Their parents are mostly farmers, theirliving condition is very low, their parents only pay attention to earning a living sothese students receive very litle caring from them As mentioned above, the selectedclasses in this research including two classes 10A1 and 10A2, with the total number

of 80 students The reason why I choose those two classes is that I was appoited toteach English at the beginning of the school year by my boss and I have chances towork with them everyday and find out if their English grammar is improved or notafter being learned with CLA

2.3 Instrument

2.3.1 Pre-tests

As mentioned in the above, a pre-test was conducted at the beginning of theresearch In specific, the 10th graded students were required to do a teacher-madegrammar test to help the teacher evaluate their current level of mastery in Englishgrammar This test consists of two exercises The first one is using the correct verbform task which includes 10 items, in which the learners put the verbs in brackets intothe first or second conditional The second one includes 10 items that ask theparticipants to choose the best answers with the correct form of verbs In order to

ensure the Content Validity Index of the test, three English teachers in Le Chan highschool, who have taught English for more than 10 years and also the teachers at the

10th grade, were invited to give the comments on the test and made some necessarychanges to match with the contents of the 10th graded English curriculum.Accordingly, all of them agreed with the contents of the tests and had no opinionabout the correction The allotted time is 30 minutes and each correct answer receivesone point

2.3.2 Post-tests

The second instrument used in this research is a post-test, which is conductedafter completing the application of CLA in teaching and learning English grammaramong 10th graded students in Le Chan high school In specific, after eight grammarlessons taught with the use of CLA in class, the participants in the class were asked totake an English grammar exam The purpose of this post-test is to determine theimpacts of CLA on teaching and learning English by grammar, through comparingthe results of students at the pre-test and post-test Hence, the questions in both pre-test and post-test are required to follow-up the students’ learning programs andthe grammar knowledge in their English textbook Both of the tests are similar intheir format and completing time, but have some differences in their contentsdepending on the curriculum prescribed by the school and the Department ofEducation and Training Each test has a total 30 minutes to complete and studentsmust not use any materials

2.3.3 Questionnaire

The last instrument is the questionnaire, according to Greenfield (1996),whichshould be short and easily understood This will ensure that the right answers areelicited for the questions posed A good questionnaire has to have clear andcomprehensible questions and contains mainly closed questions with a four-pointscale to avoid middle-of-the-road responses and suitable questions in relation to theresearch Moreover, it needs to be concise and should not take much time tocomplete In addition, the questionnaire should provide respondents withunambiguous instructions and ask only those questions that are pertinent to theresearch And last but not least, it must ensure to acquire all the necessary data

wanted by the researcher, including objective questions that do not recommendanswers.

In this study, the questionnaire designed was very simple, brief and easy tounderstand The questionnaire consists of two main parts: The first part is personalinformation which includes the student name, gender, class, and their Englishteacher’s name The second part includes closed questions In specific, the firstquestion asks the students about their feelings after joining in the CLA lessons Thenext questions aim to investigate their behaviours, attitudes and opinions whenlearning English grammar after CLA’s application In the last two questions, studentswere also asked about their satisfaction and learning motivation Statements in thequestionnaires are written by both English and Vietnamese which are short and easy

to understand All questions and statements are written in simple and plainlanguage Accordingly, the 10A1 students, who were taught English grammar lessonswith CLA method, participated in the survey

2.4 Data collection and analysis procedures

2.4.1 Data collection procedure

About data collection procedures, they consisted of main data collectioninstruments including pre-tests, post-tests and survey questionnaires,

Step 1: Collecting data from the pre-tests As mentioned above, a 30-minutegrammar test was conducted by the 10th-grade students in 2 classes at Le Chan highschool to investigate their current level of grammar proficiency

Step 2: Practice teaching English grammar with the application of the creativeactivities In specific, the author designed grammar lessons basing on Unit 8, Unit 9and Unit 10 in English 10 textbook, with adding the games and other CLA activitieswhich asked students to work in pairs or in groups For example, a student could give

a sentence and the other had to make the conditional sentences responding with thegiven one as quickly as possible

Step 3: Collecting data in post-tests The contents of post-tests are different fromthat of pre-tests, but they have the same number of items Similar to the pre-test, thestudents were scored

Step 4: Collecting data from survey questionnaires During the grammar lessonswith the application of CLA, the author and her colleagues delivered thequestionnaire

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Findings from pre-tests and post-tests

3.1.1 Describing the implementation steps

As mentioned in above, the first step was to conduct a pre-test for investigatingthe current situation and challenges that the 10th students in Le Chan high school arefacing in their English learning grammar Accordingly, the pre-test was designedunder the form of a 30-minute grammar test, by the author and her colleagues who areEnglish teachers in grade 10 at Le Chan school The contents of the tests are inEnglish 10 curriculum and included two questions The first question asks students toput the verbs into the first-or-second conditional forms in the conversations, whichconsists of 10 items Next, the second question also checks students’ mastery ongrammar structures in conditional sentences through by choosing the best options foreach sentence During the test, students were not allowed to use any textbooks ormaterials After finishing the 30-minute test, the teachers collected students’ answersheets, marking the points and recorded the test result in the observation sheet Thedescription of pre- test would be inserted in the Appendix 3

From the results of the pre-test, the author could evaluate the current situation ofthe 10th students’ English grammar learning, and find out the common mistakes ordifficulties they might encounter with Based on these research findings, she and hercolleagues designed some lectures with the application of CLA In specific, the authorconducted some of the games in each lesson taught Each game is usually controlledfor 5 minutes - 7 minutes and the other teachers can apply to start the lesson, checkthe student’s vocabulary or review the lesson

In the final step, the author and other teachers also conducted a post-test toexamine the level of grammatical mastery of these students after participating CLAactivities in English grammar lessons, and based on that, compare with the results ofpost-test to identify the impacts of CLA on teaching and learning English grammar in

10th grade at Le Chan High School The contents of post-test are different from that ofpre-test, but they have the same number of items The description of post-test is also included in Appendix 4

3.1.2 Results from pre-test and post-test

Table 3.1.below shows the description of the pre-test and post-test scores:

Table 3.1 Description of the Pre-test and Post-test score

N Minimum Maximum Sum Mean S.DCtr Students' Pretest 40 2.00 8.00 186.50 4.66 1.614Ctr Students' Posttest 40 3.00 8.50 205.50 5.13 1.436Exp Students' Pretest 40 1.00 8.00 187.50 4.68 1.799ExptStudents' Posttest 40 3.00 9.50 260.50 6.51 1.308Valid N (listwise) 40

As can be seen from Table 3.1, it can be determined that the number ofparticipants of the experimental group is 40 with pre-test standard deviation (1.79),post-test standard deviation (1.30), with pre-test mean score (4.68) and post-test meanscore (6.51), and the number of participants of the control group is 40 with pre-teststandard deviation (1.61), post-test standard deviation (1.43), pre-test mean score(4.66), and post-test mean score (5.13) It is clear that in the pre-test, both controlclass and experimental class has similar pre-test score (4.66 and 4.68) whereas, there

is a difference in the post-test score which is 5.13 and 6.51 respectively

Table 3.2 The analysis of Independent Sample T-Test of pre-test grammar

score between experimental and control class

Control group 40 4.66 1.64

36 12 326Experimental group 40 4.68 1.79

Based on the Independent T-test analysis for pre-test score of experimental andcontrol classes on Table 3.2 above, it shows that there is no significant difference onstudents’ pre-test mean score between experimental and control classes T-test result

is 0.12, its df is 36, standard error difference assumed is 1.64 and 1.79 respectively

So, in the conclusion p = 0.326 which is bigger than 0.05 It can be determined thatthe subjects in both classes are equivalent before being given the treatment.Therefore, it can be concluded that “There is no significant difference of students’pre-test mean scores between an experimental class and a control class”.

Table 3.3 The analysis of Independent samples T-Test of post-test grammar

score between experimental and control class.

Control group 40 5.13 1.43

26 4.36 321Experimental group 40 6.51 1.30

Table 3.3 above shows that there is a significant difference in students’ test mean score between experimental and control groups T-test result is 4.36, its df

post-is 26, standard error difference assumed post-is 1.43 and 1.30 respectively So, inconclusion p =

0.321, which is bigger than 0.05 It could be determined that the subjects in bothclasses are not equivalent after giving the treatment Based on the analysis of Table3.3, it can be concluded that “There is no significant difference in students’ post-testmean scores between an experimental group and a control group”

The inferential statistics procedures start with the statistical test between pre-testand post-test score on students’ grammar for the experimental group The result of theeffect on implementing the treatment of CLA through language games on students’grammar mean scores for the experimental group of the composite comparing scorefor both pre-test and post-test is analyzed by using Paired Sample T-test and presents

at the following Table 3.4

Table 3.4 The analysis of Paired Samples T-test between pre-test and post-test

score on students’ grammar for the experimental group

7 39 3.51

0

301

3.2 Results from questionnaires

As mentioned above, the researcher and her colleagues also delivered the preand post-questionnaires to 10th students during the above teaching process The mainpart of each questionnaire includes 4 questions with the purpose to help theresearcher to compare the students’ perspective between the use of the currentmethod and CLA in teaching English grammar The questionnaires were administered

to the experimental class with 40 students It is presented in the Appendix

3.2.1 Students’ reaction to the teaching method

In the first question, six statements were given about the feeling of studentsabout the current teaching method in pre-questionnaire and CLA activities in post-questionnaire such as working in pairs, working in groups, whole-class discussion,taking part in CLA games and interacting with the teacher in the classroom Theresults of students’ reaction to these methods are presented in Table 3.5

As can be seen from the table, it is clear that with CLA methods, most studentslike working in pairs, interacting with the teacher, interacting with classmates andworking in small groups They are likely to work in group discussions as it givesthem