Teachers’ perceptions and practices regarding to teaching the inductive approach to teaching grammar – a case study at a hanoi based university

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES --- NGUYỄN THỊ ĐIỆP TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES REGARDING

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-

NGUYỄN THỊ ĐIỆP

TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES REGARDING

TO TEACHING THE INDUCTIVE APPROACH TO TEACHING

GRAMMAR – A CASE STUDY AT A HANOI- BASED

UNIVERSITY

(ĐIỂN CỨU VỀ NHẬN THỨC VÀ THỰC TẾ GIẢNG DẠY CỦA GIÁO VIÊN ĐỐI VỚI ĐƯỜNG HƯỚNG DẠY NGỮ PHÁP QUI

NẠP TẠI MỘT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC Ở HÀ NỘI )

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

FIELD : ENGLISH METHODOLOGY CODE : 60.14.10

Hanoi, 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-

NGUYỄN THỊ ĐIỆP

TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES REGARDING

TO TEACHING THE INDUCTIVE APPROACH TO TEACHING

GRAMMAR – A CASE STUDY AT A HANOI- BASED

UNIVERSITY

(ĐIỂN CỨU VỀ NHẬN THỨC VÀ THỰC TẾ GIẢNG DẠY CỦA GIÁO VIÊN ĐỐI VỚI ĐƯỜNG HƯỚNG DẠY NGỮ PHÁP QUI

NẠP TẠI MỘT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC Ở HÀ NỘI )

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

FIELD : ENGLISH METHODOLOGY CODE : 60.14.10

SUPERVISOR : Dr LE VAN CANH

Hanoi, 2013

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DECLARATION

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled

“Teachers’ perceptions and practices regarding the inductive approach to

teaching grammar – A case study at a Hanoi-based university”

is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at the Faculty of

Post-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam

National University, Hanoi, and that this thesis has not, wholly or partially, been

submitted for any degree at any other universities or institutions

Ha noi, 2013 Student’s signature

Nguyen Thi Diep

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to specially dedicate my thanks to Dr Le Van Canh, who has supervised my work and given me constructive comments through the process of conducting the study Also, I would like to express my gratitude to him for his lectures in language teaching methodology course which gave me a lot of ideas to choose the topic for my research

There are many people who have helped me complete this thesis I am greatly indebted to my colleagues who are willing to share their opinions and provide me with their lectures in the process of collecting the data

I am also deeply grateful to my loving family and friends who has continuously given me their supports and encouragement and also for their patience and understanding

Finally, I would like to thank all the people who are involved directly or indirectly in this particular study Without their help and cooperation, I would not have been able to complete this thesis

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ABSTRACT

This study was aimed to investigate teachers’ perceptions and practices in regarding grammar teaching at Hanoi University of Industry (HAUI) The data for the study were collected through class observations and interviews with ten English teachers at the Faculty of English, HAUI The aim of the interviews was to gain insight into the factors which influenced teachers’ instructional decisions in teaching grammar, and in order to point out differences and similarities between their perceptions and their practices to English grammar teaching in the classroom The data were first analyzed qualitatively and then discussed to find out answers to the research questions The results of the study revealed that the teachers laid a great emphasis on grammar and grammar teaching with the belief that grammar teaching would help to develop the students’ linguistic skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing They were also in favour of teaching grammar deductively The reasons they gave for this pedagogical preference were the students’limited proficiency Basically, their classroom practices reflected their favour of a deductive approach to grammar

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

List of abbreviation……… vi

List of tables vii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Methods of they study 3

6 Significance of the study….… ……… ……….… ….3

7 Design of the study……… ….3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Definition of terminology 5

1.1.1 Teachers’ perceptions 5

1.1.2 Grammar 5

1.2 Approaches to grammar teaching 6

1.2.1 The deductive approach 6

1.2.2 The inductive approach 8

1.3 The need of understanding teachers’ perceptions……… 11

1.4 Previous studies of teachers’ perception of grammar teaching………11

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 14

2.1 The fitness of the case study to the research purpose 14

2.2 Restatement of research questions 14

2.3 Case description and context of the study 14

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2.3.1 The setting of the study 14

2.3.2 Participants 16

2.4 The instruments 17

2.4.1 Interviews 17

2.4.2 Observations 18

2.5 The procedures 18

2.5.1 Interviews 18

2.5.2 Class observations 19

2.6 Methods of data analysis 20

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 21

3.1 Findings from the interviews 21

3.1.1 Teachers’ perceptions of grammar teaching 21

3.1.2 Teachers’ perceptions of their own ways of grammar teaching 22

3.1.3 Teachers’ perceptions of giving grammatical rules 24

3.1.4 Teachers’ perceptions of integrating grammar into skills lessons… 25

3.1.5 Teachers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of their own grammar teaching approaches……… 26

3.1.6 Teachers’ perceptions of the inductive approach………27

3.2 Findings from class observations 28

3.3 Discussion of the findings……….……… 34

PART C: CONCLUSION 36

1 Summary of the study 36

2 Limitations 37

3 Suggestions for further study……… ……… …… 37

REFERENCES 39 APPENDIX 1 (Interview Questions) I APPENDIX 2 (A Sample of Observed Lessons) II

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL: English as Foreign Language

PPP: Presentation- Practice – Production

HAUI: Hanoi University of Industry

learning As Brown (1994) stressed that the teaching of grammar besides

vocabulary has always been a central aspect of foreign language teaching

With the rise of communicative methodology in the late 1970s, the role of grammar instruction was downplayed, and it was even suggested that teaching grammar was not only helpless but actually detrimental However, recent research has demonstrated the need for formal instructions for learners to attain high levels

of accuracy, which is one important component of language proficiency This has led to a resurgence of grammar teaching, and its role in second or foreign language learning has become the focus of much current investigation

While consensus on the need of grammar teaching has been reached, how grammar should be taught remains debatable In the broadest sense, there are two approaches to grammar teaching: deductive and inductive As suggested in the literature, scholars and researchers are still divided in their opinions about the superiority of each approach Meanwhile, in Vietnam, it is claimed that English language teaching and learning are grammar-centered Despite such a claim, very little research has been done regarding teachers’ perceptions and actual practices regarding grammar, especially at the universities where English is a compulsory subject

Therefore, it is necessary to research this issue However, this study focuses just on university teachers’ perceptions and practices regarding the inductive approach to grammar teaching The reason I chose the inductive as the focus for this

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study is that this approach seems to be more aligned with the communicative based approach, which has been promoted in Vietnam It is also the case of the goal

task-of the teaching and learning English at HAUI

2 Aims and objectives of the study

The main purpose of the study is to investigate teachers’ perceptions of teaching grammar and the ways they teach grammar It also finds out the differences and similarities between their perceptions and practices in the approaches they use to teach English grammar at HAUI

With the above aims, the objectives of this study were as follows:

teaching in general and the inductive approach to teaching grammar in particular

inductive approach or the deductive approach so as to identity the convergence and divergence between their perceptions and their actual practices

3 Research questions

This study is carried out to answer the following questions:

grammar in teaching and learning English?

grammar?

or inductively?

4 Scope of the study

The study is limited to the investigation of the perceptions held by the EFL teachers at the Faculty of English, Hanoi University of Industry and their classroom practices regarding grammar teaching with a focus on teaching grammar inductively Therefore, there is no intention measure the effectiveness of teachers’

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approaches to grammar Neither is the study indented to find out whether one approach to grammar teaching is better than the other The study, therefore, is a survey in nature

5 Methods of the study

As a survey, this study used qualitative methods In order to identify teachers’ perceptions of the role of grammar in teaching and learning English, teachers’ perceptions of teaching English grammar inductively and the convergence between their perceptions and their actual practices, two research instruments were employed These are interviews and class observations

6 Significance of the study

The study highlights teachers’ perceptions of teaching English grammar at

Ha Noi University of Industry The findings of the study are believed to be useful for English teachers at HAUI and to be aware of the essential role of approaches to grammar in language teaching Furthermore, the implications for grammar teaching and learning, which are based on the theoretical background and the current teaching at HAUI, hopefully can help the teachers upgrade approaches to grammar

to make the grammar lessons more interesting and motivate students to learn English effectively

7 Design of the study

This thesis is composed of three main parts:

Part A- Introduction presents the rationale, aims and objectives, research questions, research methods, scopes, significance and design of the study

Part B- Development, which is the main part of the study, consists of three chapters:

background for the thesis

research is presented This chapter provides the background information of the

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subjects of the study, the instruments used to collect the data, and the procedure

of data collection

discussions on the study and some suggestions techniques for grammar teaching

at HAUI

Part C- Conclusion offers a summary of the study, limitations and suggestions for further study

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews the literature on various perspectives on grammar instruction

1.1 Definition of terminology

1.1.1 Teachers’ perceptions

Perception is defined by Lindsay & Norman (1977) as “the process by which organisms interpret and organize sensation to produce a meaningful experience of the world” Sensation usually refers to the immediate, relatively unprocessed result

of stimulation of sensory receptors in the eyes, ears, tongue, or skin Perception, on the other hand, better describes one’s ultimate experience of the world and typical involves further processing of sensory input In practice, sensation and perception are virtually impossible to separate, because they are part of one continuous process Thus, perception in humans describes the process whereby sensory stimulation translated into organized experience In this thesis, teachers’ perception means the process of determining the meaning of what are sensed Perception occurs when teachers interpret a given meaning to stimulate in the classroom

environment or in the students’ classroom behavior In other words, teachers’

classroom practices are influenced by their perceptions

1.1.2 Grammar

defined in a number of ways by language teachers and grammarians which have influenced and been influenced by different approaches to teaching grammar For many language learners, learning grammar often means learning the rules of grammar and having an intellectual knowledge of grammar Teachers often believe that this will provide the generative basis on which learners can build their knowledge and will be able to use the language eventually

Celce-Murcia and Hilles (1988) defines grammar as: “we can think of language as a type of rule-governed behavior Grammar, then, is a subset of those

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rules which govern the configurations that the morphology and syntax of a language” It can be inferred from this definition that grammar prescribes how words can be combined to make sentences

Fromkin et al (1990: 12) defines grammar in a similar way According to them, grammar includes “the sound and sound patterns, the basic units of meaning such as words and the rules to combine them to form new sentences constitute the grammar of a language These rules are internalized and subconsciously by native speakers” Grammar in this definition, also refer to the knowledge of how words are arranged to form sentences

According to Thornbury (1999), grammar is a process for making a speaker’s or writer’s meaning clear when there is a lack of textual information Moreover, grammar means the relationship between three things: grammar, words and contexts It means that Grammar provides language learners the basic knowledge in communication Therefore, it is necessary for students to learn basic and fixed form of particular forms so that they can express particular meanings

In this study, I adopt the following definition by Penny Ur (1988: 4),

“grammar can be defined as the way of the manipulation of a language It combines

a bit of words to form longer units of meaning and along with other parts makes up the rules of language” This definition is chosen because it is more related to pedagogical grammar teaching and learning in the classroom, which is related to the current study

1.2 Approaches to grammar teaching

In general, there are two major approaches to grammar teaching: inductively and deductively These two approaches are described briefly in the following sections

1.2.1The deductive approach

A deductive approach can be described by the teacher’s explicit explanation

of rules followed by student practices In other words, a deductive approach goes

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from the general principles to practice According to Widodo (2006) the deductive approach maintains that a teacher teaches grammar by presenting grammatical rules, and then examples of sentences are presented This is followed by students’ application of rules to produce various sentences of their own This approach has been using of language teaching around the world and still enjoys a monopoly in many course books and self-study grammar books (Fortune, 1992) With the deductive approach, learners are in control during practice and they have less fear of drawing an incorrect conclusion related to the target language is functioning (Eisenstein, 1987) Thornburry (1999:32) provides the following guidelines for explaining rules within a deductive approach to grammar teaching

form;

learners;

presented in the deductive approach, the presentation should be illustrated with examples, be short, involve students’ comprehension and allow learners to have a chance to personalize the rule Widodo (2006:127) presents advantages and disadvantages in the following table

Table 1.1

Advantages and disadvantages of the deductive approach to teaching

grammar

Advantages 1 The deductive approach goes straightforwardly to the point and

can, therefore, be time-saving

2 A number of rule aspects (for example, form) can be more simply

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and clearly explained than elicited from examples

3 A number of direct practice/ application examples are immediately given

4 The deductive approach respects the intelligence and maturity of many adult learners in particular and acknowledges the role of cognitive processes in language acquisition

5 It confirms many learners’ expectations about classroom learning particularly for those who have an analytical style

off-putting for some learners, especially younger ones

2 Younger learners may not be able to understand the concepts or encounter grammar terminology given

3 Grammar explanation encourages a teacher-fronted, style classroom, so it will hinder learner involvement and interaction immediately

transmission-4 The explanation is seldom as memorable as other forms of presentation (for example, demonstration)

5 The deductive approach encourages the belief that learning a language is simply a case of knowing the rule

1.2.2 The inductive approach

In contrast with the deductive approach, the inductive approach is defined as

an approach to language teaching in which learners are not taught grammatical or other types of rules directly but are left to discover or induce rules from their experience of using the language (Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching &

Applied Linguistics, 1997: 98-99) Also, according to Brown (2000) in the

inductive approach, teachers presents grammatical rules by asking students to learn with some exercises or examples, and then students must infer certain rules and meanings from all the data around them Winter (1989) stated that the inductive

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approach is compared as the Audio-Lingual Method where learning is defined as habit information Students learned by rote of numerous examples of a structure until the use of that structure became automatic Also, they are not consciously aware of what structures they are learning unless at the end of the lesson the teacher gives them the appropriate rule to describe what they had already supposedly learned Obviously, in the process of learning inductively, the position of learners are changes, they become more centered, and more deeply involved in the language they are writing and offering potential for reflection (Paradowski,2007) It means that students become more active and feel more interesting during the time of the lesson The role of the teachers is also changeable; they are not still teachers-centered any more They are instructor really Their main tasks are to provide meaningful contexts to encourage demonstration of the rules ( Rivers & Temperley, 1978), or help students to formulate the grammar rules from the given model sentences and texts, or ask students questions to help induce or prompt the target rules in order to write complete sentences (Fischer, 1979)

and disadvantages of the inductive approach that can be shown in the table below

Table 1.2

Advantages and disadvantages of the inductive approach to teaching grammar

this could enhance learning autonomy and self-reliance

3 The learners are more active in the learning process, rather than being simply passive recipients In this activity, they will be motivated

4 The approach involves learners’ pattern-recognition and solving abilities in which particular learners are interested in this challenge

problem-10

5 If the problem-solving activity is done collaboratively, learners get an opportunity for extra language practice

have the appropriate concept of the rule

2 The concepts given implicitly may lead the learners to have the wrong concepts of the rule taught

3 The approach can place emphasis on teachers in planning a lesson

4 It encourages the teacher to design data or materials taught carefully and systematically

5 The approach may frustrate the learners with their personal learning style, or their past learning experience (Or both) would prefer simply to be told the rule

The deductive and inductive approaches relate to learning and acquisition in SLA theory According to Krashen (2002), the deductive approach is related to the conscious learning process in which this approach tries to place a great emphasis on error correction and the presentation of explicit rules In while, as Widodo (2006), the inductive approach relates to subconscious learning processes similar to the concept of language acquisition Learners are taught the system of language in the same way as children acquire their first or second language In other words, when the inductive approach is applied, the learners learn the rule unconsciously Therefore, the emphasis of error correction and explicit teaching of the rule should

be left out Adapted from Krashen’s acquisition/learning hypothesis (1987, 2002), Widodo (2006:129) draws some conclusions in respect of the two approaches in the table as followed:

Table 1.3

Relationship of deductive and inductive approaches to Krashen’s theory (1987,

2002)

1.3 The need to understanding teachers’ perceptions

It is a vitally important thing to teachers’ perception as it directly affects the way the teachers teach, the methods they choose and the techniques they apply In other words, perceptions are the magnetic needle that controls the whole teaching process Therefore, teachers’ perception received much attention in the literature during the early 1950’s and 1970’s and, more recently; they have resurfaced as key

to understanding what motivates teachers’ actions (Borg, 2006) Many researchers has interest in teacher cognition (e.g Woods 1996), there has been little attempt to explore the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of their knowledge about grammar and their instructional decisions The study about the relationship between teachers’ metal-linguistic knowledge and grammatical explanations, for example, was not grounded in the explanations teachers actually gave during real classroom interaction (Andrews, 1997) Kennedy (1988) points out that the change in teachers’ beliefs and understandings is an essential part of any educational innovation

To sum up, investigating teachers’ perceptions is really necessary as it helps

to identify what teachers are aware of an approach, what their attitudes are, and the difficulties they face when implementing curriculum innovations in the classroom and it can help to give the support or recommendations for better application

1.4 Previous studies on teachers’ perceptions of grammar teaching

Fox (1995) showed how the attitudes teachers take into their classroom can affect instruction and, in his two case studies of ESL teachers, he found that teachers’ perceptions of their own knowledge of grammar affected their teaching practices (both cited in McClure, 2006)

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The role and type of grammar instruction in foreign language learning with particular reference to English as Foreign Language has been the subject of Second Language Acquisition research and discussion for decades (Ellis 2001) In recent times, however, grammar instruction has been recognized as an essential and unavoidable component of language learning and use (Doughty & Williams 1998; Thornburry 1997.1998) It is seen as valuable, if not indispensable, within the context of EFL teaching and learning

Several studies have been conducted on explicit and implicit grammar instruction, and teachers’ and students’ preferences in relation to the two approaches For instance, Doughty’s study (1991, cited in Ellis, 1995) provides empirical evidence of the positive effect of grammar instruction The value of meaning-based instruction with explicit grammatical explanation was also evidenced by Ellis (1993) and DeKeyser (1995) Scarcella (1996) emphasizes the role of form-focused instruction and corrective feedback in order to provide students with a structured setting of Standard English instruction

According to a study by Ebsworth and Schweers (1997: 252), one of the teachers interviewed in the study observed, “It would seem that many practitioners have come to believe that individuals whose goal is to develop excellent English for use in academic or business environments can achieve greater accuracy and control though some measure of grammar instruction” Schneider (1993) and Hunter (1996) showed that learners who received explicit grammar instruction performed well on both discrete-point grammar tests and tasks which draw learners’ attention to grammatical features

Wang (1999), in his research into student and teacher attitudes towards grammar instruction in Taiwan, found that students preferred the explicit method of instruction and that most participating teachers also favored and used the explicit method in their classes Borg (2006) investigated the beliefs and practices of 176 English language teachers from 18 countries about the integration of grammar and skills teaching The teachers expressed strong views about the value of inductive

In a qualitative research project investigating six middle school English language arts teachers’ beliefs and practices related to grammar and grammar teaching (McClure, 2006), the participants believed that grammar instruction is necessary to increase students’ performance on standardized tests and both traditional and innovative methods of grammar instruction are valuable In a study

on teachers’ opinion and attitudes towards grammar teaching and their current practices, Petraki and Hill (2010) have reported that teachers use a combination of grammatical theories in giving explanations of grammar rules, because they believe that a variety of grammatical theories should be part of teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge”

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CHAPTER II: METHODOGY

This chapter is to present the research methodology that I choose to achieve the aims and objectives of the study It gives out thorough explanations of reasons for the choosing the research instruments and clarifies specific ways of get information through these instruments

2.1 The fitness of case study to the research purpose

Case study is a study of one case It is defined in terms of the unit analysis (John.D.M, 1992: 75) The unit analysis might be a teacher, a classroom, a school…

or a community The important feature that case study is hired to do research is its purpose to describe the case in its context It means that people or event cannot be fully understood if they are removed from the environmental circumstances Moreover, their data analysis focuses on the one phenomenon, which the researcher selects to understand in depth regardless of the number of sites, participants or documents for a study (Yin, 2003)

This study aims to get teachers’ perception of grammar teaching and their practices It is the purpose of the study that stimulates the researcher to conduct the case study as it will help to answer the research questions

2.2 Restatement of research questions

grammar in teaching and learning English?

2 What are their understandings of the inductive approach to teaching grammar?

3 How did they actually teach grammar in their classrooms: deductively or inductively?

4 To what extent are their perceptions and actual practices convergent?

2.3 Case description and context of the study

2.3.1 The setting of the study

Ha Noi University of Industry is a university that leading one of the top positions in Vietnam about the numbers of training fields, training system It also

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leads that position about the large numbers of teachers and students with 1450 teachers and more than 60, 000 students English is a compulsory subject that taught for all training systems at university With the aims of teaching and learning English can help students communicate in daily life English is taught for students in 4 terms In the three first terms, students learn Basic English and in the last term, they study English for specific purposes

The numbers of teachers at the Faculty of English are quite large, 126, but 80

of them are teaching non-major students who I’m doing the research at HAUI Half

of them had finished their M.A course in English Moreover, they are quite young

so they are willing to change the approaches to teaching English very often Every year, many of them have taken part in a “Teach well” contest to learn and share their teaching experience together Also, we often have conferences to estimate and improve the quality of English teaching and learning However, the quality of English teaching and learning are not high enough, this is from many different reasons, mainly students’ ability and teaching approaches

There are more than 60,000 students However, the English level of students here are not high It comes from different reasons They may come from rural areas where teaching and learning English is not frequent They may not have a chance to learn English at secondary or high school More particularly, the number of each English class here is very big, about 50 or 55 students It is difficult for teachers to monitor the whole class and students do not have enough time to practice

Furthermore, they do not have many opportunities to communicate with foreigners, especially with native speakers Their average age is from 18 to 24 and their English level is of mixed ability They are afraid of learning English so they often keep silent or are reluctant to participate in class activities Most of the students are not interested in learning English; their goal in learning English is just

to get enough marks to pass the exam Furthermore, the majority of the students does not have appropriate learning strategies and have passive learning styles They rarely prepare for the lesson at home or do homework

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The series of the textbooks “New Headway Elementary and intermediate” have been using for teaching English at HAUI These textbooks are useful for both teachers and students because of some reasons They have many activities to follow Skill work is integrated and balanced to present new items for each level It all comes from authentic sources but has been simplified and adopted

Pre-to suit the level They are full of activities and various subjects which cover main grammar items appropriate to each level

Grammar items are presented in a small sufficient unit for easy learning Firstly, these items are introduced with “Starter” part to provide real atmosphere and students meet new grammatical items Nearly, every unit has three or more grammatical items to be taught, and these items are summarized at the end of the page These items are presented through dialogues, listening, speaking, writing, reading, pronunciation and vocabulary activities The series of books are flexible enough to make some changes or development to adopt grammar items into different activities if they are not appropriate to the learners’ need

The method is used for teaching grammar here is PPP, however the book claims to combine the best of traditional methods with more recent approaches to help students use English accurately and fluently, and provides a fully comprehensible language teaching

2.3.2 Participants

The study investigates the perceptions and actual practices to grammar teaching of ten teachers at the Faculty of English of Hanoi University of Industry They are both male and female and all of them major in English teaching The youngest is twenty four years old while the oldest is forty five Their teaching experience is varies in term of teaching years Among those interviewed, five teachers have from one to five years of teaching experience, two have from six to ten years, three have been teaching English from ten to twenty years The varieties

of age and teaching experience are hoped to increase the reliability and the value of

is a useful mass media tool only when its limitations are recognized”

Two instruments are employed: interviews and class observations

2.4.1 Interviews

According to Jensen and Jankowski (1991:101) states that interviews are useful tools which can lead to further research using other methodologies such as observation and experiments Interviews can have one of two basic structures They can be either structured (closed interview style) or unstructured (open interview style) Open-ended or unstructured interviews are defined by Nichols (1991:131) as

"an informal interview, not structured by a standard list of questions Open-ended questions allow the interviewer, if they wish, to probe deeper into the initial responses of the respondent to gain a more detailed answer to the question (Wimmer and Dominick 1997:156) The richness of the data is therefore entirely dependent on the interviewer They themselves, must judge how much or how little they should probe or say themselves Closed or structured interviews are defined by Nichols (1991:131) as a social survey where "the range of possible answers to each question is known in advance Often, possible answers are listed on the form so that the interviewer simply marks the appropriate reply in each case This approach is much more standardized using a prearranged list of answers for the respondent to choose from There is little freedom for flexibility, due to the fixed question order People may feel that their response does not fit any of the designated answers

However, the researchers got quite long answers from participants but sometimes they do not focus on the main points of the questions Therefore, the

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researcher needs to be sensitive, active and tactful in asking questions and eliciting answers It also takes the researcher a lot of effort in dealing with the data, especially in the interpreting phase

Yet, this study fits well with the uses of interviews It investigates a specific aspect of classroom life, e.g teachers’ perceptions of grammar teaching teachers’ perceptions of the inductive approach, teachers’ practices and explores teachers’ discussion in class to help the researcher have more information about their teaching practice Therefore, interviews are essential as a lot of information can be obtained through them

2.4.2 Observation

Observation methods are useful to researchers in a variety of ways They provide researchers with ways to check for nonverbal expression of feelings, determine who interacts with whom, grasp how participants communicate with each other, and check for how much time is spent on various activities (Schmuck, 1997) Marshall and Rossman (1989: 79) define observation as "the systematic description

of events, behaviors, and artifacts in the social setting chosen for study” Observations enable the researcher to describe existing situations using the five senses, providing a "written photograph" of the situation under study (Errlandson, Harris, Skipper, & Allen, 1993)

This case study is suitable to use classroom observation First, it is helpful to investigate the teachers’ responses in the interviews if what they do in practice is congruent with what they say Second, through observation, the researcher actually knows the way of cooperation and interactions between teachers and teachers, teachers and students, students and students, then to have a complete picture of teaching and learning language at the school Therefore, classroom observation was conducted to help doing the study

2.5 The procedures

2.5.1 Interviews

accurately and comfortably Using Vietnamese is a useful and helpful thing, so it helps the researcher a lot in collecting and analyzing information

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Interviews were conducted face to face at Hanoi University of Industry from

12 July 2013 to 6 September 2013 With a semi-structured format (see Appendix 1 for Interview Questions), depending on the teachers’ responses, probing was made

to gain clarification and more in-depth information

Ten teachers were invited to the interview They were teaching English for non-major students at university All of them were explained the purpose of the study and they all agreed to participate With a semi-structured interview, the questions were prepared and the researcher interviewed the teachers following the prepared questions Each interview lasted approximately from fifteen to thirty minutes while the teachers were waiting for their lessons Therefore, there was no time-constraint In addition to, the purpose of the interview was to get firsthand information and took place in an informal atmosphere (in the teacher room), so they felt free and comfortable to express themselves Their answers were recorded on tape and kept secretly All of the teachers stated that they were happy to help and even they did not hesitate to reveal private information such as names, ages They thought that their main objectives of doing the interview were to help the researcher have a good and true investigation

As being asked about perception of inductive approach to grammar teaching,

to some extent, ten teachers agreed that the inductive approach was a good method

in teaching English grammar However, they cannot apply this method to grammar teaching in their classrooms because of their students’ abilities and limited time in one period of class

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2.6 Methods of data analysis

The data of the study were analyzed qualitatively The transcripts of the observed lessons were read carefully and significant episodes (i.e., the ones related

to grammar teaching) were highlighted and categorized Next, all the highlighted episodes by different teachers were compared to establish the common patterns of grammar teaching by the teachers as well as the particulars by individual teachers

For the interview data, the transcripts were read thoroughly in order to identify themes Common themes include teachers’ perceptions of grammar teaching, teachers’ perception of their own ways of grammar teaching, teachers’

perception of giving grammatical rules, teachers’ perceptions of integrating

grammar into skills lessons, teachers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of their own grammar teaching approaches, teachers’ perceptions of the inductive approach Then, these themes were compared to establish common patterns and particulars regarding teachers’ perceptions of different aspects of grammar teaching