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 TO

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 CODE

: ENGLISH METHODOLOGY

: 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 CODE

: ENGLISH METHODOLOGY

: 60.14.10

SUPERVISOR : Dr LE VAN CANH

Hanoi, 2013

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 ofPost-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, VietnamNational University, Hanoi, and that this thesis has not, wholly or partially, beensubmitted for any degree at any other universities or institutions

Ha noi, 2013Student’s signatureNguyen Thi Diep

First and foremost, I would like to specially dedicate my thanks to Dr LeVan Canh, who has supervised my work and given me constructive commentsthrough the process of conducting the study Also, I would like to express mygratitude to him for his lectures in language teaching methodology course whichgave me a lot of ideas to choose the topic for my research

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

I am also deeply grateful to my loving family and friends who hascontinuously given me their supports and encouragement and also for their patienceand understanding

Finally, I would like to thank all the people who are involved directly orindirectly in this particular study Without their help and cooperation, I would nothave been able to complete this thesis

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This study was aimed to investigate teachers’ perceptions and practices inregarding grammar teaching at Hanoi University of Industry (HAUI) The data forthe study were collected through class observations and interviews with ten Englishteachers at the Faculty of English, HAUI The aim of the interviews was to gaininsight into the factors which influenced teachers’ instructional decisions in teachinggrammar, and in order to point out differences and similarities between theirperceptions and their practices to English grammar teaching in the classroom Thedata were first analyzed qualitatively and then discussed to find out answers to theresearch questions The results of the study revealed that the teachers laid a greatemphasis on grammar and grammar teaching with the belief that grammar teachingwould help to develop the students’ linguistic skills such as listening, speaking,reading and writing They were also in favour of teaching grammar deductively Thereasons they gave for this pedagogical preference were the students’limitedproficiency Basically, their classroom practices reflected their favour of a deductiveapproach to grammar

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

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL: English as Foreign Language

BP: Presentation- Practice – Production

HAUI: Hanoi University of Industry

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PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Throughout the history of second language and foreign language, grammarand grammar teaching have always been at the center of any methodologicaldiscussion in teaching English Many people have been doing research on theimportance of the teaching and learning of grammar It is the fact that most of themadmit that the role of grammar and teaching grammar are crucial parts in language

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 ofgrammar instruction was downplayed, and it was even suggested that teachinggrammar was not only helpless but actually detrimental However, recent researchhas demonstrated the need for formal instructions for learners to attain high levels

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

While consensus on the need of grammar teaching has been reached, howgrammar should be taught remains debatable In the broadest sense, there are twoapproaches to grammar teaching: deductive and inductive As suggested in theliterature, scholars and researchers are still divided in their opinions about thesuperiority of each approach Meanwhile, in Vietnam, it is claimed that Englishlanguage teaching and learning are grammar-centered Despite such a claim, verylittle research has been done regarding teachers’ perceptions and actual practicesregarding grammar, especially at the universities where English is a compulsorysubject

Therefore, it is necessary to research this issue However, this study focusesjust on university teachers’ perceptions and practices regarding the inductiveapproach 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 ofteaching grammar and the ways they teach grammar It also finds out the differencesand 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:

a. To gain understanding about teachers’ perceptions of grammarteaching in general and the inductive approach to teaching grammar in particular

b. To examine whether their actual teaching is more inclined toward theinductive approach or the deductive approach so as to identity the convergence anddivergence between their perceptions and their actual practices

3. Research questions

This study is carried out to answer the following questions:

1. What perceptions do EFL teachers at HAUI held about the role of 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?

4. Scope of the study

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

approaches to grammar Neither is the study indented to find out whether oneapproach to grammar teaching is better than the other The study, therefore, is asurvey 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 betweentheir perceptions and their actual practices, two research instruments wereemployed 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 usefulfor English teachers at HAUI and to be aware of the essential role of approaches togrammar in language teaching Furthermore, the implications for grammar teachingand learning, which are based on the theoretical background and the currentteaching at HAUI, hopefully can help the teachers upgrade approaches to grammar

to make the grammar lessons more interesting and motivate students to learnEnglish effectively

7 Design of the study

This thesis is composed of three main parts:

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

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

 Chapter 1 : Literature review, aims at presenting the theoretical

background for the thesis

 Chapter 2: The methodology, the methodology underlying theresearch 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

 Chapter 3: Findings and discussions, presenting findings anddiscussions on the study and some suggestions techniques for grammarteaching at HAUI

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

suggestions for further study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews the literature on various perspectives on grammarinstruction

1.1 Definition of terminology

1.1.1 Teachers’ perceptions

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

of stimulation of sensory receptors in the eyes, ears, tongue, or skin Perception, onthe other hand, better describes one’s ultimate experience of the world and typicalinvolves further processing of sensory input In practice, sensation and perceptionare virtually impossible to separate, because they are part of one continuous process.Thus, perception in humans describes the process whereby sensory stimulationtranslated into organized experience In this thesis, teachers’ perception means theprocess of determining the meaning of what are sensed Perception occurs whenteachers interpret a given meaning to stimulate in the classroom environment or inthe students’ classroom behavior In other words, teachers’ classroom practices areinfluenced by their perceptions

1.1.2 Grammar

According to Ellis (2006) and Purpura (2004) the term “grammar” has beendefined in a number of ways by language teachers and grammarians which haveinfluenced and been influenced by different approaches to teaching grammar Formany language learners, learning grammar often means learning the rules ofgrammar and having an intellectual knowledge of grammar Teachers often believethat this will provide the generative basis on which learners can build theirknowledge and will be able to use the language eventually

Celce-Murcia and Hilles (1988) defines grammar as: “we can think oflanguage 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 alanguage” It can be inferred from this definition that grammar prescribes howwords can be combined to make sentences.

Fromkin et al (1990: 12) defines grammar in a similar way According tothem, grammar includes “the sound and sound patterns, the basic units of meaningsuch as words and the rules to combine them to form new sentences constitute thegrammar of a language These rules are internalized and subconsciously by nativespeakers” Grammar in this definition, also refer to the knowledge of how words arearranged 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 andcontexts It means that Grammar provides language learners the basic knowledge incommunication 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 upthe rules of language” This definition is chosen because it is more related topedagogical grammar teaching and learning in the classroom, which is related to thecurrent study

1.2 Approaches to grammar teaching

In general, there are two major approaches to grammar teaching: inductivelyand deductively These two approaches are described briefly in the followingsections

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

from the general principles to practice According to Widodo (2006) the deductiveapproach 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 hasbeen using of language teaching around the world and still enjoys a monopoly inmany course books and self-study grammar books (Fortune, 1992) With thedeductive approach, learners are in control during practice and they have less fear ofdrawing an incorrect conclusion related to the target language is functioning(Eisenstein, 1987) Thornburry (1999:32) provides the following guidelines forexplaining rules within a deductive approach to grammar teaching.

1. The rules should be true;

2. The rules should show clearly what limits are on the use of a givenform;

3. The rules need to be clear;

4. The rules ought to be simple;

5. The rules needs to make use of concepts already familiar to thelearners;

6. The rules ought to be relevant

In addition, Thornburry (1999:32) also emphasizes when the rules arepresented in the deductive approach, the presentation should be illustrated withexamples, be short, involve students’ comprehension and allow learners to have achance to personalize the rule Widodo (2006:127) presents advantages anddisadvantages in the following table

Table 1.1

Advantages and disadvantages of the deductive approach to teaching

Advantages

and clearly explained than elicited from examples.

A number of direct practice/ application examples areimmediately given

The deductive approach respects the intelligence and maturity ofmany adult learners in particular and acknowledges the role ofcognitive processes in language acquisition

It confirms many learners’ expectations about classroom learningparticularly for those who have an analytical style

Disadvantages Beginning the lesson with a grammar presentation may be

off-putting for some learners, especially younger ones

Younger learners may not be able to understand the concepts orencounter grammar terminology given

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

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

The deductive approach encourages the belief that learning alanguage 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 orother types of rules directly but are left to discover or induce rules from theirexperience 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 someexercises or examples, and then students must infer certain rules and meanings fromall the data around them Winter (1989) stated that the inductive

approach is compared as the Audio-Lingual Method where learning is defined ashabit information Students learned by rote of numerous examples of a structureuntil the use of that structure became automatic Also, they are not consciouslyaware of what structures they are learning unless at the end of the lesson the teachergives them the appropriate rule to describe what they had already supposedlylearned Obviously, in the process of learning inductively, the position of learnersare changes, they become more centered, and more deeply involved in the languagethey are writing and offering potential for reflection (Paradowski,2007) It meansthat students become more active and feel more interesting during the time of thelesson 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 providemeaningful contexts to encourage demonstration of the rules ( Rivers & Temperley,1978), or help students to formulate the grammar rules from the given modelsentences and texts, or ask students questions to help induce or prompt the targetrules in order to write complete sentences (Fischer, 1979).

Similar to the deductive approach, Widodo (2006:128) presents advantagesand 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

Advantages

If the problem-solving activity is done collaboratively, learners get

an opportunity for extra language practice

Disadvantages The approach is time and energy-consuming as it leads learners to

have the appropriate concept of the rule

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

The approach can place emphasis on teachers in planning a lesson

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

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

The deductive and inductive approaches relate to learning and acquisition inSLA theory According to Krashen (2002), the deductive approach is related to theconscious learning process in which this approach tries to place a great emphasis onerror correction and the presentation of explicit rules In while, as Widodo (2006),the inductive approach relates to subconscious learning processes similar to theconcept of language acquisition Learners are taught the system of language in thesame way as children acquire their first or second language In other words, whenthe 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 thetable as followed:

Table 1.3

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

2002)

Deductive

Learn the rule in the context of formal

instruction

Know about the rule

Learn the rule consciously

Learn the rule explicitly

1.3 The need to understanding teachers’ perceptions

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

to understanding what motivates teachers’ actions (Borg, 2006) Many researchershas interest in teacher cognition (e.g Woods 1996), there has been little attempt toexplore the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of their knowledge aboutgrammar and their instructional decisions The study about the relationship betweenteachers’ metal-linguistic knowledge and grammatical explanations, for example,was not grounded in the explanations teachers actually gave during real classroominteraction (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 thedifficulties they face when implementing curriculum innovations in the classroomand 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 canaffect instruction and, in his two case studies of ESL teachers, he found thatteachers’ perceptions of their own knowledge of grammar affected their teachingpractices (both cited in McClure, 2006)

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

Several studies have been conducted on explicit and implicit grammarinstruction, and teachers’ and students’ preferences in relation to the twoapproaches For instance, Doughty’s study (1991, cited in Ellis, 1995) providesempirical evidence of the positive effect of grammar instruction The value ofmeaning-based instruction with explicit grammatical explanation was alsoevidenced by Ellis (1993) and DeKeyser (1995) Scarcella (1996) emphasizes therole of form-focused instruction and corrective feedback in order to providestudents with a structured setting of Standard English instruction

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

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

grammar learning and strong beliefs in the need to avoid teaching grammar inisolation.

In a study surveying the perceptions of preparatory and secondary schoolEFL teachers ( about 220) and students ( about 1,050) from three differentgeographical regions in Oman, Al-Kalbani (2004) found that students showed amore favorable attitude towards grammar instruction than teachers and that studentsfavored explicit instruction, while teachers favored implicit instruction

In a qualitative research project investigating six middle school Englishlanguage arts teachers’ beliefs and practices related to grammar and grammarteaching (McClure, 2006), the participants believed that grammar instruction isnecessary to increase students’ performance on standardized tests and bothtraditional and innovative methods of grammar instruction are valuable In a study

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

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CHAPTER II: METHODOGY

This chapter is to present the research methodology that I choose to achievethe aims and objectives of the study It gives out thorough explanations of reasonsfor the choosing the research instruments and clarifies specific ways of getinformation 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 itspurpose to describe the case in its context It means that people or event cannot befully understood if they are removed from the environmental circumstances.Moreover, their data analysis focuses on the one phenomenon, which the researcherselects to understand in depth regardless of the number of sites, participants ordocuments for a study (Yin, 2003)

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

2.2 Restatement of research questions

1. What perceptions do EFL teachers at HAUI held about the role of 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

leads that position about the large numbers of teachers and students with 1450teachers and more than 60, 000 students English is a compulsory subject that taughtfor all training systems at university With the aims of teaching and learning Englishcan help students communicate in daily life English is taught for students in 4terms In the three first terms, students learn Basic English and in the last term, theystudy 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 sothey are willing to change the approaches to teaching English very often Everyyear, many of them have taken part in a “Teach well” contest to learn and share theirteaching experience together Also, we often have conferences to estimate andimprove the quality of English teaching and learning However, the quality ofEnglish teaching and learning are not high enough, this is from many differentreasons, mainly students’ ability and teaching approaches

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

Furthermore, they do not have many opportunities to communicate withforeigners, especially with native speakers Their average age is from 18 to 24 andtheir English level is of mixed ability They are afraid of learning English so theyoften keep silent or are reluctant to participate in class activities Most of thestudents 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 studentsdoes not have appropriate learning strategies and have passive learning styles Theyrarely 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 areuseful for both teachers and students because of some reasons They have manyactivities to follow Skill work is integrated and balanced to present new items foreach 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 maingrammar 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 andstudents meet new grammatical items Nearly, every unit has three or moregrammatical items to be taught, and these items are summarized at the end of thepage These items are presented through dialogues, listening, speaking, writing,reading, pronunciation and vocabulary activities The series of books are flexibleenough to make some changes or development to adopt grammar items intodifferent activities if they are not appropriate to the learners’ need

The method is used for teaching grammar here is PPP, however the bookclaims to combine the best of traditional methods with more recent approaches tohelp students use English accurately and fluently, and provides a fullycomprehensible language teaching

2.3.2 Participants

The study investigates the perceptions and actual practices to grammarteaching 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 Theyoungest is twenty four years old while the oldest is forty five Their teachingexperience is varies in term of teaching years Among those interviewed, fiveteachers have from one to five years of teaching experience, two have from six toten 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

the study These ten teachers are chosen because they were very enthusiastic Theywere all willing so the researcher could have the reliable and useful data.

2.4 The instruments

In order to conduct this study, the researcher used the qualitativemethodology The reason for choosing this methodology is that, the qualitativemethodology uses smaller samples It is easy for the researcher to draw conclusionsfrom findings According to Wimmer and Dominick (1997:85) “qualitative research

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 areuseful tools which can lead to further research using other methodologies such asobservation and experiments Interviews can have one of two basic structures Theycan be either structured (closed interview style) or unstructured (open interviewstyle) Open-ended or unstructured interviews are defined by Nichols (1991:131) as

"an informal interview, not structured by a standard list of questions Open-endedquestions allow the interviewer, if they wish, to probe deeper into the initialresponses of the respondent to gain a more detailed answer to the question (Wimmerand Dominick 1997:156) The richness of the data is therefore entirely dependent onthe interviewer They themselves, must judge how much or how little they shouldprobe 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 theinterviewer simply marks the appropriate reply in each case This approach is muchmore standardized using a prearranged list of answers for the respondent to choosefrom There is little freedom for flexibility, due to the fixed question order Peoplemay feel that their response does not fit any of the designated answers

However, the researchers got quite long answers from participants butsometimes 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 elicitinganswers 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 specificaspect 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 teachingpractice Therefore, interviews are essential as a lot of information can be obtainedthrough them

2.4.2 Observation

Observation methods are useful to researchers in a variety of ways Theyprovide researchers with ways to check for nonverbal expression of feelings,determine who interacts with whom, grasp how participants communicate with eachother, 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 fivesenses, 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 toinvestigate the teachers’ responses in the interviews if what they do in practice iscongruent with what they say Second, through observation, the researcher actuallyknows the way of cooperation and interactions between teachers and teachers,teachers and students, students and students, then to have a complete picture ofteaching and learning language at the school Therefore, classroom observation wasconducted to help doing the study

2.5 The procedures

2.5.1 Interviews

Interviews were conducted in Vietnamese so as to help teachers to expressaccurately and comfortably Using Vietnamese is a useful and helpful thing, so ithelps the researcher a lot in collecting and analyzing information

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 1for 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 fornon-major students at university All of them were explained the purpose of thestudy and they all agreed to participate With a semi-structured interview, thequestions were prepared and the researcher interviewed the teachers following theprepared questions Each interview lasted approximately from fifteen to thirtyminutes while the teachers were waiting for their lessons Therefore, there was notime-constraint In addition to, the purpose of the interview was to get firsthandinformation and took place in an informal atmosphere (in the teacher room), so theyfelt free and comfortable to express themselves Their answers were recorded ontape and kept secretly All of the teachers stated that they were happy to help andeven they did not hesitate to reveal private information such as names, ages Theythought that their main objectives of doing the interview were to help the researcherhave 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 grammarteaching in their classrooms because of their students’ abilities and limited time inone period of class