Vệc sử dụng giáo cụ trực quan trong giảng dạy ngữ pháp cho học sinh nghiên cứu tại một trường tiểu học

The use of visual tools in teaching and learning is considered by many researchers, but there is a lack of study on the use of these tool in teaching grammar at primary level. The study aims at finding some types of visual aids implemented in class and their used frequencies, the strengths and weaknesses of them and the satisfaction level of teachers when using these tools. Mixed research, which is the combination of qualitative research and quantitative one, was implemented with the population was three official teachers at Pham Hong Thai Primary school. The analysis of the result revealed that chalkboards were utilized the most as they were equipped in every class and the preparation for the lesson instructed by blackboard was the least among these six tools. Besides, in spite of the advantages that projectors bring along, this tool was less used as it took time to prepare. The most used visual aids at this school were pictures and flashcards because of its availability. Last but not least, the satisfaction level of the teachers was based on the strengths and weaknesses of these tools instead of their used frequencies in class. The recommendations, then, can facilitate grammatical teaching and learning process with the taking advantages of visual aids in classroom activities.

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

THE USE OF VISUAL AIDS IN TEACHING

ENGLISH GRAMMAR TO YOUNG LEARNERS:

A CASE STUDY IN A PRIMARY SCHOOL

Supervisor: Cấn Thị Chang Duyên, M.A Student: Nguyễn Thị Thanh Hòa

Course: QH2014.F1.E6

HÀ NỘI – 2018

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ

KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

VIỆC SỬ DỤNG GIÁO CỤ TRỰC QUAN TRONG GIẢNG DẠY NGỮ PHÁP CHO HỌC SINH: NGHIÊN CỨU TẠI MỘT TRƯỜNG TIỂU HỌC

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Cấn Thị Chang Duyên Sinh viên: Nguyễn Thị Thanh Hòa

Khóa: QH2014.F1.E6

HÀ NỘI – 2018

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Can Thi Chang Duyen, M.A., for her patience, profound knowledge, as well as her whole-hearted assistance during my research

Also, I also owe my sincere thanks to the teachers and students at Pham Hong Thai Primary School, Nam Dinh, who have been the enthusiastic participants in my research Without them, my research could not be completed and successful

I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to my lecturers in Faculty of English Language Teaching Education, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their valuable instruction and assistance throughout the realization of this thesis

Last but not least, I am heartily thankful to my friends and my family, especially my elder sister, who have constantly inspired and encouraged me to overcome difficulties to complete this study

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACCEPTANCE PAGE 3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF FIGURES, AND ABBREVIATIONS, ETC v

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background and statement of research problem 2

1.2 Research questions 3

1.3 Scope of study 3

1.4 Significance 4

1.5 Organization of the study 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Grammar 6

2.2 Deductive and inductive methods of teaching grammar 7

2.3 Teaching grammar for different ages 8

2.4 Types of visual aids in teaching English 9

2.4.1 Picture 9

2.4.2 Flashcards 10

2.4.3 Chalkboard 10

2.4.4 Overhead projector and slide projector 11

2.4.5 Realia 12

2.4.6 Videos 12

2.5 Previous studies on using visual aids in language teaching process 13

2.5.1 Studies on using visual aids in language teaching process 13

2.5.2 Studies on using visual aids in language teaching process in Vietnam 14 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 16

3.1 Setting and participants 16

3.1.1 Setting 16

3.1.2 Participants 18

3.2 Data collection 19

3.2.1 Research collection instruments 19

3.2.2 Data collection procedure 20

3.3 Data analysis procedure 21

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 23

4.1 Research question 1 23

4.2 Research question 2 26

4.3 Research question 3: 34

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS 39

5.1 Summary of the findings and conclusion 39

5.2 Recommendations 41

5.3 Limitations 41

5.4 Suggestions for further research 42

REFERENCES 43 APPENDICES 47 APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE for TEACHERS of ENGLISH 47

APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW GUIDELINE 53

APPENDIX 3: CLASS OBSERVATION FORM 54

LIST OF FIGURES, AND ABBREVIATIONS, ETC

FIGURES

Figure 1 Grammar flashcard 10

Figure 2: Chalkboards (Wright, 1989) 11

Figure 3: Overhead Projector (Wright, 1989) 12

Figure 4: Slide projector (Wright, 1989) 12

Figure 5: Kinds of visual aids used in teaching grammar at Pham Hong Thai Primary School 23

Figure 6: The frequency of each types of visual aids in teaching grammar at Pham Hong Thai Primary School 24

Figure 7: The stages using visual aids in teaching grammar at Pham Hong Thai Primary School 25

Figure 8: General teachers’ perspective about strengths of using visual aids in teaching grammar 27

Figure 9: Unit 4 When's your birthday? 30

Figure 10: General weaknesses of visual aids in teachers’ perspective 31

Figure 11: Weaknesses of visual aids in teaching English

at Pham Hong Thai Primary School 32

Figure 12: Satisfaction level of teachers with the use of visual aids in teaching English grammar at Pham Hong Thai Primary School 34

TABLES Table 1: Strengths and weaknesses of visual aids in teaching English at Pham Hong Thai Primary School 28

Table 2: Satisfaction level of teacher [1] with the use of visual aids in teaching English grammar at Pham Hong Thai Primary School 35

Table 3 Satisfaction level of teacher [2] with the use of visual aids in teaching English grammar at Pham Hong Thai Primary School 36

Table 4 Satisfaction level of teacher [3] with the use of visual aids in teaching

English grammar at Pham Hong Thai Primary School 37

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Grammar is considered an essential element of a language; and learning grammar is taken for granted as an important process during the period of attaining a new language This project is on purpose of researching the process of teaching grammar at primary school and deeply exploring a method used in teaching grammar to young learners

According to several previous studies, there are many approaches to teach grammar, two main of which are inductive and deductive ones Each approach contains merits and demerits For example, deductive approach may confuse learners with a wide range of grammar rules and it is suitable for adult learners (Ellis, 2009, cited in Cruz & Mosquera, 2017) In contrast, inductive approach can match young students with exposure of active examples and practice and let them find out the rules of grammar (Thornbury, 1999)

According to Rodríguez (2009), after a long period of time investigation, researchers pointed out that explicit grammar instruction, which is the main method of deductive approach, is an effective method to present grammatical knowledge to adult learners On the contrary, young learners have some distinctive characteristics that require different approaches to instruct grammatical knowledge (Harmer, 2007) Hence, teachers should create suitable and enjoyable activities and instruction embedded grammatical structures to help children know, understand and apply grammar without memorizing such long and boring rules One of the most useful methods is using visual tools Basically, visual tools are what people can see such as pictures, charts, slides, etc

In the literature review, concepts, studies and findings related to this project will be presented Regarding the theoretical concept of grammar, grammar teaching, young learners and visual aids These studies were implemented in different contexts and with different participants, but showed significant results that have contributed to the development of my project

1.1 Background and statement of research problem

English, nowadays, plays an important role in society, and learning English has become a popular trend (Crystal, 2003) Many countries learn and speak English as their second language such as Singapore, Malaysia, Argentina, and others consider English an essential foreign language Vietnam is noted to be

in the latter group Besides learning at school, Vietnamese students are sent to English center at young age to gain English ability According to Ha (2009), students start to learn English at a public school at the age of eight (grade three), and they are also taken to at least one extra class to improve their English skills

To enhance students’ English competence, namely reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills, vocabulary and grammar, teachers utilize a wide range of teaching aids such as textbooks, handouts, boards, pictures, flashcards, PowerPoint slides, objects, and so on To investigate the effectiveness of the above tools, or visual aids, in teaching English, worldwide researchers conducted

a wide range of studies aiming at different topics For example, Yassaei (2012) mentioned that media, videos in particular, were a useful tool in language classroom while Young (2008) claimed that ‘technology tools can provide another way for children to learn and make sense of their world’ It means that thanks to the visual tools students have more chances to acquire lingual knowledge and enhance their skills

In spite of the fact that authors explored the advantages and disadvantages

of visual aids in various issues, the concentration of the researcher mostly directed to the use of visual tools in teaching language in general or teaching vocabulary Some targeted at using visual aids in teaching grammar for students, but the participants of these researches were from USA, Chile, Spain, Bangladesh, etc

In the context of Vietnam, visual aids were also taken into exploration such as the effects of visual aids in teaching reading to school students (Nguyen

& Nguyen, 2007), the use of visual aids to teach English vocabulary for college students (Bui, 2012), the use of pictures in teaching English speaking in an

English center (Duong, 2011) and so on It can be seen that Vietnamese researchers, likewise, focused more on teaching vocabulary or English skills than grammatical instruction Another thing should be noted that Vietnamese researchers also focus on adult learners namely high school and university students These aforementioned facts trigger a question of the application of visual aids in teaching other English learning aspects such as grammar and in other context of secondary schools and primary schools All of the aforementioned reasons have inspired the author to carry out an in-depth research

on the use of visual aids in teaching English grammar for young students at

Pham Hong Thai Primary School

By investigating this topic, the researcher would like to find out which types of visual aids English teachers at Pham Hong Thai Primary School can employ to teach grammar, visual aids are used implicitly or explicitly and what functions of visual aids in each stage of teaching grammar are, in each stage what strengths and weaknesses of using visual aids can be and what English teachers and students at a primary school think of using visual aids in teaching grammar

With the aforementioned aims, the research seeks to answer the following questions:

(1) What types of visual aids are employed by teachers to teach grammar at Pham Hong Thai Primary School?

(2) What are strengths and weaknesses of using visual aids in teaching and learning English grammar at Pham Hong Thai Primary School perceived by the teachers?

(3) How do English teachers at Pham Hong Thai Primary School rate their satisfaction with the use of visual aids in teaching English grammar?

Having reported the characteristics of visual aids and their benefits for second language instruction in other areas and with different participants, the

researcher needs now to generate the trend in one primary school / center in Vietnam and recheck the strengths and challenges of teaching and learning English grammar via visual aids For this purpose, the researcher chose Pham Hong Thai Primary School This school follows the regulations of Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), which related to teacher selection and training, teaching rules, curriculum, textbook, assessment and testing plan and marking rubrics

1.4 Significance

This research does not aim at generalizing a trend of using visual aids to teach English grammar for whole young learners a large area as Vietnam The purpose of the study is to point out some useful techniques and kinds of visual tools can be used in grammar class for primary students in a particular school Besides, the strengths and weaknesses of using visual aids to present structural items to young children are also considered By this, other teachers can adapt and make use of visual aids to illustrate sets of grammar rules to students Besides, once this research can end, it can be an encouragement for teachers to self-improve their teaching process in general and English grammar teaching in particular

1.5 Organization of the study

The study is composed of three main parts including five chapters

Chapter 1 Introduction

This chapter is the presentation of basic information such as the statement of the problem, rationale, scope, aims and objectives as well as the organization of the study

Chapter 2 Literature review

This chapter conceptualizes the framework of the study by discussing the literature relating to grammar, methods of teaching grammar, teaching grammar

to different ages, some types of visual aids and studies on using visual aids in teaching English and teaching grammar

Chapter 3 Methodology

This chapter features the context and the methodology of the study, which includes sampling, the data collection instruments, and data collection procedure

as well as data analysis

Chapter 4 Findings and discussion

This chapter focuses on the analysis of the data and discusses the results of the study

Chapter 5 Conclusions

This chapter summarizes the findings, offers some limitations and gives recommendations for further study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

According to Schiffman (2000), a language consists of five elements namely a sound-system, a set of vocabulary items, a grammatical system, syntax, and a semantic component In these five, grammar is the component that has been believed that students expect to learn grammar whenever they think of learning a language (Scrivener, 1994, cited in Surovee, 2014)

The term “grammar” is derived from the Greek expression “grammatike

tekhne” meaning "art of letters" (Harper, n.d.) After centuries, it has been

recorded many definitions of grammar

Francis (2009) claimed that there are three meaning of the word

“grammar” The first meaning is the set of arranged words to convey larger

meanings “Grammar” also means linguistic science concerned with “the description, analysis, and formulization of formal language patterns.” (Thornbury, 1999) And the last aspect that grammar related to was linguistic etiquette, which means how people used sentences in each situation After a long time, Thornbury (1999) stated that grammar is partly the study of possible structures used in a language The most ubiquitous analysis of grammar is sentence level Hence, grammar can be considered as a description of the rules to form a sentence Another definition of grammar was offered by Ur (1996) and Brown (2007), which defined that grammar is the structure or set of rules of a language

Languages would contain many variations and would be vague without using grammar (Kruţicová, 2015), which can lead to understanding in communication To illustration for this point, a wrong tense can change the meaning of a sentence and mislead audiences As a result, the conversation, which includes a gap of mutual understanding, and the point of communication, are on the verge of corruption

As reported by Thornbury (1999), grammar included both a representational and an interpersonal function Grammar is the way that people can describe and explain phenomenon all over the world Furthermore, thanks to

grammar, it can be easier for people to communication and interaction with others Therefore, people can indeed acknowledge the world as well as express themselves more exactly, especially foreign ones (Cruz & Mosquera, 2017) Scrivener (2003 as cited in Cruz & Mosquera, 2017) states that “grammar is a living resource that gives us the ability to communicate our ideas and feelings and to understand what other people say or write to us.” In other words, it is considered to be essential to understand and communicate in new languages

Among many methods of teaching grammar, the two main ones are deductive approach and inductive one Each approach has its own characteristics that match the learners

In the deductive approach, teacher needs to explain grammar rules explicitly to students and utilize examples and practice to help students revise the rules According to Ellis (2009), students are required to remember a chain of rules, which are from simple to complicated ones So, it can be systematic for students to implement But this method lets learners one-way attain grammatical knowledge from teachers Thus, in some cases, this way may confuse students, especially the younger ones (Thornbury, 1999)

Nevertheless, teachers can choose the other, inductive method, to provide grammatical rules Inductive approach is the method that gives students examples and practice activities in order to implicitly present rules of grammar This method is also called “rule-discovery” (Thornbury, 1999) Thornbury also claimed that inductive teaching could enable students to be more autonomous, motivated and active through the effort of discovering grammar rules To make this approach be highly advantageous, teacher should present exposure illustrations, choose appropriate tasks, and supply advisable assistance for students (Scrivener, 1994)

In other words, deductive method brings along a series of subsequent grammar rules, which can be difficult for students to memorize; on the other

hand, inductive one associates with examples and practices that enable students

to self-explore the rules with suitable environment and helps created by teachers

2.3 Teaching grammar for different ages

According to Ikpia (2003), adult learners believe that grammar plays an important role in their education, career, and daily life As a result, they focus much on grammar learning to improve their grammatical knowledge To help the older acquire these rules, teachers apply a wide range of methods A history provided by Hinkel (2002, as cited in Rodriguez, 2009) shown that grammar translation approach, direct method which enables learners to gain second language structures in the same way that they learned their first, audio-linguicism and cognitive approaches to instruction were employed However, these aforementioned methods contain the negative impacts overwhelming the positive one (Rodríguez, 2009) Therefore, another approach is utilized, which called explicit grammar instruction or focus-on-form in instruction in particular Form-focused discipline is defined as instruction that draws students’ attention to linguistics form (Ellis R , 2001) In investigating pre-intermediate and intermediate student, Ellis, Basturkmen, and Loewen (2001) found that focus-on-form activities enhanced learners’ grammatical accuracy and use of new forms

Unlike the older, young learners have some unique characteristics that require different approach to instruct grammatical knowledge Harmer (2007) claimed that young children, who are up to nine or ten years old learn differently from learners at other age groups

They respond to meaning even if they do not understand individual work They often learn indirectly rather than directly – that is they take in information from all slides, learning from everything around them rather than only focusing on the precise topic they are being taught

Their understanding comes not just from explanation, but also from what they see and hear and, crucially, have a chance to touch and interact with

They generally display an enthusiasm for learning and curiosity about the world around them

They have a need for individual attention and approval from the teacher They are keen to talk about themselves, and respond well to learning that uses themselves and their own lives as main topics in the classroom

They have a limited attention span, unless activities are extremely engaging they can easily get bored, losing interest after ten minutes or so (Harmer,

2007, p 38)

Hence, it is evident that teaching grammar to kids is different from presenting these structures to adult learners By this, the inductive approach needs to be employed in order that grammatical items are provided implicitly via meaningful contexts, suitable activities and timely assistance

2.4 Types of visual aids in teaching English

It is noted that the most effective teaching aid is combination of pictures

and stories (Brumfit et al., 1991 & Kennedy and Jarvis, 1991, as cited in

Mokarrama, 2017) and these things are listed as types of visual tools According

to Rautrao (2012), visual aids enable both teachers and students to explain better

a language point Basically, visual tools are what people can see such as pictures, charts, slides, etc.…

2.4.1 Picture

Pictures are perhaps the most used visual tools in vocabulary teaching (Dolati & Richards, 2010) and are versatile and effective resources for teaching new structures (Celce-Murcia & Hilles, 1998) Moreover, an object or even the whole story can be presented in one picture Celce-Murcia and Hilles also claimed that as low level learners, especially kids, are difficult to understanding long or complicated verbal information, pictures are the better choice to illustrate the lesson (1998)

According to Bowen (1982), a picture used as a visual material in teaching needs to meet five requirements namely attraction, recognition, relevance, size and clarity Particularly, the chosen pictures should stimulate students’ interest and imagination Besides, it is essential that pictures not only are “within students’ knowledge and cultural understanding” (p 5) but also relates to given topics and lessons Bowen stated that size and details of pictures are concerned to fit the class size as well as learning activities

Mentioning the supply of pictures, Wright (1989) listed a wide range of sources that teachers can take advantage such as newspapers, magazines,

advertisement and publicity, postcards, calendar and so on These sources may include both plus points and minus ones; yet they enable teachers to have a collection of pictures easily

Figure 1 Grammar flashcard (Anglomaniacy.pl, n.d.)

With these flashcards, teachers can utilize them flexibly to fit their designed activities in class Besides, Gelfgren (2012) reports that structural instruction ought to avoid focus on rules, written exercises, or translations; instead, teacher can help students understand more easily via this kind of supportive material

For the source of flashcards, Wright (1989) mentioned self-made cards as the most popular ones

2.4.3 Chalkboard

This equipment can be found in almost every classroom with two different types, namely static board and mobile one; nowadays, people also replace blackboard by whiteboard to avoid chalk dust (Wright, 1989) Teachers can not only write but also draw on the board or even stick pictures, flashcards or handout on it By logically organizing details or information on the board, teachers can present new knowledge, drill and practice the lessons (Figure 2)

Figure 2: Chalkboards (Wright, 1989)

2.4.4 Overhead projector and slide projector

Projectors including overhead projector and slide projector are ubiquitous equipment in modern classroom They can be applied to provide straightforward and lively lessons such as presentation, practice and production They are flexibly used as materials are prepared by teachers or presenters to fit the requirements of the lessons (Wright, 1989) (Figure 3&4)

Figure 3: Overhead Projector (Wright, 1989)

Figure 4: Slide projector (Wright, 1989)

2.4.5 Realia

Realia is defined as real object that is used in the classroom activities for different teaching purposes (Harmer, 1991) That is significant since ‘‘children’s understanding comes not just from explanations, but also from what they see and hear, and, crucially, have a chance to touch and interact with’’ (Harmer, 2003, p.82) Real objects are appreciated in teaching vocabulary, which stated by Allen (1983) The most effective way of using realia is utilizing objects available in the classroom for the instruction

2.4.6 Videos

Richards & Rolati (2010) claimed film, which includes slides, motion picture films and fixed filmstrips, is another useful form of visual aids in teaching process Videos can make students focus more on the activity and pay attention to the words involved in it (Richard and Rolati, 2010)

Summary:

All things considered, teaching grammar to young learners needs some different techniques in compared with teaching it to other kinds of learners With the previous studies on the use of some mentioned types of visual aids, researchers found some features that should be applied to teach young learners grammar points

2.5 Previous studies on using visual aids in language teaching

process

2.5.1 Studies on using visual aids in language teaching process

Numerous studies were conducted to reveal the results of investigating visual aids in teaching and learning process According to Parker (2015), videos make an important role in teaching pronunciation and grammar lessons as learners can gain the knowledge through the sound as well as the sentences made

in the videos

With the relatively same idea with Parker, Young (2008) claimed that technology facilitates students in learning process Technology products change the grades, motivation, attitude, and attendance of students Partly agreeing with Young, Schmid (2008) also pointed out some drawbacks of multi-media and technology such as students was overwhelmed of provided environment and also felt spoon-fed by teachers

Similar to media and videos, pictures and flashcards can allow students to remember more quickly and easily (Wright, 1989) However, these tools create tranquil vision while videos and projector supply students with more vivid image and sometimes include attractive sounds

A study conducted by Wade (2002) reported that, in his context, teaching grammar via visual aids to classes of beginners appears to be the best medium of teaching In this study, gestures, pictures, and textbooks were employed to illustrate the author’s points

2.5.2 Studies on using visual aids in language teaching process in Vietnam

In Vietnamese context, the focus of the researchers has been on the vocabulary teaching process, the motivation of using visual aids in class and the attitudes of teachers and learners towards using these tools with the investigation

on adolescents and adult learners

As reported by Bui (2012), visual tools used in teaching vocabulary most frequently were objects and following by pictures and overhead projectors After these tools, the author listed some others such as chalkboard gestures, mime and performances with the lower level of recurrence Among the above tools, teachers in the paper prefer using realia to illustrate their teaching process However, this study also noted that this method of teaching vocabulary was not effective enough The reason was that the ages of participant were over 18 years old and they were not interested in this method

With the review of the same age as Bui, Nguyen and Nguyen (2007) investigated the use of visual aids in motivating students at college The results revealed the role of some kinds of visual aids such as pictures, gestures, mimes, and actions towards the students’ emotion and feelings, which showed the benefits of these tools in motivating students

Investigating about general teaching aids, Nguyen (2010) stated that audio aids and audio-visual aids were used more than others in teaching process for grade 10th at High School Besides, the author also pointed out that teaching aids were helpful to teach a language in general, especially had a great effect on grammatical teaching process

Dissimilar to the aforementioned study, this paper focus on visual aids used in grammar teaching process to young learners As the difference between ages of learners as well as the geographical location, the researcher hopes that, this paper will conduct significant results towards this issue

Summary:

After reviewing previous studies related to grammar, methods of teaching grammar, teaching grammar to different ages, some types of visual aids and studies on using visual aids in teaching English and teaching grammar, the researcher affirmed that there is a lack of study on teaching and learning grammar via visual aids at primary school level It could be assumed that there were some differences in using visual aids in grammatical instruction to young learners amongst using these tools to teach the other types of students and learning points

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

Quantitative methods and qualitative one are two main types of research methods popularly used in currently studies In comparison between these two types, each one has its own strengths, which facilitate researchers to reach the findings of their studies In particular, quantitative methods target to classify features, examine collected statistic and create statistical models to evaluate hypotheses and explain observations while the other aims for a complete, detailed description of observations, including the context of events and circumstances (Kothari & Garg, 2016) Kothari and Garg (2016) also stated that case study method, very ubiquitous form of qualitative analysis, is essentially an intensive investigation of the particular unit under consideration It means that via case study, the research object could be outstanding in a particular setting (Yin, 1984 as cited in Zainal, 2007)

In this study, the employed research method should be a quantitative

method and the chosen instrument was case study with mixed data collection

methods As the purpose of this paper is to generalize the trend in using visual aids when teaching English grammar at a primary school, the author should use

mixed methods in this case By this, the researcher means that questionnaires were used to collect the data from English teachers at chosen school and then in-

depth interviews and observations were implemented to clarify the gathered data

Besides, the researcher aims at finalize the featured practice in using visual materials in teaching English grammar at the chosen primary school, she should use case study for this research

3.1 Setting and participants

management, educational system and activities, teachers, students, infrastructure and the connection between school, parents and the society (Ministry of Education and Training, 2015)

Besides, one reason for choosing this school as the case of the study is that Pham Hong Thai Primary School is one of the best primary school in Nam Dinh

As noted in a Resolution of Executive Committee of Communist Party of Nam Dinh Province, Pham Hong Thai Primary School was selected as one of the two high quality primary school of this province (Nam Dinh Executive Committee of Communist Party, 2011) After the pilot project, the quality of the school was affirmed The number of standardized primary teachers accounted for 100%, 90%

of which achieved excellent level (Thanh, 2015) Besides, the infrastructure of the school has been improved with some functional classroom such as a laboratory, an English room, a computer room and so on Furthermore, teaching and learning activities have been changed in order to enhance the activeness and creativity of students For example, Pham Hong Thai Primary School had some field trips to local monuments and museums every year, which allowed students

to explore the values of local places and historical events Another change could

be noted was in-class teaching and learning activities To be more particular, teachers tried to include practical activities in lessons as well as encourage students to interact with others and teachers Many students achieved medals of the National Contest for Gifted Students and other contests among primary schools in Nam Dinh Province and online contests of English and Math These above aspects could be the proof for the improvement of the quality of Pham Hong Thai Primary School as well as the evidence of a high quality school in Nam Dinh Province

Currently, as following the Circular of MOET and Resolution of Nam Dinh Executive Committee of Communist Party, each class at Pham Hong Thai Primary School has at most 35 students with a homeroom teacher and class staff The equipment geared in every classroom includes teacher and students’ tables, benches, a blackboard, a projector, pictures, learning and playing corner and so

on There are 5 English lessons including a lesson with a native teacher per week and the duration of each lesson is 40 minutes After 8 weeks, the students are obligated to take an exam to check the knowledge that they learned during these periods of time The assessment plan includes both formative and summative tools

3.1.2 Participants

English teachers at Pham Hong Thai Primary School were selected as the population of the study Three of them are the official personnel of the school and these ones were included in the sample of the study Besides, there are some native teachers who took turn to teach one lesson per week for one class After being observed, these native teachers mostly focus on vocabulary and neglect grammatical teaching process, so these teachers were excluded from the sample

of the study

Non-probability sampling was employed to select samples in the study To

be more specific, in selecting teachers participating this study, purposive sampling method is utilized This sampling strategy provides researcher with a number of participants who have characteristics meeting the study’s demand First of all, the selected members were English teachers of Pham Hong Thai Primary School Specifically, chosen teachers were obliged to have degrees of teaching young learners and degree of English proficiency and now were working as English teachers for young learners Moreover, in their teaching process, they were required to include grammatical teaching process

Three English teachers at Pham Hong Thai Primary School shared twelve classes in three grades out among them They were given a survey to collect their personal information as well as some basic opinion regarding the use of visual aids in teaching English grammar for young students at their school and then an small interview were used to exploit the more specific details

3.2 Data collection

3.2.1 Research collection instruments

The employment of self-report instruments namely questionnaires and interview in this study facilitates the researcher in answering the research questions Questionnaire offers the researcher an overview of participants’ common perceptions and their self-reflection whilst interviews facilitate in-depth understanding of the subject matter

3.2.1.1 Closed-form questionnaire

As to generalize the trend of using visual aids in teaching English grammar at Pham Hong Thai Primary School, a closed-form questionnaire for the research participants was deployed during the data collection This questionnaire comprises of 3 open-ended questions and 9 close-ended questions with alternative answers

Questions were put forward in accordance with three main parts The initial part including three questions directed at participants’ personal information namely their name, age, gender and the length of their teaching career The next part was to gather data to specify the use of visual aids in teaching grammar for young learners In this part, questions moved from the general perspective of teachers when using visual materials in grammatical teaching process to self-reflection of their own in-class lessons This part included information of strengths and weaknesses of six typical types of visual aids, the frequency of their appliance in class activities and the stages that they were used Last but not least, the survey contained two questions investigating the satisfaction level of English teachers at Pham Hong Thai Primary School when using visual aids in their grammatical teaching process

3.2.1.2 Semi-structured interview

Another utilized data collection method was semi-structured interview According to Bryman (2004), this instrument is potential for researcher to delve into circumstances, which are invisible to observe directly, such as learners’ self-reported perceptions or attitudes

To be more specific, due to the difficulties in the qualitative of the data, this type of interview was carried out to evaluate the interviewees’ response based on the aforementioned questionnaire Three teachers taking part in this in-depth interview were required to answer questions divided into two main parts The first section includes several fixed questions As for the variety of participants’ opinions, the next part is designed individually for each interviewee

to coincide with the researchers’ questions

3.2.2 Data collection procedure

The beginning phase was to prepare for the process of data collection, including the designing of the structured questionnaire and the interview guideline The drafts of the questionnaire were drawn up based on theoretical background and the authors’ presumption The researcher tried to simplify all academic terminologies and convoluted lexical items to help the participants answer the questions more easily and avoid misunderstanding

The next stage was the revision of the questionnaire thanks to the supervisor’s critique and the authors’ self-correction after thorough consideration

As a result, some alterations were made to the questionnaire After finalizing the survey, the author gave them to the participants with the extra reminds for some notes in the questionnaire Unlike the survey with a large scale of participants, it took a few hours for the teachers to finish this questionnaire

After collecting the questionnaires, the researcher started to process the obtained data Several answers posed a demand to clarify some mentioned matters In the meantime, a list of potential extra interview questions was meticulously drawn up to produce the best findings for the study Having been sure that permission was granted, researchers arranged three separate interviews

with English teachers at Pham Hong Thai Primary School Besides, the author included a step that enabled the author to verify the information from the participants, which was class observation

As the participants of this study mostly used self-reports to present their practical use of visual aids in their grammatical class, the researcher requested a permission from the leader of English department of the school to have sudden classroom observation during one month The details were noted according to classroom observation form attached in the appendices section

Data analysis can enable researcher to find out the answers for research questions

As the collected data includes both quantitative and qualitative data; thus, the study will contain both statistical analysis and content analysis

Quantitative data provided via the survey is detail for the frequencies of using visual aids in grammar lessons and the trend of used visual types These details also give an overview of strengths and weaknesses of teaching and learning via visual materials as well as the reaction of students towards these lessons

Qualitative data namely teachers’ interview answers provide the researcher with subjective opinion and their suggestion toward using visual aids

in grammatical lessons

The data collected from questionnaire were then analyzed: firstly, items were categorized according to related research question Then, as the data was small and easy to analyze, the author using the Excel program to do the next step

of data analysis

The first research question required tabulating data, which only reported some kinds of visual aids that English teachers at Pham Hong Thai Primary School used in grammatical teaching process For this question, the survey had a

list of six common tools and the participants selected multiple choices among them

After being calculated, the data were illustrated by means of tables and stacked pie charts

Finally, the details converted and presented in the previous steps would be interpreted By analyzing, which types of visual aids that English teachers at Pham Hong Thai Primary School used, their frequency and the satisfaction rate

of the teachers when using these tools in grammatical teaching process

Apart from information collated from the survey, in-depth information was obtained from transcribing the interviewees’ responses Because of the nature of semi-structured interviews, researchers had to transcribe the conversations arduously Next, appropriate ideas from the acquired information were meticulously identified and selected to ensure the credibility and preciseness of the results These data were thereafter categorized according to the research questions and then utilized as evidence for the findings

Summary

Concisely, chapter three outlined the methodology of the study, from collecting data to analyzing it The process was implemented by introducing the setting and participants involved in the data collection’s process, particularly English teachers at Pham Hong Thai Primary School Besides, data collection and analysis method were also included in this chapter with the detailed explanation of the questionnaire, interview guideline and the procedure of data analysis The results collected were presented in the next chapter by suitable charts and graphs This presentation of the methodology would facilitate the author in analyzing and interpreting the data in the next chapter