Challenges in teaching grammar in the language focus periods with the new english textbook tieng anh 12 at viet ba high school and recommendations

What do the teachers at Viet-Ba High school perceive of the problems in teaching Grammar to 12th form students in the “Language Focus periods”?. FINDINGS AND SOME POSSILE SOLUTIONS FOR B

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

*************

NGUYEN THU YEN

Challenges in Teaching Grammar in the “Language Focus Periods” with the New English Textbook TiÕng Anh 12 at Viet-Ba High School

and Recommendations

(Nh÷ng khã kh¨n trong d¹y ng÷ ph¸p trong c¸c tiÕt

“Language Focus” theo s¸ch gi¸o khoa TiÕng Anh 12

ë tr-êng THPT ViÖt nam-Ba Lan vµ mét sè gi¶I ph¸p)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH METHODOLOGY

CODE: 60.14.10

HANOI – 2010

University of LANGUAGES and International studies

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

*************

NGUYEN THU YEN

Challenges in Teaching Grammar in the “Language Focus Periods” with the New English Textbook TiÕng Anh 12 at Viet-Ba High School

and Recommendations

(Nh÷ng khã kh¨n trong d¹y ng÷ ph¸p trong c¸c tiÕt

“Language Focus” theo s¸ch gi¸o khoa TiÕng Anh 12

ë tr-êng THPT ViÖt nam-Ba Lan vµ mét sè gi¶I ph¸p)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH METHODOLOGY

CODE: 60.14.10

SUPERVISOR: Khoa Anh Viet

HANOI – 2010

TABLE OF CONTENT DECLARATION………

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT………

ABSTRACT………

TABLES OF CONTENTS………

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS………

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES………

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION……….1

1.1 RATIONALE……….…… 1

1.2 AIMS OF THE STUDY……… 2

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS……….2

1.4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY………2

1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY………3

1.6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY……….3

Chapter 2: DEVELOPMENT……… 4

2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW………4

2.1.1 Definitions of Grammar………………… 4

2.1.1.1 Grammar as rules……… 5

2.1.1.2 Grammar as meaning………..6

2.1.1.3 Grammar as discourse……….7

2.1.2 The role of Grammar in foreign language teaching……….8

2.1.2.1 Pro-grammar perspectives……….9

2.1.2.2 Anti-grammar perspectives……… 10

2.1.3 Methods commonly used in teaching grammar……… 11

2.1.3.1 Explicit grammar teaching………11

2.1.3.2 Implicit grammar teaching……….12

2.1.4 Grammar teaching in the light of CLT………13

2.1.4.1 Definition of CLT……… … 13

2.1.4.2 Teaching grammar in the light of the communicative approach 15

2.1.5 Related studies……… 16

2.2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY……… 18

2.2.1 Introduction………18

2.2.2 Research questions:……… 20

a What do the teachers at Viet-Ba High school perceive of the problems in teaching Grammar to 12th form students in the “Language Focus periods”? b What should be done to overcome those problems at Viet-Ba High school? 2.2.3 The participants of the study……….20

2.2.3.1 The teachers and their teaching situations and conditions…….….20

2.2.3.2 The participants of the study……… 21

2.2.4 The instruments……….21

2.2.4.1 Questionnaire……… 21

2.2.4.2 Classroom observation……….21

2.2.4.3 The interview……… …23

2.2.4.4 Procedure……….…23

2.3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION………25

2.3.1 Results and discussion from the questionnaire……… 25

2.3.2 The result and discussion from the observation ………31

2.3.3 The result and discussion from the interviews……… 32

2.4 FINDINGS AND SOME POSSILE SOLUTIONS FOR BETTER TEACHING ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN THE “LANGUAGE FOCUS” TO 12TH

FORM STUDENTS AT VIET-BA HIGH SCHOOL………34

2.4.1 Summaries of the major findings……… 34

2.4.2 Recommendations……… 37

2.4.3 Limitation of the study……… 42

2.4.4 Suggestions for further research……….…43

Chapter 3: CONCLUSION……… 44

REFERENCE ……… I APPENDIX……… ……IV

Appendix 1: Questionnaire for teachers ………V Appendix 2: Interview questions for teachers ………VIII Appendix 3: Extracted transcription of the interview……….……… IX Appendix 4: Observation 1………XII Appendix 5: Observation 2……….…XVI

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT Communicative Language Teaching

EFL English as Foreign Language

ESL English as Second Language

2.4 FINDINGS AND SOME POSSILE SOLUTIONS FOR BETTER TEACHING ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN THE “LANGUAGE FOCUS” TO 12TH

FORM STUDENTS AT VIET-BA HIGH SCHOOL………34

2.4.1 Summaries of the major findings……… 34

2.4.2 Recommendations……… 37

2.4.3 Limitation of the study……… 42

2.4.4 Suggestions for further research……….…43

Chapter 3: CONCLUSION……… 44

REFERENCE ……… I APPENDIX……… ……IV

Appendix 1: Questionnaire for teachers ………V Appendix 2: Interview questions for teachers ………VIII Appendix 3: Extracted transcription of the interview……….……… IX Appendix 4: Observation 1………XII Appendix 5: Observation 2……….…XVI

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT Communicative Language Teaching

EFL English as Foreign Language

ESL English as Second Language

MOET Ministry of Education and Training

OHP Overhead projector

SLA Second Language Acquisition

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES

Page

Chart 1: Teachers’ attitude toward grammar teaching……….25

Chart 2: Teachers’ awareness of the role of grammar teaching……… 25

Table 1: Techniques used to teach a new grammar item……… 26

Chart 3: The ways to teach a new grammar item……….27

Chart 4: Teachers’ awareness of difficulties in grammar teaching……… 28

Chart 5: Teachers’ suggestions to solve these problems……… 29

Chapter I: INTRODUCTION

1.1 RATIONALE:

In Vietnam English has played an important part in the development of technology and business nowadays It is considered as the language for international communication and as an instrument for receiving grants and aid Teaching and learning English have become more and more necessary and important because of the international integration process It is offered as a compulsory subject in the curriculum as well as the national high school examinations One of the main tasks assigned to English teaching at school is that of training students to be

communicatively competent Moreover, since Vietnam entered WTO, there has been a growing

awareness of the importance of and need for spoken English Especially, since school year

2008-2009 a new educational reform has been carried out, a new National reform Curriculum has been followed in all schools in Vietnam The new textbooks “English 10,11,12” have marked real renovation in English teaching and learning from the traditional approach –Grammar translation method to communicative approach

In Vietnam, foreign language teaching in general and English language teaching in particular is said to be grammar-focused For many English teachers and students teaching English means teaching grammar There are many good reasons for this The first reason for this

is the aim of the national examinations whose sole objectives is to measure candidates‟ linguistic

or grammatical competence in written form Therefore, the teaching of English in secondary schools is still directed towards preparing students for such a sort of examinations Furthermore, without learning grammar, students can not communicate well, to put it another way, the language they produce is considered ungrammatical and unacceptable

However, how to teach and learn grammar effectively has been in question up to now, and has been considered as a challenge for many Vietnamese teachers of English in secondary schools Both teachers and students in schools are always faced up with many difficulties

At Viet-Ba High school, like at many other high schools in Vietnam, English has been a compulsory subject in secondary curriculum for many years I myself and other English teachers here are aware of the importance of English grammar teaching For me, finding challenges in teaching and learning Grammar in the “Language Focus” periods is one of the ways to deal with grammar more effectively in the secondary school classrooms And this would be of great help to

myself as well as to other teachers This is also the reason why my thesis is entitled: “Challenges

in Teaching Grammar in the “Language Focus periods” with the New English Textbook Tiếng Anh 12 at Viet-Ba High School and some Possible Solutions”

1.2 AIMS OF THE STUDY:

For the reasons mentioned above, the specific aims of the study, accordingly, are:

 To investigate into the challenges many teachers at Viet-Ba High school encountered in teaching grammar in the “Language Focus” periods with the New English Textbook Tiếng Anh 12

 To find out some possible solutions including a variety of techniques and activities to achieve the effectiveness in teaching grammar and in order to make grammar teaching more communicative

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

1 What do the teachers at Viet-Ba High school perceive of the problems in teaching Grammar

to 12 th form students in the “Language Focus periods”?

2 What should be done to overcome those problems at Viet-Ba High school?

Sources of data were collected, involving the teachers in Viet-Ba High school in order to achieve the aims of the study

 Questionnaires: Conducting a survey questionnaire to investigate teachers‟ evaluative

comments and their attitudes towards teaching English grammar to 12 grade as well as their perceived challenges

 Observation: Observing some classes to investigate how grammar was approached in the

classroom by 2 different teachers

 Interview: Interviewing 2 grade 12th

teachers to get better insights into the research questions

Data collected from the questionnaires were triangulated with classroom observation and interview All these were done at Viet-Ba High school in Hanoi

1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY:

The study is limited to the area of teaching grammar in language focus periods in 12th form

at Viet-Ba High school The minor thesis is designed to deal with the challenges which teachers

at Viet-Ba High school encounter during the process of teaching grammar and some possible solutions will be introduced with the aim at making grammar lessons more communicative I would like to do the research with only 6 teachers teaching 12th form with their classes in order to find out the most effective way to teach grammar successfully

1.6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY:

The study consists of 3 main parts, which are presented as follows:

Chapter 1 Introduction This chapter provides an overview of the study with specific reference to the rationale, the aims, the methods and the scope of the study

Chapter 2 Development This chapter is divided into four main parts

2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW This part explores the theoretical background for the thesis This part mentions to four main points related to English grammar: Definitions of grammar; the role of Grammar in foreign language teaching; Methods commonly used in teaching grammar; Grammar teaching in the light of CLT

2.2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This part presents the research questions of the

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

2.3 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION This part explores a detailed description of data analysis and a discussion of the findings of the study

2.4 FINDINGS AND SOME POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS FOR BETTER TEACHING ENGLISH GRAMMAR in the “Language Focus” TO 12 TH FORM STUDENTS AT VIET-BA HIGH SCHOOL This

part presents the summary of the major findings including some possible problems in teaching English grammar encountered by teachers in Vietnam in general and at Viet-Ba High school in particular Especially, some recommendations proposed for the administrators and for the teachers teaching grammar in the upper secondary school are mentioned in this part Finally, the limitations of the study and some suggestions for further research are presented

Chapter 3.Conclusion

the term is being used in each particular context There are so many definitions of grammar but in

this study I would like to list out some of the following ones

The first definition of grammar I want to mention is by “The Longman Dictionary of

Contemporary English” It defines grammar as the rules by which words change their forms and

are combined into sentences

“There are two basic elements in this definition: the rules of grammar; and the study and practice of the rules The rules of grammar are about how words change and how they are put together into sentences The knowledge of grammar also tells the learner what to do if he wants to put the some phrase into the sentence Grammar should be called the way in which words change themselves and group together to make sentences” (Harmer, 1991, p 1)

Here is a working definition! Grammar is essentially about the systems and patterns we use

to select and combine words…By studying grammar we come to recognize the structure and regularity which is the foundation of language and we gain the tools to talk about the language system (Burns, 1999, pp 4-5)

Thornbury (2001, p 2) even introduces the term “to grammar” implying that it is a

process that we do as we speak and makes the analogy between product and process in terms of something finished like an omelette and the process of making it, saying that it is impossible, if you only see or taste the omelette, to be able to actually make it

Ur (1998, p 1) has given a broader definition to grammar, which is clear and easy to understand: “Grammar may be roughly defined as the way a language manipulates and combines

words (or bits of words) in order to form longer units of meaning”

Bastone (1994) defines grammar is multi-dimensional: grammar is a formal mechanism, a

functional system from signaling meanings, or a dynamic resource which both users and learners

call on in different ways at different times

Cristal (2004) gives more ideas of grammar as:

“Grammar is the structural foundation of our ability to express ourselves The more we are aware of how it works, the more we can monitor the meaning and effectiveness of the way we and others use language”

In this definition, he emphasizes the importance of grammar For him, grammar can help foster precision, detect ambiguity, and exploit the richness of expression available in English And it can help everyone not only teachers of English, but also teachers of anything, for all teaching is ultimately a matter of getting to grips with meaning

Whatever grammar may be defined, it belongs to one of the aspects exploited by the linguistics such as grammar as social function, grammar as discourse, etc This has influence on the way to teach and select materials to teach grammar in the light of CLT Being a teacher of English, to support my teaching I have chosen three aspects of grammar below for my discussion

2.1.1.1 Grammar as rules

With regard to rules, Swain (1985) coins the third category of rule: pedagogic language rules

“By „pedagogic rules” I mean rules which are designed to help foreign-language learners understand

particular aspects of the languages they are studying (whether these rules are addressed directly to the learners, or to teachers and materials writers who are expected to pass on the rules to the learners in

one form or another, is immaterial).‟

Here he refers to a collection of such rules, unoriginally, as a “pedagogic grammar” This

term can also reasonably be applied to a collection of rules designed for students who are learning about the structure of their own language, and much of what shall I have to say is relevant to mother-tongue language instruction

Grammar and rules are the things synonymous in the minds of many teachers and learners It

is obviously true because mentioning to what grammar is, many linguistics and grammarians use the words “rules” in their definitions

As defined in dictionary, grammar is the system of rules governing the conventional arrangement and relationship of words in a sentence Technically, grammar refers to sentence-level rules only, and not to rules governing the relationship among sentences, which we refer to

as discourse rules

A typical definition of grammar would be 'the rules by which words change their form and

are combined into sentences' or 'a book which teaches these rules' (dictionary definitions) but for

the purposes of learning a language these definition are not enough

As Bastone (1994, p 5) divides grammar into product: the component parts or rules that make up the language, and process: the ways in which grammar is deployed from moment to moment in communication While of no doubt the rules are important to the learner, simply knowing them is a far cry from being able to formulate or interpret complicated utterances in the rush of real-time communication

Crystal (2006) also mentions to the rules defining grammar as: “Grammar is the study of all the contrasts of meaning that it is possible to make within sentences The 'rules' of grammar tell us how By one count, there are some 3,500 such rules in English”

According to Fromkin et al (1990, p 12)

“The sounds 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 learned by native speakers”

In his point of view, grammar represents one's linguistic competence He also explains

grammar includes many aspects of linguistic knowledge: the sound system (phonology), the system of meaning (semantics), the rules of word formation (morphology), the rules of sentence

formation (syntax), and the vocabulary of words (lexicon)

2.1.1.2 Grammar as meaning

Organizational competence is necessary for communication to take place, but not sufficient

to account for all production and reception in language As Larsen-Freeman pointed out, grammar is one of three dimensions of language that are interconnected According to him grammar gives us the form or the structures of language, but those forms are literally meaningless

without a second dimension, that of semantics (meaning), and a third dimension, pragmatics In

other words, grammar tells us how to construct a sentence; discourse rules tell us how to string those sentences together Semantics tells us something about the meaning(s) of words and strings

of words (Larsen-Freeman, 1991)

Since the early days of the Communicative Approach, language teachers have been told that they have to pay attention to two kinds of meaning: the “semantic” meanings of words and structures which can be found in dictionaries and grammars, and the “pragmatic” values which these linguistic elements take on when they are used in communication In an influential paper

published in the early 1970s Hymes, the sociolinguist put forward the view that “communicative

competence” involves knowing not only dictionary/grammar meaning, but also the rules which

determine the appropriacy or otherwise of utterances in context This line of thought was welcomed for several reasons Language teachers at the time were dissatisfied, as language teachers usually are, with their learners‟ inability to convert their knowledge of linguistic forms into successful language use, and the idea that they could solve the problem by teaching

something called „communicative competence‟ was an attractive one So Hymes‟ pronouncement that there are “rules of use without which the rules of grammar would be useless” (Hymes, 1971,

p 278) became something of a mantra for the applied linguists of the time

One of the major reasons for questioning the adequacy of grammatical syllabuses lies in

the fact that even when we have described the grammatical (and lexical) meaning of a sentence,

we have not accounted for the way it is used as an utterance Since those things that are not

conveyed by the grammar are also understood, they too must be governed by „rules‟ which are

known to both speaker and hearer People who speak the same language share not so much a

grammatical competence as a communicative competence According to Wilkins (1976, pp 10–

11), looked at in foreign language teaching terms, this means that the learner has to learn rules of communication as well as rules of grammar

Despite the difficulty of clarifying what exactly might be meant by teaching “rules of use”

or “rules of communication” (Swan, 1985), the notion that teachers and learners need to concern

themselves with two levels of meaning has remained prominent in pedagogic thought and writing Celce-Murcia, M., & Larsen-Freeman, D (1999, p 4), in a widely-used course on pedagogic grammar, explain that “Grammatical structures not only have a morphosyntactic form,

they are also used to express meaning (semantics) in context-appropriate use (pragmatics)”

Ellis (2005), discussing the need for learners to focus on meaning, similarly distinguishes two senses of the term: semantic and pragmatic

To sum up, according to the grammar-as-meaning view, grammar is a “process for making

a speaker or writer‟s meaning clear when contextual information is lacking” (ThornBury, 1999,

p 4) Learners need to learn not only what forms are possible, but what particular form will express their particular meanings From this perspective, grammar is a tool for making meaning

2.1.1.3 Grammar as discourse

Grammatical competence is a major component of communicative competence

Organizational competence is an intricate, complex array of rules, some of which govern the

sentence (grammar), while others govern how we string sentences together (discourse)

Discourse analysis begun to influence how English grammar is taught to non-native speakers of English over the past years Research that is more recent is now concluding that we should teach grammar on the basis of discourse Canale & Swain (1980) claims that grammar not only consists of rules governing form; but also grammatical knowledge consists of knowing which knows when to use the forms to convey meanings that match our intentions in particular contexts Discourse analysis is concerned with the study of the relationship between language and the contexts in which it is used (McCarthy, 1991) A discourse-oriented approach would suggest not only a greater emphasis on contexts larger than the sentence, but also a reassessment of priorities in terms of what is taught about such things as word order, articles, ellipsis, tense and aspect and some of the other categories (McCarthy, 1991)

In the EFL classroom, grammar is often taught at the level of sentence And such problems are often met that the students can‟t relate the grammar with what they want to convey in spoken

or written discourse Furthermore, a sentenced-based view of grammar is inconsistent with the notion of grammar competence (Celce-Murcia, 2000) Hence, discourse-based approaches in grammar teaching would be strongly advocated and carried out

2.1.2 The role of Grammar in foreign language teaching

In ESL and EFL grammar teaching methods are debatable Some see grammar as the backbone of languages and learners should be presented with explicit grammar courses Others, however, think that knowing the grammar doesn‟t necessarily lead to language mastery They contend that focusing on explicit grammar teaching produces unsuccessful language users

What is the role of grammar in language teaching?

This is a question which has been asked by several second language researchers and teachers over the past few years (Brown, 1994; Celce-Murcia, 1991; Larsen-Freeman, 1991; Nunan, 1994) Historically, grammar has played a central role in language teaching often being the only activity in language classrooms (Brown, 1994) Celce-Murcia (1991, p 460) points out that:

“[p]rior to 1967 and for several years thereafter, however, no one challenged the centrality of grammar either as content for language teaching or as the organizing principle for curriculum or materials development”

The grammar translation approach, the audio-lingual approach, the cognitive code approach, the comprehension approach and the communicative approach all view the role that grammar should play in language teaching with slight variations Very early in the days of the

communicative competence movement, Canale & Swain (1980) proposed that grammatical competence was an integral part of communicative competence Some language teachers moving into the communicative era may have reacted too quickly in assuming that grammar was not a significant part of language teaching and thus ignored its role in the classroom Below I will

examine some arguments for and against grammar

2.1.2.1 Pro-grammar perspectives

It is obvious that the definitions of grammar make us clear that grammar consists of certain

rules, the system of rules governing the conventional arrangement and relationship of words in a sentence by which we can communicate with each other The teaching of grammar has been the focus of language teachers and learners for many years The main goal of grammar teaching is to enable learners to achieve linguistic competence; learners use grammar as a tool or resource for comprehension, and creation of oral and written discourse efficiently, effectively, and appropriately depending on the situation

Most grammarians give strong support to grammar teaching In other words, teaching grammar plays an important role in foreign language teaching and learning

Technically, grammar refers to sentence-level rules only, and not to rules governing the relationship among sentences, which we refer to as discourse rules Grammatical competence is a major component of communicative competence Organizational competence is an intricate,

complex array of rules, some of which govern the sentence (grammar), while others govern how

we string sentences together (discourse)

Organizational competence is necessary for communication to take place, but not sufficient

to account for all production and reception in language As Larsen-Freeman pointed out, grammar is one of three dimensions of language that are interconnected According to him, grammar gives us the form or the structures of language, but those forms are literally meaningless

without a second dimension, that of semantics (meaning), and a third dimension, pragmatics In

other words, grammar tells us how to construct a sentence; discourse rules tell us how to string those sentences together Semantics tells us something about the meaning(s) of words and strings

of words (Larsen-Freeman, 1991) It is important to grasp the significance of the interconnectedness of all three dimensions: no one dimension is sufficient So, no one can say

that grammar is irrelevant, or that grammar is no longer needed in a CLT framework

In favor of the importance of grammar, Burns (1999, pp 4-5) affirmed that grammar is essentially about the systems and patterns we use to select and combine word By studying grammar we come to recognize the structure and regularity which is the foundation of language and we gain the tools to talk about the language system

Ur (1998, p 4) stressed the importance of grammar in language learning and teaching He stated “a knowledge-implicit or explicit – of grammatical rules is essential for the mastery of a language: you can no use words unless you know how they should be put together”

In short, how important grammar is assumed obviously has an impact on the foreign language teaching and learning

2.1.2.2 Anti-grammar perspectives

In recent years, the role of grammar in language teaching and learning has received different interpretation Although most of linguistics and grammarians appreciate the role of grammar, there are still some people express different views against the teaching grammar, want

to lessen its role

According to Brumfit and Johnson (1979, p 165) “The study of grammar is neither

necessary nor sufficient for learning a language”

As for Thornbury (1999), grammar is a process of making a speaker‟s or writer‟s meaning clear when there is a lack of contextual information Moreover, grammar means the relationship between three things: grammar, words, and contexts It means it is necessary for students only to learn basic and fixed forms and particular forms so that they can express particular meanings And Ur (1998, p 4) gives a controversial question:

“Whether should we teach grammar or not? Do we have to have grammar exercises? Isn‟t it better for students to absorb the rules intuitively through communicative activities than to be taught through special exercises?”

To sum up, although there exist controversies about the role of grammar in language teaching and learning, as a teacher of English at school, I can say that it is important and essential

to teach grammar in universities and especially in secondary schools There are some reasons for this Firstly, the teaching of grammar provides students with opportunities to use English in a variety of realistic situations to learn to communicate effectively Secondly, without being taught grammar teaching students can‟t improve their grammar competence in a suitable environment

Especially, without grammatical knowledge students must have less opportunities to pass the exams at school or university because for them English is compulsory subject

2.1.3 Methods commonly used in teaching grammar

Over the past few decades, grammar instruction has long been a controversial issue in the

field of second language and foreign language acquisition It has been of great interest to researchers and teachers that whether grammar should be taught and how to teach grammar if it is necessary Focused on these two key questions, grammar instruction has undergone its ups and downs through many linguistic schools and pedagogical approaches, in the process of which the necessity of grammar instruction is no longer the focus, and the explicit-implicit dimension in grammar teaching has received more attention Two major approaches to teaching grammar have

been identified in prior literature mainly the “explicit” grammar teaching which involves teaching formal rules of grammar, and the “implicit” grammar teaching approach which focuses

on teaching grammar through content Many empirical studies have investigated that which method is better for grammar teaching, explicit or implicit (Scott, 1989) and whether there is an interface between explicit grammatical knowledge and implicit grammatical There are good theoretical reasons to place matters of implicit and explicit issues, including implicit and explicit knowledge, learning and instruction, high on the agenda for Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research

2.1.3.1 Explicit grammar teaching

Despite the development of these various instruction approaches to SLA, there may be no

single approach to SLA appropriately applied in all contexts to the varying types of learners that L2 teachers face Instead, at the core of these different instruction approaches to SLA, two key contrasting and independent concepts have been commonly involved: explicit and implicit While these two types of approaches have raised a number of controversial issues regarding the effects

of SLA, a number of recent studies have taken stronger views about the advantages of explicit instruction approaches to SLA of L2 grammar especially in the EFL situation due to the features and merits of the explicit approach

With regard to advantages of explicit grammar teaching, a number of researchers have investigated many obvious advantages and crucial functions of conscious learning in SLA Krashen (1982), in his Monitor Theory, stated that „learned grammatical principles function to edit or monitor language output that has been generated by acquired rules‟ It goes without saying

that an explicit approach can not only help learners draw more learners' attention and exploit pedagogical grammar in this regard but also is fully and clearly expressed, defined or formulated, and readily observable (Doughty & Williams, 1998) and also explicit grammar instruction can solve problems with purely communicative driven approaches, and can provide three important parts of the grammar lesson such as explicit grammar instruction preferably at the beginning of the lesson, communicative activities containing many usages of the instructed form, and summary activities to focus learners' attention on the grammar form they were instructed on and then encountered communicatively However, a problem with explicit grammar teaching is that the teachers who focus on language forms presentation, explain the grammar rules and practice through drilling hold a traditional view of language teaching They equate language to grammar mastery and accurate usage and create bored, disaffected students who can produce correct forms

on exercises and tests, but consistently make errors when they try to use the language in context

In other words, students under this form of instruction know a lot about the language but they are unable to use the language itself appropriately in contextualized situations- these students

consistently make errors when they try to use the language in context

To summarize, explicit teaching begins very teacher-centered with little student responsibility and ends with a goal of complete student independency with very little teacher involvement

2.1.3.2 Implicit grammar teaching

In the early 20th century it is thought grammar should be studied by examining living speech rather than by analyzing written documents According to some linguists, by providing grammar in context, in an implicit manner, they can expose students to substantial doses of grammar study without alienating them to the learning of English or other foreign language I also agree with this implicit approach of teaching grammar The principal manner in which I accomplish this is by teaching short grammar-based sessions immediately followed by additional

function-based lessons in which the new grammar / structure is applied in context For students,

implicit learning is “learning without conscious attention or awareness” (Brown, 2007, p 291) In

addition, implicit learning occurs “without intention to learn and without awareness of what has

been learned” (Brown, 2007, p 292)

From my teaching experience I believe that focus on grammar explanation and the absence of any reference to meaning can be detrimental to language acquisition Of course grammar is the backbone of any language Grammar knowledge can be helpful in producing

accurate forms of language and acts in monitoring its use But, it is worthwhile noticing that one can communicate more or less a message with vocabulary items alone while it is impossible to do

so using grammar alone This shows that grammar alone doesn‟t make the language What is more, language use can be tremendously affected by conscious language usage as this may create

a stressful environment So a balanced approach to grammar teaching takes into consideration

the appropriate use of language and doesn‟t reject the (conscious or unconscious) internalization

of the rules Some of the major approaches that hold this view are the communicative approach, the natural approach and the lexical approach

In my own teaching at school, I find that there are many different ways to implement implicit teaching methods into a classroom The basic idea is that students are given examples of

a desired topic through any medium Any kind of topic can be taught implicitly including: grammar, vocabulary, culture, etc Students should be aware of what the learning objective is Students are never taught the actual rules; they deduce their own form of rules based on the examples given For example: When presenting the use of the ending-s with verbs in the present simple tense to students, I often carry out three stages:

 Stage1: I give the students the following sentences and ask them to find the grammatical

pattern

- I go to school every day

- My mother works at the IBM company

- Water boils at 100C

- My friends play tennis with me

- They ride bicycle

 Stage 2: -the explanation stage: I tell the students the explicit grammatical rules of the

present simple tense with singular form, explain the rule of use of the ending-s

 Stage 3: Expression: I divide students into pairs and give them the task

2.1.4 Grammar teaching in the light of CLT

2.1.4.1 Definition of CLT

Communicative language teaching (CLT) is an innovation in English language teaching (ELT) CLT is a new teaching approach in Britain, having been introduced in the 1970s, and it

has become a popular approach in foreign language teaching since the 1980s Many researchers

have helped to develop the theory and practice of CLT, among them Brumfit & Johnson (1979),

Hymes (1972), and Richards & Rodgers (1986), to name only a few In CLT, students do not

simply learn the linguistic structures and grammar rules They have to learn how to use the

language properly There is a “strong” version and a “weak” version of the communicative

approach „The weak version [that] has become more or less standard practice in the last ten years, stresses the importance of providing learners with opportunities to use their English for communicative purposes‟ (Richards & Rodgers, 1986)

Because the range of CLT is so wide, it is difficult to identify precisely whether a teacher

is using CLT Many researchers have discussed “communication” and CLT Widdowson (1990)

holds that language is used to achieve a communicative purpose Littlewood (1981) also states that language is used as a tool for communication Two major points are expressed in the studies

of CLT One is that language is learned to enable one to communicate The other concerns the curriculum objectives Larsen-Freeman (1986) argues that, “the goal of the CLT is to help

learners become communicatively competent” According to Richards & Rogers (1986) in order

to achieve this goal, learners need to develop communicative abilities, such as expression, interpretation, and negotiation In order to become a communicative speaker, learners not only need to master the grammatical rules of a language but they also need to know how to use the target language suitably in different situations The teacher sets up a situation that students are likely to encounter in real life The real-life simulations change from day to day Students‟ motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate in meaningful ways about meaningful topics

Brown‟s presentation (1994, p 245) of four interconnected characteristics could be used as

a definition of communicative language teaching (CLT):

a The language teaching goals should contain all the components in communicative competence

For example, learners, after they study the target language, should not only be able to listen to a large part of the authentic speech utterances, speak relatively fluently in the target language and make themselves understand; but also be able to read printed materials of average difficulty and

write relatively properly in the target language

b Learners should be engaged in the pragmatic, functional use of language for meaningful

purposes Organizational competence is not the central focus but should be considered as a

facilitator to accomplish those purposes This is because the emphasis of CLT is on real

communication, and in real communication, both the pragmatic, functional use of language organizational competence cannot be lacking

c Fluency, at times, should take on more importance than accuracy in order to keep learners

meaningfully engaged in language use Because CLT focuses on speaking the target language

with fluency and being understood by the listener, grammar teaching and structure of the sentence are not as important as fluency It is also important that teachers do not correct students immediately when they are speaking

d Students should finally use the language productively and receptively, in understand contexts

These three sides are the most important for using language and succeeding in real communication

2.1.4.2 Teaching grammar in the light of the communicative approach

Over the past several years, whether or not grammar should be taught explicitly or implicitly has been a controversial issue Extensive grammar research has shown that grammar should be neglected in teaching English ever since communicative methodology appeared in the late 1970s It was claimed that language should be acquired through natural exposure, not through formal instruction However, recent research studies have demonstrated that grammar instruction enables learners to attain high level of proficiency, both in accuracy and fluency It was claimed that the teacher should provide learners with authentic discourse samples to illustrate all the contextually dependent grammatical rules (Ellis 2002)

About Teaching Presentation in Grammar, Larsen-Freeman (2003) suggested that a pedagogic grammar lesson should follow three parts: explicit grammar instruction, communicative activities, and summary activities At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher gives students explicit grammar rules and explanation Then, the teacher provides many communicative activities that contain uses of the instructed form Last, in the summary activities section, students will pay more attention on the grammar form they have just studied and then perform communicatively

Here is a typical grammar class following CLT In the class the teacher uses visual aids to present the grammar structure to be taught Students deduce the meaning, the form and the use of

it The teacher checks students' understanding by asking yes/no questions focusing on form, meaning and use The teacher gets students to practice the structure through Repetition and Substitution Drills The teacher tries to provide maximum practice within a controlled but

realistic and contextualized framework and to build students' confidence in using the new language The teacher provides students with opportunities to use the new language in a freer and more creative way The teacher creates activities in which students can integrate new language with the previously learnt language and apply what they have learnt in talking about their real life activities What makes this kind of lesson different from the traditional ones is that the teacher tries to make the language used in the lesson real and true The teacher creates real or close-to-real situations in which the language can be used This will better enable students to communicate in English not only in the classroom but also outside the classroom

We should always consider why people learn a foreign language and what they do with it when we teach a foreign language Indeed, the reasons to learn a foreign language can vary and

we should always keep the learners 'needs in mind People learn a language e.g for their work, out of interest or simply because it belongs to school syllabus

In brief, the requirement for a successful grammar lesson following CLT is that after learning a certain grammatical structure, the students are able to use it in real life communication

The first study I want to mention is on the theme “Applying communicative approach to grammar teaching and learning at Tran Phu gifted high school” by the author Pham Thi Mai Anh in October, 2007 The attempts of this study are to find out the students‟ and teachers‟

attitudes as well as heir preferences to grammar teaching and learning towards the communicative approach Carrying out the study, the author hopes to find out how to teach and learn grammar according to the communicative approach effectively and successfully

Another research that is about grammar is named “Adapting materials for teaching grammar in the light of CLT to first year students in electric power college” by Nguyen Thi

Thang in September, 2006 This study was conducted to seek the answers to the questions of what techniques of adapting materials should be used to teach grammar to first year students at

EPC in the light of CLT Through what the author has done, she believes the teachers should know how to combine materials of traditional approach like gap-filling, tenses etc, with those of CLT approach In other words, they should know how to balance these materials to suit their students‟ needs and interests

“An investigation into Vietnamese upper secondary school students’ attitudes towards grammar learning and teaching” was carried out by Nguyen Thi Minh Hue in June, 2004 The

aim of this study is to find out what attitudes Vietnamese upper secondary school students hold towards grammar and grammar learning especially with their styles preferences in an attempt to narrow the gap between teaching styles and learning styles as a goal of learner-centredness in language education Through this investigation, the author expects that a blend of both traditional and communicative approaches to grammar could be a good solution to the question of grammar teaching at the Vietnamese upper secondary school

Being a teacher of English in a upper secondary school, I am aware of the importance of grammar as well as of the grammar teaching in the process of teaching How to teach grammar effectively and successfully is always a big question not only to me but also to many other teachers at my school, especially nowadays new textbooks used in all schools in our country focus on not only grammar teaching but also on other skills in the light of CLT The teaching of grammar in “Language focus period” is always a challenge to every one Teaching grammar, the teachers encounter some certain difficulties in comparison with teaching other skills Being aware

of this, I have decided to choose the topic on the teaching of grammar for my thesis with the aim

to find out the difficulties many teachers encounter when teaching grammar in “Language focus periods” with the New English Textbook Tiếng Anh 12 and some possible solutions to these problems Furthermore, up to now there have been no studies on this topic carried out at Viet-Ba High school, the school where I am teaching now All these above mentioned reasons have

inspired me to conduct the study about “Challenges in Teaching Grammar in the “Language Focus periods” with the New English Textbook Tiếng Anh 12 at Viet-Ba High School and some Possible Solutions” I hope this would be taken into consideration by the teachers at Viet-

Ba High school in particular and teachers of English in general to make the “Language focus” periods more interesting and motivating to students

2.2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.2.1 Introduction

Viet-Ba High School was founded in 1960 Since its foundation, it has always proved to be

a school of good teaching and learning quality and has made contributions to the education and training course of the nation

Although Viet-Ba High school is not very large and modern, we have not bad condition for teaching especially our foreign language group Everything has changed since information Technology were widely used in teaching and learning English at Viet-Ba High school The appearance of pictures, charts, radios, cassette players, recorders, overhead projectors (OHPs), movies, televisions, etc have changed the classroom structures and have assisted students‟ acquisition of knowledge For the purpose of practicing speaking skill, the facilities like computers, overhead projector, video-player and so on are used during speaking lessons

Teaching at Viet-Ba High school, the teachers have a lot of opportunities to improve knowledge and ability of teaching from the headmaster and the teaching staff

Talking about the teaching staff, there are 85 experienced and competent teachers, 18 of whom are masters The English division alone has 12 teachers All of the teachers of English at

my school are well-qualified We are different from age, background as well as living conditions, but we have a common point: it‟s the passion to teaching, the love to children We are enthusiastic, responsible for our tasks We always share experience from each other and help each other to make much good advance in our teaching Teachers at my school are aware of the importance of applying the new teaching method in which students are considered the center of the teaching-learning process

At Viet-Ba High school, like at many other high schools in Vietnam, English has been a compulsory subject in secondary curriculum for many years Most of the students here come from village, many of them are children of poor families They are obedient, timid but not very good at English Although most of my students are poor children and they have poor knowledge

of English, they have desire to master English, especially students of 12th form They are motivated to communicate in meaningful ways about meaningful topics especially in the situations that they are likely to encounter in life Most of them get used to working in pairs or groups, which create enough confidence for them to join in class discussion

The textbooks used at Viet-Ba High school are the textbooks English 10, 11,12 that are applied in all schools in Vietnam meet the requirements of the courses and suitable to levels in terms of objectives, content, methodology These new textbooks have marked real renovation in English teaching and learning from the traditional approach-Grammar translation method to communicative approach, which has led to the increasingly important role of teaching speaking skills

However, our school still encounters several drawbacks concerning foreign language

teaching and learning

The geographical condition and location have influence on the quality of learning and

teaching English at my school Firstly, most of the students come from peasants‟ families, so they are timid and shy on lesson of English Furthermore, my school is far from the centre of Hanoi, due to which my students have less chances to take the English courses in the big English clubs

in the center to improve their knowledge of English And the chance to encounter speaking people for them is rare

In addition, although all of us were well trained, we are aware of the advantages and

disadvantages of the traditional and new teaching methods, sometimes we feel exhausted with all the preparation, lesson plan, marking, time constraint and research of innovation and in many cases we have to choose to use the grammar-traditional method because we feel that it is the safest way for us to teach with the hope that our students can pass the exams

Besides, although new textbooks are welcomed by the majority of the teachers for they acknowledged the advantages of the new textbooks over the old ones in terms of students‟ communicative competence, many of us find challenging to use them as they took us more time and energy to prepare the lesson while classroom conditions were not good enough for the implementation of the new method and teaching speaking and listening skills Beside this, we find out that speaking and listening skills are impractical because the objectives of new textbooks provide adequate contribution to 4 language skills, but in fact, we can not find the present of such kinds of skills like speaking and listening in any exams Therefore, if we pay much attention to these skills, students may fail at final exams which focus on intricacies of grammar

Though communicative language teaching method has been strongly advocated, the grammar translation method has still deep rooted in the classroom practice The consequence is a low communicative language skill competence among students: what students get after leaving school

are some basic grammar rules, limited vocabulary and incorrect pronunciation This fact calls for

a greater endeavor from teachers‟ side to bridge the gap

b What should be done to overcome those problems at Viet-Ba High school?

2.2.3 The participants of the study

2.2.3.1 The teachers and their teaching situations and conditions

The number of English teaching staff at Viet-Ba High school is 12 All of us were qualified There are two male among these teachers Three of them are over 40 years old, the others are young, aged from 27 to 35 Among them three teachers have 20 years of teaching experience, one has 10 years and one has only one year and the rest have 4-6 years of teaching experience

We always try to enable the students to develop their communicative skills in the target language including listening, speaking, reading and writing skills and to create a communicative environment for students to acquire English by using it through activities in class We are always helpful to each other in work, responsible for our duty and always share experience with each other in teaching

Teaching conditions for foreign language at Viet-Ba High school is very good Syllabus and Curriculum used at Viet-Ba High school are set by the government and are followed in all schools of the country These are the accompanying teaching plan books, workbooks and audiotapes thanks to which teachers could save time for preparing the lesson and they are meticulously instructed how to use the books, how to organize an activity, given suggestions for teaching aids, etc Besides, the new textbooks together with communicative tasks and activities, especially thanks to the equipments with modern technology for foreign language teaching such

as two internet rooms with 45 computers, one multimedia classroom with different facilities for teachers and students to carry out various classroom activities and other facilities such as an overhead, projector, video player, etc, make the learning process more interesting, enjoyable and motivating Especially they are clearly and appropriately designed with vivid illustration

The teachers of English at my school find it difficult to teach English effectively, however, for many reasons, of course, such as the students‟ language level, the class size or facilities for study, etc But the most important is in students‟ attitude on learning English They seem so quiet and lazy during English lessons, especially, for the students of grade 12 They are worried only about the National examination and entrance exams to Universities Their focus is on grammar and vocabulary, which means they don‟t pay much attention to speaking English in class It is very difficult to make them participate in speaking activities in class Furthermore, some students suppose that English is not as important as Math, Physics and Chemistry, so they don‟t pay much attention to learning it

2.2.3.2 The participants of the study

My study was carried out with 6 teachers from English teaching staff at Viet-Ba High school who teach English to 12 grade students All of them are female aged from twenty eight to forty five They have experienced a long time in working with syllabus and materials for teaching

12 grade students

The English teachers chosen to response to the questionnaire or interview for my study were ensured that their information given by them will be kept confidential This was to secure the most honest and accurate responses from the participants

2.2.4 The instruments

To attain the target of the study to investigate teachers‟ perception of the challenges they are faced with in teaching English grammar, my study used three instruments: survey questionnaire, interview, and classroom observation to obtain data Besides, two different “Language focus” lessons were carried out by two teachers After the lessons, these teachers were asked some interview questions

2.2.4.1 Questionnaire

To gather data for the research, the survey questionnaire was administered to the teachers for evaluative information concerning their work experience and attitude as well as awareness of English grammar teaching “Questionnaires are one of the most popular methods of conducting scholarly research They provide a convenient way of gathering information from a target population” (David S Walonick, Ph.D 1993.p 1) In order that the participants were not under the pressure

of time and could feel free to express their personal opinions and thought about the items raised

in the questionnaire, they were asked to give their responses at home

The questionnaire consisting of 11 questions both closed and open-ended (see Appendix 1)

were designed to focus on the following categories:

*Teachers‟ attitude towards grammar teaching (questions 4, 8)

*Teachers‟ awareness of the importance of grammar teaching (questions 3, 9)

*Teachers‟ evaluation of the methods and techniques of grammar teaching (questions 5, 6,7) *Teachers‟ perception of difficulties in grammar teaching (question 10)

*Teachers‟ suggestions to solve these problems (question 11)

All the questions in the questionnaire were written in English and they were designed to focus on practical things reflecting classroom teachers‟ concerns

The questionnaire was distributed to English teachers at Viet-Ba High school, who teach English as a compulsory subject and have access to the new English Textbook Tiếng Anh 12 To ensure that all teachers fully understand the questions in the questionnaire, the researcher was with them to explain anything they feel confused before questionnaire was distributed In the end, findings gathered from the respondents were organized into major categories, analyzed statistically and descriptively

2.2.4.2 Classroom observation

Along with survey questionnaire, observation was conducted not only to access the current situation of English grammar teaching to 12th form students at Viet- Ba High school but also to test the validity of the gained information about teachers‟ attitude and awareness of grammar teaching in general as well as of the challenges in teaching English grammar that the teachers they had to face up with and their solutions to these problems In other words, classroom observation was importantly given to the purpose of this study because it helped to show the researcher how English grammar was being taught and also to test what challenges facing teachers when they taught English grammar for 12th grade students According to Waxman (2003, p 1), “Systematic classroom observation is a quantitative method of measuring classroom behaviors from direct observations that specify both the events and behaviors that are to be observed and how they are to be recorded”

The work of observation was carried out in two “Language focus” periods in two classes 12A1 and 12A6 at Viet-Ba High school The teachers conducting these lessons were identified to

be of different teaching experience Furthermore, students in these classes were claimed to be in different levels of English as well as to have different aims in learning English

The researcher acted as a non-participant observer to observe the activities during the lessons focusing on the teachers‟ activities Especially, from this observation the researcher could find out the problems the teachers faced during the lessons as well as their solutions to them In the end, the data from this work was then transcribed and analyzed to assess the difficulties the teachers faced while teaching grammar

2.2.4.3 The interviews

Besides survey questionnaire and classroom observation, an interview was carried out As Powney and Watts (1984, p 2) say, an interview is simply "a conversation between two or more people where one or more of the participants takes the responsibility for reporting the substance of what is said"

According to Kvale (1996, p 1), “The qualitative research interview seeks to describe and the meanings of central themes in the life world of the subjects The main task in interviewing is

to understand the meaning of what the interviewees say”

The interview was conducted with the aim of achieving in depth data, clarifying the teachers‟ attitude towards grammar teaching, their awareness of the importance of grammar teaching as well as of their techniques applied to grammar teaching More importantly, the questions in the interview also seek information about the difficulties the teachers encountered while teaching grammar and attain more interesting ideas and suggestions to solve those problems

The researcher used “semi-structure” interview, in which a list of questions was closely followed but still, the researcher facilitated chances to obtain a variety of responses from the interviewees” (Verma & Mallick, 1999, p 124)

Two teachers were invited to take part in the interview Each of them was asked 9 interview questions (see appendix 2) The reason for this choice is that these teachers, who were identified

to be of different teaching experience, could supply to the researcher different attitude and awareness of teachers at Viet-Ba High school to grammar teaching The main criterion for selection was accessible because these interviewees with different teaching experience could provide different informative data which was manageable enough for the researcher to analyze The content of the interview questions and answers can be seen in appendix 2 and 3

2.2.4.4 Procedure

The study was carried out on the following steps:

First, the survey questionnaire was delivered to the participants who taught English to the

12th form students To ensure that the respondents to the survey questionnaire could provide answers with truthfulness and accuracy, the researcher explained what they were not clear before delivery Furthermore, the participants could finish their answers at home so that they would have enough time, freedom and consideration to give their thoughts, opinions, etc Then the responses were collected to the researcher

Next, classroom observation was carried out to clarify the validity of the gained information about teachers‟ attitude and awareness of grammar teaching in general as well as of the challenges they encountered while teaching grammar and their solutions to them The observation was conducted in two “Language focus” periods in two different classes by two teachers chosen from the teachers who teach English to 12th form students The teachers invited to conduct the lessons were different from teaching experience The researcher acted as a non-participant observer and made some notes of the classroom procedures

After the survey questionnaire and classroom observation, the last instrument- the interview was employed Two teachers were invited to participate in the interview These teachers were asked some interview questions with the purpose of achieving in depth data, clarifying teachers‟ answers in the questionnaire survey as well as their interesting ideas and suggestions The interview was carried out at different time during a week

The data collected from the different sources above were categorized into:

 Teachers‟ attitude to English grammar teaching

 Teachers‟ awareness and evaluation of English grammar teaching

 Teachers‟ perception of problems in English grammar teaching and their some suggestions to solve them

Finally, findings from the three sources of data were then analyzed statistically and descriptively The form of charts was used to present the quantitative data and qualitative data from open-ended questionnaire items, classroom observation, and the interview were presented

by quoting relevant responses from the participants

In short, this part has presented the research questions of the study, the subjects of the study, and the instruments used to collect the data The researcher hopes to get valid and reliable data from the employment of the three different instruments mentioned above The analysis of the data and discussion will be presented in the next part

2.3 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This part explores a detailed description of data analysis and a discussion of the findings of the study

The comments and perceptions made by the teachers of English at Viet-Ba High school in responses to the questionnaire as well as information gained through classroom observation and interviews were consolidated, analyzed and categorized by the researcher

2.3.1 Result and discussion from the questionnaire

2.3.1.1 Teachers’ awareness of the importance of grammar teaching

2.3.1.1.1 Teachers’ attitude toward grammar teaching

16.7

33.3 50

Interesting Boring Difficult

Chart 1: Teachers’ attitude toward grammar teaching

The figure showed that none of the teachers at Viet-Ba High school found teaching grammar normal A half of them (50%) felt difficult in teaching grammar That‟s the reason why most of them spent more time on preparation for teaching grammar in “Language focus” period than for teaching other skills The number of the teachers interested in teaching grammar was only one (16.7%) while two out of six teachers were bored with teaching grammar In fact,

teaching grammar here was really a challenge to every teacher

2.3.1.1.2 Teachers’ awareness of the role of grammar teaching

Chart 2: Teachers’ awareness of the role of grammar teaching

Looking at the chart, we can see that most of the teachers were aware that teaching grammar played the most important part in teaching English (66 7%) because they thought that without

grammatical knowledge, students could not comprehensively acquire the language and do the English tests well Furthermore, grammar teaching itself had great influences on other skill As Rutherford and Smith (1988) report that “Grammar teaching can be used as “linguistic map” with road signs to help students as they explore the “topography” of the new language” 33.3% of the

teachers confided that teaching grammar was as important as teaching other skills

2.3.1.2 Teachers’ evaluation of methods and techniques of grammar teaching

2.3.1.2.1 Techniques used to teach a new grammar item:

2 (33.3%)

3 Illustrating grammar rules or sentence structures

through examples

4 (66.7%)

2 (33.3%)

4 Explaining only grammar points students ask you to

do

1 (16.7%)

5 (83.3%)

5 Correcting students’ grammar errors frequently 4

(66.7%)

2 (33.3%)

Table 1: Techniques used to teach a new grammar item

These five techniques could be used by the teachers at Viet-Ba High school to teach a grammar item

The results from the interview as well as the classroom observation showed that the first

technique: Presenting and explaining grammar rules in detail, was still in use by some teachers

(33.3%) They used this technique with the aim of making their students understand well the grammatical rules to achieve their goal of learning As the first interviewed teacher said: “I often explain grammar points in the classroom to make sure my students understand the meaning of the text or sentences” In the second observation, the grammar presentation was begun by the teacher‟s explanation of grammar rules Then the teacher asked students to do exercises in the textbook Through the observation, it is clearly seen that this is the way of teaching grammar with grammar-translation method I could see no any chance for students to practice or improve their communicative competence