Nghiên cứu này được thực hiện nhằm chỉ ra sự cần thiết khi lồng ghép giảng dạy ngữ pháp trong sử dụng phương pháp giảng dạy thông qua giao tiếp (CLT). Số liệu xây dựng nghiên cứu là số liệu thứ cấp. Trong phần đầu, tác giả trình bày sơ lược về khái niệm của ngữ pháp và CLT, đặc biệt, nhấn mạnh tới vai trò của giảng viên và sinh viên khi lồng ghép ngữ pháp và giao tiếp.
Trang 1Language teaching is concluded to firstly appear
as a profession in the twentieth century (Richards
and Rodgers, 2001) Since then, there has been
a lot of changes and innovation among competing
language teaching ideologies with the common
belief that the latter born method would be better
than the preceded one As a matter of fact, there are
various teaching methods and approaches, among
them, the eight common ones include the
Grammar-Translation method, the Direct method, the
Audio-Lingual method, the Silent way, Suggestopedia,
Community Language Learning, the Total response
method and the Communicative approach (Larsen,
1986) In terms of the current Communicative
approaches, Communicative Language Teaching
(CLT) is one of the frequently researched areas, which
LỒNG GHÉP NGỮ PHÁP
TRONG GIẢNG DẠY NGOẠI NGỮ
SỬ DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP
GIAO TIẾP (CLT): CƠ SỞ LÝ THUYẾT
LÊ THÙY LINH
Đại học Kinh tế Quốc dân
TÓM TẮT
Nghiên cứu này được thực hiện nhằm chỉ ra sự cần thiết khi lồng ghép giảng dạy ngữ pháp trong sử
dụng phương pháp giảng dạy thông qua giao tiếp (CLT) Số liệu xây dựng nghiên cứu là số liệu thứ cấp
Trong phần đầu, tác giả trình bày sơ lược về khái niệm của ngữ pháp và CLT, đặc biệt, nhấn mạnh tới vai
trò của giảng viên và sinh viên khi lồng ghép ngữ pháp và giao tiếp Phần chính của nghiên cứu, làm
rõ hai lập luận về vai trò của ngữ pháp trong việc xây dựng kiến thức nền cho người học, và sự tích hợp
của ngữ pháp trong giao tiếp sẽ giúp phát triển sự thành thạo trong sử dụng ngôn ngữ Tác giả cũng
đưa ra phản biện với ý kiến cho rằng, phương pháp giảng dạy thông qua giao tiếp không nên tập trung
vào các vấn đề liên quan tới ngữ pháp Quan điểm này tiêu biểu cho việc nhận biết chưa toàn diện về
khả năng ngôn ngữ của người học Phần kết luận, nhấn mạnh lại vai trò của sự cần thiết lồng ghép ngữ
pháp và giảng dạy thông qua giao tiếp
Từ khóa: giảng dạy thông qua giao tiếp, ngữ pháp, sử dụng thành thạo ngoại ngữ, tiếp thu ngôn ngữ
thứ hai
is historically explained with the derivation as in the following quotation:
“CLT originated from Britain in the 1970s as a replacement to the earlier structural method, called Situational Language Teaching CLT was partly in response to Chomsky’s criticisms of structural theories
of language and partly based on the theories of British functional linguists as well as American sociolinguists“
(“Communicative language teaching”, 1999)
As stated by Chen Jie (2009), this approach puts an emphasis on the interaction to improve learners’ communication competence In other words, it can
be inferred that CLT focuses on meaning rather than
on forms This leads to the enquiry about the role
of grammar in CLT, whether it lays the foundation
Trang 2and affects CLT process or not To tell the truth,
grammar has always been the controversial problem
in language teaching (Foki, 2006) Additionally, in
his analysis under the title “The role of grammar in
communicative language teaching”, Dr Carl Blyth also
pointed out that language instruction has faced with
continuous arguments regarding the importance
of grammar It might be inferred that because
CLT concentrates on interaction, it only requires
language competence, which means communicative
competence However, language competence is not
only comprised of communicative competence but
also grammatical competence
Through this research, I suggest that teachers
should integrate grammar to their CLT process
In order to support this, I present two arguments
about the importance of grammar in CLT, which, in
particular, are about its function in providing learners
with grammatical background knowledge and its
combination with CLT to develop proficient learners
THE ROLE OF GRAMMAR IN CLT
Definition of Grammar
Numerous studies have attempted to explain what
grammar is In this study, it is my intention to review
some of the most common definitions of grammar
in English to provide readers with the most basic
concepts of grammar in general In my opinion, to
give a precise and comprehensive understanding
of the concept of grammar, it is essential to look
up the word “grammar” in dictionary first and then,
explore the definitions of grammar in other specified
materials
Pearsall and Hanks stated in the Oxford Dictionary
of English (2006) that “Grammar is the whole system
and structure of a language or of languages in general,
usually taken as consisting of syntax and morphology
(including inflections) and sometimes also phonology
and semantics”.
It can be interpreted from the above definition that
grammar covers various smaller branches related to
words and phrases, structures, speech sounds as well
as meaning For an accurate concept of grammar, I
have sought more evidence in previous field works
These are two remarkable results
In her paper released in 2009, Professor Anne Burns divided grammar into three components including traditional grammar, formal grammar and functional grammar In detail, the first mentioned area relates
to word categories and rules of their use; the second one associates with sentence structure, universal grammar and language acquisition competence and the last component deals with descriptive (based on language use), meaning and language’s function in social life Thus, it is obvious that grammar is a big area with both forms and meaning of words and sentences Another working definition given by Chen Jie (2009), describes grammar as a system of language’s rules
He demonstrated that grammar involves diversified subfields of linguistics like syntax, phonetics, morphology and semantics
In short, by studying grammar, we can comprehend the structures as well as rules establishing a language Furthermore, we can also obtain the language system
to apply it in the process of language using which involves both written and spoken forms
For the purpose of providing readers with grounding details relevant to CLT, in this part, I am going to explore the concepts of CLT and the roles of teacher and student in this approach
Concepts of CLT
This study would be an incomplete one without the exploration of CLT’s concepts After consultation
of different materials, I figure out several CLT’s definitions The followings are two of them
First of all, as examined by Chen Jie (2009),
“Communicative language teaching (CLT) is an approach
to the teaching of second and foreign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language It is also referred
as “communicative” approach to the teaching of foreign languages or simply the “Communicative Approach””.
Personally, I think that one of the key words in this concept is “interaction”, which means that CLT brings
to learners opportunities to create conversations, use language to practice and improve their communication skill As a result, this approach seems
to pay much attention to meaning of utterances
Trang 3In addition, as shown in Richards & Rodgers (2001),
there should have distinctions between “strong” and
“weak” versions of CLT Actually, the “weak” version
has become more or less standard practice for
about ten years, highlights the necessity to provide
learners with chances to make use of their English
for communicative purposes… The “strong” version,
by contrast, strongly claims that language is attained
through communication, so that it is not merely an
enquiry of activating and existing but inert knowledge
of the language, of stimulating the development
of the language system itself If the “weak” version
could be investigated as “learning to use” English, the
second one underlines “using language to learn it”
(Howatt, 1984)
To sum up, although the above definitions are worded
in different ways, they all draw learners’ attention
on the dominance of language using and learning
As a point of fact, these concepts state that by
applying language into social interaction to enhance
communication skill, CLT assists students in acquiring
their target languages
Teacher and learner roles in CLT
While employing CLT approach, followings might
be the roles of a teacher Firstly, he is the facilitator
because he gives instruction and orientation to the
students Additionally, he is the manager of his class’s
activities In this role, one of his major responsibilities
is to create situations to promote communication and
interaction During the activities, a teacher becomes
an advisor who gives answers to learners’ questions
Especially, teacher can also take part in his designed
tasks to involve in students’ talks as a group member
(Littlewood, 1981, as cited in Larsen, 1986) According
to the other two authors, Breen and Candlin (1980),
besides the above main functions, teacher even acts
as a researcher with much observed experience of
the nature of learning and organizational capacities
(as cited in Richards & Rodgers , 2001) Therefore,
teachers who utilize the communicative language
teaching are assumed to perform the roles of a
facilitator, a manager, a co-communicator, a counselor
and a researcher
What about the job of students in this teaching
method? Apparently, CLT is implemented with the aim
to assist learners in mastering their communication skill Thus, students are expected to concentrate
on interaction with each other under the teacher’s directions Consequently, their role is communicators They should actively engage in negotiating meaning, trying to make themselves understood even though their target language is incomplete (Larsen, 1986) Students learn to communicate by communicating
As a point of fact, it can be summarized from the above findings that in CLT, teacher’s position is less dominant than in the teacher-centered method due to the above illustrations of teacher’s roles This results in a reality that students are supposed to have more responsible managers of their own learning They practice communication skill by raising their voice, acting out, interacting and negotiating with each other to figure out the meanings of their utterances The teacher will support this chain of tasks by facilitating learners, giving them advice and joining activities with students, etc
The necessity to integrate Grammar into CLT
In actual fact, grammar should not be taught separately but integrated into classroom tasks and texts (Musumeci, 1997; Pekoz, 2008; Foki, 2006) Noticeably, Robert Di Donato (1998) reported that students also emphasize on the significance
of grammar in language acquisition Additionally, according to Anne Burns (2009), 84,1% of teachers studied in her research disapproved or strongly disapproved with the statement that grammar should be instructed separately with other skills such as reading and writing All of these facts and figures empower me to seek for an explanation to the importance of grammar in CLT Followings are
my arguments to prove the necessity of exploiting grammar in CLT application process
Grammar establishes grammatical background knowledge for efficient language use
As a matter of fact, grammar facilitates learners of CLT by providing them with grammatical grounding
Larsen (1986) highlighted that “Communicative competence involves being able to use the language appropriate to a given social context To do this, students need knowledge of the linguistic forms, meanings, and functions” The main source with all of the above
Trang 4listed requirements is grammar In a narrow sense,
grammar refers to a specific part of information about
a language, which deals with words and sentences
However, in the broad sense, grammar includes
everything a native speaker understands about his/
her language which capacitates him/her to speak
and perceive it (Lê, Đặng & Trần, 2008) Based on
grammar, learners know parts of speech and their
functions to build up sentences They can work out
synonyms with different aspects of meaning so that
they can choose the accurate word to express their
ideas in conversations Thanks to grammar, students
can also acquire the phonetics of a language which
is linked with sounds system, helping students
to produce utterances in the most perfect way
Remarkably, grammar assists learners with the
formation of phrases, sentences, dialogues which are
grammatically accepted and widely utilized in social
interaction Provided that learners are equipped with
grammar background, they can analyze sentence
structure to interpret its exact meaning In general,
without grammar of a language, learners cannot
develop their communication competence, this can
be explained by the fact that CLT mainly focuses on
meaning, whereas it is possible that meaning can be
found out when sentence structured is examined
Thus, meaning is not enough It should be considered
as the door leading to the excellent CLT, however, the
key to that door is grammar As a result, students
should be presented with the grammar of a language
when they are taught and trained ways to improve
their interaction and negotiation with other people
in daily communication This basis motivates me to
assure that grammar should be integrated to CLT
The CLT with grammar approach enhances proficiency
in language acquisition and usage
Another cause for my view of CLT with grammar is
that when these two elements go along well with
each other, they can make proficient learners, who are
really good at using a language, not only in the area
of forming its structures but also creating meaningful
and speakable ones Upcoming are some illustrations
I consult from the work by Larsen (1986) When we
talk to one another, we have to put into service some
language functions, for instance, making suggestions,
arguing, persuading, promising and so on In fact,
if students are carefully taught these phrases and
sentences in the section of grammar, they can easily understand all of these language functions and know how to apply them Furthermore, when students carry out conversations among people in the real life, they will choose the right phrase to convey their feelings not only based upon their intents and levels
of emotion, but also on whom they are addressing and what their relationship with that person is For example, a worker could be more direct in arguing with his friend than with his manager Clearly, in this case, unless there are both of the two factors of grammar and CLT at the same time, learners will fail to produce fluent talks
Moreover, it is a matter of reality that communication
is a process starting at the target language knowledge step and orienting towards meaning negotiation step In order to do this procedure well, learners must be given lessons on that language’s syntax, phonetics and lexicology, etc which are branches
of grammar After that, through the interaction between speaker and listener, they will finally clarify the meanings of their utterances by asking questions, giving feedbacks, correcting mistakes as well as many other ways arising at the talking time Thus, this illustration shows obviously that grammar leads to meaning which is the core issue of CLT It would be a perfect student when he/she can obtain
a language’s forms and can bring them into light to analyze their meanings
In conclusion of this argument, I stress that grammar does not only facilitate CLT but also cooperates with CLT to create proficient learners Thus, grammar should be delivered continuously in the process of CLT not just at the initial stage so that students can regularly have the chances to reflect structures and forms as well as to revise their talking manners to make meaningful statements Consequently, CLT with grammar means that the two equal key elements, which are grammar and CLT, must be combined in all stages during the communicative language teaching period This combination will help students acquire their target language proficiently in terms of both making forms and creating meanings
Opponents of the grammar-integrated CLT may suppose that only the language competence, which particularly relates to communicative competence,
Trang 5is adequate to bring about the success in CLT
because this approach mostly aims at meaning
According to Chen Jie (2009), these critics hold the
ill-understanding about the concept of language
competence To tell the truth, language competence
does not mean communicative competence only
This writer stated that language competence
involves a good knowledge of grammar and words
In other words, a person with language competence
should know how to speak, listen, read and write
grammatically correct in a language In conversation,
even a person who is rich in vocabulary and actively
takes parts in interaction activities to enhance his
communication skill, may still fail to make his ideas
clarified if they are ungrammatically expressed with
the wrong word order, word choice and sentence
formation Especially, if we do not understand the
deep structure of a statement, we will not be able
to make a guess about the exact meaning of that
sentence, causing failure in conversation Therefore,
Chen Jie (2009, p.10) stated,
“Our purpose in teaching is to improve the students’
communicative competence, that is to say, we should try
to enhance the students’ capability of using language in
communication in a correct way It is crystal-clear that
the improvement if communicative competence should
be based on language practice”
CONCLUSION
In summary, I insist on the opinion that teachers
should integrate grammar to their communicative
language teaching by designing various modules to
naturally supply learners with grammar knowledge
Nonetheless, these enquiries had better be answered
by themselves It means that students help and learn
from each other At the same time, teacher only
suggests some essential notes Finally, the facilitator
brings about activities for his co-communicators
to really practice by making conversation In this
example, students are step by step instructed by
their teacher to acquire the target language issue
naturally as well as efficiently This illustration is
only one suggestion among many other procedures
which can be planned by teachers to make CLT with
grammar lessons It should be highlighted again that
grammar contains not only structures but also many
other related aspects of words, sentences, sounds,
etc Therefore, it can be the basic foundation for language teaching methods in general and CLT, in particular Although CLT seems to put great emphasis
on meaning rather than form, it does not mean that only meaning can establish successful conversation Consequently, teachers should not ignore grammar while using the approach of CLT On the other hand,
we should integrate it to this teaching method due
to its grounding of grammatical knowledge for learners and its combination with CLT to improve perfect students./
References:
1 Blyth, C (1998), The role of grammar in communicative
language teaching Retrieved February 14, 2011 from
<http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/foreignlang/ conf/blyth.html>
2 Burns, A (2009), Grammar and communicative language teaching: why, when and how to teach it?
CAMTESOL conference on English Language Teaching: Selected Papers, 5
3 Communicative language teaching (1999, March
21) Retrieved February 14, 2011 from <http:// www.sil.org/lingualinks/languagelearning/
w a y s t o a p p r o a c h l a n g u a g e l e a r n i n g / CommunicativeLanguageTeaching.htm>
4 Galloway, A (2003, June), Communicative language
teaching: an introduction and sample activities
Retrieved February 14, 2010 from <http://www.cal org/resources/digest/gallow01.html>
5 Howatt, A.P.R (1984), A history of English language
teaching Oxford University Press.
6 Jie, C (2009), The role of grammar in communicative
language teaching Unpublished master dissertation,
University of Wisconsin-Platteville
7 Larsen, D (1986), Techniques and principles in
language teaching Oxford: Oxford University Press
8 Lê Huy Trường, Đặng Đình Thiện & Trần Huy Phương
(2008), A grammar of the English language (Hanoi:
Hanoi University Press
9 Musumeci, D (1997), The role of grammar in
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perspective Retrieved February 14, 2011 from <http://
www.mhhe.com/socscience/foreignlang/conf/
grammar.html>
10 Nagyné, F L (2006), From theoretical to pedagogical
grammar: reinterpreting the role of grammar in
English language teaching Unpublished doctoral
dissertation, Pannon University, Interdisciplinary
Doctorate School
11 Pearsal, J & Hanks, P (2006), Oxford dictionary of
English Oxford: Oxford University Press.
12 Pekoz, B (2008, October), Integrating grammar for
communicative language teaching Vol XIV, No 10
Retrieved from <http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Pekoz-Grammar.html>
13 Richards, J C & Rodgers, T (2001), Approaches
and methods in language teaching (2nd,) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
14 Robert, D D (1998), The role of grammar in
communicative language teaching Retrieved February
14, 2011 from <http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/ foreignlang/conf/didonato.html>
GRAMMAR INTEGRATION INTO COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT):
THEORETICAL BASE
LE THUY LINH Abstract: This research paper is carried out to demonstrate that teachers should integrate Grammar
to the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach The research is conducted with secondary data To begin with, I give an overview of Grammar as well as CLT, including its concept and the roles
of teacher and student in this approach When it comes to the main section in this study, I present two arguments, which are about Grammar’s importance in providing learners with grammatical background knowledge and its cooperation with CLT to develop proficient learners Especially, I also mention the opponents’ idea that CLT focuses on communication skill rather than grammar In order to refute this point of view, I analyze the misunderstanding of language competence In closing, I restate the necessity that grammar should be taught together with CLT
Keywords: communicative language teaching, grammar, language proficiency, language acquisition
Ngày nhận: 19/8/2016 Ngày phản biện: 19/9/2016 Ngày duyệt đăng: 20/9/2016