MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY NGUYEN VO BICH THUY A STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF TEACHING GRAMMAR IN NGO MAY SECONDARY SCHOOL BASED ON DEDUCTIVE APPROACH VERSUS INDUCTIVE APPROACH Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code: 8140111 Supervisor: Truong Van Dinh, Ph.D BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN NGUYEN VO BICH THUY NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ HIỆU QUẢ CỦA VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHƢƠNG PHÁP DIỄN DỊCH VÀ PHƢƠNG PHÁP QUY NẠP TRONG VIỆC GIẢNG DẠY NGỮ PHÁP TẠI TRƢỜNG THCS NGÔ MÂY Ngành: Lý luận phƣơng pháp dạy học môn tiếng Anh Mã số: 8140111 Ngƣời hƣớng dẫn: TS TRƢƠNG VĂN ĐỊNH i DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP The thesis entitled “A Study of the Effects of Teaching Grammar based on Deductive Approach versus Inductive Approach” is conducted under the supervision of Ph.D Truong Van Dinh, a lecturer working at Quy Nhon University I declare that the information reported in this study is the result of my own work and effort, except where due reference is made The thesis has not been accepted for any degree and is not simultaneously submitted to any candidature for any degree or diploma Binh Dinh, August 2022 Nguyen Vo Bich Thuy ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Without the support, encouragement, and contributions from my Ph.D Truong Van Dinh, colleagues, friends and family, the successful completion of this study work would not have been possible I take this chance to appreciate them for their useful advice and invaluable comments, and time They have always been by my side and helped me enriched my knowledge and made my master thesis graduate journey a memorable chapter in my life First and foremost, I am grateful to my supervisor, Ph.D Truong Van Dinh, for his amazing supervision His knowledge and profession teachingrelated expertise inspired me greatly during my studying at Quy Nhon University, and he opened new horizons for me in every field I profoundly appreciate his accommodating guidelines and suggestions, great patience, and strong management skills in helping me resolve the obstacles whenever I had difficulties in my thesis I am very lucky to have had him support me for my work This study was made achievable by the presence of the enthusiastic students at Ngo May Secondary School in Quy Nhon City, who devoted their time taking part in this study I was also thankful to my colleagues for their fascinating assistance, encouragement and management during this phase I feel fortunate to know all of them Last but not least, I am grateful to all the support that I received from my beloved parents throughout my thesis education iii ABSTRACT The present research seeks to investigate the effectiveness of English grammar teaching to language users in EFL classrooms In Vietnam, English in general and grammar in particular has been taught deductively or inductively depending on students’ needs, interests, attitudes and motivation To be more precise, the study has explored the effectiveness towards inductive and deductive approaches to English grammar teaching held by 135 students in Ngo May Secondary School The instruments for data collection to serve the aim of the study are a survey questionnaire, a proficiency test and an achievement test Moreover, the objective of this research is to get empirical data of the differences between students’ scores on grammar tests who were taught inductively and deductively The research method used in this research was a quantitative method using quasi-experimental design The data was collected through pre-test and post-test After a careful long time of collecting and analyzing the data, it is revealed in the research that the students’ performances in deductive class is better than the inductive one despite the students’ improvement of grammar retention Additionally, through the different instruments such as questionnaires for students, class observation the underlying reasons for the above problems have been revealed Last but not least, the researcher also offers some pedagogical suggestions that emerged from the research findings with the hope to bring about some changes and progresses in English grammar teaching for the sake of effective grammar learning on the students’ learning process iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES ix LIST OF ABBREVIATION x CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aim and Objectives 1.2.1 Aim of the Study 1.2.2 Objectives of the Study 1.3 Research Questions 1.4 Scope of the Study 1.5 Significance of the Study 1.6 Structure of the Thesis CHAPTER THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Importance of Grammar in Teaching Foreign Languages 2.1.1 Definition of Grammar 2.1.2 Types of Grammar 11 2.2 Theories of Language Learning 15 2.2.1 Krashen’s viewpoint regarding the role of grammar 18 2.2.2 Monitor Hypothesis 19 2.2.3 Role of grammar in EFL contexts 20 2.3 Approaches to Grammar Teaching 21 2.3.1 Learning Grammar 21 2.3.2 Two main approaches to Grammar Teaching 21 2.3.3 Previous studies on Deductive versus Inductive Grammar Learning 28 2.3.4 Researches into effectiveness of Inductive and Deductive teaching 33 v 2.4 The knowledge gap in the literature 34 CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 36 3.1 Research Design 36 3.2 Variables 37 3.3 Research Entrance Test 38 3.4 Research Setting and Participants 39 3.4.1 Research Setting 39 3.4.2 Participants 39 3.5 Quasi-experiment 40 3.6 Research Instruments 41 3.6.1 Pre-post test 41 3.6.2 Questionnaire 45 3.7 Procedures of the Study 46 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 49 4.1 Description of Data 49 4.2 Pre-post-tests 49 4.2.1 Pre-test Scores 50 4.2.2 Treatment 58 4.2.3 Post-test Scores 60 4.3 Effective Approach in Teaching Grammar 67 4.4 Results of questionnaire 71 4.4.1 Learning the grammatical rules helps me produce grammatically correct sentences 73 4.4.2 I believe that I can improve my grammatical accuracy through practice of grammatical structures 74 4.4.3 Sometimes I have difficulties in producing language in a natural conversation because I focus largely on correct use of grammar 76 4.4.4 I need to know the structural pattern and its function before I can use it proficiently 77 4.4.5 I expect my teacher to present and explain grammatical points 79 4.4.6 Learning grammatical rules is very useful for me 80 vi 4.4.7 I feel insecure when the teacher does not explain the grammatical rules81 4.5 Conclusion 82 CHAPTER CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 84 5.1 Summary of the Study 84 5.2 Significance of the findings 88 5.3 Teaching implications 89 5.3.1 Implication for EFL teachers 89 5.3.2 Implication for different types of learners 90 5.4 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research 90 5.4.1 Limitations of Deductive Approach 91 5.4.2 Limitations of Inductive Approach 91 5.4.3 Suggestions for further research 91 REFERENCES 93 APPENDICES vii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 The Advantages and Disadvantages of Deductive Approach (Widodo, 2006) 24 Table 2.2 The Advantages and Disadvantages of Inductive Approach (Widodo, 2006) 26 Table 2.3 The relationship between two types of grammar instruction (Krashen, 1993) 19 Table 3.1 Means of classes in Ngo May Secondary School 38 Table 3.2 Number of participants 40 Table 3.3 The Reliability of the Pre-post Tests 44 Table 3.4 The Reliability of Questionnaire 46 Table 3.5 Conversion of the Actual Score into a Five Scale Score 48 Table 4.1 Group statistics of pre-test results of Experimental and Control Group 51 Table 4.2 Difference of Level between Inductive class and Deductive class before Intervention 53 Table 4.3 Group statistics of pre-test results of Experimental Group 53 Table 4.4 Independent samples T-test of the Inductive and Deductive Classes before the treatment 54 Table 4.5 The percentage of frequency Pre-test score of Deductive class 55 Table 4.6 The percentage of frequency Pre-test score of Inductive class 56 Table 4.7 The percentage of frequency Pre-test score of Control Group 57 Table 4.8 Group statistics of Post-test result of Experimental and Control Group 61 Table 4.9 Group statistics of Post-test result of Experimental Group 62 Table 4.10 Independent samples T-test of the Inductive and Deductive Classes after the treatment 63 Table 4.11 The percentage of frequency Post-test score of Deductive class 64 viii Table 4.12 The percentage of frequency Post-test score of Inductive class 65 Table 4.13 The percentage of frequency Post-test score of Control Group 66 Table 4.14 Descriptive statistics of Post-test in Control Group and Experimental Group 67 Table 4.15 The comparison of mean of Pre-test and Post-test in Control Group and Experimental Group 68 Table 4.16 Descriptive statistics of Post-test in Inductive Class and Deductive Class 69 Table 4.17 The comparison of mean of Pre-test and Post-test in Experimental Group 69 Table 4.18 The reliability statistics of Questionnaire 72 Table 4.19 Learning the grammatical rules helps me produce grammatically correct sentences 74 Table 4.20 I believe that I can improve my grammatical accuracy through practice of grammatical structures 75 Table 4.21 Sometimes I have difficulties in producing language in a natural conversation because I focus largely on correct use of grammar 77 Table 4.22 I need to know the structural pattern and its function before I can use it proficiently 78 Table 4.23 I expect my teacher to present and explain grammatical points 79 Table 4.24 Learning grammatical rules is very useful for me 81 Table 4.25 I feel insecure when the teacher does not explain the grammatical rules 82 AP-17 Post-test AP-18 AP-19 AP-20 APPENDIX F STUDENTS’ PRE-TESTS AND POST-TESTS WORKSHEET (EXPERIMENTAL GROUP) Pre-test Inductive Class AP-21 AP-22 AP-23 Deductive Class AP-24 AP-25 AP-26 Post-test Inductive Class AP-27 AP-28 AP-29 Deductive Class AP-30 AP-31