VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Hanoi university of languages and international studies DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES Nguyễn thị h-ơng lan Teaching grammar TO first-year non-english major students at phuong dong university through meaning-focused tasks (dạy ngữ pháp cho sinh viên năm thứ không chuyên tiếng anh tr-ờng đại học ph-ơng đông thông qua hoạt động trọng vào nghÜa cđa cÊu tróc) Field : English Methodology Code : 601410 Supervisor : Lê Văn Canh, M.A hµ néi - 2009 TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATIONS i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF GRAPHS AND TABLES iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v TABLE OF CONTENT vi PART I: INTRODUCTION I.1 Rationale I.2 Aims of the study I.3 Significance of the study I.4 Scope of the study I.5 The research questions I.6 Method of the study I.7 Design of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Approaches to grammar 1.3 Forms-focused vs Meaning-focused grammar instruction 1.3.1 Definitions of terminologies 1.3.1.1 Forms-focused grammar instruction 1.3.1.2 Meaning-focused grammar instruction 1.3.2 Forms-focused activities 1.3.2.1 Definitions of forms-focused activities 1.3.2.2 Classification of forms-focused activities 1.3.2.2.1 Repetition presentation drills 10 1.3.2.2.2 Substitution drills 11 1.3.2.2.3 Conversions 12 vi 1.3.2.2.4 Sentence modification 14 1.3.2.2.5 Response practice 15 1.3.2.2.6 Translation exercises 17 1.3.3 Meaning-focused activities 17 1.3.3.1 Definitions of meaning-focused activities 17 1.3.3.2 Classification of meaning-focused activities 18 1.3.3.2.1 Interactive activities 18 1.3.3.2.2 Persionalized activities 18 1.3.3.2.3 Games 19 1.4 Previous studies on meaning-focused grammar instruction 20 1.5 Conclusion 21 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 22 2.1 Design and methodology 22 2.1.1 Subjects of the study 22 2.1.2 The instruments 22 2.2 Data Analysis 23 2.2.1 Distribution of summed scores (items 1-12) 24 2.2.2 Questionnaires 25 2.2.2.1 Students’ feelings about grammar learning 25 2.2.2.2 Students’ evaluation about the effects of grammar practice 27 2.2.2.3 Students’ belief in grammar teaching method 29 2.2.2.4 Students’ tension with grammar learning 29 2.2.3 Comparison of students’ attitudes towards grammar learning between pre- 31 questionnaire and post questionnaire (items 1-12) 2.2.4 Comparison of students’ attitudes between pre-questionnaire and post 33 questionnaire (items 13-17) 2.3 Discussion 34 CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS AND LIMITATIONS 36 3.1 Recommendations 36 vii 3.2 Limitations and suggestions for further study 36 PART III: CONCLUSION 38 REFERENCES 40 APPENDICES I Appendix 1: Student questionnaire on grammar leaning I Appendix 2: Sample of grammar lesson plan VI viii LIST OF GRAPHS AND TABLES Table 1: Sample table of distribution of summed scores (items 1-12) Table 2: Sample table of distribution of summed scores (items 13-17) Table 3: Distribution of summed scores: Students (n=31) attitudes Table 4a: The result of students’ feelings about grammar learning in the pre and postquestionnaire Table 4b: Mean scores of students’ feelings about grammar learning Table 5a: The result of students’ evaluation about effects of grammar practice Table 5b: Mean scores of students’ evaluation about effects of grammar practice Table 6: Mean scores of students’ belief in grammar teaching method Table 7: Distribution of summed scores (items 13-17) Table 8: Mean scores of students’ tension to grammar learning Table 9: Comparison of students’ attitudes between pre-questionnaire and post questionnaire (items 1-12) Table 10: Comparison of students’ attitudes between pre-questionnaire and post questionnaire (items13-17) Graph 1: Sampling distribution of sample mean differences (items 1-12) Graph 2: Sampling distribution of sample mean differences (items 13-17) iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS PDU: Phuong Dong University CLT: Communicative Language Teaching CA: Communicative Approach L1: First language L2: Second language SD: Standard deviation Df: Degree of freedom P: Probability value T: Teacher S: Student v PART I: INTRODUCTION I.1 Rationale It is a fact that English has become more and more popular and vital in Vietnam in recent decades There have been more and more people rushing to study English in language centers in the last few years because they hold a belief that English helps them be more exposed to better job opportunities In correspondence with this trend, in almost of schools, colleges and universities, English has become a compulsory subject Phuong Dong University (PDU), where I have been working for five years, is not an exception During my five-year teaching English at this university, I find that most of students are weak at expressing their thoughts in the right way That means what they say are the words put together without grammar rules Their weakness at expressing ideas in the correct way is that teacher often spends more time on explaining new grammar verbly than letting students practice new grammar items orally In other words, the grammar sections in the course book (New Headway Elementary, by Liz and John Soars, third edition) are explained verbly and grammar exercises are done passively by students So that students are not interested in learning grammar and they find grammar rather difficult to master Their weakness at uttering a right sentence does not meet the target of teaching and learning English- fluent communication Much worse, most of them put the words together rather than use the learned grammar structures in speaking In addition, many students are too shy to speak in the class whereas most of the grammar lessons are carried out in traditional methods This fact has urged me to find out the way to help students apply their learned grammar knowledge in getting the meanings across Thus, in this thesis, I intend to investigate the effect of teaching grammar through meaning-focused tasks I.2 Aims of the study As far as we know, the key purpose of learning a language is always to communicate fluently That means, students can communicate Therefore, in order to learn English well, learners first have to master its grammar system The fact at my university is that almost students are better at learning grammar especially doing grammar exercises than using the learned grammatical structures in expressing their thought in both writing and speaking This observation urges the researcher to bring some changes into those students In this study, the researcher wanted to test the hypothesis that applying meaning-focused practice activities in grammar learning may help the students improve their communicative ability I.3 Significance of the study This study is first hoped to be helpful to both teachers and students at Phuong Dong University because its findings will enable not only the teachers but also the students to see whether their ways of teaching and learning English in general and grammar in particular is appropriate and effective The practical meaning of this study is to suggest some ways for combining teaching grammar in form-focused task with meaning-focused tasks to situation students apply English grammar structures into expressing their opinions well when they speak English I.4 Scope of the study This study is set out to test the hypothesis that teaching grammar through meaningfocused activities may help the students to change their attitudes towards grammar learning so that they find grammar learning more interesting and useful The researcher, therefore, did not intend to test the effectiveness of meaning-focused grammar instruction by means of a pre-test – post-test experiment It is the researcher‟s belief that if grammar teaching can bring about positive changes in students‟ attitudes, they will find grammar learning more interesting and useful The outcome of this attitudinal change will be students‟ greater investment in grammar learning I.5 research questions This study intends to address the following two research questions: What are students‟ initial attitudes towards grammar learning? How have students‟ attitudes changed after the application of meaning-focused activities? Especially, the following hypothesis was investigated: Meaning-focused practice activities (mainly oral practice) help to change students‟ attitude towards grammar learning I.6 Method of the study This research aimed at measuring the effect of meaning-focused activities (mainly oral practice) on students‟ attitudinal changes Of many research methods, a survey design was appropriate to the purpose of the study One-Group Pre-questionnaire – Post-questionnaire which is equivalent to One-Group Pretest – Posttest Design was applied to carry out this study This design can be diagrammed as follows: Pre-treatment questionnaire O Treatment Post – treatment questionnaire X O Compare In this diagram, O is dependent variable (attitude) and X is independent variable (meaning-focused activities) X is the treatment administered to the subjects - A group of research subjects is measured on the dependent variable O prior to administration of the treatment condition The independent variable X is then administered, and the dependent variable O is again measured The difference between the pre- and postquestionnaire scores is taken as an index of the effectiveness of the treatment condition - The one-group pre-treatment – post-treatment questionnaire design is weak because it does not ensure the internal validity However, it does provide some information in that it lets you know if a change occurred between pre-treatment and post-treatment questionnaire I.7 Design of the study This study is divided into three parts as follows: Part one, introduction, deals with the reason for the research and the aims, scope and methodology of the study The research questions are also raised in this part Part two, development, consists of three following chapters: - Chapter one gives some theoretical background relating to approaches to grammar, formsfocused vs meaning-focused grammar instruction, forms-focused grammar instruction, meaning-focused grammar instruction, forms-focused activities, meaning-focused activities, and some previous studies on grammar teaching as well - Chapter two provides an analysis on the attitudes of the first-year non- major students at Phuong Dong University towards the use of meaning-focused activities (mainly oral practice) in teaching and learning grammar And the change in students‟ attitudes after applying meaning-focused activities is also mentioned in this chapter - Chapter three focuses on some recommendations about using meaning-focused activities (mainly oral practice) in teaching and learning grammar and some limitations as well Part three, conclusion, addresses the key issues in the study, summarizing some shortcomings revealed during the process of completing this research paper and giving a suggestion for a further research Standard Deviation of Source Population = ± 0.17 Sample Sizes: N pre-questionnaire= 5; N post-questionnaire= Standard Error of Sample Mean Differences = ± 0.11 The variance and standard deviation are small so the data are homogeneous In conclusion, the result shown in two tables (9 and 10) and graphs (1 and 2) lead us to a better look into the application of meaning-focused practice activities in teaching and learning grammar Obviously, students‟ attitudes have changed positively towards grammar learning when they learn grammar through meaning-focused practice activities 2.3 Discussion Based on the result of data collection and analysis in previous section, this discussion focuses on the students‟ initial attitudes and the change of students‟ attitude towards grammar learning Besides, it also exposes the connection between theory and reality to the answer two research questions Question 1: What are students‟ initial attitudes towards grammar learning? Question 2: How have students‟ attitudes changed after the application of meaning-focused practice activities? And the two following answers are: - The first one is students have negative attitudes towards grammar learning with traditional practice exercises - The second one is meaning-focused practice activities have changed positively students‟ attitudes towards grammar learning All the following evidences from major findings of the study support these questions The students‟ negative attitudes towards grammar learning are measured by two subparts of the pre-treatment questionnaire In the first subpart (items 1-12), 71 % of the students‟ score is lower than 36 (the neutral score) (See table 3) and the low average mean score of prequestionnaire is 2.59 and standard deviation is only 0.33 (See table 9) These parameters indicate that the dispersion is small Moreover, in the second subpart (items 13-17), the result in the pre-treatment questionnaire exposes that 89% of the students score higher than the middle point (See table 7) with M=3.68 and SD = 0.11 (See table 10) It is concluded that 34 students show negative attitudes towards grammar learning To wit, students see grammar lessons boring because they get no opportunities to learn from their partner‟s strength in a free manner For this reason, students are often under pressure of fulfilling their work However, meaning-focused practice activities create a positive change in students‟ attitudes towards grammar learning This is evidenced by 87% (See table 3) of the students in the first subpart of the post-questionnaire score over 36 Besides, the average mean score of the post-questionnaire is 4.08 and SD is 0.08 (See table 9) also supported that fact In addition, in the second subpart (items 13-17), the result in the post-treatment questionnaire displays that 55% (See table 7) of the students suffer low tension level in grammar learning with M=2.12 and SD=0.13 (See table 10) In sum, most students in the research are positively receptive to the application of meaning-focused practice activities They like the new learning method and find it useful as it enables them to express their own feeling freely Meaning-focused practice activities are interactive in which they condition the students to share their work with their teacher and peers Thanks to their interactions, students can learn from each other Moreover, meaning-focused practice activities could minimize students‟ tension with grammar learning and motivate them to learn grammar In the light of these findings, I would like to recommend that grammar teachers should try to apply meaning-focused practice activities in grammar teaching, as these activities increase students‟ interests in learning Consequently, students are not fed up with grammar learning and get more benefits from this teaching way 35 CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS AND LIMITATIONS The final part of the study summarizes the above-presented key points Three main features will be concerned with: recommendation, limitations and suggestions for further study The first section deals with recommendations The second section deals with limitation and suggestions for further study 3.1 Recommendations This is the first time, meaning-focused practice activities have been put into practice in the context of PDU Thus, there are some recommendations mentioned: Firstly, findings in this study indicate that when grammar is practiced through meaning-focused activities, it can be interesting to the students This is because meaningfocused activities make grammar practice more meaningful For students of low level, the presentation and practice of grammar can be more useful than explicit explanation of rules and mechanical drills, which make grammar boring and even confusing Teachers teaching English to low-level students should, therefore, treat meaning-focused activities as a way of making grammar more motivating and more interesting to students Secondly, the fact that for complex grammatical points such as conditional sentences and so on, students will find it difficult to get on well with practicing through meaningfocused activites And it is necessary for them to be consolidated after class-learning Therefore, there is a suggestion for the written exercises given after the presentation stage in case students are expected to face difficulty grasping a particular grammatical point Additionally, to help learners with better memory of the structure learnt in class, it is advisable for the teacher to prepare some homework in written form 3.2 Limitations and suggestions for further study Although the study has offered some insightful findings, there are still some limitations Firstly, in terms of methodology, the study is limited in the fact that the data may not fully reflect all students‟ attitudes and reactions to grammar learning and teaching Some respondents might not have spent sufficient time thinking over the questions in the 36 questionnaire before responding They may not give their true thought or true feeling Or they may copy from others Thus, the reliability of this study may be partly reduced A combination of various methods is needed in further studies Secondly, in this study the treatment is only within ten weeks with six lessons taught by the researcher herself Correspondingly, students may have responded to the questionnaire through their impression More longitudinal studies are needed to confirm attitudinal changes In conclusion, though having some limitations, it is hoped that the study may be useful for teachers in teaching grammar for the first-year non-English-major students and teaching English in general at PDU 37 PART III: CONCLUSION This research is presented with the aims to investigate the change in students‟ attitudes towards grammar learning when meaning-focused activities are applied instead of being explained deductively This study is based on experimental method in which the researcher used one-group pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire to find out the attitude change towards grammar learning during a 10-week experiment The research is followed the steps: First, by administering questionnaires including items related components of attitudes towards grammar learning, the researcher could measure students‟ attitudes towards grammar learning The experiment of six units ensures the reality and validity of the research Then, for the data analysis, descriptive and t-test statistics are used to measure and compare students‟ attitudes change after the treatment The tables of distribution of summed scores for pre- and post- questionnaire are used to describe their attitudes And to have a detailed description, the mean score for each item is calculated and discussed, and the standard deviation is also calculated to ensure that the mean score is reliable Next, the results of these data collection instruments from previous chapter are analyzed Finally, the discussions are made and conclusions are reached The results of the experiment have made it possible to come to the following conclusions: Firstly, the findings of the study meet the writer‟s hypothesis that using meaningfocused practice activities has changed students‟ negative attitudes into positive ones towards grammar learning Most of students are more interested and more attentive to learning grammar because they are enjoyed a relaxing and exciting learning environment Moreover, meaning-focused practice activities provide students with many realistic situations in which the language is used meaningfully, naturally, and contextually Although the application of meaning-focused practice activities is not in many lessons (only for units), the results collected from pre- and post-treatment questionnaires illustrate the prominent advantages of the new teaching way Meaning-focused task is a suitable way to apply for the first-year nonEnglish major students in grammar learning 38 Secondly, meaning-focused practice activities, to some extent, guide an interesting and effective way in grammar teaching and learning That is because communicative practice activities in class not only make learning atmosphere more exciting but also provide the students with opportunities to use grammar structures in real contexts rather than simply practice it Furthermore, meaning-focused task seems more effectively and better at helping the students remember and use grammar rules than traditional practice exercises Apart from that, students tend to assume more responsibility for their learning because meaning-focused practice activities enable students have a positive function to perform Thirdly, meaning-focused practice activities can reduce the students‟ tension level of learning Students are eager to learning Therefore, they will make progress with higher results Meaning-focused task, however, is not of preference to every student Some are really hesitant about participating into the task immediately after the presentation stage and thus, may not get much from the practice 39 REFERENCES Beglar, D & Hunt, A 2002, Implementing Task-Based Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Doughty, C & Williams, J (Eds) 1998, Focus on Form in Classroom Second Language Acquisition Cambrigde University Press, New York Ellis, R (1999) Understanding Seccond Language Acquisition, Oxford University Press, NewYork Ellis, R (2002) Methodological options in grammar teaching materials, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publisher Mahwah Harmer, J (1987) Teaching and Learning Grammar Longman Group UK Limited Harmer, J (1991) The practice of English language Teaching NewYork: Longman Hedge, T (2000) Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom Oxford: Oxford University Press Heider, F (1959) The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations New York: Wiley Hofer B.K., (2001) Personal epistemology research: Implications for learning and teaching, Journal of Educational Psychology Review, 13, 353-383 Pavlik, C., Balleisen, E & Blank S.K 1996, Intermediate Grammar – From Form to Meaning and Use, teacher’s book, Oxford University Press, NewYork Richard, J & Renandya, W (eds) Methodology in Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Skehan, P 1996, A Framework for the Implementation of Task – Based Instruction Applied Lingustics, Sunga, N R 2001, An Interview with Tony Hung, Guidelines of SEAMEO Regional Language Center, Vol 23, no 1, p.p 46-48 Thornbury, S 1999, How to teach Grammar, Longman, Edinburgh Ur, P., 1996, A Course in Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 40 I APPENDIX 1: STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE ON GRAMMAR LEARNING The purpose of this research is to investigate the change in students’ attitudes towards grammar learning All information will be confidential You not have to provide your name on this survey Your response is greatly appreciated Please circle the number that best describes the level of your agrement KEY 5= Strongly Agree (SA) 2= Disagree (D) 4=Agree (A) 1= Strongly Disagree (SD) 3= Uncertain (U) Strongly agree Uncertai n Disagree Strongly disagree I like current grammar learning Grammar learning in the classroom is very interesting By participating in grammar practice, I get relaxing and funny opportunities Grammar practice activities are interesting and exciting Current grammar practice is suitable and attractive to me I better and feel confident in grammar learning My grammar knowledge is improved through current grammar learning I know not only grammar structures but also the usage through practice Grammar practice helps me more concentrated on learning 10 Mastering the rules of grammar through current grammar learning guarantee my ability to use English better 11 Doing written exercises is the best way of learning grammar 12 Meaning-focused practice activity is the most effective way of grammar learning 13 Tasks and activities in grammar learning impose on students 14 I am very afraid when teacher ask me to grammar practice in the classroom 15 I have feeling to suffer from pressure when taking part in grammar lessons 16 Grammar learning is the most boring in English 17 I would feel happy if the teachers did not teach grammar Agree II VIETNAMESE VERSIONS OF QUESTIONNAIRE PHIếU ĐIềU TRA Mục đích nghiên cứu điều tra thay đổi thái độ sinh viên việc học ngữ pháp Tất thông tin đ-ợc giữ bí mật Các em không cần phải cho biết tên phiếu điều tra Tôi mong muốn nhận đ-ợc tham gia em Xin em vui lòng cho biÕt H-íng dÉn: Em h·y khoanh trßn sè biĨu thị mức độ đồng tình em với câu sau: Rất đồng ý Không đồng ý Đồng ý Rất không đồng ý Không rõ PHần CÂU HỏI Em thích học ngữ pháp việc làm nhiều tập sách RÊt ®ång ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý Em thấy việc học ngữ pháp lớp thú vị Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: RÊt kh«ng đồng ý Khi tham gia vào hoạt động luyện tập em thấy thoải mái vui Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý Các hoạt động luyện tập ngữ pháp lớp thú vị sôi động Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý Làm tập ngữ pháp d-ới dạng tập viết phù hợp vói khả hấp dẫn em Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý Em cảm thấy tự tin phấn chấn làm nhiều tập ngữ pháp lớp Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý Luyện ngữ pháp qua tâp viết giúp em nắm vững ngữ pháp tiếng Anh Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý Thông qua hoạt tập luyện em vừa nắm đ-ợc cấu trúc ngữ pháp vừa hiểu đ-ợc cách sử dụng cấu trúc III RÊt ®ång ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: RÊt kh«ng đồng ý Thực hành qua tập viết giúp em tập trung vào việc học Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý 10 Học ngữ pháp qua tập viết giúp em sử dụng tiếng Anh tốt Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý 11 Làm tập ngữ pháp d-ới dạng tập viết cách học ngữ pháp tốt Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý 12 Cách học ngữ pháp tốt sử dụng cấu trúc ngữ pháp vào hoạt động nói tiếng Anh Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý 13 Các nhiệm vụ hoạt động luyện tập ngữ pháp luôn áp đặt em Rất ®ång ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý 14 Em sợ giáo viên yêu cầu làm tập viết lớp Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý 15 Em cảm thấy nh- phải chịu áp lực phải học ngữ pháp Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý 16 Ngữ pháp phần chán học tiÕng Anh RÊt ®ång ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: RÊt kh«ng đồng ý 17 Giỏo viờn nên bỏ học ngữ pháp Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: RÊt kh«ng ®ång IV VIETNAMESE VERSIONS OF QUESTIONNAIRE PHIÕU §IỊU TRA Sau học ngữ pháp với việc sử dụng cấu trúc ngữ pháp vào hoạt động nói tiếng Anh em có thái độ nh- Xin em vui lòng trả lời câu hỏi d-ới H-ớng dẫn: Em hÃy khoanh tròn số biểu thị mức độ đồng tình em với câu sau: Rất đồng ý Không đồng ý Đồng ý Không rõ Rất không đồng ý PHần CÂU HỏI Em thích học ngữ pháp víi viƯc lun tËp qua hoạt động giúp em hiểu nghĩa cấu trúc RÊt ®ång ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý Em thấy việc học ngữ pháp lớp thú vị Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý 3.Khi tham gia vào hoạt động luyện tập em thấy thoải mái vui Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: RÊt kh«ng đồng ý Các hoạt động luyện tập ngữ pháp lớp thú vị sôi động Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý Việc luyện tập ngữ pháp qua cỏc tỡnh c th phù hợp vói khả hấp dẫn em RÊt ®ång ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý Em cảm thấy tự tin phấn chấn h¬n tham gia lun tËp thơng qua tình c th ngữ pháp Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý Luyện ngữ pháp qua tỡnh c th giúp em nắm vững ngữ pháp tiếng Anh Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý Thông qua hot ng chỳ trng vo ngha em vừa nắm đ-ợc cấu trúc ngữ pháp vừa hiểu đ-ợc cách sử dơng cÊu tróc ®ã V RÊt ®ång ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý Thực hành qua hoạt động chỳ trng vo ngha giúp em tập trung vào việc học Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý 10 Học ngữ pháp qua cỏc hoạt động trọng vào nghĩa gióp em sư dơng tiếng Anh tốt Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý 11 Làm tập ngữ pháp d-ới dạng tập viết cách học ngữ pháp tốt Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý 12 Cách học ngữ pháp tốt sử dụng cấu trúc ngữ pháp vào hoạt động nói tiếng Anh Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý 13 Các nhiệm vụ hoạt động luyện tập ngữ pháp luôn áp đặt sinh viên Rất ®ång ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý 14 Em sợ giáo viên yêu cầu làm tập luyện viết lớp Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: Rất không đồng ý 15 Em cảm thấy nh- phải chịu áp lực phải học ngữ pháp Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: RÊt kh«ng đồng ý 16 Ngữ pháp phần chán häc tiÕng Anh RÊt ®ång ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: RÊt không đồng ý 17 Giỏo viờn nên bỏ học ngữ pháp Rất đồng ý: _4 _3 _2 _1: RÊt không đồng ý VI APPENDIX 2: A sample of a lesson plan using activities basing on meaning – focused task Unit 5: Where you live? Class : 08TKA5 Date : Time: 45 minus Learning Objective: to be able to use “There + to be” to talk about the exsitance or position of someone or something Teaching Objective: to enable students apply their using “There + to be” exactly Teaching Aids : textbook, blackboard, somecards Teaching procedure Time minus Teacher’s activities Step 1: Whole class introduction Students’ activities - Gain attention: bring into class a box - Pay attention with some things inside and ask the whole class - Answer with different ideas + Who can guess what I have in the box? - Listen to the teacher (Write Ss’ answer on BB) - Present the tasks : “In the lesson today, we are going to learn how to express the position of someone or something” Step 2: Practice 10 minus - Sit in pairs - Form pairs: Two sts sitting nearest in a desk form a pair (16 pairs) Task 1: Describe Suzie’s livingroom - Look at part 3,4, p37 - Give Instruction: “Look at your text - Listen to T’s instructions book page 37 , What’s in the livingroom? In one pair of A and B (you assign roles in your own pair): A makes - Answer T’s questions and B gives the answers” Is it clear? (ask one student) tell me - Understand how to the what your pair has to do? task - Model: (Write on the BB) A Is there a sofa in her livingroom? B Yes, there is A Where is the sofa? B It’s next to the window Now you have minus to this task VII - Go around the class to give help - Perform out their done “5 minus is over, call some pairs to tell - Listen and check their done out their done and check their done” 10 minus - Move to task Task 2: What’s in your picture? - Listen to the teacher - Give instruction: In one pair of A and B (you assign roles in your own pair): A takes the picture on page 148 and B takes the picture on page 150” Make questions and complete your pictures - Understand how to the task - Model: (Write on the BB) A Where’s the lamp? B It’s on the table - Check student clarification: ask one - Answer T’s student to retell what he/ she will - Go around to check and help with pronunciation - Feedback: After minus, some of them - Speak out their done present their done in front of class 10 minus - Comment - Move to task Task 3: Describe your classroom - Give instruction: - Listen to the teacher’s instructions and modeling - Model: (Write on the BB) “In our class, there is a blackboard on the world in front of students ” - Check student understanding 10 minus - Go round to check if all pairs are - Perform out their done in pair working - Feedback: After 10 minus, ask some pairs to perform out their done (volunteers first) - Give comments: - Answer the teacher’s question, individually Step 3: Whole class wrap – up - Conclude the lesson: Revise what the class have done: Practise talking about people’s ability, using the structure VIII “There is + a(an) CN/ UCN There are + CNs” - Answer T’s - Ask “What are there on the teacher’s - Take note of homework table?” - Assign homework: “Write a short paragraph to describe your favorite room in your house” ... chapters: - Chapter one gives some theoretical background relating to approaches to grammar, formsfocused vs meaning- focused grammar instruction, forms -focused grammar instruction, meaning- focused grammar. .. forms -focused activities, meaning- focused activities, and some previous studies on grammar teaching as well - Chapter two provides an analysis on the attitudes of the first- year non- major students. .. teachers in teaching grammar for the first- year non- English- major students and teaching English in general at PDU 37 PART III: CONCLUSION This research is presented with the aims to investigate the