6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements Declaration Abstract Table of contents Part : INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims and scopes of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Design of the study Part 2: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 An overview of methodology in teaching English 1.1.1 Importance of grammar in language teaching 1.1.2 Pedagogical grammar 1.1.2.1 What are pedagogical grammars ? 1.1.2.2 Aims of teaching grammar 1.1.2.3 How can pedagogical grammars be used in the classroom? 1.1.3 Methodology of teaching English grammar 1.1.3.1 Definition of methodology 1.1.3.2 Two main approaches to teaching English grammar 1.2 Methods and techniques in teaching English grammar 1.2.1 Listening and responding 1.2.2 Telling stories 1.2.3 Role playing 1.2.4 Group work 1.3 An overview of errors 1.4 Summary 11 Chapter : DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS 2.1 Description of the setting 11 11 2.1.1 Description of the school 11 2.1.2 Description of the program 11 2.1.3 Description of the course 11 2.2 Methodology and data collection 12 2.2.1 Participants 13 2.2.2 Methods 13 2.2.3 Procedures 13 Chapter : RESULTS 13 3.1 Presentation and analysis of the data 13 3.2 Discussion 24 3.2.1 Common errors in the use of English prepositions of place 24 3.2.2 Reasons for making errors 27 3.3 Teachers’ and students’ difficulties 28 3.3.1 Teachers’ difficulties 28 3.3.2 Students’ difficulties 29 Chapter : PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS 4.1 Techniques used in teaching English prepositions of place 30 30 4.1.1 Listening and responding 30 4.1.2 Using the classroom 31 4.1.3 Using text- completion exercises 32 4.2 Recommendations 32 4.2.1 Suggestions for learning English prepositions of place 32 4.2.2 Suggestions for teaching English prepositions of place 33 Part : CONCLUSION 34 Summary of the study 34 Recommendations for further research 35 REFERENCES APPENDIX I - IX PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale It is clear that English is an international language It has also become one of the main subjects at school in Vietnam Therefore, teaching English in general and English prepositions of place in particular is so important Techniques are always mentioned in the process of teaching and learning English Each aspect of language has its own techniques and there are individual techniques in teaching grammar Applying the techniques in teaching different fields of grammar is different For example, techniques in teaching tenses are quite different from the ones in teaching quantifiers Thus, the writer would like to only focus on techniques in teaching English prepositions of place in this study Moreover, “Common errors in the use of English prepositions of place” is an issue which has made many researchers interested in Although there are many studies on this topic, it has been left open and has remained high practicality Learners have still difficulties in accessing the prepositions and made errors when using them Because of the above reasons, this topic was chosen The contents of the study were not based on the professors’ suggestions but also selected and studied further Aims and Scopes of the study This study is aimed at: - Finding common errors made by non – major students at Hai phong foreign language center when using English prepositions of place - Giving suggestions for teaching and learning English prepositions of place effectively Generally, this study aims to help teachers improve their methods in teaching English prepositions of place and students understand more deeply and avoid mistakes when using them In the frame of the thesis, this study only focuses on common errors in the use of some prepositions of the place and pairs of prepositions which learners often make confused when using them such as: at, on, in, between, under – below, over – above, after – behind 1.3 Research questions: The research is carried out to find out the following research questions: - What are the common errors in the use of English prepositions of place made by students at Hai phong foreign language center? - What are the difficulties that teachers and students at Hai phong foreign language center have to face d learning English prepositions of place, some suggestions? - How to teach English prepositions of place effectively? 1.4 Design of the study This study consists of parts with chapters, references and appendix Part 1, INTRODUCTION with rationale, aims, scope of the study, method and design of the study Part 2, DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW includes an overview of methodology in teaching English, methods and techniques in teaching English grammar and an overview of errors Chapter 2: DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS, consists of description of the setting, methodology and data collection, methods and procedures Chapter 3: RESULTS of the data Chapter 4: PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS Part 3: CONCLUSION The references and Appendix put an end to the study 10 Part 2: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 An overview of methodology in teaching English grammar 1.1.1 Importance of grammar in language teaching Grammar plays an important role in teaching and learning any languages But, before its role is addressed, the nature of grammar is dealt with Linguists define grammar as a set of components: Phonetics (the production and perception of sounds), Phonology (how sounds are combined), Morphology (the study of form, how elements are combined to create words), Syntax (how words are strung together into sentences ), and Semantics or meaning Because all the languages are characterized by these components, by definition, they not exist without grammar However, grammar has not always been defined in these terms Originally, the term grammar, referred to the art of writing, as compared to rhetoric, the art of speaking As need today by many teachers and learners, grammar is understood to be a set of rules that govern language, primarily its morphology and syntax In detail, grammar may be defined as the way a language manipulates and combines words in order to form longer units of meaning It is an active system built up by the mind for dealing with all the sentences that it hears To linguists, grammar is also the mental system whish relates sounds and meaning in the mind, it is the vital component in the human mind that allows us to use language for any purpose that we like It is not just a static and prescriptive study but the core of what allows human beings to be human beings Hence the modern interpretation of grammar rejects the earlier notions of prescriptive grammar that told people what to say, of traditional grammar that analyzed parts of speech, and of structural grammar that look at substitutions of items within structures and patterns In general, there is no doubt that knowledge of grammatical rules is the essential foe the mastery of a language , you can not use words unless you know how they should be put together After knowing the role of grammar in language teaching, teachers and learners can avoid misunderstanding and get more experience 1.1.2 Pedagogical grammar It can be affirmed that grammar exists to enable learners to mean, and without grammar it is impossible to communicate beyond a very rudimentary level In terms of methodology, the debate has been over the procedures though which learners attain mastery, whether and to 11 what extent they should undertake exercises with a deliberate focus on form, or whether they should pick up the grammar in the process of meaningful interaction Information about the target language which may be used by teachers and students of the language for learning purposes is presented in pedagogical grammars 1.1.2.1 What are pedagogical grammars? Pedagogical grammars are intended to provide those involved in language teaching with information on the grammar of the language for the purposes of teaching and learning, syllabus construction materials development and so on While they may reflect current theories of grammatical description and analysis, pedagogical grammars not necessarily follow particular grammatical theory or school of thought Rutherford (1980) suggests that the development of some pedagogical grammars involves the principled selection of items which reflect pedagogical experience as well as linguistic theory He points out that since the development of communicative approaches to language teaching, the selection of structural elements is often constrained by the prior selection of semantic and functional elements In addition, in a book on teaching grammar, McKay (1987) suggests that there are three different views on what it means to teach grammar The first view is that teaching grammar entails the formal explanation of grammatical rules While learners who receive a great deal of grammatical explanation will end up knowing quite a lot about the language, they will not necessarily be able to put the language to communicate effect The second view is that teaching grammar is basically a matter of providing learners with practice in mastering common grammatical patterns through a process of analogy rather than explanation The third view is that teaching grammar is a matter of giving students the opportunity to use English in a variety of realistic situations The disadvantage of this approach is that learners will not be able to provide explanations of grammatical rules of target language 1.1.2.2 Aims of teaching grammar Aims of teaching grammar should be ensured that students are communicatively efficient with the grammar they have at their level Teachers may not teach them the finer points of style at the intermediated level, but they should make sure that students can use what they know Moreover, teaching grammar provides the means by which students can build up the computational system in their minds 12 Generally, the goal of language learning in the communicative classroom is for learners to acquire the grammar of the second language in its broadest sense, to enable them understand and make meaning, that is, to become proficient users of the second language 1.1.2.3 How can pedagogical grammar be used in the class? Ur (1988) raises the issue of whether or not grammar should be explicitly taught She argues in favor of explicit teaching in the belief that mastering the individual elements of a language be lexical, phonological or grammatical, is a valuable means toward eventual abilit y to communicate in the language She makes a point that learning to something need not necessarily consists of repeated attempts at the target performance Ur advocates a fairly traditional four – stage approach to the teaching of grammar items: Presentation: Making the structure salient through an input text in which the item appears Isolation and Explanation: Ensuring that the students understand the various aspects of the structure under investigation Practice: Getting students to absorb and master the language Test: Getting the learners to demonstrate mastery On the other hand, Frank and Rinvolucri in their book (1987) attempt to provide a range of classroom exercises and activities which, while providing learners with intensive practice a number of basic morph syntactic items, so within a context which stresses communicative rather than linguistic competence, language in action rather than language as sets of symbols to be manipulated an ability rather than knowledge They describe their approach in terms of awareness, suggesting that an awareness activity provides control over the students’ response to the extent that it is not possible to the task without having understood the structure being practiced, but not the content, which is left up to the learners In other words, the learners control what is said while the teachers provide direction on how it is said In conclusion, teachers should master characteristics of pedagogical grammars and apply a variety of methods as well as techniques to help our students learn and acquire grammar 1.1.3 Methodology of teaching English grammar 1.1.3.1 Definition of methodology The more important grammar is, the more necessary methodology in teaching it is Before the methodology in teaching English grammar is studied, its concept is examined In the Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics (p.177), methodology is defined as follows: (1) …… the study of the practices and procedures used in teaching, and the principles and beliefs that underline them 13 Methodology includes: (a) Study of the nature of Language Skills (e.g Reading, writing, speaking, listening ) and the procedures for teaching them (b) Study of the preparation of Lesson Plans, materials, and text books for teaching language skills (c) The evaluation and comparison of language teaching Methods (e.g The Audiolingual method) (2) Such practices, procedures, principles and beliefs themselves One can, for example criticize or praise the methodology of a particular language course (Richards 1985.p.177) In other words, methodology is concerned with the question of how to learn and teach It addresses everybody who aims at the teaching profession in foreign language education at schools or in the field of continuous education 1.1.3.2 Two main approaches to the teaching English methodology In teaching, there are many theoretical approaches that have been developed to promote the students’ success in learning new information Teaching English as a second language, there are two main theoretical approaches for the representation of new English foreign grammatical structures or functions to English foreign language students, inductive approach and deductive approach The more traditional of the two theories is deductive approach while the emerging and modern theory is the inductive approach 1.1.3.2.1 The deductive approach The deductive approach represents a more traditional style of teaching in which the grammatical structures or rules are dictated to the students first Thus, the students learn the rule and apply it only after they have been introduced to the rule In this approach, the teacher is the center of the class is responsible for all of the presentation and explanation of the new material 1.1.3.2.2 The inductive approach The inductive approach represents a more modern style of teaching whether the new grammatical structures or rules are presented to the students in a real language context The students learn the use of the structures through the practice of the language in context, and later realize the rules from the practical examples The teacher would then provide many examples which use students and items from the classroom, famous people, or anything within the normal daily life of the students, to create an understanding of the structure With this approach, the teacher’s role is to provide meaningful contexts to encourage demonstration 14 of the rule, while the students evolve the rules from the examples of its use and continued practice 1.1.3.2.3 Combination of two approaches In both approaches, the students practice and apply the use of the grammatical structure, yet, there are advantages and disadvantages to each in English foreign language classroom The deductive approach can be effective with students of a higher level who already know the basic structures of the language, or with the students who are accustomed to a very traditional style of learning and expect grammatical representations The deductive approach, however, is less suitable for lower level language students, for presenting grammatical structures that are complex in both form and meaning, and for classroom that contains younger learners Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches may help the teachers to vary and organize the English Foreign Language in order to keep classes interesting and motivating for the students 1.2 Methods and techniques in teaching English grammar In the part 1.1, general knowledge of methodology in teaching English grammar has been mentioned Readers start to access pedagogical grammar and main approaches to teaching them through this part However, in order to get high effectiveness in teaching, teachers need to research techniques in detail Therefore, in the part 1.2, methods and techniques used in teaching English grammar will be focused on These techniques are rooted in experiences in the classroom and from books 1.2.1 Listening and responding The techniques of listening and responding seem to be well suited to both presentation and focused practice of grammatical structures According to researchers, most students learn second and third language more effortlessly than adults They appear simply to listen, then, after a while, the new language begins to emerge naturally However, not all students are willing or able to observe a silent period A very good way of achieving the kind of compromise is for the language teachers to speak only the target language in class and out They encourage learners to make a match between structure and meaning while observing a silent period 1.2.2 Telling stories 1.2.2.1 Teacher – generated stories Everyone loves a story, including ESL students Stories used in teaching are to promote communication and expression in the classroom Teachers are also considered good storytellers in foreign language teaching 15 Stories can be used for both eliciting and illustrating grammatical points Telling stories is an useful way to include both main approaches in lesson planning It is also the technique that holds students’ attention best Students can help create stories and impersonate characters in them Stories should last from one to five minutes and the more exaggerated and bizarre they are, the more likely students will remember the teaching points they illustrate 1.2.2.2 Students – generated stories Students are marvelous storytellers as well as excellent listeners One effective procedure is that teachers first have to model a story and then direct students to tell their stories to their partners Students usually find teachers’ story almost as interesting as their own, and modeling the activity seems to break the ice It also gives students an opportunity to hear the grammatical structure in context once more before they produce it In general, story telling is traditional in most culture A story provides a realistic context for presenting grammatical points holds and focuses students’ attention in a way that no other technique can 1.2.3 Role playing One of the familiar dramatic activities is role playing According to Rosenweig (1974) “Role playing is the dramatization of a real – life situation in whish the students assumes roles It presents the students with problems, but in stead of reaching a group consensus in solving it, the students act out their solution”(p.41) Role playing is an excellent technique for communicative practice of structures sensitive to social factors The general procedure he suggests is first to hand out the problem to the students and answer questions Next, introduce and explain the vocabulary and structures necessary for the task, divide students into groups, in which they discuss and practice how they are going to the role play During this step the teachers should allow students to communicate freely and not interrupt for correction However, the teachers should take notes on grammatical, cultural, and phonological errors for subsequent treatment The last step is to assign a writing exercise based on the role play or a related question 1.2.4 Group work The above activities demand that the teachers prepare all the materials in advance and plan pair or group assignments well, so students can perform their task effectively If group work is not well planned, students become confused and demand a great deal of attention simply because they are trying to understand the task The classroom becomes quite chaotic when ten or more groups are demanding clarification or additional directions for a task Therefore, group work is also a technique in teaching grammar While students are working in pairs or groups, the teacher should circulate to verify that the activity is being done as planned and to ... Morphology (the study of form, how elements are combined to create words), Syntax (how words are strung together into sentences ), and Semantics or meaning Because all the languages are characterized