student’s attitudes towards the integrated approach to grammar teaching, a quasi- experimental research on the first year students at hanoi college of economics andtechnology Phương Pháp Tích Hợp Vũ Thị Sâm Trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữ Luận văn ThS. Chuyên ngành: English Teaching Methodology; Mã Số: 60 14 10 Người hướng dẫn: Dr. Duong Thi Nu Năm bảo vệ: 2010 Abstract: As at the center of concern of any EFL teachers, grammar plays a crucial role to English teaching and learning. However, due to some institutional constraints, grammar teaching at the Hanoi College of Economics and Technologies requires more than the application of one method to get the best result. At the college, where most of the teachers prefer traditional approach to teach grammar, students seem not interested in learning and show negative attitudes towards the teaching approach as well as toward their grammar learning. This study is therefore conducted with the hope to find out whether the integration of different teaching approaches helps students change their attitudes towards grammar learning.So as to reach that aim, the author conducted a quasi-experiment in 6 weeks with the hypothesis that the integrated teaching approach can change student’s attitudes towards grammar learning. The data was collected from pre and post treatment questionnaires and structured interviews. Findings showed that there was a positive change in student’s attitudes towards grammar learning after 6 weeks of the experiment. Students vowed that they got better absorption of grammar rules because of more creative and motivating class atmosphere and learning procedure thanks to the flexible application of integrated teaching approach. Based on the findings of the study, some recommendations were derived for the application of the integrated approach to grammar teaching to low level students of English. It is hoped by the author that this small study will provide an effective and interesting way to teach and to learn grammar to teachers and students at her context in particular and in other similar teaching environments in general. Keywords: Tiếng Anh; Phương pháp dạy học; Ngữ pháp Content: iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Rational 2. Aims of the Study 3. Research questions 4. Scope of the Study 5. Method of the Study 6. Organization of the Study 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 PART 2: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1. Learning attitudes 1.1.1 Definitions of learning attitudes 1.1.2 The role of attitudes in language learning 1.2. Theoretical background of grammar teaching 1.2.1 Definitions of grammar and the place of grammar in English language teaching 1.2.2 The brief view of grammar teaching approaches 1.2.3 Stages of a grammar lesson at the current trend of ELT 1.3 Rational for the Integrated Approach 1.3.1. There is no best method 1.3.2. Related studies 1.3.3. Institutional reasons for the integrated approach 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 8 12 13 13 13 14 v 1.3.3.1 Low level students 1.3.3.2 Large-size and mixed level class 1.3.3.3 Student’s specific learning needs 1.3.4 Practical suggestions for the application of integrated approach 1.4 Conclusion to the chapter Chapter II: METHODOLOGY 2.1 The context of the study 2.2 Study design 2.3 Research questions 2.4 The participants 2.5 Data collection instruments 2.5.1 The questionnaires 2.5.2 The interviews 2.6 Data collection procedure 15 15 16 17 18 19 19 20 20 20 21 21 21 Chapter III: ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 3. 1. Data analysis 3.2. Findings and discussions 3.2.1. Teachers’ beliefs and knowledge in teaching pronunciation 3.2.2. Formal curricula description 3.2.3. Teaching pronunciation’s goal and assessment 3.2.4. Approaches and techniques of teaching pronunciation 3.2.5. Teachers’ roles in teaching pronunciation 3.3.6. Teaching and learning materials 23 23 23 23 23 29 32 34 35 PART 3: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 3.1 Summary of major findings 3.2 Implications of the Study for Teaching pronunciation 3.2.1 Improving teacher’s knowledge and opinion of different approaches to TEFL 3.2.2 Enhancing and varying teacher’s roles in teaching 32 32 33 33 34 vi 3.2.3 Not to depreciate the appropriate uses of L1 in the classroom 3.2.4 Some suggestions for the integration of approaches in grammar teaching 3.2.5 Improving Facilities and Teaching/Learning Environment Conclusion to the chapter 4 Limitations of the Study 5 Suggestions for further research 35 36 38 38 39 40 REFERENCES 41 APPENDICES APPENDIX A Pre-treatment questionnaire APPENDIX B Post-treatment questionnaire APPENDIX C Pre-treatment interview and discussion APPENDIX D: Post-treatment interview and discussion APPENDIX E: List of tables I I V VII VIII IX 1 PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rational Teaching and learning grammar has been regarded as crucial to the ability to use a language. In other words, grammar gains a prominence in language teaching, as much as without a good knowledge of grammar, learners’ language development will be severely constrained. By studying grammar learners come to recognize the structure and regularity which is the foundation of language and they gain the tools to talk about the language system (Burns and de Silva Joyce, 1999, p.4-5). This is undeniable, and can be strongly agreed by any ESL teachers, who have paid much attention to teaching grammar in their classroom. It is clear for all that, by teaching grammar, teachers not only offer learners the means to express themselves but also fulfill learners’ expectations of what learning a foreign language involves. However, how to teach grammar effectively is not easy at all. This is the big concern of any language teachers, especially those who teach English to students with practical purposes of communication and work in the future. As a teacher at a newly born college as the Hanoi College of Economics and Technology (hereafter in referred as Hanetco), where English is considered the most dominant and essential subject, the researcher and all of her colleagues at the college have the absolute consensus that grammar is something that needs putting to the top of priority. Unfortunately, we found that there are many constraints, regarding institutional, learner perspectives, and teaching context perspective, that prevent us from teaching English grammar best communicatively. Moreover, as referred from well- known linguists, the author has an idea that many of the approaches to grammar teaching, currently popular or has been waned, all have the advantages and availability and suitability to be utilized in different teaching situations. That is why in this small research, the researcher tries to make a suggestion of an integrated approach to teaching grammar to students at Hanetco. Learning attitudes has recently received considerable attention from both first and second language researchers. Most of the researches on the issue have concluded that learner’s attitude is an integral part of learning, and that should be, therefore, become an essential component of second language learning pedagogy. There are several reasons why research on 2 student’s attitudes towards language learning is important. First, attitudes towards learning are believed to influence behaviors (Kaballa & Crowley: 1985) (Source: Weinberg 1998) such as selecting and reading books, speaking in a foreign language. Second, a relationship between attitudes and achievements has been shown to exist. Schibeci and Riley (1986), (Source: Weinberg 1998) report that there is support for the proposition that attitudes influence achievement, rather than achievement influencing attitudes. The reason is that attitudes influence one’s behaviors, inner mood and therefore learning. So it is clear that there is an interaction between language learning and the environmental components in which students grew up. Both negative and positive attitudes have a strong impact on the success of language learning. The attitudes of an individual depend heavily upon different stimuli. Stern (1983) claims that the affective component contributes at least as much and more often to language learning than the cognitive skills, and this is supported by recent researches. All studies adduce that affective variables have significant influences on language success (Eveyik, 1999; Skehan, 1989; Gardner, 1985; Spolsky, 1989). Discovering student’s attitudes about language will help both teacher and learner in the teaching-learning process. Therefore, we have to consider the crucial role of this affective domain, attitudes. 1.2 Aims of the study The aim of the study was to investigate what the attitudes of the students at Hanetco towards English grammar learning are and how their attitudes would change after some grammar lectures with the integrated approach. Thanks to the findings of the study, the researcher hopes to leave some suggestions for further study in this very interesting topic. 1.3 Research questions Focusing on a case with a target on the first year non-English-major students at Hanetco, this research examined the learning of grammar before and after the experiment of the integration of approaches. To achieve this, three research questions were proposed: (1) What are the reasons for a change in approach to grammar teaching to students at Hanetco? (2) What are students’ expectations towards grammar teaching and learning? (3) What are the students’ attitudes towards the new integrated approach? 3 (4) 1.4. Scope of the Study This study plays the role as a quasi-experimental study. Due to the time limit and financial constraint, the author was unable to carry out the experimental study on a larger scale. Therefore, the researcher intends to describe the student’s attitudes and beliefs towards English learning and teaching in the real context of first-year students at Hanetco. 1.5. Method of the Study A qualitative and quantitative methodology was selected for this quasi-experimental research. This involves the following instruments for data collection: (1) Survey questionnaires (pre-experiment and post-experiment questionnaire) (2) Interviews and discussions The collected data come from 138 first year students, gathering in two groups of banking faculty, interviews and discussions with random students. Then the analysis is carried out in the light of finding out the answers to the research questions and the interviews. 1.6. Organization of the study The study includes three parts: - Part 1, INTRODUCTION, introduces the rational for the research, the aims of the study, the scope, the methods and the organization of the study. This part also provides a brief description of the thesis topic and information related to English grammar teaching and learning at the author’s teaching context, which is background of the study. - Part 2, DEVELOPMENT, consists of three chapters as follows: - Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This part offers the reviews of literature related to studies on learning attitudes, the effect of attitudes on learning result, as well as the brief description of English grammar teaching histories together with the sketchy analysis of some popular approaches to grammar teaching. Those help to provide the rational for the supposed integrated approach. - Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY 4 The actual procedures of the study are presented in this part: study design, subject of the study, data collection instruments as well as data collection analyzing process. - Chapter 3: ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS This part focuses on presenting, analyzing and discussing the results obtained from the study. - Part 3, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS, summarizes some major findings, provides recommendations for a possibly applicable approach to teaching grammar, limitations of the study, and suggestions for further research. 41 REFERENCES 1. Atkinson, D. 1987. The mother tongue in the classroom: A neglected resource? ETL Journal, 41, 4, pp. 241–247. 2. Brown H. Douglas (1994) Principle of Language Learning and Teaching. Prentice Hall. Inc. Englewood Cliffs. New Jersey 07632 3. Burn, A. & de Silva Joyce, H. (1999): Focus on Grammar. Sydney. NCELTR 4. Canale, M. and Swain, M. 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