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Nowadays, English is used in a majority of countries in the world, as it is one of the most important languages for international communication. The economic open door policy pursued by the government of Vietnam has increased a demand for studying English. Many people are expected to be competent to communicate verbally with the outside world and to access technology. In correspondence to this trend, in almost of schools, colleges, universities, English is a compulsory subject. Besides the aim of passing their exams and getting some further studies for their future life, all students have a desire to be integrated into the culture, the civilization, and the people of English speaking countries. They expect to have a good knowledge of English to read books and magazines, to see films or to sing English songs, etc. As a result, learning English now is not only an interest but also a practical need for many people. As in other countries, teachers of English in Vietnam are now using Communicative Approach to teach English grammar to learners of all levels. Language learning has moved from the traditional to a more communicative approach. In this current approach, language is considered as a form of social behavior. The objective of language learning is to communicate fluently, appropriately and spontaneously in the cultural context of the target language. Communicative competence, according to Canaled and Swain (1980), is made up of grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence. They hope to provide learners with a means of communication, namely English which is vital for them to be successful in their job and to fulfill their social demands in the time of globalization. At Cam Khe High school, where the author studies, English is a compulsory subject in the curriculum and it is considered as a major subject for the high school examination. It is taught with the purpose that students have some basic knowledge of English in order to communicate and to use it as a key to science and technology. However, there still exist many difficulties facing English language teachers in Vietnam in general and English language teachers at Cam Khe High school in particular in teaching grammar skills to students. The teachers of English at Cam Khe High school find it difficult to teach grammar successfully. In the teaching situations, the students usually keep quiet in lessons. Certainly, there are many reasons for this. If those difficulties are not found out and no solutions can be given, the grammar classes cannot be successful and students will be fed up with learning English if they find it worthless to study the subject. For the above reasons, in this minor thesis, the researcher would like to figure out “a study on students’ difficulties in learning English grammar communicatively in class 10A9 at Cam Khe High school and some suggested solutions” as the title for the thesis in the hope that the researcher can contribute a small part in helping her students and her colleagues to improve their learning and teaching English especially in learning and teaching grammar that they may need for further study, work or leisure.
1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am greatly indebted to so many people for the fulfillment of this study First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude towards my supervisor, Mr Nguyen Thanh Long for his enthusiastic guidance, valuable comments and suggestions on my doing thesis Without these, my thesis would not have been successfully completed I am grateful to all the lecturers who have been teaching the K12 English pedagogy course – Hung Vuong University I would also like to thank teachers at Cam Khe High school for having given me the chance to work with their students and all the students participating in my study for their enthusiastic participation in the classroom observation and completing the survey questionnaire Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to my family, my relatives and my friends for their support and encouragements during the research process ABSTRACT The target of the study is to investigate the difficulties in learning English grammar of the grade 10 students at Cam Khe high school The results show that students have the following difficulties: communicative grammar obstacles related to students’ low level of English proficiency; students’ learning style and using mother tongue problem; teacher’s insufficient communicative competence; teacher’s misconception about CLT and inappropriate method; multi-level classes, current testing system and lack of class time Nguyễn Thị Bích Hồng – K12 English pedagogy On the basis of the findings, some appropriate suggested solutions that can be employed to encounter this problem including: Training and retraining teachers in CLT; teachers' self-improvement of speaking competence; organizing extracurricular activities to enhance students’ confidence and willingness to communicate in English; encouraging students’ participation in class activities; improving students’ English proficiency LIST OF ABBRIVIATIONS CLT AM Communicative language teaching Audio-lingual method CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT ii LIST OF ABBRIVIATIONS iii LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS vii PART A: INTRODUCTION .1 Nguyễn Thị Bích Hồng – K12 English pedagogy Rationale Research purpose .2 Research questions Previous studies .3 4.1 In the world 4.2 In Viet Nam Research procedure Research methods Significance of the study Scope of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .8 1.1 Overview of grammar 1.1.1 Definition of grammar .8 1.1.2 The importance of grammar 10 1.2 An overview on language teaching methods in teaching grammar .12 1.2.1 Deductive Approach 13 1.2.2 Inductive Approach 15 1.3 CLT on teaching grammar 18 1.3.1 Communicative competence 18 1.3.2 Definition of CLT .18 1.3.3 Characteristics of CLT 19 1.3.4 Stages in teaching grammar communicatively 21 1.3.5 CLT techniques 23 1.4 Difficulties in learning English grammar communicatively 27 1.4.1 Difficulties in learning grammar .27 1.4.1.1 Internal Problems 27 1.4.1.2 External Problems 27 Nguyễn Thị Bích Hồng – K12 English pedagogy 1.4.2 Difficulties in learning in CLT 28 1.4.2.1 Difficulties from teachers 28 1.4.2.2 Difficulties from students .29 1.4.3 Difficulties from objective factors 32 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY .34 2.1 Participants 34 2.2 Overview of the English textbook 35 2.3 The data collection instruments 36 2.3.1 Questionnaire for the students 36 2.3.1.1 Cause of choosing questionnaire 36 2.3.1.2 Questionnaire description 36 2.3.2 The classroom observation 37 2.3.2.1 Cause of choosing class observation 37 2.3.2.2 Observation description .37 2.4 Data analysis method 38 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 39 3.1 The results 39 3.1.1 The result from questionnaire 39 3.1.2 The result from the observation 48 3.2 Discussion 49 3.2.1 Difficulties faced by the students in learning grammar and their expectations .49 3.2.2 Teacher’s related factors that cause difficulties in students’ grammar learning .50 3.3 Suggested solutions to enhance the efficiency of learning English grammar for grade 10 students at Cam Khe High school 52 3.3.1 Training and retraining teachers in CLT 52 3.3.2 Teachers' self-improvement of speaking competence 53 Nguyễn Thị Bích Hồng – K12 English pedagogy 3.3.3 Organizing extra- curricular activities to enhance students’ confidence and willingness to communicate in English 53 3.3.4 Encouraging students’ participation in class activities 54 3.3.5 Improving students’ English proficiency 54 3.3.6 Practising and revising 55 PART C: CONCLUSION 56 Main finding 56 Implication 56 Limitations and suggestions for further study 57 APPENDIX 1: STUDENTS’ SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE I APPENDIX 2: OBSERVATION CHECKLIST FORM .V APPENDIX 3: OBSERVATION FORM VI APPENDIX 4: OBSERVATION FORM VIII REFERENCES X LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS list of tables Table 1: Advantages and disadvantages of the deductive approach to teaching Grammar Table 2: Advantages and disadvantages of the inductive approach to teaching Grammar Table 3: Students’ perspective of the importance of learning English grammar communicatively Table 4: The students’ perspective of factors in their English communicative grammar lessons Nguyễn Thị Bích Hồng – K12 English pedagogy Table 5: Students’s viewpoint of factors causing obstacles in English communicative grammar lessons Table 6: Expectation for a better and more effective grammar lesson List of charts Chart 1: Students’ evaluation about learning grammatical structure Chart 2: Students’ viewpoints of level of difficulty in communicative grammar lessons Chart 3: The students’ frequency in expressing their idea with correct grammar structure in communication Nguyễn Thị Bích Hồng – K12 English pedagogy PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale Nowadays, English is used in a majority of countries in the world, as it is one of the most important languages for international communication The economic open- door policy pursued by the government of Vietnam has increased a demand for studying English Many people are expected to be competent to communicate verbally with the outside world and to access technology In correspondence to this trend, in almost of schools, colleges, universities, English is a compulsory subject Besides the aim of passing their exams and getting some further studies for their future life, all students have a desire to be integrated into the culture, the civilization, and the people of English speaking countries They expect to have a good knowledge of English to read books and magazines, to see films or to sing English songs, etc As a result, learning English now is not only an interest but also a practical need for many people As in other countries, teachers of English in Vietnam are now using Communicative Approach to teach English grammar to learners of all levels Language learning has moved from the traditional to a more communicative approach In this current approach, language is considered as a form of social behavior The objective of language learning is to communicate fluently, appropriately and spontaneously in the cultural context of the target language Communicative competence, according to Canaled and Swain (1980), is made up of grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence They hope to provide learners with a means of communication, namely English which is vital for them to be successful in their job and to fulfill their social demands in the time of globalization At Cam Khe High school, where the author studies, English is a Nguyễn Thị Bích Hồng – K12 English pedagogy compulsory subject in the curriculum and it is considered as a major subject for the high school examination It is taught with the purpose that students have some basic knowledge of English in order to communicate and to use it as a key to science and technology However, there still exist many difficulties facing English language teachers in Vietnam in general and English language teachers at Cam Khe High school in particular in teaching grammar skills to students The teachers of English at Cam Khe High school find it difficult to teach grammar successfully In the teaching situations, the students usually keep quiet in lessons Certainly, there are many reasons for this If those difficulties are not found out and no solutions can be given, the grammar classes cannot be successful and students will be fed up with learning English if they find it worthless to study the subject For the above reasons, in this minor thesis, the researcher would like to figure out “a study on students’ difficulties in learning English grammar communicatively in class 10A9 at Cam Khe High school and some suggested solutions” as the title for the thesis in the hope that the researcher can contribute a small part in helping her students and her colleagues to improve their learning and teaching English especially in learning and teaching grammar that they may need for further study, work or leisure Research purpose This study intends to find out difficulties students are facing when learning grammar So, the focus will be: Determining the importance of grammar in English learning Investigating difficulties students are facing when learning grammar communicatively The causes of the difficulties in learning English grammar communicatively Suggesting some possible solutions to those difficulties Nguyễn Thị Bích Hồng – K12 English pedagogy Research questions The research will find the answers for the following questions: What are the difficulties of the grade 10A9 students when they learn English grammar communicatively? What are the solutions to improve their English grammar skill? Previous studies 4.1 In the world The study by Li Pei (2010) is a teaching experiment which aims at testing the impact of context-based approach on teaching unreal conditional sentences for freshmen majoring in English in Adult Education College of Soochow University, China The study was carried out from November 4th, 2008 to January 7th, 2010 The data were collected via the questionnaire, the interview, the pretest and the posttest and the final conclusion was: the use of contextbased approach helped to improve students’ awareness and attitudes towards grammar learning and promoted students’ acquisition of English grammar learning strategies 4.2 In Viet Nam The teaching of grammar has always been a central aspect of foreign language teaching It has been the focus of language teachers and learners for many years Grammar is considered to be an indispensable factor which helps people to use its language to communicate successfully The importance of grammar in general and grammar teaching in particular has been highly appreciated and has been the focus of many studies up to now Now I can give some studies related to my research The first study I want to mention is on the theme “Applying communicative approach to grammar teaching and learning at Tran Phu gifted high school” by the author Pham Thi Mai Anh in October, 2007 The attempts of Nguyễn Thị Bích Hồng – K12 English pedagogy 10 this study are to find out the students’ and teachers’ attitudes as well as their preferences to grammar teaching and learning towards the communicative approach Carrying out the study, the author hopes to find out how to teach and learn grammar according to the communicative approach effectively and successfully Another research that is about grammar named “Adapting materials for teaching grammar in the light of CLT to first year students in electric power college” by Nguyen Thi Thanh in September, 2006 This study was conducted to seek the answers to the questions of what techniques of adapting materials should be used to teach grammar to first year students at EPC in the light of CLT Through what the author has done, she believes the teachers should know how to combine materials of traditional approach like gap-filling, tenses etc, with those of CLT approach In other words, they should know how to balance these materials to suit their students’ needs and interests “An investigation into Vietnamese upper secondary school students’ attitudes towards grammar learning and teaching” was carried out by Nguyen Thi Minh Hue in June, 2004 The aim of this study is to find out what attitudes Vietnamese upper secondary school students hold towards grammar and grammar learning especially with their styles preferences in an attempt to narrow the gap between teaching styles and learning styles as a goal of learnercentreness in language education Through this investigation, the author expects that a blend of both traditional and communicative approaches to grammar could be a good solution to the question of grammar teaching at the Vietnamese upper secondary school In conclusion, how to teach grammar effectively and successfully is always a big question not only to her but also to many other teachers at my school, especially nowadays new textbooks used in all schools in our country focus on not only grammar but also on other skills in the light of CLT Learning grammar, the teachers encounter some certain difficulties in comparison with Nguyễn Thị Bích Hồng – K12 English pedagogy - Give the correct answers - Ask students give Practice example -Ask students to work - Work in groups - Some students in group of fours - Answer the work effectively, Exercise 1: Choose the exercise while others chat right form of the verbs - Learners not in brackets volunteer to give -Calls students go to answers the board and check Production answer key - Exercise2: Work in - Work in groups - When working groups Talk about - present their in groups, what should they to assignment students show reduce water pollution their lack of using passive voice vocabulary - Call on groups to give - When asked to their answers present, they are - Give feedback nervous and pronounce incorrectly - Lack of time to speak APPENDIX 4: OBSERVATION FORM Date : 20/3/2018 School : Cam Khe High school Class : 10A9 Lesson : Unit 14 : The world Cup Language focus : Will and going to steps Warm up Teacher’s activities - Ask students some Students’ activities - work individual Note - Students give questions related to - Answer the corrects answers previous lesson teacher’s questions Presentatio - Show asks students orally -Listen to the n questions about the two teacher confused when structures and then asks - Answer the eliciting the students to answer questions structures and - Then T asks students - Work in groups uses to compare “will” and -Find the - A lot of students “ be going to” to point differences between cannot out the differences in the uses of “be understand the uses of “be going going to” and - Some lack of to” and “will” “will” attention to the - Ask students to work - Give the answers lesson in groups - Take notes - Teacher is little - Ask students to give their answers - Give feedback - Elicit the structure and uses Practice - Ask students to work - Work individually - Some students individually - Give the examples work very hard - Ask students to give - Some students examples of “ be going chat in the class to” and “will” - Some give - Call on some students incorrect answer to give their examples - Ask other students to give feedback - Give the final Production feedback - Ask students to work - Work in pair - Some students in pairs - Do the task not focus on - Exercise: Make a dialogue using two structures the lesson REFERENCES 10 Brindley, G (1986), Some Current Issues in Second Language Teaching Prospect, Vol No April 1986 C J Brumfit and K Johnson (Eds.) (1978) The communicative approach to language teaching Oxford University Press Canale, M and Swain, M (1980), Approaches to Communicative Competence, SEAMEO Regional Language Centre David Nunan (2003) Practical English Language Teaching McGrawHill Education David Nunan (2005) Practical English Language Teaching McGrawHill Education, 2003 Doff, A (1988) Teaching English: A training course for teachers Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Doff, A (2000) Teach English: A training course for teachers (14th ed.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press H G Widdowson (1988) Context, Community, and Authentic Language University of London Harmer Jeremy (1987) Teaching and Learning Grammar Longman 10 Harmer Jeremy (1988) The practice of English language teaching London; New York, N.Y : Longman 11 Harmer, Jeremy (1983) The practice of English language teaching London; New York, N.Y : Longman 12 Hedge (2000) Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom: A guide to current ideas about the theory and practice of English language teaching OUP Oxford, 13 thg 1, 2000 13.Hubbard, P., H Jones, B Thornton, and R Wheeler 1983 A Training Course for TEFL Oxford: Oxford University Press 14 Hue N.T.M ( 2004) An investigation into Vietnamese upper secondary school students’ attitudes towards grammar learning and teaching College of Foreign Languages 11 15 Jack, C.Richard (2006) Communicative Language Teaching Today Cambridge University Press 16 Larsen- Freeman (1986:132) Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching Oxford University Press 17 Larsen-Freeman, D (2003) Teaching Language: From Grammar to Grammaring Boston, MA: Thompson-Heinle 18 Li, D (1998) It’s always more difficult than you plan and imagine: Teachers’ perceived difficulties in introducing the communicative approach in South Korea TESOL Quarterly, 32(4), 677-703 19 Mai Anh P.T, (2007) A study on applying communicative approach to grammar teaching and learning at Tran Phu gifted high school College of Foreign Languages 20 Martin Bygate, Alan Tonkyn, Eddie Williams (1994) Grammar and the Language Teacher Prentice Hall, thg 1, 1994 21 Nunan, David (1989) Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom Cambridge University Press 22 Nunan, David (1992) Research Methods in Language Learning Cambridge University Press 23 Richards, J C., Platt, J., and Platt, H (1992) Dictionary of language teaching & applied linguistics London: Longman 24 Richards, J.C and Rodgers, T (1986), Approaches and methods in Language Teaching: A Description and Analysis, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 25 Savignon, S J (1983), Communicative Competence Theory and Classroom Practice Reading Addison-Wesley Publishing Company 26 Thanh N.T( 2006) Adapting materials for teaching grammar in the light of CLT to first year students in electric power college College of Foreign Languages 27 Thornbury, Scott (1999) How to teach grammar Essex: Pearson Education 12 28 Tumposky, N R (1991) Student Beliefs about Language Learning: A Cross-Cultural Study Carleton Papers in Applied Language Studies, 29 Ur, P (1988) Grammar Practice Activities Cambridge University Press 30 Ur, P (1996) A Course in Language Teaching Cambridge University Press 31 Wilkins, D A (1972) Linguistics in Language Teaching Cambridge: MFT Press ... reasons have inspired her to conduct the study about ? ?A study on students’ difficulties in learning English grammar communicatively in class 1 0A9 at Cam Khe high school and some suggested solutions? ??... some knowledge about grammar and some common difficulties in learning English grammar communicatively Investigative and survey methods: Questionnaires and observation Analysis method: from data... communicatively such as the definition of grammar, CLT in teaching grammar Moreover the factors on learners’ grammar communicatively, difficulties in learning English grammar communicatively are also