1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES **0** VÕ THỊ HƯƠNG GIANG A STUDY ON HOW TO APPLY COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING TECHNIQUES IN TEACHING GRAMMAR TO FIRST – YEAR NON MAJOR ENGLISH STUDENTS AT HANOI GENERAL COLLEGE (Nghiên cứu ứng dụng thủ thuật theo đường hướng giao tiếp việc dạy ngữ pháp cho sinh viên năm thứ không chuyên Trường Trung cấp Tổng Hợp Hà Nội) PROGRAM I M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Methodology Code: 60 1410 Hanoi, 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES **0** -VÕ THỊ HƯƠNG GIANG A STUDY ON HOW TO APPLY COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING TECHNIQUES IN TEACHING GRAMMAR TO FIRST – YEAR NON MAJOR ENGLISH STUDENTS AT HANOI GENERAL COLLEGE (Nghiên cứu ứng dụng thủ thuật theo đường hướng giao tiếp việc dạy ngữ pháp cho sinh viên năm thứ không chuyên Trường Trung cấp Tổng Hợp Hà Nội) PROGRAM I M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Methodology Code: 60 1410 Supervisor: M,Ed, Phung Ha Thanh Hanoi, 2010 LIST OF TABLES AND ABBREVIATIONS LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The teachers‟ experience of teaching English Table 2: Time schedule for class observations Table 3: Types of CLT techniques used in classrooms Table 4: The frequency of CLT techniques used in the classroom Table 5: The purposes of CLT techniques used in classroom Table 6: The teachers‟ difficulties when applying CLT techniques in teaching grammar Table 7: Teachers‟ self-assessment of their employment of CLT techniques ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative language teaching VNUH: Vietnam National University, Hanoi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGES i ABSTRACT ii LIST OF TABLES iii PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims and objectives of the study Scope of the study Methods of the study Structure of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature review 1.1 Grammar teaching 1.1.1 Definition of Grammar 1.1.2 The importance of teaching grammar 1.1.3 Different approaches to grammar teaching 1.2 CLT and conceptions related to CLT 1.2.1 Concepts of CLT 1.2.2 Characteristics of CLT 1.2.3 CLT techniques 10 1.3 CLT techniques and teaching grammar 13 1.3.1 The use of CLT techniques in teaching grammar 13 1.3.2 Difficulties in applying CLT techniques in teaching grammar: 14 1.3.2.1 Difficulties from Teachers 15 1.3.2.2 Difficulties from Learners 15 1.3.2.3 Difficulties from Educational system 16 Chapter 2: Methodology 18 2.1 Setting of the study 18 2.2 Design of the study 19 2.2.1 Phase one: The survey 19 2.2.1.1 Sampling 20 2.2.1.2 Data collection 20 2.2.1.3 Data analysis 21 2.2.2 Phase two 21 2.2.2.1 Sampling 21 2.2.2.2 Data collection 21 2.2.2.3 Data analysis 22 Chapter 3: Results and findings of the study 23 3.1 Results of the study 23 3.1.1 Results from the questionnaire 23 3.1.2 Results from the class observation 28 3.2 Findings of the study 29 3.2.1 Difficulties from the teachers 29 3.2.1.1 Teachers‟ misconceptions about CLT 29 3.2.1.2 Deficiency in speaking English 30 3.2.2 Difficulties from the learners 30 3.2.3 Difficulties from the education systems 31 3.2.3.1 Class size 31 3.2.3.2 Poor teaching condition 32 3.2.3.3 The testing system 32 3.3 Recommendations 33 3.3.1 Using Visual aids 33 3.3.2 Group work 35 3.3.3 Role-play 36 3.3.4 Games 37 3.4 Suggestions in teaching a grammar lesson with the application of CLT techniques 37 PART III: CONCLUSION 38 Conclusion 38 Limitations and Suggestions for further study 39 REFERENCES 40 APPENDIX A 42 APPENDIX B 46 10 PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale In recent years, English has become an important language It is not only spoken by native speakers but also the second language and official language in many countries As we can see in Vietnam, teaching and learning English as a foreign language has taken an important part and English has become a compulsory subject in most national curriculum, however, foreign language teaching in general and English language teaching in particular is said to be grammar-focused, and for many teachers of English, teaching English means teaching grammar Along with traditional approaches, teachers of foreign languages in many countries, including Vietnam, have been encouraged to adopt an approach known as communicative language teaching (CLT) This approach advocates the development of communicative competence as a primary goal via the extensive use of the foreign language as a means of communication during classroom sessions Understandably, education authorities and teachers are keen to know why CLT becomes the most favorable approach in foreign teaching language currently and how it motivates both teachers and students as well In Hanoi General College where I have been teaching for seven years, the students‟ levels of English is limited so teaching grammar for all students is the most important task Then, we create meaningful situations for students to practice using new English grammar structures, for example, describing pictures to partners, role-play, listening to a short dialogue or writing a paragraph and speaking with other students in order to help students both develop grammatical competence and communicative competence In my real teaching, I have tried my best to apply communicative language teaching techniques that I think are suitable to my real context However, with the difficulties I often meet in teaching, the application of CLT techniques in teaching in general and teaching grammar in particular is far from satisfactory For the reasons mentioned above, I choose “A study on how to apply Communicative language teaching techniques in teaching grammar to First – Year non major English students at Hanoi General College Reality and recommendations” as the title for the thesis in the hope that I can contribute a small part in helping my students and my colleagues to improve their learning and teaching English especially in learning and teaching grammar that they may need for further study, work or leisure 11 Aims and objectives of the study With the above-presented rationales, the specific aims and objectives of the study are the followings: Firstly, the study carries out an investigation in to the reality of the teachers‟ application of CLT techniques in teaching grammar Secondly, through the investigation the research will find out the difficulties the teachers encounter with their application of CLT techniques in teaching grammar Thirdly, the study will provide practical recommendations for the possibility of CLT techniques in order to narrow the gap between teaching styles and learning styles, thereby increasing the students‟ motivation in grammar learning as well as heightening the effectiveness of English language teaching More specific, this study is to answer the following questions: What are CLT techniques applied in teaching grammar to first-year non- English major students? How are CLT techniques employed in terms of frequency and purposes? What are the difficulties in applying CLT techniques in teaching grammar? To what extent teachers feel satisfied with the use of CLT techniques? What are the suggestions recommended by teachers to applying CLT techniques in teaching grammar? Scope of the study The scope of this thesis is limited to the teaching grammar at elementary level and types of CLT techniques applied in teaching grammar with difficulties Along with these, the frequency and purposes of CLT techniques with satisfaction and recommendation for possible problems are also mentioned With the minor thesis, I limited myself to focus on a group of teachers teaching English for first-year non major students at Hanoi General College 12 Methods of the study This is a survey in nature During the study the research uses the questionnaire and class observation to select information to answer the research questions about different types of CLT techniques applied in teaching grammar, the frequency and purposes of applying these techniques in order to find out the difficulties in applying CLT techniques in teaching grammar in the college selected and recommend solutions for these The methodology will be discussed more detail in the next chapter Structure of the study This paper has three main parts: Part one: Introduction, this part will provide my reasons for choosing the topic, aims of the study, methods and design of the study Part two: Development, this part has three following chapters: Chapter 1: Literature review, dealing with some definitions about the important terms relating to the study as: grammar, the important of grammar teaching, different approaches to grammar teaching, CLT and concepts related to CLT, CLT techniques and teaching grammar, potential difficulties affect teachers and students in allying CLT techniques in grammar lessons Chapter 2: Methodology Firstly, it is an overview of teaching and learning English of the first-year students in Hanoi General College Secondly, the methodology performed in the study is presented The subject and instruments used in the research will be discussed Chapter 3: Results and discussions of the study This part presents the findings of the study and proposes some recommendations for the findings Part three: Conclusion, this part summarizes what are addressed in the study, points out the limitations and provides some suggestions for further study 13 PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW In recent years much emphasis has been put on the teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL) using Communicative Approach This has brought about a lot of changes in the approach to EFL The learner is considered to be an active participant in the process of language learning in the classroom Teachers who are in favor of the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) are expected to use techniques or activities that would promote self-learning, group interaction in authentic situations and peer teaching That is not an easy task for the teacher, especially in the circumstance of most colleges in Vietnam where teaching grammar is the most emphasis Therefore, the use of communicative activities is a technique to make learning English grammar more interesting and meaningful in order to achieve one of the aims of the communicative approach, the grammatical competence The purpose of this chapter is to relate the use of CLT techniques in teaching grammar The first part of this chapter discusses the teaching of grammar Then the second part provides general ideas about CLT and CLT techniques The third part is about the use of CLT techniques in teaching grammar with a review of various difficulties when teachers apply CLT techniques in teaching grammar 1.1 Grammar teaching Traditionally, grammar has been concerned almost exclusively with analysis at the level of the sentence Thus a grammar is a description of the rules that govern how a language‟s sentences are formed The study of grammar consists, accordingly, of looking at the way words are arranged or patterned to make sentence By contrast, recent views of grammar are expanded to cover both texts and words to the extent that texts and words are organized according to rules For the purpose of this study, I will assume grammar to mean grammar at the sentence level; the definitions of grammar are followed by a presentation of different views of grammar and the importance of it in teaching a foreign language 1.1.1 Definition of Grammar There have been many ways of defining grammar – a very common and familiar term in language teaching and learning ... foreign language teaching in general and English language teaching in particular is said to be grammar- focused, and for many teachers of English, teaching English means teaching grammar Along with... teaching grammar in particular is far from satisfactory For the reasons mentioned above, I choose ? ?A study on how to apply Communicative language teaching techniques in teaching grammar to First... CLT techniques in teaching grammar As mentioned above, the rationale for teaching grammar is multifaceted and grammar is acknowledged to be of importance in language study in general and in language