VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG CHÂM ADAPTING ENGLISH 10 TEXTBOOK TOWARDS PROMOTING LEARNERS’ AUTONOMY AND COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN LEARNING GRAMMAR (ĐIỀU CHỈNH SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH 10 THEO HƯỚNG PHÁT HUY TÍNH TỰ CHỦ VÀ TÍNH GIAO TIẾP TRONG VIỆC HỌC NGỮ PHÁP) M.A Minor Program Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Cohort: M.A 15 HÀ NỘI – 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG CHÂM M.A Minor Program Thesis ADAPTING ENGLISH 10 TEXTBOOK TOWARDS PROMOTING LEARNER’S AUTONOMY AND COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN LEARNING GRAMMAR (Điều chỉnh sách giáo khoa tiếng Anh 10 theo hướng phát huy tính tự chủ tính giao tiếp việc học ngữ pháp) Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Cohort: M.A 15 Supervisor: Cao Thúy Hồng, M.A HÀ NỘI – 2010 LIST OF ABBREVIATION OHP: Over Head Projector CLT: Communicative Language Teaching MOET: Ministry of Education and Training LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Figure 1: Components and domains of autonomy Table 1: Grammar presentation in English 10 textbook Table 2: Students‟ past learning experience Table 3: Students‟ learning styles Chart 1: Students‟ general judgments of grammar part in the new English 10 textbook Chart 2: Students‟ opinion of the necessity to learn grammar Table 4: Students‟ attitude toward learning English Table 5: Students‟ preference to learn grammar Table 6: Teachers‟ comments and suggestion for adaptation Chart 3: Students‟ opinion of their English grammar learning at school Table 7: Suggested activities for developing learner autonomy     TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgement Abstract List of abbreviation List of tables and figures PART ONE: INTRODUCTION Rationale for the study Aims and objectives of the study Scope of the study Method of the study Organization of the study PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: Literature review I.1 Overview of grammar learning and teaching I.1.1 The importance of grammar in second language learning I.1.2 Approaches and methods in teaching grammar I.1.3 Grammar teaching in the CLT approach I.2 Overview of autonomy in language learning I.2.1 The origin of autonomy I.2.2 Definition of autonomy in second language learning I.2.3 The importance of autonomy in second language learning I.2.4 How to become autonomous in second language learning I.3 Overview of learning attitude and learning style I.3.1 Learning attitude I.3.2 Learning style I.4 Overview of textbook adaptation I.3.1 Reasons for adapting textbook I.3.2 Techniques for adapting textbook I.5 Summary Chapter II: The study II.1 Situation analysis II.1.1 The teaching and learning situation at Tu Da high school II.1.2 The teaching and learning methods II.1.3 Constraints in teaching grammar in the CLT approach II.2 The study II.2.1 The participants II.2.2 Instrument for collecting data II.3 The findings and discussion II.3.1 Evaluation of grammar activities in the English 10 textbook II.3.1 Learners‟ past learning experience, learning attitudes and learning strategies analysis II.3.2 Needs for adaptation perceived by the students and teachers II.3.4 Summary of the findings and discussion Chapter III: Application III.1 Aims and objectives of the adapted activities III.2 Principles of textbook adaptation III.2.1 Techniques of adaptation Page i ii iii iv 2 3 4 7 10 13 13 15 16 16 17 18 19 21 21 22 27 32 37 37 III.2.2 Integrating learner autonomy training sessions into the regular curriculum 37 III.2.2.1 Building blocks of learner autonomy 39 III.2.2.2 Stages in the process of developing learner autonomy 39 III.3 The proposed adapted material 40 III.4 Students‟ responses to the adaptation 42 43 Part three: Conclusion Conclusion Limitation of the study Suggestions for further study Appendix Appendix 1: Student survey questionnaire Appendix 2: Student survey questionnaire Appendix 3: Follow up questions Appendix 4: A copy of grammar lesson from English 10 textbook Appendix 5: Sample adapted grammar lesson Reference List of abbreviations, tables and figures 44 44 45 PART ONE: INTRODUCTION Rationale for the study Over the last few decades, together with the rapid development of information technology and economic growth, English as a Foreign Language has become an indispensable subject in high school education program in Vietnam However, the effectiveness of English teaching and learning in different contexts vary to a great extent due to many factors I have decided to put the teaching and learning English at Tu Da High School, where I am now teaching, under serious consideration for some reasons Firstly, my school has had moderate teaching and learning results for many years On average, the final English test scores are approximately below 4.2 on the mark 10 scales There are many factors accounting for this situation One possible reason is limited experience as well as moderate capacity of the five young English teachers there Poor economical condition also urges many students to spend more time working on the field rather than concentrating on studying However, from my point of view, in the context of widespread and rapid development of information technology, the fundamental cause is not the lack of teaching and learning materials but is that students not know how to find appropriate method for learning In other words, the best solution is to make them become autonomous in their learning Secondly, though up to now there have been non-stop debates on the definition of learner autonomy, the fact that this concept is used widely indicating its significance in foreign language learning specifically It is mentioned in textbooks and syllabus of Great Britain, France, Hong Kong, Singapore, for instance In Japan, they have built a system of Autonomous Centers where students can self-access the materials with or without teachers‟ guide In Vietnam, this term of learner autonomy has recently been emphasized In the school year 2008-2009, the Education Minister, Nguyen Thien Nhan, gave out the slogan “Towards a friendly school and autonomous learners” Great improvements in building a friendly school atmosphere can be witnessed nationwide However, how to foster learner autonomy in specific contexts is a difficult question Thirdly, while vocabulary is considered as the flesh, grammar is considered as the skeleton of the body Most formal English tests in Vietnam high schools basically focus on reading skill and checking grammar and vocabulary knowledge As a matter of fact, many high school students consider their success in the grammar test as their goal of success in learning English The need to communicate is therefore underestimated Furthermore, teaching English grammar for grade 10 is the most challenging task for the teachers in my school My students come from several secondary schools nearby After four years learning English in their former schools, some have a considerable knowledge and skills while others hardly knows anything about English For the above reasons, I have decided to focus my research on adapting the new English 10 textbook in the light of improving learning autonomy and communicativeness in learning grammar Aims and objectives of the study The study aims at finding the suitable principles of adapting English 10 textbook‟s to improve students‟ autonomy and communicative competence in learning grammar The researcher defined the major objectives of the study as follows:  To investigate the grammar learning situation in the context of using new textbooks at Tu Da high school  To evaluate the English 10 textbook‟s grammar parts in terms of learner autonomy and communicative opportunity  To search for the suitable adapting techniques in the textbook toward improving learner‟s autonomy and communicative competence in learning grammar Research questions: To what extent the grammar parts in the new English 10 textbook help learners to communicate and to improve their autonomy? What are the principles for adapting the new English 10 textbook toward improving learners’ communicativeness and autonomy? Scope of the study The study mainly focuses on the adaptation of English 10 textbook grammar to suit the teaching and learning context of Tu Da High School only It is based on the current situation, learners‟ needs and teacher‟s opinions regarding sound literature findings Methods of the study In order to successfully fulfill the tasks and achieve the objectives of the study, attention should firstly be paid to students‟ learning styles, learning attitudes, preference towards learning English grammar and teacher‟s and students‟ needs for adapting the textbook Data for the research was collected by means of survey questionnaires, informal interviews and document analysis To identify the areas of adaptation, frequent talks and discussions with my teaching staff were carried out after each unit‟s language focus lesson On such occasion they were asked to give their comments on the suitability of the grammar points in the lesson and to give their suggestion for improvement To clarify the usefulness of the adaptation, informal interviews with the target students as well as the teachers were also conducted Organization of the study The study is divided into three parts which are briefly presented as follows: Part I is the introduction which presents rationale, aims, scope, research method and organization of the study Part II is the development of the study, consisting of the three chapters - Chapter provides the theory of grammar and grammar teaching in the light of Communicative Language Teaching Approach, autonomy in language learning, learning attitude, learning style and textbook adaptation - Chapter presents the methodology of the thesis, focusing on the procedure of adapting the textbook to improve learner communicativeness and learner autonomy as well as constraints and recommendations for carrying out the project Part III is the conclusion which summarizes the overall study and states its limitations and suggestions for further research 10 PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: Literature review This chapter begins with a theoretical overview of grammar in the Communicative Language Teaching Approach Next comes with the overview of autonomy in language teaching including the origin, definition, significance and ways to promote learner autonomy The last part introduces the reasons and techniques of textbook adaptation I.1 Overview of grammar learning and teaching I.1.1 The importance of grammar in second language learning Grammar plays an essential part in learning a foreign language as it gives us a means to understand that language Firstly, grammar reflects the order of the human thoughts and helps us to understand the diversity of human culture As for grammar supporters, the acquisition of the grammatical system of a language remains the most important element in language teaching Secondly, teaching grammar helps students understand how the language works as Harmer (1987) points out: „without some understanding of grammar, students would not be able to anything rather than understand separate items of language for separate functions.‟ (p.2) I.1.2 Approaches to grammar teaching In general, there are two major approaches to teach grammar They are: explicit grammar teaching and implicit grammar teaching In the traditional Grammar Translation Method, grammatical phenomena are assumed to be wholly amenable to explicit presentation and practice, according to which the teacher states directly right at the beginning of the lesson what is learnt then Vice versa, the implicit approach tends to lead the learners to the grammar point through a series of steps – commonly known as „discovery technique‟ Either of the two approaches has both advantages and disadvantages and suits different types of learners Freeman (1986:150) points that 11 “Explicit teaching can speed up the learning of these features / patterns by making them more salient, encouraging students to allocate attention to them by narrowing learners‟ hypothesis space concerning their behavior Explicit knowledge helps students be able to be more accurate in expressing their ideas and thoughts through teacher‟s monitoring what they speak or write If they understand how a grammatical feature functions, they will be more likely to notice it when listening or reading.” On the other hand, students seem to be more motivated and involved in learning when grammar is taught implicitly With the help of the teacher, learners are encouraged to discover a particular grammar rule, to learn about a grammar point themselves Motivated students can easily and quickly discover the rules themselves, and remember much better than the ones who are overwhelmed by grammatical explanations As seen above, either of the two approaches of teaching grammar is beneficial to some extent It is best to make a combination of the two From the viewpoint of psycholinguistic theory, providing learners with explicit instruction along with standard implicit exposure would seem to be a no-lose position Fotos, et al (1991) suggests designing consciousraising tasks in which students work interactively in small groups to solve grammar problems in the target language The role of the teacher is to help them become aware of language rules whenever possible It is more likely to be useful if the students can be guided towards the reformulations of a rule than if it was explained to them I.1.3 Grammar teaching in the light of the communicative approach In a traditional grammar - translation method class, lessons are taught in students‟ mother tongue with little active use of the target language Grammar rules are explained in their mother tongue and students are expected to learn them by heart and make up sentences according to these rules The teacher is always the controller of students‟ activities in the class while the students are only passive listeners and what the teacher tells them to do, which prevents them from producing the target language This means that the lessons are mainly teacher-centered, with teacher‟s detailed explanations and instructions Although the traditional grammar lesson is rather boring, the students seem to produce more correct sentences and score high marks in the final tests However, they have little chance to communicate with each other Normally learners speak with difficulty as they are afraid of ... COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN LEARNING GRAMMAR (Điều chỉnh sách giáo khoa tiếng Anh 10 theo hướng phát huy tính tự chủ tính giao tiếp việc học ngữ pháp) Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14 .10. .. I.1 Overview of grammar learning and teaching I.1.1 The importance of grammar in second language learning I.1.2 Approaches and methods in teaching grammar I.1.3 Grammar teaching in the CLT approach... autonomous in second language learning I.3 Overview of learning attitude and learning style I.3.1 Learning attitude I.3.2 Learning style I.4 Overview of textbook adaptation I.3.1 Reasons for adapting textbook