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A study on how oral practice can change TNH 10th graders' attitudes towards grammar learning
i A study on how oral practice can change TNH 10th graders' attitudes towards grammar learning TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT .iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF GRAPHS vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Significance of the study 1.6 Outline of the study CHAPTER II- LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Attitudes 2.1.1 Definition of attitude 2.1.2 Attitude change 2.2 The role of attitudes in language learning 2.3 Ways that help to change students’ attitudes 2.3.1 Oral grammar practice creating teaching techniques .8 2.3.2 Narrowing the gap between teaching style and learning style 2.4 Grammar teaching from a CLT perspective .10 2.5 The role of oral grammar practice in grammar teaching 12 2.5.1 Definition of oral grammar practice 12 2.5.2 Classification of oral practice activities in teaching and learning grammar .13 2.6 Conclusion .23 CHAPTER III : METHODOLOGY .24 ii 3.1 Study design 24 3.2 Research questions .24 3.3 Subjects of the study .24 3.4 Data collection instruments 25 3.4.1 Questionnaires 25 3.4.2 Interviews .26 3.5 Study procedures 26 3.6 Data analysis 27 CHAPTER IV- DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION .28 4.1.Questionnaires .28 4.1.1 Data analysis of the students’ experiment questionnaires .28 4.1.2 Comparison of students’ attitudes towards grammar learning between preexperiment questionnaire and post- experiment questionnaire 41 4.2 Interviews 42 4.2.1 Pre- treatment interview 42 4.2.2 Post- treatment interview .43 4.3 Discussion 44 4.4 Summary .45 CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION 46 5.1 Summary and conclusion: 46 5.2 Limitations of the study: 46 5.3 Suggestions for further study: .47 REFERENCES I APPENDICES III Appendix 1: Pre - experiment questionnaire on English grammar learning .III Appendix 2: Phiếu điều tra tiền thử nghiệm việc học ngữ pháp tiếng Anh VI Appendix 3: Post - experiment questionnaire on English grammar learning .X Appendix 4: Phiếu điều tra sau thử nghiệm học ngữ pháp tiếng Anh XIII Appendix 5: Pre - experiment interview XVI Appendix 6: Phỏng vấn tiền thử nghiệm XVII Appendix 7: Post - experiment interview XVIII Appendix 8: Phỏng vấn sau thử nghiệm XIX iii DECLARATION I certify that this minor thesis entitled “A study on how oral practice can change TNH 10th graders' attitudes towards grammar learning ” is submited in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts is the results of my own work, except where otherwise acknowledge and that this minor thesis or any part of the same has not been submitted for higher degree to any other University or Institution Hanoi, 3/2009 Signature Nguyen Thi Chuc Ha iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am, first of all, particularly indebted to my supervisor, Ms Nguyen Bach Thao, MA for her invaluable advice, instructions and correction, excellent suggestions and constant encouragement during the research period Without her guidance and help, this work would not have been accomplished Secondly, my sincere thanks also go to all lecturers and staff of the department of Post- Graduate studies for their valuable lessons and precious helps Thanks to their lessons as well as needed helps, I could overcome enormous obstacles when doing the study Besides, I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to my colleagues and my students at Tran Nguyen Han High School who have participated in this research and many others who helped me during my study at Tran Nguyen Han High School Last but not least, I would like to convey my deepest gratitude to my husband, my children, and my parents for their constant support and thorough understanding.Their great encouragement and love have helped me to overcome the difficulties during my study v ABSTRACT As far as I’m concerned, grammar is central to the teaching and learning of languages It is also one of the most difficult aspects of language to teach students perfectly.At Tran Nguyen Han High School where many English teachers prefer traditional approaches in teaching grammar, students seem not to pay attention to their study and show negative attitudes towards learning This study is therefore conducted with the hope to find out whether communicative approach helps students change their attitudes towards grammar learning So as to reach this aim, the study sets out to test the hypothesis that oral grammar practice can change students’ attitudes towards grammar learning The study is applied to 200 students at 10 C1, 10 C2, 10 C3, 10 C4-Tran Nguyen Han High School, Hai Phong City.The data is collected through interviews , questionnaires By doing this, we can compare the changes of students’ attitudes towards grammar learning Findings show that students have positive attitudes towards the use of oral grammar practice in grammar lessons Moreover, students can absorb grammar rules as they hear and use the language through oral communicative activities And they remark that the use of communicative activities in grammar lessons helps them acquire grammar more efficiently This way of teaching grammar may be a good solution for the 10th grade students in particular and other graders in general Based on the findings of the study, some practical recommendations are derived for the application of communicative activitives so that it can help teachers teach grammar better It is also hoped that this study will provide an effective way of teaching grammar and thanks to it, students at Tran Nguyen Han High School will be more interested in learning grammar to gain a better result vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT .iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF GRAPHS vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Significance of the study 1.6 Outline of the study CHAPTER II- LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Attitudes 2.1.1 Definition of attitude 2.1.2 Attitude change 2.2 The role of attitudes in language learning 2.3 Ways that help to change students’ attitudes 2.3.1 Oral grammar practice creating teaching techniques .8 2.3.2 Narrowing the gap between teaching style and learning style 2.4 Grammar teaching from a CLT perspective .10 2.5 The role of oral grammar practice in grammar teaching 12 2.5.1 Definition of oral grammar practice 12 2.5.2 Classification of oral practice activities in teaching and learning grammar .13 2.6 Conclusion .23 CHAPTER III : METHODOLOGY .24 3.1 Study design 24 3.2 Research questions .24 3.3 Subjects of the study .24 vii 3.4 Data collection instruments 25 3.4.1 Questionnaires 25 3.4.2 Interviews .26 3.5 Study procedures 26 3.6 Data analysis 27 CHAPTER IV- DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION .28 4.1.Questionnaires .28 4.1.1 Data analysis of the students’ experiment questionnaires .28 4.1.2 Comparison of students’ attitudes towards grammar learning between preexperiment questionnaire and post- experiment questionnaire 41 4.2 Interviews 42 4.2.1 Pre- treatment interview 42 4.2.2 Post- treatment interview .43 4.3 Discussion 44 4.4 Summary .45 CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION 46 5.1 Summary and conclusion: 46 5.2 Limitations of the study: 46 5.3 Suggestions for further study: .47 REFERENCES I APPENDICES III Appendix 1: Pre - experiment questionnaire on English grammar learning .III Appendix 2: Phiếu điều tra tiền thử nghiệm việc học ngữ pháp tiếng Anh VI Appendix 3: Post - experiment questionnaire on English grammar learning .X Appendix 4: Phiếu điều tra sau thử nghiệm học ngữ pháp tiếng Anh XIII Appendix 5: Pre - experiment interview XVI Appendix 6: Phỏng vấn tiền thử nghiệm XVII Appendix 7: Post - experiment interview XVIII Appendix 8: Phỏng vấn sau thử nghiệm XIX viii LIST OF GRAPHS Graph 1: Students’ opinions of the importance of English grammar for language learning Graph : The reasons why English grammar is important in language learning Graph 3: Students’ opinions of learning English grammar Graph 4: Students’ impression of learning English grammar at school Graph : Factors influence students’ attitudes towards grammar learning Graph : Students’ opinions of English grammar teaching at school Graph : Teaching techniques to present a new English grammar structure Graph : Activities students get involved in class to practise new grammar structures Graph : Students’ expectations Graph 10 : Oral English grammar practice makes English grammar lessons more lively, interesting and stimulate students to learn English Graph 11: Oral grammar activities students got involved in Graph 12 : Ranking oral grammar activities according to students’ preference Graph 13 : Frequency of students’ involvement in oral grammar activities Graph 14 : Students’ preference with regard to oral grammar activities organization Graph 15: Students’ difficulties when doing grammar practice orally Graph 16: Students’ opinions of oral grammar activities Graph 17: The usefulness of oral grammar practice in students’ language learning Graph 18: Students’ preference in oral grammar practice in the coming time Graph 19: Reasons for continuing oral grammar practice in the coming time Graph 20: Reasons for not continuing oral grammar practice in the coming time ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS A : Answer B.C : Before Christ CA : Communicative Approach CLT : Communicative Language Teaching E : English M.A : Master of Art Q : Question Q&A : Questions and Answers TNH : Trần Nguyên Hãn T : Teacher Ss : Students CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale It has widely been accepted in language teaching and learning that grammar structures are very important because they make up the skeleton of a language Without grammar, words hang together with no real meaning or sense So as to be able to use a language to some degree of proficiency, we need to master some grammatical knowledge Grammar is an important and necessary part in students’ learning because it forms the basis for the development of four skills: reading skill, speaking skill, listening skill and writing skill Students, with good grammar mastery, not only produce sentences grammatically but also acquire the ability to apply grammatical knowledge in certain contexts to express their thoughts and feelings as well as to receive feedback By teaching grammar, teachers not only give students the means to express themselves, but also fulfill students’ expectations of what learning a foreign language involves However, how to teach grammar effectively is not very easy and it is of constant concern of high school teachers So far, a great number of studies have been conducted to assist teachers and students in teaching and acquiring English grammar Research and teaching practice have revealed that there’s a close relation between teaching methods and learners’ attitudes towards learning, which in turn have great influence on the learning results This study, therefore, is carried out to investigate how the shift from traditional methods to communicative ones affect the attitudes towards English grammar at Tran Nguyen Han High school When teaching grammar, teachers of English at Tran Nguyen Han High School seem to prefer traditional teaching methods in which grammar rules are taught deductively because of the great influence on teaching habit caused by Haiphong environment and the former objectives of teaching The common practice of some senior teachers is just giving the explanation of new words and grammar structures, asking students to learn by heart and make sentences, reading the structures, texts or conversations aloud, asking students to repeat and in general making students passive Even younger teachers rarely organize communicative activities in their lessons because they are afraid of making noise which may influence the neighbouring classes and also they find it difficult to control the class then That’s why teachers seem to be interested in giving students a lot of written exercises ... the study, the data collection method, instruments as well as process of data collection and data analysis IV Data analysis and discussion This focuses on presenting, analyzing and discussing... 26 3.6 Data analysis 27 CHAPTER IV- DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION .28 4.1.Questionnaires .28 4.1.1 Data analysis of the students’ experiment questionnaires ... 26 3.6 Data analysis 27 CHAPTER IV- DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION .28 4.1.Questionnaires .28 4.1.1 Data analysis of the students’ experiment questionnaires