1

INTRODUCTION
This section introduces some very first parts of the thesis. It is comprised of five
parts: (1) motivation for the study; (2) aims of the study; (3) research methods; (4)
subject and scope of the study; (5) significance of the study; (6) previous related
studies; and (7) organization of the thesis.
1. Motivation for the study
The 21st century is the century of the integration. In addition, the electronic
media explosion and its implications for the processes of globalization highlighted
issues of intercultural communication. Therefore, English has a crucial role to play
in the current age. Indeed, all the work in any company are involved in English,
such as transactions, communicating with foreign partners and customers,
translating contracts, relevant documents for professional works.
English can be divided into two categories: academic English language (used for
scholarships, studying abroad, etc.) and English communication (daily use, works,
etc.). If the academic English language is known as TOEFL and IELTS certificate,
the English communication perhaps is of TOEIC one, which is a crucial
requirement in the global labor market. In recent years, it has become one of the
international English language testing programs, which is very popular all over the
world. More than 70 corporations, companies, domestic and foreign associations in
Vietnam have used it as a mandatory requirement of the standardization and staff
recruitment.
The state has special interest in foreign language teaching and learning. On
September 30th, 2008, Prime Minister signed Decision No. 1400/QĐ-TTg,
approving the Project entitled “Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages in the
National Education System, Period 2008-2020”. Its general goals are “to renovate
thoroughly the tasks of teaching and learning foreign language within national
education system, to implement a new program on teaching and learning foreign
language at every school levels and training degrees, which aims to achieve by the
year 2015 a vivid progress on professional skills, language competency for human

- To find out the problems in the way of learning English grammar for
Toeic exam by Dong Thap University students.
- To suggest some possible solutions for these problems. 3

3. Research methods
To attain the goals of the study in such a better way, many research methods
as analyzing, synthetizing and calculating are employed based on the data of survey
questionnaires, TOEIC course book analysis, and TOEIC test analysis.
4. Subject and scope of the study
The subjects of the study are the students of Toeic 1, 2, 3 classes.
Due to the scope of B.A thesis, time and experience limitations, the research is
limited to the way of learning English grammar for Toeic exam by Dong Thap
University students; and errors on main grammar points the students make, Toeic
syllabus and teaching method will be not discussed in this thesis.
5. Significance of the study
Finding out the non-major English students‟ problems in learning English
grammar for TOEIC exam, the study will suggest some possible solutions that help
them have effective methods in learning and practicing English grammar.
Achieving these good learning and practicing methods, the students can pass the
international exam more easily. Furthermore, there is a strong hope that the study
will be a useful reference supporting not only non-major English students at Dong
Thap University but TOEIC learners, major English ones wanting to know more
about TOEIC exam as well.
6. Previous related studies
Many scholars have been done researches on TOEIC exam. In January 2003, a
team of content and statistical analysis specialists was formed to consider a redesign
of the TOEIC Listening and Reading test as it then existed. The test redesign

1.2.1. Identifying grammar
1.2.1.1. Function and form
1.2.1.2. Contrasts with other languages
1.2.1.3. Exceptions and complication
1.2.2. Strategies for learning grammar
1.2.2.1. Relate knowledge needs to learning goals
1.2.2.2. Apply higher order thinking skills
5

1.2.2.3. Provide plentiful, appropriate language input
1.2.2.4. Use predicting skills
1.2.2.5. Limit expectations for drills
1.3. Description of the TOEIC Test
1.3.1. Listening comprehension section
1.3.2. Reading comprehension section
1.3.3. TOEIC classic test and TOEIC re-designed test
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
2.1. Research questions
2.2. Research participants
2.2.1. The researcher
2.2.2. The subjects
2.3. Research procedure
2.4. Data collection instruments
2.4.1. The questionnaire
2.4.2. TOEIC course book analysis
2.4.3. TOEIC test analysis
2.5. Method of data analysis
2.5.1. Statistics
2.5.2. Comparison and contrast
CHAPTER 3: RESULTS, DICUSSION AND SOLUTIONS

1.4.1. What is grammar?
The term “grammar” originates from the Greek language “grammatike” and
it means “the art of writing”. The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
defines grammar as “(the study and practice of) the rules by which words change
their forms and are combined into sentences”. There are two basic elements in this
definition: the rules of grammar; and the study and practice of the rules. Grammar,
then, is the way in which words change themselves and group together to make
sentences. The grammar of a language is what happens to words when they become
plural or negative, or what word order is used when we make questions or join two
clauses to make one sentence. The term “grammar” is often used by non-linguists
with a very broad meaning. As Jeremy Butterfield (2008) defines it: "Grammar is
often a generic way of referring to any aspect of English that people object to.".
However, linguists use it in a much more specific sense. Speakers of a language
have in their heads a set of rules for using that language and this is grammar. The
term "grammar" can also be used to describe the rules that govern the linguistic
behavior of a group of speakers. In a narrow sense, grammar covers two subjects:
morphology and syntax. To sum up the term “grammar‟‟ is used in a number of
different senses- the grammar of a language may be understood to be a full
8

description of the form and meaning of the sentence of language or else it may
cover only certain, variously delimited, parts of such a description.
1.4.2. The important role of English grammar
Grammar is important because it makes us possible to talk about language.
Grammar names the types of words and word groups that make up sentences not
only in English but in any language. According to Michael Swan and Catherine
Walter (1999), “grammar is not the important thing in the world, but if you make a
lot of mistakes you may be more difficult to understand and some kind of people
may look down on you or not take you seriously”. Obviously, to conduct a simple
conversation, we need a basic grammar, thus it has an important role to play in

1.5.1.2. Contrasts with other languages
The second reason why English grammar is difficult for students lies in the
differences between English and their own language. Adjectives behave differently
in English and Vietnamese in terms of their position. English adjectives usually
come before nouns (blue shoes, small cats). In Vietnamese the situation is reserved
(đôi giày màu xanh, những chú mèo nhỏ).
1.5.1.3. Exceptions and complication
It is full of exceptions to grammar rules. That is the way it appears to many
people anyway. For example, when students think that they have worked out that
the English past tense is formed by adding –ed to a verb, they are somewhat
surprised to come across went, ran and put. In the same way, it seems peculiar that a
noun like sheep doesn‟t change in the plural.
The language learners catch these problems in such inevitable way.
Therefore, after recognizing grammar errors, the learners should follow the step:
classifying them and then seeking their causes.
1.5.2. Strategies for learning grammar
Language learners are often frustrated by the disconnection between
knowing the rules of grammar and applying those rules in listening, speaking,
reading, and writing. This disconnect reflects a separation between declarative
knowledge and procedural knowledge.
Declarative knowledge is knowledge about something. Declarative
knowledge enables a student to describe a rule of grammar and apply it in pattern
practice drills. For example, declarative knowledge is what you have when you read
and understand the instructions for programming the DVD player.
10

Procedural knowledge is knowledge of how to do something. Procedural
knowledge enables a student to apply a rule of grammar in communication.
Procedural knowledge is, for example, what you demonstrate when you program the
DVD player.

Discourse analyst, Douglas Biber, has demonstrated that different
communication types can be characterized by the clusters of linguistic features that
are common to those types. Verb tense and aspect, sentence length and structure,
and larger discourse patterns all may contribute to the distinctive profile of a given
communication type. For example, a history textbook and an article in English both
use past tense verbs almost exclusively. However, the article will use short
sentences and a discourse pattern. The history textbook will use complex sentences
and follow a timeline in its discourse structure. Awareness of these features allows
students to anticipate the forms and structures they will encounter in a given
communication task.
1.5.2.5. Limit expectations for drills
Mechanical drills in which students substitute pronouns for nouns or alternate
the person, number, or tense of verbs can help students memorize irregular forms
and challenging structures. However, students do not develop the ability to use
grammar correctly in oral and written interaction because these drills separate form
from meaning and use. The content of the prompt and the response is set in
advance. The student only has to supply the correct grammatical form, and can do
that without really needing to understand or communicate anything.
Communicative drills encourage students to connect form, meaning, and use
because many correct responses are possible. In communicative drills, students
respond to a prompt using the grammar point under consideration, but providing
their own content. For example, to practice questions and answers in the past tense
in English, teacher and students can ask and answer questions about activities the
previous evening. The drill is communicative because none of the content is set in
advance.

12

asked to choose the letter in the test booklet that corresponds to the most accurate of
the spoken responses.
Short Conversations: Examinees hear a short conversation between two
people, followed by a brief written question and four short, written answers. They

1
The subsidiary of the Educational Testing Service responsible for managing the TOEIC
®
test.
13

are to choose the best answer to each question and mark it on the answer sheet.
Conversations are on general topics.
Short Talks: A short talk is presented on a general topic. Two or more
written questions and response options (four) are provided in the test booklet.
1.6.2. Reading Comprehension
The reading section includes three parts, testing how well an examinee
understands written English. The examinee will read a variety of materials and
respond at his own pace to 100 questions based on the content of the materials
provided. The total time is 75 minutes. To measure the skill, the test uses three
different types of test items or questions. They are: incomplete sentences, error
recognition and reading comprehension specialized as follows:
Incomplete Sentences: Examinees are asked to identify the word or phrase
that best completes a sentence from which a word or phrase has been omitted; no
spoken material is involved.
Error Recognition: Four words or phrases are underlined and lettered in a
sentence. Examinees are instructed to identify the one underlined word or phrase
that should be corrected or rewritten and mark the corresponding letter on the
answer sheet.
Reading Comprehension A brief reading passage is followed by one or

increase in number of questions that follow each talk in part 4 (3 questions instead
of 2-3 in the earlier version) and the use of different English accents, as spoken in
the U.S., Great Britain, Canada and Australia. Also, the new reading section has
three major changes. They are the elimination of part 6 (Error-recognition
questions), the addition of text completion questions (part 6) and the inclusion of
reading sets of questions based on two interrelated passages (part 7).
Of the item types in the classic TOEIC test, the error recognition items were
determined to be the least appropriate from the point of view of current language
proficiency theories. Therefore, this item type was eliminated and replaced with
text-completion questions in part 6. Thus, the percent of questions on grammar in
the re-designed TOEIC test decreases compared with those in the classic TOEIC
one.
Based on the statistics of New Real TOEIC staff
2
, 14-16 questions on
grammar (equal to 7%-8%) will be included in part 5 (Incomplete Sentences).
Nevertheless, the researcher‟ survey (see Table 3.1.3.b The number of grammar‟s

2
The staff of New Longman Real TOEIC Book did a research before publishing it.
15

test items in Part 6 of TOIEC test) of ten new TOEIC tests shows that there will be
3–7 questions on grammar (accounting for 1.5- 3.5%) in part 6 (Text Completion).
Accordingly, in a new TOEIC test, the percent of test items on grammar fluctuates
between 8.5 % (equal to 17 test items) and 11.5% (equal to 23 test items).
Correspondingly, grammar contributes their test items to TOEIC exam.
Table a TOEIC Classic Test (adapted from the TOEIC Examinee Handbook, The
Chauncey Group Ltd. 1996)
Part

Name of each part
Number of
questions
Listening Section (45 minutes)
1
Photographs
10
2
Question-Response
30
3
Short Conversation (10 conversations with 3 questions each)
30
4
Talks (10 talks with 3 questions each)
30
Reading Section (75 minutes)
5
Incomplete Sentences
40
16

6
Text Completion
12
7
Reading Comprehension
 Single passages
(7-10 reading texts with 2-5 questions each)
 Double passages

17

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
This chapter focuses on introducing the methodology of the thesis. This
chapter comprises five sections: (1) research questions; (2) research participant; (3)
research procedure; (4) data collection and instruments and (5) data analysis
method.
As mentioned above, Informatics and Languages Center of Dong Thap
University has been applying the redesigned TOEIC test for TOEIC exam, thus all
of the term “TOEIC test” and “TOEIC exam” in this chapter and latter ones will be
of the redesigned test format of ETS.
2.1. Research questions
To obtain the above stated purposes, the study has to answer the following
questions:
(1) What is the reality of learning English Grammar for Toeic exam by
Dong Thap University students?
(2) What are the problems of the non-major students of Dong Thap
University in learning English Grammar for Toeic exam?
(3) What are the possible solutions for these problems?
2.2. Research participants
2.2.1. The researcher
The study is carried out by Ho Hoang Phuc, the fourth-year student of
Pedagogical English class 2009A, Foreign Language Department, Dong Thap
University.
2.2.2. The subjects
As the thesis was about to find out the reality and problems of learning
English grammar for TOEIC exam, the participants in the thesis were the students
of TOEIC classes. Nevertheless, due to the scope of B.A thesis, time and enormous
data analysis, the research is limited to the students of TOEIC 1, 2, 3 classes.


grammar for TOEIC exam.
19

Question (14) is to know the students‟ self-study.
Questions (15), (16) are to know the students‟ viewpoint on English
grammar.
Questions (17), (18), (19) are to know the students‟ concern to English
grammar of TOEIC exam.
2.4.2. TOEIC course book analysis
There are three TOEIC course books used to be taught, and they are TOEIC
1, 2, 3 books. Through the research‟s study, most of the grammar points in the
TOEIC 3 book are included in the others as well. Therefore, the TOEIC 1, 2 course
books will be analyzed. A statistical analysis on TOEIC 1, 2 course books that
consist of two student‟s books and 2 workbooks is implemented to find out
grammar points and test type items of those. From these valid data, the researcher
will categorize and count, then expressing the percentage of these compared to the
total. Also, This TOEIC syllabus analysis aims to compare and contrast with the
percentage of grammar points in TOEIC exam that the research carries out an
analysis of ten TOEIC tests and it will be mentioned in the next part.
2.4.3. TOEIC test analysis
As mentioned above, there will be an analysis conducted to find out grammar
points as well as its percentage to the total 200 multiple-choice test items in TOEIC
exam. It will be more reliable and objective to the enormous test conveyed.
However, there are only ten included due to limitation of time and enormous data
analysis.
2.5. Method of data analysis
2.5.1. Statistics
Statistics method which all the data from questionnaires, TOEIC 1, 2 course
books and ten TOEIC tests are analyzed to understand it in detail is very important
in data analysis. All responses in questionnaires are listed and counted for number


21

9%
48%
41%
2%
Like very much
Like very much
Like a little
Do not like
CHAPTER 3: RESULTS, DISCUSSION AND SOLUTIONS
3.1. Research results
In order to achieve the targets mentioned earlier as well as the thesis in
general, there were three data collection instruments employed that are the
questionnaire, TOEIC course book analysis and TOEIC test analysis. Of the first
and most important data collection instruments, the survey questionnaire was
accomplished by 114 students of 4 TOEIC 1, 2, 3 classes. The questionnaire rounds
the way of learning English grammar. And the results of three data collection
instruments were as follows:
3.1.1 Questionnaire

3.1.1.2. The students’ method of learning English grammar
Table 2.a The students‟ preparation of grammar lessons before class
Statements
Always
Sometimes
Rarely
Never
Frequencies (f)
14
76
16
8
Percentages (%)
12
67
14
7

Figure 2.a

As figures in table 2.a, a large number of the students (making up 67%) state
that they sometimes prepare grammar lessons before going to the TOEIC classes
and 14% is rarely and 7% is never whereas there are only 12% the students (equal
to 14 students) always do. Therefore, these lessons that they didn‟t prepare reduce
the language acquisition of the learners.
Table 2.b The students‟ way of learning grammar structures
Statements
Learning
structures and
doing exercises

23

19%
67%
14%
Yes
Yes, but not often
No
53%
23%
15%
9%
Learning structures and doing exercises
Trying to learn all structures only
Doing exercises only
Learning examples, then inferring its structures
Figure 2.b

More than haft of the student (accounting for 53%) study grammar structures
in their TOEIC course books by learning the structures and doing exercises. There
are 25% and 15% the students try to learn all of these only and doing exercises only
respectively. However, just a few students (equal to 9%) have another learning
method, learning examples, and then inferring their structures. In general, the way
of both learning all structures only and doing exercises only make up to more than

21%
26%
Always
Sometimes
Rarely
Never
number of the students (accounting for 19%) always making systematization. In
addition, there are 14% the learners who never do, which affects directly and greatly
their master of English grammar.
Table 2.d The students‟ comparison and contrast of grammar points

Figure 2.d
In general, the percentage of students who compare and contrast grammar
points is nearly equal to that of students who do not apply the highly beneficial
learning method. Nevertheless, there is the dominant of students (accounting for
54%) choosing Option 2, do not compare and contrast grammar points with it each
other, to those (making up 46%) who do.
3.1.1.3 The students’ method of practicing English grammar
Table 3.a The students‟ limitation of time when doing English grammar exercises
Statements
Always
Sometimes
Rarely
Never

All of them
As can be seen in Table 3.a, most of the students of TOEIC classes, nearly
the half (47%), don‟t care about limiting time when doing English grammar
exercises, whereas only the nine students (equivalent to 8%) always do. In TOEIC
exam, there are 200 test items answers in the limitation of two hours. Therefore,
these 47% the students can get in trouble with time of TOEIC test.
Table 3.b The students‟ way of studying and doing exercises
Statements
Individually
In pairs +group
All of them
Frequencies
(f)
86
65
14
Percentages
(%)
52
39
9 Figure 3.b Table 3.b shows that the 86 students (equal to 52%) in the total of 114 ones