h VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HANOI
University of LANGUAGES and International studies
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES
************* NGUYEN THU YEN Challenges in Teaching Grammar in the “Language Focus Periods”
with the New English Textbook TiÕng Anh 12 at Viet-Ba High School
and Recommendations (
Nh÷ng khã kh¨n trong d¹y ng÷ ph¸p trong c¸c tiÕt
“Language Focus” theo s¸ch gi¸o khoa TiÕng Anh 12
ë tr-êng THPT ViÖt nam-Ba Lan vµ mét sè gi¶I ph¸p) M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
FIELD: ENGLISH METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60.14.10

HANOI – 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HANOI
University of LANGUAGES and International studies

TABLE OF CONTENT

DECLARATION……………………………………………………
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT………………………………………………….
ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………
TABLES OF CONTENTS………………………………………………
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS……………………………………………
LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES………………………………………
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………….1
1.1. RATIONALE………………………………………………….…… 1
1.2. AIMS OF THE STUDY…………………………………………… 2
1.3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS………………………………………….2
1.4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY……………………………………2
1.5. SCOPE OF THE STUDY……………………………………………3
1.6 . DESIGN OF THE STUDY………………………………………….3
Chapter 2: DEVELOPMENT……………………………………………… 4
2.1. LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………………4
2.1.1. Definitions of Grammar………………………………………………… 4
2.1.1.1. Grammar as rules……………………………………………… 5
2.1.1.2. Grammar as meaning…………………………………………… 6
2.1.1.3. Grammar as discourse…………………………………………….7
2.1.2. The role of Grammar in foreign language teaching……………….8
2.1.2.1. Pro-grammar perspectives………………………………………….9
2.1.2.2. Anti-grammar perspectives……………………………………… 10 v

2.1.3. Methods commonly used in teaching grammar………………… 11
2.1.3.1. Explicit grammar teaching…………………………………………11

2.4. FINDINGS AND SOME POSSILE SOLUTIONS FOR BETTER
TEACHING ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN THE “LANGUAGE FOCUS” TO 12
TH

FORM STUDENTS AT VIET-BA HIGH SCHOOL…………………………34
2.4.1. Summaries of the major findings…………………………………… 34
2.4.2. Recommendations…………………………………………………… 37
2.4.3. Limitation of the study……………………………………………… 42
2.4.4. Suggestions for further research…………………………………….…43
Chapter 3: CONCLUSION…………………………………………… 44
REFERENCE ………………………………………………………………… I
APPENDIX……………………………………………………………… ……IV
Appendix 1: Questionnaire for teachers …………………………………………………………V
Appendix 2: Interview questions for teachers …………………………………………………………………………VIII
Appendix 3: Extracted transcription of the interview……………………….………………… IX
Appendix 4: Observation 1…………………………………………………………………………………………………………XII
Appendix 5: Observation 2………………………………………………………………….…XVI
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT Communicative Language Teaching
EFL English as Foreign Language


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT Communicative Language Teaching
EFL English as Foreign Language
ESL English as Second Language vii

MOET Ministry of Education and Training
OHP Overhead projector
SLA Second Language Acquisition LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES

Page

English means teaching grammar. There are many good reasons for this. The first reason for this
is the aim of the national examinations whose sole objectives is to measure candidates‟ linguistic
or grammatical competence in written form. Therefore, the teaching of English in secondary
schools is still directed towards preparing students for such a sort of examinations. Furthermore,
without learning grammar, students can not communicate well, to put it another way, the
language they produce is considered ungrammatical and unacceptable.
However, how to teach and learn grammar effectively has been in question up to now, and
has been considered as a challenge for many Vietnamese teachers of English in secondary
schools. Both teachers and students in schools are always faced up with many difficulties.
At Viet-Ba High school, like at many other high schools in Vietnam, English has been a
compulsory subject in secondary curriculum for many years. I myself and other English teachers
here are aware of the importance of English grammar teaching. For me, finding challenges in
teaching and learning Grammar in the “Language Focus” periods is one of the ways to deal with
grammar more effectively in the secondary school classrooms. And this would be of great help to
myself as well as to other teachers. This is also the reason why my thesis is entitled: “Challenges -2-
in Teaching Grammar in the “Language Focus periods” with the New English Textbook
Tiếng Anh 12 at Viet-Ba High School and some Possible Solutions”
1.2 AIMS OF THE STUDY:
For the reasons mentioned above, the specific aims of the study, accordingly, are:
 To investigate into the challenges many teachers at Viet-Ba High school encountered in
teaching grammar in the “Language Focus” periods with the New English Textbook
Tiếng Anh 12.
 To find out some possible solutions including a variety of techniques and activities to
achieve the effectiveness in teaching grammar and in order to make grammar teaching
more communicative.
1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
1. What do the teachers at Viet-Ba High school perceive of the problems in teaching Grammar

form
at Viet-Ba High school. The minor thesis is designed to deal with the challenges which teachers
at Viet-Ba High school encounter during the process of teaching grammar and some possible
solutions will be introduced with the aim at making grammar lessons more communicative. I
would like to do the research with only 6 teachers teaching 12
th
form with their classes in order to
find out the most effective way to teach grammar successfully.
1.6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY:
The study consists of 3 main parts, which are presented as follows:
Chapter 1. Introduction. This chapter provides an overview of the study with specific
reference to the rationale, the aims, the methods and the scope of the study.
Chapter 2. Development. This chapter is divided into four main parts
2.1. LITERATURE REVIEW. This part explores the theoretical background for the
thesis. This part mentions to four main points related to English grammar: Definitions of
grammar; the role of Grammar in foreign language teaching; Methods commonly used in
teaching grammar; Grammar teaching in the light of CLT.
2.2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. This part presents the research questions of the
study, the subjects of the study, and the instruments used to collect the data.
2.3. DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION. This part explores a detailed description of data
analysis and a discussion of the findings of the study.
2.4. FINDINGS AND SOME POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS FOR BETTER TEACHING ENGLISH
GRAMMAR in the “Language Focus” TO 12
TH
FORM STUDENTS AT VIET-BA HIGH SCHOOL. This
part presents the summary of the major findings including some possible problems in teaching
English grammar encountered by teachers in Vietnam in general and at Viet-Ba High school in
particular. Especially, some recommendations proposed for the administrators and for the
teachers teaching grammar in the upper secondary school are mentioned in this part. Finally, the
limitations of the study and some suggestions for further research are presented.

understand: “Grammar may be roughly defined as the way a language manipulates and combines
words (or bits of words) in order to form longer units of meaning”.
Bastone (1994) defines grammar is multi-dimensional: grammar is a formal mechanism, a
functional system from signaling meanings, or a dynamic resource which both users and learners
call on in different ways at different times.
Cristal (2004) gives more ideas of grammar as: -5-
“Grammar is the structural foundation of our ability to express ourselves. The more we are
aware of how it works, the more we can monitor the meaning and effectiveness of the way we
and others use language”.
In this definition, he emphasizes the importance of grammar. For him, grammar can help
foster precision, detect ambiguity, and exploit the richness of expression available in English.
And it can help everyone not only teachers of English, but also teachers of anything, for all
teaching is ultimately a matter of getting to grips with meaning.
Whatever grammar may be defined, it belongs to one of the aspects exploited by the
linguistics such as grammar as social function, grammar as discourse, etc. This has influence on
the way to teach and select materials to teach grammar in the light of CLT. Being a teacher of
English, to support my teaching I have chosen three aspects of grammar below for my discussion.
2.1.1.1. Grammar as rules
With regard to rules, Swain (1985) coins the third category of rule: pedagogic language rules.
“By „pedagogic rules” I mean rules which are designed to help foreign-language learners understand
particular aspects of the languages they are studying (whether these rules are addressed directly to the
learners, or to teachers and materials writers who are expected to pass on the rules to the learners in
one form or another, is immaterial).‟
Here he refers to a collection of such rules, unoriginally, as a “pedagogic grammar”. This
term can also reasonably be applied to a collection of rules designed for students who are
learning about the structure of their own language, and much of what shall I have to say is
relevant to mother-tongue language instruction

Organizational competence is necessary for communication to take place, but not sufficient
to account for all production and reception in language. As Larsen-Freeman pointed out,
grammar is one of three dimensions of language that are interconnected. According to him
grammar gives us the form or the structures of language, but those forms are literally meaningless
without a second dimension, that of semantics (meaning), and a third dimension, pragmatics. In
other words, grammar tells us how to construct a sentence; discourse rules tell us how to string
those sentences together. Semantics tells us something about the meaning(s) of words and strings
of words. (Larsen-Freeman, 1991)
Since the early days of the Communicative Approach, language teachers have been told
that they have to pay attention to two kinds of meaning: the “semantic” meanings of words and
structures which can be found in dictionaries and grammars, and the “pragmatic” values which
these linguistic elements take on when they are used in communication. In an influential paper
published in the early 1970s Hymes, the sociolinguist put forward the view that “communicative
competence” involves knowing not only dictionary/grammar meaning, but also the rules which -7-
determine the appropriacy or otherwise of utterances in context. This line of thought was
welcomed for several reasons. Language teachers at the time were dissatisfied, as language
teachers usually are, with their learners‟ inability to convert their knowledge of linguistic forms
into successful language use, and the idea that they could solve the problem by teaching
something called „communicative competence‟ was an attractive one. So Hymes‟ pronouncement
that there are “rules of use without which the rules of grammar would be useless” (Hymes, 1971,
p. 278) became something of a mantra for the applied linguists of the time.
One of the major reasons for questioning the adequacy of grammatical syllabuses lies in
the fact that even when we have described the grammatical (and lexical) meaning of a sentence,
we have not accounted for the way it is used as an utterance. Since those things that are not
conveyed by the grammar are also understood, they too must be governed by „rules‟ which are
known to both speaker and hearer. People who speak the same language share not so much a
grammatical competence as a communicative competence. According to Wilkins (1976, pp. 10–

aspect and some of the other categories (McCarthy, 1991).
In the EFL classroom, grammar is often taught at the level of sentence. And such problems
are often met that the students can‟t relate the grammar with what they want to convey in spoken
or written discourse. Furthermore, a sentenced-based view of grammar is inconsistent with the
notion of grammar competence (Celce-Murcia, 2000). Hence, discourse-based approaches in
grammar teaching would be strongly advocated and carried out.
2.1.2. The role of Grammar in foreign language teaching
In ESL and EFL grammar teaching methods are debatable. Some see grammar as the
backbone of languages and learners should be presented with explicit grammar courses. Others,
however, think that knowing the grammar doesn‟t necessarily lead to language mastery. They
contend that focusing on explicit grammar teaching produces unsuccessful language users.
What is the role of grammar in language teaching?
This is a question which has been asked by several second language researchers and
teachers over the past few years (Brown, 1994; Celce-Murcia, 1991; Larsen-Freeman, 1991;
Nunan, 1994). Historically, grammar has played a central role in language teaching often being
the only activity in language classrooms (Brown, 1994). Celce-Murcia (1991, p. 460) points out
that:
“[p]rior to 1967 and for several years thereafter, however, no one challenged the centrality of
grammar either as content for language teaching or as the organizing principle for curriculum or
materials development”
The grammar translation approach, the audio-lingual approach, the cognitive code approach,
the comprehension approach and the communicative approach all view the role that grammar
should play in language teaching with slight variations. Very early in the days of the -9-
communicative competence movement, Canale & Swain (1980) proposed that grammatical
competence was an integral part of communicative competence. Some language teachers moving
into the communicative era may have reacted too quickly in assuming that grammar was not a
significant part of language teaching and thus ignored its role in the classroom. Below I will

essentially about the systems and patterns we use to select and combine word. By studying
grammar we come to recognize the structure and regularity which is the foundation of language
and we gain the tools to talk about the language system.
Ur (1998, p. 4) stressed the importance of grammar in language learning and teaching. He
stated “a knowledge-implicit or explicit – of grammatical rules is essential for the mastery of a
language: you can no use words unless you know how they should be put together”
In short, how important grammar is assumed obviously has an impact on the foreign
language teaching and learning.
2.1.2.2. Anti-grammar perspectives
In recent years, the role of grammar in language teaching and learning has received
different interpretation. Although most of linguistics and grammarians appreciate the role of
grammar, there are still some people express different views against the teaching grammar, want
to lessen its role.
According to Brumfit and Johnson (1979, p. 165) “The study of grammar is neither
necessary nor sufficient for learning a language”
As for Thornbury (1999), grammar is a process of making a speaker‟s or writer‟s meaning
clear when there is a lack of contextual information. Moreover, grammar means the relationship
between three things: grammar, words, and contexts. It means it is necessary for students only to
learn basic and fixed forms and particular forms so that they can express particular meanings.
And Ur (1998, p. 4) gives a controversial question:
“Whether should we teach grammar or not? Do we have to have grammar exercises? Isn‟t it
better for students to absorb the rules intuitively through communicative activities than to be taught
through special exercises?”
To sum up, although there exist controversies about the role of grammar in language
teaching and learning, as a teacher of English at school, I can say that it is important and essential
to teach grammar in universities and especially in secondary schools. There are some reasons for
this. Firstly, the teaching of grammar provides students with opportunities to use English in a
variety of realistic situations to learn to communicate effectively. Secondly, without being taught
grammar teaching students can‟t improve their grammar competence in a suitable environment.


investigated many obvious advantages and crucial functions of conscious learning in SLA.
Krashen (1982), in his Monitor Theory, stated that „learned grammatical principles function to
edit or monitor language output that has been generated by acquired rules‟. It goes without saying -12-
that an explicit approach can not only help learners draw more learners' attention and exploit
pedagogical grammar in this regard but also is fully and clearly expressed, defined or formulated,
and readily observable (Doughty & Williams, 1998) and also explicit grammar instruction can
solve problems with purely communicative driven approaches, and can provide three important
parts of the grammar lesson such as explicit grammar instruction preferably at the beginning of
the lesson, communicative activities containing many usages of the instructed form, and
summary activities to focus learners' attention on the grammar form they were instructed on and
then encountered communicatively. However, a problem with explicit grammar teaching is that
the teachers who focus on language forms presentation, explain the grammar rules and practice
through drilling hold a traditional view of language teaching. They equate language to grammar
mastery and accurate usage and create bored, disaffected students who can produce correct forms
on exercises and tests, but consistently make errors when they try to use the language in context.
In other words, students under this form of instruction know a lot about the language but they are
unable to use the language itself appropriately in contextualized situations- these students
consistently make errors when they try to use the language in context.
To summarize, explicit teaching begins very teacher-centered with little student responsibility
and ends with a goal of complete student independency with very little teacher involvement.
2.1.3.2. Implicit grammar teaching
In the early 20
th
century it is thought grammar should be studied by examining living
speech rather than by analyzing written documents. According to some linguists, by providing
grammar in context, in an implicit manner, they can expose students to substantial doses of
grammar study without alienating them to the learning of English or other foreign language. I

- My mother works at the IBM company.
- Water boils at 100C.
- My friends play tennis with me.
- They ride bicycle.
 Stage 2: -the explanation stage: I tell the students the explicit grammatical rules of the
present simple tense with singular form, explain the rule of use of the ending-s.
 Stage 3: Expression: I divide students into pairs and give them the task.
2.1.4. Grammar teaching in the light of CLT
2.1.4.1. Definition of CLT
Communicative language teaching (CLT) is an innovation in English language teaching
(ELT). CLT is a new teaching approach in Britain, having been introduced in the 1970s, and it
has become a popular approach in foreign language teaching since the 1980s. Many researchers
have helped to develop the theory and practice of CLT, among them Brumfit & Johnson (1979), -14-
Hymes (1972), and Richards & Rodgers (1986), to name only a few. In CLT, students do not
simply learn the linguistic structures and grammar rules. They have to learn how to use the
language properly. There is a “strong” version and a “weak” version of the communicative
approach. „The weak version [that] has become more or less standard practice in the last ten
years, stresses the importance of providing learners with opportunities to use their English for
communicative purposes‟ (Richards & Rodgers, 1986).
Because the range of CLT is so wide, it is difficult to identify precisely whether a teacher
is using CLT. Many researchers have discussed “communication” and CLT. Widdowson (1990)
holds that language is used to achieve a communicative purpose. Littlewood (1981) also states
that language is used as a tool for communication. Two major points are expressed in the studies
of CLT. One is that language is learned to enable one to communicate. The other concerns the
curriculum objectives. Larsen-Freeman (1986) argues that, “the goal of the CLT is to help
learners become communicatively competent”. According to Richards & Rogers (1986) in order
to achieve this goal, learners need to develop communicative abilities, such as expression,

Over the past several years, whether or not grammar should be taught explicitly or
implicitly has been a controversial issue. Extensive grammar research has shown that grammar
should be neglected in teaching English ever since communicative methodology appeared in the
late 1970s. It was claimed that language should be acquired through natural exposure, not
through formal instruction. However, recent research studies have demonstrated that grammar
instruction enables learners to attain high level of proficiency, both in accuracy and fluency. It
was claimed that the teacher should provide learners with authentic discourse samples to illustrate
all the contextually dependent grammatical rules (Ellis. 2002).
About Teaching Presentation in Grammar, Larsen-Freeman (2003) suggested that a
pedagogic grammar lesson should follow three parts: explicit grammar instruction,
communicative activities, and summary activities. At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher
gives students explicit grammar rules and explanation. Then, the teacher provides many
communicative activities that contain uses of the instructed form. Last, in the summary activities
section, students will pay more attention on the grammar form they have just studied and then
perform communicatively.
Here is a typical grammar class following CLT. In the class the teacher uses visual aids to
present the grammar structure to be taught. Students deduce the meaning, the form and the use of
it. The teacher checks students' understanding by asking yes/no questions focusing on form,
meaning and use. The teacher gets students to practice the structure through Repetition and
Substitution Drills. The teacher tries to provide maximum practice within a controlled but -16-
realistic and contextualized framework and to build students' confidence in using the new
language. The teacher provides students with opportunities to use the new language in a freer and
more creative way. The teacher creates activities in which students can integrate new language
with the previously learnt language and apply what they have learnt in talking about their real life
activities. What makes this kind of lesson different from the traditional ones is that the teacher
tries to make the language used in the lesson real and true. The teacher creates real or close-to-
real situations in which the language can be used. This will better enable students to

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 learner-centredness 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.
Being a teacher of English in a upper secondary school, I am aware of the importance of
grammar as well as of the grammar teaching in the process of teaching. How to teach grammar
effectively and successfully is always a big question not only to me 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 teaching but also on other skills in the light of CLT. The teaching of
grammar in “Language focus period” is always a challenge to every one. Teaching grammar, the
teachers encounter some certain difficulties in comparison with teaching other skills. Being aware
of this, I have decided to choose the topic on the teaching of grammar for my thesis with the aim
to find out the difficulties many teachers encounter when teaching grammar in “Language focus
periods” with the New English Textbook Tiếng Anh 12 and some possible solutions to these
problems. Furthermore, up to now there have been no studies on this topic carried out at Viet-Ba
High school, the school where I am teaching now. All these above mentioned reasons have
inspired me to conduct the study about “Challenges in Teaching Grammar in the “Language
Focus periods” with the New English Textbook Tiếng Anh 12 at Viet-Ba High School and
some Possible Solutions”. I hope this would be taken into consideration by the teachers at Viet-
Ba High school in particular and teachers of English in general to make the “Language focus”
periods more interesting and motivating to students.