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L;VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
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PHÙNG THỊ HUÊ THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING
GRAMMAR IN LANGUAGE FOCUS PERIODS IN THE
NEW “ENGLISH 10” (BASIC STREAM) AT DOI CAN HIGH
SCHOOL IN VINH PHUC
NGHIÊN CỨU THỰC TRẠNG DẠY VÀ HỌC NGỮ PHÁP
TRONG CÁC TIẾT “LANGUAGE FOCUS” TRONG SÁCH
GIÁO KHOA MỚI “TIẾNG ANH 10” (BAN CƠ BẢN)
TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT ĐỘI CẤN, VĨNH PHÚC M.A. Minor Thesis
Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10
Hanoi - 2010
Hanoi - 2010 6
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION …………………………………………………………………… …….i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS …………………………………………………….………….ii
ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………………………….iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………………………………….iv
LIST OF TABLES …………………………………………………………………… …vii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS…………………………………………………………….viii
PART I: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………1
1. Rationale of the study……………………………………………………………….1
2. Aims of the study…………………………………… ……………………………2
3. Research questions………………………………………………………………….2
4. Scope of the study…………………………………………………….…………….3
5. Significance of the study……………………………………………………………3
6. Method of the study…………………………………………………………………3
7. Design of the study………………………………………………………………….4
PART II: DEVELOPMENT ………………………………………………….………….5
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW …………………………………… …………5
1.1. Definitions of grammar……………………………………………….… ……… 5
1.2. Role of grammar in English language teaching and learning…… ………………6
1.2.1. For-grammar perspectives …………………………………………….……7
1.2.2. Against-grammar perspectives …………………………………………… 7
1.3. Explicit and Implicit approaches to grammar teaching………………………….…8
1.4. Deductive and Inductive approaches to grammar instruction ……………… … 10
1.5. Grammar teaching in the major teaching methods……………………………… 12

3.1.5. Difficulties in teaching and learning grammar in the Language
Focus lessons as perceived by the teachers and the students …………… 30
3.2. Findings from class observations ……………………………… ………………33
3.3. Findings from interviews………………………………………………………….34
3.3.1. Findings from interviews with the teachers ………………………… ….34
3.3.2. Findings from interviews with the students ……………… …………… 35
3.4. Discussion of the findings ……………………………………………………… 35 8
3.5. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………… 37
PART III: CONCLUSION …………………………………………… ………………39
1. Summary of the study …………… …………….………………………………….39
2. Pedagogical implications ……………………….………………………………… 39
3. Limitations of the study …………………………………………………………….41
4. Suggestions for further study………………………………………………… … 41
5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………… 42
REFERENCES ……………………………………………………… ……………… 43
APPENDICES…………………………………………………………………………… I
Appendix 1: Grammar items in the Language Focus sections
in the new textbook English 10 …………………………………………… I
Appendix 2: Survey questionnaire for the teachers ………………………………….…III
Appendix 3: Survey questionnaire for the students ………………………………… VII
Appendix 4: Class observation transcripts 1-4 …………………………………………X
Appendix 5: Interview questions ………………………………………… ………XXV
Appendix 6: Interview transcripts ……………………………………… ……… XXVI


Table 14: the students‟ difficulties in learning grammar in the language focus lessons
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

MOET: Ministry of Education and Training
CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

communication of human being all over the world. Integrating into that trend of the global
integration, Vietnam has been more and more active to train active and dynamic
Vietnamese, who can use English fluently for communicative purposes. That is the reason
why in 2002, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has set out new aims for
English language teaching for secondary education as well as introduced new series of
English textbooks from grade 6 to grade 12.
The new English textbooks for high school students are divided into two sets: the
advanced and the standard. They are claimed to adopt the latest teaching and learning
approaches: communicative approach and learner-centered approach and aim at developing
both language skills and language knowledge for students. Each unit in the new English
textbooks consists of five parts: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing and Language
Focus, among which the Language Focus sections are to consolidate students‟
pronunciation and grammar.
Since their nation-wide implementation in the school year 2006-2007, a great deal
of research have been carried out to evaluate these new textbooks as well as to find out
how these textbooks are actually implemented or the difficulties that teachers and students
at high schools have to face when teaching and learning by the new textbooks. However,
most of these studies have dealt with the teaching and learning of the four language skills
which are believed to be new for both teachers and students. There is still a lack of
research on the teaching and learning of language elements in the Language Focus part.
More importantly, the question whether teachers actually teach grammar communicatively
or in the traditional methods has not been answered yet. Therefore, it is necessary to carry
out more research on how teachers and students teach and learn grammar in the actual
classroom.
Moreover, after two years of teaching English by the new English textbooks at Doi
Can High School, the researcher observed that the teachers and learners there faced a 12
number of difficulties not only in teaching and learning the four language skills but also in

4. Scope of the study
As mentioned earlier, there are two sets of the new English textbooks for grade 10:
the advanced and the standard sets. This study is only aimed at investigating the reality of
teaching and learning grammar in Language Focus lessons in the standard set.
This study is limited to the teaching and learning reality with regard to teaching and
learning grammar in Language Focus lessons. The investigation of teaching and learning
language skills and pronunciation will be beyond the scope of this study.
This study is a detailed survey at Doi Can High School in Vinh Phuc. Therefore,
the findings of the study are not intended to be generalized to other school contexts. Indeed
the findings may not apply beyond the actual participants in this particular study.
5. Significance of the study
This study helps to identify the problems and suggests ways of improving them;
therefore, it is hoped that this study will be beneficial in many ways. First, participants in
the study (the teachers and the learners at Doi Can High School) will benefit immediately
from the experience of reflection. Secondly, the findings of the study will contribute
information to textbook writers and educators to determine curricula and program
direction.
6. Method of the study
The study was designed to use both quantitative and qualitative methods. Then,
various instruments were used to collect the data for the study from different sources:
- survey questionnaires to investigate the teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards
grammar, their teaching and learning habits and their difficulties in teaching and learning
grammar in Language Focus lessons.
- class observations to get information about both the teachers‟ methods of teaching and
students‟ ways of learning grammar in the classroom.
- interviews with the teachers and students to get in-depth information about the teachers‟
and the students‟ suggestions to improve the teaching and learning of grammar in the
Language Focus lessons in the new English 10 - the standard textbook.

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PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Definitions of grammar
Concerning the terms “grammar”, several researchers have attempted to define it.
Apparently, depending on one‟s theoretical orientation, different people define grammar
differently.
The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (as cited in Harmer, 1987, p.1)
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. Here grammar constitutes a subset of
rules relating to word formation (morphology) and sentence formation (syntax).
Huddleston (1984) shares the similar view when seeing grammar as consisting of
morphology and syntax. According to him, morphology deals with forms of words while
syntax deals with the ordering of the words to form sentences (p. 1)
As can be inferred from the two definitions above, grammar is conventionally seen
as the study of morphology and syntax of sentences.
Cobbett (1984) regards grammar as “constituting rules and principles that help a
person to make use of words or manipulate and combine words to give meaning in a proper
manner. It concerns with form and structure of words and their relationships in sentences”.
According to Fromkin and Rodman (1998), "The sounds and sound patterns, the
basic units of meaning such as words and the rules to combine them to form new sentences
constitute the grammar of a language" (p.14).
There are several similarities among two above-cited definitions. The first thing is
that according to these authors, grammar is assumed to be a guide through which words are
put together to make correct sentences. Secondly, grammar is composed of rules not only

sentences but also meanings and functions of such sentences in the language, which is
necessary for the teaching and learning of foreign language.
1.2. Role of grammar in English language teaching and learning
Along the history of second language teaching, the role of grammar has been an
issue of controversy. According to Richards (2002), it is “perhaps the most controversial
issue in language teaching” (p. 145). Thornbury (1999) asserts that “in fact, no other issue 17
has so preoccupied theorists and practitioners as the grammar debate, and the history of
language teaching is essentially the history of the claims and counterclaims for and against
the teaching of grammar” (p. 14). The debate has brought about an extreme split of
attitudes, namely, those who hold that grammar should receive a central attention in
language teaching and those who hold that grammar should not be taught at all.
1.2.1. For-grammar perspectives
Many scholars in the field of language teaching and learning emphasize the role
grammar plays in language learning. For instance, Savignon (1991), one of the leading
advocates of communicative language teaching, emphasizes that “communication cannot
take place in the absence of structure, or grammar” (p. 268). In agreement with Savignon,
in their communicative competence model, Canale and Swain (1980) clearly view
grammar as one component of communicative competence and without grammar, learners
can communicate effectively only in a limited number of situations.
After reviewing ideas on the role of grammar teaching, Nunan (1991) came to a
conclusion that "grammar exists to enable us to 'mean', and without grammar it is
impossible to communicate beyond a very rudimentary level.” Furthermore, Wilkins (as
cited in Nunan, 1991, p. 152), one of the architects of communicative approach to language
teaching, also points out that “acquiring the grammatical system of the target language is
of central importance, because an inadequate knowledge of grammar would severely
constrain linguistic creativity and limit the capacity for communication”.
The list of supporters of grammar is still going on. Long and Richards (1987) assert

In conclusion, grammar plays a very important role in language teaching, even
though there was a time when grammar was severely rejected, but as Richards (2002) says,
in recent years grammar teaching has regained its rightful place in the language teaching
and “grammar is too important to be ignored” (p. 145). The debate is now not on whether
grammar competence is important but rather on how to teach grammar. Therefore, the rest
of this chapter is devoted to presenting two core approaches to grammar teaching and
critically looking into the teaching of grammar in some major teaching methods.
1.3. Explicit and Implicit approaches to grammar teaching
As mentioned earlier, the issue related to grammar is not whether to teach it but
how to teach it. Concerning the latter, two distinctly different approaches to teaching 19
grammar have emerged over the years. These are the explicit and implicit approaches to
grammar teaching. According to Scott (1990), the implicit approach emphasizes that
students should be exposed to grammatical structures in a meaningful and comprehensible
context in order that they may acquire as naturally as possible the grammar of the target
language. In contrast, Scott (1990) describes the explicit approach as insisting upon the
value of deliberate study of a grammar rule in order to organize linguistic elements
efficiently and accurately. In DeKeyser‟s words (1994), implicit teaching of grammar
means that no rules are formulated; explicit means rules are formulated (either by the
teacher or the student, either before or after examples/practice) (p. 188)
On the one hand, scholars who support an implicit approach to grammar
instruction, argue that students will develop “naturally” all the grammar competency they
need to communicate effectively if they are exposed to comprehensible, meaningful
linguistic input. Indeed, Krashen and his colleagues (Krashen, 1987; Krashen & Terrell,
1983) led the evolution against explicit grammar instruction. The distinction that Krashen
makes between “learning” (a conscious process) and “acquisition” (a subconscious
process) forms the basis of his theory of implicit teaching strategies. He maintains that
second language acquisition can take place in the classroom without the explicit study of

comprehensible input is hardly achievable.
1.4. Deductive and Inductive approaches to grammar instruction
While evidence for the need for formal instruction has been established through
such research studies, there is still some controversy regarding how and how much
instruction is necessary. From this debate, a broad distinction is often made between
deductive and inductive approaches (Thornbury, 1999).
 Deductive approach
Deductive approach is often called rule-driven learning (Thornbury, 1999). In this
approach, a grammar rule is explicitly presented to students and followed by practice
applying the rule. The deductive approach maintains that a teacher teaches grammar by
presenting grammatical rules, and then examples of sentences are presented. Once learners
understand rules, they are told to apply the rules given to various examples of sentences.
Giving the grammatical rules means no more than directing learners‟ attention to the
problem discussed. However, deductive approach to grammar teaching receives less
support than inductive approach. As Ellis in Richards (2002) reported, there has not been 21
convincing empirical verification as well as theoretical validation that the acquisition of
grammar structures involves the process of learning the rules and practicing them through
gradual automatization of production. Even so, deductive approach is often used by many
teachers due to its advantages such as time-saving for teachers and respect for students‟
expectations about classroom learning.
 Inductive approach
In contrast to deductive approach, inductive approach, which is labeled as rule-
discovery learning, starts with examples from which a rule is inferred (Thornbury, 1999).
The procedure is similar to the process of children acquiring their mother tongue. First,
learners are exposed to comprehensible language input and they will acquire the system of
the rules subconsciously through peripheral attention to language forms. Eisenstein (as
cited in Long & Richards, 1987) maintains that the inductive approach tries to utilize the

controversy about whether one should provide the rule first and then the
examples, or vice versa, is now seem to be merely a matter of tactics to which
no categorical answer can be given”
Indeed, the combination of two approaches to presenting grammatical rules both
provides students with more active learning environment and prevents them from inducing
inaccurate rules for themselves.
1.5. Grammar teaching in the major teaching methods
Along the history of language teaching methodology, different teaching methods
have perceived grammar differently, especially its role and its teaching methods. In this
study, the researcher intends to present the teaching of grammar in four major teaching
methods, namely Grammar-Translation method, Direct Method, Audio-lingual Method and
Communicative Language Teaching approach.
The Grammar-Translation Method derived from traditional approaches to the
teaching of Latin and Greek in the nineteenth century. This method used grammar as the
starting point for instruction. The class under this method began with explicit grammar
rules presentation, followed by practices involving translation into and out of the student‟s
mother tongue (grammar is taught deductively). Students‟ native language is the language
of instructions and mistakes and errors must be avoided at any cost. The syllabus used was
structural syllabus (Richards and Rogers, 2002). Briefly, in this method grammar is
considered essential in foreign language teaching and there is an attempt to teach it in an 23
organized and systematic way. The best point of this method is that it helps learners
produce grammatically correct sentences and is easily used in large-sized classes; however,
learners taught with this method find it difficult to communicate in real life and tend to be
passive recipients of knowledge.
The Direct method emerged to challenge the way Grammar-Translation Method
focused exclusively on written language. The basic premise of the Direct Method was that
one should attempt to learn a second language in much the same way as children learn their

achieve communicative goals. Whereas, the strong version of CLT rejects grammar
teaching when they argues that attention to forms is not necessary; learner can acquire an
implicit understanding of grammar by using the language in a system of meaningful tasks.
Concerning the teaching of grammar, Celce-Murcia (1988, p.27) introduces four stages of
a grammar lesson in the light of CLT: Presentation, Focused practice, Communicative
practice, and Teacher feedback and correction. In the presentation stage, a grammar
structure is introduced inductively or deductively. In the focused practice, the learners
manipulate the structure in question so as to gain control of the form for communication.
The next stage is communicative practice in which learners practice the target structure by
engaging in communicative activities such as information gap, role-play, discussion….
Although teacher feedback and correction is the final stage, it must take place throughout
the lesson as Celce-Murcia (1988, p.28) states that “during the second part of the lesson,
correction should be predominantly straightforward and immediate. During the third part,
however, communication should not be interrupted. Instead, teachers should take not of
errors and deal with them after the communicative exercises.”
1.6. Conclusion
In this chapter, the researcher has presented a number of issues related to the
research questions. These include the definitions of grammar, the roles of grammar in
language teaching, two approaches to grammar teaching, two approaches to grammar
instruction as well as the teaching of grammar in some teaching methods. This literature
review serves as the theoretical framework for the researcher to build up two sets of
questionnaires, then to analyze the data collected as well as to suggest some pedagogical
implications for the teaching and learning of grammar at Doi Can high school. The next
chapter will provide the readers with the information about the context and methodology of
the study. 25
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
2.1. Overview of the current situation of teaching and learning English at Doi Can


26
and 26, graduated from Vietnam National University, College of Foreign Languages. All
the teachers are enthusiastic and supportive to their students and to one another.
2.1.2. The new textbook English 10 (the standard textbook) and its Language Focus
section
 The new textbook English 10 (the standard textbook)
The new textbook English 10 was developed based on the new national curriculum.
The book is claimed to adopt a theme-based syllabus. However, this syllabus may be more
appropriately described as a „multi-strand‟ one since there is almost everything in it: topics,
tasks, functions, notions, skills, grammar, vocabulary and sounds. The methodologies the
book is claimed to follow are the “learner-centered approach and the communicative
approach with task-based teaching being the central teaching method” (English 10,
Teacher‟s Manual, p.12). This textbook is accompanied with cassette tapes, student‟s
workbook and teacher‟s manual.
There are 16 teaching units and six review units in the book. Each teaching unit
covers one topic and is structured into five sections: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing
and Language Focus. Each section is supposed to be taught in one period of 45 minutes.
The sixteen topics are derived from six themes: You and me, Education, Community,
Health, Recreation, The world around us.
 The Language Focus section in the new textbook English 10:
The Language Focus section in the new textbook English 10 includes two parts:
Pronunciation and Grammar and Vocabulary. The Pronunciation part focuses on practice
of sounds (vowels and consonants). These sounds are firstly practiced in isolated words
and then repeated in sentences. The Grammar and Vocabulary part aims to consolidate the
target forms covered in the unit. There are usually from one to three grammatical items
introduced in each unit. These grammatical items are practiced in exercises such as
sentence completion, sentence writing, change of verb forms, word formation and so on.
Most of the exercises in the grammar parts are the structural ones. Grammatical items in
the Language Focus section are presented in the appendix.

series of English textbooks before entering high schools. At high school, they all pursued
the Basic Stream and studied English by the new standard English 10 textbook. Each class
has three English lessons a week. There is an important fact 73% of these grade 10
students got the marks under five in English test in the high school entrance exam The
researcher employed a cluster random sampling technique to select the sample for the
study. The reason was that it was difficult and time-consuming to select a random sample 28
of individuals and gather these subjects because they had been already assigned to different
classes with different timetables. In this case, according to Fraenkel and Wallen (2003),
cluster random sampling was more feasible. Besides, with regard to the sample size,
Fraenkel and Wallen (2003) noted that “samples should be as large as researcher can
obtain with reasonable expenditure of time and energy. A recommended minimum number
of subjects is 100 for a descriptive study”. They also pointed out that a common error made
by beginning researchers is randomly selecting only one cluster as a sample, which
provides unreliable results. With the above reasons, the researchers decided to randomly
select three classes. First, she wrote the numbers of classes from 10A1 to 10A10 on ten
cards respectively and put them in a hat. After mixing the cards thoroughly, she randomly
took out three cards. The numbers chosen were 10A2, 10A5, and 10A10. The total
numbers of students from these three classes were 135 students.
2.2.3. Data collection instruments
The researcher intended to collect the same information about the reality of
teaching and learning grammar in the Language Focus lessons at Doi Can School from
three sources: questionnaire, classroom observation, and interview with the hope to
guarantee the reliability and the objectiveness of the study.
2.2.3.1. Survey questionnaire
To gather data for this study, two questionnaires were administrated to the
respondents: one for the students and the other for the teachers. The questionnaires were
tested with a sample of three teachers and fifteen students for feedback on interpretation