student’s attitudes towards the integrated
approach to grammar teaching, a quasi-
experimental research on the first year students
at hanoi college of economics andtechnology Phương Pháp Tích Hợp Vũ Thị Sâm

Trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữ
Luận văn ThS. Chuyên ngành: English Teaching Methodology; Mã Số: 60 14 10
Người hướng dẫn: Dr. Duong Thi Nu
Năm bảo vệ: 2010

Abstract: As at the center of concern of any EFL teachers, grammar plays a crucial role to
English teaching and learning. However, due to some institutional constraints, grammar teaching
at the Hanoi College of Economics and Technologies requires more than the application of one
method to get the best result. At the college, where most of the teachers prefer traditional
approach to teach grammar, students seem not interested in learning and show negative attitudes
towards the teaching approach as well as toward their grammar learning. This study is therefore
conducted with the hope to find out whether the integration of different teaching approaches
helps students change their attitudes towards grammar learning.So as to reach that aim, the
author conducted a quasi-experiment in 6 weeks with the hypothesis that the integrated teaching
approach can change student’s attitudes towards grammar learning. The data was collected from
pre and post treatment questionnaires and structured interviews. Findings showed that there was
a positive change in student’s attitudes towards grammar learning after 6 weeks of the
experiment. Students vowed that they got better absorption of grammar rules because of more
creative and motivating class atmosphere and learning procedure thanks to the flexible
application of integrated teaching approach. Based on the findings of the study, some

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PART 2: DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Learning attitudes
1.1.1 Definitions of learning attitudes
1.1.2 The role of attitudes in language learning
1.2. Theoretical background of grammar teaching
1.2.1 Definitions of grammar and the place of grammar in English
language teaching
1.2.2 The brief view of grammar teaching approaches
1.2.3 Stages of a grammar lesson at the current trend of ELT
1.3 Rational for the Integrated Approach
1.3.1. There is no best method
1.3.2. Related studies
1.3.3. Institutional reasons for the integrated approach
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Chapter III: ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
3. 1. Data analysis
3.2. Findings and discussions
3.2.1. Teachers’ beliefs and knowledge in teaching pronunciation
3.2.2. Formal curricula description
3.2.3. Teaching pronunciation’s goal and assessment
3.2.4. Approaches and techniques of teaching pronunciation
3.2.5. Teachers’ roles in teaching pronunciation
3.3.6. Teaching and learning materials
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PART 3: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
3.1 Summary of major findings
3.2 Implications of the Study for Teaching pronunciation
3.2.1 Improving teacher’s knowledge and opinion of different approaches to
TEFL
3.2.2 Enhancing and varying teacher’s roles in teaching
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APPENDIX A Pre-treatment questionnaire
APPENDIX B Post-treatment questionnaire
APPENDIX C Pre-treatment interview and discussion
APPENDIX D: Post-treatment interview and discussion
APPENDIX E: List of tables
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student’s attitudes towards language learning is important. First, attitudes towards learning are
believed to influence behaviors (Kaballa & Crowley: 1985) (Source: Weinberg 1998) such as
selecting and reading books, speaking in a foreign language. Second, a relationship between
attitudes and achievements has been shown to exist. Schibeci and Riley (1986), (Source:
Weinberg 1998) report that there is support for the proposition that attitudes influence
achievement, rather than achievement influencing attitudes. The reason is that attitudes
influence one’s behaviors, inner mood and therefore learning. So it is clear that there is an
interaction between language learning and the environmental components in which students
grew up. Both negative and positive attitudes have a strong impact on the success of language
learning. The attitudes of an individual depend heavily upon different stimuli. Stern (1983)
claims that the affective component contributes at least as much and more often to language
learning than the cognitive skills, and this is supported by recent researches. All studies
adduce that affective variables have significant influences on language success (Eveyik, 1999;
Skehan, 1989; Gardner, 1985; Spolsky, 1989). Discovering student’s attitudes about language
will help both teacher and learner in the teaching-learning process. Therefore, we have to
consider the crucial role of this affective domain, attitudes.
1.2 Aims of the study
The aim of the study was to investigate what the attitudes of the students at Hanetco
towards English grammar learning are and how their attitudes would change after some
grammar lectures with the integrated approach. Thanks to the findings of the study, the
researcher hopes to leave some suggestions for further study in this very interesting topic.
1.3 Research questions
Focusing on a case with a target on the first year non-English-major students at
Hanetco, this research examined the learning of grammar before and after the experiment of
the integration of approaches. To achieve this, three research questions were proposed:
(1) What are the reasons for a change in approach to grammar teaching to students at
Hanetco?
(2) What are students’ expectations towards grammar teaching and learning?
(3) What are the students’ attitudes towards the new integrated approach?

The actual procedures of the study are presented in this part: study design, subject of
the study, data collection instruments as well as data collection analyzing process.
- Chapter 3: ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
This part focuses on presenting, analyzing and discussing the results obtained from the study.
- Part 3, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS, summarizes some major
findings, provides recommendations for a possibly applicable approach to teaching grammar,
limitations of the study, and suggestions for further research.

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