Using group work in english grammar lessons
for first-year students in the college of
technologies and economics in trade Hoàng Thị Minh Phương Trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữ
Luận văn ThS. Chuyên ngành: English Teaching Methodology; Mã số: 601410
Người hướng dẫn: Lê Văn Canh, M.A
Năm bảo vệ: 2010 Abstract: Like in many other countries in the world, in Vietnam there is now a growing demand
for learning English as it helps students to find good jobs, to study more and to travel. With this
trend, a great deal of studies and researches has been carried out to improve English teaching
methods, especially four English skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Among those
skills, teaching grammar has also been received a lot of considerations, and it has always been
one of the most controversial field of English teaching as so many different ideas on the way of
teaching it has been imposed through years to years. However, although it is common to use
group work in teaching four English skills, the question of applying group work to teach English
grammar lessons is still not popular. This minor thesis aims to identify the students’ attitude and
effectiveness of using group work in grammar lesson at the College of Trade and Economics
Technique. It also seeks ways to improve the effectiveness of using group to teach grammar for
non-major English first year students. The common purpose of the thesis is to help students
learning grammar better.
Keywords: Ngữ pháp; Tiếng Anh; Học nhóm; Phương pháp dạy học
Content:


v
2.6. Design group work activities for grammar lessons 12
2.6.1. The co-operating arrangement 12
2.6.2. The superior inferior arrangement 12
2.6.3. The combining arrangement 12
2.6.4. The individual arrangement 13
2.6.5. The grammar activities for group work. 14
2.6.5.1. Doing grammar exercises 14
2.6.5.2. Reading dialogues 14
2.6.5.3. Practicing using language according to situations 14
2.6.5.4. Playing games 14
2.6.5.5. Discussion 14
2.7. Summary 15
Chapter III: Development of the research 16
3.1 The context of the study 16
3.1.1. The students and the text book 16
3.1.2. Problems and issues in English language teaching at CTET 16
3.2. Methodology 17
3.2.1. The subjects 17
3.2.2. The instruments and procedures 17
3.2.2.1. The questionnaires 17
3.2.2.2. The classroom observation 18
3.3. Data analysis and discussions 18
3.3.1. Questionnaire 18
3.3.1.1. Pre-treatment questionnaire 18
3.3.1.1.1. Students’ awareness of the importance of learning English grammar. 18
3.3.1.1.2. Students’ attitudes towards learning English grammar. 19
3.3.1.1.3. The students’ evaluation of English grammar teaching they have
learnt in the class 20


Table 4: Students’ attitude towards using group work for grammar lessons 23
Table 5: The personality of students in learning generally 25
Table 6: The changes in students’ attitudes towards using group work 27
Table 7: Students’ evaluation of using group work to learn grammar 30
Figure 1: Students’ participation in grammar lesson before and after using group work 30 1
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
In the past few years, the trend of globalization has become faster than ever before,
the students’ awareness of learning English has been raised dramatically. However, the
question of how to teach and to learn English well is still in controversy; especially,
teaching grammar is the most controversial one. In Vietnam, English language teaching
often follows grammar-focused method, and for many English language teachers, teaching
English means teaching grammar. In this process, students are supposed to learn whatever
teachers give; therefore, not only knowledge but also learning styles are imposed on
students by their teacher. As a result of this traditional language teaching method, not only
the atmosphere of leaning is affected, the students’ ability of communication is also not
good. As each student has their own interest and habit of learning, the old way of teaching
grammar enhances their creative ability and leads to their neglect of learning. Because of
this reason, I choose the topic “Using group work in English-grammar lessons for first year
students in CTET” for my thesis. I want to make out whether using group work to teach
grammar will make the above situations different.
I choose the topic also because of my own interest as a teacher of English. I am
myself always interested in teaching grammar and I have never stopped finding new ways
of teaching each grammar items. I have observed teachers in my college and in other
places teaching grammar, each of them have different ways of teaching; however, it is so
difficult to make grammar teaching satisfactory to all students. It is not easy to find that if
only follow some unchanged ways to teach grammar, students and teachers themselves

1.5. Scope of the study
Using group work in English teaching methodologies is one of the most popular
methods of communicative language teaching and it can be applied widely for all of the
language teaching skills. However, due to the time and length constraint of the study, this
thesis only focuses on the use of group work in English grammar lessons for first year
students in CTET College. 3
1.6. Design of the study
This thesis consists of four main chapters:
Chapter one, the introduction, provide an overview of the study with brief information
about the reasons of choosing the topic, the aims, the scope of the study, the methods as
well as the design of the study.
Chapter two, the literature review, is aimed at giving the theoretical background for
the thesis. In this chapter, an overview on the role of grammar in ELT is first mentioned.
After that, the key factors about group work are presented. I will mention some definitions
about group work activities, the advantages as well as the limitations of using group work
in English grammar lessons. The reasons why I choose using group work in English
grammar lessons and some main group work activities are also highlighted in this part.
Chapter three, the development of the research, is the backbone of the thesis. It
contains the background of teaching and learning grammar in CTET College, the detail
description of data collections, data analysis and the discussions of the findings.
Chapter four proposes some suggestions for using group work effectively when
learning English grammar at CTET College and presents the summary and the suggestions
for further study.
The last part of the study is the appendix and the references.

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41
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