i
DECLARATION
I certify that this minor thesis entitled “A study on how oral practice can change TNH
10
th
graders' attitudes towards grammar learning ” is submited in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Master of Arts is the results of my own work, except where
otherwise acknowledge and that this minor thesis or any part of the same has not been
submitted for higher degree to any other University or Institution.
Hanoi, 3/2009
Signature
Nguyen Thi Chuc Ha
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am, first of all, particularly indebted to my supervisor, Ms. Nguyen Bach Thao, MA
for her invaluable advice, instructions and correction, excellent suggestions and constant
encouragement during the research period. Without her guidance and help, this work would
not have been accomplished.
Secondly, my sincere thanks also go to all lecturers and staff of the department of Post-
Graduate studies for their valuable lessons and precious helps. Thanks to their lessons as
well as needed helps, I could overcome enormous obstacles when doing the study.
Besides, I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to my colleagues and my students at
Tran Nguyen Han High School who have participated in this research and many others who
helped me during my study at Tran Nguyen Han High School.
Last but not least, I would like to convey my deepest gratitude to my husband, my
children, and my parents for their constant support and thorough understanding.Their great
encouragement and love have helped me to overcome the difficulties during my study.
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ABSTRACT
As far as I’m concerned, grammar is central to the teaching and learning of languages .
It is also one of the most difficult aspects of language to teach students perfectly.At Tran

LIST OF GRAPHS.................................................................................................................vii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS..............................................................................................viii
CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................1
1.1. Rationale........................................................................................................................1
1.2. Aims of the study...........................................................................................................3
1.3. Research questions........................................................................................................3
1.4. Scope of the study.........................................................................................................3
1.5. Significance of the study...............................................................................................3
1.6. Outline of the study.......................................................................................................3
CHAPTER II- LITERATURE REVIEW..............................................................................5
2.1. Attitudes.........................................................................................................................5
2.1.1. Definition of attitude...............................................................................................5
2.1.2. Attitude change.......................................................................................................6
2.2. The role of attitudes in language learning..................................................................7
2.3. Ways that help to change students’ attitudes............................................................8
2.3.1. Oral grammar practice creating teaching techniques...........................................8
2.3.2. Narrowing the gap between teaching style and learning style..............................9
2.4. Grammar teaching from a CLT perspective...........................................................10
2.5. The role of oral grammar practice in grammar teaching......................................11
2.5.1. Definition of oral grammar pracice.....................................................................11
2.5.2. Classification of oral practice activities in teaching and learning grammar.....13
2.6. Conclusion....................................................................................................................23
..................................................................................................................................................23
CHAPTER III : METHODOLOGY...................................................................................24
3.1. Study design.................................................................................................................24
3.2. Research questions......................................................................................................24
v
3.3. Subjects of the study...................................................................................................24
3.4. Data collection instruments.......................................................................................25
3.4.1. Questionnaires......................................................................................................25

PRE-EXPERIMENT INTERVIEW.................................................................................XVI
Appendix 6:.........................................................................................................................XVII
PHỎNG VẤN TIỀN THỬ NGHIỆM.............................................................................XVII
Appendix 7:.......................................................................................................................XVIII
POST-EXPERIMENT INTERVIEW............................................................................XVIII
Appendix 8:..........................................................................................................................XIX
PHỎNG VẤN SAU THỬ NGHIỆM.................................................................................XIX
vii
LIST OF GRAPHS
Graph 1: Students’ opinions of the importance of English grammar for language learning.
Graph 2 : The reasons why English grammar is important in language learning.
Graph 3: Students’ opinions of learning English grammar.
Graph 4: Students’ impression of learning English grammar at school.
Graph 5 : Factors influence students’ attitudes towards grammar learning.
Graph 6 : Students’ opinions of English grammar teaching at school.
Graph 7 : Teaching techniques to present a new English grammar structure.
Graph 8 : Activities students get involved in class to practise new grammar structures.
Graph 9 : Students’ expectations
Graph 10 : Oral English grammar practice makes English grammar lessons more lively,
interesting and stimulate students to learn English.
Graph 11: Oral grammar activities students got involved in.
Graph 12 : Ranking oral grammar activities according to students’ preference.
Graph 13 : Frequency of students’ involvement in oral grammar activities.
Graph 14 : Students’ preference with regard to oral grammar activities organization.
Graph 15: Students’ difficulties when doing grammar practice orally.
Graph 16: Students’ opinions of oral grammar activities.
Graph 17: The usefulness of oral grammar practice in students’ language learning.
Graph 18: Students’ preference in oral grammar practice in the coming time.
Graph 19: Reasons for continuing oral grammar practice in the coming time.
Graph 20: Reasons for not continuing oral grammar practice in the coming time.

teaching methods and learners’ attitudes towards learning, which in turn have great influence
on the learning results. This study, therefore, is carried out to investigate how the shift from
traditional methods to communicative ones affect the attitudes towards English grammar at
Tran Nguyen Han High school.
When teaching grammar, teachers of English at Tran Nguyen Han High School seem to
prefer traditional teaching methods in which grammar rules are taught deductively because
of the great influence on teaching habit caused by Haiphong environment and the former
objectives of teaching. The common practice of some senior teachers is just giving the
explanation of new words and grammar structures, asking students to learn by heart and
make sentences, reading the structures, texts or conversations aloud, asking students to
repeat and in general making students passive. Even younger teachers rarely organize
communicative activities in their lessons because they are afraid of making noise which may
influence the neighbouring classes and also they find it difficult to control the class then.
That’s why teachers seem to be interested in giving students a lot of written exercises to do
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in class. This makes students have no interests in learning grammar at all. Students often do
their grammar exercises reluctantly and passively.
The fact is that the 10
th
grade students at Tran Nguyen Han High School have lots of
difficulties in learning grammar. They are taught grammar through repetition and written
exercises. Students are required to repeat the models and memorize the rules . Lasen-
Freeman (2005) points out that such activities in class are boring and not effective. Further
more, many teachers approach grammar far too seriously, with unsmiling faces, particularly
during the first phases of a new lesson when students are trying to grasp an initial
understanding of the form and meaning of the grammar structure.
The shortage of useful materials and high technology equipment also makes students’
learning slower and uninteresting. According to Beatty(2003: 248), if a language learner can
make use of high technology equipment such as a computer, his language will be improved
much more and faster.

b. How can oral practice change positively Tran Nguyen Han 10
th
graders’ attitudes
towards English grammar learning ?
1.4. Scope of the study
Due to the time limit and financial constraint, the author was unable to carry out the
investigation on a large scale. The researcher, therefore, would like to focus on the real
teaching and learning English grammar at Tran Nguyen Han High School, restricted to the
10
th
graders only.
1.5. Significance of the study
The study was conducted with the expectation that its results would be useful for
teachers of English at TNH High School. Based on the finding, conclusion could be made on
whether oral grammar practice should be applied or not. Hence, it could be a considerable
contribution to teaching and learning English grammar effectively and enjoyablely at TNH
High School.
1.6. Outline of the study
I . Introduction
This gives an overview of the study including the study background. This provides a
brief description of the thesis topic and information related to English grammar teaching and
learning atTNH Upper Secondary School. The aims, the research questions, the scope of the
study and the outline of the minor thesis are also included in this .
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II. Literature review
This reviews the relevant literature related to the communicative language teaching
methods especially oral practice in English grammar teaching. Particularly, the focuses on
the attitude change and the application of grammar oral practice to change students’ attitudes
in learning grammar.
III. Methodology

object. In language learning, we can see students’ attitudes in their feelings and belief about
the way of acting towards the lessons,learning style, teachers and the course books.
Briefly, attitudes have three main components : affective, behavioral and cognitive. The
affective components are easily assessed by monitoring physiological signs such as heart rate
whereas the behavioral aspects may be assessed by direct observation. On the other hand, the
cognitive aspects of attitude are generally measured by interviews, survey and other
reporting methods. This study concentrates on affective and cognitive components. It relates
to students’ feelings and belief about communicative teaching as well as evaluation of
grammar learning.
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2.1.2. Attitude change
According to Hovland (1973), attitude change is a response to communication. Listeners
will keep positive attitudes if the communication is successful and interesting. Otherwise,
negative attitudes of the listeners will be formed if the communication is unccessful and
unattractive. The success of communication depends on several factors. The first of these is
the interest of the communicator of a message. To get interest, the tasks and topic are very
important. A frequent change of topic not only makes every student get something that
interests him or her sooner or later, but also helps to maintain students’ attention and
motivation. Further more, teachers should make sure that maximum language use in fact
takes place in every task. To be effective, a communicator must have credibility based on his
or her perceived knowledge of the topic, and also be considered trustworthy. The greater the
students have perceived similarly between the audience and the communicator, the greater
the communicator’s effectiveness becomes.
Hallorah (1967:60-61) states that formation and change of attitude are not two separate
things , but they are interwoven. People always adopt, relinquish and modify attitudes to fit
the ever- changing needs and interests. Simple education can’t change attitudes. Acceptance
of new attitudes depends on who presents the knowledge, how it is presented, how the
person is perceived, the credibility of the communicator, and the conditions by which the
knowledge is received.
In Sherif’s view (1975: 16) , we can understand that attitude will be changed based on