THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
Socialist Republic of Vietnam

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines

ENGLISH LANGUAGE GRAMMATICAL COMPETENCE AND
DISCOURSE COMPETENCE OF 3rd YEAR COLLEGE
STUDENTS OF THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY:
BASIS FOR INTERVENTION EXERCISES

A Dissertation Proposal
Presented to
The Faculty of Graduate School
Batangas State University
Batangas City, Philippines

In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Major in English

By:
NGUYEN THI HONG CHUYEN (JENNY)


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THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
Socialist Republic of Vietnam



BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines

Subjects of the Study.........................................................60
Data Gathering Instrument................................................62
Data Gathering Procedure.................................................64
Statistical Treatment of Data.............................................65
IV. PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
OF DATA................................................................................
V. SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, AND
RECOMMENDATION...............................................................114
Summary..........................................................................114
Conclusion.......................................................................123
Recommendations...........................................................124
BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................125
APPENDICES................................................................................132
A. Letter of Requests...................................................133
B. Questionnaires..........................................................139
C . Documentations......................................................148
CURRICULUM VITAE....................................................................154


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THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
Socialist Republic of Vietnam

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines


Level of Discourse Competence of Students in

Cohesive

Devices...............................................................................................
7.

Level of Discourse Competence of Students in

Transitional

Phrases...............................................................................................
8.

Level of Discourse Competence of Students in Coherence..............

9.

Level of Discourse Competence of Students in Connectors..............

10 Level of Discourse Competence of Students in Choice of Words
............................................................................................................
11. Validated Students’ Skills Employed in Teaching the Basic
English Course ..................................................................................
12. Students’ Skills and their Frequency of Use .....................................
13. Students’ Skills and their Degree of Importance ................................


iv

other countries where learning a foreign language is also compulsory.
Students enrolled in the English courses have either high dropped out
rates or failed students at the end of the term. This situation is true to
countries like the United States and Australia where students literally drop
out in their foreign language studies, while in countries like China, Japan
and Vietnam students either mentally withdraw or look for strategies that
will help them to learn the English language.
In the last decade, the use of English as the main foreign language
taught and employed in communication with foreigners, has dramatically
increased in Vietnam. According to the Ministry of Education, the number
of off-shore students exceeds 60,000 in Vietnam nowadays and
Vietnamese students who want to work and study abroad are increasing.


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THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
Socialist Republic of Vietnam

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines

However, English language teaching in Vietnam still utilizes the
traditional teaching model where students are taught English just for
passing examination purposes only and teachers just give lecture mainly to
help students achieve this goal. The result is that students do not have the
ability to communicate effectively with others in English. This is referred to
as dumb English or deaf English in Vietnam. Obviously students’ overall
skills are not enhanced, especially for students at the college and
university level.


tertiary institutions to teach in English in fundamental science subjects
such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and some specialized subjects in
the senior years.
It is suggested that work start at the two national universities
namely; Hanoi National University and Vietnam National University; three
regional universities such as Thai Nguyen University, Hue University and
Danang University and other pivotal universities in Vietnam with twenty
percent of the students being involved in these advanced programs. This
percentage will be increased and expanded so that finally all advanced
programs will be applied throughout the tertiary educational system.
In Vietnam, English is the most important foreign language since the
implementation of the reform and opening up policy. One of the major
goals for English teaching is to develop communicative competencies of
the learners.

It is the initial and ultimate goal of English teaching.

Communication on the other hand is considered the essence of English
teaching.


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THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
Socialist Republic of Vietnam

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines


contexts, they are then using English as a communication tool.
The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has set a target of
boosting foreign language teaching in high schools.

At the start of

Academic Year 2011-2012, students at specific schools will have to study
mathematics and information technology in English.

Despite the

significance of English language, majority of the Vietnamese students
remain handicapped in the use of English. It was even reported by the


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THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
Socialist Republic of Vietnam

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines

MOET in 2011 that English language competence of Vietnamese students
was rapidly deteriorating.
This implies that the government, in particular the education sector
can hardly address such perceived deterioration of English. It was also
reported by the MOET of Vietnam and the AETS or the American
Educational Testing Service that fifty one point seven percent (51.7%) of
Vietnamese students who graduated from college in 2009 had substandard


contributing

to

national

development

and

international communication.
Many of the students in Thai Nguyen University (TNU) system
struggle to keep up with the expectations of the school for them to
communicate in good English. For decades the university system in Thai
Nguyen worked to address the need of all students. But somehow, the
expected outcome has a very slow progress.
With this scenario, as college teacher teaching English subject in this
institution, the researcher is interested to determine the English language
grammatical and discourse competence of the Third year college students
of Thai Nguyen with the end view of proposing intervention exercises that
will enhance further their knowledge along the said competencies.

Statement of the Problem
This study is focused on determining English language grammatical
competence and discourse competence of 3rd year college students of Thai
Nguyen system.
Specifically, it sought answers to the following questions.




2.1

cohesive devices;

2.2

transitional phrases;

2.3

coherence;

2.4

connectors; and

2.5

choice of words?

How do English teacher assess the grammatical and discourse
competencies of 3rd year college students?

4. How do the respondents’ grammatical and discourse competencies
compare with English teachers’ assessments? Are there significant
relationships?
5. What innovative English language teaching intervention exercises
may be proposed to enhance students’ grammatical and discourse
competencies?

grammatical

and

discourse

competencies and English teachers’ responses, the significant differences
on students’ grammatical and discourse competencies and teachers’
responses with the end view of proposing an innovative English language
teaching strategies to enhance students’ grammatical and discourse
competencies.
The study covered the three (3) Thai Nguyen Universities in Thai
Nguyen City and made used of the 40 teachers teaching English and
300 3rd Year College students who were enrolled in the Academic Year
2013-2014.


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THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
Socialist Republic of Vietnam

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines

This study is limited from the data gathered from the above
mentioned respondents. Third year college students and English teachers
from other Thai Nguyen University systems are excluded in the study.

Significance of the Study


Through this study, parents of the third year college

students will become aware of the English performance of their children
which will make them more supportive and cooperative in school activities
specifically on the improvement of the English skills of their children.
Future researchers. This study will serve as reference for other
researchers..


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THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
Socialist Republic of Vietnam

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines

CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE

This chapter presents the relevant conceptual and research literature
which have bearing to the present study. The literatures included are found
substantial to the study and gives the necessary background to understand
the present research. Further, this chapter also includes synthesis,
theoretical and conceptual framework of the study, and definition of terms.

Conceptual Literature
The following
competencies,

The specific learning outcomes under language

competence deal with knowledge of the language and the ability to use that
knowledge to interpret and produce meaningful texts appropriate to the
situation in which they are used. Language competence is best developed


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Socialist Republic of Vietnam

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines

in the context of activities or tasks where the language is used for real
purposes

or

in

practical

applications

(www.educ.gov.nb.ca/K12cur/language).
The basis for developing language competence should be the
classroom activities which focus on meaningful uses of the language and
on language in context. As for choosing tasks, students’ needs, interests,


BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines

Competence is unaffected by grammatically irrelevant conditions like errors
in speech.
Competence as an idealized capacity is the ideal speaker-hearer
knowledge of his/her language and it is the mental reality which is
responsible for all those aspects of language use which can be
characterized as linguistic.

It was argued that only under an idealized

situation, whereby the speaker-hearer is unaffected by grammatically
irrelevant conditions such as memory limitation and distractions will
performance be a direct reflections of competence.
According to Evans et al (2006) competence is defined as grammar
or set of language rules represented mentally and manifested based on a
person’s own understanding of acceptable usage in a given linguistic
idiom. Therefore, grammatical competence defines an innate knowledge
of rules rather than knowledge of items or relation. Phillips (2010) stated
that competence is regarded as innate knowledge because one does not
have to be trained to develop it and will still be able to apply it in an infinite
number of unheard examples.
The following are included in the speakers linguistic competence
namely: phonetics which deals with the physical production and perception
of the inventory of sounds used in producing language; phonology which
refers to the mental organization of physical sounds, the patterns formed




THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
Socialist Republic of Vietnam

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines

based on the negotiation of meaning among interlocutors, which can be
applied to written or spoken modes of communication.
The four distinct elements identified in the model of communicative
competence according to Munby (1978) include linguistic encoding, socio
cultural orientation, socio semantic basis of linguistic knowledge and
discourse level of operation. In addition, there are four aspects of
competence. These are grammatical or linguistic which include knowledge
of the lexicon, syntax and semantic; sociolinguistic competence concerned
with the appropriateness of communication depending on the context
including the participants and the rules of interaction, strategic competence
which pertains to a set of strategies devised for effective communication
and put into use when communication breaks down; and discourse
competence which is concerned with cohesion and coherence of
utterances or sentences.
Six components of communicative competence were introduced by
Van Ek (1977).

Apart from linguistic, discourse, sociolinguistic and

strategic competence, social and the socio-cultural competence were
added. Bachman et al (1996) analyze the communicative ability into three
components:



competence and pragmatic competence which includes illocutionary and
sociolinguistic competence.
Socio linguistic competence is the ability to interpret the social
meaning of the choice of linguistic varieties and to use language with the
appropriate

social

meaning

for

the

communication

situation.

(www.o1/silang.lingulink).
According to Wardlaugh (2005), there are several possible
relationships between language and society and one is social structure
which may either influence or determine linguistic structure of behavior. A
second possible relationship is directly opposed to the first. Linguistic
structure, a third possible relationship viewed influence as bi-directional;
that is language and society may influence each other.
Every language as Hudson (2000) stated accommodates such
differences as a non-discrete scale or continuum of recognizably different
linguistic levels or style termed as registers and every socially native
speaker, as part of learning the language, has learned to distinguished and

appropriateness factors, cultural factors and non- verbal communication
factors. Some of these components are often neglected in ESL education,
thereby causing confusion or comprehension difficulties.
Language and culture as Alptekin (1993) emphasized is interrelated
and studying language needs to be aware of the culture of that language.
In addition, Guest (2002) explained that in culture, whether the language is
for interactive or instrumental purposes, it is better to be accompanied with
the detailed characteristics of its spoken community.
Strategic competence on the other hand is one of the three
components necessary for successful communication through language. It
refers to the speaker’s ability to adapt their use of verbal and non- verbal
language to compensate for communication problems caused by the


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Socialist Republic of Vietnam

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines

speaker’s lack of understanding of proper grammar use and insufficient
knowledge of social behavioral and communication norms.
competence

along

with


Some behaviors demonstrating strategic competence

include using synonyms to substitute for words the speaker cannot recall or
has not yet learned, resorting to physical gestures to convey meaning,
asking for clarification from the listener, raising one’s voice in order to be
heard and feigning comprehension in order to listen for context clues.
Maleki (2010) asserted that communication strategies help in
conveying unknown language between communication partners and assist
in maintaining conversational flow.

The teaching of communication

strategies is beneficial and leads to strategic competence in language
learning. Strategic competence is best gained through the use of games


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THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
Socialist Republic of Vietnam

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines

focusing on communication with or without visual support, jigsaws,
monologues, and other activities that allow for language interaction.
Moreover, the four aspects of language learning consist of listening,
speaking, writing and reading.

It is in this order that constitutes the


formation, meanings, spelling, and pronunciation. Its goal is to acquire
knowledge of, and ability to use forms of expression that are grammatically
correct and accurate. It is one of the four areas of the communicative
competence theory (Gao, 2001).
According to Diaz et al (2010) communicative competence is a
feature of a language user’s knowledge of the language that allows the
user to know when, where, and how to use language appropriately.
Grammatical competence increases in importance as the learner advances
in proficiency. Richard and Schmidt (1983) stated that since communicative
competence focuses directly on the knowledge and skill required to
understand and express accurately the literal meaning of utterances it
becomes an important concern for any second language program.
Further, features and rules of language, vocabulary, word formation,
pronunciation, sentence formation to understand and express accurately
the literal meaning of utterances comprised grammatical competence. It
also referred to as the ability to recognize and produce the distinctive
grammatical structure of a language and to use them (www. o1sil.
Orglingualinks/ what grammatical competence html). It focuses on the
necessary skills and knowledge in speaking and writing accurately. In more
advanced stages of language proficiency grammatical competence
becomes important to the English learner.