1
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am greatly indebted to so many people for the fulfillment of this study.
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude towards
my supervisor, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Long for his enthusiastic guidance, valuable
comments and suggestions on my doing thesis. Without these, my thesis would
not have been successfully completed
I am grateful to all the lecturers who have been teaching the K12 English
pedagogy course – Hung Vuong University.
I would also like to thank teachers at Cam Khe High school for having
given me the chance to work with their students and all the students
participating in my study for their enthusiastic participation in the classroom
observation and completing the survey questionnaire.
Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to my family, my
relatives and my friends for their support and encouragements during the
research process.

ABSTRACT

The target of the study is to investigate the difficulties in learning English
grammar of the grade 10 students at Cam Khe high school. The results show that
students have the following difficulties: communicative grammar obstacles
related to students’ low level of English proficiency; students’ learning style and
using mother tongue problem; teacher’s insufficient communicative
competence; teacher’s misconception about CLT and inappropriate method;
multi-level classes, current testing system and lack of class time.

Nguyễn Thị Bích Hồng – K12 English pedagogy



4. Previous studies.................................................................................................3
4.1. In the world....................................................................................................3
4.2 In Viet Nam......................................................................................................3
5. Research procedure...........................................................................................5
6. Research methods..............................................................................................5
7. Significance of the study...................................................................................6
8. Scope of the study.............................................................................................6
9. Design of the study............................................................................................6
PART B: DEVELOPMENT..................................................................................8
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW...............................................................8
1.1. Overview of grammar....................................................................................8
1.1.1. Definition of grammar.................................................................................8
1.1.2. The importance of grammar......................................................................10
1.2 An overview on language teaching methods in teaching grammar...............12
1.2.1 Deductive Approach...................................................................................13
1.2.2 Inductive Approach.....................................................................................15
1.3. CLT on teaching grammar............................................................................18
1.3.1. Communicative competence......................................................................18
1.3.2. Definition of CLT.......................................................................................18
1.3.3. Characteristics of CLT..............................................................................19
1.3.4. Stages in teaching grammar communicatively..........................................21
1.3.5 CLT techniques...........................................................................................23
1.4. Difficulties in learning English grammar communicatively........................27
1.4.1. Difficulties in learning grammar...............................................................27
1.4.1.1 Internal Problems....................................................................................27
1.4.1.2 External Problems...................................................................................27
Nguyễn Thị Bích Hồng – K12 English pedagogy


4



5
3.3.3. Organizing extra- curricular activities to enhance students’ confidence
and willingness to communicate in English........................................................53
3.3.4. Encouraging students’ participation in class activities.............................54
3.3.5. Improving students’ English proficiency...................................................54
3.3.6. Practising and revising..............................................................................55
PART C: CONCLUSION....................................................................................56
1.

Main finding................................................................................................56

2.

Implication...................................................................................................56

3.

Limitations and suggestions for further study.............................................57

APPENDIX 1: STUDENTS’ SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE................................I
APPENDIX 2: OBSERVATION CHECKLIST FORM.......................................V
APPENDIX 3: OBSERVATION FORM 1..........................................................VI
APPENDIX 4: OBSERVATION FORM 2......................................................VIII
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................X

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

 list of tables

Nowadays, English is used in a majority of countries in the world, as it is
one of the most important languages for international communication. The
economic open- door policy pursued by the government of Vietnam has
increased a demand for studying English. Many people are expected to be
competent to communicate verbally with the outside world and to access
technology. In correspondence to this trend, in almost of schools, colleges,
universities, English is a compulsory subject.
Besides the aim of passing their exams and getting some further studies for their
future life, all students have a desire to be integrated into the culture, the
civilization, and the people of English speaking countries. They expect to have a
good knowledge of English to read books and magazines, to see films or to sing
English songs, etc. As a result, learning English now is not only an interest but
also a practical need for many people.
As in other countries, teachers of English in Vietnam are now using
Communicative Approach to teach English grammar to learners of all levels.
Language learning has moved from the traditional to a more communicative
approach. In this current approach, language is considered as a form of social
behavior. The objective of language learning is to communicate fluently,
appropriately and spontaneously in the cultural context of the target language.
Communicative competence, according to Canaled and Swain (1980), is made
up of grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse
competence, and strategic competence. They hope to provide learners with a
means of communication, namely English which is vital for them to be
successful in their job and to fulfill their social demands in the time of
globalization. At Cam Khe High school, where the author studies, English is a
Nguyễn Thị Bích Hồng – K12 English pedagogy


8



9

3. Research questions
The research will find the answers for the following questions:
 What are the difficulties of the grade 10A9 students when they learn
English grammar communicatively?
 What are the solutions to improve their English grammar skill?
4. Previous studies
4.1. In the world
The study by Li Pei (2010) is a teaching experiment which aims at testing
the impact of context-based approach on teaching unreal conditional sentences
for freshmen majoring in English in Adult Education College of Soochow
University, China. The study was carried out from November 4th, 2008 to
January 7th, 2010. The data were collected via the questionnaire, the interview,
the pretest and the posttest and the final conclusion was: the use of contextbased approach helped to improve students’ awareness and attitudes towards
grammar learning and promoted students’ acquisition of English grammar
learning strategies.
4.2 In Viet Nam
The teaching of grammar has always been a central aspect of foreign
language teaching. It has been the focus of language teachers and learners for
many years. Grammar is considered to be an indispensable factor which helps
people to use its language to communicate successfully. The importance of
grammar in general and grammar teaching in particular has been highly
appreciated and has been the focus of many studies up to now. Now I can give
some studies related to my research.
The first study I want to mention is on the theme “Applying
communicative approach to grammar teaching and learning at Tran Phu gifted
high school” by the author Pham Thi Mai Anh in October, 2007. The attempts of
Nguyễn Thị Bích Hồng – K12 English pedagogy

focus on not only grammar but also on other skills in the light of CLT. Learning
grammar, the teachers encounter some certain difficulties in comparison with
Nguyễn Thị Bích Hồng – K12 English pedagogy


11

learning other skills. Being aware of this, the researcher has decided to choose
the topic on the learning of grammar for her thesis with the aim to find out the
difficulties many students encounter when learning grammar communicatively
and some possible solutions to these problems. Furthermore, up to now there
have been no studies on this topic carried out at Cam Khe High school, the
school where she had the internship. All these above mentioned reasons have
inspired her to conduct the study about “A study on students’ difficulties in
learning English grammar communicatively in class 10A9 at Cam Khe high
school and some suggested solutions”. The researcher hopes this would be taken
into consideration by the teachers at Cam Khe High school in particular and
teachers of English in general to make the periods more interesting and
motivating to students.
5. Research procedure
Firstly, reviewing the theoretical background related to grammar to get the
foundation for the study.
Secondly, the study will investigate the difficulties in learning English
grammar communicatively of the grade 10A9 students at Cam Khe high school.
Finally, the study will give some suggestions to help improve and enhance
the grammar for the grade 10A9 students.
6. Research methods
In order to accomplish this thesis systematically and adequately, some
research methods are used:
Theoretical study method: studying the related documents to give some

In this part, the researcher gives an overall introduction of the study about
rationale, research purpose, research questions, previous studies, research
procedure, research methods, significance of the study, scope of the study, and
design of the study.
Part B: MAJOR CONTENT
Chapter l: Literature review

Nguyễn Thị Bích Hồng – K12 English pedagogy


13

In this part, the study presents general information about knowledge and
deals with the theoretical background that is relevant to the purpose of the study:
grammar, different views on English grammar teaching, the factors affecting on
students’ learning grammar, the difficulties in learning English grammar
communicatively.
Chapter2: Methodology
This chapter provides detailed information about the participants of the
study and details the tool for data collection that have been used and procedure
of conducting.
Chapter3: Data analysis and discussion
This chapter shows the detailed results together with a comprehensive
analysis on the data collected from the survey questionnaires, observation and
give the discussion. Then some suggestions will be given to help the grade 10
students improve their English grammar.
Part C: CONC LUSION
This part summarizes the major finding of the study, give implication of the
study for teachers of English, for students, for researcher, lists limitation of the
study, mentions suggestion for further research, and present conclusion.

semantics; in the general sense, grammar subsumes phonology and semantics.
Thus, if viewed from a broader sense, grammar involves both form and
meaning.
By way of contrast, from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary
English (2009), grammar is defined as “the study and practice of the rules by
which words change their forms and are combined into sentences”. Sharing the
same idea, Ur (1988:4) states that “grammar may be roughly defined as the way
a language manipulates and combines words (or bit of words) in order to form
longer units of meaning”. Both definitions above refer to the morphology (word
formation) and syntax (sentence formation) of a language. Clearly, grammar is
Nguyễn Thị Bích Hồng – K12 English pedagogy


15

the element which makes up all words and structures in a sentence. It is a set of
rules which construct meaning and form of a sentence.
An alternative and more comprehensive definition of grammar is provided
by Widdowson (1988:151-2) in which grammar is viewed in terms of form,
meaning and function.
[Grammar is] “a device for indicating the most common and recurrent
aspects of meaning” [which] “formalizes the most widely applicable concepts,
the highest common factors of experience: it provides for communicative
economy”.
This definition shows a renovation in the view of grammar: grammar can
indicate meaning and grammar can communicate. Larsen-Freeman (2003)
shares her view on three dimensions of grammar teaching in which she insists
that grammar is not simply about accuracy of form but it relates to
meaningfulness and appropriateness as well. She also proposes a new definition
of grammar that “grammar(ing) is one of the dynamic linguistic processes of

According to Richards, Platt, and Weber in Nunan (2005:2) grammar is a
description of a language and the way in which units such as words and phrases
are combined to produce sentences in the language. From this definition, it
seems that grammar plays an importance role in combining units of language to
form sentences. The sentences are acceptable or grammatically if they follow the
rules of grammar. Since a communicative purpose and function of language and
reflected in grammar, it is a must the language students to acquire good
grammar. It should be admitted, good mastery in grammar will enable people
easily to express information, feeling, and ideas in their thought to others. In
other words, it can be said that communication failure will happen if people do
not master the grammar because the purpose of communication cannot be
reached. From that statement, it is clear that grammar is important to be
mastered by the students in order to be able to express their feelings, emotions,
and to be able to use English appropriately.
Ur (1988) stressed the importance of grammar in language learning and
teaching. He stated “knowledge - implicit or explicit - of grammatical rules is
essential for the mastery of a language: you cannot use words unless you know
Nguyễn Thị Bích Hồng – K12 English pedagogy


17

how they should be put together”. However, he also claims “the learning of
grammar should be seen in the long term as a whole, not as an end in itself”.
Harmer (1987) also admitted that: “There is now a general feeling that
students do need to learn how to perform the functions of language, but they
need a grammatical base as well. Modem courses often teach a grammatical
structure and then get students to use it as part of a functional conversation”.
Furthermore, as Wang (2010) mentioned, after the appearance of
communicative approach, teachers often put much emphasis on “communicative

the native speakers”.
But some people say that utility of teaching of grammar is doubtful in
learning English. They say that the students who study grammar are very often
able to solve grammar exercises but do not make correct speech.
Teaching of grammar has a very important place in the past. It is
commonly believed that to help the learners to learn English language, its
grammar must be taught first. It is also believed that without knowing and
mastering grammatical rules of English, one cannot learn to speak and write it.
Slowly it is realized that correct usages go on changing from time to time. And
as a result, grammar teaching which was regarded as an end in itself lost its
importance. However, nowadays, it is believed that grammar cannot be taught in
isolation. Widodo (2006, p.122) says that “grammar is thought to furnish the
basis for a set of language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing.” Doff
(2000), Long and Richards (1987) also gives opinion about the role of grammar
in learning language as follows:
By learning grammar, students can express meanings in the form of
phrases, clauses and sentences.
It cannot be ignored that grammar plays a central role in the four language
skills and vocabulary to establish communicative tasks.
(cited in Widodo,2006,p.122)
Now, we consider the approaches for teaching English grammar.
Many linguists give the same idea about the approaches for teaching
English grammar. As Richards (2006, p.6) points out, grammar has an important
Nguyễn Thị Bích Hồng – K12 English pedagogy


19

place in traditional approaches. It is considered as the basis of language
proficiency. In traditional approaches, grammar is assumed to be learnt through


short, involve students’ comprehension and allow learners to have a chance to
personalize the rule.
Table 2: Advantages and disadvantages of the deductive approach to
teaching Grammar
1. The deductive approach goes straightforwardly to the
point and can, therefore, be time-saving.
2. A number of rule aspects (for example, form) can be
more simply and clearly explained than elicited from examples

Advantages

3. A number of direct practice/application examples are
immediately given.
4. The deductive approach respects the intelligence and
maturity of many adult learners in particular and acknowledges
the role of cognitive processes in language acquisition.
5. It confirms many learners‟ expectations about
classroom learning particularly for those who have an analytical
style.
1. Beginning the lesson with a grammar presentation may
be off-putting for some learners, especially younger ones.
2. Younger learners may not able to understand the
concepts or encounter grammar terminology given.

3. Grammar explanation encourages a teacher-fronted,
transmission-style classroom, so it will hinder learner
Disadvantages involvement and interaction immediately.
4. The explanation is seldom as memorable as other
forms of presentation (for example, demonstration).

advantages and disadvantages of deductive approach and inductive one.

Nguyễn Thị Bích Hồng – K12 English pedagogy


22

Table 2: Advantages and disadvantages of the inductive approach to
teaching Grammar
1. Learners are trained to be familiar with the rule discovery; this
could enhance learning autonomy and self-reliance.
2. Learners’ greater degree of cognitive depth is “exploited”.
3. The learners are more active in the learning process, rather
than being simply passive recipients. In this activity, they will be
motivated.
4. The approach involves learners‟ pattern-recognition and
Advantages

problem solving abilities in which particular learners are
interested in this challenge.
5. If the problem-solving activity is done collaboratively,
learners get an opportunity for extra language practice.
1. The approach is time and energy-consuming as it leads
learners to have the appropriate concept of the rule.
2. The concepts given implicitly may lead the learners to have

Disadvantag
e

the wrong concepts of the rule taught.

with native speakers and classmates. In this constant search to innovate and
make classes dynamic and inspiring, two teaching strategies will be mentioned:
the communicative strategy and the explicit strategy.
Of the two approaches above, which is best? This question relates to a
long-standing debate among language teachers in the context of English foreign
language, since the two have their own significance for particular learner
progress. For example, a study of various language learners shows that some
learners achieve better in deductive language classes; on the other hand, others
perform better in more inductive classes. This difference in cognitive styles may
be associated with different neurological mechanisms in learners (Eisenstein,
1987). Whether grammatical rules are taught inductively or deductively relies
upon certain structures, since some are more amenable to a deductive approach,
while others can be learned very well by an inductive approach.
To sum up, both deductive and inductive presentations can successfully be
applied depending on the cognitive style of the learner and the language
structure presented (Eisenstein, 1987; Brown, 2007).

Nguyễn Thị Bích Hồng – K12 English pedagogy


24

1.3. CLT on teaching grammar
1.3.1. Communicative competence
Communicative competence is now recognized as the primary goal of
language teaching. Canale and Swain (1980) consider that communicative
competence is made up of four factors namely grammatical competence,
sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence.
Grammatical competence includes a comprehension of linguistic code, the
ability to recognize the lexical, morphological, syntactic and phonological

they include functional skills as well as linguistic objectives. The learners’ role
is as a negotiator and integrator. The teacher’s role is as facilitator of the
communication process. Materials promote communicative language use; they
are task- based and authentic.
According to Brinley (1986: 12), “Language is not a static system. It is
created through interaction; language learning does not consist merely of
internalizing a list of structural items. It is a process of learning how to negotiate
meaning in a particular socio- cultural context. Consideration of meaning rather
than form will therefore determine program content; language learning will be
more effective if they are centered on the needs and interests of the learners;
Language learning materials should, similarly, be related to learners’ needs and
interests and present learners with the opportunity for genuine communication;
effective communication is more than structures accuracy, particularly at the
beginning stages of language learning. Errors are a manifestation of the fact that
learning is taking place.”
1.3.3. Characteristics of CLT
In CLT, meaning is paramount. Wilkins (1972) classifies meaning into
notional and functional categories and views learning a second language as
acquiring the linguistic means to perform different kinds of functions. According
to Larsen- Freeman (1986:132), the most obvious characteristic of CLT is that
“Almost everything that is done with communicative intent”. Students use the

Nguyễn Thị Bích Hồng – K12 English pedagogy