Tài liệu A study of the effects of teaching grammar in ngo may secondary school based on deductive approach versus inductive approach = nghiên cứu về hiệu quả của việc sử dụng phương pháp diễn dịch và phương pháp quy nạp trong việ

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY NGUYEN VO BICH THUY A STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF TEACHING GRAMMAR IN NGO MAY SECONDARY SCHOOL BASED ON DEDUCTIVE APPROACH VERSUS INDUCTIVE APPROACH Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code: 8140111 Supervisor: Truong Van Dinh, Ph.D. BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN NGUYEN VO BICH THUY NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ HIỆU QUẢ CỦA VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHƢƠNG PHÁP DIỄN DỊCH VÀ PHƢƠNG PHÁP QUY NẠP TRONG VIỆC GIẢNG DẠY NGỮ PHÁP TẠI TRƢỜNG THCS NGÔ MÂY Ngành: Lý luận và phƣơng pháp dạy học bộ môn tiếng Anh Mã số: 8140111 Ngƣời hƣớng dẫn: TS. TRƢƠNG VĂN ĐỊNH i DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP The thesis entitled “A Study of the Effects of Teaching Grammar based on Deductive Approach versus Inductive Approach” is conducted under the supervision of Ph.D. Truong Van Dinh, a lecturer working at Quy Nhon University. I declare that the information reported in this study is the result of my own work and effort, except where due reference is made. The thesis has not been accepted for any degree and is not simultaneously submitted to any candidature for any degree or diploma. Binh Dinh, August 2022 Nguyen Vo Bich Thuy ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Without the support, encouragement, and contributions from my Ph.D. Truong Van Dinh, colleagues, friends and family, the successful completion of this study work would not have been possible. I take this chance to appreciate them for their useful advice and invaluable comments, and time. They have always been by my side and helped me enriched my knowledge and made my master thesis graduate journey a memorable chapter in my life. First and foremost, I am grateful to my supervisor, Ph.D. Truong Van Dinh, for his amazing supervision. His knowledge and profession teachingrelated expertise inspired me greatly during my studying at Quy Nhon University, and he opened new horizons for me in every field. I profoundly appreciate his accommodating guidelines and suggestions, great patience, and strong management skills in helping me resolve the obstacles whenever I had difficulties in my thesis. I am very lucky to have had him support me for my work. This study was made achievable by the presence of the enthusiastic students at Ngo May Secondary School in Quy Nhon City, who devoted their time taking part in this study. I was also thankful to my colleagues for their fascinating assistance, encouragement and management during this phase. I feel fortunate to know all of them. Last but not least, I am grateful to all the support that I received from my beloved parents throughout my thesis education. iii ABSTRACT The present research seeks to investigate the effectiveness of English grammar teaching to language users in EFL classrooms. In Vietnam, English in general and grammar in particular has been taught deductively or inductively depending on students’ needs, interests, attitudes and motivation. To be more precise, the study has explored the effectiveness towards inductive and deductive approaches to English grammar teaching held by 135 students in Ngo May Secondary School. The instruments for data collection to serve the aim of the study are a survey questionnaire, a proficiency test and an achievement test. Moreover, the objective of this research is to get empirical data of the differences between students’ scores on grammar tests who were taught inductively and deductively. The research method used in this research was a quantitative method using quasi-experimental design. The data was collected through pre-test and post-test. After a careful long time of collecting and analyzing the data, it is revealed in the research that the students’ performances in deductive class is better than the inductive one despite the students’ improvement of grammar retention. Additionally, through the different instruments such as questionnaires for students, class observation the underlying reasons for the above problems have been revealed. Last but not least, the researcher also offers some pedagogical suggestions that emerged from the research findings with the hope to bring about some changes and progresses in English grammar teaching for the sake of effective grammar learning on the students’ learning process. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP ......................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...........................................................................................ii ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................vii LIST OF FIGURES.................................................................................................... ix LIST OF ABBREVIATION ....................................................................................... x CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................... 1 1.1. Rationale .......................................................................................................... 1 1.2. Aim and Objectives ......................................................................................... 5 1.2.1. Aim of the Study .................................................................................... 5 1.2.2. Objectives of the Study .......................................................................... 5 1.3. Research Questions .......................................................................................... 5 1.4. Scope of the Study ........................................................................................... 5 1.5. Significance of the Study ................................................................................. 6 1.6. Structure of the Thesis ..................................................................................... 6 CHAPTER 2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW . 8 2.1. Importance of Grammar in Teaching Foreign Languages............................... 8 2.1.1. Definition of Grammar........................................................................... 8 2.1.2. Types of Grammar ............................................................................... 11 2.2. Theories of Language Learning ..................................................................... 15 2.2.1. Krashen’s viewpoint regarding the role of grammar ........................... 18 2.2.2. Monitor Hypothesis.............................................................................. 19 2.2.3. Role of grammar in EFL contexts ........................................................ 20 2.3. Approaches to Grammar Teaching ................................................................ 21 2.3.1. Learning Grammar ............................................................................... 21 2.3.2. Two main approaches to Grammar Teaching ...................................... 21 2.3.3. Previous studies on Deductive versus Inductive Grammar Learning .. 28 2.3.4. Researches into effectiveness of Inductive and Deductive teaching ... 33 v 2.4. The knowledge gap in the literature .............................................................. 34 CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................ 36 3.1. Research Design ............................................................................................ 36 3.2. Variables ........................................................................................................ 37 3.3. Research Entrance Test .................................................................................. 38 3.4. Research Setting and Participants .................................................................. 39 3.4.1. Research Setting ................................................................................... 39 3.4.2. Participants ........................................................................................... 39 3.5. Quasi-experiment ........................................................................................... 40 3.6. Research Instruments ..................................................................................... 41 3.6.1. Pre-post test .......................................................................................... 41 3.6.2. Questionnaire ....................................................................................... 45 3.7. Procedures of the Study ................................................................................. 46 CHAPTER 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION....................................................... 49 4.1. Description of Data ........................................................................................ 49 4.2. Pre-post-tests .................................................................................................. 49 4.2.1. Pre-test Scores ...................................................................................... 50 4.2.2. Treatment ............................................................................................. 58 4.2.3. Post-test Scores .................................................................................... 60 4.3. Effective Approach in Teaching Grammar.................................................... 67 4.4. Results of questionnaire ................................................................................. 71 4.4.1. Learning the grammatical rules helps me produce grammatically correct sentences ............................................................................................ 73 4.4.2. I believe that I can improve my grammatical accuracy through practice of grammatical structures ............................................................................... 74 4.4.3. Sometimes I have difficulties in producing language in a natural conversation because I focus largely on correct use of grammar .................. 76 4.4.4. I need to know the structural pattern and its function before I can use it proficiently ..................................................................................................... 77 4.4.5. I expect my teacher to present and explain grammatical points .......... 79 4.4.6. Learning grammatical rules is very useful for me ............................... 80 vi 4.4.7. I feel insecure when the teacher does not explain the grammatical rules81 4.5. Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 82 CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS ........................................... 84 5.1. Summary of the Study ................................................................................... 84 5.2. Significance of the findings ........................................................................... 88 5.3. Teaching implications .................................................................................... 89 5.3.1. Implication for EFL teachers ............................................................... 89 5.3.2. Implication for different types of learners ........................................... 90 5.4. Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research ........................................ 90 5.4.1. Limitations of Deductive Approach ..................................................... 91 5.4.2. Limitations of Inductive Approach ...................................................... 91 5.4.3. Suggestions for further research .......................................................... 91 REFERENCES .......................................................................................................... 93 APPENDICES vii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Deductive Approach (Widodo, 2006) ........................................................................................ 24 Table 2.2. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Inductive Approach (Widodo, 2006) ......................................................................................................... 26 Table 2.3. The relationship between two types of grammar instruction (Krashen, 1993)........................................................................................ 19 Table 3.1. Means of classes in Ngo May Secondary School ................................... 38 Table 3.2. Number of participants .............................................................................. 40 Table 3.3. The Reliability of the Pre-post Tests ........................................................ 44 Table 3.4. The Reliability of Questionnaire .............................................................. 46 Table 3.5. Conversion of the Actual Score into a Five Scale Score........................ 48 Table 4.1. Group statistics of pre-test results of Experimental and Control Group .......................................................................................... 51 Table 4.2. Difference of Level between Inductive class and Deductive class before Intervention................................................................................... 53 Table 4.3. Group statistics of pre-test results of Experimental Group .................... 53 Table 4.4. Independent samples T-test of the Inductive and Deductive Classes before the treatment ................................................................................. 54 Table 4.5. The percentage of frequency Pre-test score of Deductive class ............ 55 Table 4.6. The percentage of frequency Pre-test score of Inductive class .............. 56 Table 4.7. The percentage of frequency Pre-test score of Control Group .............. 57 Table 4.8. Group statistics of Post-test result of Experimental and Control Group .......................................................................................... 61 Table 4.9. Group statistics of Post-test result of Experimental Group .................... 62 Table 4.10. Independent samples T-test of the Inductive and Deductive Classes after the treatment .................................................................................... 63 Table 4.11. The percentage of frequency Post-test score of Deductive class......... 64 viii Table 4.12. The percentage of frequency Post-test score of Inductive class .......... 65 Table 4.13. The percentage of frequency Post-test score of Control Group .......... 66 Table 4.14. Descriptive statistics of Post-test in Control Group and Experimental Group ................................................................................ 67 Table 4.15. The comparison of mean of Pre-test and Post-test in Control Group and Experimental Group ......................................................................... 68 Table 4.16. Descriptive statistics of Post-test in Inductive Class and Deductive Class .......................................................................................................... 69 Table 4.17. The comparison of mean of Pre-test and Post-test in Experimental Group ........................................................................................................ 69 Table 4.18. The reliability statistics of Questionnaire .............................................. 72 Table 4.19. Learning the grammatical rules helps me produce grammatically correct sentences ...................................................................................... 74 Table 4.20. I believe that I can improve my grammatical accuracy through practice of grammatical structures ........................................... 75 Table 4.21. Sometimes I have difficulties in producing language in a natural conversation because I focus largely on correct use of grammar ....... 77 Table 4.22. I need to know the structural pattern and its function before I can use it proficiently ................................................................ 78 Table 4.23. I expect my teacher to present and explain grammatical points .......... 79 Table 4.24. Learning grammatical rules is very useful for me ................................ 81 Table 4.25. I feel insecure when the teacher does not explain the grammatical rules ........................................................................................................... 82 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1. Dirven’s distinction between pedagogical and descriptive grammar .. 14 Figure 2.2. The system of Interlanguage (Lary Selinker, 1972) ................................ 17 Figure 4.1. Histogram of Control Pre-test Score ........................................................... 52 Figure 4.2. Histogram of Experimental Pre-test Score ................................................ 52 Figure 4.3. Frequency Distribution Pre-test Score of Deductive Class .................... 55 Figure 4.4. Frequency Distribution Pre-test Score of Inductive class....................... 56 Figure 4.5. Frequency Distribution Pre-test Score of Control Group ....................... 57 Figure 4.6. Inductive Approach of rules .......................................................................... 59 Figure 4.7. Deductive approach of rules .......................................................................... 60 Figure 4.8. Histogram of Control Post-test Score.......................................................... 61 Figure 4.9. Histogram of Experimental Post-test Score............................................... 63 Figure 4.10. Frequency Distribution Post-test score of Deductive Class................. 65 Figure 4.11. Frequency Distribution Post-test score of Inductive Class .................. 66 Figure 4.12. Frequency Distribution Post-test score of Control Group.................... 67 Figure 4.13. Gender .............................................................................................................. 71 Figure 4.14. Learning the grammatical rules helps me produce grammatically correct sentences ............................................................................................. 73 Figure 4.15. I believe that I can improve my grammatical accuracy through practice of grammatical structures............................................... 74 Figure 4.16. Sometimes I have difficulties in producing language in a natural conversation because I focus largely on correct use of grammar ........ 76 Figure 4.17. I need to know the structural pattern and its function before I can use it proficiently...................................................................... 77 Figure 4.18. I expect my teacher to present and explain grammatical points.................................................................................................................. 79 Figure 4.19. Learning grammatical rules is very useful for me ................................. 80 Figure 4.20. I feel insecure when the teacher does not explain the grammatical rules .................................................................................................................... 81 x LIST OF ABBREVIATION EFL : English as Foreign Language FOF : Focus on Form BAAL : The British Association for Applied Linguistics 1 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION Chapter 1 introduces the rationale underlying this current study. The chapter includes six main parts: the Rationale, the Aims and the Objectives of the Study, Research Questions, the Scope of the Study, the Significance of the Study, and the Organization of the Study. 1.1. Rationale English, an international language which is used by many people all over the world, is the target language which is taught in most schools in Vietnam and is used to be mean of communicate among nations either in spoken or written form. It is also considered as one of the requisite languages in the world and is crucial to learn, especially for young learners. It can be used in giving or receiving information as well as for advancement of education, technology and arts. It is also necessary for parents to prepare their child to study English as soon as possible since their brain is ready for learning and most of them have abilities to memorize well from a very early age. Throughout the history of second language and foreign language, both grammar and grammar teaching have always been at the center of methodological discussion in teaching English. Many scholars have been conducting their research on the importance of the teaching and learning of grammar. Most of them share the view that the role of grammar and teaching grammar are essential parts in language learning. Brown (1994) stated that the teaching of grammar besides vocabularies should be a central aspect of foreign language teaching. With the rise of communicative methodology in the late 1970s, the role of grammar instruction was restrained, and it was even believed that teaching grammar was not only helpless but also detrimental. Nonetheless, recent research has demonstrated the need for formal instructions for learners to 2 achieve high levels of accuracy, which is one important constituent of language proficiency. Additionally, it is necessary for students to learn grammar so that they can understand English as a second language. According to Widodo (2006), grammar has its own superiority in language learning, especially in English as a foreign language. Having good knowledge of grammar is important in order to have the ability to communicate successfully. In other words, improper use of grammar will not convey meaningful messages. These days, when learners study a new language like English, the foremost spoken language for non-native speakers around the world, it is essential for them to consider it as the most international language since it is the language of education, technology, science, and other fields. While in the process of acquiring the native language, people intuitively adopt the descriptive linguistics of the language through daily conversations, target language learners have to make much efforts to master the grammatical aspects of the language. Also, it is the fact that classroom instruction in grammar might have an influence on the second language competence. Brown (1994) lays an emphasis on the teaching of grammar beside vocabulary as a crucial aspect of foreign language teaching, notably on English. It is also one of the most difficult and contentious sides of language teaching. Thus, many works have been done on the importance and requisite of the teaching and learning of grammar. Most recent papers have demonstrated the necessity of formal instructions for learners to accomplish high levels of accuracy, which is one of the necessary factors which lead to language acquisition. This has led to the resurrection of teaching grammar, in order that its role in second or foreign language learning has become the center of attention in several current studies. Therefore, the approaches used to teach grammar turn out to be more arguable 3 and debatable. Morelli (2003) discovers that “Grammar can be taught traditionally or contextually, but students’ perception should be considered by teachers in the decision-making process”. (p.72). Ur (2012) emphasizes that “Grammar does not only affect how units of language are combined in order to ‘look right’; it also affects their meaning”. Although some language scholars believe that for foreign language learners, meaning should be more emphasized than the form and instructors should teach only vocabulary in order to convey meaning and for communication, others suppose that being proficient at the grammatical structures of a specific language is imperative because grammatical competence is widely acknowledged equal to being fluent in communicative skills. Needless to say, grammar provides learners with a pathway to explain how lexical items are combined together, so that meaningful utterances can be formed. In the case of grammar, apparently, different teachers might have appropriate methods for teaching grammar based on their experience. Some can conduct it inductively whereas others do it deductively. Ellis (2006) states that: Grammar teaching involves any instructional technique that draws learners’ attention to some specific grammatical form in such a way that it helps them either to understand it meta linguistically and/ or process it in comprehension and/ or production so that they can internalize it. (p.84) Teaching English to Secondary School students is not the same as teaching English at higher level. They still prefer playing to paying serious attention to their studying. Educating children is different from teaching adults as they have different characteristics and different motivations. According to Harmer (2007), he says that young children especially those up to the ages of thirteen or fourteen, learn differently from older 4 children, adolescent and adults1. A teacher plays a significant role because it is important for him/ her to give a very basic introduction to the students of the first foreign language. Consequently, in order to make English teaching be successful, we have to consider some factors such as the quality of teacher, students’ interest and their motivation, the materials used and the others. All of them are engaged in a teaching and learning process. Nevertheless, it can be seen that English in both teaching and learning has traditionally been dominated by a Grammar – Translation method. Though, very little research has been conducted with regard to teachers’ observation and actual practices regarding grammar, especially at the secondary or high schools where English is one of the compulsory subjects and grammar is a must in language classrooms. Hence, it comes to be an indispensable issue to do research. Besides, these two Inductive and Deductive approaches seem to be more associated with the communicative approach, which has currently been advocated in Vietnam. What’s more, there has been an absence of studies of the attitudes’ learners from secondary school towards English grammar instruction, and there is no paper conducted on this issue in Ngo May Secondary School. Owing to these reasons, the author has decided to conduct this paper research “A Study of the Effects of Teaching Grammar based on Deductive Approach versus Inductive Approach”. This will make contributions to investigating the effect of using two approaches, inductive and deductive, on students’ performance in grammar and their attitudes towards teaching English as a foreign language, which means a comparison of these two ways will be mainly conducted based on effectiveness of students’ fluency. 1 Harmer, J. 2004. The practice of English language teaching. Essex: Longman Press. (p.82) 5 1.2. Aim and Objectives 1.2.1. Aim of the Study This study was carried out + to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching grammar with modified inductive approach in comparison with the traditional, deductive one. 1.2.2. Objectives of the Study In order to achieve this aim, the author tries to fulfill the following objectives: + to investigate the current state of teaching grammar to students at secondary school students. + to explore the effects of teaching grammar to secondary school students with two approaches. + to examine the effectiveness of teaching grammar to secondary school students with deductive and inductive approach. 1.3. Research Questions The study tries to answer these following questions 1. To what extent are the effects of teaching grammar to secondary school students with deductive approach (DA)? 2. To what extent are the effects of teaching grammar to secondary school students with inductive approach (IA)? 3. How do secondary school students perceive their learning of English grammar through the use of inductive and deductive approaches? 1.4. Scope of the Study The study focuses only on identifying the effectiveness of the two methods, deductive and inductive of teaching grammar and does not deal with the two following aspects: Firstly, the researcher observed and evaluated only a number of lessons such as tense, conditional sentences, countable and uncountable nouns and 6 articles due to the big scale of grammatical structures that this research initially proposed to implement. It was not possible to cover all the grammatical structures within four weeks as students needs to develop all skills for their coming exam. As a result, the grammatical structures which were selected to be taught mainly related to grammar tenses, conditional sentences followed by articles. Secondly, the author is fully aware that the following parameters such as age, sex and attitude are important because they affect students’ learning capabilities, but due to the limited time and research competence, they are beyond the scope of this study. 1.5. Significance of the Study Theoretically, this study highlights the necessity of implementing Deductive and Inductive approaches to teaching at school and contributes to the perfection of the study of the methods of teaching a specific area of language teaching. Practically, this study states a comprehensive point of view about the Deductive and Inductive Approaches to teaching grammar so that teachers can manipulate the two approaches in their teaching of grammar. In addition to this, students can learn English grammar with the two different approaches more effectively. 1.6. Structure of the Thesis The thesis consists of five chapters: The first chapter, Introduction, consisting of rationale, aims, objectives, significance and organization of the study, introduces the reason for choosing this research and provides readers with an overall look on the study. Then it presents the purpose and the significance of the study. Finally, it describes the organization of the study. The second chapter, Theoretical Background and Literature Review, 7 briefly presents the previous studies on Grammar, and two teaching methods that have been conducted by other researchers. The third chapter, Methodology and Procedures, handles the aims of the study, research design, research method as well as research questions. Firstly, it presents the research questions and the hypotheses of the present study. Secondly, it describes the research design and the participants of the study. Thirdly, it introduces the research instruments used to collect data for the study and the materials used for the intervention in detail. Lastly, this chapter will come to an end with the procedure to conduct the study and the methods of data analysis. The fourth chapter, Findings and Discussion, presents the findings based on the results of the data analysis. First of all, the reliability of the instruments is introduced. Next, the reliability of the sample is shown. Then, the results collected from the tests will be analyzed. Finally, the data of the face-to-face semi-structured interviews will be analyzed in order to give more explanations for the findings of the study. The last chapter, Conclusions, summarizes the conclusions drawn from the study of the effects of teaching grammar based on Deductive Approach versus Inductive Approach. 8 CHAPTER 2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of using Deductive and Inductive approaches to teach grammar. It reviews the literature knowledge related to previous studies on using two methods in assessing language learning. 2.1. Importance of Grammar in Teaching Foreign Languages 2.1.1. Definition of Grammar Learners might face a number of problems when they learn a language. For instance, they commonly have to deal with the complicated rules of the language or the inappropriate performance of strategies from their schools. Specifically, they often do not know what to pay attention to; therefore, there might be a tendency that the discrepancy frequently occurs between students and their teachers on the use of Grammar resulting in negative effects. One of the first people who did research on Grammar-based teaching, Krashen (1981) points out that: Grammar instruction played no role in acquisition, a view based on the conviction that learners (including classroom learners) would automatically proceed along their built-in syllabus as long as they had access to comprehensible input and were sufficiently motivated. Grammar instruction could contribute to learning but this was of limited value because communicative ability was dependent on acquisition. (p.85) Sharing this view, Harmer (1987) adds: Without some understanding of grammar, students would not be able to do anything more than utter separate items of language for separate functions. The expression of functional language is only possible