Tài liệu Motivating english learners to learn grammar an action research at national university of civil engineering

m MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI UNIVERSITY NGUYEN QUYNH GIANG MOTIVATING ENGLISH LEARNERS TO LEARN GRAMMAR: AN ACTION RESEARCH AT NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING Submitted in partial fulfillment o f the requirements of the degree o f master in TESOL S U P E R V IS O R : N G U Y E N T H A I H A , M .E D fp = = = = ~ = TRUNG TAM < £ £ ) THONG TIN THƯVIỆN jễ t NN-VH NƯỚC IJGOAl ^ mv Hanoi October, 2009 m STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that the thesis entitled "M otivating English learners to learn grammar: An Action Research at National University o f Civil Engineering” and submitted in partial fulfillment o f the requirements for the degree o f M aster o f Arts in TESOL is the result o f my work, except where otherwise acknowledged, and that this thesis or any part o f the same has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other university or institution. The research reported in this thesis was approved by Hanoi University. Signed: Dated: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First o f all, I would like to express my deepest thank to all my lecturers at Hanoi University during my M.A course, to the organizers o f this master course, and Dr. Vu Van Dai, Head o f Department o f Postgraduate Studies, Hanoi University for all their help, encouragement and priceless support, w ithout which I would have never been able to complete this thesis. My great gratitude is sent to my thesis supervisor, Ms. Nguyen Thai Ha, for her valuable comments and instructions, her considerate assistance, criticism, her kind encouragement and correction, without which I would find it difficult to complete my dissertation. I would like to express my appreciation to the administrators and m y colleagues o f English Division at National University o f Civil Engineering for their constant support, encouragement and concern while the work was in progress. My special thanks are also for my students, class 53TL1, National U niversity o f Civil Engineering, who have helped me to collect data for this study. Last but not least, I wish to say thank you to my family for their love, care and tolerance that encourage me a lot in completing this study. ABSTRACT In an attempt to change students’ attitudes in the grammar lessons at National University o f Civil Engineering (NUCE), the research aims to find out: (1) W hy aren’t students interested in gram m ar lessons? (2) W hat should be done to motivate students? (3) Do the suggested solutions (oral gram m ar practice activitites) work? To find out the answers to these questions, an action research was carried out. The subjects o f the study were 44 students from class 53TL1 o f NUCE. They were invited to complete survey questionnaires. It was revealed that m ost o f the students did not like the grammar lessons. The initial data also showed that the causes o f this problem were that students w eren’t interested in written practice activities. These lead to the assumption that the practice activities were not appropriate. Based on the findings, the hypothesis o f the study was formed: “Providing students with oral practice activities will increase students' motivation in gram m ar lessons.” An action plan which applied the know ledge gained from the literature review was implemented. Oral practice activities including drills, inform ation-gap tasks and games were used in the trial lessons. After the trial lessons o f the action plan, an answer to the hypothesis was found. Findings indicate that students have positive attitudes towards the use o f oral gram m ar practice. Especially, they rem ark this new way o f teaching helps students acquire the gram m ar m ore efficiently. The use o f com municative activities in teaching gram m ar may be feasible solution for students at NUCE. Based on the findings o f this study, some practical recom m endations are derived for the application o f communicative activities to help teachers with their gram m ar teaching better. It is also hoped that the result o f this study will provide a suggested way o f teaching, thanks to it, students at N U CE will be more interested in learning grammar to gain the best results. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative Language Teaching ESP: English for Specific purposes GE: General English NUCE: National University o f Civil Engineering T: Teacher Ss: Students iv LIST OF GRAPHS AND TABLES Chart 1: Students’ attitudes towards English gram m ar learning Chart 2: Students’ purpose in learning gram m ar Chart 3.1; chart 3.2 and chart 3.3: Students’ attitudes towards gramm ar lessons and the reasons for students’ attitudes Chart 4: Students’ preference to ways o f gram m ar teaching Chart 5.1; 5.2; 5.3; 5.4 and 5.5: Students’ attitudes towards some gram m ar written practice activities Chart 6.1; 6.2 and 6.3: The reasons for students’ attitudes towards gram m ar written practice activities Chart 7.1; 7.2 and 7.3: Students’ attitudes towards gram m ar lessons and the reasons for students’ attitudes after the application o f oral gram m ar practice activities Chart 8: Students’ preference to gram m ar practice activities in general Chart 9.1; 9.2; 9.3; 9.4 and 9.5: Students’ attitudes towards some gram m ar oral practice activities Chart 10.1; 10.2 and 10.3: The reasons for students’ attitudes towards gram m ar oral practice activities v TABLE OF CONTENTS S T A T E M E N T O F A U T H O R S H I P ................................................................................................................................................... I A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S ......................................................................................................................................................................II A B S T R A C T ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... III L I S T O F A B B R E V I A T I O N S ................................................................................................................................................................IV L I S T O F G R A P H S A N D T A B L E S ..................................................................................................................................................... V T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S ......................................................................................................................................................................... V I C H A P T E R 1: I N T R O D U C T I O N ..........................................................................................................................................................1 1.1. B a c k g r o u n d 1.2. A to the s t u d y .........................................................................................................................................................1 im s o f t h e s t u d y a n d r e s e a r c h q u e s t i o n s ................................................................................................................3 1.3. S c o p e a n d s ig n i f i c a n c e o f t h e s t u d y 1.4. O r g a n i z a t io n ...............................................................................................................................3 o f t h e t h e s i s .....................................................................................................................................................3 C H A P T E R 2 : L I T E R A T U R E R E V I E W ........................................................................................................................................ 5 2.1 M o t i v a t i o n ............................................................................................................................................................................................5 2.1.1 Definitions o f motivation....................................................................................................................... 5 2.1.2 Role o f motivation in language learning............................................................................................. 6 2 .2 . G e n e r a l v ie w o n g r a m m a r a n d g r a m m a r t e a c h i n g ............................................................................................ 8 2.2.1. An overview o f Communicative Language Teaching (C LT)........................................................... 8 2.2.2. Phases in teaching grammar............................................................................................................. 10 2 .3 . O r a l g r a m m a r p r a c t i c e .......................................................................................................................................................... 11 2.3.1. Definition o f oral grammar practice.................................................................................................11 2.3.2. Classification o f oral practice activities in learning grammar.....................................................12 2 .4 . P r e v i o u s s t u d i e s ............................................................................................................................................................................2 7 C H A P T E R 3 : M E T H O D O L O G Y .................................................................................................................................................... 3 0 3 .1 . A c t io n r e s e a r c h .......................................................................................................................................................................... 3 0 3 .2 . P r o c e d u r e s o f t h e a c t i o n r e s e a r c h .............................................................................................................................31 3.2.1. Planning............................................................................................................................................... 31 3.2.2. Action................................................................................................................................................... 32 3.2.3. Observation......................................................................................................................................... 32 3.2.4. Reflection.............................................................................................................................................33 3 .3 . D e s c r ip t io n o f t h e s u b j e c t s ................................................................................................................................................ 33 The students................................................................................................................................................... 33 3 .4 . D e s c r ip t io n o f d a t a c o l l e c t io n i n s t r u m e n t .........................................................................................................33 Questionnaire................................................................................................................................................. 33 VI CHAPTER 4. DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIO N................................................................................. 36 4 .1 . D a t a c o l l e c t e d b e f o r e a c t i o n p l a n ............................................................................................................................... 3 6 4.1.1. Students ’ attitudes towards English grammar learning................................................................. 36 4.1.2. Students ’purpose in learning grammar............................................................................................ 37 4.1.3. Students ' attitudes towards grammar lessons.................................................................................. 38 4.1.4. Students 'preference to ways o f grammar teaching........................................................................ 41 4.1.5. Students ’ attitudes towards some written grammar practice activities........................................ 42 4.1.6. The reasons fo r students ’ attitudes towards written grammar practice activities.....................46 4 .2 . F i n d i n g s f r o m t h e i n i t i a l r e s u l t s .................................................................................................................................... 4 9 4 .3 . P l a n o f a c t i o n ...................................................................................................................................................................................4 9 4.3.1. The aim o f the action plan................................................................................................................... 49 4.3.2. The action plan procedures................................................................................................................. 49 4 .4 . R e s u l t s f r o m p o s t - t r e a t m e n t q u e s t i o n n a i r e ........................................................................................................5 0 4.4.1. Students’ attitudes towards grammar lessons..................................................................................50 4.4.2. Students ’preference to grammar practice activities in general...................................................53 4.4.3. Students ’ attitudes towards some oral grammar practice activities............................................ 54 4.4.4. The reasons fo r students’ attitudes towards oral grammar practice activities..........................58 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................. 61 5 .1 . M a j o r f i n d i n g s a n d r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s ......................................................................................................................... 61 5 .2 . C o n c l u s i o n ..........................................................................................................................................................................................6 2 REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................................................65 APPENDIX 1: A SAMPLE LESSON P L A N ....................................................................................................68 APPENDIX 2: GRAMMAR ACTIVITIES USED IN THE SAMPLE LESSO N...................................71 APPENDIX 3: LEARNER QUESTIONNAIRE..............................................................................................74 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter contains 4 sections. The first section will be the background of the study. Aims of the study and research questions are in the second section. The third section is scope and significance of the study. Organization of the thesis is presented in the last section. 1.1. Background to the study The place o f grammar in the teaching of English is considered bone o f a body because of the fact that grammar is sometimes defined as the way words are put together to make correct sentences (Harmer, 1991). According to Ur ( l 988, p.4) “There is no doubt that a knowledge of grammatical rules is essential for the mastery o f a language. You cannot use words unless you know how they should be put together”. So teachers, after their grammar presentation, usually ask learners to practice so that they can understand grammar structures. The aim o f grammar practice is to get learners to learn the structures so thoroughly that they will be able to produce them correctly on their own. At National University of Civil Engineering (NUCE), English is taught as a compulsory subject for all students o f all faculties. Because o f job characteristics o f an engineer, students of NUCE are equipped English as a tool so that they can read and understand specific documents about constructions. For this reason, the English program in NUCE focuses on teaching English grammar in order to help students understand English documents used at their jobs. Lifelines Pre-Intermediate (Hutchinson, 1998) and English for architecture and building construction (Cumming, 1997) are English textbooks used at NUCE. Our students have to learn English for 3 semesters (equals 210 periods) including 2 semesters of general English (GE), teaching in 150 periods- learning Lifelines Pre-Intermediate, and 1 semester with 60 periods for teaching English for specific purpose (ESP) - English for architecture and building construction textbook. So the two first semesters are spent on providing students English grammar rules and grammar structures. The third semester provides students vocabulary of construction and buildings. Grammar is a necessary and an important part in students’ learning because grammar is the basis for translation in the third semester. Therefore, there is a great focus on grammar right in the beginning o f the first semester. Lifelines Pre-Intermediate is used as the text book for 2 first semesters (total amount 150 periods). In term of teaching schedule, there are 9 periods in 1 lesson in Lifelines text­ book so students have 3 periods of grammar for each lesson (called grammar lesson). After teacher’s presentation and explanation, students are required to repeat the modals and memorize the rules by heart, then teachers give a lot o f written exercises to students and students spend time doing all written exercises. Such activities in class are boring and not necessary (Larsen-Freeman, 2005). Students do not have chance to use grammar structures in oral practice. These reasons above lead to the fact that in grammar lessons, students do not take part in grammar eagerly or willingly. They do grammar exercises with their reluctance. They seem to have no interests in learning grammar at all. As a result, students can produce correct forms on exercises but make errors when they try to use their own free speech or writing. One of the reasons for bad result can be students’ negative attitudes towards grammar learning. This causes a clear effect that students do not master grammar structures thoroughly. Oral grammar practice means teaching grammar communicatively or using communicative activities to teach grammar. Oral grammar practice gives learners increasing opportunities and motivation to interact with other communicators, to raise their awareness o f the forms and functions o f English grammar. Oral practice activities not only motivate learners’ interests but also sustain their attention in the long- term process of acquiring grammatical knowledge and skills in English (Nunan, 2007). Besides, for many teachers, correcting the grammar errors in students’ written work is the most time- consuming. So that oral grammar practice is suitable to get students to act as peer reviewers of each other’s work. Teachers can make a positive contribution to students’ motivation to learn by making the classrooms places where students enjoy coming, as well as different attitudes and 2 motivation. It means that if students are highly motivated, they will learn better and interesting grammar lessons will increase students’ grammar competence. Therefore, the researcher explores this issue in an attempt to motivate students to learn grammar, which in turns help them learn grammar better. 1.2. Aims o f the study and research questions As the problem is that the students are not interested in grammar lessons. This study aims to motivate students to learn grammar by oral grammar practice activities. To achieve this aim, the following questions are addressed: 1. Why aren’t students interested in grammar lessons? 2. What should be done to motivate students? 3. Do the suggested solutions (oral grammar practice activities) work? 1.3. Scope and significance o f the study The findings o f the study will be useful for the teachers o f English Division at NUCE in grammar teaching. Hopefully, the study will provide the teachers convincing information about the necessity of oral practice activities in order to increase students’ motivation and students’ grammar competence at NUCE. 1.4. Organization o f the thesis Chapter l , Introduction, provides an overview o f the study including background o f the study. This is a brief description of the thesis topic and information related to NUCE. The aims, research questions, scope and significance o f the study and the organization o f the thesis are also stated in this chapter. Chapter 2, Literature review, reviews the relevant literature related to the communicative language teaching (CLT) methods especially oral practice in grammar teaching. The 3 chapter also focuses on the role o f motivation in language learning and the use o f oral practice to motivate students in grammar learning. Chapter 3, Methodology, describes the research method, the detailed description o f the data collection instrument and the subjects o f the study. The data collection instrument in this research is questionnaire. Chapter 4, Data analysis and Discussion, divided into the following parts: initial data, discovered problems, the action plan, the data collected during the experimental period and the evaluation o f the action research. Chapter 5, Recommendations and conclusion, summarizes the study’s results and presents the conclusion and limitations o f the thesis. 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter reviews literature related to the study: 1) definitions o f motivation and role o f motivation in language learning; 2) an overview o f communicative language teaching (CLT) and phases in teaching grammar; 3) oral grammar practice activities including drills, information- gap tasks and games and 4) previous studies. 2.1 Motivation 2.1.1 Definitions of motivation Motivation, based on the Latin verb for “move”, is the force that makes one do something. It is a process that involves goals, physical or mental activity, and is both instigated and sustained (Williams, 1997; Pintrich & Schunk, 1996). It is characterized in terms of direction, duration and intensity. The following are some definitions o f motivation defined by several famous researchers. Domyei (2001, p.7) states “motivation explains why people decide to do something, how hard they are going to pursue it and how long they are willing to sustain the activities.” Ellis (1997, p.75) indicates “Motivation involves the attitudes and effective states that influence the degree o f effort that learners make to learn an L2”. Gardner (1982) states: “ M o tiv a tio n is p e r ce iv e d to b e c o m p o se d o f three e le m e n ts in c lu d in g effort, d esire and a ffe c t. E ffort refers to th e tim e sp en t stu d y in g th e la n g u a g e and th e d rive o f th e learner. D e sir e in d ic a tes h o w m u ch th e learner w a n ts to b e c o m e p ro ficien t in th e la n g u a g e, and a ffec t illu strates th e learn er’s e m o tio n a l reaction s w ith regard to la n g u a g e stu d y ” , ( p .141) Crookes and Schmidt (1991) defined motivation as interest in and enthusiasm for the materials used in class, persistence with the learning task, and levels o f concentration and enjoyment. In his study, he pointed out that authentic materials increase students’ motivation. 5 It is clear that motivation is an extremely difficult concept to define because it is not measurable and it involves many interrelated factors such as learner’s drive, desire, effort and attitudes. For this study, Crookes and Schmidt’s definition is chosen because it is similar to what would be studied. 2.1.2 Role of motivation in language learning As a great deal of research mentioned, motivation plays an important part in language learning. Positive motivation is related to success in second language learning (Gardner, 1985). Motivation is also considered as “a key consideration in determining the preparedness o f learners to communicate” (Gardner, 1985, p. 10). Lightbown and Spada (1999) pointed that motivation in second language learning is a complex phenomenon which can be defined in terms o f two factors: learners’ communicative needs and their attitudes towards the second language community. If learners need to speak the second language in a wide range o f social situations or to fulfill professional ambitions, they will perceive the communicative value o f the second language and will therefore be motivated to acquire proficiency in it. Likewise, if learners have favorable attitudes towards the speakers o f the language, they will desire more contact with them. One factor which often affects motivation is the social dynamic or power relationship between the languages. That is, members o f a minority group learning the language of a majority group may have different attitudes and motivation from those of majority group members learning a minority language. I share the same idea that motivated students are usually those who participate actively in class, express interest in the subject- matter, and study a great deal. Teachers can easily recognize characteristics such as these. So teachers can make a positive contribution to students’ motivation to learn by making our classrooms places where students enjoy coming, because the content is interesting and relevant to their age and level o f ability, where the learning goals are challenging yet manageable and clear, and where the atmosphere is supportive and non-threatening. 6 Caroll (1962) further suggests the following critical factors in second language learning: aptitude, opportunity or method and motivation among which motivation predicted the amount of time a learner would spend on the task of language learning. She shows that the more motivation a learner has, the more time he or she will spend learning an aspect o f a second language. Gardner (1982) concludes: • Motivation and attitudes are important factors, which help to determine the level of proficiency achieved by different learners. • The effects of motivation appear to be separated from the effect o f aptitude. The most successful learners will be those who have both talent and a high level of motivation for learning. Another role of motivation in foreign language learning is to promote the choice of strategies among students learning a second foreign language. Research has shown that the use o f specific learning strategies and techniques while studying a second or foreign language leads to success. Strategies are the tools for active, self-directed involvement needed for developing L2 communicative ability. Ur (1996) sees motivation as a very important phenomenon. As she considers motivation difficult to give a definition, she prefers to think about motivation in terms o f “motivated learners” who are willing to involve themselves in learning activities to progress. It can be concluded that motivation is significant in foreign language learning because when learners set the goal of learning a foreign language, motivation may help them produce effort and have a positive attitude to obtain the goal. The assumption is the more motivated the students are, the more successful in learning English they may be. If this assumption is right, it is worth improving students’ motivation in learning English grammar. This is why a study about the effects of speaking activities on students’ motivation in learning English grammar chosen here. 7 2.2. General view on grammar and grammar teaching 2.2.1.An overview of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Having been shaped in the changes in the British language teaching tradition dating from the late 1960s, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) marks the beginning o f a major innovation within language teaching because o f its superior principles, which are widely accepted nowadays. CLT has been so rapidly adopted and widely disseminated that it quickly occupied the status o f orthodoxy in British language teaching circles, and attained the support of leading methodologist, applied linguists, scholars and publishers as well as institutions (Richard, 1985). CLT is often mentioned as an approach that comprises two sets of theories: assumption of what to teach, and assumption of how to teach. Assumption o f what to teach As regards the first assumption, the theory of language in CLT shows that language is for communication. At the level o f language theory, CLT has characteristics defined by Richards and Rodgers (2001) as follows: - Language is a system of for the expression o f meaning. - The primary function of language is to allow interaction and communication. - The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative use. - The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse. Therefore, the purpose o f language teaching is to develop “communicative competence”, a basic concept in CLT. Munby (1979) states: “ T o c o m m u n ic a te e ffe c tiv e ly , a sp ea k er m ust k n o w h o w to p rod u ce an y and all gram m atical utteran ces o f a la n g u a g e but a lso h o w to u se them e ffe c tiv e ly . T he sp eak er m ust k n o w w h at to sa y , w ith w h o m , and w h en and w h e r e .” (p . 17) 8 Canale and Swain (1980) also describe the concept o f “communicative competence” in term of four dimensions. They are grammatical competence (grammatical and lexical capacity); sociolinguistic competence (the ability to understand and produce appropriate language in the social context which communication happens); discourse competence (the ability to comprehend the message underlying a coherent and cohesive text); and strategic competence (the ability to employ communicative strategies to initiate and redirect communication). Assumptions o f how to teach If the first assumption in CLT is concerned with what should be taught, (in this case, that is communicative competence), then the second assumption is related to how the teaching should be carried out. In other words, syllabus theory and syllabus models are the second central point that is mentioned in CLT. Another point to make about CLT is learner- centeredness. Students in learnercentered approach are seen as being able to play a more active and participatory role than in traditional approaches. Accordingly, teacher role will be redefined with the change in activity organization because individual learner is thought to have unique interests styles, needs and goals, which should be reflected in the design of method of instruction (Richards and Rodgers, 2001). To be more concrete, Brown (1994) states that teacher’s instruction in learner-centered approach includes: - Techniques that focus on or account for learners’ needs, styles, and goals. - Techniques that give some control to the students (group work or strategy training). - Techniques that include the consultation and input o f students and that do not presuppose objectives in advanced. - Techniques that allow for student creativity and innovation. - Techniques that enhance a student’s sense o f competence and self-worth. In brief, CLT is identified with the following characteristics: It makes communicative competence the goal o f teaching 9 It develops procedures for the teaching o f the four language skills that acknowledge the independence of language and communication It considers learner and his communicative needs the centre o f language teaching process. These characteristics will be the principles for teachers to choose appropriate techniques for increasing students’ participation in speaking activities in grammar lessons, so that the students can learn English grammar better. 2.2.2. Phases in teaching grammar According to Byrne (1991, pp.22-31), there are three phases to enhance students’ oral ability. The three phases are the Presentation phase, the Practice phase and the Production phase. They are briefly summarized as follows: The presentation phase: the teacher introduces something new to the students. At the presentation phase, teachers work as an informant because firstly teachers know English, secondly teachers select materials to teach, and finally teachers present this in such a way that the meaning o f the new language is as intelligible and memorable as possible, whereas the students are motionless. They try to understand, and say very little. In one word, this phase is teacher-centered. At this phase, the teachers usually introduce new language items o f the lesson. Although this phase does not last too long, it is very important for students to assimilate facts about new language and in enabling them to produce language for the first time. The practice phase: the teacher allows the students to work under his/ her direction At the practice phase, the students are asked to do a series o f practice activities; they may be the speaking, reading or listening activities. The practice activities can either be controlled or free ones. Unlike the presentation phase, it is the students’ turn to do most o f the talking. At this stage, the teacher does the minimum amount o f talking. He provides the maximum 10 amount o f practice. Practice is normally in the form of exercises or activities. Types of exercises are more likely to be overlapped with the production phase. For example, pair work or group work is also recommended at this phase. At the end of the practice phase, Ur (1996, p. 12) points out what the teachers should bare in mind. First, attention must be fully paid by the students. Second, the target language must be clearly heard or repeated in many ways to reinforce the learner’s perception. Third, learners understand the meaning o f the new material. Finally, short termed memory o f the material must be created for later use in the lesson through a colorful, dramatic, and unusual presentation. The production phase: the teacher gives the students opportunities to work on their own. At the production phase, the students are required to use the language for themselves. According to Byrne (1991, p.97) “an important aspect o f language learning is the need to learn how to make the best use o f the little you know; how to accommodate what you know o f the language to the situation in which you are required to use it”. Therefore, for the students, this phase plays an important role in the learning process (Byrne, 1991). 2.3. Oral grammar practice 2.3.1. Definition of oral grammar practice Oral grammar practice means the grammar taught in the classroom is the grammar of spoken English. In the other word, teaching grammar communicatively or using communicative activities to teach grammar. Oral grammar practice gives learners increasing opportunities and motivation to interact with other communicators, to raise their awareness o f the forms and functions o f English grammar. Grammatical patterns are matched to particular communicative meanings so that learners can see the connection between form and function (Nunan, 2007). Learners learn how to choose the right pattern to express their ideas and feelings that they want to express. They learn how to use grammar to express different communicative meanings. They will incorporate various grammatical structures in their performance. II