a case study on vietnamese primary school teachers’ grammar teaching = một điển cứu về việc dạy ngữ pháp của giáo viên tiếng anh tiểu học tại việt nam

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES
***


HOÀNG THÙY LINH


A CASE STUDY ON VIETNAMESE PRIMARY SCHOOL
TEACHER’S GRAMMAR TEACHING

(MỘT ĐIỂN CỨU VỀ VIỆC DẠY NGŨ PHÁP CỦA GIÁO VIÊN
TIẾNG ANH TIỂU HỌC TẠI VIỆT NAM)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS


Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111





Hanoi, 2014
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES
***

HOÀNG THÙY LINH


A CASE STUDY ON VIETNAMESE PRIMARY SCHOOL
TEACHER’S GRAMMAR TEACHING

(MỘT ĐIỂN CỨU VỀ VIỆC DẠY NGŨ PHÁP CỦA GIÁO VIÊN
TIẾNG ANH TIỂU HỌC TẠI VIỆT NAM)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS


Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111
Supervisor: Dr. Dương Thị Nụ





Hanoi, 2014
i

DECLARATION

I declare that the thesis entitled “A case study on Vietnamese primary
school teachers’ grammar teaching” is the result of my own research and the
substance of this thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for a degree to
any universities or institutions.

Hanoi, August 2014


Hoàng Thùy Linh














ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr Duong Thi Nu
for her supervision and guidance during the time I carried out my study.
Second, I am also grateful to the Administration Board of Anh Dung primary
school, who gives me an opportunity and the best conditions to do this study.
Besides, I wish to show my sincere thanks to the students in class 4A, 4B,
5A, 5B and English as Foreign Language teachers at Anh Dung primary school for
their help and co-operation.

Last but not least, my special gratitude is for my family and my friends from
whom I have received a lot of spiritual and material support.









iii

ABSTRACT

This paper deals with English grammar teaching of teachers at Vietnamese
primary schools. In Vietnam, English language in general and grammar in particular
are no longer taught in traditional method because that did not give learners ability
to communicate in real life situations. Moreover, teaching grammar to young
learners, who owns special psychological and perceptional characteristics, requires
much more effort from teachers in seeking new attractive teaching activities.
However, the application of modern method, which is known as Communicative
language teaching (CLT) in real grammar teaching in primary schools showed some
shortcomings when teachers do not understand what CLT actually means. As the
result, majority of students found it difficult to remember and use sentence patterns
they had introduced in class. Within the scope of this paper, only two teachers and a
small number of students of Anh Dung primary school participated in the study.
Through different instruments such as teacher interview, class observation, and
questionnaire for students, the underlying reasons for the above problem have been
revealed. Finally, this paper suggested some suitable techniques that teachers can

apply in their English classroom in order to improve the quality of grammar
teaching in Vietnamese primary schools.









iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Declaration i
Acknowledgement ii
Abstract iii
Table of contents iv
Part A: Introduction 1
1. Rationale 1
2. Aims of the study 2
3. Research questions 2
4. Scope of the study 3
5. Research methods 3
6. Design of the study 3
Part B: Development 5
Chapter 1: Literature review 5
1.1. An overview of grammar and grammar teaching 5
1.1.1. Definition of grammar 5

1.1.2. Teaching grammar using communicative approach 5
a. Communicative language learning 6
b. Grammar in CLT classroom 7
c. Teaching grammar in CLT classroom 7
1.1.3. The implementation of CLT in teaching grammar in Vietnam. 8
1.2. Teaching English grammar to young learners 8
1.2.1. Characteristics of young learners 8
1.2.2. Techniques to teach grammar to young learners 9
1.3. Previous study on teaching grammar to young learners 10
Chapter 2: Methodology 13
v

2.1. Participants and setting of the study 13
2.1.1. Participants 13
2.1.2. Setting of the study 14
2.2. Data collection 15
2.2.1. Data collection 15
2.2.2. Data collection procedure 16
2.2.3. Data analysis procedure 17
Chapter 3: Findings, discussion and suggestions 19
3.1. Findings and discussion 19
3.1.1. The results of teacher interview and questionnaire for students 19
3.1.2. The results of class observation 21
3.2. Suggestions on improving teachers‟ grammar teaching in Anh Dung
Primary school. 27
3.2.1. Raising teachers‟ awareness of teaching grammar in CLT 27
3.2.2. Improving teachers‟ teaching methods 28
Part C: Conclusion 37
1. Recapitulation 37
2. Conclusions 37

3. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study 39
References 41
Appendices I

1

PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
English is spoken today on all five continents as a result of colonial expansion in
the last four centuries or so. The colonial era is now definitely over but its
consequences are only too clear to be seen in the presence of English as an official
and often native language in many of the former colonies. Even in other countries
which were not English colonies, people are using this language widely in every
aspects of life because it is considered an indispensably communicative tool in the
era of globalization. Going with the social development, learning English is
obviously not only the increasing desire but also the immense demand of people in
over the world.
To meet the demand of industrialization and modernization, Vietnam education
has made great efforts to train high quality human resources who have enough
ability to survive in international environment. That means the workers must be able
to use English well enough to work successfully with foreigners. Therefore, English
became an obligated subject taught in almost schools from primary level to higher
education in the S-shaped country.
In the past, English is taught with grammar-translation approach in which
grammatical knowledge is considered most important. Its prime position however
changed when communicative approach was approved by linguistics and educators.
English textbooks in Vietnam nowadays mainly focus on developing the four skills:
Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. It seems that students‟ learning
becomes more pleasant. Nevertheless, it is not believed that grammar is neglected.
Through interesting themes, students also learn to use practical sentence patterns

which serve particular functions in particular contexts. Without grammar
knowledge, students cannot communicate successfully. One problem raised in
reality is that many teachers feel it difficult to teach grammar to young learners and
preferred to teach older ones. Although the target structures introduced in children‟s
books are much simpler than those in high school textbooks, primary school
2

teachers said they often get confused when trying to find a good way to explain a
grammatical phenomenon to their students. While there are abundant researches
studying vocabulary and the four skill teaching, how to teach grammar effectively
and attractively to young learners is definitely a big question whose answer needs to
be found as soon as possible.
Like many other primary school, Anh Dung primary school requires students to
learn English from grade 3 to grade 5. Using the new textbook provided by Ministry
of Education and training, students really like this subject because of its less
stressfulness and fun activities. However, grammar is still the challenge that
teachers of English in the school often meet in their classroom. Teachers‟ grammar
teaching is problematic, and, as the result, students‟ learning is not effective.
Rooted from that issue, we need to carry out a study entitled as “A case study on
Vietnamese primary school teachers’ grammar teaching with practical aims and
sensible solutions.
2. Aims of the study
The study is implemented with. the specific aims as follows:
- To understand teachers‟ awareness of teaching English grammar to primary students
- To investigate the real situation of teachers‟ English grammar teaching at Anh
Dung primary school, find out the positive factors and problems that affect the
quality of teaching and learning English grammar at Anh Dung primary school.
- To suggest some doable solutions to improve the quality of teaching and
learning English grammar at Anh Dung primary school.
3. Research questions

With clear aims listed above, the study is carried out in order to find out the
answers to the following questions:
- What do the teachers at Anh Dung primary school think about English grammar
teaching in primary school?
- How are the teachers at Anh Dung primary school teaching English grammar?
3

- What are suggestions to improve English grammar teaching and learning at Anh
Dung primary school?
4. Scope of the study:
Because of limitations of time and other research conditions, the study is only
carried out among 2 teachers and 40 students at one primary school. Also, the study
mainly focuses on investigating grammar teaching. Other matters of English
teaching would be beyond the scope of this thesis.
5. Research methods: Case study – Qualitative
In order to conduct a deep investigation into the situation, the thesis is conducted
with qualitative method which consists of the following tasks:
- Analyzing the context of grammar teaching of teachers at Anh Dung primary
school and then determining research questions.
- Choosing the case and research techniques
- Collecting data and information from the students and the teachers at Anh Dung
primary school.
- Assessing the real situation of learning and teaching English grammar in grade 4
and grade 5 at Anh Dung primary school.
- Evaluating the techniques that best fit the teachers and students at Anh Dung primary school.
Besides, this thesis is also carried out through a variety of instruments such as
class observation, informal interview with the teachers and questionnaire for
students at Anh Dung primary school.
6. Design of the study
The thesis is divided into three parts:

Part A introduces the reason for the choice of the study, aims of the study as
well as the scope and methodology of the study.
Part B comprises four chapters
Chapter I presents an overview of the theoretical background of the research.
It is concerned with various linguistic concepts most relevant to the research
topic. Also it provides a brief summary of the previous studies of the same topic.
4

Chapter II shows the context, description of instruments, data collection and
analyzes the results which reveal the present situation of teaching and learning
English grammar at Anh Dung primary school.
Chapter III draws the findings and offers some suggested techniques to
improve English grammar teaching in primary schools in Vietnam.
Part C summaries what is addressed in the study, conclusions drawn from the
findings, limitation of the study, some suggestions for further research.














5

PART B: DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 1: Literature review
1.1. An overview of grammar and grammar teaching
1.1.1 Definition of grammar
Grammar, the issue which is being discussed in this study, is a very familiar
term to language learners. Every language has its own grammatical system.
According to Longman Dictionary of contemporary English, grammar is: “The rules
by which words change their forms and are combined into sentences, or the study or
use of these rules.” (Longman Dictionary of contemporary English, 2001, p. 619).
Similarly, Jeremy Harmer (1987:1) defines grammar as “the way in which words
change themselves and group together to make sentences. The grammar of a
language is what happens to words when they become plural or negative, or what
word order is used when we make questions or join two clauses to make one
sentence.” More practically, Jim Scrivener shared that “grammar is not just a dry
list of facts and rules. It is in our heads and it is a living resource that gives us the
ability to communicate our ideas and feelings and to understand what other people
say or write to us.” (Scrivener, J., 2003)
In short, grammar can be recognized as the system of rules which are used to
construct our language so that it is meaningful and comprehensible. No matter how
it is viewed, grammar still exists as an indispensable element of language whose
values are always appreciated. There is no doubt that no one can master a language
without learning its grammar. Without grammatical knowledge, our speech and
writing will be useless in communicating to other people. Therefore, grammar
teaching cannot be neglected in any language schools, especially in EFL classroom.
1.1.2 Teaching grammar using communicative approach
There are many influential methods which are widely used by language
teachers in the world in general and in Vietnam in particular. In the late of 19
th

century, traditional method or Grammar – Translation Method (GTM) which was
6

used for the purpose of helping students read and appreciate foreign language
literature became popular. In the late 19
th
century, the GTM was found not very
effective in preparing students to use the target language communicatively and a new
method, namely Direct Method was born. Latter, the Audio-Lingual method in which
speaking and listening skill are put at the first place was preferred. Despite some
advantages, each of these above methods has its own weaknesses so that they are
not advised to use widely in EFL classrooms in today‟s world. Instead,
Communicative method, which shows great effectiveness in developing learners‟
skills and knowledge without reducing their motivation and creativeness, is
approved by almost linguistics.
a. Communicative language learning
Berns, an expert in the field of communicative language teaching, wrote that
"language is interaction; it is interpersonal activity and has a clear relationship with
society. In this light, language study has to look at the use (function) of language in
context, both its linguistic context (what is uttered before and after a given piece of
discourse) and its social, or situational, context (who is speaking, what their social
roles are, why they have come together to speak)" (Berns, 1984, p. 5). In other
words, Communicative language teaching (CLT) makes use of real-life situations
that are necessary to communication. The teacher sets up a situation that students
are likely to encounter in real life. Unlike the audio-lingual method of language
teaching, which relies on repetition and drills, the communicative approach can
leave students in suspense as to the outcome of a class exercise, which will vary
according to their reactions and responses. The real-life simulations change from
day to day. Students' motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate in
meaningful ways about meaningful topics(Galloway, 1993). Moreover, CLT can be

said the learner-centered classrooms in which teachers will find themselves talking
less and listening more, and becoming active facilitators of their students' learning
(Larsen-Freeman, 1986). The teacher sets up the exercise, but because the students'
7

performance is the goal, the teacher must step back and observe, sometimes acting
as a referee or monitor.
b. Grammar in CLT classroom
Communicative competence, according to Canale and Swain (1980), is made up
of grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and
strategic competence. This means grammar still has an important position in CLT
classroom. Besides, many scholars emphasized that form focused instruction and
communicative activities should be combined. If students learn from context by
combining grammar in CLT, they pay more attention to target forms and this
results in successful language learning.
However, grammar in CLT is viewed a little differently from it is in traditional
methods. Grammar which is taught for students is not only linguistic rules and
grammatical categories such as tenses, aspects, number, gender…but also practical
forms which serve specific functions. Grammatical phenomena are not rough and
dry to students because they are not introduced separately from the context in which they are used.
c. Teaching grammar in CLT classroom
Teaching grammar communicatively means that the teacher should present the
language in situations in which it is used, and he/she must control the activities that
follow, allowing learners to practice it in a controlled situation, then in more
communicative activities, and finally in fluency activities.
According to authors of Methodology Handbook for English teachers in
Vietnam, there are some key principles for teaching grammatical structures:
1. Most often, teach structures implicitly. In other words, present examples of the
structure and allow students to focus on the meaning without teaching grammar.
2. Present a structure orally before presenting a written form and an explanation.

When listening, it is easier to focus on meaning. When reading. It is easier to
focus on the form. Listening first will help the learners to understand the
meaning communicated by the structures.
8

3. Use visual aids to help students see the structure and the grammatical meaning.
This can be done with a chart or with a graph.
4. Connect the form to meaning. Students should understand the meaning of the
structures they are studying. To focus on meaning 1) use the structures in
context (as in dialogues or paragraphs), 2) show pictures, or 3) contrast with
other similar structures which the students already understand.
5. De-emphasize the use of special terms. Use common words but not lots of fancy
ones to describe language.
6. Along with correction, give positive feedback and emphasize communication
rather than just grammatical accuracy.
7. After practicing a structure in a controlled exercise, give students opportunities
to use the structures in more free communicative.
1.1.3 The implementation of CLT in teaching grammar in Vietnam
Vietnam is not an exception from the spread of English and CLT. Many
schools and universities are attempting to employ CLT into syllabus design,
examinations, and teaching. However, these attempts face resistance from
language policy-makers, researchers, teachers and learners. According scholars in
Vietnam, teachers‟ misconception of CLT and poor methodology are two of the
problems which lead to low effectiveness of CLT implementation in Vietnam. In
particular, teachers do not understand what exactly CLT means so that they only try
to increase students‟ talking time and neglect grammar teaching in classroom.
Students are not considered the center but teacher as Le (1999) stated the
environment of English learning in Vietnam can be compared to “a cultural
island where the teacher is expected to be the sole provider of experience in the
target language”.

1.2. Teaching English grammar to young learners
1.2.1. Characteristics of young learners
The study is carried out in a primary school whose students are from 6 to 11
years old. They are called, according to linguistics, young learners. Slattery and
9

Willis say that generally we can characterize all young children by these
characteristics. They:
- are developing very quickly as individuals
- learn in variety of ways, by watching, listening, imitating, doing things
- are not able to understand grammatical rules and explanations about language
- try to make sense of situations by making use of non-verbal clues
- talk in their mother tongue about what they understand and do – this helps them learn
- can generally imitate the sounds they hear quite accurately and copy the way adults
speak
- are naturally curious
- love to play and use their imagination
- are comfortable with routines and enjoy repetition
- have quite a short attention span and so need variety (Slattery, Willis, 2006)
The above list includes psychological and perceptional factors which affect
students in this group when they learn any subjects. Having awareness of these
characteristics, teachers will be able to find the most suitable methods for the students.
1.2.2. Techniques to teach grammar to young learners
Unlike adults, children are not self-motivated to learn English, their world is
their daily games, events of interest to them, and teachers should capitalize their
curiosity, the desire to play and explore. Teaching must be planned in such a way
that learning becomes an interesting, at times even entertaining process. Developing
such interest will lead children to a spontaneous use of language forms. The
teacher‟s participation in games and activities helps children to overcome any
inhibitions they may have. If we want teaching to be successful we should consider

the learners‟ interests and motivations, because they will pay more attention if they are motivated.
In Teacher books of the series Tieng Anh 3, 4, 5 which are using in Vietnamese
primary schools, the authors provided helpful recommendation for teachers. “Young
learners of English begin their English grammar learning based on formulaic
sequences and unanalyzed chunks of language met in the context of dialogues,
10

readings, chants, songs, rhymes, stories, and games. Through activities, students
develop a sense of achievement and gradually transfer chunks to new contexts and
use them creatively. One way to enable students‟ language awareness is drawing
their attention to specific language pattern or features of grammatical forms and, if
necessary, comparing or contrasting these with other patterns and forms in
Vietnamese. The appropriate steps to be used to teach students are:
 Focusing students‟ attention on the new grammatical patterns in the texts;
 Playing the recording for students to listen and follow in their books, and
asking them some questions to check their comprehension;
 Playing the recording again for students to listen the second time;
 Providing models for students to practice the new grammatical item in a
spoken or written activity, using the cued pictures or prompts in their books;
 Reinforcing the new grammatical item with a variety of spoken and written
activities.” (Teachers‟ book)
Indeed, teaching grammar to young learners is not an easy job. Teachers need to
use different techniques to teach structures without reducing students‟ happiness
and comfortableness. In a limited time in class, much more pressure will be put on
teachers‟ shoulders if he/she really wants their students understand and use grammar well.
1.3. Previous studies on teaching grammar to young learners
While there have been many studies working teaching English vocabulary in
primary schools, numbers of studies, which also paid attention to teaching grammar
to young learners, have been introduced recently.
In 2009, a study named “Grammatical awareness among Primary School English

language teachers” was launched in GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies by
Munir Shuib from School of Humanities, University Sains Malaysia. In particular,
the study examined the English language teachers‟ nature and level of
grammatical awareness. He emphasized that teachers‟ low grammatical awareness
can influence students‟ grammar competency. The study had valuable findings;
however, it did not pay much attention on teachers‟ methodology in grammar teaching.
11

In 2010, Le Thi Ngoc Phuong reported a study entitled “An investigation into
teaching English grammar to children learning English as the second language at
primary level in Da Nang.” The research was conducted to explore how English
grammar was taught to children learning English as a second language at
primary level and to study factors influencing grammar teaching and to offer some
suggestions to help improve grammar instruction. The study was carried out in
larger scale involving many teachers and students at different schools in Da Nang.
Moreover, the schools are using two textbooks Let‟s learn English and Let‟s Go.
In 2011, a study named “Effectiveness of using games in teaching grammar to
young learners” was designed as a descriptive study with the aim of exploring the
beliefs and habits of Turkish EFL teachers‟ towards using games in young learners‟
English classes. The author found that while Turkish EFL teachers accepted the
effectiveness of using games in grammar teaching, they did not use games as
frequently as expected in their classrooms. However, the study only pointed out the
problem without any particular solutions or suggestions.
In 2012, Alexandra Povjakalová from Masaryk University in Brno conducted
the study named “Teaching Grammar to Young Learners using Interactive
Whiteboard”. The main aim of his work is to design teaching objects for Interactive
Whiteboard to teach English grammar in the 5th grade of primary school and to find
out how this technical tool helps learners in the complex process of education. In
this study, the author approved the use of modern technology in today‟s schools,
particularly Smart Board or Interactive Board, which can raise students‟ motivation

in learning grammar because he found that grammar is still taught in standard way
where students sit passively working with their books and worksheets. 21 teaching
objects including useful activities were designed to provide teachers with available
interesting lessons to teach grammar in a new way. However, this can be said a kind
of expensive solution which is hard to apply widely in Vietnamese schools.
One more study which also investigated into teaching grammar
communicatively was implemented by Vuong Thi Hai Yen in 2008. Although
12

focusing on Ethnic Minority students at Ha Giang Medical Secondary School, the
research provided many valuable findings about the application of CLT in teaching English
grammar in Vietnam.
In the scope of this study, I conduct the research on real situation of English
grammar teaching of primary school teachers to students of grade 4 and grade 5.
The study focuses on finding out problems in teachers‟ methodology and
conception of teaching grammar in CLT. Finally, I am going to suggest some
teaching techniques which are effective and easy to apply in Vietnamese primary
schools in order to improve the situation.
Summary
In this chapter, an overview of grammar and grammar teaching is considered.
Useful techniques to teach grammar are also mentioned in detail. Teacher, however,
find it difficult to teach grammar to young learners because of their insufficient
development of psychology and perception. Therefore, to improve the effectiveness
of students‟ learning grammar, there is a need for great effort from teachers.
Teachers should adjust their way of teaching so that it is not only easy to understand
but also can motivate students to learn grammar better.

13

Chapter 2: Methodology
The study was carried out with case study methodology. According to Yin
(1984), a case study is an inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon
within its real-life context, when the boundaries between phenomenon and context
are not clearly evident, and in which multiple sources of evidence are used. Dobson
(1981) also described “The most common type of case study involves the detailed
description and analysis of an individual subject, from whom observations,
interviews, and histories provide the database.” Talking about characteristics of case
study, Merriam (1988) stated that “Case studies are particularistic, descriptive, and
heuristic and rely heavily on inductive reasoning in handling multiple data sources.
This case study was implemented with the aim of conducting a deep investigation
into the real situation of English grammar teaching of the two teachers at Anh Dung
primary school.
2.1. Participants and setting of the study
2.1.1. Participants
The participants are 2 teachers who are teaching English at Anh Dung
primary school. Both of them are female; one is married, one is single. The older
teacher is Ms Pham Thanh H who has 8 year experience in teaching English.
However, she has been working with primary school students for 2 years. Before
that she taught in an English center. Now she is teaching 8 classes with 16 periods
per week. The younger one who has just graduated from university, Ms Tran Thi T,
is the teacher in 7 classes. Both of them are qualified enough to teach primary
school students.
Teacher’s

name
Age
Sex
English
competence
Teaching
experience
Observed
class
Pham Thanh
H
31
Female
B1
8 years
4A, 5A
Tran Thi T
23
Female
B2
6 months
4B, 5B
14

Besides, the study was carried out among 40 students who are randomly
chosen from class 4A, 4B, 5A, 5B.
2.1.2. Setting of the study
The study is conducted at Anh Dung primary school in Duong Kinh district,
Hai Phong city. This is a small school with about 600 students and 24 teachers of all
subjects. As other schools, English is obligated for students from grade 3 to grade 5.

The students have 2 periods of English per week most of which are arranged in one school day.
The course books used are Tieng Anh 3, 4, 5 approved by the Ministry of
Education and Training in August, 2010. The book follows a systematic, cyclical
and them-based syllabus with twenty units of familiar topics. Each unit consists of
three lessons each of which provides materials for two periods of class contact.
However, in reality, teachers only have 1 period of 35 minutes for each lesson.
Without any exception, the observed classes also happened in that period of time
with a lot of activities. Because of some school‟s activities, the two teachers did not
follow the same schedule. Teacher H taught lesson 1 of unit 20 while teacher T taught
lesson 1 of unit 16.
In every lesson 1, a new topic is introduced with chosen vocabulary and
target sentence patterns. The lesson is divided into 4 parts:
- Look, listen, and repeat: This part is colorful illustrated to set up the situation in
which English is used. The input language is presented in the form of a dialogue or conversation.
- Look and say: The second part picks out the model sentences to be learnt.
Besides, it provides words/phrases of related topic which can be used to practice
the model sentences by substitution technique. It means in this part teachers
have to teach both vocabulary and grammar, including the presentation and
practice.
- Talk: This part provides students with an opportunity to speak English freely,
using the recently practiced language in different contexts. It also helps to
reinforce students‟ understanding and memory.
15

- Listen and tick/ listen and number: Last, a listening task is provided to reinforce
all the things they have learnt during the lesson.
In the next two lessons, all four skills - reading, writing, listening, speaking –
are practiced. Phonics is also paid attention to. Especially, vocabulary and structures
are continued to develop.
During a school year, students have 2 mid-term tests and two final tests. All

of them are in written form with typical exercises such as choose the best answer,
rewrite the sentences, complete the sentences, read and answer questions.
2.2. Data collection
2.2.1. Data collection
To identify the problems, instruments were chosen. They are: Class
observation, Teacher interview, Questionnaire for students
a. Class observation
Each teacher had two periods of 35 minutes to be observed. I came to class
and recorded all activities of the lesson from the beginning to the end. Simply, a
camera was used in order to catch every important action and word. The result of
the observation will reveal real situation of grammar teaching in the school.
b. Teacher interview
Teachers were also interviewed with 6 questions about their awareness
toward grammar teaching in primary school. Question 1 explores teachers‟
knowledge of English teaching for young learners in Vietnamese in general. In this
question, teachers were asked about how English is taught in primary school and
what matter teachers should take into consideration while working with
children.Question 2 examines teachers‟ methodological knowledge when asking
about steps in teaching grammar basing on PPP model. The answers of teachers will
be used to compare with their real teaching. The next question requires teachers to
report main methods and techniques they are applying in teaching grammar. The
answers of question 4 and 5 reveals problems and difficulties teachers often meet
16

when teaching grammar to primary school students. And the last question asked
teachers to tell what they need to support their grammar teaching.
c. Questionnaire to students
In order to examine the truth value of teachers‟ answer, a questionnaire
including 8 questions was designed for students in observed classes. They are all
multiple choice questions and written in Vietnamese so that students can understand

and answer them. The first two questions ask students about their awareness of
English learning. Question 3 explores teachers‟ use of fun activities and games in
class. The next 4 questions are the most important ones because their answers will
reflect the ways in which teachers often teach grammar in the school. The last
question asks about form of assessment of the subject.
2.2.2. Data collection procedure
a. Implementing class observation and teacher interview
After deciding to study the teachers at Anh Dung primary school, I had a
formal meeting with them to present my intention. The aims and scope of the study
were also introduced. The most important thing is how to persuade them to agree to
be observed. The study was carried out at the end of the school year when teachers
and students were out of examination pressure. Moreover, teachers were explained
that the results of class observation and interview were used for scientific purpose
only, not related to their work at school.
The class observation was implemented first in order to get an honest picture
of teachers‟ grammar teaching. Teachers would teach normal lessons in their
normal ways. I sat at the last table in class and recorded all activities of the lesson
by a digital camera without any participation or interruption.
The interview was conducted after each teacher was observed 2 classes. All
the questions were about English teaching theory and teachers‟ real experiences. At
first, I tended to ask in English; however, the teacher wanted to answer in
Vietnamese because this would be easier for them to express their ideas. Their
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answers which was used later to compare with their teaching were recorded by a
mobile phone.
b. Conducting questionnaire for students
The questionnaire for students was the last instrument to be conducted. The
chosen students were those who belonged to observed classes. As predicted, a very
carefully and thoroughly explanation was given in order to make sure the young

children all understand what to do and how to do. I instructed students to answer
question by question. After about 30 minutes, the results were collected.
2.2.3. Data analysis procedure
To find out he answers for research questions, the collected data need to be
analyzed and evaluated carefully.
First, teachers‟ answers in the interview which were recorded by a mobile
phone were transcribed later. What they presented was compared with theoretical
knowledge and recent trend of teaching English in the country to clarify their
awareness of the subject. Moreover, their own opinions and teaching habits were
also shown clearly when answering different questions. These points would be
considered in order to see whether they were reflected in their real teaching and
how they influenced on their teaching. Besides, the problems that teachers often
meet when teaching grammar were studied to find out the reasons and best solutions
for those.
Second, the class observation results which are the most difficult things to
analyze were brought under the lights. Of course, not all aspects of the teaching
were necessarily worked on. However, I mostly focused on how teacher taught
students a new sentence pattern in each part of a PPP lesson, including presentation,
practice, and production. In the comparison with theoretical background, teachers‟
weaknesses would be revealed. Furthermore, I would consider the influence of
teachers‟ teaching and students‟ learning to figure out what is the real reason for all
the problems.
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Last, students‟ responses which were really honest were very important to be
concerned because these will be evidences to make sure what the teacher said were
trustworthy. The number of chosen answers would be presented by percentage
which was easier for the readers to imagine. Here, I would know more about the
real situation of grammar teaching and learning.

Summary
The methodology in which the study was carried out has just been presented
in this chapter. This is a case study with the 2 main participants who were teachers
at Anh Dung primary school. However, to clarify the problem, three different
instruments were used involving both teachers and students of the school. The data
was collected directly in classroom in several days. The results which were
analyzed thoroughly will be given in the next chapter with further discussion.