Nghiên cứu khả năng sử dụng ngữ pháp và ngôn từ của sinh viên năm thứ 3 tại Đại học Thái Nguyên, từ đó chuẩn bị các bài tập bổ trợ

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
Socialist Republic of Vietnam
BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines
ENGLISH LANGUAGE GRAMMATICAL COMPETENCE AND
DISCOURSE COMPETENCE OF 3
rd
YEAR COLLEGE
STUDENTS OF THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY:
BASIS FOR INTERVENTION EXERCISES
A Dissertation Proposal
Presented to
The Faculty of Graduate School
Batangas State University
Batangas City, Philippines
In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Major in English
By:
NGUYEN THI HONG CHUYEN (JENNY)
THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
Socialist Republic of Vietnam
BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TITLE PAGE
TABLE OF CONTENTS i
Page i
CHAPTER I 1

THE PROBLEM 1
Introduction 1
Statement of the Problem 6
Scope, Delimitation and Limitation of the Study 8
Significance of the Study 9
REVIEW OF LITERATURE 11
Conceptual Literature 11
Research Literature 38
Synthesis 45
Theoretical Framework 49
Hypothesis 51
Definition of Terms 52
RESEARCH METHOD AND PROCEDURE 55
Research Environment 55
Research Design 60
Subjects of the Study 60
Data Gathering Instrument 62
Data Gathering Procedure 64
Statistical Treatment of Data 65
PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA
66
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, RECOMMENDATION 114
Summary 114
Findings 116
Conclusion 123
Recommendations 124
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Socialist Republic of Vietnam
BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

Republic of the Philippines
BIBLIOGRAPHY 125
APPENDICES 133
Appendix A. Letter of Requests 134
134
135
136
137
138
139
Appendix B. Questionnaire 140
Appendix C . Documentations 149
Study sites 149
Thai Nguyen University of Education 149
149
Thai Nguyen University of Education 150
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LIST OF TABLES
Table Title Page
1.
Distribution of the Respondents of the Study 61
Level of Grammatical Competence of Students in Parts of Speech 68
Level of Grammatical Competence of Students in Morphology 69
Level of Grammatical Competence of Students in Syntax 71
Level of Grammatical Competence of Students in Vocabulary Meaning.72
Level of Discourse Competence of Students in Cohesive Devices 74

Level of Discourse Competence of Students in Transitional Phrases 76
Level of Discourse Competence of Students in Coherence 77
Level of Discourse Competence of Students in Connectors 79
Level of Discourse Competence of Students in Choice of Words 80
Validated Students’ Skills Employed in Teaching the Basic English
Course 83
Students’ Skills and their Frequency of Use 84
Student Skills and their Degree of Importance 85
Students’ Level of Grammatical and Discourse Competencies and their
Performance as Assessed by English Teachers 87
Bases in the Design of Integrative Learning Exercises on Morpho-
Syntactic Competencies 90
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THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
Socialist Republic of Vietnam
BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines
CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM
Introduction
In Vietnam, students are required to learn English through
compulsory programs and as a requirement in school and universities and
in most countries in the world. Many students take English course because
of its utility value as lingua franca or a world language. Most of them fail to
learn the language successfully. This situation also applies to students in
other countries where learning a foreign language is also compulsory.
Students enrolled in the English courses have either high dropped out
rates or failed students at the end of the term. This situation is true to
countries like the United States and Australia where students literally drop
out in their foreign language studies, while in countries like China, Japan

and Vietnam students either mentally withdraw or look for strategies that
will help them to learn the English language.
In the last decade, the use of English as the main foreign language
taught and employed in communication with foreigners, has dramatically
increased in Vietnam. According to the Ministry of Education, the number
of off-shore students exceeds 60,000 in Vietnam nowadays and
Vietnamese students who want to work and study abroad are increasing.
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Socialist Republic of Vietnam
BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines
However, English language teaching in Vietnam still utilizes the
traditional teaching model where students are taught English just for
passing examination purposes only and teachers just give lecture mainly to
help students achieve this goal. The result is that students do not have the
ability to communicate effectively with others in English. This is referred to
as dumb English or deaf English in Vietnam. Obviously students’ overall
skills are not enhanced, especially for students at the college and
university level.
In order to improve the situation based on need analysis, Vietnam
Ministry of Education states that the aims of Vietnam English Language
Teaching (ELT) at general educational level expressed in the new
curriculum are that at the end of the upper secondary level, students will be
able to use English as means of communication at a certain level of
proficiency in four macro skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing and
to be able to read materials at the same level of their textbook, using a
dictionary, to have a mastery of basic English phonetics and grammar, to
have acquire the minimum of around 2,500 vocabulary items of English; to
attain a certain level of understanding of English and American cultures, to

become aware of cross cultural differences in order to become better
communicators, to better inform the world of the Vietnamese people, their
history and culture and to take pride in Vietnam, its language and culture
(MOET 2007).
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Republic of the Philippines
To promote the English language teaching and learning at tertiary
level in recent years, Vietnamese government has encouraged the private
tertiary institutions to carry out advanced programs in which English is
required to be the medium of instruction. They have also encouraged
tertiary institutions to teach in English in fundamental science subjects
such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and some specialized subjects in
the senior years.
It is suggested that work start at the two national universities
namely; Hanoi National University and Vietnam National University; three
regional universities such as Thai Nguyen University, Hue University and
Danang University and other pivotal universities in Vietnam with twenty
percent of the students being involved in these advanced programs. This
percentage will be increased and expanded so that finally all advanced
programs will be applied throughout the tertiary educational system.
In Vietnam, English is the most important foreign language since the
implementation of the reform and opening up policy. One of the major
goals for English teaching is to develop communicative competencies of
the learners. It is the initial and ultimate goal of English teaching.
Communication on the other hand is considered the essence of English
teaching.
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Socialist Republic of Vietnam
BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines
In language teaching, the ability to communicate should be
cultivated. Students should learn how to use a language in their daily
communication in order to demonstrate their mastery of a language.
Different language skills included under communicative competence
are linguistic, socio-linguistic, discourse, strategic and pragmatic
competencies. The expression, interpretation and negotiation of meaning
between two interlocutors or between a text and its readers is referred to
as language learning.
It is believed that one of the main goals of both English language
teaching and communicative English teaching in Vietnam nowadays is to
develop students’ communicative competence, as more students will
regard English as a communicating tool after graduation. If students can
use the English knowledge, skills and cultural aspects they have learned to
communicate with people of different cultural backgrounds in real language
contexts, they are then using English as a communication tool.
The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has set a target of
boosting foreign language teaching in high schools. At the start of
Academic Year 2011-2012, students at specific schools will have to study
mathematics and information technology in English. Despite the
significance of English language, majority of the Vietnamese students
remain handicapped in the use of English. It was even reported by the
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Socialist Republic of Vietnam
BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines

MOET in 2011 that English language competence of Vietnamese students
was rapidly deteriorating.
This implies that the government, in particular the education sector
can hardly address such perceived deterioration of English. It was also
reported by the MOET of Vietnam and the AETS or the American
Educational Testing Service that fifty one point seven percent (51.7%) of
Vietnamese students who graduated from college in 2009 had substandard
English skills.
There are several reasons cited why English language teaching in
Vietnam becomes a problem. Reasons include the deterioration in
students’ English competence and less opportunities for students to
practice English in the classroom. Most of the English classes are still
adopting the traditional teaching in which teachers do the talking while
students are merely listening and note taking so that the chance to speak
diminished.
Most college graduates in Vietnam have deteriorating English
because during their college days, they spend only at least one and half
year of English language studies. So that when they embark on a more
complex academic work which demands the use of English as well as the
language skills, they fail because of lack of knowledge.
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BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
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Another reason cited is the incompetency of Vietnamese students in
the use of English. This problem leads to losing the most useful assets of
Vietnamese people in contributing to national development and
international communication.
Many of the students in Thai Nguyen University (TNU) system

struggle to keep up with the expectations of the school for them to
communicate in good English. For decades the university system in Thai
Nguyen worked to address the need of all students. But somehow, the
expected outcome has a very slow progress.
With this scenario, as college teacher teaching English subject in this
institution, the researcher is interested to determine the English language
grammatical and discourse competence of the Third year college students
of Thai Nguyen with the end view of proposing intervention exercises that
will enhance further their knowledge along the said competencies.
Statement of the Problem
This study is focused on determining English language grammatical
competence and discourse competence of 3
rd
year college students of Thai
Nguyen system.
Specifically, it sought answers to the following questions.
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Socialist Republic of Vietnam
BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines
1. How may the grammatical competence of student respondents be
described in terms of:
1.1 parts of speech;
1.2 morphology;
1.3 syntax; and
1.4 vocabulary?
2. What is the discourse competence of student respondents relative
to:
2.1 cohesive devices;

2.2 transitional phrases;
2.3 coherence;
2.4 connectors; and
2.5 choice of words?
3. How do English teacher assess the grammatical and discourse
competencies of 3
rd
year college students?
4. How do the respondents’ grammatical and discourse competencies
compare with English teachers’ assessments? Are there significant
relationships?
5. What innovative English language teaching intervention exercises
may be proposed to enhance students’ grammatical and discourse
competencies?
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Socialist Republic of Vietnam
BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
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Scope, Delimitation and Limitation of the Study
The study determines the English language grammatical
competence and discourse competence of 3
rd
year college students of Thai
Nguyen system. This includes the grammatical competence of student
respondents in parts of speech, morphology and syntax, and vocabulary
meaning. Included also in the study is the discourse competence of student
respondents relative to cohesive devices, transitional phrases, coherence,
connectors and choice of words.
Further, the study covers the assessment of the English teacher on

the grammatical and discourse competencies of 3
rd
year college students,
the comparison of the respondents’ grammatical and discourse
competencies and English teachers’ responses, the significant differences
on students’ grammatical and discourse competencies and teachers’
responses with the end view of proposing an innovative English language
teaching strategies to enhance students’ grammatical and discourse
competencies.
The study covered the three (3) Thai Nguyen Universities in Thai
Nguyen City and made used of the 40 teachers teaching English and
300 3
rd
Year College students who were enrolled in the Academic Year
2013-2014.
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Socialist Republic of Vietnam
BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines
This study is limited from the data gathered from the above
mentioned respondents. Third year college students and English teachers
from other Thai Nguyen University systems are excluded in the study.
Significance of the Study
The study is deemed beneficial to the Administrators of Thai Nguyen
University, English teachers, Third Year College students, Parents and
Future researchers.
Administrators of Thai Nguyen. This study can guide them in the
Curriculum development through evaluation of students’ English language
grammatical competence and discourse competence. This study will serve

as a guide for the realignment of the existing English curriculum to meet
their institutional goals and objectives.
English Teachers. This study will serve as a guide to the faculty
teaching English as they may be aware of the student’s grammatical and
discourse competencies. This study will provide them insights on what
classroom learning activities will be appropriate to enhance the language
proficiency of their students. Likewise, the teachers may propose some
enrichment activities to improve the student’s grammar and discourse
competencies.
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Socialist Republic of Vietnam
BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines
Third Year College Students. The findings of this study will make
them aware of their present grammatical and discourse competencies.
This would give them a challenge to improve their weak points and
enhance their overall performance in English.
Parents. Through this study, parents of the third year college
students will become aware of the English performance of their children
which will make them more supportive and cooperative in school activities
specifically on the improvement of the English skills of their children.
Future researchers. This study will serve as reference for other
researchers
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Socialist Republic of Vietnam
BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines
CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
This chapter presents the relevant conceptual and research literature
which have bearing to the present study. The literatures included are
found substantial to the study and gives the necessary background to
understand the present research. Further, this chapter also includes
synthesis, theoretical and conceptual framework of the study, and definition
of terms.
Conceptual Literature
The following concepts which focused on English language
competencies, grammatical competence, discourse competence and
intervention exercises were reviewed to substantiate the study.
English Language Competencies. It is a broad term which
includes linguistic or grammatical competence, discourse competence,
socio linguistic or socio cultural competence and what might be called
textual competence. The specific learning outcomes under language
competence deal with knowledge of the language and the ability to use that
knowledge to interpret and produce meaningful texts appropriate to the
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Socialist Republic of Vietnam
BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines
situation in which they are used. Language competence is best developed
in the context of activities or tasks where the language is used for real
purposes or in practical applications
(www.educ.gov.nb.ca/K12cur/language).
The basis for developing language competence should be the
classroom activities which focus on meaningful uses of the language and
on language in context. As for choosing tasks, students’ needs, interests,
and experience should serve as bases. Vocabulary, grammatical

structure, text forms and social conventions necessary to carry out this task
will be taught, practiced and assessed as students are involved in various
aspect of the task itself not in isolation.
The system of linguistic knowledge possessed by native speakers of
a language is called linguistic competence. The concept was first
introduced by Chomsky (1965) as part of the foundation for his generative
grammar. Linguists who are working in the generativist tradition adopted
and developed generative grammar. Competence in the generativist
tradition is the only level of language study that is studied because this
level gives insights into the universal grammar. Underlying all human
language system is universal grammar. Competence or skill is referred to
as the ideal language system that makes it possible for speakers to
produce and understand an infinite number of sentences in their language
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Socialist Republic of Vietnam
BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines
and to distinguish grammatical sentences from ungrammatical sentences.
Competence is unaffected by grammatically irrelevant conditions like errors
in speech.
Competence as an idealized capacity is the ideal speaker-hearer
knowledge of his/her language and it is the mental reality which is
responsible for all those aspects of language use which can be
characterized as linguistic. It was argued that only under an idealized
situation, whereby the speaker-hearer is unaffected by grammatically
irrelevant conditions such as memory limitation and distractions will
performance be a direct reflections of competence.
According to Evans et al (2006) competence is defined as grammar
or set of language rules represented mentally and manifested based on a

person’s own understanding of acceptable usage in a given linguistic
idiom. Therefore, grammatical competence defines an innate knowledge
of rules rather than knowledge of items or relation. Phillips (2010) stated
that competence is regarded as innate knowledge because one does not
have to be trained to develop it and will still be able to apply it in an infinite
number of unheard examples.
The following are included in the speakers linguistic competence
namely: phonetics which deals with the physical production and perception
of the inventory of sounds used in producing language; phonology which
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Socialist Republic of Vietnam
BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines
refers to the mental organization of physical sounds, the patterns formed
by way sounds are combined in a language and the restrictions or
permissible social combinations as well as morphology which deals with
identification, analysis and description of units of meaning in a language.
Knowledge in inflectional or derivational morphology which is present in the
language consists of affixes of words.
Syntax on the other hand, which pertains to structure and formation
of sentences, enables a person to distinguish between grammatical
sentences from ungrammatical sentences while in semantics, this refers to
the understanding of the meaning of sentences. A user of the language is
able to understand and interpret the non-literal meaning in a given
utterance through these three distinctions namely; meaningful and non-
meaningful sentences, some structure but different meanings, and different
structure and still is able to relate the meanings.
Belinchon et al (1994) explained that competence as the main goal
in language learning is also referred to as linguistic competence, a set of

organized knowledge which consists of several sub-competencies, the
phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic and lexical components.
Hymes (1972) on the other hand introduces the concept of communicative
competence as the knowledge which enables us to use language as a
communication device in a given social context. It is a dynamic concept
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Socialist Republic of Vietnam
BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines
based on the negotiation of meaning among interlocutors, which can be
applied to written or spoken modes of communication.
The four distinct elements identified in the model of communicative
competence according to Munby (1978) include linguistic encoding, socio
cultural orientation, socio semantic basis of linguistic knowledge and
discourse level of operation. In addition, there are four aspects of
competence. These are grammatical or linguistic which include knowledge
of the lexicon, syntax and semantic; sociolinguistic competence concerned
with the appropriateness of communication depending on the context
including the participants and the rules of interaction, strategic competence
which pertains to a set of strategies devised for effective communication
and put into use when communication breaks down; and discourse
competence which is concerned with cohesion and coherence of
utterances or sentences.
Six components of communicative competence were introduced by
Van Ek (1977). Apart from linguistic, discourse, sociolinguistic and
strategic competence, social and the socio-cultural competence were
added. Bachman et al (1996) analyze the communicative ability into three
components: language competence, strategic competence and
psychological mechanism. Language competence is divided into

organizational competence which include grammatical and textual
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Socialist Republic of Vietnam
BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines
competence and pragmatic competence which includes illocutionary and
sociolinguistic competence.
Socio linguistic competence is the ability to interpret the social
meaning of the choice of linguistic varieties and to use language with the
appropriate social meaning for the communication situation.
(www.o1/silang.lingulink).
According to Wardlaugh (2005), there are several possible
relationships between language and society and one is social structure
which may either influence or determine linguistic structure of behavior. A
second possible relationship is directly opposed to the first. Linguistic
structure, a third possible relationship viewed influence as bi-directional;
that is language and society may influence each other.
Every language as Hudson (2000) stated accommodates such
differences as a non-discrete scale or continuum of recognizably different
linguistic levels or style termed as registers and every socially native
speaker, as part of learning the language, has learned to distinguished and
choose among the plans on the scale of the register. Chun (1998) on the
other hand pointed out that language and culture was closely tied up to one
another and had a profound influence on verbal and non- verbal
communication as well as in the significance of the length of pause or a
change in tone. Other components of communication such as the degree
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Socialist Republic of Vietnam

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines
of formality in one’s speech or one’s body language also hold different
meanings depending on the culture with which a person identifies himself
Cohen et al (1981). According to the American Immigration Law
Foundation (2000) developing an understanding of general cultural context
and their implication will enable someone who was not raised in a
particular culture to fully comprehend speech or text in that cultures’
language and to use the language more easily.
Celce et al (1995) pointed out that there are four components of
socio-cultural competence namely: social contextual factors, stylistic
appropriateness factors, cultural factors and non- verbal communication
factors. Some of these components are often neglected in ESL education,
thereby causing confusion or comprehension difficulties.
Language and culture as Alptekin (1993) emphasized is interrelated
and studying language needs to be aware of the culture of that language.
In addition, Guest (2002) explained that in culture, whether the language is
for interactive or instrumental purposes, it is better to be accompanied with
the detailed characteristics of its spoken community.
Strategic competence on the other hand is one of the three
components necessary for successful communication through language. It
refers to the speaker’s ability to adapt their use of verbal and non- verbal
language to compensate for communication problems caused by the
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BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
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speaker’s lack of understanding of proper grammar use and insufficient
knowledge of social behavioral and communication norms. Strategic

competence along with grammatical competence, sociolinguistic
competence and discourse competence constitute a framework for
determining a language learner’s proficiency in communication. Together
with the other competencies, they are considered mainstays of modern
theory on second language acquisition (Diaz, Rico and Weed, 2006).
Essentially, any speaker using techniques intended to preserve
communication, repair breakdowns in communication or prevent
miscommunication can be considered to be demonstrating strategic
competence. Some behaviors demonstrating strategic competence
include using synonyms to substitute for words the speaker cannot recall or
has not yet learned, resorting to physical gestures to convey meaning,
asking for clarification from the listener, raising one’s voice in order to be
heard and feigning comprehension in order to listen for context clues.
Maleki (2010) asserted that communication strategies help in
conveying unknown language between communication partners and assist
in maintaining conversational flow. The teaching of communication
strategies is beneficial and leads to strategic competence in language
learning. Strategic competence is best gained through the use of games
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BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
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focusing on communication with or without visual support, jigsaws,
monologues, and other activities that allow for language interaction.
Moreover, the four aspects of language learning consist of listening,
speaking, writing and reading. It is in this order that constitutes the
traditional top-to-bottom approach to language learning, however, it was
suggested that a bottom-up approach to language learning, which gives
emphasis to writing is best suited for teaching strategic competence. This

provides learners with time to process their ideas and language use, before
being asked to use it orally. This is thought to increase learner’s
motivation.
Pragmatic competence on the other hand is concerned with the
users, learners knowledge of the principles according to which messages
are organized, structured and arranged. Discourse competence on the
other hand is used to perform communicative functions or functional
competence and sequenced according to interactive and transactional
schemata or design competence.
Grammatical Competence. It is the ability to recognize and produce
the distinctive grammatical structures of a language and to use them
effectively in communication. It promotes accuracy and fluency in second
language production. Grammatical competence focuses on command of
the language code including such things as the rules of word and sentence
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formation, meanings, spelling, and pronunciation. Its goal is to acquire
knowledge of, and ability to use forms of expression that are grammatically
correct and accurate. It is one of the four areas of the communicative
competence theory (Gao, 2001).
According to Diaz et al (2010) communicative competence is a
feature of a language user’s knowledge of the language that allows the
user to know when, where, and how to use language appropriately.
Grammatical competence increases in importance as the learner advances
in proficiency. Richard and Schmidt (1983) stated that since
communicative competence focuses directly on the knowledge and skill
required to understand and express accurately the literal meaning of

utterances it becomes an important concern for any second language
program.
Further, features and rules of language, vocabulary, word formation,
pronunciation, sentence formation to understand and express accurately
the literal meaning of utterances comprised grammatical competence. It
also referred to as the ability to recognize and produce the distinctive
grammatical structure of a language and to use them (www. o1sil.
Orglingualinks/ what grammatical competence html). It focuses on the
necessary skills and knowledge in speaking and writing accurately. In more
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advanced stages of language proficiency grammatical competence
becomes important to the English learner.
Grammatical competence calls for curriculum and instruction that
prepares students to incorporate and apply the language code (Herrera et
al, 2005). English language and grammar are bounded together. As
students travel through the stages of language proficiency, grammatical
competence becomes more important that Freeman et al (2004) suggested
that since grammar is a set of prescriptive rules taught to students in
school, it will serve as glue that binds the English language together.
Grammar as explained by Cruz et al (2001) deals with words, forms
of words, word combination and the relationship between words. In order
for students to reach higher levels of academic language proficiency,
teachers need to realize that grammatical forms need to be explicitly
taught. In the case of grammar, it should be taught in context. Larsen et al
(2001) pointed out that there is a need to pay attention to the three
dimensions of grammar: form, meaning and use and that simply teaching

grammar rules or having student memorize verb conjugations will not help
students acquire grammatical competence.
The skills and knowledge necessary to speak and write accurately
and input to English learner in more advanced stages of proficiency are the
focused of grammatical competence. Kilfoil and Walt (1997) explained that
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