The appropriateness of CLT focus on form instruction to high school students at To Hien Thanh School

The appropriateness of CLT focus on form
instruction to high school students at To Hien
Thanh School

Hoàng Thị Tân

Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ
Luận văn ThS. Chuyên ngành: Theory and methodology of English teaching
Mã số: 60 14 10
Người hướng dẫn: MA. Vũ Mai Trang
Năm bảo vệ: 2011



Abstract: The minor thesis is concerned with “ The appropriateness of CLT focus on
form instruction to high school students at To Hien Thanh School”. It is aimed at finding
out the appropriateness of teaching grammar in the light of CLT to students at To Hien
Thanh high school in general and students of grade 11 here in particular. The objectives
of study are to investigate contextual factors affecting the application of CLT focus on
form instruction to students; to evaluate contextual appropriateness of the focus on form
approach then to give some suggestions and some solutions of teaching method to bring
about better results in CLT English language teaching and learning. To achieve the aims
and the objectives of the thesis, many references were selected, read and filtered for
information. The author used Survey questionnaires for 5 teachers and 100 students at To
Hien Thanh high school, Class observation, Post-observation interviews. All the data
collected were consolidated and categorized. The results were analyzed and presented in
forms of tables and figures. The observational notes were jotted down to provide the
findings in form of reflections. The minor thesis consists of three parts and three chapters.
Part I is introduction. It provides a general overview of the study with specific references
to the rationale, the aims and the objectives of study, research questions, research
methods, context of study, data collection method, scope of study, purpose and

significance of study. Part II is development. Part II consists of three chapters: Chapter I,
Literature review, is concerned with definitions and concepts of the terms: Focus on
Form vs Focus on Forms, Contextual Appropriateness of teaching methods. Chapter II,
Research methodology, introduces context of study, methodology, survey instruments,
data analysis. Chapter III, Findings and discussion, is devoted to a detailed description of
findings and the discussion. In this chapter, explanation and interpretation of the findings
are explored. Part III, conclusion, gives a conclusion, recommendations, limitations of the
study and then gives some suggestions for further study.
Keywords: Tiếng Anh; Phương pháp giảng dạy; Ngữ pháp; Giao tiếp

Content
PART I : INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale

There is no doubt that English has been used as a tool of communication among native speakers
as well as non-native ones. No one can deny the important role of English in every field of life.
Nowadays, the demand for learning English is increasing in Vietnam. People learn English for
many purposes, such as getting jobs in foreign companies, studying abroad, communicating in
English with foreigners, passing exams, etc. Learning English now is not only an interest but also
a practical need for many people.
Together with the growing demand for learning English, there has been an innovation in English
teaching and learning methods everywhere in Vietnam. Nowadays, teacher not only transfers
knowledge but also guides, organizes students’ learning activities. The aim of language teaching
is to help students understand language as well as use it actively in real life; after a language
lesson, students can communicate in English. To reach these purposes teachers have to try a lot.
In fact, at To Hien Thanh high school, teaching English grammar in the light of communication
has some problems, such as students’ levels, teachers’ methods, facilities, textbooks, etc.
Students here are almost bad at English. They are lack of knowledge of English: vocabulary,
grammar. They spend little time on learning English. They pay more attention to learning natural

science subjects: Maths, Physics, Chemistry. Because of students’ bad attitude to learning
English, the teachers of English at To Hien Thanh high school have many difficulties in
applying communicative language teaching. Further more, facilities here are not good. There are
no cassettes to teach listening. When teaching listening lessons, teachers have to read tape
scripts. Students have no chance to practice English in real life, no chance to listen to English
from native speakers. Besides those reasons, textbook is also a difficult problem for students at
To Hien Thanh high school. Most tasks in textbooks Tieng Anh 10, 11, 12 are in the light of
communication. Those tasks give students situations to practise English and require them to use
English actively. It is very good for students to learn and practise , but for students at To Hien
Thanh high school, it is a problem.
In Vietnam each school year has two semesters . Students of secondary schools have at least
three English lessons per week. They have to take four or five written tests and only one oral test
per semester. Furthermore, what they learned at secondary school is little. In English lessons of
high school, teacher almost starts from basic structures and the simplest knowledge. With the
experience of 18 years working as a teacher of English and of 14 years teaching English at To
Hien Thanh high school, the author always concerns with how to help students learn English
better, how to motivate them in learning English and how to reach the aim of teaching English
in the light of communication. Those are the questions the author always thinks of. Successful
application of CLT requires certain conditions such as class size, language environment,
facilities, teachers’ facilitative role, students’ active role, textbook, etc. Those things can not be
all met in the context of English teaching and learning at To Hien Thanh high school. The
question of how to equip students with grammatical competence so that they can use the
language to communicate in any situation has become a matter of teachers of English in general
and teachers of English at To Hien Thanh high school in particular.
For the above reasons, in this minor thesis, The author intends to investigate the appropriateness
of focus on form instruction in the light of CLT to high school students at To Hien Thanh
high school then to give some suggestions to make English teaching and learning activities at To
Hien Thanh high school more communicative. The author hopes that this study will have some
contribution to improving the application of CLT in ELT in general, English grammar teaching
in particular at To Hien Thanh high school.

2. Aim and objectives of study

The aim of the study is to find out the appropriateness of focus on form instruction in the light of
CLT to high school students at To Hien Thanh school.
The objectives of study are:
First, to investigate contextual factors affecting the application of focus on form approach at To
Hien Thanh high school.
Second, to evaluate contextual appropriateness of the focus on form approach at To Hien Thanh
high school.
Last, to give some suggestions and some solutions of teaching method so that applying CLT in
teaching and learning English at To Hien Thanh high school has good results and effectiveness.

3. Research questions: To achieve the aims and the objectives of the thesis, the following
research questions were proposed:
1. To what extent is focus on form instruction used at To Hien Thanh high school ?
2. How appropriate is focus on form instruction to students at To Hien Thanh
high school ?
3. What should teachers do to bring about better results in CLT English language
teaching and learning?
4. Research method
In order to explore the appropriateness of focus on form instruction to high school students at To
Hien Thanh high school the main methods utilized in this study are Survey questionnaires for
teachers and students, Class observation, Post-observation interviews with two teachers . To
carry out the study, many references were selected, read and filtered for information.
With the aim of increasing validity and reliability of the data collected the author used the
following instruments:
Questionnaires: to find out the ways of teaching and learning grammar at To Hien Thanh high
school, then to find out the contextual appropriateness of teaching methods.
+ Questionnaire for students: to investigate students’ real situation of learning English and to

explore their expectation in learning English.
+ Questionnaire for teachers: to get teachers’ opinions about the ways they teach grammar
lessons.
Classroom observation: to clarify and test the validity of information about teaching grammar
in the light of communication. The author did not observe lessons of all 5 teachers but only two
of them who are on behalf of two teaching styles.
Post-observation interviews with two teachers: the author conducted two interviews with two
teachers whose lessons had been observed to get better insights into teachers’ perceptions and
attitudes toward teaching grammar in the light of CLT.
5. Context of study
5.1. The syllabus
In this part, only the syllabuses for students of grade 11 are mentioned.
5.2. The participants
There are two groups of subjects in this study:
The first group: 5 teachers of English at To Hien Thanh high school. They are at the ages of
from 33 to 41 with from 8 to 18 years working as teachers of English.
The second group: 100 students of grade 11 at To Hien Thanh high school. They are from17
to18 years old.
5.3. The textbook
In this study, the author intends to survey only students of grade 11, so the textbook the author
considered in this study is Tieng Anh 11 in order to find out whether the tasks in this textbook are
appropriate to students of grade 11 at To Hien Thanh high school.
5.4. The Socio-cultural environment
In this part the author mentions to the Socio-cultural environment in Vietnam in general and at
To Hien Thanh high school in particular.

6. Data collection method
All the data collected from questionnaire for teachers, questionnaire for students, classroom
observation, post-observation interviews with two teachers were consolidated and categorized.
The results were analyzed and presented in forms of tables and figures. The observational notes

were jotted down to provide the findings in form of reflections.

7. Scope of the studyThe study only focuses on teaching and learning grammar in the light of
communicative language teaching at To Hien Thanh high school. The subjects of the study are
students of grades 11 and teachers of English at this school.

8.Purpose and Significance of studyThis study is carried out to find out the appropriateness of
focus on form instruction to high school students at To Hien Thanh School. Successful
application of communicative language teaching in teaching grammar not only helps teachers
and students in teaching and learning grammar more actively and more effectively but also helps
change the students’ learning style from passive to much more active.
This project can be significant in a number of ways. It helps to identify the appropriateness of
teaching grammar in the light of communication to students at To Hien Thanh high school and
suggests ways of improving students’ communicative competence.

9. Design of the study
The study consists of three parts and three chapters:
Part I: Introduction, provides a general overview of the study with specific references to the
rationale, the aims and objectives of study, research questions, research method, context of study,
data collection method, scope of study, purpose and significance of study, design of the thesis.
Part II: Development, includes three chapters:
Chapter one: Literature review. This chapter provides definitions and concepts of the terms:
Focus on Forms vs Focus on Form, Contextual Appropriateness of teaching methods.
Chapter two: Research methodology, introduces the context of study, methodology, the survey
instruments and data analysis.
Chapter three: Findings and discussion. It is devoted to a detailed description of findings and
the discussion. In this chapter, explanation and interpretation of the findings are explored.
Part III: Conclusion, gives conclusion, recommendations, limitations of the study and then
gives some suggestions for further study.

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