HANOI UNIVERSITY

Km 9 Nguyen Trai Road, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi, Vietnam

Telephone:(84-4)3854 4338; Fax:(84-4)3854 4550
E-mail: hanu@hanu.edu.vn; Website: www.hanu.edu.vn

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GRADUATE DIPLOMA ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET

Family Name: First Name:

TRAN MY LINH

Unit Title:
ACADEMIC WRITING - FINAL ASSIGNMENT

Assignment Title:
THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR TO YOUNG LEARNERS IN VIETNAM

Name of Lecturer: Class:

M.A. TRUONG THI MY PG43

Date Submitted: Student Contact Telephone No./Student Email Address:

Wed, March 25, 2020 0936771119
darlenelinhtran@gmail.com

STUDENT DECLARATION

I DECLARE THAT THIS ASSIGNMENT IS ORIGINAL AND HAS NOT BEEN SUBMITTED FOR ASSESSMENT ELSEWHERE.

I DECLARE THAT THIS ASSIGNMENT IS MY OWN WORK AND DOES NOT INVOLVE PLAGIARISM OR COLLUSION.

I GIVE MY CONSENT FOR THE ELECTRONIC VERSION TO BE EXAMINED BY RELEVANT PLAGIARISM SOFTWARE PROGRAMS.

I HAVE MADE A PHOTOCOPY OR ELECTRONIC COPY OF MY ASSIGNMENT, WHICH I CAN PRODUCE IF THE ORIGINAL IS LOST FOR ANY

REASON.

SIGNED: DATED:
 MARKS

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Lecturer’s Signature: ..……………………………………… Date: ………………....

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THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE TEACHING OF
ENGLISH GRAMMAR TO YOUNG LEARNERS IN
VIETNAM
Tran My Linh; HANU PG43

ABSTRACT
In the English classroom for young learners, several factors have an impact on the process
of teaching and acquiring this language. In this research paper, I observed and analyzed
the subjects (young learners aged from 5 to 10) and the methods teachers have currently
been applying during the teaching process, to be more specific, the abstract taught here is
English grammar. Several factors such as learners’ parents or government are also consid-
ered to play a role in the processes of teaching and learning English grammar.

Keywords: young learners, YLE, language teaching, grammar teaching, grammar

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 TABLE OF CONTENT
Graduate Diploma Assignment Cover Sheet ................................................................................1
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................5
LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................................6
Definition of key terms ........................................................................................6
Findings of relevant studies on the factors affecting teaching and learning Eng-
lish grammar ........................................................................................................7
CONCLUSIONS .........................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................12

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INTRODUCTION
Grammar has been considered an important aspect of teaching and learning English.
There are several research papers done by educational experts about teaching grammar
to learners. They highlight the definition of grammar, the concept of teaching grammar,
ways of teaching grammar and some techniques which have been used in teaching stu-
dents. Krashen (1982) showed his interest in learning grammar and support the idea that
teachers should teach conscious grammar rules. Terrell (1991) also suggested that “gram-
mar-focused activities are necessary and that classroom students will not come close to the
number of hours of input necessary for natural acquisition.” Grammar has played an es-
sential role in the field of teaching English as an additional language. Along with English
vocabulary, grammar has a big impact on how people teach, learn and use English in the
countries that do not have English as their first language. However, those researches
haven’t indicated the specific factors affecting the grammar teaching in Hanoi, the capital
of Vietnam, in which the demand for learning English is increasing day by day along with
the expectation from educators of the society. There have been some significant changes,
from the way English teachers teach grammar to the way learners learn. According to
Braine (2005), the most dominant methodology in teaching English was always the
grammar-translation method in which “reading and grammar were prevalent.” This
method has been being used for such a long time at public schools, and teachers, with no
attempt to make an English grammar lesson more interesting so students can mostly do
the grammar exercises (multiple-choice, fill in the gaps) based on grammatical rules, with-
out using them in real context with speaking skills, for example, dialogues and everyday
conversations. For that reason, this research is to figure out those factors which are cur-
rently occurring at a small scope - private language centers in Hanoi. The main subjects
are minors in Hanoi, especially those approached English as a foreign language since their
very early age, this research’s goal is to figure out the issues that students are currently ex-
periencing during their process of obtaining grammar structure, as well as the methodol-
ogy that teachers who work at private language centers have complimented during their
courses’ hours to get youngsters to get used to properly utilize grammar structures in their
writing tasks. While this topic is very promising and considerable, the common approach
of teaching English is, unfortunately, not so up to standard with the demand and ability
of Vietnamese students. Utilizing this research, future further analysis should be carried
out to reveal further improvisation and improvement.

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LITERATURE REVIEW
Definition of key terms
Young children, minors belong to the age group ranged from five to ten, their process
of learning differs from that of more matured youngsters, and adults. They tend to be
very responsive, very eager to learn from anything around them, and very capable of un-
derstanding not solely from what being explained but also from what they see, hear, touch
and interact with. However, they present a limited period of attention, consequently, it is
something compulsory that instructors give adequate individual attention and activities to
help them engage in the lesson as much as possible. Moreover, this group of subjects is still
hindered by several abstract concepts such as grammar rules which are difficult to grasp.
English grammar  can be somehow viewed as the mechanism which positions words
within a clause, and to the variety of those words under certain circumstances. Fromkin,
Rodman, and Hyams (1990) considered that the grammar of a language “consists of the
sounds and sound patterns, the basic units of meaning such as words, and the rules to
combine all of these to form sentences with the desired meaning.” Hedge (2000) in her
chapter titled “Grammar” similarly only considers “presenting grammar” and “practicing
grammar.” Understanding grammatical rules can be achieved when learners can skillfully
tell how different grammatical elements can be strung together to create a meaningful and
properly impactful clause. Ellis (2006) gave the definition “Grammar teaching involves
any instructional technique that draws learners’ attention to some specific grammatical
form in such a way that it helps them either to understand it meta linguistically and/or
process it in comprehension and/or production so that they can internalize it.” Fromkin
et al. (1990) also agreed that teaching grammar is a must for learners who do not speak
English as the first language. 
With YLE, grammatical rules conveying can be deemed more difficult since their know-
how acquisition process is wholly different from subjects belonging to other age groups.
There are several ways for teachers to exploit to introduce grammar skills such as showing
students grammar evidence and ask them to work out for themselves how the language is
constructed. Engaging activities are also a requirement in each grammar lesson.
At this early stage, young learners can study English grammar from basic to pre-interme-
diate levels to reach the A2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for
Languages (CEFR), which is an international standard for describing language ability, be-
fore entering secondary schools. The grammar topics which should be covered are listed
below (Cambridge Assessment English, 2018):

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 • Nouns • Conjunctions
• Adjectives • Pronouns
• Determiners • Verbs irregular
• Adverbs • Verbs regular
• Prepositions • Modals
• Question words

Findings of relevant studies on the factors affecting teaching and learn-

ing English grammar
Young learners’ English language proficiency
From the very start of a child’s language skills acquiring journey, they start to be exposed
to the basics of English. According to Harmer (2015), “young learners are those up to the
ages of nine or ten. They learn differently from older children, adolescents, and adults.
They respond to meaning even if they do not understand individual words. They learn
indirectly rather than directly, learn from everything around them rather than only focus
on the precise topic they are being taught.” Moreover, their understanding comes not just
from an explanation, but also from what they see, hear, and have a chance to touch and
interact with. They find abstract concepts such as grammar rules difficult to grasp. Cop-
land, Garton, and Burns (2014) ever gave some examples when explaining grammar to
young learners “To explain difficult grammar categories (e.g., the difference between the
present perfect and the past simple)” and the biggest challenge, to some teachers, is teach-
ing grammar “In my personal opinion is grammar aspect because children become bored
when teachers try to teach in this way.” (grammar-translation)
Another issue is that in the Vietnam context, particularly in government primary schools,
children may struggle to understand the relevance of learning English as they have little
contact with speakers of the language (Ho, 2003; Li, 1998). There have been no native
English teachers at government primary schools; all English lessons are taught by Viet-
namese teachers. At public schools that cooperate with private English centers, there are
English lessons delivered by native English teachers but the duration is short, up to
1.5hour/week/class (Bao Moi news).
Above all, young learners have a limited attention span; unless the activities are extremely
engaging, they can get easily bored and lose interest after 10 minutes (Harmer, 2015).
Teachers, therefore, need to plan a range of activities for a given period and be flexible

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enough to move on to the next exercise when they see their students getting bored. The
classroom should be bright and colorful and has enough room for activities to take place.
At this age, rather than doing exercises and listening to translation and remembering
rules, children love discovering things, using their imagination, being involved in a variety
of in-class activities like puzzle, drawing, games, physical movements or songs. A good
primary classroom mixes play and learning in an atmosphere of cheerful and supportive
harmony (Harmer, 2015).
For those reasons, English grammatical study in this stage does not belong to the spotlight
as much as English colloquial communication. Therefore, our main subjects are prefer-
ably encouraged to learn how to tell a story (using their imagination), or to describe phe-
nomena using merely simple grammatical structures, for example, utilization of singular/
plural nouns, making of simple clauses with a subject and a verb (through a list of activi-
ties). The main duty of teachers is to make sure that learners are entirely encouraged to
practice written and spoken English every day and to gain confidence and fluency in Eng-
lish.

Teachers’ pedagogical skills

Teaching grammar explicitly requires the learner to think about language abstractly. As
mentioned above, young learners learn best through playing, singing, and using language
in real situations and for fun, not by explanation. At this age, it is considered to be difficult
for young learners if they learn English grammar rules in the traditional way such as
grammar-translation. A grammar lesson should include as many related activities as pos-
sible to engage students in the lesson and have scaffold meaning to facilitate students
through stages. This means good teachers at this level need to provide a rich diet of learn-
ing experiences encouraging students to get information from a variety of sources. Teach-
ers should work with their students individually and in groups to develop good and effec-
tive relationships, through spending time understanding how students think, therefore,
teachers can motivate them.
An important factor is the teacher’s English proficiency. They need good oral skills, espe-
cially pronunciation since children will imitate them since speaking and listening skills will
be used most of all at this age. Once a teacher decided to teach English to young learners,
there is a need for highly skilled and dedicated teaching.
However, English is a compulsory subject at primary school without consideration of who
will teach it. In some countries, a severe shortage of trained primary school teachers of

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English is reported (Copland, Garton, Burns, 2014). Teachers may find themselves teach-
ing English without adequate training in teaching English to young learners in particular.
Teachers who work at educational institutions in Vietnam are not always trained with
enough teaching skills or lack pedagogy. Their teaching methods may gather from their
own experience and the traditional way when they were at school, so that could be how
they bring traditional methods into classrooms when teaching grammar, which may lead
to a gap in learning English grammar and other communicative skills. And sometimes
teachers still have to follow the traditional way like giving students grammar structure and
advise them to follow because games and activities do not always work.
In East Asia, there has been an introduction of some forms of communicative language
teaching (CLT) or task-based learning and teaching (TBLT). However, teachers may find
it challenging to apply these new approaches. As Johnstone (2009) pointed out, CLT is a
pedagogical approach developed in Western countries to teach adults in small, well-
equipped classrooms. It may not be appropriate for teaching large groups of children in
classrooms where resources and facilities are limited. Additionally, teachers receive only
basic training in the underpinning theory and practical applications, they may struggle to
implement this approach effectively (Butler, 2005; Littlewood, 2007).
Classrooms in Vietnam adequately meet the basic requirements of seats, light, board but
some may not be equipped fully with projectors or electronic devices such as tablets or
laptops. Some still have, but not sufficiently, especially when the number of students in a
classroom is a minimum of 30 students. Therefore, teachers cannot utilize and apply
technology in the classroom, or students may not have full access to these activities, which
they are more interested in than just listening to the theories and jotting down to their
notebook.

Social and family factors

One big issue is the current testing system in Vietnam, which is grammar-dominated ex-
ams. Vietnamese schools have focused on English grammar and reading comprehension,
so exams have to be set this way. (Tuoi Tre News)
On the one hand, parents always desire that their children pass all the exams at school
with high scores, and most of those tests’ format focuses on grammar, but just a little on
communicative English. Even though some children are already capable of communicat-
ing effectively in English, their English scores at school are not perfectly achieved. Thus,
parents consider their English is not that good and they demand English centers to teach

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their children more grammar and improve their scores at school. The knowledge ac-
quired, if not being used efficiently, will be only useful for these examinations but not for
flexible daily communication in English. This leads to ignorance in communicative teach-
ing and learning. According to Hoang (1999), Vietnamese students “may achieve the
highest scores in the exams but fail to show their excellence in real-life performance.” An-
other study of Tran (2009) in a Vietnamese school indicated that “testing practices were
still traditional, emphasis on language and competence rather than skills and perfor-
mance.” The traditional testing system harmed teaching practices and led to language-
based or test-oriented teaching practices, not in a communicative approach. As a result,
students failed to achieve communicative language ability.
It is suggested that the testing system with grammar core should be changed to perfor-
mance tests, to show a student’s proficiency in how they can use the language.
Furthermore, not every parent could spend time and have enough teaching skills to sup-
port their children in learning at home, whereas it’s a compulsory condition if children
want to make further progress in learning English.
Apart from those factors mentioned above, some educational businesses focus on sales and
marketing to approach more customers along with maintain a low financial budget but
forget to improve the quality of facilities or even the qualifications of teachers. Some
teachers, unfortunately, have not been supported enough with materials and facilities,
therefore, they are not prepared in the best state to deliver English lessons of high quality
to children.

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CONCLUSIONS
This paper is to identify factors affecting grammar teaching and learning in primary
school age in Vietnam. As mentioned above, young learners are a very specific subject
and need to apply their own creative and creative approaches to engage them in the lec-
ture. To do so, primary teachers need to be competent in language skills, pedagogical skills
and above all, to understand and work with children sincerely and enthusiastically. Teach-
ing methods are also one of the topics that can be developed, however, with the advent of
technology and modern teaching methods, teachers can put a lot of grammar activities
into the lesson instead of just using the grammar-translation method like before. The ul-
timate common goal of teachers is to ensure that students acquire knowledge while main-
taining an exciting and stimulating learning atmosphere. To ensure the quality of teach-
ing, educational institutions must necessarily invest in facilities and professional qualifica-
tions for teachers. On the social side, the idea of studying grammar to take the test should
gradually swift to the goal of proficiency in English, which is entirely possible if parents
understand and support their children on the main path. Young learners, especially at the
elementary school age, are at the age of exposure to English as they are very potential to
develop many other skills in the future.


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