The Impact of Structural and Functional Style of Teaching English Grammar on Students Academic Achievement of English Language Course

Transcription

1 International Academic Institute for Science and Technology International Academic Journal of Psychology and Educational Studies Vol. 1, No. 1, 2016, pp International Academic Journal of Psychology and Educational Studies The Impact of Structural and Functional Style of Teaching English Grammar on Students Academic Achievement of English Language Course Masoud Rajabi a, Kiumars Azizmalayeri b, Maboud omidi c a Master of Education, Islamic Azad University, Malayer, Iran b Assistant Professor in Education, Malayer University, Iran c Holder of a Doctoral Degree in Psychometrics, Consulting center, Hamedan, Iran Abstract The present study was aimed to examine the impact of structural and functional style of teaching English grammar on the academic achievement of English language course of male students in second grade of high school in Malayer city in the academic year of According to the goal, the present study was a functional survey and from the perspective of the conduction, it is a quasi-experimental research. The population includes all the high school students in Malayer city in academic year of which were The sample of the study included 48 students who were selected by cluster random sampling, then, they were divided into two experimental and control groups randomly. Functional method was used to teach experimental group and structural method was applied to teach the control group. In order to gather the needed data, an English teacher- made academic achievement questionnaire was used. To analyze the data, independent t test was used in order to compare the pre-test and post- test scores in each group and to compare the score difference in two control and experimental groups. The findings indicate that there is a significant difference between academic achievements of both groups. The results showed that teaching English grammar functionally is more effective on the academic achievement of high school students than structural method. Keywords: English course achievement, English grammar, functional method, structural method. Introduction: Teaching and training commenced when human got the idea to transfer various scientific, literal, historical issues and even his thoughts. Teaching and training production as well as teaching and learning date as long as human s life. In the modern world of today, no one is free from the need of education. 1

2 Learning consists of a great deal of humans lives. Therefore, students curious minds cannot be satisfied by old perspectives and traditional methods. English language as a foreign language has been being taught in Iran s schools for a long time. Nowadays, English language and complete mastery in it is one the pre- conditions of academic and social success. As one of the most fundamental organizations in Iran, education department is responsible to preserve the values, and to educate the generation who is the next agents and administrators of society. Mission, goals and tasks of education is complicated and the burden of its responsibility is very heavy. (Rachlin et al, 2005). Theoretical basis of research: English Course Achievement Academic achievement in English course means the success of students in taken scores of English that can lead to skill or expertise in this language. In education system, academic achievement means achieving educational goals in educational period of the intended lesson. (Bornaii, 2006). English Grammar Grammar is a set of rules and procedures dominating on vocabularies, sentences, phonemes, sounds and meanings in the language. In the other word, grammar is a set of rules and procedures that the speakers of the language acquire them unconsciously and students learn them to understand speaking and writing of the native speakers better. In traditional categorization, grammar includes two branches of etymologically (etymology) and linguistics (syntax). Etymology and syntax make grammar of a language. But, nowadays, grammar, which is considered the sub-discipline of linguistic knowledge, has the following parts: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. (Bateni, 1996).Various languages have unique position and rank in communication world of today. All the developed countries consider a significant importance for foreign language. In some of these countries, learning two or three languages is emphasized. But the important point here is that there is a functional perspective dominating the educational goals and systems. Functional Method Functional teaching means teaching useful purpose and functional use of the abilities and skills which are taught during a specific period of time; so that after graduation, at least, two speaking and reading skills of students have been trained significantly. This style of teaching is a method in which the teacher speaks English with student as soon as he gets to classroom. The teacher, also, repeats the lesson fast, averagely and slowly so much that all students understand it. Functional method is a communicative teaching method in which learning language significantly through doing tasks in a totally student- oriented environment is emphasized. Task- oriented teaching method wishes to create acquisition motivation through meaning and form- based activities. Three dimensions of structure, function and communication are important in this method. (Murphy, 2003). Functional Grammar teaching method is an ability to make a communication between teacher and students, without the intervention of a mediator naming translation. As structural teaching method does not have this point, so teachers make use of functional method, and thinking and understanding happen in the second language. In functional method of teaching grammar, teacher tries to make the students think in target or second language. Therefore, while teaching grammar, language teaching takes place which in turn is the main purpose. In functional method, teacher tries to make the correct pronunciations choral so their comprehension is enhanced. In functional method, grammar is inductive, meaning that it moves from example to the rule. Grammatical rules are never taught explicitly. The teacher and students act as partners in teaching- learning process. In functional method, class is somehow like a real condition with the help of students and teacher such as a bank or shopping. Teacher with students and students with students are in a constructive communication. In this method, the teacher help students to self- modify. In functional method, mother tongue must not be used. 2

3 The teacher, in functional method, makes use of all the modern teaching methods which are applied to communicate. (Wang, 2007). Structural Method Structural teaching English grammar is a method in which the English points are taught in Persian. In traditional method of teaching grammar and translation, teaching grammar is emphasized as well as teaching vocabulary and text translation. In this method, the teacher is the source and reference of knowledge and learners are considered vacant dishes that the teacher is responsible to transfer the information into them. The communication between the teacher and students is very little and the class is text- oriented and test-oriented. (Zu, 2015). Structural teaching of grammar is performed deductively, meaning that it moves from rule to example. Teacher explains the grammar explicitly and clearly and represents some examples. The exceptions are also mentioned by the teacher. Students will be aware of neat points of grammar, so text translation will be easier for them. In this method, teacher mentions the translation of new vocabularies, their synonyms and antonyms and students are to memorize and learn them. Emphasis is mostly on reading and writing. Listening and speaking are at the next levels. Additionally, the accurate pronunciation of words and intonation are not considered important. In structural English grammar teaching method, the teacher is the only prolocutor and he is the base of teaching. So, students will learn what the teacher knows. There is not any emotion and motivation among students, but learning grammar in this method is a great practice to enhance mind. In structural method, there is a little communication among students and most of speaking in on the teacher. In structural method, emphasis is mostly on grammar, synonyms and anonyms and tenses. The teacher corrects students mistakes by telling the correct answer. Mother tongue is often used in the class. Grammatical points and irregular verbs are practiced by filling the gap practices. In structural method, the important point is that the classis method is boring and less motivating for students and they learn some points and issues about language not about the language itself. (Blinberg, 2005). Research Background The fundamental issue here is that national tests results show that students language learning especially grammar learning is very weak. To change this approach, using new teaching methods is needed, so that the role of learner will be enhanced in the process of learning. Results of studies of Rezaei Rad et al. (2012), Mirzaei (2013), Zarei (2015), Rahmani Sani et al (2015), Rahimi et al. (2015) and Sudmand Afshar and Doosti (2016) have shown that using modern patterns of learning has a significant effect on academic progress of second language of students. Therefore, the present study is trying to answer the following question that how structural and functional English grammar teaching methods can effect on academic achievement of high school students? Research methodology The population, sample and sampling The present study is a functional survey and from the perspective of the conduction is a quasiexperimental research. The population included all the high school students in Malayer city in academic year of which were Out of this population, a sample of 48 students was selected by cluster sampling. Then, they were divided into two groups of 24. They were, also, randomly assigned into two experimental and control groups. Experimental group learned English functionally in an intensive period. In order to teach the students functionally, students in control group took part in classes for 2 months (two sessions a week) learning English structurally. Research tools Data was collected by a teacher- made questionnaire of academic achievement in English including 30 multiple- choice questions. The mentioned questionnaire was used in both pre-test and post- test. The reliability of this tool was 0/73 obtained by the investigator using the Cronbach's alpha. In addition, the validity of aforementioned tool was investigated and confirmed by experts. 3

4 Prior to commencing teaching English structurally and functionally, pre- test was conducted for both groups (control and experimental). Then, after the end of the training period, post- test was applied on both groups. The Analysis of Data The data collected of both groups were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics methods (dependent t-test and independent t-test). Research Findings The following table represents descriptive indexes of the variables. Table 1: descriptive statistics indexes Variables Indexes Control group Experimental group Pre-test Post-test Pre-test Post-test number average median mode SD variance skewedness The standard error coefficient of skewedness / elongation The standard error coefficient of elongation According to the observed results of average scores in the above table, it can be mentioned that functional teaching has more effect on academic achievement of English course in comparison with structural teaching. Results of the first hypothesis testing, functional English grammar teaching is effective on high school students academic achievement in English lesson, has been shown in the following table. Table 2: correlational t test to compare pre-test and post- test scores in functional method Functional method Independent variable Number Average SD t df p Pre-test Post-test According to t statistic results shown in the above table, at a 95% level of confidence, academic achievement in English variable has changed with functional method. According to above table, the level of significance is 0.001, as it is less than significance level of 0.05, we conclude that the null hypothesis is 4

5 rejected with the probability of 95%. Therefore, functional teaching of English grammar has been effective on academic achievement of high school students in English course. Results of the second hypothesis testing, structural English grammar teaching is effective on high school students academic achievement of English lesson, has been shown in the following table. Table3: correlational t test to compare pre-test and post- test scores in structural method Independent variable Number Average SD t df p structural method Pre-test Post-test / According to t statistic results shown in the above table, at a 95% level of confidence, academic achievement in English variable does not have any significant change with structural method. According to above table, the level of significance is 0.784, as it is more than significance level of 0.05, we conclude that the two variables are independent of each other and null hypothesis is accepted with probability of 95%. Therefore, structural teaching of English grammar has not been effective on academic achievement of high school students in English lesson. Results of the third hypothesis testing, there is a difference between the academic English achievement of students who have learned by functional method or structural method, have been shown in the following table. Table4: correlational t test, scores difference of both experimental and control groups. Variable Group Number Average SD t df p English achievement Structural teaching Functional teaching According to the results of the above table, the level of significance is less than meaning that there is a difference between pre-test and post- test scores in both structural and functional methods of teaching. Therefore, the hypothesis is accepted. It means that there is a difference between English academic achievement of students who have learned by structural method or functional method. According to score average, it can be mentioned that functional teaching has more effect on academic achievement in English lesson. Conclusion: In the present study, the effect of teaching English grammar functionally and structurally on English learners academic achievement was examined. In this section, a conclusion will be drawn about it. The results of data analysis show that functional teaching of English grammar is effective on academic achievement of English lesson of high school students. The results of the present study are aligned with findings of Rezaei Rad et al. (2012), Mirzaei (2013), Zarei (2015), Rahmani Sani et al (2015), Rahimi et al. (2015) and Sudmand Afshar and Doosti (2016). Therefore, it can be mentioned that in order to perform a desirable curriculum, it is essential to decide correctly and accurately about the teaching methods in accordance with goals and contents of lessons in the process of curriculum planning. According to the results, applying functional methods in teaching English language lesson look so 5

6 appropriate and desirable. In addition, it can make the students skilled and strong. Because in functional method, the teacher tries to make students think in the second language while teaching grammar. So, while teaching grammar, the English teaching takes place which is the main purpose. Teacher tries to use the accurate pronunciation of the words so that they are understood properly. Students are encouraged to learn new subjects and their listening and speaking skills are enhanced. To show meaning of a new word or sentence in the second language, teacher uses things, tools and pantomime; as a result, it can lead to academic achievement of students in language lesson. Due to importance of learning English as a foreign language, more attention to learning process of this lesson looks urgent. But, there are various reasons for failure of our nation's students in English course. One of the reasons is that the teaching methods applied in schools are not updated. The methods are structural, because in structural method, teacher says the meaning of new words and their synonyms and antonyms and students are to memorize and learn them. More emphasis is on reading and writing. Speaking and listening are at the next levels. There is a little communication among students and the most portion of speaking is on the teacher. The mother tongue is mainly used in the class. Generally, what is important in structural method is that the old method is boring and less motivating for students and they learn some pints about the language but not the language itself. So, structural English teaching method has not been effective on academic achievement of English course of high school students. Reference Abedi, J., & Herman, J. L. (2010). Assessing English language learners opportunity to learn mathematics: Issues and limitations. Teacher s College Record 112(3), Afshar, H., & Doosti, M. (2015). An investigation into factors contributing to Iranian secondary school English teachers job satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Research Papers in Education, DOI: / Bielenberg, B. & Wong Fillmore, L. (2005). The English they need for the test. Educational Leadership, Bornai, Yadu'llah. an examination of amount of specialty of junior high school teachers in nineteen areas of Tehran or lessons that they teach. Department of Education of Tehran. Mirzayi, K., Saadi, H., Movehedi, R., EsmaeeliSalumahaleh, A., Ebrahimi, M., Farokhzadi, A., & BehnamNia, F. (2013). An Investigation and Determination of Necessary Infrastructures in E- learning Development and Application in Higher Education of Hamedan and Kurdistan Provinces, Iran. The International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World, 3(2), Murghy J.) 2003(. Task- based learning: The interaction between tasks and learners. ELT Joutnal: 57(4).p Rachlin, Hirsch S, Rogers, Daniel C. Economics of Education. Translation: Sayed Abolqasem Hosseinion, Mashhad. Rahimi, M., & Karkami, F. H. (2015). The role of teachers classroom discipline in their teaching effectiveness and students language learning motivation and achievement: A path method. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, 3(1), Rahmani Sani, A., Khosro Rad, R. (2015). The Structural Model of Relationship between Informational Style, Achievement Goals and Cognitive Engagement. European Online Journal of Natural and Social Sciences. 4(1), Rezayi M., & Nadri, Kh.(2012 ). The effectiveness of educational software in teaching English First grade students. Journal of Social Research. 4(17), Soodmand Afshar, H., & Doosti, M. (2016). An investigation into factors contributing to Iranian secondary school English teachers job satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Iranian Journal of language Teaching Research. 4(1),

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