Strategies for Better Learning of English Grammar: Chinese vs Thais Part 3

Aye aye, folks! This week I'd still like to discuss my review about the next part of the journal entitled Strategies for Better Learning of English Grammar: Chinese vs Thais.

3. Methodology
3.1. Research Question
There are 4 questions in order to fulfill the research in grammar strategies and need for the context-based approach.

• What strategies do the higher and lower achievement learners apply in their English grammar learning?
• Do the Chinese and the Thai higher achievement learners apply the grammar learning strategies similarly or differently?
• Do the Chinese and the Thai lower achievement learners apply the grammar learning strategies similarly or differently?
• Are there any strategies that typically distinguish Chinese from Thais?

3.2. Subjects
The subject that the researchers chose were 168 grade 11 students: 91 Chinese and 77 Thais. These students then grouped into three competence levels: higher, intermediate and lower. But, the writer only focused on the higher and lower achievers' grammar learning strategies.


3.3. Instruments
There are 2 research instruments that the researchers  used in the methodology, a grammar proficiency test and questionnaire on  grammar learning strategies.
The researchers developed a 60-item grammar proficiency test, in order to classify the subjects into higher, intermediate and lower achievement learners. The test were all about the formation of sentences in English, for example: the use of the noun and the pronoun in the subject, the use of finite verb forms in the predicate, the use of the non-finite verb forms, the use of the modifiers, the use of connectives, and the use of the punctuation marks and capitalization.

And the questionnaire of the research consisted of two parts.

• Part 1: contained the background information of the subjects, e.g. gender and nationality.
• Part 2: contained 30-item grammar learning strategy questionnaire based on Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL), divided into  6 parts: the memory category, the cognitive category, the compensation category, the metacognitive category, the affective category and the social category.

The questionnaire itself was translated into Chinese and Thai in order to avoid any misunderstandings and for the result accuracy.

Well, that's all about the methodology that the researchers of the journal used. We'll discuss about the next part of the journal next week.

See ya, people!

Strategies for Better Learning of English Grammar: Chinese vs. Thais Part 2

Hello people! Now, I would like to continue my work, reviewing a journal with the title Strategies for Better Learning of English Grammar: Chinese vs Thais.

In this part, I would like to share about the Literature part.

Let's get started!

2.1.  Significance of Learning Strategies in SLA

Based on Oxford, Learning strategies are played such an important and crucial role in language acquisition.

There are few strategies that is mentioned in this part, such as:

• Exploring language learning strategies used by successful learners and teaching them to unsuccessful learners can help the latter enhance their second or foreign language learning.

• Some scholars believe that strategy instruction is most effective when it is integrated into regular classroom instruction.

• Language classrooms should have a dual focus, not only on teaching language content but also on developing learning process.

For learning grammar, scholars propose that the teaching should go beyond the grammatical content to the process of learning grammatical points.

2.2.  Needed Areas in Learning Strategy Research

This part is talking about how grammar has taken the place in needed areas in Learning Strategy Research. Even language learning strategy research has become more popular in the L2 field since 1970s, grammar acquisition hasn't been given as much attention by the learning strategy researchers as to the other language skills.

Based on Cohen's statement, grammar learning strategies are one of the needed work in domains of strategy use.r

Oxford stated that research on grammar strategies which they believe will benefit learners everywhere and facilitate the work of L2 teachers and help promote the understanding of how people learn another language.

This study investigated not only the good learners' grammar learning strategies but also the Chinese's and the Thais' application of grammar learning strategies.
 

2.3.  Significance of Grammar in EFL Contexts

Grammar took a very important role in learning English. Some says that grammar is just like the heart, the core or the frame of language learning.

From the learner's perspective, McDonough (2002), who investigated what facilitates the learning of a foreign language, found that 81% of the learners in the study valued the usefulness of grammar practice. A study carried out by Farjami (2011) also confirms learners’ interest in studying grammar because it helps promote their development of language proficiency and language skills.

2.4.  Studies on Grammar Strategies 

       Foci of past studies on grammar strategies can be classifield into 4 categories:

• The identification of learners’  strategies

• The relationship between individual differences and the relationship between strategy application

• The effect of strategy integration in grammar instuction

• The relationship between strategy application and achievement.

Based on Bade’s study of a 2o-weeks course, there are some strategies he mentioned, such as:

• Using time outside of the class to practice each grammar point for 10 minutes
• Trying out grammar forms in their own sentence 
• Basing their learning of a grammar point on explicit rules and a text that exemplifies these rules so that they could learn the points accurately.

Well, that's all the information I got from the Journal. There are quite lots of informations, right?
Hope it would help you out.