SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO HÀ NAM
SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO HÀ NAM
TRƯỜNG THPT NGUYỄN KHUYẾN
TRƯỜNG THPT NGUYỄN KHUYẾN
SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM
SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM
TÍCH HỢP CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG VÀ KĨ NĂNG VÀO HÌNH
TÍCH HỢP CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG VÀ KĨ NĂNG VÀO MÔ MÔ
HÌNH VNEN TIẾT DẠY TRỌNG TÂM NGÔN NGÔN NGỮ
VNEN TRONGTRONG TIẾT DẠY TRỌNG TÂMNGỮ NHẰM
NHẰM PHÁT HUY TÍNH TÍCH CỰC CỦA HỌC SINH
PHÁT HUY TÍNH TÍCH CỰC CỦA HỌC SINH
(Incorporating activities and skills the the Nam Escuela Nueva
(Incorporating activities and skills into intoViet Viet Nam Escuela
Nueva (VNEN) stimulate students ‘participation in the language
(VNEN) template to template to stimulate students ‘participation in
the language focus lesson)
focus lesson)
NĂM HỌC 2016 -2017
NĂM HỌC 2016 -2017
Cấp học: Trung phổ thông
Cấp học: Trung họchọc phổ thông
Lĩnh vực: Chuyên môn
Lĩnh vực: Chuyên môn
Môn: Tiếng Anh
Môn: Tiếng Anh
Người thực hiện: NGUYỄN THỊ NƯƠNG
Người thực hiện: NGUYỄN THỊ NƯƠNG
Chức Giáo viên bộ bộ môn
Chức vụ:vụ: Giáo viên môn
Có đính kèm các sản phẩm không thể hiện trong bản in
MôCó đính kèm các sản phẩm khôngPhimhiện trong bản in vật khác
hình Đĩa CD (DVD)
thể ảnh
Hiện
Mô hình Đĩa CD (DVD)
Phim ảnh
Binh Luc, 10 -03-2017
Hiện vật khác
I. RATIONALE ...................................................................................
II. CONTENTS .......................................................................................
1. Review of the previous works ....................................................
2. Practical basis ............................................................................
2.1. Teaching and Learning Conditions .........................................
2.2. The attitude of students .........................................................
2.3. The method of teaching and learning .....................................
2.4. Training content ....................................................................
2.5. Test and assessment ..............................................................
3. The measures to solve the problem ...........................
3.1. Step 1: Warm up (Create excitement for students) ..................
3.2. Step 2. Organizations for student experience .........................
3.3. Step 3. Analysis - Discover - Derive new knowledge .............
3.4. Step 4. Practice - Consolidation lesson .................................
3.5. Step 5. Applications .............................................................
4. The effectiveness of the application of initiative / theme into
practice ......................................................................................
III. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATION .................................
1. Summary ......................................................................................
2. Recommendations .........................................................................
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I. RATIONALE
Nowadays, English is spoken by most of the people through out the
world. As a result, English has become one of effective means of international
communication. Everybody can share their culture, idea, knowledge…with each
other in English. It is considered as a bridge linking people from different parts
of the world. Moreover, because of its popularity, innumerable books, websites
in a lot of fields, particularly in science and technology, have been written in
English. Therefore, if you master English, you can perceive much knowledge
through English books or the internet. On the other hand, English has been used
in all important meetings and conferences or in summit talks among leaders of
powerful countries. As the importance of English in our life, English is now
taught as a compulsory subject in most of schools. In other words, teaching and
learning English have become very necessary in most of countries.
It is believed that the main purpose of learning foreign languages is not
only to communicate successfully with foreigners but also to pass the national
high school exam. However, it is difficult for people to be successful if they do
not understand clearly and exactly its grammar. According to Ur (1996),
“Grammar may be rough defined as the way a language manipulates and
combines words (or bits of words) in order to form longer unit of meaning” and
“There is a set of rules which govern how units of meaning may be constructed
in any language”. In other words, understanding grammar is the basis of the
success in using foreign languages. In fact, most students are incapable of
communicating fluently and their results in the exams are very low. As a result,
innovative methods of teaching and learning have been encouraged. Moreover,
schools have been encouraged to use the VNEN model, which is carried out
nationwide by the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam. Teaching and
learning methodology in the VNEN schools is placing the student at the center
of the classroom instead of the traditional custom where the teacher is at the
center. This raises us the questions:
1. What activities and skills should be incorporated into the language
focus lesson during each step according to VNEN model?
2. How could the teachers turn a commonly dry topic into an inspiring
and juicy interaction during each step according to VNEN model?
To the best of my knowledge, the questions above have not been found in
any works on learning and teaching English before. This is the reason why the
author decides to make a minor study on this topic with the hope that this would
give a small part to help students and teachers to get better results in teaching
and learning English.
Scope of the study
This study does focus on how to incorporate grammar into activities and
communicative skills so that students are more involved in the language focus
lesson.
Methods of the study
Due to the main aims and objectives of the study, descriptive method and
contrastive method between the traditional method and the new learner-centered
teaching method would be mainly carried out throughout the process. In
addition, observation methods are also applied (observing students’ learning in
the lesson).
II. CONTENTS
1. Review of the previous works
The debate about the effectiveness of traditional grammar instruction has
been ongoing for many decades. A wide variety of topics were covered in the
literature over the general topic of grammar instruction.
According to Weaver,Traditional Grammar Instruction throughout
centuries of schooling, traditional grammar instruction seems to have had two
main goals: “(1) disciplining and training the mind (and sometimes the soul);
and (2) teaching grammatical forms and word usages that were considered
correct or socially prestigious” (Teaching 3). Grammar was learned through the
“memorization and recitation of definitions, rules, paradigms, examples, and
other grammatical features…once these were committed to memory, supposedly
the student would then be able to apply them” (Teaching 5).
Traditional grammar instruction also involved “pages of skill and drill
practice” (Petruuzzella 69). The grammarians who taught in this way “gave
little or no evidence of being concerned that students actually understand the
grammatical information they were required to memorize and recite” (Weaver,
Teaching 5). In other words, students had to learn grammar for the sake of
mental discipline, not actual understanding of the English language or for
improving their own writing.
Conversely, other researchers and teachers believe that students learn
grammar best by situating grammar instruction in the context. Many prominent
teachers in the field of English have designed effective lesson plans that teach
grammar in this way. Students will be more motivated to write and will become
better writers if grammar is taught in an incorporated setting.
In Teaching Grammar in Context, Weaver also offers some potential
guidelines for teaching grammar more effectively:
a. Students should be heavily engaged with writing.
b. Students should be heavily immersed in good literature. Good literature
is literature that is challenging syntactically or particularly interesting.
c. Thorough grammar study should only be for elective courses.
d. Use the context of students’ writing to teach relevant grammatical
concepts.
e. Use the minimum amount of terminology possible.
f. “Emphasize (as appropriate to writers’ needs) those aspects of grammar
that are particularly useful in helping students revise sentences to make them
more effective” (145).
g. “Also emphasize (as appropriate to writers’ needs) those aspects of
grammar that are particularly useful in helping students edit sentences for
conventional mechanics and appropriateness” (145).
h. When students are ready to revise at the sentence level or edit a piece
overall, then teach them needed skills, structures, and terms (141-145).
A grammar program following these guidelines is more likely to help
students improve their writing skills than a traditional grammar program.
Finocchiaro and Brumfit (1983) describe the Communicative Language
Teaching syllabus as follows:
a. Meaning (function) is emphasised
b. Contextualisation is important
c. Language learning is learning to communicate
d. Language is created through repeated trials and errors
e. Fluency is primary whereas accuracy is secondary.
In summary, each of methodology has its advantages and disadvantages.
Therefore, the author would like to integrate the methods into different steps of
the language focus lesson in order that English learning is more effective and
the results may be improved.
2. Practical basis
2.1. Teaching and Learning Conditions
English language teaching and learning is taking place along with the
methods of education innovation. However, each class is crowded with more
than 40 students, which is difficult to apply the new model of learning and
teaching, called the Viet Nam Escuela Nueva (VNEN).
Besides, visual media in foreign language classes are too poor. The
majority of the classrooms are not equipped with modern and necessary
facilities. It is hard to attract students to the native environment and bring real
life into the classroom.
2.2. The attitude of students
Another issue is that some teachers may face students who are not
interested in or unwilling to learn how to communicate effectively. They may
have been taught how to learn in a way that makes it harder for teachers to try
and change negative habits. They are used to what they have been taught and
find it easier or more comforting to continue to communicate in that way. This
phenomenon has limited students' participation in the lesson.
2.3. The method of teaching and learning
Traditionally, teachers explain the structures by examples and students
are passive to take notes. Students heavily depend on the teacher. Moreover,
students learn and practise the structures for the exams without using in their
real life.
2.4. Training content
The content of the course depends entirely on textbooks, time spent on
each lesson is just enough to exploit new language and do exercises. Practice
time is still very short. Most students cannot communicate (See a video about
English proficiency survey of students)
Our curriculum requires us to teach stand-alone grammar lessons, and it’s
important to introduce various grammar points and topics. Grammar probably
ranked pretty high on your list of least favorite subjects as a student. As a
teacher, it can seem just as boring.
2.5. Test and assessment
Testing methods have so far been inclined to test their knowledge of
grammar and vocabulary. The results are not good:
- Foreign Language scores of the final exam during school year 2015 –
2016 were low. Candidates with 2.25 marks occupied the highest rate. The
number of students with below mark 1 accounted for approximately 1% (52
students). Candidates with 5 points or more only accounted for 8.8%.
- The academic year 2015 - 2016, the marks of students at Nguyen
Khuyen High School were also very low
- The total mark of the entrance exam for Nguyen Khuyen High School
(2016 – 2017) is 10.25marks, which is the lowest one in Ha Nam province.
In general, the results of learning English are not good. Therefore, it is
necessary to find out the methods to improve the marks
3. The measures to solve the problem
Grammar involves a lot of rules and forms. It is often associated with lists
of rules, countless abstract examples and lots of written practice. However, there
are ways to make teaching grammar fun. Your goal in class is to enable your
students to carry out the grammar points that you are teaching for
communicative purposes. I truly believe that there are some very easy and
practical steps we can all take to make the presentation and practice of grammar
more tangible and fun!
The most important thing to remember when you are coming up with
ways to teach grammar creatively is that grammar doesn’t have to be dry and
boring. If you teach it in context and incorporate grammar into stories, games,
and other fun activities, your students will pick up on grammar usage and
structure relatively painlessly – and they will probably even have a lot of fun
doing it. Additionally, their vocabulary has been improved a lot. I believe that
the best language instruction uses meaningful input and contexts to help
students develop their English skills, but also feel that teaching language
features, in context, is necessary for students to develop proficiency. Some
simple but interesting ways may help teacher to make this:
- Turning the ordinary objects into something extraordinary: I love using
everyday objects when teaching grammar since I feel they add an element of
surprise to the whole lesson. Just by taking a look at your (or your students')
pencil case can provide you with the inspiration you need. Rulers can be used to
teach Adverbs of frequency (Language focus/ unit 1/English 10) ...
- Extend the classroom: Teacher may inspire your kids and spark their
imagination by creating words within your classroom's walls. Tape a piece of
round black paper on the wall and you instantly have a black hole that leads to
another galaxy and therefore to an infinite number of sentences on Second
Condition and Wishes.
- Use magic: Starting with a magic ball, you won't believe the difference
it will make in your class! Apart from ball games you can play, balls are great in
practising Tenses or Voice shifts (Language focus/ unit 10/ English 10, or
Language focus/ unit 1/ English 12). Finally, you could use your school’s
noticeboard to assign special grammar missions for your class to go to. I
normally give my students envelopes in class or assign them a riddle which they
have to solve!
- Personalize and use games: Instead of asking your students to work on
traditional gap-fills, you had better try to make exercises as personal/individual
as possible. A questionnaire on how much they know about famous inventions
is better than an exercise on Passive Voice for example (Language focus/ unit
10/ English 10). And as I often say "If you can't make it personal, at least make
it fun!". There are tons of web tools you can use to create your own games such
as http://www.classtools.net/ or https://learningapps.org/.
- Turn the students into teachers: Having mini-teachers when teaching
grammar is really helpful since it allows you to see things from your students’
perspective. The easiest way to go about "Mini Teachers" is to ask your students
to make a presentation on the grammar you've seen in class and prepare their
own exercises for their classmates.
- Adapt or twist: When working on grammar exercises, teacher should
give students choice. First, select those exercises you feel are most helpful; don't
assign all of them as homework. Then, for each exercise decide on which
sentences you want to keep. For the rest, tell your class they can change the
sentences, so that they become more interesting or "twist" them which means
they will have to write their own sentences. If you feel this process could be
quite challenging for them, try adding conjunctions like "and", "but" or
"because" at the end of the exercise's sentences and ask your students to expand
on them.
- To make the lesson more communicative and smoother, the author
usually chooses a single topic for the entire lesson. For example, a topic could
be something like jobs, job interviews or her life. If the grammar lesson of the
day is irregular past tense verbs, we can discuss the students’ past job
experience, their past job responsibilities and so on. They can conduct mock job
interviews with each other (exercising their speaking and listening skills), fill
out a job application (writing) and go over wanted ads in the newspaper
(reading). In this way, they will practice the grammar point, learn the relevant
and get plenty of practice in the grammar and related vocabulary to the topic.
- Sometimes the teacher starts the game off by using a few questions and
answers from the textbook or from the guided oral practice section that I talked
about in the last section. Once students understand how the game works, you
can move start introducing different examples for the grammar point or have the
students come up with their own examples.
Below the author will clearly and certainly present activities and skills
which may be integrated into five steps according to the new model of learning
and teaching- the Viet Nam Escuela Nueva (VNEN)
1.1. Step 1: Warm up (Create excitement for students)
The first activity aims to help students to mobilize their knowledge,
skills and experience of yourself on matters related to the content of the new
lesson.Teachers ask the provocative questions or request to make comments on
matters related to knowledge in the subject. During this step, stories are also
amazing teaching tools. For example, when the author taught the language
focus lesson/Unit 9/ English10, the teacher asked students “Do you think that I
should change my appearance?” Students only answered "yes." Teacher
continued asking “You think I should change what should I change?” Students
said "Clothes". Teacher asked “Should I have my hair cut?" .The teacher told
students her own stories in her life. Then, she asked her students for advice “If
you were me what would you do?" This not only motivates students to find
new structures but practise speaking skill in real life.
English songs are polularly used in this step. One of the big problems we
all face is maintaining learners’ interest throughout our lessons. Consequently,
we often have to be very creative in the techniques we use. Songs can be a
lively way to break up a lesson and students of all ages can find this motivating.
What makes music such a great teaching tool is its universal appeal, connecting
all cultures and languages. This makes it one of the best and most
motivating resources in the classroom, regardless of the age or background of
the learner.The lyric of the song will be a wonderful story help to involve
students in learning process. Besides, It helps students to improve their English
listening skill. There are a variety of songs containing grammatical points on the
internet. However, the teachers need to plan carefully the use of songs in class,
songs are useful for pronunciation and getting the rhythm of English. They
provide vocabulary and useful expressions, as well as examples of everyday
language. Combining physical movements with singing can make learning very
effective for younger learners.
The process of selecting a song is one of the most difficult aspects of
using music in a lesson. There are some things you probably need to think about
to ensure you get the right song. For example, you need to think about the
language level of your class. The language level of your class will determine not
only which songs you can use, but also what other activities – such as games or
written exercises – you will use to develop the lesson....
Playing a game is an excellent way to begin an lesson. It makes the
students energetic and brings enjoyment to the whole class. It also gets the
students involved in producing English by doing something fun. Playing games
also helps to instill confidence in the students' ability to speak English. Games
are not supposed to be used just for the sake of it. Games should help to
introduce or practice the topic or subject matter of the lesson. Most games can
be easily adapted to introduce any language point or topic.
A picture paints a thousand words. Pictures are important for creating
interest in the topic you are about to teach. You can use photos, drawings,
cartoons, paintings, symbols, flashcards, magazine ads, etc. Today's world is
very visually-oriented and using pictures is a natural aid to learning. Students
also learn in different ways. Pictures help visual learners understand the subject
matter being introduced. Pictures allow students to be creative as they are open
to different interpretations. You can use pictures to introduce vocabulary, predict
a reading or listening activity, understand a main idea, etc. Pictures provide a
talking point and help students give their opinions and ideas.........
For example, in the language focus/ Unit 5/ English 10, the teacher uses
the game and pictures to warm up. The teacher gives 2 boxes and asks students
to guess what are in the boxes. This activity may make students curious and
active to participate in the task.
In short, there are a variety of activities we can use to warm up our
lesson. These activities are not only appealing but they inspire students' need for
finding new knowledge, structures that help them to solve communicative tasks
and exercises...
2.2. Step 2. Organizations for student experience
In this first stage you need a meaningful context in which you will show
how this grammar is used. You can do this in many different ways; you can
draw pictures on the board with speech bubbles explaining what is happening;
you can use a short video clip or photographs; you can even mime a short scene
if you feel confident in your acting ability!
Here’s an example of how you might present the second conditional
sentences:
On the board the teacher draws a stick man with thought bubbles coming
out of his head. In these bubbles stick pictures of money, a sports car, a yacht
and a big house.
The teacher may introduce the grammar structure with an example
sentence from a song such as "If I had a million dollar”....
The teacher may also ask questions that focus on the meaning of the
grammar: ‘Do I have a lot of money now?’
I usually appreciate opportunities that let students question, doubt and
rethink what they have already known. That's how I've come to love using
"slashed" activities in order to encourage my student's grammar work. Such
activities can be great for refreshing some already known material, as well as
for encouraging students to think about some new / old but challenging
grammar points, plus, you can do it in a very personalized way! They don't take
too long to prepare, but, as I've already seen many times, they bring a lot of
help, fresh perspective and a good impulse to make the students really think
about the grammar. For example, I use such activities very often when it comes
to question forms (unit12/language focus /grade 10). A nice way to start a
class is to ask students to recreate the questions based on their "slashed"
versions, and then to answer these questions.
How/your vacation?
/you/speak Engish?
/you/ understand people around?
what/the best and worst experience?
what/the weather/ like?
etc......
I recently used the same technique for revising gerunds and infinitives (unit
2/language focus /grade 10) , too:
Is there anything you'd suggest/ do to improve life in your city?
Is there anything you couldn't afford/ do 10 years ago but can afford/ do
now?
What do you think there is no point/ do after the new regulations were
introduced?
What do you wish you stopped/ do but cannot?
What do you want your colleagues/ do this week?
do you mind/ talk about personal issues with your business partners?
What do you regret/ not do last weekend?
Besides, I also let students play a game "Pelmanism". For example,
students have learnt reported speech in Grade 8 or Grade 9. So, they have
known it when they are in Grade 10, 11 or 12. Therefore, teacher may use this
kind of game to help students rethink. These are two slides of this game for
reviewing reported speech:
One of the successful ways to teach grammar in an incorporated setting,
is through the news. Students are aware of current events in their school, their
local community, and throughout the world and can be very interested and
engaged in some of these topics. Another way in which you can use your
students’ interest in certain celebrities. For example, in the language focus/
unit 16/ English 10, teacher may start to teach comparatives and superlatives by
cutting out celebrity pictures from entertainment magazines (in fact, I
recommend stocking up on a big pile of photos to use in a variety of activities):
“My Tam is taller than Dam Vinh Hung.”; “Thu Hien is more talented than the
other singers.”...; and it works great with comparative adverbs: “Thu Hien sings
more beautifully than Thu Thuy, too.”...Some students make the correct
comparisons; some students have some wrong statements. This doesn't matter
because they will discover or form the structures in the next step. This activity
makes students apply what they have been learning outside of the classroom
(when they are encountering texts on their own), and also makes them more
personally invested in the material. If teachers do not connect language study to
real life, students will not learn it as well.
Each teacher uses different ways to stimulate students learn new things
which students need to work out their communicative tasks or exercises for their
test. However, I emphasize that teachers should use the meaningful contexts or
mini games to guide students review or stimulate their curiosity to discover new
structures.
2.3. Step 3. Analysis - Discover - Derive new knowledge
At this stage it’s quite important that the activity is controlled so that the
focus is almost entirely on the new grammar structure.
A good way to do this is to put learners in groups or pairs to work on the
activity while you monitor and give feedback. After this, teacher may do a
similar activity on the board so that all of the class is involved. The teacher
could make this into a game or a speaking activity, which makes it more
communicative but still very controlled. Once they’ve seen the grammar in
context, take a few moments to clarify and point out the structure and usage.
Make sure everyone understands, knows what it’s called, and can identify and
give examples of this particular sentence structure.
When students see grammar in context first – through a game, a story, an
activity, or just frequently hearing it used – it lets their brains work a little bit to
intuit the meaning before you formally explain it. That’s how we naturally learn
a language: by being exposed to it and picking up on the meaning. It’s better
engaged into context, and it also develops their critical thinking and
comprehension skills. In other words, students are also able to develop their
speaking and reading comprehension.
Even though it’s useful to have a quick lesson where you explain the
formal name of the grammar pattern and go over its structure and usage, the
teacher had better not over explain. The less you can possibly
talk about grammar and the more you can actually use and practice that
grammar, the better it is.
For example, in the language focus lesson/ unit 14/ English 10, the
teacher use "Cards of the Future". This enjoyable card game is useful for
teaching students how to distinguish between the three future forms: will, going
to and the present continuous. The students are divided into small groups.
The groups are given a set of future form cards and question cards. The group
members take it in turns to pick up a question card and decide which future
form card (will, going to, present continuous) would be the most suitable match
for the question (e.g. a prediction, a decision, a future arrangement, an intention,
etc.). The student then asks a question using the phrase on the question card and
the correct future form to the other students in the group. When all the question
cards have been used, each group writes three new questions for each future
form and gives the nine questions to another group to answer.
Another example in this step, the teacher introduces the reported speech
in the language focus/unit 8/ grade 10. You may choose to have students stay
in their groups or return to their desks for the introduction. You can try to elicit
the target structure by asking a question such as “What did Lan say?” Try to use
a sentence that is written on the board. Most likely students will search for the
name Lan and then read the sentence exactly as you have written it but you can
then say “You’re right! She said she was very tired. Good job!” You have now
introduced the target structure. Write the sentence He said he was very tired. on
the board next to Lan's original sentence I am very tired. Use a few more
sentences from the warm up as examples and encourage students to make
reported speech sentences.
When the teacher would like students to focus on comparisons in the
language focus/ Unit 16, she lets students compare the people in your
classroom. Put students in groups of four and then set a time limit of about five
minutes. On your signal, each group should write as many comparative and
superlative statements about the people in the room as they can. At the end of
the time period, have one group share their sentences. If another group has the
same sentence as the first group, both groups should cross that statement off
their list. Continue until all groups have read all of their statements and any
duplicates are eliminated. The group with the most statements remaining wins.
In the language focus/ Unit 9/ English 11, the teacher may use the game
"Relative Clause Bingo" to guide students to discover the relative clauses. Here
is a captivating game to help students practice defining relative clauses. In the
activity, students play a game of Bingo by describing words using defining
relative clauses. The class is divided into groups of four. Each student is given a
Bingo card and each group is given a set of word cards. The word cards are
placed face down in a pile. The first player takes the top word card and gives a
definition of the person, place, or thing on the card using a defining relative
clause, e.g. A person who..., A place where..., or Something that/which... The
other players in the group try to guess the word. When the group has guessed
the word correctly, those players who have the word on their Bingo card cross it
out. The second player then takes the next word card and gives a definition, and
so on. The first player to cross out all his or her words wins the game.
To sum up, in this step teacher guides students to form their new
knowledge through teacher' s explanation or games.
2.4. Step 4. Practice - Consolidation lesson
During this step, the teacher usually organizes the controlled practice and
oral practice activities in control.
Controlled exercises for structure practice: Repetition (this is more
effective when the examples are carefully prepared to illustrate the meaning of
the structure.), substitution exercises, fill in the blank (with prompt or without
prompt), reordering sentences, combining sentences (simple sentences can be
combined together to make more complex ones. This is especially good for
teaching conjunction and relative clauses. Moreover, this kind of exercise will
be included in the final paper test). Besides, "listen and respond" exercises are
also good techniques. This is similar to a tightly controlled total physical
Response activity. The teacher can ask a series of questions and have the
students respond by speaking, drawing, moving or writing. This helps sts not
only to understand language in context but to improve their speaking, listening
and writing skills.
However, there’s nothing wrong with mechanical exercises – gap-filling,
sentence transformation and so forth. These can help learners to grasp the form
of a complex structure at the outset without having to think too much about the
meaning. But it's important to move on to activities where the structure is used
in more interesting and realistic ways. I like structure-oriented problem-solving
activities and quizzes, games, picture-based work, text-based work, role-play,
exercises that get students using the structure to talk about themselves and their
ideas, exercises that combine grammar practice with vocabulary learning, and
internet-exploration activities, to name just a few approaches. To involve
students in the lesson, the teacher should adapt the exercises into the interesting
activity such as picture dictation. This is another fairly well- known game,
where one student describes a picture they have drawn or have been given by
the teacher to another student, who tries to draw what they hear. When the
picture is finished, it can then be compared with the original. This activity is a
very natural place for the use of articles, especially the generalisation that we
use “a” the first time we talk about something and “the” the next time. It is
possible to elicit even more use of these forms with pictures where “An ape is
on the table” (making sure there is more than one ape in the picture) and “The
ape (who is on the table) is smiling”.
In the language focus/ unit 11/ English 10, students work in pairs and
play the game “Guess my Sentence". This activity not only helps them practice
the third conditional sentences but improve their reading and speaking skills.
Here is a fun guessing game for students who are learning the third conditional.
The class is divided into pairs and each student is given the corresponding part
of the worksheet. Both students have the same conditional sentences, but where
they have words in bold, their partner has gaps and vice versa. The students take
it in turns to guess the missing endings of the third conditional sentences. If a
student says the exact words that their partner has in bold on their worksheet,
the students can move on to the next sentence. If not, the student must continue
guessing until they say the exact words. The pair continues like this until all the
sentences are complete. Next, the teacher may adapt the exercises into the game
"It's Regrettable". In this group activity, students play a game where they try to
identify problems from third conditional sentences expressing regret. The
students are divided into groups of three and each group is given a set of cards.
The students shuffle the cards and place them face down in a pile. Each student
takes a card and reads the problem without telling anyone. The students think
about what caused the problem on their card. The students then plan how to talk
about it using the third conditional, without saying the information on their card.
When they are ready, the students take it in turns to talk about their regrets for
the problem on their card. The other students listen and try to identify what the
problem is. The first student to guess correctly wins the card. If no one guesses
correctly, the student expressing the regrets keeps the card. Afterwards, the
students take a new card each and repeat the activity. This continues until all the
cards have been completed. The student with the most cards at the end of the
game is the winner.
Another example, during the language focus lesson/ Unit 10/ English
11, I explained how to replace relative clauses by a participle or an infinitive to
my students and they were all bored with listening. As a result, a lot of them got
confused. Then, I distributed the handouts. I prepared for them to do exercises
and asked them to rewrite the sentences. While doing the exercises they were
bored and they couldn’t get the idea. Then the following day I played a game
with them and they were more confident in the end. I wrote sentences on slips
of papers and put them in an envelope. I divided my class into two teams and
told them how to play the game. They had to choose a box from the grid all
together as a team and one by one in turns, they had to take a slip of paper from
the envelope and replace the relative clause by a participle or an infinitive. I
allowed them to look at their notes while waiting for their turn and in the end
the victory was for all of us.
Now you are ready to move on to guided oral practice. I like to do this by
handing out a simple question and answer that the class completes together as a
class.
It is worth getting your students to speak using the grammar that you are
attempting to teach, in sentences that relate to themselves. They will have to
process the knowledge you have given them in a way that is relevant to them,
and in doing so they will forge a clearer understanding of the context and a
memory of how to use the grammar you have taught in the future. You should
also encourage your students to write down the important sentences and
grammatical concepts that you teach them, so that they have something to refer
back to if they need to, but also because writing something out improves
contextual memory. This not only helps students learn grammar and
vocabulary but also improve their speaking and writing skills.
For example, the teacher may use the Storyboard Game to
Practice English Past Tenses in the language focus/ unit 3/ English 10 or in the
language focus/ unit 2/ English 11. The teacher will need to prepare the story
in advance. Draw or find pictures that create a logical (or illogical!) story. Place
them in a jumbled order on your whiteboard. Students have to arrange the
pictures in order to tell a story, but they can only do it by telling you what
happened before and after.
For example, imagine that there are four pictures in this story (your story
for class should have about ten but, for the sake of the example, we’ll start with
four). The pictures are on the blackboard in the following order.
1. A man standing outside his house in a bathrobe.
2. A newspaper boy throwing the newspaper onto the porch.
3. A man drinking coffee.
4. A door slamming.
A student must talk about the first picture in relation to the others, so that
you put them in the right order: “The man was outside in his bathrobe because
he saw the newspaper boy throw the newspaper onto the porch.” When you hear
this sentence — and ask fellow students to correct, as needed, for grammar and
order — you’d put picture 2 first and then follow it with picture 1. Another
student would then have to add picture 3 to the story: “The man had drunk
coffee before he saw the newspaper boy throw the newspaper onto the porch.”
You would then put picture 3 before picture 2. Another student: “The door
slammed and locked the man outside. The man was standing outside after the
door had slammed. “Once the students understand the game, you can select a
volunteer to take your place putting the pictures in order. Encourage fellow
students to correct any mistakes you may hear by asking, “Is that correct?”....
Another example, in the language lesson/ unit 6/ English 10, the
teacher asks students to make a plan called "A Week in my Country". In this
productive activity, students use the future form 'will' to make decisions and
discuss a holiday itinerary and 'going to' to talk about their plans. Students work
in small groups. The students imagine they have invited some English-speaking
friends to spend a week in their country. They discuss and decide on a holiday
itinerary for themselves and their English-speaking friends using 'will'. The
students then complete a plan for the whole week, including where they will go,
what they will do and see, what they will eat, etc. When they have finished, the
students present their plans to the class using 'going to'.
In the language focus lesson/ Unit 8/ English 10, reported speech is a
great opportunity for students to interview their classmates, teachers or family
members so this activity may be best as a homework assignment. If students
have never had the opportunity to conduct interviews before, it would be good
to provide them with several questions to ask. It may also be helpful to provide
the translations of these questions for the interviewees.
In the language focus/ unit 9/ English 10, students create a political
party. They decide on their party's policies by answering ten questions about the
environment, education, health, politics, crime and punishment. When each
group has completed their ideas, they tell the other groups what they would do
if they were elected using the second conditional. As the students are listening
to a policy from another group, they comment on the negative consequences of
the policy. They continue like this until one group has won each argument.
Finally, the class votes to see which party they would like to elect.
In the language focus/ unit 10/ English 10, the teacher may place the
passive voice in a real life context by discussion. The teacher asks students to
brainstorm the types of things that the government does for the population. The
government repairs streets, cleans monuments, builds schools and hospitals,
etc...Make sure students see that sometimes when we talk about actions, we’re
not interested in the actor, either because we know who it is (in this discussion
we are clearly talking about the government), or because I would like to
emphasize the results, in other words what was accomplished. Students should
discuss what things were done in the last year by the local government.The
teacher encourages students to use the passive voice (Streets were repaired. A
new hospital was opened. The park benches were painted. Trees were planted.
Etc…)
All things considered, teacher may adapt exercises in the text book into
game shows such as "Who is millionaire", " The magical cone", "Lucky
number"," Ring the golden bell", " the big wheel" ... and then, organize students
discuss in groups about an interesting but close topic in their life. Of couse,
students must use the target structure in discussion.
2.5. Step 5. Applications
During this step, teacher should ask students to apply the structures to
solve communicative tasks in their life. The teacher may ask their students to
use the structure to talk one outstanding feature of any students in their class.
Grammar games are particularly useful in this step to make sure that grammar
points are being absorbed by students. While a student can usually successfully
reproduce a grammar point on paper once he or she has learned it, it’s more
difficult to reproduce a rule like this in a freer setting, such as a game. Students
have to think on their toes and keep their brains running fasterthan ever. When
games are properly explained and the rules are well-thought-out and established
by the teacher, they can be a great way to reinforce grammar points that have
already been introduced in class. Besides, how will the target structure they
have learnt be used to work out the examination questions? (reading
comprehension, gap filling in the text, sentence combination, sentence
transformation). This kind of exercises should be engaged into the games such
as "Who is millionaire", " Magical cone" "Lucky number", " Ring the golden
bell" .... Moreover, it is really useful to integrate other subjects into the language
lesson in this stage when the teacher would like to use the game “Ring the
golden bell" . The teacher may use design the questions about geography,
history, physical education... However, the game in this stage should contain all
target language items of the lesson. You can find numerous games or soft wares
to design games on the internet which are really interesting and useful. Besides,
a variety of lessons at the website http://www baigiang.violet.vn may are useful
if teachers are not good at information technology. Teachers may integrate their
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