skkn tiếng anh 12 APPLICATION OF TEACHING COMPARISON STRUCTURES INTO COMMUNICATIVE METHOD

THE BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY As a teacher of English, through many years of teaching at Dieu Cai HighSchool, I see that many students have many difficulties in speaking English,including

APPLICATION OF TEACHING COMPARISON STRUCTURES

INTO COMMUNICATIVE METHOD

I THE BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

As a teacher of English, through many years of teaching at Dieu Cai HighSchool, I see that many students have many difficulties in speaking English,including students in grade 12 In general, even most of the first-class students theyare just good at grammar This puts questions and solutions to me

By finding and studying in documents, combining personal experience andteaching experience from my accompanies, I decided to choose the study named:

Application of teaching comparison structures into communicative method.

First, I chose it for the purpose, that is, it has a high level of practicalapplication A learner not only learns English for his exam - or for any demandshis company forces him, besides he learns it for communication, to communicatewith foreigners Communication plays an important part in society of humanbeings Every day people have to use their language to communicate, to get andexchange information, thoughts, feelings…For short, there would not be anysociety of human beings if communication activity did not happen

Second, another reason is because of the objective demands of educationdevelopment at present It is now that teaching and learning activities areappreciated mainly by how much knowledge students get from the lectures,students play the most important part in learning It is also easy to apply thismethod and it makes my lecture more active and successful

Finally, the main reason is that this method is quite interesting and I consider it

as a new method because it has never been applied in my school The students in

my classes were almost interested in it and so was I The atmosphere of the classwas more rousing, the class had more volunteers, laughter and Vietnamese wasspoken fewer Actually and fortunately I couldn’t use this method frequentlybecause time for each period is limited The thing that teacher forced to teachclosely according to the content of the textbook is also a limit to me sometimes Above those are the reasons as well as the impulses made me write this study

II PRACTICAL AND THEORETIC BASIS

1 THEORETIC BASIS

Some of my lesson plans were applied from some methods of the writerSuzanne W.Woodward I redesigned some to be suitable for contents andexercises in English textbooks of grade 10 They mainly include the application

of communicative method Therefore, it is necessary to know what thecommunicative method is The communicative method emphasizes on thecommunicative ability of semantics of the message instead of focusing only onthe grammatical and phonetic perfection That is appreciated in ability and

capacity for what learner has learned from the lessons as well as the knowledge

on foreign language

We all know that the new thing is often derived from the old one TeachingEnglish with the method above is similar This method is developed owing to thetraditional method Even though teaching methods are defined in many ways, in

my opinion, there are three main methods:

1.1 Traditional teaching method:

For this method students listen and write all things which a teacher conveys,try to remember or learn things by heart and then they have to retell the oldlessons by “checking old lessons” of the teacher This means that teacher plays amain part during learning and teaching activity It gives students knowledgeabout grammar but it is difficult for them to speak English then

1.2 Purely communicative method:

This is the method aiming to limit students to speak their native language.Through pictures, gestures…, students may understand the content of the lessonthey are learning and know ways to carry out activities to penetrate it This method

is used almost by automatic reflect, more suitable for children, so the logic of thecontent is needed, if not the learning will be interrupted

1.3 Combination of the methods (Combination between purely communicative method and traditional method).

This is also the method creating the name of this study This method is forstudents in low-level class, as it is not able to apply the purely communicativemethod or the traditional method It is formed by the combination of the twomethods to consolidate and develop students’ continuing learning ability.Therefore, I see it is the most appropriate method to apply for all kinds of student,especially for the students in low- level class Students not only acquire knowledge

in traditional ways but also develop speaking ability fluently and creatively, fromthe introduction of the teacher and teaching aids Sometimes, lively and practicaltheories should be taught before practicing

I used this method (combination of the methods) to teach my students and I see

it quite better than the application of traditional methods However; in some cases,

if the purely communicative method may not be quite applied, I think thecombination of the methods is the most suitable

2 PRACTICAL BASIS

Since old days in many branches, people have used English for communication.There were many people unsuccessful in learning English beside those who weresuccessful They spent a lot of time and money learning English but they failed.What were the reasons? There were many different causes In my opinion, I thinkthese were mainly because of our ways of teaching and learning Some of ourteaching and learning methods were still too old and traditional

So far, teaching for speaking English at general schools has not been appliedregularly Traditional ways have still used too much, which some have been out ofdate Only has Grammar almost taught for getting high marks in examinations.Students did not have many chances to talk English to others These were thereasons why students could not develop their speaking Also, it was easy forstudents to forget what they had just learned.

Nowadays, the demands for learning English are higher and higher In myschool many students haven’t spoken English fluently yet They have a lot ofdifficulties in speaking English while, in near future, students have to get astandard of English skills after graduating from high school, including mainlycommunicative skills It is a difficult problem for us and not easy to fulfill in ashort time

In diplomatic relations, using foreign language to communicate also plays avery important part That is the communication among people, groups of people,nations Every day there are thousands of transactions, business, branches,organizations and companies in the world using English for communication.Communication is considered as a bridge to connect people, nations, friendship,development, co-operation, peace… Using of English for communication may beunderstood in many different ways Learning English is not only for examinationbut also for many other purposes such as: teaching, studying, translation, jobs… ofall the purposes, almost learners first they learn English for speaking fluently.Those who can speak fluently a foreign language, this means that they havelearned English in right ways

3 PRACTICAL STATES

3.1 Advantages:

The school managing Board always takes care of the development of Englishsubject and supplies facilities, teaching aids to improve its quality Englishteaching staffs are always interested in teaching career, if someone has anydifficulty in teaching they are ready to show their help

The teaching Staffs and the Union of the School are ready to support plans ofEnglish Group and cooperate with Group to educate and remind students to learnEnglish Along with launching the movement of the English Olympic examination

on the internet, every year the school often organizes the competition named “Thesound of the golden Gong”, including oral tests about English, which creates a verygood field for students to learn English

3.2 Disadvantages:

As a school located in a rural and mountainous area, it is poor and still lacks ofmany things It is not enough classrooms, labs, facilities… for students, parents arepoor so they may not take care of their children well as they want Also, manystudents are not much aware of learning English, even some have many passivethoughts of English because of the objective causes This certainly influences ontheir enthusiasm for English Many are not interested in learning it and many are

afraid of speaking in front of the crowd They do not also have many chances tocommunicate with native speakers who are English.

III ORGNIZATION AND PRESENTATION OF THE SOLUTIONS

1 PURPOSES:

Some solutions of the study should be flexibly applied in accordance with thedesign of the textbook Knowing the ability of my students, I designed the lessonproperly, according to the demand of the lesson This study aims for the developing ofsome communicative skills for students in general schools, especially for students ingrade 10, who are not good at this skill very much Ways and stages to teach are thesame, but for students who are not good at English, I do not put in my teaching withdifficult words or sentences When I want to review any kind of theory, which thepurely communicative method may not be used, I will use the combination of themethods to teach so that students can understand better my teaching before practicing.This keeps them unembarrassed, and my teaching is therefore more fluent

2 SOLUTIONS:

As mentioned above, teacher should choose one of the methods for each time toteach according to the purpose, the content, or the demand of the lesson, to find outways to design properly suitable for students’ ability and knowledge

Below I am going to present a teaching lesson designed from the textbook,

LANGUAGE FOCUS part (Grammar and vocabulary), page 176, English 10 This

lesson may be divided into two following stages:

Stage 1

- Provides some examples so that students elicit comparative structures fromthem (Review old lesson, because students already learnt them before) At thisstage, the traditional method is mainly used first

COMPARATIVES AND SUPERLATIVES

1 Comparatives:

Ex 1: I am taller than Mai

Ex 2: She is more beautiful than her sister

2 Superlatives:

Ex 3: I am the oldest in my family

Ex 4: He is the most intelligent boy in the class

- Give the hints so that students elicit the structures of the comparative from theexamples, underlines the letters which show the form of the comparative, subjects S1,S2… Similar to the structures elicited from the examples, teacher asks students toprovide more examples

* Structures:

Comparatives:

S1 + to be + short adjective_er + than + S2 (Ex 1)

S1 + to be + more + long adjective + than + S2 (Ex 2)

Superlatives:

S 1 + to be + the + short adjective_est (Ex 3)

S + to be + the + most + long adjective (Ex 4)

- Use a small table designed properly, listing 4 special cases (a, b, c, d) by givingsome words to demonstrate

funniereasierhappier

noblernewercleverernarrower

betterworsefarther/furthermore

less

the biggestthe wettestthe hottest

the funniestthe easiestthe happiest

the noblestthe newestthe cleverestthe narrowest

the bestthe worsethe farthest/ the furthestthe most

the least

- Ask students to elicit the rule for each case.

* Rules:

a) Double last letter before adding _er or _ est

b) Two-syllable adjectives ending “_y”, changing “y” into “i” before adding “er”.c) Two-syllable adjectives ending “_le”, “_ow”, “_er”, adding the letter “er” for itscomparative form and adding the letter “_est” to its superlative form

d) The irregular case

Stage 2 Communicative activities are merged into exercises (Exercise 1, English 10) This stage is carried out below:

Exercise 1: Write the comparative and superlative forms of the adjectives.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

- Create 2 tables from the original one:

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

Table 2: The position of the adjectives in the table 1 should be different from that of

the ones in the table 2, to avoid students’ copying

_

_ _

_

_

the cheapest the most expensive

_ _ _ _ _ _

- Stick the tables on the blackboard as long as all students can see them clearly.

- Create any puzzle to students or teacher may give them marks by asking somerepresentatives who have good writing to present before the class

- Any group who finishes first or having more right answers than others arewinners, and good marks will be given to them, one right answer for one mark

- Exercise 2: Put the words in the correct order to make sentences or

questions (English 10, page 176, 177)

- Deliver to each one card Each card contains one question suggested answering

in the exercise in the textbook The cards are cut from the following handout:

_ please! What kind of plane is the

fastest in the world?

_ please! Which book is moreinteresting, your book or mine?

_ please! Who bought the most

expensive watch in the shop?

_ please! Which is more difficult,English or German?

_, Minh is the oldest in the class

Now, question?

_ please! I bought the cheapestwatch in the shop Now, question?

_ please! Which the weather is

much better, today or yesterday?

- The number of cards should be equal to the number of students in the class Soteacher may copy many handouts as possible A student has to ask question toanother student whose name is already written in the blank in his or her card

- After each pair finishes their question and answer, teacher may act as a thirdperson to ask more questions like this example below:

Minh: Nga please! Which book is more interesting, your book or my book?

Nga: My book is more interesting than your book (yours).

Teacher: Nam, whose book is more interesting, Nga’s book or Minh’s book?

Nam: Nga’s book is more interesting than Minh’s book.

Here I am going to list some methods having both grammar andcommunication Depending on purposes, aims, the design of the lesson or students’knowledge, teacher should decide to review the lesson or reteach it Sometimes

teacher does not need to teach grammar but students can understand the lessonclearly

- Reminds the rules for the comparative, if necessary (Presented)

- Arrange students in pairs, and give each pair two or more pictures to compare (We may want to stick to one topic, such as famous people, or have several types of

pictures.)

- Each pair writes comparisons of the two pictures For example, when we want to

teach 4 adjectives small, big, cheap and expensive, first students will have pictures

and then the stages are carried out as follows:

…

- Provide the structure and then give an example for it:

S1 + to be + short adjective_er + than + S2Ex: Nam is tall Nga is short

→ Nam is taller than Nga

Bicycle/ cheap

Car/ expensive

- The representative will show the picture to the class and then say his/her

sentence:

Student: A cow is smaller than an elephant/ An elephant is bigger than a cow.

- Similarly, in order to compare between a car and a bicycle, teacher gives

examples and provides more comparative structures for long adjective

S1 + to be + more + long adjective + than + S2Ex: A restaurant is luxury A stall is poor

→ A restaurant is more luxury than a stall

- The representative will show the class the car and the bicycle in the picture and say like this:

Student: A bicycle is cheaper than a car/ A car is more luxury than a

bicycle

…

- Teacher asks the class to give their comments (agree or disagree) and gives feedback after that

* Note : If we choose famous people, we can write the names of the people under

the picture for the students, or have them say simply “the man or the car in picture

- Teacher reminds the rules of the comparative, if necessary

- Check and explain new words as well as pronunciation

- Put students into pairs, and give each pair a copy of the worksheet Go over the words on the list and explain any with which the students are unfamiliar

- Call out an adjective or phrase from the list below The students choose two of the words or expression on the worksheet and write a comparison sentence

Continue until all the words on the paper have been matched

Adjectives to use with the worksheet:

Example:

Teacher: “noisy”

Students write or say: “A city is noisier than a country”

- Go over the sentences by having the pairs write them on the blackboard or read them aloud The other students decide if the sentences are logical and

grammatical

WORKSHEET MATCH

Your teacher will give you an adjective Choose two words in this list and write a sentence using the two words and the adjective.

- Have the students answer the question in complete sentences Some studentswill be able to answer without talking to their classmates, but others will requireasking their classmates’ questions.

Variation: To take less time, have students answer the questions in pairs without

talking to their classmates They can begin the sentences with “we think…” or

“We guess…” Then have the pairs read their answers (Have all pairs give theiranswers for question 1 before going to the next question.) Determine who haswritten the correct answer We may want to do this as a competition and assignpoints for every correct answer

WORKSHEET

Answer the questions about your classmates in complete sentences.

1 Who is wearing the most jewelry today?

* THE COMPLIMENT GAME

Materials: Small cards with an adjective written on one side, paper

Dynamic: Whole class

Procedure:

- Review the rules for superlatives, if necessary Give each student a card and a piece of paper Tell the students to write, on the reverse of their cards, the superlative form of the adjective on the front

Suggested adjectives (for a lower-level class, we will of course choose easier adjectives):

modernnicepleasantprettysmall

terrificuniquewonderful

- The students are to imagine that they are rich aristocrats at a party They are toact very formally and give compliments to everyone they meet They are to go up

to other “guests” and show them the word on their card Each “guest” approached(Student B) then compliments the “guest” who approached him or her (Student A),using the correct superlative form of the word he or she is shown

Example:

Student A’s card: beautiful

Student B’s compliment: You are wearing the most beautiful dress in the

room

If student B’s compliment uses the correct form of the superlative, student A signsStudent B’s paper If student B’s compliment does not use the superlativecorrectly, student A does not sign Student B’s paper At the end of the allowedtime, the student with the most signatures (that is, the student who used thesuperlative correctly the most) wills

- We may set a time limit, or tell the students that the first group to find all theforms wins

SUGGESTION: A good way to go over where the hidden forms are is to use an

overhead after the game

WORKSHEET A (lower level)

Find the comparative and superlative forms of the words on the list The forms may be listed up, down, forward, backward, or diagonally.

WORSE

WORST

WORKSHEET B (lower level)

Find the comparative and superlative forms of the words on the list The forms may

be listed up, down, forward, backward, or diagonally.

OF ALLSAMESIMILARTHANWORSEWORST

* WHO’S THE WORST (BEST)?

Materials: Worksheet

Dynamic: Small groups

Procedure:

- Review the rules for the superlative, if necessary

- Divide the class into groups of three or four and give each student a copy of theworksheet (or make one of our own)

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- After they read the story, the students in each group rate the characters in the storyfrom 1 to 4 as to who has the worst character (#4 is the worst) There may bedisagreement in the group, so the students should express their reasons for theirchoices (“Maria is the worst because…”).

- After the group reaches an agreement, a member of each group comes to the boardand list the four characters in descending order, #4 - worst to #1- best

- Have the class compare the answers and discuss the differences Each groupshould be prepared to state why they listed the characters in the order in which theydid

WORKSHEET WHO’S THE WORST (BEST)?

Rate the characters from 1 to 4, with 4 being the worst person in the story

Maria, Sachie, Toshie, and Ana shared an apartment near the college that theyattended Maria needed to buy a book for her history class, but she didn’t haveenough money She had a test in three days, and she needed the book to study.Maria knew that Sachie always kept quite a bit of money in an envelope in her deskdrawer Maria decided to take enough money from Sachie’s desk to buy the book.Maria told herself that she would return the money before Sachie noticed it wasmissing

The next day, Sachie discovered that some money was missing from her desk None

of her roommates was home, she looked around the department, on Toshie’s bedshe found a bag from a clothing store Inside the bag was a new blouse with a salesreceipt The price of the blouse was only slightly less than the amount of themissing money Sachie assumed that Toshie had taken her money to buy the newblouse Sachie decided to teach Toshie a lesson, and she poured catsup all overToshie’s new blouse

When Toshie returned home, she found her ruined blouse When she asked Sachiewhat had happened, Sachie asked her about the missing money, Toshie told Sachiethat she had not taken her money, but Sachie didn’t believe her

Ana returned home, and Toshie told her that Sachie had ruined all her clothes buyputting catsup on them Ana decided that Sachie was a troublemaker and that shedidn’t want her living in the apartment anymore Ana decided to call the apartmentmanager and tell him Sachie was keeping stolen goods at the apartment for herboyfriend so that she would have to move out

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3.3) COMBINATION OF FORMS OF COMPARISON

* COMPARE THEM (THINGS) - COMPARATIVE

Pair 1: Two fast-food restaurants

Pair 2: Two famous people

Pair 3: Two cars

Pair 4: Two animals

Pair 5 : Two grocery stores

Pair 6: Two brands of soda

newnicenoisyoldpretty

quietrichseriousshorttall

tastyuglywisewonderfulyoung

SUGGESTION: In a higher - level class, the pairs can write a paragraph in stead