skkn integrating grammar for communicative language and using some communicative techniques to motivate students in grammar lessons

Especially, the testingexercise was quite passive and less contact with the fact, which causes students’bad memory The reason why the students feel that grammar teaching is very dull and

techniques to motivate students in grammar lessons

PART A: INTRODUCTION

I RATIONALE

I.1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Based on the innovation-oriented teaching methods

The Party Central Committee’s Theoretical Council, at its forth meetingproposed the resolution that: “encourage self-study, to apply modern methods

of fostering students’ abilities of thinking creatively and solving problems bythemselves."

At the eight meeting, the Government continues to affirm: "Renewing amethod of education and training, overcoming a one-way path to convey,training students to practice with creative thinking Gradually apply advancedmethods and modern means in the teaching process to ensure conditions andtime for students to study by themselves.”

Base on the Clause 2, Article 24 of education law as follows: "Method ofgeneral education must promote positive ambition and creativity of students,suitable for each class, the training courses help student have self-learning skill

as well as the knowledge for practical situation students have good emotion thatimpacts, brings joy and excitement for them "

Base on the innovation of teaching methods that help students towardsactive learning, against passive learning habits To have the most effective,successful grammar lesson, teachers need to create a joyful atmosphere andcreate attractive the techniques to stimulate creative thinking

Moreover, with the social background of opening up ASEAN integration,English language plays an important role in communication and enculturation ofViet Nam country In general, learning English becomes more and morenecessary and it also gets the attention of everyone, especially the students Theyare gradually becoming fond of this subject and more confident in all fields ofEnglish to master the knowledge, study about material and see the dialecticalunity of listening skills - speaking - reading - writing

techniques to motivate students in grammar lessons

I.2 PRACTICAL CONTEXT

It is clear that, in practical situation, many students are good at grammarand writing but that does not mean the students pronounce words well, not beconfused or speak English fluently Here are the reasons for that:

I.2.1 The psychology of students in high school

- Ability to reflect with their awareness of language

- The ability to imagine a flexible, logical, easy to relate and compare

- The ability to memorize language and find the words out quickly

- Have not really confident, afraid wrong, afraid to speak English

- Prefer being active and self – controlled

I.2.2 Problems of teaching and learning English grammar

Grammar teaching is an extremely important part of foreign languageteaching but there exist two universal problems One is that it is ineffective:during class, teachers explain grammar rules one by one, and students seem tounderstand to complete some related exercises, but when they speak and write,they still make many grammatical mistakes The other is that the students feelthat grammar teaching is very dull and boring Therefore, they have no interest

in learning

Unfortunately, grammar is often taught in isolated, unconnected sentencesthat give a fragmented, unrealistic picture of English and make it difficult forstudents to apply what they have learned in practical situations Furthermore,Language Focus section is partially composed of English grammar knowledgethat the topic, content and exercises are quite monotonous, boring and tedious,not to create an atmosphere for students interested Especially, the testingexercise was quite passive and less contact with the fact, which causes students’bad memory

The reason why the students feel that grammar teaching is very dull andboring is that memorizing grammar rules is very hard for weak Ss and too easyfor the good ones but it does not support students’ communicating skill

techniques to motivate students in grammar lessons

Textbooks have gradually better renovation to meet the needs of learners.Therefore, from the content of textbook, every teacher should have differentapproaches to create excitement and stimulate creativeness and eager the student

to learn Knowledge of grammar are usually taught in traditional methods whenteachers often use their interpreting, explaining the rules of grammar As theresult, students are quite passive and have fewer opportunities to practice thelanguage in class

It is also undeniable that the Language focus periods are so depressingbecause of mostly grammatical knowledge So, teachers have difficulty inhelping students both gain knowledge in their mind and developingcommunicating skills It gives us one question that which communicativetechniques teachers should approach to express the all content in the classroombut still inspire the students It is strongly believed that the problem could easily

be solved if teachers use the applications of external material or practicalknowledge (Authentic English) is an indispensable job Therefore, students canget acquainted with the structure already provided in their background naturally

As a young teacher, through researching some documents and attending in

my many colleagues’ lessons, I realized that it is necessary to apply creative andflexible approaches in lesson plans to teach grammar, make pupils becomethought-provoking and better reflective Despite a lot of problems, I still expect

to promote potential students’ capacity through my study: “Integrating grammar for communicative language and some communicative techniques

to motivate students in grammar lessons.”

II AIMS OF THE STUDY

The study aims at:

- Giving a brief overview of theoretical background and practical context

of both teaching and learning English Grammar

- Designing activities for some sample lessons: integrating grammar into

a communicative teaching lesson

techniques to motivate students in grammar lessons

- Suggesting several communicative techniques to motivate students ingrammar lessons

III RESEARCH SCOPE

In the teaching process, there are many issues to study and change the method.However due to the limited amount of time and less teaching experience, thisstudy was carried out in 2 classes grade 10 with 68 students in my school, duringthe school year 2014 -2015

IV METHOD OF STUDY

IV.1 Researching documents

This method helps the author study theoretically from the analysis ofdocuments and related data So, I present the study through the usual channeland scientific method

This method also helps to learn about the situation and psychology ofstudents

IV.2.The method of investigating

- chatting with students directly to try to know their interest in thissubject and teachers’ methods stimulate Ss to use your initiative, imagination,and common sense

- monitoring students through each lesson can help the author collect anddraw the expression as well as the attitude of the student for learning thissubject, specially, in the first minute of the grammar lesson

IV.3 Statistical methods

Data is collected from 2 statistics which the author completed at thebeginning and at the end of school year 2014-1015 After each lesson, teachertried to find solutions to get better results

techniques to motivate students in grammar lessons

PART B: THE CONTENTS

I THE TRADITIONAL METHODS:

“THE LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING PROCESS IS SOMEHOW “EXAM-ORIENTED” OR “EXAM-PREPARED”

In general, in many high schools our country, it is commonly seen thatdue to the pressure of examinations which often focus on reading, writing,grammar and vocabulary, or in other words, the language learning and teachingprocess is somehow “exam-oriented” or “exam-prepared”, the language teachingmethods are undeniably affected Generally, teachers spend most of the time inclass helping the students understand and remember rules and then apply them

to do grammar exercises As a result, it is likely that students who get very goodmarks in reading are not able to communicate confidently in social situations oreven produce an accurate piece of conversation

The author have observed many procedure of English Grammar teachinglessons These are some examples

Example 1: Revising the present simple tense and the past simple tense

Unit1 : A day in the life of… Grade 10.

Grammar: ( 20’)

- Aims: to revise the present simple

tense and the past simple tense.

- Asks sts to think about the present

simple tense and asks some to tell the

whole class about the form and the

use of the tense

- Asks sts about the position of

techniques to motivate students in grammar lessons

5 minutes, then share their answers

with their partners

- Explains any new words if

- Presents the past simple tense

- Asks some students to tell the whole

class about the form and the use of

this tense

- Asks sts to look at Ex 3 and

explains what sts are going to do

- Asks sts to do this exercise in 5

- Checks and gives remarks

- After "to be" but before other verbs.

- "As a rule" is placed at the beginning of

He always get up early

She is sometimes late for school

1 was done 7 began 13 was

2 cooked 8 felt 14 leapt

3 were 9 put out 15 hurried

4 smelt 10 crept 16 found

5 told 11 slept 17 wound

6 sang 12 woke 18 Flowed

techniques to motivate students in grammar lessons Example 2: Revising Wh- questions

Unit 2: School Talks grade 10

Grammar: ( 15’)

Aims: to revise Wh- questions

- T: What are Wh- questions?

- Asks sts to give examples

- Asks sts to look at Ex 1 in page 29

and then make questions as

requirement

- Asks them to work individually and

then work in pairs to ask and answer

- Lets them work in 4 minutes and then

asks some pairs to report

- Checks and gives remarks

- Look at the board.

- Look at the textbook

- Make questions and then ask and answer with their partners

S1: When did you come?

S2: Just a few days ago

S3: How long did you stay in Quang Ninh?

S4: For a few days

S5: Who did you come with?

S6: I came with a friend

Example 3: Used to + infinitive

Unit 4: Special Education - grade 10 Teacher's activities Students' activities

" She used to get bad marks when she

was at primary school"

- Think about the teacher's question andanswer:

- S: We use the structure to talk about past actions or past habits that no

techniques to motivate students in grammar lessons

- Asks sts to do Ex 2 individually and

then share the answers with their

friends

- Moves round to help if necessary

- Asks two sts to do this exercise on

the board

- Asks one st to give remarks

- Checks and gives remarks

longer exist.

- Do the exercise individually and compare their answers with their partners

- Do the exercise on the board

2 used to have 3 used to live

4 used to eat 5 used to be

6 used to take 7 used to be

8 did you use to go

Example 4: Conditional sentence type 2:

Unit 9: Undersea world – grade 10

Teacher's activities Students' activities

Conditional sentence type 2

- Review the form and the use of

conditional sentence type 2 by giving

- Ask sts to read the examples and point

out the form as well as the use of

conditional sentence type 2

+ Note: “ were” is used with all persons.

- Ask some sts to give examples

- Ask sts to do EX3

+ Exercise 3:

- Read the examples and point out the form and the use of conditional sentence type 2:

+ Form:

If- clause , main clause

S + V( P.S) , S + would + V+ Use: an unreal situation at

present or in the future

- Do Ex 3 in pairs

techniques to motivate students in grammar lessons

- Ask sts to do the task in pairs

- Go round to conduct the activity

- Ask some pairs to read sentence by

5 wouldn't get 9 didn't come

6 closed down 10 borrowed

Example 5: The present perfect passive

Unit 5: Technology and You grade 10

Teacher's activities Students' activities

Aims: to review the present perfect

passive and get sts to do Ex 2.

- Asks sts to tell the teacher the form of

the present perfect passive

- Asks sts to do Ex 2 individually and

then share the answers with their friends

- Moves round to help if necessary

- Asks two sts to do this exercise on the

board

- Asks one st to give remarks

- Checks and gives remarks

+ Form:

(+) S + have/ has + been + PII (-) S + have / has + not + been + PII ( ? ) Have / Has + S +been + PII ?

- Do the exercise individually and compare their answers with their partners

- Do the exercise on the board

1 A new hospital for children has been built in our city.

2 Another man-made satellite has been sent up into space.

3 More and more trees have been cut down for wood by farmers.

……….

- Listen to the teacher

Example 6: Revising the use of " who, which, that" as relative pronouns

techniques to motivate students in grammar lessons

Unit 5: Technology and You grade 10 Teacher's activities Students' activities Aims: to revise the use of "who, which,

that" as relative pronouns and ask sts to do

exercise 3.

- Recalls sts of the relative clauses with "who,

which, that".

- Asks sts to read the requirement of Ex3 and

then do the task individually

- Goes round to conduct the activity

- Asks some sts to read sentence by sentence

- Listens and gives remarks

- Listen to the teacher

- Read the requirement carefully

II SOLUTIONS (THE NEW METHODS)

Skills and grammar topics have dialectical relationship with each otherTherefore, teaching grammar, teachers should combine listening - speaking -reading skills to make language learning becomes smooth, natural and mosteffective Maybe, the old method of teaching, passive learning habits cause theproblem that the students found English so difficult However, English is easy ifthere are the right strategic approaches English became really fun if studentsacquainted correct pronunciation, memory of vocabulary and large number ofpotential to catch up with the tenses in English automatically and easily

As a result, I must renew perspective, and find the way how to teach moreeffectively grammar section In the other words, grammar is not a separatedanymore, but linked with different skills and used with a lot of activities, games

techniques to motivate students in grammar lessons

and various documents These activities are not only fun or playful but alsodirectly related to the lessons Therefore, students receive knowledge in anatural way to avoid restrictive, dogmatic They also realize how to learnvocabulary, grammar, pronunciation through the techniques By this way,students can learn English while listening to relax through the paper, the favoritetopics, imagination or laughing while learning to bring high efficiency

IV.1 Some ways of integrating grammar for communicative language

In this part, I am going to suggest some ways of integrating grammar forcommunicative language, most of them have been applied in my class andfinally, I can see the improvement of my students’ communicative skills andtheir grammar as well

These are some examples to illustrate the integration of grammar in CLTcomes from Pekoz’s (2008) suggestion in teaching grammar

 Sample 1: Application for grammar section: used to+

techniques to motivate students in grammar lessons

2 While-grammar

a) This stage provides a context for input generation and an opportunity

to notice the new grammatical structure The teacher tells them they are going tolearn a new structure (for the purpose of noticing) but does not mention thename of structure (for motivational purposes)

b) The teacher makes a transition from the context created in picture tothe grammatical point by showing the same pictures and telling the picturedifferences with "used to" and "simple present tense" (i.e "he used to be thin,but now he isn’t, he is very fat now", or TV used to be big and thick but now itisn’t, etc)

c) The teacher creates other contexts for the teaching of grammaticalpoint through some other picture comparisons, discussions, stories, orreading/listening texts

d) The teacher asks some clarification check questions to ensure that themeaning is clear Some examples:

Did he often work hard in the past?/Does he eat much now? was she thin

in the past?/ is he fat now?

Did he have a big and thick TV in the past? Does he have a flat and modern TV now?

e) The teacher asks the students to formulate the rule on the board for thegiven sentence providing help if needed

She used to be thin/ have a big and thick television.

techniques to motivate students in grammar lessons

S + Used to + V 1 …

(Note: The while-stage may involve production of the new structure

through some questions about the pictures In this case, however, the purpose is

to confirm whether the meaning has been clarified.)

3) Post-grammar

Brainstorming

The teacher asks students to think back to when they were a child and

asks the following questions: "What are the differences and similarities between your life then and now? Think about where you lived, your likes/dislikes, your holidays and your family, and fill in the following lines with appropriate sentences".

Your life as a child. Your present life.

Role-play

The teacher forms pairs of students and gives a role play to each student.The role playing students are supposed to be old friends meeting after a longtime They are supposed to communicate and note the differences in each usingeither their imagination or the role play cues

Writing

The teacher asks students to write a story about the following topic for the

school magazine.“Imagine that you have been asleep from 2010 till now You have just woken up to be shocked about everything around you Compare your old and new lives and write your story using "used to".”

 Sample 2: The application for the section “The present perfect

passive”

(Unit 5 Technology and you - grade 10)

1 Pre-grammar Stage

First, the teacher has a discussion about the new room John has moved to

Some sentences as examples:

“There is a TV set’

techniques to motivate students in grammar lessons

“They have handed some pictures on the wall”

………

2 While-grammar Stage

The teacher shows the picture of the room

The teacher says the following:

The bed in the middle has been bought by his mother.”

“The TV set has been placed on a table”

“The pictures have been handed on the wall, near the bed.”

“The light has been turned on.”

Who has been given money?

Who has been taken to a beautiful place?

Who has been misunderstood today?

Who has been met a famous person recently?

Who has been given a present?

Who has been punished by parents?

techniques to motivate students in grammar lessons Role-play

The teacher forms pairs of students and gives a role play to each student.The role playing students are supposed to be neighbors whose houses have beenbroken into and they tell each other about what have been stolen

Writing

The teacher asks students:

”Imagine that You have just turned back your house after a long time living far away from it and you have been surprised about everything around you Your parents have changed some things in your house Write a letter to your close friends and tell about that, remember to use the present perfect passive voice

IV.2 Some communicative techniques to motivate students in grammar lessons.

Motivation is popularly considered to play a very important role in

learning In Jeremy Harmer’s view (1991) “Motivation is some kind of internal drive that encourages somebody to pursue a course of action”

In order to apply CLT to teaching grammar effectively, a variety oftechniques and activities should be used at different stages of a grammar lesson

In this paper, I am going to suggest some popular techniques and classroomactivities for the communicative practice

IV.2.1 Using games and problem-solving activities

The latest concern of the foreign language teachers is to make thestudents use the target language communicatively Among the activities ortechniques, games and problem solving activities are the most preferablecommunicative activities

Both games and problem- solving activities have a goal Games areorganized according to rules, and they are enjoyable Most games require groupworks, whereas problem- solving activities (though they are structured) requireindividual response and creative solutions Games and problem- solvingactivities are generally used after at the practice stage and more frequently at the

techniques to motivate students in grammar lessons

production stage, because such communicative tasks can only be handled aftermastering sufficient grammar and lexical points

Students are more motivated when learning through the games because ofthe competition in games Besides, games also reduce the stress in theclassroom Games and problem- solving problems can be used at all levels.When using games, of course, the teacher must be sure that students are familiarwith the words and structures needed to carry out the task Quick drill shouldusually be done before students play games Furthermore, it is important todesign clear and easy instructions for the games or the activities These are thecommon games and activities usually used in grammar teaching lessons:

- Noughts and crosses.

(The application for grammar section Unit8: The story of my village grade 10)

Application: Students work in group, taking turns to say a conditionalsentence in a possible situation Another student asks what happens next, thatperson answers, then, they go on asking and answering Teacher can encouragestudents to keep going on as long as possible

e.g A – If it’s sunny, I’ll go to my homeland.

Group - What will you do if you go to your homeland?

B – If I go to my homeland, I’ll meet my grandmother and my friends Group – What will you do if you meet your friends?

C – If I meet them, we’ll go to the pub.

Group – What will you do if you go to the pub?

………

techniques to motivate students in grammar lessons

This game not only helps to practice first conditional, but also students’reaction and creative thinking

 Sample 2: Game: Quizzes to teach “Superlatives”

(The application for unit 16: historical places _ grade 10)

Teacher prepares some questions about common knowledge of Britain.

(Teachers can give Ss some pieces of papers as suggestions if necessary)

1 What is the highest mountain? (Ben Nevis – 1,343 m)

2 Who is the richest person? (The Duke of Westminster - € 8.2 billion)

3 What is the furthest country from the UK? (New Zealand)

4 What is the second biggest city? (Birmingham – 2.3 million)

5 Where is the largest lake? (Scotland, Loch Lormond – 312 km2)

6 What is the longest river? (The Severn – 322 km)

7 Where are the heaviest smokers? (Manchester)

8 What is the most common surname? (Smith)

9 What is the tallest office building? (Canary Whart – 244 m)

10 What is the busiest airport? (Heathrow – 54.5 million passengers per year)

11 Which is the longest running soap opera? (Coronation Street – since 1960)

12 What is the most popular daily newspaper? (The Sun)

- Divide the class into 3 teams

- The teams raise their hands to take the chance to answer the question andscore

- The team with the most scores will be the winner

Here are some photos taken in our class.

techniques to motivate students in grammar lessons

The students could continue with one team raising questions and theothers answering This activity also helps to enhance students’ generalknowledge, apart from English knowledge

IV.2.2 Using songs

Songs and music always create relaxing and non-threatening atmospherefor students, who are usually unconfident when speaking English in a formalclassroom setting In any case, students find the lesson interesting from songs.And a major success is breaking the traditional view of dull and boring grammarclasses In grammar lesson, songs may be used both used for the presentationand practice phase

Sample: Using the song “ If I were a rich man ”

to present the conditional sentences type 2 Unit 9: undersea world grade 10 Type of activity: individual work, pair work, whole class

Aims: present the conditional sentences type 2.

Preparation: make the copy of the handouts for each student

techniques to motivate students in grammar lessons

Procedure: - Deliver the handouts to the students

- Ask Ss to listen to the song

IF I WERE A RICH MAN

"Dear God, you made many, many poor people

I realize, of course, that it's no shame to be poor

But it's no great honor either!

So, what …(1)….have been so terrible if I …(2)… a small fortune?"

If I …(3)…… a rich man,

Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum

All day long I'd biddy biddy bum

If I …(4)…… a wealthy man

I ……(5)……have to work hard

Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum

If I ……(6)…….a biddy biddy rich,

Yidle-diddle-didle-didle man

-After the first listening, students work in pairs and share their ideas

-For the second listening, students have to fill in these verbs in the correct blank -Show the video clip of the song on the screen and ask students to pay attention

to the action in the song

IF I WERE A RICH MAN.

"Dear God, you made many, many poor people

I realize, of course, that it's no shame to be poor

But it's no great honor either!

So, what would have been so terrible if I had a small fortune?"

If I were a rich man,

Ya ha deedledeedle, bubba bubba deedledeedledum

All day long I'd biddy biddy bum