How to teach a consolidation lesson in grade 8 efectively at thi tran secondary school

Nowadays, the method of teaching grammar is not the same as in the past-teaching vocabulary and then analyze structures- most of the time is for doing exercises and practicing Listening-

1 INTRODUCTION 1.1.REASONS FOR CHOOSING THIS TOPIC:

English is a common language all over the world, so English is a compulsory subject in many countries, Viet Nam is not excepted

Foreign languages in general and English in particular is a difficult subject for students, specially for mountainous students Teaching English has many

oscillation and changes because of the devolopement of the civilization and

culture in the world We cannot deny this Therefore, the teacher must be

responsible and dedicated in oder to bring the knowlegde to the learners

effectively

After giving English to the schools as a compulsory subject, many teachers have their experience in teaching English After nearly ten years being a teacher

in education, I always wonder about the way to teach my students effectively, so

I have asked for other teachers and looked for many reference books Each year I have my own experience through each lesson One in my all experiences is that

“How to teach CONSOLIDATION in grade 8 effectively” in order to have higher

result in general test and develope the quality of teaching English in my school.

Nowadays, the method of teaching grammar is not the same as in the past-teaching vocabulary and then analyze structures- most of the time is for doing exercises and practicing Listening- Speaking- Reading- Writing skills by many ways and we consolidate the lessons through playing games

Choosing a right method in teaching grammar is really important to the teachers Beside that teachers must explain how important students have to learn grammar They can use language meaningful and express their ideas exactly The most important point is that students can understand the morphologic and the meaning of each grammar unit so as to use them in listening- speaking- reading-writing lessons usefully

For these reasons I have chosen the topic to research is that “How to teach a CONSOLIDATION lesson in grade 8 effectively at Thi Tran secondary school”

1.2 RESEARCH OBJECTS:

- Textbook grade 8

- Students in grade 8

+ Class 8A1: total 29 students

Good students: 5 (17,2%)

Middling students: 14 (48,3%)

Average and weak students: 10 (34,5%)

+ Class 8A2: total 25 students

Good students: 1 (4%)

Middling students: 10 (40%)

Average and weak students: 14(56%)

1.3 RESEARCH METHODS:

- The suggestive approach

- The communicative approach

- The interviewed approach

- The investigative approach

- The statistical approach

1.4 RESEARCH TIME:

With this issue, I have researched in the last school year 2014-2015 I try to find the most effective way to apply it in 2015-2016

2 ISSUE SOLVING 2.1 REALITY OF ISSUE:

Now there are many references and fostering curriculums which are useful for the innovation in teaching English Beside that many fostering technique courses are opened every year for the teachers, ect, to help teachers of English access and apply the new methods effectively However, teachers cannot apply all the methods in their lessons, they should choose the most suitable methods for their lessons, their students or facility in their schools

For the CONSOLIDATION lesson in grade 8, some teachers pay much attention to review grammar and structures and they always worry about the ability in doing grammar exercises of their students Others cannot choose the right methods for their lessons, this leads to their lessons are not effective

Therefore, classifying and choosing suitable activities in each exercise is important to the lessons’ success Planning a good lesson plan helps teachers time-consume, flexibility in teaching activity

2.2 SOLUTIONS AND IMPLEMENT:

2.2.1 SOLUTIONS:

There is no doubt that the main task of teachers is to teach, but the teaching work gets nowhere if their students understand and learn nothing There are many things for the teachers to do with their students, but in the class settings teachers should show interest in their students by involving them in their teaching and by allowing them to express their opinions and do things with the language they are learning It is true that everyone likes to show what he or she knows and can do and like to talk about himself or herself Likewise students like to hear about their classmates/ follow students When this is allowed in class I will find that my students involve themselves far more than if they talking about a fictional character from a course book

Grammar is a very important and necessary part in communicative It seems not to be easy in teaching and learning grammar for secondary students, especially in a CONSOLIDATION part of English 8 In this lesson, many grammar and structures are reviewed

By taking part in role-play, dialogues, sketches and whatever teachers do, both the performing students and the listeners get involved They will be less self-conscious about the English as they concentrate on the character or acting role which they are required to carry out They may be embarrassed or nervous at first, but hopefully when they have got through that they will be assured that they can also get over the “fear” of speaking English Watch carefully to find out who

is shy/ confident, ect and assign roles they can manage at first, gradually getting everyone confident

Building up the students’confidence in any situation means encouraging them at every opportunity and never “putting them down”

2.2.2 IMPLEMENT:

A grammar lesson in general has three steps as below:

- Introducing the form and meaning of the structure

- Practicing

- Consolidating by doing exercises, activities and playing games

Each step has its own requirement and exercises As for me, teachers should research carefully each exercise when they plan a next lesson in order to choose the right and suitable activities for each lesson Solving this issue, I do it

as follow:

a Introducing the form and meaning of the structures:

Before practicing, teachers introduce the form and meaning of the structrures by speaking and writing on the board I choose many different ways to

review the meaning of the structures in different lessons to avoid students from being bored Such as:

 Sight: using real things, drawing or pictures and trait or gesture to

illustrate the meaning For example:

Consolidation 1: Unit 3:

Teachers may use a traffic sign to review modal: must

T: This is a traffic sign What does it tell us?

S: - We must stop.

-We must not go straight ahead (ect.)

After students answer the question, teachers review the form of must and two other modal verbs which have the same usage have to and ought to:

Form: must/ have to/ ought to + bare infinitive.

 Comparing and contrasting the structures:

When I want to introduce two or more structures in an exercise, I always get students compare and contrast to find out the differences among these structures For example:

Consolidation 3: Unit 11:

T : Now I give you some examples to show the differences between the

requests, using "Do/ Would you mind " Listen!

- Do/ Would you mind moving your car?

- Do you mind if I sit here?

- Would you mind if I sat here?

- Tell me the differeces between these sentences.

S : Sentence 1 : Do/ Would you mind + V-ing,

Sentence 2 and 3 : Do/ Would you mind + if-clause.

T : That's right Tell me the differeces between the second sentence and the third sentence.

S: sentence 2: Do you mind if+ Subject+ V_s,es

sentence 3: Would you mind if+ Subject+ V_ed

T : That's right

After that teachers repeat the form and meaning of these structures, then practicing

 Using situation:

Teachers can use the situation method in introducing some structures I use pictures or drawing to set the scense For example:

To teach the question why- Because in Unit 3, I give out some picture and

give them a model sentence:

T: Why does Hoang fail in his math exam?

S: Because he is always playing video games.

 Translation

It is a well-known fact that the best method of learning English is by using English When teachers are using English in their teaching, their students enjoy doing the same thing, developing the habit of trying to think in English and making themselves understood in English However, it is not always easy and convenient to do that in every situation It is strongly advised that teachers should take every opportunity to speak English and encourage their student to do the same so that they can learn and use the language Therefore, if teachers speak simple English by using synonyms or giving a short explanation, for example, and their students understand what they mean, they should do that On the contrary, if teachers mime or draw pictures ect… but their students still fail to understand, why not use Vietnamese It’s quicker! For example:

T : Thu Ha is not satisfied with her preparations for Tet Thu

Ha has decorated her house and made plenty of cakes

Combine two sentences above into one by using a connective- EVEN THOUGH

S : Thu Ha is not satisfied with her preparations for Tet even though she has decorated her house and made plenty of cakes

T : Vietnamese ?

S : Thu Hà không hài lòng với việc chuẩn bị tết của mình mặc

dù cô ấy đã trang hoàng nhà cửa và làm rất nhiều bánh.

b Practicing techniques:

The textbook does not point out what structures teachers should review and teachers do not have available exercises for students, of course, they have to do it themselves To practice structures, I do as follow:

 Repetation drill

When learners get used to the sounds of English it may be easier for them not to see the language written down before they practise saying it, so get them to listen to our model and then repeat

Make sure teachers give clear, natural sounding and consistent models.Use hand movements to indicate intonation, use our fist to beat the stress, and join or separate fingers to show word boundaries and where linking occurs in phrases This kind of gesturing may in particular help visual learners since it helps them visualise the language they are practising

Back chaining helps learners focus on correct pronunciation and intonation and is also attention-grabbing For example, when we are modelling a phrase, start at the end, getting the learners to repeat after each chunk we give them

For example: yesterday / get up yesterday/ did you get up yesterday/what time did you get up yesterday?

We can vary the drill in terms of who repeats - whole class, half the class, boys only, girls only, individuals Make sure drilling is done at a snappy pace

We can also try:

- Whisper drills (for quietening down a rowdy class)

- Shouting drills (for livening them up )

These ideas work particularly well with young learners or we can liven drills

up by saying things in different ways For example, sound very happy, very sad, very bored, very excited with a facial expression to match as we model the language and get the learners to do the same Putting expression into it and exaggerating the intonation helps make the language more memorable

 Guessing games

Simple guessing games which require lots of repetition of the target language are ideal for practising language items at low levels and are in fact a form of drill After you have used pictures to introduce vocabulary or phrases stick the pictures on the board back to front so they can't be seen Students try to guess which picture is which

Pick out one picture and don't show it Students guess which one it is If you're using real objects you can use the same principle by hiding the objects under a cloth or in a bag and getting them to guess which object you're holding

For practising 'Is it ?' questions, classroom objects and describing location with children, hide a plastic spider somewhere in the room and get the children to guess where it is 'Is it under the teacher's desk?', 'Is it behind Jose's chair?'

Disappearing text

This can be done with a list of vocabulary items or phrases, a short text or a dialogue at any level

Write up the text on the board Read out the text and drill

Rub off a small part of it Students have to say the whole text again.

Gradually rub off more and more in bits and each time get the students to say the whole text This provides intensive drilling practice as the students have

to repeat it so many times However, the game factor also increases motivation to get it right and that gets more challenging as the activity continues

 Dialogue building

This is useful particularly for low level students to build confidence in speaking and to learn useful chunks of language Use pictures to set a scene and elicit a dialogue

Example:

A: Have you got a pet?

B: Yes, I've got a cat.

A: Oh, what's its name?

B: It's called Fred.

Drill each line as you elicit the dialogue rather than writing the whole dialogue on the board as you go, you can just write one or two words to help them remember each line

Example:

A: Have/pet?

B: Yes/

A: /name?

B: /Fred

Then let the students choose different pets and make up similar dialogues

in pairs Aim for not more than eight lines or so in the dialogue or it may become difficult to memorise

Mingle activities with smaller classes, mingle activities work well and provide opportunities for lots of repetition of target language A simple example

of this for low level learners is 'Say and swap'

Learners are given flashcards or small pictures of target vocabulary items

or phrases

They mingle and swap their pictures but as they swap they have to say the word on the picture they have Alternatively this can be done as a more stationary chain drill: students pass the flashcards or pictures around the whole class and again say the word each time they pass it on

Another example is 'Find Someone Who' which can be adapted to any

level Students have a list of people to find

Example: Find someone who

- gets up before 7.00

- watches TV in the morning

- eats toast for breakfast etc

Students go around asking the question In this example the language practised is 'Do you…?' and the topic daily routines This activity generates lots

of repetition of this pattern as well as providing opportunities for freer responses

if the learners develop the conversation In larger classes it can be done as a stationary group work activity

 Information gaps

Information gap activities are often designed to provide highly controlled practice of particular structures By swapping information which requires use of a particular language pattern, the students have to solve a problem This problem solving provides a communicative purpose to what is essentially a drill

Example:

The students have a shopping list of fruit they need to buy (6 oranges, 1 kilo of apples etc.)