Experience idea using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students

To help students speak English better, I designed some activities for production part of language focus periods of English 10.. Almost teachers only focus on presenting structures and ru

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

English has four skills : reading, speaking, listening and writing Foreign languagelearning requires students and teachers to focus on all skills because they are applied

in daily life And linguistic knowledge is also very improtant for students when theystudy English because it always plays the role of the means and conditions to formcommunication skills Therefore, when studying language, students must focus onphonetics, vocabulary and grammatical points With the knowledge, students knowabout the linguistic, special knowledge about grammar, they can use them forcommunication

In fact, the students at my school can do written tests about grammartical knowledgerather well but they meet problems in speaking Because the teacher often asksstudents to do exercises in their text books after they are introduced grammarticalpoints, not use them to communicate So, teaching speaking skill for students ingrammar lessons is very neccessary

To help students speak English better, I designed some activities for production part

of language focus periods of English 10 From the activities I applied, I have written

a teaching experience named: “ Using some effective activites for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students.”

From the above discussion, my experienced ideas will make a little contribution onapplying the vocabulary and grammartical points for developing English speakingskill for 10th students

CONTENT PART 1: THEORITICAL AND PRACTICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 : Theoritical background

* What is grammar ?

In order to tackle the issues related to language awareness and use, it is important to first give a definition of grammar According to David Crystal ( “ In Word and Deed.”TSE Teacher, April 30, 2004) , “Grammar is the structural foundation of our ability toexpress ourselves The more we are aware of how it works, the more we can monitor the meaning and effectiveness of the way we and others use language It can help foster precision, detect ambiguity, and exploit the richness of expression available in English And it can help everyone-not only teachers of English, but teachers of

anything, for all teaching is ultimately a matter of getting to grips with meaning” So,

a grammar is a description of the rules of the structure of a language; the way words combine, the order they come in, the way they change according to their relationship

to other words, how they build up into units like a sentence etc

We can have other definition of grammar is that grammar is the characteristic system

of inflections and syntax of a language and it is a system of rules that defines the grammatical structure of a language

* What is teaching grammar?

Grammar is very important and central to the teaching and learning of languages because it helps the learners express their ideas that are understood by the listeners It

is also one of the more difficult aspects of language to teach well

Many people, including language teachers, hear the word "grammar" and think of a fixed set of word forms and rules of usage They associate "good" grammar with the prestige forms of the language, such as those used in writing and in formal oral

presentations, and "bad" or "no" grammar with the language used in everyday

conversation or used by speakers of nonprestige forms

When teaching grammar, many teachers often teach a set of forms and rules They teach grammar by explaining the forms and rules and then drilling students on them This result is bored, disaffeted students who can produce correct forms on exercises and tests, but consistently makes errors when they try to use the language in context Meanwhile, other language teachers, influenced by recent theoretical work on the difference between language learning and language acquisition , tend not to teach grammar at all Believing that children acquire their first language without overt grammar instruction, they expect students to learn their second language the same way They assume that students will absorb grammar rules as they hear, read and use language in communication activities This approach does not allow students to use one of the major tools they have as learners: their active understanding of what

grammar is and how it works in the language they already know

From two ways of teaching grammar above, we see that teaching forms and rules in grammar lessons is neccessary but undestanding the meaning of grammatical points and then using them for communication are more important So, appying the

communicative approach in teaching grammar can balance these extremes This aproach recogrnizes that overt grammar instruction helps students acquire the

language more efficiently, but it incorporates grammar teaching and learning into the larger context of teaching students to use language Instructors using this model teach students the grammar they need to know to accomplish defined communication tasks.The purpose of teaching grammar in new trend is helping students communicate in real situations To gain this goal, teacher must let students speak , speak and speak This means that in process of teaching grammatical points, teacher should design the activites to develope speaking skill for students

1.2 : Practical background

At my school, in grammar lessons, students are often required to do exercies in theirbooks to apply knowledge they have learnt These controlled and repeatedly activitiesmake students feel bored and they do not have many chances to practice what theyhave learnt in communication So, designing activites for students to speak at classwhen they study grammatical points is neccesary

In the early school year, I did two surveys in class 10A4 at my school to checkstudents’ ability of understanding and using the grammatical points they learnt: Thefirst survey was done to check the ability of doing exercises in written test and the

second survey was done to check the ability of speaking ( including accuracy andfluency)

The first survey was a multiple choice exercises with content about the use of be going to and present progressive ( Unit 6- English 10 ) :

Choose the best answer to complete each following sentences:

1 I feel terrible I think I _sick

A will be B am going to be C am being D was going to be

2 The cat is just behind the rat It _the latter

A is catching B was catching C.is going to catch D are going to catch

3 You are going to repaint your room, ?

A aren’t you B are you C don’t you D won’t you

4 My mother is going to _a new bicycle for me at my birthday next week

A have bought B to buy C buying D buy

5 Some students in my class _their summer vacation at home

A are not going to spend B are going to not spend

C are not going to spending D are not spending

6 He has just filled that bucket with water wash the car, isn’t he?

But when I ask students to use be going to and present progessive to make a

dialogue to talk about the birthday party next week, they meet some mistakes ( The second survey )

The conversation Error analyzing

Hoa : Good evening, mum!

Mum : Good evening What are you writing, Hoa ?

Hoa : I’m writing a letter to dad to tell about the

plan for my birthday.

Mum : Really ? Your birthday will come

Hoa : Yes, it’s on Saturday this week And I will

celebrate it on Saturday night.

Mum : All right What is your plan for the party ?

Hoa : I am going to inviting all my classmates and

some neighbours.

Mum : What about food and drink ?

Hoa : I going to buy a birthday cake, some fruit

and drink such as : apples, mangoes, oranges and

Cocacola.

Mum : are you going prepare pop music?

Hoa : No, I am going not to play pop music but

prepare dance music

Mum : That’s sounds interesting.

Hoa : Thanks mum! I hope my dad will be at home

on my birthday

-will come: Wrong tense

- will celabrate: Wrong tense

- going to inviting: Wrong form

of tenses

- I going to buy: Short of “be”

- going prepare: short of “ to”

- going not to play: wrong order

Almost teachers only focus on presenting structures and rules to do exercises in theirbooks.

To help students correct the mistakes mentioned above, I design some effectiveactivities for the production part in grammar lessons of English 10 With theseactivities students can understand more the grammatical points they have learnt andapply them in real situations for communication

PART 2: THE SOLUTION

There are many writings about improving speaking English accuracy and fluency,they are both techniques and activities We can apply these theories for our teachingand learning process But with the level of my students, I have some other techniquesand activities to motivate them to speak English From these exercies, students willknow how to apply vocabulary and grammartical structures to communicate and thegrammar lessons become more interesting for them

In English 10, students study many grammartical structures and they are used a lot inspeaking everyday such as : tenses, questions, relative clauses So, I have designed 8types of exercies to apply these grammatical points I applied these ativities to givethe production for students after they are introduced grammar structures and after theyhave done some kinds of exercies in their text books.The activities I applied are:

- Presentation : This activity is used to raise students’ speaking ability in front of

class by talking about themself or some other discussions

- Questionaire : It is used to help students be more confident in talking by doing a

survey and then making the report

- Project based activity: It is used to help student know how fluency they speak English by record what they had spoken.

- Describing the pictures : Students know how to tell information appeared in the

pictures and this activities make them more motivative in learning

- Role- play : This activity helps students act as the person in the situation and make

them feel they are the person in the real situations

- Chain games : It is used to help students create in giving information They can like

this very much

- Mapped dailogue : Students can make a mini - dailogue depending on some

suggestions ( word cues, pictures )

- Discussion : Students can give out their ideas about some problems or give out the

reasons for their choice of something

During the process of practicing, teacher notes students about the pronunciation of

words, linking words ( stand- up, look- at, it’s my friend ) , or intonation of the

sentences and encourage them trying to avoid the hesitation , pause in speaking(

John, John or J-J-John ) And here are the uses of these activities in real lessons.

2.1 : Presentation ( Applied in Unit 1: A day in the life of )

* Unit 1 : A day in the life of

a Aim of activity: This activity is used in Unit 1 to help students talk about themself

by using The present simple tense, past simple tense and adverbs of frequency.

b Time for activity: 8 minutes

c Way of organising : Pairwork and individual work

d.Preparation: Teacher prepares a poster on the board with brainstorming

information:

Talking about yourself, base on the information

e Procuduce:

* Step 1: Teacher hangs out the poster on the board, asks students to work in pairs in

3 minutes to share information about themselves, base on the infomation on theposter Teacher notes students to speak in sequence from 1 to 6 Teacher can guidestudents to start the presentation with :

Hello/ Hi/ Good morning everybody My name is Today, I am very happy

to talk to all of you about myself

and to fininsh the presentation with:

That’s all Thanks for your listening Have a good day!

Or students can choose other ways to present information

Teacher can gives out a model for the class with low or average level of students:

Hello everybody! My name is Hong Today I am very happy to talk to all of you about myself I was born on 12 th April 1997 in Vien Thanh and now I am 16 years old There are four people in my family : my parents, my brothers and I Now we are living in Vien Thanh village I love my family very much I like reading picture books such as: Doremon, Conan and I often listen to music in my freetime Everyday, I get

up at 5 a.m to study old lesson I go to school in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon At 5 p.m, I usually play volleyball with my friends and I often help my mother cook dinner at 6 p.m In the evening, I do my homework at 8 p.m and go to bed at 10.30

4 Hobbies5.Daily activities

6.Activities

last Sunday

2.Date/Place of birth

It was very special for me Last Sunday I went to the beach with my family It was very interesting That made me feel stronger for a new week.

That’s all Thanks for your listening Have a good day!

* Step 2: After 3 minutes, teacher calls students to go to the board and present in

front of the class Teacher asks other students to comment students’ speaking

2.2 : Questionaire

( Applied in Unit 2, Unit 12, Unit 14 )

* Unit 2 : School talks

a Aim of activity : This activity is used to help students to be more active and confident in communication by applying Wh- questions for speaking.

b Time of activity : 7 minutes

c Way of organising : Group work of four

d Preparation: Teacher preapare a questionaire like this on hand out:

10 Future job

e Proceduce :

* Step 1 : Doing a survey

Teacher delivers handout to each group of students and gets them to go around tointerview other students information in the notes and complete the answer sheet by

using Wh- questions in 3 minutes

Ex : A : When and where were you born ?

Fr.1 : ( I was born ) on 1st March , 1997 in Vien Thanh

Fr.2 : ( I was born ) on 5th May , 1997 in Son Thanh

A: How tall are you ?

Fr.1: I’m 1.5 metres

Fr.2 : I’m 1.56 metres

A:

* Step 2: Making a report

Teacher calls 3 students to report their results before the class and gives feedback

Suggested report : I’ve known that Lan was born on 1 st March 1997 in Vien Thanh She is 1.5 metres in height and 43 kilos in weight She has only a sister, no brother Lan often goes to school by bike at 6.30 o’clock Vien Thanh Upper- secondary school is her old school She likes studying Maths, English and Geography.Volleyball

is her favourite sport When she has free time, she often listens to pop music She wants to become a doctor in the future.

2.3 : Project based activity :

( Applied for Unit 3, Unit 5 )

* Unit 5: Technology and you

a Aim of activity : This activity is used to feedback student’s talking by asking them

to use The past perfect or past tenses to tell a piece of news They can use other

tenses if neccessary

b Time : 8 minutes

c Way of organising : Groupwork of four

d Preparation :- Teacher asks students to prepare information for a piece of news at

home The news may be not real

- Teacher prepares a micro and a mobile phone

e Proceduce :

* Step 1: Teacher supposes that a student is an M.C of VTV News Program and

gets them to use their information they prepared at home to make some news in 3minutes in group of four (The new is not too long ) They can choose any news in the

group to talk by using past perfect , past tenses or they can choose other tenses to

talk if neccessary

* Step 2: Teacher asks about 3 Ss to go to the board to play an M.C to speak the

news they have prepared And teacher uses the mobile phone to record ( Teachernotes students about the non-verbal communication while speaking ) After that,teacher plays the record and asks the rest students to decide who is the best M.C

Suggested news :

Good evening everybody! This is our VTV News A student comes from Yen Thanh village, Nghe An province has just got the first prize for Olympic English test through internet Her name is Tran Thi Lan Anh Now she is in the 10 th form students of NamYen Thanh high school She has just come back home from Ha Noi Before she attended the competition, she had studied and practiced English very hard She had listened and spoken English by the time she went to bed So, she gets the success now We admire her very much.

2.4 : Describing the pictures

( Applied for Unit 4, Unit 10 )

* Unit 4: Special education

a Aim of activity : This activity is used to help students raise ability of decsribing something appearing in the pictures by using the structure : Used to + infinitive This

kind of exercise often gives students the interest and motivation in learning

b Time of activity : 8 minutes

c Way of organising : group work of four.

d Preparation : Teacher prepares two pictures of their village in the past and now

The village in the past The village now

e Proceduce:

* Step 1: Teacher hangs out two pictures on the board and asks students to look at the

pictures to talk about the differences between two pictures in group of 4 in 3 minutes( Picture 1: Your village in the past; Picture 2 : Your village now ) Students use

structure : Used to + infinitive / Didn’t use to + infinitive and the present tenses to

speak

Teacher can suggest students to talk about : houses, trees, roards, means of transport,entertainment, school, electricity, work

* Step 2: After 3 minutes, teacher calls students from some groups to present before

the class and give out the feedback Each student only talks in 1 minute; if the time isover, teacher calls other students to present and asks the rest students to choose thebest presenter

Suggested answer :

From the two pictures, I can see that :

- In the past, my village used to have only small houses, but now there are tall houses.

- My village used to have a lot of trees , but now there aren’t any trees.

- The roards used to be narrow and small, but now they are large and big

- In the past, people used to walk for work or for market, but now they use cars or motobikes for travelling.

- Most children didn’t use to go to school, but now all children go to school for their studying.

* Unit 10 : Conservation

a Aim of activity: This activity is prepared to help students understand more about

the use of passive voice by describing some pictures about environment.

b Time of activiy: 8 minutes

c Way of organising: group work

d Preparation: Teacher prepares some pictures about the destruction of environment.

Picture 2

e proceduce:

* Step 1: Teacher asks students to work in groups of four to discribe the pictures

about the destruction of environment in 3 minutes Students use the passive voice to

speak

* Step 2: Teacher gets students from each group to present their result before the class

and feedbacks students’ talking Teacher asks the rest students to choose the bestpresenter ( Students show the pictures and talk )

* Suggested answer: From these pictures we can see that :

- The trees are being cut down seriously ( Picture 1 )

- The air is polluted heavily by smoke from cars, factories and other elements

( Picture 2 )

- An elephant died and it might be killed by the hunters ( Picture 3 )

- The forest is being destroyed completely by fire ( Picture 4)

- The beach is filled with plastic bags, pieces of glass and cigarette butts ( Picture 5)

- Whales are hunted for food, medicine, and other products ( Picture 6)

( Applied for Unit 6 )

Unit 6: An excursion

a Aim of activity : This activity is prepared to help students come to the real situation

in their life and creat students a feeling that they are the person in the communication

And I asks students to make a dialogue by using the grammartical points : The present progressive with future meaning and Be going to

b Time of activity : 10 minutes

c Way of organising : Work inpair

d Preparation : Teacher sets a situation about the plan for the Hoa’s birthday party

next Saturday night And prepares some words that relates to the party : friends, food drinks, games, music and a picture

e Procude:

* Step 1: Teacher asks students to work in pair to practice the situation in 4 minutes

(They can depend on the picture to practice) One student is mother and another isHoa Mother and Hoa will be in Hoa’s room and talk about the Hoa’s plan for the

birthday party next Saturday night, using The present progressive and Be going to.

During students’s practicing, teacher may help students with some structures andvocabulary if they find difficult.

* Step 2: After 4 minutes, teacher calls some pairs to practice before the class and

give feedback

The dailogue may be :

Hoa : Good evening, mum!

Mum : Good evening What are you writing, Hoa ?

Hoa : I’m writing a letter to dad to tell about the plan for my birthday.

Mum : Really ? Your birthday is coming

Hoa : Yes, it’s on Saturday this week And I am celebrating it on Saturday night Mum : All right What is your plan for the party ?

Hoa : I am going to invite all my classmates and some neighbours.

Mum : What about food and drink ?

Hoa : I’m going to buy a birthday cake, some fruit and drink such as : apples, mangoes, oranges and Cocacola.

Mum : Are you going to prepare pop music?

Hoa : No, I am not going to play pop but prepare dance music.

Mum : That sounds interesting.

Hoa : Thanks mum! I hope my dad will be at home on my birthday.

2.6: Chain games

( applied for unit 8, unit 9, unit 11 )

Unit 11: National parks

a Aim of activity : This activity is used to help students speak in sentences in Unit

11 for conditional sentence type 3

b Time : 6 minutes

c Way of organising : Group work

d Preparation: Teacher prepares a sentence with conditional sentence type 3 :