Some suggested communicative activities to teach grammar for 10th form english classes

Inorder to make teaching of English in general and grammar lessons in particularmore interesting and practical to pupils, the author has tried to do the researchinto “Some Suggested Comm

VINH UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

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SOME SUGGESTED COMMUNICATIVE

FORM ENGLISH CLASSES

(GỢI Ý MỘT VÀI HOẠT ĐỘNG GIAO TIẾP CHO VIỆC DẠY

NGỮ PHÁP TIẾNG ANH LỚP 10)

GRADUATION THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY

Student: HOÀNG THỊ HÀ, 47A1_ENGLISH Supervisor: NGUYỄN THỊ VÂN LAM, M.A.

VINH, 2010

VINH UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

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HOÀNG THỊ HÀ

SOME SUGGESTED COMMUNICATIVE

FORM ENGLISH CLASSES

(GỢI Ý MỘT VÀI HOẠT ĐỘNG GIAO TIẾP CHO VIỆC DẠY

NGỮ PHÁP TIẾNG ANH LỚP 10)

GRADUATION THESISFIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY

VINH, 2010

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My assignment would not have been completed without the valuableassistance and encouragement of many people for whom I am grateful including

my teacher, my parents and my friends

First, I would like to express my deep thanks to my supervisor, Mrs.Nguyen Thi Van Lam, M.A who gave me valuable advice, guidance,suggestions, and support

I also want to give my sincere thanks to all teachers in the foreignlanguage department of Vinh university for their lectures and advice which arevery useful foe me to finish the study

Furthermore, to complete this thesis, I cannot forget the support andencouragement from my family and my good friends

Finally, I wish to thank teachers and students in Phan Thuc Truc School,who took part in my survey estimatedly

Although the study has been done with all my attempts, my limitations ofability and knowledge may cause mistakes in the study Therefore, I would like

to receive any remarks and comment from anyone on my study

Vinh, May 2010

Hoang Thi Ha

TABLE OF CONTENT

Page

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i

TABLE OF CONTENT ii

ABBREVIATIONS v

LIST OF FIGURES vi

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Reasons for Choosing the topic 1

2 Aims and Objectives of the Study 2

3 Scope of the Study 2

4 Methods of the Study 3

5 Design of the Study 3

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5

1.1 English Grammar 5

1.1.1 Definition of Grammar 5

1.1.2 Grammatical Structure 5

1.1.3 The role of Grammar in Learning Language 6

1.2 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) 7

1.2.1 Characteristics of CLT 7

1.2.3 Teacher Roles in CLT 9

1.2.4 Learner Roles in CLT 10

1.3 Teaching Grammar in CLT 11

1.3.1 Grammar in CLT 11

1.3.2 Principles for Teaching Grammar. 12

1.3.3 Common Procedure in Teaching a New Structure 13

1.3.4 Some Techniques in Teaching Grammar 15

CHAPTER 2: REAL SITUATION OF TEACHING AND LEARNING

ENGLISH GRAMMAR AT PHAN THUC TRUC HIGH SCHOOL 17

2.1 Overview about Learning and Teaching Grammar in Vietnamese High School 17

2.1.1 Teaching Grammar at Vietnamese High School 17

2.1.2 Content of Grammar in the English 10th Form Textbook 18

2.1.3 Some Comments on Grammar Exercises and Activities in High School Textbooks for 10th Form 19

2.2 Real Situation of Learning and Teaching Grammar at Phan Thuc Truc High School 20

2.2.1 Background Setting 20

2.2.2 The Real Situation of Learning and Teaching Grammar 20

2.3 Survey on Teaching and Learning English Grammar at Phan Thuc Truc High School 22

2.3.1 Aims and Objectives of the Survey 22

2.3.2 Survey Setting 22

2.3.3 Description of the Survey Questionnaire 22

2.3.4 Results of the Survey 23

2.4 Summary 36

CHAPTER 3: SOME SUGGESTED COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES TO TEACH GRAMMAR FOR 10 TH FORM ENGLISH CLASSES 37

3.1 Introduction 37

3.2 Criteria for Activities 37

3.3 Some Suggested Activities 38

3.3.1 Information Gap 38

3.3.2 Communicative Drills 40

3.3.3 Reconstruction Activity 40

3.3.4 Chain Drill Activity 42

3.3.5 Telling Story 43

3.3.6 Picture Dictation 44

3.3.7 Chain Story 45

3.3.8 Responding game 46

3.3.9 Don’t say “yes” or “no” game 47

3.3.10 Matching game 47

3.4 Summary 48

PART 3: CONCLUSION 49

3.1 Recapitulation 49

3.2 Suggestions for Further Study 50

REFERENCES 52

APPENDIX

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 Students’ attitudes about the importance of language skill and

other elements 24

Figure 2.2 Students’ ideas about degrees of difficulty of English grammar .25

Figure 2.3 Students’ interest in learning English grammar 26

Figure 2.4 Students’ frequent errors 27

Figure 2.5 Students’ interest in to stages of grammar lesson 28

Figure 2.6 The ways teachers introduce and show the form of a grammatical structure 29

Figure 2.7 Students’ opinions about exercises in textbooks 31

Figure 2.8 Students’ opinions about extra grammatical activities 32

Figure 2.9 Motivating factors 34

Figure 2.10 Teachers’ activities in classes 35

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Reasons for Choosing the topic

The more society develops, the more important part communication plays

in every field of life: home school, work and beyond Through communication,

we can change our thoughts, opinions, and information by speech, writing orsigns It is only through communication that collaboration and cooperationoccur Therefore, the author has really been interested in communication inlearning language through which people of different nations can communicate orexchange the materials and spiritual values, make their knowledge and culturericher and more diversified

Aware of language’s function as a means of communication, manyresearchers have been involved in the study of how to develop communication

to language learners This is the first time the author has had a chance to learn

“Language teaching theory” and she has found that it is a very importantmaterial for everyone who becomes teacher of English since it is a good way tohelp learners practice communicative skills

Nowadays, English is considered as an international language and is anobligatory subject in high school Together with teaching language skills such asspeaking, writing, listening and reading the role of grammar is undeniable Infact, learners are taught grammar to serve language skills learning Without thebasic knowledge of grammar, students find it difficult to develop the others.Because of the writing forms of examination in most high school, much ofgrammatical knowledge is emphasized However, many students are still afraid

of and bored with foreign language lessons, especially grammar lessons because

in these periods, they seem to be passive and learn by heart many grammaticalrules Different from traditional method, which overemphasizes with grammar,communication now is the main goal of learning English Actually, in spite ofgood grammar knowledge, many students are not able to express themselves

well as what they do in written form That is a serious problem Why do studentsfail in communicating? How do teachers apply communicative languageteaching in grammar lessons? What activities can help them to motivate incommunication? These questions are many people’s concern Being a student ofEnglish now and a teacher of English in the near future, the author considers thatapplying communicative activities in grammar lessons is very important Inorder to make teaching of English in general and grammar lessons in particularmore interesting and practical to pupils, the author has tried to do the research

into “Some Suggested Communicative Activities to Teach Grammar for 10 th

Form English Classes”.

2 Aims and Objectives of the Study

The study is conducted with the following aims:

- To help teachers aware of the importance of grammar and applyingactivities to teach grammar communicatively

- To get some information about the real situation of teaching and learninggrammar with creating and applying activities

- To suggest some useful activities to motivate students and improve theability of communication for learners in grammar lessons

In order to fully achieve these aims, the study answers the followingquestions:

- What is grammar and how to teach English grammar communicatively?

- What is real situation of teaching and learning English grammar at PhanThuc Truc High School?

- What are communicative activities to be applied in grammar lessons?

3 Scope of the Study

The aim of the study is to suggest some activities to teach grammarcommunicatively The study is investigated in three classes: 10C2, 10C7, 10C9

at Phan Thuc Truc High School to find out the real situation of learning andteaching grammar as well as activities used Based on that, the author points out

some activities to teach grammar communicatively This is suitable for theresults of the survey and knowledge of 10th form students.

4 Methods of the Study

To finish this study, the author has used quantitative and qualitativeapproaches

- Firstly, the author collects the materials, which refer to CLT, grammarand communicative activities in English grammar classes

- After that, she conducts a survey to get information about the realsituation of teaching and learning English grammar at Phan Thuc TrucHigh School

- Next, she analyzes and synthesizes the collected data

- Finally, she discusses the suggested activities to teach grammar for 10th

form classes

5 Design of the Study

The study consists of three main parts: introduction, development andconclusion

“INTRODUCTION” presents the information about the reasons for

choosing the topic, the aims of the topic, the scope of the study, the method ofthe study and the design of the study

The second part “DEVELOPMENT” comprises three chapters Chapter

1-Theoretical Background discusses some main points relating to the topic This

chapter consists of the general definition of grammar, grammatical structure andits importance in learning language, CLT with some main characteristics,teacher’s roles and learners’ roles and teaching grammar in CLT, which includesthe procedure, common principles, and some techniques Chapter 2 is titled

“Real Situation of Teaching and Learning English Grammar at Phan Thuc

Truc High School” In this chapter, the author mentions about overview of

learning and teaching grammar in Vietnamese High School, the situation ofteaching and learning reading at Phan Thuc Truc High School Chapter 3

entitled “Some Suggested Communicative Activities to Teach Grammar for

10 th Form English Classes” It is the main content of the study, which provides

some suggested activities with the aim to motivate students in learning grammar

The last part is “CONCLUSION” This part summarizes the main points

discussed in the previous parts and offers some suggestions for further study

The study ends with the “REFERENCES” which lists all the materials and

sources of information used in this study

of meaning For example, in English, the present form of the verb “be” in thethird person has two distinct forms, one (is) being used with a singular subject,and the other (are) with a plural, and if the plural “are” is combined with asingular subject, the result is usually unacceptable or “ungrammatical” Thus, asentence like “This is a book” is grammatical whereas “This are a book” is not.There is a set of rules that govern how units of meaning may be constructed inany language It is said that a learner who “knows grammar” is one who hasmastered and can apply these rules to express him or herself in what would beconsidered acceptable language forms.

According to Oxford Advanced learner’s dictionary, grammar is defined

as “the rules in a language for changing the form of words and combining them

in to sentences” In other words, the field of grammar is often divided in to twodomains: morphology and syntax The former focuses on the structure of words,dealing with such matter as inflectional endings and the way words can be built

up out of smaller units, the latter focuses on the structure of sentence

1.1.2 Grammatical Structure

Grammatical structure is the building blocks of language It is usuallyunderstood as a system of interrelated words, which makes a meaningfulutterance The thing is what elements are needed to hold the relations ofutterances Grammatical structures not only have form, but they are also used toexpress meaning “semantics” in context and appreciate use “pragmatics” which

includes social context, linguistic discourse and presupposition about context(Marianne Celce, Murcia).

A particular form may be used for different appropriate uses depending onthe context This means that the form of an utterance by itself does notdetermine the function In other words, we cannot fully explain the form ofgrammar while ignoring meaning and use We cannot account the form of anutterance by looking only at its meaning or function

Having controlled a skeleton structure, we can create dozens or evenhundred of utterances If the students can handle a range of useful structures in aformulaic way, be aware of the functional value of each and able to substitutethe content to meet their communicative needs, then they getting what theyneed

1.1.3 The role of Grammar in Learning Language

The importance of grammar in learning language is undeniable There is

no doubt that a language- implicit or explicit- of grammatical rules is essentialfor the mastery of language We cannot use words unless we know how theyshould be put together

Actually, a little use or incorrect use of grammar may lead to differentmeanings and different understandings Consider the following example:

I eat beef

I ate beef

Here we see that grammar and meaning are related to each other There is

a meaning difference is communicated by grammatical structure in example 1and grammatical structure in example 2.If a speaker has a wide vocabulary,fluent speech, and clear pronunciation, they may sound strange or unintelligentbecause their grammar is inappreciative as in the following example:

I acting beef Tomorrow is coming John

Neither of these sentences is appropriate and no one saying them wouldsound intelligent to a native speaker Therefore, there is a place for emphasizinggrammatical correctness (cited in Nguyen Thi Van Lam and Ngo Dinh Phuong,2007).

Learning grammar is considered the fundamental step to use and practicefour language skills: speaking, reading, listening, and writing It is integrated inthese skills That is why by incorporating forms included in tasks and activities

in a communicative classroom, students can apply traditional learning strategiesand styles to produce meaning For example, prior to engaging in an oralactivity, an instructor should review the basis vocabulary and grammaticalexpressions and allow the students the opportunity to prepare notes beforeinviting oral responses

As stated above, grammar is very important for learners to controllanguage skills We can take an illustration of this for reading Grammarcontains the aspect of syntactic or structure and grammatical cohesive devices,referent items (E.g “they”, “these”, “the latter”), substitution and ellipsis ofitems (E.g the deletion of relative pronounces such as which, that, who).Readers are partly dependent on syntactic structures in order to get to meaning

In other words, the aspect of grammar makes readers difficult in processing atext That is why focusing on grammar to develop not only reading but alsoother skills is important Grammar is a tool for language learners, which canhelp them to see through the fog, communicate intelligently and see how theysee to acquire the language items

1.2 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

1.2.1 Characteristics of CLT

CLT is one of the most popularly used approaches in language teaching Itrefers to a diverse set of features that reflects a communicative view of languagelearning CLT has been used in language teaching with two aims: makecommunicative competence of the goal of language teaching and develop

procedures for teaching of the four language skills that knowledge theinterdependence of language and communication (cited in Nguyen Thi Van Lamand Ngo Dinh Phuong, 2006) Practitioners of the approach try to focus on whatthe pupils need to do with the language, not what they need to know about therules of it Thus, from the first stage, instead of learning sentences like:

This is a book That is a flower

Pupils are taught the function of “greeting and introduction” which givethem the same structures “this is, that is” For example, the teacher introducesthe pupils to each other: Linh, this is Hoa and that is Nam The listening andspeaking skills are practiced in natural and lively ways

- According to David Nunan(cited in Abdul Bari), CLT is seen as anextension of the notional-functional syllabus Therefore, it also places greatemphasis on helping students use the target language in a variety of contexts.The focus of CLT is its importance of learning language functions In this case,

it is important that the teacher supports learners in creating meaning rather thanhelping them creating perfectly grammatical structures or acquiring native-likepronunciation Consequently, learning a foreign language with success is linked

to developing communicative competences CLT is usually characterized as abroad approach to teaching, rather than a teaching method with a clearly definedset of classroom practices As such, it is often defined as a list of generalprinciples or features There are five features covered in CLT in David Nunan’spoint of view Firstly, there is an emphasis on learning to communicate throughinteraction in the target language Communication is at CLT’s centre Learning alanguage does not make any sense, if learners only repeat language patterns theyhave learnt by heart They should rather be able to express themselvesappropriately in different communicative situations to gain communicativecompetence Secondly, there should be an introduction of authentic texts in tothe learning situation Real language texts are important because they helpstudents find it easy to understand and encourage them to use language items

Thirdly, the provision of opportunities for learners should focus, not only on thelanguage but also on the learning process itself Fourthly, an enhancement of thelearner’s own personal experiences is considered as an important contributingelement to classroom learning That is because students can be motivated in tothe lessons and participate excitedly in natural conversations by their ownpersonal experiences Lastly, an attempt to link classroom language learningwith language activation outside the classroom should be made by the teacher.The variety of activity will give students opportunities to interact with eachother and other people

The teaching method in the CLT is not against the role of grammar inlearning language but considers it as one means to help students use thelanguage Therefore, this approach has been widely used in many languageschools nowadays

1.2.2 Teacher Roles in CLT

Teacher roles are an important part to create a positive classroom climate.Several roles are assumed for teachers in CLT Breen and Candlin (cited inNguyen Thi Van Lam and Ngo Dinh Phuong, 2006) describe two main roles ofthe teacher The first role is to facilitate the communicative process between allparticipants in the classroom and between these participants and the variousactivities and texts The second role is to act as an independent participantwithin the learning-teaching group The latter role is closely related to theobjectives of the first role and arises from it Teacher also acts as researcher andlearner, with much to contribute in terms of appropriate knowledge and abilities,actual and observed experience to the nature of learning and organizationalcapacities

Other roles assumed for teachers are needed analyst, counselor and groupprocess manager The CLT teacher assumes a responsibility for determining andresponding to learner language needs Based on such needs assessments,

teachers are expected to plan group and individual instruction that responds tolearners’ needs

To be a counselor, the teacher is expected to exemplify an effectivecommunicator seeking to maximize the meshing of speaker intention and hearerinterpretation with paraphrase, confirmation and feedback CLT proceduresoften require teachers to acquire less teacher-centered classroom managementskills It is the teacher’s responsibility to organize the classroom as a setting forcommunication and communicative activities

“The role of learner as negotiator - between the self, the learning process,and the object of learning – emerges from and interacts with the role of jointnegotiator within the group and within the classroom procedures and activitiesthat the group undertakes The implication for the learner is that he shouldcontribute as much as he gains, and thereby learn in interdependent way”

Therefore, students are expected to interact primarily with each other thanwith the teacher Once cooperative approach to learning is stressed in CLT,learners are thought to bring preconceptions of what teaching and learningshould be like They are negotiators, communicators and responsible managers

to managers of their own learning

From the CLT point of view, we can see how the roles of the teacher andlearner change Teachers in CLT will find themselves talking less and listeningmore

“formally possible” It is the domain of grammatical and lexical capacity

As grammar is seen as a communicative system in CLT, it should derivefrom realistic situations and be used for a concrete purpose to enable learners toexpress meanings by using as much appropriate forms as possible Activitiesincluded in teaching grammar should enable students to become active (learning

by doing) and teacher should set grammar in relation to what they need and areinterested in

One important thing when teaching grammar in communicative situation

is that errors should not be overestimated or overemphasized as this can result in

a stressful and fearful classroom climate This goes against the general goal tomake students more confident and increase their motivation for languagelearning

As far as grammar is concerned, CLT is an ideal choice, as it rather hasthe learners in its centre than assessing the number of mistakes made “Boringgrammar” can turn into various demanding, enjoyable games and tasks thatfulfill the goal to practice structures even better or equally well Grammarexamples are taken from real life situations that make sense and are no longermeaningless or boring invented illustrations Furthermore, students learn thatgrammar is meaningful and helps them to express their own ideas and achievespeaking goals (grammar is a means to an end) In addition, rules that considerthe functions and notions of language are still relevant, but mainly taught bymeans of activities, which facilitate their understanding

1.3.2 Principles for Teaching Grammar.

Teaching grammar is still an argumentative problem Each of the teacherscan have a different way of teaching which is suitable for students’ interest andknowledge However, it is very important for the teacher to follow the commonprinciples in any way so as to teach grammar more effectively and methodically.Forseth (cited in Nguyen Thi Van Lam and Ngo Dinh Phuong, 2007) suggestsseven principles for teaching grammar

Firstly, the teacher should remember to teach grammar implicitly It meansthat the teacher presents examples of the structure and allows students to focus

on meaning without teaching grammar rules If the teacher focuses on the form

at the first time, students will be likely to feel discouraged for using language.This will leads to production of unnatural speech after that

Secondly, it is important to present a grammatical item orally beforepresenting a written form and an explanation That is because it is easier to focus

on the meaning when listening Therefore, listening first will help students tounderstand the meaning communicated by the grammatical item without payingattention into form and explanation

Thirdly, the teacher should use visual aids to help students see the structureand the grammatical meaning It must be clear for all students in the class tonotice By using visual aids, the teacher makes the grammatical item easier tounderstand

Fourthly, the teacher should connect the form to meaning In all cases,students must be clear about the meaning even when the form is presented.Thus, it is necessary for the teacher to keep students understanding the meaning

of the structure they are studying

The fifth principle is that the teacher de-emphasizes the use of special items.Using a lot of grammatical items like “aspect”, “gerund” will make students finddifficult to understand which can lead to a boring and an effective lesson The

teacher only should use common words that are suitable for students’ level todescribe the language.

The next principle is to give positive feedback along with correction andemphasize communication rather than just grammatical accuracy If the teacheronly focuses on correction of grammatical accuracy, and corrects it all the time,

as a result, students will be discouraged of using language and theircommunication will be failed Similarly, the teacher should try to find positivefeedback to give for students If not, they will be not motivated to continuelearning

Lastly, after practicing a structure in a controlled exercise, teacher must givestudents opportunities to use the structure in more free communication Onelesson is only effective when students can communicate by themselves in anatural way Thus, being a teacher, try to create as many activities as possible tohelp students to express the meaning of structure in free communication

1.3.3 Common Procedure in Teaching a New Structure

A popular framework for teaching grammar based on examples or texts isP.P.P (presentation – practice – production) Presentation of the new materialcan be done with rules and examples Practice of the target grammar is done indrill exercises and more ones that are creative The result can be production oflearners’ utterances (Byrne.D.1976)

1.3.2.1 Presentation

Presentation provides the structure input that gives students foundation fortheir knowledge of the language grammar, helping them absorb the grammarcontent

We usually begin by presenting the class with a text in which thegrammatical structure appears The aim of the presentation is to get the learners

to perceive the lecture – its form and meaning – in both speech and writing totake it in to short-term memory

Often, a story or a short dialogue is used which can appear in written formand read aloud by the teacher and students As a follow-up, students may readaloud, repeat, reproduce for memory, or copy out instances of the use of thestructure Where the structure is very simple, easily perceived one, thepresentation may be no more than a simple sentence or two, which serves as amodel The explanation of the new structure should focus on grammatical itemsthemselves: what they look like, what they mean, how they function – in short,what rules govern them The objective is that the learners should understandthese various aspects of the new structure It should be illustrated by plenty ofcontextualized examples or visual material if possible

1.3.2.2 Practice

The aim of this stage is to give students thorough practice of the items,both in writing and speaking, so that they will be able to use them correctly andfluently in a variety of contexts or their own For this occur, we need to provideactivities from fully teacher-controlled, mechanical ones to less controlled andmore meaningful to produce communicative activities then The former helpsstudents to “get their tongue around” or manipulate a new structure As this type

of practice restricts individual’s contribution the latter is created to make thestudents to think and understand what they are saying Students need to bethinking more actively Practice should be more difficult and more useful or inanother way, to transfer from short-term to longer-term memory

1.3.2.3 Production

At the production stage, learners are able to use structures freely forcommunicative purposes This step must be creative and communicative It isimportant as the goal of language teaching and learning is for communication.Usually, they produce utterances about their own experiences, their life, theirfamily, etc during this stage; there is a focus on what is said rather than on thelanguage itself That makes the students feel that they are really using thelanguage for their need of communication Students have the chance to use the

language freely and incorporate it in to their existing language The emphasis atthis stage is on use and fluency.

1.3.4 Some Techniques in Teaching Grammar

Applying techniques in teaching grammar is the basis to create activities

to teach grammar communicatively We seem to conclude that techniques aremore important than methods and approach for a teacher in his teaching aforeign language With a view to improve the classroom techniques for teachinggrammar, English teaching methodology (cited by Nguyen Thi Van Lam andNgo Dinh Phuong) have provided us some kinds of techniques which orient forpresenting and practicing new structures From these techniques, activities arecreated An activity may be a combination of many techniques or a techniquecan be integrated in various activities for the purposes of teaching and learninggrammar In order to do so, it first considers the whole procedure for grammarteaching which will be seen as a guideline for all the techniques presentedthereafter

Some techniques for presenting the new structures are provided Theseconsist of techniques for showing the meaning visually or through a situation

As communication takes place in a particular situation, the teacher should becareful in selecting a situation of grammatical items so that the correct meaningand function of that item can be seen clearly without lengthy explanation It isnoteworthy that the formation of skills happens more easily and rapidly whenthe presentation of the new structure is similar to real life situation By givingseveral different examples, the teacher helps the class to build up a clear idea ofwhat the structure means and how it is used In addition, visual aids can enliventhe lesson enormously if properly used visual aids make the lesson much moreinteresting and easier for the pupils to remember than unlived sentences on theboard Visual aids, furthermore, can attract the attention of the whole class.Visual aids can be pictures, magazines cutout, and real objects Simple blackboard drawing can also help a lot in presenting structures Anything available in

the class like pens, rules, etc can be used for the purpose of teaching structure.Besides, other techniques for practicing structures are also given Practices aredivided in to controlled and free practice at the last two stages of the completelyteaching procedure It is dispensable in the process of language learning.Practices transfer from drills based on repetition and restricted responses to lesscontrolled, more meaningful and then to communicative activities Sometechniques for controlled practice here are those such as repletion, substitution,fill-in-blank or reordering words or sentences For free practice, we can accountsome such as guided practice, topical practice or language games As using thesetechniques are important in language teaching procedure, teacher must be verycreative in building up activities which can include them to teach grammarcommunicatively This depends on the level of the class and stages in the wholeprocess.

CHAPTER 2: REAL SITUATION OF TEACHING

AND LEARNING ENGLISH GRAMMAR AT PHAN THUC

TRUC HIGH SCHOOL

2.1 Overview about Learning and Teaching grammar in Vietnamese High School

2.1.1 Teaching Grammar at Vietnamese High School

High school students may differ in their purposes for learning English Infact, in spite of the goal of communication as a characteristic of communicativelanguage teaching, the students of English in Vietnam seem to fall into threemajor categories Some view English as a tool for more attractive and lucrativeemployment opportunities, while others need a good language of English tostudy further at a university The majority of students, to which students at highschool belong, learn English just to pass the national examination Thesestudents do not have obvious communicative needs All they need is asufficiently good knowledge of grammar and vocabulary to pass the nationalgrammar based examinations

Currently, the two most important English examinations in Vietnam arethe school final examination and the university entrance examination Neitherhas a listening and speaking component Due to the pressure to pass theexaminations, the teachers and students seem to focus more on languageknowledge than language use Grammar knowledge for them is essential to givecorrect answers, not to communicate or use language

Not only do students find it critical to pass the examinations, teachers arealso very much concerned about the pass rate of their students, since they areassessed basing on their students’ performance in examinations rather than onthe quality of their teaching As a result, no matter what the learning purpose ofstudents might be, teachers have to make sure that their students achieve a highpass rate in the examinations Consequently, many students cannot apply them

in to communication because they do not know how to use these structuresappreciatively and are not given enough practice in their grammar class

2.1.2 Content of Grammar in the English 10th Form Textbook

Grammatical content is included in Language focus Language focusconsists of two main parts: the pronunciation part is designed to review the waystudents pronunciate short sounds and long sounds (for both consonants andvowels) in words and sentences Grammar and vocabulary refer to grammaticalproblems and some vocabulary, which are considered the centre of the lesson.All of them are presented in the form of exercises or activities to give thestudents the opportunities to practice in the class

As mentioned above, because the content is mainly designed to reviewand to consolidate the knowledge students have been taught before; grammaticalunits are not difficult for them

We can list some grammatical focus in the 10th form textbook as thefollowings:

Some basic tenses in English are introduced in the textbook including:present simple tense, past simple tense, present continuous tense, present perfecttense, past perfect tense, near future and simple future tense

Passive voice of some simple tenses such as simple present tense, presentcontinuous tense and present perfect tense are presented

Another grammatical point is conditional sentence, which includes the first,second, and third conditional sentence type

Students are also reviewed the way to make comparison with comparatives andsuperlatives

Some other minor structures such as “used to”, “although…”, “it was notuntil…” are covered within teaching tenses

2.1.3 Some Comments on Grammar Exercises and Activities in High School Text books for 10th Form

The 10th form textbook contains many different types of grammarexercises and the following ones are the main kinds selected from the textbooks.The first kind is choosing the correct option This is one of the most popularlyused kinds of grammar exercises in the textbooks for three grades not only 10th

form The number of sentences varies from 5-10 This kind of exercise is notdifficult for the students Some times, they only need to look at some elements

of the sentence to make this kind of exercise In addition, because of limitedanswers, students can choose one of them (usually is two) without really payingattention to grammatical focus Another kind at a higher level is fill-in-the-blankexercises Like the first one, they are also used in many grammar lessons intextbook This kind of exercise can be done with or without prompts Usually,fill-in-the-blank with prompts is used to help students practice grammarimmediately without impairing them much The number usually varies from 6-8.They are not difficult for students since students can rely on basic knowledge ofwhat they have just learnt However, students will have to understand thesentence as well as recognize some noticeable markers to give the correctanswers These exercises can help students to practice and help teachers tocheck their understanding effectively One more type of exercises that areusually designed in 10th form textbook is rewriting the sentence basing on theuse of grammatical focus This is the most difficult type of the three thatrequires that students must really understand the completely given sentence, andmake some suitable changes thereafter That is why this kind of exercises isdesigned after the above types To do them, students need to be prepared bydoing some easier ones

Actually, these are the most frequent-used exercises in 10th form textbook.However, it is thought that there should be more types of exercises and activities

to avoid boredom and stimulate students’ interest in learning more

2.2 Real Situation of Learning and Teaching English Grammar at Phan Thuc Truc High School

of audio aids such as radio, cassette, audiocassette tape in learning listening andvisual aids such as pictures, drawings, cards for different teaching purposes inthe classroom

This school is really a good teaching and learning environment forteachers and students During the weeks of teaching practice in this school, itwas realized that teachers and students made many efforts to enhance the quality

of learning and teaching English However, there are still some problems Thefirst one is the ineffective use of modern teaching and learning equipments.Also, some teachers do not have creative methods of teaching, so they cannotattract their students to learning Moreover, the number of students in this schoolwho are good at English is not high In fact, many of them do not pay muchattention to learning English These problems are reflected partly throughgrammar lessons in Phan Thuc Truc high school

2.2.2 The Real Situation of Learning and Teaching Grammar

It can be said that grammar is considered the most important content forstudents in high school but seems to be the most boring of all Teaching andlearning grammar in Phan Thuc Truc School is no exception

As mentioned above, since the main goal of Communicative LanguageTeaching is to help students to communicate well, students must be more activeand given opportunities to practice communication in class To reach this aimrequires many efforts from both teachers and students.

It is undeniable that new teaching methods have been applied Manyteachers do not use the traditional way to present grammar items Instead, theyoften attach to communicative purposes For example, teachers try to show themeaning visually by pictures, or any objects available in the class, etc Some ofthem usually show the meaning through situations This can make students focus

on meaning without looking at the grammatical rules However, one limitation

of teachers is that they are still accustomed to showing the form of the structure

by using “S-V” form To facilitate students and prepare for them tocommunicate well, it is necessary for teachers to connect the form to meaning

In this way, they will find it easier and familiar with producing communicationthereafter

In practice of most lessons, although some of cooperative activities havebeen applied such as pair work, group work, etc to stimulate students; teachers’creation seems to be not enough Some teachers do not give enough creativemethods of teaching Therefore, students do not find it interesting to focus onpracticing Many of them feel bored with the types of exercises or activities,which are the same in every lesson Moreover, practice by doing these exercises

do not give students opportunities to communicate in the class What they have

to do is to complete these exercises This is another limitation of teachers in highschool While students may do well in writing, they find it very difficult tocommunicate to each other To reach the goal of communication, teachers need

to create many other activities not just drills I also find that, even aftercontrolled stage, students are rarely given the chance to communicate bythemselves There is a little time for them to play a game or make free talk whilethese activities really motivate students and create an environment for them to

communicate with each other The above real situation suggests that teachersshould have various creative activities to teach grammar communicativelyduring the process of the lesson to attract students and help them tocommunicate well

2.3 Survey on Teaching and Learning English Grammar at Phan Thuc

Truc High School.

2.3.1 Aims of the Survey

To learn English grammar well is still a big problem for many students.Naturally, English grammatical lessons are not interesting enough to stimulatestudents That is why they usually get bored even ignoring them Therefore,the aim of the survey is to investigate for students’ attitudes towardsgrammatical structures and to find out how they are being taught The secondaim is to know what can motivate them into grammar lessons From that, thethird but the most important objective is referred to Some activities and gamesapplied in teaching grammar for 10th form classes are suggested to motivatestudents based on its results

2.3.2 Survey Setting

The survey questionnaire for students was conducted among quite a largenumber of 10th form students in Phan Thuc Truc High School In fact, 126students from three classes 10C2, 10C7, 10C9 has participated in this survey

2.3.3 Description of the Survey Questionnaire

The survey is conducted with 15 questions They are designed short,clear, and easy to understand The content of the questions is related to learninggrammatical structure, using communicative activities and games in teachinggrammatical structures to serve for the purpose of the thesis Each student getsone sheet of paper containing the questions and works individually in 20minutes to give their own answers The aim of question 1 is to know the number

of the years the students have been learning English, questions 2 and 3 checktheir opinions about the importance of language skills and other elements while

question 4 and 5 reveal their attitudes about English grammar, how difficult andhow interesting it is The information about the factors that make students havedifficulties in learning a new structure is shown in question 6 In addition, weneed to get the information about which stage of a grammar lesson they likemost in question 7 to know in which stage teacher’s activities are effective.Questions 8 and 9 check the information about the way teacher show the formand meaning of a new structure Thanks to the answers of question 10, we willcollect the ideas of grammar exercises in textbooks The aim of question 11 is tofind out how often the teachers give extra activities outside the textbooks.Besides, questions 12 and 13 give us the information about students’ attitudestoward these activities The next question is about the students’ ideas about themain factors, which can motivate them into a grammatical lesson Finally,question 15 allows us to check which activities they are given in English class

by their teachers

2.3.4 Results of the Survey

The aim of question 1 is to know the number of the years the studentslearn English The result from the survey shows that all of the students havefrom 1-5 years with studying English They started learning English quite a longtime ago Therefore, this subject becomes a popular one to all of them Of allthree classes taking part in the survey, the students of class 10C9 are the bestones They study the advanced textbooks Therefore, English subject plays animportant part in their study

The following table presents students’ attitudes about the importance oflanguage skill and other elements