Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students

For the reasons above, we decided to choose the subject: Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10 th form students... • To investigate the state of teaching grammar a

1 the Reasons for choosing the subject:

Why grammatical structure teaching?

The fact at secondary schools has proved that grammar, especiallygrammatical structure is the first care of both teachers and students whenteaching and learning English It is obviously the focus of English textbook

designers Despite the prevailing slogan: “Innovate methods of teaching and

learning” and large campaigns to propagandize communicative approaches, it

seems that nothing can change their mind In fact, many students might do thegrammatical exercises very well but ironically cannot utter a grammaticalsentence let alone use it appropriately

Why don’t we innovate grammatical structure teaching first? Why don’t

we teach grammar in communicative way? Why don’t we develop students’skills (especially speaking and listening) accompanying with their grammarknowledge?…These considerations have prompted this thesis which studiesgrammatical structure teaching

Why the 10th form students?

Being beginners, the 10th form students have not been used to learningEnglish in traditional methods Thus, we think, they can adopt changes inlearning ways more easily in comparison to the 11th and 12th form students

Moreover, during our Teaching Training Course, we were allotted toteaching some 10th form classes That gave us a lot of opportunities to apply thetechniques in this thesis into teaching and to get feedback from the students

For the reasons above, we decided to choose the subject: Using dialogues

in teaching grammatical structures to the 10 th form students.

2 the Aims of study:

The aims of our study are:

• To help teachers aware of some advantages of using dialogues inteaching grammatical structures

• To investigate the state of teaching grammar at secondary schools(especially the state of using dialogue in teaching), the contents ofgrammar in the 10th form

• To help teachers aware of common grammatical errors studentsusually make

• To suggest some ways of using dialogues in teaching grammaticalstructures to the 10th form students

• To guide teachers to apply (or create more) techniques and activities

of using dialogues into particular lessons

3 the Scope of study:

This thesis is about using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures tothe 10th form students All provided activities and techniques are based on thetarget grammatical structure contents in the 10th form textbook

4 the Methods of study:

5 the Design of study:

Apart from acknowledgements, table of contents and references, the thesisconsists of three main parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion

Part A “Introduction” presents the reasons for choosing the subject, the

Part B “Development” comprises four chapters:

• Chapter 1 deals with the theoretical preliminaries

• Chapter 2 is about the state of teaching grammatical structures to the

10th form students In this chapter, we emphasize some types ofgrammatical errors of the 10th form students and the state of usingdialogues in teaching as well

• Chapter 3 is the main chapter, which is named: “Some suggested ways

of applying dialogues to improve grammatical structure teaching tothe 10th form students” It is sub-divided into two parts The first partsdeals with applying dialogues to introduce new grammaticalstructures The second deals with applying dialogues to help studentspractise the target grammatical structures

• Chapter 4 suggests a sample lesson plan

Part C is the “Conclusion” of the thesis

Table of contents

P age

table of contents acknowledgements

1.1.2 Grammatical structure, a specific item of grammar 4

The state of teaching grammatical structures to the

10 th form students at Vietnamese secondary schools. 112.1 The state of grammar teaching at Vietnamese secondary schools 112.1.1 Goals and problems of grammar teaching at Vietnamese

2.1.2 Contents of Grammar in the English 10th form textbook 13

English grammatical errors of the 10th form students 16

3.1 Choosing or building dialogues to introduce new grammatical

3.1.1 Criteria of dialogues as a teaching device 213.1.1.1 Dialogue should contain natural speech and reflect actual

3.1.1.2 The situations presented in dialogues should be relevant to the

3.1.1.3 Dialogues should be short, simple but be able to represent a

3.1.1.4 Dialogues should both illustrate the meaning and contextualize

the functions of new grammatical structures 243.1.2 Some suggested types of dialogues illustrating new grammatical

According to Oxford Advanced learner’s dictionary, grammar is “ the

rules in a language for changing the form of words and combining them into sentences ” In the other words, the field of grammar is often divided into two

domains: morphology and syntax The former focuses on the structure of words,dealing with such matters as inflectional endings and the way words can be built

up out of smaller units; the latter focuses on the structure of sentences

For most people, students and teachers alike, grammar means:

1 Structure - usually means morphosyntax : forms and ordering of

forms

2 Rules and exceptions

3 Organization of the structure of the language

We mostly work at the level of sentences and grammatical structure isusually understood as a system of interrelated words, which makes a meaningfulutterance The meaning is derived from the relations that hold between theelements of such utterance Grammatical structures not only have(morphosyntactic) form; they are also used to express meaning (semantics) in

context appropriate use (pragmatics) In order to guide us in constructing an

approach to teaching grammatical structures that strives to meet this definition; itwould be helpful to have a frame of reference

Diane Larsen has proposed the form of a pie chart Its shape helps us tomake salient that in dealing with the complexity of grammatical structures,three dimensions must concern us: form, meaning and the pragmatic conditionsgoverning use Moreover, as they are wedges of a single pie, we note furtherthat the dimensions are not hierarchically arranged as many traditionalcharacterizations of linguistic strata depict Finally, the arrows connecting onewedge of the pie with illustrated another illustrate the interconnectedness of thethree dimensions; thus a change in any one wedge will have repercussions forthe other two.

1.2 Grammar and approaches to language teaching.

FORM

Morphosyntactic and lexical patterns;

Phonemic/graphic patterns

MEANING

Lexical meaning; Grammatical meaning

USE

Social context; Linguistic

discourse Presuppositions about context

Having controlled a skeleton

structure, we can flesh it out to create

dozens or even hundreds of

utterances So that, structures are the

building blocks of language If the

students can handle a range of useful

structures in a formulaic way, aware

of the functional value of each and

able to substitute the content to meet

their communicative needs, then they

are getting what they need (Page 252 - Teaching Grammar; Teaching

English as a second language or foreign language - Marianne Cele, Murcia)

In this paper, we only try to study the status of grammar in the traditionalmethod and in the communicative language teaching The former still has a greatinfluence on teaching and learning foreign languages at Vietnamese secondaryschools The latter is the new one that we are trying to apply to renovate the way

of language teaching and to improve communicative competence of the students

1.2.1 Grammar and traditional method.

Traditional method is something broadly labeled as Translation method It is undeniable that the traditional method is an overt focus

Grammar-on grammar The teaching techniques cGrammar-ontrolled by the Grammar-TranslatiGrammar-onmethod, so that are rather book-oriented The language is presented in shortgrammatical chapters or lessons, each contains a few grammatical points or rules,which are set out and illustrated by examples The grammatical features are notdisguised or hidden A technical grammatical terminology is not avoided either.Generally, the medium of instruction is the mother tongue, which is used toexplain conceptual problems and to discuss the use of a particular grammaticalstructure The learner is expected to study and memorize a particular rule andexamples

It all sounds rather dull but it can be argued that the traditional methodhas over the years had a remarkable success Million of people havesuccessfully learnt foreign languages to high degree of proficiency and innumerous cases, without any contact with native speakers of the language

1.2.2 Grammar and communicative method

A basic principle underlying all communicative approaches is that thelearners must learn not only to make grammatically correct statements about theexperiential world, but must also develop the ability to use language to getthings done

According to these approaches, grammar teaching is not neglected but is

no longer the centre of language teaching process It is recognized that simplybeing able to create grammatically correct structures in language does notnecessarily enable the learner to use the language to carry out various real-world tasks Besides knowledge of code (language competence), we need

As a result, the techniques of grammar teaching in communicative methodare not book-oriented anymore By animating and motivating his students to findout grammatical rules, structures, exceptions, and use… to integrate suchknowledge into their communication, the teacher has done his job perfectly.

1.3 Teaching grammatical structures

1.3.1 Form or function

Today, one of the central issues surrounding the teaching of grammaticalstructure is whether the focus of grammar class should be on form or onfunction

Teacher and material designers who believe that form is primarymaintain that students should understand and remember structures as many aspossible The main danger of this approach is that even though students mayleave the class knowing a great deal of the structures of the English language,they may not be able to use English to communicate effectively which is, afterall, the main purpose of a grammar class

Because of this potential danger, today many teachers and materialdesigners believe that grammatical structure teaching should focus on thefunction or purpose that language serves Thus, they maintain that students should

be taught various ways to ask for information, make a suggestion, or refuse aninvitation since there are real reasons for using language A teacher has to selectthe structures whose functions are useful and necessary to communicate Whatthe teacher must do is to carefully select which forms to teach for each functionand to make it clear to the students in which situations each form would beappropriate

A basic assumption of this paper is that grammatical structure needs to

be given attention to both form and function In order to use English correctly,students need to become familiar with basic grammatical patterns of correctlymade simple statements such as “Please give me a coke” They need to beaware of the fact that they are making a request and that there are other ways ofsaying the same thing (e.g., “A coke, please”, “Would it be possible to get acoke?” etc) Furthermore, they need to know when it would be appropriate to

use English both correctly and appropriately; we need to include in ourgrammar classes attention to both form and function.

1.3.2 Common procedure of teaching grammatical structures

A popular framework for teaching grammar based on examples or texts is

PPP (presentation-practice-production) Presentation of the new material can

be done with rules and examples Practice of the target grammar is done in the

drill-like or more creative exercises The result can be production of learners'

1.3.2.2 Practice

The aim of grammar practice is to get the students to learn the structures

so thoroughly that they will be able to produce them correctly on their own.This step is usually divided into two sub-steps: controlled practice and guidedpractice The former helps the students to “get their tongue round” ormanipulate a new structure with the techniques such as: repetition, substitution,single word prompts… The latter makes the students to think, and they have tounderstand what they are saying Usually, in this step, the learner’s formsentences of their own according to a set pattern but exactly what vocabularythey use is up to them

This step is creative and communicative The students use theirknowledge of grammatical structures, which they acquired from the two earlysteps to communicate freely and fluently Usually, they produce utterancesabout their own experiences, their life, and their family… During theproduction stage, there is a focus on what is said, rather than on the languageitself That makes the students feel that they are really using language for theirneeds of communication

1.4 Dialogue as a teaching device.

1.4.1 Dialogue.

During the course of a single day, we all engage in countless dialogues.Dialogues are indigenous to human nature: They are language in use They are abasic, frequent and popular means of linguistic organization and function (Sùhµnh chøc cña ng«n ng÷) A dialogue is always put into a particular context; itonly takes place when two or more people are participants in the interaction.There are spoken and written dialogues but a dialogue is intended to be spokenaloud and it is usually associated with the activities of speaking and listening David Brohm traces the roots of dialogue to the Greek “dia“ and

“logos“ which means “through meaning“ One might think of dialogue as a

stream of meaning flowing among and through a group of people, out of whichmight emerge some new understanding, something creative It is essence ofdialogue that the participants expect each other to respond and it contains manylinguistic features which enable this to happen (most obviously question forms).The participants need to feel they are contributing something to it and are gettingsomething out of it For this happen, some principles must apply, such as:cooperation, face saving, turn taking, coherence…

Everyday informal conversation is the archetypal case of spokendialogue When we investigate how dialogues actually work, as found inrecording of natural speech, we are often in contexts where the language has beencarefully crafted, such as the script of a play or the conversations in a languageteaching textbook Such dialogues may be very effective for their purpose, butthey are actually a long way from what can happen in everyday conversations.The reality is that people often share in the sentences they produce, interrupt eachother, do not pay attention to everything that is said, and produce a discourse

where the contribution of the participants are wildly asymmetrical Yet all of thisnonetheless produces a perfectly normal, successful dialogue.

Finally, it is worth noting the Do Huu Chau’s definition: "dialogue is an

oral communicative activity between participants in order to exchange descriptive and illocutionary contents”

1.4.2 Dialogues and grammatical structure teaching

Dialogues have a long and honorable tradition in foreign-languageteaching One of its earliest known appearances is in the “Interpretamenta” ofJulius Pollux (AD 150-208) for Greeks learning to speak Latin Since then,dialogues have been very useful teaching devices in language classes With theprevailing of communicative approaches, their effectiveness is more and moreacknowledged

In teaching grammatical structures, there are several advantages ofusing dialogues in the classroom

Firstly, the dialogue contextualizes new structures in meaningful units

of experience Certain interrelated structural items can be drawn from adialogue Since a dialogue adheres to a basic thematic unity, it provides goodclues for contextual guessing of unfamiliar and difficult structures The contexthelps the student to understand them while discouraging him from attempting aword by word translation into his language

Secondly, a dialogue places new structures in contexts where theywould normally be used Certain structures are associated with certain realms ofexperience so that the student can get a great deal about the appropriate use oflanguage For example, the situation of meeting a friend whom you have notseen for 3 years would naturally elicit use of the present perfect tense:

How have you been? Or: What have you been doing?

Whereas, when meeting a classmate, you usually say:

How are you doing? Or : How are you? Or: How is it going?

Thirdly, a good dialogue can be more easily practised than unrelatedsentences Since it is a chain of communication, each segment of the dialoguemay suggest what follows and provide the students with the built-in cue of

sequential order It can be mastered without great difficulty and therefore, canhelp the students learn new structures.

Last but not least, since dialogues involve an exchange betweenspeakers in social context, they are excellent devices for introducing thestudents to common idiomatic expressions of spoken English Some idiomssuch as “between you and I”, “to be honest”, “pull somebody’s leg”…rarelyintroduced in reading passages usually appear in available dialogues

Though there is little question about the value of dialogues in ESLprogrammes, there are some questions about their place in the lesson plan.Some teachers feel that dialogues should be used to reinforce familiarstructures; other feel that they should be used to introduce grammaticalstructures It seems that the dialogue can do both

Chapter 2

The state of teaching grammatical structures

to the 10th form students at Vietnamese

Currently, the two most important English examinations in Vietnam arethe school final examination and the university entrance examination Both areadministered at the end of grade 12th and neither has a listening and speakingcomponent Due to the pressure to pass the examinations, the students atsecondary schools focus more on language knowledge than language use,learning grammatical structures, grammatical rules is really important.Grammar knowledge for them is essential to give correct answers inexaminations, not to communicate or use language Moreover, with the

misinterpretation of the principle "testing only what students have learnt”,

test writers confine the test content to what is covered in the textbook Thisagain encourages memory-based learning

So that, learning grammar at schools is considered as “ a ticket to ride”and certificates are more important than competence Failure in examinations isviewed as academic incompetence and therefore, a face-losing misfortune Notonly do students find it critical to pass the examinations, teachers are also verymuch concerned about the pass rate of their students, since they are assessedbasing on their students’ performance in public examinations rather than on thequality 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 This examination-oriented instruction producesthe students who may achieve the highest scores in the examination but fail toshow their exellence in real-life performance

Our observation during teaching practice reveals that grammar learningfollows the hierarchy of first listening to the teacher, then repetition, and thencopying models

For example, to teach the structure of the question “Howmany…”(LESSON 26, page 141-144, 10th form textbook, 2001), the teacherusually writes one or some examples on the blackboard:

- How many apples do you want?

- How many books does she have?

- How many oranges do you want?

She/He then gives some explanation such as the nouns following “howmany” must be countable Usually, the skeleton form of the target structure isbordered to be a focus of memory.

How many + countable noun + auxiliary + subject + verb

While the teacher is working, the students listen and take notes When theteacher finishes explaining, she/he asks the students to repeat the structure andexamples on the blackboard After that, the students are called to makesentences after the already learnt structure Then, grammar teaching is mostlyachieved

Obviously, the traditional analytical learning style informs boththe teacher and learner that it is safe to learn and memorize rules Classroominteraction is largely one-way, either between a teacher and an individualstudent or between a teacher and the whole class Grammar classes are normallyboring and English grammatical structures are taught and learnt as if they weremathematic formulas Most of the students cannot apply them intocommunication because they do not know how to use these structuresappropriately and they have not practised them enough yet in their grammarclass

2.1.2 Contents of Grammar in the English 10 th form textbook

The 10th form English textbook was compiled in 1989 Although it hasbeen corrected and edited many times, English teachers still have a lot ofproblems in using this material to teach 10th form students

The 10th form English textbook is used by the students who have neverlearnt English before That is why grammatical contents contain simple andcommon patterns, most of which are in simple present tense, some in presentcontinuous tense and some in simple past tense

- From Lesson 1 to Lesson 25, simple present tense covers the introducedstructures such as:

This/ That + is + single noun (Lesson 10)

These/ Those + are + plural noun (Lesson 10)

To be + adjective (Lesson 9)

Would you like to do something (Lesson 25)

How many +countable noun + auxiliary + subject + verb (Lesson 26) How much + uncountable noun + auxiliary + subject + verb (Lesson 26)

- In Lesson 27, grammatical focus is the present continuous tense

- From Lesson 28 to Lesson 30, Grammatical focus comes back tosimple present tense with other grammatical patterns:

To want + infinitive verb (Lesson 28)

What time + auxiliary + subject + verb? (Lesson 29)

Can I do something? – Asking for permission (Lesson 30)

- From Lesson 31 to Lesson 36, grammatical focus is on the simplepast tense

In general, these grammatical structures are presented in short and simpledialogues or texts Three practices are followed to help the students grasp thetarget structures, which are then consolidated through doing homework

During our teaching observation time in Huynh Thuc Khang school, wehad a chance to attend a workshop on methodology (organized with the help ofBritish Council) The English teachers of the 10th form came to conclusions that:The designs of some lessons in the 10th form English textbook are rather

irrational For example, both Lesson 11 and Lesson 12 focus on the verb “to

live” while the present continuous tense is taught in only one lesson (Lesson

27) Moreover, practices mostly are controlled, guided tasks, a few are free.Similarly, typical types of exercises in homework are cloze exercise, picturedescription, fill-in exercise, making sentences from prompts…There is lack offree and creative activities to motivate the students

Let us take LESSON 20 (“Before the lecture”, page 107-110) forexample One of the two new grammatical structures provided in the lesson is

“How do/does+ subject + get + some place” The practices in the lesson are

very mechanical In Practice 1, the students are asked to do simple fill-in task:

How do you get to school?

I always/ usually go by…

In Practice 2a, the students ask their friend whether he/she goes to school

by a given traffic means (car, bus, train, or bicycle)

Do you ever go to school by car?

Yes, always/ usually/ sometimes

No, never

In fact, what the students have to do is to change the names of trafficmeans in the available model and to choose an answer sometimes at random(always, usually or sometimes)

In Pratice 2b, basing on clues, the students work in pairs to ask andanswer about the traffic means that each member in the Browns goes to work by

Mr Brown : always by car - sometimes by train - never by bus

Mrs Brown : usually by bus - sometimes by train - never by car Tom : usually by train - sometimes cycle - never by bus Jenny : usually by bus -sometimes walk - never cycle

All the students, who give the question, produce the same sentence:

“How does Mr Brown/Mrs Brown/Tom/Jenny go to work?” and their

addressees reply by adding subject and verb to the clues For example: Mr Brown- always by car = He always goes to work by car

If the teacher bases all his/her teaching on the textbook, the students afterLesson 20 may not distinguish the meanings between the target frequency

adverbs: always, sometimes, usually … because they have no chance to practise

their use, they do not stand in front of the choice among these adverbs

When being asked to do such tasks, the first reaction of the students isusually to look at the model and adapt it It is partly because practices andexercises focus mostly on form not meaning and function of the structures Ifthe students do not have a model at disposal, they find difficult to give correctstatements and even more difficult to utter them in appropriate contexts

This fact poses a demand for all English teachers teaching the 10th form.That is they must be creative and flexible in using such material to adopt thecommunicative approaches

2.1.3 Common errors:

2.1.3.1 Research design

We have carried out a research design during the Teaching TrainingCourse at Cửa Lò secondary school In this research, we have given out a number

of questions based on the 10th form English syllabus

2.1.3.1.1 Dùng từ gợi ý để viết thành câu hoàn chỉnh:

- She/ work/ hard

- I/ go/ to/ school/ yesterday

- How many/ apples/ you/ have?

- My car/ more expensive/ yours

- What/ your sister/ name?

- He/ not/ play football/ yesterday

- What/ he/ eating?

- What/ his father/ do?

2.1.3.1.2 Dịch những câu sau đây ra tiếng Anh:

- Nhà bạn ở đâu?

- Từ nhà bạn tới trờng bao xa?

- Tôi đang đọc sách

- Anh ấy đang làm gì vậy?

2.1.3.1.3 Sắp xếp các câu hỏi, lời nói sau (giữa hai ngời bạn mới quen) sao cho phù hợp vào khuông cho sẵn

a Your legs are longer than mine Would you like to have the aisle seat?

I don’t mind sitting in the middle

b How old are you?

c Our president was in Asia recently

d What is your address?

e Are you from Atlanta?

f A: I am visiting my grandchildren

B: How old are they?

g You’re really fat How much do you weigh?

h Did you vote for him?

statements/questions

Inappropriatestatements/questions

2.1.3.2 Results of the research design and presentation of common English grammatical errors of the 10 th form students:

The collected data shows us the number of students’ errors which we classified into 3 major types:

2.1.3.2.1 Errors of form:

These errors are rather complex and can be classified into the followingsubtypes:

- Tense:

For example: I go to school yesterday

He does not play football last week.

I read a book (Tôi đang đọc sách)

Correct sentences must be:

I went to school yesterday

He did not play football last week

I am reading a book

- Omission of main verbs:

For example: I reading a book

My car more expensive than yours

He not played football yesterday.

Correct sentences must be:

I am reading a book

My car is more expensive than yours

He did not play football last week

- Unmarked 3rd person singular verb

For example: She work hard

What do his father do?

Correct sentences must be:

She works hard

What does his father do?

- Word order:

For example: What name your sister is?

What he is eating?

Corect sentences must be:

What is your sister’s name?

What is he eating?

2.1.3.2.1.Errors of meaning:

Since the number of grammatical structures introduced in the 10th formsyllabus is not very large, students may not usually confuse their meaning.However, these errors need be found out and corrected Because if theycontinually go uncorrected, students may not be able to use language alreadylearnt in class to express what they mean

For example: - Nhµ b¹n ë ®©u? = What is your house?

- Tõ nhµ b¹n tíi trêng bao xa? = How long is it from your house to school?

Correct answers must be:

- Where is your house?

- How far is it from your house to school?

2.1.3.2.3 Errors of use

Most of the students articulate that exercise (2.1.3.1.3) is the mostdifficult and that when doing it they were not sure about their choice

For example, between:

A: I’m visiting my grandchildren.

and How old are you?

they could not decide which is appropriate and which is inappropriate Only one student did the exercise perfectly as follow:

statements/questions

Inappropriatestatements/questions

B: How old are they?

Your legs are reallylonger than mine Wouldyou like to have the aisleseat? I don’t mind sitting

2 2 The state of using dialogues in teaching grammatical

structures:

7%

errors of meaning errors of form errors of function

225 39

311

Although many dialogues are introduced in the 10th form textbook, they arenot used effectively in learning and teaching English Most of the teachers presentthe dialogues as the last part in their lesson plans (after presenting new vocabularyand new grammatical points) In fact, a lot of teachers think that these dialoguescan only help to better the students’ reading skill but they are helpless in teachinggrammatical structures As a result, teaching dialogues is done without muchcare Selecting or writing extra dialogues only comes to the thoughts of a very fewteachers.

When teaching dialogues, most of the teachers begin by reading thedialogue first and then have the whole class read in chorus The next step is to callout some pairs of students to read the dialogue again The teachers might makesome questions to check the students’ comprehension Teaching dialoguesfinishes with translation from English into Vietnamese So far, no contexts of thedialogues are exploited that is the reason why the students have no idea aboutwhen and why they should use particular structures Moreover, teaching dialoguesafter grammar eliminates the students’ interest in guessing the meanings of thetarget structures So, obviously dialogues used in this way are good for nothing inrespect of teaching grammatical structures

Using dialogue to have the students practise grammatical structure is alsoproblematic The teachers are used to having students make sentencesindividually If the target structure is a question, there might be some two-linedialogues between the teacher and a student or between two students However,the students are not encouraged to create their own dialogues or to say somethingoutside what they are taught in the lesson

For example, when teaching LESSON 14 (“Bradford”, page 82-85) whosegrammar focus is the verb “have got”, many teachers guide their students to

make exchanges like this:

S1: Has your city got a church?

S2: Yes, it has.

Not many students are interested in standing up and saying such a short answer: “Yes, it has” Some think it is so easy that they do not need to raise their hand to ask or answer In this case, if the teachers guide the students to makesome other sentences, we think, the practice is much better Instead of saying short sentences, the students will have chances to talk more For example:

S2: I live in Vinh city.

S1: Has your city got a church?

S2: Yes, it has It is a very big and nice church

S1: Really? Do you usually go there?

S2: Sometimes

However, only a few teachers control their lecture in this way and that’swhy each lesson is usually an isolate one not connecting with the other Thestudents have few times to review what they have learnt before

From our observation in Training Teaching Course, we come intoconclusions that: No dialogues or so simple dialogues are one of the majorreasons for boring English classes The state of using dialogues in teachinggrammatical structures in this way even leads to common errors and mistakes that

we have shown in 2.1.3.2, especially the function mistakes

Chapter 3

Some suggested ways of applying dialogues toimprove grammatical structure teaching to

the 10th form students

3.1 Choosing or building dialogues to introduce new

grammatical structures:

3.1.1 Criteria of dialogues as a teaching device:

3.1.1.1 Dialogues should contain natural speech and reflect actual language use.

In selecting or writing dialogues, it is important to remember that since adialogue represents an exchange between speakers, it should reflect actuallanguage use While you may decide to use a dialogue to illustrate a particulargrammatical structure, your primary aim should be to exemplify a natural use oflanguage Unfortunately, many textbook dialogues are written to present aparticular grammatical structure and in so doing do not reflect real language use.Take, for example, the following dialogue (LESSON 16: “In Bill’s flat”, page 90):

Bill: It s 3 o clock now Do you like a cup of tea?’ ’

Jane: Yes, please.

Bill: Do you like tea with lemon?

Jane: Yes, I do

Bill: Here you are Sugar?

Jane: Yes, please

Bill: Now Let s have some music Do you like music?’

Jane: Yes, I do.

Are you free this Thursday afternoon?

Bill: No, I am not.

Jane: What a pity!

If the sole purpose of this dialogue is to exemplify “Do you like““ question,

then the dialogue, since it contains three examples of the question, is successful.However, students generally focus on the content of a dialogue rather than thegrammatical structures it contains In an actual exchange, it would be unusual for

an individual to question another all the time with the same pattern of questions.Moreover, the questions in the dialogues seem disconnected

We suggest the best approach be to limit the number of the questions thatthe dialogue contains or to consider in what context “Do you like““ question

might be used naturally in a series Generally, a series of yes/no question like

“Do you like““ is restricted to something like an interview, the situation in

which the role of one individual is to question another For example:

Bill, a reporter for CVV broadcast channel is interviewing Jane, a schoolgirl

Bill : Hi Jane, how are you going?

Jane: I am fine, thanks And you?

Bill : Good Now, I have some questions for you

Do you like CVV channel?

Jane: Yes, I do.

Bill : Do you like its MTV program?

Jane: Yes, I do I think it is really interesting.

Bill : Do you like the film The man in the dark ? It was“ ”

Jane: No, I don t’ Bill : Do you like the comedies at 7 pm?

Jane: Yes, I do.

Bill : That s enough Thank you very much’ Jane: You re welcome.’

3.1.1.2 The situations presented in dialogues should be relevant to the age, care and needs of the students.

If a dialogue interests the students, they would be much more eager tostudy it and the grammatical structures it contains So that, the grammaticalteaching would be achieved more easily

While teaching LESSON 28 (“Going by air”), some teachers realize thattheir students are not very interested in the dialogue (Page149, the 10th formtextbook)

John and Paul are at the travel agency in their city They are talking to the assistant.

John : We d like some information, please.’

Assistant : Yes, what do you want to know?

John : Well, first of all we want to know the fare, the airfare

of course

Assistant : Where do you want to go?

John : I want to go to Moscow.

Assistant : When do you want to go?

John : Next week

Assistant : Single or return?

John : Single please.

Assistant : Then the fare is $ 250

John : Can we get the ticket now?

Assistant : Certainly you can How many do you want?

John : Two please

It seems that going by air is not familiar to Vietnamese students Theymight suppose wh-questions with the verb “to want“ are not really important

and necessary to put in their mind

According to our opinion, we should select another dialogue with a situationthat is more relevant to the students’ needs and interests For example:

Thanh and Loan are talking about their forthcoming holiday:

Thanh : What about going camping, Loan?

Loan : Yes, that s a good idea I m really excited.’ ’

Where do you want to go?

Thanh : Ba Vi It s very nice.’

Loan : O.K When do you want you to go?

Thanh : Next Sunday We will have a good time.

Loan : We will, but what do you want to bring?

Thanh : A lot of food, music…

Loan : I want to bring my camera, I want to take a lot of photographs.

as a teaching device is much neater: it has a single topic that is discussed in analternating question-answer sequence Especially, it should have a beginning,middle and an ending That makes the students feel that they witness the wholeconversation

Between the two following dialogues, the second is much more interestingbecause of not only its situation but also its completeness

My flat (LESSON 3, page 13-16, 10 th form textbook)

John : Is there a balcony in your flat, Peter?

Peter: No, there isn t There s a sitting room, a bedroom, a bathroom’ ’

and a kitchen.

John : Is there a shower in the bathroom?

Peter: Yes, there is Is there a shower in your bathroom?

Is this your ball (LESSON 2, page 9-12, 10 th form textbook)

Boy: Good morning, Mr Dean.

Man: Hello, boy.

Is this your ball?

Boy: No, it isn t That s my ball over there.’ ’

Man: Hmm It is Take it and go away.

3.1.1.4 Dialogues should both illustrate the meaning and contextualize the functions of new grammatical structures.

As a teaching device, dialogues should show the students when the targetgrammatical structure is used and should provide them with good clues forcontextual guessing of its meaning The dialogues that do not meet this criterionare meaningless in teaching grammatical structures

Let us study the following dialogue:

Binh : Do you like music, An?

An : Yes, I do.

Binh : There is a concert on Sunday in the Big Hall I have two tickets

for it Would you like to go with me?

An : Yes, I d love to.’

Binh : Great Let s meet at 8.00.’

An : Yes, that s a good idea.’

From three clues: - The question: “Do you like music?”

- There is a concert on Sunday

- I have two tickets for it

We easily guess that “Would you like to go with me?“ may be an

Washington D.C: U.S Government Printing Office, pp 310-315) Cummings

believed that it was extremely important for foreign language students to be aware

of common utterances in the target language and possible responses that could bemade to these utterances Thus, the first line of a Cummings Device contains acommonly used utterance (usually but not always a question) and the second linelists various alternate responses to this utterance, as in the following example:

What do you like to do?

I like to read.

I like to swim.

I like to jog

I like to watch television.

The first step in presenting a Cummings Device is to model possibleresponses to the target utterance For example, with the question “What time is it?“ (LESSON 4, the 10th form textbook), you should begin by introducingstatements such as “It“s six o“clock“ In presenting these statements, you

might use a clock to model possible responses beginning with the hours (e.g., 7o’clock, 8 o’clock) and then introducing the half hour and quarter hour Inmodeling the possible responses for any exchange, it is essential that the studentsunderstand the meaning of the utterance Thus, you should use whatever realiayou can to make the meaning clear Also be certain to limit the number ofpossible responses you introduce at one time and provide the students withadequate practice with these forms so that they feel confident using them

After you have introduced and practised various statements about time,introduce the question "What time is it?“ In order to do this, you might model a

brief exchange in which you define the speakers and their relationship, as in thefollowing example

Listen to what Nam asks his friend:

Nam: What time is it?

Mai: It s 6 o clock’ ’