(Skkn 2023) adapting grammar tasks in the textbook “tieng anh 10 global success” to make grammar lesson engaging, communicative and meaningful

NGHE AN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING _ TEACHING INNOVATION Topic: ADAPTING GRAMMAR TASKS IN THE TEXTBOOK “TIENG ANH 10- GLOBAL SUCCESS” TO MAKE GRAMMAR LESSON ENGAGING, COMMUNICATIVE AND MEANINGFUL Subject: English Academic year: 2022 – 2023 NGHE AN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING KY SON HIGH SCHOOL _ TEACHING INNOVATION Topic: ADAPTING GRAMMAR TASKS IN THE TEXTBOOK “TIENG ANH 10- GLOBAL SUCCESS” TO MAKE GRAMMAR LESSONS ENGAGING, COMMUNICATIVE AND MEANINGFUL Subject: English Teacher: CAO THỊ HẢI Phone number: 0934494345 Group: Foreign Languages Academic year: 2022 – 2023 TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I: INTRODUCTION I Rationale II Aims of the study III Scope of study IV Significance of the study V Methods of the study VI Schedule PART II: MAIN CONTENT I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND The role of grammar in teaching and learning English 1.1 Grammar 1.2 The role of grammar in teaching and learning English Adapting textbook 2.1 What is textbook adaptation? 2.2 Purposes of adaptation 2.3 Techniques for adapting textbooks An engaging, communicative and meaningful grammar lesson 3.1 What is an engaging, communicative and meaningful grammar lesson? 3.2 The importance of an engaging, communicative and meaningful grammar lesson 3.3 Indicators of an engaging, communicative and meaningful grammar lesson II PRACTICAL BACKGROUND An overview of the textbook “Tieng Anh 10- Global success” Situation of teaching and learning grammar at Ky Son high school Solutions III ADAPTING GRAMMAR TASKS IN THE TEXTBOOK “TIENG ANH 10- GLOBAL SUCCESS” Principles for adapting grammar tasks to make grammar lesson engaging, communicative and meaningful 1.1 Start the lesson with a clear topic/ context 1.2 Elicit grammar rules (not explain them) 16 1.3 Organize communicative pair and group work 21 1.4 Organize meaningful speaking practice 25 Sample lesson plan 30 IV SURVEY ON THE NECESSITY AND FEASIBILITY OF THE RESEARCH TOPIC 366 The aim of the survey 366 The content and method of the survey 37 2.1 The content of the survey 37 2.2 The method of the survey 37 The applicants of the survey 37 The result of the survey on the necessity and feasibility of the research topic 37 4.1 The necessity of the suggested techniques 38 4.2 The feasibility of the suggested techniques 38 PART III: CONCLUSION 39 I A summary of the development of the study 39 II Limitations 39 III Suggestions for further study 39 REFERENCES 40 APPENDICES 41 PART I: INTRODUCTION I Rationale The General Education English Language Curriculum issued with the Circular No 32/2018/TT-BGDDT dated 26 December 2018 of the Minister of Education and Training says that the main objective of the General education English language curriculum is to enable students to formulate and develop their communicative competences through practicing listening, speaking, reading, writing and linguistic knowledge (pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar) In other words, communication capacity is the goal of the teaching process in not only skill lessons but also grammar lessons However, many teachers of English at high schools find it difficult to make grammar lessons engaging, communicative and meaningful Many of my students feel hard to remember a long list of grammar rules and many of them complain that it is easy for them to forget these rules if they don’t review very often Also, most of them admit that they can’t use these grammar points to communicate in even simple topic They rarely speak English in a grammar lessons because they are too shy or afraid of making mistakes about both grammar and pronunciation Another factor that should be considered when we mention the quality of teaching and learning grammar at high school is the grammar tasks given in the textbook It can be easily noticed that some of the grammar tasks are not only isolated from a context but also similarly in every unit: put the verbs in the correct form, underline the correct word, rewriting sentences This can make students bored Besides, there is a shortage of teacher’s flexibility in organize activity in teaching grammar Many students say that in most grammar lesson, teacher is the one who explains the grammar rules, students listen and copy them, they have little chance to interact and communicate The teacher is still the centre of the learning process and students remain to play a passive role In fact, most of my colleagues admit that their grammar lessons mainly focus on language form Related to these problems, this study was carried out, entitling: Adapting grammar tasks in the textbook “Tieng Anh 10- Global Success” to make grammar lessons engaging, communicative and meaningful II Aims of the study The study aims at suggesting adaptations of some grammar tasks given in the textbook “Tieng Anh 10- Global success” to make grammar lessons engaging, communicative and meaningful III Scope of study In this research, I just focus on the 10th grade students at Ky Son High School, especially students in class 10C2 IV Significance of the study The study will help the teachers design grammar lesson engaging, communicative and meaningful Students learn grammar naturally, actively and communicatively, so the effectiveness of learning is improved V Methods of the study This study illustrates the findings of an action research making grammar lesson more engaging, communicative and meaningful It was conducted at Ky Son High school in Ky Son district with secondary students The instruments for data collection were questionnaires The qualitative methodology was employed to collect an amount of information, compare, and then, analyze data VI Schedule In order to evaluate the practicality and validity of project work in making grammar lesson more engaging, communicative and meaningful, I would follow the subsequence steps: - Before applying this method: design and delivered a survey questionnaire to the student respondents, the questionnaire finds out students’ difficulties during each grammar lesson - While applying this method: apply adapted tasks - After applying this method: design and delivered a survey questionnaire to see the effectiveness of the application of the study Besides students' questionnaires, the researcher also observes different lessons and carry out experimental lessons in class 10C2 (42 students), lessons with adapting grammar tasks, lessons without adapting grammar tasks PART II: MAIN CONTENT I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND The role of grammar in teaching and learning English 1.1 Grammar There is a wide variety of approaches to present different definitions of grammar Ur (2012) explains that grammar is “the way words are put together to make correct sentences” (p 76) In a similar way, Harmer (2019, p 22) writes that Grammar can be generally defined as “a knowledge of what words can go where and what form these words should take” According to Burns (2009), there are three main theoretical concepts of grammar that have affected the English teaching practice First of all, traditional grammar considers language as a set of rules and learners need to identify as well as classify the words or phrases in a sentence into their part of speech Secondly, formal grammar treats language as a cognitive progression happening in the brain and human beings have predisposition for it at birth Thirdly, functional grammar is descriptive and this approach are concerned with how people actually use a language to communicate effectively with each other in everyday activities Based on different perspectives of many language scholars, grammar can be generally considered the knowledge concerned with types of words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and the internal rules of how sentences in a language is constructed 1.2 The role of grammar in teaching and learning English So far, English teaching methods have attached a great importance to the teaching grammar, but at different levels and for different purposes In the 1980s, teaching grammar was about teaching the rules of grammar out of context with a series of diagramming sentence activities In the 1990s, people thought that it was not necessary to learn grammar separately because grammar come from comprehension input From 2000, people believe that that teaching grammar is necessary, but we need to teach only what is necessary for your students to communicate not all grammar rules In other words, grammar and communication fit hand in glove According to Julio Foppoli, a teacher of English and Spanish as Second Languages, grammar is the backbone of a language He considers grammar to a railway that allows messages to get across Without grammar, clear communication is impossible and there is no way to fully express one’s thoughts and ideas to others In other words, Grammar is the foundation for communication It is obvious that grammar is considered as one of the component of communicative competence rather than the knowledge concerned with syntax at sentence level Therefore, in teaching grammar, the teacher should find ways that help students to build their communicative competence A communicative grammar lesson gives students the opportunity to practice the target grammar item through specific communicative tasks and activities Adapting textbook 2.1 What is textbook adaptation? The term Textbook adaptation is commonly used to describe the process of making changes to an existing work We can also replace “adapt” with revise, modify, alter, customize, or other synonym that describes the act of making a change 2.2 Purposes of adaptation It is undeniable that all coursebook writers and publishers work very hard to ensure their product meets their customers’ needs However, due to individual differences amongst the learners and to teacher factors, there will never be a perfect fit between the materials, the teacher and the learners Such teacher factors include: - Degree of language proficiency and confidence - Previous personal learning experience as learners rather than as teachers - Own personality (introvert/extrovert, open/closed etc.) - Preferred teaching style (directive/consultative, etc.) - Cultural background When the teacher uses the textbook for his own specific learner it is necessary to adapt the activities so that they are suitable for his lower or middle or strong student levels Textbook adaptation is performed to make textbook lessons more communicative and incorporate authentic textbook into the lessons, which plays a significant role in stimulating students’ motivation and increasing their achievement during the leaning process 2.3 Techniques for adapting textbooks According to Islam and Mares (2014), there are five ways to adapt textbooks based on learners’ factors such as adding, deleting, simplifying, reordering, replacing material Adding is simply explained as providing more material to learners both quantitatively and qualitatively In other words, teachers can increase language input or exercises or practice related to a certain content in the textbook by expanding and extending Deleting teachers completely omit a task or a section in the textbook By simplifying, teachers change instructions, texts or activities so that they are easy to understand and managed for students Reordering is related to how the process of giving instructions or conducting an activity takes place Replacing involves using an alternative to replace the inappropriate part in the textbook Besides these ways, there is also another way that the teachers often in real teaching: subtracting which is associated with reducing the number of language inputs or related assignments, abridging is the complete abandonment of a skill or a large part in the textbook Therefore, we can classify textbook adaptation strategies into strategies as follows:  Skipping: teachers completely skip a task or a section in the textbook  Subtracting: teachers reduce the number of questions of a task or knowledge related to language content  Adding: teachers provide supplementary language input, exercises or activities using materials outside the textbook  Extending: teachers develop more activities for practice based on available content or input  Reorganizing: teachers change the order of section or tasks  Simplifying: teachers modify a content or task in the textbook in a way that it is easier for students to understand and manage Textbook adaptation can be done at three levels: First of all, it is macro adaptation, which is ideally done before the language program begins After comparing what is covered in a textbook and what is required by the syllabus or examination, the teacher may find that certain areas or even whole units of the book can be omitted, and certain contents need to be supplemented Adapting a unit is the second level This could be done by reordering the activities, combining activities, omitting activities, rewriting or supplementing exercise material, etc Unit adaptation helps to make the classroom teaching smoother and more cohesive It also helps the teacher to better fulfill the aims of a unit The third level is adaptation of specific activities in a unit Occasionally an activity is regarded as valuable, but it is not well-designed or it is not suitable in a particular class If the teacher does not want to give up the activity, he or she needs to adapt it In this research I only focus on adaptation of specific activities in a unit An engaging, communicative and meaningful grammar lesson 3.1 What is an engaging, communicative and meaningful grammar lesson? According to Nioka Clark, Curriculum Services Director Goodwill Education Initiatives (2018), an engaging lesson is a lesson that is active, interactive, challenging, connected to student interests, filled with practice and facilitated by a teacher Besides, David Nunan, a teacher in Macquarie University explains that a communicative lesson puts learners in environments using communication to learn and practice the target language by interactions with one another and the instructor, the study of "authentic texts" (those written in the target language for purposes other than language learning), and the use of the language both in class and outside of class Moreover, Dennis Relojo-Howell posted on psychlearningcurve.org on October 9, 2017: A meaningful lesson can be achieved when students are offered the opportunity to link their classroom activities to real-life experiences, that is, the lesson create connections between students’ learning journey and their lives In conclusion, an engaging, communicative and meaningful grammar lesson gives students the opportunity to practice the target grammar item through specific communicative tasks and activities In this lesson students are active and interactive because they find that their communicative need is met 3.2 The importance of an engaging, communicative and meaningful grammar lesson An engaging, communicative and meaningful grammar lesson is an effective grammar lesson It meets many objectives: it improves not only students’ ability to understand grammar items but also ability to communicate It also raises students’ interest in learning English which powerfully influences student’s academic and professional choices In other words, with an engaging, communicative and meaningful grammar lesson, students will pay closer attention, they will also process the information more efficiently, and employ more effective learning strategies, such as engaging in critical thinking, making connections between old and new knowledge, and attending to deep structure instead of surface features Further, when the students are interested in a task, they will work harder and persist longer, bringing more of their self-regulatory skills into study 3.3 Indicators of an engaging, communicative and meaningful grammar lesson Below are indicators of an engaging, communicative and meaningful grammar lesson: - A clear and achievable goal: The purpose of each activity is clear enough The teacher always tells the students what they have to and why, in a very clear way - Activities reflect the students’ real lives: it is important to Use real-world examples in all activities including presentation, practice and production stages Living world examples, most of the times, are not included in the books, so teachers should find good examples matching to their lecture - Linking the unknown with known: A good preparation of useful vocabulary or other language will help students feel confident to speak In Many class, students are too shy to speak because they don’t know what to say or they don’t have any ideas - Active involvement of students All the students in class are always involved in activities, nobody is ever bored because lessons are very dynamic - More student-talking time, less teacher-talking time The teacher elicits the rules, never explains so it is not boring The teacher asks questions all the time and students learn new things by providing answers - A lot of interactions Students sometimes have to work individually, but most of the time they tasks in pairs or small groups - Relaxing learning atmosphere: Students always laugh a lot in each class, this gives her confidence because she is very shy She does not feel the teacher is assessing her all the time and the lessons are relaxing - Feedback on good language praising students Teacher provides feedback in a sensitive way- in order not to put students on the spot There is a balance comments on errors and good use of language Teacher praises students when appropriate II PRACTICAL BACKGROUND An overview of the textbook “Tieng Anh 10- Global success” According to the textbook “Tieng Anh 10- Global success” edited by Hoang Van Van, there are many changes in this new text book in comparison with the old text Cards: CONSOLIDATION mins Aim: WRAP-UP To help T-S students memorize interac the target tion language and that they have learnt - Past simple and Past continuous - Tell about the past experiences HOMEWORK - Exercises in the workbook - Prepare for the next lesson IV SURVEY ON THE NECESSITY AND FEASIBILITY OF SUGGESTED TECHNIQUES The aim of the survey The survey was conducted to determine the necessity and feasibility of suggested techniques for adapting grammar tasks in the textbook “Tieng Anh 10- Global 36 Success” to make grammar lessons engaging, communicative and meaningful Moreover, the survey will reflect the objective and reasonableness of the study The content and method of the survey 2.1 The content of the survey The survey focuses on main areas: - The necessity of the suggested techniques of adapting grammar tasks in the textbook “Tieng Anh 10- Global Success” to make grammar lessons engaging, communicative and meaningful - The feasibility of the suggested techniques of adapting grammar tasks in the textbook “Tieng Anh 10- Global Success” to make grammar lessons engaging, communicative and meaningful 2.2 The method of the survey The method used in the survey is the online questionnaire for the teachers of English in Nghe An province with levels: unnecessary, less necessary, necessary, very necessary; unfeasible, less feasible, feasible, and very feasible (with the score from ̅ ) of each technique and to 4) Microsoft Excel is used to find out average score( X the ways to determine level of necessary and feasibility is: ̅