Using visual aids to motivate the 10th form students in practising new grammar structures

I INTRODUCTION Reason for choosing the research Nowadays, in Vietnam, English is used more and more widely It brings us chances to keep up with the development of the modern age Therefore, teaching and learning English, especially at upper secondary schools play a very important role In any languages, grammar is considered one of the most essential elements of language We can hardly comprehend the meaning exactly if we not use grammar appropriately So poor knowledge of English grammar can effect both the learning and teaching of English Thus, it is necessary to apply new methods of teaching and learning to improve the situation The English language is completely different from Vietnamese language system so students have a lot of difficulties in learning and using English in general and grammatical structures Meanwhile, grammatical structures are basic units to build up sentences, paragraphs and essays How to make grammar lessons more interesting? How can we motivate students? Visual aids are one of the most effective means of language teaching It makes language class more interesting and communicative Therefore, in this study, I would like to give some suggestions for using visual aids effectively The effort of this study is to try to give some contribution to improve the quality of teaching English at high schools by “Using visual aids to motivate the 10 th form students in practising new grammar structures” Aims and objectives of the study - To study the current visual techniques in practising new grammar structures - To investigate the causes of difficulties that teachers are facing with teaching grammar to the ten form students with the help of visual aids, so that teachers can both improve the advantages and limit the drawbacks of language visuals in teaching grammar lessons - To introduce some common kinds of visual aids and their roles in foreign language teaching and learning - To increase the effectiveness in teaching English grammar The study is carried out to answer the following questions: - What are visual aids? - What are the roles of visual aids in teaching language and in practising new grammar structures? - How to use visual aids suitably in practising new grammar structures? Scope of the study In teaching a new structure, visual aids may be used at three stages: the presentation stage, the practice stage and the production stage Within the scope of this study, I would like to focus on practising with visual aids As time is limited, the survey is carried out on a small scale so the results may not reflect the real situation of using visual aids in teaching grammar to 10th form students: 10A7, 10A9 in the school year 2016 – 2017 Method of the study In order to carry out this study, it is mainly based on the data and information collected from surveys, observation and direct interviews from my colleagues It is also based on a number of reference books about the use of visual aids in teaching English Furthermore, my actual teaching at Dang Thai Mai high school provides the great practical contribution to the study II CONTENTS Theoretical background Visual aids are anything visible to learners, which teachers use for different teaching purposes in the class They can be photographs, flashcards moved from hand to hand, group to group, real things in the classroom or brought into the classroom or something can be seen through window or the teacher and the students themselves In fact, students usually find it hard and boring to learn and memorize grammatical structures Meanwhile, some teachers have to spend a lot of time explaining a grammar rule but sometimes, the results are not satisfactory Therefore, it is important for learners to have plenty of examples of the structure and to understand them Visual materials can also contribute to understand The simplest way to practise a structure is often to show it directly using things the students can see: objects, the classroom, yourself, the student themselves, pictures The practice of grammar will be much easier and more effective through situations, contexts which visual aids provide Students can understand fully and practise more effectively Moreover, students can communicate successfully as they are exposed to the reality and practise orally more often with the help of visual aids On the other hand, visual aids motivate learners when they are tired of long drill of written grammar As a result, they will be interested and pay attention to grammar activities The status of problem The informants for the study consists of 82 students in the tenth form (age 16-17) from two classes 10A7 and 10A9, and teachers of English at Dang Thai Mai High School The first reason for my selection is that my selected participants are accessible All these students have learnt English for more than four years at secondary schools as they started to learn English when they were in grade Most of them have got familiar with teaching and learning methods at middle level The second reason is our awareness of the completeness and reliability of the data collected We must be well-informed about the real situation of teaching and adapting visual aids in teaching and learning grammar at our school In addition, the main method used was the Grammar Translation Method The students may be good at writing grammatically correct sentences but they can not communicate in that language During the process of learning, students are not often given chances to work in pairs, groups or to take part in such activities as discussion or playing games, etc A number of students even find it difficult to learn what they studied at junior secondary school Students have to learn in very large class without favorable conditions for learning a foreign language such as teaching aids: video, tapes, cassette, etc The lack of these facilities reduces effectiveness of the teaching and learning process Most teachers in the survey are female aged from twenty- six to forty They have been teaching English for at least three years They usually teach classes with 39 to 45 students and each of them is in charge of three or four classes Meanwhile, teaching facilities are poor and backward Therefore, the main teaching material of the teachers is the textbook for students It can be found that the teachers have to work hard but the results seem not to be satisfactory This is a great problem Analysis of the data There is a quick questionnaire designed for students from two classes 10A7 and 10A9 to gather necessary information about using visual aids to practise new grammar structures in classes Students are encouraged to express their own opinions about their ability to apply new grammar structures in practising and doing grammar exercises This data is collected from students: Students total 82 Know how to use new grammar structures to practise 30 (36,6%) Have difficulties in practising new grammar structures 22 (26,8%) Impossible to practise new grammar structures 30 (36,6%) Table 1: Analysis of the data collected from students before applying the research It can be seen from the table that only 36,6% know how to use new grammar structures to practise fluently whereas 26,8% find it difficult 36,6% say they are impossible to practice new grammar structures The following data is the result of the school year 2015 – 2016 before applying the research: Class 10A7 10A9 Number of students 39 43 Excellentgood (%) 35 30 Average (%) Weak (bad) (%) 40 25 50 20 Table 2: Analysis of the data collected from the result of the school year 2015 – 2016 before applying the research These figures show that it is really necessary to change the way to teach new grammar structures so that students are able to practise effectively 4 Teaching application It is necessary to give them enough practice after the presentation stage At the practice stage, to work with new language items, the teacher’s main function is to provide them with the maximum amount of practice, which must be both meaningful and memorable so that they can understand and produce examples of it Followings are some suggested practice activities using visual aids 4.1 Using the board In the practice stage, it can be used for substitution, completion, rearrangement, making sentences, etc In other words, the board provides various activities for grammar practice 4.1.1 Sentence pattern table To provide cues for students to practice, the teacher should draw a sentence table on the board Substitution can be cued by words added to the columns or by holding up pictures, pointing to parts of a big picture or by sticking small pictures into the columns Example: to practise the simple future tense in Unit 14 (part E language focus, page 150) the teacher may draw a table like this: I Mai Hoa Mai and Hoa Mai and I Will Play Buy Read Drink Watch Football Coffee Book Beer a house Tomorrow In a few minutes Next week This evening In two months Comment: This kind of practice is more mechanical than meaningful so the teacher should spend only some minutes to help students be familiar with the structure To put a creative element into this, the students should be encouraged to propose any words that they like providing the sentences remains grammatically correct In seeing that a suggestion is ridiculous the students experience the meaning of the language used 4.1.2 Questionnaires The teacher draws a grid on the board and elicits information from students Example: practising conditional sentence type in Unit (part E language focus, page 90) Name Playing football Watching television Fishing Going picnic Reading book Ly Dung Lien Thao To fill the grid, the teacher uses the question “what will you if you don’t have to go to school tomorrow?” By doing so, controlled language can take place because the above question must be asked and answered by each member of the class Comment: The information and completion in this grid has a meaningful purpose It might be interesting to find out the hobbies of students in the class so they can understand each other better 4.1.3 Table using information from the students To this activity, the teacher asks students to note down answers to the following questions: What time you get up? What you to help your parents? How you get to school? Then he draws the outline table on the board and selects students to come up to fill their answer: Lien Dung Thao 5.00 5.30 6.00 Clean the house Cook dinner Do the gardening On foot By bicycle By bus Using this table, controlled practice can take place For example, “Lien has to get up at o’clock”, “Dung has to go to school by bicycle”, “Thao has to the gardening to help his parents” Then, they can practice a lot of structures such as “Lien gets up earlier than Dung” “Lien usually goes to school on foot” “It takes Lien more time to get to school than Dung” and so on In addition to these uses of the board in grammar practice, it can be also used for sentence matching, rearrangement For example: *Matching a phrase in column with a suitable phrase in column Column Column He always does his homework a a beautiful house There used to be b carefully I bought c a clothes shop here Key: 1b, 2c, 3a * Learners are given some groups of words in disorder to rearrange into correct sentence: a will, a, I, win, buy, I, if, match, sport, the, car b built, house, ago, was, this, years, five Key: a If I win the sport match, I will buy a car b This house was built five years ago 4.2 Using real objects Real objects are useful for substitution By giving out objects, students can both practice vocabulary and grammar structures From these objects, a lot of sentences can be created Example 1: The teacher wants his student to practise comparison in Unit 16 (part E Language focus, page 176) he shows them a watch, a pen and a ruler Teacher: What is this? Students: It is a watch / a pen / a ruler After saying such sentences, the students compare them as follows: - The pen is more expensive than the ruler is - The watch is the most expensive - The ruler is not as useful as the pen - The ruler is made of wood - The watch was produced in Switzerland Comment: A lot of real objects can be shown to give students more practice This type of exercises helps students use the new words in phrases or sentences It is also a communicative exercise because it encourages students to give comment on objects, to give ideas using their own words Example 2: In Unit (part E Language focus, page 70) Grammar point: the present progressive (with a near future meaning) and be going to To practise to be going to + V, the teacher follows the coming - up steps: Step 1: prepare a collection of small object such as a cup, a stone, a plate, a knife, a piece of string, a nail, a piece of wood, a sheet of paper or a box of matches Step 2: display one object to all class except for one student, who has to guess what it is The guesser asks: -What are you going to with it? And others will describe their (imaginary) plans for the object: - I’m going to cut bread with it - I’m going to drink tea from it - I’m going to write on it - I’m going to make a fire with it To make students pay attention to the activity, after some objects have been guessed, the teacher asks a student: “What will be done with the knife / the cup?” This activity is also helpful for the practice of the future passive 4.3 Using word cards 4.3.1 Telling about diary This type of activity is suitable for pair or group work rather than for the whole class In order to practise the simple past tense in Unit (part E Language focus, page 21), the teacher gives out word cards filled with notes of different planned activities Monday Tuesday Wednesday 07.30 - 08.00 get breakfast 07.30 - 09.30 get breakfast 10.30 - 11.30 meet Tom for coffee 08.00 - 09.00 water flowers Housework 09.00 - 11.00 meet with Mike 11.30 - 12.30 watch end of football Take kids home Each group should be given different word cards Then, they are asked to expand the notes into full sentences They may use the first or the third person For example, such sentences may be made: - I was getting breakfast at 7.45 Monday morning - I went to the office at o’clock yesterday morning - I was watching the end of the football at 12 o’clock These cards, then, are used to ask and answer questions This may be done orally first then in writing The content of word cards can be shopping list, activities of a festival or TV programmes Students are expected to use “then”, “next”, “after”, “before”… to tell about diary If this activity is done orally, the teacher may check other groups’ attention by asking them to recall the plan of a certain person 4.3.2 Giving instruction This type of activity is suitable for practicing the imperative form of the verbs in Unit (part D writing, page 58) Word cards are also used to practise giving instruction: To make a call - Have money ready minutes or 10 minutes lift receiver - Listen for continuous purring - Dial number or code and number - When you hear rapid pips, insert in a coin 4.3.3 Jumbled texts In other activities, word cards are also helpful For instance, word cards are used for jumbled texts Each word card contains a word Then, the teacher asks students to make the longest sentence possible with these words and to build as many sentences as possible in five minutes Early Bent about man Five o’clock An Walked slowly Under old the thin yellow and trees Example: An old thin man slowly walked under the yellow bent trees about early five o’clock 4.3.4 Bingo card Bingo card is often considered to be a useful technique for revising or checking vocabulary However, in grammar practice, bingo card is also effective It can be used in controlled and guided practice stages For example, to practise the present perfect tense and the structure “have you ever done…?” in Unit 5(part E language focus, page 60), the teacher can give each student a piece of paper consisting of several squares and in each of square, there is a word or phrase Hai Phong had an accident broken a bone seen met famous people had flu been drunken gone abroad seen a fire The teacher has a pile of separate cue - cards, and offers each one at random, using the questions: - Who has ever been to Hai Phong? - Who has seen a ghost? - Who has gone abroad? The student who possesses the item answers: - I have been to Hai Phong - I have seen a ghost And receives the card with which he or she covers the item on the sheet The winner is the first to cover all his or her sheet 4.4 Using pictures Various types of pictures provide a great deal of activities for grammar practice 4.4.1 True / false game This kind of game is suitable for controlled practice It is introduced to make students think about meaning and they want to communicate In order to carry out this game, the teacher hangs a picture and makes a number of statements, some of which are true, some of which are false If the statement is true, the students repeat it, if it is false, the students correct it Example: practise “the present perfect tense” in unit 5(part E Language focus, page 60) Teacher: They are in restaurant Students: Yes, they are in a café Teacher: The girl has long hair Students: No, she has short hair Teacher: She has already eaten! Students: No, She is eating Teacher: The boy is eating with her Students: No, he is talking with her Teacher: The boy has drunk a grass of beer Students: No, he hasn’t Teacher: The girl’s friend has had lunch with her Students: Yes, he has left here If this game is done orally, then the students can correct the teacher when he or she makes a false statement If it is done in writing, then the teacher might write a number of sentences on the board and ask the students to copy the correct ones and correct the incorrect ones This game can be used to practise any structure the teacher wishes 4.4.2 Say what you see To practise the past tense (Unit 1, part E language focus, page19), the teacher prepares some picture flashcards on which reference for students to answer and to ask questions provided: 10 Teacher: (Holding up a picture of some apples) I have been to the shop What did I buy? Students: You bought some apples To make the activity more interesting and the language used more meaningful, the teacher should not show the picture to the students so that they must guess what he bought or saw Comment: the students may be attracted to the activity and they really communicate by trying to guess what the teacher did Their vocabulary is also improved 4.4.3 Describing picture Example: Describing changes In order to practise passive form in Unit 10 (part E Language focus, page 111), the teacher prepares a pair of pictures showing a situation or place before and after a set of changes Ask the students to imagine the second picture is the present and to describe what have been done 11 The teacher introduces picture A first and asks the students such questions as: - What are there on the table? - Is there any water in the glass? - How many apples are there? Then he shows picture B and the students observe what has changed Such sentences as the followings may be produced: - The apples have been eaten - The water has been drunk - The bread has been sliced Comment: This activity is very interesting and the teacher can exploit a lot from the picture Therefore, the students can communicate with each other to guess what happened to the cup and plates, to the eggs and so on 4.5 Using gestures- performance- facial expressions Students sometimes feel tired of long grammar practice, so to make it more exciting and relaxing, games should be added into the process of practice One of games creating excitement and relaxation is one that uses gestures- performance -facial expression Example: in Unit 13 (part E Language focus, page 139), the students have to practise sentences with attitudinal adjectives To carry out this activity, a set of cue cards with adjectives of attitude on them, another with short sentence describing actions that can be mimed should be prepared A student chooses one adjective and one phrase to mime the combination The other have to guess what was on the two cards by saying a sentence “At the end of the day’s work she is often exhausted” Depressed with this weather Bored with the program Excited about going to Singapore Interested in astronomy Comment: This kind of practice is really exciting It helps the teacher involve his students in the task, encourage them to talk and make them more active in this stage Applying the research in teaching English book 10 Class: 10A7, 10A9 Lesson plan UNIT 9: UNDERSEA WORLD Period 60 PART E: LANGUAGE FOCUS I Objectives: Education Aims: 12 - Students revise the use of "should" and conditional sentence type Knowledge: + Language: - Should - Conditional sentence type Skills: + Speaking: - Work in pairs to discuss the exercises + Reading: - Read words and sentences aloud - Read the sentences silently to the exercises II Anticipated problems: - Students may confuse these sounds with some sounds in Vietnamese III Teaching aids: - Board, chalk, textbook IV Procedure: Teacher's activities Students' activities I Should: Theory * Example : She should wear a warm - Look at the example coat in the winter - Elicit the form and the use of "should" - Give out the form and the usage from Ss Formation : ( +) S + should + V (without to) +O - Listen and take note ( - ) S + should + not + V (without to) +O ( ? ) Should + S + V (without to) +O? Usage: -Work in pairs to discuss and give "Should" is a modal verb that is used to an advice from each picture give advice + Picture 1: We shouldn’t smoke Practice + Picture 2: We should place • Give out some pictures (*) rubbish in proper dustbins + Picture 3: We should go -Ask Ss to work in pairs to give an camping advice from each picture + Picture 4: We should go to Sam - Listen and correct mistakes Son beach for this weekend Exercise *Exercise 1(page 102) - Look at Ex1 and to the task - Ask Ss to look at Ex1 and to the task - Work individually and then - Ask Ss to the exercise individually and then compare their answers in pairs compare their answers with their partner - Move round to conduct the activity - Expected answer: 13 - Check the exercise sentence by sentence - Listen and give remarks * Exercise (page 102) - Introduces the use of " I think/ I don't think should "by using some examples: Ex: Joana and Andrew are planning to go skiing this weekend You think it's a bad idea You; I think you should stay at home I don't think you should go skiing this weekend - Explain why " I don't think should " is preferred to" I think shouldn't .” - Ask Ss to Ex individually and then share the answers with their friends - Move round to help if necessary - Ask two Ss to this exercise on the board - Ask one Ss to give remarks - Check and gives remarks II Conditional sentence type 2: Theory - Elicit the form and the use of conditional sentence type from Ss by giving some examples: Ex: If my grandfather were still alive, he would be 100 today If I had a lot of money, I would lend you some - Ask Ss to read the examples - Give out the form as well as the use of conditional sentence type + Formation: If- clause, main clause S + V( P.S), S + would + V She should go away for a few days You should look for another job He shouldn't go to bed so late You should take a photograph She shouldn't use her car so much He should put some pictures on the wall - Look at the examples and listen to the teacher - Listen to the teacher - Do this Ex individually - Expected answer: I don’t think they should get married I think smoking should be banned, especially in restaurants I don't think you should go out this evening I think he should resign -Write down - Read the examples - Point out the formation and the usage of conditional sentence type 14 + Usage: an unreal situation at present or in the future Note: " were" is used with all persons Practice * Introduce a game named “ I’m a psychologist” Step 1: Prepare some flashcards with situations to ask Ss to give an advice for each situation (**) Ask Ss to work in groups of three to discuss Step 2: The leader of each group chooses one of the flash cards Each group has minutes to find out the way to solve the situation and then writes down an advice for that situation Step 3: Each group presents his advice in front of the whole class Step 4: The winner is the one who has the best advive - Listen and correct Ss’mistakes Exercise 3( page 103) - Ask Ss to the task in pairs - Go round to conduct the activity - Ask some pairs to read sentence by sentence - Listen and give remarks III Consolidation and homework - Get Ss to revise the lesson and redo exercises at home - Prepare for new lesson - Listen and take notes - Work in groups of three to discuss the situation - Choose one of the flash cards - Find out the way to solve the situation and then writes down an advice for that situation - Present - Expected answer: Situation 1: If I were you, I would go to bed early Situation 2: If I were you, I would take him to the veterinarian Situation 3: If I were you, I would call her Situation 4: If I were you, I would go to a cheaper restaurant - Do Ex in pairs - Expected answer: didn’t go pressed would feel would take refused wouldn't get closed down wouldn't be didn't come 10 borrowed 11 walked 12.would understand - Listen and take note (*) Some pictures are prepared for practicing the structure should and shouldn’t 15 Picture Picture Picture Picture (**) Situations for the game “I’m a psychologist” Situation 1: Situation 2: I feel very tired but I have so many My cat refuses to eat She looks very things to What would you if tired What would you if you you were me? were me? 16 Situation 3: Situation 4: It’s raining very heavily I’m afraid that I can’t come to visit my friend Because the bad weather will make my cough more seriously What would you if you were me? You’re with a friend outside a resstaurant You want to have a small party on her birthday But you’re looking at the prices which are very high What would you if you were me? EXPENDIXEX • Some grammar lessons at Dang Thai Mai high school • Students are attracted to picture flashcards 17 Using “bingo card” to practicing the present perfect tense This students are using gestures to describe his action 18 Students are really excited about real objects Students are practicing the simple past tense with word cards 19 Students are practicing the conditional sentences type with the game “ I am a psychologist” Result after applying the research in teaching From this research study, it can be concluded that teachers and 10 th form students at Dang Thai Mai high school are aware of the role of visual aids in teaching and learning grammar After applying the research, students have chance to express their own opinions about their ability to apply new grammar structures in practising and doing grammar exercises This data is collected from students: Know how to use Have difficulties in Impossible to Students new grammar practising new practise new total structures to grammar structures grammar structures practise 82 60(73,2%) 17(18,7%) (8,1%) Table 3: Analysis of the data collected from students after applying the research These figures show that it is really necessary to have a change in using visual aids to motivate students in practicing new structures The following data is the result of the school year 2016-2017 after applying the research (in comparison with the school year 2015-2016) Class 10A7 10A9 Number of students 39 43 Excellentgood (%) 45 40 Average (%) 45 52 Weak (bad) (%) 10 Table 4: Analysis of the data collected from the result of the school year 2016-2017 after applying the research 20 III CONCLUSION AND PROPOSAL Conclusion From this research study, it can be concluded that teachers and 10 th form students at Dang Thai Mai high school are aware of the role of visual aids in teaching and learning grammar It is also seen from above that the students have different reactions to different visual techniques that have been applied aiming at motivating their grammar acquisition The findings of this research also reveal that using computers and overhead projectors and teachers’ and learners’ actions and performance techniques have great potential in practising new structures to motivate 10th form students Nevertheless, because of limited time, knowledge, teaching experience, mistakes committed during the process of the study are unavoidable, I would be grateful to receive any comments on my study All comments and suggestions from other teachers and colleagues are highly appreciated Proposal Due to the small scope of the study and the limitations of the knowledge and experience, this study can not cover all aspects of the matter In this study, I just focus on using visual aids to motivate the tenth form students in practicing new grammar structures As a consequence, I can have the following study orientations: - Other suggested ways to motivate students in practicing new grammar structures - Besides the research in using Visual Aids at the practice stage, it can be applied at the presentation stage, the production stage and in teaching reading, speaking, listening and writing skill In conclusion, I hope that further studies will be carried out on other aspects of using visual aids in order to improve the quality of teaching and learning English at high schools I sincerely thank The confirmation of the headmaster Thanh Hoa, May 20th 2017 I assure this is my own experience initiative, not copying the contents of other people The writer Dao Thi Hong 21 REFERENCE BOOKS Hoang Van Tan (2010), English 10, Viet Nam: Education publisher Billows, F.L (1981).Visual Aids to Language Teaching In Nast, R T(ed) London: Longman Bowen, B.M (1982) Look here! Visual Aids in Language Teaching London: Macmillan Press London Lee, W.R & Coppen H (1970) Simple Audio Visual Aids to Foreign Language Teaching England: Oxford University Press Edition Lewis, M & Hill, J (1998).Practical Techniques for Language Teaching England: Language Teaching Publications Van Lam, Nguyen Thi & Phuong, Ngo Dinh (2007) English Teaching Methodology Vinh: Vinh University Wright, A & Haleem, S (1991).Visuals for the Language Classroom London: Longman 22 ... applying the research These figures show that it is really necessary to have a change in using visual aids to motivate students in practicing new structures The following data is the result of the. .. their ability to apply new grammar structures in practising and doing grammar exercises This data is collected from students: Know how to use Have difficulties in Impossible to Students new grammar. .. grammar structures As a consequence, I can have the following study orientations: - Other suggested ways to motivate students in practicing new grammar structures - Besides the research in using Visual