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

Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CONTENT PART 1: : THEORITICAL AND PRACTICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 : Theoritical and practical background 3 1.2 : Practical background PART 2: THE SOLUTION 2.1 : Presentation 2.2 : Questionaire 2.3 : Project based activity 11 2.4: Describing the pictures 12 5: Role- play 15 2.6: Chain games 17 2.7 : Mapped dailogue 17 2.8: Discussion 19 PART : DISCUSSION 21 CONCLUSION 25 REFERENCE 26 APPENDICES 27 Nam Yen Thanh High School _ _ Tran Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ INTRODUCTION Nowadays the trend of international intergration in many fields, including the field of education has put English a position of paramount importance Seeing the importance of this languge in international communication as well as in international intergration education in Viet Nam chooses English as a subject that plays a major role English is not only neccessary for the tourism , foreign trade but also a subject in GCSE examination So, each student needs a certain level of English to prepare for their exam and after graduating they must have at least the ability to communicate , read and write some common texts To achieve these requires, both teachers and students must work very hard, creatively all the time In teaching learning process, the teachers need to renovate teaching method to make students active and fun The differrent ways will help students to practice skills effectively and give them the ability of using foreign languages English has four skills : reading, speaking, listening and writing Foreign language learning requires students and teachers to focus on all skills because they are applied in daily life And linguistic knowledge is also very improtant for students when they study English because it always plays the role of the means and conditions to form communication skills Therefore, when studying language, students must focus on phonetics, vocabulary and grammatical points With the knowledge, students know about the linguistic, special knowledge about grammar, they can use them for communication In fact, the students at my school can written tests about grammartical knowledge rather well but they meet problems in speaking Because the teacher often asks students to exercises in their text books after they are introduced grammartical points, not use them to communicate So, teaching speaking skill for students in grammar lessons is very neccessary To help students speak English better, I designed some activities for production part of language focus periods of English 10 From the activities I applied, I have written a teaching experience named: “ Using some effective activites for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students.” Nam Yen Thanh High School _ _ Tran Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ From the above discussion, my experienced ideas will make a little contribution on applying the vocabulary and grammartical points for developing English speaking skill for 10th students CONTENT PART 1: THEORITICAL AND PRACTICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 : Theoritical background * What is grammar ? In order to tackle the issues related to language awareness and use, it is important to first give a definition of grammar According to David Crystal ( “ In Word and Deed.” TSE Teacher, April 30, 2004) , “Grammar is the structural foundation of our ability to express ourselves The more we are aware of how it works, the more we can monitor the meaning and effectiveness of the way we and others use language It can help foster precision, detect ambiguity, and exploit the richness of expression available in English And it can help everyone-not only teachers of English, but teachers of anything, for all teaching is ultimately a matter of getting to grips with meaning” So, a grammar is a description of the rules of the structure of a language; the way words combine, the order they come in, the way they change according to their relationship to other words, how they build up into units like a sentence etc We can have other definition of grammar is that grammar is the characteristic system of inflections and syntax of a language and it is a system of rules that defines the grammatical structure of a language * What is teaching grammar? Grammar is very important and central to the teaching and learning of languages because it helps the learners express their ideas that are understood by the listeners It is also one of the more difficult aspects of language to teach well Many people, including language teachers, hear the word "grammar" and think of a fixed set of word forms and rules of usage They associate "good" grammar with the prestige forms of the language, such as those used in writing and in formal oral presentations, and "bad" or "no" grammar with the language used in everyday conversation or used by speakers of nonprestige forms Nam Yen Thanh High School _ _ Tran Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ When teaching grammar, many teachers often teach a set of forms and rules They teach grammar by explaining the forms and rules and then drilling students on them This result is bored, disaffeted students who can produce correct forms on exercises and tests, but consistently makes errors when they try to use the language in context Meanwhile, other language teachers, influenced by recent theoretical work on the difference between language learning and language acquisition , tend not to teach grammar at all Believing that children acquire their first language without overt grammar instruction, they expect students to learn their second language the same way They assume that students will absorb grammar rules as they hear, read and use language in communication activities This approach does not allow students to use one of the major tools they have as learners: their active understanding of what grammar is and how it works in the language they already know From two ways of teaching grammar above, we see that teaching forms and rules in grammar lessons is neccessary but undestanding the meaning of grammatical points and then using them for communication are more important So, appying the communicative approach in teaching grammar can balance these extremes This aproach recogrnizes that overt grammar instruction helps students acquire the language more efficiently, but it incorporates grammar teaching and learning into the larger context of teaching students to use language Instructors using this model teach students the grammar they need to know to accomplish defined communication tasks The purpose of teaching grammar in new trend is helping students communicate in real situations To gain this goal, teacher must let students speak , speak and speak This means that in process of teaching grammatical points, teacher should design the activites to develope speaking skill for students 1.2 : Practical background At my school, in grammar lessons, students are often required to exercies in their books to apply knowledge they have learnt These controlled and repeatedly activities make students feel bored and they not have many chances to practice what they have learnt in communication So, designing activites for students to speak at class when they study grammatical points is neccesary In the early school year, I did two surveys in class 10A4 at my school to check students’ ability of understanding and using the grammatical points they learnt: The first survey was done to check the ability of doing exercises in written test and the _ _ Nam Yen Thanh High School Tran Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ second survey was done to check the ability of speaking ( including accuracy and fluency) The first survey was a multiple choice exercises with content about the use of be going to and present progressive ( Unit 6- English 10 ) : Choose the best answer to complete each following sentences: I feel terrible I think I _sick A will be B am going to be C am being D was going to be The cat is just behind the rat It _the latter A is catching B was catching C.is going to catch D are going to catch You are going to repaint your room, ? A aren’t you B are you C don’t you D won’t you My mother is going to _a new bicycle for me at my birthday next week A have bought B to buy C buying D buy Some students in my class _their summer vacation at home A are not going to spend B are going to not spend C are not going to spending D are not spending He has just filled that bucket with water wash the car, isn’t he? A Is he going to B He is going to C He is going C He is going to wash Key: 1.B C A D A B With the exercise above, I see that there are about 30% students to get mark 10; 40% students to get mark 8-9; 20% students get mark 6-7; 10% students get mark 4-5 This result shows that students can exercises in written tests quite good and they can use the grammartical points for doing exercises in their books rather correctly Nam Yen Thanh High School _ _ Tran Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ But when I ask students to use be going to and present progessive to make a dialogue to talk about the birthday party next week, they meet some mistakes ( The second survey ) The conversation Error analyzing Hoa : Good evening, mum! Mum : Good evening What are you writing, Hoa ? Hoa : I’m writing a letter to dad to tell about the plan for my birthday Mum : Really ? Your birthday will come -will come: Wrong tense - will celabrate: Wrong tense Hoa : Yes, it’s on Saturday this week And I will celebrate it on Saturday night Mum : All right What is your plan for the party ? Hoa : I am going to inviting all my classmates and - going to inviting: Wrong form of tenses some neighbours Mum : What about food and drink ? - I going to buy: Short of “be” Hoa : I going to buy a birthday cake, some fruit and drink such as : apples, mangoes, oranges and Cocacola - going prepare: short of “ to” Mum : are you going prepare pop music? - going not to play: wrong order Hoa : No, I am going not to play pop music but of the sentence prepare dance music Mum : That’s sounds interesting Hoa : Thanks mum! I hope my dad will be at home on my birthday I also did the same surveys with other grammatical points such as: Used to + infinitive; Tenses; Comparision and realized that students can better at written tests than oral tests because they are rarely taught how to speak at grammar lessons Nam Yen Thanh High School _ _ Tran Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ Almost teachers only focus on presenting structures and rules to exercises in their books To help students correct the mistakes mentioned above, I design some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons of English 10 With these activities students can understand more the grammatical points they have learnt and apply them in real situations for communication PART 2: THE SOLUTION There are many writings about improving speaking English accuracy and fluency, they are both techniques and activities We can apply these theories for our teaching and learning process But with the level of my students, I have some other techniques and activities to motivate them to speak English From these exercies, students will know how to apply vocabulary and grammartical structures to communicate and the grammar lessons become more interesting for them In English 10, students study many grammartical structures and they are used a lot in speaking everyday such as : tenses, questions, relative clauses So, I have designed types of exercies to apply these grammatical points I applied these ativities to give the production for students after they are introduced grammar structures and after they have done some kinds of exercies in their text books.The activities I applied are: - Presentation : This activity is used to raise students’ speaking ability in front of class by talking about themself or some other discussions - Questionaire : It is used to help students be more confident in talking by doing a survey and then making the report - Project based activity: It is used to help student know how fluency they speak English by record what they had spoken - Describing the pictures : Students know how to tell information appeared in the pictures and this activities make them more motivative in learning - Role- play : This activity helps students act as the person in the situation and make them feel they are the person in the real situations - Chain games : It is used to help students create in giving information They can like this very much Nam Yen Thanh High School _ _ Tran Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ - Mapped dailogue : Students can make a mini - dailogue depending on some suggestions ( word cues, pictures ) - Discussion : Students can give out their ideas about some problems or give out the reasons for their choice of something During the process of practicing, teacher notes students about the pronunciation of words, linking words ( stand- up, look- at, it’s my friend ) , or intonation of the sentences and encourage them trying to avoid the hesitation , pause in speaking( John, John or J-J-John ) And here are the uses of these activities in real lessons 2.1 : Presentation ( Applied in Unit 1: A day in the life of ) * Unit : A day in the life of a Aim of activity: This activity is used in Unit to help students talk about themself by using The present simple tense, past simple tense and adverbs of frequency b Time for activity: minutes c Way of organising : Pairwork and individual work d.Preparation: Teacher prepares a poster on the board with brainstorming information: Talking about yourself, base on the information Name Nam Yen Thanh High School _ _ Tran Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ ` e Procuduce: 2.Date/Place of birth * Step 1: Teacher hangs out the poster on the board, asks students to work in pairs in minutes to share information about themselves, base on the infomation on the 6.Activities poster Teacher notes students to speak in sequence from to Teacher can guide last Sunday students to start the presentation with : YOURSELF Family Hello/ Hi/ Good morning everybody My name is .Today, I am very happy to talk to all of you about myself and to fininsh the presentation with: That’s all Thanks for your listening Have a good day! Or students can choose other ways to present4.information Hobbies 5.Daily Teacher can gives out activities a model for the class with low or average level of students: Hello everybody! My name is Hong Today I am very happy to talk to all of you about myself I was born on 12th April 1997 in Vien Thanh and now I am 16 years old There are four people in my family : my parents, my brothers and I Now we are living in Vien Thanh village I love my family very much I like reading picture books such as: Doremon, Conan and I often listen to music in my freetime Everyday, I get up at a.m to study old lesson I go to school in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon At p.m, I usually play volleyball with my friends and I often help my mother cook dinner at p.m In the evening, I my homework at p.m and go to bed at 10.30 It was very special for me Last Sunday I went to the beach with my family It was very interesting That made me feel stronger for a new week Nam Yen Thanh High School _ _ Tran Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ That’s all Thanks for your listening Have a good day! * Step 2: After minutes, teacher calls students to go to the board and present in front of the class Teacher asks other students to comment students’ speaking 2.2 : Questionaire ( Applied in Unit 2, Unit 12, Unit 14 ) * Unit : School talks a Aim of activity : This activity is used to help students to be more active and confident in communication by applying Wh- questions for speaking b Time of activity : minutes c Way of organising : Group work of four d Preparation: Teacher preapare a questionaire like this on hand out: A Questionaire Questions to ask Me Fr.1 Fr.2 Fr.3 Date and place of birth Height Weight Brother(s) & Sister(s) 5.Means of transport Secondary school 7.Favourite subject 8.Favourite sport Favourite music 10 Future job 10 Nam Yen Thanh High School _ _ Tran Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ Nam : I think we had better eat the healthy food such as : vegetable, fruit, fish, eggs or meat but not too much meat Hung : That’s a good idea And I think we shouldn’t smoke, drink or stay up late Nam : I agree with you We also should live in a clean environment with fresh air Hung : Yes, I think health is very important, so we should keep us strong everyday Let’s go to play soccer Nam: Let’s go 2.8: Discussion ( Applied for Unit 16 ) Unit 16 : The historical places a Aims of activity : It is used to help students to give out their ideas about the place they want to go picnic in the next summer by using the comparison b Time: 10 minutes c Way of organising: group work d Preparation: Teacher prepares two pictures and a set of cards like below and makes sufficient copies for the class: Cua Lo Town Ho Chi Minh square 20 Nam Yen Thanh High School _ _ Tran Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ Location Cua Lo Town Price VND 600,000 for days Food sea food Activities swimming, playing some games on the beach Room people per room Time from school to hour by bus get there Location Vinh city Price VND 700,000 for days Food sea food and other food Activities visiting some supermarkets such as: BigC, Maximax and Ho Chi Minh Square Room people per room Time from school to hour and 20 minutes by bus get there e Proceduce: * Step 1: - Teacher asks students to work in group of 5, distributes each group a set of cards and tells them to study the card carefully - Teacher then tells students to discuss to choose one place they want to go for picnic and give out the reasons for their choice by using the grammartical point: Comparison The time to discuss is minutes Teacher goes around checking and offering help - Teachers can model a conversation like this: A: I’d like to visit Cua Lo town beacause it’s cheaper 21 Nam Yen Thanh High School _ _ Tran Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ B: But there are more people in a room than in Vinh City C: I think the sea food in Cua Lo is fresher D: * Step 2: - Teacher calls on some groups to perform in front of the class and provides corrective feedback - Teacher can give marks for the best group PART 3: DISCUSSION 3.1 : Comparing Comparing students’speaking skill before and after teaching speaking through applying some grammartical items in grammar lessons Let’s see the presentation of students about yourself Before applying After applying Hoa : Good evening, mum! Hoa : Good evening, mum! Mum : Good evening What are you Mum : Good evening What are you writing, Hoa ? writing, Hoa ? Hoa : I’m writing a letter to dad to tell Hoa : I’m writing a letter to dad to tell about the plan for my birthday about the plan for my birthday Mum : Really ? Your birthday will come Mum : Really ? Your birthday is coming Hoa : Yes, it’s on Saturday this week And Hoa : Yes, it’s on Saturday this week And I will celebrate it on Saturday night I am celebrating it on Saturday night Mum : All right What is your plan for the Mum : All right What is your plan for the party ? party ? Hoa : I am going to inviting all my Hoa : I am going to invite all my classmates and some neighbours classmates and some neighbours Mum : What about food and drink ? Mum : What about food and drink ? Hoa : I going to buy a birthday cake, Hoa : I am going to buy a birthday cake, some fruit and drink such as : apples, some fruit and drink such as : apples, mangoes, oranges and Cocacola mangoes, oranges and Cocacola 22 Nam Yen Thanh High School _ _ Tran Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ Mum : music? Are you going prepare pop Mum : Are you going to prepare pop music? Hoa : No, I am going not to play pop Hoa : No, I am not going to play pop music but prepare dance music music but prepare dance music Mum : That sounds interesting Mum : That sounds interesting Hoa : Thanks mum! I hope my dad will Hoa : Thanks mum! I hope my dad will be at home on my birthday be at home on my birthday After teaching speaking by applying some grammartical items for communication, we have found that most of students have made much progress in speaking ability First, their common errors in the early school year have been improved : - Wrong tense: will come-> is coming ; will celebrate - > am celebrating - Wrong form of tenses: going to inviting- > going to invite - Short of “be”: I going to buy -> I am going to buy - Short of “ to”: going prepare -> going to prepare - Wrong order of the sentence: going not to play -> not going to play Second, most of students are more interested in grammar lessons because they are motivated to use the language in real situations And they exercises for the tests more correctly due to the understanding of grammartical points.When we ask them to speak English, they are eager to speak in self- confidence 3.2 : Commenting After applying these activities for teaching in two years, I see that the speaking skill of students are improved day by day I use the questionaires to know how students reach with the ways the teacher teach them and how they mange with the grammar lessons Questionaires How often you practice speaking English at class in grammar lessons after they are introduce the grammartical points? 23 Nam Yen Thanh High School _ _ Tran Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ A always B usually C sometimes D never If the teacher gets you to practice grammartical points by doing exercises only, how many percent of the knowledge can you receive or how you feel about the lesson? 10% 60% 20% 30% 40% 50% 70% 80% 90% 100% Do you often prepare the lessons before the class ? How you prepare the grammar lessons at home ? How did your classmates and you act in speaking activities for grammar lessons in production part ? Do you think teaching speaking skill by applying some grammartical points in grammar lessons is an useful way to improve your speaking skill ? Why? I gave these questionaires to the students od the class 10D1 ( a good at English class), 10A1 (a quite good at English class ) and 10A4 (a medium and week at English class) Most of the students agreed that they were active in grammar lessons in production part ( question 4) because they understood more about the structures and meanings of grammartical points they had learnt And they can use what they know about English to communicate with each other From these activities, they can have chances to speak in real situations beacause leaning language is learning the way to communicate ( Question ) I gave the questions to the students at classes The answer of the students is general that sometimes they practice speaking but only in sentence such as : I used to get up late when I was small Because the level of students is different, teachers may find it difficult to design the activities for the lessons 24 _ _ Nam Yen Thanh High School Tran Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ However, the other questions may have different answers Most students often prepare the lesson at home but they only know the structures, not much about the meaning or the using of it And these are the results of the students’ability to speak English after and before the activities are applied Years: Before/ after Class Number students of Good Quite good Average Weak Very week 2013/2014 10D1 40/40 12/ 20 10/15 18/5 0 2013/2014 10A1 42/42 10/ 15 8/13 18/13 4/2 2013/2014 10A4 40/40 0/4 3/8 17/14 20/14 When I asked my teachers at school about these activities, they said that these were very interesting and useful for developing speaking skill and students could understand more about the grammartical points through these activities These numbers prove that teaching and studying English at high schools still have so many limitations, especially in the countrysides Students not have many chances to practice speaking English, so teacher should create as many interesting activities as possible for the lessons in textbook for this skill And grammar lessons are an example of creation of teachers CONCLUSION During the school years, I usually used these activities for the production part of grammar lessons in developing speaking skill for 10th form students I prepared the lessons very carefully at home with pictures or questionaires I saw that my students were very motivated and active in speaking, Futhermore, they better at written tests or oral tests I think this is a good way to improve students’ speaking skill 25 Nam Yen Thanh High School _ _ Tran Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ With these activites, I think teachers can apply for their schools, specially schools in the rural areas because students not have many chances to practice speaking English outside For the better students, teachers can design exercises more difficult to motivate them Limit of time and ability prevented me from doing this assignment perfectly, I hope that I will receive the suppotive ideas from the readers I also expect that the readers, especially teachers can find something useful for the teaching job REFERENCES 1.Thiết kế giảng Tiếng Anh 10 (2007); Nguyễn Thuý Minh & Lương Quỳnh Trang; Nhà xuất Hà Nội 2.Thiết kế hoạt động dạy học Tiếng Anh 10 (2006); Kiều Hồng Vân & Nguyễn 26 Nam Yen Thanh High School _ _ Tran Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ Thị Hoa Lý; Nhà xuất Giáo Dục Sách giáo viên Tiếng Anh 10 ( 2006 ); Hoàng Văn Vân chủ biên; Nhà xuất Giáo Dục 4.Harmer, J (1991) The Practice of Language Teaching Longman Widdowson, H.G (1978) Teaching Language as Communication Oxford University 6.Iteslij org/Techniques/ Kayi Teaching Speaking ntml Teaching/monster com www.youtube.com/watch APPENDICES 27 Nam Yen Thanh High School _ _ Tran Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ APPENDIX Doing a survey ( questionaire ) : 40 students How you like learning grammar lessons when you are practiced speaking in production part ? A very much: % B not very much: % C little: % D.not at all : % How you understand the meaning grammatical points in the lessons? A very much: % B not very much: % C little: % D.not at all : % How you feel like the activitties for practicing speaking skill? A very much: % B not very much: % C little: % D not at all : % How you feel confident when speaking English before the class ? A much confident ? % B confident ? % C little confident ? % C not confident ? % How can you speak English in real situations? A very fluently: .% B fluently: % C little fluently: % D not fluency: % * The answer: How you like learning grammar lessons when you are practiced speaking in production part ? A very much: 70% B not very much: 20% C little: 10% D not at all : 0% How you understand the meaning grammatical points in the lessons after practice speaking ? A very much: 60% B not very much: 25% 28 Nam Yen Thanh High School _ _ Tran Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ C little: 15% D not at all : % How you feel like the activitties for practicing speaking skill? A very much: 75 % B not very much: 15% C little: 10% D.not at all : 0% How you feel confident when speaking English before the class ? A much confident : 45% B confident: 30% C little confident: 15% D not confident : 10 % How can you speak English in real situations? A very fluently: 45% B fluently: 25% C little fluently: 20% D not fluently: 10% 29 Nam Yen Thanh High School _ _ Tran Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ APPENDIX Giving an oral test : 10 students Teacher asks students to talk in minutes with the topic: Yourself, your family and your daily activities Score: Students Accuracy Fluency 8 7 9 7 8 10 8 30 Nam Yen Thanh High School _ _ Tran Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ APPENDIX Some pictures in the classroom about the practicing of students at class Students work in pair 31 Nam Yen Thanh High School _ _ Tran Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ Students work in group 32 Nam Yen Thanh High School _ _ Tran Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ A student is making a survey A student is talking before the class APPENDIX Students’ score for 45- minute test Number Class test Amount Good of Quite good Average Week 33 Nam Yen Thanh High School _ _ Tran Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ students 10A4 40 12 15 10A4 40 12 16 3 10A4 40 16 19 34 Nam Yen Thanh High School _ _ Tran Thi Lien ... Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ APPENDIX Some pictures in the. .. Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ From the above discussion, my experienced... Thi Lien Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons to improve speaking skill for 10th form students _ When teaching grammar,