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

Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students the Reasons for choosing the subject: Why grammatical structure teaching? The fact at secondary schools has proved that grammar, especially grammatical structure is the first care of both teachers and students when teaching 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 the grammatical exercises very well but ironically cannot utter a grammatical sentence 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 grammar knowledge?…These considerations have prompted this thesis which studies grammatical structure teaching Why dialogues? Dialogues have come into our thoughts as the best solution for their advantages of promoting communication in language classes Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures certainly avoids boring English classes and makes the teaching done well So far, dialogues are able to turn bookish grammatical structures into grammatical structures in use Why the 10th form students? Being beginners, the 10th form students have not been used to learning English in traditional methods Thus, we think, they can adopt changes in learning ways more easily in comparison to the 11th and 12th form students Moreover, during our Teaching Training Course, we were allotted to teaching some 10th form classes That gave us a lot of opportunities to apply the techniques 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 10th form students KiỊu Hun Tr©m - 40A2 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students the Aims of study: The aims of our study are:  To help teachers aware of some advantages of using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures  To investigate the state of teaching grammar at secondary schools (especially the state of using dialogue in teaching), the contents of grammar in the 10th form  To help teachers aware of common grammatical errors students usually make  To suggest some ways of using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students  To guide teachers to apply (or create more) techniques and activities of using dialogues into particular lessons the Scope of study: This thesis is about using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students All provided activities and techniques are based on the target grammatical structure contents in the 10th form textbook the Methods of study:  Collecting method  Descriptive method  Statistical method  Doing research design  Analytic method  Systematic method  Experimental method the Design of study: Apart from acknowledgements, table of contents and references, the thesis consists of three main parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion Part A “Introduction” presents the reasons for choosing the subject, the aims, the methods, the scope of the study and also its design Part B “Development” comprises four chapters: KiỊu Hun Tr©m - 40A2 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students  Chapter deals with the theoretical preliminaries  Chapter is about the state of teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students In this chapter, we emphasize some types of grammatical errors of the 10th form students and the state of using dialogues in teaching as well  Chapter is the main chapter, which is named: “Some suggested ways of applying dialogues to improve grammatical structure teaching to the 10th form students” It is sub-divided into two parts The first parts deals with applying dialogues to introduce new grammatical structures The second deals with applying dialogues to help students practise the target grammatical structures  Chapter suggests a sample lesson plan Part C is the “Conclusion” of the thesis KiỊu Hun Tr©m - 40A2 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students Table of contents Page table of contents acknowledgements Chapter 1: 1.1 1.1.1 1.1.2 1.2 1.2.1 1.2.2 1.3 1.3.1 1.3.2 1.3.2.1 1.3.2.2 1.3.2.3 1.4 1.4.1 1.4.2 Chapter 2: Part A: introduction Reasons for choosing the subject The aims of study The scope of study The methods of study The design of study Part B: Development 2 2 Theoretical preliminaries Grammar and grammatical structure Grammar Grammatical structure, a specific item of grammar 4 5 6 7 8 8 Grammar and approaches to language teaching Grammar and traditional method Grammar and communicative method Grammatical structure teaching Form or function Common procedure of grammatical structure teaching Presentation Practice Production Dialogue as a teaching device Dialogue Dialogues and grammatical structure teaching The state of teaching grammatical structures to the 11 10th form students at Vietnamese secondary schools KiỊu Hun Tr©m - 40A2 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students 2.1 2.1.1 2.1.2 2.1.3 2.1.3.1 2.1.3.2 2.1.3.2.1 2.1.3.2.2 2.1.3.2.3 2.3 Chapter 3: The state of grammar teaching at Vietnamese secondary schools Goals and problems of grammar teaching at Vietnamese secondary schools Contents of Grammar in the English 10th form textbook Common errors Research design Results of the research design and presentation of common English grammatical errors of the 10th form students Errors of form Errors of meaning Errors of use The state of using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures 3.1.1 3.1.1.1 3.1.1.2 3.1.1.3 3.1.1.4 3.1.2 3.1.2.1 3.1.2.2 11 13 15 15 16 16 17 18 19 Some suggested ways of applying dialogues to improve grammatical structure teaching to 21 the 10th form students 3.1 11 Choosing or building dialogues to introduce new grammatical structures Criteria of dialogues as a teaching device Dialogue should contain natural speech and reflect actual language use The situations presented in dialogues should be relevant to the age, care and needs of the students Dialogues should be short, simple but be able to represent a complete unit of conversational meaning Dialogues should both illustrate the meaning and contextualize the functions of new grammatical structures Some suggested types of dialogues illustrating new grammatical structures Cummings device Contrasting dialogues KiỊu Hun Tr©m - 40A2 21 21 21 22 24 24 25 25 27 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students 3.1.2.3 3.1.2.4 3.2 3.2.1 3.2.2 3.2.3 3.2.3.1 3.2.3.2 3.2.3.3 3.2.3.3.1 3.2.3.3.2 3.2.3.4 3.2.3.5 3.2.3.5.1 3.2.3.5.2 3.2.4 3.2.4.1 3.2.4.2 3.2.4.3 3.2.4.4 3.2.4.5 Chapter 4: Rituals Companion dialogues 27 29 Some dialogue activities of practising the target grammatical structures Disappearing dialogues Dialogue rearrangement Dialogue constructing Beehive drill (or chain drill) Concentric circle drill Information gap Exchanging information Personal interview “Cued” dialogues Role-plays Improvising role-plays Situational role - plays Dialogue games Who am I? Don’t say “Yes” or “No” Invitation Galore The silent conversation My life A sample lesson plan using dialogues in 31 31 32 32 32 33 34 34 35 36 38 38 40 42 42 43 44 45 46 48 teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students (Lesson 27: What’s he doing now?) 4.1 4.2 48 49 54 Introducing grammatical points Having students practise grammatical points Part C: Conclusion References KiÒu Hun Tr©m - 40A2 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students Chapter Theoretical preliminaries 1.1 Grammar and grammatical structure 1.1.1 Grammar 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: Structure - usually means morphosyntax : forms and ordering of forms Rules and exceptions Organization of the structure of the language 1.1.2 Grammatical structure, a specific item of grammar We mostly work at the level of sentences and grammatical structure is usually understood as a system of interrelated words, which makes a meaningful utterance The meaning is derived from the relations that hold between the elements 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; it would be helpful to have a frame of reference Diane Larsen has proposed the form of a pie chart Its shape helps us to make salient that in dealing with the complexity of grammatical structures, three dimensions must concern us: form, meaning and the pragmatic conditions governing use Moreover, as they are wedges of a single pie, we note further that the dimensions are not hierarchically arranged as many traditional characterizations of linguistic strata depict Finally, the arrows connecting one wedge of the pie with illustrated another illustrate the interconnectedness of the KiÒu HuyÒn Tr©m - 40A2 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students three dimensions; thus a change in any one wedge will have repercussions for the other two 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 FORM MEANING Morphosyntactic and lexical patterns; Phonemic/graphic patterns Lexical meaning; Grammatical meaning USE Social context; Linguistic discourse Presuppositions about context (Page 252 - Teaching Grammar; Teaching English as a second language or foreign language - Marianne Cele, Murcia) 1.2 Grammar and approaches to language teaching In this paper, we only try to study the status of grammar in the traditional method and in the communicative language teaching The former still has a great influence on teaching and learning foreign languages at Vietnamese secondary schools 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 GrammarTranslation method It is undeniable that the traditional method is an overt focus on grammar The teaching techniques controlled by the Grammar-Translation method, so that are rather book-oriented The language is presented in short grammatical chapters or lessons, each contains a few grammatical points or rules, which are set out and illustrated by examples The grammatical features are not disguised or hidden A technical grammatical terminology is not avoided either Generally, the medium of instruction is the mother tongue, which is used to explain conceptual problems and to discuss the use of a particular KiỊu Hun Tr©m - 40A2 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students grammatical structure The learner is expected to study and memorize a particular rule and examples It all sounds rather dull but it can be argued that the traditional method has over the years had a remarkable success Million of people have successfully learnt foreign languages to high degree of proficiency and in numerous 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 the learners must learn not only to make grammatically correct statements about the experiential world, but must also develop the ability to use language to get things done According to these approaches, grammar teaching is not neglected but is no longer the centre of language teaching process It is recognized that simply being able to create grammatically correct structures in language does not necessarily enable the learner to use the language to carry out various realworld tasks Besides knowledge of code (language competence), we need something else for communication, that is communicative competence As a result, the techniques of grammar teaching in communicative method are not book-oriented anymore By animating and motivating his students to find out grammatical rules, structures, exceptions, and use… to integrate such knowledge 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 grammatical structure is whether the focus of grammar class should be on form or on function Teacher and material designers who believe that form is primary maintain that students should understand and remember structures as many as possible The main danger of this approach is that even though students may leave 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, after all, the main purpose of a grammar class KiÒu Hun Tr©m - 40A2 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students Because of this potential danger, today many teachers and material designers believe that grammatical structure teaching should focus on the function or purpose that language serves Thus, they maintain that students should be taught various ways to ask for information, make a suggestion, or refuse an invitation since there are real reasons for using language A teacher has to select the structures whose functions are useful and necessary to communicate What the teacher must is to carefully select which forms to teach for each function and to make it clear to the students in which situations each form would be appropriate 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 correctly made simple statements such as “Please give me a coke” They need to be aware of the fact that they are making a request and that there are other ways of saying the same thing (e.g., “A coke, please”, “Would it be possible to get a coke?” etc) Furthermore, they need to know when it would be appropriate to use English both correctly and appropriately; we need to include in our grammar 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' utterances (Byrne.D.1996) This framework corresponds to stages of learning skill: Verbalization Automatization Autonomy Presentation Practice Production 1.3.2.1 Presentation KiỊu Hun Tr©m - 40A2 10 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students Basing on the target particular grammatical structures of each lesson, the teacher can come up with particular situational role-plays The following roleplays are some sample ones a A telephone call: - Aims: Skills: Speaking, listening Grammar: Questions and answers Language functions: Making and answering a telephone call - Control: Guided - Organisation: Pairs - Preparation: Cards - Procedure: Divide the class into pairs, give each partner a card, which indicates what he/she must Speaker A begins; Speaker B is then given two responses on the card and thus must listen carefully to speaker A to determine the correct response Next, speaker A is provided with two choices to response to speaker B The speakers must summarize the content of the exchange Player A It’s p.m Your name is David There’s a good movie tonight You call your friend Harry to see if he’d like to go with you Rnd 1- Ask B if you may please speak to Harry Rnd 2:- Ask B when Harry will get back - Tell B that’s all right, you don’t mind waiting Rnd 3:- Tell B fine, you’ll call back in 15 minutes - Ask B if he’ll tell Harry that David called Player B It’s p.m You live in a house with several other people The phone rings KiÒu HuyÒn 40A2 Marvin Jones or Marvin David? Rnd 1: -Tr©m Which- Marvin? - 43 Tell A that you’re sorry, but Harry’s not in Rnd 2: -Tell A that Harry should be back in half an hour Ask him if you can take a message Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students who called? whom did he want to talk? b Can we go swimming? - Aims: Skills: Speaking, listening Grammar focus: Can-question (asking for permission) Language functions: Making requests; Refusing and giving in to requests - Control: Free - Organisation: Groups and pairs - Preparation: None - Procedure: Divide the class into two groups One group is to play the part of the parents The other group is the children Brief them as follow: Children: Make a list you would like to have or do, such as going swimming, playing monopoly, buying a new shirt and so on Parents: Think of many ways as you can of responding to children’s requests, both positively and negatively For example:  Of course you can!  All right  No, not now  Another time  Okay, just this time  Ask your father  First finish your homework KiÒu HuyÒn Tr©m - 40A2 44 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students Ask the groups to report back and write a selection of their examples on the board Each parent should now pair off with a child The children should ask the parents for some of the things they listed in Step The adults’ task is initially to refuse the request and then finally, to give in As soon as a request is complied with, the child should make the next request For example: Child: Can we go to the circus today? Parent: What did you say? Child: Please can we go to the circus today? Parent: No, not today Child: Can we go tomorrow? Pretty please? Parent: Perhaps But first tidy your room Child: I have tidied my room Please, please, please? Parent: Yes, all right Let’s go Child: Thank you! Can I have some popcorn at the circus? Parent: Do you know how much it costs? It’s expensive… The adults and children reverse roles This role-play can be applied to practise the verb “can“ in LESSON 30 (“Can I have a look at that pullover, please?”, page 158-161) 3.2.4 Dialogue games: Another way in which you might use dialogues is what Margot Kimbal and Adrian call a dialogue game (1987 ’The dialogue game: a Protypical Activity for Providing Proper Intake in Formal Instruction.’ TESOL Quarterly 12, I: 17-30) The object of a dialogue game is for the students to produce a short dialogue These games help the teacher to create contexts in which the language is useful and meaningful They also help and encourage many learners to sustain their interest and work By making the language convey information and opinion, dialogue games provide the key feature of “drill” with the opportunities to sense the working of language as living communication 3.2.4.1 Who am I? - Aims: Skills: Speaking, listening Grammar: Practicing forming and using interrogatives - Control: Free KiỊu Hun Tr©m - 40A2 45 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students - Organisation: Pairs - Preparation: Small strips of paper and safety pins - Procedure: Each student thinks of the name of a well-known personality, living or dead, whom they would expect the whole class to know The student writes the name on a piece of paper and folds the paper Collect all the names in a box Shake the box and ask each student to pull out a paper Tell the students not to unfold the paper Distribute one safety pin to each of the students Make sure that the students not select the paper they put into the box Put the students into pairs, naming one partner A and the other B Tell A to pin B’s paper with the name to B’s back B must not know this name Repeat this previous step, telling B to pin B's paper with the name to A’s back Ask A to try to guess the name pinned on A’s back by asking B questions in the first person (e.g, “Am I a man or a woman?” “Am I dead or alive?” “Am I a famous singer?”…) Have B use the same process to find out the name pinned on B’s back Ask the students to take off their name papers, put them back in the box, and repeat the procedure - Variations: Other names, such as those of countries or animals, can be used instead of famous people (e.g, “Am I a large or a small country?” “ Am I in Asia?” “Do I eat meat?” “Do I live in forests?”…) (Dino Maboney, an associate professor in the English Department of the City University of Hong Kong, contributes this game.) 3.2.4.2 Don”t say ”Yes” or ”No” - Aims: Skills: Speaking, listening Grammar: Asking questions, especially asking tag questions, and giving complete phrases for answers using: of course, of course not, perhaps, clearly, obviously… - Control: Free - Organisation: Class work leading to group or pair work - Preparation: None KiỊu Hun Tr©m - 40A2 46 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students - Procedure: Divide the class into two teams (or more than two if that class is large Each team puts a number of questions to the other team Each question must be answered without delay and without the use of either “Yes” or “No” The team, which answers the most questions in this way, wins The questions may be:  Your name is Peter, isn’t it?  You live near the school, don’t you?  Your don’t come to school by bus, you? The learners should reply that:  Not at all, my name is Ann  Not quite, my home is a long way from school  Indeed I 3.2.4.3 Invitation Galore - Aims: Skills: Speaking Grammar: Structures of invitations and replies for invitations - Control: Guided - Organisation: Groups - Preparation: Teacher-made game board and invitation cards for every four to eight students; Die for each board game; Place marker, such as coins, for each student - Procedure: Have the students form groups of four to eight Give each group a game board, set of cards, and die Give each student a place marker Explain the rules of the game:  Taking turns, students roll the die, move their space markers the number of spaces indicated on the die, and follow the directions written in the square on which they land  If students are instructed to pick a card, they must express the invitation stated on the card to a classmate (see Appendix) The invited student must accept or reject the invitation and, in the case of a rejection, give a reason KiÒu HuyÒn Tr©m - 40A2 47 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students  The first student to reach the finish point on the game board wins - Appendix: Sample game card statements:  Ask a friend to go with you to the movies  Ask a classmate to meet you after class so that you can study together  Ask someone in the class to go out with you on a date  You are visiting a relative Ask a classmate to go with you  Your little brother or sister is acting in a school play next weekend Ask a classmate to go with you  You are invited to a party and can be accompanied with a friend Ask a classmate to go with you  You best friend is getting married and you are having a party Ask a classmate who also knows your friend to come to the party You may specify on the cards whom to invite, such as the person on your left or the person cross from you, or let the students choose whom to invite (Margo Menconi, an English teacherin Brask, Russia, contributes this game) 3.2.4.4 The silent conversation - Aims: Skills: Writing Grammar: Quick question and responses - Control: Free - Organisation: Class - Preparation: Big pile of paper for writing notes - Procedure: Push enough desks together to make a big table Sit with the students around the table Everyone needs a pen or pencil Put a pile of notepaper in the middle of the table Explain that everyone has to write notes to classmates and then deliver them The notes must contain a question Recipient must answer the question and ask another To illustrate this process, write an example : KiÒu HuyÒn Dear Tony, The vacation starts next week What are your plans? Well, bye Tr©m - 40A2 Sonia 48 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students Keep writing, and make sure that everyone else is writing If you notice a student is not getting any letters, write to that student (Even though this game is silent, it engenders a lot of enthusiasm and energy and develops conversation skills in an unusual way Sonta Milett who works for the Corporate Education Program at Temple University Japan contributes it.) 3.2.4.5 My life - Aims: Skills: Speaking; Listening Grammar: The simple past tense - Control: Free - Organisation: Pairs or groups - Preparation: None - Procedure: Divide the class into groups or pairs Ask the students to write down ten facts about themselves as short answers, for example: “18“, “Nam Dan“, “1986“, “ months ago“… Ask the students to make questions, trying to elicit the facts of each other For example, the answer “5 months ago” might produce a dialogue along the following lines: S1: Did you pass the entrance examination into this school months ago? S2: No, I didn’t S1: Perhaps your parents gave you something S2: No, not my parents S1: Was it at all connected with your family? S2: No It was more to with friends S1: Friends? You made friends with someone? S2: Hmn KiỊu Hun Tr©m - 40A2 49 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students S1: Ah, I know! Your close friend is Mai You made friends with her moths ago S2: You got it This game can make the lesson of the simple past tense to become interesting So that, the teacher can apply this game when teaching LESSON 32 (page 176-178), LESSON 33 (page 179-182), LESSON 34 (page 183-186), LESSON 35 (page 187-190) or LESSON 36 (page 191-194) Chapter A sample lesson plan using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students KiỊu Hun Tr©m - 40A2 50 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students LESSON 27: WHAT’ S HE DOING NOW? Grammar focus: The present continuous tense 4.1 Introducing grammatical points: a The teacher can use the dialogue (page 145) in the textbook to explain the target grammatical points since it provides an appropriate context for them Mrs.Black: Linda, hang the washing out The sun is shining again Linda : But I’m having a bath Tell David to it, please Mrs.Black: What’s he doing now? Linda : He’s reading in his room Mrs.Black: David! David : Yes? Mrs.Black: Hang the washing out, please David : Can you it for me, Mum? I’m reading Mrs.Black: I’m cooking My hands are dirty David : All right Mrs.Black: Close the window of my room, too The wind’s blowing hard b The teacher can use the example contrasting dialogue (Page27) c The teacher can use Cummings device: The teachers introduce the possible responses to the question “What is someone doing?“ through some pictures or mimes Once students have practised various statements such as:  She is cooking  He is smoking  They are writing  Bob is running then, it is time for the teacher to introduce the question: “ What is/are/am + Subject + V-ing” by pointing at each picture and saying a brief exchange For example: Lan is talking to Linh on phone Listen to them: Lan : What is Kim doing now? Linh : She is cooking The teacher might expand on the target question with other questions such as: KiÒu HuyÒn Tr©m - 40A2 51 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students  Do you know what Kim is doing now?  Could you tell me what Kim is doing now?  I wonder what Kim is doing now 4.2 Having students practise grammatical points: a The teacher can use guided practice activities: a.1 “Beehive drill“ - Say: ”Beehive drill starts from here" (pointing at the students who are sitting in a particular line) - Raise a stickmen picture of a boy swimming and the verb: SWIM The students then look at the picture and ask their neighbour to create a brief exchange, for example: S1: Is he swimming? S2: Yes, he is - Wait for the first drill finishes, replace “SWIM” with another verb such as “RUN” Beehive drill then restarts: S1: Is he running? S2: No, he isn’t - Raise another picture (no verb) Now, the exchange practised is: S1: What is he doing? S2: He is reading a.2 “Concentric circle drill“ - Have the students stand in two concentric circles - Write on the board a subject such as “MOTHER” - Have the students ask and answer: For example: S-in1 : What is your mother doing now? S-out1: She is cleaning the floor - Have the S-ins move one place to their right Then, the students create one more dialogue: For example: S-out2: What is S-out1’s mother doing now? S-in1 : She is cleaning the floor - Write another subject on the board to continue “Concentric circle drill” Comment [U1]: a.3 Improvising dialogue KiỊu Hun Tr©m - 40A2 52 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students - Basing on the dialogue in the textbook, write the following prompts on the board: CLEAN THE WINDOWS Linda: cooking David: playing chess Mrs.Black: watering the trees David - After the students have made dialogues with the prompts given above, give them less guided prompts: DO SOMETHING S1: busy doing something else S2: busy doing something else S3: busy doing something else S2 With these prompts, the teacher can allow the students to write down their dialogue before saying it That gives them one more chance to keep the forms of the target structures in their mind b The teacher can use some free practice activities: b.1 Asking and answering about pictures: - Skills: Speaking - Grammatical focus: The question: “ What + is/am/are + Subject + doing?” - Organization: Class - Preparation: Some pictures that might be these: (I) KiỊu Hun Tr©m - 40A2 ( II ) 53 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students - Procedure: Step 1: Say that you have a picture in which one or some people is doing something For picture (I), tell your students that the subject is he and then call a student to make the question Step 2: Give the picture to another student and ask him or to answer Step 3: Continue with other pictures b.2 Guessing mimes: - Skills: Speaking; Listening - Grammatical focus: Yes/No questions in the present continuous tense - Organization: Pairs - Preparation: None - Procedure: Step 1: Ask some students to come in front of the class and perform some actions in mime such as swimming, playing football… Step 2: Students work in pairs to find out those actions and then ask the miming students to check S1: Is he singing? S2: I think he isn’t He is calling for help S1: Maybe S3 (miming the action), are you calling for help? S3: Yes, I am You’re right - Variations: This activity may be more interesting if the mines are done at the back of the classroom Other students except one are not allowed to turn back their heads so they cannot see the mimes They have to KiỊu Hun Tr©m - 40A2 54 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students put yes/no questions to guess what their friends are doing The student who is allowed to see the mimes answers the question Mimes can be replaced with pictures illustrating some particular actions The teacher or a learner or a group of learners look at a picture, which the rest of the class cannot see The ones who cannot see must ask questions to find out what is in the picture b.3 To be a director: - Skills: Speaking; Listening - Organization: Groups - Preparation: Stickmen drawings or simple photographs each illustrating five different actions - Procedure: Step 1: Divide the class into groups of Each group nominates a leader Step 2: Give the leaders a drawing They are not allowed to show it to the rest of their group They have to imagine that they were directors and their friends were actors and actresses All the groups work together, ask and answer to stage the scene in the drawing The group that finishes first wins When they work together, the students have chances to make a lot of dialogues, such as: Director: Lien, you stand there You are holding a cup of coffee Lien : Am I drinking it? Director: No, just hold it Nam, you are reading a book Nam : Am I sitting or standing? Director: You are sitting ………………………… The pictures might seem to be something like these: KiỊu Hun Tr©m - 40A2 55 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students Doing this graduation thesis, we have tried to investigate the current state of teaching grammatical structures at secondary schools and suggest a solution That is dialogues We believe that using dialogues can help students master not only the form but also the meanings and functions of a grammatical structure This solution, to some extent, has found the balance between the utmost KiỊu Hun Tr©m - 40A2 56 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students importance of grammar in traditional thoughts and the demand of applying communicative approaches in teaching In the thesis, there are a lot of easy-to-do activities and techniques of using dialogues in order to both introduce new grammatical structures and have them practised Each activity or technique is usually followed by a sample that teachers can apply into a particular lesson in the 10th form curriculum Furthermore, teachers and teaching training students may find a lot of guidance to expand or create more activities and techniques by their own to use dialogues effectively in their grammatical structure teaching The thesis is about a new subject in pedagogical methodology and thus, mistakes are unavoidable We would like to receive all remarks, comments and suggestions on the thesis from teachers, students and readers, too KiÒu Hun Tr©m - 40A2 57 ... lesson plan using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students KiỊu Hun Tr©m - 40A2 50 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students LESSON... 12 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students In teaching grammatical structures, there are several advantages of using dialogues in the classroom Firstly, the. .. 23 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10th form students Chapter Some suggested ways of applying dialogues to improve grammatical structure teaching to the 10th form students