How to teach a consolidation lesson in grade 8 efectively at thi tran secondary school

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1.REASONS FOR CHOOSING THIS TOPIC:
English is a common language all over the world, so English is a
compulsory subject in many countries, Viet Nam is not excepted.
Foreign languages in general and English in particular is a difficult subject for
students, specially for mountainous students. Teaching English has many
oscillation and changes because of the devolopement of the civilization and
culture in the world. We cannot deny this. Therefore, the teacher must be
responsible and dedicated in oder to bring the knowlegde to the learners
effectively.
After giving English to the schools as a compulsory subject, many teachers
have their experience in teaching English. After nearly ten years being a teacher
in education, I always wonder about the way to teach my students effectively, so I
have asked for other teachers and looked for many reference books. Each year I
have my own experience through each lesson. One in my all experiences is that
“How to teach CONSOLIDATION in grade 8 effectively” in order to have higher
result in general test and develope the quality of teaching English in my school.
Nowadays, the method of teaching grammar is not the same as in the pastteaching vocabulary and then analyze structures- most of the time is for doing
exercises and practicing Listening- Speaking- Reading- Writing skills by many
ways and we consolidate the lessons through playing games.
Choosing a right method in teaching grammar is really important to the
teachers. Beside that teachers must explain how important students have to learn
grammar. They can use language meaningful and express their ideas exactly. The
most important point is that students can understand the morphologic and the
meaning of each grammar unit so as to use them in listening- speaking- readingwriting lessons usefully.
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For these reasons I have chosen the topic to research is that “How to teach a
CONSOLIDATION lesson in grade 8 effectively at Thi Tran secondary school”.
1.2. RESEARCH OBJECTS:

- Textbook grade 8
- Students in grade 8
+ Class 8A1: total 29 students
Good students: 5 (17,2%)
Middling students: 14 (48,3%)
Average and weak students: 10 (34,5%)
+ Class 8A2: total 25 students
Good students: 1 (4%)
Middling students: 10 (40%)
Average and weak students: 14(56%)
1.3. RESEARCH METHODS:
- The suggestive approach.
- The communicative approach.
- The interviewed approach.
- The investigative approach.
- The statistical approach.
1.4. RESEARCH TIME:
With this issue, I have researched in the last school year 2014-2015. I try to
find the most effective way to apply it in 2015-2016.

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2. ISSUE SOLVING
2.1. REALITY OF ISSUE:
Now there are many references and fostering curriculums which are useful
for the innovation in teaching English. Beside that many fostering technique
courses are opened every year for the teachers, ect, to help teachers of English
access and apply the new methods effectively. However, teachers cannot apply all
the methods in their lessons, they should choose the most suitable methods for

their lessons, their students or facility in their schools.
For the CONSOLIDATION lesson in grade 8, some teachers pay much
attention to review grammar and structures and they always worry about the
ability in doing grammar exercises of their students. Others cannot choose the
right methods for their lessons, this leads to their lessons are not effective.
Therefore, classifying and choosing suitable activities in each exercise is
important to the lessons’ success. Planning a good lesson plan helps teachers
time-consume, flexibility in teaching activity.
2.2. SOLUTIONS AND IMPLEMENT:
2.2.1. SOLUTIONS:
There is no doubt that the main task of teachers is to teach, but the teaching
work gets nowhere if their students understand and learn nothing. There are many
things for the teachers to do with their students, but in the class settings teachers
should show interest in their students by involving them in their teaching and by
allowing them to express their opinions and do things with the language they are
learning. It is true that everyone likes to show what he or she knows and can do
and like to talk about himself or herself. Likewise students like to hear about their
classmates/ follow students. When this is allowed in class I will find that my
students involve themselves far more than if they talking about a fictional
character from a course book.
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Grammar is a very important and necessary part in communicative. It
seems not to be easy in teaching and learning grammar for secondary students,
especially in a CONSOLIDATION part of English 8. In this lesson, many
grammar and structures are reviewed.
By taking part in role-play, dialogues, sketches and whatever teachers do,
both the performing students and the listeners get involved. They will be less
self-conscious about the English as they concentrate on the character or acting

role which they are required to carry out. They may be embarrassed or nervous at
first, but hopefully when they have got through that they will be assured that they
can also get over the “fear” of speaking English. Watch carefully to find out who
is shy/ confident, ect and assign roles they can manage at first, gradually getting
everyone confident.
Building up the students’confidence in any situation means encouraging
them at every opportunity and never “putting them down”.
2.2.2. IMPLEMENT:
A grammar lesson in general has three steps as below:
- Introducing the form and meaning of the structure.
- Practicing.
- Consolidating by doing exercises, activities and playing games.
Each step has its own requirement and exercises. As for me, teachers
should research carefully each exercise when they plan a next lesson in order to
choose the right and suitable activities for each lesson. Solving this issue, I do it
as follow:
a. Introducing the form and meaning of the structures:
Before practicing, teachers introduce the form and meaning of the
structrures by speaking and writing on the board. I choose many different ways to
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review the meaning of the structures in different lessons to avoid students from
being bored. Such as:
• Sight: using real things, drawing or pictures and trait or gesture to
illustrate the meaning. For example:
Consolidation 1: Unit 3:
Teachers may use a traffic sign to review modal: must
T: This is a traffic sign. What does it tell us?
S: - We must stop.

-We must not go straight ahead. (ect.)
After students answer the question, teachers review the form of must and
two other modal verbs which have the same usage have to and ought to:
Form: must/ have to/ ought to + bare infinitive.
• Comparing and contrasting the structures:
When I want to introduce two or more structures in an exercise, I always get
students compare and contrast to find out the differences among these structures.
For example:
Consolidation 3: Unit 11:
T : Now I give you some examples to show the differences between the
requests, using "Do/ Would you mind ... ". Listen!
- Do/ Would you mind moving your car?
- Do you mind if I sit here?
- Would you mind if I sat here?
- Tell me the differeces between these sentences.
S : Sentence 1 :... Do/ Would you mind + V-ing,
Sentence 2 and 3 : ... Do/ Would you mind + if-clause.
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T : That's right. Tell me the differeces between the second sentence and the
third sentence.
S: sentence 2: Do you mind if+ Subject+ V_s,es
sentence 3: Would you mind if+ Subject+ V_ed
T : That's right.
After that teachers repeat the form and meaning of these structures, then
practicing.
• Using situation:
Teachers can use the situation method in introducing some structures. I use
pictures or drawing to set the scense. For example:

To teach the question why- Because in Unit 3, I give out some picture and
give them a model sentence:
T: Why does Hoang fail in his math exam?
S: Because he is always playing video games.
• Translation
It is a well-known fact that the best method of learning English is by using
English. When teachers are using English in their teaching, their students enjoy
doing the same thing, developing the habit of trying to think in English and
making themselves understood in English. However, it is not always easy and
convenient to do that in every situation. It is strongly advised that teachers should
take every opportunity to speak English and encourage their student to do the
same so that they can learn and use the language. Therefore, if teachers speak
simple English by using synonyms or giving a short explanation, for example,
and their students understand what they mean, they should do that. On the
contrary, if teachers mime or draw pictures ect… but their students still fail to
understand, why not use Vietnamese. It’s quicker! For example:
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T : Thu Ha is not satisfied with her preparations for Tet. Thu
Ha has decorated her house and made plenty of cakes.
Combine two sentences above into one by using a connective- EVEN THOUGH
S : Thu Ha is not satisfied with her preparations for Tet even
though she has decorated her house and made plenty of cakes.
T : Vietnamese ?
S : Thu Hà không hài lòng với việc chuẩn bị tết của mình mặc
dù cô ấy đã trang hoàng nhà cửa và làm rất nhiều bánh.
b. Practicing techniques:
The textbook does not point out what structures teachers should review and
teachers do not have available exercises for students, of course, they have to do it

themselves. To practice structures, I do as follow:
• Repetation drill
When learners get used to the sounds of English it may be easier for them
not to see the language written down before they practise saying it, so get them to
listen to our model and then repeat.
Make sure teachers give clear, natural sounding and consistent models.Use
hand movements to indicate intonation, use our fist to beat the stress, and join or
separate fingers to show word boundaries and where linking occurs in phrases.
This kind of gesturing may in particular help visual learners since it helps them
visualise the language they are practising.
Back chaining helps learners focus on correct pronunciation and intonation
and is also attention-grabbing. For example, when we are modelling a phrase,
start at the end, getting the learners to repeat after each chunk we give them.
For example: yesterday / get up yesterday/ did you get up yesterday/what time did
you get up yesterday?
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We can vary the drill in terms of who repeats - whole class, half the class,
boys only, girls only, individuals. Make sure drilling is done at a snappy pace. We
can also try:
- Whisper drills (for quietening down a rowdy class)
- Shouting drills (for livening them up ).
These ideas work particularly well with young learners or we can liven drills
up by saying things in different ways. For example, sound very happy, very sad,
very bored, very excited with a facial expression to match as we model the
language and get the learners to do the same. Putting expression into it and
exaggerating the intonation helps make the language more memorable.
• Guessing games
Simple guessing games which require lots of repetition of the target

language are ideal for practising language items at low levels and are in fact a
form of drill. After you have used pictures to introduce vocabulary or phrases
stick the pictures on the board back to front so they can't be seen. Students try to
guess which picture is which.
Pick out one picture and don't show it. Students guess which one it is. If
you're using real objects you can use the same principle by hiding the objects
under a cloth or in a bag and getting them to guess which object you're holding.
For practising 'Is it..?' questions, classroom objects and describing location
with children, hide a plastic spider somewhere in the room and get the children to
guess where it is. 'Is it under the teacher's desk?', 'Is it behind Jose's chair?'
Disappearing text
This can be done with a list of vocabulary items or phrases, a short text or a
dialogue at any level.
Write up the text on the board. Read out the text and drill.
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Rub off a small part of it. Students have to say the whole text again.
Gradually rub off more and more in bits and each time get the students to
say the whole text. This provides intensive drilling practice as the students have
to repeat it so many times. However, the game factor also increases motivation to
get it right and that gets more challenging as the activity continues.
• Dialogue building
This is useful particularly for low level students to build confidence in
speaking and to learn useful chunks of language. Use pictures to set a scene and
elicit a dialogue.
Example:
A: Have you got a pet?
B: Yes, I've got a cat.
A: Oh, what's its name?

B: It's called Fred.
Drill each line as you elicit the dialogue rather than writing the whole
dialogue on the board as you go, you can just write one or two words to help
them remember each line.
Example:
A: Have/pet?
B: Yes/
A: /name?
B: /Fred
Then let the students choose different pets and make up similar dialogues
in pairs. Aim for not more than eight lines or so in the dialogue or it may become
difficult to memorise.
Mingle activities with smaller classes, mingle activities work well and
provide opportunities for lots of repetition of target language. A simple example
of this for low level learners is 'Say and swap'.
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Learners are given flashcards or small pictures of target vocabulary items
or phrases.
They mingle and swap their pictures but as they swap they have to say the
word on the picture they have. Alternatively this can be done as a more stationary
chain drill: students pass the flashcards or pictures around the whole class and
again say the word each time they pass it on.
Another example is 'Find Someone Who' which can be adapted to any
level. Students have a list of people to find.
Example: Find someone who
- gets up before 7.00
- watches TV in the morning
- eats toast for breakfast etc.

Students go around asking the question. In this example the language
practised is 'Do you…?' and the topic daily routines. This activity generates lots
of repetition of this pattern as well as providing opportunities for freer responses
if the learners develop the conversation. In larger classes it can be done as a
stationary group work activity.
• Information gaps
Information gap activities are often designed to provide highly controlled
practice of particular structures. By swapping information which requires use of a
particular language pattern, the students have to solve a problem. This problem
solving provides a communicative purpose to what is essentially a drill.
Example:
The students have a shopping list of fruit they need to buy (6 oranges, 1 kilo of
apples etc.)

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Student A has the prices of various fruits in one shop, student B has the prices in
another shop.
They have to ask each other and answer about the prices and complete a grid
with the information.
The task is then to decide which shop will be the cheaper one for them to
buy their fruit in.
• Songs, rhymes and chants
Many learners respond very well to songs, games and chants. These
learners can find it very difficult to remember how to say complete phrases in a
foreign language when they are first learning, but they remember whole songs
and chants with ease. Action songs like 'Head, shoulders, knees and toes' provide
fun drills of language for parts of the body. Or you can make up your own action
songs by putting target language to a well known tune and getting the children to

do actions.
When accompanied by gestures and actions, songs and chants appeal to
different learning styles such as aural and kinaesthetic. Older learners may be self
conscious about singing but chants and raps can still work well and, once again,
involve lots of repetition.
c. Tips in consolidation and testing after practicing:
The grammar and structures in a consolidation lesson have been learnt
before, so the purpose in these lessons is to review what students studied and how
well they can use these grammar and structures. To help students get the content
and apply these grammar and structures, beside guiding them doing exercises,
teachers should make their students interested and excited in learning English,
then they take part in the lesson naturally. The best way is that teachers should let
students play different games in their English class.

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Teachers can apply these games: Dialogue build, Dictation, Gap fill,
Matching, Network, Finding friends, Find someone who, Ordering words, Writeit-up, Language games.
I really like language games which concludes many small games, such as
Chain game, Noughts & crosses, Pelmanism, Guessing game, Rub out and
remember, Lucky numbers, ...
We can use Language games in some exercises:
Consolidation 1:
Lucky numbers ( group work - Time : 10' )
- Teaching aids: pictures and the poster :
1. Lan/ downstairs
2. Lucky number
3. Lucky number
4. buy / flowers

5. do / chores
6. go / shopping
7. Lucky numbers
8. paint / a picture of Paris
- Divide the class into 2 groups.
-

For a lucky number, Ss will get 2 points without answering any

questions. For other numbers, Ss have to write the things Lan and her friends did
to prepare for the party, using the words given. 2 points for a correct sentence.
Ex. : Lan / downstairs  Lan is not downstairs.

Etc.

Consolidation 1 :
Brainstorming ( Individual work - Time 5')
myself
yourself/ yourselves

himself
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itself

reflexive pronouns

ourselves

herself

themselves

- Ask Ss to think of reflexive pronouns that they have learnt.
- Have Ss write down the reflexive pronouns.
- Give feedback.
- Ask Ss to give Vietnamese meaning.
- Ask Ss have to complete the sentences by using correct reflexive
pronouns
Consolidation 2 :
Lucky numbers

( Group work - Time : 10' )

- Teaching aids: the poster :
1. LN
2. How old are you ?
3. Is your school near here ?
4. What is the name of your school ?
5. LN
6. Do you go to school by bicycle ?
7. Which grade are you in ?
8. Can you use a computer ?
9. Why do you want this job ?
10.When does your school vacation start ?
- Divide the class into 2 groups.

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- For a lucky number, Ss will get 2 points without answering any
questions. For other numbers, Ss have to turn the direct speech to the reported
speech, 2 points for a correct sentence.
Ex. : 1 She asked me how old I was.

etc.

Consolidation 3 :
Survey ( Group work -Time : 5 -7' )
- Teaching aids : handouts
- Divide class into groups of four
- Samples :
S1 :Have you ever read a comic ?
S2 : Yes, I have.
S1 : When did you last read one ?
S2 : This morning.
S1 : Have you ever been to Singapore ?
S2 : No, I haven't.
- Give feedback
Consolidation 3 :
Chain game ( Time : 10')
S1 : My father likes watching sports but my mother doesn't. She
loves listening to music.
S2 : My father likes watching sports, my mother loves listening to
music but my sister doesn't. She enjoys playing games.
S3 : My father likes watching sports, my mother loves listening to
music, my sister enjoys playing games but my brother doesn't. He likes watching
advertisements.etc.
Consolidation 4 :

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Matching Game ( Stage : Production - Group work - Time : 5-8' )
- Divide the class into two teams ( A & B ) to review “in oder to/
so as to”.
-

Each student from team A writes a part of clause on a small

piece of paper.
- Each student from B writes an other part of clause.
- Take 2 pieces of paper from 2 teams to have a complete these
sentences. Call on some students to pick up 2 pieces of paper from two teams and
call out the sentences.
Consolidation 5 :
Noughts and Crosses ( Group work - Time : 10' )
- Teaching aids : the chart :
(1) pleased /work hard
(4)disappointed/

(2) excited / go / DaLat

(3) sorry / break/ bicycle

not (5) amazed/ win first (6) sure / like film

phone

prize

(7)happy / pass exam

(8)afraid / not help you

(9)delighted/ show/ good

- Divide the class into teams : 0 & X
- Model sentence :
(1) I'm pleased that you are working hard.
(2) I'm excited that I can go to DaLat…
2.3. TESTED:
With this topic, I have applied in this school year 2014-2015 at Thi Tran
Secondary School. Based on the level of students in each class and the time per
period, I have guided students not only review the grammar but also be excited to
be in my English class.
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By taking part in the activities in class, such as playing games, students
feel so funny and more self-confident and they can use English actively. Students
can also find out how well they do and what they need to improve. Beside that I
can notice who is good and who is weaker to find suitable way to promote the
good students and improve the weak students.
Over one year applied these methods, we get the results as follow:
• Class 8A1: 29 students
Semester
First
Semester
Second

Semester

Good

Middling

Quantity

%

Quantity

5

13,7

10

7

24

13

Average

%
34,
5

45

Weak

Quantity

%

Quantity

8

31,1

6

7

24

2

%
20.
7
7

• Class 8A2: 25 students
Semester
First

Semester
Second
Semester

Good

Middling

Average

Weak

Quantity

%

Quantity

%

Quantity

%

Quantity

%

1

4

8

32

10

40

6

24

3

12

11

44

9

36

2

8

3. CONCLUSION AND PROPOSE:
3.1. CONCLUSION:
After a year applying my research, I find my students more active in my
English class. They do the task better and more interested in learning English.
They are interested in taking part in different activities of the lessons by playing
games, speaking English naturally in class. I encouraged my students to speak

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English although their English is not very good. I tried to let them show their
strengths and never put them down with my feedback.
All drills I used in my English class help students remember the structures
and grammar for long. Doing these drills helps them feel more self-confidence. It
is an ideal environment for students to develop their English communicative
ability. Thus, students work harder, review and use the grammar and structures
more actively.
CONSOLIDATION lesson is a difficult period for many students and
teachers because there are too many grammar and structures which are all
necessary to consolidate in only 45 minutes. Therefore, each teacher must choose
the right and suitable activities in each exercise to attract their students to their
lesson. I have succeeded in giving students interest in learning my
CONSOLIDATION lesson by the ways above. However, this is only my personal
ideas, it may have mistakes what I cannot find, I look forward to receiving your
all notice to improve my English teaching methods.
3.2. PROPOSE:
For teachers, in addition to teaching in class participation should
strengthen class visits, take time colleagues. Sports regularly organizes lecture
topics suitable for the actual situation of the school and classroom. There must be
an assessment, draw lessons comment frank, honest and accurate about the pros,

cons after lessons.
For leaders, in addition to the leadership of all aspects of the school, need
more deep concern to the teaching of teachers; encourage teachers themselves,
effectively use and maintain teaching aids; always check, supervise, remind and
encourage all members of the school board work together better human grow.
Although I have my own English classroom with many modern
equipment, I really would like to be offered with English reference books ,
pictures , cards and tapes for students.
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The above are some of my subjective experience summed up in the
teaching process. I hope to receive attention, share and comment my sincere
colleague.
Thank you for all!

XÁC NHẬN CỦA THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ

Ngoc Lac, 5 March 2016.
I swear this is my experience
initiatives messages, not copy
someone else’s.

Lê Thị Hương

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