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

1

INTRODUCTION
CONTENT

2

PART 1: : THEORITICAL AND PRACTICAL BACKGROUND

3

1.1 : Theoritical and practical background

3

3

1.2 : Practical background

4

PART 2: THE SOLUTION

6

2.1 : Presentation

8

2.2 : Questionaire

9

2.3 : Project based activity

11

2.4: Describing the pictures

12

2. 5: Role- play

15

2.6: Chain games

17

2.7 : Mapped dailogue

17

2.8: Discussion

19

PART 3 : DISCUSSION

21

CONCLUSION

25

REFERENCE

26

APPENDICES

27

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Nam Yen Thanh High School

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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 do written tests about grammartical knowledge
rather well but they meet problems in speaking. Because the teacher often asks
students to do 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.”
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_______________________________
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.
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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 do exercies in their
books to apply knowledge they have learnt. These controlled and repeatedly activities
make students feel bored and they do 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
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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:
1. I feel terrible. I think I_________sick.
A. will be

B. am going to be

C. am being

D. was going to be

2. 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

3. You are going to repaint your room,____________?
A. aren’t you

B. are you

C. don’t you

D. won’t you

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

2. C

3. A

4. D

5. A

6. 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 do exercises in written tests quite good and they can use
the grammartical points for doing exercises in their books rather correctly.
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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 do better at written
tests than oral tests because they are rarely taught how to speak at grammar lessons.
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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 do 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 8
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.
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Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons
to improve speaking skill for 10th form students
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- 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 1 : A day in the life of...
a. Aim of activity: This activity is used in Unit 1 to help students talk about themself
by using The present simple tense, past simple tense and adverbs of frequency.
b. Time for activity: 8 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

1. Name

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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
3 minutes to share information about themselves, base on the infomation on the
6.Activities
poster.
Teacher notes students to speak in sequence from 1 to 6. Teacher can guide
last
Sunday
students to start the presentation with
:
YOURSELF
3. 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 5
a.m to study old lesson. I go to school in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon.
At 5 p.m, I usually play volleyball with my friends and I often help my mother cook
dinner at 6 p.m . In the evening, I do my homework at 8 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.
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Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons
to improve speaking skill for 10th form students
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That’s all. Thanks for your listening. Have a good day!
* Step 2: After 3 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 2 : 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 : 7 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

1. Date and place of birth
2. Height
3. Weight
4. Brother(s) & Sister(s)
5.Means of transport
6. Secondary school
7.Favourite subject
8.Favourite sport
9. Favourite music
10. Future job
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Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons
to improve speaking skill for 10th form students
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e. Proceduce :
* Step 1 : Doing a survey
Teacher delivers handout to each group of students and gets them to go around to
interview other students information in the notes and complete the answer sheet by
using Wh- questions in 3 minutes.
Ex : A : When and where were you born ?
Fr.1 : ( I was born ) on 1st March , 1997 in Vien Thanh
Fr.2 : ( I was born ) on 5th May , 1997 in Son Thanh
A: How tall are you ?
Fr.1: I’m 1.5 metres
Fr.2 : I’m 1.56 metres
A: ...........................................................................................
* Step 2: Making a report
Teacher calls 3 students to report their results before the class and gives feedback.
Suggested report : I’ve known that Lan was born on 1st March 1997 in Vien Thanh.
She is 1.5 metres in height and 43 kilos in weight. She has only a sister, no brother.
Lan often goes to school by bike at 6.30 o’clock. Vien Thanh Upper- secondary
school is her old school. She likes studying Maths, English and Geography.Volleyball
is her favourite sport. When she has free time, she often listens to pop music . She
wants to become a doctor in the future.
2.3 : Project based activity :
( Applied for Unit 3, Unit 5 )
* Unit 5: Technology and you
a. Aim of activity : This activity is used to feedback student’s talking by asking them

to use The past perfect or past tenses to tell a piece of news. They can use other
tenses if neccessary.
b. Time : 8 minutes
c. Way of organising : Groupwork of four
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Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons
to improve speaking skill for 10th form students
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d. Preparation :- Teacher asks students to prepare information for a piece of news at
home. The news may be not real.
- Teacher prepares a micro and a mobile phone.
e. Proceduce :
* Step 1: Teacher supposes that a student is an M.C of VTV News Program and gets
them to use their information they prepared at home to make some news in 3 minutes
in group of four. (The new is not too long ). They can choose any news in the group to
talk by using past perfect , past tenses or they can choose other tenses to talk if
neccessary.
* Step 2: Teacher asks about 3 Ss to go to the board to play an M.C to speak the
news they have prepared. And teacher uses the mobile phone to record. ( Teacher
notes students about the non-verbal communication while speaking ). After that,
teacher plays the record and asks the rest students to decide who is the best M.C
Suggested news :
Good evening everybody! This is our VTV News. A student comes from Yen Thanh

village, Nghe An province has just got the first prize for Olympic English test through
internet . Her name is Tran Thi Lan Anh. Now she is in the 10 th form students of
NamYen Thanh high school. She has just come back home from Ha Noi. Before she
attended the competition, she had studied and practiced English very hard. She had
listened and spoken English by the time she went to bed . So, she gets the success
now. We admire her very much.
2.4 : Describing the pictures
( Applied for Unit 4, Unit 10 )
* Unit 4: Special education
a. Aim of activity : This activity is used to help students raise ability of decsribing
something appearing in the pictures by using the structure : Used to + infinitive .This
kind of exercise often gives students the interest and motivation in learning.
b. Time of activity : 8 minutes
c. Way of organising : group work of four.
d. Preparation : Teacher prepares two pictures of their village in the past and now
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Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons
to improve speaking skill for 10th form students
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The village in the past

The village now

e. Proceduce:
* Step 1: Teacher hangs out two pictures on the board and asks students to look at the
pictures to talk about the differences between two pictures in group of 4 in 3 minutes
( Picture 1: Your village in the past; Picture 2 : Your village now ). Students use
structure : Used to + infinitive / Didn’t use to + infinitive and the present tenses to
speak.
Teacher can suggest students to talk about : houses, trees, roards, means of transport,
entertainment, school, electricity, work
* Step 2: After 3 minutes, teacher calls students from some groups to present before
the class and give out the feedback. Each student only talks in 1 minute; if the time is
over, teacher calls other students to present and asks the rest students to choose the
best presenter.
Suggested answer :
From the two pictures, I can see that :
- In the past, my village used to have only small houses, but now there are tall houses.
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Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons
to improve speaking skill for 10th form students
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- My village used to have a lot of trees , but now there aren’t any trees.
- The roards used to be narrow and small, but now they are large and big
- In the past, people used to walk for work or for market, but now they use cars or

motobikes for travelling.
- Most children didn’t use to go to school, but now all children go to school for their
studying.
* Unit 10 : Conservation
a. Aim of activity: This activity is prepared to help students understand more about the
use of passive voice by describing some pictures about environment.
b. Time of activiy: 8 minutes
c. Way of organising: group work
d. Preparation: Teacher prepares some pictures about the destruction of environment.

Picture 1

Picture 2

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Picture 3

Picture 4


Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons
to improve speaking skill for 10th form students
_____________________________________________________________________

Picture 5

Picture
5

Picture 6

e. proceduce:
* Step 1: Teacher asks students to work in groups of four to discribe the pictures
about the destruction of environment in 3 minutes. Students use the passive voice to
speak.
* Step 2: Teacher gets students from each group to present their result before the class
and feedbacks students’ talking . Teacher asks the rest students to choose the best
presenter. ( Students show the pictures and talk )
* Suggested answer: From these pictures we can see that :
- The trees are being cut down seriously. ( Picture 1 )
- The air is polluted heavily by smoke from cars, factories and other elements
( Picture 2 )
- An elephant died and it might be killed by the hunters. ( Picture 3 )
- The forest is being destroyed completely by fire. ( Picture 4)
- The beach is filled with plastic bags, pieces of glass and cigarette butts. ( Picture 5)
- Whales are hunted for food, medicine, and other products ( Picture 6)
2. 5: Role- play
( Applied for Unit 6 )
Unit 6: An excursion
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Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons
to improve speaking skill for 10th form students
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a. Aim of activity : This activity is prepared to help students come to the real situation
in their life and creat students a feeling that they are the person in the communication.
And I asks students to make a dialogue by using the grammartical points : The
present progressive with future meaning and Be going to
b. Time of activity : 10 minutes
c. Way of organising : Work inpair
d. Preparation : Teacher sets a situation about the plan for the Hoa’s birthday party
next Saturday night. And prepares some words that relates to the party : friends, food
drinks, games, music...and a picture

e. Procude:
* Step 1: Teacher asks students to work in pair to practice the situation in 4 minutes
(They can depend on the picture to practice). One student is mother and another is
Hoa. Mother and Hoa will be in Hoa’s room and talk about the Hoa’s plan for the
birthday party next Saturday night, using The present progressive and Be going to.
During students’s practicing, teacher may help students with some structures and
vocabulary if they find difficult.
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Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons

to improve speaking skill for 10th form students
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* Step 2: After 4 minutes, teacher calls some pairs to practice before the class and
give feedback.
The dailogue may be :
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 is coming .
Hoa : Yes, it’s on Saturday this week. And I am celebrating it on Saturday night.
Mum : All right. What is your plan for the party ?
Hoa : I am going to invite all my classmates and some neighbours.
Mum : What about food and drink ?
Hoa : I’m going to buy a birthday cake, some fruit and drink such as : apples,
mangoes, oranges and Cocacola.
Mum : Are you going to prepare pop music?
Hoa : No, I am not going to play pop but prepare dance music.
Mum : That sounds interesting.
Hoa : Thanks mum! I hope my dad will be at home on my birthday.
2.6: Chain games
( applied for unit 8, unit 9, unit 11 )
Unit 11: National parks
a. Aim of activity : This activity is used to help students speak in sentences in Unit
11 for conditional sentence type 3
b. Time : 6 minutes
c. Way of organising : Group work
d. Preparation: Teacher prepares a sentence with conditional sentence type 3 :
“If Peter had done his homework last night, he would have got good marks “
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Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons
to improve speaking skill for 10th form students
_____________________________________________________________________
e.Proceduce :
*Step 1: Teacher divides the class into two teams and asks them to do the task in 6
minutes.
* Step 2: Teacher speaks the sentence to the whole class : “If Peter had done his
homework last night, he would have got good marks”. And teacher asks each group
to think and make other sentence started with : “ If Peter had got good marks,
he...........................”. The group that makes more correct sentences is the winner.
(For each correct sentence, student will get 10 mark ). If the time is not over, teacher
can make other sentences and continue the game.
2.7 : Mapped dialogue ( Applied for unit 9 )
Unit 9: Undersea world
a. Aim of activity : This activity is used to help students make a mini- dailogue to talk
what they should do to keep their health by using the structure : Should/ Shouldn’t +
infinitive or Had better/ Hadn’t better + infinitive
b. Time : 8 minutes
c. Way of organising : Pairwork
d. Preparation : Give gie out some cue words on the board
Hello/ Hi....

Hello/ Hi...

Where/ What are you...?

I’m...

How do you...your health ?

I play...

Should I/ Should we....?

Yes, you/ we should...

Can you tell...?

We should/ had better...

Let’s...

Let’s...

And some pictures:

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Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons
to improve speaking skill for 10th form students
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e. Proceduce:
* Step 1: Teacher asks students to work in pair to make a small dailogue to tell how
they keep their health in 3 minutes. Teachers may note students to remember the way
to start a dailogue and finish a dailogue ( Greeting, Asking about health...)
* Step 2: Teacher calls some pairs to practice before the class
Suggested dialogue:
Nam : Hello, Hung. Where are you going ?
Hung : Hi, Nam . I’m going to play soccer.
Nam : You look very strong. How do you keep your health ?
Hung : Oh, I play sport everyday .
Nam : Really? Should I play volleyball ?
Hung : Yes, of course . it’s very good. You should play other sports such as:
badminton, soccer...: Can you tell me other way to keep our health ?
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Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons
to improve speaking skill for 10th form students
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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 2 cards like below and makes sufficient
copies for the class:

Cua Lo Town

Ho Chi Minh square
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Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons
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Location

Cua Lo Town

Price

VND 600,000 for 2 days

Food

sea food

Activities

swimming, playing some games on the beach

Room

3 people per room

Time from school to 1 hour by bus
get there

Location

Vinh city

Price

VND 700,000 for 2 days

Food

sea food and other food

Activities

visiting some supermarkets such as: BigC, Maximax and Ho
Chi Minh Square

Room

2 people per room

Time from school to 1 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 4 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.
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Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons
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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.
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Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons

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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 do 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
1. How often do you practice speaking English at class in grammar lessons after they
are introduce the grammartical points?
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Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons
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A. always
B. usually
C. sometimes
D. never
2. If the teacher gets you to practice grammartical points by doing exercises only,
how many percent of the knowledge can you receive or how do you feel about the
lesson?
10%
60%

20%

30%

40%

50%

70%

80%

90%

100%

3. Do you often prepare the lessons before the class ? How do you prepare the
grammar lessons at home ?
..........................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................
4. How did your classmates and you act in speaking activities for grammar lessons in
production
part ? ................................................................................................................................
..........................................................................................................................................
........
5. 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 5 ). I gave the questions 1 to the students at 3 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.
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Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons
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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

0

2013/2014 10A1

42/42

10/ 15

8/13

18/13

4/2

0

2013/2014 10A4

40/40

0/4

3/8

17/14

20/14

0

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 do 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 do better at written
tests or oral tests. I think this is a good way to improve students’ speaking skill.
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