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


PART 3 : DISCUSSION

21

CONCLUSION

25

REFERENCE

26

APPENDICES

27

1
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

Nam Yen Thanh High School

___________________________________
_______________________________
Tran Thi Lien


Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons
to improve speaking skill for 10th form students
_____________________________________________________________________
From the above discussion, my experienced ideas will make a little contribution on
applying the vocabulary and grammartical points for developing English speaking
skill for 10th students.
CONTENT
PART 1: THEORITICAL AND PRACTICAL BACKGROUND
1.1 : Theoritical background
* What is grammar ?
In order to tackle the issues related to language awareness and use, it is important to
first give a definition of grammar. According to David Crystal ( “ In Word and Deed.”
TSE Teacher, April 30, 2004) , “Grammar is the structural foundation of our ability to
express ourselves. The more we are aware of how it works, the more we can monitor
the meaning and effectiveness of the way we and others use language. It can help
foster precision, detect ambiguity, and exploit the richness of expression available in
English. And it can help everyone-not only teachers of English, but teachers of
anything, for all teaching is ultimately a matter of getting to grips with meaning”. So,
a grammar is a description of the rules of the structure of a language; the way words
combine, the order they come in, the way they change according to their relationship
to other words, how they build up into units like a sentence etc.
We can have other definition of grammar is that grammar is the characteristic system
of inflections and syntax of a language and it is a system of rules that defines the

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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Nam Yen Thanh High School
Tran Thi Lien



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


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

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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_______________________________
Tran Thi Lien


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
_____________________________________________________________________

`
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

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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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
_____________________________________________________________________
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


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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Tran Thi Lien


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

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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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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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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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
to improve speaking skill for 10th form students
_____________________________________________________________________


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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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

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
to improve speaking skill for 10th form students
_____________________________________________________________________
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%


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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Nam Yen Thanh High School
Tran Thi Lien


Using some effective activities for the production part in grammar lessons
to improve speaking skill for 10th form students
_____________________________________________________________________
However, the other questions may have different answers. Most students often prepare
the lesson at home but they only know the structures, not much about the meaning or
the using of it.
And these are the results of the students’ability to speak English after and before the
activities are applied.
Years:
Before/
after

Class

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