Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10 th form students 1. 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 do 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 10 th form students? Being beginners, the 10 th 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 11 th and 12 th form students. Moreover, during our Teaching Training Course, we were allotted to teaching some 10 th 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 10 th form students. KiÒu HuyÒn Tr©m - 40A2 1 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10 th form students 2. 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 10 th 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 10 th form students. • To guide teachers to apply (or create more) techniques and activities of using dialogues into particular lessons. 3. the Scope of study: This thesis is about using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10 th form students. All provided activities and techniques are based on the target grammatical structure contents in the 10 th form textbook. 4. the Methods of study: • Collecting method. • Descriptive method. • Statistical method. • Doing research design. • Analytic method. • Systematic method. • Experimental method. 5. 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. KiÒu HuyÒn Tr©m - 40A2 2 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10 th form students Part B “Development” comprises four chapters: • Chapter 1 deals with the theoretical preliminaries. • Chapter 2 is about the state of teaching grammatical structures to the 10 th form students. In this chapter, we emphasize some types of grammatical errors of the 10 th form students and the state of using dialogues in teaching as well. • Chapter 3 is the main chapter, which is named: “Some suggested ways of applying dialogues to improve grammatical structure teaching to the 10 th 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 4 suggests a sample lesson plan. Part C is the “Conclusion” of the thesis. KiÒu HuyÒn Tr©m - 40A2 3 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10 th form students Table of contents P age table of contents acknowledgements Part A: introduction 1 1. Reasons for choosing the subject. 1 2 The aims of study 2 3 The scope of study 2 4 The methods of study 2 5 The design of study 2 Part B: Development 4 Chapter 1: Theoretical preliminaries 4 1.1. Grammar and grammatical structure 4 1.1.1. Grammar 4 1.1.2. Grammatical structure, a specific item of grammar 4 1.2. Grammar and approaches to language teaching 5 1.2.1. Grammar and traditional method 5 1.2.2. Grammar and communicative method 6 1.3. Grammatical structure teaching 6 1.3.1. Form or function 6 1.3.2. Common procedure of grammatical structure teaching 7 1.3.2.1. Presentation 7 1.3.2.2. Practice 8 1.3.2.3. Production 8 1.4. Dialogue as a teaching device 8 1.4.1. Dialogue 8 1.4.2. Dialogues and grammatical structure teaching 9 Chapter 2: The state of teaching grammatical structures to the 10 th form students at Vietnamese secondary schools. 11 2.1. The state of grammar teaching at Vietnamese secondary schools 11 2.1.1. Goals and problems of grammar teaching at Vietnamese secondary schools 11 2.1.2. Contents of Grammar in the English 10 th form textbook 13 2.1.3. Common errors 15 2.1.3.1. Research design 15 2.1.3.2. Results of the research design and presentation of common KiÒu HuyÒn Tr©m - 40A2 4 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10 th form students English grammatical errors of the 10 th form students 16 2.1.3.2.1. Errors of form 16 2.1.3.2.2. Errors of meaning 17 2.1.3.2.3. Errors of use 18 2.3. The state of using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures 19 Chapter 3: Some suggested ways of applying dialogues to improve grammatical structure teaching to the 10th form students 21 3.1. Choosing or building dialogues to introduce new grammatical structures 21 3.1.1. Criteria of dialogues as a teaching device. 21 3.1.1.1. Dialogue should contain natural speech and reflect actual language use 21 3.1.1.2. The situations presented in dialogues should be relevant to the age, care and needs of the students 22 3.1.1.3. Dialogues should be short, simple but be able to represent a complete unit of conversational meaning. 24 3.1.1.4. Dialogues should both illustrate the meaning and contextualize the functions of new grammatical structures 24 3.1.2. Some suggested types of dialogues illustrating new grammatical structures 25 3.1.2.1. Cummings device 25 3.1.2.2. Contrasting dialogues 27 3.1.2.3. Rituals 27 3.1.2.4. Companion dialogues 29 3.2. Some dialogue activities of practising the target grammatical structures 31 3.2.1. Disappearing dialogues 31 3.2.2. Dialogue rearrangement 32 3.2.3. Dialogue constructing 32 3.2.3.1. Beehive drill (or chain drill) 32 3.2.3.2. Concentric circle drill 33 3.2.3.3. Information gap 34 3.2.3.3.1. Exchanging information 34 3.2.3.3.2. Personal interview 35 3.2.3.4. “Cued” dialogues 36 3.2.3.5. Role-plays 38 KiÒu HuyÒn Tr©m - 40A2 5 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10 th form students 3.2.3.5.1. Improvising role-plays 38 3.2.3.5.2. Situational role - plays 40 3.2.4. Dialogue games 42 3.2.4.1. Who am I? 42 3.2.4.2. Don’t say “Yes” or “No” 43 3.2.4.3. Invitation Galore 44 3.2.4.4. The silent conversation 45 3.2.4.5. My life 46 Chapter 4: A sample lesson plan using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10 th form students. (Lesson 27: What’s he doing now?) 48 4.1. Introducing grammatical points 48 4.2 Having students practise grammatical points 49 Part C: Conclusion 54 References Chapter 1 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: 1. Structure - usually means morphosyntax : forms and ordering of forms 2. Rules and exceptions 3. Organization of the structure of the language 1.1.2. Grammatical structure, a specific item of grammar. KiÒu HuyÒn Tr©m - 40A2 6 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10 th form students 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 three dimensions; thus a change in any one wedge will have repercussions for the other two. 1.2. Grammar and approaches to language teaching. KiÒu HuyÒn Tr©m - 40A2 7 FORM Morphosyntactic and lexical patterns; Phonemic/graphic patterns MEANING Lexical meaning; Grammatical meaning USE Social context; Linguistic discourse Presuppositions about context 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. (Page 252 - Teaching Grammar; Teaching English as a second language or foreign language - Marianne Cele, Murcia) Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10 th form students 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 Grammar- Translation 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 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 real- world tasks. Besides knowledge of code (language competence), we need something else for communication, that is communicative competence. KiÒu HuyÒn Tr©m - 40A2 8 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10 th form students 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. 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 do 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 KiÒu HuyÒn Tr©m - 40A2 9 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10 th form students 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 3 stages of learning skill: 1.3.2.1 Presentation In this step, the teacher shows a new structure’s form (both written and spoken), its meaning and also its use. The explanation of the new structure should find the appropriate balance between being simple and accurate, it should be illustrated by plenty of contextualized examples or visual material if possible. At the end of this step, students can take the new structure into short-term memory to remember it until they have opportunities to do further work to consolidate it. 1.3.2.2 Practice The aim of grammar practice is to get the students to learn the structures so thoroughly that they will be able to produce them correctly on their own. This step is usually divided into two sub-steps: controlled practice and guided practice. The former helps the students to “get their tongue round” or manipulate a new structure with the techniques such as: repetition, substitution, single word prompts… The latter makes the students to think, and they have to understand what they are saying. Usually, in this step, the learner’s form sentences of their own according to a set pattern but exactly what vocabulary they use is up to them. 1.3.2.3. Production KiÒu HuyÒn Tr©m - 40A2 10 Verbalization Automatization Autonomy Presentation Practice Production . subject: Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10 th form students. KiÒu HuyÒn Tr©m - 40A2 1 Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures. Using dialogues in teaching grammatical structures to the 10 th form students 1. the Reasons for choosing the subject: Why grammatical structure teaching?