Sáng kiến kinh nghiệm Promoting high school students’ grammatical ability through context

 SỞ GIÁO DỤC - ĐÀO TẠO ĐỒNG NAI 
 TRƯỜNG THPT NGÔ QUYỀN
 Mã số: ................................
 (Do HĐCNSK cấp trên ghi)
 SÁNG KIẾN
 PROMOTING HIGH SCHOOL 
 STUDENTS’ GRAMMATICAL ABILITY 
 THROUGH CONTEXT
 (Ghi đầy đủ tên gọi giải pháp bằng chữ in hoa đậm)
 Người thực hiện: Vũ Cẩm Thu
 Lĩnh vực nghiên cứu: 
 - Quản lý giáo dục  
 - Phương pháp giáo dục
 - Phương pháp dạy học bộ môn: Tiếng Anh 
 (Ghi rõ tên bộ môn)
 - Lĩnh vực khác: .............................................. 
 (Ghi rõ tên lĩnh vực)
 Có đính kèm: Các sản phẩm không thể hiện trong bản in sáng kiến
 Mô hình  Đĩa CD (DVD)  Phim ảnh  Hiện vật khác
 (các phim, ảnh, sản phẩm phần mềm)
 TÊN CƠ QUAN QUẢN LÝ CẤP TRÊN ..
 Đơn vị.............................................
 Năm học: 2019 - 2020 TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................1
 1. Background /context ...........................................................................1
 2. The scope of the research....................................................................1
 3. Rationale ..............................................................................................1
 4. Research aims (Purposes)...................................................................2
CONTENTS OF THE RESEARCH............................................................2
 I. REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING SPEAKING..........2
 II. RESEARCH CONTENTS ................................................................3
 1. Research procedures/ definitions of terms......................................4
 2. Advantages and disadvantages of meaningful activities.................7
 3. Evaluation of the research .................................................................8
 a. Novelty of the research ( Innovations) ..........................................9
 b. Effectiveness ....................................................................................9
 c. Applicability of the research ..........................................................9
CONCLUSION............................................................................................. 9
REFERENCES ........................................................................................... 11
APPENDIX: RESEARCH DESIGN ........................................................ 12
Appendix 1: Research Question................................................................ 13
Appendix 2:................................................................................................. 14 THÔNG TIN CHUNG VỀ SÁNG KIẾN
1. Tên sáng kiến: 
 PROMOTING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ GRAMMATICAL 
 ABILITY THROUGH CONTEXT
2. Lĩnh vực áp dụng sáng kiến: Giảng dạy môn Tiếng Anh
3. Tác giả:
- Họ và tên: Vũ Cẩm Thu Nam (nữ): Nữ
- Trình độ chuyên môn: Cử nhân Tiếng Anh
- Chức vụ, đơn vị công tác: Trường THPT Ngô Quyền
- Điện thoại: 0847018963 Email: camthu0408@gmail.com
Tỷ lệ đóng góp tạo ra sáng kiến (%): 100%
 (Nếu là sáng kiến riêng của tác giả, ghi 100%; nếu có đồng tác giả, ghi số lượng % bản thân đóng góp) Page 2
mismatching the position of adjectives and nouns. This is the reason why she claimed 
that students need to learn grammar. 
 Teaching grammar requires teachers a lot work to do. One essential aspect of 
teaching grammar is the ability to help learners gain an understanding of the nature of 
language like patterns which create what people speak, listen, read and write (Azar, 
2007). In fact, people no longer use only simple single words, sounds, body 
expressions to communicate with others since they know how to apply grammar into 
the real context.
 Ellis (2006) also emphasized that grammar instruction includes methods that 
make learners identify specific grammatical form in a way that helps learners both 
comprehend it linguistically and produce it effectively. A lot of researchers also 
stressed the importance of teaching grammar that it cannot be ignored and if learners 
are not taught grammar, they cannot develop the language skills professionally. 
(Richards & Renandya, 2002)
 There has been a debate whether a suitable method of teaching grammar is 
applied in the classroom. Although the traditional grammar teaching PPP is used, this 
method does not bring effects. In fact, presenting grammar in context helps students 
know how grammar is used and improve their knowledge in language skills. 
Obviously, teaching grammar in isolated sentences is an impractical way as it will not 
motivate students’ ability to discover the rules and functions of grammar structures in 
sentences. It is believed that students need to experience grammar in a variety of 
context so that they can use it correctly and apply it efficiently. Hence, context-based 
teaching grammar should be carried out in the classrooms.
4. Research aims (Purposes) 
 This research aims at investigating the effects of implementing teaching 
grammar through context on the development of students’ language competence. It 
also aims to identify students’ problems and their learning styles with the expectation 
that this new method will help them to get the hang of perceiving the rules of new 
grammar structures and providing accuracy in the target language.
 CONTENTS OF THE RESEARCH
I. REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING GRAMMAR 
 In recent years, the most popular traditional grammar teaching approach is PPP 
(Presentation – Practice – Production). However, Long and Doughty (2009) claimed 
that this approach is not effective because it cannot enable students to apply what they 
have learnt into communicative context. This means that they understand the rules 
clearly, but they cannot use them to communicate with others and recognize how 
grammar rules work in sentences, which prevents the effectiveness of learning 
grammar. Therefore, it is the teachers who are responsible for helping students 
comprehend the meaning and the usage of language; and also show them what the 
grammatical form of the new language is and how it is used in speaking and writing. 
This leads to a new approach of grammar instruction - teaching grammar through 
context. Page 4
viewpoints towards learning grammar through context and raise their awareness of the 
importance of studying grammar in contexts. While students do the questionnaire, the 
teacher explains and gives possible and necessary guidance so that they can meet the 
requirements of the questionnaire.
 Interviews are conducted with the help of four partners in my English Team. 
They are asked some questions about their points of view about teaching grammar in 
contexts in their lessons. The questions are designed as open-ended questions. The 
interview will last 30 minutes for each interviewee. Moreover, the place and the 
purpose of the interview will be informed beforehand and in details to create the 
comfortable feelings among the participants. Each teacher will be interviewed one 
time at the beginning of the research and their answers will be recorded by a cassette 
recorder. 
 After students take post-test, the results are collected and analyzed. I will have 
one colleague make a table of all the scores of 90 students of both two groups on 
Microsolf Excel and arrange the scores from the highest to the lowest score; 
especially to differentiate the score of 2 groups, I will color the score of the control 
group blue and the experimental group will be in red. After that, four colleagues and I 
will hold a meeting to analyze the results to see whether the new grammar teaching 
technique (teaching grammar through contexts) can bring the effective results. If this 
method is successful (the score of the experimental group is higher than that of the 
control group), it will be implemented in the most of my students and all the students 
in my school in the long run.
 Application
a) Unit 2: The past tense (Past simple & Past continuous)
In this lesson, I will teach two English tenses in a context: 
Jane comes from Italy. She is now living and working in the outskirts of Italy. Her 
English is quite good as she has studied it at school for over 10 years and she has 
worked for a company where English is the necessity. Some weeks ago, she went to 
London for the first time to visit four high school friends. She stayed there for a week 
and in that time Jane and her friends had a busy schedule – they visited many famous 
places in London such as The London Eye, Tower of London, Sea Life London, 
Madame Tussauds, ZSL Lonson Zoo, ate some famous foods in different restaurants 
every day, walked up the steep hills, and did lots of shopping in the fantastic 
department stores. They took lots of photographs during the trip. 
One evening Jane and her friends were having dinner when the fire alarm went off, 
but the waiters seemed to be calm. They still carried on working. Everyone around 
continued eating. Jane and her friends wondered why everyone still went on eating 
with their meals even though the fire alarm was sounding. Jane and her friends 
decided to get out quickly, but just as they went out of the door they saw a sign at the 
entrance of the restaurant warning customers that there was going to be a fire alarm 
test that evening. At that time, Jane and his friends felt a bit embarrassed.
STEPS: Page 6
 • Finally, I ask some students to make their own sentences, using relative pronouns 
 and write the sentences on the board. The others observe and suggest correction if 
 necessary. I give feedback and help with correction if necessary.
 Leonardo Da Vinci, born in 1452 into a normal family, was an extraordinary man. 
In fact, many people called him a "renaissance man" partly because he lived during 
the Renaissance, which was the time of creativity and invention. However, a person 
who was called a renaissance man has many different skills and can do many great 
things.
 Da Vinci, who was an Italian scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, artist, 
and writer, was considered the most diversely talented person that had ever lived. In 
every area, he had amazing achievements, most of which are the treasures of the 
whole human kind. As an artist, he produced a handful of famous paintings, two of 
which are The Last Supper and The Mona Lisa. The former one, which was painted 
in 1495, describes the last supper of Jesus Christ and his twelve apostles, whom Jesus 
announced the only one that would betray him. The latter one, now hang in the 
Louvre in Paris, is about a lady whose smile in the painting is still a mystery to the 
world. As an inventor, he conceptualized brilliant ideas that were far ahead of this 
time. For example, he drew detailed plans for a helicopter and for contact lenses in a 
time when there was no electricity or plastic.
 Da Vinci has always been the world's legend. The crowds still queue to see his 
most famous artworks being displayed in the most famous museums in the world. 
Thousands of T-shirts on which his paintings and drawings are printed are sold every 
day. Experts are now still studying, translating, and analyzing his work, using the 
newest scientific techniques. Some are still interested in searching the recorded but 
never found.
Through context my students understand the usage of Relative Clause, and can make 
the sentences themselves using grammar forms and structures. They can apply the 
structures in a variety of exercises relating to relative clause.
c) Unit 13: CLEFT SENTENCE
 Let’s take Cleft Sentence as the 3rd example
 • STEPS:
 • Firstly, I show the students a conversation between the boss and a staff. I call 2 
 students to model the conversation. 
 • Secondly, I’ll show the underlined and bold sentences and ask the students to 
 focus on them. Students worked in pairs, practising the conversation again. After 
 that I have some students to give their opinions about the underlined and bold 
 parts. They can easily recognize that it is emphasize structure. 
 • Then I give students some sentences and ask them to rewrite, using the same 
 structure as in the conversation. Of course, some students can write the correct 
 sentences, some others may make the wrong ones.