Issue 3- Octorber 2001
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VTTN provincial workshops
July/August 2001

Lesson ideas

English 11

Unit 2,
'Advertising’
Reading, pp 16-17
Nguyen Thi My Han and Nguyen Thi Do Nhan from Hue add on a role-play to the end of a reading lesson.

Salesman role-play
1. Ask students to draw a picture of a commercial product (one from the lesson or another one)
2. Give students time to prepare a speech to advertise the product.
3. Students in pairs/ small groups act as salesmen/ customers. The salesmen have to 'sell' their product to the customers. Change the pairs when finished.
4. After the role-play, students in a group vote for their favourite product.
5. Give students some feedback on the task and their language.
6. For homework, students can write an advertisement for a magazine for the same product.

Tieng Anh 11

Lesson 6,
‘Look and Speak 1’,
pp 52 – 53

This idea makes use of visuals to suport the students during a speaking activity to practice asking for and giving directions. All the ‘preparation’ work is done by students during the class, so there is no need to do any extra preparation/ copying before the class! This phase of the lesson is the ‘freer practice’ stage after the language (places in a town/ giving directions) has been introduced and practised in a controlled way.

From ideas by Le Hong Phong and Le Quoc Thinh, Thanh Hoa

1. Ask students to draw a sketch map of an imginary town (or part of their town). You can draw it on the board and they can copy – they must have the same map.
2. Devide the class into two groups, A and B. Group A should draw on the locations of half of the places in town (post –officce, cinema, bus stop). Each student should choose where to put them on the map. Group B should draw on other half (park, zoo, museum)
3. When they have finished, put the students into pairs (A and B). They should not show their map to each other. They should ask and answer the questions to find out where the missing places are. (e.g. student B can ask, ‘Excuse me, could you tell me the way to the nearest post-office? And B can give the answer).
If you want to make the activity longer, you can add more places or change the pairs when the students have finished.

Tieng Anh 10
Lesson 23,
"In Mrs. Kent's Office" ; Words and Phrases, pp 131-132.

A class survey

In this (adapted) lesson, Doan Sinh Hoat, Dinh Thi Tang and Nguyen Thi Tam from Nam Dinh build a lesson around a rather random set of vocabulary. The lesson not only gives practice in using some of the vocabulary from the textbook, but it also gives the students a chance to practice speaking in pairs and revise the use of 'can' for ability. This part of the lesson takes place after the introduction/ revision of the vocabulary

1. Ask students to copy this table into their notebooks:

 
Me
A
B
C
D
E
Table tennis
         
Diner
x
         
A picture            
Japanese            
???            
             




They can add extra ideas into the empty spaces

2. Demonstrate a dialogue on the board (e.g. Can you play table tennis? Yes I Can. Can you paint a picture? No, I can't).

3. Put students in pairs to ask and answer questions and complete the table with ticks and crosses. When they have finished, they can find another partner in their group

4. For homework, students can write about the results of their group survey and draw a graph.

English 10

Unit 12, "Word Study", pp 132-133
The following lesson involves lots of student participation and practice in what originally looks like a fairly dull textbook lesson. The ideas can be applied to any set of vocabulary.

From Mach Dinh Dam and Nguyen Quoc Dat, Khanh Hoa

1. Eliciting. Ask your students, "Where does your mother go shopping? Students answer, "Market".
Ask, "Where else can you go shopping?" Elicit or give the word, "Supermarket". Explain what word building with the prefix SUPER- means.
Elicit/give more words with the same prefix and write on the board.
2. Checking. Board run. Divide class into 2 groups. Each group has a 'runner'. Teacher reads out a sentence with a 'super-word' missing (e.g. My mother usually buys oranges at the -----------). Groups shout the missing word to their runner, who has to run to the board and 'clap' the word. One point for each correct 'clap'.
3. Controlled Practice. Students in pairs make word cards with 'super-words' written on them. They take it in turns to pick a word from the pile and to say a sentence using that word.
4. Freer Practice. Draw the following picture on the board and create a context (e.g. ask students to give names and say what their relationship is):
Give students the first sentence of a story,
"Nam ran after Mai holding a handbag in his left hand..."
On a piece of paper, ask each of them to draw the picture and under it to write the first sentence. Then ask them to write the next sentence of the story. When they have finished the second sentence, put them in groups. They should pass their paper to a partner from their group. They should read what has been written, write the next sentence and pass the paper on. Each time it is appropriate, they should try to use one of the 'super-words'.
After enough time, ask the students to find their original paper and to read the completed story. Students can then choose their favourite to read out to the class.

English 12
Unit 8, 'The sword that can heal', Practice - Clauses of Purpose, pp 119 - 120
From To Thi Nga, Da Nang
This idea is designed as an oral practice activity for a single structure. You could use it as a freer speaking activity too, if you do not limit what questions student can ask. Depending how to organise the activity, it could be used as controlled practice or as a production phase.
'What's in the box?'
1. Bring a box to class and a variety of interesting objects.
2. Put one thing in the box and give students a little information to get them started (e.g. Almost every one has one of these. We usually take it with us when we go to school). Invite students ask you questions to discover what the object is (e.g. Do we use it so that we can …?, Is it used in order to …?)
3. If a student guesses the object give a point to his group.
4. Do the same with another object, or ask the winning student to answer the questions.

English 10
Unit 7, 'Sean O'Casey and the Green Flag', Reporting WH-Questions, pp 83-84.
From Vo Tam Lac Huong, Nguyen Thi Minh Thu and from Pham Thi Dieu My, Hue

This activity is designed for the 'production' stage of grammar lesson. The students have already seen presentation and done some controlled practice using the structures.
1. Divide class in two groups (A and B). Ask them to copy the grid from the board:

Student A 1-Me 2-Dinh 3
Get up?      
Favourite food?      
Go to school?      
Live ?      

Student B 1-Me 2-Ly 3
Go to bed?      
Favourite TV show?      
Make pancakes?      
School?      

2. Ask them in groups to make WH-Questions from the prompts (e.g. What is time do you get up?) and to answer the questions in the 1st column, 'Me'.
3. Put students in pair (A and B) and ask them to ask each other their questions and record the answer in column 2. Change pairs and do the same with a new partner in column 3.
4. When they have finished, they should return to their original A or B group and tell their partners how people answered (e.g. I asked Ly what her favourite TV program was and she told me…)
(You could follow this up by combining the information in a class survey report)

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