Combining effective methods of teaching English Grammar for primary students

 Category
A. INTRODUCTION
I. Why choose the topic
II. The purpose of research
III. The objects of research
IV. Research methods
B. CONTENT
I. Theoretical basic of teaching 
II. Reality of teaching and learning English for primary school students
III. Implemented solusions 
IV. Effectiency of experience.
C. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
I. Conclution 
II. Recommendation
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A. INTRODUCTION
I. WHY CHOOSE TOPIC:
	Today, the trend of international integration in many fields, including the education sector, has put English in a very important position. English as a communication tool is the key to humanity's treasure. On the other hand, the widespread use of information technology makes learning English an imperative and indispensable. Therefore, learning English is particular interested to students, parents, teachers in the education sector and the whole country. English becomes one of the core subjects in the student's program. English not only helps students develop language thinking but also helps them integrate with human civilization.
	However, to learn this subject is not easy. Therefore, in the process of teaching English, teachers must think about using suitable teaching methods with each skill and language knowledge to promote the positive and creative of each student simultaneously. The children understand deeply, remember and know how to use to expand the knowledge. Learning and using English requires a practice that requires the creativity of both the learners and the instructors. Elementary education is a solid foundation for the development of knowledge and skills for higher education. For elementary school, school children are approached with a wealth of new and varied knowledge. Abundant knowledge that the child's perception is just at the simplest level. All knowledge of terminology, concepts, names are new, difficult to understand. Therefore, the acquisition of scientific knowledge for children are difficult. At present, in order to catch up with the development of the country, the education and training sector needs to improve comprehensively the quality and quantity of subjects. Elementary school students are educated comprehensively through subjects to the child’s perception is not one-sided.
	Elementary English instruction gives children the ability to use the English words, forming in their child a basic understanding of English and proficiency in using English. Throughout the teaching lessons, English allows students to develop their minds and to shape their students with healthy and pure sentimental thoughts and to create good qualities for their children: loving and kindness.... love humanity.
	Understanding English Language, students have the opportunity to accumulate vocabulary and grammar to develop their language skills through daily communication. Thus, English grammar is specially importance. In elementary school, grammar is important aspect of language besides other aspects such as phonetics, vocabulary, style. Grammar consists of the entire rules of word formation, word conversion, word combination, phrase - the smallest unit of language that can communicate. The grammar governs the use of linguistic units to form words that make language function in social life. Grammar plays an important role in the creation and attainment of language, teaching students to listen, speak, read and write.
	Based on the English grammar of the student at the beginning of the familiarity to provide students with some basic grammar knowledge needed. Grammar equips students with some notion of understanding the structure and function of it. Specifically: English grammar in elementary school helps students understand the rules of word composition, catch rules using sentence and create text to use in communication. Through the current situation of teaching and learning English grammar in primary school does not meet the requirements of English. The ability to use words to write sentences, sentence analysis into the words of students also encounter many limitations, errors. In fact many teachers have difficulty in teaching English grammar, also controversy when deciding the answer to a grammar test, forcing students to memorize the sentence pattern, unknown extension.
	Derived from the role and position of English grammar, especially the reality of teaching - English grammar study in some primary schools today is not practical effect. I also choose the topic of research: "Combining effective methods of teaching English Grammar for primary students"
II. THE PURPOSES OF RESEARCH
	Derived from the fact of teaching English in primary schools today, especially the situation students do not remember grammar. I study this topic to help students remember and apply grammatical structure well in class. Help them learn the subject and love the English subject. This is to help improve the quality of teaching and learning in the school, especially the quality of teaching and learning English today.
III. THE OBJECTS OF RESEARCH:
	 The effective methods of teaching English Grammar.
IV. RESEARCH METHODS
In this topic I have used some of the following methods:
1. Theoretical research methodology.
Read some textbooks, reference books and some grammar topics
2. Method of survey observation.
- Primary school survey of grammar instruction:
- Teacher interviews and attends (a combination of professional groups and school administrators)
3. Method of product research of activities.
- Student Quality Survey.
4. Methodology of experimental teaching.
- Teach a grammar lesson in class.
5. Methodology for teaching experiences.
6. Method of summarizing experience.
B. CONTENT
I- THEORETICAL BASIC OF TEACHING GRAMMAR.
	"Grammar is a system of rules that combine words while speaking or writing to make the correct sentences and eliminate the wrong sentences, while creating the ability to understand the sentences spoken by native speakers in the context of communication "
	Likewise, English grammar is the rule that combines English words into larger units. If you do not understand the rules, you will not understand the words, and will not be able to say things, the words that you want to say, want to express in communication, if students do not hold grammar rules they can not understand texts and can not produce effective speech in communication.	 
	Because the characteristics of grammar are abstract, generalized, it contributes significantly to develop students’ thinking. Thus teaching grammar is also teaching thinking in cognitive development for students.
	Grammar provides students with a basic understanding of how to use the words and the sentence, set up the paragraph to form, strengthen the writing skills, students can not write when they don’t understand the rules of speech.
	Grammar helps students learn other subjects, especially speaking and writing skills. Thus, grammar is an indispensable part of learning a language. Grammar helps students understand the structure of the word, concept of word type, concept of sentences, sentence structures. On the basis of grammar, students learn the rules of spelling, punctuation, grasp the standard speech culture.
II. REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS.
1. Teaching and learning English in primary schools:
	Because grammar is general, abstraction, many parents said that teaching English grammar for children early will create more pressure for children, easy to depressed children lose English dynamics. But that does not mean they do not need to learn grammar early. It is important that children learn grammar correctly and in the right way, suitable with the psychology and ability of the child.
	Teaching is a challenging job, with every new challenges emerging year as the world changes day by day and teachers are ready to receive and impart new knowledge to students. A problem that many teachers worry about is how to introduce patterns so that they will not only understand but also feel interesting. They will be extremely pressured by methods of referral and testing by way of recording, cramming and memorization. If there are no interesting and teaching methods, they will consider learning as a response to examinations.
	Grammar has a strong relationship to create a good foundation for learning English: Grammar training for students to correct skills, writing the correct sentences, to write the paragraph smoothly. Grammar helps students to practice English in real life.
	In English, most of the lessons have a vocabulary and grammar introduction. For high-achieving lessons, students must understand the sentence patterns and how to use the sentence patterns. So teachers have to choose the appropriate teaching methods to make students easy to understand, easy to remember, easy to use.
	In fact, in primary school, very few students practise the pattern smoothly. Because teachers only stop at the theory. This means that the teacher must do all the knowledge of the lesson, but the practice is less. This makes learning English grammar much more limited in helping students achieve practical results. So students say, write wrong grammar, because the method of knowledge acquisition, some students do not know how to write sentences, especially in the sentence and composition analysis sentences, leading to write missing sentence components, misspelled words in the sentence.
2. Reality of teaching and learning English grammar in Nga Tan primary school.
2.1. Reality:
Most students are introduced to English at an early age. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills are taken simultaneously in the teaching and learning of foreign languages. Elementary school students are limited in communication because they do not remember the grammar so they are shy, embarrassing when speaking.
* Advantages :
- Students with innocent nature are willing to participate in the activities of the lessons.
- Students are always cared by parents and teachers during their studies.
- Teachers are learning, exchanging experiences from colleagues through lectures, exchanging experiences, special topics, professional activities of clusters.
- Get the attention and support of school administrators, professional groups and colleagues.
- Students are introduced about information technology, they are soon exposed to computers, to the Internet and get a lot of information from here.
* Advantages :
- English is a new and very difficult subject for elementary students. Moreover, for rural students, the conditions of contact and proximity of reality are limited.
- A small number of students have not paid attention and invested in foreign languages, preparing the paper skilfully. During lessons, some students are often passive, lack of flexibility, shy of reading and speaking English, and are less likely to participate in speaking.
	Therefore, teachers must have good methods, innovative initiative, always improve the method of training in different forms, different types of exercises appropriate for each lesson content to inspire and encourage all students to practice hardly.
In the process of teaching English today, teachers have used the new method effectively in the lessons, many teachers have used the method and more creativity in the course of the lesson. However, in order to achieve high effectiveness, teachers must use appropriate forms for students.
Facts at Nga Tan primary school:
- Students are not interested in learning grammar, because they have to memorize many grammar rules, they learn just to deal with exams.
- Students also use many Vietnamese: During the lessons most of the children said that only know the meaning of Vietnamese but few how to use the template. During the lesson, students also use Vietnamese to communicate or explain issues related to the lesson.
- Students forget the grammar: Many students often forget the grammar if they don’t practice the sample again. It is difficult for students to remember verb conjugation, using singular or plural nouns, using prepositions....
 - Students are confused: Many sentences have complex grammatical structures, and similar sentences can cause students to confuse.
- Applying speech in writing: In the trend of teaching English is aiming for further education, it is still not possible to ignore teaching and learning grammar by as education expert Gavan Lacono - General Director of Education Language Link: "The over-reliance on English communication can cause chronic errors in English language learning and is difficult to correct. By learning English to communicate, the only goal of the child is to communicate his message to the other person, who can ignore grammar rules. This will negatively affect the long time when the child applies this method in writing, into the official documents later ... So children need to learn grammar in a formal way from the litter, elementary school age. Grammar is the backbone of language, the rails to convey the message of communication, if there is no grammar as well as train without rail, communication will not be able to perform completely.”
2.2. Survey results.
 	 For elementary students who have difficulty to remember grammar in the lesson, in the process of teaching, through practical teaching over the years, I realize that the old method of teaching and learning grammar usually takes place in style: The teacher put up the sample on the board and asked the students to memorize it for the next lesson. That makes them boring and stressful. Investigating the situation in Nga Tan Primary School, Nga Son district, taught by the method, only 15-20% students understand sentence patterns, the rest students remember mechanically and forget very quickly.
	From the above situation, I have found ways to help students understand and use grammar fluantly. Therefore, I have been able to offer some methods to help students learn English grammar effectively.
III. IMPLEMENTED SOLUTIONS.
  	 Grammar is one of the most important parts when learning a foreign language, if you want to be good at English, any skill: listening, speaking, reading, writing, you need grammar capital. Nowadays, with modern equipment, we can apply and create many interesting, effective and attractive grammar lessons, creating a colorful lessons in English.
	Young children ( 6-7 years old ) learn grammar by learning unconscious fixed phrases based on the context of the lesson activities they are learning. As they grow older, they begin to translate these phrases into different contexts to use them creatively. All of these activities occur spontaneously without any explicit explanation or analysis of the grammar because this is beyond the reach of the child.
	However, when the perception of the child is better (8 years old and above), the explanation and analysis of specific grammatical elements is necessary for children to acquire rich and accurate language later. 
          But teaching grammar to primary students is not easy. I have come up with effective solutions:
1. Teach students the rules of using English grammar.
          English grammar rules are incorporated into spoken or fun content that students can easily recognize and remember. Have students learn as much as possible to recognize the rules of English grammar.
a. Teach students what the subject is.
	The subject in a sentence is "who" or "what" that the speaker is talking about. Every sentence needs a subject. If no subject, no one knows what the speaker is talking about. Give them short sentences to illustrate:
 I am hungry.
 My brother is very tall.
 That computer is very expensive.
 We are going to the store now.
 My sister and I will be waiting here. 
 That school is very big.
b. Teach students what predicate is?
The predicate in a sentence is the ingredient used to tell what the subject is or what it is doing. It can be a phrase or a verb. Verbs are always predicates. Examples in the above sentences:
 I am hungry.
 My brother is very tall.
 That computer is very expensive.
 We are going to the store now.
 My sister and I will be waiting here. 
 That school is very big.
In the short sentences above we identify the subject and predicate. In the most basic sentences, there should be action associated with that subject.
c. Teach students what verb is.
- A verb is an action, existence, or occurrence. In simple sentences the verb is mainly used with the form indicating existence. They are "am", "is", "are". Other forms of verbs are action verbs such as
“Wash”
“Run”
“Jump”
“Dance”
“Learn”
“Teach”
“Read"
- To understand these verbs, put them in the sentences:
I wash my face.
He runs down the stairs.
Miss Hien teaches me.
- A verb can also start with a sentence.
Throw the ball.
Run toward the finish line.
Learn by heart.
d. Teach students how to use the articles: "a", "an", "the".
Students only listen to and say:
She is a teacher.
 He is a farmer.
 I’d like to be an engineer.
 I want to go to the book shop. 
They do not know when to use and how to use the words. And to help them understand that is the problem of teaching grammar. The teacher explains the English grammar rules: "A", "An" has the same meaning as the indefinite article. They differ only depending on the word or the sound after them.
- Use "A" when the word follow starts with a consonant.
“A dog”
“A boy”
“A buiding”
“A hamburger”
Use "An" when the word followed begins with a vowel. (U, E, O, A, I)
“An ant”
“An umbrella”
“An elephant”
“An architect”
...
"The" is a definite article. The distinction lies in whether the noun or subject we are talking about is specific or not. If you say that students will be difficult to understand. So use this example:
"I am going to a coffee shop" (not a specific coffee shop)
"I am going to the coffee shop" (a specific caffee shop that both the speaker and the listener know)
2. Teach the grammar systematically.
	The teaching must always be done in a certain order, especially for young children. If teaching spontaneity, it will be easy to make children easily bored, discouraged and no longer interested in learning again.
	Make a grammar practice plan for your students. Teach from simple structures to complex structures according to age and effort. Grammatical knowledge must be generalized to students to remember.
	Grammar is one of the important parts of learning a foreign language. Nowadays, with modern equipment, we can apply and create many interesting, effective and attractive grammar lessons, creating a colorful playing field in English.
	To teach English grammar effectively, it requires perseverance and effort to find and learn a lot. Having found the cause of low student achievement, I have implemented innovative teaching methods. I have combined English grammar methods for elementary school students to enhance their memory for communication.
	In order to implement these solutions effectively, I have studied and applied effectively the following methods:
Method 1: Teach grammar through structures, rules and examples according to situations.
	Give specific formulas and rules explicitly for a grammar point and explain its usage through example. But that is not the best way to learn grammar because students are quite passive, not good application in practice. Students memorize formulas mechanically without thinking about them in depth. In this respect, students will memorize, easily forget and not develop the thinking and systematize the grammar points. This is the most common method of teaching grammar in Vietnam because teachers always give examples and then analyze grammatical structures in the examples.
	In such cases, the teacher's presentation of the problem or grammatical structure in a specific practical situation will help students to grasp and manipulate the structure faster and more efficiently. In ad