UC3 - 11393 - Assignment 3 - U3230366
UC3 - 11393 - Assignment 3 - U3230366
UC3 - 11393 - Assignment 3 - U3230366
and Rationale
Approaches to Grammar for Language Teachers PG (11393)
Vietnam Period 2 2021
INTRODUCTIO
Educators must develop a set of pedagogical abilities and teaching knowledge to become
qualified foreign language teachers. Both learners and teachers will benefit from pedagogical
abilities gained via application paired with professional knowledge and research. In this essay, as
an EFL teacher, the writer will create a portfolio of three lesson plans based on her work
experience and language-related research, enhancing her capacity to recognize appropriate
approaches and mastering pedagogical information in preparation for her teaching profession.
The lesson plans for the three classes are prepared and linked together in this portfolio. The
grammar is taught in the following order: lexical grammar, sentence-level grammar, and text-
level grammar. Following PET writing part 2 of the Cambridge Assessment, students will retain
and grasp the grammar elements and use the taught structure in writing a 100-word story by the
conclusion of three classes. The writer will explain her applied approaches and techniques,
discuss the benefits, and anticipate problems and figure out if there is room for improvement
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RATIONAL
The chosen subject is a group of fifteen students, aged 12 to 13, who are currently enrolled in a
private English language centre in Hanoi, Vietnam. Some students attend public schools, while
others attend private schools. Every student must take an admission exam so that the centre may
evaluate them and place them at the right level. According to the CEFR system, their English
language skills range from level A2 (pre-intermediate) to roughly B1 (intermediate). The goal of
this class is to raise learners’ English levels to B1 (intermediate) and obtain the B1 Preliminary
qualification, which was previously known as Cambridge English: Preliminary (PET) (“B1
Preliminary | Cambridge English,” n.d.). Learners must be able to apply intermediate vocabulary
and complicated grammar structures to pass the listening, reading, and writing components, with
the writing component being the most productive and demanding
There is no official course book for the class. Instead, the curriculum is based on the
requirements of level B1 of the CEFR framework, and teachers must prepare the learning
materials using official and reputable resources like Cambridge University Press, Oxford
University Press, or from reference websites such as British Council. Because the students enjoy
expressing their thoughts and developing their egos, they feel at ease and confident while
participating in in-class activities. They dislike solely theoretical classes. As a result, the teacher
must plan the lesson with the integration and interaction of practical activities to be exciting, and
the students are interested.
As the teacher, I must first identify the pupils' level before selecting appropriate approaches or
tactics for teaching grammar. It is necessary since it affects the organization of the lesson.
Following that, the approach must be followed, and the classroom learning materials and
activities must be carefully picked and disseminated. The objective is to create a strategy and
teach grammar courses that will enable young students to employ proper grammatical structures
in their writing projects
The information about learners will remain unchanged because the lesson plans are in the same
class’s sequence.
With the subjected students of the group age of 12-13, who are considered problematic but
energetic students and willing to show their opinions, I decide to choose the eclectic approach. It
includes the lexical approach (based on the aim of the vocabulary acquisition after this lesson)
and learner-centred approaches (communicative language teaching and task-based learning),
following the traditional PPP procedure in all three lesson plans. The PPP approach is one of the
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classic approaches and can be used in most structured sessions. In this approach, I will present
the grammar point to be learned, then my students will practice through assigned activities, and
the teacher will be the one to control and evaluate the students through the activities. Though
heavily criticised over the years, PPP is probably the most commonly used lesson structure. This
structure is easy for new teachers to adapt to the lessons. It is not only flexible but also has a
logical sequence. It works for most types of classes, including more extended classes.
Furthermore, most coursebooks use this or a similar method to structure their lessons. However,
this procedure is old and may not be the best way to teach or learn a new language. More
inadequate learners may overuse the target language from the practice session, so it sounds
unnatural. Learners may not be sure how to use the target language in different contexts.
Moreover, it can be boring if used repeatedly for higher-level students (Harmer, 2007).
When applying the PPP process to the lesson, I will take advantage of this structure, so the lesson
is clear, seamless, and easy for students to follow. However, I need to adapt it appropriately and
utilise the advantages and eliminate disadvantages. For the Presentation stage, I should turn the
deductive aspect into an inductive aspect (so learners have to figure out the patterns themselves).
For example, a text containing the target structure examples is given to students. They have to
work together to look for examples, which is an effective way for them to recognise and
remember the form of the structure. In the Practice stage, the teacher will need to control the
activities. The practice activities need to be well-prepared and enhanced from easy to complex. It
is required for the teacher to thoroughly observe the students and take the time to correct the
errors immediately. In particular, in this part, students will make some common mistakes, and it
will be immeasurable if the teacher can detect those mistakes and help students correct them in
time. The production part will be the time when students can practise the language while learning
more freely. Based on the approaches, I choose some activities suitable for this class, meanwhile
keeps following the Bloom’s Taxonomy.
At this time, communication tasks will be included, which are suitable for their preference. I can
facilitate free practice for this group of students. If the teacher controls the activity in the
previous practice stage, then gradually, students have independence in the following steps. In this
section, the lesson is also integrated with language learning skills (writing) and several small
tasks are also added to help students combine sub-skills. The goal of this section is that students
will gain more interactivity and practice using the target language effectively. At this stage, I
assign tasks to students, using the task-based learning approach to assist students to acquire
knowledge and apply it most efficiently. Thus, this procedure supports students to gradually
absorb knowledge and give them opportunities to practice their input and produce their output
For the first lesson plan, which focuses on lexicon grammar, I choose to teach students affixes for
adjectives. This lexical approach is a method of analysing and teaching language based on the
concept that it comprises lexical units rather than grammatical structures. The units here are root
words and other parts. In this lesson, students will recognise the root words formed with different
affixes with new meaning through a text first, and then they will learn the meaning of each affix
and form a new word using those affixes. Then the students will practice in a traditional but
effective way (doing worksheet). During this activity, the teacher can go around the class to
check up on students and provide any help if needed. In this way, the teacher can let students self-
control their practice, which promoting their self-study and also the teacher can provide suitable
support for each individual. After that, students will create their new words with the given affixes
and root words in the production stage, provided that the words are correct, and make their
sentences using those words.
For the sentence-level grammar, I design the second lesson plan focusing on complex sentences
and how to form them. The students are supposed to have learned compound sentences and
coordinating conjunctions before, so there will be a short activity at the beginning of the lesson to
recall the knowledge and create a chance to tell the differences between compound sentences and
complex sentences to be taught in this lesson. In the presentation stage, I also use a given text for
students to read and recognise the form of a complex sentence, then I give the definition and
examples of complex sentences. This activity follows the task-based learning method. According
to Harmer (2007), there are two versions of the task-based learning method. In one of them,
students complete the tasks and focus on language form while they do the tasks and have done
them. In the second one, the teacher provides students with some of the target languages to
perform the tasks before completing them. In this lesson, I choose the latter method. Again,
during the practice stage, the role of the teacher is crucial that the teacher will instruct and correct
if students make any mistakes. For the production part, the difficulty level is increased since
students will have to follow the examples, including the grammar structure and rewrite sentences
using different conjunctions but still keep the same meaning. This is to make sure that students
remember, understand, and apply the grammar structure when writing a sentence
In the last lesson plan, I think it will be better to apply the lexical resources (adjectives with
affixes) and the complex sentence structure into writing a story, which is a task that they have to
pass when getting the B1 qualification. First, I activate their knowledge about different story
genres, and then I encourage them to brainstorm about the elements of a story. The purpose is to
give students the generic structure of a story. I start by recounting the events, orientation (scene-
setting), reminding them to list the events in chronological order, and adding further details using
adjectives, adverbs, and words describing senses. Also, the students are reminded about the
narrative tenses (usually past tenses), connectives (in chronological order) and the purposes of the
writing (focus on an individual or third person). In the practice stage, students have a chance to
teamwork. It is a part of the communicative language teaching approach where students express
their ideas and communicate actual meaning. With the given context, students’ ideas should be
natural as possible. They will brainstorm ideas together to write a story; then, they will present
their work and receive feedback from the teacher and their peers. Through teacher’s correction
and peer’s feedback, students are guided and can write independently at home. Students can
watch and learn from others and develop their ability of self-study, self-motivation and self-
correction. The homework can help students recycle the knowledge learned in class, also help
them rearrange, improve and transfer what they have done in class into their own individual
written assignments. The standard for this part will not be perfect since it is a newly introduced
practice exercise for students. Therefore the teacher can give them a sample for PET writing part
2 to take references from it. Homework will be corrected individually in the next lesson
In conclusion, the teacher needs to adapt the appropriate material and include student-centred
approaches consistent with the learning and output goals. In these three lessons, the language
points are lexicon grammar, sentence-level grammar and text-level grammar, combined with the
critical skill of writing. To develop exciting and easy-to-difficult lesson content, the teacher
chooses the lexical approach, communicative approach, and task-based learning, following the
PPP procedure. Some techniques used in the lecture include explicit teaching and computer-based
games. At the end of the unit, students are expected to remember and understand the meaning and
form of grammar at word-level, sentence-level and text-level and to apply them in writing in an
authentic context. During the lesson, some problems may arise (from class management to
inadequate levels of students). If these problems occur, the teacher should be flexible and know
how to adapt the activities to suit the students to ensure the lessons’ objectives
Hence, to become a competent foreign language teacher, educators are expected to gather skills.
Pedagogical skills gained from practice combined with professional knowledge and research will
be valuable lessons for both learners and teachers.
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REFERENCE
[1] Armstrong, P. Bloom’s Taxonomy. Retrieved from:
https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy
[2] B1 Preliminary | Cambridge English. Retrieved from:
https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams-and-tests/preliminary/
[3] Harmer, J. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching (4th ed.). Harlow, United
Kingdom: Pearson Education Limited
[4] Kahoot! | Learning games. Retrieved from:
https://kahoot.co
[5] Redman, S. English vocabulary in use (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press
[6] The Ugly Duckling. LearnEnglish Kids | British Council. (2016). Retrieved from:
https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/short-stories/the-ugly-ducklin
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APPENDI
LESSON PLAN 1 - SAMPLE TEX
In my personal view, the party was fantastic. The place was decorated with edible things made
out of fruits and crackers, which was unique. The dancers were beautiful and skilful. The
magician’s performance was so creative that we couldn’t take my eyes off it. There was fire,
which seemed dangerous, but it ended up nothing flammable there. We also met some new
people. Some of them were so funny, while some were brainy. The host was so supportive that
we felt comfortable there.
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LESSON PLAN 2 - SAMPLE TEX
I had a strange dream last night. In my dream, my family suddenly moved to Japan. My father
had to work at his company for more than twelve hours per day. Although my mom was a
talented businesswoman, she couldn’t find a job in Japan and stayed home as a housewife. My
brother went to a university to learn about technology though he never knew how the Internet
was invented. I didn’t remember why I was invisible in that dream. I just observed my family
members and felt like life was so hard in Japan. Four years later, my brother graduated and
applied for a job in a small company. He managed to save a lot of money in spite of his small
salary. Later, he became rich, so he planned to buy a big house, and my parents didn’t have to
work anymore. He said: “Despite the death of my sister four years ago, I am so glad that we can
overcome and live happily now.” When I awoke, I realized it had all been a dream. I had such a
bizarre dream last night because of drinking so much coffee
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