Prepared by LAI Mee Ling

Lesson Summary:
This lesson was designed to address the correct form, function and use of 'WH' questions. David Beckham was used as the theme which ran through the whole lesson. Grammar rules were taught explicitly and practices were introduced through different group and individual activities.

Total Number of Lessons (60 mins each):
One

Background:
The lesson was conducted in a F.1 class of an EMI school. The English standard of the students ranged from average to above-average and the students were mostly motivated to learn. The lesson was designed with a special aim to address the errors that students often made when forming 'WH' questions. A diagnostic test was first conducted with the class to find out the areas that students were weak in. The results showed that students often had problems in 1) using subject-verb inversion, 2) using verb to-be and auxiliary 'do' correctly, and 3) forming questions appropriate to the given context. Apart from what was revealed in the test, teachers were generally dissatisfied with the fact that students did not have an inquiry habit in class because a) they lacked the confidence in making correct questions, and b) they lacked ideas because their thinking was not well organized. The lesson was then planned to address the above problems. The same test was given to the students after the lesson, and students showed significant improvement in areas 1-3.

This topic (i.e. 'WH' questions) was chosen because many senior secondary students are having the same difficulties in forming correct questions. Teachers believe that laying good foundations from F.1 is essential to ensure success at a later stage. More importantly, forming questions is an item in the HKCE examination syllabus.

Lesson Highlights:
Arousing students' interest
'David Beckham' was chosen to be the theme of the lesson. This aroused students' interest since Beckham was a popular figure in Hong Kong, who appeared frequently on TV, advertisements and magazines at the time when the lesson was conducted.

Very rich IT materials were used in the lesson e.g. puzzle game, PowerPoint slides, pictures and videos of Beckham. These helped not only to arouse and sustain students' interest, but also to illustrate the teaching points. Due to copyright restrictions, video excerpts used in the lesson cannot be shown in this resource package. Interested viewers may refer to ¡§Beckham unwrapped¡¨ produced by world Wide Entertainment.

Strategies in teaching grammar rules
In this lesson, grammar rules were explicitly explained to students with the support of visual aids (i.e. PowerPoint slides). The teacher highlighted the features of 'WH' questions through contrasting them with those of a statement.

Although the teacher was much concerned about grammatical accuracy, effort had been made to avoid mechanical drills. A balanced emphasis on form, function and meaning was kept through different purposeful activities.

Purposeful activities
Throughout the lesson, students were involved in different activities. Each activity required students to practise making 'WH' questions with an authentic purpose e.g. 1) The guessing game required students to ask questions which gave them clues as to who the person behind the puzzle was; 2) students set quiz questions on a Beckham passage in order to challenge their friends; 3) as reporters of the school radio, students needed to prepare questions for an interview with Beckham. Through the above purposeful activities, students needed to attend not only to grammatical correctness, but also to whether the questions were appropriate for the context.

Integration of four language skills
Although the main focus of this lesson was on grammar, it provided opportunities for students to practise the four language skills in an integrated manner: speaking (in group discussions); reading (the Beckham passage); listening (to teacher's instructions); writing ('WH' questions for the interview with Beckham).

Organizing thinking through the use of a mind map
The use of a mind map (i.e. the slide showing the themes of different paragraphs in the Beckham passage) helped students to develop categories that they wished to explore. This helped students to organize their thinking in order to generate more ideas. It is important that tasks given to students be cognitively challenging, otherwise students will easily become uninterested souls with no ideas of their own.

Possible development of this lesson
The lesson has great potential for further development into a task-based unit: using the mind map, students may generate more categories and under those, more questions can be raised about Beckham. According to the questions that students have proposed, they may start searching for the answers on the Internet or magazines. Using the Beckham passage as a model, students can then write a report and present it to the class. In the process of completing the above tasks, students will have higher exposure to authentic language, greater responsibility in learning and stronger ownership of the products. Of course, tasks must not be thrown to students without guidance and practice. For how students can be equipped to accomplish a task, audience may refer to the unit entitled 'Fashion' in this package.

Post-lesson Interviews with Students
After the lesson, 3 students of high, average and weak English ability were invited to attend an interview. In the post-lesson interview, the students expressed positive comments about the effectiveness of the lesson. They thought that explicit grammar teaching with rules described in grammatical terminology was useful. This made them feel strongly that they were no longer primary students. In primary, they did drills on 'WH' questions by following teachers' examples without knowing the underlying rules. Students also commented on the good learning atmosphere of the lesson. On the whole, they enjoyed the activities; without which, one student said, their learning interest would have been lowered.

Discussion Questions:
1. During the guessing game at the beginning of the lesson, the teacher stressed that students should ask meaningful ¡§WH¡¨ questions. What did the teacher mean?

2. When this lesson was piloted in another F.1 class, some students asked the following questions during the guessing game. Why do you think they asked such questions? Would you consider these questions meaningful?
a) What is this person's favourite subject?
b) Who is this person's best friend?
c) How does this person go to work?

3. Were the activities communicative in this lesson?

4. Refer to the presentation of grammar rules in this lesson, what alternative strategies could be used other than verbal explanation?

5. Do you think students had sufficient practice of the target patterns in this lesson? What else would you do to maximize student learning?

6. 'Free practice' was missing in this lesson. What activities would you suggest for this stage?
Suggested Readings
1. For discussion about explicit grammar teaching, viewers may refer to Larsen-Freeman, Diane (2003). Teaching Language: From Grammar to Grammaring. Boston, MA Thomson/Heinle.
2. For more grammar teaching ideas, viewers may read Thornbury, Scott (1999). How to Teach Grammar. Harlow, England: Longman.