Teaching Grammar Communicatively for Students of Lower Secondary Level
English is proclaimed to be a compulsory foreign language subject for all students nationwide from primary schools onward (MOET, 2008) However, the domination of grammar translation method (Ho Binh, 2014) and grammar oriented exams (Toan, 2013) in English language education has turned students into those who may succeed in doing tests but fail to communicate meaningfully (Phuong Uyen, 2014) after seven to ten years of its learning. To make the teaching of grammar interesting and meaningful and develop communicative competence in which language users shows their grammatical fluency and appropriateness, grammar instruction should be integrated in teaching language skills. In other words, students are provided with opportunities to use proper grammar structures in appropriate contexts (Ellis, 1990) which center on students' own lives (Ehreworth, 2003) Self formulating grammar rules enables students to remember better and more effectively. In this workshop, some strategies and activities associated with contextual teaching (Ellis, 2006; Ehrenworth Vinton, 2005; Mora, 2003; Weaver 1996; Woods, 1995; Harmer, 1991) are proposed to improve secondary students' grammar fluency and accuracy, thus, make their English learning purposeful and communicative. Plus, at the end of the workshop, the floor for discussion will be open to vary the activities to serve teaching grammar of different levels.