USING PAIRWORK AND GROUPWORK IN HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH CLASSES AN INVESTIGATION OF STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES AND EXPERIENCES

i MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ THANH THỦY USING PAIRWORK AND GROUPWORK IN HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH CLASSES : AN INVESTIGATION OF STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES AND EXPERIENCES Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Code: 60.14.01.11 MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN GIA VIỆT, Ph.D Nghe An – 2017 i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify that this thesis entitled “ Using pairwork and groupwork in high school English classes: An investigation of students’ attitudes and experiences” is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at Vinh University No material in this thesis has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university and neither does this thesis use and contain previously published material or written by another person Author Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Dr Nguyen Gia Viet for his constant help, precious suggestions and valuable advice I also wish to express my sincere thanks to the board of examiners for having accepted to examine my dissertation I am so grateful to the teachers who taught us during the M.A course I would like to express my gratitude to my principle, colleagues, my students, my classmates, my friends who have kindly accepted to cooperate, without whom, this work would not have been possible Last but not least, great thanks go to my parents-in-law, my parents, my daughter, and especially my husband who devoted all their time for me during the M.A course, as well as during the preparation of this work Vinh, 2017 Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy iii ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate the attitudes of students when using pairwork and groupwork techniques in communicative English classes Survey questionnaires for teachers and students were carried out The findings of the research revealed that pairwork and groupwork were usually applied in communicative English classes at Huong Son high school The reason was that these two techniques strongly increased students’ participation in class activities The students found working in pairs and in groups interesting, which made them participate more in the lesson In addition, thanks to pairwork and groupwork, the interaction between students were closer However, there were some problems the teachers should consider when conducting these activities such as group size, the way of grouping, students’ level of proficiency, etc I hope that this thesis will help other teachers of English be aware of the usefulness of pairwork and groupwork techniques and apply them in their teaching TABLE OF CONTENTS iv STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES Chapter : INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of study 1.3 Scope of study 1.4 Research questions 1.5 Methods of study 1.6 Thesis outline Chapter LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Communicative language teaching (CLT) 2.1.1 An overview of CLT 2.1.2 Communicative activities 2.1.3 The techniques of CLT 2.2 Participation 2.2.1 Definition 2.2.2 Benefits of participation 2.2.3 Affective factors affecting students' participation in classroom 2.3 Attitude 2.3.1 Definition 2.3.2 Importance of attitude 2.4 Pairwork and groupwork 2.4.1 Definition 2.4.2 Organization 2.5 Activities commonly used in pairwork and groupwork 2.6 Advantages and disadvantages of pair and group work 2.6.1 The advantages of pairwork and group work 2.6.2 The disadvantages of pairwork and group work 2.7 Problems in conducting pairwork and groupwork 2.8 Some suggested ideas for working in pair and in group Chapter METHODOLOGY 3.1 Background of the study 3.1.1 The English syllabus at Huong Son high school 3.1.2 Description of the students at Huong Son high school ii iii iv v vii viii ix 1 2 3 4 5 7 10 10 16 16 18 21 21 22 25 26 26 27 28 29 33 33 33 34 v 3.1.3 Description of the teachers at Huong Son high school 3.1.4 Description of physical settings 3.2 Participants 3.2.1 Students 3.2.2 Teachers 3.3 Research instruments 3.3.1 Survey questionaires 3.3.2 Interview 3.4 Procedures Chapter FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 4.1 Findings 4.1.1 Findings from teachers’ questionnaire 4.1.2 Findings from students’ questionnaire 4.2 Examples of pair and groupwork 4.2.1 Pairwork 4.2.2 Groupwork 4.3 Discuss of the findings 4.3.1 Frequency of pairwork and groupwork organization 4.3.2 Students' attitudes to pairwork and groupwork 4.3.3 Teachers and students' problems with pairwork and groupwork Chapter 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 5.1 Summary of study 5.2 Implication 5.3 Limitations of the study 5.4 Suggestions for further study REFERENCES APPENDIX 34 35 35 35 35 36 36 36 37 38 38 38 44 52 52 54 55 55 56 57 59 59 60 60 61 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT : Communicative Language Teaching L2 : The second language vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Time for pairwork and groupwork in class Table : The benefits of pairwork and groupwork in language classes Table 3: Teachers’ opinion on pairwork and groupwork Table 4: Things the teachers when the students work in pairs and in 39 40 40 42 groups Table 5: Group size Table 6: The ways to group students Table 7: Students’ profiles Table : The students’activities in English classes Table : The time for pairwork and groupwork Table 10 : The main benefits of the pairwork and groupwork Table 11 : The skills for pairwork and groupwork Table 12: The impacts of pairwork and groupwork techniques Table 13: Factors causing difficulties Table 14: Students’ recommendation for the things the teacher should Table 15: Group size preferred by students Table 16: How would students like to be grouped 43 43 44 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 51 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Techniques used in English classes Figure 2: Factors causing difficulties Figure 3: The frequency of pairwork and groupwork activities Figure 4: The frequency of difficulties 38 41 47 49 Chapter INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale Today, English has become an international language It is spoken as a second language and an official language in many countries, and millions of people speak English as a foreign language Besides, English is considered the medium of communication in many fields such as science, technology, aviation, internet, commerce, etc Therefore learning and teaching English are getting more and more important to non-native nations of English In Vietnam, English is a compulsory subject at schools and colleges It plays a key role in getting a good job According to Decision No 1400/QĐ-TTg by the Prime Minister, by the year 2020 most Vietnamese young people who graduate from vocational schools, colleges and universities should gain the capacity to use a foreign language independently; in other words, they must achieve communicative competence Especially, university students must gain B1 certificate as one of the graduation conditions Learning a language is learning how to communicate culturally, socially and academically in appropriate ways consistent with the norms and customs of the target language users Communication is a process of making meaning through interactions between people The more interactions among students as well as between the teacher and students, the better the language learning achieved by students Teachers play a critical role in promoting interactions among students and engaging them in the learning process The teaching of foreign language is an interactive process which involves participation of both the teacher and the learner The traditional teaching methods of English language such as Grammar-Translation, the Direct Method and the Audio-lingual have been used as dominating ways of teaching and learning English These methods not focus on communicative skills, but much on grammatical points with a view to helping learners to achieve some certain English linguistic knowledge These methods often require students to exercises individually most of the time, and rely on the teacher As a result, students acquire second language passively and rarely have opportunities to express their ideas These methods are not favored in language classrooms because they not meet the current educational requirements Therefore, the results of the English courses are not very good Like many teachers in the schools of Vietnam, teachers of English at Huong Son high school are faced with a common problem: students’ poor participation in activities in the classroom In fact, there are a variety of reasons for this poor participation, and therefore finding appropriate techniques and methods for teaching English effectively to students at Huong Son high school requires a long serious research My study, entitled “ Using pairwork and groupwork in high school English classes: An investigation of students’ attitudes and experiences” is hoped to be little contribution to the process in innovating teaching methods in Ha Tinh province recently 1.2 Aims of study The aims of this study are to investigate : + the use of pair and groupwork at Huong Son high school + the students’ attitude and experiences towards the roles of pairwork and groupwork in English class 1.3 Scope of study There are a variety of techniques to encourage students to participate in communicative English classes However, it is not my intention to cover all of them because of the time and the length of the study, only two techniques, groupwork and pairwork are investigated in communicative English classes at Huong Son high school The advantages of these two techniques were found out by interviewing, and surveying students at Huong Son high school 65 Despite the fact that the teachers at Huong Son high school are well aware of the benefits of working in pair and group, some of them find it difficult to use it in their teaching because of many reasons, the biggest one is that they are deeply affected by old teaching methods They said that after quite a long time applying these methods, they become absorbed to them and it is very difficult for them to change They think that they should organize pairwork and groupwork regularly but when they it ineffectively, they just return to the old ones Not good preparation Most of the teachers in my school are too busy to prepare lesson carefully They must a lot of work in the family beside teaching extra classes in other schools to earn more money They not prepare the lesson plan for pairwork and groupwork carefully They not know how to use modern equipments effectively because they were not taught carefully Some of them mind to use them because of their limited time 4.3.3.2 Students’ problems Passive learning style According to Burns and Joyce (1997) :134), this factor makes learners reluctant to take part in pairwork and groupwork They still deeply affected by the old methods such as Grammar Translation or Audio-lingual Method and the learning enviroment at secondary or high schools where speaking was not encourged and focused They get used to listening to the teachers, take notes and doing exercises, not speaking That can explain why they mind participating in pairwork and groupwork Low level of English language proficiency While working in pair and group, some students can not express ideas in English because of their poor vocabulary, grammar, and even pronunciation 66 Some of them not have any knowledge to present the given topic All these reasons prevent them from participating in pairwork and groupwork, gradually they will lose their interest in working in pairwork and groupwork Laziness, passive learning way also deters them to speak in group Learners’ fear of making mistakes Many students are afraid of making mistakes because of their low level of proficiency and their lack of ideas.They are not confident enough to express their ideas for the partners 67 Chapter CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 5.1 Summary of study The study was carried on 10 English teachers and 120 students at Huong Son high school This study aims at investigating the status of the use of pairwork and groupwork in teaching English at Huong Son high school, students’attitudes towards pairwork and groupwork in learning English and suggesting give some effective strategies in using pairwork and groupwork to help students improve their skills The aim of the study is testing the effectiveness of working in pair and group at Huong Son high school with which teachers may be able to get a better understanding of how students work in pairs and groups, which can be made available to them This study consists five chapters through which the important roles of pairwork, groupwork The first part is introduction of the rationale, the aims, the scope, the method of study and thesis outline Then, Communicative approach to language teaching and pairwork and groupwork are mentioned Finally, the results of working in pair and group in classes from 10th form to 12 form at Huong Son high school are performed and presented After collecting the information I have an overview of how pair and groupwork are used in my school It was obvious that the two techniques: pairwork and groupwork were often used in English classes at Huong Son high school Most of the students liked working in pairs and groups as they could practice the target language more, and learn from their partners as well Also, all the teachers confirmed that they often asked their students to work in pairs and groups This proved the importance of pairwork and groupwork techniques to teaching and learning process However, some students did not like working in pairs and in groups because of their low level of proficiency especially lacking vocabulary Instead of discussing the problems given, they talked about others in their mother 68 tongue This matter needs considering when pairwork and groupwork activities are taken place in classes 5.2 Implications Overall, the research could be considerably helpful for educational administrators, teachers, learners, as well as researchers working on the related issues The findings from this study could provide the educational administrators with the value of pairwork and groupwork in teaching English From this basic, careful investigation and alteration could be made, especially in current education circumstance in Vietnam; regarding teachers, this study helped to know about students’ reaction toward pairwork and groupwork, which has been proved to improve students’ participation in the English classes in the setting of the study Teachers found different strategies through pairwork and groupwork for helping students to increase their co- operation; for students, pairwork and groupwork are really a good for them to communicate one another in English, which is definitely important in learning English Students also discovered that pairwork and groupwork are fun and easy when it involves working with others and practised values such as team spirit, tolerance and the importance of interacting one another Finally, with the regard to researchers, those who happen to develop an interest in the implementation of pairwork and groupwork in L2 teaching and learning can hopefully rely on this research as a source of references including reliable and updated information 5.3 Limitations of the study The number of students involved in the study as the participants was rather low, which cannot generalize the matter Moreover, due to the researcher’s inexperience, time constraint and limited authority, limitations of the study are unavoidable However, the real and serious work with great effort of the researcher in selecting and justifying the methodology of the study well ensure the reliability and validity of the result 69 There is an obvious limitation that this length of time is not enough for the students to familiarize themselves with learning Neither is it long enough to measure the effectiveness of a new idea in teaching language In addition, data collection was done through questionnaires and observation As it can be seen from the student and teacher questionnaires, the information to be obtained was quite limited and not very accurate.Their responses may be just their beliefs or thoughts that they have about their use of working in pair and group Some students can answer thing that they actually not or they have different understanding of some concepts/ terms used in the questionnaire 5.4 Suggestions for further study Moreover, this research is limited on organizing pairwork and groupwork in a particular school at Huong Son high school, a kind of case study Some further research should be taken as follows : A study on the ways to use material provided by the textbook effectively in organizing pair and groupwork A study on the tips and techniques, which help to succcessfully organize pairwork and groupwork in crowded classes Working in pair and group is one of the techniques in Communicative Language Teaching.These mentioned above ways of organizing pairwork and groupwork effectively will probably help learners and teachers organize pairwork and groupwork better and more effectively However, it is important to note that these ways are only comparative Therefore, students and teachers should have an objective and all- side outlook to choose the most efficient ways of organizing pairwork and groupwork The author would like to hear from all of readers whose comment or advice is appreciated 70 REFERENCES Auster, C J., & MacRone, M (1994) The classroom as a negotiated social setting: An empirical study of the effects of faculty members’ behavior on students’ participation Teaching Sociology Armstrong, M., & Boud, D (1983) Assessing participation in discussion: An exploration of the issues Studies in Higher Education Boniecki, K A., & Moore, S (2003) Breaking the silence: Using a token economy to reinforce classroom participation Teaching of Psychology Burchfield, C M., & Sappington, J (1999) Participation in classroom discussion Teaching of Psychology Byrne, D (1983) Teaching Oral English London: Longman Cohen, M (1991) Making class participation a reality Political Science & Politics Crone, J A (1997) Using panel debates to increase student involvement in the introductory sociology class Teaching Sociology Dancer, D., & Kamvounias, P (2005) Student involvement in assessment: A project designed to assess class participation fairly and reliably Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education Doff,A.(1998).Teach English-a training course for teachers Cambridge University Press in association with The British Council Doff, A (1988) Teach English: A Training Course for Teachers Cambridge University Press Ellis, R (1994) The Study of Second Language Acquisition Oxford Unversity Press Fassinger, P A (1995) Professors’ and students’ perceptions of why students participate in class Teaching Sociology 71 Fassinger, P A (2000) How classes influence students’ participation in college classrooms Journal of Classroom Interaction Fiske, J (1990, 1994) Introduction to Communication Studies London: Routledge Fritschner, L M (2000) Inside the undergraduate college classroom: Faculty and students differ on the meaning of student participation The Journal of Higher Education Garside, C (1996) Look who’s talking: A comparison of lecture and group discussion teaching strategies in developing critical thinking skills Communication Education Gopinath, C (1999) Alternatives to instructor assessment of class participation Journal of Education for Business Harmer, J (1999) Practice of English Language Teaching Longman Honeyfield, J.(1991) The Formation of Small Groups in the Language Classroom Guidelines- A Periodical for Classroom Language Teachers, Vol 13 No June 1991, SEMEO Regional Language Center Howard, J R (2002) Do college students participate more in discussion in traditional delivery courses or in interactive telecourses? 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Journal of Social Work Education Hymes D (1972) Communicative Competence Harmondsworth: Penguin Johnson, K and Johnson, H (1989) Communicative Methodology Oxford: Blackwell 72 Kao, C., & Gansneder, B (1995) An assessment of class participation by international graduate students Journal of College Student Development Karp, D A., & Yoels, W C (1976) The college classroom: Some observations on the meanings of student participation Sociology and Social Research Larsen_ Freeman D M (1986), Techniques and Principles on Language Teaching, Oxford University Press Littlewood, W (1981) Communicative Language Teaching Great Britain Cambridge University press Macintyre (2000) Macintyre, C (2000) The Art of Action Research in the Classroom London: David Fulton Publishers Myers, S A., Martin, M M., & Mottet, T P (2002) Students’ motives for communicating with their instructors: Considering instructor socio-communicative style, student socio-communicative orientation, and student gender Communication Education Neer, M R (1987) The development of an instrument to measure classroom apprehension Communication Education Neer, M R., & Kircher, W F (1989) Apprehensives’ perception of classroom factors influencing their class participation Communication Research Report Nunn, C E (1996) Discussion in the college classroom: Triangulating observational and survey results The Journal of Higher Education Nunan, D Second Language Teaching and Learning University of Hong Kong Nunan , D (1989) Desining Tasks for the Communicative Classroom Great Britain: Cambridge University Press Reinsch, R, & Wambsganss, J R (1994) Class participation: how it affects results on examinations Journal of Education for Business 73 Richards J C and Rodgers T S (1986) Approaches to Methods in Language Teaching Cambridge University Press Savignon, S., & Berns, M.S (Eds.) (1984) Initiatives in communicative language teaching Tatar, S (2005) Why keep silent? The classroom participation experiences of non-native-Englishspeaking students Language and Intercultural Communication Wade, R (1994) Teacher education students’ views on class discussion: Implications for fostering critical reflection Teaching and Teacher Education 74 APPENDIX APPENDIX Questionnaires Language teaching survey I.General : Sex : Male Female Highest academic/ professional qualification : A teacher’s certificate in language education A diploma in language education A bachelor’s degree in language education A master’s degree in language education Other ; please specify : Numbers of years of teaching experience II Teaching : How long you usually spend on pair and groupwork per period? Please, tick the appropriate box a minutes per period b 10 minutes per period c 15 minutes per period d more than 15 minutes per period e others ; please specify : What are the main benefits of groupwork and pairwork ? Please, tick the appropriate box a to make students more motivative b to make the class more interesting 75 c to help the learning process d to help the teching process e others ; please specify In your opinion, is it easy to use pairwork and groupwork in language teaching ? Please, tick the appropriate boxes very easy, not very easy, easy, difficult, very difficult, others,please specify What the teachers often when their students work in pair and in groupwork ? Please, tick the appropriate box a sit at teachers’desk and observe b go around the class and support c praise and encourage students d nothing e others,please, specify How many students you prefer to have in each group ? Please, tick the appropriate box(es) a b 4-5 c d more than Please, specify How to group students ? a students at the same table b students who like to work with each other c students with different proficiency level of English d students with the same level of profiency 76 APPENDIX Questionnaires Language learning survey I.General : Sex : Male Female Grade : 10 11 12 II.Learning : What you like doing in your English class ? Please, tick the appropriate box a working in pairs and groups b listening to the teacher and noting down c playing games d working individual e answering the teacher’s questions What you think it is an appropriate time for pairwork and groupwork ? Please, tick the appropriate box a minutes per period b 10 minutes per period c 15 minutes per period d more than 15 minutes period e other options , please specify What are the main benefits of the pairwork and groupwork ?Please, tick the appropriate box(es) a to make students more motivative 77 b to make the class more interesting c to help the learning process d to help the teaching process e to kill the time f other options Which skills you often work in pairs and groups ? Please, tick the appropriate box a speaking b writing c reading d listening e other options What are the impacts of pairwork and groupwork activities? Please, tick the appropriate box a students feel more confident b students can practice English a lot c students could learn from their partners d students are more interested in the lesson What factor(s) often cause(s) difficulties when you work in pairs and in groups? Please, tick the appropriate box a unclear instruction b lack of vocabulary c partners don’t co-operate d speak Vietnamese What would you like your teacher to to help you when you work in pairs and in groups? Please, tick the appropriate box a giving clear instruction 78 b proving necessary vocabulary c the focus and objectives of the activities are stated d teachers move around the class and support How many students would you like to have in each group? Please, tick the appropriate box a b 4-5 c d more than Who you want to work with? Please, tick the appropriate box a students at the same table b students who you like to work with c students with higher level of proficiency d students with lower level of proficiency e students with the same level of proficiency APPENDIX Questions for interview 79 (For students) How you feel when working in pair and group with your friend? ………………………………………………………………………… What are some advantages of pairwork and groupwork ? ………………………………………………………………………… When working in pair and group, who you want to work with? …………………………………………………………………………… ... pair and group In order to organize pairwork and groupwork more effectively, besides having a deeply understanding about pairwork and groupwork, steps of organizing pairwork and groupwork and. .. pairwork and groupwork in high school English classes: An investigation of students’ attitudes and experiences? ?? is hoped to be little contribution to the process in innovating teaching methods in Ha...i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify that this thesis entitled “ Using pairwork and groupwork in high school English classes: An investigation of students’ attitudes and experiences? ?? is