using pair work and group work techniques to increase students' participation and interest in communicative english classes at hanoi university of industry

Candidate’ s statementI certify that the minor thesis entitled “Using pair work and group work techniques to increase students’ participation and interest in communicative English classe

Candidate’ s statement

I certify that the minor thesis entitled “Using pair work and group work techniques

to increase students’ participation and interest in communicative English classes at HanoiUniversity of Industry” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree

of Master of Arts is the result of my own work, except otherwise acknowledge and thisminor thesis or any part of the same has not been submitted for higher degree to any otheruniversity or institution

To accomplish this study, I am indebted to many people for their thoughtful help.First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge and thank my supervisor, Ms TranHien Lan for her valuable guidance, critical feedback and enormous encouragement,without which my thesis would be far from completion

I am also grateful to all the lecturers of the Post-graduate Department, Vietnamnational University, Hanoi, College of Foreign Language for their guidance andenthusiasm during my course

My sincere thanks go to all my colleagues and my students at Hanoi University ofIndustry, Faculties of Economic, Electronic, and Chemistry

Finally, I would like to express my thanks to my friends who were willing to help

me during the course In particular, I find myself indebted to my family especially myhusband for their love, care and tolerance when I was in the process of writing this thesis

This thesis was carried out to investigate the benefits of using pair work and groupwork techniques in communicative English classes It sought the answers to the followingquestions:

1 How often are pair work and group work techniques applied in communicative Englishclasses at HaUI?

2 Does using pair work and group work techniques increase students’ interest incommunicative English classes at HaUI?

3 Does using pair work and group work increase students’ participation incommunicative English classes at HaUI?

Survey questionnaires for teachers and students were employed to find answers tothese three questions The findings of the research revealed that pair work and group workwere usually appiled in communicative English classes at HaUI The reason was that thesetwo techniques strongly increased students’ participation and interest in class activities.The students found working in pairs and in groups intersting, which made them participatemore in the lesson In addition, thanks to pair work and group work, the interactionbetween students were closer However, there were some problems the teachers shouldconsider when conducting these activities such as group size, the way of grouping,students’ level of proficiency, and so on

It is hoped that this thesis will help other teachers of English be aware of the usefulness ofpair work and group work techniques and apply them in their teaching

List of abbreviations

HaUI: Hanoi University of Industry

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

List of tables and charts

Tables

Table 1: Teachers’ profiles

Table 2: Students’ profiles

Table 3: The frequency of pair work and group work activities

Table 4: Teachers’ opinion on pair work and group work

Table 5: Students’ participation

Table 6: The frequency of difficulties

Table 7: Things the teachers often do when the students work in pairs and in groupsTable 8: Group size organized by teachers

Table 9: How to group students

Table 10: Students’prference of classroom activities

Table 11: The impact of pair work and group work techniques

Table 12: Factors causing difficulties

Table 13: Students’ recommendation for the things the teacher should do

Table 14: Group size preferred by students

Table 15: How would students like to be grouped?

Charts

Chart 1: Techniques used in English classes

Chart 2: Students’ attitude to pair work and group work activities

Chart 3: Factors causing difficulties

Chart 4: The Frequency of pair work and group work activities

Chart 5: Students’ attitude to pair work and group work

Chart 6: The frequency of difficulties

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Candidate’s statement i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

List of abbreviations iv

List of tables and charts iv

Table of contents v

Part I: Introduction 1

I Rationale 1

II Aims of the study 2

III Research questions 2

IV Scope of the study 2

V Methods of the study 2

VI Design of the study 2

Part II: Development 4

Chapter I: Literature review 4

I.1 Communicative language teaching (CLT) 4

I.1.1 An overview of communicative language teaching (CLT) 4

I.1 2 Communicative activities 5

I.2 Students’ participation and interest 5

I.2 1 Concept of students’ participation 5

I.2 2 Concept of students’ interest 6

I.2 3 Factors affecting students’ participation and interest in the class 6

I 3 Classroom work arrangements: pair work and group work 8

I 3.1 Definition of pair work and group work 8

I 3 2 The organization of pair work and group work 9

I 3 2 1 The formation 9

I 3 2 2 Group size 11

I.3 2 3 Procedures for pair work and group work 11

I.3 3 Some common activities for pair work and group work 13

I.3 4 Some problems in conducting pair work and group work 14

Chapter II: Methodology 16

II.1 Setting of the study 16

II 2 Methodology 16

II 2 1 Subjects 16

II 2 2 Methods of data collection 18

II 2 3 The questionnaire for students 18

II 2 4 The questionnaire for the teachers 18

II 2 5 Interviews 19

Chapter III: Data analysis and findings 20

III 1 Data analysis of teachers’ survey questionnaire and direct interview 20

III 2 Data analysis of students’ questionnaire and direct interview 27

III 3 Findings 32

Part III: Conclusion 35

I Summary of the study 35

II Limitations of the study 36

III Recommendation for further research 36

References 37

Appendixes

Appendix 1: Questionnaire for students

Appendix 2: Questionnaire for teachers

In Vietnam, English is a compulsory subject at schools and colleges It plays a key role

in getting a good job The number of Vietnamese people learning English is on the rise.Also, English is no longer taught in a traditional way, in which much attention is paid togrammatical competence In the view of communicative language teaching (CLT)approach, the goal of learning a foreign language is to communicate in that targetlanguage According to this approach, the learner is considered the center of the learningprocess; the teacher serves as a facilitator

At Hanoi university of Industry (HaUI), the aim of teaching and learning English is toprovide students with communicative competence That is the reason why we choose thetextbooks “New Headway” by Liz & John Soars (1999) and “International express” by LizTaylor (2004), which focus on teaching communicative competence Also, all the teachersare encouraged to use pair work and group work activities in their teaching

In my observation, students are more interested and less anxious when they work ingroups and in pairs Moreover, pair work and group work can increase the amount oftalking for individual students; encourage boarder skills of participation, cooperation,negotiation and so on

As a result, I decided to do a research entitled “using pair work and group work techniques to increase students’ participation and interest in communicative English classes at HaUI” I hope that the research will make a contribution to confirming the

advantages of pair work and group work techniques in teaching and learning English and itcan help other teachers of English be aware of these advantages and apply pair work andgroup work activities in their teaching

II Aims of the study

This study is aimed at investigating the use of pair work and group work techniques

in communicative English classes at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI) To be specific,the aims of the study are

- To clarify the frequency of using pair work and group work activities incommunicative English classes at HaUI

- To prove the hypothesis that the two techniques: group work and pair work willhelp teachers increase students’ participation and interest in communicative English classes

at HaUI

III Research questions

4 How often are pair work and group work techniques applied in communicative Englishclasses at HaUI?

5 Does using pair work and group work techniques increase students’ interest incommunicative English classes at HaUI?

6 Does using pair work and group work increase students’ participation incommunicative English classes?

IV Scope of the study

There are a variety of techniques to encourage students to participate incommunicative English classes However, it is not my intention to cover all of thembecause of the time and the length of the study, only two techniques, group work and pairwork are investigated in communicative English classes at HaUI The advantages of thesetwo techniques were found out by interviewing, and surveying teachers of English andnon- major students at HaUI

V Methods of the study

Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to carry out the study.The data were collected by means of questionnaires, and interviews

VI Design of the study

The study includes three chapters not including the introduction (which containsrationale, aims, methods, scope and design of the study) and the conclusion (which reviewsthe main content and findings of the study and ends with some suggestions for furtherresearch)

Chapter I: Literature review establishes the basic theoretical background from theliterature on communicative classes, students’ participation and interest, teachingtechniques especially group work and pair work techniques.

Chapter II: Methodology describes the overall picture of how the research was carriedout

Chapter III: Data analysis and findings show the results of the research In thischapter, the author tried to find out the answers to the posed questions

Part II: Development

Chapter I: Literature review

I 1 Communicative language teaching (CLT)

I 1.1 An overview of communicative language teaching (CLT)

CLT appearing between the 1960s and 1970s marks the beginning of majorinnovation within language teaching and it has been widely accepted nowadays because of

it superior principles

According to Nunan (1989:194), ‘CLT views language as a system for the expression

of meaning Activities involve oral communication, carrying out meaningful tasks, andusing language, which is meaningful to the learners Objectives reflect the needs of thelearners; they include functional skills as well as linguistic objectives The learner’s role is

as a negotiator and an integrator The teacher’s role is as a facilitator of the communicationprocess Materials promote communicative language use; they are task based andauthentic”

According to CLT, the purpose of language teaching is to develop “communicativecompetence” Hymes (1972) defines “communicative competence” as “what a speakerneeds to know in order to be communicatively competent in a speech community” In otherwords, CLT has two following main aims pointed out by Richards and Rogers (1986:64)

1 To make communicative competence the goal of language teaching

2 To develop procedures for the teaching of the four language skills thatacknowledge the interdependence of language and communication

Richards and Rogers (1986: 69) also shows another point about CLT which is “itslearner-centered and experience based view of second language teaching” In CLT,students are able to play a more active and participatory role than in traditional approaches.Teachers work as facilitators, consultants or supervisors

Also, “activities in CLT are often carried out by students in small groups” (Larsen Freeman, 1986: 132) Students are expected to interact with one another, either throughpair and group work or in their writings (Brumfit, 1983) Teachers select activities whichengage students in meaningful and authentic language use rather than in mechanicalpractice of language patterns

-I.1 2 Communicative activities

Communicative activities, defined by Littlewood (1981), are those that providewhole task practice, improve students’ motivation, allow natural learning and create acontext supporting learning as well “In communicative activities the teacher creates asituation and sets an activity in notion, but it is the learners themselves who are responsiblefor conducting the interaction to its conclusion (Littlewood, 1981: 18)

Harmer (1991) divides communicative activities into oral and written ones Oralactivities include such categories as communication games, problem - solving, reaching aconsensus, discussion, replaying instructions, role-play, etc Written communicativeactivities consist of writing reports and advertisements; co-operative writing, exchangingletters, writing journals and so on

In addition, according to Littlewood (1981), there are two main types ofcommunicative activities which he calls: “functional communication activities and socialinteraction activities” The main purpose of the former is that learners should use thelanguage they know in order to get meanings across as effectively as possible Functionalcommunication activities include such activities as identifying pictures, discoveringidentical pairs, discovering missing information, discovering differences, followingdirections and so on The later activities are those that emphasize on social as well asfunctional aspects of communication Learners, therefore, not only convey meaningseffectively, but also, pay greater attention to the social context in which the interactiontakes place Simulation and role-playing are important techniques for creating a variety ofsocial relationships and situations

I 2 Students’ participation and interest

I 2 1 Concept of students’ participation

Students’ participation can be identified in terms of three kinds of interaction:students to their teacher, students to students, and students to material

The interaction between students and their teacher includes care, contact, operation between them in the class Students who have a good interaction with theirteacher always participate in the class discussion, support and act as their teacher requires.Moreover, they seem to be involved in what is happening in the class by asking for more

co-information or explanation, volunteering to perform an activity, or sharing personalexperience relating to the topics being discussed Thus, participation not only meansattending the lass regularly and on time but also taking part in the lesson actively orshowing desire or be active Students become self- centered in the class activities

The interaction between students and students is set up through their discussion insmall groups They work together, help each other, and learn from each other A goodinteraction involves their co-operation and contribution to the task given Students feelpleasant and comfortable when they work together, then they will do their best to completethe task

Students’ participation also includes the interaction between students and material.Obviously, students will be active and pay more attention to the lesson if they areinterested in the material or the task given In other words, good and interesting materialscan get students involved in the lesson Students will find it difficult to participate in theclass activities if they don’t understand the tasks or feel bored with them

In short, students’ participation is concerned with their activeness in the lesson,their success in completing the class activities and their attention to what is happening inthe class

I.2 2 Concept of students’ interest

Ellis (1994) ( cited in Keller, 1984) states that interest is one of the main elements

of motivation and a positive response to stimulate based on existing cognitive structures insuch a way that learners’ curiosity is aroused and sustained In other words, interest showslearners’ desire to learn the target language It can be seen that students who are givenopportunities for communication will be interested in the lesson

Ellis (cited in Dickinson, 1987) also points out that “interest is engendered iflearners become self-centered” This means they are able to determine their learningobjectives, choose their own way of achieving these, and evaluate their own progress

I.2 3 Factors affecting students’ participation and interest in the class.

- Students’ learning styles

Learning style shows how students achieve the target language Willing (1985)(cited in Nunan, 1988: 93) classifies learning styles into four types as follows:

Concrete learners: they prefer learning by games, pictures, films, videos, talking in pairs and learning through the use of cassettes

Communicative learners: they like to learn by observing and listening to nativespeakers, talking to friends in English and learning English wherever possible.

Analytical learners: they like to study grammar, find their own mistakes, and learnthrough reading newspapers

Authority oriented learners: they want their teacher to explain everything and theyprefer writing everything in their notebooks, learning to read, studying grammar, andlearning English words by seeing them

- Students’ motivation

Motivation is a key factor leading students’ success in learning in general, and inlearning language in particular Also, there are many different kinds of motivation such asintegrative motivation, instrumental motivation, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation,global motivation, situational motivation and so on

- Teaching techniques

It is obvious that different teaching techniques create different degrees of students’participation and interest in the lesson For example, techniques which focus ongrammatical and phonological accuracy like choral repetition, drilling substitution, contentexplanation will result in learners’ passiveness and limit their participation in learning Incontrast, the techniques that involve students in communicative activities such as role-play,problem-solving, pair and group work, discussion, etc can encourage students to participate

in the lesson

- Teachers’ personal qualities and characteristics

In order to involve students in the lesson, teachers should be ones that students trustand respect In other words, when students feel “safe” in the class, they will be willing toparticipate in class activities Barry (1993) points out some characteristics a teacher shouldhave as follows:

- Being natural: if the teacher behaves naturally, the relationship between him and

his students will be closer, which increases students’ participation and interest in thelesson

- Being warm: the teacher considers students as his friends Students therefore will

find it easy to express themselves in the lesson

- Being pleasant: this characteristic will make the classroom’s atmosphere

relaxing and interesting, which of course increases students’ creation and participation

- Being tolerant: the teacher should be fair and consistent with all students so that

he can encourage all his students to participate in the lesson

In addition, so as to interest students a teacher should have some following personalqualities such as sincere, friendly, supportive, well- organized, enthusiastic, flexible and soon

It is pointed out that no teacher has all characteristics and personal qualities listedbelow However, these characteristics and qualities can help much in increasing students’motivation, creating positive learning environment, and enhancing students’ participation

in the class activities as well

I 3 Classroom work arrangements: pair work and group work

I 3.1 Definition of pair work and group work

Pair work is a process in which “the teacher divides the whole class in pairs Everystudent works with his or her partner in pairs, and all the pairs work at the same time (It issometimes called “simultaneous pair work”) This is not the same as “public” or “open”pair work, with pairs of students speaking in turn in front of the class” ( Doff, 1988: 137)

There are two main types of pair work: fixed pairs and flexible pairs, given byByrne (1983) In the former, students work with the same partner to practice the targetlanguage In the later, students keep changing their partners they like This may make theactivity more interesting but the class noisier

It can be seen that pair work can get students to practice the target language moreand increase students’ talking time in the class

Doff (1988: 137) also defines group work as a process that “the teacher divides theclass into small groups to work together (usually four or five students in each group, as inpair work, all the groups work at the same time”

Like pair work, group work also gives students more opportunities to practice thetarget language in the whole class In addition, students can work independently and freelyunder the teacher’s control without the pressure of the whole class watching what they aredoing

I 3 2 The organization of pair work and group work

I 3 2 1 The formation

We have to decide how to put individual students into pairs and groups There are anumber of factors we might consider when doing this According to Harmer (1999), wecan base such decision on any of the following principles:

Friendship

A key consideration when putting students in pairs or groups is to make sure that

we put friends with friends rather than risking the possibility of people working with otherswhom they find difficult or unpleasant However, our observation may not always accurateand friendship can change from time to time

We can also ask students to get into pairs or groups with whom they like Butletting students choose their partner(s) in this way may exclude less popular students

In addition, a sociogram can be used to group students In this way, students areasked to write their name, the students they like best in the class on a piece of paper andthe students they don’t like on the other side The teacher can use this information to makesociograms However, sociograms are time consuming and also fail to answer the problem

of what to do with unpopular students

Streaming: Students can be streamed according to their ability.

The first suggestion is that pairs and groups should have a mixture of weaker andstronger students Therefore, the more able students can help their less able students

The second one is that we can create groups in which all the student are at the samelevel This may give us the opportunity to go to a group of weaker students and give themspecial help they need However, some of the values of cooperative work may be lost

Besides, we can stream students on the basis of participation Students lessparticipating in the lesson may be put together in a group However, the teacher shouldobserve and support them in order to make them concentrate more on the lesson

Chance: Students can be put in pairs and groups by chance This is the easiest way

since it demands little pre-planning We can have students sitting next to or near each otherwork in pairs or groups Also, students can be put in pairs or groups at random based onthe order of their birthday, or some similar features such as wearing glasses, wearing black,

or green, having the same occupation, etc

Changing groups: The group may change while an activity continues Students

can first work in pairs then in groups of four, then groups of eight, or even sixteen

Additionally, teachers can group students based on some following criteria given

by Honeyfield (1991)

Free- grouping: students make their own decision about who to work with.

Same proficiency level grouping: students of the same proficiency level are

grouped together

Mixed proficiency level grouping: students are grouped so that each group has a

mix of proficiency levels

Random grouping: students are located to group in some random way on the basic

of who is sitting next to whom in the class

Grouping based on other differences: in a mixed class, students are grouped so

that each group has a mix of some other characteristics, e.g sex, age, nationality, mothertongue or ethnic origin

In short, our paring and grouping decision is made based on a variety of factors

We can put students in pairs or in groups differently according to our own purpose or theclass’s atmosphere or characteristic

I 3 2 2 Group size

Group size is one thing we need to consider when getting students to form groups

We may consider the question: “Are smaller groups better for learning than larger ones?”

According to Honeyfield (1991), the smaller group is, the more “talking time” there

is for each participant If the time available is ten minutes, each member of pair could talkfor five minutes, while each member of a group of four could talk for only two and a halfminutes (provided that the participants share the talking time equally)

However, Honeyfield (1991) also points out that “the smaller groups are, the moregroups there are, so the teacher has more motoring to do and the less practical it is to havegroups report back to the class”

In addition, group size can be determined by types of tasks Moreover, for world tasks, “it may be necessary to have the same number of learners in a group as wouldoccur in real life” (Honeyfield, 1991) Thus group size is determined by the nature of thetask itself

real-I 3 2 3 Procedures for pair work and group work

Harmer (1999) suggests three stages in carrying out pair work and group work asfollows:

Before: we need to give instructions to let students understand what they are

going to do, give them ideas of when they will have finished the task they are going to getinvolved in Sometimes, we may ask them to repeat the instructions or to translate theminto their first language so as to check that they do understand In some cases, ourinstructions may involve a demonstration

During: while students are working in pairs or groups we have a number of

options We could, for instance, stand at the front or the side of the class or anywhere else

in the classroom, and keep an eye on what is happening Therefore, we can “tune in” to aparticular pair or group from some distance away We then decide whether to go over or tohelp that pair or group

Instead, we can also go round the class watching and listening to specific pairs andgroups Then we may stop and intervene if it is appropriate or necessary We can give themsupport and suggestions but it is vital that we bear in mind the most appropriate way to doso.

After: when pairs and groups stop working together we need to organize feedback.

We may have a few pairs or groups quickly demonstrate the language they have beenusing We can then correct it, if and when necessary and this procedure will give boththose students and the rest of the class good information for future learning and action.Constructive feedback can greatly enhance students’ future motivation

According to Sun Grek Ngoh (1991), there are other stages in implementing groupwork that are listed below:

Before entering the

classroom

Planning stage The teacher maps out the

specific objectives sheintends to achieve, and thetasks to realize theobjectives set

In the classroom Practice stage

Instruction stage

Organization stage

The teacher equips thestudents with the necessarystructures or vocabulary toachieve the tasks set

The teacher gives clear,detailed instructions for therequired tasks

The teacher arranges thestudents into groups,making sure there iscontrol and order

The group leaders presentthe product so that theother students can hear orread.

The teacher assigns arelated task to reinforcelearning, and self-evaluates what has beendone, and makesamendments to futuregroup work

I 3 3 Some common activities for pair work and group work

A variety of activities can be applied in communicative English classes through theuse of pair work and group work The list of some common activities is given below

Role- play: the class is divided into pairs or groups Then these pairs and groups

are given roles to act out

Information gap activities: each participant in pairs or groups has information not

shared by any other but require to complete

Problem- solving: students are given some problems in real-life which need

solving Then they work in pairs or in groups to find out solutions to these problems

The lost twin: each student has a small card on which some features are printed.

There are two copies for each card Students then have to go around the class to find outwho has the same card

Picture card activities:

Kim’s game: students in groups look at the items on a table for about thirty

seconds Then the items are recovered, the groups have to describe and locate them

Spot the differences: students are given two pictures, then they work to spot the

differences

What is my line: students in groups have to ask questions of another member

within a limited time span and discover his or her occupation

I 3 4 Some problems in conducting pair work and group work

When conducting pair work and group work techniques, teachers may encountersome problems as follows:

Harmer (1999: 125) points out that “some pairs may find it impossible toconcentrate on the task in hand and instead encourage each other to talk about somethingelse, usually in their first language In some groups, members may defer to the oldestperson there, or to the man in otherwise female group People with loud voice candominate proceedings, less extrovert people may not participate fully enough”

He also states some following problems teachers deal with when applying pairwork and group work in their teaching Firstly, pair work and group work are frequentlynoisy, so teachers may lose control of their class Secondly, some students would prefer tothe focus of the teacher’s attention rather than working with their peers Thirdly,individuals may fall into group roles that become fossilized, so that some are passivewhereas others may dominate Finally, students in pairs or groups may not focus on thepoint of their task, but talk about something else, often in their mother tongue

Obviously, it is difficult for teachers to control all groups and pairs at once Somestudents don’t like working in pairs or groups Also, they sometimes use their mothertongue instead of the target language when working in pairs or groups

In addition, Sim Grek Ngoh (1991) discovers that some students may choose toremain silent or may not listen to the others because of cultural differences or lack of co-operation among the students in pairs or in groups He also adds that “students who are

linguistically deficient tend to resort to their mother tongue when they are engaged ingroup work interaction” Another problem given by Sim Grek Ngoh (1991) is that “theadministration of small group work is a demanding and arduous process, as it is a carefulplanning, preparation and constant motoring”.

To sum up, teachers have to deal with a number of problems while conductinggroup work and pair work However, those problems may be overcome if “ teachersconsider various factors at different stages of pair work and group work from planning,practice, instruction, organization and process stage to the presentation stage” (Sim GrekNgoh, 1991) Also, pair work and group work can be conducted successfully if anappropriate task is selected

Chapter II: Methodology

II.1 Setting of the study