(LUẬN văn THẠC sĩ) promoting students’ interest in english speaking lessons by using group work for 11th grade at duong tu minh high school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NÔNG THỊ THANH HUYỀN PROMOTING STUDENTS’ INTEREST IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LESSONS BY USING GROUP WORK FOR 11TH GRADE STUDENTS AT DUONG TU MINH HIGH SCHOOL Tăng cường hứng thú học sinh nói Tiếng Anh sử dụng hoạt động nhóm học sinh lớp 11 trường THPT Dương Tự Minh M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 Hanoi, 2014 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NÔNG THỊ THANH HUYỀN PROMOTING STUDENTS’ INTEREST IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LESSONS BY USING GROUP WORK FOR 11TH GRADE STUDENTS AT DUONG TU MINH HIGH SCHOOL Tăng cường hứng thú học sinh nói Tiếng Anh sử dụng hoạt động nhóm học sinh lớp 11 trường THPT Dương Tự Minh M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: HÀ CẨM TÂM, PhD Hanoi, 2014 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com DECLARATION I certify that this thesis is entirely my own work I have provided fully documented references to the work of others The material in this research has not been submitted for assessment in any other formal course of study i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor Dr Ha Cam Tam for her generous assistance, enthusiastic guidance and constructive supervision throughout my research Dr Ha Cam Tam‟s enlightening suggestions and comments have shaped to a very large extent Without her help, this study would not have been completed I would also like to send my sincere thanks to all teachers at Post graduate Studies Department, ULIS – VNU who gave me interesting lessons and comprehensive knowledge I am most thankful to students of class 11A4, Duong Tu Minh high school for their enthusiastic participation in the study I am grateful to colleagues at Duong Tu Minh High School, my friends, my classmates for their continued help and encouragement Last but not least, I would like to thank my husband, my parents who always encourage me while the work was in process Ha Noi, August 2014 Nong Thi Thanh Huyen ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT This thesis was carried out to investigate the benefits of using group work in English speaking lessons and seek the answers to the hypothesis that “Group work does promote students‟ interest in English speaking lessons to students at 11th grade at Duong Tu Minh High School.” The researcher carried out some group work activities on students to investigate whether group work techniques promote students‟ interest Observation method was used to find the answer to the hypothesis The findings of the research revealed that group work was an effective teaching method that should be used in communicative language teaching The reason was that it strongly enhanced students‟ interest in class activities The students found working in groups interesting, which made them participate more in the lesson However, there were some problems the teachers should take into consideration 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 effectiveness of group work and apply it in their teaching iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OFCONTENT iv Part A: INTRODUCTION 1.Rationale Aims of the study Scope of the study Hypothesis Methods of the study Organization of the study Part B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1The importance of teaching speaking skills 1.2 Characteristics of a successful speaking lesson 1.3 Learners’ interest in learning languages 1.3.1 Concept of interest 1.3.2.Factors affecting students’ interest 1.4 Group work 1.4.1 Definition of group work 1.4.2 Types of group work 10 1.4.3 Group work activities … 11 1.4.4 The benefits of teaching and learning speaking English by group work 14 1.5 Organization of group work 15 1.5.1 Preparation for group work 15 iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 1.5.2 Steps of organizing group work 17 Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY 19 2.1 Hypothesis 19 2.2 Setting of the study 19 2.3 Participants of the study 19 2.4 Data collection instruments 19 2.5 Data collection procedure 21 Chapter 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 25 3.1 Students’ participation 25 3.2 “Learners talk a lot” 27 3.3 Students’ attitude in speaking lessons 33 Part C: CONCLUSION Major finding 36 Limitations of the study 36 Recommendation for further study 32 4.Implications 37 REFERENCES: …38 APPENDIXES I v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale English has become one of the most popular languages in the world today It is used widely in every field of society such as politics, business, international conference, education and everyday communication As a result, teaching and learning English play an important role in the development of the society However, it cannot be denied that teaching and learning English appear not to be really effective Students have difficulty using English in their work as well as in their daily life, which results in limitations in their work To improve students‟ speaking skills, promoting their interests is really important in teaching and learning As we may know, teaching and learning are complex activities; the quality and effectiveness belong to the learners, and this also belongs to many factors such as awareness capacity, purposes of study, determination and other objective factors such as learning atmosphere, teachers and interests of the learners Among them, student interests play an important part in effectiveness of learning process When students are interested in learning, especially in speaking lessons, they will become more active and learn more effectively As a result, their speaking skills will improve There are many ways to promote students‟ interest in English speaking classes, among them, group work, key features of learner- centered orientation- has received more emphasis because of a number of advantages it brings about Group work creates more opportunities for students to work with each other by exchanging their ideas and, therefore, learning so many things from their partners Participating in group work makes students confident and creative in learning English Group work also helps students TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com overcome shyness and make students are more interested in English speaking lessons as well as other English lessons Being a teacher of English at Duong Tu Minh High School, the researcher is well aware of the importance of using group work to promote students‟ interest in English speaking lessons This led me to the choice of the study “Promoting students’ interest in English Speaking lessons by using group work” in the hope of finding the ways teachers organize group work to promote students‟ interest in English lessons, especially in speaking lessons so that we will achieve successfulness in teaching and learning It is also hoped that this study may offer the teachers of English at Duong Tu Minh High School ways on how to use group work in teaching more effectively Aims of the study The aim of the study is to investigate whether the use of group work in English speaking lessons promotes students‟ interest and the difficulties that teachers and students face with when conducting this technique Scope of the study The study focuses on group work to promote students‟ interest in English speaking lessons, especially group work that was appropriate to 11th grade students in mountainous areas Group work in this study was tested with the participation of these students Hypothesis This study was set up to test the following hypothesis: “Group work helps promote students‟ interest in English speaking lessons.” Methods of the study Group work activities were designed and conducted on the students of grade 11 Data was collected through group work implemented by the students Data was also collected by photos and notes taking TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Organization of the study This study consists of three parts: Part A, Introduction, presents rationale, aims, scope, hypothesis, methods and design of the study Part B, Development, consists of three chapters Chapter discusses the theoretical background relevant to issues of the study The first section presents teaching speaking skills in general, the second section discusses the learners‟ interest in learning languages and the last section is the discussion of group work activity Chapter discusses the methodology of the study In this chapter, the hypothesis, data collection instrument and data collection procedure are presented Chapter presents data analysis and findings show the results of the research In this chapter, the author tried to find out the answers to the hypothesis Part C, Conclusion, summarizes the key issues as well as the limitations of the study and makes suggestions for further research TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Activity 3- Discussion Activity 2- Role play Students‟ performances in activity 1, activity and activity also got great success Students in these activities talked a lot, each student contributed the discussion or role play Students understood the requirement of each activity and did well the task In activity 2, students are eager to speak when they have the shopping lists Students liked to act as a shop assistant and customer, the shop assistant tried to introduce her products and the customers tried to buy things Most pairs could develop the conversation, and have good interaction Especially, when I observed the conversation between Quynh anh Hanh I found they could speak and continue the conversation well They could not only ask for the price of products and answer about price but also continue the conversation naturally In activity 5, students worked in groups of five students and took turns to talk about “the results of Vietnamese athletes at 14th Asian Games” The task requirements were familiar with students so they could express the ideas very well The four groups focused on the topic, and when the teacher asked them to talk to the whole class they spoke with confidence Group was not as good as the groups because they had difficulty in pronounce scores, names of sports, but finally with the help of teacher they could speak as required Students had more time and opportunities to practice English in the class In other speaking lessons in class before, only some students spoke There were few students who practiced speaking in the speaking lessons When I conducted speaking activities using group work, I found the class atmosphere has changed I and my colleague observed students‟ participation in each activity and have the result as follow: 31 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Students‟ speaking Speaking turns participation 15(75%) 25 17(85%) 30 16(80%) 34 17(85%) 32 18(90%) 31 Total 83(82%) 125 As can be seen in the table, most students participated in speaking in each Activity activity, and the number of students who participated increased in group work activities The total number of the activities is 83 which made up 82% of the students The table shows that students not only participated in speaking but also participated with many times in each activity The total students‟ speaking time is 157 It is clear that there were a progress in students‟ participation in speaking lessons According to the observation, I recognized that there are more students participating in speaking activities They listened to other students in the groups and they also give their opinions to create a real engaging speaking atmosphere It cannot be denied that their performance increased, they could express their ideas with better use of grammatical and more fluency In activity 2, for example, students are eager to speak when they have the shopping lists Students liked to act as a shop assistant and customer, the shop assistant tried to introduce her products and the customers tried to buy things And from the observation of my colleague, she found that during five group work activities the students became more and more active in practicing group work activities and they had more strong motivation of speaking English on the class She added that though there were still some students 32 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com who were passive in speaking English and were afraid of speaking English, the number of those is very small So from the classroom observation, it is indicated that the group work method could be useful for students on the aspect of arousing the motivation of speaking English 3.3 Students’ attitude in speaking lessons The five group work activities that I conducted had changed the class climate in active way Students were eager with the topics that teacher introduced Students paid attention to the teacher‟s instruction Students could repeat the requirement of the task and did as the teacher required These are some photos that showed clearly about the attention, focus and activeness of students in speaking lessons 33 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Activity 1- Role play (G3) Activity 3- Discussion (G2) Activity – Role play Activity – Discussion These photos show that the students were interested in taking part in the activities in speaking lessons Especially, the organization of activity 1, and attracted the students‟ speaking participation the most They were attentive and eager to contribute their groups‟ conversation Looking at their faces, I could see their interest, curiosity to know the new things In activity and 2, there were some groups tried to ask their friends and the teacher some words that they could not express in English so that they can express their ideas themselves and tried to remember Through my observation, I and my 34 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com colleague found that when students could speak in English, these students seemed to be more interested in the next speaking activities From the result of the analysis of the data, it is proven that the use of group work in teaching speaking is quite effective and it also promotes students‟ interest in English speaking lessons The use of group work makes the speaking and learning more enjoyable and interesting It is because group work helps the shy students express themselves easier There is also greater chance of different opinions and varied contributions From the data analysis, it is shown that the use of group work in teaching activities makes the class more active and alive Students are willing to take part in the activities without any forces from the teacher because they work together with their classmate group work activities However, working in groups still has some limitations that I mentioned above, and the teacher should try to find out suitable solutions for them so that each lesson really become interesting and effective to our loved students 35 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART C: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS This chapter draws conclusion and implication for the teachers of English at Duong Tu Minh high school It also discusses the limitations of the study and proposes suggestions for further research Major finding This study is done with the purpose of investigating the extent to which group work motivates students to participate in speaking activities Finding out the effectiveness of group work techniques in English speaking lessons to promote the students‟ interest and the difficulties that teachers and students face with when conducting this technique are also other aims of this research To achieve this aims, the teachers‟ classroom observation were conducted The target populations are 20 students of grade 11 at Duong Tu Minh high school The findings of the study show that group work can increase students‟ interest and participation in speaking activities The study also reveals that how to exploit this technique is still a challenge for both teachers and students It is hoped that the study will prove worthwhile to those who want to motivate students in speaking classes and who are concerned about the problem Conclusion This section presents the answers to the original hypothesis proposed at the beginning of the thesis: “Group work does promote students’ interest in English speaking lessons” The research results showed that most of the students became more interested in English speaking lessons when the teacher organized them to work in groups properly This indicated that the students‟ interest was 36 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com increased when they took part in pair work and group work activities It was easy to find out that the majority of the students felt active and free as they were put in groups to work together They became self-centered in their learning while their teacher worked as a consultant or a supervisor Working in groups, the students could express their opinions without being afraid of losing their face Thus, they felt comfortable and confident in the class Therefore, their desire to learn the target language would be raised Limitations Due to the limitation of knowledge and ability, the researcher cannot avoid having some mistakes The researcher herself can see that her research has some following defects The first is the number of students for the study This study was conducted in only 20 students, so the study cannot show a large population of students in general The second is the data collection methods For this research, she only collected data from her own class observation If she had interviewed students, the data would have reflected more aspects of students‟ evaluation on the effectiveness of group work in promoting the students‟ interest Besides, the researcher did not have a full class observation form, she only based on the notes that she had taken during students‟ activities and memory so the findings may lack of validity Lastly, the activity for group work was not really multiform She did not have enough time to apply more group work activities mentioned in the literature review Therefore, the evaluation of the effectiveness of group work in reducing students' anxiety and encouraging real communication in her speaking lessons was not a satisfaction Obviously, mistakes are unavoidable All comments and remarks on this research will be highly appreciated 37 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Recommendation for further study As no single research design is all-inclusive and complete, this study cannot cover everything in its field of study Many untouched issues will be interesting topics for further research such as strategies for conducting group work activities effectively in communicative English classes, strategies to involve students‟ group work activities, using group work to enhance students‟ participation in gaining the listening, reading and writing skill in English, and using games to increase students‟ interest in English classes Implication As shown is this study the use of group work can be effective in promoting students‟ interest and motivation in speaking activities in English classes In the section below, I would like to give some suggestions for teachers to conduct a successful group work activity Suggestions for teachers and students The success in teaching and learning does not depend on not only the lesson program only, but also the ways the teacher presents the lesson and uses various techniques to make the class more lively and enjoyable Regarding to the teaching speaking by using group work, I would like to give some suggestions for the teacher and students as follows: For the teachers - The teacher should choose the materials that are suitable and not too difficult for the students As group work activities usually represent real – world scenarios, materials should simulate the materials that would be used in the real world Before assigning the group work to the students, the teachers should make sure that the students have fully understand what they have to and have the enough information as well as structures and vocabulary they need in their speaking 38 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com - The teacher should keep control the students‟ activities The teacher becomes the controller as well as the organizer; she must control the activities of her students in class and give them help if necessary The teacher should avoid the role of being teacher-centered; this will make students more and more passive in learning, especially in speaking activities - The teacher should present the language in an enjoyable, relaxed and understandable way - In any activity, the teacher should give instruction in either English or Vietnamese as long as the instruction gives students full understanding of what and how to Of course, it is better to check students‟ comprehension of task requirement It is also effective to leave short pause between each part of the instruction, and write the instruction on the board if necessary - The teacher must decide in advance how to form groups and arrange the students‟ seat so that the setting of an activity can be carried out more quickly and effectively Before organizing group work the teacher should show clearly students who to work with so that they can start working - During the while-activity stage, the teacher should go around from group to group checking that they are carrying out the instructions, observe what student so that she can give them necessary help For the students - The students are hoped not to be shy in group work activities - The students are hoped to enrich their vocabularies themselves - The students are expected to use English when they participate in group work activities despite the difficulties 39 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com - The students should take part much in acting out role play - The students should ask the teacher if there is something that they not understand during group work activities 40 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com REFERENCES Brown H D (1994), Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagory London: Prentice Hall Regents Burden, R (1997) Psychology for Language Teachers: A social constructivist approach CUP, Cambridge Chaney, A.L and Burk, T.L (1998) Teaching Oral Communication in Grades K-8 Boston: Allyn&Bacon Davis, B.G (1993) Tools for Teaching, Jossey Bass Publishers Doff A (1988), Teaching English: A Training Course for Teachers, Cambridge University Press Dornyei, Z (2001), Teaching and Researching Motivation, Longman, London Ellis, R (1987), Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Oxford University Press Ellis R (1994), The Study of Second Language Acquisition, Oxford University Press Florez, M.A.C (1999) Improving adult English language learners‟ speaking skills ERIC Digest ED435204 Retrieved July 7, 2002 from ERIC database 10 Harmer J (1991), The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman 11 Harmer J (1999), The Practice of ELT, Longman 12 Jones, R (1989) Planning an Oral Language Programme Melbourne Press 13 Kayi, H (2006), Teaching Speaking: Activities to Promote Speaking in a Second Language Internet TESL Journal, Vol XII, No 11, Nov 41 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 2006 Retrieved from http://iteslj.org/Articles/Kayi-Teaching Speaking.html 14 Killen, R (2006) Effective teaching strategies- Lessons from research and practice Thomson Social science press 15 Littlewood, W (1998) Foreign and Second Language Teaching Cambridge: CUP 16 Nunan D (1989), Desining Tasks for the Communicative Classroom, Great Britain: Cambridge University Press 17 Richards J C and Rodgers T.S (1986), Approaches to Methods in Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press 18 Tibbitts, F “Working In Pairs and Groups” Human Rights Education Associates 19 Ur, P (1996), A course in Language Teaching- Practice and Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 42 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com APPENDIX Activity 2: Asking for price Card A- Shop assistant Price of items - Sugar Orange juice Tea Apple Rice Orange Banana Candy Biscuit Bean Card B - customers Shopping list - 18000/kg 25000/bottle 30000/packet 60000/kg 17000/kg 80000/kg 15000/kg 35000/packet 55000/packet 25000/kg packets of tea A kilo of apple kilos of rice packets of candy A kilo of beans I TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Activity Card PERSONAL EXPERIENCES Card FAVOURITE FOODS Card FAMILY Card Activity – Discussion FUTURE JOBS II TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Activity – Discussion Task: Take turns to talk about the sports results of the Vietnamese athletes at 14th Asian Games, using the information from the table below MEDALS WON BY VIETNAM (At 14th Asian Games held in Busan, Korea) Sports Gold Medals Body building Billiards 1 Karatedo 2 Shooting Wushu 1 2 Swimming Fencing Silver Medals Bronze Medals 1 III TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ... students‟ interest in English speaking lessons This led me to the choice of the study ? ?Promoting students’ interest in English Speaking lessons by using group work? ?? in the hope of finding the ways... work in English speaking lessons and seek the answers to the hypothesis that ? ?Group work does promote students‟ interest in English speaking lessons to students at 11th grade at Duong Tu Minh High. .. study is aimed at testing the following hypothesis: Group work helps promote students‟ interest in English speaking lessons 2.2 Setting of the study The study was conducted at Duong Tu Minh High