Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS an investigation into students’ participation in group work at luu nhan chu high school

Rationale

Nowadays, English has become one of the most popular languages in the world

Because of its popularity, teaching and learning English is paid more attention everywhere, especially Viet Nam One of the reasons is that English is widely used in many fields such as politics, business, international conference, education or just everyday communication

However, the results of the English learning are not very good Vietnamese teachers of English may not have applied the teaching method in effective ways For many years, we taught English in a traditional way in which teacher played the role of the knowledge provider and the students were the passive knowledge receivers

However, with the help of the communicative approach in language teaching, we are now paying more attention to the role of students in the class We begin to realize the importance of students‟ interaction We begin to teach English in a more natural way by putting it in real communicative situations The teachers are now trying to organize communicative activities in English 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

It also helps students overcome shyness

Group work brings advantages not only for the learners but also for the teachers

First of all, it saves time Instead of asking individual student to practice a structure or answer the questions, the teacher can divide the class into groups and make them do the exercise at the same time

Being a teacher of English at Luu Nhan Chu High School, the researcher is well aware of the importance of using group work in English classes However, like many school teacher in Viet Nam, we still face with common problems coming from teachers, students, classroom condition when organizing and using group work This led me to the choice of the study: “ An investigation into students’ participation in group work at Luu Nhan Chu High school.” with the hope of investigating the ways teachers organize group work and the students‟ participation into group work to find out an effective way to improve four English skills for students at Luu Nhan Chu High School It is also hoped that this study may offer the teachers of English at Luu Nhan Chu High School ways on how to use group work in teaching four English skills more effectively.

Aims of the study

The aims of the study are:

- to investigate students‟ participation in group work and why they participated in group work, the ways they did

- to explore some strategies to increase students‟ participation in group work

As mentioned above, the study focuses on ways to organize and use group work as well as the students‟ participation in group work at Luu Nhan Chu High school The researcher intends to draw a brief overview of group work in classes at Luu Nhan Chu High School and to find out the ways to organize group work more effectively.

Research questions of the study

This study was aimed to answer the following research questions:

1 What are attitudes of the students at Luu Nhan Chu high school towards group work in teaching and learning English?

2 How do the students participate in group work?

3 How is group work organized in an English class at Luu Nhan Chu High school?

How to organize group work in English class more effectively for students at Luu Nhan Chu high school?

Methods of the study

To realize the aims of the study, both qualitative and quantitative methods are used

- By means of qualitative method: the author has to refer to different materials, lectures, former researchers and relevant issues related to group work and teaching and learning English to gain more knowledge of the subject matter and to come to the final conclusion

- By means of quantitative method: all comments, remarks, recommendation assumption and conclusion provided in the study based on the analysis of the statistics from the survey questionnaires conducted with students and teachers of Luu Nhan Chu High School

In addition, the researcher also used class observations with the hope that two methodologies supplemented each other so that the data could be more reliable.

Design of the study

This study consists of three parts:

Part A: Introduction: presents rationale, aims, scope, research questions, methods and design of the study

Part B: Developments: consists of three chapters

Chapter 1 : Theoretical background: reviews the theory of CLT, group work and students‟ participation in group work

Chapter 2 : Methodology: provides an analysis on the current situation of using group work in teaching and learning English at Luu Nhan Chu High school Data collection and analysis are also presented in this chapter

Chapter 3 : Findings and suggestions: focuses on how the teachers at Luu Nhan

Chu High School organized group work, difficulties faced by them and their students in using these activities and some suggestions for the teachers to organize group work and for the students to learn more effectively

Part C: Conclusion: summarizes all the key issues as well as the limitations of the study and makes suggestions for further research

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

The origins of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) are to be found in the changes in the British language teaching tradition dating from the late 1960s

The communicative approach in language teaching starts from a theory of language as communication The goal of language teaching is to develop what Hymes

(1972) referred to as "communicative competence." Hymes defines “communicative competence” as “ what a speaker needs to know in order to be communicatively competent in a speech community”

Another theorist frequently cited for his views on the communicative nature of language is Henry Widdowson In his book Teaching Language as Communication (1978),Widdowson presented a view of the relationship between linguistic systems and their communicative values in text and discourse He focused on the communicative acts underlying the ability to use language for different purposes

Littlewood (1984) consideres an alternative learning theory that he also see as compatible with CLT-a skill-learning model of learning According to this theory, the acquisition of communicative competence in a language is an example of skill development This involves both a cognitive and a behavioral aspect

The cognitive aspect involves the internalisation of plans for creating appropriate behaviour For language use, these plans derive mainly from the language system- they include grammatical rules, procedures for selecting vocabulary,and social conventions governing speech

The behavioural aspect involves the automation of these plans so that they can be converted into fluent performance in real time This occurs mainly through practice in converting plans into performance (Littiewood 1984: 74) This theory thus encourages an emphasis on practice as a way of developing communicative skills (Richards 1986)

With CLT, students are given the language they need to deal with real situations Less importance is placed on producing grammatically correct English, while more importance is placed on dealing effectively with the situation

In other words, CLT deals with communicative competence - the ability to communicate - rather than grammatical accuracy

It is no doubt that the characteristics of CLT, if precisely understood, may help teachers translate the theory of CLT into classroom reality and make their classroom “ communicative”

David Nunan (1991:279) lists five basic characteristics of Communicative Language Teaching:

- An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language

- The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation

- The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also on the Learning Management process

- An enhancement of the learner‟s own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning

- An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activities outside the classroom

According to CLT, group work activities are considered to be the most common practices in a language classroom, in which students are allowed to interact with each other and then will be able to communicate in the target language.

Group work in teaching and learning English

There are many definitions about group work:

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

According to Richards ( 1983: 189), group work is an essential activity because the kind of interactions produced in group activities has been shown to be quantitatively as well as qualitatively different from that which goes on in the teacher- dominated lessons

Clearly, group work is a co- operative activity, during which students share aims and responsibilities, moreover, they have chance for greater independence as they take some of their own learning decisions, without the teacher controlling every move And they can work without the pressure of the whole class listening to what they are doing

They learn to listen to different opinions They feel free to experiment and use the language, and the most important thing is they have many chances to interact with each other

1.2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of group work

1.2.2.1 The advantages of group work

According to Hubert Skrzynski, group work plays an important role in teaching and learning Engish because of several advantages as follows:

- Increase in the amount of student practice: When students work in group they have more chances to practise Group work drammatically increases students talking time and students‟ participation

- Increase in the students’ confidence: Students who are shy of speaking in front of the whole class, or to the teacher, often find it much easier to express themselves in front of a small group For teachers, because there are more than two people in a group, there is a greater chance of different opinions and varied contributions than in working individually or in pairs, it frees the teacher from her traditional role of “ an expert who always lectures” and allows her to wander freely round the class, leading and encouraging discussion, giving help where needed ( Harmer, 1999: 116)

- Mutual help: Group work encourages students to share ideas and knowledge In a class, there are always weak and strong students, so working in groups, students can learn from each other a lot It recognizes the old maxims that “ two heads are better than one”, thus promoting learner cooperation ( Adrian Doff, 1988: 144)

1.2.2.2 The disadvantages of group work

Using group work also has some disadvantages Belows are some common problems:

- Native language interference: One of the disadvantages is that students often speak in their native language If the class is really big with many students, it is very difficult for the teacher to listen all groups at the same time However, the teacher can change this situation by establishing certain rules at the beginning of the school year

- Noisiness: Clearly, working in group in a large class will be noisy The teachers have more trouble than the learners have Usually the students themselves are not disturbed by the noise as much as the teacher is

- Mistake correction: Another problem is incorrectness While students work in group, the teacher cannot control all the language used, thus, cannot correct every mistake students make

To sum up, in spite of several disadvantages, the advantages of group work far outweighed the disadvantages Instead of being dependent on the teacher, students get used to helping and learning from each other in a non- threatening environment

Meanwhile, the teacher is left free to discreetly monitor progress and give help, advice and encouragement where and when it is needed

1.2.3 How to organize group work

In order to prepare for group work, according to Felisa Tibbits, the teacher needs to do the following:

- Anticipate the size and the selection of groups

- Anticipate how students will be organized within the groups (tasks and roles)

- Consider the timing of the group

- Consider how the small group will be shared with the entire class and linked with the overall curriculum

An activity that is best suited for group work may meet the following criteria:

- The activity has multiple tasks that can be shared among group members or a single task, such as generating ideas, that benefit from the participation of all individuals within a group

- The activity involves problem solving and discussion

- Examples of activities that may be suited for group work are investigations of materials (newspapers, scientific specimens) and development of ideas or arguments

The teacher will need to personally collect, or organize students to collect, physical specimens for investigation For example, if the teacher anticipates doing a lesson on the role of the media, she or he might ask the students to bring in to class newspapers and magazines There should be materials sufficient for each group

* Size and selection of group

Group size normally ranges between 3-5 students Group size can sometimes go larger although groups larger than 8 do not ensure that everyone will participate

Since groups often report their work back to the whole class, teachers also take into account the total number of groups within the class

Group membership can be determined in different ways A random selection might be done by “counting off” with students (go around the room systematically having students count 1, 2, 3, etc., with each numbers representing a group) or selecting groups on the basis of birth date

In a non random selection, groups will be selected based on the teachers‟ prior knowledge Usually, groups are selected to maximize diversity within the group, since diversity enhances learning Such groups often have a balance of girls and boys, and students with differing ability levels Teachers can also use their best judgement about personality mixes that would enhance the work of the group

Sometimes groups are organized only for one activity Other times, teachers use the same small groups for a series of activities, so that students get used to working with one another

If the tables and chairs cannot be moved for group work, then students can form groups by turning around in seats to face their partners behind

* Organization of students within the group

A laissez- faire approach to group work would be that the teacher gives a general assignment to the group- like organizing a research project on „qualities of good leaders‟- and the students are left to organize themselves

A highly structured approach would be that the teacher assigns a specific role to each group member A semi- structured approach might be that the teacher recommend certain roles, but leaves it to the group to assign roles

Concepts of students’ participation in group work

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

The interaction between students and their teacher includes care, contact, cooperation between them in the class Students who have a good interaction with their teacher always participate in the class discussion, support each other and act as the teacher‟s requirement Thus, participation not only means attending the class regularly and on time but also taking part in the lesson actively or showing desire or being active Students become self- centered in the class activities

The interaction between students and students is set up through their discussion in small groups They work together, help each other, and learn from each other A good interaction involves their cooperation and contribution to the task given

Students feel pleasant and comfortable when they work together, then they will do their best to complete the task

Students‟ participation also includes the interaction between students and materials Clearly, students will be active and pay more attention to the lesson if they are interested in the material or the task given In other words, good and interesting materials can get students involved in the lesson Students will find it difficult to participate in the class activities if they do not understand the tasks or feel bored with them ( Ellis, 1994 : 178)

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 in the class.

Summary

In conclusion, this chapter covered the theories related to CLT, classroom work arrangements including group work, advantages, disadvantages of group work, the way how to organize group work, difficulties when organzing group work, and students‟ participation in group work

To increase the students‟ participation in classroom activities, especially in group work, the teacher should encourage students‟ roles in learning activities The next chapter will present all the information concerning the study : the context of the study at Luu Nhan Chu High School including English syllabus, the students and the teachers, the methodology of the study, the participants, research questions, research instruments and presentation of statistical results.

METHODOLOGY

Context of the study

Luu Nhan Chu High School is a newly established school in Dai Tu district, Thai Nguyen province We have 30 classes, 10 classes for each course There are three levels of English: English 10, 11 and English 12 Because English is one of the main subjects and it is now a compulsory one in Luu Nhan Chu High school, students have English lessons during the first term and second term of the school year

The textbook chosen for students at Luu Nhan Chu High school is English 10,

11 and 12 by Hoang Van Van, Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, Do Tuan Minh, Nguyen Thu Phuong, Nguyen Quoc Tuan, Nha Xuat Ban Giao Duc In each textbook, there are 16 units which consist of 5 parts: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing and Language Focus After each four unit, there is a test with the aim of checking students basic knowledge of English and practice four skills This is a new textbook with many pictures and suitable for applying Communicative Language Teaching By using this textbook, students‟ communicative competence can be developed and they can know more real things from daily life Students are required to work in group to practise English everyday Moreover, they have chances to listen to native speakers from the tapes

At the end of the course, students have basic knowledge of English, especially grammar, also they can communicate with foreigners by using many different types of conversations

2.1.2 Description of the students at Luu Nhan Chu high school

To be 10 th form students at Luu Nhan Chu High School, all students have to take an entrance exam, like many other students in Viet Nam They are all from different, poor countryside in Dai Tu District They have learnt English for four years at secondary school However, their English language proficiency is very low And their levels are not the same in general At Luu Nhan Chu High School, students have to spend three years to learn Engish to develop their four skills in order to get general certificate of education Like other main subjects, English is taught three periods and one optional period per week Students have four fifteen minute tests, two forty- five minute tests for each term and two final examinations

2.1.3 Description of the teachers at Luu Nhan Chu school

If students are the most important factor in the learning process, teachers are the most important factor in the teaching process In Luu Nhan Chu High School, there are

9 teachers of English language aged from 25 to 31 All of them are very young and there is only one teacher has ever been to a foreign country Of 9 teachers, 7 have been trained at Thai Nguyen college of Education, one has been trained from Hue university and one has been trained at Ha Noi University of foreign study There are only two teachers are learning to get M.A degree Because of the young age and lacking of experience, all teachers at Luu Nhan Chu High School find difficult to be familiar with new teaching method in which the use of procedures that develop the four language skills through working in groups is problem- solving tasks.

Methodology and design of the study

There are 120 students and 8 teachers at Luu Nhan Chu High School took part in this study The researcher chose these 120 students from 10 th form, 11 th form and

12 th form randomly Of all 120 students, there are 70 female and 50 male at the age from 16 to 18 They come from different places in Dai Tu District so they may have different background and living condition All of them have learnt English for at least 4 years at their secondary school However, in term of knowledge and learning environment, they are quite different 8 teachers are very young, aged from 25 to 31

A survey is conducted among students and teachers at Luu Nhan Chu High School to find out the information about the current situation of class activities: group work The survey questionaire includes information about group work at school ( see Appendix 1 and 2) The results of the survey is illustrated in the next part The reseacher observed 8 classes and then analyze the data collected from the questionaires and class observation sheets to find information to answer the research questions After analyzing the data, some conclusion must be drawn and some suggestions for further research must be made, too

In order to get information about group work and to find out the fact how group work is used at Luu Nhan Chu High School and how effectively it is used, the researcher raised the following research questions:

1 How is group work organized in an English class at Luu Nhan Chu High school?

2 What are attitudes of the students at Luu Nhan Chu high school towards the application of group work in teaching and learning English?

3 How do the students participate in group work?

4 How to organize group work in English class more effectively for improve fours skills to students at Luu Nhan Chu high school?

In order to get the needed information the researcher uses two following research methods:

The survey questionnaire is considered as one of the most effective instruments for collecting data in social science Because of the advantages of questionnaire such as: less pressure on respondents than interview and straight forward analysis of answer , this study used the questionaire as the main source to fullfill its aims There are two types of questionnaires: one for teachers and one for students Each of them has ten questions The questionnaires are mainly used for exploiting teachers‟ and students‟ knowledge, experience, their attitude toward group work

Besides questionnaires, classroom observation is another tool to collect more information about the reality of the application of group work activities in teaching and learning English Observation is carried out in different classes The researcher has to design the Class Observation sheet before observing classes The classes observed must be from grade 10 to 12 and with all 8 teachers of English in Luu Nhan Chu High School and they should not be prepared especially for being observed They must be done in normal way And the researcher must not do anything to interfere the class while observing.

Presentation of statisical results

Questionnaires were taken in Luu Nhan Chu High School from August 5 th to August 10 th The questionnaires consist of ten questions and after each question there are options for teachers and students to choose, in some questions more than one options can be chosen The questionnaire was aimed at exploring the understanding, the attitude and the way the teachers used group work in their language classes The questionnaires were delivered and collected before the classes were observed

Here are the results of the questionnaires:

* The results of language teaching survey questionnaires The results of the language teaching survey

This questionnaire helps the reseacher know the attitude, the knowledge and the understanding of group work of the teachers at Luu Nhan Chu High School

Chart 1: The frequency of teachers organizing group work in an English class

As we can see from the first question, when the teachers were asked about their frequency of using group work, 62,5 % of them answered that they sometimes applied group work in teaching English 37,5 % said that they usually used this activity in teaching while noone said that they always or rarely used

In the next question, about the appropriate time amount for using group work in an English class, none of them chose 5 minutes, most of them ( 87,5%) considered 10 or more is the suitble time amount for working in group One teacher chose from 5 to

15 minutes We can see it from the following chart:

5 ms per period 10ms per period 15ms per period more than 15ms others

Chart 2: The usual time group work often takes up over the total time of an English lesson

Question 3 is about the benefits of group work in language classes, 37,5 % of the teachers considered the benefit of group work was making the students feel relaxed in their learning process, 62,5 % of them saw the benefit of this activity in helping motivate students and giving them chances to exchange the ideas We can see from the following chart:

To creat a relaxing learning environment

To give students more chances to exchange their ideas

Chart 3: The benefits of group work

In question 4, all the teachers were asked about the way to organize group work in an English class All teachers chose students sitting next to each others (students sitting at the same tables) Teachers paid no attention to differences in abilities of students, they only cared for the students‟ seats The percentage is presented in the following table:

Options Number of teachers Percent a Students at the same table 8 100 b Students from different table 4 50 c Good students with weak students 1 12,5 d Weak students with the weak ones 0 0 e Good students with the good ones 0 0 f Others 0 0

Table 1: Ways teachers often use to group students

The questionnaire showed that all the teachers in this school used group work in teaching four skills: reading, speaking, listening and writing, however speaking skill was used most This is shown in Chart 4: Skills teachers often use with group work:

In the next question, the researcher wanted to know the factors causing problems when using group work According to teachers, main factors are noise, teacher‟s little control of the whole class, inequality of splitting the responsibilities among members in a group

We can see the result from this table:

In your opinion, which of the following factors are the problems group work can cause? a Noises 8 100 b Teacher‟s little control of the whole class 8 100 c Inequality of splitting the responsibilities among members in a group 8 100 d Others 0 0

Table 2: Problems group work can cause

Others Reading Listening Writing Speaking

Chart 5: The ways teachers often prepare for group work classes:

To prepare for group work, most of the teachers ( 75 %) used the information in textbook, 37,5 % of the teachers used the same topics in the textbook but modified it in some ways Some of them took an extract or information from another reference books, designed by themselves, or collaborated with their colleagues or get their opinions

Question 8 showed the factors affecting most the success of group work Half of the teachers thought that the cooperation of the students and the language proficiency of the students are the main factors Some others considered the hardship of the students, teaching experience and teachers‟ age also important Other factors have little influence on it These are presented in the following table:

T ak e an ext rac t or in for m at ion fr om an ot h er re fe re n ce b ook

Collab or at e with you r coll eagu es or ge t t h eir op in ion s

Which of the following factors do you think affect the success of group work most? a Teaching experience 4 50 b Teacher‟s age 4 50 c Teachers‟ language proficiency 0 0 d The teacher‟s ability of organizing group work 2 25 e Students‟ hardship 4 50 f Students‟ cooperation 5 62,5 g Students‟ language proficiency 5 62,5 h Others 0 0

Table 3: Factors affecting the success of group work most

As the same view with question 5, the teachers in this school thought that group work is the most useful for teaching speaking ( 100 %), writing ( 50 %), and then listening, reading

Others Speaking Listening Writing Reading

Chart 6: Skill most suitable with group work

After answering all the questions above, the teachers were asked to give out the ways to make group work more successful in teaching English Most of them ( 87,5 %) agreed that giving clear instruction with examples was quite important Some (50 %) thought that the role of the teacher in language classes was one of the main factors, the teacher should control the class well and there were other reasons some teachers chose

We can see it from the following table:

What should you do to make group work successful in an English lesson? a Ask students to re- arrange the tables and chairs before the lesson begins 2 25 b Form group of students that have different levels so that they can help and learn from each other

3 37,5 c Control the whole class 4 50 d Give clear instruction with examples 7 87,5 e Others 0 0

Table 4: What the teacher should do to make group work successful in an English lesson

From all the data analysis above, we can see that the teachers in Luu Nhan Chu High School have used group work in teaching English, and they have organized group work by different ways to do many activities All of them see that using group work helps students improve their knowledge, develop four skills, especially speaking skill

FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS

Findings

After collecting the information by using two questionnaires, classroom observation, the researcher had an overview of how group work were used in language classes at Luu Nhan Chu High school

3.1.1 What are the difficulties in organizing group work at Luu Nhan Chu high school?

* Lack of knowledge of group work:

As can be seen from the study, all teachers in Luu Nhan Chu high school often use group work activities in classes, but not all of them make group work effective

This starts from the reason some of the teachers are not fully aware of the knowledge of group work They even do not know exactly the steps of organizing group work, moreover, most of the teachers at Luu Nhan Chu high school are very young

Therefore, while controlling group work, they sometimes feel confused and passive

Most of the teachers in this school are young and they have small babies, so they are too busy to plan the lesson carefully in general and to prepare group work in particular Some of them do not know how to use modern technology in teaching

This difficulty comes from the days the students learnt at their secondary school, they were deely affected by the old methods such as Grammar translation…In a language class, they just sit, listen and take notes This leads to the reason why they do not like taking part in group work

* Low level of English language proficiency:

Luu Nhan Chu high school is located in a countryside district of Thai Nguyen province Most of the students here come from large, poor families They started learning English at their secondary school, but their results of English were not very good at all because of lacking good condition and having no time to learn After school, they have to help their family do housework and farming As a result, most of them are backward

While participating in group work , they can not express their opinions because of lacking vocabulary, confidence This leads to their ignorance in taking part in group work Gradually, they will lose the interest in group work and have a passive learning style

Many students are afraid of making mistakes when they express their ideas in front of the class As a result, they say nothing, and they feel safe This makes it hard for the teacher to control group work activities

All classes in Luu Nhan Chu high school have over 40 students, so it is difficult for teachers in organizing group work and controlling the whole class Only good students have chance to talk and develop their skills Other weak students do not receive the teacher‟s help, care and encouragement

* Lack of reference books and teaching aids:

The school is small, so the library is small, too There are not many reference books for teachers and students Teachers here have to self- prepare for their teaching without school‟s help

Besides, only four classrooms are equipped with projectors, so it is so difficult for the teaching process

3.1.2 How is group work organized in an English class at Luu Nhan Chu high school? How do the students participate in group work?

As the researcher observed, all teachers in Luu Nhan Chu high school followed three steps in organizing group work, but in different ways

First, before the activity, the teacher guides and asks the students what they are going to do in this part The teacher explains and instructs the tasks both in English and Vietnamese To check that students do understand teacher may ask them to repeat the instructions Most of the teachers here often help the students by giving them some suggestions, such as vocabularies or new structures They often group students sitting at the same tables Because of the too crowded class, sometimes the teacher divides the class into big groups This makes the class noisy and some students do not pay attention to their tasks

Next, during the activity, the teacher plays the role as an observer or a guide In this activity, students work freely, they can work, exchange ideas and discuss with their friends The teacher goes around the class and helps if neccessary Normally, the teacher gives students an appropriate amount time, when the time is over, the teacher checks their work This is the last activity All teachers call the representatives to report what they have done with their groups Most of the teachers try to correct students‟ mistakes, give keys and give marks

Another conclusion could be made from the results of survey questionnaires and classroom observation was that many students at Luu Nhan Chu high school were aware of advantages of group work They knew that their teachers organize group work activities in classes in order to help them motivate with the topic They also knew that by participating in group work they can learn from their friends That‟s why when being asked to work in groups, many students liked and worked with great interest

However, there were many other students who have low English language proficiency and seemed to be shy Therefore, they did not want to take part in group work

3.1.3 What are attitudes of the students at Luu Nhan Chu high school towards group work in teaching and learning English?

With the information the researcher got from the two survey questionnaires and classroom observation sheets, she had the answer for this question:

Obviously, students enjoyed working in groups It helps them improve their English They wanted to have more chances to practise English with their classmates through group work However, some students did not like the ways the teacher organized group work They thought that their teachers carried out these activities in the same ways from this task to another one Some teachers got the exact copies from the textbook, they did not change anything, this made students feel bored

3.1.4 How to organize group work in English class more effectively to increase students’ participation in group work at Luu Nhan Chu high school?

When conducting group work activities, teachers should deal with some problems such as noise from students, control of the class, preference to work individually of students or overuse of the mother tongue during the process of working in group work To improve the students‟ participation in group work, teachers must be responsible for their knowledge of English and choose a suitable teaching method with their students Each teacher should self- evaluate the capacity of organizing group work activities and should not follow the traditional one all the time During the lesson, teachers should follow different steps in implementing group work and be willing to help if students need Moreover, teachers should create a fresh atmosphere to make students feel more comfortable in taking part in group work

For students, they should not use their mother tongue so much when working in groups They should maximize their speaking turn in English without fearing makingS

Each student should be friendly, helpful and co- operative These are important elements to make group work successful.

Suggestions

Within the scope of this study, the researcher does not want to have the ambition to find the solution to all the problems mentioned above In this part, the author just wants to give some suggestions to improve students‟ participation in group work and how to organize group work more effectively

Besides having a good knowledge about group work, teachers at Luu Nhan Chu high school should try to overcome many difficulties, both subjective and objective factors The more important things all teachers should do are the followings:

First of all, teachers should have a good preparation In order to make group work activities in teaching and learning more effectively, the teacher should put a great deal of thought into the preparation of group work activities The teacher should plan the lesson and the tasks very carefully To do it well, the teacher should think about the way she/he will introduce the new structures, the way giving new vocabularies to students, the way to make the tasks clearer Because students always find it difficult to work in groups effectively, teachers can help by designing group work activities in such a way that can increase the students‟ participation and, therefore, they have a positive teamwork experience

Teachers should design and select appropriate activities A variation of activities that are suitable for students‟ life and interest can motivate students work in group in an effective way Therefore, teachers should find out more about their students‟ interest in order to know what their favorite activities are From that, teachers can select appropriate activities for their students

Next, teachers should set some rules before the task begins We all know noise and indiscipline are problems that teachers are always worried about when conducting group work Therefore, they should train the students to obey some rules in group work, for example: start and stop work right after the teachers‟ command, be quick when moving to another activity, be self discipline and listen carefully to the teachers‟ instructions

Finally, the teachers‟ attitude toward students during the time of working in group will decide the success of the lesson such as: observing, listening, helping, guiding, encouraging and most importantly giving feedback When students finish their task, the teacher should spend some minutes giving feedback It is significant that students receive feedback on what they have done and that effort is recognized and valued Feedback can come from other students as well as from the teacher Giving feedback is very important, teacher praises all students for the efforts they have made because when their work is appreciated, students are more likely to work harder

The students should take part in group work enthusiastically They should express their ideas in front of their groups They also should improve their knowledge by reading more, be self confident when working in groups and should not be afraid of making mistakes, losing face

Moreover, students should cooperate with their teachers and friends as students in a learner-centered class are the ones who are responsible for their success or failure in their learning, they can choose good learning strategies, work with their teachers actively

It is advisable that students should use English much more in language classes

They should not use their mother tongue when working groups They should make use of the different sources such as newspapers, Internet…

With the title of this study “An investigation into students’ participation in group work at Luu Nhan Chu High school” , the author used different methods such as observation sheets, questionnaires for both teachers and students at Luu Nhan Chu High School to reach the answers to the four research questions

After collecting the data from questionnaires and classroom observation, we know the use of group work in this school In general, all teachers here are aware of group work activities, they know the theory, the ways of grouping students, the appropriate time for these activities, they also adapted all tasks in the textbook and create other extra activities for students…However, these activities were not much effective The result would be better if the teachers sometimes changed and mixed other different activities

There are obviously certain limitations First of all, the number of teacher and student participants chosen for this study was not big enough for broad generalization

The information from the questionnaires and observation was quite limited and not very accurate They answer based on their beliefs or thoughts that they have about their use of group work Some students even do not know what exacly they have to do, and some have many different understanding of some terms used in questionnaires And when observed by the teachers, the students might have changed their ordinary way of working in groups, they might suffer from fear or stress

As no single research design is complete This study can not cover everything

Therefore, further research on this aspect should be done

As this study just focused on the participation of the students on group work at Luu Nhan Chu High School in general, future researchers can further explore the untouched issues such as interaction process in group work, strategies to involve student in group work activity and so on

In conlcusion, this study has been able to contribute to our knowledge of CLT approach in general and group work in particular with the hope that it will help not only teachers but also students to get higher English level However, due to the limitation of time, especially experience, shortcomings are unavoidable All comments are ,therefore, greatly appreciated

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Cambridge University Press in Association with the British Council

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3 Harmer, J (1999), The Practice of ELT, Longman

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5 Hoodith, A (2002), “Promoting Oral Fluency Via Group And Pair Work” from http://www.eltnews.com/features/teaching-ideas/2002/08/promoting-oral-fluency- via-gro.html

6 Hymes, D (1972), On communicative Competence, Harmondsworth: penguin

7 Littlewood, W (1984), Foreign And Second Language Leaarning: Language

Acquisition Research And Its Implications For The Classroom, Cambridge University

8 Nunan, D (1991), Language Teaching Methodology, UK: Prentice- hall

9 Phuong, M (2008), Organizing Pair Work And Group Work In The Context

Of High School Classroom At Pham Van Nghi Upper Secondary School, Nam Dinh Province: A Case Study, Unpublished M.A Thesis

10 Richards, J.C (1983), Communicative Needs In Foreign Language Learning, ELT Journal, V37 1983

11 Richards,J.C & Rodgers,T.S (1986) “ Approaches and Methods In Language Teaching” Cambridge University Press

12 Skrzynski, H “Advantages and disadvantages of pair work and group work in the class” from http://www.edukator.org.pl/2005a/work/work.html

13 Tibbitts, F “Working In Pairs and Groups” Human Rights Education

14 Widdowson, H (1978), Teaching Language As Communication, Oxford

Tôi là Vương Thị Thu Huyền , học viên cao học lớp Cao Học Anh Thái Nguyên k19, trường Đại Học Ngoại Ngữ Quốc Gia Hà Nội Hiện nay tôi đang thực hiện đề tài nghiên cứu về sự tham gia của học sinh vào hoạt động nhóm tại trường THPT Lưu Nhân Chú, Đại Từ Để có thể hoàn thành tốt đề tài, chúng tôi rất mong nhận được ý kiến đóng góp của các bạn đối với những vấn đề dưới đây Tôi xin chân thành cảm ơn!

2 Kinh nghiệm giảng dạy: (Chọn vào năm bạn đã giảng dạy):

II Hoạt động nhóm trong giảng dạy Tiếng Anh

1 Bạn thường xuyên tổ chức hoạt động nhóm trong giờ học Tiếng Anh như thế nào?

□ Luôn luôn □ Thỉnh thoảng □ Thường xuyên □ Hiếm khi

2 Hoạt động nhóm thường chiếm bao nhiêu thời gian trong tổng thời gian một giờ học Tiếng Anh?

□ 5 phút một tiết □ 10 phút một tiết □ 15 phút một tiết □ Hơn 15 phút một tiết □ Lựa chọn khác: từ 5 đến 15 phút một tiết

3 Theo bạn, hoạt động nhóm có những lợi ích gì?

□ Cải thiện độ trôi chảy trong việc nói Tiếng Anh của học sinh □ Tạo ra môi trường học tập thoải mái

□ Tạo cho học sinh cơ hội trao đổi ý kiến với nhau

4 Bạn thường phân chia nhóm như thế nào?

□ Học sinh ngồi cùng bàn □ Học sinh yếu với học sinh yếu

□ Học sinh ngồi khác bàn □ Học sinh giỏi với học sinh giỏi

□ Lựa chọn khác □ Học sinh giỏi với học sinh yếu

5 Hoạt động nhóm thường được sử dụng với kỹ năng nào dưới đây?

6 Theo bạn, yếu tố nào dưới đây là những rắc rối do hoạt động nhóm đem lại?

□ Giáo viên ít kiếm soát được cả lớp

□ Các thành viên trong một nhóm làm việc không đồng đều

7 Bạn thường chuẩn bị cho hoạt động nhóm như thế nào?

□ Sử dụng thông tin trong sách giáo khoa

□ Sử dụng các chủ đề trong sách giáo khoa nhưng có thay đổi

□ Lấy thông tin từ một số sách tham khảo

□ Trao đổi với đồng nghiệp và lấy ý kiến của họ

8 Yếu tố nào, theo bạn, là yếu tố giúp hoạt động nhóm thành công?

□ Độ tuổi của giáo viên

□ Khả năng giảng dạy của giáo viên

□ Khả năng tổ chức hoạt động nhóm của giáo viên

□ Độ chăm chỉ của học sinh

□ Sự hợp tác của học sinh

□ Khả năng học ngoại ngữ của học sinh

9 Theo bạn, kỹ năng nào phù hợp với hoạt động nhóm nhất ?

10 Bạn sẽ làm gì để hoạt động nhóm thành công hơn nữa ?

□ Yêu cầu học sinh sắp xếp lại bàn ghế trước khi giờ học bắt đầu

□ Thành lập các nhóm học sinh với trình độ khác nhau để họ có thể học hỏi lẫn nhau

□ Cố gắng kiểm soát cả lớp học

□ Đưa ra hướng dẫn cụ thể với ví dụ minh họa

BẢNG KHẢO SÁT TRÊN ĐÂY LÀ HẾT XIN CHÂN THÀNH CẢM ƠN SỰ CỘNG TÁC CỦA CÁC BẠN!

Bạn là học sinh lớp:………

Câu 1: Bạn có thích tham gia vào hoạt động nhóm trong giờ học Tiếng Anh không?

Câu 2: Theo bạn thời gian nào dưới đây phù hợp cho hoạt động nhóm?

□ Nhiều hơn 15 phút một tiết học

Câu 3: Theo bạn lợi ích chính mà bạn đạt được khi tham gia hoạt động nhóm là gì?

□ Được giao tiếp với bạn bè

□ Cảm thấy thoải mái khi sử dụng Tiếng Anh với bạn bè

□ Học được nhiều điều từ bạn bè

□ Cải thiện khả năng nói Tiếng Anh của bạn

Câu 4: Bạn thường xuyên tham gia vào hoạt động nhóm trong giờ học Tiếng Anh như thế nào?

Câu 5: Theo bạn, hoạt động nhóm được sử dụng phù hợp nhất với lĩnh vực nào sau đây?

Câu 6: Bạn thường được thành lập nhóm bởi giáo viên như thế nào?

□ Các học sinh ngồi cùng bàn

□ Các học sinh ngồi khác bàn

□ Học sinh giỏi với học sinh giỏi

□ Học sinh yếu với học sinh yếu

□ Học sinh giỏi với học sinh yếu

Câu 7: Bạn thường xuyên chuẩn bị cho hoạt động nhóm trong một giờ học Tiếng Anh như thế nào?

□ Lấy thông tin từ sách tham khảo

□ Hợp tác với bạn hoặc lấy ý kiến từ bạn

Câu 8: Theo bạn có những khó khăn nào khi bạn tham gia hoạt động nhóm?

□ Giáo viên không giúp đỡ được tất cả học sinh trong lớp

□ Nhiệm vụ được giao không đồng đều giữa các học sinh

Câu 9: Theo bạn giáo viên cần làm những gì để hoạt động nhóm được thành công?

□ Tạo ra nhiệm vụ phù hợp với học sinh

□ Hướng dẫn rõ ràng và có ví dụ

□ Tạo ra sự cạnh tranh

Câu 10: Nhân tố nào, theo bạn, ảnh hưởng nhất đến sự thành công của hoạt động nhóm?

□ Khả năng ngôn ngữ của giáo viên

□ Cách giáo viên tổ chức

□ Sự chăm chỉ của học sinh

□ Khả năng ngôn ngữ của học sinh

3 Number of year of teaching experience:………

5 Number of students: ………… Girls: ……… Boys: ……

NO ACTIVITY TIME AIM GROUPING EVALUATION

How group work is carried out:

1 It is organized naturally: -Yes -No

2 Teacher provides clear instruction before the work: - Yes -No

8 Students speak Vietnamese during participating in group work

9 Teacher gives feedback after the work: - Yes - No

10 The things the teacher does to find out how successful the work is:

The description of the classroom observation sheets

NO ACTIVITY TIME GROUPING PREPARATION

The class is divided into four equal parts

Words are selected and prepared by the teacher

The class is divided into three equal parts

Three worksheets are designed by the teacher

A copy from the textbook with adaptation and extension

Students sit next to each other and students with teacher

The class is divided into six equal parts

A copy from the textbook with some extension

6 Reading 15 minutes Students at the same table

7 Listening 10 minutes Students at the same table

8 Writing 15 minutes Two tables are on a group

9 Grammar 10 minutes Students at the same table

Class is divided into four equal parts

A copy from the textbook but changed some things

Class: 10A2 Teacher: Tran Hong Le

I Objectives: By the end of the lesson, students will be able to talk about their own background and know how to ask for other people‟s background

II Skills: Talk about people‟s background III Teaching aids: Textbook, photos of some famous persons or some real information about someone to speak

- Ask students to close the book

- Give some words and let students complete the full sentences:

1 Marie Curie/ born/ 7th/ November/

2 Marie Curie/ harbour/ dream/ scientific career/ impossible/ woman/ time

- Ask students to practise speaking about their parents, brothers, sisters…

- Go around and listen to them

- Working pairs and write the full sentences

- Each student speaks out the sentence they‟ve done

1 Marie Curie was born in Warsaw on November 7the 1867

2 Marie Curie harboured the dream of a scientific career, which was impossible for a woman at that time

- Work in pairs A: What is your father‟s job?

B: He‟s a doctor A: How old is he?

- Let students open the books and observe the picture and describe what they are doing

3 How do you know they are conducting an interview?

- What are three students holding in their hands?

- Ask students to read some words given and then let them choose which words used for someone‟s back ground

- Ask students to look at the pictures again

- Let students imagine they are journalists and interview each other in groups and pairs

- Ask one group to do the task as a model

- Go around listening to some groups and help them if needed

A: What does he like doing in his free time?

- Look at the picture and answer the questions

1 They are interviewing 2.They‟re in the classroom

3 One speaks and one writes down in the notebook

- They‟re holding the pens and notebooks

- Read these words and work in groups

- Some students can show off these words: family; dislike; hobby; education

- Work in groups with some cues given below (Greeting, date of birth, home, parents…) A: Hi! When were you born?

B: I was born on August 18th 1991 A: Where do you live?

- Other groups go on practising speaking

- Practise interviewing as a dialogue A: Hello! I‟m Huong

B: Hello! I‟m Lan Nice to meet you

A: Could you tell me something about yourself and your parents?

- Others listen and write down some

- Let some groups play in role as journalists and other answer the questions

- Ask some pairs to stand in front of the class and practise speaking

- Ask students to tell about others they‟ve heard by interviewing their friends

- Some groups go on speaking each other

- Give some information about Mark Twain:

2 He/ adopt/ pen name/ “Mark Twain”

3 He/ write/ his famous novels/ “Tom sawyer, Huckleberry”… information they get

- Work in groups A: Can you tell me something about Nam?

B: Yes, please A: Where is he from?

A: What does he like doing?

- Work and discuss in groups and one of this group asks and one of other answers

B: He was born in Missouri in 1835 A: Which name did he adopted?

- Listen and write down in their notebooks

Limitations of the study

There are obviously certain limitations First of all, the number of teacher and student participants chosen for this study was not big enough for broad generalization

The information from the questionnaires and observation was quite limited and not very accurate They answer based on their beliefs or thoughts that they have about their use of group work Some students even do not know what exacly they have to do, and some have many different understanding of some terms used in questionnaires And when observed by the teachers, the students might have changed their ordinary way of working in groups, they might suffer from fear or stress

As no single research design is complete This study can not cover everything

Therefore, further research on this aspect should be done.

Suggestions for further study