Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS using group work activities to reduce students speaking anxiety an action research

Rationale of the study

In Vietnam for some recent decades, English has taken more and more important role in almost all aspects such as: politics, economy, culture, communication, education and information technology, especially since Viet Nam adopted its open door policy and become a member of WTO English helps Vietnamese labours to have access to latest information in the world and take part in the world labour force with English as an international means of communication in this modern age

However, it is the fact that using English for real communication in general, with limited English speaking ability is a big problem for Vietnamese learners The traditional teaching and learning English at high schools in Vietnam leads to the fact that students are inclined to develop reading and writing skills seem to remain a big problem to Vietnamese learners, meanwhile speaking and listening skills are almost ignored Although students can do some tasks in English, they can‟t use English as a communicative tool Since the teaching approach Communicative Learning Teaching (CLT) was introduced, the teaching and learning of English has changed its emphasis from “Master of language Structure” to “Master of use”

According to this theory, teachers teach students how to understand as well as how to perform But due to the strong effect of the traditional way of ELT in schools in Vietnam, the panorama of ELT, particularly including speaking skill remains dull

Like in most of schools in the north of Vietnam, the majority of the students in Dong Hy high school (DHHS) where I work, have no ample opportunity to study the English language because they have few English lessons per week (three English lessons per week) Though they are encouraged to take few courses in school in the use of English, the content of these English courses are grossly inadequate for the students to acquire requisite skills in effective use of language for communication and for the give and take of social experience In order to study English as a foreign language and be successful with it, the students must be helped by the teacher to acquire skills in the four language art skills, namely: speaking, listening, writing, and reading Of the four skills mentioned above, speaking is the skills secondary school students need great support

Recently, teachers in my school have introduced activities through which they can help students go beyond the mastery of structures to the points and use them to communicate more meaningfully in real situations Also, group work approach has also been applied in all kinds of lessons and has shown its effectiveness It is said that using group work is one of good ways to motivate students in learning English By grouping students, teachers enables students to help one another study Using group work has many advantages such as more language practice in classroom, more purposeful communication, more students‟ involvement and motivation, more chances for students to help each other, more chances for students to foster responsibility, autonomy and independence (Underwood, 1987;

Therefore, simply putting students together in a group is no guarantee that it is beneficial Without careful planning and facilitation, group work can frustrate students and instructors and will be a waste of time

In DHHS during the group work there, the better students contribute a lot whereas some weaker ones become passive I realized that there were much more students who were anxious than those confident in speaking English in class

Moreover, the anxious students have differently certain manifestations, for example giving frequent communicative feedback such as (uh- huh) and playing with the hair, clothes, or other manipulability objects It seemed that studying on students‟ anxiety was really meaningfully important As we all see “Anxiety is the rust of life, destroying its brightness and weakening its power.” - said by Tyron Edwards, a famous American theologian of “New Dictionary of Thoughts”

The wish to help her students to overcome the obstacles in speaking English encouraged the researcher to carry out this study, entitled the use of group work to reduce grade ten students‟ anxiety in speaking lessons at Dong Hy High School

II Aims and objectives of the study

- gain understanding of factors that cause students‟ anxiety in speaking English lessons in one tenth form class of Dong Hy high school

- experiementing solutions that can address anxiety-causing factors so as to help the students to feel less anxious in speaking English in the speaking lessons

Those aims are specified into the following objectives:

- to find out what students say about factors that make them anxious in speaking English in the classroom;

- to find out effective classroom techniques that can create a low-anxiety classroom atmostphere so that students can be more active in speaking English in the lessons

In order to achieve the above-mentioned aims and objectives, the study is to seek answers to the following research questions:

1 What factors do a group of grade 10 th students in Dong Hy high school think cause their anxiety in speaking English?

2 What classroom techniques that help to reduce the students‟ stated anxiety in speaking English?

III Scope of the study

As an action research project, the study was conducted with the researcher‟s own students in her own class The study is, therefore, limited itself to just one

„problem‟ the researcher was encountered with in her teaching, i.e students‟ speaking anxiety On the basis of the analysis of the factors the students, who were in one grade-10 th form, stated, the researcher experiemented with some interventions to address the problem

IV Methods of the study

- A quantitative method was used in this study with the questionnaire being used as the only instrument of data collection To be more specific, a pre-action questionnaire and a post-action questionnaire were employed

The thesis consists of three parts:

Part A – INTRODUCTION- presents the rationale, the aim, scope, significance, methods, design of the study

Part B – DEVELOPMENT- consists of three chapters

Chapter one- Literature Review- deals with the theories related to the study: speaking skill and its related concepts, concept of students‟ participation, group works in a speaking lesson definitions of anxiety in speaking English in classroom (SEC), main factors causing students‟ anxiety in SEC, teacher‟s role to students‟ anxiety in SEC

Chapter two- Research methodologies- presents the methodology performed in the study It provides information about the participants, the instrumentation

Data collection and findings are also presented in this chapter

Chapter three- Results and discussion- discuss the data of the study and propose discussion for using group work activities to reduce grade ten students‟ anxiety in speaking lessons at Dong Hy High School

Part C: CONCLUSION- summarizes all the key issues as well as the limitations of the study and suggestions for further study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter deals with the theories related to the study: Speaking skill and its related concepts, concept of group works in a speaking lesson, definitions of anxiety in Speaking English in classroom (SEC), main factors causing students‟ anxiety in SEC, effect of anxiety on students SEC, teacher‟s role to students‟ anxiety in SEC, teaching techniques to reduce students‟ anxiety in SEC

1.1 Speaking skills and its related concepts 1.1.1 The importance of speaking skills

Speaking skills are essential in both professional and personal setting, in both public and private sectors Speaking helps us communicate with each other more easily and less misunderstanding Burn- Joyce (1997: 15) says that speaking is more than just a way or making conversation Conversation can be defined as the informal interchange of thoughts and information by spoken words Therefore, speaking skill is always considered as the most effective means of communication

Scope of the study

As an action research project, the study was conducted with the researcher‟s own students in her own class The study is, therefore, limited itself to just one

„problem‟ the researcher was encountered with in her teaching, i.e students‟ speaking anxiety On the basis of the analysis of the factors the students, who were in one grade-10 th form, stated, the researcher experiemented with some interventions to address the problem.

Methods of the study

- A quantitative method was used in this study with the questionnaire being used as the only instrument of data collection To be more specific, a pre-action questionnaire and a post-action questionnaire were employed.

Design of the study

The thesis consists of three parts:

Part A – INTRODUCTION- presents the rationale, the aim, scope, significance, methods, design of the study

Part B – DEVELOPMENT- consists of three chapters

Chapter one- Literature Review- deals with the theories related to the study: speaking skill and its related concepts, concept of students‟ participation, group works in a speaking lesson definitions of anxiety in speaking English in classroom (SEC), main factors causing students‟ anxiety in SEC, teacher‟s role to students‟ anxiety in SEC

Chapter two- Research methodologies- presents the methodology performed in the study It provides information about the participants, the instrumentation

Data collection and findings are also presented in this chapter

Chapter three- Results and discussion- discuss the data of the study and propose discussion for using group work activities to reduce grade ten students‟ anxiety in speaking lessons at Dong Hy High School

Part C: CONCLUSION- summarizes all the key issues as well as the limitations of the study and suggestions for further study.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Speaking skills and its related concepts

Speaking skills are essential in both professional and personal setting, in both public and private sectors Speaking helps us communicate with each other more easily and less misunderstanding Burn- Joyce (1997: 15) says that speaking is more than just a way or making conversation Conversation can be defined as the informal interchange of thoughts and information by spoken words Therefore, speaking skill is always considered as the most effective means of communication

According to Penny Ur (1995: 120), speaking seems intuitively the most important and people who know a language are referred to as speakers of that language as if speaking includes all other kinds of knowing,

Firstly, speaking skills contribute an important part to impose other students‟ skills such as listening, reading and writing as well as makes them better at communication It is clear that speaking involves responding to what has been heard Good speaking also means that the speakers have a large volume of both theoretical and social knowledge, which will help them more confident and better at reading and writing In other words, when speaking skill is in progress, other skills also become better

Secondly, good speaking is said to be a good source of motivation for students It helps them use the language appropriately and flexibly an every day communication

According to Harmer (1998: 8) also says that whatever kind of motivation students have, it is clear that highly motivated students do better than ones without any motivation at all Another reason to say speaking is a huge source of motivation is that it can help students express their ideas naturally and rapidly In addition, through speaking students may realize how much language they have mastered and how they have used it From that, they will study harder to improve their language competence

Thirdly, thanks to students speaking, teacher can get feedback from students fast and exactly Through students‟ speaking activities in class and outside class, the teacher can know how much students understand the lesson, Therefore, she can know what their weak and strong points are in language to have suitable solutions and plans

In conclusion, speaking skill plays a significant in teaching and learning a foreign language That is the reason why speaking skill should be taught and practiced in the language classroom

Harmer (1999:269-270), presents three elements for oral production as the following:

Connected speed : effective speakers of English need to be able not only to produce the individual phonemes of English but also to use fluent “connected speed” In connected speed, sounds are modified (assimilation), omitted (elision), added (linking), and weakened (through contractions and stress patterning)

Expressive devices : The use of these devices contributes to the ability to convey meanings They allow the extra expression of emotion and intensity

Students should be able to deploy at least some of such suprasegmental features and devices in the same way if we are to be able fully effective communicators

Lexis and grammar: spontaneous speech is marked by the use of a number of common lexical phrases, especially in the performance of certain language functions Therefore, teachers should apply a variety of phrases for different functions such as agreeing or disagreeing, expressing surprise, shock, or approval

Negotiation language : effective speaking benefits from the negotiator language we use to seek clarification and to show the structure of what we are saying We often need to “ask for clarification” when we are listening to someone else talk

In conclusion, all this brings up important points that are useful to the teaching and learning speaking skill

Group work in a speaking lesson

One of the main ways in which the teacher can get the students to practice and develop speaking skill is through the use of group work It is so much a part our everyday teaching routine that it has been considered “one of the major changes to the dynamics of classroom interaction wrought by student-centered teaching.”

The definition of group work according to Doff (1998: 137) is that “the teacher divides the class into small groups to work together (usually four or five students in each group) and all the groups work at the same time.”

Clearly, group work is a co-operative activity, during which students share aims and responsibilities, moreover; they have chances 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 negotiate, to listen to different opinions and points of view They participate more confident and in most cases, they feel free to experiment and use the language

1.2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of group work

Using group work in teaching and learning languages has some advantages as follows:

To promote interaction among students themselves, teachers of large classes agree that a good first step is to create smaller groups Some students are reluctant to participate in a class of 50 will be ready to interact if the group size reduces to six or eight In spite of the fact that teacher has to invest much time and energy in preparing teaching materials, this technique is likely to bring a positive effect on teaching and learning process The strong evidence is that, if teacher‟s talk in traditional language classes is dominant and each student might get a few second of class period to talk, then in group work students have greater opportunities to talk, to practice in negotiation of meaning, to extend conversational exchanges, in general, to develop communicative competence which is the goal of CLT That is the reason why group work is selected among other techniques for increasing students‟ participation in communicative activities in large classes

Group work has some disadvantages Below are their common problems:

Brown (1994:106) foresawsome problems when group work is conducted, such as: the teacher is no longer in control of the class; students will use their mother tongue; students‟ errors will be reinforced in small group; teachers cannot monitor all groups at once; and some learners may prefer to work alone However, according to Brown, group work can be conducted successfully if an appropriate task is selected Typical group work tasks include: games, role-play and simulation, drama, project, interview brainstorming, information gap, jig saw, problems solving, decision making, and opinion exchange These activities will be more effective if teachers follow some guidelines on organizing group works, such as plan for each stage of group work When teacher is writing his syllabus for the course, he decides which topics, themes, or projects might lend themselves to formal group work He thinks about how he will organize students into groups, help groups negotiate among themselves, provide feedback to the groups, and evaluate the products of group work Carefully explain to his class how the groups will operate and how students will be graded As he would when making any assignment, explain the objectives of the group task and define any relevant concepts In addition to a well defined task, every group needs a way of getting started, a way of knowing when its task is done, and some guidance about the participation of members Also explain how students will be graded Keep in mind that group work is more successful when students are graded against a set standard than when they are graded against each other (on a curve)

1.2.3 Teacher’s role in carrying out group work

Teachers who have never before got the ideas of relinquishing any of their total control in class have to adopt new attitudes to the teaching and learning process in large class They should get acquaintance to giving the stage to learners, and letting student self- access and cooperative learning happen in language class

For this reason, apart from the traditional functions as the main source of knowledge and the only assessor of correctness and errors in students‟ work, the teacher plays such different roles in-group work as an organizer, a controller, an assessor, a prompter, and a participant (Harmer, 1991:124) (Cited in English Now-

The magazine of Vietnam‟s English Teacher and trainer net work (Issue 15- Winter 9- 2008)

Definitions of anxiety in Speaking English in classroom (SEC)

According to George Ostler, 1994, the litter Oxford Dictionary of Current English, “anxiety is troubled state of mind; worry” Additionally, Longman dictionary of Contemporary English defines anxiety as „the feeling of being very worried about something” (http:// www Ldoceonline.com/ dictionary/ anxiety) this definition is also quite broad Moreover, as defined by Oxford Dictionary, anxiety is

“a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain outcome” (http://oxforddictionarries.com/?attempted= true) The third one gives a specific and easy to understand definition of anxiety

1.3.2 Anxiety in second language (L2) and in SEC

At first, Citing Horwitz et al., ElKhafaifi (2005: 207) defined L2 anxiety as a „a distinct complex of self- perceptions, beliefs, feelings and behaviors related to classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process” What is more, Tanveer, M (2007:11) found the centre of L2 anxiety was anxiety (feelings of tension or nervousness) in speaking and listening That means studying on reducing students‟ anxiety in SEC is a great idea

Though there is no definition of anxiety in SEC found, though ones of L2 anxiety, anxiety in SEC can be understood as a felling of worry, nervousness, or unease in SEC.

Main factors causing students’ anxiety in SEC

According to Horwitz et al (1986: 128, cited by Tan veer, M (2007:11),

“communication apprehension is a type of shyness characterized by fear or anxiety about communicating with people‟, “test anxiety refers to a type of performance anxiety stemming from a fear of failure”, and fear of negative evaluation was defined as “apprehension about other‟ evaluations, avoidance of evaluative situations, and the expectation that others would evaluate oneself negatively.”

Furthermore, this great author gave more details about these definitions and relation between them as well Accordingly, firstly, troubles in speaking the language in pairs or in groups which were called oral communication anxiety and these in public which were called stage fright were considered manifestations of communication apprehension Secondly, there were quite a lot of clear details about test anxiety

However, because the present research does not study this type (due to having no test on SEC in DHHS high school), the researcher does not care much about it

Thirdly, fear of negative evaluation was explained clearly Howrwit et al stated:

“Although similar to test anxiety, fear of negative evaluation is broader in scope because it is not limited to test- taking situations, rather, it may occur in any social, evaluative situation such as interviewing for a job or speaking in foreign language class.” The current researcher find that this type is really real in situations of speaking the language in classroom.

Effects of anxiety on students of SEC

Certainly, anxiety has negative effect on speaking English As generally stated by Horwitz et al (1986), “There have been a number of studies in a number of instructional contexts with varying target languages which find a negative relationship between specific measures of language anxiety and language achievement” However, It was Hyesook Park and Adam R Lee (2004) who concluded “learners‟ anxiety level was negatively related to their oral performance”

Much more specifically, in learning speaking English, learners have a lot of problems such as pronouncing strange and difficult sounds and using body language Therefore, if they lack of confidence, or afraid of being wrong, or shy and anxious, they will not do it well To Vietnamese students, anxiety is really a big problem to learning speaking English In anxiety has badly negative effect on all learners‟ quality of speaking English in general and Vietnamese students‟ in particular To reach a certain target language, it is a must for teachers to reduce their learners‟ anxiety.

Teacher’s role to students’ anxiety in SEC

Kurihara, N (2006) revealed that “teacher attitudes in EFL classroom effect student attitudes in the classroom, and teachers play an important role to change students‟ attitudes and behavior to be more motivated”

Moreover, Tanveer M (2007:71) stated in his recommendation that if students were provided friendly, informal and learning- supportive environments, they would be active in speaking English and these environments could be done by teachers friendly, helpful and cooperative behavior, making students feel comfortable when speaking in the class Indeed, these are very meaningful conclusion and recommendation.

Teaching techniques to reduce students anxiety in SEC

One study which was conducted by Worde (2003) suggests many meaningful measures as following:

- create a low stress, friendly and supportive learning environment;

- foster a proactive role on the part of the students themselves to create an atmosphere of group solidarity and support;

- be sensitive to students‟ fears and insecurities and help them to confront those fears;

- use gentle or non-threatening methods of error correction and offer words of encouragement;

- make judicious use of purposeful group work or collaborative activities;

- use relevant and interesting topics for class discussions and exercises;

- consider ways to layer and reinforce the material in an attempt to aid acquisition and retention;

- give written directions for homework assignments;

- speak more slowly or consider using English to clarify key points or give specific directions;

- attend to the learning styles or preferences of the students

- hear and appreciate the voices of students for valuable insights, ideas and suggestions

As this is an action research project, the researcher selected just one intervention recommended in the literature to deal with the problem of students‟ speaking anxiety – the use of group work This intervention, the researcher believed, is more appropriate for two reasons First, the class which she was teaching was large Secondly, she hypothesized that the students may feel less stressful while speaking in groups if grouping strategies are appropriate The following section reviews the benefits of group work and some practical grouping strategies.

Group formation

According to Jung (2004: 5-7), frequently employed grouping methods include random, student - selected and teacher- selected groupings

Random grouping is often used for in-class activities because of its readiness and convenience Teachers usually group students by their seating arrangement or by serial numbers by the school Depending on the time, available and the types of activities instructors can also use games, competitions, or any other ways that produce groups and making grouping fun

Student- selected grouping is probably the most preferred option by learners

Students often cluster with good friends Students are more likely to participate in activities if they feel they are among friends rather than strangers especially when they have to use a language over which they have limited control When engaging in group work, learners feel more comfortable taking risks, making mistakes, and enjoying themselves while using the target language among friends

Teacher-formed grouping is acknowledged by most teachers as requiring the most amount of careful planning When forming groups teachers take into account students‟ prior achievements, level of preparation, work habits, learning preferences… and so forth Teacher- selected groups usually aim to achieve a heterogeneous mix Such a mix promotes peer tutoring, helps to break down barriers among different types of students, and encourages on- task behavior

Table 2.2 Procedures of group work

The teacher maps out the specific objectives of the lesson, the task used

The teacher introduces new concepts, language items and equips necessary vocabulary, structures to achieve the coming task

The teacher gives clear, details instructions for the task and models them, checks for clarification

The teacher arranges the students in groups, assigns roles to makes sure there is control and order

Process stage The students engage in the interaction cooperatively to achieve the task, the teacher monitors, strolls around the class and gives helps when necessary Reporting stage

Group representatives report their group product to the whole class

The teacher assigns a related task to reinforce learning and self- evaluates what have been done in the group work

Ending stage The teacher assesses the work of groups, corrects errors, makes amendments to future group work

2.3 Common oral activities for group work

Students work in small group, do tasks or discuss certain topics, then the teacher makes a change with group arrangement to give them chance to exchange their group ideas with members from (an)other group(s) Various rearrangements can be done:

* Three stay- One stray: after a discussion in 4- member groups, one member of each group moves another group to present their group ideas or decision on the issue given The mover is often the group‟s reporter

* Three stray- One stay: The teacher may count and label each group member a number, then those who get the same number will work one group and share his/ her group‟s agreement to the new group

* Pyramid grouping: Students work in small groups (of 2 or 3) on some tasks, then two or three groups are combined to make a new communicative setting

Put students in life- like situation, they will take roles to make conversations

It is necessary to model the conversation of the context, assigning roles to students and give the students time to prepare their roles before the conversation The teacher should consider the students‟ competence when assigning roles, easier tasks with more simple expressions for the weaker, the other roles requiring more creative and freer language use for more able students The teacher can support the less competent students by getting them to write down the questions, responses they will need

Information sharing is one of the most typical types of group work activities, it helps to promote individualization of students‟ learning and develop their skills of using the language and other social skills in cooperative tasks There are often 2 steps to follow in an IGA: Step 1 : Cognitive and comprehensive stage, students, receiving materials from the teacher, process the input knowledge and information provided in the materials;

Step 2 : Exchanging ideas and information, students work with follow partners, share the knowledge and information they have just perceived, try their best to make themselves comprehensible to the partners and they then have further discussion on them

According to Burne (1990: 58) (Cited in English Now- The magazine of Vietnam‟s English Teacher and trainer net work- Issue 11- Winter 2005) problem- solving has been used to group together a wide range of activities that require students to find “solutions” to problems of different kinds

Many of these problems involve processes that we commonly use in real life as follows: We frequently hypothesize links between two things (events, actions, people, etc) We detect differences (real or imaginary).We grade things according to criteria (subjective or objective) Clearly, problem solving is believed to be necessary and suited to students of all levels

The use of the picture cards inevitably involves the use of group work

Below are some among the activities that are useful for group work:

Kim’s Game: the students in groups look at the items on the table for about thirty second Next, the items are covered with a cloth and the groups have to describe and locate the items Then the group leaders report to the class what the group had discussed

What is my line: The students in groups have to ask questions of another member within a limited time span and discover his /her occupation

Twenty questions: One student is asked to write the name of an object or select a picture of an object and place it face downwards The others have to question this student and try to guess what the item is

To sum up, the above activities under the category of group are useful for developing speaking skills among students They can create out- of- expectation result in the speaking class

2.4 Problems and solutions in using class group work

Many problems associated with in- class group work can be prevented with careful preparation, specific instructions, and appropriate facilitation Below are some problems and solutions to them (Jacobs and Hall, 1994: 32, 2-13)

Table 2.4: Problems and solutions in using class group work

1, Students are resistant to group work

Common oral activities for group work