INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale
Aims of the study
investigating the current situation of teaching and learning speaking skill for the 12 th form non - specialized English students at BNSHS
evaluating the use of cooperative activities in speaking lessons
offering some suggestions on using cooperative activities in speaking lessons to promote students‟ speaking ability
Research question
For the purpose of investigating the current situation of using cooperative activities in speaking lessons, the researcher set up the following research question to guide her in doing this research:
“To what extent do the teachers at Bac Ninh Specialized High School exploit cooperative activities in speaking lessons for the 12 th form non - specialized English students? ”
Methods of the study
To conduct the study, quantitative and qualitative methods will be used The data collected will come from two sources: the 12 th form non - specialized English students and teachers of English at Bac Ninh Specialized High School Questionnaires and classroom observation will be used to collect information and evidence for the study All the comments, recommendations and conclusions provided in the study will be based on the data analysis.
Scope of the study
This study limits itself to the application of cooperative learning for the 12 th form non
- specialized English students‟ speaking skill It is concerned with the context at Bac Ninh Specialized High School.
Design of the study
This study includes three main parts: the introduction, the development and the conclusion
The first part, “Introduction”, provides the basic information such as rationale, aims, research question, methods, scope and design of the study
The second part, “Development”, consists of the four chapters:
Chapter one , Literature review , deals with theoretical background about communicative language teaching, speaking skill and cooperative learning
Chapter two , The study , is an overview of the reality of teaching and learning speaking skill for the 12 th form non - specialized English students at Bac Ninh Specialized High School In this part, the school, the subjects and instruments used in the research will be discussed
Chapter three , Data analysis and discussion, deals with analyzing the data
Chapter four , Recommendations , focuses on some suggestions on using cooperative activities in speaking lessons
The last part, “Conclusion”, presents the summary of the major findings; points out some shortcomings revealed during the process of completing this research paper and suggests further studies.
DEVELOPMENT
To begin with the study, in this chapter, the researcher will present some theoretical background based on which the study will be carried out The first section overviews the teaching and learning of the speaking skill Then cooperative learning and its activities are discussed in the second section
1.1 The teaching and learning of the speaking skill
A glance through the past century or so of language teaching will give an interesting picture of how varied approaches and methods applied in language teaching are David Nunan (1991b: 228, cited in Bang, N & Ngoc, N.B) remarks “It has been realized that there never was and probably never will be a method for all” As a matter of fact, there is no perfectly good language teaching method for all, instead we need to get on well with the approach to language teaching we have chosen and design effective tasks and techniques informed by that approach New methods have appeared, developed and replaced the previous ones for the only purpose: to find out the best way to teach a foreign language
In recent years, there has been a preference for learning foreign languages in general and English in particular as a means of communication Thus, Communicative Language Teaching becomes the most preferable method The following part will concern with the communicative approach and its implication for teaching and learning the speaking skill
Being founded in the early 1960s “CLT” has recently become a fashionable term to cover a variety of developments in syllabus design and to a lesser extent, in the methodology
LITERATURE REVIEW
The teaching and learning of the speaking skill
A glance through the past century or so of language teaching will give an interesting picture of how varied approaches and methods applied in language teaching are David Nunan (1991b: 228, cited in Bang, N & Ngoc, N.B) remarks “It has been realized that there never was and probably never will be a method for all” As a matter of fact, there is no perfectly good language teaching method for all, instead we need to get on well with the approach to language teaching we have chosen and design effective tasks and techniques informed by that approach New methods have appeared, developed and replaced the previous ones for the only purpose: to find out the best way to teach a foreign language
In recent years, there has been a preference for learning foreign languages in general and English in particular as a means of communication Thus, Communicative Language Teaching becomes the most preferable method The following part will concern with the communicative approach and its implication for teaching and learning the speaking skill
Being founded in the early 1960s “CLT” has recently become a fashionable term to cover a variety of developments in syllabus design and to a lesser extent, in the methodology of teaching a foreign language, especially English CLT is emphasized as an appropriate approach to language teaching for the 21 st century
For many years, language teaching was seen as helping learners develop linguistic competence – that is, helping students master the sounds, words and grammar patterns of English The idea was that by studying the bits and pieces of a language, students could eventually put them all together and communicate
In the mid - 1970s the notion of linguistic competence came to be viewed as a component of the broader idea of communicative competence According to Canale and Swain
(1980), the second language learners cannot be expected to achieve a satisfactory level of communicative competence if no knowledge of probability of occurrence of grammatical forms and communicative function is developed Their view of communicative competence consists of four areas of knowledge and skills
Grammatical competence: Ability to use correct grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation
Sociolinguistic competence: Ability to use appropriate language in different contexts and settings
Discourse competence: Ability to combine language elements to show cohesion in form and coherence in thought
Strategic competence: Ability to use verbal and non-verbal communication strategies
It is concluded that using language well is not simply a question of its grammar but its overall appropriateness and acceptability CLT is the approach which recognizes communicative competence as its aim These four components of communicative competence have several practical implications for EFL teachers Since communicative competence is a multifaceted construct, it is important for teachers to understand the difficulties learners face when they are speaking English
According to Littlewood (1981:1), one of the most characteristic features of CLT is that it plays systematic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language
Furthermore, David Nunan (1991a: 279, cited in Bang, N & Ngoc, N.B) offers five features to characterize CLT:
An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language
The introduction of authentic texts into learning situation
The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also on the learning process itself
An enhancement of the learner‟s own experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning
An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activation outside the classroom
CLT is a teaching methodology that emphasizes fluency over accuracy This approach stresses the use of language and the ability to communicate Meaning is what is communicated; therefore, CLT is tailored to get at meaning Learners are given opportunities to negotiate meaning in class Richards and Rogers (2001:158) emphasize that one dimension of CLT is “ its learner-centered and experience- based view of second language teaching”
Far from being a „transmitter‟ of knowledge, the teacher is a „facilitator‟ Characterized by high participation, the CLT classroom becomes a place for students to engage in meaningful language use
In the light of the CLT approach which takes the learners‟ communicative competence as the final goal, a T.E.F.L class is considered to be successful if the learners speak English as much as they can and the teacher speaks it as little as possible Larsen-Freeman (1986:132) states that “activities in the Communicative Approach are often carried out by students in small groups” CLT favours interaction among small numbers of students in order to maximize the time allotted to each student for learning to negotiate meaning
Clearly, cooperative learning is stressed in CLT In the book “A Course in TEFL”, Nguyen Bang and Nguyen Ba Ngoc list cooperative learning as one feature that CLT bears A classroom that is cooperative and therefore not competitive – usually involves the above learner-centered characteristics As students work together in pairs and groups, they share information and come to each other‟s aid They are a “team” whose players must work together in order to achieve goals successfully
These characteristics will be the principles for teachers to choose appropriate techniques as well as activities in class to improve the students‟ communicative competence
All learning activities should be selected according to how well they engage the students in meaningful and authentic language use rather than only mechanical practice of language patterns to achieve accuracy in language forms
1.1.2 The role of speaking in foreign language teaching
It is known that language has been divided into different skill areas based on the purpose of analysis and instruction In view of language teaching there are mainly four macro- skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing It has been accepted for many years that communication is the proper aim for language teaching That means we learn a language so as to communicate well in that language
For that reason, speaking skill plays an important role in foreign language teaching because effective speaking ability helps learners not only to acquire the language better but also to communicate successfully
According to Ur (1996:120), speaking seems intuitively the most important of all four skills Speaking is regarded as the first step to confirm who knows or does not know a language Ur (1996) indicates that people who know a language are referred to as “speakers” of that language, as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing; and many if not most foreign language learners are primarily interested in learning to speak
Hence, having dealt with the importance of oral skills in language teaching and learning it is essential that language teachers should pay much attention to teaching speaking skill In fact, the current teaching and learning of the speaking skill at Vietnam‟s upper secondary schools has been taken into consideration since the new textbooks were introduced
Lessons are arranged according to topics which are true to life and familiar with students Like other skills, teaching procedure of the speaking skill is divided into three stages (pre-speaking, while-speaking and post-speaking) This refers to the domination of communicative approach and characterized features of the new textbooks
Cooperative learning and its activities
So far, many definitions of cooperative learning have been stated by different researchers
Johnson, Johnson and Holubec, leaders of cooperative learning since 1970s, offer the following definition: “Cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each other's learning” (1993:9)
Olsen and Kagan (1992: 8) define cooperative learning as “group learning activity organized so that learning is dependent on the socially structured exchange of information between learners in groups and in which each learner is held accountable for his or her own learning and is motivated to increase the learning of others”
According to Richards & Rodgers (2001: 192), Cooperative learning is “an approach to teaching that makes maximum use of cooperative activities involving pairs and small groups of learners in the classroom”
In second language teaching, cooperative learning has been embraced as a way of promoting communicative interaction in the classroom and is seen as an extension of the principles of CLT It is viewed as a learner - centered approach to teaching held to offer advantages over teacher - fronted classroom methods
The word “cooperative” in Cooperative Learning emphasizes: it seeks to develop classrooms that foster cooperation rather than competition in learning In other words, within cooperative learning, students benefit from sharing ideas rather than working alone and they help one another to achieve the learning goals as a group This is in contrast with the traditional method where students work individually or competitively and are generally concerned with improving their own grade or reaching their own goals only
To sum up, cooperative learning is a pedagogical technique in which students work together in small and mixed groups on a structured learning task with the aim of maximizing their own and each other's learning This learning strategy has been applied to a wide variety of content areas at all levels so it becomes one of the most widespread and fruitful areas of theory, research, and practice in education
1.2.2 Essential components of cooperative learning and activities
Cooperative learning is distinguished from whole class instruction, individualized instruction and traditional forms of group work According to Johnson and Johnson (1999a) the key elements that must be present in order for a small group learning activity to be cooperative include:
Positive Interdependence Positive interdependence is defined as having specific roles for each participant that are necessary for the group to work toward the goal(s) set by the teacher, i.e., each student have a particular role within the group No single student is fully capable of performing all the tasks required by a particular assignment or project (Ransdell , 2003: 5)
Ghaith (2002: 7) states that positive interdependence is a feeling among group members that if one fails, all fail, if one succeeds, everybody succeeds Group members realize that each member‟s efforts benefit not only himself-herself, but all other group members as well Positive interdependence provides a feeling of support within the group
Face-to-face Promotive Interaction
It occurs when individuals encourage and facilitate each group member‟s efforts to achieve group goals In this element students do real work together, share resources and provide each other with help, support and praise Ghaith (2002: 9) notes that face-to-face interaction is based on the idea that groups succeed only when members engage in dialogue with each other to explain, debate, encourage, and question one another By this interaction, they promote each other‟s success
Individual Accountability Ghaith (2002: 7) indicates that individual accountability exists when each individual member feels responsible to learn, to demonstrate their learning, and to contribute to the learning of teammates The purpose of cooperative learning is to make each member a stronger individual in their own right The success of the group is not measured by a particular group product, but by the individual progress of each group member To ensure that the performance of each student has to be evaluated, feedback is given both to the individual and to the group in order to ascertain who needs more assistance, support and encouragement in learning The group must be accountable for achieving its goals and each member must be accountable for contributing his share of the work
Social skills That element involves appropriate use of small-group and interpersonal skills
Instructors should not assume that every student has the necessary social skills to work effectively with other group members They should teach their students leadership, trust- building, decision-making, communication and problem-solving skills just as thoroughly as they would teach academic skills
Ghaith (2002: 7) views that collaborative skills receive emphasis because to work successfully with others, students need to develop collaborative skills such as asking for help, making suggestions and disagreeing politely Social skills involve efforts to encourage all group members to participate to a roughly equal degree Means of doing this include providing each member with a turn to speak or to add particular information that they need to contribute to the group
It is a vital aspect of cooperative learning Ghaith (2002: 8) asserts that group processing allows team members to address how well the group is functioning and to maintain the effectiveness of the group Group processing takes place when students analyze and discuss how well their group is working together and how their group might function better in the future Thus, group processing increases learning dramatically and builds a sense of responsibility as well as helps groups work more effectively
In short, when these components are incorporated into small groups work, the activities become cooperative ones and can make a difference in the student‟s academic and social skills development
1.2.3 Cooperative learning techniques and activities in a speaking lesson
As mentioned above, cooperation is working together to accomplish shared goals
Within cooperative activities individuals seek outcomes that are beneficial to themselves and to all other group members Class members are organized into small groups after receiving instructions from the teacher Then they work through the assignment until all group members successfully understand and complete it Hence, in order to implement cooperative learning, the teacher must decide whether cooperative activities will help meet the goals of the class
And he must also decide which type of cooperative activity to use according to his own students and teaching context so as to give all students the best chance of learning to speak English.
THE STUDY
Research methods
This section deals with the methodology which was employed to achieve the aims of the study
In order to get the data for the study, 100 non-specialized English students in the 12 th grade were randomly selected from seven classes (158) to answer the questionnaire All of them are at the age of 18, so they belong to the same psychological age group Their time length of learning English is also the same: they all started learning English at grade 6
The study was also carried out with 5 teachers of English teaching grade 12 at BNSHS
Data for the study were collected from two different instruments: questionnaire and classroom observation
There were two types of survey questionnaires: one for the teachers and the other for the students Each questionnaire contains 12 questions to investigate the following issues:
Teachers‟ attitude towards the speaking skill
Teachers‟ exploitation of cooperative activities in teaching speaking skill
Teachers‟ difficulties in using cooperative activities
Teachers‟ ideas about the benefits of cooperative activities
Teachers‟ attitude towards the use of cooperative activities
Students‟ attitude towards the speaking skill
Students‟ opinions about teachers‟ techniques used for teaching speaking skill
Students‟ participation in pair work and group work
Students‟ ideas about the benefits of cooperative activities
Students‟ attitude towards the use of cooperative activities Class observation was carried out later to reaffirm the information collected from these questionnaires and add some more useful and realistic information for this study: how the teachers conducted their lessons, what atmosphere there was in the class, what students‟ attitudes were like and what interactions students had during the lessons
The researcher conducted her study from the first semester of the school year 2009-
With the teachers‟ permission, copies of the questionnaire were handed out to the students Five copies were given to the teachers as well
In order to get more in-depth information about the teaching and learning of the speaking skill at BNSHS, three classes of grade 12 were observed
The comments and perceptions made by the teachers and the students in response to the questionnaires were sorted and categorized by the researcher The results were subsequently tabulated and converted to percentages for the convenience of analysis Besides, information gained through classroom observations helped to assist this analysis.
DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Analysis of the researcher’s class observation
Number of pupils Level Time of learning English Time observed Class 1 25 12 th At least 6 years 21 -10 - 2009 (U5) Class 2 24 12 th At least 6 years 5 -11 - 2009 (U6) Class 3 20 12 th At least 6 years 27 -11 - 2009 (U7)
Table 3: Description of classes observed
The three observed classes are 12 Chemistry, 12 Physics, and 12 History They are both male and female at the age of 18 The speaking lessons the author observed are Unit 5 (p55), Unit 6 (p66) and Unit 7 (p78) Each speaking lesson consists of three tasks The observation was carried out once for 45 minutes in each class The author observed to see whether or not the teachers conducted cooperative activities and how the students reacted to these activities
* Teachers‟ presentation During the class observations, the observer sees that all the observed teachers have showed their interest in teaching English speaking skill, which is very important and necessary Their good point is that all of them organize pair work and group work in speaking lessons
As an observer I found that the teachers here followed all the steps needed when implementing pair work in class At first, the teacher gave clear instructions and that made students understand what they had to do with the exercise And the teachers asked students to work in pairs Then, after forming pairs, the students worked together The teacher went round and offered some help only when it was necessary At last, the teacher requested some pairs to speak loudly for all class to hear The other students in the class were asked to listen and give comments The teacher corrected not only the mistakes in using grammar structures, but the mistakes in pronunciation and the tone as well
For group work, the same steps were carried out In the end, the representatives of some groups stood up and reported their work for the others in the class to comment and correct the mistakes Both the teacher and the whole class were involved in evaluating the work
In the classes I observed, not all students got involved in and concentrated on the activities Weaker students found pair and group work time convenient to talk and use Vietnamese while a few stronger students did the activities The reason was that they were the students from non-specialized English classes so their level of proficiency was rather low
Some found it difficult to express their ideas and they only answered “yes” or “no” or even kept silent with smile when asked
Besides, some of them still had a passive learning style, which remarkably affected the success of pair work and group work What these students attempted to do was to attend classes, listen to the teachers‟ explanation, finish the assignments and pass the final examinations The concept of learner autonomy or learner independence seems to be very new to them Therefore, they may obtain good written exam results, but fail to communicate effectively in English in their real life
These observations helped the researcher find out how teachers employed cooperative activities in real language classrooms and realize what they should do to make those activities done more effectively.
Findings
The results from the survey questionnaires show that the majority of teachers are well aware of the importance of speaking skill as means of communication and exchanging information with the outside world For the students, it is necessary for them to improve their speaking skill in order to be able to speak English well
Moreover, both the teachers and the students are also well aware of the great benefits of cooperative activities to the teaching and learning of the speaking skill As far as cooperative learning is concerned, cooperative activities taking place inside class can be seen through organizing pair work and group work
As regards the current situation of teaching and learning English through pair and group work in the speaking class of the 12 th form non - specialized English students, it can be concluded that the frequency of use of pair and group work is very often At my school, the class size is not too large; therefore, it does not take long to organize pair / group work
Looking deeper into this matter via classroom observation, the researcher has come to realize that cooperative activities work in real classes at BNSHS but these activities are not exploited to the full
While cooperative activities are organized, the teacher should carry out many actions
Here, the researcher sees that group membership was determined But the roles for each were not assigned so responsibilities in a particular role were not explained Besides, group behaviors were monitored Feedback and assistance were given The cooperative learning task was assessed but few explicit instructions in social skills were given to students Especially, students did not make self, peer or group assessment
All the students showed a positive attitude towards group work and pair work
However, not all students were aware of their responsibility in the speaking process They did not understand that one way to improve speaking is practising with others, interacting with others and learning from others Thus, they did not get involved in pair work and group work
Some individuals were competitive and did not interact equally with all group mates
Whereas, some were shy when they needed to communicate something orally and they felt uncomfortable asking for clarification of concepts or vocabulary There was still a case of a group of friends where only one person or two had the responsibility of working and giving all the answers
To solve these problems, the teacher can create groups that are equitable so that all students participate as possible as they can and hold everyone responsible for working with a task or a level of performance In addition, if the teacher wants his/her students to work together cooperatively, he/she must plan to divide groups, prepare suitable tasks carefully, and teach students the new norms of successful group work, for example, asking students to help one another and to give everyone a chance to talk Actually, all problems mentioned above may not arise if teachers carefully plan, prepare, monitor, and facilitate the activities for maximum group effectiveness
In a word, it seems that cooperative activities are warmly welcome and heartedly desirable by all students Thus, in an attempt to provide teachers with some sort of useful and practical information ready for use, the researcher will present some suggestions on using cooperative activities in speaking teaching in the following chapter.
RECOMMENDATIONS
It has to be kept in mind that people do not communicate by just composing sentences, but by using sentences to make statements of different kinds: to record, to describe, to classify, to give and ask for information, to ask questions, to make requests, etc Therefore, students acquire the language by using it They are able to communicate in English if they are given the opportunity to practise what they have learned
For that reason, the more interactions among students, the better the language learning achieved by students Cooperative learning is widely accepted as one way in which teachers can promote this interaction to benefit all students and engage them in the learning process
Cooperation means more than putting students in groups It means group participation in project in which the outcome results from common effort, the goal is shared and each person‟s success is linked with every other person‟s success In practice, this means that ideas and materials are shared, labor is divided, and everyone in the group is rewarded for the successful completion of the task
In traditional classrooms, teachers often talk most of the time and only a few of the brightest students have the opportunity to participate, usually by responding to the teacher In cooperative activities, everyone talks sometimes to peers in small groups, sometimes to the whole class to report a group's findings It is through interacting with each other that students learn to give and receive information, develop new understandings and perspectives as well as communicate in a socially acceptable manner
Based on the results gathered, we all see that cooperative activities are very effective for teaching speaking skill These allow students to actively take part in the activities to generate their own ideas Hence, the researcher finds that the preparation of cooperative activities and the way to conduct them play important roles in bringing students effectiveness in cooperative activities
As presented before, activities involving pair work and group work become cooperative ones if having:
- Face-to-face promotive interaction
- Group processing Clearly, the teacher should bear in mind the principles of Cooperative learning method and be flexible to apply them in particular teaching and learning contexts Therefore, here are some main points which are well worth the teachers‟ consideration when they conduct cooperative activities in their class
Groups are the core of cooperative activities Even a pair is a group The success of cooperative activities is often determined by how the teacher does before the students begin the activity itself Thus, the teacher must decide in advance how to arrange the seats so that the activity can be carried out effectively
In pair work, it is common to get students to work with the person sitting directly in front of or behind or next to them in class Otherwise, the students should be encouraged to move the seats to change their partners
In group work, it is better if students can move their chairs or desks to form a circle (of chairs) or square (of desks) or U shape In fact, the arrangement of the furniture is fixed so teachers often find it difficult to do like this However, grouping students need not mean rearranging all the furniture in the room It can mean students work in threes sitting alongside one another on a bench, or even turning around and making groups of four with the row behind
To facilitate cooperative activities, it is necessary to remember that group members should be arranged close to and facing others so that every member can see the materials well and easily exchange their ideas Though the teacher can group students in any arrangement that is best suit students in his class, it is a good idea not to have the same students working together for all activities
Indeed, group formation is an important factor in creating positive interdependence (Olsen and Kagan, 1992)
First, deciding on the size of the groups is necessary This will depend on the tasks the teacher has to carry out, the age of the learners and the time limits for the lesson In some ways, two is an ideal size because of greater participation Also, smaller groups are easier to coordinate owing to the interaction of fewer people For drill and practice type activities where the number of student‟s responses is important, the teacher can choose a small group size
However, larger groups offer the possibility of differing opinions and perspectives in relation to experience Then for more complex tasks such as discussion or problem solving activities, there should be more group members
Next, assigning students to groups is included Groups can be teacher-selected, random or student-selected Nonetheless, teacher-selected is recommended as the usual mode so as to create groups that are heterogeneous on such variables as ability, sex or background This provides opportunities for students to learn from individual differences as well as promotes the sharing of ideas, integration and cooperation
Lastly, each group member should be assigned a role in a group such as time keeper, noise monitor, turn-taker monitor, recorder, summarizer or speaker These roles specify responsibilities that the group needs in order to complete the joint task
Once the teacher has decided on the cooperative activity, it is significant to have all of the students in class understand their tasks When students are asked to do their tasks without receiving clear step-by-step instructions, they will feel bored and not be involved in the learning activities So the teacher must explain to the group members why they will work in groups and what they will have to do At times, the teacher should also model the tasks and check students‟ understanding before putting them in groups and asking them to work together