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ABSTRACTRecent developments in the field of Communicative LanguageTeaching have led to a renewed interest in the roles of teachers andstudents in teaching and learning languages. Since the 1970s, pairgroupwork started getting attention of educationists. There have been variousstudies analyzing advantages and disadvantages of using pairgroupwork in English teaching and learning. However, to the best of myknowledge, little has been studied about the use of pairgroup work toenhance students’ participation in speaking classes in the context ofVietnamese universities.This thesis aims to explore the effectiveness of implementation ofpairgroup work so as to increase the participation of the firstyearstudents in speaking classes at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI).The study used the mixed methods approach to document and betterunderstand how pairgroup work is currently organized and toinvestigate the students’ and teachers’ perceptions of effective steps toconduct pairgroup work to achieve increased engagement of the firstyear students in speaking lessons at this University.The results of the data analysis revealed that there was a difference inthe teachers and students’ perceived sequential steps of conductingpairgroup work in speaking lessons. The implication is that if teacherswant to increase students’ participation in speaking activities, thestudentpreferred procedure of pairgroup work should be followed.Further studies may focus on interaction process in group work,interaction between and among students during small group activities,and strategies to involve students with different learning styles inpairgroup work.viiACKNOWLEDGMENTSI would like to express my deepest gratitude to all those who have given me greatassistance in completion of my research work.First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my academic supervisor Dr.Dang Xuan Thu for his conscientious guidance, helpful suggestions, constructivefeedback and invaluable encouragement in the writing of this thesis. Without hisprofessional supervision, my study would not have been completed.I also wish to acknowledge my great gratitude to all of my lecturers at the Departmentof PostGraduate Studies, Hanoi University during my studies as well as theorganizers of this MA Course.I would like to sincerely thank 300 firstyear students at Hanoi University of Industry(HaUI) who participated in the study. My appreciation is also extended to mycolleagues at English Department of HaUI for their warm concern and assistance inthe process of collecting the data. Without their participation and support, this studycould not be conducted.Last but not least, my wholehearted appreciation goes to my beloved husband, Mr LeThanh Huy Hung and my family for their love, understanding, encouragement andsupport to help me complete this study. They are the power to help me overcome anydifficulties while this thesis was carried out.vii
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN HỒNG MAI ORGANIZING PAIR/GROUP WORK TO ENHANCE THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING CLASSES AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEGREE OF MASTER IN TESOL SUPERVISOR: Dr ĐẶNG XUÂN THU Hanoi August, 20 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS .i LISTS OF FINGURES v LISTS OF TABLES vi ABSTRACT vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Significance of the study 1.6 Thesis organization CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 The speaking skill 2.1.1 The importance of speaking skill in the classroom 2.1.2 Teaching and learning speaking in classroom 2.2 The pair/group work in a speaking lesson 2.2.1 The definitions of pair work and group work 2.2.2 The advantages and disadvantages of pair/group work in the classroom 10 i 2.2.3 The principles in organizing pair/group work in speaking class 12 2.3 The definition and roles of participation in pair/group work 19 2.3.1 The definition of participation in speaking class 19 2.3.2 Patterns of students’ participation in pair/group work 20 2.3.3 The factors affecting students’ participation in speaking class 21 2.4 The procedures for effective organization of pair/group work in speaking class 24 2.4.1 Giving useful input and clear instructions 24 2.4.2 Giving students time limits 26 2.4.3 Grouping students 26 2.4.4 Controlling the activities 26 2.4.5 Closing the activities 27 2.5 Summary of Chapter Two 27 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 28 3.1 Research method 28 3.2 Setting of the study 28 3.3 Participants 29 3.3.1 The students 29 3.3.2 The teachers 29 3.3.3 The text book 30 3.4 Data collection instruments 30 ii 3.4.1 The quantitative data: the questionnaires 31 3.4.2 The qualitative data: the semi-instructed interviews 32 3.5 The data analysis 33 3.5.1 Quantitative data analysis 33 3.5.2 Qualitative data analysis 33 3.6 Validity and reliability 33 3.6.1 Validity 33 3.6.2 Reliability 34 3.7 Ethical considerations 35 3.8 Summary of Chapter Three 36 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS 37 4.1 Sub- research question 37 4.2 The sub-research question 39 4.2.1 The advantages of pair/group work 39 4.2.2 The difficulties of pair/group work 40 4.3 Sub-research question 43 4.3.1 The preparation before doing pair/group work 43 4.3.2 Time limits 45 4.3.3 Grouping 45 4.3.4 Pair/group work wrap-up 48 iii 4.4 Sub-research question: How is pair/group work organized to enhance the first year students’ participation in speaking classes at HaUI? 49 4.5 Summary of Chapter Four 54 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 56 5.1 Major contributions of this study 56 5.2 Implications of the study 58 5.2.1 For university leadership 58 5.2.2 For teachers 58 5.2.3 For students 60 5.3 Limitations of the study 60 5.4 Recommendations for further studies 60 5.5 Conclusions 61 REFERENCES 62 APPENDICES 65 Appendix 1: Student’s questionnaire 65 Appendix : Teachers’ questionnaire 71 iv LISTS OF FINGURES Fingure 1: The advantages of pair/group work 39 Fingure 2: The preparation steps 43 Fingure 3: Ways of grouping 46 Fingure 4: Management of pair/group work 47 Fingure 5: The pair/group wrap-up 48 Fingure : The difference between students’ and teachers’ sequential steps 51 v LISTS OF TABLES Table 1: Students’ demographics Error! Bookmark not defined Table 2: Teachers’ demographics Error! Bookmark not defined Table 3: The teachers’ order Error! Bookmark not defined Table 4: The students’ order 50 vi ABSTRACT Recent developments in the field of Communicative Language Teaching have led to a renewed interest in the roles of teachers and students in teaching and learning languages Since the 1970s, pair/group work started getting attention of educationists There have been various studies analyzing advantages and disadvantages of using pair/group work in English teaching and learning However, to the best of my knowledge, little has been studied about the use of pair/group work to enhance students’ participation in speaking classes in the context of Vietnamese universities This thesis aims to explore the effectiveness of implementation of pair/group work so as to increase the participation of the first-year students in speaking classes at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI) The study used the mixed methods approach to document and better understand how pair/group work is currently organized and to investigate the students’ and teachers’ perceptions of effective steps to conduct pair/group work to achieve increased engagement of the firstyear students in speaking lessons at this University The results of the data analysis revealed that there was a difference in the teachers and students’ perceived sequential steps of conducting pair/group work in speaking lessons The implication is that if teachers want to increase students’ participation in speaking activities, the student-preferred procedure of pair/group work should be followed Further studies may focus on interaction process in group work, interaction between and among students during small group activities, and strategies to involve students with different learning styles in pair/group work vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all those who have given me great assistance in completion of my research work First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my academic supervisor Dr Dang Xuan Thu for his conscientious guidance, helpful suggestions, constructive feedback and invaluable encouragement in the writing of this thesis Without his professional supervision, my study would not have been completed I also wish to acknowledge my great gratitude to all of my lecturers at the Department of Post-Graduate Studies, Hanoi University during my studies as well as the organizers of this MA Course I would like to sincerely thank 300 first-year students at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI) who participated in the study My appreciation is also extended to my colleagues at English Department of HaUI for their warm concern and assistance in the process of collecting the data Without their participation and support, this study could not be conducted Last but not least, my wholehearted appreciation goes to my beloved husband, Mr Le Thanh Huy Hung and my family for their love, understanding, encouragement and support to help me complete this study They are the power to help me overcome any difficulties while this thesis was carried out viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study Language teaching came into its own as a profession in the last century The period from the 1950s to the 1980s has often been referred to as the age of methods during which a number of quite detail prescriptions for language teaching were proposed and each method has in turn fallen out of favor and has been replaced with new one Since the 1960s, there has been an increasing attempt in research on teaching and learning types and quantities of the relative amount of participation by the teacher and students Chaudron (1993) Pair and group work started getting attention of educationists in the 1970s with the main concern about increasing teacher’s talking time in language classrooms During the 1980s and 1990s, according to Nunan and Lamb (1996), the development of Communicative Language Teaching brought an important change in the role of student Working together is worthwhile as “ pair and small group work immediately increase the amount of students taking time” as cited in Harmer (2007) The researcher are convinced that the students who take the initiative in learning can learn more things and learn better than those who sit at the feet of teacher passively waiting to be taught Researcher reported that it is a source of intrinsic motivation for students as working in pair/groups is fun for them It also provides the students with opportunity to communicate with each other to share suggestions, feedback about successes and failure Researcher also claims that a teacher’s dominance in class makes it dull and it kills the students’ interest Moreover, the use of pair and small group work activities that promote interaction among learners is justified both on pedagogical and theoretical grounds Pedagogical speaking, pair and small group work can promote a positive affective climate wherein students feel less anxious and more confident, improve the quantity and quality of learner talk and promote learner autonomy and self- directed learning In addition, having learners work with each other allows a teacher to assign different tasks to different groups or pairs in order to manage a mixed proficiency class ... at exploring effective implementation of pair work and group work in order to enhance the participation of the first year students in speaking classes at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI) The. .. pair/group work so as to increase the participation of the first- year students in speaking classes at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI) The study used the mixed methods approach to document... principles in organizing pair/group work in speaking class 12 2.3 The definition and roles of participation in pair/group work 19 2.3.1 The definition of participation in speaking class