MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING ministry of education and training hanoi universtiy TRAN THI KIEN APPLYING COOPERATIVE LEARNING IN ORGANIZING GROUPS TO INCREASE STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING[.]
Background to the study
In the process of globalization and economic integration, English language has an immense influence on many fields of life Therefore, in order to approach the modern world in a way with fewer obstacles, learning English is necessary In Viet Nam, especially after the accession into WTO, there have been many social and economic changes thanks to the cooperation with many countries Obviously, English has become more and more important in our life High command of foreign languages helps students so much in finding good jobs For students studying foreign languages, the ability to communicate fluently and effectively in the target language has been of great importance However, the sad fact is that only a small proportion of students can perform communication in foreign language well after finishing college The majority of them still remain embarrassed when they have a conversation in a foreign language
In order to increase students’ communicative competence, student- student interaction is emphasized in teaching and learning English and one of the most useful ways to get this goal is to create group learning environment which provides so many opportunities for students to communicate and encourage students’ oral practice And one of the teaching strategies that reflects the principle of student – centeredness is group work, which is designed by Nunan and Lamp (1996: 142) as any classroom activity in which students perform collaborative tasks with one or more partners It has been considered one of the major changes to the dynamics of classroom interaction wrought by student-centered teaching Group work can greatly increase the amount of active speaking and listening undertaken by all the students in the language class
Group work has especially received more and more emphasis in language classrooms and group work activities are used in many aspects of the second language instructions, particularly in encouraging students’ oral practice Working in groups, students are not passively sitting and listening to the teachers, but joining actively in the learning process In other words, group work enhances the gradual shift from teacher-centered classroom to student-centered classroom However, it is not always true that whenever students are asked to work in groups, the cooperation will occur Generally, there are problems such as some of the group members dominate the group and, for whatever reason, impede the participation on others For this reason, how to organize group work successfully in the classrooms is a question of great concern for many language teachers and language researchers.
The College of Trade (COT) was established in 1979 with the aim to prepare employees for the Ministry of Trade Every year approximately a thousand of students (both school leavers and officers) enter the college However, the Faculty of Information Technology and Foreign Languages was newly founded which has about 150 students annually The English course for students of this Faculty lasts for three years And the main course books for teaching speaking skills are Mosaic series by Jamie and Elizabeth (2007), and Interactions series by Judith Tanka and Lia Baker (2005) In the first year, students have to complete two course books including Mosaic 1 and Interactions 1 at pre-intermediate level. The second year continues with 60 periods working on Interactions 2 and Mosaic 2 (Intermediate level) In the first semester, Interactions 2 is taught and Mosaic 2 is used in the second semester In the last year, Mosaic 3 and Interactions 3 (upper- intermediate level) are chosen as the course books for the third year students Focusing on 2 nd year speaking program, the Interactions 2 consists of ten units taught in the first semester with
30 periods during 15 weeks Many interesting topics of the real life such as education, student life, professions, global connection, language and communication and ceremonies are presented there Most of the activities are designed in communicative task with its aim to develop and improve students’ English speaking ability With supportive course book for communicative development, teachers of English at COT do not have to spend to much time designing communicative exercises when teaching speaking The teachers have only tried to apply appropriate approach in their teaching process so as to improve students’ speaking ability Moreover, many of the teachers have had opportunities to take part in workshops and training courses on Communicative language teaching in general and cooperative learning in particular It can be seen that the above conditions considerably support the application of cooperative learning at COT However, the results of English teaching speaking at COT are not good as expected In fact, all the teachers complain that even though they have tried to encourage students to participate in speaking activities, most of them are reluctant to speak out The researcher herself also failed to organize students to work effectively in groups The results of the semester tests reveal evidence of students’ poor speaking ability and performance In the last term of Faculty’s meeting, all the teachers discussed the problem and came to conclusion that those bad results were due to the fact that students at College of Trade have mixed levels of speaking abilities, and they have little chance to use the language Many of them are shy to speak out during the speaking activities, and thus, the better ones speak a lot while the weaker say little or nothing at all In search of a better strategy of structuring group work to enhance students’ speaking ability, especially increase their involvement in speaking activities, the researcher happened to read some books and articles about cooperative learning and the implementation of its principles in structuring groups to improve students’ participation in class The researcher has found that simply putting students in groups does not mean cooperation will occur, and that how teachers organize group work affects students’ participation level in group activities Cooperative learning undeniably is the most flexible and powerful grouping strategies as it attaches learners t o work together to accomplish a shared goal, so students are motivated to work together for mutual benefit in order to meet their own learning and each other’s learning as well.
With an interest in CL and a hope to apply it under the form of organizing group work to enhance the students’ participation level in speaking classes, a deeper review of literature has been made by the researcher The above review of many research works on CL and its effectiveness in improving students’ learning in general and speaking skills in particular has given the researcher good reasons to take CL into implementation The success of CL programmes by many teachers in the world and in Viet Nam has also encouraged the researcher to carry out such a programme in an English class at COT Moreover, though a lot of CL implementing programmes have been carried out, few have been particularly done for an increase in students’ participation in speaking activities.
For all these reasons, the researcher would really like to do a research project on “Applying cooperative learning in organizing groups to increase students’ participation in speaking lessons for second- year English majors at College of Trade.”
Aims of the study
This study aims at applying cooperative learning to enhance the participation level in speaking lessons for second year English majors at College of Trade In order to achieve this aim, the specific objectives of the study are to:
Investigate the current application of CL in teaching and learning speaking skills for second year students at COT.
Examine the improvement of cooperative learning organization in enhancing students’ participation level in speaking lessons.
Research questions
In order to achieve the above-mentioned aims, the study focuses on answering the following research questions:
1 How do the teachers at COT apply cooperative learning in teaching speaking lessons?
2 To what extent does the improvement of cooperative learning organization increase students’ participation level in speaking lessons?
Scope of the study
Within the scope of an individual teacher research, the researcher has no ambition to cover all aspects of CL and all the students as well The study only deals with the current application of CL in teaching and learning speaking skills of the second year English major students and focused on the effectiveness of CL in improving the students’ participation level in speaking lessons The subjects are 24 second year college students in class A3 The activities are selected and designed from the main course book Interactions 2 by Judith Tanka and Lia Baker (2005) The data collection and analysis are based on classroom observations and student questionnaires As this is an individual teacher research, the researcher is responsible for all the data collection and analysis She also got assistance from her colleagues at the Faculty
1.5 The significance of the study
Practically, the findings of this research will be useful for all people concerned including the researcher, and other teachers at COT with the hope that better organization of CL can help to increase students’ participation level in speaking classes
Theoretically, the research will provide teachers at COT with understanding of the uptake of CL The author also believes teachers’ perceptions of the advantages of a CL innovation in determining the ultimate success at COT.
The study consists of five main chapters, a list of references and appendices
Chapter1, Introduction, provides the background and reasons for the study, in this chapter, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the significance, and the overview of the thesis are presented.
Chapter2, Literature review, consists of four sections; section1 presents the definition of
CL, its basic elements Section 2 mentions cooperative language learning, benefits of cooperative language learning, design of cooperative language learning, and steps for setting up cooperative learning activities Section 3 discusses Speaking skill The last part reviews previous research related to CL.
Chapter 3, Methodology, provides the readers with the definitions of the action research.
It also aims to present the detailed description of the subjects and the data collection instruments and procedures of the study.
Chapter 4, Results and discussion, is divided into three sections as follows: Initial data, the action plan and the discussion of the research questions.
Chapter 5, Recommendations and conclusion, summarizes the major findings of the study and provides recommendations for a better organization of cooperative learning activities.
It presents conclusion and some limitations of the thesis before giving some suggestions for further study
This chapter reviews the theoretical framework for the study The literature review focuses on the following aspects: (1) Cooperative learning, (2) Cooperative language learning, (3) Speaking skill, (4) Previous studies related to CL application.
Over the past twenty years, different approaches to cooperative learning have been developed by different individuals Therefore, cooperative learning takes various forms and definitions Following are some of the definitions by the most famous scholars:
Kargan (1994) proposes a definition on CL as “group learning activity organized so that learning is dependent on socially structured exchange of information between learners in group and in which each learner is held accountable for his or her own learning and is motivated to increase learning of others.” Jacobs (1997) generalizes ideas emerged now and then in a definition that captures the spirit of CL According to him, CL is a body of concepts and techniques for helping to maximize the benefits of cooperation among students in education In other words, CL provides language teachers with essential concepts of heterogeneous classes, learner cooperation and mutual help in learning; and it equips teachers with effective instructional techniques to exploit cooperation in language learning classes.
In his recent definition, Johnson (2001) defines CL as a general term for an instructional approach that “emphasizes the conceptual learning and the development of social skills as learners work together in small heterogeneous groups.” The idea of CL is described in a very simple way like this: class members are organized in small groups after receiving instructions from the teacher; they then work through the assignment until all the group members successfully understand and complete it All their cooperative efforts help to strive for mutual benefit so that all group members gain from each other’s efforts,recognizing that they all share a common fate…No group member possesses all the information, skills or resources needed for the highest possible quality result
Although stated variously, definitions of CL basically fall into three major points: Firstly,
CL is said to be a strategy where students work together in small learning group, help each other to accomplish individual and group tasks CL encourages responsibility among group mates as each member is not only in charge of his own learning but also of other teammates’ learning Secondly, CL is recognized as a method of instruction that promotes the learner’s development of high-order levels of thinking, essential communication skills, improves motivation, positive self-esteem, social awareness, and tolerance for individual differences in group activities This characteristic differentiates CL from its ancestor named Group work Group work has students work in groups to do tasks There may exist uneven participation of group members as one or two better students may dominate the work while CL strains interdependence and individual accountability among learners in group, which helps to stick students to the mutual work Lastly, the CL process also helps to build students’ understanding of a few concepts maintaining Content-based tasks designed in the light of CL give learners, especially the lower level ones, opportunities to raise the voice confidently with their reservoir of world knowledge
In general, we can simply understand that cooperative learning is referred to as any variety of teaching methods in which students work in small groups to help one another learn academic content As there have been different views on CL, various principles have been put forward in the CL literature Eight guiding CL principles a long with how they can inform teaching practice will be discussed in the next section.
2.1.2 Basic elements of cooperative learning a) Heterogeneous grouping
CL groups in which students do CL tasks are the mixed clusters of students with one or some variables including sex, religion, ethnicity, personality, age, social class, language proficiency and diligence Heterogeneous grouping is believed to have a number of benefits in comparison with homogeneous grouping, such as making peer-tutoring more likely happen, providing a variety of perspectives or helping students get to know and learn tolerance to others’ differences
In order to achieve heterogeneous groups for speaking activities, teachers may want to look at their class and make conscious decisions about such things as which students should work together, and how different the levels of students in groups should be, rather than leaving the matter to chance or to students’ choice
Choosing suitable group size is also an important factor to conduct group work effectively. Chen (2004) suggests that groups of three or four likely work best; sometimes larger group, of from five to ten, are expected to give good results in big tasks where enormous human resource and the variety of people in terms of skills, background knowledge are required a) Collaborative skills
Collaborative skills are those interpersonal and cooperative abilities students need to work with others effectively Most books on collaborative skills suggest that they be explicitly taught one at a time, however, which to teach depends on particular students and tasks that the skill instruction intends to be combined in Some of many skills important to successful collaboration are: checking that others understand, asking for and giving reasons, disagreeing politely and responding politely to disagreement and encouraging others to participate and responding to encouragement to participate b) Group autonomy
Organization of the thesis
The study consists of five main chapters, a list of references and appendices
Chapter1, Introduction, provides the background and reasons for the study, in this chapter, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the significance, and the overview of the thesis are presented.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Cooperative learning
Over the past twenty years, different approaches to cooperative learning have been developed by different individuals Therefore, cooperative learning takes various forms and definitions Following are some of the definitions by the most famous scholars:
Kargan (1994) proposes a definition on CL as “group learning activity organized so that learning is dependent on socially structured exchange of information between learners in group and in which each learner is held accountable for his or her own learning and is motivated to increase learning of others.” Jacobs (1997) generalizes ideas emerged now and then in a definition that captures the spirit of CL According to him, CL is a body of concepts and techniques for helping to maximize the benefits of cooperation among students in education In other words, CL provides language teachers with essential concepts of heterogeneous classes, learner cooperation and mutual help in learning; and it equips teachers with effective instructional techniques to exploit cooperation in language learning classes.
In his recent definition, Johnson (2001) defines CL as a general term for an instructional approach that “emphasizes the conceptual learning and the development of social skills as learners work together in small heterogeneous groups.” The idea of CL is described in a very simple way like this: class members are organized in small groups after receiving instructions from the teacher; they then work through the assignment until all the group members successfully understand and complete it All their cooperative efforts help to strive for mutual benefit so that all group members gain from each other’s efforts,recognizing that they all share a common fate…No group member possesses all the information, skills or resources needed for the highest possible quality result
Although stated variously, definitions of CL basically fall into three major points: Firstly,
CL is said to be a strategy where students work together in small learning group, help each other to accomplish individual and group tasks CL encourages responsibility among group mates as each member is not only in charge of his own learning but also of other teammates’ learning Secondly, CL is recognized as a method of instruction that promotes the learner’s development of high-order levels of thinking, essential communication skills, improves motivation, positive self-esteem, social awareness, and tolerance for individual differences in group activities This characteristic differentiates CL from its ancestor named Group work Group work has students work in groups to do tasks There may exist uneven participation of group members as one or two better students may dominate the work while CL strains interdependence and individual accountability among learners in group, which helps to stick students to the mutual work Lastly, the CL process also helps to build students’ understanding of a few concepts maintaining Content-based tasks designed in the light of CL give learners, especially the lower level ones, opportunities to raise the voice confidently with their reservoir of world knowledge
In general, we can simply understand that cooperative learning is referred to as any variety of teaching methods in which students work in small groups to help one another learn academic content As there have been different views on CL, various principles have been put forward in the CL literature Eight guiding CL principles a long with how they can inform teaching practice will be discussed in the next section.
2.1.2 Basic elements of cooperative learning a) Heterogeneous grouping
CL groups in which students do CL tasks are the mixed clusters of students with one or some variables including sex, religion, ethnicity, personality, age, social class, language proficiency and diligence Heterogeneous grouping is believed to have a number of benefits in comparison with homogeneous grouping, such as making peer-tutoring more likely happen, providing a variety of perspectives or helping students get to know and learn tolerance to others’ differences
In order to achieve heterogeneous groups for speaking activities, teachers may want to look at their class and make conscious decisions about such things as which students should work together, and how different the levels of students in groups should be, rather than leaving the matter to chance or to students’ choice
Choosing suitable group size is also an important factor to conduct group work effectively. Chen (2004) suggests that groups of three or four likely work best; sometimes larger group, of from five to ten, are expected to give good results in big tasks where enormous human resource and the variety of people in terms of skills, background knowledge are required a) Collaborative skills
Collaborative skills are those interpersonal and cooperative abilities students need to work with others effectively Most books on collaborative skills suggest that they be explicitly taught one at a time, however, which to teach depends on particular students and tasks that the skill instruction intends to be combined in Some of many skills important to successful collaboration are: checking that others understand, asking for and giving reasons, disagreeing politely and responding politely to disagreement and encouraging others to participate and responding to encouragement to participate b) Group autonomy
This principle encourages students to look to themselves for resources rather than relying solely on the teacher Roger Johnson (2008) writes in his article: “Teachers must trust peer interaction to do many of the things they have felt responsible for themselves.” When student working groups are in difficulty, teachers must resist their temptation to help, let them try helping themselves Teachers may sometimes intervene, but intervention should not always be the first option c) Simultaneous interaction (Kagan, 1994)
In traditional classroom, where no group activities are used, the normal interaction pattern is like this: one person speaks at a time – usually the teacher, and occasionally a student who is called to answer a question or so This sequential structure is seriously disastrous in communicative language classes as they leave too little time per student for active participation In contrast, the use of small group work gives learners room to learn actively and engage to the negotiation of meaning with others The smaller the size of groups is, the more students will speak at the same time This CL principle is called Simultaneous Interaction
Even when groups are used, it is common at the end of a group activity for teachers to bring groups together as the whole class; then it might be the time for group report done by group representatives, for teacher’s evaluation of the group work and teacher’s revision of the main points discussed When this takes place, we are back to sequential interaction. Thus, scholars urge that successful practical education in CL classes require teachers to combine simultaneous and sequential interaction in a flexible way d) Equal participation
Researchers affirm that students learn by interacting with the content and with fellow students, and participation is an essential ingredient for student success, and equal participation is an essential ingredient for the success of all students But a frequent problem in groups is that one or two group members dominate the group and, for what reason, impede the participation of others CL offers many ways of promoting equal participation in groups, such as assigning and rotating roles among group members; they take turn to be facilitator, checker, questioner, encourager …; and using multiple ability tasks (Cohen, 1994), i.e the tasks that require a range of abilities, such as drawing, acting, singing, rather than only language abilities e) Individual accountability
Individual accountability is said to be the flip side of equal participation, since it is hard to maintain equal participation in groups if there is no individual accountability among group members When we encourage equal participation in groups, we try to make everyone feel that they have opportunities to take part in group work The individual accountability principle helps to avoid problems in group work such as sleeping partners, social loafing or hanging around
Techniques for encouraging individual accountability include giving each group member a designated turn to participate in small-sized groups, calling on students at random to share their group’s ideas to check the group work and having a task to be done individually at the end of the group activity In an open, friendly accommodating atmosphere with a number of fellow classmates, learners are found more accountable for their learning and group common tasks. f) Positive interdependence
Cooperative language learning
2.2.1 Goals of cooperative language learning
In second language teaching, CL is seen as a way of promoting communicative interaction in the classroom, thus it is considered to be an extension of the principles of communicative language teaching
Richards and Rodgers (2001) propose five goals of cooperative learning in language teaching: (a) to provide opportunities for naturalistic second language acquisition through the use of interactive pair and group activities; (b) to provide teachers with a methodology to enable them to achieve this goal which can be applied in a variety of curriculum settings; (c) to provide opportunities for learners to develop successful learning and communication strategies; (d) to enhance learners’ motivation and reduce learners’ stress and to create a positive affective classroom climate; (e) to enable focused attention to particular lexical items, language structures, and communicative functions through the use of interactive task.
2.2.2 Benefits of cooperative language learning
Cooperative learning is a powerful educational approach principally because of its contribution in enhancing students’ achievement and productivity and providing more opportunities for communication From the perspective of second language teaching, CLL offers six learning advantages for ESL students: (a) Increase frequency and variety of second language practice through different types of interaction; (b) Opportunities to integrate language with content-based instruction; (c) Possibility for development or use of language in ways that support cognitive development and increase language skills; (d)Opportunities to include a greater variety of curricular materials to stimulate language as well as concept learning; (e) Freedom for teachers to master professional skills,particularly those which emphasize communication; (f) Opportunities for students
2.2.3 Design of cooperative language learning
When implementing CLL, the teacher needs to take into account a number of issues The following issues are commonly discussed by researchers: a) Objectives
The overall objectives of CLL are to foster cooperation rather than competition, to develop critical thinking, and to develop communicative competence through socially structured interaction activities More specific objectives will derive from the context in which they are used b) The syllabus
As CL can be used to teach activities from a variety of curriculum orientations, CLL does not have any particular form of language syllabus We can find CLL used in teaching content classes, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, ESP and the four skills c) Roles of the teacher
Teacher’s role in CLL is considerably different from that in traditional lessons A very important role of the teacher in CLL classroom is that of facilitator of learning As a facilitator, the teacher has to move around the class helping the students and groups as needs arise Other things the teacher must do are creating a highly structured and well- organized learning environment in the classroom, setting goals, planning and structuring tasks, establishing the physical arrangements of the classroom, assigning students to groups and roles, and selecting materials and time d) Roles of the learner
The primary role of the learner is as a member of a group who must work collaboratively on tasks with other group members Therefore, learners have to learn teamwork skills.They are also directors of their own learning They are taught to plan, monitor, and evaluate their own learning CLL requires their direct and active involvement and participation Pair grouping is the most typical CLL format, ensuring the maximum amount of time both learners spend on learning tasks e) Learning and teaching activities
Types of learning and teaching activities are of great importance to the design of CLL. Three main ones the teacher may use are:
Formal cooperative learning groups: these activities are used for specific tasks and involve students working together to achieve shared learning goals These may last from one period to several weeks
Informal cooperative learning groups: this type of activities just lasts a few minutes or a class period, and is used to focus students’ attention or to facilitate learning during direct teaching
Cooperative base groups: activities of this type consist of heterogeneous groups with stable membership The main purpose of these activities is to allow group members to give each other support, encouragement needed to be academically successful These are long term, lasting for at least one semester or a year. f) Role of instructional materials
Materials play an important part in creating opportunities for students to work cooperatively CLL does not require a different material from other types of lessons, but variations in the way the materials are used are a must Materials may be especially designed for CLL lessons, modified from existing materials, or borrowed from other disciplines.
2.2.4 Steps for setting up cooperative learning activities a) Before implementation
1 Develop a cooperative climate in the classroom This can be accomplished by engaging students in fun team-building activities in which they support each other in a team effort to achieve non-academic or easily achieved academic goals
2 Divide students into small groups The size of the group will depend on the students' ability to interact well with others Two to six students usually comprise a group If students are new to cooperative learning, assign two or three individuals to a group Increase the size of teams as the students become familiar with the procedures and practices Although homogeneous grouping or random assignment to groups is sometimes used, the students should usually be on a range of levels, mixed by intellectual ability or achievement level One novel way to form groups is to have students pick a puzzle piece out of a hat/box Inside that container are several 3 or 4 piece puzzles Students match up their pieces to see who will be in the group with them Too random? Hand out sheets of paper with directions/material on it, and a puzzle piece attached While appearing to be a random selection to the students, you have determined which students will come together into a particular group.
The teacher may also choose to consider interests or abilities in certain subject areas, personality, race, gender, or other factors when teaming students with each other Perhaps the groups will choose names for them or decide to be referred to merely by number.
3 Decide how long the groups will work together It may range from one task, to one curriculum unit, to one semester, to a whole year Most often the teacher will vary the composition of groups every month or two so that each student has a chance to work with a large number of classmates during the term or year.
4 Determine the academic and behavioral/interpersonal objectives for the task.
5 Plan the arrangement of the room for the upcoming group-oriented tasks Arrange group seating so that students will be close enough to each other to share materials and ideas Be sure to leave yourself a clear access lane to each group.
Speaking skill
Speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non verbal symbols, in a variety contexts” (Chaney, 1998:13) Bailey (2005:2) shares the same view that “speaking is the productive, oral skill It consists of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning.”
In addition, Florez (1991:1) defines speaking as “an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information” (cited in Bailey, 2005:2).
According to Mackey (1965) “ oral expression involves not only the use of the right sounds in the right patterns of rhythm and intonation, but also a choice of words and inflections in the right order to convey the right meaning”, (cited in Bygate, 1987:5)
From the above definitions, it can be concluded that speaking is the productive skill used to convey meaning.
2.3.2 The role of speaking in second language learning and teaching
From the teaching point of view, language skills consist of four macro skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing Those four skills have a supportive relationship Of those four skills, speaking plays the most important role since it is fundamental to human communication (Ur 1996:120) It can not be denied that in our daily lives, people spend more time on speaking rather than on writing
In social contexts, speaking is particularly useful as it is a key to communication Kay
(2006) and Bygate (1987) share the same view that the learners need to have ability to speak confidently to carry their most basic transactions In short, because of the importance of oral skill in language teaching and learning, it is vital that speaking skill should be paid great attention to
2.3.3 Students’ participation in speaking activities
Students’ participation can be understood as students’ involvement in classroom activities and in this case, oral activities It consists of interaction between students and students and students and the teacher.
As for interactions between students and teacher, students who are considered to maintain a good interaction with their teacher always take part in the classroom activities as well as contact the teacher by listening to what him/her says, responding their teacher’s question or even making question to ask him/ her whenever they do not understand anything in the lessons They also become involved in what happening in the classroom by asking for more information or explanation, sharing personal experience in relationship to the topics, or volunteering to perform an activity.
Unlike the student- teacher interaction, the interaction between students themselves is established by their discussion in small groups When they work together, students’ participation can be measured by their sense of responsibility and cooperation.
Unlike above mention opinions, Peacock (1977) defined students’ participation in classroom activities in terms of on task or off task This means that students are on task when they “engaged in the pedagogic work of the day” and students are off task when they have “ a complete lack of attention to the task” (p155) He also slowed the way to measure students’ participation by scanning the number of students’ times to be on task Therefore, the definition of Peacock (1997) was chosen for this study because it is really relevant to the main aim of the research.
Classroom activities that develop learners’ ability to express themselves through speech are an important component of a language course when CL is applied Many researchers have discussed classroom activities and a lot of activities are designed based on the theory and characteristics of CL
Richards and Rodgers (1996) discuss that the range of exercise types and activities with a communicative approach is unlimited, provided that such exercises and activities enable learners to attain the communicative objectives of the curriculum, engage learners in communication and require the use of such communicative processes as information sharing, negotiation of meaning, and interaction In their view, classroom activities should be designed to focus on completing tasks that are mediated through language of involve negotiation of information and information sharing
Teachers, therefore, should know how to adopt appropriate speaking activities which can help learners develop their speaking skills However, it is not easy for teachers to design and administer such activities Ur (1996) lists out four main problems teachers often come across They may come across some problems such as: students have nothing to say; they are inhibited to speak in class; they use their mother tongue instead of the target language and their participation is uneven or low
Overcoming these problems to create a successful speaking activity where learners talk a lot, participation is even, motivation is high certainly requires a lot of teachers’ efforts Under the
CL conditions, students’ cooperative efforts are expected to be more productive than competitive individual efforts Moreover, working in CL environment with the group-goal structures and self-esteem building strategies, the students are not only well-structured to participate equally and trained collaborative skills which are helpful in learning but also encouraged and motivated to strive to strengthen themselves and their friends Therefore, it can be said that CL is very likely to be effective in solving the problems of speaking activities.
Previous research
The works of Wang (2009), Boussida (2010), Vu Thi Thuy (2008), Phi Thanh Tra (2010), Nguyen Xuan Nhan (2011), Le Bich Thuy (2006) have provided teacher- researcher with theoretical framework of CL application These studies were conducted in China, Algeria, and Vietnam to recognize the benefits of CL application on students’ language achievement.
Wang (2009) wrote an article about applying cooperative learning techniques to a collegeEFL conversation class in China He found that CL promotes opportunities for interaction and communication among students and develops the listening strategies such as for gist sequence, main ideas, and details However, CL technique to conversation class is an instructional, systematic and strategy This is a planned and time- consuming process; the teacher needs to monitor and interview in the group for fear that groups do not get along, and members cannot participate in.
In Algeria, Boussiada (2010) conducted a study about enhancing students’ oral proficiency through cooperative group work for 3rd year English students at Constantine University. This research aimed to increase opportunities for students talking time, shed some light on the influence of the social and effective factors in creating a friendly and relaxed learning environment, and made use of small group to maximize learner’s speaking production This study was carried out with 40 students and 13 teachers The data were collected through questionnaires The results have shown that cooperative group work was the right technique for increasing learners’ language use and classroom oral participation And it was also found that the condition to improve students’ speaking proficiency included three factors Firstly, learners needed to be provided with an effective instructional technique for enhancing the quality of oral production Secondly, teachers had responsibilities to create a relaxed situation where the learners could use the target language without hesitation, and lastly, both teachers and learners should be aware of the necessary skill for effective learning to take place However, in this research, he only used questionnaires and did not carry out classroom observation Therefore, there should be other studies to verify his findings.
Along with foreign study on CL application in teaching speaking skill, this field also has attracted researchers in Vietnam.
In 2006, Le Thi Bich Thuy carried out an action research project on the application of cooperative learning structures to teaching speaking to the second- year students in the Department of English, Gialai Teachers’ Training College This study aimed to investigate how well cooperative learning can improve the participation and achievement of the second year students in oral communicative activities In this study, 23 students were divided in to 5 groups to complete 4 activities in order to find the frequency of student’s participation in pre- and post- activities During the task, the observation was done by 3 teachers including researcher herself The data were collected from classroom observation, test scores and journals written by the students during the second semester from February to June 2005 Based on the test scores, the performance of students before and after the implementation of cooperative learning was shown out This study found that there was an improvement of the students’ participation and achievement when implementing cooperative learning However, the research had some defects Firstly, the comparison of students’ achievement basing on test scores might not be appropriate because of many factors such as psychological things, and test pressure Secondly, it was difficult and time consuming to collecting students’ journals
Another study conducted by Phi Thanh Tra (2009) investigating the real situation of using cooperative learning to motivate the 11 th form students in speaking classes at Xuan Dinh high school and giving some appropriate suggestions for successful Cooperative learning lessons The subjects were students of 6 classes of the 11 th form and 5 teachers teaching the classes The data were collected from questionnaires and classroom observation In the first place, observation is used to observe the real situation of using CL in some speaking classes at Xuan Dinh high school, and then questionnaires are delivered to the 11 th form students and teachers of English to collect data Then observation is also used to check, analyze, and classify these statistics from questionnaires The findings showed that teachers did some activities to encourage students in speaking lessons including CL activities In facts, CL was applied in teaching English speaking skill However, it was not explored completely CL helped students to improve social skills and knowledge enrichment which encouraged students to speak out The result of her study was reliable because data collection was completed effectively However, the study was only conducted on general teaching in high school, and then the samples were small.
Nguyen Thi Nhan (2009) conducted a survey on the reality of organizing CL activities in English reading classess at high school in Daklak province The subjects were 24 teachers of the three different schools The overall findings from questionnaires, teacher interviews and classroom observations show that few cooperative learning activities (CLAs) are frequently organized in English reading classes and the teaching of social or group work skills are not paid enough attention by the teachers.Given that fact, the authors propose some implications for getting the teachers ready for
CL and successful in implementing CL activities to their reading classes First, spend some time reading on CL, learning the way of transferring it into classroom practice, and getting familiar with CL activities which are typical for teaching each specific language skill Second, recognize the diversity of students in each class Third, teach students some basic skills of team work Finally, take good control of the class time and use time appropriately for CL The findings were that students’ performance of speaking skills were significantly improved during the process and the final test results In addition, most of the students in the research showed their interest in participating into CL structured speaking activities.
Vu Bich Thuy (2010) did a study on CL as an approach to improving speaking skills for the second-year non-major students of English at Hanoi University of Business and Technology The main objective was to investigate the effects of CL on students’ participation and achievement in speaking skills The data were collected through three instruments including observation, students’ journal, and records of students’ oral progress test scores The findings were that students’ performance of speaking skills were significantly improved during the process and the final test results In addition, most of the students in the research showed their interest in participating into CL structured speaking activities.
In conclusion, although the above studies highlight many advantages in the implementation of CL in teaching English, there is little research looking into enhancing students’ participation in speaking skill through applying cooperative learning in terms of organizing group work Sharing the same points of CL application from Vu Bich Thuy (2010), andPhi Thanh Tra (2009), and the data collection instruments including the questionnaire and class observations along with the procedures are useful references for the author to carry out this study.
METHODOLOGY
Subjects of the study
The subjects of the study were 3 teachers including the researcher herself and 24 second year English major students in the Faculty of Information Technology and Foreign Languages at COT.
The researcher needed a lot of help from two teachers of the faculty with good experience in teaching speaking She chose two teachers because both of them have had chances to join workshops on CLT in general and CL in particular held every year More importantly, both of the teachers applied CL in teaching speaking skills and they were willing to participate in the research Moreover, they pay much attention to CL application to enhance students’ participation level in speaking classes The first teacher, teacher A, was chosen to conduct the experiment in improving CL organization She is in charge of teaching speaking in class A3 therefore she knows the students quite well Teacher A has a Master degree and her teaching experience is three years She is willing to collaborate with the researcher to carry out the research plan in the experimental periods with class A3 The second teacher, teacher B, also has a Master degree She has taught English for 5 years Teacher B is also in charge of teaching Reading skills in class A3, therefore she knows the students well She observed the students’ on task behavior in the first four weeks and the last four experimental weeks while the researcher observed teacher A’s teaching procedure.
The author chose class A3 of 24 second-year English major students to participate in the study because they are considered a typical class of the faculty and they are taught speaking skills by teacher A There are 6 boys and 18 girls, aged from 19 to 20 TheirEnglish proficiency level is intermediate, but they are at mixed levels of speaking competence 7 of them (from Hanoi and other cities) are rather good at speaking; they are very active, talkative and usually dominant in speaking lessons 11 can be said to be at the average; they are relatively involved in class activities The rest (6) are usually passive and quiet; they seem to keep silent during any speaking activity and even to be scared when being asked to speak So the class could provide the best condition for applying CL in teaching and learning speaking skills.
The research method
An action research project has been chosen for carrying out the study in this thesis.
The different conceptions of action research can be revealed in some typical definitions. Several strands of action research are drawn together by Kemmis & Taggart (1998, p5) in their all-encompassing definition: “Action Research is a form of self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of (a) their own social or educational practices, (b) their understanding of these practices, and (c) the situations in which the practices are carried out.”
In broad sense, action research applies a systematic process of investigating practical issues or concerns which arise within a particular social context This process is undertaken with a view involving the collaboration of the participation in that context in order to provide evidence that can point to change (Burns,1999) The aim of the action research is to identify problematic situation or issues that participants consider worth investigating and to undertaken practical interventions in order to bring about informed changes into practices
Eileen Ferrance (2000) thought that action research was actually a process in which participants or teachers could examine their own educational practices systematically and carefully, applying the techniques of research Action research always refers to a specific inquiry done by a teacher with the intension that the research may inform and change the teacher’s practices in the future.
Chamot, Barnhardt and Dirstine (1998) shared the same ideas that action research is classroom – based research carried out by the teacher to reflect and check their teaching. The aim of the teacher is to get understanding of teaching and learning in his or her classroom and to use that knowledge to increase teaching efficiency or student learning
Different researchers set up the steps for conducting action research in different ways. However, they share the same content and the same direction Somekh (1989) considers the action research as a sequence of cycles which consists of seven stages: (1) identifying a focus of interest or a problem, (2) collecting data, (3) analyzing data/ generating hypotheses, (4) planning action plan, (5) implementing action steps, (6) collecting data to monitor change, (7) analyzing and evaluation.
According to Kemmis and Taggart (1988), action research has four steps as follows.
(1)Plan aims to identify the problem and the plan of action must be developed Kemmis &
Mc Taggart also state that the general plan must be ‘flexible enough to adapt’ (1998, p.11);
(2)Action is the stage when plan is deliberately controlled In other words, the plan is put in action of careful and thoughtfully various ways of practice in certain period;
(3)Observation is the stage which is needed as its function of documenting the effects of the action and the data collected will be basis for the next stage.; (4)Reflection is a stage in which the researcher evaluates the effect of the action and on which the further cycles of research will be based.
Burns (1999, p.35) also considers the action research as a sequence of cycles which consists of eleven phrases: exploring; identifying; planning; collecting data; analyzing/ reflecting; hypothesizing; intervening; observing; reporting; writing and presenting.
3.3.3 Rationale for using action research
Action research is often done in a school or a university setting It is a reflective process including inquiry and discussion as components of the “research” As a matter of fact, action research is an activity searching for solutions to everyday, real problems happening in schools or universities, or finding ways to improve instructions and to increase students achievement rather than dealing with the theoretical problems Action research allows teachers to discuss and talk about all educational concerns closest to them Basing on these, teachers can show some influence and make changes Teachers are always responsible for making much more decisions in all activities at universities and they are being held publicly accountable for students achievement results The process of action research can help teachers in assessing needs, documenting the stages of inquiry, analyzing data and making good decisions that can lead to expected results The seasons that the writer chose action research are of many.
First and foremost, the writer thinks that an action research is suitable and reasonable in her situation It can be the right choice because the population of the author’s research is not big The total of students in the research is of 24 members who are in only one class It is much easy for the author to do the action research rather than to do the experimental research that needs bigger population divided into two groups: experimental group and control group In the experimental research, the researcher has to make a lot of comparison and contrast while in the action research, the work load is much lighter Furthermore, the campus conditions and the pedagogical activities, curriculums as well as the other extra activities in the Faculty can not allow the author to conduct the other kinds of research like experimental research or survey.
Second reason is that the action research can form the teacher’s professional development.Both research and reflection can help the teacher build up confidence in the work Action research has an effect on thinking skills, willingness to share, or to communicate, and attitudes towards the process of changes With the action research, the teacher learns something about himself, his students and colleagues, and the writer can have a great determination to improve himself constantly.
The final reason is that action research has some potentials to impact pedagogical changes.
As the teacher gets down to action research, she is more likely to look at the matters that address the educational concerns rather than the matters that affect the individual teacher herself This process can bring the new ways of conferring, communication, and sharing among teachers Contributions to the bulk of knowledge about teaching and learning activities may also result.
Action Research procedure
The action research consisting of four steps adopted from Somekh (1989) and Kemmis and Taggart (1988) was selected in this study as it is suitable and easy for the researcher to conduct it in her teaching situation The AR project lasted for 10 weeks from January 11 th to April 28 th , 2012
In the first four weeks, classroom observations with a carefully designed checklists of teaching procedure were carried out in class A3 to assess the current application of CL in teaching speaking skills In this stage, the researcher would like to watch how the teacher delivered the speaking lessons focusing on how she gave instructions, organized the group work, controlled the class etc Classroom observations were also used to examine students’ on task behavior in speaking lessons to measure the students' participation level in CL activities Then questionnaires were delivered to 24 students in class A3 to investigate students’ what they thought about the teacher’s application of CL in teaching speaking lessons Finally, the data was analyzed to find out the main cause of students’ low participation level in speaking lessons The causes of the problem came from different sources such as students' different levels of English proficiency, their learning styles, some uninteresting topics and so on but the teacher’s poor organization of group work was admitted the main one Then, a plan of action on the improvement of CL organization was developed A training section was given to teacher A in two weeks so that she would implement the modification of CL organization in structuring groups to teach speaking in class A3 during the four experimental weeks ( from week 7 to 10) successfully.
The action plan was carried out within the four weeks (from week 7 to 10) In this stage, teacher A applied the modification of CL organization to teach speaking lessons in class A3 with its aim to enhance students’ participation level in speaking lessons.
3 Evaluation of the action plan
Post data would be collected and analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively to find out whether the students participated more in group activities after the teacher applied the better CL organization in teaching speaking lessons The data collected during the experimental weeks would be analyzed and compared with the results of the first four weeks to see whether students’ participation level increased more in these activities. Finally, some conclusions, limitations, and suggestions would come afterward.
The procedure and the results of the action research would be reorganized and presented in the form of a thesis I would ask the Dean of the Faculty of Information Technology andForeign Languages to run a workshop for colleagues and present the report at the faculty.
Description of data collection instruments
In order to collect the data, the researcher used a combination of two instruments: classroom observations and questionnaires to guarantee the objectiveness of the data and ensure the validity and reliability of the thesis.
3.5.1.1 Justification for the use of observation
Observation is considered as an integral part in research and sometimes it can be the main technique used in a project Observation was chosen as one of the instruments for collecting data in this study, because observation is concerned with observing some forms of behavior (Numan, 1992), especially, for high inference behavior A high inference behavior requires observers to interpret behavior they observe e.g on- task or off- task behavior (Numan, 1992)
Moreover, classroom observation was chosen as one of the most useful tools to conduct the study because according to Wallace (1998), it is the good method to do action research He also states that: “…the focus of observation can be ourselves as teacher: the technique we use, management procedures and so on The focus can be on our students: the way they work, the way they interact, their on task and off behavior and so on”
In this study, the researcher used three observation sheets The first one was for investigating the teaching procedure The second was adopted from Hopkins (1985, p95) to quantify students’ on task behavior The last was adopted from Numan (1989, p110) to assess overall class motivation.
3.5.1.2 Detailed description of class observation
Classroom observations were done in eight weeks In the first four weeks, it was used to investigate the real situation of CL application in teaching and learning speaking skills. And in the last four weeks, classroom observation helped to examine whether the improvement of CL organization enhanced students’ participation level in speaking lessons The same observation was used in two stages During classroom observation in 8 weeks, the researcher watched and recorded teacher A’s teaching procedure focusing on how she gave instructions, organized the group work, gave time limit, controlled the class, and closing the activities while teacher B investigated the students’ on task behaviors.
Observation sheet 1 was used to observe teacher A’s teaching procedure in order to identify the real problems of students’ low participation in speaking classes This observation sheet was also used in four experimental weeks to examine to what extent the improvement of CL organization increased students’ participation level in speaking lessons The researcher watched and assessed teacher A’s teaching procedure in following categories such as the teacher’s CL activities in speaking lessons, the teacher’s giving instructions and inputs, the teacher’s organizing group work, the teacher’s controlling group work, and the teacher’s finishing activities.
Observation sheet 2 adopted from Hopkins (1985, p95) was used to quantify students’ on task behavior (see Appendix 4) There were 12 columns for 12 scans and 24 lines for the subjects at class A3 and it was designed to be filled out by a non-participant observer.Teacher B observed students’ on task and she entered 1 if students was on task, and 2 if students off task for each scan The students were considered to be on task if they were engaged in the pedagogic work of the task and they were considered to be off-task if they showed a completely lack of attention to the task Students were identified by number and observed one after another, clockwise around the group Each student was observed for 10 seconds for each scan That meant after 10 seconds, the observer wrote down the category best describing the observed students’ behaviors at the moment, and then past to the next student Observations continued until all students had been observed 12 times in each lesson A class on- task percentage was then calculated.
Observation sheet 3 adopted from Nunan (1989, p.110), was used to assess overall class motivation, which consisted of 5 components: (1) students’ interest; (2) persistence with learning task; (3) concentration; (4) interaction and (5) enjoyment during the class The observation sheet also helped to collect data on the appropriateness of the teacher’s organization of cooperative learning activities.
There are 8 items in observation sheet 3 and each item was scored on a scale from low (1) to high (5) 1 is equivalent to approximately 20% student involved in the lesson, 2 is about 40% students involving in the task and 3 is for over 50%, 4 is about 75- 80%, 5 is the perfect number about 85- 90% In contrast to the second sheet, this sheet was for observing the class as a whole, not an individual student Observation sheet 3 was done by two observers after each lesson finished The researcher and teacher B would discussed with each other about the class situation before making a decision on the total scores of students’ overall participation in each lesson.
Teacher A taught the speaking lesson to class A3 for two periods of 90 minutes While the researcher watched teacher A’s teaching procedure, teacher B observed student’s on task behavior At the end of each lesson, both the researcher and teacher B discussed with each other before agreeing on the assessment of overall class motivation through completing observation sheet 3.
Munn & Drever (1990) support that when the participants respond to the same questions in the same ways, the answers become more reliable According to Brown (1994) andWallace (1998), questionnaire was one of the most effective data collection instruments, it helped to obtain information about different kinds of issues that were easy to analyze.
Moreover, Nunan (1992) showed that questionnaires could provide information gathered from a large number of participants In addition, Nunan (1989) states that through using questionnaires, one can inquire into any aspect within teaching/learning process Also, teachers find the chance to learn about classroom practices they use in class by analyzing these questionnaires Moreover, as commented by Wallace (1998), questionnaires can save time The greater number of informants, the more economic of time it is to use a questionnaire
3.5.2.2 Detailed description for the use of questionnaires
The questionnaires were designed on the review of literature relating to basic elements and steps for successful organization of cooperative learning activities in speaking class which were presented in chapter 2 The questionnaires aimed to collect data on the students’ attitudes toward the teacher’s overall organization of cooperative learning in speaking lessons for second year college students of English department at College of Trade The questionnaires were translated in Vietnamese to make sure all students clearly understand the information.
The questionnaires consisted 27 close ended questions divided into five main part, aimed to gather information about teacher’s CL organization in structuring group work to increase students’ participation level in speaking lessons.
Part 1 included 8 questions (from 1 to 8), aimed to find out the way the teacher instructed and gave useful input to students.
Part 2 consisted of 3 questions (from 9 to 10), aimed to discover the amount of time the teacher set for each task.
Part 3 included 7 questions (from 12 to 18) aimed to reveal the way the teacher grouped students in speaking activities.
Part 4 consisted of 4 questions (from 19 to 22) aimed to explore how teachers controlled and provided feedback to the groups.
Part 5 included 5 questions (from 23 to 27) aimed to know the way the teacher finished the group activities.
In summary, in this chapter, all the steps of conducting the research on applying CL in organizing groups to increase students’ participation in speaking lessons for second year English majors at College of Trade has been presented Right at the beginning, the concept of what is actually an action research must be made clear so that audiences can visualize something about it All four steps of conducting the research are mentioned carefully and concretely There are important instruments being used to collect data for the research. Those instrument are class observations and questionnaires which are really helpful means to gather the reliable information and guarantee the objectiveness of the data and ensure the validity and reliability of the thesis.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Initial data
4.1.2.1 The results of observation sheet 1 (from 1A to 1D)
In order to identify the problem more thoroughly, in the first four weeks, class observations were conducted with a carefully designed checklist to investigate how the teacher applied
CL in teaching speaking lessons focusing on some categories such as the teacher’s activities in speaking lessons, the teacher’s giving instructions and input , the teacher’s organizing group, the teacher’s giving time limit, the teacher’s controlling group, and the teacher’s closing activities Each classroom observation lasted two periods for 90 minutes. The researcher watched teacher A’s teaching procedure At the same time, teacher B observed students’ on task behavior.
It could be realized from the observation sheet 1 (see Appendix 2A) although the teacher used CL in various speaking activities such as interviews, role plays, discussions, reports, representations and so on to encourage students to speak, students’ participation level in speaking lessons was low As being seen from the first four lessons, discussions were used most (6 times), followed by role plays and interviews with 5 and 3 times respectively The problem might come from different sources: the teacher, students and even the material itself, but the teachers’ poor organization of group work was the greatest problem
Referring to the teacher’s grouping students, it could be seen from observation sheet 1 that teacher A often grouped students in the same ways For example, during four speaking lessons, students at the same desk were asked to work together or students of two desks turned round to work in groups It is because the teacher did not want to move the students to save time and avoid the noise Working with the same partners, the students felt bored because they had little chance and motivation to learn or discover something from their partners As a result, the students were not stimulated to work in groups Moreover, teacher
A often did not give each student a specific task in their group, therefore, some students did not know what to do in their groups For example, in task 4 of unit 3 Money and Business, the teacher asked students to work in groups of four to design a business plan but she forgot to appoint a specific task for each member Such as the leader, secretary, or the reporter, etc so all four members in turn shared their opinions about the topic but no one in the group was assigned to be in charge of taking notes of their group discussion to present their work in front of class later This caused chaos when the teacher asked each group to summary and report the result of their discussion Also, the teacher did not pay attention to grouping the students of mixed abilities in each group therefore some groups included good students and they did the task well while other groups consisting of weak students met difficulty in fulfilling the job
Regarding the teacher’s giving instructions and necessary input, the teacher did not often present the instruction more than once in different ways such as reading and explaining the instructions then summarizing it on the board or illustrating the instructions by giving an English example to explain the assignment; thus many students did not understand what to do before working For example, in task 2 of unit 4 Jobs and Professions, the teacher asked students to work in group of four to interview applicants for 4 positions in the company such as manager, checker, stock clerk and butcher The teacher did not explain the meaning of stock clerk and butcher that were new to students, beside the teacher did not give sample of an actual interview of one position, thus students did not understand what they had to do Furthermore, as being seen in observation sheet 1, the teacher did not provided enough needed vocabulary and structures before asking students to work in groups, so many of the students experienced the feeling of having nothing to say on the subjects, which made them feel inhibited or less confident to speak in group work Another good example of this case is that, unit 6 Global Connections, there were some structures that the teacher should have provided the students with some practice before asking them to complete the assignment such as catch up on, stay in touch with someone, in charge for doing something etc Besides, the teachers did not stop some students’ noise and draw students’ full attention before instructing them to do the task, therefore some groups could not hear the teachers’ instructions clearly and met difficulties in operating the group activities.
Considering the teacher’s setting up time for each task, it could be clearly seen from observation sheet 1 that the teacher forgot to give the students time limit for each task For instance, in task 3 of unit 4 Jobs and Professions, and task 1 of unit 5 Global Connections, after instructing students what they had to do with the exercises, the teacher did not set up limited time Moreover, the teacher was not flexible in timing too She was not based on the fact of group work to decide to stop the activities when students finished before time limit For example, in task 4 of unit 6 Taste and Preferences, the task was rather difficult for students to finish in 20 minutes, but the teacher did not give students a little more time, whereas, in task 1, it was easier to complete, but the teacher did not shorten the given time.
Concerning the teacher’s monitoring the classes, the teacher was good at not interfering the groups’ activities, collecting the students’ mistakes and correcting them at the end of activities However, she did not always circulate the class to encourage and help students to keep on working She could only control the first two groups in front of her desk As a result, the teacher did not regularly check the progress of group work, listen to their errors, control students in right direction or motivate students to complete the task on time, which led to the teachers’ inefficient time management of students activities For example, in task
3 of unit 6 Taste and Preferences, many pairs finished talking about their likes and dislikes of seasons, and things to do on weekends, but the teacher did not ask them to present their answers As a result, students made much bad noise.
In conclusion, the teacher used CL to teach speaking lessons, but it is obvious that the way the teachers organized group work was not effective enough or even demotivated the students from fully participating in speaking activities.
4.1.2.2 The data of observation sheet 2 (students’ on/off task)
With regard to the students’ on task behavior, the results collected from four observations of 4 lessons showed that students, in general, were not much engaged in the pedagogic work of the lessons The following chart gave the average of students’ participation level on- task.
Chart 1: Percentage of students’ on- task behavior during the first four lessons
As it could be seen from chart 1, the results of observation sheet 2 shows that the students’ participation level in the four speaking lessons was low
From analyzing the collected data, the first conclusion could be made was that the percentage of students’ on task in first four lessons fluctuated slightly between 37.6% in and 41.3% In lesson 1, the percentage of students’ on task was the lowest among the four lessons while lesson 4 got the highest percentage of students’ participation on task accounting for 41.3% To see the change more clearly, the collected data from each lesson would be analyzed
In lesson 1, only one student was on task 9 per 12 times, but her ability on task in the next lessons fell considerably: 6 times in the rest lessons 6 students had 5 times on task and the rest of the students were on task from 3 to 4 times These results revealed that the students were not engaged much in the activities The average percentage of students’ on task behavior in lesson 1 was only 37.6%.
In lesson 2, there was a small change in students’ behavior 5 students were observed on task 6 per 12 times However, nobody had 3 times, the rest were from 4 to 5 times scanned to be on task The mean of students on task rose by 1.5 % compared with the result of lesson 1 This change showed that the students might be more interested in group activities.
In lesson 3, however, there was a small drop in the average of students’ on task, which decreased by less than one per cent compared to that in lesson 2 None of the students got 7 to 9 times on task, and 4 students were observed on task 6 times, only one had 3 times The rest of the students were on task from 4 to 5 times
In lesson 4, the collected data indicated that student were more involved in the task The average percentage of students on task obtained 41.3% It increased by 4% compared with the result of lesson 1 There were 6 students observed on task 6 times and no one was on task 3 times.
Major findings and Discussion
Using cooperative learning in increasing motivation is not a new idea in language teaching at the university and factually, the teachers of English at COT have had chances to access cooperative learning approach in teaching English in general and speaking in particular through workshops and training courses As being presented in Chapter 2, cooperative learning no doubt offers enormous benefits to both teachers and students However, the application of cooperative learning under the form of organizing group activities can be less effective and counter-productive if it is not carefully prepared and well-organized The findings of the study have been shown that better organization of CL speaking activities has had some positive effects on the students’ participation level This findings go in line with the findings of previous researchers such as Boussida (2010), Phi Thanh Tra (2009) and Le Bich Thuy (2006) After analyzing the collected data during the period of conducting the action research, the research questions can be well answered.
1 The answer for research question 1 is that although the teachers at COT had tried to apply CL in teaching English they failed to successfully use it in terms of organizing the group activity The teachers did not follow the procedure of organizing group work based on cooperative learning theory; they did what they knew and remembered As a result, the teachers did not inspire the students to work actively in speaking lessons and students felt bored with CL tasks The learners, therefore, did not fully participate in these activities and the objectives of the lesson were not achieved
2 Based on the results collected after applying cooperative learning under the form of organizing group work to teach speaking skills, it can be clearly seen that good organization of CL activities has helped to increase the amount of students’ participation level in speaking lessons Moreover, most of the students showed their positives behaviors and attitudes towards the new organization of these activities Its good effects on students were presented as follows.
Firstly, better organization of cooperative learning under the form of group work helped the students to overcome shyness and inhibition Working in small groups made students more comfortable and more self-confident to show their feeling and thinking The most noticeable thing was that the better organization of cooperative learning activities gave the students of all levels to have chances to become good Not only the good or the average but also the less able students were engaged in the activities The reason for this achievement was that students were willing to communicate with other group members and encouraged each other to cooperate to fulfill the task The atmosphere seemed to be relaxed and fun. The researcher also noticed that the students made great effort to do the share of their work and fulfill the task to their best Obviously, there was much more interaction and discussion among the group members in the four experimental lessons compared with that in the first lesson of the four classes.
Secondly, with the teacher’s strict controlling group activities, the students had numerous chances to practice the language and thus change their passive learning style into the more communicative and interactive one and, therefore, fulfill the objectives of the lesson. Moreover, the teacher had well created the cooperative learning atmosphere in each group as the group activities brought the students the encouragement of cooperation in learning English, which is very necessary for the student’s achievement in learning any foreign language Clearly, when working with each other in cooperative learning activities, every member in each group had chance to present ideas, respond to group mates, evaluate or comment on group mates’ opinion Therefore, their interaction was diverse and their responses were also developed When interacting with their partners (either good or weak ones), they knew how to express their agreement with development or disagreement with reasons This is due to the fact that CL learning, with the principle of heterogeneous grouping, has encouraged students to interact with partners different from themselves and learn how to work with them The students can also develop more fully with a wide range of roles they can play in various group activities CL may offer them.
The researcher also noticed that the tasks were often completed with the contribution of the whole group not that of an individual as it was often noticed before the experimental teaching Obviously, most of the time assigned to group work was occupied by the students’ talk and discussion of the assigned tasks.
Finally, the difference was that the students were willing to demonstrate group work results to the whole class and a vast majority of the students seemed to be interested in the group work results reported by other groups Especially, the tasks were observed to be well executed and enjoyed by majority of the students.
To sum up, the application of cooperative learning in terms of organizing group work had been so far proved to contribute to the students’ positive motivation in learning speaking and the improvement of their participation level in speaking classes.
RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
Recommendations
The data collected from the questionnaires and the class observations showed that although the teachers at College of Trade gained some CL knowledge in teaching English, they failed to apply CL in organizing groups to increase students’ participation in speaking lessons It is suggested that there should be extended programs for those teachers to improve the situation at the college Therefore, training, retraining and upgrading methodology of CL are urgently necessary for teachers at COT These should help to develop the teachers’ ability to adopt and adapt a research orientation to their own teaching and to decide the appropriateness, feasibility, and practicality of CL application in teaching speaking skills The recommendation can be summarized as follows i More regular methodological training programs, especially the training programs about the organization of group activities based on the CL methods should be organized for teachers. ii Teachers should prepare carefully before applying CL in organizing group work by following the above mentioned principles of CL. iii Teachers should follow some steps suggested in the procedures for successful organization of group activities based on the CL theory.
Teachers have a very important role in guiding and controlling students to work and develop their ability of self-work Therefore, it is very important to provide teachers with more up-to-date methodological knowledge in order to improve the current status of English teaching and learning Also, they should read more materials related to CL and need to have more opportunities to attend workshops or training courses on CL Thus, it is necessary that the Managing Board of COT and the Dean of the Faculty of Information technology and
Foreign Languages should take workshops or seminars on CL into consideration These workshops contribute to the improvement of English teachers’ quality to reflect on their situation, what they would like to change and develop, and what they realistically can change and develop Furthermore, to apply CL more successfully, teachers should spend some time on providing their students with some basic knowledge of CL: simply explaining what CL is, with examples of cooperation learning activities; having them work in groups to read, discuss and translate all the basic elements of CL; and finally, checking the students’ understanding of CL through a list of questions.
Before each group activity, teachers should think carefully what to explain to the class and how group activities will be operated Moreover, the teacher should prepare to give students the skills and vocabulary they need to succeed in this sort of activities In order to design group activities, the teacher should create group tasks that require interdependence and make group activities relevant and achievable by students’ skills and abilities.
5.1.3 The organization of group activities based on CL theory
In order to implement CL activities in teaching speaking effectively, the teacher should pay attention to a number of following things
Firstly, the teacher should give clear instructions and objectives of the task to students at the beginning of the activities because students are likely to engage in the task when they know exactly what to do in group work To instruct students what to do effectively, the teacher needs to draw the students’ attention during giving instructions and the instructions should be brief and easy to understand Furthermore, the teacher should get feedback from students to ensure that they know clearly what to do before moving to other part In addition, it is useful for the teacher to assist students to generate their ideas through exchanging of ideas and brainstorming By doing this, the teacher can draw not only their interest in the task, sustain their learning motivation but also provide them with necessary vocabulary and ideas to work more productively in their groups
Secondly, the teacher should be flexible when giving a time limit As, sometimes, we cannot estimate exactly how much time is enough for students to finish a task so we may ask them to stop before or after the time limit basing on the students’ progress The students will work more effectively when the teacher gives them time limit.
Thirdly, the teacher should use different ways to arrange students in groups to change learning atmosphere in the class However, the students are lazy enough not to change their seats if the teacher just tells them to stand up and find partners It is possible to use numbered cards to divide the class In addition, sometimes teachers should assign the roles for each member in a group and the roles are interchangeable.
Fourth, monitoring group work is an important motivational tool It is essential that teachers must play an active and facilitative role group is in progress Teachers need to monitor group work in order to aid the flow of the discussion, to identify any common errors or areas of breakdown, or to offer encouragement and recognize when best to change the pairings Several important tasks should be performed by the teacher such as encouraging and regulating participation, providing feedback, and guidance, summarizing input, keeping the peace or making final decisions, if necessary.
To sustain the students’ motivation in group work, it is necessary to encourage and support them in their work A nod, a smile or gestures can be helpful in maintaining a favorite learning environment among groups Furthermore, teachers should make sure that persons in the groups are equally participating Teachers should go around when groups are working to give help if having any problems rising It is very important that a group needs to get along well and it is necessary for the teacher to closely observe groups and be able to pick out groups that are not working well together Once the participation in group work is regulated by the teacher, the students will have even chance to talk and as a result, their motivation will increase.
Fifth, providing and getting feedback on performance is probably the most common classroom function of teachers as positive feedback plays an effective role in changing learners’ behavior In addition, it lets students know the results of their performance and more importantly, students’ motivation can be increased
Moreover, in order to conduct feedback successfully, the teachers may use some correcting strategies such as self-correction, peer-correction and teacher-correction methods. However, according to the CL approach, not all mistakes need to be corrected, because the main aim of language learning is to receive and convey meaningful messages and correction should focus on mistakes that interfere with this aim not much on inaccuracies of usage Yet, it is very appropriate to correct when the teacher recognizes that a majority of the class is having the same problem
Finally, after getting feedback from each group, teachers should use some techniques to extend the activity into a full-class discussion so that learners feel that they are working purposefully In short, the teacher applying group activities should be very flexible in finishing this kind of activity to avoid some insignificant limitations of using it.
Conclusion of the study
The findings resulted from data analysis of questionnaires and class observations at COT indicated that although the teachers at COT have had opportunities to attend workshops on CL courses, the teachers’ poor organization of group activities caused students’ low participation level in speaking lessons As a result, the CL application in teaching speaking at COT is not successful as expected.
Basing on the results of analyzing the collected data and the relevant literature review in chapter 2, the researcher has made an attempt to applied CL theory in terms of organizing group work so as to increase students’ participation level in speaking classes The researcher had spent time training teacher A who was in charge of teaching speaking in class A3 during the experimental lessons and asked her to study the documents of organizing group works basing on the CL method carefully When teacher A felt sure for a better CL organization techniques, she implemented the action plan to teach speaking skills to class A3 The researcher with teacher B observed the class to see the change of students’ participation level owing to the improvement of CL organization in structuring group work
Strictly following the procedure of CL organization in organizing group activities, the results showed that the teacher interested the students to participate in the groups more She made good use of CL’s benefits when applying it in structuring group activities, which enhanced students’ participation level in speaking lessons Firstly, the students found it easier to start, remain and finish an activity Secondly, the students involved and concentrated on completing the activities rather than doing other things Thirdly, the students cooperated better, and fewer students dominated the others Finally, the students felt more satisfied after finishing each activity
In short, the study has partly achieved its objectives and has proved to be useful piece of work In spite of inevitable limitations, the following are still valid.
First, the study has investigated how the teachers applied CL in teaching speaking skills at COT and has pointed out that the main factor made ineffective CL application on teaching speaking lessons was teachers’ poor organization of group activities.
Second, the remarkable improvement on the students’ participation level on speaking lessons was recorded when the teacher applied a modified CL organization to structuring group work
In conclusion, in spite of some limitations, the researcher believes that the findings of the study are really useful; better CL organization has helped increase the students’ participation level in speaking lessons In addition, the positive results gained from the CL application give the researcher confidence to say that CL structures can be well applied to teach speaking for the second-year students at her faculty Moreover, it is hoped that the study will be able to serve as a useful reference source for English teachers as well as those who are interested in the issue The researcher will be appropriate any constructive comments on this thesis to make it more complete and useful
Despite considerable efforts of the researcher, certain limitations are unavoidable, which opens suggestions for further investigations on the issue To begin with, the number of participants in this study was not big enough and might not be representative of the majority of students ofEnglish at the Faculty Besides, because the questionnaire and the class observations were conducted by the author herself with the help of her colleagues, a certain degree of subjectiven ess is inevitable The limited number of class observations and short experiment time, in addition, was another shortcoming of the study Finally, due to time constraint, it was impossible for the researcher to investigate all the other factors that could hinder the teachers from applying CL successfully However, the author hopes that the results of the study will provide some useful insights for those who want to carry out further studies in this area or for the attempt to improve the situation of teaching speaking skills.
Under the light of limitations exposed, some recommendations for further research could be made Being aware of the restriction on the number of participants, the future studies should involve a large number of them In addition, regarding the limited factors hindering the teachers from applying CL successfully, it is suggested that future studies carry out much more thorough experiments on the targeted subjects.
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This study is to find out the extent to which Cooperative learning method is applied to teaching and learning at College of Trade, in order to enhance students’ participation in speaking lessons for second year students of English Your completion of this questionnaire is highly appreciated The data collected are used in the research paper only, not for other purposes.
Please put a tick () next to the answer that is the most suitable for you.
Please tick the answers that best describes your reflection
Section 1: The way the teacher gave instructions and useful input
1 Before asking you to work in groups, The teacher gave you necessary inputs ( such as vocabulary, grammar, or structures.
2 Before starting group work task, the teacher instructed what you had to do.
3 Before giving instructions, the teacher drew your full attention.
4 The teacher’s explanation was brief and understandable.
5 The teacher gave instructions in different ways (more than one).
6 The teacher often illustrated with examples in English to make her instruction clear.
7 The teaches often made sure for your understanding by asking you to do something to show your understanding.
8 You often understood you’re the teacher’s instruction well before working in groups.
Section 2: The teacher’s giving time limits.
9 Before starting each activity, the teacher gave you a limited time.
10 You worked more effectively when the teacher set a time limit.
11 You liked the teacher to give time limit.
Section 3: The way the teacher organized groups
12 The teacher often asked you to work in group of four or five.
13 The teacher often asked you to work in group with mixed ability students.
14 The teacher let you to choose your own group to work with.
15 Each student in your group had a specific task.
16 The teacher often assigned rotating roles among group members (ex: students take turn to be facilitor, checker, questioner…)
17 The teacher had different ways to group students.
18 You liked to work with mixed ability students
Section 4: The way the teacher controlled group activities
19 The teacher often moved around the groups and was available to give students help.
20 The teacher avoided interrupting groups unless something went seriously wrong.
21 The teacher did not correct all mistakes you made, she only corrected your serious mistakes at the end of the activities.
22.The teacher actively monitored all group activities to make sure all students at work.
Section 5: How the teacher closed group activities.
23 The teacher asked students to stop working and report their working result.
24 After finishing group work, the teacher called students at random to report group ideas
25 The teacher often gave comments or corrected mistakes in general, did not pointed out who made mistake.
26 You worked better when the teacher checked your work.
27 You learned more when you listened to other group’s report.
Thank you very much for your co- operation
Phụ lục 1B: PHIẾU THĂM DÒ
Những câu hỏi này chỉ nhằm điều tra việc áp dụng phương pháp dạy học hợp tác vào dạy kĩ năng nói tại lớp em nhằm nâng cao chất lượng giảng dạy Tiếng Anh Em hãy vui lòng chọn đáp án em cho là đúng nhất với em Em có thể yên tâm rằng câu trả lời của em sẽ được giữ bí mật và chỉ phục vụ cho mục đích nghiên cứu
Tích vào câu trả lời em cho là đúng nhất.
Rất đồng ý Đồng ý Hơi đồng ý Hơi không đồng ý
Không đồng ý Rất không đồng ý
Phần 1: Hướng dẫn và cung cấp đầu vào cần thiết của giáo viên
1 Giáo viên thường cung cấp cho em những kiến thức cần thiết như từ vựng, ngữ pháp hay cấu trúc trước khi yêu cầu em hoạt động cặp nhóm.
2 Giáo viên hướng dẫn những gì các em cần phải làm trước khi hoạt động theo nhóm.
3 Giáo viên thường thu hút toàn bộ sự chú ý của học sinh trước khi hướng dẫn.
4 Sự giải thích, hướng dẫn của giáo viên ngắn gọn và dễ hiểu.
5 Giáo viên thường giải thích bằng nhiều cách khác nhau (nhiều hơn 01 lần).
6 Để hướng dẫn của giáo viên rõ rang hơn cho học sinh hiểu, cô giáo thường minh họa bằng các ví dụ tiếng Anh.
7 Để đảm bảo là học sinh đã hiểu, giáo viên thường yêu cầu các bạn làm gì đó để chứng minh cho sự hiểu của các bạn.
8 Bạn thường hiểu rõ hướng dẫn của giáo viên trước khi làm việc theo nhóm.
Phần 2: Ấn định thời gian của giáo viên
9 Giáo viên thường ấn định thời gian cho mỗi hoạt động
10 Bạn làm việc hiệu quả hơn khi giáo viên ấn định thời gian cho mỗi hoạt động.
11 Bạn thích giáo viên đưa ra thời gian hạn định cho mỗi hoạt động
Phần 3: Chia nhóm của giáo viên
12 Giáo viên thường yêu cầu các bạn làm việc theo nhóm từ 4 đến
13 Giáo viên thường nhóm học sinh làm việc theo nhóm với các trình độ và khả năng khác nhau.
14 Giáo viên để cho học sinh tự chọn nhóm theo ý minh.
15 Mỗi học sinh trong nhóm đều được phân công một nhiệm vụ cụ thể.
16 Giáo viên thường luân phiên phân vai cho các thành viên trong nhóm ( Học sinh trong nhóm luân phiên nhau làm người kiểm tra, người hỗ trợ, thư ký, người đặt câu hỏi…)
17 Giáo viên có nhiều cách khác nhau để chia nhóm.
18 Bạn thích làm việc trong nhóm mà có nhiều bạn có khả năng và trình độ khác nhau.
Phần 4: Sự kiểm soát của giáo viên với hoạt động nhóm
19 Khi bạn làm việc trong nhóm, giáo viên thường di chuyển quanh lớp để quan sát và luôn sãn sàng giúp đỡ lúc cần thiết.
20 Giáo viên thường kín đáo quan sát và tránh can thiệp vào hoạt động của nhóm trừ khi các bạn trong nhóm có cái gì đó đi lệch hướng
21 Giáo viên không chữa tất cả các lỗi, cô chỉ chữa những lỗi sai nghiêm trọng vào cuối các hoạt động
22 Giáo viên tích cực kiểm soát tất cả các hoạt động của nhóm để đảm bảo rằng tất cả các học sinh đang làm việc.
Phần 5: Kết thúc hoạt động của giáo viên
23 Giáo viên yêu cầu học sinh ngừng làm việc và báo cáo kết quả của nhóm
24 Sau khi kết thúc thời gian làm việc trong nhóm, giáo viên gọi ngẫu nhiên một thành viên trong nhóm báo cáo kết quả của nhóm
25 Giáo viên thường đưa ra những nhận xét hoặc chữa lỗi chung chung chứ không chỉ ra cụ thể ai là người mắc lỗi.
26 Bạn làm việc hiệu quả hơn khi giáo viên luôn kiểm tra kết quả công việc của nhóm.
27 Bạn học được nhiều hơn khi bạn lắng nghe các nhóm khác trình bầy kết quả của họ.
Cảm ơn sự cộng tác của các em!
2 The teacher’s activities in speaking lessons
3 The teacher’s instruction and input
4 The teacher’s giving time limit
Observer: the researcher unit 3: Business and MoneyClass: A 1 Course book: Interactions 2
Number of students: 24 time: 90 minutes
Stage/ activities Teaching procedure Comments
- T asked Ss to read the conversation between Jeff and his father and find out one place where Jeff ask his father for advice, and four places where his father gives him advice
- T called some students to answer the questions and listed some useful expressions of advice:
What do you suggest/ advise?
-T had a good way to introduce the new lesson and gave Ss useful expressions of advice
- T asked Ss to work in pairs to role play four situation in order to practice expressions of advice.
- Call some Ss to report their work.
- T did not set time limit for the task therefore Ss did not work hard to finish their assignment on time.
- Some Ss worked in pairs, some Ss kept silent, and some Ss chatted with their friends.
- T did not actively move around to control pair work, she often sat on her chair and only rose her voice when time finished
List out all qualities of an entrepreneur
- T asked two students sitting in a table to discuss qualities of an entrepreneur having in common and answer the question if you like to be an entrepreneur? Why or why not?
- Call some Ss to present in front of the class and then wrote down some characteristics of entrepreneurs
- T gave comments for the answer.
- T asked Ss to work in groups of five in order to design a product or service together, used the following questions to guide you.
1 Give reasons for a product, the benefits of a product
2 Design a business plan focusing on some items
+ where your business be located?
+ what special people will you need to hire?
- T did not make an example to make sure all Ss understand what they had to do As a result, students kept asking their friends what to do in Vietnamese
- T did not change her way to group Ss, thus Ss were not very interesting to work in pair.
- T’s comments on their good and bad points motivated Ss’ working.
- T only used English to instruct Ss therefore Ss did not understand clearly her instruction for the assignment
- T did not design a specific task for each member of group and she also did not appoint a leader for each group, therefore
Ss did not fully cooperate appropriately.
- T did not often remind Ss when they went on right direction and talked privately.
- T asked Ss to stay in the same group to interview friends’ attitudes about money
- T did not design a specific task for each member of group and she also did not appoint a leader for each group, therefore basing on the following questions in page 72
- T called some groups to share their answers in front of the class.
- T gave comments on Ss’ results and corrected mistakes
Ss did not fully cooperate appropriately.
- T did not often remind Ss when they went on wrong direction and talked privately.
- T was good at correcting mistakes at the end of the activity by noting down all comment mistakes and gave mark for the best groups.
Observer: The researcher unit 4: Jobs and Professions
1 presentation - T asked Ss to describe the
(10’) man’s job in the picture.
- T asked Ss their idea jobs
- T listed out the name of typical jobs
- T asked Ss to work in groups of 5 to interview applicants for four positions in the company such as manager, checker, stock clerk, an butcher.
- T provided some qualities of each job
- Call some representatives to report which applicants they picked for the job.
- T asked Ss work in pairs to look at the lists of housework and discuss which work was for wife and which works were for husband.
- T asked some Ss to report their choice.
- T asked Ss to look at the lists of jobs to discuss which
- T did not give Ss an example interview to make her instructions more clearly. Therefore, Ss met difficulty in doing the task.
- Some Ss did the task, some chatted with friends in mother tongue, it seemed that Ss were quite reluctant to speaking.
- T did not control group work well because some group made unhelpful noise.
- T did not move around the class to encourage and help students to keep working.
- T was not flexible in timing because T did not ask Ss to report their work when many groups finished their assignment before limit time.
- T did not change the way of grouping students, thus Ss felt bored when working
( 25’) jobs were for men and which jobs were for women and which were for both.
- T called some groups to share their answer in front of the class. with the same partners
- T did not control group well and did not gave Ss necessary help to finish the task.
- T asked Ss to work in groups of 4 to interview their work experience.
- T called some Ss to share the answer in front of the class.
- T gave comments on Ss’ results and corrected mistakes
- Before instructing students, the teacher did not draw Ss’ attention therefore students could not hear the teacher’s instruction clearly and met difficulties in operating group activities.
- T did not change the way of grouping because it might take time.
- T’s instruction was not clear enough to understand She did not explain to the Ss carefully how the task would run by giving understanding example.
Observer: The researcher unit 5: Global Connections
Number of students: 24 time: 90 minutes
- T asked Ss to look at the picture and answer two questions: (1)
Where is the person in the photo?
What is the person doing? (2) Why do you think this person need a computer?
- Call some Ss to answer the questions and listed out some new words such as catch up with, stay in touch…
- T asked Ss to work in group to find out the way their partners stay in touch with family and friends.
- T stopped the activity and called some Ss to report their results.
- T asked Ss to work in pairs to discuss the situation about customs around the world.
- T called Ss to present the answers
- T asked Ss to work in groups of five to discuss the situation given in the passage at page 138.
- T called some groups to share
- T did not always walk around the class to check the progress of the group work, listen to errors and praise for good language in use.
- T did not make an example to help Ss clearly understand about the task.
- T did not walk around the class to check the progress of the group work and gave help if necessary.
- T was good at commenting on Ss’ best points and reminding them some mistakes.
- T did not design a specific task for each member of group and she also did not appoint a leader for each group, therefore Ss did not fully cooperated appropriately. their answer in front of the class.
- T gave comments on Ss’ results and corrected mistakes
- T noted down some comment mistakes and gave mark for the best groups.
- T asked Ss to work in groups of five to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of technology.
- T called some groups to share their answer in front of the class.
- T made an example to clarify her instruction
- T did not set time limit for the task
Observer: The researcher unit 6: Tastes and Preferences
Number of students: 24 time: 90 minutes
- T asked Ss to answer two questions: (1) What kind of music do you listen to? Where and when do you listen to music? (2) Tell about three things you’ve done to show your personal tastes and preferences.
- Call some Ss to answer the questions and lead to the lesson.
- T asked Ss to work in pairs to discuss the topic at page (174)
- T provided some useful expressions of likes and dislikes:
+ It’s fantastic/terrific/cool + I’m crazy about it
- T made an example to draw Ss’ attention to the assignment.
- T called some Ss to report their results.
- T was not flexible in timing because T did not ask
Ss to report their work when most of them finish their assignment before limit time.
- T was quite good at providing useful expressions of likes and dislikes.
- T asked Ss to work in groups of four to take turns picking a topic from ten given ones in the box and speaking about this topic, using expressions of likes and dislikes.
- T illustrated by giving an example about a summer vacation.
- Call Ss to repot their choice and gave their reasons for the answers
- T asked Ss to work with a partner to talk about your ideal partner, and listed at least five qualities you value in a romantic partner.
- T avoided interrupting groups unless something went seriously wrong.
- T commented on Ss’ best points and reminded them some mistakes
- T did not change the way of grouping students.
- T did not often walk around the class to check the progress of the group work so as to encourage Ss to complete the task by given
- Call some Ss to share their answers with classmates time.
- T corrected mistakes in general, she did not pointed out who made mistakes.
OBSERVATION SHEET TWO
1 These observations are designed to measure levels of students’ participation generated by the ways in which students are involved in speaking activities.
2 Start the observation when the students have been working together in groups, in pairs or individually for two minutes.
3 Observe students one by one, consecutively, clockwise around the class Identify students by code number
4 Every 10 seconds, write down the category best describing the observed students’ behaviors at that moment, then pass on to the next student
5 Write down the number sequence down to the data sheet
6 Continue until all students have been observed 12 times
Categories: 1 = students on task, 2 = students off task
“On task”: engaged in the group work of the day
“Off task”: a complete lack of attention to the task
OBSERVATION SHEET THRESS
Overall class motivation (Adopted from Nunan 1987)
Observation focus: Level of student motivation generated by the teaching materials in use
3 is an average mark for any one item
- This sheet is for observing the class as a whole, not individual student
- Complete this sheet when the activity is drawing to a close
- Circle ONE number for each statement below
- Add final comments at the bottom of the sheet if you wish
1 Mark how involved in the learning task the students are not very involved 1 2 3 4 5 very involved
2 Mark the level of student concentration on the learning task low 1 2 3 4 5 high
3 The students are enjoying the activity not really 1 2 3 4 5 very much
4 The students are paying persistent (extended) attention to the learning task not really 1 2 3 4 5 very much
5 Mark the student’s ability level (effort / intensity of application) low 1 2 3 4 5 high
6 The students find the teaching materials interesting not really 1 2 3 4 5 very much
7 The activities are appropriate for the students not really 1 2 3 4 5 very much
8 The current organization of group activities are appropriate for the students
APPENDIX 6: THE RESULTS OF THE QUESTIONAIRES 1 & 2
Questions Mean 1 Mean 2 Mode 1 Mode 2
1 Mean 1 and Mode 1: Mean and Mode of questionnaire 1 in the first weeks.
2 Mean 2 and Mode 2: Mean and Mode of questionnaire 2 in the last four weeks.
APPENDIX 7: THE RESULTS OF THE STUDENTS’ ON TASK
APPENDIX 8: THE RESULTS OF THE STUDENTS’ OVERAL PARTICIPATION
THE RESULTS OF THE STUDENTS’ ON TASK
APPENDIX 8: THE RESULTS OF THE STUDENTS’ OVERAL PARTICIPATION