Using group work to enhance efl students self confidence in speaking english ma

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE USING GROUP WORK TO ENHANCE EFL STUDENTS’ SELF-CONFIDENCE IN SPEAKING ENGLISH A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL By VO THI HOA CANH Supervised by DOAN HUE DUNG, Ph.D HO CHI MINH, OCTOBER 2021 i ACKNOWLEGMENTS I am very grateful to many people who have helped and supported me a lot to complete this study Most importantly, I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation from the bottom of my heart to my supervisor-Dr Doan Hue Dung-for her mountain of valuable guidance, huge support and encouragement until this study has been completed I could not have completed my writing without her guidance and supervision.She carefully checked and corrected every piece of my writing, and followed up on my progress to encourage me whenever I was depressed about my work I would like to say "thank you very much for everything you have done for me" Second, I really appreciate all the lecturers in the English Linguistics and Literature Faculty for their brilliant work on transferring and teaching very valuable background knowledge about research in the TESOL program These lectures have played a very significant role as an orientation to push me forward during my own study I'd also like to thank all of the participants who worked so hard with me to create so many successful lessons.They agreed to participate in each activity with an honest attitude and cooperation, which provided me with useful data to answer my research questions Last, my appreciation was also sent to my center manager, who approved of my study being conducted in her own center She permitted me to deliver a questionnaire at the intermediate level and take action in my own class I also have to thank my colleagues for their help in terms of allowing me to enter their class to collect data from a questionnaire I could not have had this setting to conduct my study without their support ii STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This thesis, “Using group work to enhance EFL students’ self-confidence in speaking English” has not been published or accepted by any university or educational institution It is entirely mine I also confirm that I wrote the thesis all by myself All of the materials utilized in the thesis, as well as any aid and support I received, were acknowledged Ho Chi Minh City, October, 2021 Vo Thi Hoa Canh iii RETENTION OF USE I hereby state that I, Vo Thi Hoa Canh, being a candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the university relating to the retention and use of Master’s theses deposited in the library In accordance with these terms, I agree that the original of my thesis should be available for study and research purposes in accordance with the normal conditions established by the library for the care, loan, or reproduction of theses Ho Chi Minh City, July, 2021 Vo Thi Hoa Canh iv TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEGMENTS ii RETENTION OF USE iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii LIST OF TABLES ix LIST OF FIGURES x ABSTRACT xi CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study 1.2 Aims of the research 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 The organization of the thesis CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW Self-confidence 2.1 2.1.1 Definition of self- confidence 2.1.2 Self- confidence and anxiety 2.1.3 Self-perceptions of L2 competence in speaking English 2.1.4 The importance of self- confidence in learning English Group work 10 2.2 2.2.1 Definition of group work 10 2.2.2 The significance of group work 11 2.2.3 Conditions to have a successful group work 13 Group Work Activity Selection 16 2.3 v 2.3.1 Jigsaw 16 2.3.2 Interview 17 2.3.3 Think-pair-share 17 Group work and self-confidence: 18 2.4 Conceptual Framework 18 CHAPTER 23 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 23 3.1 Research design 23 3.2 Research site 26 3.3 Research participants 26 3.3.1 Participants for the preliminary questionnaire 26 3.3.2 Participants for cycles’ activities 27 Research Instruments 29 3.4 3.4.1 Preliminary Questionnaire 29 3.4.2 Student’s feedback 30 3.4.3 Classroom observation checklist 30 English courses in PMP language center 31 3.5 3.5.1 Types of English courses in the center 31 3.5.2 Textbook use 32 3.5.3 Test and assessment 33 Data collection procedures 34 3.6 3.6.1 Preliminary questionnaire 34 3.6.2 Research Cycles 35 CHAPTER 37 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 37 4.1 Findings 37 4.1.1 Factors that affect students’ self-confidence 37 4.1.2 Data analysis of cycles’ activities 43 4.1.2.1 Cycle 1: Jigsaw and Think-pair- share 43 4.1.2.2 Cycle 2: Think-Pair-Share & Interview 49 Summary of main findings 66 4.2 vi 4.3 Discussion 67 4.3.1 Factors that affect students’ self-confidence in speaking English 68 4.3.2 Self-confidence enhancement thanks to group work 69 CHAPTER 71 CONCLUSION 71 5.1 Conclusion 71 5.2 Pedagogical implication 72 REFERENCES 75 APPENDICES 82 APPENDIX 1: STUDENTS’ CONSENT FORM 82 APPENDIX 2: PRELIMINARY QUESTIONNAIRE 83 APPENDIX CLASSROOM OBSERVATION CHECKLIST 86 APPENDIX 4: STUDENTS’ FEEDBACK 88 LESSON PLAN 90 HANDOUT 105 ACTIVITY DESCRIPTIONS 110 ACTIVITY 1: JIGSAW 110 ACTIVITY 2: THINK-PAIR-SHARE 114 ACTIVITY 3: THINK-PAIR-SHARE 117 ACTIVITY 4: INTERVIEW 120 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English Foreign Learners L2: Second Language L1: First language PMP: Practice Makes Perfect English center RQ: Research Question A: Activity HCMUSSH: The University of Social Sciences and Humanities- Vietnam National University- Ho chi minh City TDT: Ton Duc Thang University HUFLIT: Ho Chi Minh University of Foreign Languages and Information Technology viii LIST OF TABLES Table The summary of participants’ information Table Participant’s score in the previous course Table English courses in the center Table Lesson’s components of the book Table Test and assessment scores Table A brief description of data collected from the preliminary questionnaire Table Summary of strengths and weaknesses of the 1st cycle Table Summary of strengths and weaknesses of the 2nd cycle ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure Conceptual framework for the study Figure Action Research Cycle Framework Figure The framework of research design Figure Participants for the cycles Figure Apprehension of making mistakes Figure Teacher’s negative feedback Figure Lack of preparation Figure Students’ deficiency in English competence Figure The size of group work Figure 10 Partner’s preferences x Mindy: Why don’t you test drive one? Tony: Great, I will Thanks for advice Tony Exercise 2: look at these phrases Getting advice Giving advice It is a good idea to What should I do? Why don’t you Do you think I should You should/ ought to Can you give me some advice? If I were you, I would I recommend that Exercise 3: read their problems and give some advice Problem 1: I have a big problem It’s my best friend She doesn’t really have any time for me these days I call her and she can’t talk I text her, and she doesn’t answer right away I think it’s because of her cat, Peaches She got this little cat for her 30th birthday, and now she takes it everywhere She even dresses it in little sweaters and hats I don’t know what to Is it possible to be jealous of a cat? Problem 2: There’s this new person at work She works next to me and we get along, but she’s always asking me to things for her For example, she asks me to get her coffee when I get some for myself Or she drops by and asks me to copy things for her when she’s “busy” She’s not my boss! Should I just refuse to things for her? I want to be nice, but I have to my own work Can you help me, please? 108 ACTIVITY 4: INTERVIEW THE ANNIVERSARY EXERCISE 1: Fill in the gaps with the correct form of these verbs get be give hear let call keep leave lose get Who in your family is usually difficult to get hold of? Do you usually your friends a call on their birthdays? When people you messages, you generally them back immediately? How you usually someone know you're going to be late? Have you got friends from ten years ago that you still in touch with? Have you touch with everyone you knew at your first school? How you in touch with friends who live far away? Is there a person you haven't heard from for years that you'd like to in touch with again? EXERCISE 2: Go around and take turns to interview your friends Part Ask follow-up questions if possible Questions no My friends’ names Question Name: _ Question Name: _ Question Name: _ Question Name: _ Question Name: _ Question Name: _ Question Name: _ Question Name: _ 109 Follow-up questions ACTIVITY DESCRIPTIONS ACTIVITY 1: JIGSAW As planned in lesson plan, I had students sit in a group of three and took their own piece of reading to read They had to discuss with their teammates to find out the meaning of some new words and try to catch the main content in their head They can underline the new words and jot down the meanings in Vietnamese or English I asked their friends to cross check their answers together They had more five minutes to speak out sharing in team It was easy to see their paid-attention to the reading text They also felt excited to read with their team I observed their acting of using code switching between Vietnamese and English altogether, especially for new words This was at very first stage of level B1, they found the long text was hard to follow and understand under time pressure However, I saw some better students with acceptable vocabulary bank well-dealing with the reading task More luckily, they were willing to help and explain to the weaker ones in their team While discussing, they sometimes laughed and sometimes seriously stayed focused Teacher gave them a list of new vocabulary and definition for the reading and had them back to reading to check their understanding They felt more released to hold their keys to the understanding and they started to check and translate Some students used Vietnamese to translate their reading with their friends although Vietnamese was there on their handout Because I asked them to try to get the points and details of their reading, they stayed more focus and tried to memorize as much as possible I heard some whispers through the class when they were trying to get detail There were parts of the reading so they were quite long for them to memorize in a short period of time The teacher moved around to motivate them to talk and discuss as a facilitator Observing their about-to-finish stage, teacher asked them to change their team and find new ones with different parts of the reading They had to sit in a group of three but with different reading content At a very first time, they were quite confused so I had to stop 110 them to give instruction again Luckily, they soon found out how to move their seat appropriately and they started to ask their friends around to find their target partners It was quite noisy on the way they moved and asked to check But it seemed to make the classroom’s atmosphere more active and comfortable They started to share their part to their new mates However, they kept looking at their paper because they didn’t remember the content Someone sometimes took a look at their material and kept talking Someone used gestures and even Vietnamese when they got stuck in explaining Good speakers come from two girls S1 and S2 who were active to share without staring at their pieces, they were quite confident of what they were expressing Some others were reserved and talked quietly causing a little trouble to observe At the second round, I clapped my hand to signal them to change their partners again They moved faster than the first time as it was just repeated as the first round M2 were active to talk loud but he sometimes stared at his paper It was quite sad for a good student W2 and W4 were talking more compared to the first move They started to join in the team instead of looking around and keeping silent They showed their attentions to discussion and gave explanation and expression of their parts However, W3 was still in trouble of expressing in English He just stood to listen carefully and sometimes spoke some words out in his turn He was willing to talk but his competence held him back Holistically, groups having weak students had many difficulties in discussing and controlling their activity W1, W2, W3, W4 indicated their weaknesses in using vocabulary and grammar on the way they tried to express out their ideas But, other teams with better- competent students supplied more information in an easier way S1, S2 and M1, M4 could lead the discussion far thanks to their good vocabulary and grammar and pronunciation They felt more confident to express and help their teammates as well 111 The teacher circulated around the class, some students who used to study with her previously actively made some questions to the teacher They asked teacher how to translate some words to English or what some words meant This sign of actively asking teacher showed me a good feeling about how they were dealing with their speaking actively and confidently Especially, these questions mostly came from W and M students who were ranked as less competent At the end of activity, I asked some members to share their parts in front of class to check their understanding There was no volunteer to reply my requirement They might be not confident enough to present their voice front I decided to pick some representatives from each team to present the whole reading text I invited M2 from group one, W1 from team 2, S2 from team I wanted to see the gap between these different leveled students S2 expressed her part quite smoothly and fluently M2 also found it quite good to express her part but her voice and pronunciation were still problematic W1 could tell everyone his part with a loud voice but his pronunciation and fluency needed a lot of training and practice I had to remind him sometime to keep him going After all, they finished their presentation with a lot of effort and facilitation from the teacher I recognized that W1 was not comfortable with this step so I interviewed him a little bit after the class He told me that “I am shy to talk in front of friends I am afraid of their comments and laughs if I have any mistakes The text is too long for me to remember exactly I don’t know what to say next I encouraged him that he did a good job with remembering his part and got over fear to finish his task He seemed to understand my point and laughed I hoped he would better and more confident next activity I handed the students’ feedback to all students to get more valuable information for the next step of the study Most of students complained about the length of the text which caused a lot of confusion and obstacles to move forward, especially W and M students However, some students quite liked this one due to its challenging and demanding to drive them work harder on the task 112 The activity generally seemed to run well when everyone joined the activity, the activities also achieved some objectives to help students talk more and communicate more with different types of friends Yet, it did not get its ultimate achievement to help students self-confident for some visible reasons It stressed some lowcompetent students to get more success by the blurred images of changing team members at the very first start The atmosphere was noisy due to their asking questions to move, not from their much discussion or sharing about the lesson content Moreover, due to the unfamiliarity, they found it quite confused to work with strange faces in the class The long text for the first session was a minus, they didn’t get enough information for their discussion, so they can’t talk without using their prepared paper and material From student’s feedback of four W students, they both complained the reading task too long to catch the main point and they found it quite confusing to share their part with their changing teammates This led a drawback of speaking English because they depended too much on materials I jumped to a decision to replace it and eliminate these weaknesses in next activity 113 ACTIVITY 2: THINK-PAIR-SHARE Activity was taken place one week later I had to remind them of the ongoing study and asked them not to be off from the class This time I let them sit alone to take the input of the lesson They sit in the U-shaped class Supplying the second conditionals was my first input process to them I gave them examples in order that they could grasp the grammar point When usages and structures of the second conditional were supplied, I gave them a situation and asked them to discuss in pair I allowed them to think in minutes about their answers before they stepped into the battle of sharing They were required to think about “what would you if you won lottery?” The topic was a free one in which they could imagine whatever they wanted The classroom atmosphere was in fun when they were eager to think and talk I gave a topic and asked them to think for minutes before moving their seats around They tried to jot down any information on their notes I encouraged them to write key words, main points but whole sentences or paragraphs Although the last time was weakened by looking at their notes, they still were allowed to bring their notes along There were only keywords and ideas for the questions, they had to make full sentences with the second conditionals themselves I saw them bring their materials along but they hardly looked at it Experienced from the first activity, I allowed them to choose their favorite acquaintance to join the task where I found them really into it Especially, I saw W2 and W4 smiling when speaking and they replied with a very positive gesture They were happy to talk with their favorite so their positive face expression and gesture caught my eyes a lot I also took a lot of attention to the W students in case that they needed support Although I assigned them to move in pair, they quickly moved in a group of three to talk and discuss It took me some more minutes to control and gave instructions 114 again As the first time, I observed that some low- competent students still stuck in expressing their ideas but they felt more relaxed to talk I saw W3 still got stuck from their ideas and talks, but he showed his interest in the activity by trying to ask and respond to his partner’s questions He sometimes used Vietnamese to express or asked his friends When he saw me coming, he tried to use English They made a lot of laughs through the discussion I didn’t remind him using English all the time as I thought it was better for him to use some Vietnamese when he needed In contrast, some students were marked as high-competence student namely S1, S2, M2, M3 who were fairly confident to join the activity They were ready to join the activity and opened to ask the others They were also patient to talk and listen to some lower competence This made a good contributions to help the lower better in speaking They felt less pressure to talk and speak loudly to express their ideas in speaking However, M2 and M3 made some grammar mistakes and used inappropriate when discussing These two students also had pronunciation mistakes which could be easily recognized When I asked them to change their team for next discussion, they quickly moved to join a new group except W2 She looked around and looked for her favorite team instead of joining in any group When joining her favorite team, she started to talk eagerly although her English speaking still needed a lot efforts Holistically observed, the activity run well as everyone focused on their talking and seemed interested in the topic They talked a lot and quite comfortable to share I tried to move around and listened to their talking to understand whether they were going on the right track Sometimes I joined a team with some words or ideas which could open and enlarge their opinion on what they were discussing And these words really helped them feel more confident to continue on their ongoing They didn’t feel annoyed with my intervention by actively asking me for new words or expressions 115 I intended to ask students volunteer to make conversation in front but there was only one team with S1 and M2 did Therefore, I called some pairs to present their discussion in front I asked the rest of class to pay attention to see whether they did a right thing or not Pair one with S1 and M2, pair two with S2 and W2, pair three with M1 and M5, pair four with M3 and W3, pair five with M4 and M6 M1 was added to team one Because they just expressed their answer with a grammatical structure of second condition, there was no one dominating the discussion I saw better competent student had a fluent answers and added information whereas the lower ones showed less fluent However, those W students showed better by speaking louder and used correct grammar structures for their presentation This activity was more successful when collecting student’s feedback in which they expressed their engagement to the activity They thought this activity was good to them to speak They both commented positively to this activity for its freedom of choosing friends and more talks during the activity They felt comfortable and confident to talk although sometimes they used both English and Vietnamese This one admitted the comfort of the activity made a good contribution to their confidence in speaking Although the activity was commented positively, I saw a weakness in organizing the activity Specifically the teacher didn’t control the number of students in pair at very first move This took some more minutes to set up the instructions again The grammar was used ok in this activity but students did not show much vocabulary in this activity However, this activity allowed me to check all students publicly in class without taking much time I needed to supply them more vocabulary For these reasons, I decided to reapply this activity in the next circle 116 ACTIVITY 3: THINK-PAIR-SHARE This think pair share was reapplied in the interest of pros and cons of the first use This time I did not let them move their seat as it caused a mess of pairing I let them sit with the person next to them to minimize the time-wasting After delivering their handout, they started to think quietly about each situation and their advice It took about 10 minutes because they needed more time to understand their situations on the handout Although I asked them to think and take note their advices in case they forgot to talk later, some of them didn’t jot down M1 and M2 didn’t take note but tried hard to think and whisper their ideas when thinking W2 spoke out loud and tried to translate into Vietnamese to understand more S1 didn’t take note as well but she underlined and highlighted some words for the better She also helped W3 to understand each situation better S2 understood her part but she still noted down what she wanted to say and well prepared The vocabulary on the handout was already ready on some previous lesson but some of them found a little difficult to remember their meanings M6 used his phone to check some words and explained to M4- his partner W1 was quite silent to think, sometimes he seemed to be confused and he asked S2 for something After 10 minutes of thinking, I allowed them to share their advice to each situation with their partner They just talked to one partner for the whole activity as in pair The classroom atmosphere began to be noisier because they were quite eager to speak to give advice M1 and M2 talked smoothly although there were no pieces of noting down However they had some difficulties to express sometimes and teacher was there to help them for example “nếu tơi tơi nói thẳng, nói thẳng cơ” They still made mistakes in grammar and shortage of vocabulary but he knew how to express his ideas to give advice This was similar to some students at group M the shortage of grammar and vocabulary did not stop them from talking but the confusion to speak out was still present However, it was also a highlighted point of this activity It stressed that although they had some knots of grammar and 117 vocabulary, they were able to talk effectively with their friends The confidence could be counted during this case The teacher always moved around to facilitate if they wanted to ask questions I saw them quite more familiar and comfortable with teacher when they did not low down their voice or stop talking This was better than the first activity I tried to involve in group’s activity to listen to their ideas and made some words to their discussion These ones might draw them new ideas to expand their mind or supplied them more vocabulary to be applied later I recognized teacher’s role was very significant to student’s improvement and they had to switch to different roles to be suitable with steps of teaching Teacher’s talking time and facilitation didn’t cost much during the activity even though teacher tried to intervene to student’s talking But the intervention just came on condition of student’s requirement It did not also cause any irritation and discomfort for students to speak This was really helpful to encourage and push them to move forward in speaking There were two members in each team, so I checked them in pair instead of checking individually Time was about to finish, so I did not invite all students to the board First of all, I tried to ask for volunteer spirit but I failed They might not still ready for a volunteer even S students Thus, I just picked up a group I did not involve much to see how they worked M3 and M4 were the two coming up on the stage This team did a good job when they could fluently speak to say their advice in front of their friends The lesson supplied a list of phrases of giving and getting advice, which structured students better in use They had a foundation and orientation to follow up and a video-based input also modelled them better to copy 118 At the end of class, I handed feedback form to students to collect their comments on the activity Luckily, most of feedback taken back showed that they loved this activity and felt more confidence to talk with their friends during the activity But some students also found hard to talk without vocabulary supply This helped me have more ideas for the next activity in which I wanted to eliminate student’s dissatisfaction 119 ACTIVITY 4: INTERVIEW Before conducting interview activity, the researcher used some techniques and steps to lead to the main lesson’s input I arranged them to sit in a group of three and assigned them a handout to The aim of the lesson that day was to help them know how to use some phrases in their speaking These phrases mostly was about relationship connections After delivering handout, they started to fill in the blanks There were some phrases they might not familiar with causing some troubles of matching Students did raise their hands to explain some phrases given in the language input section which really made my day It was a sign of being more confident in speaking English They felt comfortable to present their ideas in front of other students with being afraid of negative comments The input step took quite a long time to finish because they had to discuss themselves before I gave them the final answers I also gave them some more minutes for loading in their mind I hoped them understand better these phrases for the next step of interview When they were loading their words, they also used Vietnamese to talk with their friends I explained what they had to next was to move around and interview with different questions They had to ask one person one question and kept moving to ask new ones until they finished their list of questions on their textbook The atmosphere of the class was silent when they were preparing their input with their given handout However, this changed to a very active one once they were allowed to move their seats They moved quite fast but messy up at very first minute of the activity Because the class was fairly small so their moves had some weaknesses Then, they started to run well in their act by asking their friends and kept spinning through the classroom W2 spoke out loud with their mates to ask her 120 question It was a really good sight to prove she was getting more confidence in speaking W1 also showed his flexibility and his adaption to the activity by moving and changing partner quite smoothly It proved that he understood the sentences and be in a good mood with the interview I saw W3 and W4 moving too slowly because they took more time to ask W3 spoke very slowly although he was allowed to take a look at his material W4 was under the same condition as W3 But they was active to change partner as soon as they put an end to the previous one This was also a spotlight of this activity to the weaker students As usual, S1 and S2 still had no difficulties to finish the activity They actively moved and talked with others They also looked at the questions but the way they made it fast The questions were specifically supplied with vocabulary and specific grammar points so I the participants used less Vietnamese in their discussion I gave them the answers for the questions and there was time for their preparation before interviewing, they didn’t need to use Vietnamese to explain Moreover, further information was optional, they could ask and move instead of expanding their answers Therefore, Vietnamese wasn’t used much here The activity run well with a little help for the teacher She sometimes moved around to see which one having troubles Most of her time was standing to look around to see how much students talked and asked their friends, how many times they found new partner Although someone like M2 and M6 were passive to find partners, the rest was opposite Luckily, they didn’t feel annoyed with my intervention by actively asked me some questions.” Actively asking teacher was considered one of confidence signals in speaking English I tried to ask for volunteer this time with a hope of seeing a hand raising Fortunately, I caught smiling faces with a hand-raising of M5, W2, M3 who showed excitement to participate in the activity 121 They responded positively to the interview activity on their student’s feedback form They expressed their eagerness to this by “I liked the activity and I felt confident to talk I had much time to talk with my friends” They also commented that they could use different questions to ask different people and had no worries of memorizing too much information while talking This might be from I repeated the phrases and helped them remember in anticipation of the next step These feedbacks supported my aim to the research 122