Điều tra các loại tương tác trong giảng dạy kỹ năng nói tiếng anh cho trẻ em tại các trường tiểu học ở thành phố huế

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES NGUYEN THI NHU AN AN INVESTIGATION INTO TYPES OF CLASSROOM INTERACTION IN TEACHING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS TO YOUNG LEARNERS AT SOME PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN HUE CITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Hue University of Foreign Languages HUE, 2015 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES NGUYEN THI NHU AN AN INVESTIGATION INTO TYPES OF CLASSROOM INTERACTION IN TEACHING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS TO YOUNG LEARNERS AT SOME PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN HUE CITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.14.01.11 SUPERVISOR: TRUONG BACH LE, D.Ed HUE, 2015 i BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ NGUYỄN THỊ NHƯ AN ĐIỀU TRA CÁC LOẠI TƯƠNG TÁC TRONG GIẢNG DẠY KỸ NĂNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH CHO TRẺ EM TẠI CÁC TRƯỜNG TIỂU HỌC Ở THÀNH PHỐ HUẾ LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.14.01.11 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TIẾN SỸ TRƯƠNG BẠCH LÊ HUẾ, 2015 ii STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself Date: …./ …./ 20… Signature Nguyen Thi Nhu An iii ABSTRACT This thesis aims to investigate effective ways to improve students’ learning in English classes through classroom interaction at some primary schools in Hue city Firstly, it defines the importance of classroom interactions Secondly, it answers which interaction patterns can be observed in language classroom Thirdly, how these interactions affect the learner’s participations and learning outcomes The participants of this study include 50 teachers at 10 primary schools in Hue city The data were collected by means of questionnaires, class observations and interviews The finding of the research projects shows that the teachers are aware of the importance of classroom interaction The teachers used many types of activities to encourage students to learn and interact so that they have more opportunity to develop their oral skills From the findings, there are three types of interaction including teacher-student, student-student and student-content The survey shows that teacher-student and student-student interaction modes are frequently used in teaching and learning English at some primary schools in Hue city Finally, some implications and suggestions are made in the hope that teachers will improve spoken English learning through promoting classroom interaction iv Acknowledgements In the process of choosing and conducting the study, I am fortunate enough to receive valuable assistance and support My thanks first go to my supervisor, Dr Truong Bach Le for his early suggestion of the topic and his warm support throughout the current study I am really thankful that he has spent time correcting and giving comments to my work Moreover, I respect the support from 50 English of teachers of ten primary schools in Hue city who completed the questionnaire and the interview with interest and enthusiasm Equally important, I appreciate the encouragement of my beloved sister, Ms Huynh Thi Phuong for her whole-heart help and encouragement when I collected the data Finally, I would like to show my deep gratitude to my beloved family, my lovely friends who are always by my side, give me mental support and most importantly, more inspirations to finish the thesis after a lot of difficulties v TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Pages SUB COVER PAGE STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ABSTRACT ACKOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CONTENTS OF THESIS CHAPTER - INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research background 1.2 Reasons for the research .2 1.3 Aims of the study 1.4 Research questions .4 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Structure of the study CHAPTER - LITERATURE REVIEW .5 2.1 Previous studies related to the topic .5 2.2 What is interaction? 2.2.1 Interaction as a general term .8 2.2.2 Interaction as a key term in EFL .9 2.2.3.Teaching and learning activities promoting interaction 10 2.3 Types of classroom interaction 12 2.3.1 Teacher-student .12 2.3.2 Teacher- Students 13 2.3.3 Student - student 13 2.3.4 Student- Students 14 2.4 The Nature of Speaking and Learning Speaking .14 2.4.1 Definition of speaking .14 vi 2.4.2 Nature of Oral Communicative Activities in the Classroom 17 2.5 Reason for Teaching Speaking to young learners 19 2.6 Young learners 20 2.6.1 Definition 20 2.6.2 Characteristics of young learners 20 2.6.3 How children learn language through interaction 22 2.6.4 Helpful ideas for teaching English to young learners .22 2.7 Summary 23 CHAPTER - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 24 3.1 Introduction 24 3.2 Research approach .24 3.3 Participants 25 3.4 Data collection 25 3.4.1 Questionnaires 25 3.4.2 Interviews 26 3.4.3 Class observation 27 3.5 Data analysis 28 3.6 Summary 28 CHAPTER - FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 29 4.1 The teachers’ perceptions of the importance of teaching speaking skill to children 29 4.2 The importance of classroom interaction 37 4.3 Teachers’ perceptions of interaction patterns in language classroom .38 4.4 Data analysis from class observation 39 4.5 Activities used to promote interaction and their advantages .40 4.5.1 Kind of activities used to promote interaction 40 4.5.2 Groups formation and some difficulties in working in groups .42 4.6 Types of activities used by teachers to interact with students 43 4.7 The impacts of classroom interaction 44 4.8 The impacts of classroom of interaction patterns on learning outcomes 46 vii CHAPTER - CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS .50 5.1 Summary of findings 50 5.1.1 What are primary school teachers’ perceptions of interaction in developing speaking skills for the learners? 50 5.1.2 Which types of classroom interaction are used in teaching English speaking skills to young learners at some primary schools in Hue city? 51 5.1.3 How these interactions affect the learners’ participation and their learning outcomes? 52 5.2 Implications and suggestions .53 5.3 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research 55 REFERENCES 56 APPENDIX - QUESTIONNAIR 61 APPENDIX - INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS .66 APPENDIX - OBSERVATION CHECK-LIST 67 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT : Communicative Language Teaching EFL : English as a Foreign Language ZPD : Zone of Proximal Development Yls : Young learners ix conclusion that teachers are not aware of the importance of each interaction type As thus, there is a gap to collect the data Interaction is much promoted when pair work and group work are formed by teacher in class It enhances students’ communicative competence Pair work and group work motivate classroom interaction Pair work increases the amount of student practice It permits students to use language and encourages student participation and cooperation which is important for the atmosphere of the class for the motivation which gives students’ learning While group work gives students great chance to talk, discuss and communicate with each other Pair work and group work are ways of increasing interaction which includes teacher-student and student-student interaction modes Thus, the more pair work and group work are used, the more interactions are increased Accordingly, the teachers are important to set the learning environment which brings about the effectiveness of students’ learning Teachers should use different activities to promote the interaction in learning The increased interaction not only helps build up an effective learning environment, but also helps students reach the outcome of the learning successfully Interaction modes can include not only teacher-student, student-student and student-content, but other interactions as well The other interactions can suggested based on teachers’ perception and their teaching methods in which interaction is creased The teachers who are directly in charge of teaching students, they might know how to use interaction modes in different ways to help them learn better, student-interface interaction, for example For the needed improvement to be achieved in application of types of classroom interaction in teaching and learning English It is important that the teachers use types of classroom interaction frequently to involve students’ learning Activities and task design should be included to enhance interaction Interaction used in language classroom has positive impacts on learning community, which implies that students should feel as comfortable as possible in their classes before and while they are asked to involve in learning activities For example, establishing learning classroom communities is in fact available for classroom activities to 54 which students learn as they and play at home Teachers need to use interaction modes as much as possible so that they are able to promote students’ learning 5.3 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research It is unavoidable that the researcher encountered some difficulties during the conducting process Firstly, the scale of this study was restricted to some primary schools in Hue city, so it is not possible to generalize the findings of the study to teachers in other contexts Secondly, another possible shortcoming of the research is the lack of pupils’ participation The conductor herself understands that the learners play an integral part in the research; however, pupils are too young to attend and guarantee the accuracy of the study results Finally, there are some issues not being thoroughly and deeply analyzed due to the author own constraints of knowledge and time Those are limitations having been inevitably undergone by the researcher The author hopes to have the readers’ sympathy and looks forward to receiving any constructive comment on this study Hopefully, this study will be given researchers’ concerns and it will be carried out not only in Hue city, but also in other provinces national-wide 55 REFERENCES Allwright, D & Bailey, K M (1991) Focus on the Language Classroom Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Asher, J.J (2007) TPR: after forty years, still a very good idea Lo Gatos, CA: Sky Oaks Production, Inc Bell, J 1993 Doing your research project Buckingham Open University Press Beckman, L.O., & Klinghamer, S.J (2006) Shaping the way we teach English: Successful practices around the World Wasington Burns, R (1997) Introduction to research methods (3rd ed.) 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I Personal information You are teaching at school Sex: Male Female Qualification: Bachelor degree Master degree Place of training:…… You are teaching in grade 3 4 5 II Please read the following questions and tick √ the option that suits you best Do you think Speaking is important skill to teach to young learners? a Very important  b Important  c Not important  d Not very important  e Your idea and reasons  How you evaluate your students’ current speaking ablility? a very good  b good  c ok  Reasons for your choice: 61 d not good  In your opinions, classroom interaction is a Important  b Not Important  please explain your choice here: What interaction patterns you follow most frequently in your class? a Teacher-student interaction  b student-student interaction  c Student- content interaction  Other: Do you often use interaction in class? a Yes  b No  If yes,how? What kinds of activities you use to promote interaction in your class? Please say their advantage Activities Advantages a Individual  b Pair work  c Group work  Others: 62 Which activities often the best chance for interaction in your class? Please explain your choice Activities Explainations a Individual b Pair work c Groupwork Other: When your students work in groups, how are the groups formed? Do you have any difficulty in getting them work in groups? What types of activities you use to interact with students? d Find someone who e Guessing game  f Nought and crosses g Mapped and dialogues h Chain game i Multiple choice  j Comprehension questions k Matching  l Gap fill  m Picture drill n Word cue drill  What are your views on the impact of classroom interaction? p It promotes learning q It is the active involvement of students in their own learning  r It builds up an autonomous learning s It builds up a collaborative learning environment  t It enhances students’ communicative competence  63 u It provides the vehicle for communication  v It creates a good and active motivation  Others (please specify here): 10 What are the impacts of classroom interaction patterns on learning outcomes? a It helps make learning process more cooperative, collaborative and meaningful  b It builds up an effective learning environment  c It helps students reach the outcome of the learning successfully  d It helps students negotiate the meaning of the task requirements  e It helps involve students in fulfilling the task requirements  f It gives general techniques for motivating students and helping them deal with discipline problems  Please explain your choice here: Ideas: 11 How does interaction effect the learning? 12 What suggestions can be made to improve the learning outcomes affected by the interaction participations? 13 What is your role as a teacher in classroom? 64 14 What type of interactions you use most when you are teaching different skills skill Interaction type speaking Teacher-student Teacherstudents/class Student-student (pair work) Student-students (groupwork) Studenttask/content MANY THANKS FOR YOUR COOPERATION! 65 Reasons for your choice APPENDIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS What activities you often apply in your English speaking class to help your students improve their speaking skill effectively? Please give me the reason why you appreciate it/them? Is it important to teach English speaking skill to young learners? Are the roles of interaction in your English speaking classes important? Why and why not? How you feel about interaction among students in your English speaking class?What is the most effective types of interaction among students in your Enlish speaking class? What difficulties you encounter when promoting different types of interaction in your English speaking classes? What are your suggestion to overcome these difficulties? In your opinion, what should teachers to promote student-student interaction effectively in a primary classroom of English speaking classes? 66 APPENDIX OBSERVATION CHECK-LIST Observation duration: 35 minutes I General information Year: Groups No : Date: Teacher in charge: Class size: Room No : Materials used: II Patterns of verbal interaction The interaction patterns for observation are based on Malamah-Thomas’s categorization (1987) Order Interaction pattern Activity Frequency Duration type teacher speaking to the whole class teacher speaking to an individual student with the rest of the class as hearers teacher speaking to a group of students student speaking to teacher student speaking to an individual student student speaking to group members student speaking to the whole class 67 Effects on the learners’ participation and their learning outcomes 6,50,52,55-56,58 1-5,7-49,51,53-54,57,59-79 68