Luận văn tổ chức hoạt động cặp trong các giờ học tiếng anh tại khối lớp 11 của trường THPT phổ yên, tỉnh thái nguyên

TABLE OF CONTENT CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF CHARTS iv TABLE OF CONTENT v PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 1. Rationale of the study 2 2. Aims of the study 2 3. Research questions 2 4. Scope of the study 2 5. Methods of the study 2 6. Design of the study 3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4 1.1. Communicative approach to Language Teaching 4 1.1.1. What is meant by communication? 4 1.1.2. Communicative language teaching 5 1.1.2.1. Nature of Communicative Language Teaching 5 1.1.2.2. The techniques of Communicative Language Teaching 5 1.2. Definition of pairwork 7 1.3. Advantages and disadvantages of pairwork 7 1.3.1. Advantages of using pairwork activities 7 1.3.2. Disadvantages of using pairwork activities 8 1.4. How to organize pairwork 9 1.4.1. Preparation for pairwork 9 1.4.2. Steps in the classroom 10 1.4.2.1. Select the activity 10 1.4.2.2. prepare of materials 10 1.4.2.3. Size and selection of pair 10 1.4.2.4. Organize students within the pair 10 i 1.4.2.5. Time of pairwork activity 11 1.4.2.6. Share pairwork with the whole class 11 1.4.3. Steps of organizing pairwork 11 1.4.3.1. Pre activities 11 1.4.3.2. While activities 12 1.4.3.3. Post activities 12 1.5. Difficulties in organizing pairwork and suggested solutions 13 1.5.1. Difficulties 13 1.5.1.1. Space 13 1.5.1.2. Instruction 13 1.5.2. Solutions 13 1.6. Previous studies related to organizing pairwork 14 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 15 2.1. Research setting 15 2.1.1. An overview of Pho Yen High School 15 2.1.2. The students 16 2.1.3. The teachers 16 2.2. Methodology 17 2.2.1. The participants 17 2.2.2. Data collection instruments 17 2.2.2.1. Questionnaires 17 2.2.2.2. Class observations 17 2.2.3. Data collection procedures 18 2.2.4. Data analysis 18 2.2.4.1. Results from questionnaires 19 2.2.4.1.1. Teachers’ and students’ opinions about benefits of pairwork 19 2.2.4.1.2. Teachers’ and students’ judgements about the use of pairwork activities in English classes 21 2.2.4.1.3. Teachers’ and students’ desires to learn English via pairwork Activities 22 2.2.4.2. Data analysis from class observations 26 2.2.4.3. Examples of pairwork 27 ii CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS, DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 30 3.1. Major findings 30 3.1.1. The way the teachers at Pho Yen High School use pairwork 30 3.1.1.1. Steps of organizing pairwork 30 3.1.1.2. The materials used in organizing pairwork 31 3.1.1.3. Teachers’ difficulties 32 3.1.1.3.1. Lack of knowledge of pairwork 32 3.1.1.3.2. Habits of old teaching methods 32 3.1.1.3.3. Unefficient preparation 32 3.1.1.4. Students’ difficulties 32 3.1.1.4.1. Passive learning style 32 3.1.1.4.2. Low level of English language proficiency 33 3.1.1.4.3. Learners’ fear of making mistakes 33 3.1.1.5. Object factors 33 3.1.1.5.1. Large-sized lasses 33 3.1.1.5.2. Lack of reference and teaching aids 33 3.2. Recommendations 33 PART C: CONCLUSION 35 1. Summary of the findings 35 2. Concluding remarks 36 3. Limitations of the study 37 4. Suggestions for further study 38 REFERENCES 39 APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 V APPENDIX 3 X APPENDIX 4 XIV APPENDIX 5 XVIII APPENDIX 6 XX iii PART A: INTRODUCTION This chapter presents the rationale, aims, scope, research questions, research methods and design of the study. 1. Rationale “Better English, more opportunities” has become a target for lots of students in recent years. English is a useful means they need for their future career since it equips them with linguistic, social and cultural knowledge and provides them with access to the modern world in the era of informatics and technology. It is used as the official language in many powerful and developed countries. Additionally, it is also considered as the means of communication in a number of aspects such as business, education, science, and so on. Therefore, English teaching and learning play an important role in social developing policies in a large number of countries throughout the world. English, nowadays, is widely taught in Vietnam, from primary school to university, including English centers throughout the country. People learn English for their work or for their higher study. However, the results of the English courses are not very good. Vietnamese teachers of English have not known how to apply the teaching method in effective ways. They are lack of knowledge, teaching aid, time, and money to teach four language skills: listening skills, speaking skills, reading skills and writing skills. Like many teachers in the schools of Vietnam, teachers of English at Pho Yen upper secondary school face the same problem: students’ inactive participation in learning activities in the classroom. In fact, there are a variety of reasons for this poor participation, and therefore using appropriate techniques and methods for teaching English effectively to students at Pho Yen upper secondary school requires a teachers’ enthusiasm and commitment. This led me the choice of the study “Organizing pair work in the English lessons at Pho Yen High School 11 th grade, Thai Nguyen Province” with the hope of contributing to improve the teaching and learning English in pho Yen High School . 1 in particular and in Vietnam in general My study only focuses on how to organize pair work more effectively for students at Pho Yen High School in Thai Nguyen. 2. Aims of study The study is aimed at: + Investigating the use of pairwork at Pho Yen High School- a school located in Pho Yen district, Thai Nguyen province. + Finding out effective technique to organize pairwork with the hope of helping teachers at Phổ Yên High School in teaching English. 3. Research questions of the study This study is aimed to answer the following research questions: How do the teachers at Phổ Yên High School use pair work? 4. Scope of the study To improve four skills for students at Phổ Yên High School, the teachers can make use of various techniques and a number of things should be done. However, the researcher only intends to draw a brief overview of pair work in classes at Phổ Yên High School and to find out the ways to organize pair work more effectively. 5. Methods of study To realize the aims of the study. The theoretical background of the study comes from many published books written by different authors on language teaching and language acquisition. The data collected for the study came from two sources: the students and the English teachers at Phổ Yên High School (6 English teachers and 120 students) survey questionnaires and observation. In this research, quantitative method is used, too. All comments, remarks, recommendations assumption and conclusion provided in the study based on the analysis of the statistics from the survey questionnaires conducted with students and teachers of Phổ Yên High School. The study is also based on a qualitative method with the author’s own experience and observation during 9 years of teaching English. 2 6. Design of study This study consists of 3 parts: Part A: provides an introduction which includes the rationale, aims, scope, research questions, methods and design of the study. Part B: provides a development which is divided into three chapters. Chapter 1: Literature Review: is intended to give some theories related to the study such as communicative language teaching, communication learning process, definitions of pairwork along with some common pairwork oral activities. The chapter also mentions advantages and disadvantages of using pairwork. Chapter 2: The Study Research – provides an analysis on the current situation of using pairwork in teaching and learning English at Phổ Yên High School. Data collection and analysis are also presented in this chapter. Chapter 3: Findings and Suggestions - focuses on how the teachers at Phổ Yên High School organized pairwork and difficulties facing them and their students in carrying out these activities and some suggestions for the teachers to organize pairwork more effectively. Part C: Conclusion - which is the conclusion of the study. Some explanations, interpretations of the findings of the study and some pedagogical implications are given in this chapter. In addition, some possible suggestions for further research are also discussed. 3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter briefly covers the theories related to the study : Communicative approach to language teaching, and pair work in language teaching and learning. 1.1. Communicative approach to language teaching 1.1.1. What is meant by Communication? “Communication is such a well-integrated part of our day- to- day existence that we tend to take it for granted rarely pausing to consider what it involves or just how important it is to us” ( Thompson 2003: 9) Before he expressed his own ideas about communication, he mentioned some of Fiske’s ideas: “Communication is one of those human activities that everyone recognizes but few can definite satisfactorily” (Fiske 1990:1) “Communication is too often taken for granted when it should be taken to pieces” (Fiske 1994:8) Thompson noticed “I quickly recognized that communication is used in a number of senses and at a number of levels to indicate the transmission of information or even, as in the transport networks example, the transmission of goods and people” (Thompson, 2003:10). However he completely agreed with Fiske’s ideas that “the most relevant definition of communication for present purposes is social interaction through messages” (Thompson, 2003:10). There are two related aspects that we should consider when talking about definition of communication is “social” and “interaction”. According to Dwyer (2000:8), communication is very important in daily life: “For those working in our changing social and economic environment, effective communication is as important as it has always been. Now, however, we must grasp the fact that we are dealing with more layers of communication than ever before. The exchange of information and ideas becomes more complex daily, 4 as management structures flatten, work teams emerge and interact with other teams and as globalization requires us to link up with individuals and organizations at regional, national and international levels. Increasingly sophisticated technology enables us to achieve a scope and range of communication unimaginable even 20 years ago”. 1.1.2. Communicative Language Teaching 1.1.2.1. Nature of Communicative Language Teaching Communicative Language Teaching means little more than an integration of grammatical and functional teaching. Littlewood (1981:1) states, “One of the most characteristic features of communicative language teaching is that it pays systematic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language”. Communicative Language Teaching means using procedures where the learners mainly work in pairs or groups employing available language resources in problem- solving tasks. CLT stresses the importance of providing the learners with opportunities to use English for communicative purposes and attempts to integrate such activities into a wider program of language teaching. 1.1.2.2. The Techniques of Communicative Language Teaching The techniques of Communicative Language Teaching are described by different linguists as following: Nunan (1991a:279) gives five features to characterize CLT: + An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language. + The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation + The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also on the learning process itself. + An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning. + An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activation outside the classroom. 5 According to Richards and Rodgers (1986:170), because communicative principles can be applied to the teaching of any skill, at any level, and because of the wide variety of classroom activities and exercise types discussed in the literature on Communicative Language Teaching, description of typical classroom procedures used in a lesson based on CLT principle is not feasible. Savignon (1983) discusses techniques and class management procedures associated with a number of CLT classroom procedure (e.g., group activities, language games, role plays), but neither these activities nor the ways in which they are used are exclusive to CLT classrooms. Johnson and Johnson (1998) offer five core characteristics that underlie current applications of communicative methodology: + Appropriateness: Language use reflects the situations of its use and must be appropriate to that situation depending on the setting, the roles of the participants and the purpose of the communication, for example. Thus learners may need to be able to use formal as well as casual styles of speaking. + Message focus: Learners need to be able to create and understand messages, that is, real meanings. Hence the focus on information sharing and information transfer in CLT activities. + Psycholinguistic processing: CLT activities seek to engage learners in the use of cognitive and other processes that are important factors in second language acquisition. + Risk taking: Learners are encouraged to make guesses and learn from their errors. By going beyond what they have been taught, they are encouraged to employ a variety of communication strategies. + Free practice: CLT encourages the use of “holistic practice” involving the simultaneous use of a variety of sub-skills, rather than practising individual skills one piece at a time To sum up, Communicative Language Teaching is best considered an approach rather than a method. It refers to a diverse set of principles that reflect a 6 communicative view of language and language learning and that can be used to support a wide variety of classroom procedures. 1.2. Definition of pairwork The definitions of pairwork have been developed over the years with the contributions of a great number of linguistics and are brought together by Doff (1988: 137): “In pairwork, the teacher divides the whole class into pairs. Every student works with his or her partner in pairs, and all the pairs work at the same time (it is sometimes called “simultaneous pair work”). This is not the same as “public” or “open” pairwork, with pairs of students speaking in turn in front of the class.” The definition of pairwork in this case is an activity that gives students a chance to talk to each other practice language together, study a text, research language or take part in information-gap activities. They can write dialogues, predict the content of reading texts, or compare notes on what they have listened or seen. In general, there are two main types of pairwork, fixed pairs and flexible pairs, suggested by Byrne (1983). The first type is when the students work with the same partner in order to complete task. In this kind of pairs, they will deeply understand each other and know the other’s ability. Meanwhile, the second one is when students keep changing the partners. They can lift their chairs freely to talk to any partners they like. Therefore, this will make the activity more interesting. 1.3. Advantages and disadvantages of pairwork 1.3.1. Advantages of using pairwork activities Brumfit says that pairwork is the most effective techniques of classroom organization which combine aspects of communication learning and natural interaction in a stress free environment. (Brumfit, 1984:78). Pairwork gives students more opportunities to speak English in classroom. Students participate in the lesson much more actively because they are involved in talking to their friends exchange opinions, practising new structures more than 7 [...]... High school, students are taught English in grade 10, 11, 12 In the past, students learnt the three - year -course textbooks Now they are studying the seven-year course textbooks English is now a compulsory subject in Vietnam educational system Students here have three English lessons in a week The chosen textbook is English 10, 11, 12 compiled by Hoàng Văn Vân, Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, Đỗ Tuấn Minh, Nguyễn... procedures that develop the four language skills through working in pairs 2.2 Methodology 2.2.1 The participants The participants of the study were 120 students who were selected randomly from class 11B1 to 11B3 and 6 teachers of English The research was conducted in the second term of the school year The participants took part in the survey questionnaires by answering the given questions 2.2.2 Data collection... shown in the result from questionnaire for teachers, in which they chose 10 minutes and more for the appropriate time amount The table 4 described the use of pairwork at Phổ Yên High School in details The table revealed that the teachers at Phổ Yên High School prefered pairwork to groupwork There were only 4 times of groupwork activities among 30 observed And most of pairwork and groupwork they organized... we will focus on major findings, discussion and recommendations for organizing pairwork in the English lessons at Pho Yen High School 11th grade, Thai Nguyen Province CHAPTER 3 : FINDINGS, DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 29 This chapter presents the ways the teachers at Phổ Yên High School used pairwork, the major problems that teachers and students at Pho Yen High School encounter during the process... students at Phổ Yên High School These points have been drawn from the results of the two survey questionnaires and observation Suggestions for improving the quality of the organizing pair work is also presented in this chapter 3.1 MAJOR FINDINGS The results of the two questionnaires and observation clearly show that the way teachers use pairwork, and some factors that make organization of pairwork at phổ Yên... process 20 Chart 3: Teachers’ and students’ opinions about the useful of pairwork The questionnaire results helped the author know teachers’ attitude, their knowledge and understanding of pairwork at Phổ Yên High School For the question about the time amount for pairwork in a class, none of them chose 5 minutes, most of the teachers (83,3%) considered 10 minutes or more was a suitable time Only one... 2.2.4.2 Data analysis from class observation Basing on the results from classroom observation sheets (see Appendix 5 and 6), it can be concluded that pairwork activities took place in language classes at Phổ Yên High School quite often They were used in all the classes observed (100%) This means that the teachers usually organized pairwork in their language classes 26 but not all the teachers used them... students understand what they are going to do, give them ideas of when they will have finished the task they are going to get involved in Sometimes, we may ask them to repeat the instructions or to translate 11 them into their first language so as to check their understanding In some cases, our instructions may involve a demonstration 1.4.3.2 While activities While students are working in pairs the teachers... Pho Yen High School It will be described in detail in order to show the way the teachers in this school often organize pairwork This pairwork was organized for Task 1 in lesson 12 « The Asian Games »- 11th form, seven-year course textbook 27 In the first half of the lesson, the teacher asked students to close the book and give some information about the Asian Games Then teacher asked students to open... at the Games? B: Six THE ASIAN GAMES Games No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Host country India Philippines Japan Indonesia Thailand Thailand Iran Year Number of Number of 1951 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 countries 11 18 20 17 18 18 25 sport 6 8 13 13 14 13 16 28 After forming pairs, the teacher gave some explanation of the exercise : in this exercise students have to make the questions and answer the questions basing . 10 i 1.4.2.5. Time of pairwork activity 11 1.4.2.6. Share pairwork with the whole class 11 1.4.3. Steps of organizing pairwork 11 1.4.3.1. Pre activities 11 1.4.3.2. While activities 12 1.4.3.3 teachers at Phổ Yên High School in teaching English. 3. Research questions of the study This study is aimed to answer the following research questions: How do the teachers at Phổ Yên High School. learning English at Phổ Yên High School. Data collection and analysis are also presented in this chapter. Chapter 3: Findings and Suggestions - focuses on how the teachers at Phổ Yên High School