Nghiên cứu về việc dạy từ vựng tiếng Anh cho học sinh dân tộc thiểu số khối 10 trường phổ thông Vùng Cao Việt Bắc thông qua các hoạt động nhóm

LIST OF ABBREAVIATIONS CLT : Communicative Language Teaching VCVBHS: Vung Cao Viet Bac high school ESL : English as second language LIST OF CHARTS Chart 1: The students’ opinions about

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

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NGUYỄN THỊ HOÀNG YẾN

GRADE ETHNIC MINORITY STUDENTS AT VUNG CAO VIET BAC HIGH SCHOOL THROUGH GROUP ACTIVITIES

Nghiên cứu việc dạy từ vựng tiếng Anh cho học sinh dân tộc thiểu số khối 10 trường phổ thông Vùng Cao Việt Bắc thông qua các hoạt động nhóm

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

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NGUYỄN THỊ HOÀNG YẾN

GRADE ETHNIC MINORITY STUDENTS AT VUNG CAO VIET BAC HIGH SCHOOL THROUGH GROUP ACTIVITIES

Nghiên cứu việc dạy từ vựng tiếng Anh cho học sinh dân tộc thiểu số khối 10 trường phổ thông Vùng Cao Việt Bắc thông qua các hoạt động nhóm

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN HUY KỶ, PhD

Hanoi, 2014

DECLARATION

This paper is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts I certify that this thesis is the result of my own research, and that it has not been submitted for any other degree It involves no material previously published or written by any other person, except where due reference is acknowledged in the paper

Hanoi, August 2014

Nguyễn Thị Hoàng Yến

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my profound gratitude to a number of people for helping

me to make this M.A thesis possible

Firstly, I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Dr Nguyễn Huy Kỷ for his academic guidance, valuable advice, and supervision throughout this research

Secondly, I want to express my sincere gratitude to all the lecturers of the Faculty

of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their useful lectures and guidance during my course

Thirdly, I wish to extend my special thanks to the students at classes 10A1, 10A2, 10A3, 10A4 and the teachers of English at Vung Cao Viet Bac high school for their help and cooperation during my research

Last but not least, I would like to convey my heartfelt thanks to my loving family and my friends for their unfailing love and encouragement to help me complete this research

Furthermore, it is hoped that this thesis will help other teachers of English be aware of the advantages of group activities and apply them effectively to teach English

vocabulary

LIST OF ABBREAVIATIONS

CLT : Communicative Language Teaching

VCVBHS: Vung Cao Viet Bac high school

ESL : English as second language

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 1: The students’ opinions about English vocabulary in learning English

Chart 2: The students’ attitudes towards learning new words

Chart 3:The students’ interest in learning English vocabulary

Chart 4: The students’ attitudes towards using group activities in teaching and learning English

Chart 5: The students’ judgements about advantages of group activities in English vocabulary learning

Chart 6: The students’ desire about choosing their partners in group activities

Chart 7: The students’ expectation towards teachers’ activities in English vocabulary lesson

Chart 8: The students’ preference towards the teachers’ activities in vocabulary lesson Chart 9: The average mark of pre-tests in English vocabulary of the students of the experimental group and the control group

Chart 10: The average mark of post-tests in English vocabulary of the students of the experimental group and the control group

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Teachers’ opinions of English vocabulary in English teaching

Table 2: The methods often used in teaching English vocabulary

Table 3: Teachers’ frequent use of group work in English vocabulary teaching

Table 4: The teachers’ judgement about group activities in English vocabulary teaching Table 5: The teachers’ implementation of using group activities

in their current teaching

Table 6: The teachers’ tasks in English vocabulary teaching through group activities Table 7: The students’ engagement in group activities in English vocabulary lessons

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREAVIATIONS iv

LIST OF TABLES v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Significance of the study 2

4 Research questions 2

5 Scope of the study 2

6 Methods of the study 3

7 Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Vocabulary teaching 5

1.1.1 What is vocabulary? 5

1.1.2 The importance of vocabulary in teaching and learning language 6

1.2 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) 6

1.2.1 Communicative language teaching methods 6

1.2.2 Teaching and learning English vocabulary through communicative activities 7

1.3 Group work in vocabulary teaching and learning 8

1.3.1 Definitions of group work 8

1.3.2 Advantages and disadvantages of group activities 9

1.3.2.1 Advantages of group activities in teaching vocabulary 9

1.3.2.2 Disadvantages of group activities in teaching vocabulary 10

1.3.3 The role of the teacher in group work 12

1.4 Summary 12

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 13

2.1 An overview on current situation of teaching and learning English vocabulary at VCVBHS 13

2.1.1 The students 13

2.1.2 The teachers 13

2.1.3 Teaching materials 14

2.2 Restatement of the research questions 14

2.3 Participants 14

2.3.1 The students 14

2.3.2 The teachers 15

2.4 Data collection instrument 15

2.4.1 Questionnaire 15

2.4.1.1 Questionnaire for the students 15

2.4.1.2 Questionnaire for the teachers 16

2.4.2 Pre-test and post-test 16

2.5 Summary 16

CHAPTER 3: RESULT AND DISCUSSION 17

3.1 Presentation of statistical results 17

3.1.1 Result of questionnaire 17

3.1.1.1 Result of questionnaire for the students 17

3.1.1.2 Result of questionnaire for the teachers 21

3.1.2 The result of pre-tests and post-tests 26

3.1.2.1 The result of pre-tests 26

3.1.2.2 The result of post-tests 27

3.2 Findings and discussions 28

3.2.1 The opinions of the teachers and the 10th grade ethnic minority students at VCVBHS about the use of group activities in teaching and learning English vocabulary 28

3.2.2 Group activities used in teaching English vocabulary to the 10th grade ethnic minority students at VCVBHS 29

3.2.2.1 Game 29

3.2.2.2 Role playing 30

3.2.2.3 Projects 30

3.2.2.4 Interview 30

3.2.2.5 Problem solving and decision making 30

3.3 A particular example of using group work in teaching English vocabulary to the 10th grade ethnic minority students at VCVBHS 31

3.4 Summary 32

PART C: CONCLUSION 33

1 Recapitulation 33

2 Conclusions 34

3 Limitations of the study 35

4 Suggestions for further research 35

REFERENCES 36 APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE STUDENTS I APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE TEACHERS III APPENDIX 3: PRE-TESTS V APPENDIX 4: POST-TESTS XII APPENDIX 5: THE RESULTS OF PRE-TESTS AND POST-TESTS XX

PART A: INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents rationale, aim, significance, scope, research questions,

research methods and design of the study

1 Rationale

English is one of the most important and powerful languages in the world In Vietnam, it is one of the subjects that is compulsory from primary school level to university level Moreover, “better English, better careers” is one of the students’ purposes of learning this language It cannot be denied that English can help Vietnamese students prepare better for their career in the future because it does not only equip learners with a necessary source of information of social and culture knowledge but also gives them up-to-date information concerning different issues in our society nowadays

Gezim (2008) states that it is the experience of most language teachers that vocabulary teaching is the most important area of foreign language competence No matter how well the students learn grammar, no matter how successfully the sound of language is mastered, without words to express, communication in foreign language cannot happen in any meaningful ways Thus, teaching and learning vocabulary successfully is the concern of all teachers and learners of foreign language

By applying various new approaches, methods, and techniques, English teaching has changed from the traditional grammar translation approach to the communicative approach According to Communicative Language Teaching, the purpose of language teaching and learning is to develop communicative competence in the target language

Together with this trend, teaching English at Vung Cao Viet Bac high school (VCVBHS), Thai Nguyen city is also the strategic duty of all the teachers and the students However, because most students at VCVBHS are from different mountainous areas in the northern of Vietnam, learning English is difficult for them They feel shy when speaking English because of lacking words and they do not have a lot of chances to practice this language in contexts As a teacher of English at VCVBHS, I would like to help my students to master the language and have an ability to communicate confidently

in English so I chose the topic A study on teaching English vocabulary to the 10 th grade ethnic minority students at Vung Cao Viet Bac high school through group activities to

help my students learn vocabulary better to learn English better

2 Aims of the study

The aims of this thesis are to make a contribution to the improvement and innovation of teaching and learning English vocabulary and suggest some group activities

to teach vocabulary to the 10th grade ethnic minority students at VCVBHS

To achieve the aims mentioned above, the objectives are designed as follows: + Investigating the opinions of the teachers and the 10th grade ethnic minority students

at VCVBHS about the use of group activities in teaching and learning English vocabulary

+ Suggesting some useful group activities to improve English vocabulary teaching of the teachers and learning of the 10th grade ethnic minority students at VCVBHS

3 Significance of the study

This study can help the teachers to realize the advantages and disadvantages of using group activities in teaching English vocabulary at classrooms Furthermore, this study also gives some suggestions to the teachers of English to develop successfully learning group activities to teach English vocabulary to the 10th grade ethnic minority students This will help the teachers have more success in vocabulary teaching and create more chances for the students to use vocabulary in communication with each other in English naturally

Hence, this study is helpful to provide knowledge on ways to develop English vocabulary teaching and learning

4 Research questions

The above aims of the study are to answer the following two research questions:

1 What are the opinions of the teachers and the 10th grade ethnic minority students at VCVBHS about the use of group activities in teaching and learning English vocabulary?

2 Which group activities should be used in teaching English vocabulary to the 10thgrade ethnic minority students at VCVBHS?

5 Scope of the study

Within the scope of the paper, the study only concentrates on investigation into the current situation, the advantages and disadvantages of using learning group activities

to teach English vocabulary to the 10th grade ethnic minority students at VCVBHS and

then suggesting some effective group activities to improve English vocabulary teaching and learning for the teachers and the 10th grade ethnic minority students at VCVBHS

6 Methods of the study

In this study, both qualitative and quantitative research methods were utilized They are questionnaire, and pre-test/post-test

In order to find out the answers to the research questions, the researcher has used questionnaire for all the teachers and the students at the chosen classes, and identified the result of the learning process through pre-test/post-test

6.1 Questionnaire

According to Dornyei (2003), a questionnaire will be distributed to students to get information evaluation and reasons for their successful and unsuccessful according to teachers’ instructions By using this instrument, all participants are encoded so that their names and their opinions can be kept secret, that is the reason they can answer honestly to facilitate the study Besides, using questionnaire can arrange time efficiently Knowing all the above theory, 2 sets of questionnaire were used to collect the opinions of the teachers and the students at VCVBHS about using group activities in teaching and learning English vocabulary

6.2 Pre-test and post-test

According to Dimiter M Dimitror and Phillip D Rumirill Jr (2003), pre-test and post-test are measurement of the learning gain during the class as a result of comparing what students knew before the test (in a pre-test) and after the test (in a post-test) to quantify the knowledge attained in a class from a group of students with diverse learning styles and education backgrounds In addition, the tests can indicate how the students have been learning in the course So the data can identify teaching and learning methods that need changing or developing to help students get better results

Strongly agree with the above opinion, the researcher used pre-test and post-test in English vocabulary in both experimental group (classes 10A1, 10A4), and control group (classes 10A2, 10A3) to collect the data to prove the researcher’s opinion

7 Design of the study

The thesis has three main parts as follows:

Part A: Introduction

This part presents the rationale, the aims, the significance, the research questions, the scope, the methods, and the design of the study

Part B: Development

This part consists of three chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature review

3 Limitations of the study

4 Suggestions for further research

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides a brief review of the theoretical knowledge relevant to the research including vocabulary teaching, Communicative Language Teaching, group

activities in vocabulary teaching and learning

1.1 Vocabulary teaching

1.1.1 What is vocabulary?

Up to now there have been many definitions of vocabulary Some linguists define

it according to semantic criterion while others refer to it according to the phonological or potential one

I strongly agree with Swan and Walter (1984) that “Vocabulary acquisition is the

largest and most important task facing the language learner”

Michael Lewis (1993) states that vocabulary can be defined as the words of a language, including single items and phrases or chunks of several words which convey a particular meaning, the way individual words do Vocabulary addresses single lexical items words with specific meaning(s) but it also includes lexical phrases or chunks

In addition, Stahl, Steven a (1999), states that a person’s vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person A vocabulary usually develop with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the largest challenges in learning

a second language

According to Pyles and Alges (1970: 96), “When most of us think about language,

we think first about words It is true that the vocabulary is the focus of language It is words that sounds and meanings interlock to allow us to communicate with each other, and it is words that we arrange together to make sentence, conversation and discourse of all kinds” This means vocabulary is essential for learning a language

In short, it is possible to say that it is hard to give a precise definition about what

vocabulary is However, from these above studies we can see that the noun vocabulary

refers to the words used in a language

1.1.2 The importance of vocabulary in teaching and learning language

"If language structures make up the skeleton of language, then it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the flesh" ( Harmer, 1991:53) Learning vocabulary is

one of the first steps in learning a second language, but a learner never finishes vocabulary acquisition Whether in one's native language or a second language, the acquisition of new vocabulary is an ongoing process Vocabulary is central to language teaching because without sufficient vocabulary, students cannot understand others or

express their own ideas Wilkins (1972: 111-112) deems that “without vocabulary nothing

can be conveyed” Lewis (1993: 89) goes further to argue “lexis is the core or heart of language” From these above opinions we can see that English vocabulary teaching helps

students understand and communicate with others in English

In a language, there are many words that are regularly used when speaking or writing These words are part of active vocabulary And then there are many words that can be understood, but are not used in everyday speech These words are part of passive vocabulary So how to make Vietnamese students’ English vocabulary become active? It’s not easy for the teachers of English in Vietnam

Recently, under the highlight of Communicative Approach, which is the result of the works of anthropological linguistic such as Hymes (1972), and Firthian linguistic such

as Halliday (1973), the importance of communicative competence and the communicative fluency are highly appreciated And many methodologists and linguists have increasingly been paid their attention to vocabulary as well as the ways to teach and learn it Now, it is clear that teachers should have the same kind of expertise in the teaching of vocabulary as they do in the teaching of structure

In conclusion, vocabulary is very important in language teaching and learning It

is impossible to communicate with no vocabulary However, acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the largest challenges in learning a second language

1.2 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

1.2.1 Communicative language teaching methods

According to Richards & Rodgers (2001), CLT originated from the changes in the British Situational Language Teaching approach dating from the late 1960s Stemming from the socio-cognitive perspective of the socio-linguistic theory, with an emphasis on

meaning and communication, and a goal to develop learners’ “communicative

competence”, CLT approach evolves as a prominent language teaching method and

gradually replaced the previous grammar-translation method and audio-lingual method

(Warschauer & Kern, 2000) Since the concept of “communicative competence” was first

introduced by Hymes in the mid-1960s, many researchers have helped develop theories

and practices of CLT approach Brown (1994: 227) explicates “communicative

competence is the aspect of our competence that enables us to convey and interpret messages and to negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts” Chomsky

(1965) also indicates that underlying the concrete language performance, there is an abstract rule system or knowledge and this underlying knowledge of the grammar of the

language by the native speaker is his “linguistic competence” Therefore, speakers of a

language have to have more than grammatical competence in order to be able to communicate effectively in a language, they also need to know how language is used by members of a speech community to accomplish their purposes (Hymes, 1972)

“The aim of communicative language teaching, according to Richards and Rodgers (2001:165), is the acquisition of communicative competence via student engagement in meaningful use of language at discourse level To achieve this, the teacher facilitates communicative activities by managing the classroom environment, providing resources and acting as a communicator Classroom activities are often designed to focus

on completing tasks that are mediated through language or involve negotiation of information and information sharing” One of the most frequently discussed methods within recent years is task-based language teaching, an essential feature of which is learner-centredness Language is best learned through meaningful and communicative interaction between learners engaged in purposeful tasks Such tasks provide both the input and output processing, and the motivation, needed for language acquisition” (Canh

and BarNard, 2009: 21)

In conclusion, there are many researches on CLT Most of them identified that CLT is the key of communicative competence which provides both the input and output processing, and the motivation, needed for language acquisition and I strongly agree them

1.2.2 Teaching and learning English vocabulary through communicative activities

Paul Nation (2008) indicates that deliberately teaching vocabulary is one of the least efficient ways of developing learners’ vocabulary knowledge but nonetheless it is an important part of a well-balanced vocabulary program The main problem with vocabulary teaching is that only a few words and a small part of what is required to know

a word can be dealt with at any one time This limitation also applies to incidental learning from listening or reading, but it is much easier to arrange for large amounts of independent listening and reading than it is to arrange for large amounts of teaching Teaching can effectively deal with only a small amount of information about a word at a time The more complex the information is, the more likely the learners are to misinterpret

There are many ways to teach vocabulary However, from many previous studies,

it is clear that teaching vocabulary through communicative activities is one of the most effective ways It can provide learners with opportunities to use language to do things and

in particular, to engage in meaningful interactive oral language production No longer being considered as passive, learners are seen as active participants in the negotiation of meaning CLT makes use of real life situations that need communication, so it can make the learners’ vocabulary become active vocabulary

In brief, CLT has been proved as an ideal approach of the twenty-first century There are many different assumptions, beliefs and even myths about implementation of CLT in practical English classes However, we cannot deny the fact that communicative activities perform a very important role in language teaching and, especially in teaching vocabulary It does help to improve students’ motivation so it is necessary to understand the overwhelming advantages of some communicative activities over the others in terms

of motivation and interestingness (Ngo Phuc Duy, 2011)

1.3 Group work in vocabulary teaching and learning

1.3.1 Definitions of group work

Adrian Doff (1988: 137) defines group work as a process that “the teacher divides

the class into small groups to work together, all the group work at the same time”

Barkley et al., Cooper et al., (2003,2004), emphasize group work is one pedagogical strategy that promotes participation and interaction It fosters a deeper and more active learning process, and it also provides instructors with valuable demonstrations of the degree to which students understand particular topics or concepts In addition to exposing students to different approaches and ways of thinking, working with other students in groups can promote a sense of belonging that combats the anonymity and isolation that many students experience at a large campus Some students may initially be reluctant to participate in group work, so sharing the reasons for group work with your students can help to convince the reluctant ones It might help them to know that groups frequently

devise more and better solutions than the most advanced individual, working together in groups also gives students the opportunity to learn from and teach each other Classroom research has shown that students often learn better from each other than they do from a teacher

It can be seen from the above researches that, learning group is a form of cooperative learning It aims to gather students’ individual knowledge, and experiences to develop students’ knowledge, skills such as collaborative skills, communicative skills, and students’ attitudes

1.3.2 Advantages and disadvantages of group activities

1.3.2.1 Advantages of group activities in teaching vocabulary

“More hands make for lighter work”, “two heads are better than one”, “the more

the merrier”….These adages speak to the potential groups that have to be more

productive, creative, and motivated than individuals on their own Group work can help students develop a host of skills that are increasingly important in the professional world (Caruso & Woolley, 2008; Mannix & Neale, 2005) Positive group experiences, moreover, have been shown to contribute to students learning, retention and overall college success (Astin, 1997; Tinto, 2006)

Tsui (2001) and Lee (1999) determined that “group work provides more

opportunities for learners to initiate and control the interaction, to produce a much larger variety of speech acts and to engage in the negotiation to meaning” and that “being responsible for their peers’ learning in a group makes students more active” In a

language teaching study, Norman (1986: 11) finds that “Most people learn a foreign

language better with others than on their own” The research also shows that educational

experiences that are active, social, contextual, engaging, and student-owned lead to deeper learning The benefits of collaborative learning include:

 Development of higher level thinking, oral communication, self-management, and leadership skills

 Promotion of student-faculty interaction

 Increase in student retention, self-esteem, and responsibility

 Exposure to and an increase in understanding of diverse perspectives

 Preparation for real life social and employment situations

Though there are many different ideas of group work, in common we can see that group work can give the students far more chances to speak English in the classroom The students can participate in the lesson much more actively because they are involved in talking to their friends to exchange opinions, practise new vocabulary that they have acquired This is important at VCVBHS where English lessons usually take place three times a week, the teachers have to practise, develop all the language skills and it happens that there is no time left for speaking So dividing the class into groups to give the learners opportunity to use the language to communicate with each other is really necessary

1.3.2.2 Disadvantages of group activities in teaching vocabulary

Besides many advantages, group activities have some disadvantages According to Aneta Gorgon-Matera (2008), its main disadvantages are:

* The students can make too much noise

When the whole class is divided into small groups to work at the same time, of course there is a big noise However, If the noise is made during working on task such as discussing things, checking words, or communicating with one another, it is called

positive noise and it does not disturb the students They concentrate on the task and they

do not hear it If an activity goes on for too long, students, especially the poor ones, make

noise because they become bored, they want to get the teacher's attention and they may become disruptive Such noise may become disruptive for the whole activity and class behavior because misbehavior is contagious

To avoid a danger of this fact the teacher should plan their activity very carefully Assuming that the learners are familiar with the code of conduct discussed at the beginning of the school year, the teacher should give them clear instructions about what

to do, when to start and when to stop The task should be clearly defined and not go for too long At first, the students may be confused but once a routine has been set up, they should know what is expected from them This should prevent excessive noise and prevent the class from getting out of control

* Students tend to use the mother tongue

Another disadvantage of group work is students tend to use the mother tongue When students get excited working in groups, they sometimes use their mother tongue to express something they are not able to express in a foreign language Such a situation is

normal because they want to communicate It is teacher’s responsibility to plan activities

at the level of the students and to encourage them to use little of the language they know

as well as they can because speaking their own language during an oral activity is a waste

of time However, the teacher should not be bothered too much if his/her students use their mother tongue while doing vocabulary exercises because the outcome of their discussion will be presented in English It may also be necessary to ask students to translate instructions into their mother tongue to check if they understand what the teachers want them to do because giving instructions of a complicated activity may be a waste of time

To avoid the use of mother tongue during the lesson, the teachers can discuss this problem with the students who should understand that during oral activities the use of the mother tongue is a real problem During the activity, the teacher should encourage the students to use English by going round the classroom, helping and prompting those who

do not know how to express some ideas

* Students will not work properly

It may be a problem to put students into groups There is the danger that if the teacher divides the class into mixed ability groups, the best students in the group will have to do the task while the weakest ones switch off and become disruptive

To overcome this problem, the teacher may put them into groups according to their abilities and each group is given a task right for their level of difficulty Then the teacher may monitor the whole class, devote more time to the students who need his/her assistance or even work with individual students

* Teachers may lose control of the class

In Vietnam, there are often about 50 students in each class and all the groups work at the same time, so it’s not easy for a teacher to monitor all the groups When the teacher is explaining something for a group, he/she cannot know what the others are doing and some students can be out of control

However, interactive learning, communicative teaching counter with the importance of meaning, purposeful language and real communication which in turn must allow the students to improve creative possibilities The effective teacher will circulate among the groups, listen to them, offer suggestions and criticism

In conclusion, there are many problems with group work, but there are also many ways to solve them successfully, such as dividing the students into groups in the most

convenient way possible, making sure that the students know exactly what they have to

do, keeping activities simple, do not let activities go on too long, controlling the noise level as necessary, and providing feedback (adapted from Byrnes and Byrnes, 2009)

1.3.3 The role of the teacher in group work

The role of the teacher will depend to a large extent on the function he performs

in different activities Harmer (1995) examines the roles of a teacher as a controller, organiser, assessor, prompter, participant, recourse, tutor and investigator It will be obvious that the teacher’s behavior for various types of activity will be different For communicative output according to him, the role of the teacher should change Group work is often used for communicative activities That is why the role of the teacher very often changes in group work Since the teacher as controller is no longer oppressively present, students can help each other to use and learn language The teacher will still, of course, be able to act as an assessor, prompter or resource With group work, then, students can practise language use and joint learning

Watcyn-Jones (2002) stresses that once the group work has actually started, the students should work independently of the teacher and their own pace The role of the teacher while this is going on is to monitor the students’ progress by walking round the classroom, pausing briefly beside each group, listening to them and noting any language errors or communication problems which can be taken up later on with the whole class It

is best not to interrupt them or correct them while they are working as this will impede fluency, spoil the atmosphere, distract them from what they are doing and, at worst, destroy their confidence! But if things are obviously going really bad, the teacher should prepare to offer an advice and encouragement – just sufficient to get them working again

1.4 Summary

In summary, the previous studies mentioned above considered the use of group work in language teaching These studies show that CLT is one of the most useful methods to teach ESL and group work is one type of CLT In this study, both of benefit and implementing of using group work in teaching are concerned However, the researcher mainly focuses on group work implementation because she would like to investigate the group activities that are used in vocabulary teaching in the hope of finding out the useful ones for both teachers and the 10th grade ethnic minority students at VCVBHS

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter starts by describing the situation of VCVBHS where the study was conducted It also elaborates the methods of the research including questionnaire, and pre-test/post-test

2.1 An overview on current situation of teaching and learning English vocabulary at VCVBHS

2.1.1 The students

VCVBHS is one of the biggest and oldest ethnic boarding high school in Vietnam The students at VCVBHS are ethnic minorities from Northern mountainous provinces of Vietnam Most of them come from farmer families in the remote villages and Vietnamese

is not the first language, their mother tongues are ethnic minority languages They only use Vietnamese at the class or in the public so their Vietnamese competence is still limited In addition, the teaching condition, especially for teaching English, in many mountainous areas in Vietnam is poor, so when they come to VCVBHS, their knowledge, first and foremost their English is poor Moreover, they are very shy to speak English They always think that they are very bad at English and everyone looks at them to find out their mistakes to laugh at them

Coming to VCVBHS to study, they are far from home, so some of them often feel bored, some even suffer from being homesick because this is the first time they have lived far from their families However, the new environment, new teachers and new friends may be positive factors to make them more interested in learning

2.1.2 The teachers

Most of the teachers of English at VCVBHS are young and interested in teaching career They all graduated from Thai Nguyen University of Education They are always aware of the importance of English in the modern life In addition, the school’s leaders often take care of English teaching They let the teachers have chances to have further studies Nevertheless, only some of them often use the new trend in language teaching: learner–centered approach as well as teaching skills, especially communicative skills to teach the students These teachers often use learning group activities to give their students more chances to use English in communication This makes the students feel less worried about their poor English and more confident in English Some teachers still use the traditional method to teach English (the teacher gives the grammar rules and the

students learn by heart) Because of lacking skills of using CLT in teaching, sometimes they do not spend enough time preparing or do not pay enough attention to group activities, so their lessons are not successful

2.1.3 Teaching materials

VCVBHS is a big school, however, its equipments for teaching foreign language are not good There are not any language laboratory rooms, there are not many English books, CDs or cassette tapes in the school library The teachers teach English with their own laptops or speakers Besides, the class is large (45-50 students each class) so it is difficult for the teacher to give all the students the chance to communication in one period (45 minutes) Therefore, group work becomes one of the best ways to give the students opportunities to use English to communicate at the same time and to develop their communicative skills in English

2.2 Restatement of the research questions

As stated in part A, the aims of the study are to find out the points of view of the teachers of English and the 10th form students at VCVBHS on using learning group activities in teaching and learning vocabulary From the result of the survey, the researcher suggests some types of group activities for teaching vocabulary to the 10thgrade ethnic minority students at VCVBHS For these aims, the two research questions are set up as follows:

1 What are the opinions of the teachers and the 10th grade ethnic minority students at VCVBHS about the use of group activities in teaching and learning English vocabulary?

2 Which group activities should be used in teaching English vocabulary to the

10th grade ethnic minority students at VCVBHS?

2.3 Participants

2.3.1 The students

A total of 181 students of 10th form (classes 10A1, 10A2, 10A3, 10A4) at VCVBHS participated in this study 93 of them are female and 88 of them are male All the participants are ethnic minority students (Dao, H’Mông, La Hủ, Lự, Mường, Ráy, Thái….) coming from Vietnam’s mountainous areas (from Nghệ An to Điện Biên) All of them are at the age of 16 and they have been studying English from 6th grade at their local schools Among them, the students at classes 10A1 and 10A4 (the experimental group) were taught English vocabulary through group activities and the students at classes 10A2

and 10A3 (the control group) learnt English vocabulary through traditional method (teachers gave the list of English vocabulary and students learnt it by themselves) As a result, their standard in English is not the same, some are good, many are not good and some even bad at English so their opinions about using group activities in vocabulary learning is quite objective However, how to organize learning group activities that are suitable for all the students is not easy

All the participants took part in pre-test/post-test in English vocabulary, but only

91 students at the experimental group participated in answering the questionnaire

2.3.2 The teachers

All of 14 teachers of English at VCVBHS took part in answering the research questionnaire All of them are female They graduated from Thai Nguyen University and got BA degree Their ages range from 24 to 40 with at least 3 years of teaching English They often say that they love their jobs

2.4 Data collection instrument

2.4.1.1 Questionnaire for the students

Set 1 for all 91 students at the experimental group (47 of them are female and 44

of them are male) included 11 questions The aims of the questions are:

 To identify the students’ personally experience in learning English (question 1,2, 3)

 To explore the students’ opinions about English vocabulary in learning English (question 4)

 To identify the students’ attitudes towards learning new words (question 5, 6)

 To find out the students’ attitudes towards using group activities in teaching and learning English (question 7, 8, 9)

 To identify the students’ opinions about organising group activities (10, 11)

 To explore group activities liked more by the students (question 12)

2.4.1.2 Questionnaire for the teachers

Set 2 for 14 teachers teaching English at VCVBH included 4 parts:

 To identify the teachers’ opinions about English vocabulary in English teaching (question 1)

 To indicate the ways the teachers often used in teaching English vocabulary (question 2, 3)

 To find out the teachers’ frequent use of group activities in teaching English vocabulary (question 4)

To identify teachers’ judgement about group activities in English vocabulary teaching (question 5 ,6)

 To indicated teachers’ implementation of using group activities in their current vocabulary teaching (question 7, 8, 9)

2.4.2 Pre-test and post-test

3 pre-tests and 3 post-tests in English vocabulary were carried out at both the experimental group and the control group at VCVBHS The test papers were collected, and item-by-item, the answers were gathered and analysed From the information, the researcher could evaluate the education background of the students and the knowledge of English vocabulary they gained after the two different learning styles, using group activities and using the traditional method The 3 pre-tests were done at the beginning, and the 3 post-tests were carried out at the end of the study

2.5 Summary

This chapter has presented the current research situation where English is one of the compulsory subjects The students at VCVBHS are not so good at English and usually shy to use this language for communication The teachers have quite equal proficiency in English but their methods in teaching English are not the same: some teachers tend to use CLT, but some others still use traditional methods To find out the better ways to teach English vocabulary to the 10th grade ethnic minority students at VCVBHS, some data collection instruments as questionnaire, classroom observation, and tests were carried out

CHAPTER 3: RESULT AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the data collected from questionnaire, classroom observation, and pre-test/post-test are analysed and discussed to find out the opinions of the teachers and the 10 th grade ethnic minority students at VCVBHS about the use of group activities

in teaching and learning English vocabulary as well as to identify which group activities should be used in teaching English vocabulary to the 10 th grade ethnic minority students

at VCVBHS

3.1 Presentation of statistical results

3.1.1 Result of questionnaire

3.1.1.1 Result of questionnaire for the students

3.1.1.1.1 The students’ personal experience in learning English (questions 1, 2, 3)

From the result of survey questionnaire, 100% of the students did not have any English courses apart from English lessons at their classes and none of them had a plan to

do this until May 2014 This figure indicates that the process of learning English vocabulary of all the students of the experimental group at VCVBHS was not affected by any courses except English lessons at class rooms

3.1.1.1.2 The students’ opinions about English vocabulary in learning English (question 4)

26%

74%

Very importantImportant

Chart 1: The students’ opinions about English vocabulary in learning English

Chart 1 shows that a large number of the students (74%) thought that English vocabulary was very important in learning English The rest (26%) also believed that it was important to learn vocabulary in learning English This means all of the students of the experimental group at VCVBHS are well aware of the importance of vocabulary

learning in their English acquisition Their attitudes are very good because they can motivate the students in learning English vocabulary

3.1.1.1.3 The students’ attitudes towards learning new words (questions 5, 6)

72%

very difficultdifficultnot very difficult

Chart 2: The students’ attitudes towards learning new words

From chart 2, it is clearly seen that most of the students (72%) claimed that learning English vocabulary was difficult, 21% of them found it very difficult, only 7%

of them said that it was not very difficult and no one found easy to learn English vocabulary These figures indicate that English vocabulary acquisition is really a challenge for 10th grade ethnic minority students at VCVBHS

Chart 3:The students’ interest in learning English vocabulary

Although all of the students thought that English vocabulary was important or even very important in learning English (considering from chart 3), we can realize that only 2% of them really liked learning English vocabulary, 60% of them liked it 11% of the students did not like doing this work In addition, there were 27% of the students hating learning new words It can be inferred from these figures that many students only learn English vocabulary because they have to do that This is one of the reasons why the English vocabulary proficiency of the 10th grade students at VCVBHS is not good

3.1.1.1.4 The students’ attitudes towards using group activities in teaching and learning English (questions 7, 8, 9)

Chart 4: The students’ attitudes towards using group activities

in teaching and learning English

The result in chart 4 shows that a large number of the students, accounting for 82%, liked learning English vocabulary by their learning groups under teachers’ guiding 11% of them liked studying by their learning groups themselves There is only a small number (7%) wanted to learn only under teacher’s control No one had interest in working individually From these figures, we can see that most of the students liked learning English vocabulary through group activities with teachers’ help

4%

confident, giving studentsmore chances to practicehaving no more advantagesthan other methods

Chart 5: The students’ judgements about advantages

of group activities

It can be generally seen from chart 5 that 96% of the students admitted group activities made them more confident, gave them more chances to use vocabulary in communication and made their lessons more interesting The rest, only 4%, thought this method did not have any differences from other methods This means most of the students can recognize the advantages of group activities and are interested in this method

3.1.1.1.5 The students’ opinions on organising group activities (questions 10, 11)

students of higher English proficiency but of the same interest

Chart 6: The students’ desire about choosing their partners in group activities

It is interesting to find out from chart 6 that only 5% of the respondents said that they desired to work with partners sitting next to, 7% of them wanted to work with people

of the same proficiency in English, the same figure liked working with students having the same interest, and the rest, 81%, wanted to have partners with higher English proficiency but having the same interest It can be said that, the students want to learn much more from their friends and the same interest is one of the important factors affecting their choice

giving clear instruction

controlling and helping all the students when necessary

commenting, encouraging students during the group activities

Chart 7: The students’ expectation towards teachers’ activities

We can see in chart 7 that 100% of the students thought that teachers should organize groups reasonably, give clear instruction, controll and help all the students when neccessary, provide needed knowledege, and always comment, encourage students during the group activities This number infers that teachers’ role in English vocabulary teaching

is very important and their method has great influence on students’ vocabulary acquisition

3.1.1.1.6 The students’ preference towards teachers’ activities in vocabulary

problem solving and decision making interviewing Information gap filling Opinion exchanging

Chart 8: The students’ preference towards the teachers’ activities in vocabulary lesson

In term of teachers’ activities in vocabulary lesson, chart 8 indicates that all the students liked game and role playing because these activities made them feel more

comfortable, more fun in English learning 95% of them liked projects, 84% of them

liked problem solving and decision making, interview and information gap filling were liked by 78% and 51% because they were brain storm activities in which the students could find out and express their own decisions Only 16% of them liked opinion exchanging They agreed that this activity is boring

3.1.1.2 Result of questionnaire for the teachers

3.1.1.2.1 Teachers’ opinions of English vocabulary in English teaching

Table 1: Teachers’ opinions of English vocabulary in English teaching

It is not very surprising to see in table 1 that all of the 14 teachers of English at VCVBHS claimed that vocabulary was very important in English teaching This means

all of them are aware of the importance of English vocabulary teaching so they may always pay attention in vocabulary teaching

3.1.1.2.2.The methods the teachers often used in teaching English vocabulary (question 2)

Table 2: The methods often used in teaching English vocabulary

Table 2 shows that only 64.3% of the teachers often used group work, and 35.7%

of them often used the mother tongue to teach English vocabulary From these figures we can see that because of many reasons, many teachers still did not find out many new, effective methods in teaching English vocabulary

3.1.1.2.3 Teachers’ frequent use of group work in English vocabulary teaching (question 3)

Table 3: Teachers’ frequent use of group work in English vocabulary teaching

Table 3 indicates that there was 57.1% of the teachers always teaching English

vocabulary through group activities 14.4% of them stated that they often use this method The same number sometimes used it It is surprising to see that 21.4% of them admitted that they never did this These numbers answer the questions why many students do not

like learning English vocabulary

3.1.1.2.4 The teachers’ judgement about group activities in English vocabulary teaching (questions 4, 5)

teachers

Percentage (%)

A It is time-consuming for teachers

to prepare the lessons

Table 4: The teachers’ judgement about group activities

For the benefits of group activities, all the teachers (100%) found that using group activities in vocabulary teaching could give students more chances to speak English and it motivated students to take part in English learning 78.6% of the teachers believed that this method could improve students’ independence, co-operation and enhance students’ pronunciation and intonation However, table 4 also shows that group activities have many disadvantages 100% of the teachers stated that it was difficult for the teachers to control all the class at the same time and they found difficult to correct all the students’ mistakes Moreover, 66.6% of them agreed that it was time-consuming for the teachers to prepare the lessons and students tent to use the mother tongue during group learning task

In short, most of the teachers found both benefits and disadvantages of groups activities in teaching English vocabulary That is the reason why some teachers do not use this method

3.1.1.2.5 The teachers’ implementation of using group activities in their current vocabulary teaching (questions 6, 7, 8, 9)

teachers

Percentage (%)

B Students of the same age, same

proficiency in English and have common

interest

D Students of different ages and / or sexes

and / or interests

E Students of the same age, higher

proficiency in English and have common

interest

B Following exactly the tasks in the

D Basing on the textbooks and co-operating

with other colleagues to design the tasks