A study of instructions for group work in 2nd year non English major classrooms at Thai Nguyen University = Nghiên cứu việc hướng dẫn hoạt động nhóm trong các l

A study of teachers’ instructions for group work in 2 nd year non-English major classrooms at Thai Nguyen University Moreover, the respondents of this study are limited to 2nd year non-

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Nguyễn Thị Hiền Hạnh

A study of instructions for group work in

Thai Nguyen University

(Nghiên cứu việc hướng dẫn hoạt động nhóm trong các lớp không chuyên tiếng Anh năm thứ hai tại

Đại học Thái Nguyên )

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

TNU: Thai Nguyen University

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Teacher’s profiles (Total number of teacher: 9)

Table 2: The organization and content of the teachers’ instructions

Table 3:The language used for the instructions

Table 4: Physical expressions for the instructions

Table 5: Students’ opinions on the purpose of using group work in their class Table 6: Students’ opinions on types of group activities they like most

Table 7: Reasons for effective instructions

Table 8: Favorite ways of forming group work

Table 9: Students’ difficulties when following teachers’ instructions

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Candidate’s statement

Acknowledgements

Abstract

List of abbreviations, tables, figures

Table of contents

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION……….…… 1

1 Rationales of the study……… ………1

2 Aims and significance of the study ……… ………2

3 Scope of the study……… …….………3

4 Research questions……… ……….……… 4

5 Methods of the study……….………….……….………4

6 Design of the study……….………….……….……… 5

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT……….………….……….……… 6

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW……….………….……….……… 6

I.1 Communicative language teaching……… …… ………6

I.1.1 An overview of communicative language teaching……… 6

I.1.2 Communicative activities……….…10

I.2 Group work in communicative language teaching ……… 11

I.2.1 Concept of group work……… …… …11

I.2.2 Advantages of group work ……… ….12

I.2.3 General strategies for a successful group work……… 17

I.2.4 Factors affecting the success of group work……….… 19

I.2.5 Teacher’s roles in group work……… ….20

I.3 Teacher’s instructions for a successful group work……… ……22

I.3.1 Teacher’s instructions and its relation to teacher talk……… … 22

I.3.2 The definition of teacher’s instructions for group work……… … 23

I.3.3 The importance of instructions in organizing group work……… … 24

I.3.4 Principles of giving instructions to group work……… ….25

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CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY

II.1 The informants ……… ….…27

II.1.1 The teachers……… ….….27

II.1.2 The students……….27

II.2 Data collection instruments……… … 27

II.2.1 Questionnaires……… ….28

II.2.2 Classroom observations……….……… 29

II.2.3 Interviews ……… ……29

II.3 The current situation of English teaching and learning at TNU……… ……29

CHAPTER III: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS III.1 Result analysis……… 31

III.1.1 Classroom observations ……… ……31

III.1.1.1 The organization and content of the teachers’ instructions… ……31

III.1.1.2 The language used for the instructions……… …….33

III.1.1.3 Physical expressions for the instructions……… … …… 35

III.1.1.4 Observation of the nine classrooms in details……… ….….36

III.1.2 Students’ surveys……… ……… 49

III.1.2.1 Students’ opinions on the purpose of using group work in their class….…49 III.1.2.2 Students’ preference for group activities……….50

III.1.2.3 Reasons for the effectiveness of teacher’s instructions………… ….51

III.1.2.4 Teacher’s most favourite group form……….…… 55

III.1.2.5 Difficulties students have experienced when following teacher’s instructions……….… 56

III.1.3 Teachers’ interviews……….…… 60

III.1.3.1 Teachers’ satisfaction on the lessons observed……….61

III.1.3.2 Teachers’ views on the success and failure of the instructions and their plan for improvement……… ………… …62

III.2 Discussion on the results……… ………64

III.2.1 How instructions are used for group work in 2 nd year non-English major classrooms at TNU? ……… ……… 64

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III.2.2 What facilitates and hinders the teachers when giving instructions

for group work ……… ……… …… 65

III.3 Cause analysis for the results of the study……… ………….66

III.3.1 Cultural background……… ……….66

III.3.2 Class size……… ……….67

III.3.3 Factors concerned with learners……… ……… 68

III.3.4 The limited teaching time……… ……….68

III.3.5 Teacher’s awareness toward instructions for group work……… 69

III.4 Recommendations……… ……… 70

III.4.1 Recommendations to the teachers……… ………… 70

III.4.1.1 Design and select appropriate activities……….70

III.4.1.2 Suggested group activities with improved instructions………71

III.4.1.3 Rehearse instructions before applying in the classrooms………….73

III.4.1.4 Give instructions flexibly……… ……… 74

III.4.1.5 Train students group work skills………74

III.4.1.6 Self train to be effective instruction providers……… 75

III.4.1.7 Improve body language ……… …….75

III.4.2 Recommendations to the students ……… 76

III.4.2.1 Be attentive in class ……… 76

III.4.2.2 Be cooperative with the teacher……… 77

PART THREE: CONCLUSION………78

1 Summary of the study………78

2 Limitations and recommendations for further research……… 79

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Questionnaires for students

Appendix 2: Classroom checklist for observations

Appendix 3: Post- lesson interview questions for teachers

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A study of teachers’ instructions for group work in 2 nd

year non-English major classrooms at Thai Nguyen University

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationales

In recent years, together with the increasing need for English learning, great efforts have been made in order to improve the quality of English teaching It is certain that teaching English is a complex process involving many complex factors Larsen – Freeman (1991) points out: language teaching can be summarized into three fields: language learner/ learning (How to learn); language/culture (What to learn); teacher/ teaching (How to teach) (Johnson, 2002) Since 1960s, the research on classroom discourse has grown rapidly Before that, teaching methodology has been explored and

an effective teaching method is tried to be found Since teaching methods do not play a decisive role in language classrooms, the focus has shifted from teaching methods to teacher‟s talk in classroom process, or teacher‟s instructions

Giving instructions is particularly important to language teaching According to pedagogical theory, instructions that the teacher uses in the classroom determine to a larger degree whether a class will succeed or not since almost all of the classroom activities and teacher‟s help are organized and provided to the students through instructions

In Vietnam, English has become an international language of communication as well as

a compulsory subject at most schools and universities English proficiency is very necessary for those who want to get a better job or, for the least of it, pass the English exam at the end of their study course In order to improve the English teaching and learning quality, teachers at Thai Nguyen University, where I work, have been using different techniques, one of which is group work – key features of learner – centered orientation They believe that group work help to provide their students with more opportunities to exchange their ideas make them more confident and creative in learning and promote their autonomy by allowing them to make their own decisions in the group However, many teachers complain that they are facing many challenges in organizing and managing, especially giving instructions for group work Some teachers

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do not use English frequently and sometimes not confident in their use of the language Therefore, the effectiveness of their instructions for group work in class may not as high as being expected Along with a possible lack on the part of teachers to give instructions in English in the classroom, there may also be a reason on the part of class size Most of the non-English major classes at Thai Nguyen University are large Hence, the noise as well as the mixed ability of the students may lead them to an inadequate understanding about the instructions given Since a better understanding of the teacher‟s instructions for group work can undoubtedly help students successfully fulfill their tasks in the group and certainly improve their learning, it is necessary to do some research on teachers‟ instructions for group work from both theoretical and practical perspective The author hopes to make a modest contribution to an increased understanding of giving instructions for group work in non-English major classrooms

at Thai Nguyen University Basing on which group work can be organized in a more effective way to create variety, dynamism, and freshness in the classroom

2 Aims and significance of the study

2.1 Aims of the study

The study is conducted with a purpose to investigate how instructions are used for group work in 2nd year non-English major classrooms Thus, the specific purpose is to provide reality evidence of the use of instructions for group work in 2nd year non-English major classrooms In this way, the factors that influence to the effectiveness of

an instruction will be clarified so that suggestions for better instructions will be discussed in order to help teachers improve their instructions for group work consciously

2.2 Significance of the study

The study of teachers‟ instructions for group work in 2nd year non-English major at Thai Nguyen University (TNU) is significant in three different ways First to the teachers, they should realize the fact that instructions play the decisive role to the

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success of group work They are the guiders that provide the students with all necessary information such as time limitation, group size, and detailed tasks assigned to each student Therefore, a carefully planned instruction is really needed when organizing a group activity Similarly, an appropriate procedure is inevitable in giving instructions

In order to help the students fulfill their tasks successfully, the teacher should explain systematically That means the teacher must have good organizational skills In addition to effective instructions, a friendly and co-operative climate should be created

so that students feel encouraging and rewarding to study Furthermore, teacher‟s eye contact and body language are also crucial When giving instructions, the teacher should bear in mind that they could use gestures such as using fingers to select students

or to show the number of members in a group, or use eye contact to warn some noisy students as well as to check their understanding of the instructions In fact, many teachers have neither the habit of using the body language and eye contact nor the skill

to utilize them, so the effectiveness is not high as they expect

Secondly, the research provides evidence of how instructions are used by teachers at Thai Nguyen University It also reveals the teachers and students‟ attitudes toward good instructions Therefore, from the research results, the teacher can decide which techniques and procedure should be used to make effective group activities

Finally, instructions are indispensable to the students in learning They may make progress after each lesson if the teachers‟ instructions for the class activities are well organized

3 Scope of the study

It is a fact that teachers have many ways to divide the class into small groups so that students can work together at the same time in an activity Thus, to limit the scope of the study, the researcher intends to investigate only instructions for activities in which the teacher divides the class into groups of two, three, four or five since they are the common size of group activities in the classroom at Thai Nguyen University

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Moreover, the respondents of this study are limited to 2nd year non-English majors chosen randomly at TNU, therefore, their opinion about teachers‟ instructions might not be a representative of all students at TNU in particular and students learning English in general

3 What recommendations for improvement are needed to make instructions for

group work more effective?

5 Methods of the study

In order to examine the situation of the study, the researcher used the following methods: observation checklists for every class of the teachers chosen, post – lesson interviews for the teachers and post lesson questionnaires for the students

The post – lesson interview questions are aimed at obtaining information about the teachers‟ own judgments on their teaching, particularly on the instructions

After each lesson, a questionnaire will be distributed to the students to get information about their evaluation and reasons for their successful or unsuccessful in following the teacher‟s instructions The author uses questionnaires for this stage because of the fact that they are easy to construct and uniquely capable of gathering a large amount of information quickly in a form that is readily processable (Dornyei, 2003)

Observation of the teachers‟ classes will be carried out over a period of two months to obtain information about their actual teaching practices Specific episodes of events

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observed during the lesson will be used to generate discussion topics during post – lesson interviews

6 Design of the study

The thesis consists of three main parts

Part I is the introduction in which rationales, aims, significance, research questions, scope, methods and design of the study are presented

Part II, development, consists of three chapters

Chapter 1 comes to basic concepts and knowledge relevant to the study as communicative teaching theory, the use of teacher talk, group work – its advantages and organization, the nature of instructions, and principles for giving instructions when organizing group work

Chapter 2 provides with an overview of the teachers and students chosen, the classroom conditions, timetable and teachers and students relationship at TNU Data collection and statistical result are also presented in the chapter

Chapter 3 discusses the findings of the research and suggests recommendations for the improvement of instruction giving

Part III, the conclusion, summarizes the major findings obtained from the study Then

it deals with the limitations and puts forward some suggestions for further study

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PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

I.1 Communicative language teaching

I.1.1 An overview of communicative language teaching

The growth of interest in the utility of Communicative Language Teaching has been shaped in the changes in the British language teaching tradition dating from late 1960s CLT marks the beginning of a great innovation within language teaching because of its superior principles, which are widely accepted nowadays It is claimed to involve the making of new and different assumptions about the two fundamental questions: what is learnt and how is learned In fact, the communicative approach in language teaching originates from the theory of language as communication It then has been so rapidly adopted and widely disseminated that it quickly occupied the status of orthodoxy in British language teaching circles, and attained support of leading methodologists, applied linguists, scholars and publishers as well as -institutions (Richard, 1985) CLT is often mentioned as an approach that comprises two sets of theories: assumption

of what to teach, and assumption of how to teach

 Assumption of what to teach

As regards the first assumption, the theory of language in CLT shows that language is for communication At the level of language theory, CLT has characteristics defined by Richards and Rodgers (2001) as follows:

 Language is a system of for the expression of meaning

 The primary function of language is to allow interaction and communication

 The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative use

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 The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural

features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in

discourse

Therefore, the purpose of language teaching is to develop "communicative competence", a basic concept in CLT

Hymes (1972) defined "communicative competence" as "what a speaker needs to know

in order to be communicatively competent in a speech community,."( Hymes, 1972,

cited in Richards and Rodgers, 2001) His viewpoint shows that acquiring communicative competence means acquiring both knowledge and ability for language use Sharing the same view of communicative competence with Hymes and Yalden, Munby (1979) stated:

"To communicate effectively, a speaker must know not only how to produce any and all grammatical utterances of a language but also how to use them effectively The speaker must know what to say, with whom, and when and where."

(Munby 1979: 17) Apart from those definitions, Canale and Swain (1980) also described the concept of

"communicative competence" in term of four dimensions They are grammatical

competence (grammatical and lexical capacity); sociolinguistic competence (the ability

to understand and produce appropriate language in the social context which the

communication happens); discourse competence (the ability to comprehend the

message underlying a coherent and cohesive text); and strategic competence (the

ability to employ communicative strategies to initiate and redirect communication)

 Assumption of how to teach

If the first assumption in CLT is concerned with what should be taught, (in this case, that is communicative competence), then the second assumption is related to how the

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teaching should be carried out In other words, syllabus theory and syllabus models are the secondcentral point that is mentioned in CLT

One of the linguists devoting great contribution to communicative development is Wilkin D.A who proposed the first syllabus models which was developed into his later book Notional Syllabus in 1976 This syllabus model, remarked by Richards (2001) as

an tempt to illustrate the functional view of language in syllabus design, specifies the

two categories namely notional (e.g., frequency, motion, location) and communicative

function (e.g., requests, offers, apologies, complaints) That is to say, a notional syllabus comprises not only grammatical and lexical elements but also the necessary concepts, notions as well as topics for learners to communicate about (Richards, 2001) Wilkin' viewpoint of syllabus model is also strongly supported by Brumfit and Roberts (1983: 85)

Syllabus aiming at communicative competence no longer concentrates so much on grammar but looks at the nature of meaning and of interaction Syllabus of this kind is

usually referred to as "Functional" or "Notional" or "Functional/ Notional."

Brumfit & Roberts (1983: 85) However, notional syllabus faces the criticisms from other scholars such as Henry Widdowson and Margie Berns Berns, M (1984: 15), argued that the textbooks based

on the functional view might be "sorely inadequate and even misleading in their presentation of language as interaction." She also warned that if the context, a real key

to transmitting meaning to both form and function, was not seriously paid attention in the textbook, learners' communicative competence development would be limited Therefore, the notional syllabus deals with the components of discourse, but may not

be concerned with discourse itself Similarly, Widdowson, H (1979) criticized Wilkin' notional syllabus model as the replacement of one kind of list (e.g., a list of grammar items) with another kind of list (e.g., a list of notions and functions) He meant notional syllabus focuses on products rather than communicative processes

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It is apparent that there exist varieties of opinions about notional syllabus However, it

is these arguments that contribute to the further development of CLT, which is the most favorite approach now

Another point to make about CLT is learner- centeredness Students in a learner- centered approach are seen as being able to play a more active and participatory role than in traditional approaches Accordingly, teacher roles will be redefined with the change in activity organization because individual learner is thought to have unique interests styles, needs and goals, which should be reflected in the design of method of instruction (Richards

and Rodgers, 2001) To be more specific, teacher's instruction in learner- centered approach includes:

 techniques that focus on or account for learners' needs, styles, and goals

 techniques that give some control to the student (group work or strategy training)

 techniques that include the consultation and input of students and that do not presuppose objectives in advanced

 techniques that allow for student‟ creativity and innovation

 techniques that enhance a student's sense of competence and self- worth

(Brown, 1994)

In brief, CLT is identified with the following characteristics:

 It makes communicative competence the goal of teaching

 It develops procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication

 It considers learner and his communicative needs the centre of language teaching process

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These characteristics will be the principles for teacher to choose appropriate techniques for increasing students' participation in communicative activities in classroom The concepts communicative activities will be discussed in the next section

For some time after the rise of communicative language teaching, the status of grammar in the curriculum was rather uncertain Some linguists, like Cross (1995) or

Ur (1996), maintained that it was not necessary to teach grammar, that the ability to use second language (knowing „how‟) would develop automatically if the learners were required to focus on meaning in the process of using language to communicate In recent years, this view has come under serious challenges, and it now seemed to be widely accepted that there is value in classroom tasks which require learners to focus

on form It is also accepted that grammar is an essential source in using language communicatively

In CLT, the types of classroom activities and the way they should be conducted will influence learning Good teaching allows both learning and acquisition Learning would include activities while acquisitions presumably takes place during activities where the focus is on the content or the function of language The acquisition process is

in fact the major theoretical rationale for the communicative approach, and the evidence is quite clear that without a stage of language use for communication, language teaching is not very efficient

I.1.2 Communicative activities

Communicative activities, defined by Harmer (1991), are those that give students who are somehow involved in both the desire to communicate and a purpose involving them

in a varied use of language Such activities are crucially important in a language classroom since the students can do their best to use the language individually, arriving

at a degree of language autonomy

Nolasco and Athur (1993) characterized communicative activities as follows:

 They involve using language for a purpose

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 They create a desire to communicate This means there must be some kind of

"gap" which may be information, opinion, affect, or season that students seek to bridge

 They encourage students to be creative and contribute their ideas

 They focus on the message and students concentrate on "what" they are saying rather than "how" they are saying it

 The students work independently of the teacher

 The students determine what they want to write and say The activity is not designed to control what the students will

(Nolasco and Athur: 58) Additionally, Harmer (1991) sorted communicative activities into oral and written ones Oral communicative activities include seven categories: reaching a consensus, discussion relaying instructions, communication games, problem solving, talking about you, simulation, and role-play Written communicative activities also comprise relaying instructions, writing reports and advertisement, co-operative writing, exchanging letters and writing journals By taking part in communicative activities of both oral and written form, students can actually do things with language and make language their own Doing well this action needs active students' participation, which will be discussed in thefollowing section

I.2 Group work in Communicative Language Teaching

I.2.1 The definition of group work

Group work in the second language classroom has been recently recommended by Flander (1970); Adams, McLean and Castanos (1976), especially by Adrian Doff (1988: 137) which defines it as a process that “the teacher divides the class into small groups to work together, all the group work at the same time ”

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According to Joe Landsberger (1996), the philosophy of working in groups involves shared and/or learned values, resources, and ways of doing things However, each group, and each individual, will only be as effective if they are willing to embrace and/or respect differences within the group

The main objective of most group work is the outcome The entire group wants the outcome to be good; however, the whole point of group work is for everyone in the group to work as a team to accomplish the outcome of the task It is important for everyone to work together When one person is not helping with the group effort or working on their part of the project, it causes the whole group to strain, and can also causes detrimental defects to the outcome of the task

I.2.2 Advantages of group work

In fact, all-class teaching is often undervalued as a method It is very valuable in developing a sense of unity and ensuring that nobody is left behind; it also helps learners stay focused on the task if they know they are likely to be asked a question in the open class However, working in pairs or small groups is the best way to ensure that tasks are discussed thoroughly and that people who might be reluctant to speak in front

of the whole class get a chance to contribute For some subjects such as foreign languages, group work is the only way to make sure that students get the practice they need More generally, group work fosters negotiation and co-operative skills, especially

if the groups are changed regularly They can also help provide motivation; students will often work hard on a group project or performance, which they know, is going to

be seen by the whole class

Using group work in the classroom has been recently recommended by Flander (1970); Adams, Mc Lean and Castanos (1976), especially by Long , Porter, and Patricia (1985) They all have used pedagogical arguments to support group work There are at least 5 pedagogical arguments for the use of group work in second language learning In order

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to have a deeper understanding about group work, to accept and apply it in secondary language classroom, it is essential to begin with a brief review of those arguments First, Long assumes that group work in creases language practice opportunities In all probability, one of the main reasons for low achievements by many second language learners is simply that they do not have enough time to practise the new language In the secondary schools nowadays there is a large number of students in a confined classroom This makes learners have a few chance to speak Moreover, most of the classrooms are teacher – untied ones in which the teacher talks most of the time while a majority of students listen, take notes and sit silently Flander makes it clear that when lessons are organized in teacher – centered manner, a typical talk for at least half, and often for as much as two thirds of any class period In these classrooms, only a small number of students speak relatively frequently with the teacher This leads to a small number of successful learners and a relatively large number of failures Group work certainly helps but it cannot solve this problem entirely To illustrate with the public school setting, suppose that just half the time available for individual student talk is devoted to work in group of three instead of to lockstep practice, in which one student talk while other listen (or not, as the case may be) This will change the total individual practice time available to each student from one hour to five and a half hours It means that through group activities in the classroom, every student has much more chance to talk, discuss and find solution to the task given Thus, it is not a surprise if their learning result is improved

The teacher-centered classroom, the lock step, limits not only the quantity of talk students can engage in, but also its quality This is because the teacher – fronted lessons favor a highly conventionalized variety of conversation In such settings, one speaker asks a series of known information, or display questions, such as Do you come to class

at 7.00? or Do you live with your parents? The question to which there is only one correct answer The second speaker responds and then in the classroom, typically has the correctness of the respond confirmed (yes, right, good) Only rarely does genuine

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communication takes place Another unfortunate effect of this sort of pseudo – communication is that students‟ attention tends to wander The reason is that students are asked to give a prompt and brief answer, which requires little thought Then, teachers quickly „correct‟ any errors and students appreciate just as quickly that what they say is less important than how they say it Group work can help a great deal in such situations First, unlike the lockstep with its single, distance initiator of talk (the teacher) and its group interlocutor (the students) face – to - face communication in a small group is a natural setting for conversation Second, two or three students working together for five minutes at a stretch are no limited to producing hurried, isolated sentences of utterances, thereby developing discourse competence, not just a sentence grammar Third, as shown by Long, Adams, Mc Lean and Castanos, students can take

on roles and adopt positions, which in lockstep work are usually the teacher‟s exclusive preserve and can then practice a range of language functions associated with those roles and positions Finally, given appropriate materials to work with and problems to solve, students can develop at least some of the variety of skills that make up communicative competence in a second language Clearly, group work improves the quality of student talk

The third argument is that group work helps individualize instruction In a large teacher – centered classroom, many individual differences are ignored because it is impossible for the teacher to give individual attention to the students and to check all their work The individual differences include students‟ age, cognitive stage, sex, attitude, motivation, aptitude, personality, interest, cognitive style, and prior language learning experience I would be a great success if these differences were reflected in the pacing

of instruction, in its linguistic and culture content, in the level of intellectual challenge

it poses, in the manner of its presentation and in the kinds of the classroom roles students are assigned Although group work obviously cannot handle all these differences, still it can help That is, small groups of students can work on different sets

of materials suited to their needs Moreover, they can do so simultaneously, thereby

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avoiding the risk of boring other students who do not have the same problem Group work, then, is a first step toward individualization of instruction, which everyone agrees is a good idea, but which few teachers or textbooks seems to do much about Furthermore, group work promotes a positive affective climate In a teacher – centered classroom many students, especially shy or linguistically insecure, experience considerable stress when called upon in a public arena Research (see, for example, Rowe, 1974 White and Lightbrown, 1983) has shown that if students pause longer than about one second before beginning to respond or while making a response; or appear not to know the answer, or make an error, teachers will tend to interrupt, repeat or rephrase the question She may immediately ask a different one, „correct‟ and/ or switch to another students Not all teachers do these things, of course, but most teachers

do so more than they could realize or would want to admit In contrast, working in small groups, students have a relatively intimate setting and, usually, a supportive environment As far as the small group setting is concerned, Barnes (1973:19) states that an intimate group allows us to be relatively in explicitly and in coherent change the direction in the middle of sentence, to be uncertain and self – contradictory Moreover, freedom from requirement for accuracy at all costs and entry into the richer and more accommodating set of relationships provided by small group interaction promote a positive affective climate This in turn allows for the development of the kind of personalized, creative talk for which most aural – oral classes are trying to prepare learners

Beside the pedagogical arguments for the use of group work as an aid to second language teaching, there is now an independent psycholinguistic evidence for group work utilizing This evidence emerged from recent work on the nature of non – native/ non – native conversation It is useful and necessary for us – Vietnamese teachers and learners of English – to study this rationale

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Concerning the psycholinguistic rationale, many linguists like Long (1985), Adams,

Mc Leans and Castanos (1976) examine the quality and the quality of speech in both teacher – led class discussions and small group discussions The result is that the amount and variety of student talk were found significantly greater in small groups than

in the teacher – led discussions, and group work enabled students to use language of a broader range of social and interpersonal function than does lockstep, teacher – led classroom interaction This finding suggested that, compared with teacher – led instruction, group work could serve as a more effective aid to second language learning

Comparing the accuracy of student production in teacher – fronted discussion and small group discussion on decision – making tasks, Pica and Doughty (in press) found that students perform at the same level of grammatical accuracy in their second language output in unsupervised group work as in „public‟ lockstep work conducted by the teacher In addition, they found that the individual students talked more in their teacher – fronted discussions

Research into error correction by Pica and Doughty also found that the frequency of error correction and completions by students is higher in group work than in lock – step teaching In a more detailed study, Bruton and Samuda (1980) stated that learners seem more apt to repair lexical errors during group work, whereas pay an equal amount of attention to errors of syntax and pronunciation

It should be noted that Doughty and Pica (1984) also studied negotiation, the percentage of conversational adjustments They found that more negotiation was occurred in the small group (66 percent) than in lockstep format (45 percent) The reason, according to them, was that students are reluctant to indicate a lack of understanding in front of their teacher and an entire class of students and so they do not negotiate as much comprehensible input in whole-class settings

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I.2.3 General Strategies for a successful group work

 Plan for each stage of group work

The first step that needs to be taken when teachers intend to organize a group work is the preparation step When writing the syllabuses for a course, the teachers are to decide which topics, themes, or projects that might lead themselves to formal group work Think about how they will divide their students into groups, help groups negotiate among themselves, provide feedback to the groups, and evaluate the products

of group work

 Careful and precise explanation

The second step is to explain carefully to the class how the groups will operate and how they will be graded Group work is more successful when students are graded against a set standard than when they are graded against each other (Source: Smith, 1986) The teacher also needs to explain the objectives of the group tasks and define any relevant concepts In addition to a well-defined task, every group needs a way of getting started, a way of knowing when its task is done, and some guidance about the participation of members

In order to get a successful group work, it is also necessary to train the students the skills they need, especially the collaborative They must learn to actively and tolerantly listen, help one another in mastering the content, give and receive constructive criticism, and manage disagreements

This is the step where teachers must use their words carefully, precisely and simply enough so that their students can understand and follow properly Without teacher‟s explanations, group work can not be successful as expected

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 Create group tasks that require interdependence

The students in a group must perceive that they "sink or swim" together, that each member is responsible to and dependent on all the others, and that one cannot succeed unless all in the group succeed Knowing that peers are relying on individuals is a powerful motivator for group work (Kohn, 1986) Strategies for promoting interdependence include specifying common rewards for the group, encouraging students to divide up the labor, and formulating tasks that compel students to reach a consensus ( Johnson, Johnson, and Smith, 1991)

 Create assignments that fit the students' skills and abilities

Early in the term, the teacher should assign relatively easy tasks As students become more knowledgeable and familiar with group work, then he/she can increase the difficulty level For example, in a research methods course, the teacher begins by having students simply recognize various research designs and sampling procedures Later, team members generate their own research designs At the end of the term, each team prepares a proposal for a research project and submits it to another team for evaluation (Cooper and Associates, 1990)

 Assign group tasks that allow for a fair division of labor

Teachers should try to structure the tasks so that each group member can make an equal contribution This task of the teacher in fact is not easy to fulfill if the class is large with mixed ability students In this kind of class, the teacher usually find hard to keep

an eye on every student, even after they have assigned different tasks for different students in each group One of the effective ways to check the students‟ labor division

is to set up "competitions" among groups When there is a prize or punishment, then the students will be more excited to do their tasks Apart from holding a competition, offering a group test taking is certainly of great help On a group test, either an in-class

or take-home exam, each student receives the score of the group It is predictable that

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groups consistently achieve higher scores than individuals and thus students enjoy collaborative test taking (Hendrickson, 1990; Toppins, 1989)

 Decide how the groups will be formed

Dividing students is one of the most important steps that play a decisive role to the success of group work There are a number of choices for the teacher to create variety They can randomly assign students to groups to maximize their heterogeneity: a mix of males and females, verbal and quiet students, the cynical and the optimistic (Fiechtner and Davis, 1992; Smith, 1986) The other way is to let students choose with whom they want to work, although this runs the risk that groups will socialize too much and that students will self-segregate (Cooper, 1990) Self-selected groups seem to work best in small classes, for classes of majors who already know one another, or in small residential colleges (Walvoord, 1986) Still teacher may form the groups themselves, taking into account students' prior achievement, and their levels of preparation, work habits, ethnicity, and gender (Connery, 1988) In addition, the teacher can also try to sprinkle the more able students evenly among the groups (Walvoord, 1986) A middle ground is to ask students to express a preference, if they wish, then the teacher makes the assignments himself/ herself

I.2.4 Factors that affect the success of group work

There are many factors we might considered when deciding how to put individual students into group work It is advisable to base such decisions on any of the following principles proposed by Harmer (1999)

Friendship: When grouping students, it will be better if we are sure that we are putting friends with friends Otherwise, the result may not as high as our expectation since most students are not willing to speak to the one they find unpleasant

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- Streaming: Grouping students according to their ability or level of participation is

a complicated task for teachers Thus, this technique is not frequently used in the language classrooms

- Chance: Teachers can put students sitting next or near to each other together to form groups Some teachers may even give each student a letter from A to E or a number from 1 to 10, and then ask As to form a group, Bs to form another group and so

on Sometimes teachers group students basing on the colour of the clothes they are wearing

- Changing group: It is better for the students not to stay in the same group, working with the same friends from the beginning to the end of the activity A sequence may start with the teacher and the whole class before moving between group work and individual work until it returns to the whole class grouping

In addition to the principles above, John Honeyfield (1991) suggests some criteria for the formation of groups that teachers should follows He offers free grouping where students can make their own decision about who to work with in a group He also suggests groups based on level of proficiency The other way to group students is to choose students randomly, which means students may be grouped on the basis of who

is sitting next to whom in the class

It can be easily realized that teacher can choose any kind of grouping that they think is effective and suitable to their students However, as long as teachers use group work in the classroom, instructions for the students so that they know whom to work with and how to work will be of the greatest importance

I.2.5 Teacher’s roles in group work

While organizing group work the teacher has different roles, both in setting and managing it The first role that the teacher must carry out is the role of a designer who

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has to select activities for groups The teacher must be sure about the students‟ level and that the activities could be done reasonably well with the students‟ proficiency Another important role of the teacher is as a controller The teacher has to control not only what the students do, but also when they speak and what they speak about In order to be a successful controller, the teacher has to decide whether to join in the activity as an equal member or remaining the background to help or observe If the teacher attends to the activity with the students, the psychological distance between teachers and students may be reduced Certainly, the teacher should not continually correct the students or use her greater skills in the foreign language to her advantage In addition, she/he may note common mistakes for revision at a later stage

One of the factors that motivate the learners to do the activity is that their teacher often encourages them and suggests how they may proceed in an activity when there is silence or when they confuse about what to do next Thus, the teacher should also perform the role of a prompter with discretion

Keeping a record of all the activities done with the class, together with any comments

on the students‟ performance is certainly of great help for a successful group work The teacher should also note down any ideas for further activities or modifications of existing ones

With the great effort that the teacher puts in to group work, it is still a waste of time if she/he provides students with confusing instructions or omit some important information In many cases, the teacher has to use most of the time assigned for group work to re-explain the rules or offer demonstrations That means she/he cannot be a successful controller, prompter or organizer Thus, a clear and simple instruction with appropriate examples as demonstrations at the beginning of each activity is a „must‟ if the teacher wants to ensure the success of group work It is advisable that the teacher thinks out exactly what they are going to say beforehand and checks if the students have understood their tasks after the instructions

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I.3 Teacher’s instructions for a successful group work

I.3.1 Teacher’s instructions and its relation to teacher talk

Classroom process research, as Gaies (1983) calls “the study of communication in the classroom”, has taken different forms: interaction analysis, teacher talk and discourse analysis (Ellis, 1985: 143) All dimensions of classroom process, from questioning to disciplining students, providing the feedback and especially giving instructions, involve

in teacher talk There is no learning without teaching Therefore, as a tool of implementing plans and achieving teaching goals, teacher talk plays a vital important role in language learning As Nunan (1991) points out that teacher talk is of crucial importance, not only the organization of the classroom but also for the processes of acquisition It is important for the organization and management of the classroom because it is through language that teachers either succeed or fail in implementing their teaching plans In terms of acquisition, teacher talk is important because it is probably the major source of comprehensible target language input that the learner is likely to receive The amount and type of teacher talk is even regarded as a decisive factor of success or failure in classroom teaching

According to second language acquisition theory, plenty of and high – quality input is the necessary element for successful language learning There is no learning without input “If the second language is learnt as a foreign language in a language class in a non-supportive environment, instruction is likely to be the major or even the only source of target language input” (Stern, 1983: 400) Classroom is the chief source for language learners and teacher talk, particularly teacher instructions, serves as the major target language input for them Stern proposed a teaching learning model, which identified two principle factors, the language teacher and the language learner

“The teacher, like the learner, brings to language teaching certain characteristics which may have bearing on educational treatment: age, sex, previous education, and personal qualities Above all, the language teacher brings to it a language background and

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experience, professional training as a linguist and teacher, previous language teaching experience, and more or less formulated theoretical presuppositions about language, language learning and teaching” (Stern, 1983: 500) These characteristics of language teacher are reflected in different characteristics and forms of teacher talk, and certainly

of teacher‟s instructions

I.3.2 The definition of teacher’s instructions for group work

For most Vietnamese learners of English, classroom is the main place where they frequently expose to the target language In the classroom, the teacher tries to use English whenever it is possible The language used by the teacher has “two purposes: it serves both as the subject matter of the lesson and as the medium of instruction” (Willis 1987: 163) The previous purpose of language used in the classroom is obvious while the later has not been fully defined Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Encyclopedic defines teacher‟s instruction as a “process of teaching knowledge or teaching given”

The Longman dictionary of Contemporary English provides the following definition for an instruction: a statement/ order telling someone what they must do Another definition of instruction is that: It is "the purposeful direction of the learning process" and is one of the major teacher class activities (along with planning and management) Professional educators have developed a variety of models of instruction, each designed to produce classroom learning Joyce, Weil, and Calhoun (2003) describe four categories of models of teaching/instruction (behavioral systems, information processing, personal development, and social interaction) that summarize the vast majority of instructional methods Each model differs in the specific type or measure of learning that is targeted Therefore, as a teacher make decisions about "best instructional practices" she/he must be certain that she/he connect recommended practices with specific desired outcomes This point is often omitted; discussion of best practices then becomes a debate about desired outcomes rather than a discussion of how to achieve them

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As stated before, instruction (the purposeful guidance of the learning process) is complex and can take many forms It is a vitally important classroom activity, but must

be considered in the context of such factors as measures of desired student learning (including overlapping objectives taught to objectives tested), controlling student behavior (classroom management activities), individualize differences among students, and school processes

However, within the small scope of this research, the writer intends to study only instructions which are used for group work Basing on the discussions before, it is unnecessary to state about the importance of teachers‟ instructions in organizing group work since the effectiveness of a group work is greatly defined by all the steps that the teacher takes as well as her/his language including instructions, and her/his manner when organizing them As noted by G.S Hughes (1981), the teacher almost indifferently uses variety of forms of situation, ranging from commands (Look at page…) to request (Could you open the book at page…, please?) and suggestion (Why not open the book at page….?) Thus, it is certain that the instruction for group work is

a wide category of sentences teachers use when organize group works

In this study, group work is referred to classroom activities, which are in dyads (pairs),

in triads, groups of four or even half the class In other word, within the scope of this study, the writer try to do a research on how instructions are used for every group activity organized in the classroom

I.3.3 The importance of instructions in organizing group work

Group work can be frustrating for both students and teachers if instructions are not clear Students may question the teacher‟s organizational skills, and they may waste precious time puzzling over directions Therefore, instructions should clearly delineate the task and/or explain the teacher‟s expectations They should indicate the degree of freedom given to students in structuring the task and assigning group roles Clear instructions always include the time involved Students cannot manage their time

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wisely if they cannot plan ahead Numerous studies have identified “time on task” as a

factor critical to student achievement In fact, instructions should also include a

“sponge” or extension activity that teams must turn to if they complete the initial assignment This “sponge” typically involves more challenging problems to solve or more complex issues to discuss

I.3.4 Principles of giving instructions to group work

It is widely believed that the meaningful, situational use of the language in the classroom may have positive effect on learning because of its communicative potential Using the class language naturally associates the foreign language to situations where

an information gap does occur, such as: a teacher instructs learners to an exercise in their books: “Open your book at page…, please.” then checks their understanding of something (OK, did you get that?), which is indeed exchange real information with the learners Therefore, it is wise that the teacher justify the amount of new vocabulary and structures used when speaking to the students if she/he does not want to re – explain all his – her words Jim Scrivener (1994) suggested five steps when giving instructions so

as to avoid the problem of quantity and over complexity of language used

- Become aware of the teacher‟s own instruction giving

- Have a pre-plan instruction: collect essential information, use simple and clear language

- In class, create silence beforehand, make eye contact with the students before giving instructions, use authority tone and gesture to pace the instructions an clarify their meaning

- Use demonstration as much as possible

- Check understanding by getting evidence from the student Teacher may ask the students to show him/her what they are going to do

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The five steps prepare the teacher with pre - stage, while - stage and post –stage when she/he gives instructions for a group activity Basing on the suggested stages, the teacher needs to simplify their language and uses natural language without too many commands She/ he is also encouraged to use gesture and facial expressions as well as changing intonation properly during instructions in order to achieve the highest effectiveness

Concerning the question of to use or not to use mother tongue in instructions for group works, a common pattern followed by many teachers is the repetition of complex instructions in translation This pattern means an attempt is made in the L2 first to offer the better pupils an opportunity to try to understand, whereas repetition in the mother tongue will allow the weaker ones to understand the instructions anyway and maybe to start identifying the function of the foreign language used Students in order to show and check their understanding of what is happening in the activity or to support their peers‟ understanding classroom events also use the mother tongue Nevertheless, the task of running an activity in the foreign language is not easy It is not just the matter of general language competence, but also of the specific needs of classroom language and the teacher‟s sense of measuring his/ her words so as to provide comprehensible input

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CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY

II.1 The informants

II.1.1 The teachers

The author intends to carry out the study with nine teachers (coded as T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, T7, T8, and T9) who were divided into 3 groups All of the teachers were eager

to contribute to the study and did not mind having the author observe their lessons during one semester Their profiles are described in table 1

experience

Educational qualification Male Female

1 (T1-T3) 40 - 50 2 1 more than 20 years BA degree

Table1 Teacher’s profiles (Total number of teacher: 9)

II.1.2 The students

There were about 500 second year non-English majors in nine classes engaged in the study They were all from Faculty of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and History The number of students in each class is about 60 – 70 students with a mixed lever of language proficiency Many of them had 7 years learning English at secondary schools but some others had only 3 years of exposure to the language In their first and second year at the University, they learn general English with New Headway – Elementary by John and Liz Soar (1995)

II.2 Data collection instruments

In the study, the author employs both qualitative and quantitative methods to get data for answering the research questions According to Larsen Freeman and Long (1991:14), both qualitative and quantitative paradigms are not competing, but

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complementary, and the choice between the two is unnecessary They also assert that much can be gained from a combination of the two Within the scope of this study, such a combination of both research paradigms is believed to gain more in-depth data for analysis

Since this study is designed to understand the phenomenon under investigation in a particular context, at Thai Nguyen University, it is a case study in nature According to Gillham (2001: 1), a case study is:

 A unit of human activity embedded in the real world

 Which can only be studied or understood in context

 Which exists here and now

 That emerges in with its context so that precise boundaries are difficult to draw Thus, a case study is one that seeks a range of different kinds of evidence which is there in the case setting, and which has to be abstracted and collated to get the best possible answer to the research question

The study of cases, according to McDonough and McDonough (1997: 204) is not only

a qualitative undertaking, nor does it present an either/or perspective in quantitative/qualitative terms Where, for example, researchers need to study large scale trends, cases will usually be selected on the basis of random sampling and the data submitted to statistical analysis Besides, classroom is a special and restricted setting It is not possible to select so many teachers randomly to be in one class or another because of the huge task of detail analysis, and it is impossible to control all the variables that might influence the outcome in a large-scale study It is why the case study was chosen for the study

II.2.1 Questionnaires

Since the study aims to investigate the teacher‟s instruction - giving procedures, a post – lesson questionnaire was administered to the students in the observed class to get

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information about their evaluation and reasons for their successful or unsuccessful result in following the teacher‟s instructions The author uses a questionnaire for this stage because of the fact that they are easy to construct and uniquely capable of gathering a large amount of information quickly in a form that is readily processable (Dornyei, 2003)

II.2.2 Classroom observations

Beside questionnaires, classroom observations are the main tools to collect more information about the procedures used by the teachers

Observations of the teachers‟ classes were carried out over a period of two months to obtain information about their actual teaching practices Each observation consisted of three steps: Before the lesson, during the lesson, and after the lesson In before – the – lesson step, the author met the teachers to know their aims in teaching the lesson, to read their lesson plan In during – the lesson step, an observation sheet was used to record the instruction procedure The after – the – lesson step was for discussion and exchanging ideas between observers and the teachers

II.2.3 Follow – up interview

In order to get information about the teachers‟ preparation for their lessons and their beliefs regarding instructions and instruction giving procedures, the pre – lesson interview questions were designed Then, after the lesson, the post – lesson interview questions were utilized to obtain information about the teachers‟ own judgments on their teaching, particularly on the instructions

Specific episodes of events observed during the lessons were used to generate discussion topics during post – lesson interviews

II.3 The current situation of English teaching and learning at TNU

The Foreign Languages Faculty, one of the thirteen faculties of Thai Nguyen College

of Education, was founded in 1995 There are 83 teachers in the faculty, of which thirty

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teachers are responsible for teaching English to non – English major students in other departments of the college Recently, the quality as well as quantity of students enrolling to the university has increased gradually Therefore, the thirty teachers have been loaded with 1,000 students per year, (50 to 60 students in each class on average) This situation leads to the reduction of the language teaching effectiveness and creates

challenges to teachers of English to deal with such crowded and mix- ability classes

The non- English major students at the University are learning New Headway – Elementary by John and Liz Soar (1995) which is divided into two semesters with five credits each The final test designed after each semester mainly evaluates students‟ proficiency of reading and writing This testing system is likely affect students‟ learning strategies and their view to the importance of participating to the classroom activities

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CHAPTER THREE: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

III.1 Data analysis

III.1.1 Classroom observations

III.1.1.1 The organization and content of the teachers’ instructions

Classroom observation in nine classes with the nine teachers was applied to identify how instructions were used for group work

4 A variety of techniques is utilized to

make content concepts clear (e.g.,

modeling, visuals, hands-on activities,

demonstrations, body language)

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Content

6 Teacher takes into account the

specific knowledge and experience of

the students, adds explanations as

necessary and refers to the students‟

experience

1 SE CE SE SE SE CE SE LE SE

2 SE SE CE SE CE SE SE SE SE

3 CE SE SE CE SE CE SE CE CE

Table 2 : The organization and content of the teachers’ instructions (CE: clear evidence

SE: Some evidence LE: limited evidence NE: No evidence)

The observation indicates, overall, that teachers in group 2 (T4 – T6) show the most positive evidence of a good instruction for group work in which there is only one limited evidence in maintaining the students‟ engagement during the instruction Together with the two other groups, group 2 has 4/9 periods observed in which the teacher takes into account the specific knowledge and experience of the students, adds explanations as necessary and refers to the students‟ experience

From table 2 we can see that teachers in group 2 have the most appropriate pacing during instructions There is only one period with limited evidence but 4/9 periods containing clear evidence for appropriate pacing Comparing with group 3, it can be recognized that teachers in group 3 are less experienced, in other word, they are not as successful because they have only 2/9 periods with clear evidence for maintaining students‟ engagements by pacing instructions while there are 2/9 lessons having no evidence Group 1 shows the normal pacing while instructing students with 8/9 lessons containing some or a lot of evidences of appropriate pacing to maintain students‟ engagements

Demonstrations and models are extremely important to the success of an instruction as well as a group activity Teachers should not assume that all students are attentive to their instructions The fact is that there are certainly some or groups of students having private talks or thinking of something else instead of listening to the teacher The result

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is that many students may not be clear about their tasks immediately after the instruction Therefore, teachers‟ demonstrations or models could be of great help From table 2 it can be referred that teachers in group 2 rarely forget making demonstrations or models with all lessons observed containing evidences while teachers in group 1 and 3 sometimes pass the step

III.1.1.2 The language used for the instructions

rio

d T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7 T8 T9

Language

7 The use of speech is appropriate for

students' proficiency level (e.g., slower

rate, enunciation, and simple sentence

structure for beginners)

1 SE CE CE CE SE SE LE SE LE

2 SE SE CE CE CE CE SE NE SE

3 SE CE SE SE CE SE SE SE CE

8 The use of language is in highly

effective ways to emphasize the

purpose and the requirement of the

activity

1 LE SE SE CE SE SE LE SE SE

2 NE SE CE SE CE CE NE SE SE

3 SE SE SE CE SE SE SE LE SE

9 Teacher shows the flexibility in

paraphrasing the instruction

1 LE LE SE SE CE SE LE SE SE

2 LE SE SE SE SE CE SE SE SE

3 SE CE LE SE CE SE CE SE LE Delivery

10 An authoritative tone is used

1 CE CE CE SE CE CE SE SE CE

2 SE CE CE SE CE SE SE CE SE

3 CE SE CE CE SE CE LE SE NE

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11 The volume and rate varies to

Table 3:The language used for the instructions (CE: clear evidence SE: Some evidence

LE: limited evidence NE: No evidence)

Concerning the language the teachers used when they give instructions, table 3 shows that 4/9 lessons of group 1 and 5/9 lessons of group 2 showed clear evidences of the appropriateness for students' proficiency level (e.g., slower rate, enunciation, and simple sentence structure for beginners) The number was totally different from that of group 3, which had 2/9 lessons showing limited evidences and 1/9 lessons containing

no evidences of appropriate use of the language during instructions The „old‟ teachers (group 1) seemed to find difficult to paraphrase the instructions with 3/9 lessons of limited evidence and 5/9 lessons of some evidences that showed the flexibility of the instructions Group 3 dealt with the same difficulty with 2/9 lessons giving limited evidences and 6/9 lessons consisting of some evidences whereas group 2 did not stuck

in paraphrasing instructions during group work They had 3/9 lessons with clear evidences and 6/9 lessons having some evidences which showed that the teacher were successful in making the instructions flexible

The authoritative tone used for instructions seemed to be a strength of the experienced teachers in group 1, who used that kind of tone in 7/9 lessons observed Teachers in group 2 and group 3 did not show their lack of this skill However, group 3 still had one lesson with limited evidences and one lesson of no evidences showing that they can use the authoritative tone effectively

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However, teachers in group 1 showed that their pronunciation and enunciation were not

as clear as that of teachers in group 2 and group 3 who in turns had 5/9 and 4/9 lessons with clear evidences of correct pronunciation and enunciation Two teachers in group 1 were teachers of Russian more than 10 years ago Then they learned English and changed to teach English because it gradually became a fundamental subject in the University When changing to English, their pronunciation was still affected by the Russian accent Although they had tried their best, their pronunciation was not successful as they expected Some of them blamed for the old age that prevented them from pronouncing exactly

III.1.1.3 Physical expressions for the instructions

rio

d T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7 T8 T9

Physical expression

13 Teacher involves the whole class

with eye contact

1 CE CE SE SE CE CE CE SE LE

2 SE CE SE SE CE CE LE SE SE

3 SE SE CE CE SE SE SE SE LE

14 Gestures are used effectively to

pace the instructions and clarify their

meanings

1 SE SE SE CE SE CE SE LE SE

2 SE CE SE SE CE SE LE NE LE

3 SE SE CE CE CE CE SE SE SE

Table 4: Physical expressions for the instructions (CE: clear evidence SE: Some evidence

LE: limited evidence NE: No evidence)

Relating to the use of eye contact when giving instructions, it can easily be seen from table 4 that teachers in group 1 and 2 were so confident and used their eye contact properly They all showed necessary evidence of using eye contact to involve the whole class and using gestures to pace the instructions and clarify their meanings Teaching experience may be the reason for their confidence and they can be proud of the result On the contrary, teachers in group 3 are young and have only a few years of

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