An investigation into the perceptions and actual behaviors of the teachers and the students at the faculty of Foreign Language of Ho Chi Minh City University of.PDF

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES HỒ THỊ HIỀN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE PERCEPTIONS AND ACTUAL BE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

HỒ THỊ HIỀN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE PERCEPTIONS AND ACTUAL BEHAVIORS OF THE TEACHERS AND THE STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE

OF HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY ABOUT GROUP WORK IN SPEAKING LESSONS

(ĐIỀU TRA QUAN ĐIỂM VÀ HOẠT ĐỘNG THƯC TẾ CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ SINH VIÊN KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ - TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP TP HCM VÊ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG

HOẠT ĐỘNG NHÓM TRONG GIỜ HỌC NÓI)

MINOR M.A THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

HÀ NỘI, 2011

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

HỒ THỊ HIỀN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE PERCEPTIONS AND ACTUAL BEHAVIORS OF THE TEACHERS AND THE STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE

OF HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY ABOUT GROUP WORK IN SPEAKING LESSONS

(ĐIỀU TRA QUAN ĐIỂM VÀ HOẠT ĐỘNG THƯC TẾ CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ SINH VIÊN KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ - TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP TP HCM VÊ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG

HOẠT ĐỘNG NHÓM TRONG GIỜ HỌC NÓI)

MINOR M.A THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor: Tô Thị Thu Hương, Ph.D

HÀ NỘI, 2011

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

Table of contents

PART I: INTRODUCTION……… ……….… ………… 1

1 Rationale 1

2 The purposes of the study…… 2

3 Research questions 2

4.Methods of the study 2

5 Scopes of the study 3

6 Design of the study 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Communicative language teaching 5

1.2 Group work 6

1.2.1 Definitions of group work 6

1.2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of group work 7

1.2.2.1 Advantages of group work 7

1.2.2.2 Disadvantages of group work 8

1.2.3 Teacher’s roles in carrying out group work 8

1.2.4 How to organize group work in speaking lessons 8

1.2.5 Group formation 10

1.2.6 Group Size .11

1.3 Perception and behavior 11

1.3.1 Definition of perception 11

1.3.2 Definition of behavior………12

1.3.3 Relationship between perception and behavior in teaching and learning language 13

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 15

2.1 Background of the study 15

2.1.1 Description of the students at FFL, HUI 15

2.1.2 Description of the teachers at FFL - HUI.……… …… 15

2.1.3 Description of the physical setting … 16

2.1.4 Description of the subject matter ……….16

2.2 Design and data analysis 16

2.2.1 The student sample 16

2.2.2 The teacher sample 17

2.2.3 Research instruments 17

2.2.4 Procedure……… ……18

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS 3.1 Questionnaire results……… ………19

3.1.1 The teachers’ and students’ perceptions of the best way to teach and learn speaking in class 19

3.1.2 The students’ feelings when they work in groups 20

3.1.3 The teachers’ perceptions of the appropriate time for each group work activity……… …… 21

3.1.4 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of preferred group members 21

3.1.5 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of the most appropriate number of members in each group 22

3.1.6 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of the benefits and the weaknesses of group work for improving speaking skill 23

3.1.7 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of the things should be done by the instructor before activity……… ……… … 25

3.1.8 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of the things should be done by the instructor during activity 25

3.1.9 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of what the teachers should do after activity ……… ……… 26

3.1.10 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of the difficulties when carrying out group work 26

3.2 Class observation 27

CHAPTER 4: MAJOR FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS……… 32

4.1 Major findings ……….32

4.2 Recommendations ……… 36

PART III CONCLUSION ……… 43

References

Apendix A- Teacher questionaire

Apendix B- Student questionaire

Apendix C- Observation sheet

Apendix D- Collected data

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

- English has been widely used in many areas such as politics, economics, tourism, electronics, telecommunication, culture and science and technology English is not only a means but also a key to accessing the latest achievements of science and technology Therefore, it is necessary for many Vietnamese to have a good command of English to satisfy the growing needs in a developing country like Vietnam

- Being a teacher of English at Faculty of Foreign Language – Ho Chi Minh University of Industry (FFL-HUI), the researcher is well aware of the importance of using group work to help energize the speaking class Like many other teachers working here, however, the researcher has also faced many challenges in organizing and managing group work during English speaking lessons For instance, the noise created by students when they work in groups, student’s laziness, students’ use of their mother tongue, etc

- In fact, there is a close relationship between one’s perception and his/her behaviors Yu (2004) stated that teachers' perceptions "construct" their practices, which in turn, lead to whatever progress both the learners and the teachers achieve Practice and progress in language learning and teaching will re-construct teachers' perceptions of L2 development Teachers need to reflect upon their own ideas and practices to be better informed Dewey (1933) argued that teachers should be reflective-practitioners through questioning the beliefs and methods in their own experimental approach to schooling - psychology and sociology being tools or resources for the construction of new educational hypotheses to be tested against experience

- To meet the increased needs of teachers and students, at FFL- HUI, the author of this study is determined to choose this area to do research on This study is intended to make a modest contribution to investigating what the teachers’ and students’ points of views about group work activities and what they really do before, during and after this activity The results of the study, hopefully, enhance the flexibility of using group work to create positive, dynamic and effective atmosphere in English speaking (speaking) lessons, and more importantly improve students’ oral practice of English

2 Aims of the study

The first purpose of this study was to examine teachers’ and students’ perceptions of using group work to teach and learn English speaking at the FFL-HUI That is to say, the researcher aimed at finding how the participants at the chosen setting think about the

effectiveness of this activity to improve English speaking skill for the learners Moreover, the study also aimed at investigating the actual behaviors of the participants when group working in the real lessons to compare with their perceptions Finally, the results of this study helped to facilitate the application of group work in teaching and learning speaking

to improve the effectiveness of speaking lessons at the FFL-HUI

3 Research questions

a What are FFL-HUI teachers’ perceptions of group work in English speaking class? 1.b What are FFL-HUI students’ perceptions of group work in English speaking class? 2.a What are the teachers’ actual behaviors when group working in English speaking class?

2.b What are the students’ actual behaviors when group working in English speaking class?

3 How to further improve the effectiveness of group work in speaking lessons at FFL-HUI

4 Research methodology

To achieve the aims of the study, a mixed method combining both qualitative and quantitative styles was used

5 Scope of the study

The study only focuses on speaking skill Instead, the researcher only intends to draw a brief overview of the point of view and actual behaviors of the teachers who have experienced in teaching speaking and of the third-year students in the FLL-HUI about group work

6 Design of the study

The study consists of three main parts:

Part I, Introduction, presents the rationale, purposes, research questions, scope, methods and the design of the study

Part II, Development, is organized into four chapters

- Chapter 1, Literature review, reviews such basic concepts and knowledge relevant

to the study such as Communicative Language Teaching approach, some basic factors of group work as well as theory of perception and its importance in language teaching

- Chapter 2, Methodology, provides an overview of the current situation of teaching and learning speaking at FFL-HUI Sampling, Instruments and Procedures for Data collection and analysis are also presented in this chapter

- Chapter 3, Results, presents the research results,

- Chapter 4, Recommendations, discusses the major findings of the research and also suggests some recommendations to further improve the effectiveness of group work

in teaching speaking at FFL-HUI

Part III, Conclusion, summarizes the major findings and suggestions The limitations of the study and recommendations for further studies are also included in this part

References and appendices complete the thesis

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Communicative language teaching

1.2 Group work

- Definitions of group work

- Advantages and disadvantages of group work

- Advantages of group work

- Disadvantages of group work

- Teacher’s roles in carrying out group work

- How to organize group work in speaking lessons

- Group formation

- Group Size

1.3 Perception and behavior

- Definition of perception

- Definition of behavior

- Relationship between perception and behavior in teaching and learning language

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 Background to the study

2.1.1 The students at FFL - HUI

- A lot of them are from the south of Vietnam, others are from the central, even from provinces in the north of the nation

- There are about 3000 students at the FFL-HUI whose ages are from 18 to 22 They are following different courses including university level (4 years long); college

level (3 years long); and vocational college (3 years long)

2.1.2 The teachers at FFL - HUI

FFL-HUI consists of over 40 teachers of different ages The female teachers take 80% and the male ones take 20% The youngest teachers are about 23 years old and the

oldest are about 55 At present, about 90% of the teachers at the FFL-HUI are the Masters

of Art The rest numbers are still Bachelors or Art They have from 3 to 30 years of teaching experience A lot of them have studied overseas and got the M.A certificates there The teachers at FFL-HUI are from many different areas in the country, thus, their accents and behaviors are quite different

2.1.3 The physical setting

At FFL - HUI, English teaching and learning activities are mostly carried out inside the classrooms which are specially designed for the faculty There are about 12 classrooms with 16 desks in each Every classroom is equipped with a board, a teacher’s table, an LCD plasma TV which can be easily used as a projector or a TV, a modern system of loudspeakers The desks are about 1.5 meters long and put in two parallel rows In term of class size, the average number of students in each class is from 30 to 35 This number is still large in a language class

The materials for reference and self-study are available for both teachers and students In the school library, there are a number of language books which are quite helpful for teachers and students, it takes quite a long time to find and get the materials though The small library at the faculty office is also available for readers in the department There are not many books here but it is being improved There is a lab room at the faculty which is really modern for the language lessons There are about 35 computers which are connected to Internet The teacher’s computer and the students’ ones are linked closely

2.2 Samples and data collection tools

2.2.1 The student sample

60 third-year students at the FFL – HUI (including 10 males and 50 females) took part in the questionnaire survey These students are the ones who consent to participate in the research 10 students were randomly selected among these 60 for interviews to get clearer explanations for the choice in the questionnaire

2.2.2 The teacher sample

The researcher only aimed at finding the perceptions and behaviors of the teachers who have experienced in teaching speaking to English-major students Therefore, the questionnaires were delivered to 10 teachers who have been teaching speaking English for more than 5 years

2.2.3 Research instruments

Two questionnaires, one for teachers and the other for students were developed The former has 12 multiple – choice, open – ended questions; the later has 12 similar questions The questions in the two questionnaires are mainly used to explore the teachers’ and students’ perceptions, or the way they think about, of using group work to teach speaking efficiently

Oral interviews were given after the researcher had analyzed the results of the questionnaires for triangulation The researcher carried out the interviews with 10 students and 5 teachers All of them are the members who did the questionnaires and randomly chosen The purposes of interviewing are to get clearer explanations for the choices in the questionnaires

2.2.4 Procedure

Data were collected and analyzed in the following steps:

- Delivering questionnaires to the 10 teachers and 60 third-year students at the FFL-HUI

- Analyzing the questionnaires data by looking for and grouping the common and recurrent themes in the data with the use of descriptive statistics

- Interviewing the teachers and the students to get further information for the data in the questionnaires

- Basing on the interviews and the questionnaires, identifying the contents to observe

in the teachers’ and the students’ actual classroom practice

- Collecting the data on the teachers’ and the students’ practices via class observations Observation of 10 speaking lessons was made according to designed criteria

- Analyzing observation data based on the observation scheme

- Comparing the results of actual class observation with the teachers’ and the

students’ perceptions reported in the questionnaires and interviews

In short, necessary issues relating to how to carry out the thesis were illustrated clearly in the chapter 2 We have decribed specifically the real situations of the context, participants

as well as the method of collecting, analyzing the data The following chapter will present the major results of the study

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS

3.1.1 The teachers’ and students’ perceptions of the best way to teach and learn speaking in class

3.1.2 The students’ feelings when they work in groups