A study on the teacher’s roles in group work in communicative language teaching at phuc tho high school, hanoi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES - - NGUYỄN THỊ THU HUYỀN A STUDY ON THE TEACHER’S ROLES IN GROUP WORK IN COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING AT PHUC THO HIGH SCHOOL,HANOI (Nghiên cứu vai trò giáo viên hoạt động nhóm lớp học giao tiếp trường THPT Phúc Thọ, Hà Nội ) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi - 2016 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES - - NGUYỄN THỊ THU HUYỀN A STUDY ON THE TEACHER’S ROLES IN GROUP WORK IN COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING AT PHUC THO HIGH SCHOOL, HANOI (Nghiên cứu vai trò giáo viên hoạt động nhóm lớp học giao tiếp trường THPT Phúc Thọ, Hà Nội ) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Assoc.Prof Dr Nguyễn Xuân Thơm Hanoi - 2016 DECLARATION I, Nguyen Thi Thu Huyen, declare that this thesis is my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi and that this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or institution Hanoi,2016 Nguyễn Thi Thu Huyề n ̣ i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express special thanks to my supervisor Assoc.Pro.Dr Nguyễn Xuân Thơm for revising my thesis, for his valuable advice, kind and helpful attitude and considerable assistance that he provided me throughout the study I am also greatly indebted to all the lecturers at the Faculty of PostGraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, for their useful lectures which played an important role in the completion of my thesis Finally, I wish to thank all my friends and colleagues for their support during the process of writing this paper ii ABSTRACT One of the techniques of communicative language teaching is group work, which provides a chance for social interaction Group work is one of the possible solutions of the problem how to get all students to speak in language lessons The teachers sometimes have a tendency to interrupt students when they are speaking together during group work activity The students not feel comfortable with the interventions This research was carried out to investigate the roles of teacher and the behaviors of the tenth-grade students to these roles in group work activities in communicative language teaching at Phuc Tho high school, Hanoi The data for this research was collected through the observation of some communicative classes in grade 10 and in the forms of survey questionnaire for the tenth-grade students at Phuc Tho high schoool The findings of the research revealed that the teacher plays most roles in all stages of group work, the students like to work with their friends, arranging weak students and strong students into groups is very helpful, most of the students want to practise speaking English in class without the teacher’s control, the teacher needs to be sensitive when interrupting group work communication and the teacher should always available and only interrupt students’ work when they ask for support It is hoped that this thesis will help other teachers of English to make use of their roles appropriately in group work activities, to help students learn best in groups and to take all advantages of the group work under their arrangement iii iv PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale As far as we know, in recent years there have been number of exciting developments in language teaching These developments are sometimes referred to as communicative language teaching (CLT) According to Nolasco and Arthur (1988) a greater emphasis on activities in which students have chance to determine what they want to say independently on the teacher is among the most important features of CLT The problem of getting students to express themselves freely in the foreign language has come to prominence One of the techniques of communicative language teaching is group work, which provides a chance for social interaction Group work is a class management strategy and the role of the teacher has to play while teaching is of a facilitator Teacher’s role in group work is very difficult and at the same time it is very important role, too Groups of some students can be formed to solve a problem or pose a question The teacher can organize these groups at any time in a class of any size to check on the students’ understanding of the material, to give students an opportunity to apply what they are learning, or to provide a change of pace I have chosen the topic of group work for my thesis since it is one of the possible solutions of the problem how to get all students to speak in language lessons I often use this way of interaction in my teaching, but I sometimes have a tendency to interrupt students when they are speaking together during group work activity I have noticed that they not feel comfortable with my interventions That is why I decide to observe students’ behavior to find out how this is changing with various teacher’s roles My main aim is to find out what teachers actually in various stages of group work and what are students’ perception and reactions to teacher’s roles I will observe my own classroom to examine how many roles the teacher has during one stage of an activity Aims of the study The purpose of this research is to find out the roles of teacher in group work activities in class and students’ behaviors to the teacher’s roles in order to obtain valid information regarding the effective use of group work under teacher’s management, so as to bring innovation in class The focus is on group work in English language classes The specific purpose of the study was to: - evaluate the different roles of teacher in group work activities - find out the behaviors of the students towards the teacher’s roles in some group work activities Significance of the study The findings of the study would be much beneficial to teachers of English who are considering how to make use of their roles appropriately in group work activities, how to help students learn best in groups and how to take all advantages of the group work under their arrangement Research questions The study aims to answer the following research questions: (i) What are the roles of teacher in group work in grade 10 at Phuc Tho high school? (ii) What are behaviors of 10th grade students at PhucTho high school toward the teacher’s roles in implementing group work activities? Method of the study In order to achieve the purpose of the study, both qualitative and quantitative methods will be used Class observation will be carried out with the detailed notes about students’ behaviors about the teacher’ roles during the process of implementing six group work activities In addition, a survey questionnaire will be delivered to get result from 120 students who are chosen randomly from the tenthgrade classes at Phuc Tho high school All comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusion will be carefully considered based on the data analysis Scope of the study The study is designed to find out the roles of teacher and the tenth-grade students' behaviors about the roles of teacher in group work in communicative language REFERENCES Alandeom, O., & Sadler, T (2008) Interactive patterns and conceptual convergence during student collaborations in science Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 26, 634–658 Baines, E., Blatchford, P and Kutnick, P (2003) Changes in grouping practices in primary and secondary school International Journal of Educational Research, 39, 9–34 Bertrand, J (2006) Working in Pairs and Groups Bristish Council Bennett, N., & Dunne, E (1992) Managing classroom groups Hemel Hempstead: Simon & Schuster Education Bennett, J., Lubben, F., & Campbell, B (2004) A systematic review of the use of small-group discussions in science teaching with students aged 11–18, and their effects on students’ understanding in science or attitude to science: Review summary York: University of York Brookfield, S.D., &Preskill, S (1999) Discussion as a Way of Teaching: Tools and Techniques for Democratic Classrooms San Francisco: JosseyBass Publishers Doff,A.(1988) Teach English – A train course for teachers Cambridge University Press in association with The Bristish Council Galton, M., & Williamson, J (1992) Group work in the primary classroom London: Routledge Gillies, R M., & Boyle, M (2010) Teachers’ reflection on cooperative learning: Issues of implementing Teaching and Teacher Education, 26, 933–940 10 Griffiths, B (2005) Teacher Positioning in the Classroom Teaching English Brishtish Council 11 Hammer, J (1991) The Practice of English Language Teaching New York: Longman Publishing 12 Harmer J (1999), Practice of ELT, Longman 13 Honey J 91991), The Formation of Small Groups in the Language Classroom, Guidelines – A periodical for Classroom Language teachers, Vol 113 No June 1991, Semeo Regional Language Centre 14 Hymes, D (1972) On Communicative Competence Harmondsworth: penguin 15 Jaques, D (2000) Learning in Groups: A Handbook for Improving Group Work, 3rd ed London: Kogan Page 16 Little, W (1981) Communicative Language Teaching: An Introduction, Cambridge: CUP 17 Lumpe, A.T., & Haney, J.J (1998) Science teachers’ beliefs and intentions regarding the use of cooperative learning School Science and Mathematics,3, 123–135 18 Nolasco, R (1988), Lois, A Large Classes Mackmillan Publishers 19 Nolasco, R and Athur, L (1993) Large Classes London: Macmillan 20 Nunan D (1989), Desining Tasks for the Communicative Classroom, Cambridge University Press 21 Nunan, D (1991) Language Teaching Methodology, London: Prentice Halls 22 Nunan, D., & Lamb, C (1996) The self-directed teacher: Managing the learning process Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 23 Race, P (2000) 500 Tips on Group Learning London: Kogan Page 24 Richards J C and Rodgers T S (1986), Approaches to Methods in Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press 25 Richard, C and Rodges, T S 2001 Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching Cambridge: CUP 26 Springer, L., Stanne, M E., & Donovan, S S (1999) Effects of small-group learning on undergraduates in science, mathematics, engineering and technology: A meta-analysis.Review of Educational Research, 69, 21–51 27 Wright, T (1987) Roles of Teachers and Learners Oxford University Press 28 http://edukator.org.pl/2005a/work/work.html I