MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY
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PHAN NGUYEN DUY AN
A STUDY ON THE APPLICATION OF COOPERATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING IN TEACHING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL AT THE | UNIVERSITY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Major: TEACHING ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES Major code: 60140111 TAUONG DAT HOC MO TP.HCM THU VIEN MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL
Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr DUONG THI HOANG OANH
Trang 2ABSTRACT
The application of Cooperative Language Learning has gained much attention for decades in the reform of English as a foreign language (EFL) pedagogy in the world A great deal of previous studies found various positive effects of the
Communicative approach in general and of Cooperative Language Learning in
particular on the English teaching and learning process However, the implementation process and the effectiveness of Cooperative Language Learning approach are still not fully explored in the Vietnamese context The present study was conducted in order to investigate the actual application of Cooperative Language Learning, to identify the advantages and challenges of the application process of this approach in teaching EFL, particularly in teaching the speaking skill The study also aimed to receive valuable suggestions from the participants to improve the effectiveness of this approach
To achieve the purpose of the study, the theoretical framework related to the
Cooperative Learning and specifically, Cooperative Language Learning was deeply investigated, and the studies previously conducted in relation to the present research
were succinctly summarized and analyzed
On the basis of the conceptual framework, a data collection was conducted at the
University of Information Technology - Vietnam National University - Ho Chi
Minh City (UIT) from April 8" to 29", 2014 through the instruments of two
questionnaires, one for eight full time teachers of the English Department and the other for one hundred and thirty-five non-major English students, the teacher interview and the class observation Finally, the data were analyzed with a proper analytical framework
Trang 3group work, help them to understand the lesson more deeply However, a rather
high rate of the participants still perceived the slow improvement in students’
vocabulary, pronunciation, as well as their dynamic participation and capacity to work cooperatively In addition, as Cooperative Language Learning has not been
strictly exploited by the teachers and students as well as under the strong influence
of particular cultural characteristics of Vietnam, the application of Cooperative
Language Learning faced several challenges such as a number of class members
were lazy or hesitant to express their ideas, some chatted in Vietnamese: or lacked knowledge on the topics in discussion Furthermore, institutional and managerial
problems related to the heavy curriculum, big-sized classes were the common obstacles as shared by all teachers Several essential solutions were also suggested
to enhance the effectiveness of this approach
Based on the research findings, several implications for the teaching and learning
were offered to teachers of English and educational administrators and authorities such as the functioning of cooperative learning groups, the teachers’ roles in
cooperative speaking activities, the institutional support on reducing the class size, the curriculum, etc in the effort to enhance the learners’ speaking skill in EFL
pedagogy
Trang 4TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Y LIST OF CHARTS ki nọ 09 00950 n9 pm ix LIST OF TABLES x ABBREVIATIONS ve xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION "¬" ` 1
1.1 Background of the study 1
1.2 Purpose of the study 3
1.3 Research questions 3
1.4 Significance of the study 4
1.5 Limitations of the study 4
1.6 An overview of the study 4
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6
2.1 General concept of learning types 6
VN Nho 2000101060 17 6
2.1.2 Competitive Learn1TnØ - << cv 9 cọ 7
2.1.3 Cooperative Learning (CC) . - - - - <5 5 s39 ng ng 7
2.2 Cooperative Learning (CL) 7
2.2.1 Definitio'n OŸ f€TTHS - <5 sọ HH ngư 8
2.2.2 Forms of cooperative learming ØTOUDS - 5s cv 1 ng 9
P878 x.n an 9
Vy ⁄P/Ä C47231 0N nn 9
2.2.3 Working formats for cooperative learning ØðTOUDS . -« «<< «s2 10
2.2.3.1 Formal cooperative leaFHiHE ĐYOIS cv nriteeeeserexee 10 2.2.3.2 Iƒ/ormal cooperafive leqFHÌHg ĐYOIDS St sesserkesrerrrer Il
2.2.3.3 Cooperative DAS€ gTOIJOS TH HH HH HH HH rệt H
2.2.4 Characteristics of cooperafIve learning ðTOUDS - -ss «<< s=sse+s 11
Trang 5vi 2.2.4.2 GrOUP JOVMALION oeccccccccccccccecscscscenecsneeseseessscessessssesaecssecccueenseseateeeaes 13 2.2.4.3 Individual aCCOMHWAĐIÏIEV TS «HH HH kết 14 2.2.4.4 SociAl SkIÏÏS cn HH HH HH kg x2 Upseeeseeeessaneseeneneneenesnes 14 2.2.4.5 GrOIMD DFOC€SSÏH TH HH HH 15 2.2.5 Benefits of Cooperative Learning GTrOUDS «se 15
2.3 Cooperative Language Learning (CLL) 16
VN (oi 000i i0) 16
2.3.2 Teacher’s and learner”s roles in CLL -ô-2s-<+c<+cse-see 17 PM PL aamad ơ- Hye 17 VI F 061 aaẦốốaốaaa ẦẢ 18 2.3.3 The advantages and challenges of the application of Cooperative I1 0-10 (000 110 19 2.3.3.1 The AAVANLAES sa eố 19 PC SA 1 .86ố 22
2.4 Cooperative Language Learning and the speaking skill - 25
2.4.1 The nafture Of speaklnng, 4 < «su g1 ng re 25 2.4.2 Principles of teaching speakinig - - - -ss+ vn ng ng se 26 2.4.3 Ủsing CLL to motivate students in speaking cÌasSes . - 26
Trang 63.5 Analytical framework 39 3.5.1 Descriptive statistics csssccsssssssssssssssesscssssssscsssssseccesssescccerseseccesssesessesen 40 3.5.1 ] FY€qQU€H€V cccsssse2 mm Nga 40 3.5.1.2 P€FC€HÍG€ Q H g ng và kh key 40 3.5.1.3 Graphical đisplqV Oƒ (4Í(1 - «<< kg 40 3.5.2 TexfualÌ ạiẠWVS1S - <6 sọ nọ cọ cọ cọ và 40 EU ể«¿ na 41 3.5.2.2 COđÏÏng -.occccnnecrhererrerrrrrrrrerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrle ¬— 41
3.6 Reliability and validity issues | 42
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .sccsssssscsssessscsscsesesecoeceenses 44
4.1 The actual status of the application of Cooperative Language Learning in
teaching English speaking skill 44
4.1.1 Participants’ background cece scssssceessessensseseseseseesesseeeseseseeeseeceseees 44 4.1.2 Teachers’ encouragement .cescesseesseeesnetsseeesseeescesesesseeesseesseeesseeeees 47
4.1.3 The organization of cooperative language learning øroups 49 4.1.3.1 Frequency of using CC LÌ «cv vn KH Hết 49 4.1.3.2 FOFHIHE ĐYOHDS 5S ng 5Ï
4.1.3.3 CLL activities used in speaking €ÌÏSS€S - sinh 35
4.1.3.4 Durafion oƒ CLÌ ŒCfÄVIf€AY ng ng kg ve, 57
4.1.3.5 The roles of students and (€CHI€FFS Đà SG St va 59
4.2 The advantages and challenges in the application of CLL as perceived by
the teachers and students 61
4.2.1 The advantages esssscsccssssseesseessecssccseessaseseessecseesseesseeeseeeseeeaesesseneeeeaes 61 LÝ AI cu On 67
4.3 The possible solutions to make CLL more effective in English speaking
classes as suggested by the participants 72
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION, IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 75
5.1 Major conclusions of the study 75
5.2 Implications and suggestions for the teaching and learning 78
5.2.1 For the t€aCH€FS, - - 5 <5 5< sọ nọ Ti 78
5.2.1.1 FOYHỈHB ĐFYOHDS SH HH HH HH ke 78
Trang 75.2.1.3 Helping students to develop teamwork SKiUIS .ccccccccsceeseeeeeeeeees 82
3.2.1.4 Fostering group PFOC€S/SÏT1Đ HH HH 82
5.2.2 For the educational authorifies .- -‹- -<«e gỒ 84
5.3 Suggestions for further research 85
REFERENCES 87
APPENDICES “ 100
APPENDIX A: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS 100 APPENDIX B: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS ‘ 110 APPENDIX C: SUMMARY OF DATA COLLECTED BY THE INTERVIEWS ceeseeneeeee 117 APPENDIX D: FULL TRANSCRIPTION OF A TYPICAL INTERVIEW WITH 11 122 APPENDIX E: CLASS OBSERVATION NOTES 126
APPENDIX F: CLASS OBSERVATION NOTES 129
Trang 8LIST OF CHARTS
- Page
Trang 9LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 3.1 Details of English program in the academic year 2013-2014 _ 32
Table 3.2 A summary of the two questionnalres 36
Table 4.1 Students’ background 5 S222 1 S221 ksse 45
Table 4.2 Frequency of using Cooperative Language Learning activities 50 Table 4.3 Number of members per ðTOUP .- ‹- bees 52
Table 4.4 Ways of forming øðTOUpS . c 2x2 se 33
Table 4.5 Duration of Cooperative Language Learning activities 58
Table 4.6 Possible solutions to increase the effectiveness of Cooperative
Trang 10CL CLL EFL ESP IELTS L2 MA MI Ss Tl T2 TESOL TOEFL iBT TOEIC UIT USA ABBREVIATIONS : Cooperative Learning
: Cooperative Language Learning : English as a Foreign Language : English for Specific Purposes
: International English Language Testing System : Second Language : Master of Arts : Multiple Intelligences : Students : Teacher 1 : Teacher 2
: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
: Test of English as a Foreign Language - Internet Based Test : Test of English for International Communication
: University of Information Technology
Trang 11CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
This study aims to investigate the application of cooperative learning in English speaking classes The introduction chapter firstly mentions the background of the study, then moves to the purpose of the study based on which the research questions are raised Next, the significance, the limitations and finally, the organization of the study are presented
1.1 Background of the study
Nowadays, in the integration trend of the world, English has become a ‘passport’ to the globalization era Therefore, achieving a good communicative English competence and an ability to work well in groups or teams are the first two
prerequisite requirements that enable one person to be successful in our modern
society The changes in the aims of teaching and learning English have led to the changes in teaching methods Such traditional teaching method that “teachers dictate and students copy” (Duong, 2011, p.7) has proved to be not effective This teacher-centered method provides limited time for interaction among students,
leading to their passiveness in the classroom and ultimately a lack of critical
thinking skills
In order to increase student - student interaction and teamwork ability, since the early 1990s, similar to many Asian countries, Vietnam has implemented a series of educational reforms to adopt and adapt Cooperative Language Learning (CLL) - an approach which is designed to foster cooperation, to develop critical thinking skills,
and to enhance communicative competence through socially structured interaction
activities (Richards & Rodgers, 2001) CLL has been applied to replace the traditional teaching approaches and believed to be an ultimate solution to effective teaching and learning English in Vietnam
Trang 12approach of teaching and learning and the challenges in the implementation are unavoidable Allen (2006, p 19) concludes “Although L2 [second language]
educators and researchers typically recognize the value of group work in classroom
L2 learning, group work that incorporates cooperative learning conditions in L2 instruction is rather uncommon” Moreover, after many years applying Cooperative Learning (CL) in Vietnamese education, Pham (2011) reveals the surprising finding in her study of perception of Vietnamese teachers and students toward CL that 60% of the teachers and 65% of the students did not see CL as better than other
traditional teaching methods
Considering these two reasons, the researcher decides to do research into the reality
of the application of CLL in English speaking classes to find out how it is implemented to encourage students to speak English in class, to identify the main advantages and challenges in the application of this approach and then make some suggestions to enable this approach to be more adaptive to the particular teaching context of the research site and in Vietnam in general A review of the current research shows that this study will fill a gap, as although there have been various studies on the CLL, far too little attention has been paid to the application of CLL in teaching English speaking skill at the university level
The context of the study is the University of Information Technology (UIT) - a member university of the Vietnam National University — Ho Chi Minh City This
university was chosen since it is one of the first universities of Vietnam National
University — Ho Chi Minh City especially focusing on teaching English for non- major English students with “all four skills, mainly on communication activities” (UIT website, English Department) Normally, in Vietnam, non-major English students are mainly taught Reading and Writing skills, whereas Listening and Speaking skills are often ignored However, students at the UIT are taught and tested strictly on the four skills based on “The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages” and the minimum level required is B1 (equivalent to pre-
Trang 13other universities, students of the UIT are also required to learn and practise the
speaking skill This particular context gives the researcher a motive for choosing the UIT students and their teachers of English as the participants of this study
The purpose of the study will be presented in the following section
1.2 Purpose of the study
The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of how CLL has been conducted in English speaking classes at the UIT Through this research, the researcher hopes to find out the advantages and challenges in the application of CLL in teaching English speaking skill as perceived by the teachers and students The study also attempts to find out solutions (if needed) to make CLL more effective in English speaking classes at the UIT
Based on this purpose, the research questions will be presented as follows
1.3 Research questions
Specifically, the study is guided by the following three questions:
1) How is Cooperative Language Learning applied in teaching English speaking skill at the University of Information Technology?
2) What are the main advantages and challenges of the application of Cooperative Language Learning in teaching English speaking skill as
perceived by the teachers and students at the University of Information
Technology?
3) What are solutions as suggested by the participants (if any) to make Cooperative Language Learning more effective in teaching English speaking
skill at the University of Information Technology?
Trang 141.4 Significance of the study
The study will firstly, prove significant in helping English teachers and students identify the reality of the application of CLL in teaching English speaking skill at a specific university, together with the advantages and the challenges in using CLL in speaking classes These issues will be very important to teachers and students in their effort to have positive changes in their teaching and learning process Secondly, findings of the study will help point out several strategies to help teachers
organize cooperative activities in speaking classes effectively in order to achieve the
highest results in their teaching Lastly, the study may prove helpful to education administrators who wish to enhance the effectiveness of CLL in teaching English speaking skill at the universities and schools in Vietnam
However, the study also has some limitations that will be presented in the next section
1.5 Limitations of the study
The study investigates a limited number of students and teachers of English at the UIT, therefore, the findings cannot be generalized about the overall picture of using CLL in English speaking classes in Vietnamese universities More time and a larger scope of research will be needed to test if the findings are applicable in different situations and with various English levels of students in other schools and
universities
The final section is an overview of the study
1.6 An overview of the study
The study is divided into five chapters The first chapter is the introduction This chapter introduces the background of the study, the purpose, the research questions,
Trang 15The second chapter, Literature Review consists of four parts, which sets up a theoretical framework for the study The first parts deals with the review on the general concepts of typical learning types, then the seeond part focuses on Cooperative Learning (CL) with the terminology, the forms of CL groups, the working format, the characteristics and the benefits of CL groups The next two parts concern the Cooperative Language Learning (CLL) and the relationship between the CLL and the speaking skill In these parts, the definition and objectives of the CLL, the roles of teachers and students in CLL, the advantages and challenges of the application of CLL, the nature of speaking, the principles of teaching speaking as well as the using of CLL in motivating students in speaking classes are included Finally, the related studies on the use of CLL in EFL teaching
are introduced
The third chapter is Research design and Methodology This chapter presents the research design, the pedagogical settings, the participants, the data collection, the analytical framework, and the issues related to reliability and validity
Chapter four provides the findings and discussion This chapter analyzes the data collected and discusses the findings
Chapter five consists of the major conclusions of the study, the implications for the teaching and learning and the suggestions for further research
Trang 16CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter introduces the relevant literature to the study It firstly gives a review on the general concepts of typical learning types and focuses on the Cooperative Learning (CL), including the terminology, the forms, the working formats, the
characteristics and the benefits of CL groups Then the concepts and practice related to Cooperative Language Learning (CLL) are presented, covering the definition and
objectives, the roles of teachers and students in CLL, as well as the advantages and challenges of the application of CLL Next, the relationship between the CLL and the speaking skill are examined In this part, the nature of speaking, the principles of teaching speaking as well as the using of CLL in motivating students in speaking
classes are included Lastly, the related studies on the use of CLL in EFL teaching
are introduced
2.1 General concept of learning types
The process of learning can be performed through one of the three types:
individualistic learning, competitive learning and cooperative learning (Johnson &
Johnson, 1999) Each type has its own characteristics as described below
2.1.1 Individualistic leaning
According to Johnson and Johnson (1999), individualistic learning means “working
by oneself to ensure that one’s own learning meets a present criterion independently from the efforts of the other students” (p 7) This type of learning is particularly
effective to learners who would like to gain the language competence They can work independently to achieve learning goals which are not related to those of other
learners
However, this learning type only focuses on self-interest and personal success and
Trang 17not work because it does not encourage the interaction among learners to help
achieve fluency in the target language (Johnson & Johnson, 1999)
2.1.2 Competitive Learning
Johnson and Johnson (1999) point out that competitive learning exists when one
student achieves a goal and all the other ones fail to reach that goal Learning in
competition, each individual will seek for his/her own benefits They try to perform
faster and better than their classmates This type of learning can help increase
learners’ interest, productivity and language competence It is used to maximize the
number of winners in class However, it may result in the fact that some students try to work hard to do better than their classmates, but some others may take it easy
because they do not believe they have an ability to become winners
Johnson and Johnson (1999) also find out the weak points of competitive learning
It may produce high anxiety levels, self-doubt, selfishness, aggression and cheating
in students’ learning It also limits the students’ problem-solving capacity
2.1.3 Cooperative Learning (CL)
Among the three types of learning mentioned above, Cooperative Learning is the focus of the study According to Johnson and Johnson (1990), Cooperative Learning is understood as “the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and one another’s learning” (p 69) CL is commonly believed to be superior to the other two types of learning above (Dikici and Yavuzer, 2006) and will be discussed in details below
2.2 Cooperative Learning (CL)
Trang 182.2.1 Definition of terms
Cooperative Learning (CL) is used widely nowadays Advocates of this type of
learning draw heavily on the theoretical work of Vygotsky (1978), who stresses the central role of social interaction in learning According to Vygotsky, the range of skills that can be developed with adult guidance or peer collaboration exceeds what can be attained alone From this theory, many researchers define CL in different ways In the first place, according to Johnson et al., (1994), cooperation is working together to accomplish shared goals In the same manner, Cooper and Mueck (1990) find CL as a structure and systematic instructional design in which small groups work together to attain a common goal In addition, Jacobs, Power and Loh (2002) define CL as “principles and techniques for helping students work together more effectively” (p.1) More specifically, Olsen and Kagan (1992, p 8) offer a definition of CL as follows:
Cooperative learning is group learning activities organized so that learning is dependent on the socially structured exchange of information among learners in groups and in which each learner is held accountable for his or her own learning and is motivated to increase the learning of others
In short, although definitions vary in words, they all direct to group environment in which each member of a group has the responsibility to learn what is taught as well as help other group mates learn which results in an atmosphere of achievement In
other words, learning in cooperation, individual learners are accountable for their
work in the group, and the whole work of the group is also assessed Thus, CL may be contrasted with competitive learning In competitive learning, one learner succeeds when other learners fail while in CL, the success of an individual depends
on the success of his/her group However, when several students are asked to sit ina
Trang 19"Cooperative learning is an arrangement in which students work in mixed ability
groups and are rewarded on the basis of the success of the group" (p 340) The
forms of Cooperative learning groups will be discussed in the-next section
2.2.2 Forms of cooperative learning groups
As Cooperative Learning requires a group of people working together to accomplish
a shared goal, the minimum number required per group is two people, which is called a pair, or may be more than two that will form a group These forms of cooperative learning groups will be elaborated as follows
2.2.2.1 Pair work
According to Byrne (1987), in a learning setting, there are two kinds of pairs,
namely fixed pairs and flexible pairs He defines a fixed pair as “when the students
work with the same partner (usually the students on the left or on the right) in order
to complete a task” (p.32) In contrast, in flexible pairs, “students keep changing partners” (p 32) In this situation, one student has a chance to interact with different students and this kind of interaction will make the class atmosphere more interesting The teacher can let their students move around the classroom to choose their partner By this way, students are motivated to speak more enthusiastically
2.2.2.2 Group work
Group work means a number of people (but it should not be as large as a class) who are assigned a task and work on it collaboratively and cooperatively (Nation, 1989;
Savova & Donato, 1991 and Touba, 1999) Ur (2000, cited in Nguyen, 2007, p 13)
defines group work as “it is a form a learner activation that is of particular value in the practice of oral fluency In group work, learners perform a learning task through small group interaction”
Trang 20Group work provides a context in which individuals help each other; it is a method of helping groups as well as helping individuals; and it can enable individuals and groups to influence and change personal, group, and organizational and community problems
In reality, group work and pair work are forms of cooperative learning that can help students “do” English effectively in a big-sized class, as a Chinese proverb says, “I hear and I forget I listen and I remember I do and I understand” Students get more opportunities to practise English orally in particular situations to increase accuracy
and fluency and to think critically of the solutions In cooperative learning, students
are involved in the task, exchange their ideas and meanwhile, adjust themselves and
one another and as a result, sustain their motivation
2.2.3 Working formats for cooperative learning groups
As seen from the previous presentation, cooperative learning groups are the core of
Cooperative Learning approach, thus, one of the most important functions of
teachers who apply Cooperative Learning is organizing learners into cooperative
teams (Jacobs, 1997) When being put into the right teams, learners will feel strong,
capable and committed Johnson and Johnson (2008) also agree with Jacobs when
drawing three types of cooperative learning, namely formal cooperative learning groups, informal cooperative learning groups and cooperative base groups, as discussed in more details in the following section
2.2.3.1 Formal cooperative learning groups
Formal cooperative learning groups last from one class period to several weeks Teachers establish these groups for a specific task which requires students to work together to achieve shared learning goals This type is described more clearly as:
Trang 21Typically, students work together until the task is finished and their project is graded
(Johnson, Johnson, and Smith, 1991, p 31)
2.2.3.2 Informal cooperative learning groups
These are ad-hoc, short-term groups that last from a few minutes to a class period
These groups are used at any time and in various ways during the course teaching to call students’ attention or to facilitate learning during direct teaching For example,
teachers can raise a question and ask students to turn to their partners to discuss the
issue Or they can organize informal groups by dividing class into small groups of three, four or five students to discuss and find out the solutions to a problem in the
lesson This gives students an opportunity to practise with one another what they are
learning
2.2.3.3 Cooperative base groups
The cooperative base groups are long term, lasting for a semester, a year or even
several years These are heterogeneous learning groups with stable members who support and encourage one another to succeed academically
2.2.4 Characteristics of cooperative learning groups
It is worth noting that when students are simply asked to sit next to each other at the
same desk and do their own task, it does not mean that CL will take place (Gillies,
2003) Many researchers show that the core difference between cooperative learning and group learning is that in the latter, learners are asked to work in groups without paying attention to group functioning which is considered the most important
feature in cooperative learning (Jacobs, 1997; Johnson & Johnson, 1999; Ng & Lee, 1996) In similar manner, Johnson, Johnson, and Smith (1995) state that if students
are simply placed in groups and are asked to work together, it does not promote higher achievement Consistent with these ideas, Richards and Rodgers (2001) also claim that “The success of CL is crucially dependent on the nature and organization
Trang 22&
of group work” (p.196) In addition, since a classroom is considered as “a community” (Wenger, 1999, cited in Duong, 2003) in which each member expresses their forms of membership and their identity as members, forming groups and organizing cooperative activities need to be well-prepared with indispensable characteristics for students’ active engagement into group work
Many researchers propose the important characteristics of CL Olsen and Kagan (1992) propose five characteristics of successful group-based learning in CL including positive interdependence, group formation, individual accountability,
social skills and structuring and structures (as cited in Richards and Rodgers, 2001)
According to Johnson and Johnson (2008), five following characteristics of CL that must be present in the cooperative classroom are positive interdependence, face-to- face interaction, individual accountability, interpersonal & social skills and group processing The researcher’s experience has convinced her that five most important
characteristics which help ensure the effectiveness of cooperative learning groups
are positive interdependence, group formation, individual accountability, social skills and group processing which are discussed in details below
2.2.4.1 Positive interdependence
Trang 23interdependence can be considered the heart of cooperative learning If it is not
present, the group cooperation will not exist 2.2.4.2 Group formation
Group formation is an important factor to create positive interdependence There are
some factors involved in setting up groups consisting of the group size, the
grouping format and the assigning roles to students in groups The first factor is teacher’s decision on the size of the group Some researchers argue that ‘it depends
on the task, the learners’ age and the time limit for the lesson that the teacher
decides how many students in a group is suitable In fact, there seems no optimum
size for a small group Sharan (1994) suggests that in order to organize small tasks well, group of four to six students is sufficient However, according to Slavin
(1987), having two or three members per group produces higher achievement than groups of four or more members Antil, Jenkins, Wayne and Vadasy (1997) discover that most teachers prefer pairs and small groups of three or four when applying CL There seems to be a trend towards a maximum number of members per group is four In a speaking class, if a group consists of a smaller number of students, the students are able to be more exposed to interaction with one another because they get a turn to participate in the task more often
The second factor is grouping format Radencich and McKay (1995) support the use
of a variety of grouping formats This can be teacher-selected, students-selected or random Teachers are advised to pay attention to students’ past achievement, ethnicity, or gender and alternate these criteria so that students can work with
different types of group mates
The third factor is assigning students’ roles in groups It exists when each group member is assigned a specific role to play in a group such as facilitator, recorder,
time keeper, summarizer, presenter, noise monitor, observer, etc These roles need
to be performed well for the team to accomplish their task By assigning the role to each member, teacher highlights the importance of each individual in the group as
Trang 24well as assigns his or her accountability to the common work Moreover, teachers can rotate these roles regularly to give all team members experience and help them
avoid being bored
2.2.4.3 Individual accountability
The third element of CL is individual accountability This involves both group and individual performance, the group is accountable for achieving its goals and each individual is accountable for contributing his or her share of the work."In another way, each group member has to be responsible for both their own and their group mates’ learning and makes an active contribution to the group This will result no “hitchhiking” or “freeloading” (Kagan, 1992) in a group The author maintains that “the purpose of CL is to make each member a stronger individual in his or her own right” (p.19) In other words, learning to do something together helps students do it more easily by themselves There are some ways proposed by Kagan (1992) to help maintain this element First of all, teachers should give clear instructions of what and how the group should do to accomplish the shared task Second, teachers should randomly ask an individual in the group to present any part of the group’s work Third, averaging the group members’ scores is also a helpful way to maintain the
individual accountability
In brief, individual accountability is an indispensable structural characteristic to discourage and lower the likelihood of free riders or social loafing
2.2.4.4 Social skills
As CL allows individual student to work with others on the shared task, it helps students develop the necessary interpersonal skills which prepare them for different
social contacts and situations they will encounter in their future careers
Specifically, social skills help students to develop important skills such as “active listening, empathy, consensus building, leadership, constructive conflict
Trang 251990) These skills determine the way students interact with each other as well as
the result of the cooperative task 2.2.4.5 Group processing
The final characteristic of CL is group processing which is called “team reflection”
by Nunan (1992) This characteristic is present when students spend some time
discussing how well they are achieving their goals and maintaining relationships
(Johnson, Johnson & Holubec, 2008) This is a factor contributing to the'success of
the team because it clarifies and improves the effectiveness of a member in contributing to their team (Kagan, 1992) For example, the teacher can have the students judge what they did to fulfil the task and have them assess their use of
social skills during the group interaction The process of reviewing group behaviors gives both the students and the teacher an opportunity to discuss special needs or
issues within the group Groups get a chance to express their feelings about beneficial and unhelpful aspects of the group learning process in order to correct
unwanted behavior and celebrate successful outcomes in the group work (Dahley,
1994) It can be said that group processing plays an important role in maintaining and fostering the cooperation among group members
In sum, the five characteristics mentioned above are considered as five pillars to
form a complete picture of cooperative learning in the classroom To organize cooperative activities in the classroom successfully, it requires teachers to ensure that these characteristics are incorporated in the designed activities
The following section will present the benefits of cooperative learning groups
2.2.5 Benefits of Cooperative Learning Groups
CL is considered one of the most successul stories in the history of educational
research (Slavin, 1996) The benefits of cooperative learning groups have been well documented The website of Overseas Edu - Providing an Online Education
Trang 26Resource Around the World (retrieved March 10, 2014, from http://www.thai-edu-
in-us.org/8-advantages-of-cooperative-learning.htm) has listed eight advantages of
CL Moreover, the Global Development Research Center-.(retrieved March 10,
2014, from http://www.gdrc.org/kmgmt/c-learn/44.html) has given 44 benefits of CL
Generally, according to Johnson, Johnson and Holubec (2008), there are three major positive results of CL including creating students’ greater efforts for achievement,
providing more positive relationships among students and develop psychological health
With such benefits as mentioned above, it is undeniable that CL is an approach that
“crosses both mainstream education and second and foreign language teaching” (Richards & Rodgers, 2001, p.193)
The next part will discuss the Cooperative Language Learning in detail
2.3 Cooperative Language Learning (CLL)
As mentioned in the previous part, it is undoubted that CL brings many benefits to
education When this approach is applied in teaching a second or foreign language,
it is labeled Cooperative Language Learning which will be examined below
2.3.1 Definition and objectives
The definition of Cooperative Language Learning is well documented Among
them, Richards and Rodgers (2001) view CLL as “a learner-centered approach to teaching held to offer advantages over teacher-fronted classroom methods” (p.193)
They claim that CLL has been embraced as a way of promoting communicative interaction in the classroom and is seen as an extension of the principles of Communicative Language Teaching
Trang 27develop communicative competence through socially structured interaction
activities
2.3.2 Teacher’s and learner’s roles in CLL
The distinctive difference between CLL and the traditional approaches is the role of the teacher and students in the classroom It is necessary for them to get acquainted with the new roles in order to succeed in applying CLL
2.3.2.1 Teacher’s roles
The teacher’s role in CLL is considerably different from the teacher’s role in
traditional teacher-fronted lesson (Richards & Rodgers, 2001) In this teaching method, the teacher is not the person who only measures the capacities of the
students in terms of a final product but in terms of the process That is, someone
who acts as a friend, as a coordinator, as a director who guides his/her actors how to
perform, and as an advisor in the academic tasks and in the psychosocial and
cognitive development of the students (Cowei, Smith, Boulton & Laver, 1994) This
method requires teachers to create a highly structured and well-organized learning
environment in the classroom such as setting goals, planning and structuring tasks,
establishing the physical arrangement of the classroom, dividing groups and assigning students’ roles in groups, and selecting materials and time (Johnson et al.,
1994, as cited in Richards & Rodgers, 2001)
Another important role for the teacher is the facilitator of learning In this role, the teacher has to move around the class helping students and groups as needs arise:
During this time, the teacher interacts, teaches, refocuses, questions, clarifies, supports,
Trang 28Thus, the role of the teacher is very important in cooperative learning To organize effective cooperative learning groups, teachers must know their students well Teachers must consider the different learning skills, ‘cultural background, personalities, and even gender when arranging cooperative groups Grouping of students can be a difficult process and must be decided carefully
It can be seen that teachers who set up a good cooperative lesson can teach students
to teach themselves and each other They give students opportunities to learn from
their group mates and steadily become less dependent on the teacher
According to Johnson et al (1994, p 9), the organizing of CL involves the following
steps:
- Take your existing lessons, curriculum, and sources and structure them
cooperatively
- Tailor cooperative learning lessons to your unique instructional needs,
circumstances, curricular, subject areas, and students
- Diagnose the problems some students may have in working together and intervene to increase learning group’s effectiveness
In sum, although CL is a student-centered approach, the teachers’ role is an extremely important decisive part to the success of this approach In order to well organize the learning environment and reach the goals of the CL approach in a short period of time in class, teachers are required to take much of time for the lesson preparation before class
2.3.2.2 Learner’s roles
According to Richards and Rodgers (2001), the primary role of the learner when working in cooperative learning groups is a group member who must work cooperatively on the assigned tasks with other group members Learners are also
directors of their own learning who can plan, monitor, and evaluate their
Trang 29involvement and participation In typical CL formats like pair or group work,
learners alternate roles as tutors, checkers, recorders, time keepers and information sharers, etc
2.3.3 The advantages and challenges of the application of Cooperative Language Learning (CLL)
Although CLL is believed to outrun other traditional approaches in language teaching, in the practical application of CLL, in addition to the advantages, there are still some challenges that both teachers and students have to cope with due to the subjective and objective causes This section will present the advantages and challenges in the application of CLL
2.3.3.1 The advantages
A number of research studies on the benefits of cooperative learning in second or foreign language learning reveal that CLL provides opportunities for increased language production and allows learners to negotiate meaning in natural, low anxiety environments (Bailey, Daley & Onwuegbuzie, 1999; Ford, 1991; Long &
Porter, 1985) In consistent with these findings, when offering many learning
advantages for students in CLL classrooms, McGroarty (1989) also agreed that CLL increased frequency and variety of second/foreign language practice through different types of interaction as well as the possibility for development or use of language in ways that support cognitive development and increased language skills Moreover, McGroarty (1993) maintains that cooperative learning can provide a powerful tool for language acquisition because it establishes an instructional context that supports many aspects of language development taken as central by recent second language acquisition theories
More specifically, Lourdunathan & Menon (2005) in their research on developing
speaking skills through interaction strategy training find that cooperative learning and peer support can be useful to motivate limited language proficiency students to
Trang 30contribute more to the group interaction According to them, it can be assumed that the use of cooperative learning activities in the classroom can make students generate more ideas and have less stress to express themselves in the class As a result, they are more self-confident In addition, McGroarty (1989) claims that CLL provides opportunities for students to act as resources for each other, thus assumes a more active role in their learning
Futhermore, Jacobs et al (1997) in their study of Cooperative learning in the
thinking classroom point out that when learning in cooperation, students engage in extensive verbal negations with their peers Therefore, cooperative groups provide a more intimate setting that permits direct and unmediated communication (Shachar
& Sharan, 1994) This context is believed to be a key for students to participate in
real discussions and wrestle with ideas Thus, they have opportunities to stretch and extend their thinking which helps them enhance their critical thinking
In conclusion, CLL brings many advantages to language teaching That is the
reason why Slavin (1995) and Baloche (1998) maintain that CLL has been
extensively researched and evaluated and research findings are generally supportive, especially, unlike most language teaching approach, it has no critics In comparison with other traditional approaches, CLL is truly beneficial in language teaching If teachers can apply this approach successfully, their students will be more motivated in learning a foreign language and make much more progress, especially in the speaking skill
Sharing similar concerns of the benefits of CLL, Vietnamese researchers also
realize two other typical advantages of this approach in terms of its application to Vietnamese students and teachers based on their cultural characteristics during more than two decades of implementing CLL, including the teachers and students’ perception and the Confucian ideology of social harmony
Trang 31Vietnamese teachers and students toward CL conducted by Pham (2011) reveals that both teachers and students showed their preference to CL They are willing to adopt cooperative learning activities
Having a similar finding to Pham (2011), Luu (2010) who studied the Infusing
Cooperative Learning into an EFL classroom at the University of Social Sciences
and Humanities — Ho Chi Minh City also concludes that Vietnamese learners are
open to change from traditional teacher-dominated approach to this CLL and Vietnamese EFL teachers should create effective activities for learners to immerse themselves in talking cooperatively instead of talking individually in the
classrooms
The findings of these two Vietnamese researchers are consistent with the findings from prior research which claims that Asian teachers and students, including Vietnamese ones prefer working in groups (Earley 1993, 1994; Park, 1997, 2002, Sullivan, 1996) According to Pham (2011), “The enthusiasm to engage in group learning can be seen as a good starting point for the integration of cooperative learning into Vietnamese curriculum, lesson design, teaching and learning pattern”
(p.7)
The next advantage is Vietnamese cultural characteristics which are still strongly influenced by the Confucian ideology As one of the principles of Confucianism is
working in harmony with people in the community/group, according to Ellis (1995), Vietnamese people always prefer social harmony Nguyen (2011) also agrees that the cultures of the Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, teach people to avoid arguments with others, and try to be in harmony with each other People always try to get along well with each other and avoid extremes in everyday
communication This point helps them to have a positive attitude towards co- operation in learning as Nelson (1995) contends that “within the Confucian tradition, students learn through co-operation, by working for the common good, by supporting each other and by not elevating themselves above others” (p 9)
Trang 32However, this characteristic also exists a weakness affecting the application of CLL that will be discussed in the following section
2.3.3.2 The challenges
In addition to the advantages of the application of CLL discussed above, there have some possible challenges in general, most prominent are the bad performance of learners, time-consuming lessons and learners’ chatting in their mother tongue during class activities
First of all, if teachers do not organize the cooperative groups carefully, cooperative learning may be failed because of bad performance of learners Normally, a team
has some members who do not want to work with others and keep silent; or some learners would like to control their group mates and talk all the time (Kagan, 1995)
Therefore, if learners are put into groups without sufficient instructions on what and how to work in groups, they cannot perform well, especially when they are not taught to pay attention to the positive interdependence and individual accountability Thus, it is recommended for teachers to study carefully the five characteristics of CL, namely the positive interdependence, the individual accountability, the group formation, the social skills and the group processing in order to implement the cooperative learning activities in class successfully
Trang 33Press, teachers were asked to vote on their top speaking challenge The problem
receiving the most votes was students’ chatting in their mother tongue in group or
pair speaking activities The author finds out three main reasons that make students
do not use English in pair work and group work namely: (1) they are scared to make
mistakes; (2) they do not have any idea; (3) they do not see the point According to
the author, teachers should stop worrying about this problem On the contrary, the
teachers should try to explain why they want the students to speak English, let them know that mistakes are a part of the process of learning, and encourage them to
listen to each other Step by step, students will feel more confident and participate more enthusiastically in speaking activities in the classroom
Moreover, in Vietnam, research on the application of CLL shows that some more
challenges are found including class size, workload division in group, face-to-face
discussion
Class size is the first stumbling block that both teachers and students have to
surmount in order to implement CL (Pham, 2011) On average, Vietnamese classes contain 50-70 students In such big classes, there are approximately 13-14 groups
(of 4 or 5) working simultaneously and it is very difficult for teachers to observe, to give supports and to monitor each group to ensure that they are working smoothly Workload division among group members is the second challenge Findings in
Pham (2011) show that eighty-eight percent of the student participants in her study
of perceptions of Vietnamese teachers and students toward CL recognized the problem of inequalities in the distribution of workload Workload envy is a considerable issue among Vietnamese learners It is a common problem that “some
members were not willing to complete the group’s task and became free riders in the process” (Pham, 2011, p 8) As a result, the group task is just carried out by some capable students and the unhelpful ones in the group get that result without
doing anything This problem is also mentioned as a diffusion of responsibility by Slavin (1992) In his opinion, this occurs when some group members have low
Trang 34individual accountability and their teachers do not well instruct them to avoid this
issue
Another issue relates to the face-to-face discussion While one of the objectives of CLL is to encourage students to develop communicative competence through social structured interaction activities, to open up their own ideas and develop creativeness, Asian learners are not comfortable with questioning, evaluating, and
generating knowledge (Hu, 2002, cited in Pham, 2011) As a result, it can be seen that the deep-seated perception of ‘surviving in harmony’ has strongly hindered Asian students from exchanging their true opinions (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005,
cited in Pham, 2011) To remain the harmony among the group members,
Vietnamese students are hesitant to speak out their counterarguments They are
afraid that they will make their group mates lose face or they will destroy the group
mood Sometimes, they do not agree with other members but they still nod their
heads to preserve the harmonious atmosphere This limits their performance in cooperative classroom activities Flowerdew (1998) observes that students are very supportive of one another and tend to dislike giving feedback individually on their peers’ work to the whole class This is not encouraged because in cooperative group work, they need to raise their own views and discuss face-to-face to find the best
solutions This process is especially necessary in language learning because it will
force students to have critical thinking in the issues and train them to be more self-
confident in expressing their ideas in the target language By this way, their
language competence and communicative skills will be enhanced
In sum, this part presents a review in literature about the advantages and challenges
of the application of CLL Based on these theories, the study is conducted to find out whether the actual application of CLL in teaching English speaking skill at the UIT goes in line with the previous findings or not The next part will investigate the
relationship between the CLL and the speaking skill to see how CLL motivates
Trang 352.4 Cooperative Language Learning and the speaking skill
In order to find out whether the application of CLL motivates the teaching and
learning speaking skill or not, it is necessary to investigate the nature of speaking,
the principles of teaching speaking and why using CLL can motivate students in speaking classes These will be elaborated as follows
2.4.1 The nature of speaking
Speaking is one of the four main means of communication of human beings including Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing There has been a lot of research about speaking that leads to various definitions According to Bygate (1987), speaking is considered a popular form of expression which uses the unprestigious ‘coloquial’ register However, it is the skill which deserves attention every bit in both first and second language since it is a medium through which much of the language is learnt Specifically, speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information (Brown, H D., 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997) To achieve this authentic purpose successfully, especially in learning a foreign language, learners need to know not only the linguistic knowledge but also the culturally acceptable ways of interacting with others in different situations and interpersonal relations (Hymes,
1971) It means that in order to speak a language fluently and accurately, speakers
must learn the language knowledge such as grammatical rules, vocabulary and
practise as much as possible the way native speakers use the language In regard to the learning English speaking skill, Al-Mutawa and Kailani (1989) also stress that “learning to speak is a lengthy, complex process” and “is more effectively achieved by speaking in living natural English” (pp 104 - 105) Consistent with this idea, Hornby (1995, p 37) confirms “as teachers, we have a responsibility to prepare the students as much as possible to be able to speak in English in the real world outside the classroom” It is the reason why in speaking classes of foreign languages, teachers should organize communicative activities to increase students’ talking time
in real situations
Trang 362.4.2 Principles of teaching speaking
In order to have a successful speaking lesson, teachers should follow the five
principles suggested by Nunan (2003) First of all, teachers should be aware of the differences between the second and foreign language learning context Learning speaking in a foreign language learning context is much more challenging to learners because they have very few opportunities to practise the target language
outside the classroom Therefore, teachers should find ways to create real life
situations for students to practise speaking in class frequently Secondly, teachers are recommended to provide students with opportunities to practise speaking with both fluency and accuracy Students need to be provided with fluency-building practice in which making mistakes is natural and acceptable in learning a new language Teachers should avoid interrupting students constantly in order to correct
their oral mistakes Thirdly, teachers should give students more time to talk by
using pair work and group work, and limit teacher talk Similarly, Long and Porter (1985) claim that group interaction allows more talk for each member and creates a greater variety of talk Next, tasks planned should aim to the negotiation of meaning Designed tasks should give students opportunities to ask for explanation or clarification In this process, students can understand the speech, make them understood and as a result, maintain the talk for a long time Lastly, classroom activities should be designed with guidance and practice in both transactional and interactional speaking It is recommended to give students chances to communicate in various and unpredicted topics related to the real life which embodies both transactional and interactional purposes to stimulate them to talk in speaking lessons In conclusion, these principles function as a guideline for teachers who
desire to teach the speaking skill effectively
2.4.3 Using CLL to motivate students in speaking classes
Trang 37work, it is fundamental to apply the CL approach thanks to its various benefits
mentioned before
2.5 Several related studies on the using of CLL in teaching English as a foreign language
There are various published studies investigating the application of CL in general and of CLL in particular in teaching In order to concentrate on the purpose of the study, a review of the studies on CLL in EFL teaching in some countries and in Vietnam will be presented below
Firsly, Liang (2002) carried out a study in order to find out (1) the effects of CL on
the improvement of the EFL learners’ language ability in terms of the oral communicative competence and the school monthly achievement tests, (2) the effects of CL on the learners’ motivation toward learning English as a foreign language, and (3) the effects of CL on the high and low achievers in a heterogeneous class The participants included twelve teachers who already attended the forty-hour workshop on CL and two classes of the first year students at a junior high school in Taiwan, one was the experimental group and the other was the control group, with thirty-five students per group The data were collected from the questionnaire, the teacher and student interview, the two oral tasks and the scores of the 1*t and 2™ monthly examination After the data analysis, the researcher concluded that EFL teachers in Taiwan were strongly advised to apply CL in their English classes because it was a feasible teaching method with suitable characteristics to the current wave of educational reform The findings showed that CL did not only enhance the students’ communicative competence and boosted their motivation toward learning English, it also increased students’ ability of caring,
sharing, respecting, and cooperating with others Moreover, the results revealed that
both the high- and low-achievers were able to make progress at their own pace and, at the same time, gave contributions to their peers’ learning
Trang 38Next, in 2011, a study conducted by Zhou at a college in China aimed to prove that CL was an effective way to enhance the non-English majors’ motivation in EFL
learning In the study, an empirical research followed by & post-test survey was
carried out with thirty-two students in an ordinary class of non-English major for 15 weeks The findings showed that the application of CL in teaching EFL was effective because it could provide a democratic, relaxing and non-threatening atmosphere, which created a favorable attitude and stronger motivation, raised
achievement, and produced positive social outcomes However, since this study
only investigated a limited number of participants, the findings could not generalize about the whole situation of using CL to enhance the non-English majors’ motivation in EFL learning in China
In addition, Nguyen (2007) conducted a study at the Teacher’s Training College of Long An, Vietnam in order to identify the participants’ attitudes toward CL and to measure the effectiveness of CL when students learned English Ten teachers of English and one hundred and thirty non-majored English students were engaged in the study The data were collected by different instruments including questionnaires
for the teachers and the students, a learning style checklist for the students, class observation and three tests, namely the pre-test, the mid-term test and the final test The results revealed that the participants had positive attitude toward CL and students who preferred learning cooperatively made more progress in learning
English than those who learned individually
Three years later, Tran’s study (2010) was carried out at the Vietnam USA Society
Trang 39differences in their cognition, motivation and interaction Then, an analysis in the final-exam score was done to explore which group had the best achievement The findings showed that the students in the experimental group who were taught in the combination of MI and CL had the most positive attitude towards learning English
and the highest achievement
Last but not least, Luu (2011) conducted a study at the Faculty of English Linguistics of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities — Vietnam National
University - Ho Chi Minh City This study aimed to investigate student diversities
in terms of learning styles and linguistic competence, and their changing regarding to the participation, interaction and achievement through CL activities The participants of the study were seventy-seven first-year EFL students from the two reading classes, one treated as the experimental group and the other as the control group The data collection consisted of two phases The first phase was collecting data on students’ interaction level, achievement level, and learning styles through
the class observations, the questionnaires and the result of the achievement test The
second phase was experimenting Cooperative Learning activities After analyzing the data, the researcher found that Vietnamese learners were open to change and Vietnamese EFL teachers should create effective activities for learners to immerse themselves in talking cooperatively instead of talking individualistically in the
classroom
In brief, through the review of the previous studies, it could be seen that researchers
paid much attention to teachers and learners’ attitudes toward CLL and the effects of CLL on the learning outcomes However, the effectiveness of CLL is much
dependent on the actual implementation process of the approach Therefore, an investigation on how CLL is practically applied in classroom and findings of the advantages and challenges of the teaching and learning process to improve the status will be necessary
Trang 40To conclude, this chapter presents the general concepts of typical learning types and
focuses on the Cooperative Learning with the terminology, the forms of CL groups,
the working formats, the characteristics and the benefits oŸ:CL groups Then the
Cooperative Language Learning (CLL) is mentioned with the definition and
objectives, the roles of teachers and students in CLL, the advantages and challenges
of the application of CLL Next, the relationship between the CLL and the teaching
speaking skill are examined to show that CLL plays an important role in motivating
students’ speaking in class Finally, a review of the related studies is presented This literature review shapes the theoretical framework and points out the way to my
choice and treatment of the topic of my research The findings of my research may
contribute to the relevant literature, either to confirm, or to offer some comparisons with previous claims of other researchers, or to add new information, or to suggest investigations of new areas The following part of my thesis will discuss the
research design and methodology of my study, and the tools by which I collected