Using pair work to improve the first year non english major students’ speaking skill at hanoi university of industry

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Trần Thị Thanh Huyền USING PAIR WORK TO IMPROVE THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY MA THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE HANOI, 2018 VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Trần Thị Thanh Huyền USING PAIR WORK TO IMPROVE THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY Field: English Language Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Phan Văn Quế HANOI, 2018 DECLARATION BY AUTHOR I declare that this thesis, entitled “Using Pair Work to Improve the First Year Non English Major Students’ Speaking Skill at Hanoi University of Industry” This study has been composed solely by myself and has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification Except where states otherwise by reference or acknowledgment, the work presented is entirely my own Author’s Signature Trần Thị Thanh Huyền Approved by SUPERVISOR Assoc Prof Dr Phan Văn Quế Date:…………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor Associate Professor Doctor Phan Văn Quế for his useful comments, remarks and recommendation through the process of completing this master thesis Furthermore, I would like to thank Dr Đặng Nguyên Giang for introducing me to the topic as well for the support on the way Also, I would like to thank all of the lecturers at Graduate Academy of Social Sciences for their useful and interesting lessons that have helped to increase my interest in English language and teaching In addition, my sincere gratitude goes to the teachers and students of Hanoi University of Industry, who have willingly spent their precious time during the process of interviewing Finally, I would like to thank my beloved family and friends, who have supported me throughout entire study, both by keeping me harmonious and helping me putting pieces together I will be grateful forever for your love ii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION BY AUTHOR .i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii ABSTRACT v LIST OF TABLES vi LIST OF FIGURES vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE THESIS viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale .1 1.2 Aims of the Study .2 1.3 Research Questions 1.4 Scope of the Study 1.5 Significance of the Study .3 1.6 Research Methods 1.7 Structure of the Study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Communicative Language Teaching Approach 2.1.1 Definitions of CLT 2.1.2 Characteristics of CLT 2.2 Speaking Skill 2.2.1 Definitions of Speaking 2.2.2 The Importance of Speaking Skill 2.2.3 Types of Speaking Performance 10 2.2.4 Principles for Teaching Speaking Skill 11 2.3 Pair Work 13 2.3.1 Definition of Pair Work 13 2.3.2 Procedures of Pair Work .14 2.3.3 Some Common Activities for Pair Work 14 2.3.4 Advantages of Using Pair Work in Teaching Speaking Skill 16 2.3.5 Disadvantages of Using Pair Work in Teaching Speaking Skill 18 2.4 Previous Research related to Pair Work 19 2.5 Chapter Summary 22 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .24 3.1 Research Design 24 3.1.1 Definitions of Action Research 24 3.1.2 Procedures of Action research 26 iii 3.2 The Context of the Study 30 3.3 Participants 31 3.3.1 The Researcher 31 3.3.2 The Teachers 31 3.3.3 The Students 32 3.4 Procedures of the Study .32 3.4.1 Diagnosing 33 3.4.2 Planning 34 3.4.3 Acting and Observing 34 3.4.4 Reflecting 35 3.5 Data Collection Instruments .35 3.5.1 Survey Questionnaire for Teachers and Students 35 3.5.2 English Speaking Test 38 3.5.3 Class Observation Form 38 3.6 Data Collection 38 3.7 Data Analysis .39 3.8 Chapter Summary 39 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS .40 4.1 Findings 40 4.1.1 Data Collection and Analysis from Survey Questionnaire 40 4.1.2 The Data from the Speaking Test 50 4.1.3 The data from the class observation 48 4.2 Discussion 52 4.3 Chapter Summary 54 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 55 5.1 Recapitulation 55 5.2 Concluding Remarks 55 5.3 Implications 56 5.3.1 For teachers 56 5.3.2 For students 59 5.4 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Studies .60 5.4.1 Limitations 60 5.4.2 Suggestions for Further Studies 60 REFERENCES iv ABSTRACT This study was conducted to investigate the importance of using pair work in speaking lessons for the first year non- English major students at HaUI and to explore how pair work should be used in class to help them enhance their speaking skills effectively In order to achieve the aim, the research seeks to answer the two following research questions of (1) what the students’ attitude toward pair work activities are and (2) To what extent the implementation of pair work help improve speaking skill for the first-year non-major students at HaUI In order to seek answers to the research questions, action research method was used and the data was collected from classroom observation, speaking tests and questionnaires The findings of the study show that both participating students and teachers have positive perceptions of using pair work in speaking lessons Pair work motivates students to speak more in a less controlled and stressful lessons and increases students’ participation in speaking After analyzing and synthesizing the statistics, the researcher discussed and recommended some implications along with suggestions for further research Finally yet importantly, it is hoped that this study will be useful for teaching and learning speaking skill at HaUI in particular and for English teaching in general v LIST OF TABLES Table Procedures of Pair Work (source: Harmer, 2001, pp 122-124) 14 Table Procedures of the study 33 Table 3: Frame of Questionnaire for teachers 37 Table 4: Frame of Questionnaire for Students 37 Table 5: A comparison of scores on pre-test and post-test 50 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Integration of two organizational schemes for the step-by-step process of action research .27 Figure 2: The Process of Action Research 28 Figure 3: Teachers’ attitudes towards the role of pair work activity in English teaching and learning 40 Figure 4: The implementing of pair work in speaking class 41 Figure 5: The pair forming 42 Figure 6: The benefits of using pair work .42 Figure 7: The difficulties of implementing pair work 43 Figure 8: The teachers’ opinions of the students’ improvement 44 Figure 9: Students’ attitudes towards the role of pair work in learning English 44 Figure 10: Students’ of viewpoint of using pair work 45 Figure 11: the activities used in speaking class 46 Figure 12: the frequency of using pair work and activities used in speaking lesson 47 Figure 13: The formation of pairs .47 Figure 14: The involvement of students in doing pair work 48 Figure 15: Students' reflections on the difficulties they have in pair work 49 Figure 16: Viewpoint about students’ improvement .49 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE THESIS CLT: Communicative Language Teaching FLF: Foreign Language Faculty HaUI: Hanoi University of Industry CC: communicative competence L2: The second language viii health sciences faculty of Kadiri University Unpublished MA thesis Johnson, K (1983) Communicative Approach to Language Teaching Oxford: Oxford University Press Johnson, A.P (2008) Teaching Reading and Writing (A Guidebook for Tutoring and Remediating Students) New York: A Division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc Kemmis, S & Taggart, M (1988) The Action Research Planner New Zealand: Victoria University Press Lightbown, P & Spada, N (1999) How Languages are Learned New York: Oxford University Press Second Edition Long, M H & Porter, P A (1985) Group Work, Interlanguage Talk, and Second Language Acquisition TESOL Quarterly Marina (2015) Improving students’ speaking learning process through games for grade viib at SMP, Unpublished MA thesis, Tate University Of Yogyakarta Mertler, C A., & Charles, C M (2008) Introduction to educational research (6th ed.) Boston: Pearson Education, Inc Moon, J (2000) Children Learning English Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann Publishers Nunan D (1991) Language Teaching Methodology UK: Prentice Hall International Nunan, D (1992) Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Nunan, D (1998) Second Language Teaching and Learning Boston, Massachusetts Heinle & Heinle Publishers Nunan, D (2003) Practical English Language Teaching NY: McGrawHill Parsons, R D & Kimberlee, S B (2002) Teacher as Reflective Practitioner and Action Researcher Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning Richards, J C (1983) Communicative Needs in Foreign Language Learning ELT Journal V37.1983 Richards, J C & Lockhart, C (1994) Reflective teaching in second language Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Rivers, W M (1978) A practical guide to the teaching of English as a second or foreign language New York: Oxford University Press Rudy, E S (2013) Improving students’ speaking ability through pair work technique, (a classroom action research, for the 7th grade students of SMP Kristen Gergaji Semarang), Unpublished MA thesis, Diponegoro University, Semarang Savignon, S J 2002 Interpreting Communicative Language Teaching: Contexts and Concerns in Teacher Education New Haven, CT: Yale University Press Slavin, R E (1991) Student team learning: a practical guide to cooperative learning Washington, DC: National Education Association Vietnamese Authors Lý Thị Hoàng Mến (2013) An investigation into the use of pair work and group work activities to develop speaking skills of the first year English major students at the faculty of foreign languages, Thai Nguyen University Unpublished MA thesis, University of Languages and Studies Vietnam National University, Hanoi APPENDIX 1: Survey Questionnaire for Teachers of English This survey questionnaire is designed to collect information about the real condition of the classroom problems in teaching speaking skill at HaUI Your assistance in completing the following questionnaire is greatly appreciated You can be certain your information is for research purpose only and that you will not be identified in any discussions of the data Thank you very much for your cooperation and assistance! Please circle the appropriate answers for the following questions, or write down your further opinions For some questions you can choose more than one option How important is pair work activity to English learning and teaching? A Very important B Important C Quite important D Not very important How you often carry out the speaking activities? A In pairs B In groups C Individually D all of them What is your frequency of using pair work in speaking class? A Always B Usually C Sometimes D Rarely In a speaking lesson, how you often form pairs? A Let students decide themselves B Pair randomly C Pair students sitting next to each other D Pair students of similar speaking abilities E Pair students of different speaking abilities I What benefits your students gain when pair work is used in teaching speaking skill? A A chance to practice speaking B Using English more correctly C Increasing confidence D Improving creativity In your opinion, what is the level of difficulties in applying pair work? A Very difficult B Difficult C Normal D Very easy In your opinion, what is the difficulty when applying pair work? A Students’ poor speaking competence B Lack of basic grammar and vocabulary C Poor involvement of students D Students are lazy and passive E Others(please specify):…… What you think about students’ improvement? A Improved very much B Improved C Improved a little D Not be improved II APPENDIX 2: Survey Questionnaire for Students This survey questionnaire is designed for the study on improving the first year students’ speaking skill through pair work activities Your assistance in completing the following questions is greatly appreciated You can be confident that you will not be identified in any discussions or data analysis Thank you very much for your cooperation and assistance! Please give your answers: Name: ………………………………………… Class: ………………………………………… Time of learning English: ……………… year(s) Please circle the answer you think the most suitable, or write some words to some questions For some questions you can choose more than one option How important is pair work activity to English learning? A Very important B Important C Quite important D Not very important What is your opinion of pair work activities in English speaking class? A Very interesting B Interesting C Not very interesting D Not interesting at all How does your teacher often organize the speaking activities? A Individuals B Pairs C Groups D all of them What activities you like most in the speaking class? A Individuals B Pairs C Groups D None of them How often does your teacher use pair work activities in the speaking lesson? A Usually B Often C Sometimes D Seldom E Never What activities does your teacher usually use for speaking practice in pairs? A Role play B Discussion C Games D Interviews E Information gap In a speaking lesson, how you want your teachers to form pairs? A Let you decide yourselves B Pair randomly C Pair students sitting next to each other III D Pair students of similar speaking abilities E Pair students of different speaking abilities What you as a pair member often when working in pairs? (You can choose more than one option) A cooperate with partner B follow another partner’s ideas C talk about something else D keep silent all the time What difficulties you have in pair work? A Teacher gives less help and attention to individuals B Lack of control because of big class C Members’ overuse of mother tongue D Members reinforce each other’s errors E Some pairs finish earlier than others 10.Do you think that your speaking skill and confidence improved after doing pair work activities? A Yes B No C Not very much IV APPENDIX 3: English Speaking Test Part 1: Interviewing Questions: (5 minutes) The teachers interview the students some questions that help them to have more ideas talking about their home life PART 1: GREETING AND BRIEF INTRODUCTION (1 minute per candidate) Beginner ( The teacher can ask any of these questions) How old are you? How you get to school every day? Where are you from? What are your hobbies?/ What you How far is it from your hometown like doing in your free time? to your university? How many people are there in your Where are you living now? family? Who are they? When is your birthday? 10 How many classmates are there in Do you have any sisters or your class? How many boys and girls brothers? are there? PART 2: PEER CONVERSATION Card 1A (Student A): Your friend, David, went travelling last summer holiday - Ask your partner some information about David’s holiday - Tell your partner what you know about David’s holiday V DAVID’S SUMMER TRIP Destination: (1)…………… Companion: Duration: Accommodation: Local people: Local food: Activities: Feeling: Family (3)…………… A luxurious hotel near the beach (5)…………… Fresh, delicious (7)…………… Happy Card 1B (Student B): Your friend, David, went travelling last summer holiday - Ask your partner some information about David’s holiday - Tell your partner what you know about David’s holiday DAVID’S SUMMER TRIP Destination: Hawaii Companion: (2)…………… Duration: days nights Accommodation: (4)…………… Local people: Very friendly Local food: (6)…………… Activities: Go sightseeing, sunbathing Feeling: (8)…… ……… Part 3: free talk (1-2 minutes) Topic: Talk about your last birthday party The teachers listen to their oral production attentively, and then give some comments and marks for the representation based on the Scoring Rubric for Oral Presentations (Appendix 4) VI APPENDIX 4: Scoring Rubric for Oral Test Level/ Category Scoring Criteria score Message content Present limited ideas about the topic May have 1-2 only one or two ideas Present relevant ideas about the topic but often 3-4 lack of reasons, examples and explanations Present relevant ideas about the topic but sometimes 5-6 lack of reasons, examples and explanations Present a range of relevant ideas about the 7-8 topic with reasons, examples and explanations Present a wide range of relevant ideas about the topic with reasons, examples 9-10 and explanations Attitude and Not able to understand or speak 1-2 Only catch part of normal speech and unable 3-4 continuous and accurate discourse comprehensibility Gist of speech is relevant and can be basically 5-6 understood Need to ask for repetition or clarification Present the case clearly and develop the speech 7-8 coherently and constructively Some hesitation and repetition due to a measure of language but interacts effectively Can initiate, expand and develop a theme; speaking proficiency equivalent to that of an educated speaker; express ideas clear and relevant to the topic VII 9-10 Speech is halting and fragmentary as to make 1-2 the presentation virtually impossible Fluency and coherence Usually hesitant; often forced into silence by 3-4 language limitations Speech and fluency are rather strongly affected 5-6 by language problem Speed of speech seems to be slightly affected 7-8 by language problem Speech as fluent and effortless as that of a 9-10 native speaker Error in grammar and word order so severe as Vocabulary & Grammar 1-2 to make speech virtually unintelligible Vocabulary limitation is so extreme to make the presentation finally impossible Grammar and word- order errors make 3-4 comprehension difficult Must often rephrase sentences and/ or restrict self to basic patterns Misuse of words and very limited vocabulary make comprehension quite difficult Makes frequent errors of grammar and word 5-6 order which occasionally obscure meaning Frequently uses wrong words; Presentation somewhat limited because of inadequate vocabulary Occasionally makes grammatical and/ or wordorder errors which not obscure meaning Sometimes uses inappropriate terms and/ or must rephrase ideas because of lexical inadequacies VIII 7-8 Makes few (if any) noticeable errors of 9-10 grammar and word- order Use of vocabulary and idioms is virtually that of a native speaker Total score 40 IX APPENDIX 5: English Speaking Ability Evaluation □Pre- test □Post- test Date: …………… Student’s name:………………… Student’s number:…….…………… Recorder number: ………… File number: ………………Teacher’s name: ……………… Assessing criteria Rating scale Message content 10 Addressing the test questions Richness of ideas Vocabulary and grammar range 10 Use of appropriate words and phrases to make meaning clear Control of basic grammar (tenses, subjectverb agreement) and use of sentence patterns (simple and complex) to make meaning clear Fluency and coherence 10 Frequency of pauses, short and long delays Use of discourse organizing words, connectors (and, but, first, next, because…) Attitude and comprehensibility 10 Confidence, willingness to communicate Volume, Pronunciation, word stress, speech rhythm Total /40 Note: …………………………………………………………………………………… ………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… ………………… X APPENDIX 6: The two raters’ scores in English Speaking Test Student Pre-test Post- test Rater Rater average Rater Rater average 18 19 18.5 21 20 20.5 13 11 12 14 15 14.5 20 20 20 23 24 23.5 22 24 23 27 26 26.5 18 19 18.5 20 20 20 24 23 23.5 27 28 27.5 16 18 17 17 18 17.5 8 8.5 14 15 14.5 20 21 20.5 24 23 23.5 10 18 19 18.5 23 22 22.5 11 15 16 15.5 21 22 21.5 12 19 19 19 24 23 23.5 13 16 17 16.5 20 21 20.5 14 7.5 16 15 15.5 15 16 15 15.5 20 21 20.5 16 15 15 15 16 15 15.5 17 20 22 21 22 21 21.5 18 21 22 21.5 24 25 24.5 19 19 20 19.5 21 23 22 20 7.5 15 14 14.5 21 21 23 22 25 24 24.5 22 24 25 24.5 26 28 27 23 18 19 18.5 20 22 21 24 18 16 17 20 21 20.5 25 25 26 25.5 30 31 30.5 26 15 16 15.5 20 20 20 XI 27 10 11 10.5 19 18 18.5 28 12 13 12.5 16 15 15.5 29 21 23 22 25 26 25.5 30 25 26 25.5 26 27 26.5 31 19 20 19.5 22 23 22.5 32 15 16 15.5 14 16 15 33 10 11 10.5 12 11 11.5 34 25 26 25.5 29 28 28.5 35 20 21 20.5 26 25 25.5 36 18 19 18.5 23 22 22.5 37 22 21 21.5 23 21 22 38 16 17 16.5 21 22 21.5 39 21 22 21.5 24 23 23.5 40 24 26 25 26 25 25.5 41 28 29 28.5 32 32 32 42 21 22 21.5 22 23 22.5 43 22 24 23 25 27 26 44 24 26 25 28 29 27 45 23 24 23.5 27 26 26.5 Score 18.44 19.2 18.84 22 22.13 22.03 XII APPENDIX 7: Class Observation Form Lesson plan:……………………… Time……… Date…… Class… Number of students: Teacher’s name: Name of the lesson: _ Time allowance: _ Criteria Comments and notes The use of pair work - Ways of forming pairs - Pair activities - Teacher’s roles - Students’ behaviors The benefits and challenges of pair - The benefits - The challenges Teacher’s solutions to overcome the difficulties XIII ... ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Trần Thị Thanh Huyền USING PAIR WORK TO IMPROVE THE FIRST YEAR NON- ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY. .. implementing pair work activity in speaking lessons It is the reason why the author conducts a study named Using pair work to improve the first year non- English major students’ speaking skill at Hanoi University. .. help improve speaking skill for the first- year non- major students at HaUI? 1.4 Scope of the Study In spite of the fact that there are many different techniques to improve the students’ speaking skill