A STUDY ON THE USING OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING IN DOING PROJECT ASSIGNMENTS OF GRADE 10 STUDENTS AT CAM KHE HIGH SCHOOL Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng phương pháp học hợp tác trong phần Dự án của học sinh lớp 10 Trường THPT Cẩm Khê.

Recently, cooperative learning (CL) has been a proper solution to enhance learner’s performance. It has been widely believed that there are some sound reasons to take CL into implementation but not other methods. Obviously, as one of the most popular structures of learnerscentered approach in the recent years, cooperative activities have been widely used in language classroom, especially in encouraging learner’s participation and improving their motivation in learning. First, CL is highly appraised for their contribution to students achievement. It is beneficial both for academic achievement and the development of the learners social and learning skill. Second, CL has a rigorous foundation on research. Studies have been conducted and come to a conclusion that CL are associated with achievement, high thinking level, self esteem, liking for the subject matter, for schools and the intergroup relations. Furthermore, many studies have proved that cooperative learning has positively influenced students’ projectbased learning (PBL) performance (William, 2003; Noel Robert, 2003; Graham, 2005). CL has enormous advantages over traditional one because traditionally, students only communicate with the teacher about their learning but in CL classrooms students are involved in group work and discussions, which not only improves doing project assignments accuracy but also betters their problem solving skills as well as establish a social atmosphere and meaningful learning. However, the real situation is always different from theory. According to my observation, many students at Cam Khe High School find project a difficult task, they find project hard to do, they only deal with tasks in class and they don’t often learn at home. Moreover, most teachers often skip this part because they found difficult to design classroom activities to attract students’ participation. They encounter lots of challenges in finding appropriate methods to learn this part. And they often ask students to finish this part at home without checking what their students had done. Obviously, students themselves often neither study at class nor at home. One of the difficulties of students when learning in doing project because this is a difficult task to them and it is absolute new to them. Moreover, despite the benefits of CL, there is still inadequate research on the issue, especially in the context of Vietnam. Similarly, at Cam Khe High School, there has been no research on the subject of improving students in doing project by cooperative learning. For this reason, the researcher decided to carry out a research on “A study on the using of cooperative learning in doing project assignments of grade 10 students at Cam Khe High School”

of carrying out this study.

My special thanks also go to all lecturers and the staff of the Faculty ofForeign Languages at Hung Vuong University for their useful materials,guidance and enthusiasm during my course of study

I really wish to thank all of my colleagues and my students at Cam Khehigh school for their enthusiasm participating in doing the questionnaires.Without their valuable opinions and ideas on the questionnaires, the study wouldnot have been accomplished

Last but not least, I would also like to show my deep gratitude to

my beloved family and my friends who always support and stand by me withtheir consideration and encouragements

In upper-secondary schools in Vietnam, with the innovation of textbookfor 10th form students in light of Communicative Approach, the teaching of thefour skills has been much more focused on So far, the English teaching methodshave been on the way to perfect However, in doing project assignments is acrucial lesson that the teachers of English experience a lot of difficulties Inorder to improve the quality of doing project writing, the graduation paper limitsitself to the study on using cooperative learning in doing project assignments for10th students This study is to bring some effectiveness to the process of doingproject in the classroom

The study has been conducted for the purpose of investigating the realsituation of using cooperative learning in doing project assignments to improve

in project lesson of grade 10th students at Cam Khe high school, Phu Thoprovince Thus, two sets of survey questionnaires are used to investigatestudent’s attitudes, perspectives toward in doing project and cooperativelearning in project to find out the teachers’ difficulties in carrying out thistechnique From the results collected from the survey questionnaires andteacher’s interview, the researcher recommended some solutions to deal with thecooperative learning and improve the students’ project performance The resultsshowed that the use of cooperative learning in doing project assignments are aneffective way to improve doing project assignments for high school students.This is also the researcher’s wish to have a suitable and interesting method inteaching project to help grade 10 students at Cam Khe high school improveproject assignments

Hopefully, the graduation paper will make a small contribution to theimprovement of learning and teaching in general and in doing projectassignments in particular

TABLE OF CONTENTSContents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .i

Error! Hyperlink reference not valid Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Previous researches 2

2.1 In the world 2

2.2 In Viet Nam 3

3 Research purposes 4

4 Research questions 4

5 Significance of the study 4

6 Scope of the research 5

7 Design of the research 5

PART 2: CONTENT 7

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 7

1.1 An overview of cooperative learning 7

1.1.1 Definition of cooperative learning 7

1.1.2 Benefits of cooperative learning in language education 9

1.1.3 Key elements of successful cooperative learning 10

1.1.4 Distinguishing cooperative learning from traditional groups 12

1.1.5 Limitations of cooperative learning 14

1.2 Overview of doing project assignments 15

1.2.1 Definition of project 15

1.2.2 Definition of Project- based learning (PBL) 16

1.2.3 Teacher’s role in doing “project” assignments 17

1.2.3 Benefits of project 18

1.2.4 Limitations of project 19

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1.3 Description of English textbook 10 (pilot book) and project assignments .21

1.3.1 English textbook 10 (pilot book) 21

1.3.2 “Project” part in the new textbook 23

CHAPTER 2II: METHODOLOGY 26

2.1 Settings of the study 26

2.2 Participants of the study 26

2.3 Instruments of the study 27

2.3.1 Survey questionnaires 27

2.3.2 Research procedure 29

CHAPTER 3: DATA REPRESENTATION 32

3.1 Current situation of implementation “project” part in English 10 textbook at Cam Khe High school 32

3.1.1 Data analysis from the students’ survey questionnaires 32

3.1.2 Data analysis from teacher interviews 37

3.2 The effectiveness of CL in doing projects 38

3.2.1 The results from students’ questionnaire 38

3.2.2 The result of teachers’ interviews 42

3.3 Discussions 43

CHAPTER 4: MAJOR FINDINGS AND SOME PROPOSED SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE COOPERATIVE LEARNING IN DOING PROJECT ASSIGNMENTS 45

4.1 Major findings of the research 45

4.1.1 The real situation of applying cooperative learning in doing project assignments 45

4.1.2 Awareness about benefits of CL 46

4.1.3 Difficulties of using CL in doing project assignments 47

4.2 Some proposed suggestions to improve CL activity in doing project assignments for grade 10 students at Cam Khe high school 48

PART 3: CONCLUSION 53

1 Summary 53

2 Implications 54

3 Limitations of the study 55

4 Suggestions for further researches 56

REFERENCES 57

APPENDICE 1

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CL Cooperative learning

PBL Project Based-Learning

CLT Communicative Language Teaching

EFL English as a Foreign Language

ELT English Language Teaching

ESL English as Second Language

LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES

5 Table 2.2: Summary of the students’ questionnaires 30

6 Table 2.3: Summary of the teachers’ interview questions 30

7 Table 2.4: The experiment procedure at Cam Khe High

school

32

8 Table 3.1: Students’ understand doing project assignments 34

9 Table 3.2: “What students know about the CL 37

10 Table 3.3: Students’ opinion about “the benefits of CL” 37

11 Table 3.4:Students’ expectations in using CL in English

lesson

38

12 Table 3.5: Benefits of CL in doing project 41

13 Table 3.6: Students’ difficulties in CL method 42

14 Table 3.7: Students’ expectations of using CL in doing

project (%)

6 Figure 3.6: The frequency of using cooperative learning in

doing projectThe frequency of using group writing (%)

43

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Recently, cooperative learning (CL) has been a proper solution to enhancelearner’s performance It has been widely believed that there are some soundreasons to take CL into implementation but not other methods Obviously, asone of the most popular structures of learners-centered approach in the recentyears, cooperative activities have been widely used in language classroom,especially in encouraging learner’s participation and improving their motivation

in learning First, CL is highly appraised for their contribution to student'sachievement It is beneficial both for academic achievement and thedevelopment of the learners social and learning skill Second, CL has a rigorousfoundation on research Studies have been conducted and come to a conclusionthat CL are associated with achievement, high thinking level, self esteem, likingfor the subject matter, for schools and the intergroup relations Furthermore,many studies have proved that cooperative learning has positively influencedstudents’ project-based learning (PBL) performance (William, 2003; Noel &Robert, 2003; Graham, 2005) CL has enormous advantages over traditional onebecause traditionally, students only communicate with the teacher about theirlearning but in CL classrooms students are involved in group work anddiscussions, which not only improves doing project assignments accuracy butalso betters their problem solving skills as well as establish a social atmosphereand meaningful learning

However, the real situation is always different from theory According to

my observation, many students at Cam Khe High School find project a difficulttask, they find project hard to do, they only deal with tasks in class and theydon’t often learn at home Moreover, most teachers often skip this part becausethey found difficult to design classroom activities to attract students’participation They encounter lots of challenges in finding appropriate methods

to learn this part And they often ask students to finish this part at home without

checking what their students had done Obviously, students themselves oftenneither study at class nor at home One of the difficulties of students whenlearning in doing project because this is a difficult task to them and it is absolutenew to them.

Moreover, despite the benefits of CL, there is still inadequate research onthe issue, especially in the context of Vietnam Similarly, at Cam Khe HighSchool, there has been no research on the subject of improving students in doingproject by cooperative learning For this reason, the researcher decided to carry

out a research on “A study on the using of cooperative learning in doing project assignments of grade 10 students at Cam Khe High School”

Ilhan Ilter (2014) also had a study on “The efficacy of project-based

learning approach on Social Studies Education: Conceptual achievement and academic motivation.” In this research, an experimental study was carried out in

social studies 4thgrade students' to develop students' conceptual achievement andmotivation to succeed academically The study aims to investigate theeffectiveness of project-based learning (PBL) in social studies The findingsindicated a statistically significant difference in favor of the experimental group

on the concept achievement and motivation Students who participated in thePBL environments not only enriched and expanded their knowledge but also

achieved a higher level of motivation than the control group The PBL in teamformat activities were provided to promote the experimental group students'motivation to succeed academically and to develop their conceptualachievement The results demonstrated that the PBL improved students'understanding regarding social studies concepts and helped them achieve thebehaviors which were aimed academically The experimental group's intendedbehaviors in academic motivation at the beginning of the experimental treatmentturned into performed behaviors at the end.

2.2 In Viet Nam

The study titled “ The effects of cooperative learning activities on improving writing skills of EFL students at International school, Vietnam National University a quasi experimental research” of (Tran Thi Lan Huong

2013) was conducted as an attempt to examine the perceptions of first-year EFLlearners towards CL to investigate their participation level and quality in CL,find out possible influential factors on their participation, pinpoint teachers’monitoring strategies to motivate students to participate in activities, andrecommend several pedagogical implications to motivate and balance their oralparticipation

The study titled “The Effect of Project-Based Learning on Student Performance” by of ( Nguyen Thi Huyen Trang (2016 ) This study analyzedthe effectiveness of an alternate pedagogical approach in the form of standards-focused project-based learning (PBL) teaching model in psychology classes.Both the control and experimental groups initially adopted a negative attitudewhen presented with an alternate method of learning They viewed the groupproject as an unnecessary task although the literature contradicts their initialperception Data analyzed found that the experimental group that engaged theproject and took responsibility for the learning of their peers scored significantlyhigher on the multiple-choice exam when compared to the control group Nosignificance was found in the second experimental group where majority of the

students did their part, but did not report feeling a sense of responsibility for thelearning of their peers Key indicators for higher academic performance were: 1)high self-efficacy; 2) high level of perceived control; and 3) growth mindset.

This is the first time the study “A study on the using of cooperative learning in doing Project assignments of grade 10 students at Cam Khe High School” is carried out in Cam Khe district Different from other studies, itfocuses on studying CL in teaching and doing project assignments whereas theabove studies focus on different aspects

3 Research purposes

The study aims at:

- Investigating the current situation in of teaching and learning “Project” part

in English 10 textbook at Cam Khe High school

- Applying CLin teaching “Project” part in English 10 textbooks

- Evaluating the effectiveness of CL in teaching “Project” part in textbook forgrade 10 students

- Proposing some suggestions to improve CL activities for teaching and learningproject of grade 10 students at Cam Khe High school

In order to accomplish this graduation paper systematically andadequately, the quantitative and qualitative methods were used

In the quantitative methods, two survey questionnaires were used to collectinformation and evidence for the study:

-The survey questionnaires were for 42 grade 10 students at Cam Khe Highschool

At the same time, in the qualitative method, two teachers’ interviews were used

to help the author confirm the results got from the survey questionnaires

5.2 Research procedure

The research has been done with the following steps:

- Firstly, identify the rationale of the study by using the related documents togive background of CL, doing “project” assignments and their related aspects

- Secondly, study the current situation in doing project lessons for grade 10students at Cam Khe High school

- Thirdly, find out the effectiveness and difficulties when using CL in doingproject assignments

- Lastly, propose some solutions in using CLfor grade 10 students in doingproject assignments based on the real situation

5 6 Significance of the study

Although the study was conducted on a small scale with a particulargroup of grade 10 students at Cam Khe high school, the researcher hoped thatits findings could be of great significance This study is a contribution to anunderstanding of the applicability of the cooperative learning to the teaching ofEnglish in general and the teaching of project writing for academic purposes inparticular in the context of a Vietnamese high school Besides, the findings ofthe study will make a small contribution to the improvement in using CL indoing project assignments of teachers and students of English in general andthose of Cam Khe High school in particular In addition, the research alsohelps the teachers and students apply CL more effectively, which may make

doing project assignments lessons more interesting, and students’ presentingskills are hopefully improved.

6 7 Scope of the research

Due to time constraints, instead of studying the current situation of usingcooperative learning activities in a larger context, this study only focuses onapplying cooperative learning in doing project assignments for 42 students ofgrade 10A4 at Cam Khe High school Moreover, in this paper, due to the lack

of time and effort, I would solely discuss the use of CL in doing projectassignments, not the other parts of the lessons to determine its effectivenessmore clearly in the small context of grade 10 students at Cam Khe Highschool

7 8 Design of the research

The research consists of three parts

Part 1: Presents the overview of the study including the rationale for theresearch, previous researches, research purposes, research questions,significance of the research, the scope of the research as well as the structure ofresearch

Part 2is sub-divided into four chapters:

Chapter 1 is the literature review In this chapter, the literature oncooperative learning and doing project are stated

Chapter 2 focuses on the subjects of the study, discusses the instrumentsand presents the data collection, analysis and research procedures

Chapter 3 in which the current situation in applying cooperative learningfor grade 10 students at Cam Khe high school l are provided

Chapter 4 focuses on giving some major findings of the study andsuggesting some techniques for better using CL for grade 10 students in doingproject assignments

Part 3 summarizes the study Also in this part, the implications forclassroom practice, the limitations of the study and suggestions for furtherstudies are clearly presented.

In a nutshell, this part has presented the background, and significance ofthe study These contribute to the purposes and the research questions of thisstudy in teaching and studying doing project assignments at Cam Khe Highschool The present study also provided the scope of the study An outline ofthis study was given in the last of this part

PART 2: CONTENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

The purpose of this chapter is to provide information pertaining to this research,which was obtained from reviewing the related literature and studies

1.1 An overview of cooperative learning

1.1.1 Definition of cooperative learning

Since cooperative learning has recently drawn much interest and becomespopular, a number of researches have been done to investigate the effectiveness

of this approach of teaching It is beneficial to discover the definition of the termcooperative learning (CL) to gain a more comprehensive understanding of theapproach In general, CL is a strategy for group instruction which is under thelearner-centered approach In detail, CL is ‘'an instructional program in which

students work in small groups to help one another master academic content.

They are a team whose platers must work together in pairs or groups to achievethe goals successfully" (Brown, 2002)

In language learning contexts, CL is defined as within-class grouping ofstudents usually of different level of foreign language proficiency who learn towork together on specific tasks for projects in such a way that all students in thegroup benefit from the interactive experience Students work together tomaximize their own and each other’s learning According to Johnson andJohnson (2005), CL is a teaching strategy in which small teams use a variety oflearning activities to improve their understanding of a subject, each member isresponsible for learning and helping classmates until they all understand andcomplete the assigned task

According to Stahl (2006), during the past decade, cooperative learninghas emerged as the leading new approach to language teaching Numerousresearch have revealed that CL tends to enable to achieve higher academic testscores, higher self-esteem, greater numbers of positive social skills, greaterunderstanding of the content and skills they are studying CL is especiallybeneficial to language learners due to the fact that they are providedcomprehensive input m appropriate ways and in a supportive and motivatingenvironment (Kagan 2008) Additionally, Olsen and Kagan report some benefits

of the strategy-for language learning First, in traditional classrooms, teachersgive students little time to produce language, especially weak students On thecontrary, in cooperative classes, most of class tune is devoted to students’

activities, and then they have many of chances to produce language, resulting intheir activeness and better communication Furthermore, CL impacts positively

on language acquisition because small groups enrich language classroom withcomprehensible and accurate input To sum up, as CL enhances languagedevelopment and the learning of concepts and contents, assigning students todifferent groups is necessary for them to benefit more from English languagerole models

In conclusion, cooperative learning is an approach to group work thatminimizes the occurrence of those unpleasant situations and maximizes thelearning and satisfaction that result from working on a high-performance team

A large and rapidly growing body of research confirms the effectiveness ofcooperative learning in higher education Relative to students taughttraditionally with instructor-centered lectures, individual assignments, andcompetitive grading cooperatively taught students tend to exhibit higheracademic achievement, greater persistence through graduation, better high-levelreasoning and critical thinking skills, deeper understanding of learned material,greater time on task and less disruptive behavior in class, lower levels of anxietyand stress, greater intrinsic motivation to learn and achieve, greater ability toview situations from others’ perspectives, more positive and supportiverelationships with peers, more positive attitudes toward subject areas, and higherself-esteem Another nontrivial benefit for instructors is that when assignmentsare done cooperatively, the number of papers to grade decreases by a factor ofthree or four

1.1.2 Benefits of cooperative learning in language education

CL is a good way to maximize learners’ academic achievement as well astheir social skills Especially, highly structured CL enables them to improvetheir own apprehension of the key materials while developing good relationshipwith peers by encouragingand assisting them

Firstly, according to Gillies & Ashman( 2003), the most obvious benefit

of CL for students fells into academic achievement Most of the researchesconducted into the effectiveness of CL have positive findings CL activitiessupply learners with structured chances to collaborate to reach the commongoals in language acquisition They help each others to benefit from theircontribution to the learning process Working in groups enables learners toprovide each other with information, suggestions, reminders and motivation.They not only achieve better results, develop their thinking and leadership skillsbut also enjoy their learning with positive views towards other learners, goodself-esteem and a sense of belonging to a group

Graham (2005)& Gillies & Ashman ( 2003), CL strategy was found to beuseful for both language education and other aspects such as motivational andcommunicative activities, good relationship with participants and stressovercoming

Moreover, according to Gabriele (2007), in CL classrooms, lowerstudents learn much from strong partners because when working individuallythey may get stuck, but collaborating with better students enable them tounderstand the materials more easily

In the second place, according to Graham(2005),cooperative learningbetters students socially and emotionally CL helps learners to become bettercommunicators and listeners, cooperative members as well as effective leader of

a team Besides improving social skills, CL also develops personal competence

of self-reflection and accurate self-assessment By working closely withclassmates, learners can assess their own strengths and weaknesses, know how

to make use of the diversity to reach the common goals In other words,cooperative learning encourages students to become reflective practitioners andstrive for continuous improvement Furthermore, CL is also considered aneffective remedy for educational problems by not only helping to improveacademic results but also encouraging learners to become involved in social and

academic settings It also has good impact on the problem solving ability ofchildren.

According to William(2003), Children of lower ability who completedtheir work collaboratively with peers of higher ability had significantimprovement m their performance In addition, learning cooperatively enableslearners to communicate with each other, which gives them opportunities to talktogether about their work socially and collaboratively Discussion with peers isalso a good way to make writing more meaningful and apparent and helpslearners to become able to read their work critically

1.1.3 Key elements of successful cooperative learning

Johnson, Johnson & Holubec (1993), Johnson & Johnson (2005), CL canonly be more produce competitive and individualistic efforts under certainconditions There are five basic elements of successful cooperative as follows:

1.1.3.1 Positive interdependence

According to Johnson, Johnson & Smith (1998), group membersunderstand that they need each other to fulfill the assigned tasks so they willcontribute to the learning of group actively This element is the heart of CLbecause the nature of CL is die improvement and maintenance of positiveinterdependence among team members Students need to do activities in whichthey learn to depend on each other as they get help from one another Instructorsmay structure positive interdependence by establishing mutual goals tomaximize own and each other’s productivity, giving joint rewards, for example

if all members achieve above the criteria each will receive bonus points, sharingresources with members’ different expertise and 'assigning roles of summarizer,encourager or elaborator As a result, teamwork will help them learn valuableskills which will benefits them vocationally and socially

1.1.3.2 Face-to-face interaction

According to Me Groarty (1993), academic and language learningrequires that students have opportunities to understand what they hear and read

as well as express themselves in meaningful tasks Interaction is the secondelement of CL because cooperative learning makes natural demand forcommunication in which students have to listen to one another ask questionsclarify issues and restate points of view Students are engaged in high levelthinking skills such as analyzing, explaining, synthesizing and elaboratingthrough cooperative learning These interactive experiences are extremelyvaluable for students who are learning English as a second language becausethey naturally stimulate- and develop the students’ cognitive, linguistic andsocial abilities Thus, students should be taught and reinforced about the way tointeract effectively with others They gradually get to know and trust oneanother through teambuilding activities Accepting and supporting one anotherand resolving conflicts constructively are other useful skills students attain whendoing CL tasks Also, teachers need to model positive interpersonal skills, getstudents practice the skills as well as encourage them to process theeffectiveness of their performance Focusing on social skill development willincrease student’s achievement and enhance students’ employabilityinterpersonal relationships and general psychological health (Johnson andRoger, 2005).

1.1.3.4 Individual accountability

Jollise (2007) mentions that each group member is accountable forfulfilling his or her part of the work Each student needs to develop a sense ofpersonal responsibility to leant andhelp the rest of the group to learn also

According to Stahl (1994), the reasons why teachers put students in CLgroups is all students can achieve higher academic results individually thanwhen they study alone Consequently, each student must be held individuallyresponsible and accountable for doing his or her own share of the work and forlearning what has been aimed to learn

1.1.3.5 Social skill

Johnson and Holubec (1993)points out those groups cannot function well

if students do not have and use the needed social skills such as leadership,decision-making, trust- building, communication, and conflict-managementskills For the cooperative learning environment and precisely as academic skillsand the learner should utilize the skills they have learnt in completing assignedactivities

Stahl (1994)asserts that students are placed in groups and expected to useappropriate social and group skills does not mean students will useautomatically use these skills In order to work as a group, students need to learn

to cope with leadership, trust-building, encouragement, compromise andclarifying Teachers need to describe expected behaviors and attitudes as-well asassign students roles to make sure that consciously work on these behaviors intheir groups

1.1.4 Distinguishing cooperative learning from traditional groups

According to Johnson and Johnson (2005), group learning only putsstudents to sit and group without further assistance and careful structure to makegroup work become teamwork; whereas cooperative learning goes strictly withfive elements including positive independence, individual accountability, qualitygroup processing, explicit teaching of small group skills and teaching of socialskills

The table below is provided to help differentiate between traditional andcooperative learning groups (Srinivasa & Pujari, 2013)

Table 1.1 Distinguishing cooperative learning from traditional groups

- Group members help, assist, encourage, and support each other's efforts to learn.

interdependence.

- Focus is on individual performance only.

- Assignments are discussed with little commitment to each other’s learning.

Accountability

- A clear accountability of individual’s share of the group’s work through role assignment and regular rotation of assigned roles.

- Members hold self and others accountable for high quality work.

- No accountability of individual’s share of the group's work.

Leadership role

- Sharing of leadership roles - Few being appointed to be

in charge of the group or one person often ' takes charge' and does all the work.

to use collaborative skills.

- Assuming that students have already required skills

- Rare structuring of the procedures and time for the processing.

- No processing of how well the group is functioning or the quality of its work.

1.1.5 Limitations of cooperative learning

According to Kagan (1995), most of the limitations of CL might comefrom not implementing cooperative structure carefully Though CL has beenwidely appreciated and recommended for teaching, it is not a complete teachingmethod which can solve all educational matters If the teacher just arrangestudents into groups and did not structure die positive interdependence andindividual accountability, it may be easy to see that one learner takes chargesand does all the work or an aggressive student does not allow others toparticipate Second, CL is also regarded to be time-consuming, especially in thevery beginning of the process when CL is still something new to both theteacher and students

Moreover, teachers who want to carry out CL may encounter the hostilityand objection from students who think that they are held back by weaker andless confident students and even some think that they are ignored by their team.Also, some other research findings have shown negative effects of implementing

CL in teaching writing such as students feeling reluctant to work in groups(Storch, 2007) or not reducing learners' anxiety and apprehension when writing(Murray, 1994)

However, the above short-comings of CL can be minimized or evenavoided if the teacher experiences continuous teacher- development and paysattention to structuring the group carefully before implementation.

1.2 Overview of doing project assignments

According to Jones, Rasmussen, & Moffitt, (1997) Thomas,Mergendoller, & Michaelson, (1999) project is a model that organizes learningaround projects According to the definitions found in project handbooks forteachers, projects are complex tasks, based on challenging questions orproblems, that involve students in design, problem-solving, decision making, orinvestigative activities; give students the opportunity to work relativelyautonomously over extended periods of time; and culminate in realistic products

or presentations

According to Blumenfeld (2009), the essence of project is that a question

or problem serves to organize and drive activities; and these activities culminate

in a final product that addresses the driving question Project is an instructionalmethod centered on the learner Instead of using a rigid lesson plan that directs alearner down a specific path of learning outcomes or objectives, project allowsin-depth investigation of a topic worth learning more about Through theconstruction of a personally-meaningful artifact, which may be a play, amultimedia presentation or a poem, learners represent what they've learner Inaddition, learners typically have more autonomy over what they learn,maintaining interest and motivating learners to take more responsibility for their

learning Project and the construction of artifacts enable the expression ofdiversity in learners, such as interests, abilities and learning styles.

Project is a method for imparting thinking competencies and creatingflexible learning environment Project has a nature of exploring new areas,discovering new scientific issues and integrating knowledge from differentsubjects The concept of project has a certain similarity with the notion ofknowledge building These authors define ‘‘learning’’ as an activity that isdirected to improve mental structures, whereas ‘‘knowledge building’’ isdirected at improving knowledge objects such as explanations and models

Project can be described as involving both vertical learning (i.e.,cumulating of subject matter knowledge) and horizontal learning (i.e., genericskills such as project management)

1.2.2 Definition of Project- based learning (PBL)

Thomas Markham (2011) describes PBL as : "PBL integrates knowing

and doing Students learn knowledge and elements of the core curriculum, but also apply what they know to solve authentic problems and produce results that matter PBL students take advantage of digital tools to produce high quality, collaborative products PBL refocuses education on the student, not the curriculum a shift mandated by the global world, which rewards intangible assets such as drive, passion, creativity, empathy, and resiliency These cannot

be taught out of a textbook, but must be activated through experience”.

According to James G Greeno (2006), PBL is a comprehensiveperspective focused on teaching by engaging students in investigation Withinthis framework, students pursue solutions to nontrivial problems by asking andrefining questions, debating ideas, making predictions, designing plans and/orexperiments, collecting and analyzing data, drawing conclusions,communicating their ideas and findings to others, asking new questions, andcreating artifacts

In conclusion, project is a student-centered pedagogy that involves a dynamicclassroom approach in which it is believed that students acquire a deeperknowledge through active exploration of real-world challenges and problems.Students learn about a subject by working for an extended period of time toinvestigate and respond to a complex question, challenge, or problem It is astyle of active learning and inquiry-based learning Project contrasts with paper-based, rote memorization, or teacher-led instruction that presents establishedfacts or portrays a smooth path to knowledge by instead posing questions,problems or scenarios.

1.2.3 Teacher’s role in doing “project” assignments

The teacher's role is less that of an instructor who transmits informationand organizes activities for practice and more that of a guide and a facilitator, it

is a critical role, nevertheless Projects require that teachers get to know theirlearners' interests Teachers must listen for what has been called the teachablemoment that point in a discussion when learners become excited about a topic,and start asking questions Facilitating project requires the kind of leadershipskills that allow teachers to help a group of learners to move in the direction thatthey want to go, pointing out potential pitfalls or making suggestions withoutgetting defensive when students decide they like their own ideas better It makes

a difference if teachers possess a tolerance for ambiguity, some skill in helpinglearners negotiate conflicts, and enough self-confidence to not give up when aproject peters out or refuses to come together Not all projects are successful.Some teachers are too inexperienced to guide the process well They may expecttoo much ability on the part of the learners to take control of the project withouthaving laid the necessary groundwork or they may fail to let students take thelead when they can Learners do not necessarily take to project workwholeheartedly, either Some may feel teachers are abdicating their roles if they

do not provide answers, or they may not want to learn with and from theirclassmates There is still problem with low implementation with project into

classrooms Barron et al suggested inadequate material resources, little time tocreate new curricula, large class sizes, over-controlling administrative structuresthat prevented teachers from having the autonomy necessary to implementprogressive approaches However, the biggest problem does not lie on theschool equipment, but on the undergraduate preparation of future teacher Iffuture teachers do not receive sufficient amount of theoretical and practicalinformation, they will be not to practice project in their class.

1.2.3 Benefits of project

Project has been shown to yield a number of benefits for students, rangingfrom deeper learning of academic content to stronger motivation to learn.Looking specifically at how project supports 21st century learning goals, we canfind several promising areas, including:

 According to Finkelstein (2010), in specific content areas, Project hasbeen shown to be more effective than traditional methods for teachingmath, economics, language, science, and other disciplines

Project helps students master the key competencies identified as essential for college and career readiness Research has shown:

 According to Finkelstein (2010),students demonstrate better solving skills in PBL than in more traditional classes and are able to applywhat they learn to real-life situations

problem- Project students also show improved critical thinking

 According to Beckett & Mille ChanLin (2008), through Projectexperiences, students improve their ability to work collaboratively andresolve conflicts.

 According to Johnson & Johnson(2009),opportunities for collaborativelearning provide benefits to students across grade levels, academicsubjects, and achievement levels

- Teacher satisfaction:

 Teachers may need time and professional development to become familiarwith Project methods, but those who make this shift in classroom topractice report increased job satisfaction

1.2 45 Limitations of project

Researchers have shown that behind the advantages possessed by project

Of course, there also found many deficiencies in the implementation affectingthe success of project, especially when implementing project based learningapproach in a large class Although generally project can increase students'motivation, but many researchers revealed that if the project is applied in large

classes, teachers experience difficulty in improving students' motivation,difficulty in making the students to concentrate on learning tasks, difficulty inhelping students to connect new content with their prior knowledge, anddifficulty in performing CL activities efficiently (Gülbahar & Tinmaz, 2006;Lee & Tsai, 2004) Other disadvantages encountered in the implementation ofproject are as follows.

1) Project requires a lot of time that must be provided to solve complexproblems This will lead to a lack of time available for the material/content 2) Many parents of students who feel aggrieved, because it adds to the cost ofentering the new system

3) Many instructors/teachers feel comfortable with traditional classroom, wherethe instructor/ teacher plays a central role in the classroom This is a difficulttransition, especially for instructors/teachers who have little or no control of thetechnology (Scott, 1994)

4) Applying project in the classroom may be intimidating for some experiencedteachers and will be even worse for beginners (Grant, 2002)

5) The amount of equipment to be provided, so that the demand for electricityincreases

6) Almost all examples of successful project capitalize on the success ofcooperative or collaborative learning Students who have a weakness in theexperiment and the collection of information will have trouble

7) Students who are not experienced with working in groups may havedifficulty in negotiation and compromise If this method has not been usedbefore, it may be necessary to teach students how to interact in a group andmanage conflict within the group There is a possibility of students who areless active in group work

8) When the topic given to each group is different, it is feared that studentscannot understand the topic entirely

9) A self-assessment survey, the data may have been influenced by a slightinconsistency.

10) Lack of student interest in the subject, including methods of teaching

By referring to the deficiencies in the implementation of project, those can beminimized by the use of team teaching in the learning process, and it would bemore interesting if the classroom atmosphere is not monotonous, a few examples

of the lay-out changes in the classroom, such as: traditional class (theory),discussion group (drafting and distribution of group tasks), laboratory tables (forindependent assignment), circle (presentation) Or create a fun learningenvironment, even for discussion can be carried out in the park, meaning thatlearning does not have to be done in the classroom The role of the instructor orteacher in project should be as facilitators, coaches, advisors and intermediaries

to obtain optimal results in accordance with the power of imagination, creativityand innovation of students To overcome the weaknesses of project above, aneducator should be able to cope in a way to facilitate students in dealing with theproblem, limit the time for students to complete the project, minimize andprovide simple tools available in surrounding environment, choose a locationthat is easily accessible so that research does not require a lot of time and cost,create a pleasant learning atmosphere so that instructors and students feelcomfortable in the learning process

1.3 Description of English textbook 10(pilot book) and project assignments

1.3.1 English textbook 10 (pilot book)

The English 10 (pilot book) textbook was compiled by Van and Hoa(2014) following the communicative approach in which communicativecompetence is emphasized In combination with the communicative approach,the learner-centered approach is also adapted in order to promote students'activeness and creativeness The teacher is the organizer and facilitator in theclass

The English 10 textbook is divided into 2 sections which are used in turn

in two semesters The content of the book was designed under theme-basedapproach It is the succession and development of previous grades textbookswith 10 units and other 4 lessons for revision

10 units cover different topics which were contextualized and developednaturally to attract and to help students practice skills Each unit includes nine

items corresponding to, which are summarized in the following table.

Table 1.2: The contents and structure of units in Textbook English 10

Getting started

-The background of the topic-Some dialogues and activities for students get familiarwith the topic

Language

-Vocabulary which are the focus of the unit -Pronunciation helps students revise how to pronouncewords and practice those words individually or in shortsentences

-Grammar which contains the main grammatical pointsand exercises for students to practice using suchgrammatical points just introduced

Reading

- One or more passages from 180-220 words in lengthwhich helps students become familiar with the topic,provides information and materials for the whole lesson

as well as develops their reading comprehension skill

Speaking

- Various topics and kinds of activities such as working

in pairs, working in groups or individual presentationwhich enables students to improve their speaking skill

Listening

- Paragraphs or dialogues related to the topic of each unitwhich aims at helping students practice their listeningcomprehension skill

Writing

- Exercises which help students practice their writingskills following different kinds of texts, such as writing a

letter, describing or narrating an event

Communicatio

n and culture

- Real situations in which students can use the languagenaturally and understand more about the culture ofcountries where English is used as mother tongue

Looking back

and project

- Revision and consolidation of language learnt with threeparts: Vocabulary, Pronunciation and Grammar

Project - Opportunity for students to apply the language and skills

they have learnt through the unit to perform a task in areal-situation

The four lessons for revision consist of 2 parts: Language and Skills Allexercises in "REVIEW" help students test their ability and knowledge after 2-3units when students have finished from 16-24 periods Those exercises are alsofor teachers to prepare 45 minutes test for students

At the end of the book is the list of vocabulary which is sectionedfollowing each unit with the transcript and Vietnamese meaning

1.3.2 “Project” part in the new textbook

In the new pilot book, project is the end and the most challenging lesson

in each unit Normally, there are two activities in a project lesson, theseactivities get students to be practical with the topic of each unit Then, theyrequire students to discuss about a topic following the model based on the prioractivities and to present on the whole class

In this book, there are totally 10 units, so 10 project lessons are designedwith a view to making students practice with real-life situations They requiredcompetences and objectives of the project section in each unit are shown in thefollowing table

Table 1.3: Checklist of project in current “English 10” Textbook

1 Family Life -Doing on survey on family life of the students

in the class

2 Your Body and You - Doing on survey on the importance of

categories in staying healthy

3 Music -Doing research on a (Vietnamese folk) song

and a Dangdul song

4 For a Better

Community

-Making a plan to help a person/ a place in need

in the student’ community

5 Inventions -Describing an imaginary invention

6 Gender Equality -Do a survey about gender equality in the class/

school

7 Cultural Diversity -Prepare a presentation about some aspects of

Vietnamese culture

8 New Ways to Learn -Do a survey to find out how students use

electronic devices to learn English

9 Preserving the

Environment

-Prepare a presentation about environmentalproblems of the local area and an action plan todeal with them

10 Ecotourism -Do a survey to find out students’ experience in

ecotourism

In short, this chapter has presented the methods of the present studyconcerning the participants of the study, the methods and procedures of datacollection and data analysis Briefly, the study was conducted among 42students and two teachers of English at Cam Khe high school The nextchapter deals with the analysis of the results received from the teachers’interview, students’ questionnaires and the observer classroom

This chapter reviews theory of CL, project, PBL, definitions of CL,project and PBL their significances, types and characteristics are clearlypresented Theoretical background of CL in this chapter is adapted from manyresearchers The theory is quite appropriate to my study so I chose their theory,

which will be of benefits for the researcher to analyze data and suggest feasiblerecommendations for the research issue.

CHAPTER 2 II: METHODOLOGY

This chapter is concerned with the selection of subjects and theinstruments of collecting data, analyzing data It describes in some details of thedesign of the instruments and the descriptive quantitative and qualitativeprocedures that were undertaken for analysis of the data

2.1 Settings of the study

Cam Khe High school is situated at Cam Khe district, Phu Tho province.After 60 years of development and tirelessly striving, Cam Khe High school hasgained appreciable results which take important part in the cause of educationand training of Cam Khe district in particular and of Phu Tho province ingeneral English has been taught as a compulsory subject at Cam Khe highschool Teachers said that English is a difficult subject for all students So,students more and more meet difficulties

2.2 Participants of the study

 Grade 10 students

The target sample of the research consisted of 42 students from grade10A4 at Cam Khe high school There are 25 boys and 17 girls They had similarbackgrounds, that is, most of them come from Cam Khe district, almost finishedsecondary school with 4 years of learning English in Cam Khe high school

The students under investigation have just finished the first term of schoolyear Although they have had learned English for many years, their Englishproficiency has been at medium level They are keen on English but sometimesthey have not reached the result that they expect Most of them can do grammarexercises very well but have difficulties in mastering four skills, especiallydoing in project which students find most challenging and boring

Table 2.1: The English entrance examination scores of grade 10A4

Score of students Number of students Percentage (%)

to upgrade their teaching and have a lot of teaching facilities and materials tohelp their work They are helpful, friendly and dedicated teachers They all have

a great desire to acquire knowledge of how to teach English well as well as how

to widen their English background Also, they are always willing to help theirstudents tackle with difficulties in learning

2.3 Instruments of the study

In order to accomplish this thesis systematically and adequately, the studyuses the following instruments:

in free way as their personal information is not included in the questionnaires.Clear instructions were given when the questionnaire was administered

In order to get information to fulfill the aims of the study, 2 surveyquestionnaires were designed for 42 students of class 10A4 and 2 teachers in

10th grade group The questionnaire number 1 (Appendix 1) was delivered tofind out the current situation in project part in English pilot book 10 and thequestionnaire number 2 (Appendix 2) was delivered to explore the student’sresponses after applying CL in project Besides, the research also used theinterview questions for teachers before and after experiments Thequestionnaires were constructed within Vietnamese contexts, aiming to provide

a general picture of background to each situation, and to capture theparticipants’ ideas and attitudes to the issue The questionnaires were written in

a logical order so that they could gradually lead the respondents into the theme

expected to be discovered in the survey questionnaire The summary ispresented in the below table.

Table 2.3: Summary of the teachers’ interview questions

Interview

questions

Purposes

Questio n Number

-Secondly, I talked to teachers about my study on the effectiveness of CLand suggested applyingCL in doing project assignments

-Thirdly, I designed lesson plan under the supervisor teacher and worked

as a teaching assistant in helping students prepare their tasks at home.

-Finally, after the experiment, I delivered another questionnaire forstudents and interview for teacher to check the effectiveness of CL in doingproject

Specifically, the procedure is summarized in thefollowing table:

Table 2.4: The experiment procedure at Cam Khe High school

to find out current situation in learning

- Designing a lesson plan using CL indoing project

- Working with the students to help themprepare their assignment

-The researcher, -Two teachers, -42 students

- Teacher:

Le Thi KimThoa

- Observers:the

researcher,Englishteacher:

Dang ThiVan Anh

teacher: Le Thi Kim Thoa.

- On Thursday, teacher starts with thelesson at 10A4 class (Unit 9: Preservingthe environment.)

- Take note the lesson procedure andactivities to see how CL helps with theproject lesson

Thoa

- Observers:the

researcher,Englishteacher:

Dang TthiVan Anh.And sometrainee

- After that, the researcher collects the data

to analyze and draw up the result ofquestionnaire and interviews

-Theresearcher,-TwoEnglishteachers

- 42 students

In short, this chapter has talked about the methodology of the study Theresult and discussions will be analyzed in the next chapter

CHAPTER 3: DATA REPRESENTATION

This chapter explains how data from the questionnaires, and interviewwere analyzed The data analysis is described in details The different stagesinvolved in this process are illustrated in this section, proving the rationalebehind each procedure As this study follows a mixed method approach, themain focus of the analysis is on integrating the qualitative and quantitative data