Techniques for organizing communicative activities in pair work and group work for students of grade 10 at ham rong high school

THANH HOA EDUCATION AND TRAINING DEPARTMENT HAM RONG HIGH SCHOOL - TEACHING INITIATIVE TECHNIQUES FOR ORGANIZING COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES IN PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK FOR STUDENTS OF GRADE 10 AT HAM RONG HIGH SCHOOL (Những thủ thuật tổ chức hoạt động giao cặp, nhóm cho học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Hàm Rồng ) Conductor: Luu Thi Thanh Tu Teacher of English Field: English Language Teaching Methodology THANH HOA, 2019 BOOK MAP PAGE 1 1 2 4 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Scope and objectives of the study 1.4 Methods of the study 1.5 Significance of the study CONTENTS OF THE TEACHING INITIATIVE 2.1 Theoretical Background 2.2 The reality of the the study 2.2.1 Background of the study 2.2.2 Methodology 2.2.3 Data analysis 2.3 Teachers’ implementation of pair work, group work in current classes as teaching experience 9 2.4 The effectiveness of the teaching experience 2.4.1 How pair work and group work are used in English speaking classes of 12 the 10 grade students at Ham Rong High School? 2.4.2 What are useful techniques of pair work and group work to the 10 grade 17 17 17 18 18 19 students in learning speaking English? 2.4.3 The use of suggested activities at Ham Rong High School CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 3.1 Conclusions 3.2 Limitations of the study 3.3 Suggestions for further research REFERENCES: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale In Vietnam, English is taught not only at all colleges and universities, but also almost every high school and it is considered as a compulsory subject at secondary school To meet the demand of learners, the teaching English in Vietnam has been changing By applying various new approaches, methods, and techniques, English teaching has shift from the traditional grammar translation approach to the communicative approach According to Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), the purpose of language teaching and learning is to develop communicative competence in the target language In learner-centered approach, the choice of teaching methods are often more complicated than the construction of many teaching objectives Some authors suggest that this type of work can carry out in two periods In the first period, teachers need to find the student's experience and learning methods they prefer, and with their existing experience, teachers can select appropriate teaching methods In the second stage, teachers need to engage the active participation of students in planning their academic programs This work can be done by encouraging students to think, to engage in learning activities organized by teachers in a positive, proactive and creative way Therefore, the organization of learning activities for students have a special role and it’s very important for teachers to pay attention in setting teaching program Two common forms of class organization are working in pairs (Pair work) and working in group (Group work) In the context of Ham Rong High School, English is taught as a compulsory subject for the students of Grade 10,11,12 These students have to take the entrance exam to get GSEC Although these students only have to a written test, all the teachers here have been trying their best to help their students in learning communicative skills well Both of them are aware of the importance and benefits of using pair work, group work to help improve the communicative skills However, they have faced many challenges in organizing these techniques during lessons, such as large classes; noises; lazy and passive students, etc For all the above mentioned reasons, I have decided to carry out a research work in: “Techniques for organizing communicative activities in pair work and group work for the students of grade 10 at Ham Rong High School” This study is intended to make a small contribution on how to use the pair work, group work effectively and successfully in English teaching and learning practice in Thanh Hoa in general and at Ham Rong High School in particular 1.2 Aims of the study: This study is aimed at: - finding out the use of pair work and group work in English speaking classes of the grade 10 students at Ham Rong High School - suggesting the useful techniques of pair work and group work to the grade 10 students at Ham Rong High School in learning speaking English 1.3 Scope and objectives of the study: To improve communicative skills for students at Ham Rong Hogh School, the teachers can make use of various techniques and a number of things should be done However, within the framework of a teaching experience, the author only intends to draw a brief overview of how are the pair work and group work used at Ham Rong High School Also, due to the time constraints, this study only involves a small number of English teachers and students at Ham Rong School 1.4 Methods of the study: In order to find out the answers to the research questions, both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to carry out the study The data were collected by means of questionnaires and interviews for English teachers and the the 10 grade students at Ham Rong High School Besides that, reviewing the related documents from many published books written by different authors and collecting information from others previous studies are methods to establish the theoretical background of the study 1.5 Significance of the study: This study is hoped to be used to both teachers and the 10 grade students at Ham Rong High School This study has been able to contribute to teachers’ knowledge of communicative language teaching, communicative activities in general and pair work, group work in particular Besides that, from the finding of the study, teachers can be provided with important information which may be valuable for their future lesson planning On the other hand, the teachers’ transformation in pair work and group work implementation will be beneficial to the students CONTENTS OF THE TEACHING INITIATIVE 2.1 Theoretical Background * Interactions in speaking classes - Definition of Classroom Interaction Classroom interaction involves two main aspects, which are the negotiation of meaning and feedback, if these two elements are not available in the classroom, then we cannot speak of a successful learning through interaction Ellis and Foto (1999:09) say, “Interaction contributes to acquisition through the provision of negative evidence and through opportunities for modified output.” Interaction then is rich of meaning negotiation where the learners can receive feedback from their interlocutors - Speaking skills in language teaching and learning: Among the four skills in learning English, speaking and writing are the productive skills However, speaking is regarded as very important for language teaching and learning Speaking is a bridge to reach other skills Speaking helps learners to read better, to listen more effectively and write more accurately Speaking is surely the most effective means of communication (Ur, 1996) Speaking is a basic skill that language learners should master with the other language skills It is defined as a complex process of sending and receiving messages through the use of verbal expressions, but it also involves non verbal symbols such as gestures and facial expressions Hedge (2000: 261) defines speaking as “a skill by which they [people] are judged while first impressions are being formed.” That is to say speaking is an important skill which deserves more attention in both first and second language because it reflects people’s thoughts and personalities * Pair work and group work in speaking classes - Definition of pair work According to Adrian Doff (1988 :137), the whole class is divided in to pairs by the teacher Every students works with his or her partner in pairs and all the pairs work at the same time (It is sometimes called simultaneous pair work) This is not the same as ‘public’ or ‘open’, pair work, with pairs of students speaking in turn in front of the class In fact, a pair work consists of two students working together at the same time There are two main types of pair work: fixed pairs and flexible pairs, given by Byrne (1983) In the former, students work with the same partner to practice the target language In the later, students keep changing their partners they like This may make the activity more interesting but the class noisier It can be seen that pair work can get students to practice the target language more and increase students’ talking time in the class - Definition of group work Doff (1988: 137) also defines group work as a process that “the teacher divides the class into small groups to work together usually four or five students in each group, as in pair work, all the groups work at the same time” Like pair work, group work also gives students more opportunities to practice the target language in the whole class In addition, students can work independently and freely under the teacher’s control without the pressure of the whole class watching what they are doing - Advantages of pair work and group work Pair work and group work gives the students far more chances to speak English in the classroom According to Michael Long and his colleagues (1985) who investigated differences in the quantity and quality of student language in group work versus teacher centered activities the language produced by students working in groups is more varied and greater in quantity Learners take the initiative to express themselves, they are more spontaneous Asking questions and responding they use more language functions (Lightbown and Spada, 1993:85) Working in pairs and groups is less stressful and more effective for students, especially introverts who needn't perform in the front of the whole class They feel more confident working with the friend they like and are more likely to accept his/her correction or criticism There are always more and less gifted pupils in the process of language learning and these methods prevent them from not being laughed at by the whole class if they say something wrong "It is generally easier to show that you not know, or not understand something, in a smaller group than in a large one” (Norman, Levihn and Hedenquist, 1986:8) - Some common activities for pair work and group work There are a variety of activities which can be applied in communicative English classes through the use of pair work and group work Some common activities are: - Game: A game could be any activities that formalize a technique into units that can be score in some way Guessing games are common language classroom activities - Role-play: Role-play minimally involves giving a role to one or more members of a group and assigning an objective or purpose that participants must accomplish - Drama: Drama is a more formalized form of role-play and simulation, with a preplanned story line and script Sometimes small groups may prepare their own short dramatization of some event, writing the script and rehearsing the scene as a group But they are time consuming and rarely can form part of a typical school curriculum - Projects: Mainly for young learners who can greatly benefit from hands-on approaches to language, certain projects can be rewarding indeed - Interview: A popular activity for pair work, but also suitable for group work, interviews are useful at all level of proficiency - Information gap: This technique is one of the easiest and most interesting forms of communicative activity in the speaking lesson Information-gap activities include a tremendous variety of techniques in which the objectives is to convey or to request information - Problem solving and decision making: Problem-solving techniques focus on the group’s solution of a specified problem - Decision-making techniques are simply one kind of problem-solving where the ultimate goal is for students to make a decision - Opinion exchange: Opinion exchange is a difficult technique for students to deal with at the beginning levels of proficiency, but by the intermediate level, certain techniques can effectively include the exchange of various opinions 2.2 The reality of the the study 2.2.1 Background of the study Our school has got 10 teachers of English aged from between 35 to 55 Almost of them have at least ten years of teaching experience Our current material of teaching English is the text-book Tieng Anh 10, 11, 12 by Education Publishing House This text-book is divided into sixteen units, each of them has been divided into five parts in which “listening and speaking” part aims at providing students the different topics and structures through listening and reading and requires them to practice speaking skills In each semester, students have to learn English in periods per week It can be seen that communication is the goal of English language learning Its purpose is to help students develop their communicative competence This makes teaching and learning to improve students’ speaking skills to be an important part in any English course Like in many other schools, English teachers at Ham Rong High School find out the benefits of using pair and group work and spend much time to apply these techniques to develop students’ speaking skills However, we have some problems such as: large classes; noises; lazy and passive students The major concerns of this research are find out the useful techniques for organizing pair work and group work to help teachers and students in teaching and learning speaking English 2.2.2 Methodology Participants The subjects of the study are teachers of English who teach English for the grade 10 students of Ham Rong High School They range from 35 to 45 years of age The grade 10 students were randomly chosen from over 500 students of 12 classes Research instruments The instruments used to collect data was questionnaire and interview for the teachers and the students to get information about using pair work, group work in speaking classes The first are the questionnaires for the students including 10 questions written in Vietnamese, was administered to 110 students 2.2.3 Data analysis The data of the study was analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively As for quantitative analysis, we used descriptive statistics to quantify the data in form of charts and figures The qualitative data were obtained from the interview Table 1: Students’ opinions on speaking skill Questions Options a It’s a compulsory subject in the curriculum b Learning speaking English is to communicate c Speaking English is necessary for your future job d Learning speaking English is your interest a very interested b interested Numbers Percent of students % 16 14,5 56 68,2 90 81,8 20 19 81 18,2 17,3 73,6 c not very interested d no interested 10 9,1 The statistics in table shows the students’ opinions on speaking skill It can clearly be seen that most of the students asked (81,8 %) say that speaking is necessary for their future job and 73,6 % of them are interested in speaking skill while little of them (14,5 %) says they learn Speaking skill because English is compulsory at their school Some students find English really interesting while there are 56 out of 110 students (62,8 %) who want to learn speaking skill just to communicate About 18,2% of them stated that English is their interest It means that speaking English is so important for most of the students Table 2: Students’ opinions on the way to learn speaking skill Questions Options/ Numbers of students 23 92 16 Percent % Individual work 20,9 Pair work and group work 83,6 3 whole class 14,5 answering the teachers’ 33 30 questions 5.listening and taking notes 45 40,9 As can be seen from the table 2, (83,6%) of the students asked said that they like working in pairs and groups, whereas they had very little favor for working individually (20,9%) , only 14,5% of them liked working in whole class 30% of students enjoyed answering the teacher’ questions and 40,9% liked listening and taking note From this, it can be understood that most of the students see the importance of working in pair and group for the better speaking skill This also means that pair work and group work are surely the most suitable activities for the speaking skill The pie chart below shows the students’ opinions on the use of pair work, group work in speaking class Not very surprising information from table is that the students (85 %) affirm that the teachers in their school often use the pair work and group work in the speaking lesson very often because it is compulsory that the teachers implement this to follow the book activities planned in the teacher’s book and may be for the students’ future language competence This is of great use in helping the students to communicate with each other Table 3: Students’ opinions on the impact of pair and group work Questions Options a It increases the students’ speaking time b It promotes students’ independence and cooperation Numbers of students Percent % 82 74,5 80 72,7 d Shy and passive students have more 76 69 chance of expressing themselves c It improves students’ motivation 85 77,3 e Students can learn from each other 80 72,7 It was obvious that almost all the students ( more than 70%) found that pair work and group work were so beneficial for their speaking skill that they can speak more in English, they can be much more confident and they also have chance to express themselves, their independence, cooperation and motivation in speaking were improved Regarding the benefit of learning from each other of group work, 72,7% (80 out of 110) the students stated that they learnt each other so much The chart follow shows the students’ recommendation for the success of pair and group work Chart 2: Activities students wished teachers to select for pair and group work As can be seen in Chart 3, all of the students (100%) chose role-playing, games, information gap, discussing, interviewing and opinion exchange to be their favorite activities Problem solving was the choice of 75% of the students And Drama and projects received only 10% and 20% of the students respectively Table 4: Students’ wishes about the partners in pair and group work Questions Numbers Percent Options/ of students % a Students of the same English proficiency 35 31,8 level b Students of higher English proficiency 40 36,4 level c Students of lower English proficiency 10 9,1 level d Students sitting next or near to each other 13 11,8 e Students of the same interest 12 10,9 About the students they preferred working with in pairs and in groups, most of the students wanted to work with the students who were at the same level or higher level of proficiency Working with the people they really liked was also preferred by 10,9% Also, some of them (11,8%) liked working with the ones at the same table However, few of them (9,1%) liked working with the students who were worse at English Table 5: Students’ recommendation for the things the teacher should Questions Options/ a Give clear instruction with examples b provide necessary vocabulary and functional language c Go round monitoring students’ performance and help if necessary Numbers of students Percent % 110 100 45 40,9 34 30,9 d Minimize teacher’s talking time 110 100 e not to interrupt when students’ 67 60,9 talking time f Always provide feedback, praise 110 100 One and encourage the students very g Others 5,4 important thing which helps to improve group work activities is to get the students ideas about what the teachers should about that It is quite clear that all of them (100 %) wanted their teachers to minimize his/her talking time, to create a competitive atmosphere, to give feedback, praise and encouragement and give clear instruction But 60,9% wanted their teachers not to interrupt when they made mistakes 40,9 % would like their teacher to give enough necessary vocabulary and functional language for their activities The bar chart bellow shows the students’ appreciation the improvement of their learning speaking English after the 1st semester of using pair work and group work Chart 3: Students’ response to pair work and group work activities (Question 9) The data from Chart showed that more than half of the students (65.5 %) were interested in pair work and group work activities 18.2% of them even were very interested in working in pairs and in groups This showed that pair work and group work could attract students and increased their interest in the lesson as well On the other hand, 10.9% of students were not very interested and only out of 110 students found pair work and group work activities boring From that, we can see the reasons why students don’t like working in pair and group are mainly on the ways of organizing pair and group work Therefore, it’s very necessary that teachers have to try their best to design those activities effectively After the first semester of learning speaking English through pair work and group work, the following results were conducted from questionnaires and interview 87 out of 110 students (79.1%) strongly agreed that working in pair and group could help their interest and participation in learning increased The reasons are because of many benefits of pair work and group work, such as they felt more confident to speak, they helped each other to solve teacher’s problems, or they have more chance to speak… 9.1% of students said that those activities were not useful for learning speaking as we can in the result of Question On the other hand, some of students (11.8%) showed the other opinions that pair work and group work were either helpful or unhelpful However, in the summary, it’s true that the pair work and group work are the beneficial techniques in learning speaking English at Ham Rong High School For the benefit of pair and group work activities, 100% of them claimed that pair and group work were very beneficial and helped students to increase the students’ speaking time, to promote students’ independence and cooperation, to improves students’ motivation, to decrease the teacher speaking time and helps shy and passive students have more chance of expressing themselves and learn from each other They also gave some more benefits such as: to creates exciting atmosphere as it lends itself to game-like activities which frees the teacher from his/her hard role of “an expert who always lectures”, This proved that these two techniques could increase students’ participation and interest in the class 2.3 Teachers’ implementation of pair work, group work in current classes as teaching experience Regarding the activities the teachers chose for pair and group work, Role playing, Games, Interview, Information gap, Discussing, Opinion exchange are the most frequently in which discussing helps to elicit the students’ ideas, background knowledge, role play helps to make the students understand the nature of English and games help them to the group work activities without any pressure and stress The students may think that they are playing not just learning 75 % of the teachers used Projects, problem- solving and only 25% of teachers used drama because they thought that those activities was only suitable for the high level of English proficiency and took much time to prepare Question deals with the way the teacher created the students in pair and group The teachers shared with the students the same opinions which didn’t like to group students of low proficiency However, they didn’t share the opinions of grouping students sitting next to or near each other, 100 % of the teachers responded that they always grouped their students sitting next to or near each other into pairs and groups as they explained that it can save time, while only few of students likes that Most of students liked working with the partners of the same English proficiency level and higher English proficiency level, but only half of teachers often grouped their students on that way Table 7: Things the teachers often during pair and group work Number of Questions Options Percent % teachers a Give clear instruction with examples 100 b provide necessary vocabulary and functional language 100 c Go round the class and help if necessary 100 50 75 d Minimize teacher’s talking time e not to interrupt when students’ talking time f Always provide feedback, praise and encourage the students g Do nothing 100 0 h Others 50 In this table, question looks into other things the teachers used during group work activities The things like giving clear instructions, going round the class and giving help if necessary, providing vocabulary and functional language and providing feedback, praise and encourage the students received 100% ideas from the teachers From the interview, they said that those activities were helpful to students when working in pairs and groups Of course, none of teacher nothing at the time students working Half of them chose minimize teacher’s talking time and not to interrupt when students’ talking time Some others ideas are standing in front of the class and observe or remaining in the teacher’s seat and observe or sometimes can work in pair or group as a member Teacher’s appreciation on how useful pair work and group work are to improve student’s learning speaking English after the 1st semester From the result of question and the direct interview, when asked about their students’ attitude to pair work and group work activities, 100% the teachers said that their students were interested in these activities, even 75% of them said that students were very interested This showed that pair work and group work were the favorite activities of students in speaking lesson Most students found pair work and group work activities interesting, which made them participate more in the class It can be seen that, teachers and students at Ham Rong High School shared the same opinion that pair work and group work could help students’ learning speaking English improved in term of interest and participation in learning process It meant that these techniques are helpful to both teachers and students 2.4 The effectiveness of the teaching experience 2.4.1 How pair work and group work are used in English speaking classes of the 10 grade students at Ham Rong High School? As can be seen from the survey, it was unmistakable that the two techniques: pair work and group work were often used in speaking classes at Ham Rong High School Both of teachers and students agreed the appropriation of using pair and group work in speaking lesson This proved the importance of pair work and group work techniques to teaching and learning process However, some students did not like working in pairs and in groups because of their low level of proficiency Instead of discussing the problems given, they talked about others in their mother tongue And most of the teachers in the survey said that they designed their own ways to make the group work activities suitable to the students, these activities were also used but rarely The following lesson plan shows how pairwork and group work are used in a speaking lesson Unit 1: A day in the life of… Period 3: PART B: SPEAKING Time: 45 minutes I AIMS: Training Ss to improve speaking skill II OBJECTIVES: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to work in pairs to ask and answer about one's daily activities using a timetable or pictures and they can talk about their daily routines III TEACHING AIDS: textbooks and handouts… IV PROCEDURE: Stages & Content A.WARM – UP: A B Civic education a hóa học Technology b Vật lí Maths c Tin học Literature d văn học Physics e Địa lí Biology f Giáo dục CD Chemistry g giáo dục thể chất Physical education h Lịch sử Geography i Công nghệ 10 History j Toán 11 Informatics k Sinh học Answers: 1-f ; 2-i ; - j; - d; - b; - k; - a; - g; - e; 10 - h; 11 - c B PRE – SPEAKING: Review structures of the present simple and the way of telling time Ex: 7.30: seven thirty or half past seven T’s activities Ss’ activities - Ask sts to close their books - Deliver the handout - Ask them to match one item in column A with one item in column B - Ask them to work in groups in minutes, then check this exercise in chorus - Ask sts to read aloud the names of these subjects in chorus - Group work - Introduce briefly what sts are going to in this lesson - Ask sts about the verb tense to use in talking about daily routines - Remind sts of some rules of the present simple tense - Recall the way of telling time - Write some more examples and ask sts to read aloud C WHILE – SPEAKING: - Ask sts to open their books + Task 1: Quan is a tenth-grade student He - Introduce the requirement of goes to school every morning Now, look at the task his weekly timetable ask and answer - Ask sts to look at the questions by using the information from the timetable in the textbook and timetable read through it T: What time does Quan have a Civic - Do the first example with a Education lesson on Monday? student S: He has a Civic Education lesson at - Ask the whole class to read 7.15a.m these sentences again T: What lesson does Quan have at 7.15 a.m - Ask two pairs to read again on Monday? - Ask sts to work in pairs in 10 S: At 7.15 on Monday he has a Civic minutes to ask and answer Education lesson about Quan basing on the timetable - Move round to help sts and to correct any mistakes if there are - Ask some pairs to report - Listen and give remarks + Task 2: - " Quan is at school in the morning, and - Introduce task - Listen and answer - Open the textbook - Listen to the teacher - Look at the timetable and try to understand it - Work in pairs - Look at pitures in task and think of 10 what does he in the afternoon? Please look at pictures in task 2" T: ( look at picture 1) What does Quan at 2.00 p.m? Answer: Quan gets up at 14:00 p.m At 14:15p.m he studies or reads books At 16:30p.m he watches TV Then at 17:00p.m , he cycles to the stadium and plays football with his friends at 17:15 p.m At 18:30p.m he returns home At 18:45, he takes a shower, and he has dinner with his family at 19:00 p.m At 20:00p.m he does his exercises D POST – SPEAKING: + Task 3: Tell your classmates about your daily routine Expected ideas - In the morning - In the afternoon - In the evening - Ask sts to work in pairs to ask and answer about Quan's activities - Do the first example - Ask sts to work in the same way, remind sts to use the present simple tense with the third person - Move round to control the activity and to help sts if necessary - After sts have discussed, ask a student to talk about all Quan's activities in the afternoon - Ask sts to think about themselves, and then work in small groups to tell their friends about their daily routines - Remind sts that they are using the present simple with the first person - Move round to check the activities and to make sure that sts are working effectively - Ask one or two sts to report in front of the whole class - Check and give remarks E HOMEWORK: - Write a paragraph ( about 80 words) about - Give homework your daily routines in workbook the phrases to talk about Quan's activities - Work in pairs - Work in groups - Think about theit daily activities and talk to their friends - Try to use English to talk - Listen & take notes In order to manage students working in pair or groups, the teachers often went round, and observed the class They went to each pair, group and helped them to correct the mistakes, even translated the words into English for them and helped them participate actively in their work To make pair and group work activities work effectively, the teachers also selected the task carefully, gave clear instructions, grouped the students appropriately, set the focus and objectives of the activity, and praised and encouraged the students during that time They also often set the time limit, provided feedback when having enough time but never let the students choose their own topic From the result of interviewing teachers and students, most of them agreed that learning speaking English were improved after the st semester of using pair work and group work Firstly, pair work and group work activities gave students more opportunities to 11 practice speaking English In other words, students would get more involved in the lesson In addition, students could help each other and learn from each other in pairs or in groups A large number of students revealed that they preferred working in pairs and groups as they were able to learn a lot from their partners especially the ones who were at higher level of proficiency Therefore, pair work and group work activities could get almost all students in the class to contribute to the lesson Their participation in speaking lesson would be increased The research results also showed that most of students were interested in working in pairs and in groups This indicated that students’ interest was increased when they took part in pair work and group work activities They often felt active and free as they were put in pairs and groups to work together They became self-centered in their learning while their teacher worked as a consultant or a supervisor Working in pairs and groups, the students could express their opinions without being afraid of losing their face Thus, they felt comfortable in the class Therefore, their desire to learn the target language would be raised However, teachers should try to organize pair work and group work activities more effective Teachers should provide the students with necessary vocabulary and clear instruction Also, the group size should include from to students who were at different level of proficiency Sometimes, teachers could give students a chance to choose their partners, which might increase their participation and interest in the task given 2.4.2 What are useful techniques of pair work and group work to the 10 grade students in learning speaking English? The first common activity is using games Games have been shown to have advantages and effectiveness in learning English in various ways First, games bring in relaxation and fun for students, thus help them learn and retain new words and new structures more easily Second, games usually involve friendly competition and they keep learners interested These create the motivation for learners of English to get involved and participate actively in the learning activities Third, games bring real world context into the classroom, and enhance students' use of English in a flexible, communicative way However, it’s important that games can help teachers to attract students communicating in a pleasant, entertaining way, thus leading toward the goal of improving learners' communicative competence Therefore, using games is one of the most suitable activities in speaking lessons, especially to the students of low level of English proficiency at Ham Rong High School Secondly, role-play is an effective to use in teaching speaking English Role play is very important in teaching speaking because it gives students an opportunity to practice communicating in different social contexts and in different social roles In addition, it also allows students to be creative and to put themselves in another person’s place for a while Role play can improve learners’ speaking skills in any situation, and helps learners to interact That was the reason why both of teachers and students at Ham Rong High School 12 chose role-play as a suitable activity in teaching – learning speaking Especially for the shy learners, role play helps by providing a mask, where learners with difficulty in conversation are liberated The following lesson plan demonstrates how the teachers at Ham Rong High School apply role-play technique in teaching speaking: Unit 3: People’s background PART B: SPEAKING Time: 45 minites I AIMS: Training Ss to improve speaking skill II OBJECTIVES: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to talk about their background and know how to ask about other people’s background III TEACHING AIDS: textbooks… IV PROCEDURE: Stages & Content T’s activities Ss’ activities A.WARM – UP: Brainstorming - Ask sts to close their books - Individually What information will tell you about - Ask them to brainstorm all work somebody’s background? sorts of information which tell * Answer: family, education, about somebody’s experience… background B PRE – SPEAKING: Work in pairs and find out the questions that you can ask when you want to know about somebody’s background Answers Family: How many people are there in your family? What does your father do? Education: Where did you study at high school? What subjects you like best? What degree you have? Experience: How long have you worked as a doctor/ teacher ? What experience you have? - Ask Ss to discuss the questions that can be used to get information for each item, then calls on some Ss to give questions for each item - Give answers - Work in pairs 13 WHILE – SPEAKING: Imagine you are a journalist Use the cues below to interview a classmate about his/ her background or that of a person he/ she knows well Change the role when you have finished * Note: Before carrying out the interview, Ss should study the items of information carefully and find the questions for each item Greeting: Good morning! Date of birth: When were you born? Place of birth: Where were you born? Home: Where you live? Parents: Can you tell me about your parents? Brother(s): How many brothers/ sisters you have? Primary school: Which primary school did you go? Schoolwork: Were you a member of any clubs? Favourite subject: What subject you like best? Thanking: Thank you very much D POST – SPEAKING: + Task 3: Tell your classmates about your daily routine E HOMEWORK: - Write a paragraph ( about 80 words) about your daily routines in workbook - Prepare the new lesson: LISTENING - FOR BETTER SS: SEE APPENDIX - Introduce the task - Give questions for the information items - Ask Ss to draw a form by themselves - Ask Ss to carry out the interview in pairs - Go around the class and offer help if necessary and to make sure that all Ss are working - Open the textbook - Listen to the teacher - Look at the timetable and try to understand it - Work in pairs - Look at pitures in task and think of the phrases to talk about Quan's activities - Work in pairs - Ask Ss to work in groups and talk about the person they have known through interview - Call on some Ss to give small talk in front of the class - Comment on Ss’ performance and make necessary corrections - Work in groups - Think about theit daily activities and talk to their friends - Try to use English to talk - Give homework - Listen & take notes The third activity both of teachers and students of Ham Rong High School choose are Interview Students can conduct interviews on selected topics with various people It is a good idea that the teacher provides a rubric to students so that they know what type of questions they can ask or what path to follow, but students should prepare their own interview questions Conducting interviews with people gives students a chance to practice their speaking ability not only in class but also outside and helps them becoming socialized After interviews, each student can present his or her study to the class Moreover, students can interview each other and "introduce" his or her partner to the class 14 For example: Unit 4: SPECIAL EDUCATION PART B: SPEAKING Time: 45 minites I AIMS: Training Ss to improve speaking skill II OBJECTIVES: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to make an interview and report on results III STRUCTURE AND GRAMMAR: IV TEACHING AIDS: textbooks and handouts… V PROCEDURE: Stages & Content T’s activities Ss’ activities A.WARM – UP: subjects tests and exams - Ask ss to guess the topic - Group work timetable homework through some cues and guess  SCHOOL * Set the scene: You are going to talk about your studies at your secondary school B PRE – SPEAKING: * Pre-teach vocabulary: - Elicit some VOC - Listen and - lower secondary : trường cấp - Model and check answer - class (n) : học meanings, stress and - oral test (n) : kiểm tra miệng pronunciation - Copy down - semester [si'mestə](n) : học kì - honest ['onist] (a) : thật thà, thành thật -Ask ss to choose the best - break (n) : chơi questions in Task to fill - Listen * Task 1: (page 47) in the blanks in the Fill the blanks with the right questions: conversation below - Ask ss to work in pairs, Key: A - B-1 C-2 D-6 practicing the dialogue E–3 F-5 G–7 - Ask some pairs to practice before class - Work in pairs - Ask some good ss to practice the dialogue without looking at the - Practice books C WHILE – SPEAKING: -Ask ss to close their - Close their * Task 2: (page 48) books books Practice questions and answers about - Ask ss to work in pairs - Work in pairs; school activities and what you like or dislike, and interview the partner try to memory using the simple past tense Change the role about his/ her schoolings to make when you have finished - Give example questions and Interviewer’s name: - Go around and help answers by the Date of interviewing: _ them table on the - Ask some pairs to board practice before class Nga Lower secondary school Subjects Batri Maths, Physics, History… - Listen - Feedback 15 Timetable Test and examinations Homework Breaks between classes Like/ dislike In the morning, five classes Oral test, fifteen – minute tests, forty – five – minute tests & final exam A lot of homework Too short - Teacher, friends… - breaks D POST – SPEAKING: * Task 3: Tell the class what you have known - Ask ss to talk about about your partner what he/she knows about - Work Model: his/her partner based on individually An is now in the tenth grade student at Ham Task Rong High school An has 10 subjects to - Give the model learn there He goes to school in the morning - Call some ss to practice and often has classes On Tuesday morning in front of the class he has only classes at school He can go - Feedback home early or go around the town with some - Can give marks to these friends who well E HOMEWORK: - Write a paragraph (70 –80 words) about - Give homework - Listen & take your partner based on Task notes Fourthly, the findings of the questionnaire reveal that the majority of students and teachers at Ham Rong High School consider Information-gap activities effective in speaking lessons As for students, Information-gap activities are suitable for their language proficiency, so they can use English to communicate with their partner to accomplish the tasks given by teachers In terms of students’ participation, they are motivated to participate actively when the teachers give them an interesting topic or games These things are factors which help to encourage students to use English to communicate with their partner In addition, basing on the result of interview, the researcher also finds out that during information-gap activities, there is an increase in students’ talking time when they are required to work in pairs or groups Discussing and Opinion exchange activities attract the same amount of interest of most of students at Ham Rong High School, because they can talk freely and actively in pairs or groups In these activities, the teacher can form students in pairs or groups Then each group works on their topic for a given time period, and presents their opinions to the class It is essential that the speaking should be equally divided among group members At the end, the class decides on the winning group who defended the idea in the best way This activity fosters critical thinking and quick decision making, and students learn how to express and justify themselves in polite ways while disagreeing with the others On the other hand, some teachers show the opinions that these activities can makes noises as game activity And if teachers form a large group of 6-7 students or more, the quiet students may avoid contributing in speaking or students may use mother tongue rather than English However, in conclusion, Discussing and Opinion exchange are still the appropriate activities for students at Ham Rong High School 16 The last three activities which common used in speaking classes are problemsolving, Drama, and Projects But because of the student’s low level of English proficiency and time-consuming, both of teachers and the students at Ham Rong High School not choose these activities as the most suitable ones 2.4.3 The use of suggested activities at Ham Rong High School As stated in the reality of the study, Tieng Anh 10 by Education Publishing House is used as the course book to teach English This book is designed to help students developing all types of communicative skills which includes grammar, vocabulary, reading, listening, writing and speaking All of teachers spend one period each unit for teaching speaking And because of that time for speaking, the activities as role-play, game, interview, informationgap, discussing, opinion exchange are often organized for students during pair and group work From the teaching experiences of authors and interview’s result of other English teachers, it can be seen that pair work and group work activities are used through 16 units of the book Tieng Anh 10 depending on the students’ English proficiency level and the aims of each unit Some of them are designed according to the teaching guide’s book, some of them are self-designed by teachers In conclusion, it can be seen that these activities of pair work and group work are suitable and beneficial for both teachers and students of Ham Rong High School And in order to organize pair work and group work successfully, it is necessary that teachers need to work closely to students so as to understand more about their desires in learning speaking through pair and group work From that, teachers should use the appropriate activities which helpful for students’ level and learning target In the end of this chapter, the author’s sample lesson plan is showed as an example of using pair work and group work activities in speaking lesson CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 3.1 Conclusions The study was carried out at Ham Rong High School in order to research the techniques for organizing pair and group work in speaking class With the use of instruments such as two questionnaires, and interviews for both students and teachers at Ham Rong High School, the researcher has found out the answers to her three research questions as mentioned in part 1- Introduction It is true that both of English teachers and the students of Ham Rong High School saw the importance of speaking skill in their future job Most of them were interested in this skill compared to other skills such as listening, writing and reading They also knew good speaking skill could help them to communicate successfully About the way to learn speaking, pair work and group work were considered the most interesting activities because of many benefits for teaching and learning process And both of the teachers and students have been trying to make use of the advantages group work activities bring about For the students, firstly, pair and group work activities helped them to be more confident, especially with shy and weak students as they were given time to prepare, to check mistakes with friends before speaking Secondly, students also have more chance to speak English, to get closer to their friends and they can learn each other Pair and group work helped them to be more independent from their teacher, so their motivation of learning was increased This is really the better way compared with the way they learnt from their teacher The teachers also had some advantages from this The first is the teacher freed herself/ himself from being “an expert who always lectures” The teacher had more time for 17 each small group to get closer to the students Therefore, the students’ mistakes were corrected and their weaknesses were limited too Because of many advantages, both the teachers and the students confirmed the frequency of the use of these two techniques in their English classes They shared the same opinions on the way of organizing and managing pair work and group work Some most favorite activities teachers and students often use in pair work and group work are Games, Role - play, Discussing, Interview, Information gap… For the main aim of this research, the author found out that the learning speaking English of students was improved after the st semester of learning through pair and group work To be specific, the students felt more confident, comfortable and relaxed in working in pairs and in small groups Besides, working in pairs or in groups, the interaction between students were better as they could discuss freely, and learn from each other as well Therefore, their desire to learn and their interest in the lesson were really increased However, there were some factors which needed considering when pair work and group work activities took place First of all, before asking students to work in pairs and in groups, teachers should have given clear instructions, and provided students with necessary vocabulary Moreover, to get the whole class involved in the lesson, the teacher should have moved around the class and helped the students if necessary Also, if the teacher had praised students properly, they would have worked more effectively In addition, the way of grouping students should be suitable for the task given and might encourage students to work more effectively as well Students liked to work with the ones who were at higher level of proficiency Therefore, students with different proficiency level should be arranged to sit together Also, the number of students in each group shouldn’t be too large As found from the data collection, the suitable number for a group was or students 3.2 Limitations of the study Because of the limitation of time, this study has some limitations It only investigated the current situation of using pair work and group work in some communicative English classes at Ham Rong High School The respondents of the study were limited to the grade 10 students, so their opinions about using pair work and group work could not be considered as representative of all students learning English as a foreign language at Ham Rong High School 3.3 Suggestions for further research This study researches the techniques for organizing pair work and group work in speaking lesson in order to help improving students’ speaking skill As no single research design is all-inclusive and complete, this study can not cover everything in its field of study Many untouched issues will be interesting topics for further research such as: - A study on organizing pair work and group work to improve listening skills - Strategies for managing pair work and group work activities in speaking classes for the 11 or 12 grade students APPROVAL BY THE HEADMASTER OF THE SCHOOL Thanh Hoa, May 7th, 2019 I hereby declare that this study is conducted by myself, if something goes wrong I would be responsible before the law Luu Thi Thanh Tu 18 REFERENCES: Bygate, M.( 1987), Speaking, Oxford University Press Byrne D (1983), Teaching Oral English, London: Longman Doff, A (1988) Teach English: A training course for teachers Cambridge: CUP Duong, Luu Thuy ( 2006), An investigation into the use of pair and group work in the speaking class of 1st year students at Hanoi Open University, Faculty of Tourism Ellis, R & Fotos, S (1999) Learning a Second Language through interation Oxford: Oxford University Press Hammer, J (1991) The Practice of English Language Teaching New York: Longman Publishing Hedge, T (2000) Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom Oxford: Oxford University Press Hymes, D (1972) On Communicative Competence Harmondsworth: penguin Kayi, H (2006) Teaching speaking: Activities to promote speaking in a second language The Internet TESL Journal, 12 (11) Retrieved April 20,2011from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Kayi-Teaching Speaking.html 10 Lightbown, P M and Spada, N (1999) How languages are learned, Oxford: Oxford University Press 11 Little, W (1981) Communicative Language Teaching: An Introduction, Cambridge: CUP 12 Long, M H., & Porter, P (1985) Group work, interlanguage talk, and second language acquisition TESOL Quarterly 19, 2, 207-27 13 McDonough, K (2004) Learner-learner interaction during pair and small group activities in a Thai EFL context System, 32, 207-224 14 Nolasco, R and Athur, L (1993) Large Classes London: Macmillan 15 Nunan D (1989), Desining Tasks for the Communicative Classroom, Great Britain: Cambridge University Press 16 Nunan, D (1991) Language Teaching Methodology, London: Prentice Halls 17 Phuong, Mai Thi (2008), Organizing pair work and group work in the context of high school classroom at Pham Van Nghi Upper secondary school, Nam Dinh 18 Richards J C and Rodgers T S (1986), Approaches to Methods in Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press 19 Richard, C and Rodges, T S 2001 Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching Cambridge: CUP 20 Thurmond, V & Wambach, K (2004-2006) Understanding Interaction in Distance Education: A Review of the Literature « www.itdl.org/journal/jan04/article02.htm» 21 Ur, P (1996) A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory, Cambridge: CUP 22 Wagner, E.D (1994) In Support of a Functional Definition of Interaction: The American Journal of Distance Education 8(2) 6-26 23 http://www.silinternational.net/lingualinks/LANGUAGELEARNING/WaysToAppro achLanguageLearning/CommunicativeLanguageTeaching.htm 19 ... aimed at: - finding out the use of pair work and group work in English speaking classes of the grade 10 students at Ham Rong High School - suggesting the useful techniques of pair work and group work. .. work and group work activities 18.2% of them even were very interested in working in pairs and in groups This showed that pair work and group work could attract students and increased their interest... that the two techniques: pair work and group work were often used in speaking classes at Ham Rong High School Both of teachers and students agreed the appropriation of using pair and group work