Enhancing group cohesiveness and motivation in efl classroom = Tăng cường tính liên kết và động lực học tập của học viên trong lớp học tiếng Anh. M.A. Thesis. Linguistics: 81402

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES HOÀNG HỒNG THÚY ENHANCING GROUP COHESIVENESS AND MOTIVATION IN EFL CLASSROOM (Tăng cường tính liên kết động lực học tập học viên lớp học tiếng anh) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Hanoi – 2018 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES HOÀNG HỒNG THÚY ENHANCING GROUP COHESIVENESS AND MOTIVATION IN EFL CLASSROOM (Tăng cường tính liên kết động lực học tập học viên lớp học tiếng anh) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Supervisor: Tran Thanh Nhan, PhD Hanoi – 2018 DECLARATION This is to certify that to the best of my knowledge, the content of this thesis is my own work This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or other purposes I certify that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work and that all the assistance received in preparing this thesis and sources have been acknowledged Student Hoàng Hồng Thuý ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the all library media specialists for their participation who supported my work and helped me get results of better quality In addition, I would like to thank my fellow master students for their feedback, cooperation and of course friendship I am also grateful to the Ms Trần Thanh Nhàn PhD, for her guidance Without her, this thesis may not be possible Last but not the least, I would like to thank my family: my parents, my brother and my husband for supporting me spiritually throughout writing this thesis and my life in general i ABSTRACT English learning is considered a social process Therefore, it is vital to analyze how the process works This action research presents the results of a study exploring the relationships of classroom group cohesiveness and motivation among groups of students in Vietnam universities Six lessons of six different teachers were filmed and analyzed by the method of conversation analysis The results show that teacher‘s class management skill affect group cohesiveness Each activity was closely monitor and the techniques that the teachers use were accurately recorded The findings show that novice teachers may enhance and inhibit group cohesiveness, either purposefully or unintentionally More study is recommended to look at this matters at a different demographic and age groups ii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT ii PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Scope and aims of the study 3 Significance of the study Research questions Design of the thesis PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Group cohesiveness and motivation 1.2 Review of previous studies 12 1.2.1 Review of previous studies on group cohesiveness 12 1.2.2 Review of previous studies on classroom interaction using Conversation analysis 14 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 15 2.1 Restatement of the research questions 15 2.2 The setting of the study and participants 15 2.3 Research types 16 2.4 Implementation of the Action Research 16 2.5 Data collection instruments and procedures 17 2.6 Data analysis methods 18 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS 20 3.1 Encouraging the cooperation of the students 20 iii 3.2 Developing and encouraging the experience of a good group and organizing group cohesiveness opportunities inside the classroom 22 3.3 Developing a competition between groups 23 3.4 Evidence of group cohesiveness inhibition 28 PART C: CONCLUSION 41 Recommendation 41 Limitations and suggestion for further study 42 Implication 42 Conclusion 42 REFERENCES 43 iv PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Over the course of time, there have been traditional and long-standing views of both the nature of language and the nature of learning Firth and Wagner (1997 and revisited in 2007) challenged existing conceptualisations of learning Firth and Wagner argues that learning should be seen as a social process and that language should be viewed as a complex, dynamic system that is locally managed by interactants in response to emerging communicative needs Under this view, learning can be traced in the momentby-moment co-construction of meanings and by using conversation analysis (CA) The relatively new, emergent field known as CA-for-SLA quite clearly views learning as participation and maintains that we can measure and track learning through the interactions that take place (Markee 2008) One can hardly deny that learning, as a social process, is more effective if it is comfortable Excessive stress can damage memory capacity and thought processes Therefore, the teachers‘ duty, which is to accommodate learning, is to make students‘ learning experience more enjoyable and motivating One way to this is to create a learning environment in which all students are motivated to work and feel comfortable with other members of the group If learners are hostile to each other or resist any cooperation, the effectiveness is likely to plummet, making the learning experience rather tense and unsuccessful In contrast, a friendly and comfortable learning atmosphere stimulates students to enjoy exploring new knowledge If a group member feels attracted towards and accepted by the others, they will likely form a strong bond that help each individual override negative feelings during the course of learning This accepting climate is the base of group cohesiveness The necessity and importance of a language class as a social group has been realized (Brumfit, 1984; Hadfield, 1992;Senior, 1997; Dörnyei and Murphey, 2003) Group cohesiveness (also called group cohesion and social cohesion) arises when bonds link members of a social group to one another and to the group as a united entity Although cohesion is a multi-faceted process, it can be broken down into four main components: social relations, task relations, perceived unity, and emotions (Forsyth, 2010) Members of strongly cohesive groups are more inclined to participate readily and to stay with the group Group cohesiveness brings a number of advantages, including motivation, performance or member satisfaction This is why there are activities to boost group cohesiveness in almost every field, from team building sessions to boost employees‘ morale to fraternities and sororities in American universities According to Cummins and Davison (2007), group cohesiveness refers to the closeness and the ―we‖ feeling of a group, that is, the internal gelling force that keeps the group together Enhancing group cohesiveness, therefore, can be very beneficial to the teacher and their students, especially in Asian culture One typical trait of Chinese or Vietnamese students is the concept of ―keeping face‖, which can be subjected to the group‘s judgment and can be demotivated very quickly if they not feel accepted in the group In ELT, group cohesiveness certainly proves its significance in motivating students to learn, socialize and make learning a social activity that is enjoyable The process of exchange information and helping each other prove to be more effective if the students are willing to cooperate with their friends and their teacher Since cohesiveness affect participation greatly, it is vital to look at how teacher facilitate the development of group cohesiveness in class Even though there have been a lot of research carried out in this field, not much research is conducted in the context of Vietnamese education Therefore, the author wants to take a closer look at this matter in Vietnam with the hope to offer another perspective of cohesiveness and motivation in ELT Scope and aims of the study 2.1 Scope of the study The study focuses on the interaction between teachers and students in English language lesson The centre question of this research is how teacher and students interact with each other Furthermore, the author intend to determine whether the interaction observed is effective and if they inhibit or enhance group cohesiveness The study‘s scope narrows down into the context of two universities in Vietnam with Vietnamese trainers and Vietnamese students Six lessons were recorded and analyzed 2.2 Aims of the study The study aims to find out evidences of enhancing and inhibiting group cohessiveness in the conversations among teacher and students in the classroom Significance of the study As indicated by the title of the research “Enhancing group cohesiveness and motivation in EFL classrooms”, the author hopes to understand which technique may boost cohesiveness and which one suppresses it From then on, modification can be made to the teacher‘s classroom management skill Furthermore, this study also offers a more detailed observation into the matter by analyzing conversation and interaction in class with a more ad hoc method Since ad hoc method in conversation analyses are more flexible and attentive to details, readers are provided with a