Application of cooperative learning strategies to improve speaking skills for non english major students in a police training institution in vietnam

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES **************** TRẦN THỊ THÙY DUNG APPLICATION OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILLS FOR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS IN A POLICE TRAINING INSTITUTION IN VIETNAM (Áp dụng chiến thuật học hợp tác nhằm cải thiện kỹ nói cho sinh viên khơng chun tiếng Anh sở giáo dục thuộc ngành công an Việt Nam) M.A MINOR THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231.01 Hanoi - 2020 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES **************** TRẦN THỊ THÙY DUNG APPLICATION OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILLS FOR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS IN A POLICE TRAINING INSTITUTION IN VIETNAM (Áp dụng chiến thuật học hợp tác nhằm cải thiện kỹ nói cho sinh viên khơng chun tiếng Anh sở giáo dục thuộc ngành công an Việt Nam) M.A MINOR THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231.01 Supervisor : Assoc Prof Dr Lê Văn Canh Hanoi - 2020 DECLARATION I - Tran Thi Thuy Dung, hereby certify that the thesis entitled “Application of cooperative learning strategies to improve speaking skills for non-English major students in a police training institution in Vietnam” is the result of my own work and effort This thesis was carried out and submitted in partial fulfillment for the Degree of Master of Arts at the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University of Hanoi I also certify that my thesis has not been submitted anywhere for any award Where other sources of information have been used, they have been acknowledged and documented in the Reference list i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This graduation thesis could not have been accomplished without the invaluable assistance, encouragement and support from the number of people who all deserve my profound gratitude and appreciation First, I owe my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Associate Professor Doctor Lê Văn Canh for his valuable guidance and advice throughout every stage of this study His support has enabled me to develop an understanding of the subject and contributed to the fulfillment of the study My sincere thanks also go to my colleagues at the Department of Foreign Languages of the PPA, who helped me build up solid theoretical background studies and research methods through their valuable lessons I am especially grateful for their important instructions and advice at the final stage of my research My sincerest thanks would also go to my dear friends in class QH.2018.1E3 who assisted me with many useful ideas as well as encouraged me greatly when I felt confused and all non-English major students in class N02D44 who were also very friendly and enthusiastic to help me conduct my research successfully With such encouragement, I would like to express my thanks to all of them once Last but not least, I would like to express my profound thanks to my family whose encouragement, support and love have strongly and consistently motivated me to reach the thesis‟s completion ii ABSTRACT Speaking skill seems to be one of the most challenging productive skills for most of the students in the People‟s Police Academy (PPA) Regarding to the accomplishments of the Cooperative Learning (CL) program particularly done by thousands of teachers all over the world, the researcher decided to implement this approach in the context of teaching and learning English speaking skills for students in her workplace Therefore, the study was carried out with the aim of examining how cooperative learning strategies work in improving non-English major students' speaking skills at the PPA, together with discovering students‟ attitudes towards this approach and pointing out some difficulties which the teacher met during the application To be more specific, the research was conducted in an action research form and lasted for 12 weeks Then, a set of questionnaires was delivered to students so that the data would be collected from different viewpoints Moreover, after the post-intervention questionnaire, some semi-structured interviews were applied to get further information from some students who had finished the questionnaire The research questions were also answered by interviews with the observing teacher and the teaching journal of the researcher The result shows that there are some considerable improvements in the students‟ speaking skills quantitatively and qualitatively Most of the students show their concern and interest in the activities based on cooperative learning structures From the findings of this action research, some difficulties have also been investigated to draw out some pedagogical implications for those who are interested in applying CL to their teaching English speaking skills iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii LIST OF TABLES, CHARTS AND FIGURES viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study 1.2 Objectives of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Methods of the study 1.6 Significance of the study 1.7 Organization of the thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Speaking skills 2.1.1 Nature of speaking 2.1.2 Speaking performance 2.1.3 Teaching speaking in a classroom 2.2 Cooperative Learning (CL) 11 2.2.1 Definitions of CL 11 2.2.2 Basic elements 12 2.2.3 Collaborative Learning and Cooperative Learning 14 2.3 Cooperative Language Learning (CLL) 16 2.3.1 Goals of CLL 16 2.3.2 Benefits of CLL 16 2.3.3 A model of CLL 17 2.3.4 Differences between CLL and traditional methods 20 2.3.5 Group formation 22 iv 2.4 Cooperative Language Learning strategies 23 2.4.1 Language learning strategies 23 2.4.2 Cooperative Learning strategies 25 2.4.3 Cooperative Language Learning activities 26 2.5 Previous studies 29 2.6 Summary of the chapter 34 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 35 3.1 The context of the study 35 3.1.1 The context of learning and teaching English in the police training institution 35 3.1.2 Materials 35 3.1.3 Participants 36 3.2 The research design 36 3.2.1 Reasons for choosing an action research design 36 3.2.2 The procedure of the action research 37 3.3 Instruments of data collection 41 3.3.1 Survey questionnaires 41 3.3.2 Semi-structured interviews 43 3.3.3 Teaching journal 44 3.4 Data collection procedure 45 3.5 Data analysis procedure 45 3.5.1 Pre-intervention questionnaire and post-intervention questionnaire 45 3.5.2 Semi-structured interviews 46 3.5.3 While-intervention teaching journal 47 3.6 Summary of the chapter 47 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 48 4.1 Findings 48 4.1.1 Pre-intervention 48 4.1.2 Intervention and Post-intervention 52 4.2 Discussion of findings 65 4.2.1 Students‟ attitudes towards the implementation of CL in English speaking lessons 65 v 4.2.2 The effectiveness of CL to students‟ speaking skills 67 4.2.3 Difficulties of the teacher when implementing CL activities 69 4.3 Summary of the chapter 70 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 71 5.1 Conclusion 71 5.2 Pedagogical implications for better CL application 72 5.2.1 For teachers 72 5.2.2 For students 73 5.3 Limitations of the study 74 5.4 Suggestions for further research 74 REFERENCES 76 APPENDICES I APPENDIX I APPENDIX III APPENDIX VI APPENDIX VII APPENDIX VIII APPENDIX X APPENDIX XIV APPENDIX XX APPENDIX XXIV APPENDIX 10 XXVI vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Cooperative Learning : CL Cooperative Language Learning : CLL English as a Foreign Language : EFL People‟s Police Academy : PPA vii LIST OF TABLES, CHARTS AND FIGURES TABLES Page Table Comparisons between Traditional approach and CLL Table Instruments for data collection 41 Table The meaning of mean score 42 Table Results of section in the pre-intervention questionnaire 44 Table Results of section in the pre-intervention questionnaire 46 Table Results of section in the pre-intervention questionnaire 47 Table Results of section in the post-intervention questionnaire 49 Table Students‟ preferences for CL activities 51 Table Results of section 3A in the post-intervention questionnaire 53 Table 10 Results of section 3B in the post-intervention questionnaire 54 Table 11 Results of section in the post-intervention questionnaire 56 CHARTS 19-20 Page Chart Bar chart on students‟ preferences on types of CL activities 51 Chart Pie chart on students‟ preferences in group forming in CL activities 52 Chart Pie chart on students‟ preferences in group division in CL activities 52 FIGURES Page Figure Stages in speaking lessons (Adapted from Harmer,2007) 10 Figure Cyclical action research model (Kemmis and McTaggart, 1998 34 viii T: In your opinion, what are the disadvantages of implementing these kinds of Cooperative learning strategies in your class? S1: I think one disadvantage is the time We want to learn concepts, learn knowledge and skills That‟s too much in a lesson T: What are your suggestions to improve the effectiveness of Cooperative learning activities in speaking lessons? S1: I think we should have more time to speak and talk together, not only in the classroom, but also in the dormitory T: You mean that should teachers give the class more cooperative work at home? S1: Yes, exactly T: Thanks for sharing XXV APPENDIX 10 Teaching journal Week Activities/Units Main content of CL activities Students’ perceptions/ Teacher’s speaking lessons applied Problems responses Notes -identify problems -ask for other‟s consult 1First half -introduce module -make informal interview to class - provide the pre- Students‟ nervous: students Motivated intervention Their faces show that they interview for questionnaire are dealing with something deeper seem to be afraid of students participating in such a job Used phone absolutely strange information Lack of time for interview -introduce CL -organize group second -give an understanding of half what and how to -prepare materials Intervention: 1- Cybercrime The new method is quite interesting to students Excited with various ways of group formation Types of Sorting game, Students followed the steps Form groups in Make a sample cybercrime: pair work, think- which teacher gave tables for think-pair- Talk about popular pair-share, peer- Some students got in the Build students‟ share activities XXVI types of crime in your feedback activities passively (80% confidence in Ask students to area active, 20% moderate) speaking search and read Student‟s interaction is Encourage Sts articles to the limited (only listened to to speak next lesson other‟s view -inactive) A technology pair work, think- Students were shy to speak Encourage them Ask students to report: pair-share, group Half of the students ask for to speak in prepare Make a report about presentation clarification in Vietnamese small groups, vocabulary for Some students chatted with appointed one the next lesson classmates Some did good student to individual work support the cyber pornography others when doing group work Set up a mechanism for those who use Vietnamese Intervention: Traffic Giving directions: Matching game, Made few mistakes in Ask students to police pair work, think- vocabulary prepare Give directions to XXVII some places pair-share, peer The class atmosphere is vocabulary for check enjoyable the next lesson About students are still not really on the tasks A traffic accident: Think pair share, Strong interactions were Remain Ask students to Describe a traffic group created among students speaking prepare accident presentation They cooperated with atmosphere vocabulary for others Support when the next lesson necessary Intervention: Personal safety out pair check, Students found it difficult to Provide more Ask students to Self-defense and about: jigsaw create fluency and accuracy input prepare Give advice on how They helped others correct Teacher choose vocabulary for to be safe outside mistakes group the next lesson Sometimes, there were conflicts among members Crime report: Pair work Students‟ attitudes are more Support when Ask students to Get information in a Peer check optimistic and content necessary prepare theft report-interview Students‟ cooperation: vocabulary for a victim Better but not as expected the next lesson Intervention: Great achievements Numbered heads Fluency was achieved Remain Ask students to Economic police of the economic together, peer They are more active in speaking prepare XXVIII police force in check and learning atmosphere vocabulary for Vietnam: feedback Only a few were quite lazy Support when the next lesson to discuss the task necessary Remain good interaction Remain Ask students to cases: Students finished the task speaking prepare Role-play: make a within the given time atmosphere vocabulary for conversation on a Support when the next lesson specific economic necessary Tell a story about one economic police officer you admire Economic crime STAD crime in Vietnam (video) 10 Intervention: Environmental Problem-solving Remain good interaction Ask students to Environmental problems and and Decision They all tried to finish the prepare crime solutions: making task vocabulary for the next lesson Give solutions to some environmental problems in your area 11 Environmental Remain good interaction Support when crimes: Students cooperated well, necessary Give opinions agree Debates in work in a harmonize XXIX or not on the topic: groups atmosphere “Environmental protection is the responsibility of politicians.” 12 Reflection Invited students to Revealed positive responses Collected Post-intervention the interview from the students survey questionnaire Chosen students were ready questionnaires Semi-structured to answer questions and Make interview give opinions in the recordings to interview interview Transcribe interview results XXX ... the graduation paper as: ? ?Application of cooperative learning strategies to improve speaking skills for non- English major students in a police training institution in Vietnam? ?? with the hope of successfully... that the thesis entitled ? ?Application of cooperative learning strategies to improve speaking skills for non- English major students in a police training institution in Vietnam? ?? is the result of. .. investment and developing itself into a high- ranking educational, applied and multi-disciplinary training in the institution; reaching national and heading to regional and international standards to