Improving first year english majored studens listening skills with interactive activities of pair work, group work and teachers roles at long an teacher training college

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature Postgraduate Program _ DƯƠNG CHÁNH NGUYỄN IMPROVING FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS’ LISTENING SKILLS WITH INTERACTIVE ACTIVITIES OF PAIR-WORK, GROUP-WORK AND TEACHER’S ROLES AT LONG AN TEACHER TRAINING COLLEGE M A THESIS Subject Area: TESOL Code: X A 02025 Supervisor: NGUYỄN HUỲNH ĐẠT, M.A HO CHI MINH CITY – 2007 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Apart from where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis does not contain any material published or extracted in the whole, or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledge in the thesis This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any tertiary institution i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to all my lecturers at HCM City University of Social Science and Humanities-Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature-Postgraduate Program, for their interesting and beneficial lectures without which I would hardly have written this thesis I own special thanks to my supervisor, Mr Nguyen Huynh Dat, for his careful reading of the manuscript, guidance, comments, support, and constant encouragement If it had not been for this great contribution, I would not have fulfilled this thesis I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff members of Post Graduate Department for their enthusiastic encouragement during the time I did my thesis I am also grateful to all of my colleagues at LONG AN Teacher Training College for their help, and comments on my lessons Finally, I wish to thank LONG AN Teacher Training College administration staff who offered me lots of opportunities to attend the lectures as well as to the thesis HCM city, May 2007 Duong Chanh Nguyen ii ABSTRACT The present thesis investigates the effect of interactive activities of pair-work, group-work, and teacher’s roles on improving students’ listening skills to English-majored first-year students at Teacher’s Training College of Long An The research project was carried out based on the hypothesis that college students would benefit from those activities to improve their listening skills in English language acquisition, and that it is feasible and necessary for language teachers to organize those activities in their classrooms The research involved two groups of students, the control group and experimental group, from two different classes and two different teachers in charge There are two main stages in the research, one for Problem Identification which is called stage 1, one for Trying-outImprovement, stage In each stage, the students of the two groups are tested with the same listening test The time interval between the two stages was five months during which the experimental group received listening lessons with the interactive activities of pair-work, group-work, and teacher’s roles, whereas the control group didn’t The data for comparison and reflection were collected in term of marks, and analyzed in form of a mark scales To support the research, a huge collection of information and theory had been exploited from books, other research, internet related to the field as the theoretical background iii TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS ABBREVIATION LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND PHOTOGRAPHS GLOSSARY OF USEFUL EFL TERMS in THE THESIS Page Chapter One: INTRODUCTION 1 The rational for the research thesis Problem statement Research Questions Why is student-to-student interaction? Why is pair-work, group-work? 6 Scope of the research Organization of the research Chapter Two: LITERATURE REVIEW What is interaction? Communication in the classroom 10 Collaborative learning 11 Language learning is interactive 12 What is pair-work, group-work? 13 Advantages of pair-work and group-work 14 iv Pair-work and group-work encourage communication, cooperation, and generate interactive learning 14 6.2 Pair-work, group-work offers learners confidence and affective climate 14 6.3 Pair-work, group-work promotes learners’ responsibilities 15 6.4 Pair-work, group-work is a step to individualizing instruction 15 Excuses for avoiding pair-work and group-work 16 The teacher is no longer in control of the class 16 7.2 Students will use their native language 17 7.3 Students' errors will be reinforced in small groups 18 7.4 Teachers cannot monitor all pairs, groups at once 19 7.5 Some learners prefer to work alone 19 How to pair, group work 8.1 Special consideration for pair- work and group-work 8.1.1 How to create pair, group tasks that require 20 20 21 interdependence 8.1.2 Be conscious of group size 22 8.1.3 How to form pairs, groups 22 8.1.4 How to get the class’s attention when students 24 are working in their groups 8.1.5 How to control the noise 25 8.1.6 How to help students to work well in pairs, 26 groups v 8.1.7.What if some groups finish earlier than others? 26 8.1.8 How long should pairs, groups stay together? 27 8.1.9 How to end pairs, groups 28 8.1.10 What percentage of the time should 28 cooperative learning be used? 8.2 Stages in organizing pair-work and group-work 29 8.2.1 Before pair-work and group-work 30 8.2.2 While pair-work and group-work 30 8.2.3 After pair-work and group-work 31 Checklist to remember for group-work and pair-work activities 31 10 Problematic issues in pair-work and group-work 10.1 If advanced learners dominate 32 33 10.2 If advanced learners seem bored or beginners seem lost 10.3 If classes are too big or too diverse 34 10.4 If learners use their native language 34 10.5 If students not want in pairs, groups 35 10.6 If students are frequently absent students 36 11 What are teacher’s roles? 37 11.1 The teacher as a monitor 37 11.2 The Teacher as a controller 38 11.3 The Teacher as a director 39 11.4 The Teacher as a manager 39 11.5 The Teacher as a facilitator 39 11.6 The Teacher as resource 40 11.7 The Teacher as an observer (watching what the groups 40 are doing right) vi 11.8 The teacher as an evaluator (giving feedback) 12 Listening process 41 41 12.1 Pre-listening 42 12.2 While-listening 43 12.3 Post-listening 44 12.4 Contrasting Effective and Ineffective Listening Stages Chapter Three: METHODOLOGY Overview 47 The listening test and the test score 48 Research Hypotheses 49 The context and setting of the research 49 Participant 50 Implementation 52 6.1 Problem Identification 52 6.2 Trying- out and Improvement 53 Chapter Four: RESULTS 56 Chapter five: DISCUSSION and RECOMMENDATIONS 59 Discussion 59 My listening lesson plans 60 The developing of a listening lesson with pair-work and groupwork activities 61 Analysis of teacher’s roles in pair-work and group-work 65 Description of a listening lesson with pair-work 66 and group-work activities vii Checklist for successful group-work and pair-work activities 68 Do we really have to work in groups, pairs in 69 teaching listening lessons? Teaching listening and language skill improvement Chapter Six: CONCLUSION and FUTURE RESEARCH 71 74 Review of the findings in the research 74 General comments 75 Future research 75 BIBLIOGRAPHY 76 Appendix A : The listening test Appendix B: Sample of listening lesson plans viii Chapter Six CONCLUSION and FUTURE RESEARCH This experimental study showed what effect the interactive activities of pair-work and group-work together teacher’s roles in listening lessons had on the improvement of students’ listening skills The difference between the mark scores in two stages in the experimental group was statistically significant, and so was the difference between the two groups, control and experimental These indicate that the hypotheses that listening skills of students will improve as a result of those interactive activities, and that it is necessary and totally feasible for language teachers to organize the activities in listening lessons were confirmed To be more accurate, the finding clearly showed the progress achieved in the group that received the interactive activities: all students benefited from the teaching of listening, and their progress was evident in different areas In contrast, without those activities in teaching of listening, listening skills improved in the case of a certain number of students only And this improvement was not significant However, it is necessary to bear in mind that the study was conducted with a small sample, over a short period of time and that the interactive activities of pair-work, group-work, and teacher’s roles were a small segment of foreign language instruction in general In addition, during the process of carrying out the research, there were certain difficulties that I had to encounter because it was a hard-to-do load of work The main difficulty was in the data collection and analysis It was a time-consuming process and it needed a lot of care It is difficult to establish an accurate convention for comparison Nevertheless, I realized that this study will help me a lot in my teaching career 74 as an English-as-a-second language teacher The thesis opens a new horizon to me, broadens my view What I have introduced in the thesis is not the best and perfect, but, to some certain extent, it serves the new tendency of teaching foreign languages, bringing effectiveness in developing one’s language learning acquisition It is a “hard blow” on those who maintain the so-called traditional teaching method and who are persistent at not changing their way of approaching For the time being, this research suggests applications to the teaching listening at my college This research also has reflected some necessity to improve other skills in the hope of gaining more teaching and learning effectiveness In the future I feel obliged to research on “how to decrease the mother tongue in pair-work and group-work activities”, “how to effectively give instructions”, “how to motivate students to take part in the learning process”, “the importance of listening warm-up exercises”, “testing listening”, because there are lots of factors, not only those which have been stated above, influencing our teaching and learning, if we want to make our lessons effective to our students 75 BIBLIOGRAPHY Baker, J & Westrup, H (2002) The English Language Teacher’s Handbook London: Continuum Bowen, T & Marks, J (1994) Inside Teaching _ Options for English Teachers Oxford, UK: Heinemann Brown, H (2001) Teaching by Principles - An Interactive approach to Language Pedagogy (Second Edition) New York, USA: Longman Buck, G (2001) Assessing Listening Cambridge, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press Davies, P & Pearse, E (2000) Success in English Teaching Oxford, England: Oxford University Press Doff, A (1992) Teach English .Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press Gamble, T K & Gamble, M (2002) Communicative Works New York, USA: Mc Graw Hill Gower, R et al (1995) Teaching Practice Handbook (New Edition) Oxford, UK: Heinemann Hedge, T (2000) Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom New York, USA: Oxford University Press 10 Holdzkom, D (1990) A Resource Manual for Teachers of English as a Second Language NTC Publishing Group 11 Jones, F V & Jones, L S (1990) Comprehensive classroom management: Motivating and managing students Boston, the USA: Allyn and Bacon 12 Krahnke, K (1994) Teaching English as a Foreign / Second Language Fall 13 Littlewood, W (1981) Communicative Language Teaching: An Introduction Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 14 May, P (1996) Resource Books For Teachers Oxford, England: Oxford University Press 76 15 Nunan, D & Miller, L (1995) New Ways in Teaching Listening (unknown publisher) 16 Nunan, D (1999) Second Language Teaching & Learning Boston, USA: Heinle & Heinle Publishers 17 Nunan, D (1994) Research Methods in Language Learning New York, USA: Cambridge University Press 18 Richards, R & Lockhart, C (1994) Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 19 Rost, M (1992) Listening In Language Learning New York, USA Longman 20 Scrivener, J (1994) Learning Teaching Oxford, England: MacMillan & Heinemann 21 Seliger, W.H (1997) Second Language Research Method Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press 22 Tanner, R & Green, C (1998) Tasks for Teacher Education England: Longman 23 Temperley, M S & Rivers W.M (1978) A Practical Guide to the Teaching of English As a Second or Foreign Language New York, USA: Oxford University Press 24 Underwood, M (1989) Teaching Listening New York, USA: Longman 25 Ur, P (1996) A course in Language Teaching New York, USA: Cambridge University Press 26 Ur, P (1992) Teaching Listening Comprehension New York, USA: Cambridge University Press 27 Richards, J C & Renandya, W A (2002) Methodology in Language Teaching _ An Anthology of Current Practice Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 28 Van Lier, L (1988) The Classroom and the Language Learner New York, USA: Longman 29 Vũ Cao Đàm (2003) Phương Pháp Luận Nghiên Cưú Khoa Học Hanoi, Vietnam: NXB Khoa Học & Kỹ Thuật 77 39 Wallace, M.J (2001) Action Research for Language Teachers Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 31 Weissberg, R & Buker, S Writing up research Unknown place of publication: Prentice Hall Regents 78 Appendix A : The listening test and answer sheet LONG AN Teacher Training College Department of English LISTENING TEST Course: K 31 1st year Level: Pre-intermediate PART Hello! Today we are going to visit an English family, the Browns Look carefully at the picture below In this picture you can see Mr and Mrs Brown and their two children, Helen and David They are in the sitting room Under the pictures you can see boxes marked TRUE or FALSE You’ll hear 16 sentences about this pictures and you must decide if they are TRUE or FALSE When you have decided, you mark a tick (√ ) in one of these boxes Now listen carefully to the tape, look at the picture, and mark each sentence TRUE or FALSE ( marks _ 0,25 mark each ) i PART Listen to the conversation on the phone between Mr Brown and a travel agent, and choose the correct answers ( marks _ 0, mark each ) what is the price of a round ticket ? a $ 195 b $ 60 c $ 130 d $ 10 What is the special offer? a If two adults buy tickets, a child’s ticket is free b If you buy one ticket, you get another one free c If you buy now, you get a free ticket good for one year d If you buy two tickets, you get a ticket free What is the policy for children? a They pay half the regular price b They are free if traveling with two adults c Children under five travel free d They pay less if the ticket is charged When will the family leave for Los Angeles? a Friday morning b This coming weekend c Next week d The week after next How much will the man pay for the tickets? a $ 130 b $ 195 c $ 230 d $ 295 PART You are going to listen to a radio interview with Graham Grant, an English teacher who recently spent two years teaching in Japan, and fill in the blanks ( marks _ 0,2 mark each ) LIFE IN A JAPANESE SCHOOL P: Presenter G: Graham Grant Presenter: Hello and welcome on this week’s Worldly Wise, the program that looks at the world we live in Today we have with us Graham Grant Graham is now back working in England teaching Japanese, after two years teaching English in Japan We want to (1) from him about life in a Japanese school Graham_ we all know that (2) is important in every country, but they say that it is even more important Is this true? ii Graham: Well, yes I think it is true, … For lots of reasons, but I think the is one main reason P: What’s that? G: I think It’s the Japanese (3) _ to job P: Surely a good job is important to most people? G: Yes, of course but in this country, Britain for example, I think many people (4) to and perhaps want to try more than one more job in their lives You can try lots of things until you find the right job In Japan it’s different Most jobs are for life People usually stay with the same company from the time they leave school or university until they (5) _ So the children must well at school to get a good job when they leave, because after that it’s too late P: Does it mean that they have to work hard? G: Yes, it does The hard work starts at 12 when they leave (6) school and move to (7) _ school P: What happens there? G: Well, the (8) _ is different from primary school It’s less (9) and more competitive There are about 40 pupils in each class, and discipline is quite (10) _ The pupils sit in rows and before each lesson they stand up and bow to the teacher just as all Japanese people how to each other when they meet Politeness And respect are very important in Japan The teacher talks and the children listen and take note The don’t ask questions It is consider (11) to question a teacher P: It sounds different to many English schools G: Yes, it is And another different is that they go to school on Saturday too, so they have six days of school a week They also go to (12) extra school in the evening So they’re busy most of the time And they have three or four hours homework every night P: Phew! They must love the holidays.! G: Yes, they But they don’t have much holiday They don’t have much holiday They go back to school because that’s when they have club activities, sport clubs, English clubs P: This is all really interesting Graham, but it’s time for a (13) _ and important question Do they like school? G: Well, that’s a question I often asked them and they all said the same Yes, we like school because we have time to be bored, and we love all the club (14) _ P: How very interesting! I think English schools could (15) something from Japan Thank you for talking to us , Graham I must ring home now and check that my daughter is doing her homework and isn’t watching television? This is the end of the test Good luck to you all iii Teacher’s Training College of Long An Department of English ANSWER SHEET _ LISTENING TEST Course: K 31 1st year Class: ……………………… Student’s name: ……………………………………………………… Student’s index number: ………………………………………… _ Marks Examiner’s signature and name PART ( marks _ 0,25 mark each ) Hello! Today we are going to visit an English family, the Browns Look carefully at the picture below In this picture you can see Mr and Mrs Brown and their two children, Helen and David They are in the sitting room Under the pictures you can see boxes marked TRUE or FALSE You’ll hear 16 sentences about this pictures and you must decide if they are TRUE or FALSE When you have decided, you mark a tick (√ ) in one of these boxes Now listen carefully to the tape, look at the picture, and mark each sentence TRUE or FALSE iv DO NOT WRITE HERE _ PART ( marks _ 0, mark each ) A B C D A B C D A B C D A B C D A B C D PART ( marks _ 0,2 mark each ) …………………………… ………………………………… ……………………………… ……………………………… ……………………………… 10 ……………………………… ……………………………… 11 ………………………………… ……………………………… 12 ………………………………… ……………………………… 13 ………………………………… ……………………………… 14 ……………………………… 15 ………………………………… v Appendix B: Sample of listening lesson plan THEME : WEEKEND ACTIVITIES Material source: Headway_ intermediate_ unit Time : 90 minutes Level : Pre-intermediate Main aims: _ improving learner’s listening skill for gist _ improving learner’s listening skill for specific information _ collating data from an interview and analyzing it _ transferring information _ teaching students vocabulary related to weekend activities Objectives: After the lesson learners will be able to _ improve their listening to main ideas as well as specific information _ understand Western weekend activities _ talk about their own weekends Materials: :_ cards for grouping _ a tape , a cassette-player, board, chalk _ handouts of listening tasks _ source: pre-intermediate Headway Assumptions: _ learners are already familiar with the Present Simple and Present Continuous tense _ learners are already familiar with teacher’s instructions, pair-work and group-work _ learners have relevant cultural background vi Anticipated Problems: _ Some of the learners may find it difficult to analyze information after having listened to the recording _ Some may find it difficult to talk about their own weekends because of their limit of relevant vocabulary Procedure and Content vii STAGE TEACHER’S ACTIVITIES LEARNER’S ACTIVITIES & INTER- FEEDBACK ACTION Grouping: T divides students into groups of by distributing each student a card with different categories on them and letting students group themselves according to the categories Students form their groups _ FLOWERS: rose, carnation, tulip, daffodil, chrysanthemum _ WILD ANIMALS: tiger, lion, crocodile, wolf, leopard _ FRUITS: orange, apple, strawberry, mango, banana I PRE- _ SPORTS: football, volleyball, badminton, Student _to basketball, tennis student _ CLOTHES: shirt, T-shirt, trousers, jeans, pullover _ COLORS: blue, red, white, black, pink _ CITIES: London, New York, Paris, HCM City, Tokyo Activities: _ Teacher asks students to give their attention _ _ T asks students to work in groups to make a list of weekend activities II Activity : Listening for gist In group Students: WHILE _ T keeps the same groups _ listen to the recording Act _ attracts student’s attention, _ the listening task Listen- _ gives instructions for the 1st task , then delivers _ discuss and share the ing for the handouts to the groups , pieces groups of information gist and for group of _ choose the correct answers _ T plays the recording once, then stop for 30 second _ T plays the recording the second time _ then T asks learners to work in groups to the viii S-S TIME Feedback one student from task for minutes each group goes to the board to HARRY’S WEEKEND write the result Task Listen to Harry talking about his weekend Question._ Group to an interviewer and tick ( ) the following questions with YES or NO Y Questions Y N Is Harry busy? Does he enjoy the weekend? Does he play any kinds of ( this chart is drawn on board sports? by T) Does his weekend begin on Anticipated prob _If all group are correct, it ‘s Saturday? good Does he go out on weekend _If there will be different result evenings? Does he go to a restaurant? Does he visit a foreign between groups, T marks and asks students to check it in the second task country? Does he have any classes? Act Introduction & instructions to the second activity Listen- _ T keeps the same groups ing for _ attracts student’s attention, specific _ gives instructions for the 1st task , then delivers Informa the handouts to the groups , pieces groups of tion and for group of Group-work Students: _ listen _ take notes _ T plays the tape once, then stop for 30 second, _ discuss in group to get more information _ gather information for feedback then play it once again _ T asks learners to work in groups to the task for 10 minutes _ T plays the tape again for students’ checking HARRY’S WEEKEND Feedback one student from group 1,2,3 goes to the board to write the result Group 4,5,6 check &add more ix S-S ( the same chart is drawn on the board by T) Task Listen to the interview again and fill in the chart below with things Harry does on his weekend Time Anticipated prob _ If there is disagreement, T plays the tape again with pauses What Harry does Friday night Saturday morning Saturday afternoon _ T asks for more detailed difficult information for strong students _ T uses colored chalk for differences III _ T asks students to work in pairs (T quickly sets Post- pairs) ,take turns to talk about their own Pair work S-S _ talk about their weekend in weekends turns _ T asks students to form their old group and find the main differences and similarities in the way Vietnamese people and western people Group-work _ discuss spend their weekends _ T assigns group leaders, and group Feedback Free talk secretaries Some students from groups _ T calls or groups at random to the the presentation, other groups presentation listen and give their agreement or disagreement Anticipated prob _ class will be noisy, but it is “good noise” x T-S &S-S ... collaborative learning in language classroom; what are the advantages and disadvantages of pair- work and group -work, how a teacher organizes pair- work and group- work activities together with his roles; ... advantages of pair- work and group- work Table Analysis of teacher? ??s roles in pair- work and group- work Table 10 The sample of a listening lesson plan Table 11 Checklist for successful group- work and. .. interactive activities of pair- work, group -work, and teacher? ??s roles on improving students’ listening skills to English- majored first- year students at Teacher? ??s Training College of Long An The research