III.1. Subjects of the study:
The study is carried out to investigate human factors affecting students‟
participation in Pair work and Group work in speaking lesson. Thus, the subjects of the study are 99 students of the three English major classes: 10,11,12 and 10 teachers of English at Luong Van Tuy Gifted High School.
III.2. Research questions:
This study aims at investigating the application of Pair work and Group work in three English major classes at Luong Van Tuy Gifted High School and it also aims at finding out the human factors affecting the students‟ participation in Pair work and Group work. To be specific, this research has been done to answer the three following questions:
1. How often are Pair work and Group work applied in English speaking class in Luong Van Tuy Gifted High School? How actively are the students involved in Pair work and Group work?
2. Which are the human factors affecting their participation in Pair work and Group work?
3. What are the feasible solutions to improve students‟ participation in pair work and in group work, as recommended by the teachers and students?
III.3. Research methods:
To realize the aims of the study, a case study was used. The theoretical background of the study comes from many published books written by different authors on language teaching and language acquisition. The data collected for the study come from two sources:
The students and the teachers at Luong Van Tuy gifted high school by conducting survey questionnaires, class observation and interview.
In this research, quantitative method is used, too. All comments, remarks, recommendations assumptions and conclusion provided in the study based on the analysis of the statistics from the survey questionnaires, interviews conducted with students and
teachers of Luong Van Tuy Gifted High School. The study is also based on a qualitative method with the author‟s own experience and class observation during 6 years of teaching English.
III.4. Research instruments:
In order to get the needed information the researcher uses the three following research methods: questionnaires, class observation and interviews.
III.4.1. Questionnaire survey:
The instrument used in this study consisted of two types of questionnaires: One for teachers and the other for the students. According to Bill Grillham, using questionnaires has some advantages can provide suggestive data for testing and hypothesis. Each of them has four parts: the first section is about the mainly information about the informants, the second one is about the information concerning the application of pair work and group work and the students‟ level participation in pair work and group work, the third one is about the human factors that affect their participation in taking part in pair work and group work (under the view of teacher, students) and the last one is about the desire of students/teacher when organizing/ taking part in pair work and group work. All the questions are closed to avoid time – consuming of students when taking part in the survey.
III.4.2. Class Observation:
Apart form the survey questionnaires for both students and teachers, class observation were employed to clarify and test the validity of information about the application of pair work and group work, the human factors affecting students‟
participation in pair work and group work, the teacher and students‟ desire when organizing/ participating in pair work and group work. The researcher has to design the classroom observations sheet before observing classes. For each lesson, the researcher observed in 45 minutes. She designed a checklist for what she wanted to observe and what to be taken notes. The classes observed from grade 10 to 12 and with all ten teachers of English must not be prepared especially for being observed.
III.4.3. Interviews:
An interview was conducted after the administration of questionnaire for students in each class, and after the administration of questionnaire for teacher as well. The interview was carried out in Vietnamese between the researcher and the students and teachers. 9 students of 3 English major classes and 3 teachers were randomly selected for
the interview. The questions in the interview were basically based on those in the questionnaires, but they were extended to cover more open – ended questions to get through understanding of the reasons behind each choice. Each conversation lasted for 5 to 7 minutes.
III.5. Data collection procedures
The data of the research was collected by means of questionnaire survey, classroom observations and interviews.
* Questionnaire survey: The 99 students of the three English major classes and 10 teachers of English were invited to respond to the questionnaire for students and for teachers. All the questions were written in English and they were designed to focus on the application of pair work and group work in their English class, the human factors affecting students‟ participation in pair work and group work, the expectation of both students and teachers when taking part in pair work and group work or when organizing pairs/ groups.
The data from the questionnaires were analyzed statistically and descriptively.
* Class observation: The researcher attended the classes, noting down the factors affecting students‟ participation in pair work and group work by completing observation sheet 1 and 2, we had information about the students‟ level of participation in pair work and group work on task – behavior, overall class participation and by completing the Class Observation sheet 3,4, we also covered the human factors affecting their participation in pair work and in group work without interference in the class procedure.
* Interviews: Interview is a very basic research tool in social science. Interviews may be used as checking mechanism to triangulate data gathered from other sources (Mc Donough & Donough 1997). The researcher used “semi – structure” interviews, in which a list of questions was closely followed but still, the researcher facilitated chances to obtain
“a variety of response from the interviewees” (Verma &Mallick, 1992: 124). All the interviews, which were approximately 5-7 minute long, were audio recorded for later reference.
III.6. Data analysis
Data analysis is not simply a single description of the collected data. In fact, it is the process by which the researcher interprets the data collection from the survey questionnaires, the class observation and interviews. The scheme and coding categories in
this research emerged from an examination of data rather than being pre – determined and imposed data.
III.7. Summary
In brief, this chapter has given brief necessary considerations when conducting the study about “Teacher and students‟ factors affecting students‟ participation in pair work and group work – A case study at Luong Van Tuy Gifted High School in Ninh Binh” by covering the English learning situation in Luong Van Tuy Gifted High School, the students, the teachers, the textbook and also the using of pair work and group work in speaking lesson at the English major classes. The research questions, the research method, research instruments and data collection procedures were also represented so that the reader can have on overview of the study. The next chapter will present the statistical results from the three instruments used by the researcher in order to answer the three research questions mentioned above.