4.2.1.1.Students’ opinions of the importance of group work in speaking classes
The tendency of applying group work in teaching English is very popular although its advantages and disadvantages are still a controversial issue. The question “How important is group work to your English learning?” is the first in the questionnaire.
82%
8% 4% 6% A. Very important
B. Important C. No idea D. Unimportant E. Not important at all
Chart 4.1: Students’ opinions of the importance of group work in speaking classes
The pie chart above gives information about numbers of students having positive and negative ideas about group work. A high percentage of students (82%) agreed that group work was very important in speaking classes. When being interviewed, they explained that group work created a better environment for them to practice this skill. Some also highly appreciated the necessity of group work (8%)
but they just chose level “important”. They said group work played a vital role in speaking classes but to reach the success, the lesson needed other factors’
contribution. On the other hand, there are 6% of participants having negative feelings about the task. They said it was not important. And a very small number of interviewees (4%) did not know if group work was important or not mainly because of their laziness to join in the questionnaire.
The answers from interviewed students said that their teachers always asked them to work in groups in speaking classes. This was also what the researcher saw when she took part in 4 speaking classes to observe. All students stood up and joined in a new team to discuss and complete the tasks.
4.2.1.2. Students’ interests in their roles in group work
Observations showed that students were familiar with group work activities because they knew exactly what they needed to do with different roles assigned by teacher. If a recorder student always had a pen and a paper to listen and take notes group’ idea, a researcher tried to find necessary information for their task from the teacher or other acceptable source such as dictionary, text books or English learning websites. Each group needed a leader who played an important role in guiding, helping others and summarizing group’s opinion. During the discussion or applying speaking activities, all mistakes were taken down by the policeman student. Last but not least, the presenter, on behalf of the group, had a speech in front of the class about the group’s task. To know which one is the most preferable, “which roles in a group do you like most?” was the second question in the questionnaire. The result is displayed in Chart 4.2.
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A.The recorder B.The presenter C.The researcher D.The policeman E.The leader
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Chart 4.2: Students’ interests in their roles in group work
Overall, not many students would like to be the presenter which needs presentation skill. According to the statistics, 45% learners were interested in being a presenter while 58% of speakers keen on being the recorder who do have less chance to talk than others. Not many students could both talk and write at the same time. Being a good leader is not easy at all, 40% of interviewed people liked this role. The close number of presenters and leaders explained why people who were leaders like to make presentations for the group. 28% are the percentage of people enjoyed being a researcher. However, their contributions to the group were not as good as being expected. Not much bigger than that number is students who accept to be a policeman for the group (32%). To conclude, the class seemed to be divided into two approximate parts: passive and active students.
4.2.1.3. Students’ attitudes towards speaking activities in group work Many speaking activities were conducted in group work such as sharing opinions after brainstorming, speaking basing on pictures, making a survey, information gap- filling, role playing or story telling. Question 3 in the questionnaire aims to discover students’ attitudes towards them as presented in the following chart.
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A.‘Brainstorming B.‘pictures’.
C.‘discuss to solve a problem’.
D.‘make a survey’.
E.‘ information gap’.
F. ‘Role playing’
G.‘story telling’.
Chart 4.3: Students’ attitudes towards speaking activities in group work The chart above reveals the proportion of learners’ opinions on speaking activities in group work. In particular, only 32% of asked students answered that they liked “brainstorming” and 36% showed their interests in “story telling”
activity. Seemingly, they just wanted to talk as little as possible. On the other hand, up to 91% said that interesting activities with “pictures” or “role playing” were their favorite ones. The next choice of all was “discuss to solve a problem” activity (80%). Besides, 75% of learners found to be more confident to speak in “survey”
activity. Along with that, 68% asked speakers stated that “information gap” was always their number one choice.
4.2.1.4.Students’ preference for grouping techniques
Before asking students to work in groups, teachers need to form groups with different purposes. When the author asked “How do you conduct group work in speaking classes?”, most of them answered that “I apply different techniques depending on the number of students and my intention”. Meanwhile, it can be entailed from the interview that students have positive responses to methods which are interesting or comfortable. Data for question 4 in the questionnaire is shown in Chart 4.4
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A. Forming group by friendship
B.Same proficiency level grouping C.Mixed proficiency level grouping D.Random grouping E. mix of some other characteristics F.Free- grouping Chart 4.4: Students’ preference for grouping techniques
The graph describes the proportion of various grouping techniques in speaking classes. The highest percentage of students (90%) chose being grouped by friendship. Although the teacher spent much time to recognize who shared the same taste in speaking, students said that they felt more self confident to work with familiar partners. That also explains why 85% would like “ free grouping”. They were more excited to choose the best group for their own. Being an interesting technique with 82%, “grouping by chance” surprised students until they found common things with their friends such as same color of shirt, same birthday month or same hometown...The next attractive technique was “ mixed characteristic grouping”(80%). Being interviewed, students revealed that they felt unique and important in that kind of group. A little lower amount was “mixed proficiency level grouping” with 25% of people interested in due to the challenge that students did not dare to face. Meanwhile, 70% students would like to work in “Same proficiency level grouping”.