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Bài luận Phương pháp luận Khoa học EHOU EN05HM01 CONTENT I. Rationale In the global world, English has rapidly become an international language. To meet this requirement, English has been taught almost every where in Vietnam. Especially in schools, colleges, universities, English is a compulsory subject. However, how to speak English well still remains a question for many learners of this language, especially for the first year students of universities to answer.
Name: Class: Subject: Research Methodology Topic: The effects of group work activities on motivating the first- year students in speaking lessons CONTENT I Rationale In the global world, English has rapidly become an international language To meet this requirement, English has been taught almost every where in Vietnam Especially in schools, colleges, universities, English is a compulsory subject However, how to speak English well still remains a question for many learners of this language, especially for the first - year students of universities to answer The use of group work in classroom activities is a method used for motivating learning and increasing the idea of pleasure through learning Speaking is an important skill and producing out loud language can be intimidating for nonnative speakers at any point in their journey When group work happens, whether it is in the work place or the classroom, collaboration is part of the process, It does not just get the students to speak but also get them to be more involved in other activities Groupwork can help shy students, who never say anything in a whole class activity The concept of group work is used by many teachers and college professors all over the world The reason why teachers and college professors use group work is because it is an effective method that improves the student's ability to use critical thinking and be able to out judge and out reason why he chose that answer The other reason is because it involves collaborative teamwork which involves the student to work amongst a group and being able to exchange ideas, so that the task is finished within a certain deadline They help the students to carry any barriers or shyness that he or she may have which is preventing him from speaking and it allows him to speak freely An extremely challenging question still remains: “How to motivate students to speak without hesitation?” Being a teacher for more than years has helped the researcher realize that students always struggle when they are asked to speaking tasks They find it difficult to express their ideas in English In addition, their participation in speaking classes is always unequal To tackle these problems, groupwork activities are taken into a careful consideration in order to enhance students’ speaking skills II Aims of the Study The aim of this study is to inquire how group-work makes a contribution towards improving speaking skills of the first-year students III Research question How is group-work used to improve speaking skills of the first-year students? What is the effectiveness of group-work approach for improving students’ speaking skills after It is applied? IV Scope of study - Due to the small scale of the study and the limitation of time, this study only focuses on examining how group-work techniques are used to improve the speaking skills of a group of first-year students of Ha Long University V Methods of Study Survey Analysis Conclusion To achieve the objectives Mated, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used The qualitative data collected for the study come from semi-interviews before and after intervention The quantitative data were the students' score of speaking based on average score of each aspect of speaking competence and the calculation of average score of students’ speaking for the whole performance VI Tentative Design of the Study Part A: Introduction includes the rationale, aims, scope, significance and methodology of the study Part B: Development Chapter : Literature review presents literature related to the study including the theoretical background of speaking such as nature of speaking skill, teaching speaking in a classroom and testing speaking and review of existing related works Theoretical background of group-work elaborates the definition of group-work, the advantages and disadvantages of group-work, and the principles in organizing group-work in speaking class Chapter 2: Methodology shows the procedure for carrying on the research such as survey, records, observation, and methods of data analysis Chapter 3: The results of the study report the main findings obtained from the data collection and discuss the prominent aspects Part C: Conclusion is the summary of the whole study The limitations of the study and suggestions for further study are also recommended in this part VII Literature Review Theoretical background 1.1 Theoretical background of speaking 1.1.1 Nature of speaking skill It can be concluded that speaking is ability to express something which involved the ability in utilizing the words in the correct order, correct pronunciation, right grammatical form, and meaningful context (fluency) and making a good choice of words (vocabulary) in the process of interpreting and negotiating meaning in conveying messages to establish and maintain social relationship 1.1.2 Teaching speaking in a classroom In this study, the researcher utilized group-work activities in the hope of increasing interaction among learners; accordingly, they can build confidence in speaking and improve their speaking skill Topics were chosen carefully for the purpose of stimulating learners' interest and motivating a great deal of discussion among group members To accomplish these goals, chosen topics should be suitable for them because awkward ones might discourage them from engaging in discussion session 1.1.3 Testing Speaking Learning groups can be initiated by asking students to turn to their partners and spending two minutes discussing the question that the teacher has asked The teacher can also form a group of three - five to solve the problem Groups can be formed at any time in a class of any size to check on students' understanding of the materials, to give students an opportunity to apply what they are learning, or to provide a change of pace 1.2 Theoretical background of group-work 1.2.1 Definition of group-work Cohen (1994:1) states that group work refers to "students working together in a group small enough so that everyone can participate on a task that has been clearly assigned" In addition, Stenaasen and Sletta (2000:25-26) define group work as "A group consists of two or more people who have a mutual influence on each other and are mutually depend on another in the sense that they have to trust each other to get their needs satisfied and achieve their goals 1.2.2 The advantages of group-work Working in groups allows learners to achieve higher order thinking skills and retain knowledge longer than working individually In groups students discuss, argue, explain and negotiate meaning, they become more responsible for their learning and develop critical thinking skills 1.2.3 Disadvantages of group-work There is a fair amount of literature on problems of group-work Within the scope of this research, the most common problems in class, namely intolerable noises Overuse of mother tongue, and unbalanced participation among group members 1.2.4 The principles in organizing group-work in speaking class - The preparation steps - Designing group-work activities - Group forrmation - Group size - Group discussion Review of existing related works VIII Methodology 2.1 Research design As Nunan and Bailey (2009) explain, there are different possible definitions for “classroom research.” Fundamentally, classroom research involves doing research in school settings about teaching and learning In this study, group-work technique namely discussion was employed to improve students' speaking skill This research was done in four steps: planning, acting, observing, and reflecting 2.2 The context of the study 2.2.1 The location and time of research The research was conducted at Ha Long University for weeks 2.2.2 The students The subject of the research is first-year students who were in the second semester They studied English for the first-half of the semester and passed the final exam with different scores of speaking 2.2.3 The textbook The textbook for the students is “Face2Face Elementary Second Edition” It includes 12 units For the limited time, only the last units with 12 periods of speaking were employed for the study 2.3 Procedure of the research This research was held using the procedures in order to get the data objectively - Planning - acting - Observing - Reflecting 2.4 Data collection instruments - Semi- structured interviews - Observation and field notes - Records 2.5 Methods of data analysis Quantitative data, in this research, were students' score of speaking analyzed by searching for its average score of each aspects of speaking competence Then, the researcher calculated the average score of students’ speaking for the whole performance Finally, the researcher compared the result of students' pre-test score and post-test score Therefore, chances in students’ quantitative achievement could be monitored VIII Results of the study Number of students Percentage Level Speaking features 60% - The speech was quite fluent and occasionally hesitant - Task fulfillment in a full sentence with ease mood - correct pronunciation B (7.0-8.4) - Using proper vocabulary - Showing exact use of structures and grammar - Showing imperfect control of some pattern but no weakness that causes misunderstanding 20% - The speech was a bit fluent - Having several vocabulary needed C (5.5-6.9) - Making a few mistakes in pronunciation - Making a few mistakes in grammar 15% - Task fulfillment occassionally - Making a fair number of pronunciation mistakes - Being able to use D (4.0-5.4) - The speech was not fluent - Having limited vocabulary - Making some mistakes in grammar 5% 12 F (4.0) - Poor responding and effort to questions IX CONCLUSION The findings of this study reveal positive outcomes both in terms of Ha Long University students’ oral performance and motivation towards the use of group-work as an effective instructional method in English speaking classrooms in Ha Long University In other words, in a comfortable context such as group-work learning, the students in the experimental group were able to demonstrate higher oral classroom participation, which is related to their statistically significant gain in language proficiency Based on the results, group-work learning had a positive effect on the student’s speaking skills During the experiment, the group-work method was used for the experimental group provided the students with opportunities to speak for most of the English periods, all of the students were encouraged to speak and tried to be active so they became more confident and more willing to speak Group work could also helped improve the student’s’ oral communicative competence of the target language because it created a friendlier and more supportive learning environment within which students had more opportunities and enjoyed the freedom to practice the target language REFERENCES Badache, L (2011) The Benefits of Group Work The Social Science and Human Journal Retrieved from http:/repository.yu.edu.jo/handle/123456789/449014 Brown, H.D (1994b) Teaching by Principles - An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy USA: Prentice Hall Regents Hassanien, A (2007) A qualitative student evaluation of group learning in higher education Higher Education Hendry, G D., & Davy, H P (2005) Independent student study groups Blackwell Publishing Ltd Medical Education, 39, 672-679 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2929.2005.02199.x Johnson, D W., & Johnson, R (2000) Joining together: Group theory and group skills (7th ed.) 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