VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES *********************** NGUYỄN THỊ PHÚC THE USE OF TEAMWORK ACTIVITIES IN THE ENGLISH SPEAKING LESSONS AT INTERNATIONAL STANDARD PROGRAM, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI (SỬ DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG NHÓM TRONG GIỜ HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN NHIỆM VỤ CHIẾN LƯỢC, ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Hanoi, 2013 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES *********************** NGUYỄN THỊ PHÚC THE USE OF TEAMWORK ACTIVITIES IN THE ENGLISH SPEAKING LESSONS AT INTERNATIONAL STANDARD PROGRAM, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI (SỬ DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG NHÓM TRONG GIỜ HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN NHIỆM VỤ CHIẾN LƯỢC, ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Supervisor: Tô Thị Thu Hương, Ph.D Hanoi, 2013 DECLARATION I hereby state that I: Nguyễn Thị Phúc, being a candidate for the Master of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Thesis deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper I hereby declare that all the information in this paper was obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct As required in the rules, I fully cited all the sources of the results that were not original to this work Signature Nguyen Thi Phuc i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis could not be completed without the help, full support and encouragement of all the people who deserve my deepest gratitude First and foremost, I would like to send my special thanks to my supervisor, Dr To Thi Thu Huong, a senior lecturer at HULIS for giving me precious comments and suggestions right from the beginning of my research Second, I would like to thank my former lecturer, Ms Nguyen Thanh Ha, who has provided me with the useful references for my study Third, my sincere thanks also go to the students and teachers of English at International Standard Program (ISP), Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their full support in completing the questionnaires for my survey Last but not least, I wish to thank my friends who have encouraged me to carry out this thesis and shared with me their materials, ideas as well as useful comments on my research ii ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to investigate the currently used teamwork activities in the English speaking lessons at ISP, HULIS, VNU It also aimed at identifying the organization of these activities and the ways which the teacher used to group his/her students in a team Moreover, the researcher wished to find out the problems in using teamwork during the English speaking classes This research was carried out with the participation of 75 ISP students and teachers of English at this division The instruments used in this study included questionnaires for the students, interviews with teachers, and class observations The findings of this research revealed that teamwork activities were frequently used in the English speaking classes at ISP The common activities were games, problem-solving, role plays, and discussion among which games and role plays were the students’ favorite activities However, most of them lost interest in discussions In addition, most of ISP teachers grouped the students sitting next to each other into pairs or small groups of 3-4 or by random groupings, they rarely gathered the students with mixed levels Another finding of this study was that the ways to motivate the learners involved using authentic materials, visual aids, and giving compliments, or gifts The teachers also controlled the troublesome noise during the students’ teamwork by punishment From the main findings of the study, some recommendations were given to the ISP students and teachers for using teamwork activities more effectively in the English speaking lessons iii ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative Language Teaching ELT: English Language Teaching T(s): Teacher(s) Ss: Students ISP: International Standard Program HULIS: Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies VNU: Vietnam National University iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Abbreviations iv Chapter Introduction 1 Statement of the problem and rationale for the study Aims of the study Scope of the study Significance of the stdudy Chapter Literature Review Teaching English speaking for communication 1.1 Activities in English speaking lessons 1.2 Requirements of a good English speaking lesson Teamwork in English learning and teaching 11 2.1 Definition of teamwork 11 2.2 Organization of a team 15 2.3 An overview of teamwork using 18 2.3.1 Benefits of using teamwork activities 18 2.3.2 Challenges in using teamwork activities 20 2.3.3 Teachers' and students' roles in teamwork activities 22 Chapter Methodology 25 Participants 25 Data collecting instruments 25 Data analysis 27 v Chapter Results and discussions 28 The use of teamwork activities in speaking lessons at ISP 28 1.1 The frequency 28 1.2 The students' attitude towards different teamwork activities 29 Working in teams 32 2.1 Grouping students 34 2.2 The problems in using teamwork activities 36 2.3 Ways to motivate and control the class 39 Conclusion 39 Chapter Recommendations 40 For the ISP teachers 40 1.1 Choosing appropriate teamwork activities 40 1.2 Grouping students to form a team 44 1.3 Solving the problems in using teamwork 44 1.4 Motivating students 45 For the students 47 2.1 Improving English speaking skill 47 2.2 Cooperating in a team 48 Summary 50 Chapter Conclusion 51 Summary of the study 51 Contributions and limitations of the study 52 Suggestions for further studies 52 References 55 Appendices I vi CHAPTER INTRODUCTION This chapter focuses on five main parts namely the problem statement and the rationale for the study, the aims and objectives with three research questions, the scope of the study; and the significance of the study Statements of the problems and rationale for the study There is no doubt that English has played an important role in such fields as aviation, commerce, diplomacy, science and technology, etc This language is considered to be a means of communication which people use to exchange information as well as to broaden their mind In fact, nowadays more and more learners have attempted to achieve English levels to hunt for a better job Being aware of this tendency, Vietnam’s Ministry of education and training has adopted English as an official subject at secondary schools, colleges and even in some primary schools since the early 1990s (Thi Nguyen Anh, English teaching in the new world, 2008) Although English has been widely taught at colleges for long, the goal of acquiring it for communication has not been emphasized As a matter of fact, the traditional teaching method Grammar Translation Method has been in wide use at colleges, which discourages students from achieving their communicative competence Consequently, a large number of students are really good at doing exercises of grammar, however, they feel confused when communicating in the target language To avoid the situation above, it is high time that a new approach – Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) should be applied in order to promote students’ ability of using English in real communications One of the techniques used in CLT is group work or teamwork which is regarded as an effective way to enhance students’ communicative competence As can be observed, at ISP division of VNU, the students’ communicative competence has been considered to be the core of learning and teaching in this environment and it can be best revealed through their speaking ability In this division, one of the common techniques being used to foster students’ speaking ability is organizing teamwork activities in class In fact, the frequency, organization and effectiveness of these activities have not been clarified Hence, this study focuses on investigating the current situation of using teamwork activities in teaching English speaking at ISP Aims of the study This study was carried out with three aims Firstly, it was expected to find out different teamwork activities currently being used in English speaking lessons at ISP Secondly, the frequency of these activities and the teachers’ ways to use them were also identified Next, this study aimed to identify students’ attitudes towards each kind of activities in their lessons Last but not least, the problems of using these activities for both the teachers and students in carrying out this technique were carefully analyzed to reveal the findings In a nutshell, all the objectives of this study could be summarized into these three following research questions: What kinds of teamwork activities are currently used in English speaking lessons at ISP? What are the students’ attitudes towards these activities? What are the problems in using these teamwork activities? Scope of the study As mentioned in the title, this study focused on the use of teamwork activities as a means to improve the students’ oral skill in their English speaking lessons The researcher spent time and effort investigating how they ... PROGRAM, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI (SỬ DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG NHÓM TRONG GIỜ HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN NHIỆM VỤ CHIẾN LƯỢC, ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Language... from the beginning of my research Second, I would like to thank my former lecturer, Ms Nguyen Thanh Ha, who has provided me with the useful references for my study Third, my sincere thanks also... secondary schools, colleges and even in some primary schools since the early 1990s (Thi Nguyen Anh, English teaching in the new world, 2008) Although English has been widely taught at colleges