4 TABLE OF CONTENT Declaration i Acknowlegements ii Abstract iii Table of contents .iv Part Introduction Part The development of the research Chapter I Literature review Theoretical background of speaking .3 1.1 Nature of speaking skill 1.2 Teaching Speaking skill in CLT Approach … .4 1.3 Communicative activities and features of communicative activitiies… 1.4 Problems with speaking activities 10 Group work 11 2.1 Definition of group work 12 2.2 Group size .12 2.3 Group work activities .13 2.4 The advantages of group work 14 2.5 Some problems and suggested solutions in utilizing group work 15 2.6 Successfully implementing group work: Tips 16 Chapter II The research .18 The context 18 The methodology .18 2.1 The participants 18 2.2 Data collection 19 3.3 Data analysis and reflection .19 Action research process .20 3.1 Cycle one .20 3.1.1 Initiation 21 3.1.2 Preliminary investigation 21 3.1.3 Hypothesis .21 3.1.4 Intervention 22 3.1.5 Data collection 22 3.1.6 Data analysis and reflection 23 3.2 Cycle 25 3.2.1 Initiation 25 3.2.2 Preliminary investigation 25 3.2.3 Hypothesis .26 3.2.4 Intervention 26 3.2.5 Data collection 26 3.2.6 Data analysis and reflection 27 3.3 Summary of the findings .30 Part Conclusion, suggestions and limitations 31 Conclusion .31 Suggestions…………… 31 Limitations………………………… 32 Recommendation for further study …… 33 References I Appendixes .II PART INTRODUCTION RATIONALE Speaking is one of the most important skills that most learners of any foreign languages wish to achieve It is an important skill that 'makes you a more fluent language user; speaking is a chance to notice the gaps between what you want to say and what you can say; it is a chance to test hypotheses about language' (Marilyn Lerris, 1999-quoted by He Lina) At the college of Economics, Technology and Trade (CTET), English has been taught as a compulsory subject for more than 10 years All of the students are non-majored English students And speaking is a problem for most of them During the speaking lessons, the students here usually keep silence whenever I ask them to say something in English they just say yes/no to this kind of questions and encouter a lot of difficulties with open- ended questions such as 'why' or 'what you think ?'; most of them feel nervous with speaking practice exercises Although our students start with the beginner level of English when they enter the college and are supposed to obtain the pre- intermediate level after graduation, just a small amount of them are capable enough of communicating in English In fact, our students are more competent in reading, writing, and listening to English but not in speaking English and they think it is their biggest problem in learning English Why is this the case? This can be blamed on some reasons: the effect of entrance examinations, the students‟ characteristics of being quiet and shy, the teachers' difficulties in controlling oral communication activities in large classes, or the lack of oral communicative activities in the textbooks Due to the researcher's teaching experience, she realises that her students are afraid of making oral mistakes, because they think their mistakes cannot be 'erased' once they are uttered out Anxiety in speaking Enlish is a real problem And the oral activities done in the English class are often irrelevant to their daily life These two obstacles prevent the students from learning to speak in English Therefore this minor thesis focuses on studying these students' problems in the English speaking class and suggests some teaching techniques and strategies that can be used to overcome these problems by using group work to reduce anxiety and encourage communication among these students The researcher decided to carry out the research work entitled "Using group work to improve speaking skill of the first year students at the College of Technology and Economics in Trade" SCOPE OF THE STUDY The study examines how to use group work to improve the speaking skill of the first year students at the CTET OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The study aims to: Find out the reasons for some problems in speaking lessons Offer group work as a key to improve speaking skill of the first year students at CTET RESEARCH QUESTIONS What are the problems in speaking lessons? Can group work help to improve speaking skill? DESIGN OF THE STUDY The study will be designed as follow: Part 1: Introduction which presents the rationales, the scope, the objectives, the methods and design of the sudy Part 2: The development of the research Chapter 1: Literature review Chapter 2: The research Part 3: Conclusion, suggestions, limitations PART THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE RESEARCH CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW Theoretical background of speaking 1.1 Nature of speaking skill Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information (Brown, 1994b; Burns & Joyce, 1997) Chaney and Burk (1998, p.13) also argues that speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" Referring to speaking or communication in language teaching and learning, Brown (1994b) affirms that interaction is the heart of communication; it is what communication is all about, for example in the cases of sending messages; receiving them; interpreting them in a context; negotiating meanings; and collaborating to accomplish certain purposes And interaction is the collaborative exchange of thoughts, feelings, or ideas between two or more people resulting in a reciprocal effect on each other Bygate (1997, p.115) emphasizes that “interaction is the use of language for maintaining communication between participants’ and ‘interaction skills are skills of deciding what to say, when to say it and how to say it clearly” Therefore, in speaking process, learners are required to know not only how to produce specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary (linguistic competence), but also when, why and in what ways language is produced (sociolinguistic competence) Gower et al.(1995, pp.99-100) state the two main aspects of the speaking skill including “accuracy” and “fluency” It is said that accuracy involves the correct use of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation Accuracy if the focus of controlled and guided activities with which students are also encouraged to attempt to use the language items they have learnt in order to communicate accurately Whereas, in Richards et al (1993, pp.141142)‟s opinion, fluency refers to the level of communication proficiency which “includes (a) the ability to produce written and/ or spoken language with ease; (b) the ability to speak with good but not necessarily perfect command of intonation, vocabulary and grammar; (c) the ability to produce continuous speech without causing comprehension difficulties or a breakdown of communication” Gower et al (1995, pp.99-100) describe fluency as “the ability to keep going when speaking spontaneously” In order to get the message across, language students need to make use of whatever knowledge, resources and ability they have got, regardless of grammatical and other mistakes They also need to employ different strategies such as the use of natural-sounding „incomplete‟ sentences “I went to the cinema last night Did you? With whom?”; the use of common expressions like “I see/ Never mind”; the use of fillers and hesitation devices “Well, let me think/ Let me see”; the use of communication strategies such as for clarification; the ability to paraphrase; the use of useful expressions such as “That reminds me… / By the way,……./ Anyway………/ Strange, really……… ” when finishing with a topic; and “Well I must go./ Nice talking to you.” when finishing a conversation 1.2 Teaching Speaking skill according to CLT Approach According to Nunan (2003), what is meant by teaching speaking is to teach ESL learners to produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns, to use word and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second language, to select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting, audience, situation and subject matter, to organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence, to use language as a means of expressing values and judgments and to use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which is called as fluency Now many linguistics and ESL teachers agree on that students learn to speak in the L2 by interacting Communicative language teaching (CLT) and collaborative learning serve best for this aim CLT is based on real-life situations that require communication By using this method in ESL classes, students will have the opportunity of communicating with each other in the target language (Kayi, 2006) CLT has been an influential approach for the last decades with the aim of “learn to communicate by communicating” (Larsen-Freeman, 1986, p.131) According to Canale (1983, p.5), communicative competence - the final target of CLT - refers to “the underlying systems of knowledge and skill required for communication” Moreover, “communicative competence is the aspect of our competence that enables us to convey and 10 interpret messages and to negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts” (Brown, 1994a, p.227) The concept of communicative competence is also described in terms of four dimensions which are grammatical competence (grammatical and lexical capacity), sociolinguistic competence (the ability to understand and produce appropriate language in the social context which the communication happens) and discourse competence (the ability to employ communicative strategies to initiate and redirect communication) Besides, three key pedagogical principles that developed around CLT were the presentation of language forms in context, the importance of genuine communication and the need for learner-centered teaching Hadfield (1990) suggests that a meaningful use of language over its form means that accuracy and acquisition of the formal features of L2 are less a measure of successful language learning than are fluency and ability to get something across comprehensibly to a native speaker In order to encourage meaningful language use, many communicative activities involve elements of puzzle-solving or simulation A more successful realization of communicative principles is perhaps found in both content-based and task-based teaching programs Content-based programs involve the teaching of subject matter content in the target language According to Stern (1983), it is closer to the communicative reality of the target language than classroom activities that are only designed to have certain characteristics of natural discourse It also has the potential to be more motivating of learners given they have a degree of interest in the subject matter While task-based learning is a more resolutely communicative application of CLT principles, it advocates the use of a syllabus based on communicatively oriented tasks rather than linguistics forms And its aim is to help students to develop the necessary language skills in order to negotiate meaning in various interactions In practice, learners are progressing towards a clear goal by undertaking different kind of language activities or real-word tasks in classroom settings Crookes (1986, p.1) defines task as “a piece of work or an activity, usually with a specific objective, undertaken as part of an educational course, at work or used to elicit data for research” Long (1985, p.89) seems to hold the same view when he says that “by task is meant the hundred and one things people it everyday life, at work, at play and in between” According to Phillis (1981, p.932), task is “to help the student to acquire appropriate patterns of behaviors” The above definitions state that task-based language 11 involves realistic communicative language use in which learners are asked to focus on meaning rather than language structure and gives possibility to acquire “the ability to perform certain communicative functions through a new medium” (Coupland, 1984, p.12) Task-based teaching is based on learners‟ communicative needs; therefore the use of needs analysis is required Needs analysis helps teachers to define the exact interests and preferences of the target group The information acquired enables the teachers to plan an effective and motivating curriculum, for the interest of the learners Prabhu (1987) suggests three different task-based activity types including information-gap activities (each student has a part of the total information that they have transferred verbally to each other), reasoning-gap activity (students derive some new information from information through the process of inference, deduction, practical reasoning, or a perception of relationship or patterns) and opinion-gap activity (students are engaged in identifying and articulating a personal preference, feeling or attitude in response to a given situation) Generally speaking, while participating in task-based or contented-based teaching in CLT approach, learners gain experience how to communicate, solve problems, find out information, organize and present information logically So that the teacher can flexibly pick up either task-based program or contented-based one or combine both of them in different teaching context 1.3 Communicative activities and features of communicative activities 1.3.1 Communicative activities Traditional classroom speaking practice often takes the form of drills in which one person asks a question and the other gives an answer The question and the answer are structured and predictable, and often there is only one correct, predetermined answer The purpose of asking and answering the question is to demonstrate the ability to ask and answer the question In contrast, the purpose of real communication is to accomplish a task, such as conveying a telephone message, obtaining information, or expressing an opinion (National Capital Language Resource Center, nd) In real communication, participants must manage 12 uncertainty about what the other person will say Authentic communication involves an information gap; each participant has information that the other does not have In addition, to achieve their purpose, participants may have to clarify their meaning or ask for confirmation of their own understanding So well-prepared communicative activities will contribute to students‟ self-confidence and to their motivation to learn more Communicative activities, defined by Harmer (1991), are those that give students who are somehow involved in both the desire to communicate and a purpose involving them in a varied use of language Harmer (1991) identifies oral communicative activities into eight categories: reaching consensus, discussion, relaying instructions, communication games, problem solving, talking about you, simulation, and role-play Obviously, communicative activities are varied and the motivating value of each one may not be alike When applying communicative activities into speaking class, Brown (1994b, p.23) reminds language teachers of “the eventual success that learners attain in a task is at least partially a factor of their belief that they indeed are fully capable of accomplishing the task” Therefore, communicative activities must be sequenced from easier to more difficult Moreover, Maehr (1984) points out that certain activities are more motivating and interesting to students than the others Gagne (1985) states that students‟ motivation to participate in activities is one of important types of motivation, it is essential to consider what kind of activities can enhance students‟ motivation on learning language At the same time, Lawtie (2004, p.1) also strongly believes in the important role of the right activities in speaking class when arguing that “if the right activities are taught in the right way, speaking in class can be a lot of fun, raising general learner motivation and making the English language classroom a fun and dynamic place to be” Indeed, students need to be provided with activities that they are interested in solving, and they are most likely to solve them in a supportive, non threatening environment (Sadow, 1982) Classroom activities not only need to be relevant to students, they also need to be interesting and address multiple intelligences and creative thinking As every experienced teacher knows, learners best at things that interest them (Rubin, 1985) Moskowitz (1978) and Scarcella and Oxford (1992) point out that one of meaningful and interesting activities which can motivate students to learn is so-called self 13 expression activities (SEA) Students have opportunities to express themselves in these activities According to Glasser (1985)‟s Control Theory of motivation, everyone is motivated by the need to satisfy one of five basic needs - survival, belonging, power, freedom, and fun Farris (1990) relates Glasser‟s Control Theory to student needs and possible solutions To satisfy students‟ need to belong, a classroom with an accepting atmosphere should be created, and teaching should be in groups, using cooperative learning strategies To satisfy the need for freedom, Farris suggests involving students in rule-making, providing opportunities for free expression, and encouraging creativity To satisfy the need for power, create a studentcentered classroom, and give students choices when possible To satisfy the need for fun, use games and simulations, and encourage students to have a good time learning Basing on the background, SEA as mentioned above will be put under experiment to see whether they can motivate students in speaking class by satisfying some basic needs like belonging, freedom, fun, and power In order to clarify that communicative activities are effective and motivating, Ur (1996, p.120) lists out some necessary characteristics of them First, “learners talk a lot” which means as much as possible of period of time allotted to the activity is in fact occupied by learners‟ talk Second, “participation is even” In other words, classroom discussion is not dominated by a minority of talkative students: all get a chance to speak, and contributions are evenly distributed Next, “motivation is high” which can be understood that learners are eager to speak because they are interested in the topics and have something new to say about it, or because they want to contribute to achieving a task objective Finally, “language is of an acceptable level” It means that learners express themselves in utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other, and of an acceptable level of language accuracy Harmer (1999) adds that communicative activities must have some communicative objectives that students must try to achieve since the most important part of any communication is a desire to communicate and a purpose to achieve The aim of communicative activities is to encourage purposeful and meaningful interaction between or among studenG23