An investigation into the use of group work in teaching speaking skill to the 11th graders at Bo Trach 1 high school

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An investigation into the use of group work in teaching speaking skill to the 11th graders at Bo Trach 1 high school

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY -—o0o– TRỊNH LINH GIANG AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF GROUP WORK IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL TO THE 11th GRADERS AT BO TRACH HIGH SCHOOL MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY -—o0o– TRỊNH LINH GIANG AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF GROUP WORK IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL TO THE 11th GRADERS AT BO TRACH HIGH SCHOOL Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Code: 60.14.01.11 MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Suppervior: Ngơ Đình Phương, Assoc Prof., Ph.D NGHỆ AN, 2014 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that this study is my own work The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission, and have not been published elsewhere Author Trịnh Linh Giang i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the assistance I received from a number of people in the course of carrying out the research paper I highly treasure the important role they played in making the completion of this minor thesis a success In the first place, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor Prof.Dr NGƠ ĐÌNH PHƯƠNG, Head of Post-Graduate Studies Department of Vinh University, for he close guidance, criticism, and he generous help in the process of completing my thesis I am also greatly indebted to all the teachers and students at Bo Trach high school where the investigation was carried out for their endless enthusiasm, valuable advice and great cooperation Finally, I wish to thank my family and all my friends for their support during my completion of this study ii ABSTRACT For some recent years, English has played more and more important part in Vietnam, therefore, it has been taught in schools as a compulsory subject So far, there have been remarkable changes in the way of teaching and learning English However, English teaching in general and teaching speaking in particular still is far from satisfactory How to motivate students to speak is really necessary, and is a big question to almost teachers in Vietnam now It is also the question that has inspired me to investigate the use of group work in teaching speaking skill to the 11th graders at high school The research approach undertaken by this study is mostly quantitative Two data collections instruments are used: students’ and teachers’ questionnaire surveys; students’ and teachers’ interviews Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed to create a realistic and detailed description of the real teaching context and the attitudes, assessments of teachers and students involved This research investigated the difficulties in using group work activities in English speaking lessons at Bo Trach high school – Quang Binh province At the end of the thesis, some suggestions for conducting group work have been given Some newly arising problems were also pointed out for further research iii TABLE OF CONTENT Content STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS LISTS OF TABLES CHAPTER INTRODUCTION Rationale Aim and objectives of the study Scope of the study Research questions Organization of the study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Previous Studies Related to the Topic 2.2 Communicative language teaching(CLT) Page i ii iii iv viii ix 1 2 3 4 2.2.1 Definitions of CLT 2.2.2 Characteristics of CLT 2.2.3 Principles of CLT 11 2.3 Speaking skill 2.3.1 Definitions of speaking 2.3.2 The importance of speaking skill 2.3.3 The nature of speaking 2.3.4 What is “teaching speaking”? 2.4 Teaching and learning speaking skill 2.4.2 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity 2.4.3 Principles for teaching speaking in CLT 2.4.4 Approaches to teaching speaking 14 14 15 17 19 19 21 23 23 2.5 Group work activities in language teaching and learning 2.5.1 Definitions of group work 2.5.2 Types of group work 2.5.3 Group size 2.5.4 Some common activities for group work 2.5.5 The advantages of using group work activities in teaching 25 25 26 27 27 30 speaking skill iv 2.5.6 Some problems in utilizing group work 2.5.6.1 Time 30 30 2.5.6.2 Class organization and management 31 2.5.6.3 Student-related difficulties 31 2.5.7 Factors that affect the success of group work 32 2.5.8 The role of the teacher and the role of each student in group work 33 activities 2.5.8.1 The role of teacher 33 2.5.8.2 The role of student 34 2.5.9 How to organize group work activities effectively 35 2.5.9.1 General strategies for successful group work activities 35 2.5.9.2 Preparation for group work 38 2.5.9.3 Steps of organizing group work 40 CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research design 3.2 Research methods 3.2.1 The teaching and learning situation in Bo Trach high school 3.2.2 Participants 3.2.3 Methods and procedure of the study 3.2.4 The questionnaires 3.2.5 Interviews CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSTIONS 4.1 Result from students’ questionnaire, interview 4.1.1 The attitude of the students toward working in group work 4.1.2 The students’ difficulties in using group work activities 4.1.3 Students’ desires for the group work activities in English 43 43 43 43 44 44 44 45 46 46 46 51 55 speaking classes 4.2 Results from teachers’ survey questionnaires 4.2.1 Teachers’ opinions about Communicative Language Teaching 4.2.2 Teachers’ attitudes towards group work activities in English 58 58 58 speaking lessons 4.2.3 Teachers’ difficulties in using group work activities in English 60 v speaking lessons 4.2.4 Teachers’ techniques in group work activities in English 63 speaking lessons 4.3 Discussions 4.3.1 Teachers’ problems 4.3.2 Students’ problems 4.3.3 Other problems 4.4 Recommendations 4.4.1 To teachers 4.4.2 To students 4.4.3 To administrators 4.4 Summary CHAPTER CONCLUSION 5.1.Conclusion 5.2 Limitations of the study 5.3 Suggestions for the further study REFERENCES APPENDICES 66 66 74 68 70 70 73 74 74 75 75 76 76 77 81 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative Language Teaching %: Percent GW: Group work vii 5.2 Limitations of the study: I have put much effort in finding out the difficulties of teaching and learning speaking skill with the English textbook for grade 11 at Bo Trach high school Through the survey questionnaires and the interviews, a lot of valuable information about the research problem has been collected and analyzed carefully; however, it cannot avoid limitations Firstly, due to limit of time, the study had been done only on a small number of teacher and student participants It is not big enough for broad generalization This leads the information from the questionnaires and observation was quite limited and not very accurate Secondly, there are many factors affecting the students’ responses in investigation process Students often answer based on their beliefs or thoughts that they have about their use of group work Some of them even not understand some terms used in questionnaires So, the number of the factors taken into account in the study is still limited Thirdly, due to the different conditions of each school, the researcher is afraid that some of the recommendations made in the study may be not applicable with other schools 5.3 Suggestions for the further study: This study cannot cover everything of in the field of using group work activities in speaking lessons This thesis just focused on relevant challenges in using group work activities in English speaking lessons and gave some suggested methods to increase the effectiveness of using group work activities in English speaking lessons at Bo Trach high school The coming research can focus on the strategies to involve students in group work more effective in other English skill, such as reading, and writing Obviously, mistakes in this study are unavoidable, all comments and remarks on this study will be highly appreciated 78 79 REFERENCE Canh, L V (1999, October) Language and Vietnamese pedagogical contexts Paper presented at the Fourth International Conference on Language and Development, Hanoi Retrieved September 9, 2006, from www.languages.ait.ac.th/hanoi_proceedings/canh.htm Nguyễn Thị Thùy Chung (2008) How group work is used in Speaking lesson of the first year major students of English at Vietnam University of commerce Nguyễn Thu Hương (2006) A study on the use of pair work and group work activities in English speaking lessons for the first year students at National Economics University Brown, G and Yule, G (1983) Teaching the Spoken Language Cambridge University Press Brown, H D (2007) Principles of language learning and teaching New York: Pearson Education, Inc Brown, H D (2007) Principles of language learning and teaching New York: Pearson Education, Inc Brown, H.D (1994) Teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice hall Regents Burns, A., & Joyce, H (1997) Focus on speaking Sydney: National Center for English Language Teaching and Research Burns, A.C., & Gentry, J.W (1998) Motivating students to engage in experiential learning: a tension-to-learn theory Simulation and Gaming 10 Bygate, M (1987) Speaking (Language Teaching) Oxford University Press 11 Byrne, D (1896) Teaching Oral English Oxford: Longman 12 Byrne, D (1976) Teach Oral English London: Longman 13 Carrier, Michael & The Centre for British Teachers (1980) Take Games and Activities for the Language Learner (2d ed.) London: Nelson 14 Chaney, A.L & Burke, T.L (1998), Teaching Oral Communication in Grades K -8, Allyn and Bacon, Boston, pp 13 15 Davis, B.G.(1993) Tools for Teaching Jossey Bass Publishers 16 Doff, A (1988) Teaching English; A Train Course for Teachers Cambridge University Press 17 Harmer, J (1982) “What is Communicative?” in ELT Journal Oxford Dictionary of Current English (2009), Oxford University Press, pp 414 18 Harmer, J (1999), The Practice of ELT, Longman 19 İsmail ÇAKIR (2006) The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology - TOJET October 2006 ISSN: 1303-6521 volume Issue Article 20 Killen, R (2006) Effective teaching strategies- Lessons from research and practice Thomson Social science press 21 Larry K.Michaelsen, L.Dee Fink & Arletta Knight (1997) Designing Effective Group Activities: Lessons for Classroom Teaching and Faculty Development 22 Larsen-Freeman, D (2000) Techniques and principles in language teaching Oxford: Oxford University Press 23 Littlewood, W (1981) Communicative Language Teaching New York: Cambridge University Press 24 Metcalfe, S (1959) Building A Speech The Harcourt Press 25 Nancy Frey, Douglas Fisher & Sandi Everlove (2009) Productive Group Work: How to Engage Students, Build Teamwork, and Promote Understanding 26 Nunan, D (1989) Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 27 Nunan, D (1991) Language Teaching Method A Textbook for teachers Prentice Hall International 28 Nunan, D (2003), Practical English Language Teaching, Mc Graw-Hill, New York, pp 48 29 Richards, J., & Rodgers, T S (1986) Approaches and methods in language teaching: A description and analysis Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 30 Richards, J., & Rodgers, T S (1991) Demographic Characteristics of Cigrarette Smokers in the United States Social Biology 31 Rivers W.M (1968), Teaching Foreign – Language Skills, The University of Chicago Press 32 Ruben, B.D (1998) Communication and Human Behavior New York Mark Milan 33 Skrzynski, H “Advantages and disadvantages of pair work and group work in the class” from http://www.edukator.org.pl/2005a/work/work.html 34 Sheils, J (1993) Communication in the Modern Language Classroom Council of Europe Press 35 Stephen D Hattings (1993) Role play Cambridge: Blackwell Sheils, J (1993) Communication in the Modern Language Classroom Council of Europe Press 36 Tibbitts, F “Working In Pairs and Groups” Human Rights Education Associates 37 Ur, P (1996) A Course in Language Teaching, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 38 Van EK and Alexander (1980) A History of English Language Teaching Oxford, U.K: Oxford University Press 39 Wilkins, D A (1972) The Linguistics and Situational content of the common core in a unit/ credit system MS Strasbourg: Council of Europe University Press, Oxford APPENDICES Appendix 1: PRE-TREATMENT QUESTIONNAIRE (PHIẾU ĐIỀU TRA NGHIÊN CỨU) (For student/ Dành cho em học sinh) Bảng câu hỏi dùng việc nghiên cứu hoạt động nhóm học nói Tiếng Anh lớp 11 trường THPT số Bố Trạch- Tỉnh Quảng Bình Tơi đánh giá cao giúp đỡ em thơng qua việc hồn thành bảng câu hỏi Tất thông tin em cung cấp hữu dụng dành riêng cho mục đích nghiên cứu Cảm ơn em A General information: (Thơng tin cá nhân) • Name: • Age: • Gender (Giới tính): Male (Nam) Female (Nữ) • How long have you been learning English? (Bạn học Tiếng Anh bao lâu?): năm B Questionnaires: Question 1: How important is group work activities in English speaking lesson? a Very important b Important c Neutral d Not important Question 2: How often does your teacher use group work activities in English speaking lesson? a Always b Often c Sometime d Rarely Question 3: How much you like using group work activities in English speaking lesson? a Strongly like b Like c Neutral d Dislike Question 4: What forming group work your teacher often groups? a Student at the same table b Student sitting far from each other c Good students with the weak ones d Good students with the good ones (or weak students with the weak ones) Questions 5: Which of the following group work activities does your teacher often use in learning English speaking? Put a tick beside your answers: Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Improving speaking skill Encouraging spirit of cooperation Increasing students’ confidence Creating classroom atmosphere Giving more chances for students to present their opinions in front of class Questions 6: Do you have any difficulties when working in group? a Yes, often b Yes, sometimes c Yes, but rarely d No, never Strongly disagree Questions 7: What factors prevent your speaking skill in group work activities? a Lacking vocabulary and grammar to express ideas b Lacking confidence c Lacking background knowledge of the topic d Lacking teachers’ clear instructions Questions 8: What difficulties have you coped with group work activities? a Passive learning style b Partners’ use of mother tongue c Participants’ mixed level d Limited time Questions 9: What reasons discourage you from participating group activities? a Being worried about losing face b Being afraid of making mistake c Being not acquainted with speaking English in front of class d Being fearful of teachers’ criticism Questions 10: Who you like to work with for group work? a The students of the mixed English proficiency b The students of the same interest c Students sitting next to or near you d The students of the same sex Questions 11: Which of the following group work activities does your teacher often use in English speaking classes? And which you feel enjoyable? Group work activities Game Role play Planning Discussion Problem- solving Brainstorming Your teacher often uses You enjoy Question 12: What you think can be done to improve the effectiveness of using group work activities in English speaking classes? a Clear instructions for group work from the teacher b Enough supervision from the teachers c Suitable group activities d Enough assistance from the teachers THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR COOPERATION! Appendix 2: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS How important is group work activities in English speaking lessons? ( Tầm quan trọng hoạt động nhóm học nói Tiếng Anh?) Do you like the group activities conducted in your class? Why? ( Bạn có thích hoạt động nhóm dưa vào lớp học? Tại sao?) Which factors have affected your participation in group work activities in your English speaking classes? (Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến việc tham gia hoạt động nhóm em lớp học nói Tiếng Anh?) In your opinion, what should your teachers to improve the effectiveness of using group work activities in English speaking classes? (Theo bạn, giáo viên nên làm để cải thiện hiệu việc sử dụng hoạt động nhóm lớp Tiếng Anh?) THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR COOPERATION! Appendix 3: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHER This survey questionnaire is conducted to serve my study on “An investigation into the use of group work in teaching speaking skill to the 11 graders at Bo Trach High school in Quang Binh province” I would be grateful if you could provide accurate and frank answers, which will contribute much to the success of my research You can be sure that your name will not be identified in any data analysis Thank you in advance for your time and cooperation Question 1: What teaching methods are currently applied in your English speaking lesson? a Audio-lingual method b Grammar translation method c Direct method d Communicative Language Teaching method Question 2: How often you use group work activities in English speaking lesson? a Always b Often c Sometimes d Never Question 3: What is your opinion on important is group work activities in English speaking lesson? a Very important b Quite good c Both advantages and disadvantages d Not useful Question 4: The average number of the students in your English class is: a 30-40 b 40-45 c 45-50 d More than 50 Question 5: What are difficulties you have faced in organizing group work activities in English speaking classes? a Time management b Class management c Students’ mixed level d Students’ use of mother tongue Question 6: What factors prevent speaking skill of your students in using group work activities? a Shyness b Lack of vocabulary c Lack of background d Large sized class Question 7: At what stage that you use group work activities in your English speaking classes? a Pre speaking b While speaking c Post speaking d All above stage Question 8: Which of the following group work activities does your teacher often use in English speaking classes? Group work activities Game Role play Planning Discussion Problem- solving Brainstorming You often uses Question 9: What you often when the students work in group? a Sit at the teachers’ desk and observe b Praise and encourage students c Go around the class and support d Do nothing Question 10: What you think can be done to improve the effectiveness of group work activities? a Use suitable group work activities to students b Use different ways of implementing group work c Punish lazy students d Give clear instruction for group work THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR COOPERATION! Appendix 4: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS In your opinion, are group work activities necessary and important in English speaking classes? Why? How often you operate group work activities in speaking lessons? What activities you often ask your students to work in groups in speaking classes? What are your difficulties when you conduct group work activities in speaking lessons? What you often to engage students participate in group work activities more effective? Please give some suggestions to make an English speaking lesson more effective when using group work activities THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR COOPERATION! ...MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY -—o0o– TRỊNH LINH GIANG AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF GROUP WORK IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL TO THE 11 th GRADERS AT BO TRACH HIGH. .. group work activities Therefore, the author has decided to conduct the research: ? ?An investigation into the use of group work in teaching speaking skill to the 11 th graders at Bo Trach High school? ??... Principles for teaching speaking in CLT 2.4.4 Approaches to teaching speaking 14 14 15 17 19 19 21 23 23 2.5 Group work activities in language teaching and learning 2.5 .1 Definitions of group work

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  • Brainstorming: Brainstorming is creative thinking by a group of people designed to generate a number of ideas to solve a given problem. According to Brandes and Ginnis (1986:37): “It is important to get to the group that you are going to take seriously whatever it is that they say. We feel that the best way to do this is to write down absolutely everything they say, and censor nothing, even if it is silly…” For him, the fundamental aim of brainstorming is the enhancement of self- concept, which is a very subtle and effective method. It is good because every contribution is appreciated equally and no one feels dominated. All is towards a positive feeling in the group.

  • Planning:Planning is another type of group work which involves different activities of discussion, decision making, problem-solving and making a plan. This type has proved its benefits in communication enhancement. A variety of opportunities are provided for students to use their target language to discuss with other team members to come to an agreement for their plan. Nunan (1991) and Littlewood (1994) share more or less the same idea that asking students to make a plan when practicing a language means the teacher is generating chances for active participation, coordination, real practice situation and maximizing the sense of responsibility among students. More than that, confidence and language proficiency would be gradually improved. In fact, quite a good range of activities relating to planning have been used such as asking students to plan an event (birthday party, school music show, a class excursion, a trip ........), a meeting, a festival,..... And those activities are widely believed to be the best for group work to develop speaking skills.

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