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Organizing pairwork and groupwork in the context of high school classrooms at pham van nghi upper secondary school, nam dinh province: A case study
1 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES -o0o MAI THỊ HẰNG PHƯƠNG ORGANIZING PAIRWORK AND GROUPWORK IN THE CONTEXT OF HIGH SCHOOL CLASSROOMS AT PHAM VAN NGHI UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL, NAM DINH PROVINCE: A CASE STUDY (TỔ CHỨC HOẠT ĐỘNG TỔ VÀ HOẠT ĐỘNG NHÓM TRONG LỚP HỌC THPT TẠI TRƯỜNG PTTH PHẠM VĂN NGHỊ TỈNH NAM ĐỊNH: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU CÁ BIỆT) MINOR M.A THESIS Field: English Methodology Code: 601410 Hanoi, July 2008 2 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES -o0o MAI THỊ HẰNG PHƯƠNG ORGANIZING PAIRWORK AND GROUPWORK IN THE CONTEXT OF HIGH SCHOOL CLASSROOMS AT PHAM VAN NGHI UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL, NAM DINH PROVINCE: A CASE STUDY (TỔ CHỨC HOẠT ĐỘNG TỔ VÀ HOẠT ĐỘNG NHÓM TRONG LỚP HỌC THPT TẠI TRƯỜNG PTTH PHẠM VĂN NGHỊ TỈNH NAM ĐỊNH: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU CÁ BIỆT) MINOR M.A THESIS Field: English Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: TRẦN THỊ THANH, M.A i Hanoi, July 2008 CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT -***** - 3 I hereby certify that the thesis entitled ORGANIZING PAIRWORK AND GROUPWORK IN THE CONTEXT OF HIGH SCHOOL CLASSROOMS AT PHAM VAN NGHI UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL, NAM DINH PROVINCE: A CASE STUDY Is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at College of Foreign Languages, Hanoi National University, and that this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other upper secondary schools Signature: Date : 10/10/2008 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 4 In completion of my thesis, I have received generous advice and help from many lecturers whose lectures are very practical and useful Firstly, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor, M.A TRẦN THỊ THANH from Vietnam National University, Hanoi College of Foreign Language, for her close guidance, criticism, and her generous help in the process of completing my thesis My special thanks also go to all lecturers and the staff of the Department of Post Graduate Studies at Hanoi College of Foreign Language for their useful materials, guidance and enthusiasm during my course of study I really wish to thank all my colleagues and my students at my school - PHAM VAN NGHI upper secondary school- for their kind cooperation in giving valuable information Finally, I owe my deep thanks to my dear family, specially my husband, my little daughter and my friends who always stand for me with their consideration and encouragement Mai Thị Hằng Phương ii5i ABSTRACT Learning language well depends on many factors such as personal characteristics, the structure of the native and target languages, opportunities for communicating with other people and with native speakers For students at schools, these factors can only work well with the help of the teachers using different techniques, and approaches in language teaching In communicative language teaching, students have more chances practicing in the target language through different classroom activities, among them pair work and group work appear to be the most appropriate application In my school, PHAM VAN NGHI upper secondary school in Y YEN district, NAM DINH province, pairwork and group work are used widely in foreign language classes However, it seems that the using of these activities in the school is not very effective This research focuses on pointing out how to organize pair work and groupwork more effectively after investigating how these activities are used in our school by collecting data through class observation, and analyzing the questionanaire data Some evaluation will be drawn and some suggestions for the future use of these activities will be made 6iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Candidate’s statement…………………………………………………… …………… i Acknowledgement……………………………………… …………………………… ii Abstract………………………………………………… ……………….………… .iii Table of contents………………………………………… …………………………… iv Appendix……………………………………………………… …………………… vi List of abbreviations and tables………………………………… …………………… vii Part A: INTRODUCTION 1 1 Rationale 1 2 Aims of the study 1 3 Scope of the study 1 4 Research questions of the study 2 5 Methods of study 2 6 Design of study 2 Part B: DEVELOPMENT 4 CHAPTER 1 : LITERATURE REVIEW 4 1.1 Communicative approach to language teachers 4 1.1.1 What is meant by Communication? .4 1.1.2 Communicative Language Teaching 5 1.1.2.1 Nature of Communicative Language Teaching 5 1.1.2.2 The Techniques of Communicative Language Teaching 5 1.2 Definition of pair work and group work 6 1.3 Advantages and disadvantages of pair and group work 7 1.3.1 The advantages of pairwork and groupwork 7 1.3.2 Disadvantages 8 1.4 How to organize pair work and group work : 9 1.4.1 Preparation for group work: 9 1.4.2 Steps of organizing pair work and group work : 11 1.5 Difficulties in organizing pair work and group work and suggested solutions .12 1.5.1 Difficulties : 12 7v 1.5.2 Solution : 13 CHAPTER 2 : PRACTICAL RESEARCH .14 2.1 Background of the study 14 2.1.1 Description of the English syllabus in PVN school .14 2.1.2 Description of the students at PVN school 14 2.1.3 Description of the teachers at the PVN 15 2.1.4 Description of physical setting .15 2.2 Design and methodology 16 2.2.1 The participants 16 2.2.2 Research instruments 16 2.2.3 Data analysis 17 2.3 Presentation of statistical results .17 2.3.1 Questionnaires 17 2.3.2 Classroom observation 25 2.3.3 Examples of pair work and group work .26 CHAPTER 3 : FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS 30 3.1 FINDINGS 30 3.1.1 How teachers at PVN school organize pairwork and groupwork 30 3.1.2 Difficulties from teachers .32 3.1.3 Difficulties from students .32 3.1.3 Objective factors 33 3.2 SUGGESTIONS .33 3.2.1 General suggestions .33 3.2.2 Some suggested exercises in working in pair and group .35 Part C : CONCLUSION .38 1 Summary of the study 38 2 Limitations of the study .39 3 Suggestions for further study .39 REFERENCES 40 8 Part A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale English, nowadays, is widely taught from primary school to university, even at English centers through out the country People learn English for their work or for their higher study However, the results of the English courses are not very good Vietnamese teachers of English have not known how to apply the teaching method in effective ways They are lack of knowledge, teaching aid, time, and money to teach four language skills: listening skill, speaking skill, reading skill and writing skill Like many teachers in the schools of Vietnam, teachers of English at PVN upper secondary school are faced with a common problem: students’ poor participation in activities in the classroom In fact, there are a variety of reasons for this poor participation, and therefore finding appropriate techniques and methods for teaching English effectively to students at PVN upper secondary school requires a long serious research This led me the choice of the study “organizing pair work and groupwork in the context of high school classrooms at PVN upper secondary school” with the hope of investigating into ways to organize pairwork and groupwork more effectively in English classes My study only focuses on how to organize pairwork and groupwork more effectively for students at PVN upper secondary school in NAM DINH 2 Aims of study The study is aimed at: Understanding the theoretical background of classroom activities: pairwork and groupwork to improve students’ language skills Investigating the use of pair and group work in PVN upper secondary school- a school located in Y Yen district, Nam Dinh province Helping teachers at PVN upper secondary school to find out effective technique to organize pairwork and groupwork with the hope of helping them in teaching English 3 Scope of the study To improve four skills for students at PVN upper secondary school, the teachers can make use of various techniques and a number of things should be done However, the 9 researcher only intends to draw a brief overview of pairwork and groupwork in classes at PVN upper secondary school and to find out the ways to organize pairwork and groupwork more effectively 4 Research questions of the study This study was aimed to answer the following research questions: 1 How do the teachers in PVN high school use pair and group work? And how often? 2 Is that a suitable way of teaching in PVN school? Why? 3.How to organize pairwork and groupwork in English class more effectively for improving four skills to students at PVN upper secondary school? 5 Methods of study To realize the aims of the study, a case study was used.The theoretical background of the study comes from many published books written by different authors on language teaching and language acquisition The data collected for the study came from two sources: the students and the English teachers at PVN upper secondary school (8 English teachers and 120 students) by making survey questionnaires and observation In this research, quantitative method is used, too All comments, remarks, recommendations assumption and conclusion provided in the study based on the analysis of the statistics from the survey questionnaires conducted with students and teachers of PVN upper secondary school The study is also based on a qualitative method with the author’s own experience and observation during 6 years of teaching English 6 Design of study This study consists of 3 parts: Part A: Introduction which presents the rationale, the aims, scope, the method and design of the study The research questions are also mentioned in this part Part B: Development which consists of 3 chapters: Chapter 1: Literature Review - reviews the theory about CLT, and pairwork and groupwork Chapter 2: Practical Research –provides an analysis on the current situation of using pairwork and groupwork in teaching and learning English at PVN upper secondary school Data collection and analysis are also presented in this chapter Chapter 3: Findings and Suggestions - focuses on how the teachers at PVN upper secondary school organized pairwork and groupwork and difficulties facing them and their 10 students in carrying out these activities and some suggestions for the teachers to organize pair work and groupwork more effectively Part C: Conclusion summarizes all the key issues as well as the limitations of the study and some suggestions for further study ... SCHOOL CLASSROOMS AT PHAM VAN NGHI UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL, NAM DINH PROVINCE: A CASE STUDY Is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at College of Foreign Languages,... choice of the study ? ?organizing pair work and groupwork in the context of high school classrooms at PVN upper secondary school? ?? with the hope of investigating into ways to organize pairwork and groupwork. .. related to the study : Communicative approach to language teaching, and pairwork and groupwork in language teaching and learning 1.1 Communicative approach to language teaching 1.1.1 What is meant by