VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  TRAN QUYNH HUONG A STUDY ON APPLYING GROUP WORK TO INCREASE QUALITY AND QUANTITY OF STUDENTS’ LANGUAGE USE AT HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIFTED STUDENTS NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC ÁP DUNG HOẠT ĐỘNG NHÓM NHẰM TĂNG CƯỜNG VIỆC SỬ DỤNG TIẾNG ANH Ở TRƯƠNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG CHUYÊN SƯ PHẠM- ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM HÀ NỘI MINOR M.A THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Hà Nội - 2013 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  TRAN QUYNH HUONG A STUDY ON APPLYING GROUP WORK TO INCREASE QUALITY AND QUANTITY OF STUDENTS’ LANGUAGE USE AT HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIFTED STUDENTS NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC ÁP DUNG HOẠT ĐỘNG NHÓM NHẰM TĂNG CƯỜNG VIỆC SỬ DỤNG TIẾNG ANH Ở TRƯƠNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG CHUYÊN SƯ PHẠM- ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM HÀ NỘI Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60.14.10 Supervisor: Do Thi Mai Thanh Hà Nội - 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION (1) Rationale for the study……………………………………………1 (2) Aims of the study …………………………………………………2 (3) Scope of the study ……………………………………………… (4) Methods of the study …………………………………………… (5) An overview of the rest of the paper …………………………… PART B: DEVELOPMENT………………………………………… CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………… 1.1 Group work in the History of ELT…………………………… 1.2 Concept of group work ……………………………….……… 1.2.1 Group ……………………………………………….…….9 1.2.2 Group work ………………………………………… …10 1.3 Classification of group work ………………………………… 10 1.4 Advantages and disadvantages of Group work …………… 11 1.5 Features of a good group work …………………………… 12 1.5.1 Positive Interdependence……………………………… 13 1.5.2 Individual and group accountability …………………….14 1.5.3 Face to face promotive interaction ………………… 15 1.5.4 Interpersonal and small group skills …………………….15 1.5.5 Group Processing …………………………………… 16 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ………………………………… 17 2.1 Data collection ………………………………………………… 17 2.1.1 Participants ………………………………………………… 17 2.1.2 Data collection instruments ……………….……………… 17 2.1.2.1 Questionnaire ……………………………………………17 2.1.2.2 Interview ……………………………………………… 18 2.1.3 Data collection procedure ………………………………… 18 2.2 Data analysis …………………………………………………….19 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION………………………21 3.1 Research question 1…………………………………………… 21 3.2 Research question ………………………………………… 22 3.2.1 Students‟ cooperation in Group activities in class ………… 22 3.2.2 Students‟ Communicative proficiencies after Group work… 28 3.3 Research question …………………………………………… 30 PART C: CONCLUSION ……………………… ………………….32 Recapitulation……………… ……………… ……………… 32 Pedagogical suggestions ……………………………………… 33 Limitations of the study ……………………………………… 35 Suggestions for further studies ………………………………… 36 Contribution of the research …………………………………… 36 REFERENCES APPENDICES LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Frequency of Group work ……………………… …… 21 Figure Overall picture of group members‟ accountability ……… 24 Figure Students‟ accountability to Group work……………………24 Figure Students‟ improvement in Group work skill…………… 27 Figure Students improvement in separate skills after GW……….28 PART A: INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the problem and the rationale for the study, together with the aims, objectives and the scope of the whole paper are clearly stated and explained Above all, this chapter also builds the research questions to work as clear guidelines for the whole research Rationale for the study: According to the statistics issued by the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training in 2003, English was widely chosen by 98.5% of Vietnamese secondary students as their foreign language This enormous proportion, however, reflects the considerable demand for English rather than the quality of language learning and teaching itself In fact, English teaching and learning in Vietnam have confronted a number of obstacles, one of which is identified by as students‟ low motivation and limited opportunities to practise communicating in the target language Michael, H, L & Patricia, A P., (1985) declared that “the use of group work in classroom second language learning has been supported by sound pedagogical arguments” (p.207) In other words, no one can deny the effectiveness of group work in language teaching Therefore, following this educational trend, teachers and professors are trying to extensively exploit group work in teaching with the aim of “promoting communicative language skills for the largest number of students in class” (Shevin et al., 1994, cited by Richard & Roger, 2001) However, in our country, Grammar translation methods have been applied in language learning for many years, which leads to students‟ limited group work, presentation skills and inactive learning principles This, in fact, turns out to be a challenge for the applied group work to achieve their original intentions Thus whether these Group activities can reach their intentional effectiveness is still a big question mark for not only the educationists but also the authority Students who directly take part in those group activities can help answer this question Inspired by this fact, the researcher decides to conduct “A study on applying Group work to enhance quality and quantity of language use in High School for Gifted Students” Aims of the study: This study is conducted to figure out how often group work is conducted in classes of High school for Gifted Students In addition, the research is expected to investigate into the effectiveness of Group work in language classroom With these two aims, this research is carried on to fulfill the following research questions: How are group activities applied in English lessons? How effective is the group work applied in English lessons? What are the solutions to improve group work activities in English classes? Scope of the study First of all, both quality and quantity of language use which students can enhance after Group work activities in class are too broad for this smallscaled research; therefore, this study does not cover all the features of group work but only the most important features in the light of Cooperative learning which can help group work foster cooperation among students to get the highest benefits Second, this study plays a role of collecting and analyzing the feedback from students, who directly work with Group work for further study in the future Last but not least, it is noteworthy that the samples of the study were restricted to classes of only one senior secondary school in Hanoi, namely High school for Gifted Students Nevertheless, the students would be deliberately chosen so that the survey results would be as highly representative of the whole picture of language learning and teaching as possible Methodology of the study: 4.1 Data collection methods: The combination of the two data collecting methods: qualitative and quantitative and the one of two data collecting instruments: questionnaire and interview were fully employed in this study Going into more detailed, a set of questionnaire was delivered to 276 students so that the data would be collected from different viewpoints Moreover, after this survey, some semi-structured interviews were applied to get further information from students who had finished the questionnaires in the previous stage All of the participants here would be chosen in light of the „stratified random sampling‟ with the aim of varying the data of different kinds of students As for the procedure, the set of questionnaire was distributed to students to see whether the textbook content can meet students‟ needs and levels Then, after collecting the surveying data, the interview questions were revised to ask for more information which had not been clearly stated in the questionnaire Then, the in-depth interviews would be applied to get further information of those students 4.2 Data analysis methods: The collected data were utilised to answer all three research questions Then, for each research question, data would be summarized into tables and charts to facilitate the synthesis and generalization of the data In addition, the most important details in the semi-interview were clearly quoted to illustrate the analysis of data An overview of the rest of the paper The rest of the paper includes five chapters as follows: Chapter – Literature review – provides the background of the study, including definitions of key concepts, description of the context of applying group work and discussions of related studies Chapter – Methodology – describes the participants and instruments of the study, as well as the procedure employed to carry out the research Chapter – Data analysis and discussion – presents, analyzes and discusses the findings that the researcher found out from the data collected according to the two research questions Chapter – Conclusion – summarizes the main issues discussed in the paper, the limitations of the research, several suggestions for group work adaptation and further studies Following this chapter are the Bibliography and Appendices Summary In this part, the researcher has elaborated on these following points: Rationale for the study Aims and objectives of the study Scope of the study Methodology of the study An overview of the rest of the paper To sum up, these elaborations have not only justified the major contents and structure of the study but will also work as the guidelines for the rest of the paper the questions on the card If they don‟t know the answer, teacher should ask them to facilitate a short discussion with the class to get the answer This activity encourages quiet students to be more active, provides thinking time to all students, and allows all students to be involved Circling Up: Teacher needs to arrange desks or groups of desks into a circle for discussion If there are multiple topics to be discussed, teacher should arrange desks into groups and the topic (or students) can rotate through the groups With this activity, face to face interaction among students is encouraged, so they talk to each other, not to the teacher Provided Questions: Teacher provides a list of possible discussion questions to students before class time Teacher should encourage students to read the questions and be prepared to discuss in class This activity is useful in the way that it provides thinking time, allows deeper discussion as well as provides a focused direction for discussion and taps into different learning styles Thinking about topics and format of the task: Discussion topics can be anything from current events to favorite foods Teacher should choose topics which you are confident your students will find interesting However, teacher should also bear in mind to consider directing a discussion about unfamiliar or difficult topics, which will not only give oral communication practice, but will help students learn more about other aspects of life, enhance their vocabulary as well as background knowledge With regard to the format of discussion, there are a variety of different types of discussions that occur naturally and which teacher can recreate in the classroom These include discussions where the participants have to:  Make decisions (e.g decide who to invite to a party and where to seat them)  Give and / or share their opinions on a given topic (e.g discussing beliefs about the effectiveness of capital punishment)  Create something (e.g plan and make a poster as a medium for feedback on a language course)  Solve a problem (e.g discussing the situations behind a series of logic problems) Depending on the topics discussed and students‟ preferences, teacher can choose the appropriate format of the task, so that students feel interested and willing to participate in interaction in class Limitations of the study: Within its scope, the study can have several unavoidable limitations There are only 276 students which are involved in the study, which turns out to be a considerable limitation when compared to the large number of high schools in Vietnam in general and Hanoi in specific Nevertheless, the researcher‟ flexibility and serious work in collecting and analyzing collected data partly compensate for these shortcomings and help ensure the validity of the study as a whole Suggestions for further studies: Although group work is not a new term in research field, evaluating the effectiveness of Group work can still offer other researchers large rooms for further studies Those who desire to investigate into this field could delve into the topic by expanding and varying the surveying population for better representatives Larger sample of students would provide more objective evaluation over the Group works as well as more various ways of bettering group works Moreover, future research can go into different path by surveying schools with better facilities and class size, which can help omit the outside difficulties to investigate more thoroughly into the nature of these Group works In addition, this study depends much on students‟ perceptions; therefore, it leaves a big gap for further research which evidences the effectiveness of these Group works through careful and permanent observations for the whole year This can help avoid the invalidity of the study results due to the fact that learning in class is often totally different with researchers‟ observations Contribution of the research Overall, the research could be considerably helpful for teachers, as well as researchers working on the related studies As for teachers, the study provides teachers with some suggestions and ideas so that they could take their own initiatives to effectively exploit and adapt group work according to their own classroom situations Finally, the researchers who happen to develop an interest in this topic or language teaching and learning of EFL could certainly rely on this research to find reliable and useful information for their related studies in the future REFERENCES Biehler (1997), Psychology apllied to teaching Retrieved March 8, 2010 from http://college.cengage.com/education/pbl/tc/coop.html Jacobs, G M & Ball, J (1996) An investigation of the structure of group activities in ELT coursebooks ELT journal, 50(2) Retrieved January 17, 2012 from database Johnson, D., Johnson, R.& Holubec, E (1998) Cooperation in the classroom Boston: Allyn and Bacon Johnson, D., Johnson, R.& Holubec, E (1998) Cooperative Learning Retrieved March 2, 2012 from http://www.co- operation.org/pages/cl.html 10.Kagan, S (1999) Positive Interdependence Kagan Online Magazine Retrieved March 2, 2012 from http://www.kaganonline.com/KaganClub/FreeArticles/ASK04.html 11.Longman dictionary of Contemporary English (4th ed.) (2003) Longman publisher 12.Longman dictionary of Contemporary English (5th ed.) (2009) Longman publisher 13.Martine, L (2005) Advantages and Disadvantages of using Small Group work and Pair work in the classroom Retrieved January 16, 2010 from http://www.pdfgeni.com/book/group-work-pdf.html 14.Michael, H, L & Patricia, A P., (1985) Group work, interlanguage talk and second language acquisition TESOL Quarterly, Vol 9, No Retrieved March 2, 2012 from course1.winona.edu/ /groupwork_interlanguagetalkandL2acquisition pdf 15.Nadz, D (2010) The Grammar Translation Method Retrieved March 1, 2012 from http://findouttheinspiration.blogspot.com/2012/02/grammartranslation-method.html 16.Oxford Advanced Leaner‟s Dictionary (6th ed.) (2000) Oxford: Oxford University Press 17.Picciotto, H (2002) Group work Retrieved January 16, 2012 from http://www.pdfgeni.com/book/group-work-pdf.html 18.Richard J C & Rodgers, T S., (2001) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 19.Roger, T and David, W J (1988) Cooperative Learning Retrieved February 28th, 2012 from http://www.co- operation.org/pages/overviewpaper.html 20.To T H., Nguyen, T M H & Nguyen, T T M (2008) ELT Methodology I Hanoi: Department of English, HULIS APPENDICES Appendix 1: Survey questionnaire Appendix 2: Câu hỏi khảo sát Appendix 3: Interview questions Appendix 4: Câu hỏi vấn Appendix SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE I am Tran Quynh Huong, a student of English Department, HULIS, VNU I am doing a research paper investigating into “Group work in teaching English at High School for Gifted Students” This questionnaire is designed as a part of my study I hereby guarantee that all of the required information will be dealt with anonymously and only used for research purpose Thank you all for your effort in doing this questionnaire! I Background: Gender:  Male  Female Have you ever participated in group work before coming to the grade 10?  Yes  No II Group work in class: How often does your teacher conduct group work in English class? A Always (>= times/each lesson) (Go to question 2) B Often (2 times/ one week) (Go to question 3) C Sometimes (1 times/ 2-3 weeks) (Go to question 3) D Occasionally (1 times/ 2-3 weeks) (Go to question 3) How many group works are conducted in each skill? In Speaking: … group work/ lesson In Listening: … group work/ lesson In Writing: … group work/ lesson In Reading: … group work/ lesson How many group works are conducted in each skill? In Speaking: … Lesson(s)/ group work In Listening: … Lesson(s)/ group work In Writing: … Lesson(s)/ group work In Reading: … Lesson(s)/ group work Your groups often have A students B 3-4 students C 5-7 students D > students Your groups work together for the whole school year or in separate lessons? A For the whole year B Tùy tiết học Do the group works in your class motivate you to cooperate with your peers?  Yes  No Have your groups ever left the assigned work unfinished?  Yes  No How group members often cooperate in your groups? (Write number 1-3 for “most happen” to “least happen”, respectively) A All the group members contribute to the assigned work B Only some students work when some others nothing C Only one student finishes all the work of group and then answer teacher‟s questions What you often in groups? A Take part in group work enthusiastically B Work but sometimes chat with friends C Do other work without contributing to group work 10 Have you ever refused to take part in the group work conducted in your class?  Yes 11  No If you not participate in group work, what is your reason? A Because I can finish all the work by myself without the help from peers B Because my peers can the work without me C Other reasons: …………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… 12 After working in groups, you learn anything (related to language, skills, etc.) from your peers? Knowledge Yes No Related to linguistics (grammar, vocabulary, etc.) Related to communicative skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing) 13 Which language you often use more when taking part in group work?  English 14  Vietnamese Can the group work activities help you improve your communicative competences (reading, listening, speaking, writing) as well as small group skills? Skill Make dramatic improvement Small group skills Listening Speaking Reading Writing Make little improvement Make no improvements Appendix CÂU HỎI KHẢO SÁT Tên Trần Quỳnh Hương, sinh viên khoa Ngơn ngữ Văn Hóa Anh Mỹ- Đại học Ngoại Ngữ- Đại học Quốc Gia Hà Nội Tôi làm luận văn nghiên cứu về“họat đơng nhóm dạy học Tiếng Anh trường Chuyên Sư Phạm- Đại học Sư Phạm Hà Nội ”” Bản câu hỏi thiết kế phần luận văn Tôi xin đảm bảo tất thông tin em điền sử dụng mục đích nghiên cứu danh tính em đảm bảo giữ bí mật Thật cảm ơn em nhiều! I Thơng tin cá nhân: Giới tính:  Nữ  Nam Trước vào trương Chuyên Sư Phạm em tham gia hoạt động nhóm chưa?  Rồi  chưa II Hoạt động nhóm lớp tiếng Anh: Cô giáo em tổ chức hoạt động nhóm lớp lần? A Thường xuyên (>=1 hoạt động/ tiết) (Trả lời tiếp câu 2) B Thường thường (1-2 hoạt động/ tuần) (Trả lời tiếp câu 3) C Thỉnh thoảng (1 hoạt động/ tuần) (Trả lời tiếp câu 3) D Hiếm (1 hoạt động/ 3-4 tuần) (Trả lời tiếp câu 3) Trung bình có hoạt đơng nhóm tổ chức kỹ năng? Mơn Nói (Speaking): hoạt động/ tiết Môn Nghe (Listening): hoạt động/ tiết Môn Đọc (Reading): hoạt động/ tiết Môn Viết (writing): hoạt động/ tiết Trung bình có hoạt đơng nhóm tổ chức kỹ năng? Mơn Nói (Speaking): … tiết/ hoạt động Môn Nghe (Listening): … tiết/ hoạt động Môn Đọc (Reading): … tiết/ hoạt động Môn Viết (writing): … tiết/ hoạt động Nhóm em thường làm việc gồm có A người B 3-4 người C 5-7 người D > người Nhóm em thường tổ chức năm hay tiết học nhóm khác nhau? A năm B Tùy tiết học Hoạt động nhóm lớp có khuyến khích em hợp tác bạn khơng?  Có  Khơng Đã nhóm em khơng hồn thành tập giao hay chưa?  Rồi  Chưa Trong nhóm em, bạn thường hợp tác nào? (Đánh số từ 1-3 cho việc “hay xảy nhất” “ít xảy ra”) A Tất thành viên có trách nhiệm với cơng việc giao B Chỉ số bạn chăm làm thôi, số bạn khác khơng làm C Chỉ học sinh làm Em thường làm nhóm giao? A Tham gia tích cực vào cơng việc nhóm B Có tham gia chat với bạn khác C Khơng làm cả, ngồi chơi thơi 10 Đã có lần khơng tham gia vào cơng việc nhóm chưa?  Rồi  Chưa 11 Nếu khơng tham gia vào cơng việc nhóm lý em gì? A Bởi em tự làm khơng cần bạn làm B Bởi bạn hồn thành cơng việc dù khơng có em C Lý khác: …………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… 12 Sau làm nhóm với bạn, em có học từ bạn khơng? Kiến thức Có Khơng Liên quan đến ngơn ngữ (từ mới, ngữ pháp, etc.) Liên quan đến kỹ (nghe, nói, đọc, viết) 13 Trong lúc tham gia hoạt động nhóm em hay dung ngơn ngữ hơn?  Tiếng Anh  Tiếng Việt 14 Các hoạt động nhóm tổ chức lớp có giúp em phát triển lực hoạt động nhóm lực giao tiếp (nghe, nói, đọc, viết) nào? Kỹ Nghe Nói Đọc Viết Khơng có chuyển biến Chẳng tiến thêm nhiều Kỹ hoạt động nhóm Tiến đáng kể chút Appendix INTERVIEW QUESTIONS I Group work conducted in class: Are Group activities often conducted in your class? in which skills these group activites take place the most? Can you describe the most popular Group activity conducted in your English lessons? II Effectiveness of Group work: Do you like the group activities conducted in you class? Do you often participate in these group activities enthusiastically? Have you ever refused to participate? What are your reasons? Do you learn anything from these Group activities? From your group members or from yourself? What are your suggestions to improve the effectiveness of Group work? Appendix CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN I Chỉnh sửa áp dụng hoạt động nhóm lớp: Lớp em có hay tổ chức hoạt động nhóm/ cặp tiếng Anh khơng? Các hoạt động nhóm hay tổ chức vào kỹ nhất? Em miêu tả hoạt động nhóm hay tổ chức lớp em II hiệu hoạt động nhóm: Em có thích hoạt động nhóm tổ chức lớp em khơng? em có tham gia tích cực vào hoạt động nhóm khơng? Đã xảy tình em không muốn tham gia tham gia vào hoạt động nhóm lớp chưa? Nếu có nào? Tại sao? (do tình đặt hay khả em không tham gia hay lý khác?) Em có học nhiều từ hoạt động nhóm không? Từ bạn hay tự thân em Em có gợi ý cho thày để tăng hiệu làm việc nhóm khác không? ...VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  TRAN QUYNH HUONG A STUDY ON APPLYING GROUP WORK TO INCREASE QUALITY AND QUANTITY. .. even before English totally overthrew Latin to become the international language in the early 19th century, the Grammar Translation Method had become a standard and dominant approach in Language. .. proportion, however, reflects the considerable demand for English rather than the quality of language learning and teaching itself In fact, English teaching and learning in Vietnam have confronted a