Students’ perspectives on the use of socratic seminar in a speaking class at Hanoi Pedagogical University 2

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2 FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES PHẠM TRUNG KIÊN STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES ON THE USE OF SOCRATIC SEMINAR IN A SPEAKING CLASS AT HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2 FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

PHẠM TRUNG KIÊN

STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES ON THE USE OF SOCRATIC

SEMINAR IN A SPEAKING CLASS AT HANOI

PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT OF

THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS IN ENGLISH

HANOI, 2019

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2 FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

PHẠM TRUNG KIÊN

STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES ON THE USE OF SOCRATIC

SEMINAR IN A SPEAKING CLASS AT HANOI

PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT OF

THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS IN ENGLISH

Supervisor

Le Thi Phuong Thao M.A

HANOI, 2019

Date submitted: 9 May, 2019

Student

Pham Trung Kien

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, my heartfelt appreciation goes to my admirable supervisor, Ms Lê Thị Phương Thảo, for her continuous support and encouragement when I met obstacles during the journey Thanks to her valuable comments and kind words, I have found the motivation to complete the thesis which I had had intention to give up on The completion of this work would not have been possible without her expert advice, close attention and unswerving guidance

Secondly, my thanks go to my family for encouraging me to continue with the thesis I owe my special thanks to my parents: Đỗ Thị Nga and Phạm Văn Miên, for their emotional and material sacrifices as well as their understanding and unconditional support

Finally, I owe thanks to many people who helped me and encouraged me during my study My special thanks to Mr Phan Thúc Định for his suggestions for data analysis I am specially thankful to all the students of class K43- English Language Teaching for their support and enthusiasm; to my special friends: Hoàng Thị Thu Nga, Trần Đình Xuân; to all my best friends at university: Trà Giang, Phương Linh, Vĩnh Thuỵ, Minh Phương, Thu Hiến for endless encouragement

ABSTRACT

This study is an action research which investigates the effectiveness of the use of Socratic Seminar in a speaking class by exploring how it is perceived by students The target group was twenty-five second-year students at a university

in Vietnam The study was conducted in two cycles Data were collected by questionnaires, group interviews, video-based observation The results showed that the technique was positively perceived by students The technique, as welcomed by the students, created a more lively new learning environment when compared to the traditional one Moreover, the use of Socratic Seminar was believed to have improved their vocabulary, pronunciation, and fluency while students were uncertain about the use of Socratic Seminar could help them improve their accuracy Students also showed their agreement with the researcher that they were confident to speak and offered more opportunities to talk Furthermore, students’ autonomy in learning was promoted when they were put in charge of their learning It became evident that the use of Socratic Seminar could somewhat improve students’ speaking skills The use of Socratic Seminar in language teaching is expected to be a promising area for researchers

to figure out the new discoveries

Key words: Socratic Seminar, speaking skills, effectiveness, positive

attitude, promising area

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Statement of Authorship………

Acknowledgments.………

Abstract.………

Table of contents.………

List of tables, figures and abbreviations.………

PART A INTRODUCTION 1 Statement and Rationale for the study.………

2 Aim of the study and research question………

3 Methods of the study……… ………

4 Scope of the study……… ………

5 Significance of the study………

6 Organization of the study………

PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I LITERATURE REVIEW 1 Socratic Seminar………

1.1 Definition ………

1.2 The procedure of Socratic Seminar ………

1.3 Types of questions used in Socratic Seminar………

1.4 Roles of Socratic Seminar in education ………

1.5 Some problems might occur during the progress of a Socratic Seminar………

2 Speaking teaching………

2.1 Definition of speaking skill………

2.2 The importance of speaking skill………

2.3 Teaching and learning speaking skill………

2.4 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity………

2.5 Speaking problems………

3 Socratic Seminar in teaching and learning speaking skills…………

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4 Teacher and students’ interaction in Socratic Seminar………

5 Related research worldwide………

6 Action research………

6.1 Definition………

6.2 Characteristics of action research………

6.3 Steps in action research………

6.4 Rationale for choosing action research………

CHAPTER II METHODOLOGY 1 Objectives of the study………

2 Participants………

3 Data collection………

4 Action Research Design………

5 Summary………

CHAPTER III ACTION AND OUTCOMES OF RESEARCH CYCLE ONE 1 Planning stage………

2 Action and Observation stage………

3 Students’ responses from the first interview………

4 Reflection on research………

5 Summary………

CHAPTER IV ACTION AND OUTCOMES OF RESEARCH CYCLE TWO 1 Planning stage………

2 Action and Observation stage………

3 Reflection on changes………

4 Students’ responses from the second interview………

5 Results from survey………

6 Summary ………

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PART C CONCLUSION

1 Summary of major findings………

2 Recommendations………

3 Limitations………

4 Suggestions for further study………

References……… …………

Appendices Appendix A: Interview Guidelines………

Appendix B: Interview Sample………

Appendix C: Students’ questionnaire 1………

Appendix D: Students’ questionnaire 2………

Appendix E: Sample of a text used in the seminar (Cycle 1)………

Appendix F: Sample of a text used in the seminar (Cycle 2)………

Appendix G: Socratic Seminar Plan (Cycle 1)………

Appendix H: Socratic Seminar Plan (Cycle 2).………

Appendix I: Sample of Class Observation.………

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LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS List of tables:

Table 1.1 Students’ scores in the preceding term

Table 1.2 The content in the textbook “Speak Out, Upper- Intermediate” is

difficult for me

Table 1.3 The speaking activities in the textbook “Speak Out, Upper-

Intermediate” are boring

Table 1.4 I was afraid of speaking in front of the class

Table 1.5 My vocabulary is not good

Table 1.6 My pronunciation is not good

Table 1.7 I do not have enough opportunities to speak in the class

Table 2.1 After participating in the Socratic Seminars, my pronunciation is

Table 2.6 After participating in the Socratic Seminars, I feel more confident to

speak in front of the class

Table 2.7 After participating in the Socratic Seminars, I can express my

opinions in a respectful manner

Table 2.8 After participating in the Socratic Seminars, I exchange more ideas

Table 2.11 I would like my teacher to use Socratic Seminars instead of

traditional methods in the speaking class

PART A INTRODUCTION

This chapter introduces the study by outlining the statement of the problem, the rationale for the study, the significance and contribution of the study, the research questions and purposes, the methodology adopted, and the structure of the thesis

1 Statement of the problem and Rationale for the study

Speaking is considered to be the fundamental skill to acquire Nunan (1991) states that for most people, mastering speaking skill is the single most important aspect of learning a second or foreign language, and success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in language

Lawtie (2004) explains why speaking skill should be taught in classroom The first reason is that many students equate being able to speak a language as knowing the language and, therefore, view learning the language as learning how to speak the language Therefore, if students do not learn how to speak or

do not get any opportunity to speak in the language classroom they may soon get demotivated and lose interest in learning Second, speaking is fundamental

to human communication If the goal of teaching language is to enable students

to communicate in English, then speaking skills should be taught and practiced

in the language classroom Therefore, EFL learners’ speaking needs to be the focus of attention in the EFL teaching contexts (Albino, 2017)

Speaking skill, however, is a difficult one to acquire because it requires more than the knowledge of grammatical and semantic rules (Kang Shumin, 2002) It requires students to be able to communicate properly in social interactions Moreover, the process of teaching speaking exists some problems Lawtie (2004) states that there are three problems identified in speaking class: (1) Students do not want to talk or say anything because they are afraid of making mistakes or because they are not interested in the topic, (2) When

students work in pairs or groups, they just end up chatting in their own language and (3) When all the students speak together, it will be too noisy and out of hand, sometimes the teacher loses control of the classroom This may affect teacher-student interaction in a negative way and make the lesson less interesting

Moreover, training students how to communicate effectively is not primarily emphasized According to Gorkaltseva, Gozhinand Nagel (2015), English in Russia, though being a compulsory subject at universities, was not actually taught for the sake of verbal discourse and speaking English was not the primary focus at universities Similarly, in the Republic of Angola, Albino (2017) claimed that English language was taught mainly for the purpose of examinations Although the students passed their exam, their oral communication was still a big problem to concern because they could not express their ideas fluently Noomura (2013) asserts that the students were passive learners; they were shy to speak English with their classmates They lacked opportunities to use English in their daily life They lack motivation and responsibilities for their own learning in the unchallenging English classrooms

In Vietnamese context, it is widely acknowledged that “oral communicative competence of Vietnamese learners is far from expectation at the completion of university education” (Hao, 2017) Hong (2006) also shows that “the poor quality of teaching speaking at a university in Vietnam results in a large number of graduates who have difficulty with communicating English” Although the government has prioritized the goal that the majority of students will be able to use English competently by 2020 and many teachers of English have adopted a variety of methods to encourage students to learn English, it is important to have appropriate techniques that can help students to participate in the class more actively and develop their independent learning style At Hanoi Pedagogical University 2, it is necessary to have such techniques to help students to improve their speaking skill when the goal of teaching speaking for

second-year students is that students will be able to communicate at intermediate level Among innovative approaches, the Socratic seminar emerges

upper-as a promising alternative to encourage partnership between teaching, learning and research in the field of the arts, humanities and social sciences (Blessinger and Carfora, 2014, p.3)

2 Aims of the study and research questions

The study is expected to investigate the students’ perspectives on the use

of Socratic Seminar in speaking class There is only one research question that the research is seeking to answer:

What are the students’ perspectives on the use of Socratic Seminar in speaking class?

3 Methods of the study

The methodological approach was action research using various methods for data collection There were two cycles in the study In the first cycle, the researcher implemented the Socratic Seminar into the speaking class All participants including teacher and students carried out their duties through four stages: planning, action, observation, reflection After the observation and reflection, the teaching approach was revised to improve the lessons for the next cycle The tools for data gathering were questionnaires, group interviews, and video-based observation Two questionnaires were delivered to students The former was used to find out the cause of the low level in students’ speaking performance while the latter was employed to find out their perspectives towards the technique after trying-out strategies A group interview was also made after the completion of each cycle All the lessons were video-taped to describe what had happened in the classroom

4 Scope of the study

In this study, the researcher focused on how Socratic Seminar works in only speaking skills Regarding the participants, the researcher only chose one class as a single case of the study

5 Significance of the study

The study, once finished, would be a useful material for many readers First, the study offers readers an insight into the alternative pedagogical technique which could be adapted into language teaching Second, the study could provide some recommendations thanks to students’ perceptions towards the method Last but not least, the study could serve as a reference material for further research, anyone who shares the same interest can find the useful information in the study

6 Organization of the study

The paper consists of three parts as follows:

Part A Introduction

The Introduction section describes the statement of the problem and the rationale for the study Then, it discusses the purpose of the study and the research question After that, the introduction chapter introduces methodology and scope of the study Last but not least, the outline

of the study is presented

Part B: Development

Chapter I Literature Review

The Literature Review chapter lays the theoretical foundation of the study Also, a concise review of related studies worldwide is also presented

The Methodology chapter details the methodological approach in the study

Chapter II

Methodology

Specifically, the participants, the instruments as well as the procedures of data collection and analysis will be discussed in details

Chapter III

Action and outcomes of

research cycle one

This chapter details what the stages in the first cycle, what had happened in the classroom, what students thought about the new change in the classroom

Chapter IV

Action and outcomes

of research cycle two

The Action and Outcomes of Research Cycle Two goes into detail how revised plan was made after reflection on the cycle one, what happened in the classroom after making changes, what students thought about the new speaking class

Part C

Conclusion

The Conclusion chapter ends the study by summarizing the main points, discussing the implications, showing the limitations, and giving some suggestions for further studies

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews the various definitions of Socratic Seminar The chapter also discusses the existent literature on Socratic Seminar in terms of its roles on education and drawbacks The chapter shows the relations between the use of Socratic Seminar and speaking teaching This discussion reveals the gaps

in research on the use of the technique, some of which this study has tried to fill

To be more specific, the discussion shows that there has been a scarcity of research on the use of Socratic Seminar in foreign language teaching in Vietnam

1 Socratic Seminar

1.1 Definition

There are various definitions of Socratic Seminar (also known as Socratic Circles) Lesley Lambright (1995) defines a Socratic Seminar as an “exploratory intellectual conversation centered on a text” According to Elfie Israel (2002, p.89), “Socratic seminar is a formal discussion, based on a text, in which the leader asks open-ended questions Within the context of the discussion, students listen closely to the comments of others, thinking critically for themselves, and articulate their own thoughts and their responses to the thoughts of others They learn to work cooperatively and to question intelligently and civilly”

Matt Copeland (2005)’s definition is that Socratic Seminar is “a constructivist strategy in which participants engage in a conversation to collectively seek a deeper understanding of complex idea” Victor Moeller (2015) identifies Socratic Seminar as an exercise in “reflective thinking”

From all the definitions mentioned, it appears that the researchers agree students play an active role in learning in Socratic Seminar This seems to be in line with the student-centered approach, which Vietnamese educators are dedicated to implement in teaching context

1.2 The procedure of Socratic Seminar

Matt Copeland (2005) describes the procedure of Socratic Seminar as follows :

1 On the day before a Socratic circle, the teacher hands out a short passage of text

2 That night at home, students spend time reading, analyzing, and taking notes on the text

3 During class on the next day, students are randomly divided into two concentric circles: an inner circle and an outer circle

4 The students in the inner circle read the passage aloud and then engage

in a discussion of the text for approximately ten minutes, while students in the outer circle silently observe the behavior and performance of the inner circle

5 After this discussion of the text, the outer circle assesses the inner circle’s performance and gives ten minutes of feedback for the inner circle

6 Students in the inner and outer circles now exchange roles and positions

7 The new inner circle holds a ten-minute discussion and then receives ten minutes of feedback from the new outer circle

The procedure may vary in each aspect, but the essence of the seminar lies on the discussion-feedback-discussion-feedback pattern Once students have familiarized themselves with the structure of the Socratic seminar, teacher can modify the discussion according to content, focus, and purpose

1.3 Types of questions used in Socratic Seminars

Mortimer Adler (1948) classified three kinds of questions He asked: “(1) What does the author say? (2) What does he mean? (3) Is it true? Does it have any relevance to you here today?” In 1956, Bloom categorized eight educational objectives that used examples of questions for each kind of thinking:

knowledge, comprehension, translation, interpretation, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation The researcher agreed with Moeller (2015)’s opinion that it is not necessary to adopt Bloom’s classification into the classroom discussion because it becomes obvious that translation, application, analysis, synthesis can represent interpretation while knowledge and comprehension can

be put under the umbrella of knowledge The questions thus can be categorized into three types:

Factual question: A factual question has only one correct answer which

can be found from the text

Interpretive question: An interpretive question has more than one correct

answer because there might be a wide range of opinions about the interpretation

in the meaning

Evaluative question: An evaluative question used to ask ones to think

about their experience or values Such questions sometimes would ask them how they would act if they had a similar situation to the characters in the text

1.4 Roles of Socratic Seminar in education

Thomas (2009) argued the importance of the Socratic Seminar as a teaching technique that breaks the pattern of conformity and goes beyond the traditional lecture and assessment curriculum According to Matt Copeland (2005), he shows that the use of Socratic Seminar could have positive effects on students in terms of academic skills and social skills

1.4.1 Developing students’ academic skills

According to Matt Copeland (2005), one benefit of Socratic Seminar is that it “brings all the areas of curriculum and instruction together into a cohesive whole” He also states that the use of Socratic Seminar could foster students’ critical thinking, creativity, and critical reading Moreover, students can develop

“a lifelong love of reading” (Matt, 2005) by repeatedly reading the texts and analyzing the materials Students could improve their speaking and listening

skills when engaging in the discussion Because of the way Socratic Seminar is structured, students “learn quickly to improve their learning so that they hear with their ears allows them to listen with their minds” Also, students are quick

to point out when they are not listening to one another, which helps them to understand the importance of listening skill to the success of discussion, then they could find a way to solve it

Instead of remaining silent during the class, they become “more active and vocal learning participants” (Matt, 2005) Reflective thinking is also the benefit students can gain when they are in a Socratic class They can be able to

“mull over past experiences, assessing one’s own performance, and establishing goals for future performance” Adler (1982) shows that Socratic Seminar could teach students “how to analyze as well as the thoughts of the other, which is to say it engages students in disciplined conversation about ideas and values”

1.4.2 Developing students’ social skills

Students can promote their team-building skills As Lambright (2005) says, “Socratic Seminar are team-building situation, through mutual inquiry in a cooperative setting, leaders and learners alike apply knowledge, making reasoned connections within themselves, with other group members, and with the text” Matt (2005) also indicates that students “are able to practice working collaboratively on a problem from a common starting point.” Socratic seminar

is not only the way to understand the text but it is also the way to understand people when “it guides students to develop respectful, tactful, and kinder attitudes and behaviors” (Tredway, 1995) and it “encourages students to be accepting of people, opinions, ideas that are different from their own.” (Matt, 2005)

1.5 Some problems might occur during the progress of a Socratic Seminar

Despite the numerous benefits of using Socratic Seminar in classroom, the opponents of the technique argue that the technique might not be effective in

elementary-level classes, which mostly ask students yes - no questions As a result, the use of open-ended questions in the class would be eliminated (Holme, 1992) Polite and Adam (1997) also show that the difference in expectations between normal class and seminar class causes difficulties for some students Some students, moreover, prefer the traditional classroom setting to one where the onus of learning is on them Matt (2005) lists four problems arising from the use of the seminar: (1) Socratic Seminar is also considered as time-consuming, (2) The discussion, moreover, is often left without complete “closure”, (3) The discussion also may arrive at conclusion with which the teacher is unfamiliar, (4) The seminar appears “unstructured” to the uninformed observer

2 Speaking teaching

2.1 Definition of speaking skill

New Webster Dictionary (1994) states that speaking is an act to express ideas, feelings and thoughts orally, which is also known as oral communication Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997) Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking Chaney (1998) defines speaking as “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols in a variety

of context”

2.2 The importance of speaking skill

Of all the four skills, speaking skill plays an important role in helping learners learn a foreign language effectively According to Pattison (1992), when people mention knowing or learning a language, they mean being able to speak the language It is also emphasized by Flohr and Paesler (2006) that “the focus in learning a foreign language is on communication activities and

expressive activities and the goal is to become a fluent speaker” It is clear that teaching and learning speaking skill should be paid more attention

2.3 Teaching and learning speaking skill

Speaking is an essential ability of second language teaching For students, they consider the mastery of speaking as a top priority in language acquisition They often measure their success in language learning based on the fact that how much they feel they have improved their speaking proficiency Consequently, oral skills are compulsory subjects which are taught in English as

a foreign language or second language courses at present

Harmer (2007) states that teaching speaking involves: connected speech,

expressive devices, lexis and grammar, negotiation language This viewpoint is added by Brown (2007) when he points out that teaching speaking should be focused on accuracy and fluency He also states that equipping motivating techniques, enhancing the use of authentic language in meaningful contexts, providing feedback and correction, linking speaking and listening, offering opportunities for oral communication, and encouraging the development of speaking strategies are the principles for teaching speaking Additionally, Nunan (2003) shows the goals of teaching speaking:

(1) Produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns;

(2) Use word and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second language;

(3) Select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting audience, situation and subject matter;

(4) Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence;

(5) Use language as a means of expressing values and judgments;

(6) Use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which is called as fluency

2.4 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity

According to Ur (1996), there are four main characteristics of a successful speaking activity:

Firstly, learners have to talk a lot As much as possible of the period of the time allotted to the activity is in fact occupied by learners’ talk This may seem obvious, but often most time is taken up with the teacher’s talk and pause

Secondly, participation is even The classroom discussion is often dominated by talkative participants, which leads to the uneven distribution in the students’ participation

Thirdly, the motivation is high, which means that the students are willing

to learn because the learners are interested in the topics or they have something new to say about it or they want to make contributions to the discussion

Lastly, language is an acceptable level Learners express themselves in utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other, and an acceptable level of language accuracy

In reality, however, few classroom techniques are applied to meet all the criteria above The language teachers, thus, should attempt to use a variety of techniques to meet the expectation of these criteria Socratic Seminar is a promising technique which somehow can increase students’ proficiency and participation in speaking class

2.5 Speaking problems

Ur (1996) indicates that there is a total of four problems occurring in a speaking class These are inhibition, lack of topical knowledge, low or uneven participation, and mother-tongue use

The first problem is inhibition; students are often worried about making mistakes, afraid of speaking in front of the class, and shy of the other students’ attention towards themselves

The second problem is the students’ lack of topical knowledge Learners often complain that they cannot think of anything to say and they have no motivation to express themselves Rivers (1968) believes that the learners have nothing to express maybe because the teacher had chosen a topic which is not suitable for him or about which he knows very little This is also supported by Baker & Westrup (2003) when they state that “it is difficult for many students to respond when the teachers ask them to say something in a foreign language because they might have few ideas about what to say, which vocabulary to use,

or how to use the grammar correctly”

The uneven distribution in students’ participation is another problem presented In a large-sized group, each student has very little time to speak because only one participant can talk at a time so that the others can hear him/her There is a tendency of some learners to dominate while others speak very little or not at all

Finally, the use of mother-tongue tends to be overused when students find

it easier for them to express their thinking Harmer (1991) suggests some reasons why students use mother- tongue in class Firstly, when the students are asked to have a discussion about a topic that they are incapable of, if they want

to say anything about the topic, they will use their own language Another reason is that the use of mother- tongue is a natural thing to do In addition, using the first language to explain something to another if there is no encouragement from the teachers Finally, if teachers frequently use the students’ language, the students will feel comfortable to do it

3 Socratic Seminar in teaching and learning speaking skill

There is very little research concerning the relationship between teaching speaking and Socratic Seminar Jim Scrivener finds that Socratic Seminar can be useful in improving students’ speaking in terms of phonology It is a good idea

to explain sentence stress patterns or minimal pairs when students engage in the discussion Rido Virgo Putra (2015) shows that the use of Socratic Seminar is

suitable for teaching speaking because students can express their ideas orally and they can be more active in speaking Also, students can learn to cooperate with other students when they take part in the discussion To sum up, Socratic Seminar offers possibilities to improve communication skills, social skills and academic achievement

4 Teacher and students’ interaction in Socratic Seminar

In traditional classes, teachers are centered and dominant They explain grammar points, lead the whole-class discussions in which each student might have a few seconds to talk Socratic Seminar is used to increase the participation and interaction of the students The role of teacher should not be the controller

or leader of the lecture Instead, he or she would be the observer and facilitator

to help students to raise questions and answer At that time, students no longer feel anxious to talk about the topic or be reluctant to express their opinions Moreover, students’ autonomy and responsibilities for learning will be promoted

5 Related research worldwide

There are some researches laying foundation to the less developed area The first research conducted to explore the effectiveness of Socratic Seminar in education was by Mortimer Adler and The Paideia Group They carried out a research on elementary and secondary education in 1980s They found that the technique was proven to be valuable and effective in improving students’ achievement

Socratic Seminar was also incorporated into mathematics curriculum by

G Lacy (2011) He used survey to explore students’ perceptions towards the effectiveness of the technique The results showed that there was a significant increase in students’ enjoyment of Socratic Seminar and in their belief that the discussion helped them to understand the class material

Another research written by Francesco (2014) on the influence of Socratic Seminar on leadership skills The researcher used a variety of instruments (survey, video recordings, and tests) to affirm the results which were that students can improve their leadership skills after engaging in Socratic seminars

When it comes to applying this technique to language teaching, however, there is not nearly as much research upon which to build The previous research was conducted by Melia Andryani, student of Tanjungpura University who used Socratic seminar to improve students’ speaking skill on hortatory exposition text She found that the use of the seminar had a positive effect on students’ speaking performance However, the writer of this study used oral test as the only one instrument to collect data, which might not guarantee the reliability of the study

The results of the previous studies show that the use of Socratic Seminar has a positive effect on students’ academic development and language skill There is, however, little research touching upon the use of the technique in teaching speaking skills The previous studies conducted to explore the effectiveness of the technique had not made clear the interaction process in Socratic Seminar, how it is perceived by the students Moreover, previous studies did not focus the implementation of the technique on English-majored students

These study results would encourage more researchers to conduct studies

to find out new discoveries To the best of the researcher’s knowledge, in Vietnam, there has not been any research on the use of Socratic seminar in teaching field The only research related to Socratic questioning was “The casebook and Socratic methods in the United States legal education” written by Truong Hai Ha (2011), University of Languages and International Studies, which introduces the use of Socratic method in law teaching in the United States, not in language teaching Hence, the researcher decided to carry out this study to explore the effectiveness of using Socratic seminar by figuring out the

students’ perspectives of Faculty of Foreign Languages at Hanoi Pedagogical University 2

6 Action research

6.1 Definition

Action research is one of the most popular methods for teachers to develop their academic career It helps them to improve the quality of the lessons, and then students’ learning can be developed Cohen and Manion (1994) define action research (AR) as ‘a small-scale intervention in the functioning of the real world and a close examination of the effects of such an intervention’ Action research is designed to bridge the gap between research and practice (Somekh 1995) Action research is the process of systematic collection and analysis of data in order to make changes and improvement or solve problems (Wallace, 1998, p 1 and Coles & Quirke, 2001, p 14) This definition seems to be in line with Borg (2010)’s definition, he states that action research is a form of practitioner research which is characterized by particular procedures, which broadly involve the introduction and evaluation of new practices, typically through a number of cycles Similarly, action research is defined as “taking a self-reflective, critical and systematic approach to exploring your own teaching contexts.” (Burns, 2010)

6.2 Characteristics of action research

Hult and Lennung (1980) and McKernan (1991) suggest that action research:

 makes for practical problem-solving as well as expanding scientific knowledge

 enhances the competencies of participants

 is collaborative

 is undertaken directly in situ

 uses feedback from data in an ongoing cyclical process

 seeks to understand particular complex social situations

 seeks to understand the process of change within social systems

 focuses on those problems that are of immediate concern to practitioners

 is participatory

 frequently uses case study

 tends to avoid the paradigm of research that isolates and controls variables

 is formative, such that the definition of the problem, the aims and methodology may alter during the process of action research

 includes evaluation and reflection

 is methodologically eclectic

 contributes to a science of education

 strives to render the research usable and shareable by participants

 is dialogical and celebrates discourse

 has a critical purpose in some forms

 strives to be emancipatory

6.3 Steps in action research

According to Kemmis and McTaggart (1988), action research typically involves four broad phases in a cycle of research The first cycle may become a continuing, or iterative, spiral of cycles which recur until the action researcher has achieved a satisfactory outcome and feels it is time to stop

1 Planning

In this phase you identify a problem or issue and develop a plan of action

in order to bring about improvements in a specific area of the research context This is a forward-looking phase where you consider: i) what kind of investigation is possible within the realities and constraints of your teaching situation; and ii) what potential improvements you think are possible

2 Action

The plan is a carefully considered one which involves some deliberate interventions into your teaching situation that you put into action over an agreed period of time The interventions are ‘critically informed’ as you question your assumptions about the current situation and plan new and alternative ways of doing things

At this point, you reflect on, evaluate and describe the effects of the action

in order to make sense of what has happened and to understand the issue you have explored more clearly You may decide to do further cycles of AR to improve the situation even more, or to share the ‘story’ of your research with others as part of your ongoing professional development

(Adapted from Kemmis & McTaggart, 1988, pp 11–14)

The Kemmis & Mc Taggart’s model has been considered inflexible by some authors McNiff (1988), for instance, sees it as “prescriptive” She would like to see a more flexible model which allows the researchers to be more creative Ebbutt (1985) argues that AR cycles should be successive and open, and allow for as much feedback and interaction between the cycles as possible Despite being criticized for its rigidity, Kemmis and McTaggart’s model is probably the most popular one Therefore, the researcher decided to use the model as a useful way in doing this research

Figure 1 Cyclical AR model based on Kemmis and McTaggart (1988)

6.4 Rationale for choosing action research

As stated earlier, action research is the process of systematic collection and analysis of data in order to make changes and improvement or solve problems (Wallace, 1998 and Coles & Quirke, 2001) In my opinion, action research is the most appropriate method to make changes and improvement in the current state of education Action research helps teachers to identify the problems and work out the solutions to them Moreover, action research aims at changing things (Nunan, 1992, p.17), which allows teachers to change their situation of teaching and students’ learning

7 Summary

This chapter reviewed the literature concerned with the introduction of Socratic Seminar, the use of it in education, how it is linked to speaking teaching The review indicated that the use of Socratic Seminar in language

teaching in Vietnam is still a new area which inspires the researcher to carry out

this study

CHAPTER II METHODOLOGY

In the previous chapter, a review on literature was briefly presented In this chapter, the researcher will detail the methodological approach in the study Specifically, the participants, the instruments as well as the procedures of data collection and analysis will be discussed in details as follows:

1 Objectives of the study

The study was conducted to seek the answer to the following question:

What are the students’ perspectives on the use of Socratic Seminar in speaking class?

2 Participants

The research study was carried out in the second semester of the 2019 academic year The subjects of the research were twenty-five second-year students, comprising of two boys and twenty-three girls, aged between eighteen and nineteen years old The majority of the students’ speaking skills do not meet the expectation

3 Data collection

In this study, the research outcome based on the students’ self-assessment

on their speaking skills and development of the students, so several instruments were used to increase the reliability and validity of the data The instruments were listed as follows:

1 Questionnaire: Using the questionnaire is a popular practice nowadays

to obtain opinions from a large number of respondents about a certain topic (Fowler, 2009; McDonough & McDonough, 1997) Questionnaire could be delivered to a large number of respondents over large areas It is more economical to use questionnaires, compared with doing interviews, when the number of subjects is large for instance (Bryman, 2008; Walliman, 2011)

Responses from questionnaire can be easily measured and processed with the assistance of certain software, making it possible for the researcher to present the results

Two questionnaires were delivered to the students The former was given

to the students on 19th March 2019 while the latter was distributed to them on 16th April 2019 The first questionnaire was used to find out the cause of the students’ low level of speaking performance The second questionnaire was used

to explore their perspectives towards the technique after trying-out strategies

2 Interview: The interview is a good way to obtain subjects’ opinions and/or feelings about a certain topic, event or action in a highly personal and detailed level (Kvale and Brinkmann, 2009; McDonough & McDonough, 1997; Punch, 2009) A group interview was conducted after the completion of each cycle The interview questions aimed to find what students thought about the technique, what changes they would like to be made in the next cycle The data from the interview would be treated through a process called “inductive coding” The researcher would scan the data to see what categories suggest themselves

3 Observation: Observation provides direct information rather than report accounts (Dörnyei, 2007, p 178) According to Borg (2006), observation

self-is a valuable strategy in the study of language teacher cognition because it provides evidence of what happens in the classrooms In this research, the researcher video-taped all the lessons to describe what had happened in the classroom However, it was, sometimes, really difficult to record all the classroom interaction in the class because some students spoke English too softly and the class size was large

4 Action Research Design

There are four main stages (Planning, Action, Observation, and Reflection) in this action research, which are detailed below:

4.1 The first cycle:

4.1.1 Planning stage

In this stage, the researcher decided to identify why the majority of students possess a low level of speaking English The assessment of students’ speaking performance was obtained by the results of their end-term test in the previous term to evaluate their abilities to speak A questionnaire was given to the students to find out the cause of the problem After having identified the problem and causes, the researcher made a plan to implement the new technique:

1 Choosing suitable and interesting texts to use in the speaking class

2 Apply the use of Socratic Seminars in the speaking class

3 Changing the classroom’s atmosphere in a positive way

4 Paying more attention to students who hesitate to speak or do not want

to engage in the conversation and encouraging them to speak

4.1.2 Action stage

At the implementation stage, the researcher had issued guidelines on the procedure of Socratic Seminar Students were carefully instructed how to ask the right questions and how to proactively participate in the discussion After the preparation phase, the researcher chose the topics which were considered to be familiar with the students at the upper-intermediate level The texts used in the class were about 800- 1000 words, which were adapted from reliable articles Students were required to read the text and raised at least 3 questions about the text before going to the class The class would be divided into two cycles (inner and outer cycles) After a 30-minute discussion, participants in the inner cycle and outer cycle exchange their roles and keep the discussion going on

The articles were used in the first cycle:

Week 1: Half of teens think that they are addicted to their smartphones

(Kelly Wallace, CNN, 2016)

The aim of the article is to provide students with opportunities to expand their technology-related vocabulary Moreover, students can share with their peers about their opinions towards the advantages and disadvantages of teens using smartphones

Week 2: Yes, sitting too long can kill you, even if you exercise (Susan

Scutti, CNN, 2017)

This health-related article in week 2 aims to encourage students to raise questions about sedentary jobs, which are popular in the world Students will discuss the drawbacks of sitting too long, and then they have to argue to give the final solutions to the problem

Week 3: How much exercise do I really need? (Jordan Metzi, CNN, 2017)

Another article related to health is discussed in the week 3 Students will continue to engage in the conversation to give their points of view about the amount of exercise they really need Students could be able to use the new words they have learnt in the previous lesson in week 2 to apply in this lesson

4.1.3 Observation

A video camera was used to record every lesson in the cycle The researcher used videos to film what happened in the class as the evidence for the research Students’ observable response can be seen from the videos The researcher also assigned students to write their thinking about every lesson and describe the class atmosphere in the student’s diary form After finishing the first cycle, a group of three students were invited to express their opinions towards the techniques, whether they felt that the technique could help them to improve their speaking skills and then they were asked to suggest

recommendations to the technique for the next cycle

4.1.4 Reflection

At this stage, the researcher would watch the video recordings again and again to reflect on the teaching and learning process after finishing the first cycle Moreover, the researcher will use the students’ comments from the interview to figure out how the technique is perceived by students

4.2 The second cycle

4.2.1 Planning stage

After reviewing the first cycle carefully to reformulate the plan for the second cycle, the researcher continued to implement the Socratic Seminar into the classroom with two learning topics These learning topics aimed at providing students with more opportunities to speak and help them feel less anxious when

speaking

4.2.2 Action stage

The articles were used in the second cycles:

Week 4: Attention students! Put your laptop away! (CNN news)

The aim of the article is to help students to understand the issue of having

a laptop Students can discuss the topic with each other to find out the use of laptop, how important it is, and what problems it may cause to them

Week 5: Are celebrities bad for you? (British Council)

The article aims to provide students more chances to practice speaking The topic can be seen as popular to students Students could use textual ideas to express their own opinions to the topic

4.2.3 Observation stage

The researcher continued to record the two lessons to observe students’ response The researcher also assigned students to write their thinking about every lesson and describe the class atmosphere in the student’s diary form A group of three students joined the interview with the same questions as the

group in the first interview to express their opinions about changes made in the research

CHAPTER III ACTION AND OUTCOMES OF RESEARCH CYCLE ONE

In this chapter, the researcher details the stages and what happened in the first cycle Also, students’ opinions obtained from the first interview were also presented

1 Planning stage

1.1 Identify the problem

The research was conducted to solve the problem: The second-year students have a relatively low level of speaking skills

In order to prove that the students possess a relatively low level of speaking skills, the results of the final exam that they took in the preceding term have been presented as evidence in the following table:

Table 1.1 Students’ scores in the preceding term

Standard Deviation (SD)

The researcher decided to find out why the majority of students do not meet the expectation by conducting a survey to gain information from students These were the results of the survey:

Table 1.2 The content in the textbook “Speak Out, Upper- Intermediate” is

Totally agree Total

The table 1.2 shows that the majority of the students agreed that the difficulty of the textbook “Speak Out- Upper Intermediate” makes them disinterested in learning speaking in the class In other words, the results revealed that the use of the textbook might demotivate students to improve their speaking skills

Table 1.3 The speaking activities in the textbook “Speak Out, Upper-

Intermediate” are boring

No

response

Totally disagree

Partly Disagree

Neither agree nor disagree Partly Agree

Totally Agree Total

0 0 0 0 0 5 20% 5 20% 15 60% 25 100

When asked about their opinions of the statement “The speaking activities in the textbook “Speak Out, Upper- Intermediate” are boring”, only 20% (5 students) were neutral while 80% (20 students) agreed that the activities

in the textbook “Speak Out – Upper Intermediate” did not interest them It is implied that the speaking activities are not interesting to the majority of students

Table 1.4 I was afraid of speaking in front of the class

No

response

Totally disagree

Partly Disagree

Neither agree nor disagree Partly Agree

Totally Agree Total

0 0 0 0 0 3 12% 7 28% 15 60% 25 100%

A great majority of students (88%) agreed that there was a level of anxiety arising when they speak They are shy to express their ideas because of being watched by other students or afraid of making mistakes The results showed that students were still anxious when speaking

Table 1.5 My vocabulary is not good

No

response

Totally disagree

Partly Disagree

Neither agree nor disagree

Partly Agree

Totally Agree Total

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 24% 19 76% 25 100

76% (19 students) chose “Totally agree” when it comes to the statement

“My vocabulary is not good” It can be inferred that students hesitate to speak because of their lack of vocabulary, which could make their ideas not fully expressed

Table 1.6 My pronunciation is not good

No

response

Totally disagree

Partly Disagree

Neither agree nor disagree

Partly Agree

Totally Agree Total

0 0 0 0 0 4 16% 8 32 13 52% 24 100

As from the table, it is apparent that students’ pronunciation is also a challenge to students when more than a half of them totally agreed that they cannot speak competently because of their bad pronunciation 4 students were undivided with the statement

Table 1.7 I do not have enough opportunities to speak in class

No

response Totally disagree

Partly Disagree

Neither agree nor disagree

Partly Agree

Totally Agree Total

2 Action and Observation stage

Week 1(19/3/2019): The text discussed in the first week was “Half of

teens think that they are addicted to their smartphones (Kelly Wallace, CNN, 2016).” The researcher observed that although the topic “Technology” of the text was familiar with the students, they were still confused and hesitate to be