VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES -----O0O----- NGUYEN THI TRANG THE APPLICATION OF GROUP WORK ACTIVITES TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILLS FOR 10TH GRADE STUDENTS AT A BAC NINH HIGH SCHOOL Sử dụng hoạt động nhóm để cải thiện kĩ năng nói của học sinh lớp 10 tại trường trung học phổ thông tỉnh Bắc Ninh M. MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231. Vu Thi Thanh Nha Hanoi, 2019 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES -----O0O----- NGUYEN THI TRANG THE APPLICATION OF GROUP WORK ACTIVITES TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILLS FOR 10TH GRADE STUDENTS AT A BAC NINH HIGH SCHOOL Sử dụng hoạt động nhóm để cải thiện kĩ năng nói của học sinh lớp 10 tại trường trung học phổ thông tỉnh Bắc Ninh M. MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.
Vu Thi Thanh Nha Hanoi, 2019 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis represents my own work for the Degree of Master in TESOL at the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies - Vietnam National University, and that it has not been previously submitted to this University or any other institution in application for admission to a degree, diploma or other qualifications. Bac Ninh, May 29th 2019 Nguyen Thi Trang ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to acknowledge the debt of gratitude to my supervisor, Dr.Vu Thi Thanh Nha for her helpful suggestions, invaluable critical feedback and encouragement in the writing of this study. Without her guidance and help, this work would not have been completed. My sincere thanks go to all the staff at the Department of Post-graduate Studies, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies for giving me assistance and the lecturers who conducted the Master's course for providing me with valuable knowledge.
I would also like to express my deep sense of gratitude to my dear students, whose participation in and dedication to the research remain invaluable have been acknowledged. Without their precious support, the thesis would not have taken shaped. Finally, the support extended to me by the members of my family has been immeasurable. I would also like to express my thanks to my parents and my husband for their wholehearted encouragement.
Bac Ninh, May 29th 2019 Nguyen Thi Trang ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT The study was carried out with an attempt to investigate the application of group work towards enhancing grade 10 students’ speaking skill. The subjects participating in the research were 40 EFL students studying in the same class at a high school in Bac Ninh province. To achieve the desired aims of the study, an action research was carried out. Survey questionnaires for students and learning logs were used as the major instruments to collect data about students’ challenges in developing their speaking skill and the impacts of group work implementation on students’ speaking ability.
The results of the study showed that group work has positive influence on the development of students’ speaking skill and has the potential to help students deal with some challenges that they may encounter in speaking lessons. iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES. vii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION .1 Rationale of the study .2 Aims of the study .3 Scope of the study .4 Organization of the thesis .4 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW.1 Theoretical background of speaking .1 Definitions of speaking skill .2 Aspects of speaking skill .3 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity .4 Problems with speaking classes .5 Relating categories of oral production .6 The roles of the teacher in different stages of teaching speaking .2 Group work in speaking lessons .1 Definition of group work .2 Benefits of group work.
Some problems in using group work.14 iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.5 Teacher’s role in carrying out group work.6 Steps of organizing group activities .18 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY .1 Participants and context of the study .2 Reasons to choose action research method .3 Phases of action research .4 Weekly schedules and research procedures .5 Data collection instruments .31 CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS .1 Information collected from the survey questionnaires .1 Students’ opinions on the importance of speaking skill .2 Students’ challenges in developing speaking skill .3 Students’ preference of group work in speaking lessons .4 Reasons for students’ preference of group work .5 Students’ opinions on the effectiveness of group work in speaking lessons .6 Students’ opinions on the advantages of group work in speaking lessons .7 Students’ opinions about the impact of group work on their speaking ability 39 4.8 Students’ self-evaluation regarding speaking aspects before and after the application of group work .40 v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.2 Data collected from students’ learning logs .1 Things students can do .2 Things students learnt. Summary of major findings .4 Recommendations for further research .I APPENDIX 1 PRE-ACTION QUESTIONNAIRE. I APPENDIX 2 POST-ACTION QUESTIONNAIRE. II APPENDIX 3 LEARNING LOG: SPEAKING SKILL.
IV vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES TABLES Table 3. The timetable of the action implementation……………….1 The importance of speaking skill ---------------------------------------------- 34 Table 4.2 Students’ preference of group work ------------------------------------------- 36 Table 4.3: Reasons for students’ preference of group work --------------------------- 36 Table 4.4 Students’ opinions on the effectiveness of group work -------------------- 37 Table 4.6 Use of new lexical items and grammar structures -------------------------- 43 Table 4.6 Use of new lexical items and grammar structures -------------------------- 43 Table 4.7 Students’ report on new lexical items and grammar structures learnt ---- 47 Table 4.8 Types of mistakes and ways to correct --------------------------------------- 47 FIGURES Figure 4. Students’ opinions on the improvement of speaking ability ------------- 39 Figure 4. Students’ self-evaluation of the vocabulary aspect ------------------------ 40 Figure 4.
Students’ self-evaluation of grammar aspect------------------------------- 41 Figure 4. Students’ self-evaluation of fluency aspect -------------------------------- 42 Figure 4. Students’ self-evaluation of pronunciation aspect ------------------------- 42 Figure 4. Students’ changes in styles of answers ------------------------------------- 44 Figure 4.
Students’ opinions on the level of hesitation ------------------------------- 45 vii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION This chapter mentions the background and rationale to conduct the study, states the aims, scope, and organization of the graduation thesis.1 Rationale of the study English has received growing recognition as the preferred foreign language in Vietnam nowadays (Do, 2006) and is considered an “unquestionable asset” (Shapiro, 1995: 4) for the Vietnamese people due to its role as a key to Vietnam’s regional and global integration under the impact of the so-called open-door policy or Doi Moi since the last decade of the 20th century (Nguyen, N. This global integration trend has directly led to a spectacular increase in demand for English training (Nguyen, N. 2012) in order to facilitate the communication ability, increase interactions and develop international relations between the local enterprises, labours and those from foreign countries. Since then, English has become one major subject at schools and continuously receives significant attention of the government, with a number of national projects which aim at promoting the quality of teachers and that of the English teaching and learning process.
Among the four English skills (speaking, listening, writing, and reading), speaking has been perceived as the most important one (Flohr & Paesler, 2006). According to Nunan (1993), the importance of speaking skill is obvious as human depend themselves more on speaking rather than writing when interacting with others. As defined by Brown (2001), speaking is an interactive process to conduct meaning which involves producing, receiving and processing information. Speaking can also be considered as an indicator for students’ success in mastering a language.
By speaking students may realize how much language they have mastered ad how they can use it. Besides, through students’ speaking, teachers can get feedback from students faster and more exactly. Thanks to students speaking activities in class and outside class, the teacher can find out how much students understand the lesson. 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Hence, she can know what their weak and strong points are in language to have appreciated solutions and plans.
It is clear that speaking skill plays a significant role in teaching and learning a foreign language. Therefore, it is necessary that speaking be paid enough attention from those English language learners who aim to master the language. This also leads to the need for English teachers to create more opportunities for their students to practice this oral skill during class time. As a teacher of High School in Bac Ninh for ten years, I has been familiar with the fact that my students of different generations may have rather good understanding of grammar knowledge and good control of in written language; however, encouraging them to speak remains a challenging job as most of them find it really hard to express themselves in oral language.
Students often show their passive learning during speaking lessons. Many of them feel extremely nervous when being called to present orally in front of their classes, some even cannot say any words when they have to stand up and speak while when I write the questions or topics for discussion on the board and tell them to write their answers, the majority of them can perform the task though at different levels of success. Obviously, their unwillingness and refusal to practice indispensably lead to their poor speaking performance in all speaking lessons, which is supposed to also reduce their confidence and demotivate them to speak. Unfortunately, this is not the problem of students in my classes only but is the shared problems of all other English teachers in my school.
However, little has been done to improve the situation due to a number of constraints. For a number of decades, many researchers have investigated the impacts of group-work on language learning process and reported its various positive effects. For speaking, group-work is proved to help reduce anxiety, create interaction among students (Long & Porte, 1985), provide safer language learning environment (Richard & Rodgers, 2001), increase speaking opportunities, encourage learners to 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com share their opinions, enhance cooperation and negotiation skills and promote learner autonomy (Harmer, 2007). Being aware of the benefits of group work in promoting speaking skill, English teachers in my school, including me, decided to apply it in our speaking lessons with a view to helping our students improve their skills.
To formally investigate the application of group work and its impacts on students’ speaking skill, I therefore conduct this study, entitled “The application of group work activities to improve speaking skills for 10th grade students at a Bac Ninh High School”.2 Aims of the study The study is conducted to investigate how group work activities can be used to improve high school students’ speaking skill. To achieve the mentioned goal, the two research questions are proposed: What are the challenges for grade 10 students in developing their speaking skill? How does group work help improve their speaking skill? 1.3 Scope of the study The researcher intends to start with an overview of the current situations of students’ learning English speaking skill, then analyze the effects of group work activities on students’ speaking and make some recommendations on the effective use of group work to motivate students to practice speaking English more. As an action research project, the study was conducted with the researcher’s own students in her own class with the participation of 40 students. The action research framework employed in this study is the framework proposed by Kemmis & McTaggart (2000) with four phases including plan, action, observation and reflection.