VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES ANS INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ----- ----- NGUYỄN THỊ THU THỦY EFFECTIVENESS OF JIGSAW, THINK-PAIR-SHARE AND NUMBERED HEADS TOGETHER ON STUDENTS’ ORAL PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING LESSONS NGHIÊN CỨU HIỆU QUẢ CỦA CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG JIGSAW, THINK-PAIR-SHARE VÀ NUMBERED HEADS TOGETHER ĐỐI VỚI SỰ THAM GIA CỦA SINH VIÊN TRONG GIỜ HỌC NÓI M. MINOR THESIS MAJOR: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 HANOI-2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements. iii Table of content. iv List of abbreviation.
viii List of graphs, figures and tables. ix PART ONE: INTRODUCTION. Rationale and statement of the problem. Aims of the study.
Scope of the study. Design of the study. 4 PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT. 6 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW.
Teaching and learning speaking as a language skill. English speaking teaching. English speaking learning. What make a good speaking lesson?.
Participation in class. 8 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Factors affecting students‟ participation in class. What can be done to get students to speak more in speaking classes?.
Cooperative learning and its techniques. Key components of cooperative learning. Advantages of cooperative learning. Students‟ self-reports.
Action research procedure. Initial data collection. 21 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Results from Phase 1.
Factors affecting students‟ oral participation. Results from class observation: Students' on-task behavior. Resutls from students‟ self-report: Interaction in CL group-work. Results from Phase 2.
Results from class observation: Students‟ on-task behavior. Results from students‟ self-report: Interaction in CL group work. Results from Questionnaire 2: Students‟ opinions and self-evaluation. What are the factors causing students‟ poor participation?.
To what extent can Jigsaw, Think-Pair-Share and Numbered-Heads-Together improve students‟ oral participation?. Students' on-task behavior from lesson 3 to lesson 12. Students' interaction in CL groupwork from lesson 3 to lesson 12. Students' opinions and self-evaluation on the effectiveness of Jigsaw, Think- pair-share, and Numbered Heads Together.
39 PART THREE: CONCLUSION. Conclusion of the study. 41 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Limitations and suggestions for further study.
III Appendix 3: Class observation sheet .IV Appendix 4: Students‟ self-report. V Appendix 5: Speaking lesson plan (Pre-action stage) – Lesson 3 .VI Appendix 6: Speaking lesson plan (Action stage) – Lesson 7. XXII Appendix 7: Speaking lesson plan (Action stage) – Lesson 8 .XIX Appendix 8: Speaking lesson plan (Action stage) – Lesson 10. XXVII vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBRIVIATION EFL: English as a foreign language ESL: English as a second language CLT: Communicative Language Teaching CL: Cooperative Learning HPU2: Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2 viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND GRAPHS Figure1: Action research cycle.
15 Table 1: Speaking term 2. 17 Table 2: Students‟ interaction in lesson 3. 28 Table 3: Students‟ interaction in lesson 7. 30 Table 4: Students‟ interaction in lesson 8.
31 Table 5: Students‟ interaction in lesson 9. 31 Table 6: Students‟ interaction in lesson 10. 31 Table 7: Students‟ interaction in lesson 11. 32 Table 8: Students‟ interaction in lesson 12.
32 Graph 1: Students‟ on-task behavior. 37 Graph 2: Students‟ interaction in CL group-work. 38 ix LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale and statement of the problem In learning any foreign languages, speaking is a vital tool for students to express their thoughts, ideas and feelings, and to have successful social communication.
Unlike ESL learners who have more frequent use of the target language, EFL learners have few opportunities to use English in daily life. In some big cities in Vietnam, EFL learners may enjoy more favorable learning conditions with the support of modern technology, online classes, and more chance to communicate in English. In contrast, EFL learners in the countryside and mountainous areas of Vietnam have many difficulties in learning English, especially the lack of exposure to English. To them, speaking classes appears to be the only place where they can freely speak and interact in English.
It is one of the reasons why students are always expected to raise their voice in English speaking classes. Having to deal with silent speaking class is a big concern of almost all ESL and EFL teachers, especially in a non-native language environment. As a teacher of speaking, the present researcher has been facing with the same situation. She noticed that when she raises a question to the class, they rarely volunteer to answer the questions.
They even refuse to answer the question by keeping standing and saying nothing. Saying “Sorry, I can‟t” seems very difficult to them. A great number of techniques have been used to encourage students to feel free to speak in class such as simplifying the difficult topics, giving positive feedbacks, using funny games, delivering lecture with videos, using group-work etc. However, the number of students who speak in speaking lessons and the frequency they have oral participation in speaking classes are still limited.
Meanwhile previous studies proved a positive relationship between students‟ oral participation and their studying result. “When students participate actively in class, their academic achievement seems to be higher than that of those who are passive in class” (Bailey, 2005). Thus, the current situation needs to be changed for students‟ improvement in speaking skills and the success of speaking 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. As suggested in other studies, students‟ poor participation can be caused by a variety of factors including cultural, pedagogical, psychological, cognitive, and/or linguistic factors, of which teacher‟s careless or poor choice of teaching techniques may lead to students' reluctance in taking any parts of a lesson.
Researchers have worked out a great number of ways and strategies to promote students‟ oral participation in language class. In her capacity as a teacher, within this minor thesis, the researcher would like to touch upon teaching technique as the main cause of students‟ poor participation, then base on that to find out ways to treat the problem. It can be considered the most feasible solution in her current teaching situation while other problems related to materials, syllabus, students‟ personality, learning and teaching equipments are almost time-consuming and beyond the teacher‟s power of control. Regarding how to have an effective speaking lesson, Kayi (2006) pointed out that teachers should: - maximum opportunity to students to speak the target language by providing a rich environment that contains collaborative work, authentic materials and tasks, and shared knowledge.
- try to involve each student in every speaking activity; for this aim, practice different ways of student participation. - reduce teacher speaking time in class while increasing student speaking time. CL can be considered as an ideal tool for teacher to follow the above listed recommendations. Richards & Rodger (2001) stated that CL “has been embraced as a way of promoting communicative interaction in the classroom and is seen as an extension of the principles of CLT”.
As cited in Richards & Rodger (2001, p.195), one of the advantages of CL for ESL students is that it can enhance frequency of second language practice through different types of interaction (Mac Groarty, 1989). It can be implicated that CL creates maximum and equal chance for students to interact because they have to work together, cooperate, and depend on each other 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com to complete certain task. CL offers teachers a wide range of cooperative structures or techniques. However, the researcher would just like to focus on three cooperative techniques which are among the most suitable to her teaching context and this small-scale study.
Accordingly, she decides to conduct an action research on the effectiveness of three cooperative techniques: Jigsaw, Numbered heads together and Think-pair-share on students‟ participation in speaking class with further desire to improve students‟ English speaking proficiency. Aims of the study The study is aimed at finding feasible ways to enhance the first year English major students‟ oral participation in English speaking classes at Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2 - an intermediate step to improve the students‟ English proficiency. To gain that aim, the study investigates the causes of students‟ poor participation in speaking lessons and proposes three cooperative techniques including Jigsaw, Numbered heads together and Think-pair-share as the treatment. Therefore, the effectiveness of those three techniques on students‟ participation is the main variable under examination.
Research questions The aim of the study can be presented in forms of the following questions: 1. What are the factors causing students‟ poor oral participation in English speaking lessons? 2. To what extent can the use of Jigsaw, Numbered heads together and Think- pair-share increase students‟ oral participation in speaking activities? 4. Scope of the study With regards to the time and thesis limitation, among the many causes of students' low participation in English speaking lessons, the study just focuses on teaching techniques as at the micro level the teacher can quickly intervene to improve the 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Thus, some changes in teaching techniques were made with the use of three CL structures: Jigsaw, Numbered Heads Together and Think-Pair-Share to improve the first year English major students‟ oral participation in English speaking lessons at HPU2. The „participation‟ examined is limited to the amount of time the students have on-task participation. The form of participation under investigation includes any verbal behaviors such as asking questions to the lecturers, asking questions to other students, responding to peers, giving opinions, comments (Sayadi, 2007), asking for help/advice, taking a stand, group management (Lotfy, 2012), and contributing ideas during group discussion. Other forms of participation like responding with nods and shakes of the head, showing interest or paying attention through listening, reading or speaking in Vietnamese were not examined in this study.
Research method To conduct the study, an action research was used with the support of questionnaires, class observation and students‟ self-reports as the main data collection instruments. The aim of the study was to solve the problem the teacher has to face in her real teaching context, so the choice of an action research appears to meet the researcher‟s desire to know and understand more about her real practice, then outline a specific plan for action to improve the situation. Design of the study The study is divided in to three partsfive chapters as followed: Part one, Introduction, provides an overview of the study including statement of the problem, the aims, scope of the study, research questions, and brief introduction to research method. Part two, Development, consists of the following four chapters: 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com - Chapter 1, Literature review, presents the theoretical background of the studies with key relevant concepts clarified and previous related studies reviewed.
- Chapter 2, Methodology, describes the methods of the study. The research context, participants, data collection instruments, research procedure and data analysis are all mentioned in this chapter. - Chapter 3, Results, presents the findings of the study. - Chapter 4, Discussion discusses the finding of the research.
Part three, Conclusion, concludes the action research. It also presents the recommendations, limitations of the study, and suggestions for further study in the same field. 5 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Teaching and learning speaking as a language skill Speaking, is a productive micro skill is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998, p.
13 as cited in Kayi, 2006). According to Bailey (2005) “speaking consist of producing systematic verbal utterance to convey meaning”.