MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING CẦN THƠ UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ BẢO TRANG EXPLORING ENGLISH-MAJORED UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS’ ENGAGEMENT IN PREPARING FOR COLLABORATIVE ORAL PRESENTATIONS MASTER OF EDUCATION PRINCIPLES AND METHODS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM CODE: 8140111 2024 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING CAN THO UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI BAO TRANG STUDENT CODE: M1622066 EXPLORING ENGLISH-MAJORED UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS’ ENGAGEMENT IN PREPARING FOR COLLABORATIVE ORAL PRESENTATIONS MASTER’S THESIS PRINCIPLES AND METHODS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM CODE: 8140111 SUPERVISOR 1 ASSOC. LE XUAN MAI SUPERVISOR 2 Ph. BUI LE DIEM TRANG 2024 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This study has been done with the support, contribution and encouragement of many people. I would like to whole-heartedly express my sincere gratitude to those who helped make the thesis successful.
Firstly, I would like to pay special thankfulness and appreciation to my supervisor, Dr. Bui Le Diem Trang, An Giang University. I am fortunate to be instructed by a patient, careful, and enthusiastic supervisor who always provided me with constructive and timely feedback, useful materials, and especially continuous encouragement. Secondly, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Assoc.
Trinh Quoc Lap who provided me with useful knowledge of research methodology and data analysis. Thirdly, I would like to sincerely thank Ms. Truong Kim Ngan for supporting and taking care of the whole class throughout our learning process. Fourth, I am sincerely thankful to teachers and the students who supported me to collect data for my research.
Finally, I am grateful to my family and my friends who were always willing to listen to me and give me great encouragement. i TÓM LƯỢC Do tầm quan trọng của sự tham gia của sinh viên và lợi ích của học tập hợp tác, đã có nhiều nghiên cứu về sự tham gia của sinh viên vào quá trình học tập hợp tác. Tuy nhiên, bối cảnh của những nghiên cứu đó chỉ giới hạn trong lớp học vậy nên sự tham gia của học sinh vào các hoạt động học tập hợp tác bên ngoài lớp học vẫn chưa được khám phá. Trong nghiên cứu này, nhà nghiên cứu muốn khám phá các đặc điểm về sự tham gia của sinh viên và các yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến sự tham gia của họ trong quá trình chuẩn bị cho các bài thuyết trình hợp tác bên ngoài lớp học.
Phương pháp nghiên cứu hỗn hợp với bảng câu hỏi và phỏng vấn bán cấu trúc là công cụ thu thập dữ liệu chính đã được áp dụng. 139 sinh viên đại học chuyên ngành tiếng Anh từ một trường đại học ở miền Nam Việt Nam đã được chọn làm người tham gia. Kết quả tiết lộ hai đặc điểm chính về sự tham gia của sinh viên, bao gồm mức độ và các biểu hiện về sự tham gia của họ. Nghiên cứu cũng phát hiện ra nhiều yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến sự tham gia của sinh viên, được phân thành 4 chủ đề chính là yếu tố xã hội, yếu tố cá nhân, yếu tố bối cảnh và yếu tố liên quan đến thuyết trình, trong đó mỗi chủ đề bao gồm cả yếu tố thuận lợi và không thuận lợi.
Nghiên cứu này cung cấp thêm thông tin chi tiết về sự tham gia của sinh viên vào các hoạt động học tập hợp tác bên ngoài lớp học. Bên cạnh đó, một số ứng dụng sư phạm được đề xuất nhằm góp phần nâng cao sự tham gia của sinh viên trong việc học ngôn ngữ. Từ khóa: sự tham gia của sinh viên, việc học hợp tác, thuyết trình, thuyết trình nhóm ii ABSTRACT Due to the significance of students’ engagement and the advantages of collaborative learning, there have been more studies on students’ engagement in the collaborative learning process. However, the contexts of those studies were limited to the classrooms, so students’ engagement in collaborative learning activities outside the classroom has not been explored.
In this current study, the researcher aimed at exploring the characteristics of students’ engagement and the factors influencing their engagement in the process of preparing for collaborative oral presentations outside the classrooms. A mixed-methods approach with questionnaires and semi-structured interviews being the main data collection instruments was implemented. 139 English-majored undergraduate students from a university in the south of Vietnam were recruited as participants. The findings revealed two main characteristics of students’ engagement, including the level and the indicators of their engagement.
The research also discovered a variety of factors influencing students’ engagement, which were categorized into four main themes, namely social factors, personal factors, contextual factors, and oral presentation-related factors, with each theme including both favorable and unfavorable factors. This study provided more insights into students’ engagement in collaborative learning activities outside the classrooms. Besides, some pedagogical implications were proposed in the hope of contributing to the enhancement of students’ engagement in language learning. Key words: students’ engagement, collaborative learning, oral presentation, collaborative oral presentation iii DECLARATION The thesis entitled Exploring English-Majored Undergraduate Students’ Engagement in Preparing for Collaborative Oral Presentations was conducted under the supervisor of Ph.
Bui Le Diem Trang, An Giang University, and Assoc. Le Xuan Mai. I hereby declare that this thesis is the result of my own work, except where due reference is made. Other sources of information used in this thesis were properly credited.
This thesis has not been accepted for any degree and that no part of it has been submitted by any candidate for any degree or diploma. Can Tho, August 2024 1 (Signature) Master Supervisor student Supervisor 2 (Signature) (Signature) Assoc. Le Xuan Mai Ph. Bui Le Diem Trang Nguyen Thi Bao Trang iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.i v TABLE OF CONTENTS .v LIST OF TABLES.
viii LIST OF ABBREVATIONS .ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .2 Research aims and research questions.3 Significance of the study .4 Organization of the study .4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.5 Collaborative oral presentations.2 Factors influencing students’ engagement .2 Ecological System Theory.16 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.1 Research aims and research questions.1 Participants for questionnaires.2 Participants for interviews .2 Semi-structured interview .6 Data collection procedures .1 Administering the questionnaire.2 Administering the semi-structured interview .7 Data analysis procedures.1 Quantitative data analysis stage.2 Qualitative data analysis stage .8 Procedures of the research .1 Students’ overall engagement in preparing for collaborative oral presentations.2 Students’ cognitive engagement in preparing for collaborative oral presentations.3 Students’ behavioral engagement in preparing for collaborative oral presentations.4 Students’ emotional engagement in preparing for collaborative oral presentations.5 Comparison of students’ engagement in preparing for collaborative oral presentations by gender.6 Comparison of year students’ engagement in preparing for collaborative oral presentations by academic year .7 Summary of quantitative results.1 The characteristics of students’ engagement in preparing for collaborative oral presentations.2 The factors affecting students’ engagement in preparing for collaborative oral presentations.3 Summary of qualitative results.53 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION. Summary of key findings. Discussion of the findings .1 Findings of the first research question .2 Findings of the second research question.3 Interpretation of the findings by some theories.1 Implications for teachers .2 Implications for students .3 Implications for school administrators.3 Limitations of the current research and suggestions for further research.77 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Summary of the information of the participants for questionnaire .2: Summary of the information of the participants for interview.3: Research questions and instruments.4: Summary of three clusters in the questionnaire.5: Result of the Scale test on the questionnaire.6: Key to understanding of the mean scores (Oxford, 1990).7: Example of data extracts and code labelling .8: Example of grouping codes into subthemes and themes .9: An overview of the procedures of the research .1: Results of Descriptive Statistics of students’ overall engagement .2: Results of Paired Samples Test of students’ overall engagement in individual work and in group work .3: Result of Descriptive Statistics test of students’ cognitive engagement.4: Results of Paired Samples Statistics of students’ cognitive engagement in individual work and in group work .5: Results of Paired Samples Test of students’ cognitive engagement in individual work and in group work.6: Descriptive Statistics of students’ responses to the items in cognitive engagement cluster .7: Result of Descriptive Statistics of students’ cognitive engagement .8: Results of Paired Samples Statistics of students’ behavioral engagement in individual work and in group work .9: Results of Paired Samples Test of students’ behavioral engagement in individual work and in group work.10: Results of Descriptive Statistics of students’ responses to their behavioral engagement in individual work and in group work .11: Result of Descriptive Statistics of students’ emotional engagement .12: Results of Paired Samples Statistics of students’ emotional engagement in individual work and in group work .13: Results of Paired Samples Test of students’ emotional engagement in individual work and in group work .14: Results of Descriptive Statistics of students’ responses to items in emotional engagement cluster .15: Results of Group Statistics of male and female students’ engagement.16: Results of Independent Samples Test of male and female students’ engagement .17: Results of Group Statistics of second- and third-year students’ engagement .18: Results of Independent Samples Test of second- and third- year students’ engagement .19: Summary of the distribution of students’ engagement in the preparation process .20: Summary of social factors influencing students’ engagement .21: Summary of personal factors influencing students’ engagement .22: Summary of contextual factors influencing students’ engagement .23: Summary of oral presentation-related factors influencing students’ engagement .52 viii LIST OF ABBREVATIONS CE Cognitive engagement BE Behavioral engagement EE Emotional engagement ix CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the author will start with the rationale that provides general background information on the research area and proposes the research gap as well as the research purpose for this current study. Then, the significance of the study is presented.1 Rationale Collaborative learning is viewed as an occasion when individuals can interact with different viewpoints in a reciprocal manner, according to Sills (1988).
Meanwhile, Nunan (1992) defines collaborative learning as a process in which learners collectively take responsibility for developing knowledge through structured activities, and teachers facilitate and co-participate in the learning process. Besides, another term, cooperative learning, is sometimes used interchangeably with collaborative learning, as mentioned in Greenfield (2003) or Nguyen et al. However, no matter how it is defined by different researchers, the common point is that collaborative learning enables students to work together. This is an important teaching method because it offers various benefits to learners.
According to Gillies (2007), thanks to interactive learning processes taking place over the period of collaborative learning, learners must understand their individual accountability for contributing to the group, which makes them engage in the activity and establish mutual knowledge (Barron, 2000). Besides, collaborative learning can develop self-efficacy, enhance learning motivation and attitudes, and lead to better learning outcomes (Huang & Wu, 2011). Xu et al. (2023) also state that collaborative learning is widely applied in higher education around the world because it contributes to increasing students’ knowledge and social skills.
As mentioned in Bui (2019), collaborative learning has also been applied in Vietnamese contexts due to the national educational policy. Some studies, such as Tran et al. (2019) or Tran (2019), prove the positive impacts of collaborative learning on Vietnamese students’ language learning. Group oral presentations can be considered a form of collaborative learning because this activity requires learners to work in a group to take responsibility for a common presentation.
This activity brings several advantages to language learners, such as integrating language skills, encouraging students to speak English, facilitating students’ decision making, acquiring knowledge through English, or promoting learner-centeredness (Al-Issa & Al-Qubtan, 2010). Due to such great benefits, this activity is commonly used in higher education institutions around the globe (Tsang, 1 2020) and viewed as a crucial part of language learning in university environments (Ho et al. However, as mentioned in Al-Issa and Al-Qubtan (2010), oral presentations can be done spontaneously in class without much prior preparation, or can be arranged and prepared carefully in advance.