VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ------ TÀO THỊ THU THẢO TECHNIQUES FOR ORGANIZING COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES IN PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK FOR THE 1ST YEAR STUDENTS AT TOURISM FACULTY, THANH HOA UNIVERSITY OF CULTURE, SPORTS AND TOURISM (Những thủ thuật tổ chức các hoạt động giao tiếp theo cặp, nhóm cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất khoa Du Lịch, trường Đại học Văn hoá, Thể thao, Du lịch Thanh Hoá ) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Hanoi, 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ------ TÀO THỊ THU THẢO TECHNIQUES FOR ORGANIZING COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES IN PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK FOR THE 1ST YEAR STUDENTS AT TOURISM FACULTY, THANH HOA UNIVERSITY OF CULTURE, SPORTS AND TOURISM (Những thủ thuật tổ chức các hoạt động giao tiếp theo cặp, nhóm cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất khoa Du Lịch, trường Đại học Văn hoá, Thể thao, Du lịch Thanh Hoá ) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: M.A Nguyễn Thị Minh Tâm Hanoi, 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Candidate’s statement. iii List of abbreviations.
iv List of tables and charts. iv Table of contents. Aims of the study. Scope of the study.
Methods of the study. Significance of the study. Design of the study. 4 Chapter I: Theoretical Background.
Communicative language teaching. Definition of Communicative activities. Types of Communicative activities. Interactions in speaking classes.
Definition of Classroom Interaction. Speaking skill in language teaching and learning. Types of interactions in speaking class. Pair work and group work in speaking classes.
Definition of pair work. Definition of group work. Advantages of pair work and group work. 9 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Some common activities for pair work and group work. Review of previous studies. 12 Chapter II: Methodology. Background of the study.
An overview of the research site. Descriptions of English teachers, teaching method and teaching material 14 in TUCST. Descriptions of students at TUCST. Descriptions of teaching and learning of English speaking skills for the first year students at Tourism Faculty through organizing pair work and group 15 work.
Presentation of statistical results. The result of language learning survey questionnaires and direct 17 interview. Students’ opinions on speaking skill. Students’ opinions on the use of pair work, group work in speaking 18 class.
Students’ recommendation for the success of pair and group 19 work. Students’ appreciation on how useful pair work and group work are 21 to improve their learning speaking English after the 1st semester. The result of language teaching survey questionnaires and direct 23 interview. Teachers’ opinions on speaking skill.
Teachers’ appreciation of using pair work, group work. Teachers’ implemention of pair work, group work in current 25 speaking classes. Teacher’s appreciation on how useful pair work and group work are 27 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com to improve student’s learning speaking English after the 1st semester. 28 Chapter III: Finding and Discussion.
Research questions restated. How pair work and group work are used in English speaking classes of the 1 st 29 year students at Tourism Faculty, TUCST?. What are useful techniques of pair work and group work to the 1 st year 31 students in learning speaking English?. The useful techniques of pair work and group work to the 1 st year 31 students in learning speaking English.
The use of suggested activities at TUOCST. Sample lesson plan. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further research.
40 Appendix 1: Questionnaires for students Appendix 2: Questionnaires for teachers Appendix 3: Interview questions for students Appendix 4: Interview questions for teachers vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION I. Rationale In Vietnam, English is taught not only at all colleges and universities, but also almost every high school and it is considered as a compulsory subject at secondary school. To meet the demand of learners, the teaching English in Vietnam has been changing. By applying various new approaches, methods, and techniques, English teaching has shift from the traditional grammar translation approach to the communicative approach.
According to Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), the purpose of language teaching and learning is to develop communicative competence in the target language. In the view of this approach, the learner is considered the center of the leaning process; the teacher serves as a facilitator, allowing students to be in change of their own learning. In learner-centered approach, the choice of teaching methods are often more complicated than the construction of many teaching objectives. Some authors suggest that this type of work can carry out in two periods.
In the first period, teachers need to find the student's experience and learning methods they prefer, and with their existing experience, teachers can select appropriate teaching methods. In the second stage, teachers need to engage the active participation of students in planning their academic programs. This work can be done by encouraging students to think, to engage in learning activities organized by teachers in a positive, proactive and creative way. Therefore, the organization of learning activities for students have a special role and it’s very important for teachers to pay attention in setting teaching program.
Two common forms of class organization are working in pairs (Pair work) and working in group (Group work). In the context of Thanh Hoa University of Culture, Sports and Tourism, English is taught as a compulsory subject for the 1st year students of Tourism Faculty. These students are future tour guides who learn English in order to be able to communicate well in their future job. All the teachers here have been trying their best to help their students in learning communicative skills well.
Both of them are aware of the importance and benefits of using pair work, group work to help improve the communicative skills of the first year students in Tourism Faculty. However, they have faced many challenges in organizing these techniques during lessons, such as large classes; noises; lazy and passive students, etc. 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com For all the above mentioned reasons, I have decided to carry out a research work in: “Techniques for organizing communicative activities in pair work and group work for the 1st year students at Tourism Faculty, Thanh Hoa University of Culture, Sports, and Tourism”. This study is intended to make a small contribution on how to use the pair work, group work effectively and successfully in English teaching and learning practice in Viet Nam.
Aims of the study: This study is aimed at: - finding out the use of pair work and group work in English speaking classes of the 1st year students at Tourism Faculty, TUCST - suggesting the useful techniques of pair work and group work to the 1st year students at Tourism Faculty in learning speaking English. Scope of the study: To improve communicative skills for students at TUCST, the teachers can make use of various techniques and a number of things should be done. However, within the framework of a minor thesis, the researcher only intends to draw a brief overview of how are the pair work and group work used at TUCST. Among for language skills, namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing, pair work and group work are used frequently in the speaking lessons.
Therefore, this research tends to find out the useful pair work and group work techniques in speaking classes. Also, due to the time constraints, this study only involves a small number of English teachers and students in their first academic year of Tourism Faculty, TUCST. Research question: This study was aimed to answer the following research questions: 1. How pair work and group work are used in English speaking classes of the 1st year students at Tourism Faculty, TUCST? 2.
What are useful techniques of pair work and group work to the 1 st year students at Tourism Faculty in learning speaking English? 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Methods of the study: In order to find out the answers to the research questions, both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to carry out the study. The data were collected by means of questionnaires and interviews for English teachers and the first year students of Tourism Faculty at TUCST. Besides that, reviewing the related documents from many published books written by different authors and collecting information from others previous studies are methods to establish the theoretical background of the study.
Significance of the study: This study is hoped to be used to both teachers and students of Tourism Faculty at TUCST. This study has been able to contribute to teachers’ knowledge of communicative language teaching, communicative activities in general and pair work, group work in particular. Besides that, from the finding of the study, teachers can be provided with important information which may be valuable for their future lesson planning. On the other hand, the teachers’ transformation in pair work and group work implementation will be beneficial to the students.
Design of the study: This study consists of three parts: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion The development part comprises four chapters: + Chapter I: Theoretical Background + Chapter II: Methodology + Chapter III: Finding and Discussion 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND In this chapter, a brief description of the theoretical knowledge relating to the study was provided. It includes some concepts of CLT, communicative activities, interaction in the speaking class, pair work, group work. Communicative language teaching (CLT) Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is the most influential language teaching methodology in the world.
Since the introduction of communicative language teaching in the late 1970s, there have been a variety of definitions and ideas about CLT: - “CLT views language as a system for the expression of meaning. Activities involve oral communication, carrying out meaningful tasks, and using language, which is meaningful to the learners. Objectives reflect the needs of the learners; they include functional skills as well as linguistic objectives. The learner‟s role is as a negotiator and an integrator.
The teacher‟s role is as a facilitator of the communication process. Materials promote communicative language use; they are task based and authentic”. (Nunan 1989:194) Richards and Rodgers (1986) consider CLT as an approach rather than a method which comprises two sets of theories: assumption of what to teach, and assumption of how to teach. In the first assumption, the purpose of language teaching is to develop "communicative competence" - a basic concept in CLT.
Hymes (1972) defines “communicative competence” as “what a speaker needs to know in order to be communicatively competent in a speech community”. According to this, CLT has two following main aims pointed out by Richards and Rogers (1986:64): 1. To make communicative competence the goal of language teaching. To develop procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication.
The second assumption shows another point about CLT, that is: “its learner-centered and experience based view of second language teaching. Students in this approach are seen to be able to play a more active and participatory part than in traditional approaches. And therefore, the roles of teacher will be re-defined with the change of activity organization because each leaner is thought to have unique learning styles, needs and goals, which should be reflected in the design of the method of instruction. 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com To sum up, CLT is best considered an approach rather than a method.
It is most often defined as a list of general principles or characteristics.