VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HANOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES BINH THI THUY USING GROUP WORK ACTIVITIES TO REDUCE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ANXIETY- AN ACTION RESEARCTI Sử dụng hoạt động nhám để làm giảm bớt sự Ïa lắng của học sinh trong giờ học Hói M. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 HANOI - 2012 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HANOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES TINH THỊ THÚY USING GROUP WORK ACTIVITIES TO REDUCE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ANXIETY- AN ACTION RESEARCTI Sứ: dụng hoạt động nhám để làm giảm bớt sự lo ling của học sinh trong giờ học Hói M. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 SUPERVISOR: PHAM MINH HIEN, MLA HANOI - 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS. LIST OF ‘TABLES AND CHARTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND TABLES.
TABLE OF CONTENTS. wee 4 PART A: INTRODUCTION L Rationale of the stady. sesesntnee sesesntnee sesesntnee LL. Aims of the sbudy.
HHu re HHu re HHu re TIT. Scope of the study IV. Methods of the study. Design of the study.
¬— ¬— ¬— Ae PART B: DEVELOPMENT. Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Speaking skills and its related concepts.1 The importance of speaking skills 1.2 Klements of speaking skills. sesesntnee sesesntnee Maw 1.2 Group work in a speaking lesson .1 Definition and description of group work 7 1.2 Advantages and đisadvantages oÊ group wotk.3 Teacher's role in carrying out group work 1.3 Definitions nf anxiety in Speaking English in classroom (SEC) .1 Delinitions of anxiety.2 Anxiety in second language (1.2) and in SEC 1.4 Main factars causing students’ anxiety in SEC 1.5 Effects of anxiety on students of SE 1.6 Teacher’s role to students’ anxiety in SEC.7 Teaching techniques 1a reduce students anxiety in SEC. 2 Practical grouping strategies.2 Student- selected grơuping,.3 Teacher- formed groupin; 13 2.2 Procedures of group work 14 2.3 Common oral activities for group WOIk.1 Opening- circle discussion.2 Role play is 2.3 Infornation Gap Aetivity (GA).
Other picture card activities 16 2.4 Problems and solutions in using, class group work. Chapter 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.2 Description of data collection instruments.The rationale for using questionnaire. ¬— ¬— ¬— se 21 2,4 Research method .1 Owerview of action research. HHu re HHu re vee 22 2.2 Procedure of the action research.
HHu re een 23 2. HHu re HHu re HHu re ¬- 2.8 Data collecting proccdure 2. Chapter3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION .1 The initial data. Results from questionnaire 1 .2 The post data Dala collected from questicrmaire 2.
1, Summary of main findings. sesesntnee sesesntnee sesesntnee eee BB 2 Limitation and recommendation for further research 40 REFERENCES APPENDICES APPENDIX 1 QUESTIONNATRE 1 APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE 2 Appendix 3: LESSON PLANS FOR 3 SPEAKING GROUP-WORK ACTIVITIES OF THE STUDY Appendix 4: The description of the second lesson during the intervention: Task 2- Unit 13: FILMS AND CINEMA —(Bnelish 10), page 134 LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Table 2.2 Procedures of group wark Table 2.4: Problems and sofutions in using class group work ‘Table 1: Students’ evaluation on their anxiety in SỬC. HHu re Table 2: Students’ feeling when speaking in group work activities. Table 3: Student attitude to group work activities in speaking lessons.
Table 4: Student's attitudes toward grouping strategies 'Table 5: Students’ preferences to group work activities in speaking lessons. ‘Table 6: Students” self- evaluated participation in speaking activities in group Chart 1: Students’ evaluation on their anxiety in SHC. sesesntnee Chart 2: Factors making students anxious in SEC most. sesesntnee Chart 3: Students’ favourite activities 0.
" raeeee " raeeee LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS SEC Speaking English in classroom DHHS Deng Hy High School AR Action Research MAM Making a mistake BCM Reing corrected mislakes as soon as they are made BAS Reing asked lo speak wilhoul preparation ADT A difficult topic SFW Speaking in front of the whole class AQ Another one PART A: INTRODUCTION I. Ratiovnale of the study In Vietnam for some recent decades, English has taken more and more important role in almost all aspects such as: politics, economy, culture, communication, education and information technology, especially since Viet Nam adopted ils open door policy and become a member of WTO. Fnglish helps Vietnamese labours to have access to latest information in the world and take part in the world labour force with English as an international means of communication in this modern age However, it is the fact that using English for real communication in general, with limited Linglish speaking ability is a big problem for Vietnamese leamers. ‘The traditional teaching and tearning English al high schools in Vietnam leads to the feel that students are inclined to develop reading and writing skills seem to remain a big problem to Viemamese leamers, meanwhile speaking and listening skills are almost ignored.
Although students can do some lasks im English, they can’t use English as a communicative tool, Smce the teaching approach Communicative Learning Teaching (CLT) was introduced, the teaching and leaming of English has changed its emphasis from “Master of language Structure” to “Master of use”. According to this theory, teachers teach students how to understand as well as how to perform. But due to the strong effect of the traditional way of ELT in schools in Vielnam, the panorama of FLT, particularly including speaking skill remains dull Like m most of schools in the north of Viemam, the majority of the students in Dong Hy high school (DHHS) where I work, have no ample opportunity to study the English language because they have few English lessons per week (three Rnglish lessons per woek), Though they are encouraged to take few courses in school in the use of English, the content of these English courses are grossly inadequate for the students to acquire requisite skills in effective use of language for communication and for the give and take of social cxperionse. In order to study Lnglish as a foreign language and be successful with it, the students must be helped by the teacher to acquire skills in the four language art skills, namely: speaking, listening, writing, and reading.
Of the four slalls mentioned above, speaking is the skills secondary school students need great support. Recently, teachers in my school have introduced activities through which they can help students go beyond the mastery of structures to the points and use them to communicate more meaningfully in real situations. Also, group work approach has also been applied in all kinds of lessons and has shown its effectiveness. It is said that using group work is one of good ways to motivate students in leaming English.
By grouping stadents, teachers enables students to help one another study. Using group work has many advantages such as more language prachice im classroom, more purposeful communication, more sludents’ involvement and motivation, more chances for students to help cach other, more chances for students to foster responsibility, autonomy and independence. (Underwood, 1987, Hyland, 1991, Ur, 1996) Therciore, simply pulling students logether in a group is no guarantee thal. is beneficial, Without careful planning and facilitation, group work can frustrate students and instructors and will be a waste of time In DIIIS during the group work there, the better students contribute a lot whereas some weaker ones become passive.
I realized that there were much more students who were anxious than those confident in speaking English in class Moreover, the anxious students have differently certain manifestations, for example giving frequent communicative Feedback such as (uh- huh) and playing with the hair, clothes, or other manipulability objects. It seemed that studying on students’ ansiety was really meaningfully important. As we all see “dnniety is the rust of hfe, destroying its brightness and weakening ily power.” -— said by Tyron Fdwards, a famous American theologian of “New Dictinary of Thoughts” ‘The wish to help her students to overcome the obstacles in speaking Knelish encouraged the researcher to carry out this study, entitled the use of group work ta reduce grade ten students’ anxicty in spoaking lessons at Dong Hy High School. Aims and objectives of the study The study aims to - gain understanding of factors that cause students’ anxiety in speaking Linglish lessons in one tenth form class of Dong Lly high school - experiementing solutions that can address anxiety-causing factors so as to help the students to feel less anxious in speaking English in the speaking lessons.
Those aims are specified into the following objectives: - to find out what students say about factors that make them anxious in speaking Bnglish in the classroom, - to [nổ oul eleelive classroom techniques thal van ercate a low-anxicly classroom atmostphere so that students can be more active in speaking English in the lessons Rescarch questions: In order to achieve the above-mentioned aims and objectives, the study is to seck answers lo the following research questions: 1, What factors do @ group of grade 10® students in Dong Hy high schoot think cause their anxiety in speaking Hnglish? 2. What classroom techniques that help to reduce the students’ stated anxiety in speaking Inglish? ILL. Scope of the study As an action research project, the study was conducted with the researcher's own studetts in her own class. The sludy is, therefore, hrmiled ilsel? lo jusk one ‘problem’ the rescarchor was cneountered with in her teaching, ic.
students’ speaking anxiety. On the basis of the analysis of the factors the students, who were m one grade-10™ form, slated, the re cher experiemented with some interventions to address the problem. Methods of the study - A quantitative method was used in this study with the questionnaire being used as the only instrument of data collection ‘To be more specific, a pre-action questionnaire and a post-action questionnaire were employed. Design of the study The thesis consists of three parts Part A — INTRODUCTION- presents the rationale, the aim, scope, significance, methods, design of the sludy.
Part B— DEVELOPMENT- consists of three chapters Chapter onc- Literature Review- deals with the theorics related to the study: speaking skill and its related concepts, concept of students’ participation, group works in a speaking lesson. definitions of anxiety in speaking English in classroom (SEC), main factors causing students’ arxiely im SEC, teacher’s role to students? anxiety mn SLC. Chapter two- Research methodologies presents the methodology performed in the study. It provides information about the participants, the instrumentation.
Dala collection and findings are also presented in this chapter Chapter three- Results and discussien- discuss the data of the study and propose discussion for using group work activities to reduce grade ten students’ anxiety in speaking lessons at Dong Hy High Schoo! Part C: CONCLUSION- summarizes all the key issues as well as the lirsutations of the study and suggestions for further study PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter deals with the theories rolated to the study: Speaking skill and its related concepts, concept of group works in a speaking lesson, definitions of amdety in Speaking English in classroom (SEC), main factors causing students’ anxiety m SEC, clTcet of amacty on students SEC, teacher's role lo students’ anxiety in SBC, teaching techniques to reduce students’ anxiety in SEC.1 Speaking skills and its related concepts 1.1 The importance of speaking skills Speaking skills are essential in both professional and personal setting, in both public and private sectors. Speaking helps us communicate with each other more casily and less misunderstanding. Burn- Joyoc (1997: 15) says that speaking is more than just a way or making conversation. Conversation can be defined as the informal interchange of thoughts and information by spoken words.
Therefore, speaking skill is always considered as the most effective means of communication. According to Penny Ur (1995; 120), speaking seems intuitively the most important and people who know a language are referred to as speakers of that language as if speaking includes all other kinds of knowing, Firstly, speaking skills contribute an important part.