VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTGRADUATE STUDIES -----------o0o------------ LÝ THỊ HOÀNG MẾN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK ACTIVITIES TO DEVELOP SPEAKING SKILLS OF THE FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY (NGHIÊN CỨU THỰC TRẠNG SỬ DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG THEO CẶP VÀ THEO NHÓM ĐỂ PHÁT TRIỂN KĨ NĂNG NÓI CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT CHUYÊN NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH TẠI KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ, ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60.10 HANOI – 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTGRADUATE STUDIES -----------o0o------------ LÝ THỊ HOÀNG MẾN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK ACTIVITIES TO DEVELOP SPEAKING SKILLS OF THE FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY (NGHIÊN CỨU THỰC TRẠNG SỬ DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG THEO CẶP VÀ THEO NHÓM ĐỂ PHÁT TRIỂN KĨ NĂNG NÓI CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT CHUYÊN NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH TẠI KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ, ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60. Trần Hiền Lan, M. HANOI – 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com i DECLARATION To the best of my knowledge and belief, this minor thesis contains no material which has previously been submitted and accepted for any other degree in any university. The thesis is my own work and based on my own research.
It involves no material previously published or written by any other person, except where due reference is acknowledged in the paper. Signature: ___________________________ LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge and thank my supervisor, Ms. Tran Hien Lan for her valuable guidance, critical feedback and enormous encouragement, without which my thesis would be far from completion. I am also grateful to all the lecturers of the Faculty of Graduate and Postgraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their guidance and enthusiasm during my course.
My sincere thanks go to all my colleagues and my students at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University. Finally, I would like to express my thanks to my friends who were willing to help me during the course. In particular, I find myself indebted to my family especially my husband and my son for their love, care and tolerance when I was in the process of writing this thesis. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iii ABSTRACT This thesis was carried out to investigate the use of pair work and group work activities to develop speaking skills for the first year English major students at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University.
Survey questionnaires for teachers and students were employed to find answers to these three questions. The findings of the research revealed that pair work and group work were frequently applied in English speaking class with two main activities that students have to master are discussion and role-play. The use of pair work and group work activities are also beneficial for both teachers and learners. However, there were some problems such as students low proficiency and their passive way of learning styles, which prevent them from taking part in pair work and group work activities.
Teachers lack time and have to deal with large and multi-level classes in unqualified conditions hindering them a lot in implementing pair work and group work activities to teach English speaking. By analyzing and comparing the results of students’ and teachers’ response to questionnaire about pair work and group work activities, the author attempts to shed some light on the effectiveness of these activities and how to best implement them. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENT PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study 1 2.
Aims of the study 2 3. Scope of the study 2 4. Methods of the study 3 6. Design of the study 3 PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4 1.
Communicative Language Teaching 4 1. Traditional methods of second language teaching 4 1. Communicative language teaching methods 5 1. The communicative learning process 8 1.
Pair work and group work 9 1. Definition and description 9 1. Common pair work and group work oral activities 11 1. Information gap activity 12 1.
Advantages and disadvantages of using pair work and group work 13 activities 1. Advantages of using pair work and group work activities 13 1. Disadvantages of using pair work and group work activities 15 CHAPTER 2: DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF THE STUDY 2. Design and Methodology 17 2.
The setting of the study 17 2. Data collection instrument 18 2. The Participants 19 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Presentation and discussion of the results 19 2.
Students’ opinions about speaking skills. Students’ judgments about the use of pair work and group work activities 21 in English speaking class at FFL – TNU 2. Students’ difficulties when working in pairs/ groups 24 2. Students’ desires to learn English speaking skills 25 2.
Teachers’ opinions on teaching English speaking skills 27 2. Teachers’ opinions about the use of pair work and group work activities 28 to teach English speaking skills. Teachers’ current teaching methods of using pair work and group work 31 activity in using pair work and group work activities in English speaking class. Teachers’ difficulties in using pair work and group work activities to 34 teach English speaking skills.
Teachers’ solutions to overcome difficulties in using pair work and 36 group work activities CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 3. How pair work and group work activities are used at FFL, TNU 37 3. Difficulties in applying pair work and group work activities 39 3. Classroom conditions’ difficulties 40 3.
Recommendations 41 PART 3: CONCLUSION 1. Summary of the study 43 2. Limitations of the study 44 3. Recommendations for further research 44 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vi REFERENCES 45 APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 IV LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS FFL, TNU: Faculty of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University CLT: Communicative Language Teaching TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages TEFL: Teaching English as Foreign Language TESL: Teaching English as a Second Language LIST OF TABLES Table 1:Students’opinions about speaking skills Table 2: Students’ judgments about how they like to practise speaking in English speaking class at FFL – TNU Table 3: Students’ judgments about the frequency of their teachers to organize pair work and group work activities in an English speaking class Table 4: Students’ judgments about their participation in pair and group work activities in an English speaking class Table 5: Students’ judgments about the benefits of pair work and group work activities to their speaking skills.
Table 6: Students’ difficulties when working in pairs/ groups Table 7: Students’ desires to learn English speaking skills via pair work and group work Table 8: Teachers’ opinions about English speaking skills Table 9: Teachers’ opinions about the use of pair work and group work activities to teach English speaking skills Table 10: Teachers’ current teaching methods of using pair work and group work activities in English speaking class Table 11: Teachers’ difficulties in using pair work and group work activities to teach English speaking skills Table 12: Teachers’ solutions to overcome difficulties in using pair work and group work activities LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 PART I: INTRODUCTION This chapter presents the rationale, aims, scope, research questions, research methods and design of the study. Rationale of the study “Better English, more opportunities” has become a target of most university students in recent years. English is a useful means they need for their future career since it equips them with linguistic, social and cultural knowledge and provides them with access to the modern world in the era of informatics and technology. It is used as the official language in many powerful and developed countries.
Additionally, it is also considered as the means of communication in a number of aspects such as business, education, science, and so on. Therefore, English teaching and learning play an important role in social developing policies in a large number of countries throughout the world. In Vietnam, English has been used widely, and becomes the most popular language in the country. Because of our country’s regional and global participation in every aspect, the demand for English speaking people has increased.
English is also a compulsory subject to be taught and learned at schools and universities. With a strategic view to the future, teaching and learning English in recent years are changing. There have been several international organizations and projects and teachers who attended TESOL, TEFL, or TESL courses with efforts to introduce and apply new approaches, methodology and techniques to their teaching of English nationwide. Methodologically, the methods of English teaching have shifted from traditional grammar translation approach to communicative approach.
New syllabi, new textbooks which focus on communicative- oriented and learner-centered have been designed. Therefore, according to the National Foreign Language Project 2020, teachers of English have to improve their capability of communicating successfully in English. Not to be the exception to the trend, teaching English at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University (FFL, TNU) is also the strategic duty of all teachers and students. Although communicative language teaching is the aim to approach, the process to achieve is quite difficult.
As a teacher of English at the FFL, TNU, I would like to help my students to master the language and have an ability to communicate confidently in English. However, LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 there still remain some questions that how can we cooperate new approaches with the previous one and how to implement them in class. One of the effective ways that I often work with students in our speaking class is pair work and group work. From what I have experienced, this kind of activities has created chances for students to talk and communicate with each other in English naturally.
For the above reasons, the researcher chose the topic “An investigation into the use of pair work and group work activities to develop speaking skill of the 1st year English major students at FFL, TNU. Aims of the study This study aims to: - Investigate the current situation of using pair work and group work activities in teaching and learning speaking skill at FFL, TNU. - Identify the difficulties for the teachers to apply pair work and group work in the speaking class of 1st year English major students at FFL, TNU. - Give practical recommendations for the use of pair and group work to develop speaking skill for 1st year English major students at FFL, TNU.
Scope of the study Teachers can employ a variety of techniques and methods to improve speaking skill st of 1 year students at FFL, TNU. However, the researcher only intends to examine the current situation of using pair work and group work in speaking class of 1st year students at FFL, TNU and making some suggestions for improvement. Additionally, the study is only limited to the 1st year students at FFL, TNU, therefore, their opinions about pair work and group work may not be representative of all students at FFL, TNU in particular and all students learning English throughout the country in common. Research questions Three research questions are used to find out answers for the use of pair work and group work activities in teaching and learning English speaking skills at FFL, TNU.
LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.