VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES A STUDY ON APPLYING GROUP DISCUSSION APPROACH TO ENHANCE SPEAKING SKILLS OF ENGLISH FOR THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT AN DUONG VOCATIONAL MIDDLE SCHOOL (Áp dụng đường hướng thảo luận theo nhóm dé phat trién kỹ năng nói cho sinh viên năm thứ nhât tại Trường Trung cầp Nghề An Dương) M. Minor Thesis : English Teaching Methodology : 60.10 HANOI- 2010 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES A STUDY ON APPLYING GROUP DISCUSSION APPROACH TO ENHANCE SPEAKING SKILLS OF ENGLISH FOR THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT AN DUONG VOCATIONAL MIDDLE SCHOOL (Áp dụng đường hướng thảo luận theo nhóm dé phat trién kỹ năng nói cho sinh viên nam thứ nhất tại Trường Trung cấp Nghề An Dương) M. Minor Thesis Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60.10 Supervisor : Duong Thi Thuc, M. HANOI- 2010 1V TABLE OF CONTENT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.QQQQQQQQn nnn n eee ee nh hy DECLARATION.
eee eee nee HH HH HH HH HH KH HH ni ke kh ABSTRACT. 0Q QQQ QQQ eee EEE HH HH eee EEE eee Hi eee aE TABLE OF CONTENT. HH HH HH non kh bến LIST OF ABBREVIATION.QQQQQQQQQ n n HH HH HH nh hy Part I; Introduction 1. Aim of the study.
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0c cece cece cence cence eee e tenet eee ST KH TK nh nh nh nh kg Part II: Development Chapter 1: Literature reVÏ€W. cece cence HH Tnhh nh tr 1.c ng ene ng nh nh nhe 1. Common problems during Speaking AcfIVIfles. Cooperative Language LearnIng.--‹- ence een ease e eee enees 1.The background ofCLL,.
Types of Cooperative Learning ørOup. The benefits of Cooperative Language Learning. Group discussion in speaking €ÌaSS. History of the group discusS1on.
The concepts of group discussions/group WOrK. The formation of group diSCuSSIOH. Seating arrangement in group điSCusSIOHn. The role of learner in group discussIon.
The role of teacher in group điscusSIon. The advantages and disadvantages of using group discussion in the speaking class. eee e ence ne eee ene ene ene KH nh nh n nh ng 1.ccccecc ccc e cence eee e eee e nee e eee nee eee nent e ena eee Chapter 2: Methodology 2. Setting of the Study.
SH HH nh nh nh nh nh nh ni ki nà nà by 2. Cunrent situations of teaching and learning English speaking skills at An Duong Vocational School. Techniques for Collecting Data.------- c2 ssssssserssss 24 Chapter 3: Findings and Recommendations E22. Gea ene eetsaeneenaeeaeens 3.
The importance of English speaking skIll. Students’ interest in English speaking skill. Students’ preference to how they like to practice speaking skill in class. Students’ opinion on speaking in group điscussion.
Students’ opinion on the advantages and disadvantages of group discussion. Students’ preference in group điscusSIon. Factors cause difficulties when speaking in group discuss1on. Students’ desires in learning speaking through group discussion.
Teachers’ opinion on teaching speaking skIll. Teachers’ opinion on the important role of group discussion in improving speaking skill. Teachers’ opinion on group discussion in teaching speaking skIll. The frequency of dIfficultles.
Teachers’ current teaching methods in using group discussion in speaking class. Reports on the students, teachers and the materlals. Report on the studenfs.‹ c2 e eee e teen eee nh ke 3. Report on the teachers.‹-‹ c2 2n nee en tees ene ke EEREN›(9) i00: iïvuÌkaaẳiẳiiaẳaiaâẳâẳâẳi.--‹ SE nh kệ 3.
Recommendations for studenfs. Recommendations for teachers. Recommendations for mater1aÌS. Recommendations for adminIstrafOTS.-------« << Part III: Conclusion 1.
Summary of the study. cece cece cece cece cee e eee eee e ee ene ea ene eget nh. Limitation of the study. cece ence eee eee eee eee nh nh nh nh kh cớ 3.
Suggestions for further research. EE EEE EEE Ente EE Eee ieee APPENDIX 1 APPENDIX 2 VI LIST OF ABBREVIATION GD: Group Discussion. EFL: English Foreign Language. ELT: English Language Teaching.
CLL: Cooperative Language Learning. LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLE 1. Figures: Figure |: The importance of English Speaking Skill. Figure 2: Students’ interest in English speaking skill.
Figure |: Students’ preference to how they like to practice speaking skill in class. Figure 4: The frequency of difficulties. Tables: Table 2 : Students’ Profiles. Table 3: Teachers’ Profiles.
Table 3: Students’ opinion on speaking in group discussion. Table 4: Students’ opinion on the advantages and disadvantages of group discussion. Table 5: Students’ preference in group discussion. Table 6: Factors cause difficulties when speaking in group discussion.
Table 7: Students’ desires in learning speaking through group discussion. Table 8: Teachers’ opinion on teaching speaking skill. Table 9: Teachers opinion on the important role of group discussion in improving speaking skill. Table 10: Teachers’ opinion on group discussion in teaching speaking skill.
Table 11: Teachers’ current teaching methods in using group discussion in speaking class. Rationale Language is the most common form of communication of mankind. Communication through language plays an important role in our social activities and daily life as our social contacts are increasing frequently. Economic global civilization requires people to learn more about cultural features, historical background and social realities from other countries.
Only this can effectively strengthen the communication, co-operation and negotiation with other countries and establish firmly economic and cultural relationship. However, in this process, English as an international language has showed its importance than cannot be replaced. People’s ability to master a foreign language, especially English, has been an essential component in evaluating the power of a nation. More and more people find it necessary and useful to have a good competence of English.
Some people recognize ‘tongue, finance, computer’ as three powerful arms in the modern world. The ability to express one-self orally has become an important factor to influence one’s life and decide the success or failure of his understanding. The ability to express one-self is one of the qualities that we must possess. Meanwhile, English is widely used in the world.
People in most of the countries communicate with each other in English in the fields like politics, economics, culture, science, technology etc. So learning English well seems to be an evitable necessity in the modern world. Furthermore, oral English is the necessary aspect of learning because of the high-speed development of the society, whether you can express your-self fluently and properly shows how well you master the language. In Vietnam, English is the most popular foreign language to be used as a mean of communication.
The use of English has dramatically increased in Vietnam, especially in the last decade. English is spoken by many Vietnamese and is considered a necessity for those who are studying or doing research and for those who are working in places like foreign companies, holiday resorts, banks, hotels, universities, colleges, school and other public places. Despite the widespread emphasis on the acquisition and use of English, many students (including the final year graduates) still struggle to communicate in English for academic purposes. One of the primary reasons is that they lack the confidence and skills needed to successfully speak in English.
As a result, they become apprehensive when asked to speak in public. The feeling of apprehension or fear when speaking in English has become a serious matter because it affects their employability and their self-esteem. Many students admit that they are unable to secure their dream jobs after they have graduated. This is likely due to their high levels of apprehension and their lack of confidence when asked to communicate in English during job interviews.
Speaking in a foreign language has often been considered as the most demanding of the four skills: listening, writing, reading and speaking. When attempting to speak, learners must muster up their thoughts and encode those ideas in the vocabulary and syntactic structures of the target language. Moreover, English Language Teaching (ELT) in Vietnam has affected the traditional teaching model through which students learn English just to pass exams and teachers lecture mainly to help students achieve this goal. The result is that students do not have enough English to communicate effectively with others.
Obviously, students’ overall skills cannot be enhanced, especially among students at the college and university level. Being a teacher of English at An Duong Vocational School, I am well aware that teaching speaking is not an easy job because there are many problems still existing in teaching speaking skills. For example: the lack of vocabulary will make students unable to say words during speaking class. In addition, most of students do not feel confident enough to use English in speaking class.
Moreover, students often speak their Vietnamese language, and so on. Therefore, it is necessary to create conductive and authentic learning environments for students to be able to practice speaking in order to reduce their apprehension. A group discussion before a speaking task is one of the very good ways to create such environments. Group discussions are very important in oral English classes.
It maximizes students’ speaking time in a specified-time period. Group discussions have a strong positive effect on the atmosphere in the classroom and the behaviors of the students as they can get more ideas from their friends. The most important reason for using group discussions before speaking tasks is to reduce students’ nervousness of making mistakes. And this encourages students to be more active in completing their task.
Moreover, using group discussions can open skills of participation, cooperation, negotiation and so on effectively for the students in studying and working. With a view to providing students with professional atmosphere to speak the international language easily and freely, the writer decided to do a research entitled “A study on applying group discussion approach to enhance speaking skills of English for the first year students at An Duong Vocational Middle School”. 1 hope that the research will be a big contribution to ideal strategy approaches in teaching and learning English to improve speaking skills for students. Aim of the study The purpose of this study is aimed at investigating the reality of the use of group discussion in the speaking- class of the first year students at An Duong Vocational School.
To be specific, the aims of the study are: * Investigating the current situations of English speaking teaching and learning at An Duong Vocational School. * Indicating the difficulties that the students and teachers usually meet during group discussions. * Considering how group discussions enhance students to speak English in the class. Scope of the study To improve speaking skill of the first year students at An Duong Vocational School, the teachers can apply diversified methods and techniques.
However, the study is limited to the applying group discussions to enhance English speaking skill for 1Ÿ year students at An Duong Vocational School. Methods of the study By observing and reviewing 100 1-year students and 7 teachers of English in speaking-class at An Duong Vocational School, the researcher received necessary information to be able to create the framework of the questions from the interviews with 7 teachers and the questionnaire with 100 students in five classes: Mechanics, Industrial Sewing, Vehicle Repair, Industrial Electricity and Computer Science. To be able to receive as much valuable information as possible from the interview and the questionnaire, the researcher took notes of every conversation with each teacher and some specific students. Design of the study The writer organizes this research paper in order to make the readers easily understand the paper.