TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Page STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS. 1 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. 5 LIST OF TABLES. 6 LIST OF CHARTS.
Background to the study. Statement of the problem. Scope of the study. Objectives of the study.
Research questions for the study. Organization of the study. 12 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. What Is Cooperative Learning (CL)?.
Elements of Cooperative Learning. Quality of group interaction process. Interpersonal and small group skills. Grouping Arrangements and Grouping Strategies.
Cooperative Learning and Group Learning. Benefits and Limitations of Cooperative Learning. Benefits of Cooperative Learning. Benefits to the Learners.
Benefits to the Teacher. Limitations of Cooperative Learning. Planning and Conducting Cooperative Learning lessons. Planning for Cooperative Learning.
Conducting Cooperative Learning Lessons. The Role of Teachers in Cooperative Language Learning. The Importance of Writing Skill. Definition of Writing.
Principles and Techniques of Writing. Unit Components in Teaching Writing. Tasks of the Teacher in Teaching Writing. Data Collection Methods.
Questionnaire to students. Questionnaire to teachers. Procedures of data collection and data analysis. Reliability and Validity.
50 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. CL activities in the EFL writing classes. The extent to which CL activities have been applied in the EFL writing classes. Three stages in teaching writing.
Kinds of organization. CL activities in while-writing stage. How CL activities have been applied in the EFL writing classes. Kinds of CL groups.
Students’ and teachers’ perceptions of CL activities in while-writing stage. Students’ perceptions of CL activities in while-writing stage. The necessity of CL activities in while-writing stage. The effects of CL activities in while-writing stage.
Teachers’ perceptions of CL activities in while-writing stage. Importance, necessity, and students’ attitudes. Advantages and disadvantages. Students’ writing skill.
Suggested solutions to improve students’ writing skill. Activities to make CL groups more effective. Activities to improve students’ writing skill. Summary of the findings.
Pedagogical implications of the study. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further studies. 88 APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS (IN ENGLISH).
i APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS (IN VIETNAMESE). iv APPENDIX 3: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS. viii APPENDIX 4: QUESTIONS FOR TEACHER INTERVIEW. xiv APPENDIX 5: OBSERVATION SHEET .xvii 4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Cooperative Learning (CL) Group Investigation (GI) Student Team Achievement Divisions (STAD) 5 LIST OF TABLES Table Page Table 2.1: Differences between Cooperative Learning and Group Learning .2: Syntax of the CL Model .1: The number of students in a CL group .2: Teachers’ perceptions of the importance, the necessity, and students’ attitudes.3: Advantages of implementing CL activities in while-writing stage .4: Difficulties of implementing CL activities in while-writing stage .5: Teachers’ perceptions of students’ writing skill .6: Some activities to make CL groups more effective .7: Some activities to improve students’ writing skill.
80 6 LIST OF CHARTS Chart Page Chart 4.1: Frequency of pre-writing, while-writing, and post writing stages .2: Kinds of organization in while-writing stage .3: Kinds of CL activities in while-writing stage .4: Frequency of CL activities in while-writing stage .5: CL groups assigned by the teacher .6: Students’ perceptions of the necessity of the implementing CL activities in while-writing stage .7: Students’ perceptions of CL’s effects in while-writing stage .8: Students’ interests of using CL activities in while-writing stage .9: Some activities to make CL groups more effective. 78 7 ABSTRACT Implementing cooperative learning has been widely recognized as one of the most essential elements in the process of foreign language learning and teaching. It not only helps learners improve their language skills but also develops their creative thinking, interpersonal skills and cooperation in managing group work. Cooperative learning has recently been applied in teaching and learning English in high schools in Vietnam; however, lack of professional instructions makes it difficult for both the teachers of English and the students.
So, this study has been conducted to investigate the real situation of using cooperative learning activities in while-writing stage at Quang Trung Upper-Secondary school, Gia Lai province with the aims are to find out whether or not teachers of English have applied cooperative learning activities in while-writing stage, and the perceptions of teachers of English and students in using cooperative learning activities in while-writing stage. It is also aimed to put forward some suggestions for further development of how to improve grade-10 students’ writing skill with particular reference to cooperative learning. Three instruments (1) questionnaires for students and teachers, (2) teacher interviews, and (3) class observations were used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. The participants of the study are eighty-four grade-10 students and eight teachers teaching grade-10 English at Quang Trung Upper-Secondary school, Gia Lai province in the school year of 2010-2011.
The results indicate that most teachers have conducted the writing lessons following three main stages of pre-writing, while-writing and post-writing with various activities and cooperative learning activities have frequently been applied by teachers. The results also show that all teachers recognize the necessity of implementing cooperative learning activities, and that students have positive attitudes towards cooperative learning activities. Based on the findings, additionally, some suggestions to help teachers implement cooperative learning effectively have also been given. Background to the study In recent years, along with the new curriculum of the English program at the high school level designed by the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training, there has been a renovation in methodology of teaching and learning English.
It can be clearly seen that English teaching has shifted from the traditional grammar translation approach to the communicative approach. New textbooks and syllabus that are communication-oriented and learner-centered have been designed and implemented, which all require teachers of English to improve their teaching skills to be successful in the classroom and learners should not only have a good command of grammar, but be able to communicate successfully as well. In fact, “Classroom goals are focused on all of the components of communicative competence and not restricted to grammatical and linguistic competence.” and “in the communicative classroom, students ultimately have to use the language productively and receptively, in unrehearsed context” (Richard and Rodgers, 1986). After attending the training courses, most teachers are eager and enthusiastic to try out the new methods and teaching techniques in their real classroom contexts.
Of these new areas, cooperative learning (CL) is particularly potential. There are sound reasons to take CL into serious consideration. First of all, CL is highly appreciated for their usefulness to students’ achievement. Le (2002) points out that Johnson el al (1990); Slavin (1987); and Kagan (1989) believe “CL seems to provide an environment in which students’ needs of love, belongingness, power, freedom and fun can be meet in a way that is beneficial for both academic achievement and the development of the learners’ social and learning skills”.
It is undeniable that CL is of the most flexible and powerful grouping strategies because in CL learners work together to accomplish a shared goal. Additionally, CL has a strong foundation on research. So far, many studies into CL have been conducted. The overall findings of the studies of Cohen, 1994b; Johnson, Johnson and Stanne, 2002; Sharan, 1980; Slavin, 1995 (cited in Le, 2002); and Liang, 2002 suggested 9 that when compared to other instructional approaches, CL group activities are associated with gains of key variables: achievement, higher thinking level, self- esteem, liking for the subject matter, and intergroup relations.
CL helped significantly to enhance the learners’ oral communicative competence and their motivation toward learning English. Although CL has not been very popularly applied in Vietnam, there have been some studies on CL in teaching English in general and in teaching the speaking skill in particular. “An Action Research on the Application of Cooperative Learning Structures to Teaching Speaking to the Second-year Students in the Department of English, Gia Lai Teachers’ Training College.” (Le, 2002); “An Investigation into Students' and Teachers' Perception of the Implementation of Cooperative Learning in English Speaking Class at Can Tho In-service Center.” (Tat, 2007); and “Using some Cooperative Learning Structures to Increase EFL Learners’ Motivation in Speaking and Improve their Speaking Performance: A Case Study of Grade 10 Students at Mang Thit High School, Vinh Long Province.” (Nguyen, 2008) all have similar major findings. These authors shared the same ideas that teachers, who employed CL method, could promote students’ learning.
On the other hand, well- structured CL activities had positive effects on students’ participation. They created more equal participation among the students, decreased the amount of advanced students’ participation, increased weak students’ participation in group activities, and made students’ progress in speaking performance in general. From the findings, some practical pedagogical implications were given out for successful CL practice in teaching and learning English. And even though much has been written about strategies that educators can use to integrate CL into their courses in teaching speaking skill, little research has been actually done in teaching writing skill, and in the specific context like my working place, a school in a mountainous province.
Therefore, I find the findings about using CL activities in teaching writing skill in such a context significant. This investigation will hopefully serve as an advisable supplementation to my knowledge on CL theory and CL application to English teaching. Statement of the problem Of the four skills, writing has long been considered a difficult and boring subject by many language learners. It takes much time and energy to make progress in this skill.
It is a difficult task for writing teachers to get students involved in writing lessons. This is also a case at Quang Trung Upper-Secondary school, Gia Lai province due to the following reasons: Firstly, regarding the students, they lack engagement in the writing process, they are very shy to contribute ideas to write and they have mixed levels of writing competence. Secondly, regarding the teachers, the way they teach writing does not seem to stimulate students’ interest and they still use the teacher-centered approach in some writing classrooms. All of these factors tend to prevent students from improving their classroom interaction and keep them from learning English writing actively.
Therefore, how to help students be more interested in writing skill has long been a major concern and a challenge to Vietnamese teachers of writing in general and teachers of English at Quang Trung Upper-Secondary school, Gia Lai province in particular. In order to solve the problem, writing teachers should try to create an interesting and motivating learning environment. They must become aware of what motivates their students, and then select the best techniques to help them. For example, they should organize students in pairs and groups with the purpose of helping students interact with each other to create meaningful learning.
Practicing writing in pairs or groups is often considered relatively new in Vietnamese writing classrooms (Tran, 2001). Thanks to such writing activities, most students are motivated because they not only learn from one another in terms of linguistic knowledge and linguistic skills but also understand their neighbors’ insights as a human being through each other’s expressions. Considering all this, I pursue this study on CL derived from my experience of being a teacher often organizing students to work in pairs and groups. For all the above reasons, it is strongly desirable for me to choose “An investigation into how Cooperative Learning is used in while-writing stage in 11 grade-10 classes at Quang Trung Upper-Secondary school, Gia Lai province” as a subject to study.
Scope of the study As being discussed previously, within a great deal of aspects relating to the implementation of CL in while-writing stage, this research focuses on only how high school teachers of English use CL activities to teach writing skill to grade-10 classes at Quang Trung Upper-Secondary school, Gia Lai province.