AUTHORSHIP STATEMENTS I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine. The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission from associates, and have not been published elsewhere. Author, Nguyen Thi Le Hang ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I‟d like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc.Tran Van Phuoc hearted guidance, valuable comments and sincere encouragement, without which my research is far from being completed. I am also very grateful to the teachers of English and students at Hue Medical College, who carefully completed the questionnaires and sincerely provided me with valuable information for this research.
Finally, I am very indebted to my family and friends for their encouragement and assistance during the time I conducted the study. TABLE OF CONTENTSP SUB COVER PAGE AUTHORSHIP STATEMENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TABLE OF CONTENTSP LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES ABSTRACT CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. Scope of the thesis. The design of the study.
5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. Review of previous studies related to group work. General pedagogical context: Hue Medical College. Methods of data collection.
Instruments for data collection. Data collection procedures. 25 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS & DISCUSSIONS. Teachers and students‟ perceptions toward group work.
Teachers and students‟ opinions toward definitions of group work. Teachers and students‟ opinions toward the necessity of group work for the teaching and learning of English speaking. Language areas of group work used in the class. Teachers‟ opinions toward the beneficial group work to students‟ social life.
Students‟ preparation to implement group work activities for the learning of English speaking. Current implementation of group work activities for the teaching and learning of English speaking. The frequency of using group work activities for the teaching and learning of English speaking. Group work activities used in the class.
Teachers‟ ways to group students in the class. Students‟ learning results after participating in the group discussions. Teachers‟ teaching result after conducting group work activities in the class. Students‟ activities in the groups.
Students‟ reasons for enjoying learning group work. Teachers‟ purposes toward group work activities in the class. Stages of the lesson teachers use group work in the class. The Degree of the teachers and students‟ difficulty.
Difficulties teachers and students encountered when organizing group work. Suitable and practical solution to overcome challenges and to improve the effectiveness of using group work for the teaching of English speaking. Solutions to overcome objective difficulties and overcome the effectiveness of the teaching and learning of English speaking. Solutions to overcome subjective difficulties and improve the effectiveness of the teaching and learning of English speaking.
47 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS. Summary of key findings. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further studies.
53 APPENDICES LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS HCM : Hue Medical College CLT : Communicative Language Teaching CL : Cooperative Learning EFL : English Foreign Language LIST OF TABLES Table 4. Definitions of group work. The necessity of group work for the teaching and learning. Ways to group students in the class.
Teachers‟ purposes of group work activities. Degree of the teachers and students‟ difficulty. Teachers and students‟ difficulties. Solutions to overcome objective difficulties.
Solutions to overcome subjective difficulties and improve the effectiveness of the teaching and learning of English speaking. 48 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4. Language areas of group work. Teachers‟ opinions toward the beneficial group work to students‟ social life.
The frequency of using group work in the class. Group work activities. Students‟ activities in the class. Students‟ reasons to like learning group work.
Stages of the lesson teachers use group work in the class. 43 ABSTRACT This study investigates into the use of group work for the teaching of English speaking at HMC. It attempted to clarify the teachers and students‟ perceptions toward group work and their points of view on the necessity of group work in the classrooms. In addition, the research was done to gain an insight into how the teachers use group work for the teaching of English speaking.
In addition, this study also explores difficulties faced by the teachers and students when conducting group work activities for the teaching and learning of English speaking and some of their solutions to improve this teaching and learning mode were also taken into account. The subjects of the study included 15 teachers of English and 100 students of 3 classes at HMC. The data were collected mainly through questionnaires, class observation and then analyzed according to statistical frequency. The results from the study reveal that most of the teachers and students were well aware of the necessity of group work.
Some difficulties from the process of applying this mode have been taken into considerations. Therefore, they also suggested useful solutions to improve its quality. Based on the findings of the research, implications help both teachers and students for the teaching and learning process better. Background Learning English or any other languages is a process in which learners concentrate on developing the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
For many learners, each skill is a brick that contributes to the building up their language knowledge. If they know how to combine the four skills harmoniously or to use one skill to improve the others, they will be able to succeed in their studies. Of the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, which all learners of a foreign language need to develop, speaking may be the most challenging skill for the teaching and learning. It has been reported that teaching speaking skill is a very challenging job when teachers and learners have the same mother tongue and have little or no exposure to English outside the classroom (Bresnihan & Stoops, 1996; Chelle de porto, 1997; Kang, 1997; Nguyen, 2004).
Many decades ago, when the means of communication has not been developed, studying a foreign language encountered many difficulties. Therefore, more attention was paid to the writing skill than the other skills. Nowadays, the world has seen a great number of changes in many fields, from economy, politics to science, technology and education. Naturally, such changes have direct impact upon English teaching and learning in many countries, including Vietnam.
In Vietnamese context, English has been confirmed as the first foreign language to be taught at schools, especially in 2009, English has been officially introduced in primary schools at the beginning for students of three grades all over the country. It shows that the government has stressed the importance of English and considered it as a vital role in the country‟s drive to modernize. Indeed, English has become an essential tool. It is regarded as a link that strengthens the relationship among most of countries in the world.
For this reason, the purpose of learning English is not only to understand this language but also to know how to use it to learn more about the world and to communicate with people from other countries. The speaking skill has therefore become one of the most important skills for those who learn English as a foreign language. Rationale Speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts” (Chaney, 1998). To most language learners, “mastering the art of speaking is the single most important aspect of learning a second or a foreign language,…” (Nunan, 1991, p.
The speaking skill has become a practical aim for Vietnamese learners , who want “ to communicate with people in other countries and to get a job” (Kramasch & Sullivan, 1996, p. Additionally, since Vietnam has opened its door, the demand for speaking English to be competent enough to communicate verbally with the outside world and to access technology has rapidly increased. However, the quality of English teaching and learnhhing has not matched the growing demand of the society. For many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues.
The traditional teaching method of English language such as Grammar Translation has dominated the teaching and learning environment in Vietnam. This method does not focus on communicative skills, but much on grammar points in order to help learners pass Grammar tests at secondary schools and universities. As a result, many Vietnamese learners are good at grammar, but they can not communicate with each other in English. Many students lack the ability to communicate after graduation from universities.
In order to teach language learners how to speak in the best way possible, for the past years, we have witnessed many changes in English teaching and learning generally as well as in speaking lessons privately. In addition to the application of communicative language teaching (CLT) method in speaking activities, group work or cooperative learning is one of the innovation in the area of teaching methodology to center the purpose of “ achieving a range of teaching and learning goals” (Ames & Archer, 1988). With the outgoing innovations of teaching methodologies, various forms of collaborative learning or group work activities are increasingly used in colleges as “ an effective teaching and learning methodology to assist students to meet learning outcomes” (While, Lloyd, Kennedy & Steward, 2005). A number of researchers have been conducted in the field to realize the 2 affect of group work as a frequent class activity on students‟ linguistic performance and communicative competence.
Participation in-group work helps students develop “reproductive thinking “into “productive thinking”, and group work method results in effective learning outcomes in terms of: “the mastery of general subject”, “the ability of problem-solving”, “the development of morality”, “the development of attitude and the development of communication skills” (Wilen, 1990; Alvermann and Hayes ,1989) believed that active and thoughtful participation in group work is an “outward sign of learning”. Obviously, group work enhances learners‟ understanding, provides opportunity to clarify and refine understanding of concepts through discussion and working with peers, and directly enhances their learning. Besides, group work can also help students to improve communication skills in the target language, develop skills in cooperating with group members, learn new ideas from other students and how to work with other members, how to present ideas and how to listen to others. All these skills will help students in their future careers and are essential elements for working effectively.
Realizing the benefits of the application of group work activities, many language teachers have chosen this method in their teaching. At HMC is method is being used to teach English as a foreign language for students. It is undeniable that there are a number of studies which have considered how to organize group work or how to increase the effectiveness of group work activities. However, it seems that there is still a new area needed paying attention to that is the use of group work for the teaching of English speaking.
Given the current context, “learning by doing” is a useful approach in gradually improving the quality of training foreign languages in general and English particular for students whose major is not English. I desire to have a study on this field to make the problem effectively solved. Therefore, I decide to choose the topic “an investigation into the use of group work for the teaching of English speaking at Hue Medical College”. In this research, I will focus on three main sections.
Firstly, I will find out teachers and students‟ perceptions toward group work. Then I will demonstrate how to use group work for the teaching of English 3 speaking and finally I will clarify difficulties faced by the teachers and students and present some solutions to problems related to group work for the teaching of English speaking at Hue Medical College.