MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ HO THANH TRUC AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS AND USE OF GROUP WORK IN ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION CLASSES FOR GRADE 11 STUDENTS AT LE HOANG CHIEU UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL IN BEN TRE PROVINCE MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING HUE, 2013 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ HO THANH TRUC AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS AND USE OF GROUP WORK IN ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION CLASSES FOR GRADE 11 STUDENTS AT LE HOANG CHIEU UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL IN BEN TRE PROVINCE MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: PHAM HOA HIEP, D. HUE, 2013 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ------------ HỒ THANH TRÖC ĐIỀU TRA VỀ NHẬN THỨC CỦA GIÁO VIÊN ĐỐI VỚI VIỆC THỰC HIỆN HOẠT ĐỘNG NHÓM TRONG TIẾT ĐỌC HIỂU BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 11 TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT LÊ HOÀNG CHIẾU, TỈNH BẾN TRE LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60140111 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS. PHẠM HÕA HIỆP HUẾ, 2013 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine. The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true and have not been published elsewhere.
Author Ho Thanh Truc i ABSTRACT This thesis reports a study on the use of group work activities in teaching and learning English reading comprehension at Le Hoang Chieu upper secondary school. The data of the project were collected by means of questionaires and interviews. The participants consists of eighty students in grade 11 class and five teachers of English at Le Hoang Chieu upper secondary school. The findings show that both teachers and students saw the benefits of group work such as creating a relaxing learning environment, generating and sharing ideas, peer support and mutual learning, sharing responsibilities and promoting teamwork skills and so on.
Besides, they also reported some problems including lack of experience in cooperating and sharing responsibilities among students, inappropriate seating arrangement, and disagreements and conflicts among the group members. From the main findings, it is recommended that there must be the close- knit relationship between the teachers and the students. Teachers must have good preparation for their teaching: various materials for lessons, suitable seating arrangement, clear instructions for every task requirement, close observation, and encouraging feedback. Meanwhile, students must be active learners who are fully aware of their roles in the groups to positively participate in this activity.
ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In completion of my thesis, I have received generous advice and help from many respected and beloved people. I would like to thank them all. First of all, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Dr Pham Hoa Hiep, for his continuous support, encouragement, patience, and valuable feedback. I believe that without his guidance, this research paper would have not been completed.
Secondly, I would like to thank all teachers and students at Le Hoang Chieu upper secondary school in Ben Tre for their kind participation in the study. Thirdly, I would like to send my deep gratitude to all lecturers and the staff of Hue University, College of Foreign Languages for their useful materials, guidance and enthusiasm during my MA course. Finally, I am truly grateful to my dear family, who always stand with me in the difficult time. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Content Page Sub cover page Statement of authorship.
iii Table of contents. iv List of abbreviations. vii List of tables. viii List of figures.
ix CHAPTER 1- INTRODUCTION 1. Scope of the study. Significance of the study. Structure of the research.
4 CHAPTER 2- LITERATURE REVIEW 2. Definitions of key term. Communicative language teaching in EFL. Group work in teaching reading.
Definition of reading .2 Group discussion in reading lessons .4 Teachers and students' roles in group work activities. The benefits of group work .6 The problems of group work and solutions. The use of group work in Vietnam. Previous studies of group work in English language teaching.
Data collection procedure. Instrument for data collection. 22 CHAPTER 4- FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4. Teachers' and students’ perceptions of group work.
The use of group work in reading comprehension lessons .2 Reasons for using group work in reading comprehension lessons. Group work activities in reading comprehension lessons .2 Number of students in each group .3 The activities used in English reading lessons. The benefits of group work in reading comprehension classes. Teachers’ ways to motivate students to participate in the group work.
Problems in group work activities. 37 CHAPTER 5- CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH 5. Summary of key findings. Limitations of the research.
Suggestions for further studies. 42 Appendices vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT : Communicative Language Teaching EFL : English as a Foreign Language vii LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1: The activities used in English Reading lessons Table 4.2: The benefits of group work Table 4.3: Problems in group work Table 4.4: Possible solutions viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1: The use of group work in reading comprehension lessons Figure 4.2: Reasons for students to work in groups Figure 4.3: Student grouping Figure 4.4: Number of students in each group Figure 4.5: Teachers’ ways to motivate students in group work ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background The implementation of the new series of EFL (English taught as a Foreign language) textbooks in teaching English as a Foreign language in secondary and high schools in Vietnam is considered as a giant step in EFL curriculum renovation in Vietnam. According to Hoang at al. (2006), the renovated curriculum is better than the previous because the content of the books are designed for meeting the objectives of real life communication through improving four basic language skills with the aid of grammatical structures, whereas the previous one is focused only on improving students’ grammatical and reading competence.
To meet the standards of specific objectives that the curriculum offers, the communicative approach is compulsorily as mandated by the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training used for teaching the textbooks (Hoang, Hoang, Do, Nguyen, & Nguyen, 2006). So, cooperative learning like pair work and group work activities are designed for teaching all the sections of each unit including four critical language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing and language focus. Correspondingly, all EFL teachers are required to implement the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) techniques for this curriculum. Clear guidelines for implementing CLT are presented in EFL teachers’ handbooks highlighting the combination of learner-centered classrooms often structured in cooperative learning groups and using the communicative approach for teaching English (Hoang et al, 2006) In the context of Le Hoang Chieu upper secondary school in Ben Tre province, group work activities are popular.
Group work activities are always organized and students have many useful opportunities to practice using English when communicating with their friends. However, it is not always simple to 1 conduct these activities because there are so many factors that require students to have basic skills relevant to using English as well as working in groups. The fact that not every student is fully aware of the significant necessity of a group work activity. As a result, they have little knowledge of how to have a successful group work activity.
Besides, having not enough vocabulary, grammatical structures, communicative skills prevents students from expressing themselves during group work activities. So are the teachers of English, it is their duty to find out which method is useful to apply for their students so that they can create an exciting learning atmosphere in class. Although the teachers at Le Hoang Chieu upper secondary school often use group work activities in their classes, the frequency, organizing and effectiveness of these activities have not been studied. Moreover, according to a report by Ben Tre Department of Education and Training (2011) only 21.25 % of 673 grade 9 students taking the English test of high school entrance examination to Le Hoang Chieu upper secondary school in Ben Tre in 2011-2012 school year passed with a criterion score at least 5 out of a possible 10.
Over 19 % of the students receive a score between 0.25 to 2, and nearly 90 percent of students had difficulties in learning reading comprehension. Motivated by the desire to help students do better in their reading comprehension, I set out to investigate Teachers' Perceptions and Use of Group Work in English Reading Comprehension Classes for a group of students in my community. I expect to explore EFL teachers’ perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses of group work in English comprehension class and find out practical ways to ensure that group work can be more beneficial to students in learning reading comprehension.2 Research questions This research project attempts to investigate the perceptions of teachers at Le Hoang Chieu upper secondary school towards the use of group work in English reading comprehension classes for grade 11 students. The points to be explored will include the following: 2 - To understand the theoretical background of group work to improve students’ language skills.
- To investigate the use of group work in English reading comprehension classes for grade 11 students at Le Hoang Chieu upper secondary school in Ben Tre province. - To help teachers at Le Hoang Chieu upper secondary school to identify effective techniques to organize group work in teaching reading comprehension. - To enable students to apply group work positively in their reading comprehension lessons. The study will concentrate on answering the following questions: 1.
What are teachers' perceptions about the use of group work in teaching reading comprehension for grade 11 students at Le Hoang Chieu upper secondary school in Ben Tre province? 2. How do the teachers at Le Hoang Chieu upper secondary school actually use group work in teaching reading comprehension for grade 11 students? 3. What can be done to ensure that group work can be more effective in teaching reading comprehension for grade 11 students? 1.3 Scope of the study To improve the reading skill for students at Le Hoang Chieu upper secondary school, the teachers can make use of various techniques and a number of things should be done. However, the researcher only intends to draw a brief overview of group work in reading comprehension classes for grade 11 students at Le Hoang Chieu upper secondary school and to find out the ways to use group work more effectively.4 Significance of the study The study highlights the use of Communicative Language Teaching ( CLT) and cooperative group learning.
It will help teachers at Le Hoang Chieu upper 3 secondary school identify the strengths and constraints of cooperative group learning strategies in EFL classes. It will also assist teachers in better understanding the relationship of group work and their students’ growth in reading skills. Finally, the results of the project will help guide in the changes in the implementation of CLT group work strategies to better support students’ learning.5 Structure of the research This research consists of five chapters Chapter 1 presents a general overview of the study. It states the background, the significance, the aims, the scope, and the organization of the study.
Chapter 2 reviews the theory about Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and group work. Chapter 3 discusses the research design and methodology, participants, data collection and data analysis. Chapter 4 presents the maining findings of the study and discuss them in light of the literature review. Chapter 5 summarizes the results of the study.
At the same time, it offers the implications of the findings and suggestions for further studies. Besides, the appendix of the questionnaires and the reference source list are also included at the end of the research.