VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* ĐẶNG THỊ HOA PARTICIPATION BY 10th-FORM STUDENTS IN GROUPWORK ACTIVITIES IN SPEAKING LESSONS AT THANH HA HIGH SCHOOL, HAI DUONG ( Sự tham gia của học sinh lớp 10 vào hoạt động nhóm trong giờ học nói tại trường THPT Thanh Hà, Hải Dương) M.MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD : ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 601410 HANOI – 2011 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* ĐẶNG THỊ HOA PARTICIPATION BY 10th-FORM STUDENTS IN GROUPWORK ACTIVITIES IN SPEAKING LESSONS AT THANH HA HIGH SCHOOL, HAI DUONG ( Sự tham gia của học sinh lớp 10 vào hoạt động nhóm trong giờ học nói tại trường THPT Thanh Hà, Hải Dương) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD : ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 601410 SUPERVISOR: ĐỖ THỊ MAI THANH, M.A HANOI - 2011 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration .iii Table of content.iv List of abbreviations .vii List of tables and figures .viii PART I: INTRODUCTION. Rationale for the study. Aims of the study.
Scope of the study. Methods of the study. Design of the study .3 PART II: DEVELOPMENT .5 Chapter 1 - LITERATURE REVIEW. Speaking skill and teaching speaking skill.1 Definitions of speaking.
Teaching and learning speaking skill. The students' participation and the factors affecting their participation in speaking lesson. Definitions of students' participation. The factors affecting students' participation in speaking lesson.
Teachers' teaching methods. Teachers' personalities and characteristics. Students' learning style. Students' learning motivation.
Students' language level. Group work activities in language teaching and learning.1 Definitions of group work. Types of groupwork.8 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Advantages of using group work activities in speaking lesson.
Difficulties of using group work activities in speaking lesson. Class organization and management. Student- related difficulties. The role of the teacher and the role of each student in group work activities.
The role of the teacher. The role of each student in group work activities. Types of speaking tasks carried out in group work activities in textbook English 10. How to design group work activities effectively.
Forming students in groups. Preparing for students to work in group. Monitoring group work activities. Ending group work activities.21 CHAPTER 2: METHODS OF THE STUDY.
An overview of the research site. Methods of data collection.24 CHAPTER 3: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA. The students' and teachers' attitudes towards learning and teaching speaking skill. The students and teachers' opinions on the frequency of group work activities in speaking lessons the teachers at school are implementing.
The students' and teachers' opinions on the design of the activities for groupwork. The students and teachers' opinions on the benefits of groupwork activities. The students' attitudes towards the current groupwork activities. The students' participation in the groupwork activities.
The students' preference of kinds of groupwork activities. The students and teachers' problems in implementing groupwork activities.31 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. The students' suggestions to increase their participation in group work activities in speaking lessons. The teachers' suggestions to increase their students' participation in group work activities in speaking lessons.34 CHAPTER 4 - FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
The major findings. The teachers and students' acknowledgements about groupwork activities. The factors affecting the grade 10 students 'participation in groupwork activities. The students' preference of the groupwork activities and the frequency of the groupwork activities the teachers at school are applying.
Students should be well- prepared for groupwork activities. The students should be always sustained in groupwork activities. The groups' results should be appropriately evaluated. Groupwork activities should be appropriately provided.
How to treat the students' noise and overuse of Vietnamese during groupwork activities. The things administrators should do .40 PART III- CONCLUSION. Summary of the thesis. Limitations of the thesis.
Suggestions for the further study.V LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT refers to Communicative Language Teaching EFL refers to English as a First Language ESL refers to English as a Second Language LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com viii LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Students’ attitude towards speaking skill Table 3.2a: Identifying the students' opinions on about the frequency of applying group work activities in speaking lessons Table 3.2b: Identifying the students' opinions on the frequency of group work activities employed in speaking lessons Table 3.3: Exploring the students' opinions on the design of the activities for groupwork Table 3.4: The students and teachers' opinions on benefits of groupwork activities Table 3.5: The students' attitudes towards the current groupwork activities Table 3.6: The students' participation in the groupwork activities Table 3.7: The students' preference of kinds of groupwork activities in order Table 3.8: The students' difficulties when participating in groupwork activities Table 3.9: The students' suggestions to increase their participation in group work activities in speaking lessons LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationales for the study With the undeniable role of communication, English has proven to be the most effective tool to involve Vietnam in the process of globalization and vice versa. English has helped open a new integrating chance those who knows to make use of it. Having fully recognized the importance of this, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training has made English a compulsory subject at secondary schools all over the country and it has become one of the three main subjects at high schools.
As a result, the high school curriculum has laid a great deal of stress on teaching and learning this widely-used language especially in a communicative way. The Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training has recently put into practice a new series of English textbooks, which focus on the Communicative Language Teaching. In order to apply this method effectively, the use of group work activities in teaching speaking skill is emphasized, as is stated in the teacher‟s guide books. In the new textbook, English 10, most of the activities in speaking lessons are encouraged to be organized in group work activities.
It has been reported by a number of the studies that in speaking lessons, group work activities make it possible for the teacher to devote more time to the students' oral production, which perhaps before had not been a priority in the foreign language classroom. Thanks to group work activities, less confident students get the chance to put their knowledge of the new language into practice in a non-threatening environment, away from the critical eye and ear of the teacher. Instead of being dependent on the teacher, students get used to helping and learning from each other. Meanwhile, the teacher is left free to discreetly monitor progress and give help, advice and encouragement where and when it is needed.
Small groups provide greater intensity of involvement, so that the quality of language practice is increased. Despite the enormous benefits of using group work activities in developing the students' speaking ability, both the teachers and the students at Thanh Ha high school are generally not much successful in teaching or learning through this type of activity. Almost the teachers often complained that their students did not fully participate in group work activities. Therefore, they had a lot of difficulties using group work activities in their class.
This led me to carry out an investigation into the matter in the hope to work out and LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 explain how the 10th form students participate into group work activities in speaking lessons will be identified and better understood. Furthermore, based on the study, practical teaching ideas to improve the students' participation into the group work activities in speaking lessons will be drawn out. Aims of the study The study aims to - investigate current participation by the 10th form student in group work activities in speaking lessons at Thanh Ha high school, Hai Duong. - identify the factors affecting the students' participation in groupwork speaking activities.
- discuss and recommend practical teaching ideas to involve the 10th form students in more effective groupwork activities in speaking lessons. Research questions For the purpose of investigating participation by the 10th form student into groupwork activities in speaking lessons at Thanh Ha High School, Hai Duong, the researcher sets up the following research questions to guide her in doing this research - How do the 10th form students participate in group work activities in speaking lessons at Thanh Ha high school, Hai Duong? - What are the factors affecting the students' participation at Thanh Ha high school, Hai Duong? - What are the suggestions teachers should make to increase the 10th form students' participation in the groupwork activities more effective in speaking lessons at Thanh Ha high school, Hai Duong? 4. Scope of study The study was carried out with 200 grade 10 students and four teachers who are directly in charge of teaching grade 10 at Thanh Ha high school. Because of the limit of the researcher's time, and some other conditions, the focus of the study is only on the investigation into the students' participation in groupwork activities in speaking lessons including how they LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 3 participate in group work activities, what factors affecting their participation.
Though she is aware of the necessity of some other speaking activities, the researcher can not cover such related activities as groupwork presentation, groupwork writing report and groupwork cross checked activities. Moreover, the number of participants in the study may not be large enough to come to a widely applicable conclusion. Methods of study To conduct the study, quantitative and qualitative methods will be used. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews will be used to collect information and evidence for the study.
All the comments, recommendations and conclusions provided in the study will be based on the data analysis. Design of the study The thesis consists of three main parts: Part I, INTRODUCTION, provides some brief information about the reasons for choosing the topic, the aims, the methods, the scope as well as the design of the study Part II, DEVELOPMENT, is composed of four chapters: Chapter 1, LITERATURE REVIEW, presents various concepts relevant to the research topic such as speaking skill, definitions of groupwork, advantages and disadvantages of groupwork activities, the teacher and students' roles in groupwork activities and kinds of groupwork activities. Chapter 2, METHODS OF THE STUDY, provides the methodology underlying the research which includes the general information about the situation of teaching and learning English at Thanh Ha high school. This chapter also deals with the methods of data collection such as survey questionnaires and interviews.
Chapter 3, PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA, gives a detailed presentation of data and description of data analysis. Explanations, interpretation of the findings are mentioned. Chapter 4, FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS, provides the summary of the findings. Based on the findings, the research recommends some possible teaching ideas to make the LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 10th form students' participation in the group work activities more effective in speaking lessons.
Part III, CONCLUSION, gives a brief summary of the whole thesis, the limitations of the study and provides some suggestions for further study. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 5 PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW To begin with the study, in this chapter, the researcher will present some theoretical background based on which the study will be carried out. The first section overviews the speaking skill. The second section presents the students' participation and the factors affecting their participation in speaking lesson.
Then group work activities in language teaching and learning are discussed in the third section. Speaking skill and teaching speaking skill 1.