TONG THI MY LIEN INVESTIGATING ORAL PARTICIPATION IN IN-CLASS GROUP WORK BY FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI NGHIEN CUU VIEC THAM GIA NOI TRONG HOAT DO NG NH OM TR EN LO P CU A SI NH VI EN NA M TH U NH AT TA I KH OA AN H, DA I HỌ C NG OẠ I NG U - ĐHQG HA NOI M. Combined Program Thesis Field: En gl is h La ng ua ge Te ac hi ng Me th od ol og y Code: 60-14-10 Supervisor: Ms. Dinh Hai Yén (M.) HANOI - 2010 IV TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TA. i ae eka ẻ ẽằẽằẰằŸằeeễŸsS.
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73 REFERENCES APPENDICES Vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ED: English Department EFL: English as a Foreign Language ELT: English Language Teaching ESL: English as a Second language ULIS: University of Languages and International Studies NNS: Non-native English Speaker NNSs: Non-native English Speakers NS: Native English Speaker NSs: Native English Speakers VNU: Vietnam National University viii LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Students’ perceptions towards group work Table 3.2: Students’ participation in in-class group work Table 3.3: Student-related factors Table 3.4: Pedagogy-related factors Table 3.5: Culture-related factors Table 3.6: Teachers’ monitoring strategies during group work — Teacher application Table 3.7: Teachers’ monitoring strategies during group work — Student preference Table 3.8: Teachers’ observed monitoring strategies during group work ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1: Students’ perceptions of group work’s advantages Figure 3.2: Students’ perceptions of group work’s disadvantages Figure 3.3: Participation patterns in in-class group work Figure 3.4: Quality of ideas shared in in-class group work Figure 3.5: Participation imbalance in in-class group work Figure 3.6: Number of turns taken by different group members Figure 3.7: Amount of talking time of different group members Figure 3.8: Student-related factors Figure 3.9: Pedagogy-related factors Figure 3.10: Culture-related factors INTRODUCTION 1. PROBLEM STATEMENT AND RATIONALE Group work has been widely believed to offer various advantages such as enhancing students’ interaction, generating a supportive atmosphere, creating chances to use the target language and promoting learner autonomy (Long & Porter, 1985; Brown, 2001). Thus, it has blossomed in English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. The emphasis on group activities is particularly noteworthy in Vietnamese English Language Teaching (ELT) setting where students are EFL learners and have few opportunities to use English in daily life (Vo, 2004).
Nonetheless, the effectiveness of group work has been reconsidered closely since Tickoo (1991, p.53) left the open question “is group work a pedagogic universal or a partial remedy?” after his experiment comparing the success ofa group-work class with a teacher-directed one. Since then, the need to examine how group-work theory works in practice has rapidly emerged. Addressing this issue, in the world of language teaching, various studies such as those by Jones (1995), Zhenhui (2001), Martine (2003), Yuenfeng (2005), and Chen (2004) were conducted to discover what actually happened when implementing group activities in language classrooms. However, deep empirical investigations in the sub-area of students’ participation and influential factors on their participation in group work were few in number — Martine (2003) and Yuenfeng (2005).
Pitifully, those merely explored learners’ oral participation level measured by the number of turns taken and the amount of talking time. Thus, a more comprehensive evaluation of their participation would be highly appreciated in the research field. In addition, although Martine (2003) discovered many possible influential elements, it was targeted at mixed-culture groups of native-English-speaker (NS) and non-native-English- speake r (NN S) pos tgr adu ate stu den ts, rat her tha n sin gle -cu ltu re gro ups of tert iary EFI lear ners. In the mea nti me, Yue nfe ng (20 05) exa min ed tert iary EFL lea rne rs in sing le- cul tur e gro ups , but it onl y foc use d on two fact ors, nam ely tas k typ es and tea che r role s Furthermore, all of the related studies (Martine, 2003; Yuenfeng, 2005; Melles, 2004; Jones, 1995) simply based on the qualitative methods.
Accordingly, in those investigations, there might be inevitably potential limitations of relying on a single approach (Nunan, 1992). With regard to Vietnam’s ELT context, the aforementioned issue has not been thoroughly investigated despite the existence of a few related studies such as the one by Vo (2004). This means thorough exploration into EFL students’ oral participation and influential factors in single-culture group work remain a gap. The urgency to do research into the discussed matter becomes significant, when it comes to the ELT context of University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University (ULIS, VNU).
Although group work is a familiar ELT method at English Department (ED), it is considerably new for the majority of freshmen, who have had little previous group-learning experience in high school. Consequently, it has inevitably posed huge challenges for both teachers and students at this site. The study entitled “investigating oral participation in in-class group work by first-year EFL students at ED, ULIS, VNU” was conducted as an attempt to examine the perceptions of first-year EFL learners at ULIS, VNU towards group work, investigate their participation level and quality in group work, find out possible influential factors on their participation, and pinpoint teachers’ monitoring strategies to motivate students to participate in group activities. Hopefully, this research, focusing on single-culture groups of Vietnamese EFL students at tertiary level, could narrow the abovementioned research gaps and bring new perspectives to the field.
AIMS OF THE STUDY The purpose of this study was to investigate the oral participation of first-year EFI stud ents at ULI S, VN U in in-c lass gro up wor k. Spec ific ally , it addr esse d the foll owin g research questions: 1. What do first-year EFL students at ULIS, VNU think about group work? 2. How are those students’ level and quality of oral participation in in-class group work? 3.
What factors affect those students’ oral participation in in-class group work? 4. Which monitoring strategies have EFL teachers at the research site applied to increase the students’ oral participation in in-class group work? Which ones are preferred by the students? From the findings, the researcher would recommend several pedagogical implications to motivate and balance the oral participation of first-year EFL students at ULIS, VNU in group work, eliminate negative influential factors on their participation, and boost positive ones. SCOPE OF THE STUDY Due to time constraints, instead of aiming at group activities in general, the study focused on those conducted within classroom contexts. Besides, the study merely examined the oral participation of EFL students rather than both verbal and non-verbal aspects.
Moreover, it was carried out with just a sample of 100 first-year EFL students and five teachers of English at ED at ULIS, VNU. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY Although the study was conducted on a small scale with a particular group of first-year EFL students at ULIS, VNU, the researcher hoped that its findings could be of great significance. Specifically, it would contribute to the existing knowledge in the field concerning group work, students’ participation in group work, influential factors on their participation, and teachers’ strategies to motivate students to participate. Moreover, it could help to raise awareness of first-year EFL students at ULIS, as well as EFL learners, about the problems in the participation of their peers in in-class group work and certain elements affecting their participation.
It could also assist teachers of English to recognize wha t enc our age or dis cou rag e a num ber of thei r stud ents fro m part icip atin g in gro up acti viti es so that the y cou ld adju st thei r teac hing met hod s to mot iva te thei r stud ents in language learning. Fina lly, it wou ld pro pos e sev era l use ful rec omm end ati ons for tea che rs to minimize negative impacts of influential factors on students’ participation in group work. ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY The research report consists of three parts. The Introduction presents the rationale, aims, scope, and significance of the study.
The Development includes three chapters. Chapter One covers an in-depth review of the literature in which relevant theoretical background and reviews of related studies concerning group work, ESL/EFL students’ participation in group work, influential factors, and teachers’ monitoring strategies are discussed. Chapter Two continues with the research methods including the participants of the study, the methods and procedures of data collection and data analysis. Chapter Three demonstrates the findings accompanied by data analysis and interpretation.
The Conclusion ends the report with the summary of the findings, pedagogical implications, limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies. DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter gives an overview of the literature related to the present study. In the chapter, definitions of key terms (group work and participation) and selected theoretical background such as group organization, benefits, and problems of group work are presented. Then the review of the areas relevant to the research questions, namely ESL/EFL students’ participation, influential factors on their participation, and teachers’ monitoring strategies to encourage them to participate in in-class group work, is also provided.1 DEFINITIONS OF KEY TERMS 1.1 GROUP WORK There is a general consensus among educators about the definition of group work.
For example, group work is “a generic term covering a multiplicity of techniques in which two or more students are assigned a task that involves collaboration and self-initiated language” (Brown, 2001, p. Doff (1998) gives a simpler explanation: Group work is a process that the teacher divides the class into small groups to work together (usually four or five students in each group) and all the groups work at the same time (p. Vo (2004) also follows Doff's approach as she defines group work as “any classroom activity in which students perform collaborative tasks with one or more partners” (p. On the whole, it is widely agreed that group work is a process in which two or more learners work together to do a task which involves cooperation and self-generated language.
Although applyi ng gro up wor k in cla ssr oom con tex ts has bee n ext ens ive ly dis cus sed in the literature, not much has bee n sai d abo ut the cla ssi fic ati on of gro up act ivi tie s. Joh nso n and Smith (1991) are among the few researchers who have touched upon this matter systematically. According to them, basically, there are three main kinds of group work: informal learning groups, formal learning groups, and study teams. First, informal learning groups are a form of grouping students temporarily within a single class session.