VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ĐỖ THỊ HUYỀN TRANG USING GROUP WORK IN ENGLISH LESSONS TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY AT A PUBLIC SCHOOL IN HANOI: AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY (Nghiên cứu hành động về việc sử dụng Hoạt động nhóm trong giờ học tiếng Anh để cải thiện từ vựng của học sinh tại một trường công lập tại Hà Nội) MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Hanoi- 2024 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ĐỖ THỊ HUYỀN TRANG USING GROUP WORK IN ENGLISH LESSONS TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY AT A PUBLIC SCHOOL IN HANOI: AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY (Nghiên cứu hành động về việc sử dụng Hoạt động nhóm trong giờ học tiếng Anh để cải thiện từ vựng của học sinh tại một trường công lập tại Hà Nội) MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Code: 8140231. Nguyễn Thị Hương Date: 16/07/2024 Dr. Nguyễn Thị Hương Hanoi- 2024 DECLARATION I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “Using group work in English lessons to improve students’ vocabulary at a public school in Hanoi: An action research study (Nghiên cứu hành động về việc sử dụng Hoạt động nhóm trong giờ học tiếng Anh để cải thiện từ vựng của học sinh tại một trường công lập tại Hà Nội)” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. Except where reference indicated, no other person's work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis.
Hanoi, 2024 Đỗ Thị Huyền Trang Approved by SUPERVISOR (Signature and full name) Dr. Nguyen Thi Huong Date:. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to my supervising teacher, Dr. Nguyen Thi Huong, for her invaluable, enthusiastic, and insightful feedback and guidance throughout the research process.
Her encouraging feedback has been instrumental in helping me find the right direction for my thesis. I also wish to express my sincere appreciation to the faculty members at the University of Languages and International Studies for providing us with valuable academic courses that have enriched my knowledge as a teacher and enhanced my experience as a researcher. My warmest thanks go out to my fellow teachers and students at the school for their cooperation and supportive participation, which have made a significant contribution to the completion of this thesis. I want to convey my gratitude to my family and friends for their unwavering support, encouragement, understanding, and sympathy during this long journey.
Special appreciation is reserved for my mother, whose sacrifices have never wavered in support of my achievements. ii ABSTRACT The use of group work in English language teaching is widely accepted as a good practice, supported by existing research. However, there has not been much investigation into how effective group work is for learning vocabulary. To fill this gap, this study looks at how group activities affect vocabulary development in elementary school students in Hanoi, especially those who have not had much experience with collaborative learning.
The tests, questionnaires, and interviews are used to assess the impact of these activities. The results showed a significant improvement in students' vocabulary skills, including understanding word meanings, pronouncing words correctly, and spelling accurately. Additionally, students had a positive attitude towards working in groups, seeing it as helpful for learning new words. However, there were challenges, mainly because students still had low English proficiency and struggled with managing their time.
As a result, the study suggests ways to better incorporate group work into English language teaching, especially in vocabulary lessons. iii ABBREVIATIONS EFL : English as a Foreign Language ESL : English as a Second Language L1 : the first language L2 : the second language SLA : Second Language Acquisition Ss : Students iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. Rationale of the study. Aims of the study and objectives of the study.
Method of the study. Scope of the study. Significance of the study. The structure of the research.
An overview of vocabulary learning. Definition of vocabulary. Aspects of vocabulary. ESL vocabulary learning.
The role of vocabulary in Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Challenges in learning vocabulary. An overview of group-work in education. Definition of groupwork.
Approaches of group work. Similarities and differences among Cooperative learning and collaborative learning. Use of groupwork. Use of groupwork in education.
Use of groupwork in ESL classroom. Group work activities for teaching vocabulary. Previous studies on group work. Research setting and participants.
DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS. Benefits of group-work activities applied in vocabulary lessons. Analysis of tests .2 Analysis of questionnaires. Analysis of interviews.
Challenges faced by students when joining group-work activities. Analysis of questionnaires. Analysis of interview. Students’ attitudes towards group-work activities.
Analysis of questionnaires. Analysis of interviews. The benefits that students gain throughout group-work activities. The challenges of using group-work activities in ESL classes.
Major findings of the research. Limitations and suggestions for further studies. I APPENDIX 1: PRE-TEST AND POST. I APPENDIX 2: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE FOR STUDENTS.
STUDENTS’ TEST SCORES. PHIẾU ĐỒNG THUẬN THAM GIA NGHIÊN CỨU .XXIII vii LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES Table 4. Frequency of vocabulary scores in the pre-test. Mean and standard deviation in the pre-test.
Frequency of vocabulary scores in the post-test. Mean and standard deviation in the post-test. Paired differences between pre test and post test. Students’ responses about benefits of group-work activities vocabulary learning and practice.
Students’ responses about the challenges when working in groups. Students’ attitudes towards group-work activities. The scores ranging in the pre-test and post-test. Rationale of the study Group work has been becoming more and more popular in teaching and learning, and it can be considered as effective to organize activities in classes and help to motivate students in learning.
Moreover, having a further look at the advantages, we cannot deny that working in groups provides students with an opportunity to develop their skills such as communication, negotiation or self- management. According to Davis (1993), one student can learn most effectively when working with other peers. Johnson and Johnson (1986) believed that the learners participating in groups “can reach a higher level of thinking and gain knowledge longer than the individual ones”. Collaborative learning- how we mention group work learning in another way, provides learners with an opportunity to proactively join discussions and take responsibility for their own study.
As a result, they gradually develop their critical thinking skill over time. (Totten, Sills, Digby, & Russ, 1991) Group work has been applied in almost all the subjects in teaching and learning and shown a great deal of promising outcomes. In English subject, the practice of this collaborative learning approach has been observed to be a commonly used in classes, particularly in discussing activities with the aim to estimate students’ speaking and willingness to share their own thoughts with the peers with an anxiety free mind. In a study in students’ speaking skill development by Hamzah and Ting (2010), “group work helped to reduce students’ anxiety to speak up in front of the class”.
This observation confirmed Harmer (1985)’s argument that it is working in group that increases students talking time. Observing Vietnam’s State schools whose class size is large while the class time for English lessons per week is limited, we have to accept a fact that many teachers clearly hesitate to apply group work learning activities in their classes. They have a tendency to follow the conventional teaching pattern: Presentation (in 1 which teacher delivers the lesson) and Practice (in which students complete exercises assigned by the teacher) As an ESL teacher working in the state schooling environment, I have wondered whether and how we can maximize the efficiency of collaborative learning in English lessons. A great deal of studies exploring and discussing the advantages of cooperative learnings have been done so far.
Having decided to do the research concerning this range of topic, I hope my research could discover what are the existing problems preventing this type of teaching and learning organization, how it can improve classroom activities’ productivity and what points should be considered and enacted to make group work go more efficiently. Aims of the study and objectives of the study The study aims: - To find out what benefits group work can bring to students’ vocabulary lessons - To find out the difficulties students face when they join activities in groups - To find out the attitudes of students towards group-work activities 1. Research questions This research aims to find the answers to the following questions: Question 1. What are the benefits of group work activities for primary school students in learning vocabulary? Question 2.
What are the challenges faced by students in learning vocabulary in group work activities? Question 3. What are students’ attitudes towards group-work activities? 1. Method of the study The study uses an action research design with mixed methods to collect and analyze the data about three aspects: benefits of group-work activities in students’ vocabulary learning, challenges faced by students in doing group-work activities and their attitudes towards group work activities. The quantitative data gathered from tests and questionnaires, and qualitative data was collected through interviews with three selected students.
These interviews 2 provided valuable insights into the genuine attitudes, feelings, and experiences of the students in relation to the group-work activities. Overall, the research was designed to assess the impact of employing group- work activities in vocabulary lessons, understand student perspectives and experiences, pinpoint any challenges faced, and gauge the improvement in students' vocabulary competence. By combining both quantitative and qualitative methods, the study aimed to offer a well-rounded assessment of the intervention's effectiveness and its influence on student learning and experiences. Scope of the study This action research was carried out particularly in the field of teaching and learning English in a public school in Hanoi.
It was conducted in a small scale with a class 52 students in a grade four class. The participants are learning the mainstream English program in public school. However, there is a number of students are studying English in private English centers or classes. The research was conducted in six lessons running in six weeks.
The researcher utilized the data collection instruments including tests, questionnaires and interviews to measure quantitively students’ vocabulary learning improvement and qualitatively students’ attitudes and opnions. It can be noted that the scale of the study was quite small with a minority of students, thus it is impossible to make a generalization for other members of the population. However, this study could give a practical and helpful source of findings for further researches in the same area. Significance of the study The writer wishes that research can bring considerable benefits into English lessons in Vietnam, particularly in public schools, where the students are commonly known to be taught in traditional way- teacher-centered.
The traditional teaching and learning way are described as the teacher’s maximum talking while students’ active participation and talking are limited. Regarding the benefits of the study, firstly, the positive outcomes thanks to group-work- one of the active learning methods can be proved in comparison with the traditional teaching and learning 3 approach. ESL teachers can consider applying learner-centered teaching method with the activities such as group work that stimulates maximum students’ proactive participants and builds up their skills. Second, the study can point out the difficulties in applying group-work in public schools where the class size is a big problem and the real class time invested in English subject is inappreciable.