VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, ITANOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES HOÀNG THỊ BÍCH THỦY STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS COOPERATIVE LEARNING AT NGITE AN TEACTIERS’ COLLEGE AND IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS (Thải độ của sinh viên trường CĐSP Nghệ An về hoạt động học mang tính hợp tác và các hảm ý cho việc đào tạo giáo viên) MLA. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.10 TUINOT- 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, ITANOI UNIVERSITY OF NGUAG T1 ATI NAL STUDIES HOÀNG TIIỊ BÍCI THỦY STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS COOPERATIVE LEARNING AT NGHE AN TEACHERS’ COLLEGE AND TMPLICATIONS FOR TEACTIER EDUCATION PROGRAMS (Thái độ của sinh viên trường CĐSP Nghệ An vẻ hoạt động học mang tính hợp tác và các hàm ý cho việc đào lạo piáo viên) MLA. MINOR PROGRAMME TIIESIS Ficld: English Teaching Mcthodology Code: 60.10 Supervisor: Lé Van Canh, M.A HANOI - 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS Candidate's statement Acknowledgements Abstract List of Tables List of Abbreviations PART A: INFRODUCTION 1. Rationale 2, Aims of the study 3.
Research questions = 4, Scope of the study "`. Organization of the study PART C: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER L LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definitions of Cooperative Leaning ue 1.2 Benefits of Cooperative Learning in foreign language learning 1.3 Review of previous sludiss related to Cooperative Leaming 10 1.4 Cooperative Learning and Vietnamese Leaming Cultwe lại CHAPTER 1: THE STUDY 13 2.1 Research questions PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Co-operative leaming has attracted a great attention in the last few decades for its value as one of the startagies which help to provide students with more opporlunities to leant from each other. By cooperating with each other in solving leaming tasks in the classroom, the students at the same time create a Eivourable and active leaming atmosphere, thereby making use of cach olher’s SBOUTERS, Over the last few decades, Cooperative Leaming (CL) has become a popular practice in both mainstream education and in second/ foragn language education, ‘There has been empirical evidence lo juslify the effectiveness of CI.
in promoting mastery of knowledge aud skills among students of various abilities and ages. Regarding second/foreign language Jearming, students, through cooperation, become more actively involved in their lessons and thus, they have more chanee to use the larget languago than they arc in the whols class aurangement. Despite its documented benefits, CL has not been adequately researched in Vietnamese educational settings. So, one of the unresolved questions is to whal extent the contextual variables such as students’ social background and leaming culture affects the success of CL.
For instance, it 1s not clear whether CL can bring about similar success in the context where students coma from romolz tural arcas and are laughl Jergcly with traditional methods as it does in other, especially in Western, contexts. This question motivates me to undertake this study, which aims fo explore the possibility of applying the principles and techniques of CL in a Junior Teachers’ Training College in one central province of ‘Victnam, The focus of my study is to find out the college students’s attitudes toward CL in ‘the classroom. Aims of the study This study sets out to achieve the following aims 2.2 Follow-up interviews 2.5 Results and Discussion 2.1 Students’ preferred habits and leaming styles 2.2 §Iuđenls` sHiluđos and perceptions towards CL.3 Teachers’ use of CL 2.4 Students’ engagement and preferences in CL 2.5 Slusdents’ suggestions to improve CI. CHAPTER III: IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 30 3.1 Challenges of Cooperative Learning in forcign language lcarning 30 3.3 Suggestions 35 PART C: CONCLUSION 38 1.
38 2, Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies 39 REFERENCES an APPENDIXES APPENDIX 1 APPENDIX 2 PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Co-operative leaming has attracted a great attention in the last few decades for its value as one of the startagies which help to provide students with more opporlunities to leant from each other. By cooperating with each other in solving leaming tasks in the classroom, the students at the same time create a Eivourable and active leaming atmosphere, thereby making use of cach olher’s SBOUTERS, Over the last few decades, Cooperative Leaming (CL) has become a popular practice in both mainstream education and in second/ foragn language education, ‘There has been empirical evidence lo juslify the effectiveness of CI. in promoting mastery of knowledge aud skills among students of various abilities and ages.
Regarding second/foreign language Jearming, students, through cooperation, become more actively involved in their lessons and thus, they have more chanee to use the larget languago than they arc in the whols class aurangement. Despite its documented benefits, CL has not been adequately researched in Vietnamese educational settings. So, one of the unresolved questions is to whal extent the contextual variables such as students’ social background and leaming culture affects the success of CL. For instance, it 1s not clear whether CL can bring about similar success in the context where students coma from romolz tural arcas and are laughl Jergcly with traditional methods as it does in other, especially in Western, contexts.
This question motivates me to undertake this study, which aims fo explore the possibility of applying the principles and techniques of CL in a Junior Teachers’ Training College in one central province of ‘Victnam, The focus of my study is to find out the college students’s attitudes toward CL in ‘the classroom. Aims of the study This study sets out to achieve the following aims Dus to the aim and scope of the study, two research methods are used in the present study: # À questionnaire to investigate stadents’ attitudes and perceptions towards CL as well as their preferences. ‘Ihe questionnaire is designed, primarily, to find out what students think of CL. And how they prefar to have CI.
activitios in their foreign language classes. Dala were analyzed mainly by means of descriptive statistics. ® Follow-up interviews were conducted to get better insights into students’ attitudes, perceptions, and preferen 6. Organization of the thesis ‘The thesis is structured into 3 parts: Part A: Introduction, which introduecs the rationale, the aims, the scope, the rescarch methods and the organization of the study.
Part B: Development which consists of3 chapters: Chapter J 1s a Literature Review. In this chapter, a basic theoretical background for the study is created by reviewing the relevant literature with a focus on Attitudes, and CL toolmiuss Chapter I, The Study, presents the methods and. procedures used in the study, which consists of a survey questionnaire and follow-up interviews. This chapter also includes Result and Discussion which presents the method of data analysis as well as the results derived from the data analysis.
Results are presented under themes as coded from the data analysis. Chapicr II], Implications and Sugecstions, presents some suggestions on how to apply CL techniques in the classroom to achieve better impact. Part C: Contlusio summarises the maiz termarks of the study and suggosl some ideas for further sludy. Linvitations of the study wilt also be acknowledgedin this chapter PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW "this chapter reviews the literature on CL.
In the first place, a definitionof ‘attitude’ is provided. This will be followed by a discussion of the mature of CI. as well as its advantages in foreign language leaming. Finally, previous studies on CL will be reviewed to identify a research niche for the present study.1 Altitudes In general understanding, attitudes are defined as a disposition or tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain thing such.
as an idea, object, person or situation. This is often referred to as attitude object, but in the scale of my study, attitude is understood as ‘learning attitude’, ‘The construct of ‘Attitude’ has long been considered as one of the affective variables beside motivation in the realm of language leaming as well, (cg, Gardner and Lambert 1972) According to Oxford and Shearin (1994), attitude is one of the thctors impacting motivation in language learning. Gardner (1985) states that positive attitudes and motivation are related to success in sccond language Icarning. Holmes (1992) believes that people develop attitudes towards languages, which reflect their views about those who speak the languages, and the contexts and functions with which they are associated.
He claizns that attitudes in the context of language leaming arc detined as the way people look at the language, the class and the people, and the culture of janguage Lambert (1967, cited in Macnamara, 1973: 37) mentions two types of attitudes: “integrative” and ‘instrumental’ attitude to language learning. Lle claims that an integrative attitude (desire to know and become friendly with spzakers ofa language) is morc likely to Jead to success in Joarning a second language than an instrumental attitude (desire to better oneself materially by means of the language). LIST OF ABBREVLATIONS CL ; Cooperative Leaming EL: Linglish as a foreign language ESI.: English as 2 second language PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Co-operative leaming has attracted a great attention in the last few decades for its value as one of the startagies which help to provide students with more opporlunities to leant from each other.
By cooperating with each other in solving leaming tasks in the classroom, the students at the same time create a Eivourable and active leaming atmosphere, thereby making use of cach olher’s SBOUTERS, Over the last few decades, Cooperative Leaming (CL) has become a popular practice in both mainstream education and in second/ foragn language education, ‘There has been empirical evidence lo juslify the effectiveness of CI. in promoting mastery of knowledge aud skills among students of various abilities and ages. Regarding second/foreign language Jearming, students, through cooperation, become more actively involved in their lessons and thus, they have more chanee to use the larget languago than they arc in the whols class aurangement. Despite its documented benefits, CL has not been adequately researched in Vietnamese educational settings.
So, one of the unresolved questions is to whal extent the contextual variables such as students’ social background and leaming culture affects the success of CL. For instance, it 1s not clear whether CL can bring about similar success in the context where students coma from romolz tural arcas and are laughl Jergcly with traditional methods as it does in other, especially in Western, contexts. This question motivates me to undertake this study, which aims fo explore the possibility of applying the principles and techniques of CL in a Junior Teachers’ Training College in one central province of ‘Victnam, The focus of my study is to find out the college students’s attitudes toward CL in ‘the classroom. Aims of the study This study sets out to achieve the following aims LIST OF ABBREVLATIONS CL ; Cooperative Leaming EL: Linglish as a foreign language ESI.: English as 2 second language 2.2 Follow-up interviews 2.5 Results and Discussion 2.1 Students’ preferred habits and leaming styles 2.2 §Iuđenls` sHiluđos and perceptions towards CL.3 Teachers’ use of CL 2.4 Students’ engagement and preferences in CL 2.5 Slusdents’ suggestions to improve CI.
CHAPTER III: IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 30 3.1 Challenges of Cooperative Learning in forcign language lcarning 30 3.3 Suggestions 35 PART C: CONCLUSION 38 1. 38 2, Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies 39 REFERENCES an APPENDIXES APPENDIX 1 APPENDIX 2 Dus to the aim and scope of the study, two research methods are used in the present study: # À questionnaire to investigate stadents’ attitudes and perceptions towards CL as well as their preferences. ‘Ihe questionnaire is designed, primarily, to find out what students think of CL. And how they prefar to have CI.
activitios in their foreign language classes. Dala were analyzed mainly by means of descriptive statistics. ® Follow-up interviews were conducted to get better insights into students’ attitudes, perceptions, and preferen 6. Organization of the thesis ‘The thesis is structured into 3 parts: Part A: Introduction, which introduecs the rationale, the aims, the scope, the rescarch methods and the organization of the study.
Part B: Development which consists of3 chapters: Chapter J 1s a Literature Review.
