VIETNAMESE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HO CHI MINH UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES ***** DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE GRADUATE STUDY PROGRAM IN TESOL ***** THE EFFECT OF PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK ACTIVITIES ON THE READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS OF WEAK ESP STUDENTS AT SAIGON TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY M.THESIS IN TESOL SUBMITTED IN A PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF TESOL Submitted by NGUYEÃN KHÖÔNG UYEÅN Supervisor CHU THÒ LEÂ HOAØNG, M. Ho Chi Minh City, June 2006 VIETNAMESE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HO CHI MINH UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES **** DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE GRADUATE STUDY PROGRAM IN TESOL *** THE EFFECT OF PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK ACTIVITIES ON THE READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS OF WEAK ESP STUDENTS AT SAIGON TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY A thesis submitted in a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master TESOL Submitted by NGUYEÃN KHÖÔNG UYEÅN Supervisor CHU THÒ LEÂ HOAØNG, M. Ho Chi Minh City, June 2006 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY OF MASTER’S THESIS I certify my authorship of the Master’s thesis submitted today entitled: “THE EFFECT OF PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK ACTIVITIES ON THE READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS OF WEAK ESP STUDENTS AT SAIGON TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY” In terms of the statement of requirements for thesis in Master’s program issued by the High Degree Committee of Department of English Linguistics and Literature, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University of Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh, June 2006 NGUYEÃN KHÖÔNG UYEÅN i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Nguyeãn Khöông Uyeån, being a candidate for the Degree of Master of Arts (TESOL), accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s thesis deposited in the library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my master’s thesis deposited in the library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the library for the care, loan or reproduction of the thesis. Ho Chi Minh City, June 2006 NGUYEÃN KHÖÔNG UYEÅN ii ABBREVIATIONS B. : Bachelor of Science CD : Compact Disc CLT : Communicative Language Teaching CWPT : Class Wide Peer Tutoring EAP : English for Academic Purposes EBE : English for Business and Economics EFL : English as a Foreign Language EOP : English for Occupational Purposes ESL : English as a Second Language ESP : English for Special Purposes EST : English for Science and Technology ESS : English for Social Science HCM : Ho Chi Minh PALS : Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies SLT : Second Language Teaching STU : Saigon Technology University TTT : Teacher Talking Time TESOL : Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages VCD : Video Compact Disc CNTP : Coâng Ngheä Thöïc Phaåm iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the process of doing this research, I receive a great deal of a support from a lot of people to whom I would like to acknowledge my debt. First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms.
Chu Thi Le Hoang, for her generous assistance and invaluable devotion to guiding me through the preparation and completion of this thesis over a long period of time. She has been a source of ideas and support at every stage of development of the study. Without her whole-hearted guidance, enthusiastic encouragement and constructive criticism, my achievement would have been impossible. I would like to thank the organizers of this master course, the Department of English Linguistic and Literature of University of Social Sciences and Humanities, and Saigon Technology University.
I also indebt to Ms. Le Thi Ngoc Phuong, the manager of Educational Training, who provided me with data about the EFL teachers and the students at STU, Mr. Luu Trong Tuan, the Chief of Foreign Language Instructors, and all my EFL teaching colleagues and second-year students of Food Technology Department at STU who were kind enough to support and cooperate with me in this study. Although their names are not specified here, their cooperation has played the decisive roles in the conducting of the research.
Finally, I am especially grateful to my family, my dear husband and all of my steady friends for their love, understanding, sympathy and constant encouragement which have been a motivational inspiration to me. iv ABSTRACT This study examined the effectiveness of pair and group work activities on weak ESP students’ reading comprehension skills in an ESP course. We were particularly interested in assessing how the use of pair and group work activities affected students’ performance and interests in pursuing reading comprehension relating their major. We found that the students using pair and group work activities produced better attitude towards English and ESP, were more confident in their learning English, and enjoyed completing the assignments more than non - pair and group working students.
Moreover, paired and grouped students attended the course regularly than non - pair and group working students, and consequently to pass it. Among those who completed the course, paired and grouped students were more likely to get higher scores on the final exam than non - paired and grouped students. For pair and group work to succeed it also had to ensure that: (1) the students became more independent; (2) their self- esteem was raised; (3) the students had a greater chance of receiving help; (4) the classroom became more manageable and cohesive; (5) and the lessons became more enjoyable for the students and for myself. Our findings suggest that not only does pair and group working motivate and activate students’ learning, but that it may enhance the quality of their reading skills and encourage them to continue learning English in general and reading in particular.
The research was conducted in intact classrooms. The data for the study came from a number of sources: class observation notes, questionnaires to survey students’ attitudes towards pair and group work, a series of interviews with the participants, and three texts the students completed individually. The approach to data analysis was qualitative and quantitative. The results also had important pedagogical implications, particularly for the practice of using pair and group work activities in reading comprehension tasks in ESP classrooms.
v LIST OF TABLES Chapter 4 Table 4.1 Subjects in the study 33 Table 4.2 The first year final exam results 34 Table 4.3 The pre-test results 35 Chapter 5 Table 5.1 Places where students attended high school 45 Table 5.2 Students’ starting point of learning English 46 Table 5.3 Experience of learning activities in previous English classes 49 Table 5.4 Common ways of learning reading in English classes 50 Table 5.5 Learning English is one of the great needs for students 51 Table 5.6 Level of enjoyment of reading books in English or ESP 51 Table 5.7 Frequency of reading English books besides the textbook 53 Table 5.8 Students’ experience of reading comprehension skills 54 Table 5.9 Controlled group’ attitude towards learning in pairs and groups 59 Table 5.10 Experimental group’s attitude towards learning reading comprehension skills in pairs and groups 61 Table 5.11 Experience of EFL teachers’ teaching English at STU 66 Table 5.12 Teachers’ opinion about teaching reading comprehension 67 Table 5.13 Ways of teaching ESP reading texts of the teachers at STU 70 Table 5.14 Teachers’ experience of pair and group work activities 71 Table 5.15 Purposes of the use of pair and group work activities in teaching reading comprehension of the teachers at STU 72 Table 5.16 Way of pairing and grouping the students 73 Table 5.17 Activities EFL teachers often use to improve weak students’ reading comprehension skills 74 vi Table 5.18 Teachers’ attitude towards advantages and disadvantages of pair and group work activities in teaching ESP texts 79 Table 5.19 The pre-test results 81 Table 5.20 The mid-term test results 81 Table 5.21 The final test results 81 Table 5.22 The experimental group’s mean score of three tests 82 Table 5.23 The controlled group’ s mean score of three tests 82 Table 5.24 Division of time for the teachers and students in every reading lesson 85 vii LIST OF FIGURES Chapter 4 Figure 4.1 The first year final exam results 34 Figure 4.2 The pre-test results 35 Chapter 5 Figure 5.1 Places where students attended high school 45 Figure 5.2 Students’ starting point of learning English 47 Figure 5.3 Frequency of learning activities in previous English classes 49 Figure 5.4 Level of students’ enjoyment of reading English or ESP books 52 Figure 5.5 Frequency of reading books in English besides the textbook 53 Figure 5.6 Students’ attitude to the current material 56 Figure 5.7 Students’ problems in learning ESP texts in their textbooks 57 Figure 5.8 Reasons for enjoying doing pair and group work activities of the experimental group 60 Figure 5.9 Controlled group’s expectation and belief in improving reading comprehension skills via pair and group work activities 63 Figure 5.10 Experimental group’s recommendations for modifications to the implementation of pair and group work activities 64 Figure 5.11 Difficulties teachers meet while teaching reading 69 Figure 5.12 Students’ attitude and reaction to pair and group activities 74 Figure 5.13 Teachers’ belief in using pair and group activities to improve weak students’ reading comprehension skills 75 Figure 5.14 Open responses from the students advocating pair and group work activities 78 Figure 5.15 Variation in two groups’ pass rates of three tests 82 Figure 5.16 Variation in two groups’ fail rates of three tests 82 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of originality i Retention and use of the thesis ii Abbreviations iii Acknowledgements vi Abstract v List of tables vi List of figures viii Table of contents ix Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1. STATEMENT OF THE STUDY 2 1. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY 2 1. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 3 1.
OVERVIEW OF THE THESIS 4 1. DEFINITION OF TERMS 5 CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 7 2. DESCRIPTION OF AN ENGLISH COURSE FOR ESP STUDENTS AT STU 7 2. What is English for Special Purposes (ESP)? 7 2.
Who are ESP students? 7 2. An English course for ESP students 8 2. DESCRIPTION OF STU AND ESP STUDENTS AT STU 8 2. SOME REASONS FOR STUDENTS TO LEARN ENGLISH 10 2.
WAYS OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ESP AT MOST ix UNIVERSITIES IN HCM CITY IN GENERAL AND AT STU IN PARTICULAR 10 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW 12 3. Definition of pair work 12 3. Reasons for using pair work 12 3. Types of pair work 13 3.
Definition of group work 14 3. Reasons for using group work 14 3. Types of group work 19 3. DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING IN PAIRS AND GROUPS WITH SOLUTIONS 22 3.
READING COMPREHENSION IN PAIRS AND GROUPS 25 3. Definition of reading 25 3. Definition of reading comprehension 26 3. Reading comprehension in pairs and groups 27 3.
HOW TO PAIR OR GROUP STUDENTS IN ORDER TO BRING THEM THE MOST EFFICIENT RESULT FROM THE PRACTICE? 29 CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGY 31 4. Tests: pre-test, mid-term test and final test 37 4. PROCEDURE OF THE STUDY 38 4. WAYS OF DATA COLLECTING AND ANALYSIS 41 4.
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 42 4.6 DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 43 CHAPTER 5: ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 44 A. RESULTS OF DATA ANALYSIS 44 5. RESULTS OF QUESTIONNAIRES 44 5. Results of students’ questionnaires 44 5.
Students’ background information 44 5. Students’ perception of and attitude towards English, reading English books and reading comprehension skills 51 a. Students’ perception of and attitude towards English, and reading English/ESP books 51 b. Students’ experience of and attitude towards reading comprehension skills 54 c.
Students’ ideas about learning reading comprehension skills 55 5. Students’ opinions of their current textbook and problems they have while learning ESP 55 a. Students’ opinions of their current textbook 55 b. Problems students have while learning ESP texts in their current material 57 5.
Students’ attitude towards learning in pairs and groups 58 a.