VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES -----------o0o------------ VŨ THỊ KHÁNH VÂN ORGANIZING PAIRWORK IN THE ENGLISH LESSONS AT PHO YEN HIGH SCHOOL 11th GRADE, THAI NGUYEN PROVINCE Tổ chức hoạt động cặp trong các giờ học Tiếng Anh tại khối lớp 11 của trường THPT Phổ Yên, tỉnh Thái Nguyên M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 60140111 Hanoi, 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES -----------o0o------------ VŨ THỊ KHÁNH VÂN ORGANIZING PAIRWORK IN THE ENGLISH LESSONS AT PHO YEN HIGH SCHOOL 11th GRADE, THAI NGUYEN PROVINCE Tổ chức hoạt động cặp trong các giờ học Tiếng Anh tại khối lớp 11 của trường THPT Phổ Yên, tỉnh Thái Nguyên M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 60140111 SUPERVISOR : Assoc. LÊ HÙNG TIẾN Hanoi, 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT -----------*****----------- I hereby certify that the thesis entitled Organizing pairwork in the English lessons at Pho Yen High School 11th grade, Thai Nguyen Province. In the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at College of Foreign Languages, Hanoi National University, and that this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or institution wholly or partly. Hanoi, August 2014 Vũ Thị Khánh Vân i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In completion of my thesis, I have received generous advice and help from many lecturers whose lectures are very practical and useful.
Firstly, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Mr. Lê Hùng Tiến Ph.D from Vietnam National University, Hanoi College of Foreign Language, for his close guidance, criticism, and his generous help in the process of completing my thesis. My special thanks also go to all lecturers and the staff of the Department of Post Graduate Studies at Hanoi College of Foreign Language for their useful materials, guidance and enthusiasm during my course of study. I really wish to thank all my colleagues and my students at Pho Yen High School- for their kind cooperation in giving valuable information.
Finally, I owe my deep thanks to my dear family, especially my husband, my sons who always stand by me with their consideration and encouragement. Vũ Thị Khánh Vân ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT Learning language well depends on many factors such as personal characteristics, the structure of the native and target languages, opportunities to communicate with other people and with native speakers, etc. For students at schools, these factors can only work well with the help of the teachers‟ using different techniques, and approaches in language teaching. In communicative language teaching, students have more chances to practise in the target language through different classroom activities, among them pairwork and groupwork appear to be the most appropriate application.
This thesis was carried out to investigate the use of pairwork activities to develop speaking skills for the first year English students at Pho Yen High School. Survey questionnaires for teachers and students were employed to find answers to these two questions. The use of paiwork activities are also beneficial for both teachers and learners. However, there were some problems such as student low proficiency and their passive way of learning styles, which prevent them from taking part in pairwork activities.
Teachers‟ lack of time and have to deal with large and multi-level classes in unqualified conditions hinder them a lot in implementing pairwork activities to teach four language skills. By analyzing and comparing the results of students‟ and teachers‟ responses to questionnaire about pairwork activities, the author attempts to shed light on the effectiveness of these activities and how to best implement them. In Pho Yen Upper Secondary School in Pho Yen district, Thai Nguyen province, pairwork is widely used in foreign language classes. However, it seems that the use of these implemetation activities at Pho yen High School is not effective enough, therefore, focuses on pointing out how to organize pairwork in a more effective way so that it helps students find learning English a great fun and less demanding.
iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF CHARTS Chart 1: Students‟ and teachers‟ opinion about the main benefits of pairwork. 19 Chart 2: Students‟ opinion about the useful for pairwork. 20 Chart 3: Teachers‟ and students‟ opinions about the useful of pairwork. 21 Chart 4: The important role when using pairwork.
22 Chart 5: The factors effected about the success of pairwork. 22 Chart 6: Students‟ and teachers‟ opinion about the appropriate time for PW. 23 Chart 7: Students‟ frequently used activities of pairwork .23 Chart 8: How are teachers and students often create pairwork?. 24 Chart 9: Teachers‟ responsibilities for successful pairworks.
25 Chart 10: Teachers‟and students‟opinion about preparing materials for PW. 26 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENT CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT. iii LIST OF CHARTS. iv TABLE OF CONTENT.
Rationale of the study. Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Methods of the study.
Design of the study. 4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Communicative approach to Language Teaching. What is meant by communication?.
Communicative language teaching. Nature of Communicative Language Teaching. The techniques of Communicative Language Teaching. Definition of pairwork.
Advantages and disadvantages of pairwork. Advantages of using pairwork activities. Disadvantages of using pairwork activities. How to organize pairwork.
Preparation for pairwork. Steps in the classroom. Select the activity. prepare of materials.
Size and selection of pair. Organize students within the pair. 10 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Time of pairwork activity.
Share pairwork with the whole class. Steps of organizing pairwork. Difficulties in organizing pairwork and suggested solutions. Previous studies related to organizing pairwork.
An overview of Pho Yen High School. Data collection instruments. Data collection procedures. Results from questionnaires.
Teachers’ and students’ opinions about benefits of pairwork. Teachers’ and students’ judgements about the use of pairwork activities in English classes. Teachers’ and students’ desires to learn English via pairwork Activities. Data analysis from class observations.
Examples of pairwork. 27 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS, DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS. The way the teachers at Pho Yen High School use pairwork. Steps of organizing pairwork.
The materials used in organizing pairwork. Lack of knowledge of pairwork. Habits of old teaching methods. Passive learning style.
Low level of English language proficiency. Learners’ fear of making mistakes. Large-sized lasses. Lack of reference and teaching aids.
Summary of the findings. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further study. XX vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION This chapter presents the rationale, aims, scope, research questions, research methods and design of the study.
Rationale “Better English, more opportunities” has become a target for lots of students in recent years. English is a useful means they need for their future career since it equips them with linguistic, social and cultural knowledge and provides them with access to the modern world in the era of informatics and technology. It is used as the official language in many powerful and developed countries. Additionally, it is also considered as the means of communication in a number of aspects such as business, education, science, and so on.
Therefore, English teaching and learning play an important role in social developing policies in a large number of countries throughout the world. English, nowadays, is widely taught in Vietnam, from primary school to university, including English centers throughout the country. People learn English for their work or for their higher study. However, the results of the English courses are not very good.
Vietnamese teachers of English have not known how to apply the teaching method in effective ways. They are lack of knowledge, teaching aid, time, and money to teach four language skills: listening skills, speaking skills, reading skills and writing skills. Like many teachers in the schools of Vietnam, teachers of English at Pho Yen upper secondary school face the same problem: students‟ inactive participation in learning activities in the classroom. In fact, there are a variety of reasons for this poor participation, and therefore using appropriate techniques and methods for teaching English effectively to students at Pho Yen upper secondary school requires a teachers‟ enthusiasm and commitment.
This led me the choice of the study “Organizing pair work in the English lessons at Pho Yen High School 11th grade, Thai Nguyen Province” with the hope of contributing to improve the teaching and learning English in pho Yen High School. 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com in particular and in Vietnam in general My study only focuses on how to organize pair work more effectively for students at Pho Yen High School in Thai Nguyen. Aims of study The study is aimed at: Investigating the use of pairwork at Pho Yen High School- a school located in Pho Yen district, Thai Nguyen province. Finding out effective technique to organize pairwork with the hope of helping teachers at Phổ Yên High School in teaching English.
Research questions of the study This study is aimed to answer the following research questions: How do the teachers at Phổ Yên High School use pair work? 4. Scope of the study To improve four skills for students at Phổ Yên High School, the teachers can make use of various techniques and a number of things should be done. However, the researcher only intends to draw a brief overview of pair work in classes at Phổ Yên High School and to find out the ways to organize pair work more effectively. Methods of study To realize the aims of the study.
The theoretical background of the study comes from many published books written by different authors on language teaching and language acquisition. The data collected for the study came from two sources: the students and the English teachers at Phổ Yên High School (6 English teachers and 120 students) survey questionnaires and observation. In this research, quantitative method is used, too. All comments, remarks, recommendations assumption and conclusion provided in the study based on the analysis of the statistics from the survey questionnaires conducted with students and teachers of Phổ Yên High School.
The study is also based on a qualitative method with the author‟s own experience and observation during 9 years of teaching English. 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Design of study This study consists of 3 parts: Part A: provides an introduction which includes the rationale, aims, scope, research questions, methods and design of the study. Part B: provides a development which is divided into three chapters.
Chapter 1: Literature Review: is intended to give some theories related to the study such as communicative language teaching, communication learning process, definitions of pairwork along with some common pairwork oral activities. The chapter also mentions advantages and disadvantages of using pairwork. Chapter 2: The Study Research – provides an analysis on the current situation of using pairwork in teaching and learning English at Phổ Yên High School. Data collection and analysis are also presented in this chapter.
Chapter 3: Findings and Suggestions - focuses on how the teachers at Phổ Yên High School organized pairwork and difficulties facing them and their students in carrying out these activities and some suggestions for the teachers to organize pairwork more effectively. Part C: Conclusion - which is the conclusion of the study. Some explanations, interpretations of the findings of the study and some pedagogical implications are given in this chapter.