VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ------ BÙI THỊ THU NHUNG APPLICATION OF JIGSAW TECHNIQUE IN IMPROVING STUDENTS’ INTEGRATED SKILLS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT ON THE 10TH-GRADE STUDENTS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN HUNG YEN (Sử dụng kĩ thuật mảnh ghép (Jigsaw) trong việc phát triển kĩ năng tích hợp của học sinh: Một nghiên cứu hành động cho học sinh lớp 10 tại một trường THPT ở Hưng Yên) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231.01 Hanoi, 2018 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ------ BÙI THỊ THU NHUNG APPLICATION OF JIGSAW TECHNIQUE IN IMPROVING STUDENTS’ INTEGRATED SKILLS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT ON THE 10TH-GRADE STUDENTS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN HUNG YEN (Sử dụng kĩ thuật mảnh ghép (Jigsaw) trong việc phát triển kĩ năng tích hợp của học sinh: Một nghiên cứu hành động cho học sinh lớp 10 tại một trường THPT ở Hưng Yên) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231,01 Supervisor : Prof. Hoàng Văn Vân Hanoi, 2018 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com DECLARATION I, the undersigned, declare that this thesis is the results of my own research and has not been submitted to any other university or institution partially or wholly. Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‟s work has been used without due acknowledgement in text of the thesis. Student Bui Thị Thu Nhung In my capacity as supervisor of the candidate‟s thesis, I certify that the above statements are true to the best of my knowledge.
Hoang Van Van i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, the researcher would like to express her gratitude to the Dean, the Vice Dean and all staffs of the Faculty of Postgraduate Department for their priceless wisdom, encouragement, help and kindness during her study and writing this thesis. In the second place, she wishes to extend her great honor and deepest gratitude to her adviser, Prof. Hoang Van Van, for his invaluable guidance, correction, facilitation and encouragement in the writing of this thesis. Her special thanks also are forwarded to Mr.
Do Ba Muoi, the Headmaster of Nguyen Sieu High School, who had permitted her to conduct this research in his school. Her thanks are presented to all the English teachers of the school‟s English group for their help and advice during the implementation of the research. And then, her great thanks are extended to students of class 10A1 of Nguyen Sieu High School for their cooperation during the time the research was conducted. Finally, she would like to thank her family, her friends for their spirit, encouragement and their support.
Without them this thesis couldn‟t be accomplished. ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT Mastering all four language skills is very essential to successful communication, and is the main target of all language learners. Understanding this need and the problems that learners face during learning English, this action research was conducted with the aim at improving students‟ integrated skills through Jigsaw technique to the tenth grade students of Nguyen Sieu High School in the academic year of 2017-2018 and investigating their attitudes toward this technique. Thirty five participants were involved in the research during 12 weeks of the second term.
The present study was concerned with the integration of all language skills through Jigsaw technique by administering pre-test, post-test and questionnaire as the research instruments. The results showed that students‟ achievements in all four language skills were higher after the intervention. Although the general achievement is not so impressive, it however indicated that Jigsaw learning is still an effective learning method and worth applying in teaching integrated skills. Besides, most of the students showed their agreement on the use of Jigsaw as it helped them to be more motivated, active, and engaged in learning.
It also created a friendly learning environment where students felt more confident, cooperative and responsible during learning process. In general, Jigsaw technique improved students‟ outcomes academically, socially and psychologically. iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS.
iv LIST OF TABLES. vi LIST OF GRAPHS. vii PART A: INTRODUCTION. 6 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEWS .1 Definition of key terms .2 Integration of language skills.
Advantages and disadvantages of using Jigsaw technique .1 Advantages of using Jigsaw technique .2 Disadvantages of using Jigsaw technique. The roles of teacher and students in Jigsaw class. Strategy to conduct Jigsaw. 24 iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
Implementation of the action. Pre-test and post-test. Data collection and analysis. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS.
Data tabulation and description .3 Discussion of the findings. 40 PART C: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION. I v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Tabulation of data showing the subjects‟ scores in integration of four skills through Jigsaw technique. 32 Table 2: Students‟ responses to the two „open-ended‟ questions.
33 Table 3: Summary of the research finding showing the mean score from pre- test and post-test of four language skills. 34 Table 4: Analysis of Pre-test and Post-test scores of students‟ performance on four skills. 35 vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF GRAPHS Graph 1: The students‟ progress in each language skills through Jigsaw technique. 35 Graph 2: The progressing of grand mean in students‟ achievement in integrated skills through application of Jigsaw technique.
36 vii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the background to the problem and the reason for choosing the topic are mentioned. As a result, the necessity of delivering the research as well as the importance of the application of Jigsaw technique in integrating all English language skills is revealed. The aims and the significances of the study are also stated. The final section will present the scope of the study which shows the number of participants and the time of the intervention.
Rationale In the context of integration and globalization, English is now becoming one of the most effective means of communication in the world and Vietnam is also no exception. Hence, foreign language teaching, especially English, is more and more essential and the master of foreign language – English - appears as an urgent requirement at present. People now have witnessed many significant changes in education and teaching methodology in which learners increasingly become the center of teaching and learning, as well as the changes from traditional approach to communicative approach. In English, if grammar had been the focus of language learning for decades, it is now seen as an instrument to master language skills, including reading, writing, listening and speaking skills, which are much more necessary in communication.
The primary goal of teaching and learning English is to enable students to use the language to communicate and interact with others as „when people learn a foreign language, they usually want to make use of that language to communicate with people who speak the same language. They can find themselves in the need of understanding them and talking to them. The problem is that although learners have an 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com acceptable knowledge of language components, they can rarely use them to communicate in English. It is because most of the class time is spent for learning grammar, vocabulary or isolated language skills; hardly do they have time to practice using all language skills in integration.
According to Breen and Candlin (2001)‟s views, “Just as no single communication ability can develop independently of other abilities, so the development of one skill may well depend on the appropriate development of other skills. Besides, recent research (e. Bose, 2003; Faydi, 2003; Hefferman, 2006) also showed that the integration of language skills plays significant role in improving language learning achievements. As a result, instead of using one single, separate language skill, learners need to combine or integrate four skills to have successful communication.
This is also a challenge for English language teachers to create communicative activities that help learners make use of all four language skills at the same time. Through skills integration, English language learners are exposed to authentic materials and challenges that encourage them to interact naturally; and in language teaching, a successful English teacher is one who can help learners actually communicate in English inside and outside the classroom. Furthermore, to communicate successfully, not only do students need to master English grammar or skills, but they must also be confident, initiative, freely and flexible in a wide range of communicative situations. In order to achieve this, students first and foremost must be themselves in classroom, be able to use English to solve any learning situations or tasks in class and be cooperative with each other.
However, this arises as a challenging problem in teaching and learning English, especially in rural areas where students are not very good at English. They are often shy, passive or unconfident to communicate with each other in English. Therefore, the cooperative learning 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com among students is very essential as it not only creates a foreign language environment for the students themselves but also helps them feel more motivated, comfortable, confident and autonomous when working together in a friendly but meaningful learning environment. Jigsaw is a cooperative learning technique that requires everyone‟s cooperative effort to produce the final product as “each member of a group has a piece of information needed to complete a group task” (Richards, Platt & Platt, 2008).
Jigsaw is said to be able to increase students‟ learning since “a) it is less threatening for many students, b) it increases the amount of student participation in the classroom, c) it reduces the need for competitiveness and d) it reduces the teacher‟s dominance in the classroom” (Richards, Platt & Platt, 2008). Consequently, Jigsaw strategy can successfully reduce students‟ reluctance to participate in the classroom activities and help create an active learner-centred atmosphere. Studies related to the implementation of jigsaw technique in Vietnamese language classes have in fact been carried out in college settings, mostly in terms of increasing students‟ motivation and cooperation in class. More studies then need to be conducted to ascertain the implementation of Jigsaw technique in other settings, in this case in high schools.
This particular concern arouses the writer to conduct a study on the use of Jigsaw technique in teenager learners‟ language class in discovering the integration of different language skills. Aims and research questions of the study Based on the rationale mentioned above, the researcher would like to investigate the impacts of Jigsaw technique on students‟ integrated language skills and their attitudes towards the new technique – Jigsaw – in her own teaching environment to see whether it is applicable at Nguyen Sieu High 3 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com School or not. An action research will be conducted to address the following research questions: 1. To what extent can the use of Jigsaw technique improve the students’ integrated skills? 2.
What are the students’ attitudes towards the new technique – Jigsaw? Of these two questions, the first one is the focus of the study. Significance of the study Theoretically, this thesis will be a small contribution to the theory of ELT on the impacts of using Jigsaw technique in promoting students‟ language competence of four skills reading, speaking, listening and writing at the same time in EFL classrooms at a high school. Practically, this study is firstly expected to be an alternative way to expose students to more student-centered classrooms, and hopefully to help them enhance their English competence, cooperation and their motivation in those classes.