HUE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES --------------- DANG THI DUONG AN INVESTIGATION INTO PEERS’ ROLES IN GROUP WORK IN SPEAKING SKILL CLASSES AT A HIGH SCHOOL MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, University of Foreign Languages and International Studies, Hue University THUA THIEN HUE, 2023 HUE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES --------------- DANG THI DUONG AN INVESTIGATION INTO PEERS’ ROLES IN GROUP WORK IN SPEAKING SKILL CLASSES AT A HIGH SCHOOL MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 8140111 SUPERVISOR: DR. PHAM HONG ANH THUA THIEN HUE, 2023 ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ --------------- ĐẶNG THỊ DƯƠNG NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC VAI TRÒ ĐỒNG CẤP TRONG HOẠT ĐỘNG NHÓM Ở CÁC LỚP HỌC NÓI TẠI TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 8140111 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS. PHẠM HỒNG ANH THỪA THIÊN HUẾ, 2023 Statement of Original Authorship The work contained in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university before. I certify that, to the best of knowledge and belief, my thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself.
Dang Thi Duong Date: 22 /12/ 2023 i Abstract The present study aims at investigating peers’ roles in group work in Speaking skill classes at a high school in Quang Binh. Grade- 12 students at the high school are the participants in the research. In order to carry out the research, audio- recording, questionnaires and interviews were selected as instruments of collecting data. Research findings showed that most students took on common roles such as collaborator, tutor, mentor, advisor or facilitator in the preparation stage of the speaking task.
The results also showed that there were a few roles such as advisor or facilitator appearing in the stage of giving speaking performance. It was also revealed that most students gave positive feedbacks to their peers’ roles in group and they considered peers’ roles in a speaking class as a very important factor to help them develop their speaking skill. ii Acknowledgements Actually, I have got a lot of support and encouragement from family, friends, lecturers at Hue University Of Foreign Languages And International Studies, and my current working place during the preparation and completion of my thesis. Their wonderful assistance and encouragement were crucial for me to finish the thesis.
Firstly, I would like to sincerely thank to my supervisor, Dr. Pham Hong Anh, for her patient instruction, thorough reading, passionate support, and insightful critiques during the whole process of developing this study. Secondly, my grateful thanks is also expressed to Ms. Nguyen Thi Hai Yen for her assistance in keeping my progress on schedule.
Next, I wish to express my deep thanks to all students at a high school for their enthusiastic participation in my study. Without them, this paper could not have been completed. Finally and always, my heart felt thanks go to my family, my beloved friends and my classmates whose support is indispensable for the fulfillment of my thesis. iii List of Tables Table 3.1: Participants’ Description Table 4.
Peers’ roles in group in the stage of preparation in Speaking skill classes Table 4. Peers’ roles in group in the stage of giving performance in Speaking skill classes Table 4. Students’ feedbacks on their peers’ roles in group work in Speaking skill classes iv Table of Contents Statement of Original Authorship. iiii List of Tables.
ivv Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………. Rationale of the study. Aim of the study. Scope of the study.
Significance of the study. 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definition of role. Peers’ role in classroom contexts.
Definition of EFL speaking skill. EFL speaking classes at high school. Group work in EFL speaking classes. Relevant studies into peers’ roles in group work in EFL classrooms.
Research setting and participants. Instruments for data collection. Design of the questionnaire. Implementation of the questionnaire.
Design of the interview. Implementation of the interview. Data collection procedures. 27 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS & DISCUSSION.
Roles of peers in the stage of preparation of the task. Audio-recording data. Roles of peers in the stage of giving performance of the task. Students’ feedbacks on their peers’ roles in group work.
Roles of peers in the stage of preparation of the task. Roles of peers in the stage of giving performance of the task. Students’ feedbacks on their peers’ roles in group work. 53 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS.
Summary of findings. Roles of peers in the stage of preparation of the task. Roles of peers in the stage of giving performance of the task. Students’ feedbacks on their peers’ roles in group work.
Limitation of the study. Implications for EFL teachers. Implications for EFL students. 92 vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale of the study English is an international language and it is known as a very important tool for people to get success in studying as well as working. Therefore, the urgent need is set for all educational institutions in teaching English effectively. Among four skills of a language, speaking skill is considered the most important and difficult to acquire. However, most students find it hard to open their mouth to speak English though they have studied English for at least 7 years.
This is attributed to a lot of reasons such as studying competence, teaching method, learning programs and etc…. And traditional teaching method, Usman Karim (2015) states that in the past, teachers would explicitly explain grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation to their students while they were seated in class. Teachers gave their students the chance to practice learning new language skills. The teachers assumed the role of the perceiver or authorizer and constantly told the students what they had to accomplish.
The students took in what their teachers conveyed to them while sitting quietly and politely. In other words, the students paid attention and copied whatever their teacher wrote on the board. Textbooks had lesson plans that were rated according to how challenging the grammar constructions were. A discrete point exam was used to evaluate language learning success.
However, the project "Teaching and Learning of Foreign Languages in the National Education System, 2008-2020," launched by MOET (Decision No. 1400/Q -TTg, 2008) has made significant changes to the National English curriculum whose the point of teaching is to focus on students. Student-centeredness teaching method was provided then. Active and imaginative learning exercises help students strengthen their English communication skills.
Teachers plan and instruct the learning process, motivate students to fully participate in language practice activities, and gradually increase their competence for self-directed learning. It can be understood that studying activities should be designed to activate the 1 collaboration of students and teacher-centered method should be substituted for the students- centered. With the new program of the MOET, teaching takes place among students as they collaborate and mentor one another in and out of the classroom in the hope of fostering their students’ ability of using language. It cannot be denied that the new teaching method in which teachers group students to do the task is more and more popular in education nowadays.
During the process of doing work together, students will reveal and promote their own roles in a group. At the age of high school students, peers’ roles are very important in their personal development, especially in learning at school. There is a Vietnamese saying that “better learn from your friend than from your teacher”. It means that though teachers play a vital role in their learning process, roles of friends are also extremely important.
Since peers have such a strong effect on one another, there have been several attempts throughout the years to utilize this influence. As mentioned above, speaking skill is considered a difficult skill to acquire. The new curriculum of English emphasizes developing this productive skill in the hope that most of the students can speak English well after finishing the course. That is the reason why speaking test accounts for 20% of the total mark for the all final assessment tests.
In the context of my school, students are quite interested in learning English; however, most of them find it hard to use English as verbal tool. In their mind, studying English just means to get knowledge to pass all exams. Students also rarely have chances to work together in the primary or secondary schools; hence, on the first days working in group in some speaking classes, most of them hardly express their contribution to the group work. Therefore, the duty of high school English teachers is to create more and more opportunities for them to contribute their attempts to do a language task.
Luckily, students have gradually become familiar with working with their friends in studying language, and most of them naturally express their roles in groups in the aim of finishing the given tasks. 2 In addition, the roles of peers in working together is not only for helping students get better in studying but it also helps them get total development in their personalities and mental life. The influence of peers in studying life is quite considerable, therefore, teachers should add group work activities into their teaching process as much as possibly. In the context of teaching English at high school, I easily recognize that most of the students show their peers’ roles in the speaking classes.
The speaking class requires the contribution and collaboration among students the most, then, they need to work together closely to complete the tasks that teachers gives. For the above reasons, I choose the topic “AN INVESTIGATION INTO PEERS’ ROLES IN GROUP WORK IN SPEAKING SKILL CLASSES AT A HIGH SCHOOL” for my master thesis. Specifically, this study focuses on investigating some main roles of peers revealed in the process of doing group work in speaking classes. I strongly believe that exploring and promoting roles of peers is very important for teachers to teach speaking lesson in groups.
In addition, from the results of the study, I hope that we can make out the roles performed by peers when doing in group, which roles are not revealed in a speaking class and whether students express any new roles that has not been mentioned in the previous studies. Also, I can gain more understanding of peers’ roles in learning groups, which surely help me employ more effective teaching methods in teaching speaking lesson for high school students. Research problem In the context of teaching Speaking skill at high school, students are usually required to work in group to discuss a particular topic. As can be seen that Speaking skill class needs interaction among students, therefore, teachers often choose to ask students to work in group, which helps them improve their cooperation, negotiation skill as well as their speaking skill.
A Speaking skill class is often divided into 6 or 7 students in a group depending on the class 3 size. In a group discussion, each member is responsible for giving their own ideas in the hope of completing their given task. Each member is supposed to play his/ her own role during the process of group discussion. How to make the most out of each role is key for the teacher.
This implies the research problem of this thesis. Various roles are somehow expressed in group discussion and how many roles are involved by students in the stage of preparation as well as in the stage of giving speaking performance. This thesis aims at finding out some outstanding roles that students hold in their discussion.