VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ------ NGUYỄN THỊ THU HUYỀN A STUDY ON THE TEACHER’S ROLES IN GROUP WORK IN COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING AT PHUC THO HIGH SCHOOL,HANOI (Nghiên cứu vai trò của giáo viên trong hoạt động nhóm ở lớp học giao tiếp ở trường THPT Phúc Thọ, Hà Nội ) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi - 2016 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ------ NGUYỄN THỊ THU HUYỀN A STUDY ON THE TEACHER’S ROLES IN GROUP WORK IN COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING AT PHUC THO HIGH SCHOOL, HANOI (Nghiên cứu vai trò của giáo viên trong hoạt động nhóm ở lớp học giao tiếp ở trường THPT Phúc Thọ, Hà Nội ) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Assoc. Nguyễn Xuân Thơm Hanoi - 2016 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com DECLARATION I, Nguyen Thi Thu Huyen, declare that this thesis is my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi and that this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or institution.
Hanoi,2016 Nguyễn Thi Thu ̣ Huyề n i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express special thanks to my supervisor Assoc. Nguyễn Xuân Thơm for revising my thesis, for his valuable advice, kind and helpful attitude and considerable assistance that he provided me throughout the study. I am also greatly indebted to all the lecturers at the Faculty of Post- Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, for their useful lectures which played an important role in the completion of my thesis. Finally, I wish to thank all my friends and colleagues for their support during the process of writing this paper.
ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT One of the techniques of communicative language teaching is group work, which provides a chance for social interaction. Group work is one of the possible solutions of the problem how to get all students to speak in language lessons. The teachers sometimes have a tendency to interrupt students when they are speaking together during group work activity. The students do not feel comfortable with the interventions.
This research was carried out to investigate the roles of teacher and the behaviors of the tenth-grade students to these roles in group work activities in communicative language teaching at Phuc Tho high school, Hanoi. The data for this research was collected through the observation of some communicative classes in grade 10 and in the forms of survey questionnaire for the tenth-grade students at Phuc Tho high schoool. The findings of the research revealed that the teacher plays most roles in all stages of group work, the students like to work with their friends, arranging weak students and strong students into groups is very helpful, most of the students want to practise speaking English in class without the teacher‟s control, the teacher needs to be sensitive when interrupting group work communication and the teacher should always available and only interrupt students‟ work when they ask for support. It is hoped that this thesis will help other teachers of English to make use of their roles appropriately in group work activities, to help students learn best in groups and to take all advantages of the group work under their arrangement.
iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative Language Teaching LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1: Teacher‟s roles during the activity Interview and Report .24 Table 2: Students‟ behavior in the activity Interview and Report .24 Table 3: Teacher‟s roles during the activity Discussion .26 Table 4: Students‟ behavior in the activity Discussion .26 Table 5: Teacher‟s roles during the activity Verb Review game .28 Table 6: Students‟ behavior in the activity Verb Review Game .28 Table 7: Teacher‟s roles during the activity Picnic Planning .30 Table 8: Students‟ behavior in the activity Picnic Planning .31 Table 9: Teacher‟s roles during the activity Name the Place .33 Table 10: Students‟ behavior in the activity Name the Place .33 Table 11: Teacher‟s roles during the activity Movie Review .35 Table 12: Students‟ behavior in the activity Movie Review .35 Table 13: Teacher‟s roles during the stages of group work activities 1-6 .36 Figure 1: The students‟ interest in work arrangement .37 Figure 2: The students‟ preference with the change of the partners .38 Figure 3: The students‟ preference with group formation .39 Figure 4: The students‟ choice of the partners .39 Figure 5: The students‟ preference with the teacher‟s control .40 Figure 6: The students‟ feelings when the teacher corrects all of the mistakes .41 Figure 7: The students‟ choice of the supporter .41 Figure 8: The students‟ preference with speaking English without the teacher‟s control.42 Figure 9: The student‟s interest in the teacher‟s participation .43 Figure 10: Learning by speaking with the partners who make a lot of mistakes.43 iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. iv LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Aims of the study. Significance of the study. Method of the study. Scope of the study.
Design of the study .5 CHAPTER I – LITERATURE REVIEW. Communicative language teaching (CLT). An overview of communicative language teaching (CLT). Definition of communicative activities:.
Types of communicative activities. Definition of group work. Difference between group work and pair work. The organization of group work .10 v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
Procedures for group work. Advantages and disadvantages of group work.Advantages of group work. Disadvantages of group work. The roles of a teacher.
The roles of teacher during group work. Teacher positioning in the classroom .15 CHAPTER II - METHODOLOGY. The setting of the study. The description of participants and methods.
Description of the activities. Activity 1: Interview and Report. Activity 3: Verb Review Game. Activity 4: Picnic Planning.
Activity 5: Name the Place. Activity 6: Movie Review. Observation 1: Interview and Report. Observation 3: Verb Review Game.
Observation 4: Picnic Planning. Observation 5: Name the Place. Observation 6: Movie Review.34 CHAPTER III – FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Findings from observations.
The analyses of the questionnaires for students .45 vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further studies .I vii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale As far as we know, in recent years there have been number of exciting developments in language teaching.
These developments are sometimes referred to as communicative language teaching (CLT). According to Nolasco and Arthur (1988) a greater emphasis on activities in which students have chance to determine what they want to say independently on the teacher is among the most important features of CLT. The problem of getting students to express themselves freely in the foreign language has come to prominence. One of the techniques of communicative language teaching is group work, which provides a chance for social interaction.
Group work is a class management strategy and the role of the teacher has to play while teaching is of a facilitator. Teacher‟s role in group work is very difficult and at the same time it is very important role, too. Groups of some students can be formed to solve a problem or pose a question. The teacher can organize these groups at any time in a class of any size to check on the students‟ understanding of the material, to give students an opportunity to apply what they are learning, or to provide a change of pace.
I have chosen the topic of group work for my thesis since it is one of the possible solutions of the problem how to get all students to speak in language lessons. I often use this way of interaction in my teaching, but I sometimes have a tendency to interrupt students when they are speaking together during group work activity. I have noticed that they do not feel comfortable with my interventions. That is why I decide to observe students‟ behavior to find out how this is changing with various teacher‟s roles.
My main aim is to find out what teachers actually do in various stages of group work and what are students‟ perception and reactions to teacher‟s roles. I will observe my own classroom to examine how many roles the teacher has during one stage of an activity. Aims of the study The purpose of this research is to find out the roles of teacher in group work activities in class and students‟ behaviors to the teacher‟s roles in order to obtain 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com valid information regarding the effective use of group work under teacher‟s management, so as to bring innovation in class. The focus is on group work in English language classes.
The specific purpose of the study was to: - evaluate the different roles of teacher in group work activities. - find out the behaviors of the students towards the teacher‟s roles in some group work activities. Significance of the study The findings of the study would be much beneficial to teachers of English who are considering how to make use of their roles appropriately in group work activities, how to help students learn best in groups and how to take all advantages of the group work under their arrangement. Research questions The study aims to answer the following research questions: (i) What are the roles of teacher in group work in grade 10 at Phuc Tho high school? (ii) What are behaviors of 10th grade students at PhucTho high school toward the teacher‟s roles in implementing group work activities? 5.
Method of the study In order to achieve the purpose of the study, both qualitative and quantitative methods will be used. Class observation will be carried out with the detailed notes about students‟ behaviors about the teacher‟ roles during the process of implementing six group work activities. In addition, a survey questionnaire will be delivered to get result from 120 students who are chosen randomly from the tenth- grade classes at Phuc Tho high school. All comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusion will be carefully considered based on the data analysis.
Scope of the study The study is designed to find out the roles of teacher and the tenth-grade students' behaviors about the roles of teacher in group work in communicative language 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com teaching at PhucTho high school. Within the framework of a minor thesis, the researcher only intends to draw a brief overview of the roles of teacher and the tenth-grade students' behaviors about the roles of teacher in group work at PhucTho high school. Also, due to the time constraints, this study only involves a small number of students in the tenth grade at PhucTho high school. Structure of the study The thesis is composed of three main parts: Part A – Introduction: In this part the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the method, and the design of the study are presented.
Part B – Development: This part is divided in to three chapters. Chapter I: Literature Review This chapter presents the theoretical background for the study. It mentions the concepts of communicative language teaching and group work. It also makes clearly the difference between group work and pair work and lists common forms of group work.
I point out to organizing group work activities in the classroom including ways of grouping students and appropriate positions of teacher.