SKKN: Some solutions to limitations of group work in speaking lessons in English 8

SECTION A. INTRODUCTION I. Rationale of the study. 1.1. Rationale. Today, English has become very important along with the trend of international integration in the field. It is a mean of communication, is the key to the treasures of humanity. On the other hand, the wide application of computer technology has made learning English becomes necessary and indispensable in the education of Vietnam, so learning and teaching English is especially known by students, parents, teachers. Especially in the situation of education today, as well as other subjects, English is taught by the communication method of learnercentered. In this way students have more opportunities to communicate with friends or teachers for language training, they actively participate in reallife situations they not only learn but also practice. Teaching and learning English in secondary schools helps students be able to use English as a mean of communication at a relatively basic level and proficiency in the skills of listening speaking reading writing. This leads to the ability of using English easily and effectively in daily communicating . The fact of new teaching methodology is to promote new teaching positive, creative initiative of students. Students are the subject of active learning, teachers who organize and guide students to receive the knowledge, language training through a variety of communicative activities in the form of individual activities, pairs group works. In the process of teaching, groupwork is some way is dynamic and it can help students present, discuss and express their thought about the information of lessons that they understand, they feel and get feedback from the private glider. The amount of information each student may be right or may be wrong through groupwork. They can give feedback to the instructor. Since then the teacher will catch levels of thinking, and understanding. This process takes place in twoway relationship. In terms of learning theory, this is a dialectical relationship. In addition, Students have chances to discuss, practice skills and habits of thought, expression, and present before a collective problem. Through this their English skills is increasingly enhanced in groupwork Following to the knowledge and skill standard, speaking skill is one of the required teaching skills of foreign language teaching. The teaching is conducted through the organization of learning activities. Students have the cooperation and teamwork to achieve knowledge and kills that the aims of teaching and learning English requires. We are professional and enthusiastic teachers, arent we? Do you often use the groupwork in your lessons? You know the advantages of groupwork, you also know the limitations of this activity? Have you got any solutions to promote the advantages and overcome the limitations of this activity? It is the problem that many secondary school teachers must have been agonizing over, and we are also some of them. 1. 2. Practical background. 16 years of directly teaching English 6, 7, 8, 9 and observating colleagues inside and outside the school, we find that the majority of students perform groupwork ineffectively, not all students enjoy it since they would prefer to be the focus of the teachers attention rather than work with their peers. They are still afraid of speaking English before class, they prefer to discuss in their mother touge. They can do the task repeatively, but they cant do the task on their own language or on their ways. This is because they dont have enough English words, structures to present sentences or dialogue. In speaking lessons, students are often embarrassed to say, most of them only work quite well but some others are shy, they usually avoid their task, a number of naughty children make noise and do other things. This leads to ineffective lessons. Therefore some teachers are afraid to organize groupwork to avoid losing time and the noise for the next class.

Tables of contents Page

1 2 The management of teachers 10

REFERENCES 26

THE TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Title: "Some solutions to limitations of group work in speaking lessons in

Teaching and learning English in secondary schools helps students be able touse English as a mean of communication at a relatively basic level and proficiency

in the skills of listening- speaking- reading- writing This leads to the ability ofusing English easily and effectively in daily communicating

The fact of new teaching methodology is to promote new teaching positive,creative initiative of students Students are the subject of active learning, teacherswho organize and guide students to receive the knowledge, language trainingthrough a variety of communicative activities in the form of individual activities,pairs - group works In the process of teaching, groupwork is some way is dynamicand it can help students present, discuss and express their thought about theinformation of lessons that they understand, they feel and get feedback from theprivate glider The amount of information each student may be right or may bewrong through groupwork They can give feedback to the instructor Since then theteacher will catch levels of thinking, and understanding This process takes place intwo-way relationship In terms of learning theory, this is a dialecticalrelationship In addition, Students have chances to discuss, practice skills andhabits of thought, expression, and present before a collective problem Throughthis their English skills is increasingly enhanced in groupwork

Following to the knowledge and skill standard, speaking skill is one of therequired teaching skills of foreign language teaching The teaching is conductedthrough the organization of learning activities Students have the cooperation andteamwork to achieve knowledge and kills that the aims of teaching and learning

English requires We are professional and enthusiastic teachers, aren't we? Do youoften use the groupwork in your lessons? You know the advantages of groupwork,you also know the limitations of this activity? Have you got any solutions topromote the advantages and overcome the limitations of this activity? It is theproblem that many secondary school teachers must have been agonizing over, and

we are also some of them

1 2 Practical background.

16 years of directly teaching English 6, 7, 8, 9 and observating colleaguesinside and outside the school, we find that the majority of students performgroupwork ineffectively, not all students enjoy it since they would prefer to be thefocus of the teacher's attention rather than work with their peers They are stillafraid of speaking English before class, they prefer to discuss in their mothertouge They can do the task repeatively, but they can't do the task on their ownlanguage or on their ways This is because they don't have enough English words,structures to present sentences or dialogue In speaking lessons, students are oftenembarrassed to say, most of them only work quite well but some others are shy,they usually avoid their task, a number of naughty children make noise and doother things This leads to ineffective lessons Therefore some teachers are afraid toorganize groupwork to avoid losing time and the noise for the next class

With the real situation, It requires each teacher to have the most suitablemethod for students in organizing groupwork in language learning lessons Indeed,the teacher must be people-oriented, He must guide students to achieve the aims,students are active, creative, they must discover ability of shelf- study to completeaims in learning English at school

English speaking lessons are usually monotonous, tedious, and they areespecially easy to go to the old method Teachers often impose knowledge forstudents, so they always acquire knowledge in a passive way Students often havemany difficulties come from many causes We are teachers, so we always try tofigure out the appropriate method, harmony and positive to excite, attract theattention and participation of students through groupwork From the above reasons

we have pulled out some small experience in the teaching process and research

topic " Some solutions to limitations of group work in speaking lessons in English

8 "

II Old awareness and old solution

Most of the teachers who are teaching English in secondary schools areapplying new teaching methods, they think of last effective teaching process isshown through progressive tests, final tests and teachers try to help their studentsunderstand grammar Therefore, during the lessons in class we have spent a lot oftime teaching the grammar deeply, students gain the understanding on the "tenses"

in English, they know how to use the right forms of the verbs Beside that teachers

don't care of organizing group activities in class Teachers think that groupworkwill take lots of time, make noise because students lack of vocabulary, grammarand their bad speaking skill, and it's time for students to talk at once Following tothe old teaching method, teachers often refer to the new lesson at once, notstimulate the thinking ability of students so they are very passive, not to promotethe initiative from the outset Most students

understand quite well now and work effectively, some students are weak or lazy,passive This leads to ineffective lessons

Many children are very excited when they are taught with new language, butit's very difficult for them to apply knowledge in practicing the students feel tiredand they don't like this subject any more because grammar is complex, Englishspeaking skill, English phonetic is difficult We feel the anxiety of the student, and

we also find students' neglect while they are doing group activity, especially in thespeaking lessons in the 8 That is caused by several reasons such as: students arelazy, they do not like the subject, Most students are afraid of speaking,expressing, and do not share their ideas with the partners Strong students are oftenmore active, weaker students do not have the opportunities to participate, so theyare often passive and gradually lose self- confidence this lead to poorcommunicative skills

III New awareness

As we know, groupwork is known simply as a set of two or more individualsworking together in the same work, having interactions with each other andbringing the common characteristic of the following:

+ If everyone is involved in the same activity, then we are "in it together".Such experiences give us points of common reference to talk about and can beused as reasons to bond with each other It is much easy for students to share anemotion such as happiness or amusement in a group setting five people laughing ismore enjoyable than just one, four people holding their breath in anticipation create

a much more engaging atmosphere than just the person sitting next to you.Therefore, groupwork will have the support, increase sociability, with each otherand help each other to complete the task

+ It helps to build character In groupwork, students can express theirweakness or strength Students can communicate directly and have emotionalrelationship They can share their ideas Cooperation of group members is the basis

of forming groupwork

+ It is the class style in many educational settings where students and teachersfeel secure when the whole class is working in lockstep, and under the directauthority of the teacher

As teachers in secondary schools We have found that to have a successfullesson in teaching speaking English is very difficult It requires the efforts and

creativity of both teachers and students Teachers help students discoverthemselves on the basis of self-awareness, freedom of thought and debate to have alot of useful knowledge Students are central subjects, teacher is acting as acontroller and they organize group activities to help students complete their taskand understand the general topic Day by day, they can present language in front oftheir class fluently.

Developing skills in oral communication will help to support other skillsmore completely Teachers should mix skills in harmony, creativity, we do not useany individual skills to promote students' activeness From that, students will beaware of their duties when teachers give them assignment It also helps them getthe emulation and effort Teachers can collect good students and help them tobecome good students of the subject Beside, students can practice communicationskill through groupwork and the weaker children can learn from their groupmate Facing the requirements for the renew of teaching methods How can we

do to improve the quality of teaching and learning English? What ways can weapply to promote students' activies and creation? Therefore, we are constantlylooking for creativity, learning from our colleagues to find out the best teachingmethods

Students have learning the lessons on skills from grade 8 In English 8,There is quite much knowledge that is basic for students to learn in grade 9 Ingrade 8, most students are embarrassed to speak because there is too muchinformation and some information is not familiar to students who live in remoteareas Teachers should design suitable activities Teacher and students must worktogether to build a friendly lesson, give students confidence with hearted- guide ofteacher Teacher must have a good preparation from the first step of lesson planthat organize group activities suitably in order to improve and developcommunicative skills

SECTION B CONTENTS AND PROCEDURE

I Preparation and content knowledge.

1.1 Knowledge:

For each class lesson when organizing group activities, pair, groupeffectiveness; following documents:

- Textbook English 8,

- Basic English grammar,

- Standard knowledge and skills in English secondary schools,

- Made Easy English 8

- Techniques in teaching English as a foreign language I, II (Nghe An juniorTeacher's training college)

- Methodology of foreign language teaching (Nghe An junior Teacher'straining college)

- Celce-Murcia M (2001) Teaching English as a Second or ForeignLanguage (3rd ed) USA: Heinle& Heinle

In addition, We also draw or print pictures, realia, visual aids for the teachingprocess Especially, We design lesson activities clearly, and suitably for students

1 2 Content.

Before going into research this topic, we study the procedure for groupwork;Our role in groupwork doesn't end when we have decided which students shouldwork together, of course We have matters to address too, not only before theactivity starts but also during and after it

Before: When we want students to work together in groupwork we willfollow the " engage- instruct- initiate" sequence

After: When groups stop working together we need to organise feedback Wewant to let them discuss what occurs during the groupwork session and, wherenecessary, add our own assessments and make corrections Where groupwork hasformed part of a practice session, our feedback may take the form of having a fewgroups quickly demonstrate the language they have been using We can thencorrect it, if and when necessary, and this process will give both those students andthe rest of the class good information for future learning and action

Where groups have been working on a task with definite right or wronganswers, we need to ensure that they have completed it successfully Where theyhave been discussing an issue or predicting the content of a reading text, weencourage them to talk about their conclusions with us and the rest of the class Bycomparing different solutions, ideas, and problems, everyone gets a greaterunderstanding of the topic

Finally, it is vital to remember that constructive feedback on the content ofstudent work can greatly enhance students' future motivation The feedback wegive on language mistakes is only one part of that process

* We also study the advantages and disadvantages of groupwork

- Advantages of groupwork:

+ It dramatically increases the amount of talking for individual students

+ Because there are more than two people in the groups, personalrelationships are usually less problematic; There is also a greater chance ofdifferent opinions and varied contributions

+ It encourages broad skills of cooperation and negotiation LynneFlowerdrew (1998) found that it was especially appropriate in Hong Kong whereits use accorded with Confucian principles which her Cantonese- speaking students

were comfortable with Furthermore her students were prepared to evaluate eachother's performance both positively and negatively whereas in a bigger group anatural tendency for self- effacement made this less likely.

+ It promotes learners autonomy by allowing students to make their owndecisions in the group without being told what to do by the teacher

+ It creates opportunities for strong students to help weaker students

+ Many problems can be solved at the same time

However, we can not deny that there are some disadvantages:

+ It is likely to be noisy

+ Some teachers feel that they lose control, and the whole- class feelingwhich has been painstakingly built up may dissipate when the class is split intosmaller entities

+ Not all students enjoy it since they prefer being the focus of the teacher'sattention rather than working with their peers Sometimes students find themselves

in uncongenial groups and wish they could be somewhere else

+ Many lazy students do nothing and have no idea

+ Individuals may fall into group roles that become fossilised, so that someare passive where as others may dominate

to "look "

2 One reason why students are often silent during the lesson is because theclassroom activities are boring or unsuitable These often bring the excitinginterface of us not interesting or nature of communication as we thought and thatall students are required to do just answer 'yes' or' no 'and they can do so fast thenjust sit in silence.Others may talk loudly in their mother tongue According to therules in the classroom, students are not allowed to make noise in the class, or theyfeel afraid of talking in front of other students

3 Time for discussion groups is often little The weaker students, on average

do not have any answers, the strong students have pretty good answers This actionwill create bad habits and inertia for students when they participate in group

4 Teacher does not divide students into groups suitably In the class, somestudents don't work well together and sometimes there are students who don't work

together positively, so when they work in groups, it's difficult to classify students

5 Many teachers often give each question or each task for each group This habitwill create students a bad habit They only pay attention to the question or task oftheir group and almost pay no attention to the opinion, the answer of the othergroups

6 Teacher hardly keeps an eye open to see all the students in the class WhenTeacher gets feedback from her students, she often asks the strong students toanswer or present result because she doesn't want to lose time This will also lead

to bad habits for students such as: having a few opportunities to present,mispronounced words,

7 Teacher does not spend much time correcting the answers of all groups There are no members who are actively trained to become a positive leader for the group

II Solutions:

1 Dividing students into groups and management

When all the students talking to each other it will be very noisy, It is difficultfor teacher to control and manage the class First, we needs two separate views of anoise class and a class with good noise In a class the students talk to each otherand interact in English Although It is very noisy, it is true that we want Maybeyou feel you can not manage it because suddenly the class turns into student-centered rather than teacher-centered This is an important problem to consider

1.1 Dividing students into suitable groups.

The above limitations from some of the reasons that group causesovercrowding, So we should divide students into groups as small as possible Weshould put the two desks face to face, and two students will be in the same groupwith two students sitting the opposite desk So there are groups of four It is idealconditions for an effective discussion From the groups teacher should payattention to the students' levels: Excellent, Good, pretty, average, poor Teachershould ask them to help each other, so they will support each other in the process

of practice (The progressive pair-group friends)

Example 1: English 8 Unit 3 – Speak 2/ Page 29

- Teacher asks students to name the objects in the picture (from inside the box to help them) Make sure that each group has at least one can know some names of the objects in the drawing that do not the same as his/ her friends have just told.

- Teacher asks students to take out some prepositions of location such as: in,

on, above, under, next to, near, between,

- Teacher reminds students some structures of suggestions:

+ Let's + V-inf,

+ Why don't we +V- inf ?

+ What about + V-ing ?

+ I think we should

+ I suggest + V-ing…/ we should……

- Students work in groups of four and arrange the furniture in the living - room

Example:

St1: Let's put the armchair opposite the couch.

ST2: Ok, And I think we ought to put the rug between the armchair and the couch.

St3: Why do not we put the magazines on the shelf above the books

ST4: I think we should hang the picture above the couch

- Teacher encourages students to draw a picture of the living room followingtheir arrangement

Example 2: English 8 Unit 4 – Speak

- Asks students to look at the picture / Page 40 of the textbooks

to retell the use of the structure "used to V-inf" for past habits.

- Ask students to work in groups of four to discuss At least in each group.There are four sentences to be said

Eg: Group 1:

St1: People used to live in small houses Now They live in bigger houses or buildings.

St2: The houses used to be small Now, they are bigger.

St3: children used to stay at home/ didn’t use to go to school Now, They all

go to school.

St4: People used to walk to travel Now, they can go by car or motorbike.

- Teacher can ask a group (each student of group can present a sentence or arepresentative of each group can present four sentences It depends on the time ofthe period)

- Therefore, when students work in small groups, all students take part indiscussing and take responsibility for their group's tasks However, teacher alsoorganizes bigger groups depend on speaking lesson

1 2 The management of teachers.

The movement of teacher around the classroom to observe students canbring effectiveness when they are working in groups We just go to the noise andask naughty students to concentrate on their task If a student really makesloudness disorderly, just change the form of activities that have more control, forexample: Giving a writing exercise that students need to work alone insilence When students are more concentrated, teacher can return to the originalactivity or to give students a chance to practice in an other interactive activity

Example 1: English 8 Unit 8 – Speak/ Page 73 - 74

- Teacher asks students to look at the picture / Page 73 of the textbooks

- Teacher asks students to retell the use of the structure "be getting/becoming…”

- Teacher asks students to work in small groups of four to discuss

If they make noise or act disorderly, teacher can change form of practice Each student is asked to come up and speak at least three sentences

Base on the structure:

S + BE + BECOMING/ GETTING + short adjective- ER

MORE + long adjective

Then all four students in the group can present, or a representative cansummarize the ideas they discussed in advance

- Life is becoming more modern

- The town is becoming busier

- The roads are getting noisier

- The town is becoming more beautiful,…

Teachers can close to the groups for more instructions and help if the groupdoes not understand or has some difficulties by suggesting some questions

2 Designing appropriate activities.

With some speaking lessons are too long and not familiar with students, teacher should redesign the form or content to fit the level of each class Teachersshould also use a number of game-related lessons to help them more comfortableand get knowledge, new skills better

Example: English 8 Unit 7 – Speak / Page 64- 65

Clerk: Next, please!

Mrs Kim: I want to send this parcel to Quy Nhon

Clerk: Do you want to send it Airmail or surface mail?

Mrs Kim: I'm not sure How much is surface mail?

Clerk: I'll have to weigh the parcel first Mmm That'll be five kilograms

32,500 dong

Mrs Kim: Oh! That is expensive.

Clerk: Surface mail is much cheaper It's only 19, 200 dong

Mrs Kim: That's better I'll send it surface.

Clerk: All right

- Teachers redesign the dialogue shorter to fit the students and students arewith requirements of the exercise Teacher asks students to work in pairs topractice after the sample dialogue.

Clerk: Can I help you?

Mrs Kim: I want to send this parcel to Quy Nhon

Clerk: Do you want to send it Airmail or surface mail?

Mrs Kim: How much is surface mail?

Clerk: I'll have to weigh the parcel first That'll be 19,200 dong

Mrs Kim: Ok, I'll send it.

Clerk: All right

- Ask students to make a similar dialogue Use the information in the box

Letter / Kon Tum / surface mail / 20g / 800 line Postcard / Ho Chi Minh City / Airmail / 15g / 1,200 dong Parcel / Ca mau / Airmail / 2 kg / 13,000 dong

Parcel / Buon Ma Thuot / surface / 5 kg / 19,200 dong

3 Time for group activities.

Is time for activities suitable or unsuitable? Time for the speaking activitiessometimes can be decisive for a successful lesson Students' preparation at home isvery important so that teachers should guide her students to prepare the lesson

Example: English 8 Unit 8 – Speak/ Page 73

Plan 1 Teacher asks students to review the comparative of short adjectivesand long adjectives, some vocabulary related to the city and the countryside

Plan 2 Teacher gives some homework about transferring the comparativeform related to the topic: "Countrylife and Citylife"

noisy

………

- Or ask them to make 5 sentences using the structure:

S + be + getting / becoming + comparative of adjectives.

Example: Nam is getting taller

My sister is becoming more beautiful.

- Teacher should tell students how long they can do their task (three minutes,four minutes, … ) This helps them to have the positive preparation and try tocomplete their assigned tasks in time

4 Evaluating students' attitude.

In the age of the children in the class giving them marks has a positive

impact for their learning, so teachers can not be overlooked when assessing theperformance of each team member as well as the group about the accuracy,fluency, and effort in learning progress

Based on the cards of the students when they work in groups in about permonth, Teacher can get a point into point’s book or award points for good andactive students It helps to encourage students and prevent the lazy students it alsohelps teachers to control students of these activitives and have a good motivationfor the following lessons

Students' attitude in group can be sent to the homeroom teacher Therefore,homeroom teacher can timely reminder lazy students, praise hard – workingstudents This way will form good habits to help students gradually form skills andmore excited as assigned

5 The task for each group.

Many teachers often choose a different question for each group todiscuss This will create bad habits for students Students only pay attention to thequestion of their group and almost pay no attention to the other opinion, or othergroups So, teacher should not only give each group a different task or question.Students will have some difficulties when correcting mistakes or giving commentsfor their friends Teachers should share the same questions or a the same tasks for

at least two groups of class