Students perceptions and practices in group work activities in project lessons at a lower secondary school

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN NGÔ HOÀI DIỄM STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES IN GROUP WORK ACTIVITIES IN PROJECT LESSONS AT A LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOL

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN NGÔ HOÀI DIỄM

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES IN GROUP WORK ACTIVITIES IN PROJECT LESSONS AT A LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOL

Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching

Code 8140111

Supervisor: NGUYEN QUANG NGOAN Assoc Prof Dr

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

NGUYỄN NGÔ HOÀI DIỄM

NHẬN THỨC CỦA HỌC SINH VÀ THỰC HÀNH TRONG HOẠT ĐỘNG NHÓM CỦA TIẾT HỌC

i

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that this thesis entitled “Students‟ Perceptions and Practices in

Group Work Activities in Project Lessons at a Lower Secondary School” is

my own work

Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this paper does not contain material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma

Binh Dinh, July 2022

NGUYEN NGO HOAI DIEM

my indebtedness to him

Next, I would like to send my deep thank to all the lecturers, who have laid my background knowledge in the Master‟s program at Quy Nhon University This background helps me to have intensive knowledge in the scientific arena as well as improve my personal skills to conduct research papers

Then, my particular gratitude is sent to all of my students who have participated in my research They were eager to join and fill in the questionnaires together with answering the interview questions

Furthermore, my thanks go to my classmates, who were always willing

to help me and give their best suggestions and encouragement to me during

my course

Last but not least, my words of appreciation are sent to my family members for their endless love and care

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ABSTRACT

This study which entitles “Students‟ Perceptions and Practices in

Group Work Activities in Project Lessons at a Lower Secondary School” was

conducted with the following objectives: (1) to find out lower secondary school students‟ attitudes toward group work activities in Project lesson; and

(2) to examine lower secondary school students‟ practices in group work

activities in Project lessons The study population was all 8th grader students There are 213 8th-grade students including 101 females and 112 males A combination of both quantitative method and qualitative approaches was employed to answer the research questions A questionnaire survey, semi-structured interview, and observation were employed as research instruments for quantitative and qualitative data collection The investigation revealed results that students‟ perception of the advantages of group work activities, such as solving the tasks more effectively, saving quite much time, motivate

in English speaking, and reducing the difficulty in learning English speaking Besides, the study also found students‟ strengths and weaknesses When it comes to difficulties while doing a project, the findings also showed three main categories, including time constraints, members‟ responsibilities, and teamwork conflict It is hoped that the results of this study will partly contribute to the teaching and learning of English at lower secondary schools

in Vietnam, especially in Project lessons

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF TABLE vii

LIST OF FIGURES ix

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1.RATIONALE 1

1.2.AIMANDOBJECTIVES 3

1.3.RESEARCHQUESTIONS 3

1.4.SCOPEOFTHESTUDY 3

1.5.SIGNIFICANCEOFTHESTUDY 3

1.6.ORGANIZATIONOFSTUDY 4

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1.PROJECT-BASEDLEARNING 6

2.1.1 Project-based Learning 6

2.1.2 Definition of Project work 9

2.2.GROUPWORK 13

2.2.1 What is group work? 13

2.2.2 Benefits of group work 14

2.2.3 Challenges of group work activities 15

2.2.4 Organizing group work in classroom 16

v 2.3.THEIMPLEMENTATIONOFPROJECTLESSONSIN

VIETNAMESEEDUCATION 19

2.4.REVIEWOFPREVIOUSSTUDIES 21

2.5.SUMMARY 24

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 25

3.1.RESEARCHMETHODS 25

3.2.PARTICIPANTS 25

3.2.1 Teacher 25

3.2.2 Students 25

3.3.RESEARCHINSTRUMENTSANDPROCEDURE 27

3.3.1 Research Instruments 27

3.3.2 Data-gathering Procedures 31

3.4.DATAANALYSIS 32

3.5.SUMMARY 33

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 34

4.1.STUDENTS‟PERCEPTIONOFANDATTITUDETOWARDS GROUPWORKACTIVITIES 34

4.1.1 Students‟ perception towards the benefits of group work 34

4.1.2 Students‟ perception of and attitude towards project work implementation in Project lessons 36

4.1.3 Students‟ improvement after group work activities in Project lessons 44

4.2.STUDENTS‟PRACTICESINGROUPWORKACTIVITIESIN PROJECTLESSONS 44

4.2.1 Students‟ difficulties while doing a Project 45

4.2.2 Students‟ interest in information technology skills 47

4.3.DISCUSSION 48

vi

4.4.SUMMARY 49

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 50

5.1.INTRODUCTION 50

5.2.SUMMARYOFFINDINGS 50

5.3.LIMITATIONS 51

5.4.IMPLICATIONSANDSUGGESTIONSFORFURTHERRESEARCH 52

REFERENCES 54 APPENDIX

viii

LIST OF TABLE

Table 3.2 Summary of demographic information of the participants 26

skill 39 Figure 4.4 Students‟ attitude towards their responsibility in PW 40 Figure 4.5 Students‟ motivation in Project lessons with PW 42 Figure 4.6 Students‟ attitude towards the obtainment of knowledge in

Project lessons with PW 43 Figure 4.7 Students‟ difficulties to make their projects 46

1

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 RATIONALE

Today with the trend of globalization, the need to use language in

general and English, in particular, is becoming increasingly important in our

lives A comprehensive change in all levels, disciplines, materials, facilities, methods, and motivational attitudes of all participants is necessary for the process of teaching and learning English Being aware of the importance of foreign languages, the Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam signed Decision 1400/QĐTTg to promulgate the National Foreign Language

2020 Project on the 30th of September, 2008 The goal of the 2020 Project is

“to renovate thoroughly the tasks of teaching and learning foreign languages

in the national education system”, and by 2020 most Vietnamese young

people will be able “to use a foreign language confidently in their daily

communication, their study and work in an integrated, multicultural and multilingual environment, making foreign languages a competitive advantage

of the Vietnamese people to serve the cause of industrialization and modernization of the country” To gain the goal, the Ministry of Education

and Training has introduced one of the most prominent measures which is the replacement of English textbooks with new teaching methods One of the outstanding methods appreciated by the writers and professors is Project-based learning

The pilot English textbook series for Vietnamese schools under the National Foreign Language 2020 Project was published in 2012 by Vietnamese textbook writers and those of MacMillan Education and Pearson

2 Education – two leading international second/foreign language textbook publishers One of the most prominent differences between the pilot English

textbooks and the previous program is that Project lessons are distributed at

the end of each unit based on Project-based learning method This is a student-centered teaching method that encourages learners to explore and realize knowledge they have learnt in the process of doing their own project and/ or creating their own products and promotes activeness and self–discipline in their learning

With the aim to develop the thinking and creative abilities of students as well as do outstanding projects and/ or products, group work or collaborative activities are increasingly receiving attention in lessons However, I find many teachers have focused on group work in skills lessons, especially in Speaking and Writing skills lessons, while only a few let lower secondary school students

work in a group in Project lessons On the other hand, most lower secondary school students usually present their own products in Project lessons through

posters or PowerPoint One of the reasons, in my opinion, is that teachers do not organize or design new group activities to motivate the students‟ participation in

Project lessons, such as mini shows, photo exhibitions, making videos, etc If

teachers organize these activities, lower secondary school students will have more opportunities to improve and develop four macro skills, teamwork skills, and some abilities Hence, this study attempts to explore the lower secondary school students‟ attitudes and examine their performances in group work and collaborative activities as well as suggest some group activities to attract lower

secondary school students‟ attention in Project lessons at a Secondary School

This is the reason I chose the topic “Students’ Perceptions and Practices in Group Work Activities in Project Lessons at a Lower Secondary School” for

my MA thesis

3

1.2 AIM AND OBJECTIVES

The study is aimed to study lower secondary school students‟

perceptions and practices in group work activities in Project lessons at a

Lower Secondary School

More specifically, this research has two objectives:

- To find out lower secondary school students‟ perceptions on

group work activities in Project lessons

- To examine lower secondary school students‟ practices in group

work activities in Project lessons

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The research questions investigated in this thesis are the following:

1 What are lower secondary school students‟ attitudes on group work

activities in Project lessons?

2 How do lower secondary school students perform in group work activities

in Project lessons?

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

- The study mainly uses Harmer„s theory (2011) about group work in education to examine students‟ participation in group work activities

- To achieve consistency and reliability, all the students in grade 8 at Hoai Duc Lower Secondary School who participate in group work activities

in Project lessons are chosen for the study

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The initial purpose of the study is to bring up a significant contribution

to Hoai Duc Lower Secondary School because group work has been

4 considered to be very useful for English language teaching and learning Nevertheless, in the context of Hoai Duc Lower Secondary School, there needs to be a study on group work implementation in Project lessons from different perspective of students in grade 8

The analysis of group work activities in Project lessons can benefit both teachers and students in English teaching and learning Especially, students will be motivated through a number of group work activities During the group work process, students can develop team spirit, responsibility as well as learning awareness Furthermore, students can be more confident in oral communication and students can have more chances to show their creativity and thinking When teachers pay attention to the process of group work, they also need to plan carefully for Project lessons as well as they will assist their students if students have trouble

The current study also helps school leaders and educators have a deep understanding of how teachers and students appreciate PBL in their teaching and learning, thus teachers and students can be supported in their PBL implementation The findings of the study can also contribute to the improvement of the current piloted English program

1.6 ORGANIZATION OF STUDY

This study is organized into 5 chapters, including the present introductory section and a conclusive chapter The Introduction presents the main aim and objectives and the questions addressed in the study as well as provides background information on the topic analyzed

In Chapter 2, the study is put within its theoretical framework by presenting the major theories that support it, which are drawn from linguistics and media studies The chapter begins with an introduction of group work and

5 the aspect of this theory that is employed in group work activities in the

Project lessons

Chapter 3 discusses the methods employed in the selection and analysis

of the data

Chapter 4 discusses the results from the analysis as well as the findings

of the research questions Moreover, discussions of the findings are also included in this chapter

Chapter 5 closes the study with a conclusion about its limitations and a few recommendations for further study

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CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The chapter presents the theoretical background on which this study is based Furthermore, it provides a review of previous studies related to the present study

2.1 PROJECT-BASED LEARNING

2.1.1 Project-based Learning

Project–based learning method has been originated since the early 1900s This method is becoming increasingly common in teaching and learning language and attracts students to the learning process (according to Ellison and Freedberg, 2015) Nonetheless, there is not a specific definition of project-based learning Thus, many researchers studied project-based learning with a certain amount of different definitions

Originally, Dewey (1938) stated that project-based learning (PBL) is a teaching and learning model developed based on the concept that learning comes with practice In other words, his main concern is the relationship between the learning process and real life when he carried out this method Mergendoller (2006) argued that, on the other hand, PBL is considered a student–centered teaching method With the traditional teaching method, teacher is the center, he or she has to strictly follow the teaching plan and guide students step by step; meanwhile, in the PBL method teachers play as coachers or assisters, and students will discuss, plan and do their own projects

as well as solve the problems In other words, teachers only assist if the students‟ problems are too much hard to tackle PBL allows learners to

7 discover themselves since learners not only are offered resource and guidance but they also have to be responsible to find out the best way to learn the material based on given information Thus, PBL has a complicated working procedure and requires more time for operation It is flexible because of interaction and cooperation among learners, between learners and teachers and students implement their own projects This is a reason why students feel proud of themselves Learners‟ motivation will be increased in presenting better projects in the next decades (Jung, Jun, & Gruenwald, 2001)

Differing from the other researchers, Thomas (2010) defined PBL through the following essential features:

- Students gain knowledge to solve realistic problems they can face in the real life

- Students can be increased control over their learning

- Students have more chances to work in pairs or groups

It has in fact been said that each of many researchers has their own definition of PBL but some identical features are summarized by the Buck Institute for Education on www.bie.org (BIE, 2015), which involves three groups: (1) Student Learning Goals; (2) Essential Project Design Elements; and (3) Project Based Teaching Practice All of the features of PBL theory are mentioned by some previous scholars In conclusion, a number of vital features of PBL contain Challenging Problems or Questions; Sustained Inquiry; Authenticity; Student Voice and Choice; Reflection; Critique and Revision; and Public Product Seven essential project design elements of PBL are illustrated in the following diagram

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Diagram 2.1 Gold Standards PBL

(Adapted from Gold Standard PBL: Essential Project Design Elements, cited in www.pblworks.org)

To help readers get a greater understanding, the elements illustrated in diagram 2.1 are explained as follows:

- A Challenging Problem or Question: The project is framed by a meaningful problem to be solved or a question to answer, at the appropriate level of challenge

- Sustained Inquiry: Students engage in a rigorous, extended process of posing questions, finding resources, and applying information

- Authenticity: The project involves real-world context, tasks, and tools, quality standards, or impact, or the project speaks to personal concerns, interests, and issues in the students‟ lives

- Student Voice & Choice: Students make some decisions about the project, including how they work and what they create, and express their own

9 ideas in their own voice

- Reflection: Students and teachers reflect on the learning, the effectiveness of their inquiry and project activities, the quality of student work, obstacles that arise, and strategies for overcoming them

- Critique & Revision: Students give, receive, and apply feedback to improve their process and products

- Public Product: Students make their project work public by sharing it with and explaining or presenting it to people beyond the classroom

PBL is a teaching method in which learners study by actively engaging

in real-world and personally meaningful projects whilst teachers facilitate and guide their learners However, the author also thinks that teachers play a role

in supervising the step-by-step process in order to assist, or even need to control as soon as their students go in the wrong direction Besides a new method, PBL is considered as a basis of the curriculum because many questions are related to science-based or current social matters Thus, PBL helps learners clearly know a topic, deeply learn and develop their motivation What is more, the outcome of PBL is useful and applicable and it is also a part to build habits as well as necessary living skills

2.1.2 Definition of Project work

Project–based learning (PBL) has been investigated in a variety of studies on a global scale over thousands of years; however, education in Vietnam is still not an applied approach to teaching English as a foreign language Moss and Van Duzer (1998) revealed that project–based learning

is like “an instructional approach that contextualizes learning by presenting learners with problems to solve or products to develop” J W Thomas (2000) also mentioned PBL as a learning model organized around

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“projects” with complex tasks, challenging questions and problems, design activities, and/ or problem–solving PBL is a dynamic method, thus it focuses on the students and teachers acting mainly as an instructor, facilitator, and motivator Hence, in recent years, a great number of schools

in Vietnam have introduced this PBL method into teaching English through the pilot English textbooks One of the most prominent differences between

the pilot English textbooks and the previous program is that Project lessons

are distributed at the end of each unit

Project, according to G Beckett, is generally a “long-term” activity that

is a part of the instructional approach to promote acquisition of language,

content, and skills Nevertheless, within 45 minutes a product in a Project lesson is considered a “small project” At the end of each unit, the Project

lessons give students opportunities to use the language learned throughout before seven lessons, or “help students to use real language in real contexts”

As mentioned above, the Project lessons are distributed at the end of

each unit, thus the content of the project lessons is related to the topic or the theme of the unit Students will review their language knowledge as well as develop four skills and some soft skills, such as teamwork skills, presentation, and information research skills To be the best project, each student or each group will research and gather a wealth of information related to the topic of the project lesson from a variety of sources (books, newspapers, the Internet, etc.) Students need to prepare a plan, materials, and items so that the

“project” is the most creative and attractive Students might present their own project through posters, PowerPoint, play, talk show, a simulated product, or a photo exhibition …After a presentation, students should be fostered to give

messages about the topic of the project lessons

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2.1.3 The characteristics of Project-based Learning

As mentioned above, PBL is the student-centered method, thus a successful PBL involves the focus on a real-world subject, the requirements

of student collaboration, and at the same time, the focus on student autonomy and independence In other words, PBL is characterized as authenticity – problems should present as they do in the real world and permit free inquiry

by learners, problem-solving skill development, student-centered, directed learning skill development, integrated knowledge, small group collaborative learning, reiterative, reflective, self-and peer assessment, skilled tutors, foundational

self-Student-centered

As a student-driven approach, PBL is stressed by Doyle (2008) to be an

“environment that allows learners to take some real control over their educational experience and encourages them to make important choices about what and how they will learn” Furthermore, importance proved by Rogers (1983, p 188) is the demand for “a leader or person who is perceived as an authority figure in the situation, is sufficiently secure within herself or himself and in her or his relationship to others that she or he experiences an essential trust in the capacity of others to think for themselves, to learn for themselves” In order to make sure perform a successful project, students will apply their unique knowledge and skills to discuss, plan and implement the project and solve the problems In brief, in the PBL method students play the role of both learners and instructors, students not only control the process of teaching and learning but also carry out the project; these characteristics are different from those in the traditional teaching method

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Authenticity

Another characteristic of PBL is authenticity The topic of the projects

is closely related to the real world According to Howard S Barrows (2011), problem-based learning should be in the context of the environment in which the students could encounter in future jobs The topics of the projects presented should be issues that the students usually encounter in their learning and work Students have the behaviors and skills that should be highly valued

in their future careers Nevertheless, a framework suggested by Beckett & Slater (2005) involved three major parts of language, content, and skills so as

to avoid a lack of connecting projects with the real world in a PBL environment To give the best project, Turek (2002) implemented the project with four steps: (1) choosing a topic, (2) planning, (3) solving the topic and, (4) presenting results to make the PBL classroom become more effective

Problem-solving skill development

With problems that occur as they do in work and designed to permit free inquiry, the students should practice and develop effective and efficient problem-solving skills However, in complicated cases, students can not be able to disentangle, teachers have to support students by giving suggestions and pieces of advice based on the strategies they are performing (according to Howard S Barrows, 2011)

Skilled tutors

Students will be trained as tutors with skills in “facilitating learners as they problem-solve, identify what they need to learn, carry out self-directed learning, apply what they have learned back to the problem, work as a team, and carry out peer and self-assessment as required” (Howard S Barrows, 2011) Tutors are the backbone of any project-based learning curriculum and create a new teaching skill with many challenges

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2.2 GROUP WORK

2.2.1 What is group work?

Traditionally, language teaching focuses on the explanation of grammatical aspects, repeating and memorizing words, phrases, and sentences, asking students to read or listen and then translating line by line Thus, students tend to be passive and lack of chance to practice the use of language in the classroom Nevertheless, traditional language teaching has been replaced by a new and superior method that is group work

Brown (2001: 177) defined group work as a basic term covering multiple techniques in which a small group of students work collaboratively to complete an assigned task Meanwhile, Richards, et al (1985: 127) found that group work is a learning activity in which a few students are required to work together on a single task or different parts of a task and learn from each other

According to Ettington and Camp (2002: 357), group work is defined as “a graded assignment requiring students to work collaboratively across multiple class periods and involving some time outside the normal class meeting”

It is important to consider the purpose of group work; according to Gillies (2003a, b), Johnson and Johnson (2004), and Banes et al (2007), group work might function as the objective, the means, or both If group work is to function as an objective, students can develop their group work abilities, such

as interpersonal communication skills, good time management skills, and social training skills If, meanwhile, group work is served as a means of academic knowledge acquisition, the group is an important role to acquire knowledge and stimulates learning Naturally, it is said that group work is a learning environment since students not only work together but also learn from each other In other work, group work involves both an objective and

14 means because of an incentive for learning, knowledge acquisition, and working in a group within an educational setting

2.2.2 Benefits of group work

A study was carried out by Gillies and Boyle (2011) to find out that the benefits of group work are consistent and they do not depend on age (from pre-school to college) and/ or curriculum There are a lot of reasons why teachers or educators chose the group work method in the teaching and learning process One of the superior benefits is that students might learn to inquire, share ideas, clarify differences, construct new understandings, and solves problems by leading to the development of new approaches Another reason, according to Cumming (2010), Mafela, Molosiwa and Mmolai (2013),

is to develop cooperative learning, peer collaboration, team spirit, and interpersonal communication skills through interaction with other students from different backgrounds

Smith and Bath (2006) further mentioned that students participating in group activities develop interpersonal communication and critical thinking skills The same results were established by Hassanien (2011) and Jones (2011), students consider group work as a significant teaching method through their attitudes and experiences Students have many opportunities to discuss problems and encounter different viewpoints from other students as well as evaluate others‟ views, thus their critical thinking and creative abilities are encouraged to develop Moreover, students also give attention to improving performance and interacting and know each other and socializing

As mentioned above, the last result of group activity is to produce a joint outcome Hence, the responsibility of each individual member is very necessary and important Thus, students might develop positive traits, such as

15

“accountability in instances where each member is allocated roles and responsibilities” and develop time management skills via set time parameters Gillies (2003a, b) also stressed that students working as a group are much more motivated to achieve than they would be when working individually without interaction

2.2.3 Challenges of group work activities

Group work activities are appreciated by many researchers, educators, and/ or teachers with students; nevertheless, they also face some challenges during participating in group work The most superior challenge is “free–riding” Aggarwal and O‟Brien (2008) revealed that free–riding or social loafing is to abscond the assigned work and let other members in the group work individually In other words, free–riding, according to Hall and Buzwell (2012), causes an imbalance in assigned parts of a common task, contribution, marks or assessments, and commendation from teachers One good example

is that one or only a few students, especially good students, being overworked more than others causes a “major setback” to the success of group work Thus, students “overwhelmingly dislike group assignments” (Hall and Buzwel, 2012; Boud, 2001) The same viewpoints as Hall and Buzwell (2012), Freeman and McKenzie (2002) found that a lot of students oppose group work activities and view them as unfair, especially, when all members

in the group are given equal marks for unequal contributions

Another challenge of group work is the absence from meetings or discussions (Hassanien, 2011; Jones, 2011) There are some reasons why students are absent to discuss, such as a few students spend much time attending other courses without free time for group meetings; there may also

be no consensus in terms of meeting times and place or even inconvenient

16 spaces Besides the absent students, others might not harmonize certain answers or ideas, thus much time is spent arguing and defending their own viewpoints without consensus In the end, only a small part of the assignment

is solved Hence, Hassanien (2011) stressed that students do not appreciate group work activities and they also think that group work is not inefficient

2.2.4 Organizing group work in classroom

As it also emerged in a study by Harmer (2001), students need to solve some matters, organizing group work activities occurs in three stages: Before, During, and After

2.2.4.1 Before

According to Harmer (2001), teachers play a vital role in guiding their students at the beginning of group work Teachers should use short sentences and easily understandable words to instruct in a word Scrivener (1994) further mentioned that teachers must not give their students “the other chit-chat, telling off, joking, etc.” Because this makes students ambiguous and hard to understand, and then students could not work in groups according to the requirements set by teachers It makes sure that students feel enthusiastic and comprehensible about what they are going to do as well as how they effectively work in groups without wasting too much time An issue, however, is concerned that some students are not good to comprehend the instructions in English Hence, in these cases or other complicated requirements teachers can give instructions in their mother tongue but teachers should not use too much mother tongue due to help students communicate in English naturally (Ur, 1991; Byrne, 1991)

At the beginning of group work for a project, teachers have to guide their students on what to do and how to work effectively in groups Teachers

17 introduce the theme of the project so that students can find out the necessary information to collect a certain amount of knowledge for the project Teachers also give the language forms functions if their students have a bit of difficulty, and students might choose the suitable patterns to express their ideas and emotions (according to Nunan, 1999) Sometimes, for a complicated project, teachers can give a project sample that helps to give students a clear framework to work on

As far as the size of group work is concerned, teachers should divide their class into groups of three, four, five, or more five based on the class size and the project In the case of a big and complicated project, it requires several tasks teachers can get students to work in large groups: find out information, discuss, plan for the project, perform, etc.; whereas, students could work in small groups if a simple project with some tasks

2.2.4.2 During

The second stage is that students participate in group work activities Students are fostered to participate actively and confidently in a variety of different activities as much as possible Students participate in discussions, giving their opinions, planning the project, or even solving some problems they could face A leader needs to assign each of all the group members: what

is the task, who do it, when is the deadline, etc This makes the task of each member equal to avoid the case that who works more or who works less at the same time each of them has to be responsible for the assigned task After that, all group members have a meeting to discuss, comment, and come to a final conclusion In order to make sure that they have to follow what teachers require as well as students practice and work effectively in groups while the leader should be skillful in the role of a monitor Teachers only assist their students if they face some complex problems

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A study carried out by Wateyn-Jones (2002) found that students can become more independent and active unless teachers intervene in group talk Teachers play a role as observers Teachers can stand anywhere in the classroom (stand at the front or the back) to keep an eye on how students work in groups, and who needs support On the other hand, teachers can also

go around the class, listen to group discussions and give some comments to help them do the tasks along and to collect data for giving feedback later This

is also a period of time teachers can intervene Teachers should give feedback based on what students are doing rather than suggesting a new strategy since this makes students not be confident and active A matter that usually occurs

in group work is using the mother tongue to communicate It is the fact as well that many students feel hard to express their ideas in English, most of them use mother tongue in discussion Accordingly, teachers should stay in

“communicative mode” to assist their students by giving short sentences, and familiar utterances

2.2.4.3 After

In this stage, students perform their group‟s results in front of the class while the teacher and other groups listen, observe comment, and give feedback The teacher also assesses based on the criteria that teachers set at the beginning of group work Gower et all (1995, p 103), moreover, proposed the criteria to assess students‟ performance, such as how fluent students communicate in English, how effectively students discussed in groups, how well students cooperate with each other, how well students solve some problems, how attractively students perform in front of the class

In terms of mistake correction, the same results established by Harmer (2001) and Gower et all (1995) is that teachers should focus on common ones or

19 mistakes that make students misunderstand Teachers can correct the whole class without any individual For example, when performing many students pronoun incorrectly the same word, teachers have to pronoun the word again and ask the whole class to repeat it many times What is more, teachers should give students with individual notes and instructions if possible Teachers should comment and correct gently to avoid giving students a complex with others

2.3 THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PROJECT LESSONS IN VIETNAMESE EDUCATION

Project–based learning has been investigated in a variety of studies on a global scale over thousands of years; however, education in Vietnam has still not applied this approach to teaching English as a foreign language Moss and Van Duzer (1998) revealed that project–based learning is like “an instructional approach that contextualizes learning by presenting learners with problems to solve or products to develop” J W Thomas (2000) also mentioned PBL as a learning model organized around “projects” with complex tasks, challenging questions and problems, design activities, and/ or problem–solving PBL is a dynamic method, thus it focuses on the students and teachers act mainly as an instructor, facilitator and motivator Hence, in recent years, a great number of schools in Vietnam have introduced this PBL method into teaching English through the pilot English textbooks One of the most prominent differences

between the pilot English textbooks and the previous program is that Project

lessons are distributed at the end of each unit

In the Vietnamese context in general and in the Vietnamese educational context in particular, most researchers have been carried out in higher education A study conducted by Nguyen (2009) found the implementation of the PBL method in university classes in Viet Nam In his study, participants

20 consisted of 11 university teachers as well as 182 students from 11 classes at two universities in the South of Vietnam The results showed that both Vietnamese teachers and students highly appreciate the PBL teaching and learning method and he defined that the implementation of PBL has significantly contributed to education in Vietnam since the 21st century

A similar research was carried out on the development of students‟ language skills with a named “Faculty Voice” by Hoang (2012) His study will be conducted at a University with the participation of second-ear students who worked as editors to produce news All of the activities in the study conducted involved four macro-skills Besides, to assess the students‟ projects, researchers designed specific criteria and rubrics The results showed that students‟ language competence and attitude are developed and their autonomy and soft skills are improved Similarly, Ngo (2014) replaced the PBL method on the traditional teaching method PBL helps students acknowledge the elements of the requirements of the core curriculum as well

as find out and implement what they could comprehend and acquire from real-life experience

Another study investigated by Bui (2017) to show the efficacy of PBL integration in the curriculum at the School of Foreign Languages at Thai Nguyen University The study has conducted with a combination of the pre-experimental design and case study design The result of her study presented that both teachers and students admitted a lot of benefits that PBL brought students chances to “improve not only language skills but also other necessary competences”

As mentioned above, the Project lessons are distributed at the end of

each unit, thus the content of the project lessons is related to the topic or the

21 theme of the unit Students will review their language knowledge as well as develop four skills and some soft skills, such as teamwork skills, presentation, and information research skills To be the best project, each student or each group will research and gather a wealth of information related to the topic of the project lesson from a variety of sources (books, newspapers, the Internet, etc.) Students need to prepare a plan, materials, and items so that the

“project” is the most creative and attractive Students might present their own project through posters, videos, PowerPoint, presentation, mini-show or game-show, or a photo exhibition … After a presentation, students should be

fostered to give messages about the topic of the project lessons

To sum up, the PBL method is not a new term in Vietnamese education It has been utilized in the context of many universities in Viet Nam Nevertheless, the PBL method does not happen in many high schools although this PBL method is going to adapt to the official curriculum in recent years

2.4 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES

Group work is considered very effective in language teaching and learning, thus many studies on group work have been conducted around the world, including in Vietnam These studies have mainly investigated the implementation, the benefits and the challenges of group work activities in the classroom as well as some factors that affected the process of these activities

On the other hand, the PBL method becoming increasingly widespread in foreign language teaching and learning Many researchers have principally found the definition of PBL, the characteristics of PBL, and the implementation of the PBL method in education

The advantages of pair work and group work and students‟

22 improvement in speaking performance were demonstrated in experimental research done by Syamsuddin in 2000 The author focused on exploring whether pair work and group work contribute to improving students‟ speaking performance Regarding that reality, when learning English, most of students are good at vocabulary and grammar, but very few are fluent in producing the language Thus, Syamsuddin carried out the study in Senior High School two Maros There were 60 first-year students, involving 30 students of the control group and 30 students of the experimental group The data were collected from the pre-test, the post-test, and questionnaire The author recognized that pair work and group work developed students‟ speaking performance as well

as students were more and more motivated and confident to communicate in speaking English

Hamzah and Lu (2009) conducted a study on the benefits of group work for students and English teachers of SSMMK Damai Jaya in Malaysia The data collected from questionnaires, observations and interviews demonstrated that group work is effective in language teaching and learning

so as to enhance student-student interaction, to increase students‟ enthusiasm and motivation Thus, students are relaxed to do the tasks, communicate, work in groups as well as express themselves The findings of the study emphasized the benefits of group work on development of student‟s ability and oral performance However, the authors also pointed to some challenges

of group work, such as potential problems, lack of using English in real life or outside the classroom, the habit of teaching English leaning toward vocabulary, reading, and grammar without conducting several speaking activities to improve oral communication in the classroom To sum up, the authors came to the following conclusion that speaking activities have to be conducted to enhance students‟ ability and students‟ efforts Furthermore, the

23 authors also highly appreciated students‟ contribution to group work to increase their interaction, their enthusiasm, and their motivation On the other hand, the authors suggested English teachers need to prepare carefully all their lessons and build multiform speaking activities to avoid making the class atmosphere less boring This would make students recognize the importance and benefits of group work in lessons

In another way, Byrnes and Byrnes wrote an article published in

Special Report named Effective Group Work Strategies for the College Classroom referring to the problems with learners who do not like group

work They suggested placing lone students in the same group The article expressed that these students were challenged to work hard negotiating, trusting, and sharing with others in a group However, all the students were equal to get chances and develop their abilities as well since working in groups helps students reduce the interference of lone students in other groups This article gave the researcher the idea that the problems could be solved in the same way

In Vietnam, the author found some studies on group work in English language teaching and learning

Dang (2011) also supported the benefits of using group work in teaching speaking and he gave some factors reducing students‟ participation

in group work activities in English speaking lessons Although group work has been used in lessons in Vietnamese high schools in the last few years, it has not really attracted more students to participate in group work activities The author conducted the study at Than Ha High School in Hai Duong, participants were 200 grade 10 students and 4 teachers Questionnaires and interviews were used to get the data Analyzing the data, the author found that

24 most of students were not interested in the activities in the textbook, thus they were not enthusiastic to take part in group work activities As a result, subjective and objective factors were found, including the lack of vocabulary and ideas, the overuse of mother tongue, noise, the teacher‟s control, time restraint, and many other factors On the other hand, the findings of the study expressed that the most choice were discussions, brainstorming, games, and problem-solving when students were asked about their favorite group work activities Except for games, the rest of these activities are available and common in the textbook, but they seemed to be not attractive enough to get students‟ participation Therefore, teachers need to design multiform group work activities in order to attract students‟ interest and attention This is also what the researcher cared about in her study

2.5 SUMMARY

This chapter has introduced different aspects of PBL theory as well as group work to conduct in Project lessons It presents the theoretical background of PBL and its characteristics of PBL Besides, it provides information about group work, including the definition of group work, benefits and challenges of group work activities as well as organizing group work in the classroom Moreover, the implementation of project lessons in Vietnamese education also is presented Finally, some previous studies related

to the study were taken into account to prove that group work was a concern

of many researchers and they have still found a better improvement for group work

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CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the research methods, participants, instruments and data-gathering procedure, and techniques of data analysis

3.1 RESEARCH METHODS

In this study, a combination of both quantitative method and qualitative approach was employed to answer the research questions The quantitative method was used in order to find out lower secondary school students‟

attitudes towards group work activities in Project lessons; meanwhile the

qualitative data was taken on to examine lower secondary school students‟

performances in group work activities in Project lessons

3.2 PARTICIPANTS

This study involved all the students in grade 8 at Hoai Duc Secondary School in Hoai Nhon Town The teachers let students work in groups and present their products

3.2.1 Teacher

The teachers are responsible for instructing Project lessons to all the

students in grade 8 at Hoai Duc Secondary School They are from 35 – 42 years old They have experience in teaching English for many years The teachers guided and let their students work in groups and present their

products in the Project lessons

3.2.2 Students

This study was conducted at Hoai Duc Secondary School in Hoai Nhon

26 Town, Binh Dinh Province The students are from grade 6 to grade 9 According to the official curriculum of the Ministry of Education and Training for the pilot English textbook under the National Foreign Language 2020 Project, all lower secondary school students are required to participate in

candidates for inclusion in the study Their age is 13 years old There are at least 35 students in every class, thus the students were almost at the same or proximate level of English proficiency in each class According to Nofaie (2010), “lower achieving learners tended to use L1 more excessively than high achieving learners”, thus the grade was chosen because, compared to the 6thgrader and the 7th grader, their levels are better at Hoai Duc Secondary School Moreover, as the 8th-grade students were taught by only two teachers, the factor

of teachers‟ differences in instructions could be excluded from the research

* Students‟ background information:

Table 3.2 Summary of demographic information of the participants

Information Students Percentage

How much time do

you spend on learning

English speaking skills

27 The table 3.2 shows information on the demographic data of the participants in the study There are 213 8th-grade students including 101 females (47.4%) and 112 males (52.6%) Their ages are 13 It is clearly seen that there was no large space for students‟ age Owing to these reasons, gender and age did not affect in the analysis of the data relating to the research questions However, the table also reveals that all of them spend too less time practicing English speaking skills This demonstrates that most of the students are not interested in English as well as their English speaking skill is not high It is one of the reasons why students hard share their viewpoints or communicate in group work

3.3 RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS AND PROCEDURE

To enhance the validity and reliability of the findings, it is advisable that the researcher should “collect multiple types of data, minimally three, to increase confidence in the findings” (Hinchey, 2008: 76) Therefore, the qualitative and quantitative data in this research were collected by using a questionnaire survey, and a semi–structured interview, and observation Data from the class questionnaires and observation were used to figure out the answers for the two research questions; meanwhile, the goal of the semi-structured individual interviews is to collect information reported by the participants on students‟

attitudes towards group work activities in Project lessons

3.3.1 Research Instruments

Questionnaire survey

According to Brown (2001), questionnaire is defined as “a predefined series of questions used to collect information from individuals” or “any written instruments that present respondents with a series of questions or statements to which they are to react either by writing out their answers or

28 selecting them among existing answers” (p 6) Furthermore, it is obvious to

be one of the main instruments of data collection in second language research and effective “for gathering respondents‟ views, opinions, and attitudes about various language-related issues” (Brown, 2001: 40-41) Mackey & Grass (2005) defined that questionnaires allow researchers to collect information that learners are able to report about themselves, such as their beliefs and motivations about learning or their reactions to learning and classroom instruction and activities

We do not deny the advantages of the questionnaire in doing research; however, the researchers have to make a great effort to achieve reliability, validity, and clarity for the study According to Oppenheim (1992), reliability refers to the pure and consistent questionnaires, aiming to get the same results

if they are duplicated whilst validity means all the questions measure what they are supposed to measure Berdie (1986) further mentioned reliability also conveys a similar meaning consistently to all participants What is more, the length of the questionnaires is reasonable in order to engage but not overburden the participants‟ concentration

Questionnaires can be divided into two closed-items and open-ended items A closed-item question is a question for which the researcher determines the possible answer, whereas an open-ended question requires respondents to answer according to their viewpoints Closed-item questions typically mention the consistency of measurement, thus they give the researchers greater reliability Open-ended items let respondents express their thoughts and views in their own manner, which leads to more unexpected and insightful data To gain rich feedback from participants, the questionnaire survey in this study was designed to involve both closed-item questions and open-ended questions Closed-ended questions follow the scaling technique

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called 5 Likert-scale: strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, strongly

agree; and according to frequency like always, usually, sometimes, rarely, never The respondents were provided with ready-made responses to choose

(Dornyei, 2008) The strength of those closed-ended questions is that the respondents were able to answer the questions easily and fast without preparing the answers before

The questionnaire survey in this study was written in English; nevertheless, and then it was translated into Vietnamese to avoid misunderstanding The questionnaire had four main parts The first part was some demographic information about participants such as name, class, and gender The second part consisted of a list of statements that the researcher designed and students indicated their viewpoints for each activity The third

part is to investigate students‟ attitudes toward project work (PW) in Project

lessons And the last part consisted of a number of questions (closed-ended and open-ended questions) to get information to students‟ practice in group

work activities in Project lessons The complete questionnaire can be

accessed in appendix 1A for the English version and appendix 1B for the Vietnamese version

The questionnaires were delivered to all the 8th-grade students in person It took them from 15 to 20 minutes to finish the questionnaire, but the researcher arranged an efficient time for the students to answer all the questions

Semi–structured Interview

After gathering data from questionnaires, the second instrument was employed – called Interview – to supplement the researcher‟s survey and get the most accurate information According to Cohen, Manion & Morrison