An investigation into the use of group work in teaching speaking skill to the 11th graders at bo trach 1 high school

The advantages of using group work activities in teaching speaking skill 2.5.7.. There are four skills in teaching and learning a language: listening, speaking, reading and writing, but

TRỊNH LINH GIANG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF GROUP WORK

AT BO TRACH 1 HIGH SCHOOL

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

NGHỆ AN, 2014

TRỊNH LINH GIANG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF GROUP WORK

AT BO TRACH 1 HIGH SCHOOL

Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

Code: 60.14.01.11 MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Suppervior:

NGHỆ AN, 2014

i

Author

Trịnh Linh Giang

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Prof.Dr NGÔ ĐÌNH PHƯƠNG, Head of Post-Graduate Studies Department of

Vinh University, for he close guidance, criticism, and he generous help in the process of completing my thesis

I am also greatly indebted to all the teachers and students at Bo Trach 1 high school where the investigation was carried out for their endless enthusiasm, valuable advice and great cooperation

Finally, I wish to thank my family and all my friends for their support during

my completion of this study

This research investigated the difficulties in using group work activities in English speaking lessons at Bo Trach 1 high school – Quang Binh province At the end of the thesis, some suggestions for conducting group work have been given Some newly arising problems were also pointed out for further research

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2.4.2 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity 21

2.5 Group work activities in language teaching and learning 25

2.5.5 The advantages of using group work activities in teaching speaking skill

2.5.7 Factors that affect the success of group work 32

2.5.8 The role of the teacher and the role of each student in group work activities

33

2.5.9 How to organize group work activities effectively 35

2.5.9.1 General strategies for successful group work activities 35

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4.1 Result from students‟ questionnaire, interview 46

4.1.1 The attitude of the students toward working in group work 46

4.1.2 The students‟ difficulties in using group work activities 51

4.1.3 Students‟ desires for the group work activities in English speaking classes

55

4.2 Results from teachers‟ survey questionnaires 58

4.2.1 Teachers‟ opinions about Communicative Language Teaching 58

4.2.2 Teachers‟ attitudes towards group work activities in English speaking lessons

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

%: Percent GW: Group work

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LISTS OF TABLES Figures:

Figure 4.1: Students’ perceived importance of group work activities in English speaking lesson 53 Figure 4.2 Students’ opinions about teachers’ frequency of using group work activities 54 Figure 4.3 Students’ attitude towards group work activities 55 Figure 4.4 The frequency of difficulties 58 Figure 4.5 Factors preventing students’ speaking skill in group work activities 58 Figure 4.6 Students’ difficulties in group work activities 60 Figure 4.7 The students’ discouragements in participating group works activities 61 Figure 4.8 Forming students’ desire in groups 62 Figure 4.9 Students’ opinions about ways improve the effectiveness of group work activities in English speaking lessons 64 Figure 4.10 Teachers’ current methods 65 Figure 4.11 Teachers’ frequency of using group work activities in English speaking lessons 66 Figure 4.12 Teachers’ perceived importance of group work activities in English speaking classes 67 Figure 4.13 Number of students in each class 68

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Figure 4.14 Teachers’ difficulties in organizing group work activities 68 Figure 4.15 Factors preventing students’ group work activities participation 69 Figure 4.16 Teachers’ opinions about group work activities in the stages of English speaking lesson 70 Figure 1.17 Things teachers often do when the students work in groups 72 Figure 4.18 Teachers’ solutions to improve the effectiveness of group work activities in English speaking classes 72

Tables:

Table 4.1 Forming students in groups 49

Table 4.2 Students’ opinions on the benefits of using group work activities 50

Table 4.3.Activities students wished teachers to select for group work 56

Table 4.4 Activities teachers often selected for group work 64

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale:

Nowadays, English has become an international language and a compulsory subject at schools in Viet Nam Especially, since Viet Nam became the 150th official member of WTO in 2007, the importance of English cannot be denied English makes all different countries in the world closer It has become the vital device for communication in all fields of the world Therefore, the quality of teaching and learning English has been viewed as one of the most important aims with educators in Viet Nam

The greatest purpose of studying English is to master in communicating this language There are four skills in teaching and learning a language: listening, speaking, reading and writing, but out of the four skills, speaking is considered as the most essential skill to achieve that purpose However, in fact, most of the students remain weak in their oral ability They can easily write and read English, but find it hard to communicate with English speaking people in real-life conversations To have students concentrate on learning speaking is easy What is the reason that they do not? This can be blamed on some reasons: the traditional approach-grammar translation method, the students‟ characteristics of being quiet and shy, or the lack of oral communicative activities in the textbooks The students

at Bo Trach 1 High School are incapable of expressing their thoughts in English, even uninterested, or they are not really aware of the importance of speaking English

Group work creates more chances for students to work with each other by exchanging their ideas and, therefore, learning so many things from their partners Working in group makes students confident and creative in learning English It also helps students overcome shyness Group work brings advantages not only for the learners but also for the teachers Therefore, this study attempts to clarify certain issues from the perspective of implementing group work activities in teaching

speaking skill at Bo Trach 1 High School and analyze the factors which motivate the development of the speaking skill of students

Besides, one of the most important reasons for choosing this study is that the author likes teaching speaking skill By doing the study, I can know more about the challenges in teaching and learning English so that I can find relevant methods along with group work activities to improve my own teaching

Because of the above reasons, I decided to conduct a study on: “An

investigation into the use of group work in teaching speaking skill to the 11 th graders at Bo Trach 1 High school”

The main purpose of this study is attempts to clarify the reality of implementing group work activities in English speaking lesson and find out solutions to improve the situations at Bo Trach 1 High school, Quang Binh province To achieve the research goals, I investigate the teachers‟ and learners‟ reality towards speaking skill and then put the focus on the current difficulties in the application of group work activities Then I also make some recommendations for the teachers of English as reference in their teaching speaking skills with a view to help students improve their speaking competence The specific objectives of the

Detecting problems in the applying group work activities to improve speaking skill of students at Bo Trach 1 High school in Quang Binh province and providing some proposed solutions for speaking skill development

1.4 Research questions:

-What challenges do teachers and students cope with using group work

activities in teaching speaking skill?

-What are suggested solutions in implementing group work activities in teaching speaking skill at Bo Trach 1 High school?

Apart from acknowledgements, abstract, table of contents and appendices, this thesis is structured in five main chapters:

Chapter I Introduction Rationale, Aims of the Study, Scope of the Study,

Research Questions, Methods and Procedures of the Research and Organization of the Study

Chapter II Literature Review and theoretical background gives the theoretical

background of speaking skill, teaching speaking skill, group work

Chapter III: Methodology includes the description of Bo Trach 1 high school

context, the study (the instruments, the participants and the research questions)

Chapter IV Findings and discussion describes the data of the questionnaires,

observation and interviews, then gives some findings through the data analysis

Chapter V Conclusion suggests some solutions to the current problems, some

limitations and recommendations for further study

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL

BACKGROUND

Theoretical background relative to the topic and surveys of articles, books and other resources relevant to a particular the study topic will be presented This part will also provide description, summary, and critical evaluation of each work quoted

2.1 Previous Studies Related to the Topic:

Today‟s world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve students‟ communicative skills, because, only in that way, learners can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance Therefore, in order to improve learners‟ English skills, group work activity has been viewed as one of the effective methods Because of its important roles, group work activity has received a lot of attention from experts as well as methodologists in the world and in Vietnam

One of the major early books on group work activities in teaching and learning English skill, such as Larry K.Michaelsen, L.Dee Fink and Arletta Knight,

did, focus on designing effective group activities, Designing Effective Group Activities: Lessons for Classroom Teaching and Faculty Development published by

the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education, volume 16, 1997 In this book, the author said that the primary objective of this article was to provide readers with guidance for designing effective group assignment and activities for classes and workshop In doing so, they examined the forces that foster social loafing in learning group and identify four key variables that must be managed in order to create a group environment that is conductive for broad based member participation and learning They then discussed the impact of various types of activities and designed to evaluate the effectiveness of group

assignments in a wide variety of instructional setting and subject areas

Another book written by Nancy Frey, Douglas Fisher, Sandi Everlove was

Productive Group Work: How to Engage Students, Build Teamwork, and Promote Understanding, republished by ASCD in 2009 In this book, educators Nancy Frey, Douglas Fisher, and Sandi Everlove show readers how to make all group work productive group work: with all students engaged in the academic content and with each other, building valuable social skills, consolidating and extending their knowledge, and increasing their readiness for independent learning The key to getting the most out of group work is to match research-based principles of group work with practical action Classroom examples across grade levels and disciplines illustrate how to: Create interdependence and positive interaction; Model and guide group work; Design challenging and engaging group tasks; Ensure group and individual accountability; Assess and monitor students' developing understanding (and show them how to do the same); Foster essential interpersonal skills, such as thinking with clarity, listening, giving useful feedback, and considering different points of view The authors also address the most frequently asked questions about group work, including the best ways to form groups, accommodate mixed readiness levels, and introduce collaborative learning routines into the classroom Throughout, they build a case that productive group work is both an essential part of

a gradual release of responsibility instructional model and a necessary part of good

teaching practice

Another research conducted by Nguyễn Thu Hương (2006) was about A study on the use of pair work and group work activities in English speaking lessons for the first year students at National Economics University She mentioned the difficulties from teachers and students Then she also suggested some solutions to those problems

Nguyễn Thị Thùy Chung (2008) carried out a research on how group work is used in speaking lesson of the first year major students of English at Vietnam University of commerce An action research was planned and implemented with such data collection instruments as classroom observation, questionnaire and

document analysis This study set out to investigate the types of motivation possessed by students in speaking lessons at Vietnam University of commerce It, then, suggested some recommendations for teachers to motivate students in speaking skill

In summary, it can be seen from the above review that researchers focused

on using group work activities However, there are not many researchers have conducted research on group work activities Therefore, the author has decided to

conduct the research: “An investigation into the use of group work in teaching

speaking skill to the 11 th graders at Bo Trach 1 High school”

2.2 Communicative Language Teaching:

It is known that the history of language teaching has shown the change on methods, which have reflected recognition of changes in the sort of proficiency learners needs It is difficult to say which teaching method is the most effective among the approaches and methods in learning and teaching language In my study,

I focus on CLT which is considered as one of the most effective approaches to teach speaking skill with the implementing group work activities

The origin of Communicative Language Teaching was found in the changes

in the British language teaching tradition dating from late 1960s (Richards & Rodgers, 1996) CLT marks the beginning of a great innovation within language teaching because of its superior principles, which are widely accepted nowadays In recent years, Communicate Language Teaching (CLT) has been seen as a major influence on teaching and learning in many parts of the world CLT emphasizes the development of learners‟ ability and willingness to use the target language appropriately and accurately for the purposes of effective communication (Sheils, 1993) So, CLT has extended in scope and strongly influenced on language teaching practice in Asia, especially, in Vietnam

2.2.1 Definitions of CLT:

Perhaps the majority of language teachers today, when asked to identify the methodology They employ in the classroom, identify “communicative” as the methodology of choice However, when pressed to give a detailed account of what they mean by “communicative”, explanations vary widely Does communicative language teaching (CLT) mean teaching conversations, an absence of grammar in a course, or an emphasis on open-ended discussion activities as the main features of a course?

There are various definitions of CLT by different methodologists According

to Richards (1998) [27], CLT can be understood as a set of principles about the goal

of language teaching, how learners learn language, the kind of classroom activities that best facilitate learning, and the roles of teachers and learners in the classroom

David Nunan states that CLT as “a system for the expression of meaning Activities involves oral communication, carry out meaning task and using language which is meaningful to the learners…The learners’ role is as an negotiator and integrator and the teachers’ role is a facilitator of the communication process”

In definition of CLT, Littlewood (1981:1) [20] stated that the most characteristic features of CLT is that it plays systematic attention to functional as well as structural aspect of language In other aspects of teaching language, Ho (2004) cities in Littlewood) show that the most common understanding of the

communicative approach is that “providing the teachers with communicative activities in the repertoire of teaching skill and giving learners the opportunities in class to practice the language skills taught.”

In his book, Understanding Foreign Language Teaching Methodology, Le

Van Canh stresses that the changes in the second language teaching in general and the changes in English language teaching in the particular are not the changes in the way we teach There are the changes in the aims of language teaching and learning

Although there is room for individual interpretation in terms of design and procedures, scholars agree that CLT started from a theory of communicative language use, and was extended into a design for instruction, materials, classroom

techniques, teachers, and learners The goal is to develop learners‟ communicative competence (Richards & Rodgers, 1986) [26]

Brown (2007) [6] offered four interconnected characteristics as a definition

of CLT, which is assumed in this study:

(1) Classroom goals are focused on all of the components of communicative

competence and not restricted to grammatical or linguistic competence

(2) Language techniques are designed to engage learners in the pragmatic,

authentic, functional use of language for meaningful purposes Organizational language forms are not the central focus, but rather, aspects of language that enable the learner to accomplish those purposes

(3) Fluency and accuracy are seen as complementary principles underlying

communicative techniques At times fluency may have to take on more importance than accuracy in order to keep learners meaningfully engaged in language use

(4) In the communicative classroom, students ultimately have to use the language productively and receptively, in unrehearsed contexts

In Viet Nam, the ministry of Education and training has recently put into practice a new series of English textbook, which focus on the CLT The use of group work in teaching English language skills is emphasized in the teacher‟s guide books in order to imply This method is more effective

CLT has been popular and widespread in foreign language teaching Contrary to the teacher-centered approach, in which teachers are regarded as knowledge givers and learners as receivers, CLT reflects a more social relationship between the teacher and learner This learner-centered approach gives students a

sense of “ownership” of their learning and enhances their motivation (Brown,

1994) [3]

CLT emphasizes the process of communication and leads learners to roles different from the traditional approach The role of the learner is negotiator between

the self, the learning process, and the object of learning Learners are actively engaged in negotiating meaning by trying to make themselves understood and in understanding others within the classroom procedures and activities (Richards & Rodgers, 1986) [26] Teachers also take particular roles in the CLT approach First, the teacher facilitates the communication process between all participants in the classroom The teacher is also a co-communicator who engages in communicative activities with the students (Larsen-Freeman, 2000) [19] In addition, the teacher acts as analyst, counselor, and group process manager (Richards & Rodgers, 1986) [26]

In 1971 a group of experts began to investigate the possibility of developing language courses on a unit-credit system, a system in which learning tasks are

broken down into "portions or units, each of which corresponds to a component of

a learner's needs and is systematically related to all the other portions" (van Ek and

Alexander 1980: 6) [35] The group used studies of the needs of European language learners, and in particular a preliminary document prepared by a British linguist, Wilkins (1972) [36], which proposed a functional or communicative definition of language that could serve as a basis for developing communicative syllabuses for language teaching Wilkins's contribution was an analysis of the communicative meanings that a language learner needs to understand and express Rather than describe the core of language through traditional concepts of grammar and vocabulary, Wilkins attempts to demonstrate the systems of meanings that lay behind the communicative uses of language

According to Richards and Rodgers (1986) [26], “at the level of language theory”, CLT has a rich, if somewhat eclectic, theoretical base Some of the

characteristics of this communicative view of language follow: language is a system

of the expression of meaning The primary function of language is for interaction and communication The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative use The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical

and structural features, bur categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse (Richards and Rodgers 1986:71) [26]

In a CLT approach, the teacher functions as a facilitator or guide, supporting learners as they try out new language and giving feedback on errors as a necessary step in the language learning process (Nunan, 1991) [23] Using an integrated skills approach, many CLT activities are done in pairs or small groups, so learners have opportunities to use the target language in a variety of roles and contexts that aim to approximate authentic situations to develop learners‟ situational appropriate use of the second language (Richards & Rodgers, 2001) [26]

To summarize, CLT is characterized as:

- An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language;

- The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation;

- The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also on the learning process itself;

- An enhancement of the learner‟s own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning;

- An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activation outside the classroom (Brown 1994 a: 78) [4]

Meanwhile, David Nunan(1991:279) also lists five features to characterize CLT:

- An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language

- The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation

- The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language, but also on the Learning Management process

- An enhancement of the learner‟s own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning

- An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activities outside the classroom

CLT is so popular that “no self- respecting teacher, materials designer, or applied linguist would think of teaching English as anything else.” (Harmer 1982:

164) [15]

2.2.3 Principles of CLT:

Johnson and Morrow (1981) propose a set of five principles of CLT as criteria to be taken into consideration in developing teaching procedures

Principle one: Know what you are doing

In real life, people talk to each other because they really want to talk, otherwise they would be quiet But people do not talk just for the sake of talking, they have something to communicate Therefore, needs and purposes constitute the nature of communication Thus, “when organizing communicative activities, we will try to ensure that these activities share the characteristics of communication” (Harmer, 1986: 43) [15]

In class, what is taught should be closely related to what the learner is most likely to perform in real life communication The activities should give students a chance to use language and to learn more about the language through using it Johnson and Morrow (1981:61) suggest that: “every lesson should end with the learner being able to see clearly that he can do something that he could not do at the beginning, and the “something” is communicatively useful”

Principle two: The whole is more than the sum of the parts

In discussing “whole task practice”, Littlewood (1981: 17) [20] cites an example of learning to swim which “involves not only separate practices of individual movement - part skills, but also actual attempts to swim short distances - whole task practice” Similarly, in language teaching, communicative activities should provide students with practice in total skills rather than only in part-skills If they are only involved in drill or repetition, their objective will be the accuracy of utterance rather than its content in a meaningful context For example, they could be

able to manipulate the past tense forms of verbs but could not tell other people what they did last weekend properly So “the classroom teacher needs to institute a progression form artificial exercises to real language use, from discrete linguistic objectives to communicative objectives” (Schutz and Bartz in Savignon 1983) Students should have opportunities to deal with a variety of language rather than just a number of grammatical structures, since there is no corresponding one-to-one equivalence between language forms and communicative functions For example, the affirmative sentence “He is a good student” could be a statement conveying the speaker‟s proposition, but it could also be a question expressing doubt

Thus, “a crucial feature of communicative method will be that it relates with stretches of language above the sentence level, and operates with real language and real situations” (Johnson and Morrow 1981: 61)

Principle three: The processes are as important as the form

Whether an activity is viewed as communicative or mechanical depends on the processes required from the student while doing it Fulfilling a communicative exercise involves the student in filling the information gap between the speaker and the hearer; making a choice from his repertoire of language of to say and how to say

it, and evaluating the feedback from what he has done

Information gap in a communicative activity means that one student must be

in a position to tell another something that the second student does not know

Communicative activities also require the student to decide for himself what ideas he wants to express and how to express them appropriately in a certain situation under the pressure of time during the conversation Exercises such as drills, repetition, substitution or guided exercises, in which students are controlled

in the use of language do not practice this aspect of communication

Another process involved in communication is feedback, which tells the student whether his utterance has been understood as he intended or not, and what criteria are necessary during a particular procedure For example, if the student says

“Did you went shopping yesterday?” he may get the feedback “Did you go

shopping yesterday?” or “Yes, I did” The first one focuses the student‟s attention

on the language form, and the second on meaning The nature of activities dictates the teacher‟s selection of appropriate kinds of feedback Littlewood (1891: 91) [20] says: “It is, therefore, important for the teacher to monitor the kind of feedback that his learners receive, from himself or from others, so that it supports the methodological purpose of the activity” Therefore, all the above processes are essential in any procedure for teaching the communicative use of language

Principle four: To learn it, do it

In language learning, the connotation is obvious The teacher may try to provide students with a lot of language items which will then be stored in their brain If there is no demand for using the language, those items will be the end in them If students are required to produce and use the language, they will select items of the language appropriate to the purpose of communication By doing so, their knowledge of the language is developed accordingly Widdowson (1978: 144) says: “What the learner needs to know how to do is to compose in the act of writing, comprehend in the act of reading, and learn the techniques of reading by writing and techniques of writing by reading” Students can only learn to communicate by communicating and develop skills by using skills Thus, when there is a need to communicate and there is experience of communication, communicative skills are developed and consequently, language skills are also acquired In other words, the practice of communication encourages the ability to communicate

Principle five: Mistakes are not always a mistake

The traditional method concentrates on formal accuracy, whereas the communicative approach focuses on success in communication The traditional method avoids mistakes by tightly controlling students‟ language but the communicative approach encourages communication even at the expense of making mistakes Trying to express something they are not sure of, students may make mistakes But “errors are regarded as a completely normal phenomenon in the development of communicative skills” (Littlewood, 1981: 94) [20]

If students are corrected constantly, they may lose interest and will “find it frustrating if the teacher‟s reaction to their ability to communicate ideas is focuses only on their ability to get the grammar right” (Harmer, 1982: 37) [15] This does not mean that accuracy is unimportant in the communicative approach, but it requires the flexibility to treat the different things as “mistakes” at different stages

in the learning process” (Johnson and Morrow 1981: 65) In fact, the communicative approach does stress the importance of both the forms and the uses

of language But it does not specify under what circumstances it may be more appropriate to teach the forms through the uses, or to attach the uses to the forms, or

to integrate them for communicative purposes Perhaps it is the teacher‟s responsibility to judge and decide which priority is relevant in his own condition

2.3 Speaking skill and teaching speaking skill:

2.3.1 Definitions of speaking:

Speaking skill of a second or foreign language is regarded as a very complicated task So far there are different ways to define speaking Each way focuses on one aspect of speaking, however, they all state speaking involves in speech and through speech speakers expresses his ideals, feelings, etc In the Oxford

Dictionary of Current English (2009: 414), speaking is “the action of conveying information or expressing ones’ thoughts and feelings in spoken languages”

According to other researchers such as Brown (1994), Burn and Joyce (1997), speaking is “an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information” When participating in communicative activities, the speaker should choose the correct vocabulary to describe the things they want to say about, to rephrase or emphasize words to clarify the description to produce the expected pattern of specific discourse situations In a related study, Bygate (1987) had a detailed definition which states that “speaking is the skill by which learners are most frequently judged and through which they make and lose friends It is the vehicle par excellence of social solidarity, social ranking,

of professional advancement and of business It is also the medium through which much language is learnt”

In his own view, Nunan (2003:48) [24] puts it that “speaking is the productive oral skill It consists of producing systematic verbal utterance to convey meaning.” Speaking requires that learners not only know how to produce specific

points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary but also that they understand why, when, and in what ways to produce language

According to Chaney, (1988:13) speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts” Its meaning and form are dependent on the context in which it occurs,

including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment and the purposes for speech

To sum up, speaking skill is one of the key modes of human communication, and one of the macro skills that language students should be helped to develop for their communicative purposes There are various definitions of speaking, i.e

speaking as an action, a process and a skill In this thesis, the term “speaking” will

be used as a skill related to language teaching and learning In the next part, author will present issues related to teaching speaking skills

2.3.2 The importance of speaking skill:

English plays an extremely important role in helping its human resources to communicate with the rest of the world It is difficult to define which skill plays an almost important among four language skills However, speaking seems the most important and the closest to the goal of language teaching since it helps to identify who knows or does not know a language The people who are good at speaking are ones who master not only grammar, pronunciation, intonation, vocabulary but also

the social contexts in which language is used It is an important skill that 'makes you

a more fluent language user; speaking is a chance to notice the gaps between what you want to say and what you can say; it is a chance to test hypotheses about language' (Marilyn Lerris, 1999-quoted by He Lina)

Addition, Pattison (1992) confirms that when people know or learn a language, they mean being able to speak the language Besides that, Ur (1996:120)

[33] states, “of all the four skills, speaking seems intuitively the most important.”

Many language learners consider speaking ability the measure of knowing a language As for them, fluency is ability to converse with others much more than the ability to read or write They regard speaking as the most important skill they can acquire and they assess their progress in terms of their accomplishments on spoken communication

According to Brown and Yule (1992) point out that speaking plays an ever important role in a very transactional intention, that is, to make clear what they want

to say Speaking not only helps students to communicate well and exchange information and culture with others but also promote the integration of speaking, listening, reading and writing in the ways that reflect natural language use

Nunan (1991) stresses that success in an oral conversation is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language If a student doesn‟t know how to speak and has no chance to speak in the language classroom,

he will lose interest in learning In the speaking class, on contrary, if the teacher doesn‟t organize right and positive activities, the speaking of a language will become less and less boring

Sharing the same ideas, Richard (1991) cites that it is the speaking skill that helps learners to have communication which is the proper aim of language teaching

Moreover, oral English can be very useful for development of reading and writing skills Rivers points out: “when we read and write, we call upon what we know of the language orally” (Rivers, 1968: 20) He goes on to say that there must

be a connection between reading and speaking If the students are reading, and then they are using their oral English, too If a student has poor English, his reading ability may also be poor Similarly, Rivers (1968) argues that writing involves oral ability as well

In conclusion, we can realize that speaking skill is one of the most necessary skills in language teaching program It suits the development rules of human beings

as one can speak before he can read and write That is the reason why speaking skill should be taught in the language room

2.3.3 The nature of speaking:

It is perfectly true that language skills consist of four macro inter-related skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing In those four skills, listening and reading relate together in the aspect of receptive skill, whereas speaking and writing are considered to be productive skills (Byrne, 1991)[10]

There have been many scholars discussing the nature of speaking Byrne

(1991: 8) [10] proves that the nature of oral communication is “a two way process between speaker and listener” From a communicative, pragmatic view of the

language classroom, listening and speaking skill are closely intertwined because

“speaking always necessitates at least two participants: speaker(s) and listener(s)”

When the speaker starts message, the listener decodes, and responds to the message

in turns Hence, that is why teaching listening is always associated with teaching speaking

To Byrne (1976: 8) [10], speaking is a two - way process between the speakers and the hearers involving the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill of understanding Both the listener and the speaker have a positive function to perform The speaker has to encode the message to be conveyed in appropriate language, while the listener has to decode the message The message itself in normal speech usually contains a great deal of information that the listener needs

According to Brown (1994) [4], Burn and Joyce, (1997) [8], speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information; Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experience, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking; It is often spontaneous, open ended and evolving However, speaking is not always unpredictable

Language functions that tend to recur in certain discourse situations (declining an invitation, requesting time) can be identified and charted For example, when a salesman asks, “May I help you?”, the expected discourse sequence include a statement of need , response to the need, offer of appreciation, acknowledgements of appreciation, and a leave – taking exchange Speaking requires that learners not

only know how to produce specific points of language, such as grammar, pronunciation or vocabulary (linguistic competence), but also that they understand when, why, and in what ways to produce language (sociolinguistic competence)

It is known that speaking is active, or productive, and makes use of aural medium An act of speaking is commonly performed in face - to - face interaction The act of speaking involves not only the production of sounds but also the use of gestures, the movements of the muscles and the face Spoken language consists of short, often fragmentary utterances, in a range of pronunciations There is often a great deal of repetition and overlap between one speaking and another Speakers frequently use non - specific references

According to Brown (1994), some of the micro-skills and knowledge that instruction might address include the following:

 Producing the sounds, stress patterns, rhythmic structures, and intonations of the language;

 Using grammar structures accurately;

 Assessing characteristics of the target audience, including shared knowledge

or shared points of reference, status and power relations of participants, interest levels, or differences in perspectives;

 Selecting vocabulary that is understandable and appropriate for the audience, the topic being discussed, and the setting in which the speech act occurs;

 Applying strategies to enhance comprehensibility, such as emphasizing key words, rephrasing, or checking for listener comprehension;

 Using gestures or body language; and

 Paying attention to the success of the interaction and adjusting components

of speech such as vocabulary, rate of speech, and complexity of grammar structures to maximize listener comprehension and involvement

Teachers should monitor learners‟ speech production to determine what skills and knowledge they already have and what areas need development In order to find the strategies to get better at speaking skill, we must be aware of what speaking is and how it characterizes

2.3.4 What is “teaching speaking”?

Nunan (2003) considered “teaching speaking” as a way to teach ESL learners

to produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns It can help learners use word and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second language; select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting, audience, situation and subject matter Teaching speaking aims to teach the learners how to organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence, how

to use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which is called fluency

2.4 Teaching and learning speaking skill

In contemporary dictionaries, learning is defined as acquiring or getting of knowledge of a subject or a skill by study, experience or instruction A more specialized definition states that learning is a relatively permanent change in the behavioral tendency and is the result of reinforced practice (Kimble and Garmezy,

1963:133) [18] Language learning is a long and complex undertaking: “Your whole person is affected as you struggle to reach beyond the confines of your first language and into a new language, a new culture, a new way of thinking, feeling and acting Total commitment, total involvement, a total physical, intellectual and emotional response are necessary to successfully send and receive messages in a second language Many variables are involved in the acquisition process.” (Brown,

2010: 1) [7]

Similarly, teaching, which is implied in the first definition of learning, may

be defined as “showing or helping someone to learn how to do something, giving instructions, guiding in the study of something, providing with knowledge, causing

to know or understand.” Teaching is also defined as one of the means by which

education is achieved (if it is) and education is a common purpose of teaching Teaching is the process of carrying out those activities that experience has shown to

be effective in getting students to learn A teacher is defined as a person whose professional activities involve the transmission of knowledge, attitudes and skills that are stimulated in a formal curriculum to students enrolled in an educational program

Teaching and learning have a close relationship Teaching speaking is to prepare students to be able to use language How this preparation is done and how successful it is depend on how we as teachers understand our aims Teaching is guiding and facilitating learning, enabling the learners to learn, setting the conditions for learning Your understanding of how the learners learn will determine your philosophy of education, your teaching style, your approach, methods and classroom techniques For students, learning to speak a foreign language is considered to be one of the most difficult aspects of language learning

To help students be able to use that foreign language to express themselves intelligibly, reasonably, accurately without too much hesitation, teachers must provide them with an environment within in which they can communicate freely, and in which they can work together independently with only the minimum amount

of direction from the teachers If learners do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunities to speak in the language classroom, they may soon get de-motivated and lose interest in learning On the contrary, if the right activities are taught in the right way, speaking in lass can be a lot of fun, raising general learner motivation and making the English language classroom a fun and dynamic place to

be In the light of what is known about the nature of language learning process and given many demands while speaking activities can make learners, it is important to

set attainable objectives and to have realistic expectation about learners' achievements This requires a certain attitude on the part of the teachers towards the learners' performance, particularly with regard to the class organization as group work and the use of communicative strategies to teach simultaneously

2.4.1 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity

a Learners talk a lot

Most of the time allotted for the activity is occupied by learner talk not by e teacher talk or pause

d Language is of an acceptable level

Learners express themselves in utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensive to each other, and of an acceptable level of language accuracy

e Goals are oriented

Encourage learners to reach the objective, they know why they do the

activity, the outcome is clear

(Adapted from Ur (1996))[33]

2.4.2 Principles for Teaching English Speaking in CLT

Nunan (2003) considered “teaching speaking” as a way to teach ESL learners to produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns It can help learners use word and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second language; select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting, audience, situation and subject matter It is important that teachers help student be aware of the differences between second language and foreign

language learning In addition, they give their students practice with both fluency and accuracy Accuracy in language teaching involves the correct use of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation In controlled and guided activities, accuracy is usually the focus and the teacher makes it clear form feedback that accuracy is important Ongoing correction is often appropriate during accuracy activities In freer activities, the teacher‟s hopes are the students‟ correct use of language and ability to communicate as well

The governing principle for the processes involved is to give students more

and more opportunities “to use language as they wish, to express their own ideas so that they become aware that they have learnt something useful to them personally, and thus they are encouraged to go on learning” (Byrne, 1987:2) [10] However,

teachers may help students progress through several steps First the teachers present new language to the students, then they must practice the new language in a controlled way Finally students can try to use the language they have learnt in free

or creative speech For this purpose, teaching spoken language should start from the early stage of learning

Learner training for speaking aims to raise students‟ ability to use language

they are learning as much as possible to help them “to make the best use of the little they know” (Byrne, 1987) [10] It is generally accepted that for the beginners we

should limit the objectives to avoid overwhelming them, provide them with enough structured practice so they can begin interacting at a basic level This encourages more speaking as well as reduces students‟ fear Later, more free production can come after structure practice In order to raise beginner students‟ ability to use language, we should provide them with activities which involve dialogues and functional use of the language, stating the goal of the activities to the students

Fluency in speaking, on the other hand, is the ability to speak fluently, spontaneously and confidently, and at the rate consistent with the norms of relevant native speech community When speaking fluently students should be able to get the message across with whatever resources and abilities they have, regardless of

grammatical and other mistakes Teachers also provide opportunities for student to talk by using group work or pair work in their English speaking teaching Pair work and group work activities can be used to increase the amount of time that learners get to speak in the target language during lessons Besides, they are limited to talk when they teaching speaking skill One further interesting point is that when the teacher is removed from the conversation, the learners take on diverse speaking roles that are normally filled by the teacher (such as posing questions or offering clarification)

Harmer (2001: 102) indicates that principles of teaching speaking are as follows:

 Help students overcome their initial reluctance to speak Be encouraging; provide opportunity; start from something simple;

 Ask students to talk about what they want to talk about

 Ask students to talk about what they are able to talk about

 Provide appropriate feedback

 Combine speaking with listening and reading

 Incorporate the teaching of speech acts in teaching speaking Teaching speaking aims to teach the learners how to organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence, how to use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which is called fluency

2.4.3 Approaches to teaching speaking:

Richards and Rodgers (1986) [26] has shown that in the first half of the twentieth century, the theories of American structural linguists such as Bloomfield (1993) and Fries (1945) gradually replaced the more traditional approaches of

classical humanism and the structural approach became influential in language

teaching And it was considered one of the most common approaches to teaching speaking and listening This approach was based on the view that language is acquired by stimuli and imitation It was an approach which gave a much greater emphasis to speaking than the previous grammar- translation approach This

approach to teaching focuses on audio-lingual method of imitation, repetition and response Burns (1997) [8] has also shown that, on the one hand, this approach to teaching speaking and listening forms habits of speaking with good intonation and correct grammar Learners were trained in correct speech-patterns and expected to practice them There was a strong emphasis on repetition and on building up of linguistic items through drills and exercises which focused on grammatical structures and patterns On the other hand, this approach places little interest in the context for speaking Learners‟ activities involved intense practice in aural-oral skills and focused on activities such as drills and substitution exercises taken from a graded syllabus There was little interest in the contexts for speaking, which were used merely as a situational vehicle for the more important practice of grammatical structure Learners may find it difficult to perform in a context different from what they have been taught However, in the EFL context where students lack opportunity to be exposed to the natural speaking environment for self-correction, imitation of sounds, intonation and vocabulary plays a great importance in the early developmental stage of language acquisition

Another approach to teaching speaking and listening is communicative approach This approach based on the view that language must be seen in a social

context rather than as grammatical structures According to Burns et al (1997) [8], this approach emphasizes the idea about linguistic competence by taking up the issue of the speakers‟ performance or language use Communicative competence includes not only linguistic knowledge, but also knowledge of the cultural and communicative systems available to the speakers, and their relationship with the setting, participant, purpose, channel of communication and topic Communicative approach of teaching focuses on teaching how to use language for communicative purposes

Since the 1970s, communicative approach has had a major influence on teaching and learning in many parts of the world One of the major benefits of CLT

is that it has brought about a more comprehensive view of teaching and learning

CLT emphasizes the development of learners‟ ability and willingness to use the target language appropriately and accurately for the purposes of effective communication (Shei1s, 1993) [31] However, this is not to imply that the communicative approach has been universally accepted and practiced

Methodologies based on communicative approach to teaching speaking tend

to focus on spoken language use rather than the form of the language

The main features of the communicative approach are the followings:

- First, language is viewed within social context rather than as a system of grammatical patterns;

- Second, the teaching content is developed on the basis of student needs; a concern with all the four macro skills of language, rather than primarily with reading and writing

- Third, there is tolerance of learner errors as an inevitable aspect of language acquisition

- Finally, this approach to teaching encourages students to learn independently and emphasizes the role of the teacher as a facilitator of the learning process

2.5 Group work activities in language teaching and learning

2.5.1 Definitions of group work

There is a general consensus among educators about the definition of group

work For example, Rod Killen (2004) indicates that 'Group work occurs when you ask two or more students to work together.' In a language class, group work is a co-

operative activity during which students share aims and responsibilities to complete

a task assigned by the teacher in groups or in pairs

According to Sprott (cited in Metcalfe 1959:9), "a group as a number of people who interact with another one, who are psychological aware of one another and who perceive themselves to be a group" Doff (1998) gives a simpler

explanation: „Group work is a process that the teacher divides the class into small