Luận văn an investigation on difficulties encountered by the teachers and the 10th form students at nam tien hai high school in implementing pair work and group work in speaking lessons

In new set of textbook, pair work and group work are designed to be two main kinds of activities used in Leaching and learning speaking skill, However, the result of the using thess tach

Department of Past- graduate Studies

BUI THI BICH LIEN

AN INVESTIGATION ON DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY THE

TEACTIERS AND TITE 107" FORM STUDENTS AT NAM TIEN WAI THIGH

SCHOOL IN IMPLEMENTING PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK IN

3, The rescarch questions

4, Scope of the study

5, Methods of the study

6 Design of the sludy

DEVELOPMENT

CILAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Communicative language tcaching

2.2 What arc the characteristics of speaking

3 Pair work and group work

3.1 Whal is the definition of pair work and group work

3.2 What is the organization of pair work and group work

3.3 Difficulties in organizing pair work and group werk

3.6 The roles of the toachers and the sludenls in pair work and groups work

3.6.1 The role of the learners

3.6.2 The role of the teachers

2.3.1 The questionnaire for the teachers

2.3.2 The questionnaire for the students

2.3.3 The irlorviows

CHAPTER DE DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

1 the questionnaire for the teachers

1.1 The teachers’ altitude towards using pair work and gTOuĐ WOIK c

1.2 The procedure of implementing pam work and group work

1.3 The difficulties in implementing pair work and group work

2 The quostionnaira for the siulenls

3.1 The students’ attitude towards working in pait or in proup

2.2 The students’ prefarable ways of implementing pair work and group work

2,3 The difficultics encountered by the students in working in pair or i group

Realizing the importance of communicative skills in lite, the Ministry of Fadncation and Training (MORT) has recently ediled new set of English textbooks for high school students with the aim of enabling them to communicate in English In new set of textbook, pair work and group work are designed to be two main kinds of activities used

in Leaching and learning speaking skill, However, the result of the using thess tachniquos

at Nam Tien Hai high school seems to be still under the expectation

Like other schools in the country, the teachers of English at Nam ‘Tien Hai high school are also applying pair work and group work tecksiqnes in Leaching English, however, the result of this application is very low Both the teachers and the students here have a lot of difficulties in implementing them The students here often hesitate in taking part in pair work and group work activitics Therefore, the tcachers usually get embarrassed at designing and applying their lesson plans in speaking lessons As a result, msl of speaking lessens turn into wriling or reading ones

Being one of the tcachers of English at this school, I really want to find out what made the implementation of pair work and group work activities in speaking lessons become so Loring and ineffective From the findings, some personal suggestions are hoped to be given to make the sifuation better That is the reason why I decided to carry out this research entitled “An investigation on difficulties encountsred by the teachers and

2 Alm of the study

This study is carried out with the aim of exploring the reality of implementing pair

work and group work in speaking lessons of both the teachers and the leamers at Nam Tien Tai high school where the researcher is working In other words, this sturdy allempls

to find out the attitudes of the teachers and the learners towards the implementation of pair

work and group work as well as the procedures of organizing these activities in the speaking lessons of the 10! form students Morcaver, this study will explore the

difficulties that the teachers and students often encounter when dealing with pair work and

group work in large classes Linally, the study will offer the solutions from the teachers

and give some suggestions based on (he literature review to these difficulties so [hal il can

help the students and the teachers in this school find the way to take advantages of pair work and group work techniques in learning and teaching English in general and speaking

in particular,

3 The rescarch questions

To gel the main purpose, this research will aim at finding the answers to the following questions

a) What are the attitudes of the teachers and students towards using pair work and group work?

1b) What are the procedures and activities used in pair work and group work?

¢) What hinders using pair work and group work?

4, Scope of the study

Pair work and gronp work are used in every skill; however, it is not my intention

to cover all of them becaus: of the limitation of time and the length of the study Consequently, the researcher only focuses on finding out the difficulties the teachers and

the students at 10" form level in speaking lessons when they use pait work and group

work by investigating th realily of implementing (hese tcehniques at NamTicnHai High

school

5 Methods of the study

This research will be mainly conducted as a quantitative study by mnostly using observation and survey techniques through using two sets of questionnaire (one for

students and the olher f the teachers al Nam Tien Hai high school) Besides, other instruments such as consulting the supervisor, reading books and other references, discussing with the colleague and observing the classroom environment will be also used for this rescarch

6 Design of the study

The thesis consists of three main parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion

Ti the first part, some brisf information aboul the reasons for choosing the topic, the method, the aims, the scope as well as the design of the thesis

“The second part is divided into 4 chapters such as literature review, methodology, data analysis and findings In chapler I, Lilerature review, it deals with the basic theoretical background knowledge tiom the literature on comnmunicative language teaching (CL), speaking skill as well as the knowledge involving pair work and group work activities, Chapter I pres nts the methods which arc used to carry out the thesis, Chapter Ill describes and analyses the data collected from the questionnaires From the result of the analysis, the difficulties of implementing pair work and group work in leaching aul tearning Speaking skill at Nam Tien Tai Tigh schoot are found out

The last part reviews the main content of the entire thesis and gives some

suggestions

1 Communicative language teaching (CLT)

LL What is CLT

Communicative language teaching began in Britain in the 1960s as a replacement

to the carlicr structural method, called Silualional Language Teaching This was parlly in response to Chomsky’s ctiticisms of structural theories of language and partly based on the theories of British fictional linguistics, such as Firth and Ualliday as well as American sociolingnists, such as Mymes , Gumpery and Labav and the wrilings of Austin and Searle on speech acts

Communicative language teaching makes use of real-life situations that necessitate communication, The teacher scts up at siluation thal students are ikely to cneounler in real life, Unlike the andio-lingual method of language teaching, whieh relies on repetition and drills, the communicative approach can leave students in suspense as to the outcome of a class exercise, which will vary according to their reactions and responses The real-lifs simulations change fom day to day Students' motivation to learn comes ftom their desire

to communicate in meaningful ways about meaningful topics

Mangic 8 Berns, an expert in the ficld of cormmmicative language tcaching, writes

in explaining Firth’s view that “language is interaction; it is interpersonal activity and has

a clear relationship with society In this light, language study has to look at the use (fanction) of language in context, both its linguistic context (what is uttered before and after a given piece of discourse) and its social, or situational, context (who is speaking, whal their social roles are, why (hey have came together to speak)” (Berns, 1984, p 5)

Communicative language teaching (CLT) is an approach to the teaching of second and foreign langnages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of Jearning a language It is also referred to as “communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages” or simply the “communicative approach”

1.2 Features of CLT

As an cxteusion of the noliomal-fanetional syllabus, CLT also places great emphasis on helping students use the target language in a variety of contexts and places Ereal emphasis on Iearning language functions Unlike the ALM, ils primary focus is on helping learners creat2 meaning rather than helping them develop parfectly grammatical structures or acquire native-like pronunciation ‘his means that successfully learning a foreign language is assessed in terms of how well learners have developed their communicalive cormpelonce, which can looscly be defined as their ability to apply knowledge of both formal and sociolinguistie aspects of a language with adequate

proficiency to communicate

CLT is usually characterized as a broad approach to teaching, rather than as a teaching method with a clearly definsd set of classroom practices, As such, it is most often defined as a Hist of gensral principles or fealures, One of lhe most recognized of These lisls

is David Nunau’s (1991) five features of 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 leamers to focus, not only on language but

also on the Learning Management process

* An enhancement of the leamer’s own personal experiences as important contributing elements lo classroom learning

= An allompl to link classroorn language learning wilh Tanguage activitics oulside

focused acli

1.3 Conumunicative techniques and activities

A communicative activity, which was defined by Littlewood (1981), is those that provide whole task practice, imprave studenls’ motivation, allow vatural learning and

create a situation and sets an activity in notion, but it is the learners themselves who are

responsible for conducting the interaction to its conclusion (Littlewood, 1981: 18)

In addition, Littlewood divided commmmicative activities into two main types called “famctional communication activities and social interaction activities", The main purpose of the former is that learners should use the language they know in order to get mcanings across as cfiketively as possible Functional communication activities such as: identifying pictures, discovering identical pairs, discovering differences, following dircclions and so on Th Jaler aelivilics are those that emphasize on social as wall ng functional aspects of communication, Leamers, therefore, not only convey meanings effectively, but also, pay greater attention to the social context in which the interaction

twkes place, Simulation and role-playing are important techniques for creating a va

social relationships and situations

However, not all courses that utilize the communicalive language approach will

restrict their activities solely to these Some courses will have the students take occasional graummar qnivves, or prepare af homme using non-communicalive dnils, for instance

2 Speaking skill

2.1 What Is speaking?

Speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode, It, like the other skills, is more complicated than it seems at first and involves more than just pronouncing words According ta Bygate (1987: 3), speaking is a skill which doscrves attention vory bit as much literacy, in both first and second language

2.1 What are the characteristics of speaking?

In most cases, spcaking is the intcraction between at least two peopte and in that course of interaction; the listener can give immediate reaction to what is spoken ‘The reaction can be positive or negalive allilude loward the conten of speaking or can be the revealing of comprehension or incomprehension, Bygate M, ( 1987; 12) said “ in most of speaking, the person to whom we are talking to is in front of'us and able to put us right if

we make mistakes” In speaking, speakers also interact in term of exchanging the tum to speak, Listeners often signal verbally or visibly if they want to change the tum to speak and the signals will be recognized by efficient speaker Because of the complexity of spoken interaction, many researchers gave differen fealures af speaking skill The followings are some of them:

their fi

ners" reaction.” (Bygats, 1987: 12) Therefore, the speaker has an opportunity lo

make meaning clear through the redundaney of language

o Speaking consists of colloquial language

Colloquiatism appears both in monologues and dialogues If learners are only exposed to standard language in textbook, they will find it sometimes very difficult to understand or to produce words, idioms or phrase of colloquial language

© Speaking depends much on languages stress, rhythm and intonation

‘This is a very important characteristic of speaking because in speech, different stress or inlonation usc can convey different messages Morouver, cach language has their own pattern of stress, chythm and intonation, sơ the Jeamers often find difficult to make familiar with a strange pattem of stress and intonation from their mother tongue

2 Speaking is interaction process

‘This feature is said to be the most difficult one to learners, because in speech, speakers have lo be engaged in process of negotiation of meaning with many discourse constraints, so they have to do the complex task of choosing what and how to say in what situation According to Brown, 11 D { 1994: 93) “The greatest difficulties that leamers have in learning Lo speak is nol in mulliplicily of sounds, words, phrases and discourse forms that characterize any language, but rather in the interactive nature of most communication”

3 Pair work and Group wark

3.1 What is the definition of pair work and group work?

Pair work is 4 process in which “the tsachor divides the whole class in pairs Every student works with his or her partner in pais, and all the pairs work at the same time (It sometimes called "simultaneous pair work and group work"), This is not the same

or "open" pair work, wilh pairs of students speaking in tum in font of the

Il can be seen thal pair work can get students to pra

and increase students’ talking time in the class

Doff (1988: 137) also defines group work as a process that “the teacher divides

¢ the targel language more

the class into small groups to work together (usually four or five students in eacli group,

as in pair work, all the groups work at the same time.)

Like pair work, group work atso gives students more apporlunitivs lo practice the target language in the whole class In addition, students can work independently and freely under the teacher's control without the pressure of the whole class watching what they are doing

3.2, What is the organization of pair work and group work?

‘To implement the pair work and group work activities successfully, one of the Tuosl important fats is that we have to decide how to pul individuals into pairs and groups According to Harmer (2001), Adrian Doff (1988: 139) suggested that we can base such decisions on any ons of the followang principles

© 6 friendship

A key consideration when putting students in groups is to make sure that we put fiends with ffiends, rather than risking the possibility of people working with others whom they find difficult or unpleasant, Through observation, therefore, we can see which students get on with which of their classmates and make use of this observation later However, ow observation may not always accurate and Ñicndship can change from fim:

to time

We can alsa ask students to get into pairs or groups with wham they like by using

a socio-gram which is achieved by asking the students to write their name and the students they like best in the class ona piece of paper In this way we can make sure that members,

of our class will gravilate towards people they Tike, admire or want to be liked by

However, letting students choose in this way we ean be very chaotic and may cxeludc less popular students altogether so that they find themselves standing on their own when the pairs or groups are formed,

© Streaming: students can be streamed according to their ability,

sludents helping vach other regardlzss of level- may be Tost

In addition, we can also decide to stream them on the basis of participation Lfwe see that some students participate less than others, we might make a group of weak participators Besides, we can also make groups of especially talkative students

Streaming is a complex task, since it forces teachers to divide students by level or behavior it demands constant monitoring to make sure that sindents are not in inappropriate groups, especially since thay tuay change both language level and the nature

of their participation as a course develops

of their hair, ate

Changing groups: the group may change while an activity continues, Students ean first work in pairs then in groups of four, then groups of eight, or even more

However, Honeylield (1991: 18) also points out that “the smaller groups are, the more gronps there are, so the teacher has more motoring to do and the less practical it is to have groups report back to the class.”

In addition, group size can be determined by types of tasks, Moreover, for real

3.3 Difficulties in organizing pair work or group work and suggested solutions

The idea of group and pair work in language teaching is hardly a new one, but transferring the idea into classroom practice offen presents the teacher with practical, logistical, and organizational difficulties, which can bo difficult to ovarcome Many teachers feel daunted by this, and often revert back to the methods they have experienced and trusted According to Andy Loodith — Saitama University, there are three main diflicullics when organizing pair work and group work in large clas

some or all of the students hadn't kuown cxácy whal they had to do, Some teachers try to

give instructions in students’ target language, and, so funny it sometimes appears that

understanding the instructions in target language is much mare difficult than doing the exercise

Activity types Pair and group work are fins in theory, but what type of activity to do with them is

a problem, Some group members may sit doing nothing if the Ieacher asks a group of four

or five to work with a small dialogue With problem solving activities, it seems to be very difficult for pairs when one of them or none of them has no idea ahout the problem

In order to overcome these difiiculties, Andy Hoodith gives some sugpested solutions to each as follows:

Tf the fisnilers arrangements ere fixed and there is no possibilily of changing classroom, the teacher must plan more carefillly, and attempt to create gaps between the groups and circles of interaction Drawing a plan of the room and visualizing the arrangements will help to achieve this Tf the teacher has some flexibility in choosing the classroom, then this problem is much more easily solvable To recreate a “Party” style environment, have a party! Seriously, a gymnasium, large room with little or no furniture,

or rogular room with the farniture against the walls is quile adequal

In order to solve the difficulties in giving instmetions, Andy Hoodith gives a suggestion that teachers should word the instructions carefully even in the students’

mother tongue It is belter lo be strict, and then case up, than lo allow studsnts loo much

leeway to use their mother tongue in the first few lessons and then try to stop them overusing it One method is to explain briefly in English, then if necessary supply written instructions in their mother tongue [students are still not elear aboul whal to do, then the witten instractions probably weren’t very good! The teacher can then allow a couple of minutes for them to clarify the instructions for each other in mother tongue, and one example can be made to ml

‘As for choosing activities, Andy Hoodith said that teachers should take simple types of activities for pair work which must he less controversial than the ones for group

tuđcnIs completely imderstand the instructions,

work, bul distognes and sponking activitios aro more suilable to pair work than group work.

13

3.4, What is the procedure of implementing pair work and group work?

There are different ideas in the order of implementing pair work or group work Tlowever, I strongly agree with the way Penny Ur (1996) gave in “A course in language teaching” According to him, there are four main steps tor organizing pair work and group work ‘They are presentation, process, ending and feedback

1 Presemation

According lo Permy Ur, presentation plays a tcading important role in implementing pair work and group work because the instructions given at the beginning are crucial; if the students do not understand exactly what they have to do, there will be time-washing, confusion and lack of effective practice, possible loss of control,

About task selection, he suggests teachers choose the task simple snough to be

ily described and il is advisable Lo give instmuclions before distributing matcriats or dividing the class into small groups or pairs, A sample activity with the whole class is advised to perform in order to clarify the task

In this step, teachers should try to foresee what language will be needed and have

a preliminary quick review of approptiate grammar or vocabulary,

Finally before giving signal to start; tell the class what the arrangements are for

sloping If there is a tinge limil; or a sol signal for stopping, say whal i

simply stop when they have finished, then tell them what they will have to do next, It is wise to have a “reserve” task planned to occupy members of groups who finish earlier

if the groups

(han expeeted

Process

‘Teacher’s jab during the activity is to go ftom pair to pair, group to group and

meniơr and cither contribute or keep ont of the way — whichever is likely to be mors helpful If the teacher does decide to intervene, the teacher’s contribution may take the form of

- providing gencral approval and support;

- helping students who are having difticult;

- keeping the stndents nsing the target language; (in many cases the teacher’s mere presence will ensure this.)

- tactfully regulating participation in a discussion where you find some students

over- dominant and others silent

tdïn,

If a time Limit is set, this will help the teacher draw the activity to a close at a certain point In order to do the ending well, the teacher should set an appropriate time limit If the time for the activity is too short, students will feel very hard to finish the task

on time and because of thal they may loose their interest in the activity Tw other hand, if the time is too long, students will have time to do other things than the task and that may distract them, In principle, try to finish the activity whole the students are still enjoying it and are interested, or only just beginning to flag

3.4.4 Feedback This is the tast stop of pair work and group work, this step helps teachers check whether the activity is successful, it meets the target goal set beforehand and, more importantly, it helps teachers to check students” understanding of the activity, A feedback session usually takes place in the context of full-class interaction after the end of the pair and group werk Feedback on the task may fake many forms; the teache1’s giving the right sotution if there

is one; students’ listening to and evaluating suggestions, pooling ideas on the board; display materials the pairs and groups have produced, and so ơn Thơ loahor's main objective here is to express appreciation of the effort that has been invested and its results, Feedback on language may he integrated into this discussion of the task or provide the

«Learners get more language practice

‘The most reason cogent for grouping in a language class is providing maximum

opportunity for participants lo use the target language by practicing 1ogether Thanks to

pair work and proup work, the amount of language practice is increased because many learners are talking at any one time, ‘I'hus, pair work and group work give students more chance to speak target language as well as inercase intoraetion

1ã

®© Learners are more involved

Working in pairs or group sncourages learners lo be tare involved and ie concentrate on the task, When pair work and group work are organized in a lesson, all of the students in class can take part in speaking activity; differently ftom the whol class logether where iL may probably be dominated by « few Isarners amd the other would Tose

interact

«Learners feel secure

Learners fell Jess anxiety when they are working “privately” than when they are “on show” in front of the whole class Pair work and group work can help shy leamers who would never say anything ina whol — class activity,

+ Learners cun help each other

Pair work and group work encourage learners to share ideas and knowledge In reading activities leamers ean help each other to explore the meaning of a text: in a discussion activity leamers can give cach other new ideas

(Adrian Dofit 1988, p 141)

3.3.2 Rad points of pair wark and group werk

Besides the good points mentioned above, pair work and group work can create some noticeable bad points as follows:

* Noise This may happen in every oral activity because in this activity most students take

part in speaking so noise is inevitable However, thal is lhe good noise which is the purposeful noise because it means that learners are practiomg English as well as being engaged ina learning task

© Low participation

When pairs or groups are doing well, we can say (hal mos! members im Lhe groups

are talking However, there are still some students who lose their participation to groups” activities because they, in a way, find themselves discarded from the other members ‘they gannol think of any point In contribute lo discussions In ofher cases, there are several students who appear to take prominent parts Subsequently, timid students may not have many chances to join: they sit quietly untit the end of the discussions If this sitnation

remains unchanged for a long time, they will [eel Less confident in their ability of speaking English

© Mistakes When a pair or group activity is carried out, the teacher has a harder time managing all the language uscd Therefare, some mistakes, which are prothuced during the process of speaking English, may go unnoticed However, the teacher can help students reduce mistakes by doing controlled language practice such as giving enough preparation and checking aflerwards in pairs or groups

© The problems of class time

It is clear that teachers of English school have only forty-five minutes for their lesson while they have to deal with many tasks If the teachers are not good at organizing pair work or group work, this activily will lake much tine and become an ineffective work Thus, the key point here is the suitable arrangement of time as well as suitable choice of the numbers in each group

© The use of mother tongue Although some students are very sel confident of their ability of speaking English, others are anxious about speaking Some may show anxiety in the form of silence for fear of making mistakes or being laughed at by their friends, Others show anxiety in the form of switching back to using their mother tongue when the need for communicating somothing complex arises Thus, the teacher should cucourage their sladents to usc the target language by giving instructions carefillly, moving around to make sure that students ave speaking English and appointing group leaders lo monitor the activities of their own

groups

* The problems of clasy control

It is more difficult for the teacher to control over what students are doing in pair work or group work than in a normal individual task At ons time, teachers cannot observe all pairs or groups Therefore, to prevent activities from getting out of control, teacher’s instructions must be clear enough for students to accept the idea of working in pairs or groups and know exactly what to do

3.6 The roles of the leachers and students in pair work and group work?

17

Nowadays pair work and group work tccluiques are no longer unfamiliar to teachers and students as it is recognized as one of the best ways to improve students’ communi

live compelsice in speaking In the environment of cooperative leaming, the roles of both teachers and students are much different from their roles in the traditional methods

‘he role of learners

According lo Hamm & Adams (1922), a teacher can delegate authorily lo groups

of students by using pair work and group work Through observations, he presents students’ roles as followed

1 Each group member makes constructive contributions to the group’s effort,

2 Group membars encourage their follow group member to contribute

3 Group members koup cach othor on task, working towards thair shared goal

4, Compromise is required from all cooperative leamers

5 Those in a cooperative learning group treat each other with care and respect They do their best to teach and learn from each other They adopt the axioms:

“All fot one and one for all,” and “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”

(Hamm & Adams, 1992)

Fach snuill group points ont the loader to assign tasks and tales to overy single group member Besides, the group leader is responsible for keeping the whole group stick

to the task without any private talks

The role of teachers

In group work and pair work activities, the teacher’s role seems to be vague on the surface as he is considered to be the facilitator who provides the students with helps only when they nocd However, in ranlily, the tcachor has to take more responsibilities as followed

planning the lessons, activities, and evaluation Grouping students

Setting physical placement of the students

4 Presenting and explaining the tasks to the students

wpe

Monitoring group activities and infervicwing when nc

6, Helping students with social skills

7 Evaluating students as individuals

(Hamm & Adams, 1992)

Summary

In brief, it bas been proved that using pair work and group work as a main technique in teaching and speaking is ome of the best choices to develop learners’ communicalive competence Nowadays, the traditional Leaching method GMT is no

longer suitable because learners can nol have inany chances to develop their speaking

ability In the light of CLT, they are given more chance to communicate in the target language as much as possible By working in pairs or in groups every individual can easily acquire the conumunicative goal thanks to the interaction with their friends

However, the success of using pair work and group work in teaching foreign langage

depends mach on the aetivilics dosignod by toachors, the way thoy are organizad as woll

as the students’ English level and the other facilities such as the class size, reference books, language environment, audio equipments, and visual aids ete 'his proves that although pair work and group work arc undeniably good techniques in teaching and leaming speaking skill, they can not bring the result as good as expected if the conditions mentioned above are not suitable

Tn thi ss lo find oul the reasons for the fact (hat

study, the rosoarchor dasi

although pair work and group work have been applied to teach speaking skill for the Lo"

form students at Nam Tien Hai high school, their commmnicative competence is too poor

Another purpose of this study is to find out the activities and the procedures the teachers here often use to implement these techniques With these findings, this study is expected

to benefil the students and leachers in learning and leaching Bnglish at Nam Tien Tai high school

19

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGV

‘This chapter addresses the participants of the survey and the research instraments including questionnaires, interviews, class observations In addition, the analysis of the collected roscarch data is carried ont to help answer the rescarch questions

1 Teaching context

The study was condneted al Nain Tien Tai high schoal, a small schot wilh above

1500 students mainly fiom poor and low- educated families in the south of Tien Hai district, Yhai Binh province Linglish is a new subject in this school, Ithas become a

compulsory snbject recently (8 years ago only Russian was taught as a main forcign language subject) and only untit last school year (2008 -2009), Russian was completely replaced by English In addition, the teachers of English at this school are very young

With 6 years in leaching English, T have become the inos! experienced leacher here

At this seool, there are ten 10° form groups, one of which focuses much on three main subjects named Literature, Math and English ‘The rest are learning nglish as one of the compulsory subjects withonl special focus All the classes here arc crowded with more than 50 students and less than 60 ones

The materials used to teach the 10 form students here is the new set of English

textbooks published by Education Publish House It consists of 16 units and 6 tests Each unit talks about one theme and focuses on five following parts: Reading; Speaking;

Listening: Writing and Language focus in which speaking consists of speaking activities

based on language functions and the theme of the unil, Most of the activities uscd in speaking lessons are suggested to do in pairs or in groups, the rest are done individually

2 Methodology

2.1 Participants

‘The participants of the study were the 10% form students and the teachers of

Tinglish at Nam Tisn Tai high school

Alf of the chosen students are non-major in Engtish but they Imve been studying English for four years at secondary schools Although they have experienced in English for a rather long time, their ability of speaking English as well as other language skills

was poor It means that there were very few of them who could spcak out a meaningful

English sentence The total of the sludenls who took part in the rescarcher’s survey are two hundred and they were randomly chosen trom eight different classes

The six teachers selecled to take part in this study were all female and very young None of them were over thirty years old As a result, their teaching experience was little

‘They graduated ftom different universities all over the country such as Da Nang

University, or Hanoi University Some of them were edueated in- service or [nglish was

only their second degree

In addition, all of the teachers were invited to take part in the follow-up interviews

so that the researcher could get more information about the reality of using and implementing pair work and group work in their speaking, lessons

‘The following is the list of the participants who help the researcher a lot in falfilting surveying process

Figure 1: Table of the participant hist

2.2 Methods of dala colle ion

In order to get the pumposefil aims, the researcher used both quantitative and qualitative methods iw this sludy The quantitative dala were collected from two questionnaires while qualitative data wore oblaincd from the inlerviews

2.3, Research materials

The sludy employs two questionnaires, one for the leachers and one for the students 23.1 The questionnaire for the teachers

2

This questionnaire was written in English and consisted of 10 questions thal helped the researcher investigate the teachers’ frequency in using pair work and group work in speaking lessons (question 1); their estimation in using pair work and group work in the speaking lessons (questions 2; 3), the procedure as well as the kinds of tasks they offen use for pair work and group work (4, 5, 6) and the difficulties they have got from using pair work and group work (7) Linally, their methods of solving the difficulties in implementing pair work and group works and some suggestions Lo students that, help their improve English speaking ability were asked in questions 8 and 9, 10

2.3.2 Th 2T fonnaire for the stud

for improvirys the students” spoaking ality

CITAPTER II: DATA ANALY SIS AND FINDINGS

‘This chapter consists of two sections: findings and discussions ‘'hrough this chapter,

three research questions will be answered

1 The questionnaires for the teachers

L.1 The teachers! attitude towards the use of pair work and group work in speaking skill

- The teachers” estimation of applying pair work and group work in teaching

The data shows thal 100% of the teachers al Nam Tien Hai High school agreed

that using pair work and group work techniques in teaching speaking at high school is

very usefid However, they stid that in order for these techniques lo bring into play (heir

effect, the number of the students in each class must reduce to 20 or 25 ones and these

students must have the same English level Besides, the materials used in the classrooms

must be suitable lo their degree, This really prove

of the good poinls of these techniques and necessary clements 10 make them Tore

efficient,

= The frequency of using pair work and group work as well as their effect on

students’ speaking ability

From the data collected, the researcher finds that although 100% of the teachers

hore usc pair work and group work froquenlly in speaking lesson, anly 66% of them

assured that these kinds of techniques could light up their lessons and make the students

focus more on the lessons whereas the others told that their classrooms are so crowded

that the pair work and group work not only do not get expected results but also create

chances for the students to chat with each other in Vietnamese or do other private things

Yable 2: The effectiveness af working in pairs ar in groups at Nam Tien Hai

23

D Feel more interested in the lesson 0% 83.3% 15.7% 0%

The figure in table 2 also shows a surprise that none of the teachers here think that

working in pairs or in groups makes their students feel more confident (very) much

because, they explain in the interviews, many of their students feel unconfident and shy

when they work in pair or in group They explain more that their students only wants to

work individually and do not want to share work with the others Even 15.7% of the

teachers tell that working in pair or in group even discourages their students because their

English level is very low

This tells us that the teachers of English at this school all realize the importance as

well as the effectiveness of using pair work and group work in organizing the teaching

and learning activities in speaking lessons However, they also admit that these techniques

can still not bring into play if there is no really suitable environment

1.2 The procedures of implementing pair work and group work

Chart 1: the activities are often used in speaking lessons

[BA Discussions m5 Roleplays

DC Gap-filing 1D Communicative games

me Interviews

BF Drammar

The figure above shows that 100% of the teachers often use discussion, role play

and information-gap activities in the speaking lessons According to them, these

activities are easy to prepare materials and they are designed by the authors of the

textbook The chart also tells us that only 64 % of them use extra activities such as

interviews or problem solving but they do not use it often The result is really