Luận văn an investigation into the use of pair work and group work in speaking lessons for grade 10 students at yen lac high school

ABSTRACT This study aims al invesligaling how pair and group activites were used lo teach English speaking skills by teachers for grade-10 classes at Yen Lao high school, the benefits

(NGIHÊK CỨU TIIỰC TRẠNG SỬ DỤNG TIOAT ĐỘNG ĐÔI VẢ NHIỎM

TRONG CAC GIỎ HỌC NÓI CỦA HỌC STNH LỚP 10

TRƯỜNG TRUNG IIQC PIIO THONG YEN LAC)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME TIIESIS

Field: English ‘caching Mcthodology Cude: 60140111

Hanoi — 2015

'VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST — GRADUATE STUDIES

TA TIT] DUONG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK IN SPEAKING LESSONS FOR GRADE-1¢ STUDENTS AT YEN LAC HIGH SCHOOL

(NGIDEN CUU TIC TRANG SU DUNG IIOAT BONG DOI VA NIIOM

TRONG CAC GIO HOC NÓI CỦA HỌC STNH LỚP 10

TRƯỜNG TRUNG IIOC PIO THONG YEN LAC)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Cade: 60140111

Supervisor: Pham Thi Thanh Thuy, Ph.D

Tanoi— 2015

DECLARATION

Thereby stale thal T—Ta Thi Duong, being an M.A candidate of the

Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, ULIS, VNU, certify my authorship of the study

entitled

An Investigation into the Use of Pair Work and Group Work in Speaking

Lessons for Grade-10 Students ut Yen Lac High School

I certify that this thesis is entirely my own work and that all the information in this paper was presented i accordance with academic rules and othical conduc

As required in the rules, I fully cited all the sources of the results that were not

original to this work

Hanoi, December 2014

‘Ta Thi Duong

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremosl, T would like lo express my sincere gralilude to my

supervisor, Ms Pham Thi Thanh Thuy, Ph.D for her guidance, comments, enthusiasm, and especially sympathy throughout the whole research process

Second, my thanks go ta all the lecturers and staff of the Faculty of Post-

Graduate Studies, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies,

Vietnam National University, Ilanoi, for their precious knowledge and guidance

during my two years of studying at the Faculty

‘Third, 1 would like to thank all librarians for their helping me with the reference

materials and their efforts to create the atmosphere of reading rooms as

convenient as possible

Specially, I wish to express my special thanks to the students and teachers

at Yen Lac high school for their full support in completing the questionnaires and

their detailed anawers lo questions in the interview

Talso wish to send my thanks to the teachers who will take their precious time

reading and commending on this thesis

And finally, T wish to send my thanks lo my [amily who always cheer me

‘up and support me at hard time

ABSTRACT

This study aims al invesligaling how pair and group activites were used lo

teach English speaking skills by teachers for grade-10 classes at Yen Lao high

school, the benefits students gained and the difficulties they encountered when

using them; and the solutions teachers took to handle these problems A

combination of questionnaires for students, interviews for teachers and class observations was administered to discover the answers The findings of this

research revealed that pair work and group work were used frequently and quite

effectively in teaching speaking skills Furthermore, the benefits students gained outnumbered the challenges they faced It was found out that teachers adopted a

number of strategies Lo improve the effectiveness of pair work and group work

From the findings of the study, some recommendations were given to the

students and teachers at Yen Lac high school for enhancing the effectiveness of

pair work and group work in speaking lessons.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

HSL: English as a Second Language

STT: Student, Talking Time

LISTS OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1 Students' reflections on the frequency of work organizations

Figure 3.2 Students’ reflections on how teachers form pairs and groups

Figure 3.3 Students' reflections on the size of a group

Figure 3.4 Students' reflections on the activities for pair/ group work

Figure 3.5.Students' reflections on teachers’ activities before pair work and group

work

Figure 3.6 Students! reflections on teachers! activities during pair work and

group work Jigure 3.7, Students' reflections on their activities during pair work and group

work Figure 3.8 Students' reflections on teachers’ activities after pair work and group

work Figure 3.9 Students’ justifications of the benefits they gain from pair work and

1 Rationale for the study

3 Scope of the study

4 Significance of the study

5 Methods of the study .cssscssessmsnatatensnnenseniseiseaie

6 Design of the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

1 Theoretical backgrounds of teaching speaking skills

1.1 Principles for Teaching Speaking

1.2, Problems in teaching speaking skills

2 Theoretical backgrounds of pair and group work

3 Definitions of pair and group work

2.2, The organization of pair and proup WOfk sec

2.2.1 The frequency

2.2.2 The formation

2.2.4 Procedures for pair and group work

3.3 Parr and group aotivitios in ø spoaking lesson

2.4, Benefits and challenges of using pair and group work in a speaking

2.4.2 Challenges in using pair and group wodc

2.5, Limpirical studies related to pair and group work

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

1 Background to the study

2 The participants LH Hee oi

5 Data analysis procedures

CHAPTER 3: MAIN FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

1 Main findings 1

1.1 The use of pair work and group work in teaching speaking

skills for grade-10 students at Yen Lac High Sehool

1.2, The benefits and challenges of the practice of speaking skills

in pairs and groups at Yen Lac [igh Sehool

1.3 The solutions to improve the effectiveness of the practice of

speaking skills in pairs and gromps al Yen Lac High School

2 Discussion

PART C: CONCLUSION

1 Conclusion

2 Pedagogical Implications of the Study

3 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1, Rationale for the study

in recent decades, it is undeniable that English has become a primary medium of international communication in commerce, transportation, banking, tourism,

technology, aviation, diplomacy, and scientific research, As a result, Viemamese

Ministry of Hducation and ‘training has been adopting English as a compulsory subject at secondary schools, colleges and universities, and even in several primary

schools since the 19908 However, most of the students have still heen confused with

the demand of communicative competence after graduation from the university, which

derives basically from the lack of the opportunities to practice, the limited exposure

to the real language, the native language interferences, and ospecially the lack of suitable teaching and leaming methods ‘'hey are mainly taught with the traditional

leaching method- Grammar Translation Method which focuses on academic study of

grammar, subsequently, students are discouraged from promoting their overall

communicative competence

Wilh regards to this siluation, a new approach — Communicative Language

'feaching (CLI) has been applied instead in order to foster students’ fluency and

accuracy of English in real communications One of the techniques commonly used in

CLT is pair and group work, lhe importance of which has been long emphasized as it can oreate a comfortable and low-pressure learning environment in the second

Targuage classroom Tl is commonly believed thal the less anxious and more

relaxed the learner is, the better his language acquisition proceeds Moreover,

this technique enables students to maximize their own learning and also offers

promising possibilities for promoting active leaming and sludent-reliance in community college classrooms (Hote, 2009) In addition, many studies have reported that, regardless of the subject matter, students working in small groups tend to learn more of what is taught and retain it longer than when the same content is presented in

other instructional formats.

As can be observed at Yen Lac High school, both teachers and students once did

not take speaking skills serious Speaking skills were almost confined to the classroom while (he sludy of grammar was the averiding concern on the grounds [hal students had to pass the exams In the very rare speaking lessons, speaking skills were taught in

the traditional version of teacher- student interaction that is illustrated by the model of

teacher initiation, student response, and teacher's evaluation Students only demonstrated what they had learnt, not having the adequate frequency of opportunities

to interact in and out of the classroom Consequently, students could not communicate

and express in Hnglish as the courses expected and they had many difficulties in keeping pace with the requirements of oral English skills at universities and in future

jobs This situation has called for a change in the teachers’ perceplion of the

importance of teaching speaking skills Before carrying out the study, the researcher

asked English teachers at this school about the importance of teaching speaking skills

All of them agreed thal speaking skills are very important and teaching spoken English

for their students should become a lifetime endeavor They have adopted less

comrolled activities in the classroom lo give suudents more opporlunities to practice,

communicate, and interact in real life situations in the form of pair work and group work, These activities not only increase students’ talking time (STT) but also create an

embracing affective classroom atmosphere which motivates students freely express

themselves Furthermore, many values can be learnt during the process as solidarity, responsibility, and team spirit For the above benefits, all surveyed teachers say that they use pair and group work in every English speaking Jesson Nevertheless, both teachers and students have dealt with some challenges in applying pair and group work

in speaking lessons Teachers, for instance, sometimes lose control of the class or lack

time to finish the lesson Students lend to switch to thew mother tongue or even talk

some outside topics given

WNoliving the above mentioned facts, the researcher would hke to conducl a

study on “An Investigation into the Use of Pair Work and Group Work in Speaking

Lessons for Grade-10 Students at Yen Lac High School” in the hope of exploring how

pair and group work are used to teach English speaking skills by teachers, whal are the

2

bencfits students gain and what challenges they cope with when pair and group work are adopted, and what solutions teachers take to handle these problems

2 Aims of the study

‘The study is carried out with three aims Firstly, the study is expected to investigate how pair and group activities are used to teach English speaking skills for grade-10 classes by You Lac high school teachors Added to this, it aims to explore the benefits students gain and the difficulties they encounter when pair and group work are adopted Finally, the solutions teachers take ta handle these problems are also carefully identified In brief, all the aims of this study could be summarized into the following research questions:

(1) How are pair and group work used int Leaching speaking skills by English teachers

of grade-10 classes at Yeu Lac High School?

(2) What are the benefits and challenges of using pairs and groups in leaning speaking skills al Yen Tac High School?

(3) What are some suggestions to improve the effectiveness of using, pairs and groups

in leaching speaking skills at Yen Lac High School?

3 Scope of the study

{As its title mentions, the study focuses on the teachers” use of pair and group work as a means to improve the students’ speaking skills in their English lessons Therefore, the researcher makes an attempt to investigate how pair and group work are used in teaching English speaking skills, the benefits and challenges students get, and the solutions teachers take to handle these problems in only speaking lessons, not in the

other lessons

Ta tenns of participants, the study is carried out on the gradc-10 students af Yen Lac

high school and the teachers in charge of these classes These students are at pre-

intermediate level and have just studied English for five or six years

4 Significance of the study

‘The study is supposedly beneficial to not only the teachers and students of the surveyed

classes but others in the same conditions as well The students are expected to be well

aware of the profits of pair and group work in Uncir speaking lessons, which results in

their tight cooperation with their classmates to enhance their communicative competence As for the teachers, this study is meant to provide them with some useful guides 1o make best uses of this technique in Frylish speaking lessons Moreover, the

findings of this study are assumed to be a reliable reference source for those who share

the same interest in this matter

5 Methods of the study

Conducting the study, the researcher makes use of both quantitative and qualitative

methods with a wish to explore the matter thoroughly The data will be collected from

three sources: questionnaires for students, interviews for teachers, and class observations

6 Design of the study

The study is divided into three main parts:

Part A: Introduction- providing the basic information such as rationale, aims,

research question, methods, scope and design of the study

Part B: Development- consisting of four chaplurs

Chapter 1- Literature Review deals with theoretical background, presenting the

terms and related theories

Chapter 2- Methodology gives an overview of the reality of teaching and learning English speaking skill for the grade-10 students at Yen Lac Iligh School and discusses

the actual procedures of the study: participants, data collection instruments, and data

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1, Theoretical backgrounds of teaching speaking skills

1.4 Principles far Teaching Speaking Skills

According to Nunan (2003:54), there are some principles for teaching speaking skills

as described below: (i) Teachers give students the opportunities to practice speaking with both fluency and acouracy so that students can communicate in Linglish with very

few pauses and mistakes;

(ii) Teachers increase student talking time by letting students practice in pair work or group work and limit teacher talking time;

Gh) Teachers design classroom activilies thal involve lransactional and inleractional

communication The former is for social purposes such as ostablishing and maintaining

social relationships and the latter is for getting something done such as the exchange of

goods or services

1.2 Problems in teaching speaking skills

Since the onset of the cornmusucative era, speaking has been perceived as the most

fundamental skill to acquire and also the ultimate goal of language training; therefore,

its development has become the focus of attention of both teachers and students

However, helping students to achieve proficiency in English language speaking in such

Vietnamese classroom conditions faces a number of difficulties Fustly, classes are at

large size Secondly, most students have low motivation to leam English In terms of the materials, they do not fulfill students’ necd because topics for speaking in a language course do not relate much to students’ lives and types of spoken discourse

hardly ever reflect the varieties of oral communication in real life situations Added to

this, students ollon do nel want to lalk or say anything They focl really shy about talking in front of the class since they suffer from a fear of saying something wrong or incomprehensible and losing face in front of their teacher and their peers Last bul riot least, students tend to make an excessive use of mother-tongue when practicing speaking English since they find it easier to express themselves in Vietnamese or lack

appropriate English words and structures to [1 into the context

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2, Theoretical backgrounds of pair and group work

2.1 Definitions of pair and group work

Pair and group work is one of the popular ways of gelling studenls lo practice the new language especially speaking skills on the grounds that it gives students more chances

to talk to each other

Pair work is defined by Doff (1988:137) as an activity in which the teacher divides the

whole class into pairs, then every student works with his or her partner, and all the

pais work al the same time This setting offers a wide range of games and

conversations for students to try and help the lessons be productive and lively

Tn group work, the leacher divides the class mto small groups of four or five students Lo

work together and all the groups work at the same time just as in pair work (Doff

1988: 137) In this setting students are assigned a task that involves “collaboration and

scH-initialed language” (Brown 2001-177), then siudents have apportumities to speak and altogether take the responsibility to pursue the common goals

2.2 The organization of pair and group work

2.2.1 The frequency According to Steven, George, and Ana (2006:31) pair and group work should “take a

regular and significant place in teachers’ repertoires” However, pair and group work

should not be the exclusive teaching strategy used in a classroom; instead they should

be combined with teacher- fronted and individual learning for their important roles in

instruction In terms of time, Byrne (1983-78) slated that teachers should provide pair

and group work at least once a week for perhaps half a class period

2.2.2 The formation

There has been much discussion comtering round how to put individual studerits inbo

pairs and groups

Harmer (2001: 120-2) offers four principles ia form pairs and groups: Friendship, Streaming, Chance, and Changing groups ‘the first one means putting friends with friends to help students avoid working with those they find unpleasant Whereas the

streaming is putting students in the same ability or mixed ability groups so that the

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weaker students can benofit from the help of teacher and stronger students The third principle is by far the quickest and it seems fair to students Finally, changing proups

supposes sludents keep changing their groups while an activity continuss

‘Much along in the same line with one of IIarmer’s principles, Steven, George, and Ana

(2006:32) state that pairs or groups can be formed on the basis of some commonality

such as native language (especially in FST olassos with varied nalive language background), proficiency levels, gender, personality types, cognitive style preferences,

interests, prior learning experiences, cle Tn this way, sludents are likely to (cel more

comfortable in their groups and possibly to share a similar working style

Byme (1991: 32-3) also suggests students should work with a neighbor or neighbors with regards to time factor and the frequency of pair work and group work

On the whole, pairing and grouping decisions should not be based on any fixed pringiple bul varied in cach specific context, For example, if the atmosphere of the whole class is concemed, it is recommended making friendship groups Likewise, if the activity is for fim, the grouping should be left to chance

2.2.3 Size According to Byme (1983:75), “there is no magic number for groups, which should be

worked oul m relation Lo the type of task and the flolal number of studerts m the 3.7

be unmanageable” Resides, Richards and Lockhart (1994: 153) also confirm that “TC

the group is too large, student interaction is affected, only a few students may

participate, the other remaining silent or passive”.

2.2.4 Procedures for pair and group work Researchers have suggested various ways of building the procedure for pair work and group work, Below sre some typical ones

Harmer (2001; 122) simply states three procedures for pair work and group wark as before, during, and after respectively

‘Ur (1996-234) shows four main sleps lor organizing pair work and group work namely

presentation, process, ending, and feedback

Meanwhile, Brown (2001; 182) points out five practical steps to carry out successful pair and group work in classroom- select activities carefully, work out the instructions, model the activity, monitor the students’ performance, and debrief

Another way offered by Neoh (1991) indicates that the procedure of implementing pair work and group work should consist of seven stages- planning, practice, instruction, organisation, process, presentation, aud post small group work

In my view, pair work and group work should be conducted with three main steps

Firstly, before pair/ group activities, teachers select activities relevant to the language

the students have at their disposal; then work out the instructions and if necessary explain in the mother tongue, and model the activity either by giving plenty of

examples or selecting one group lo simulate Secondly, while pair/ group activilies,

teachers monitor the students’ performance; give consultations or make suggestions

here and there to keep students on task: and listen to evaluate the groups’ progress and

individuals’ Imyuage production Finally, afler pair? group activities, leachars ask

students to report and provide feedback after the group task is completed

2.3 Pair and group acti in a speaking lesson

According to Brown (2001: 182), appropriate pair activitics include Dialogues, Question and answer, Drills, Quick Brainstorming Paix work enables teachers to

engage students in interactive communication for a short period of time with minimum

of logistical problems ‘I'ypical group tasks are Games, Role- play and simulations,

Drama, Projects, Interview, Brainstorming, Information gap, Jigsaw, Problem solving

and decision making, ancl Opinion exchange

§

Byme (1991; 36-102) suggests some more activities for pair and group work In his opinion, pair work can be used for Controlled conversation, Questionnaires and Quizzes, Find a partner whereas group work for Discussion, Interpretation activities,

Planning activities, Invention activities, and Project activities

Moreover, Doll’ (1988:211) adds Exchanging personal information activity for pair

work and Guessing games activity for group work,

Perhaps the list of activities for pair work and group work is still lengthened by many

other resvarchers For (he limitation of this study’s page number, the researcher would like to define and characterize some most popular ones

2.3.1 Games

‘A game could be any activity formalizing a technique into units that can be seored Kor example, students can practice twenty questions thraugh guessing game in which one smeomber sceretly decides he/ she is some famous person, the rest of the group has to find out who, within twenty yes/no questions, with each member of the group taking tums asking

questions The person who is “it” rotates around the group and points are scored

23.2 Information gap

In this activity, students are supposed to be working in pairs One student will have the

information that other partner does not have and the pariners will share their

information This activity sorves the purposes of solving a problem, collecting

information, ete

2.23 Role play Role play involves giving a role to each member of a group and assigning an objective

thal parlictpanis must accomplish In pairs, for example, student A is an employer,

student B is a prospective employee; the objective is for A to interview B Or a group role- play might involve a discussion of a political issue, with each person assigned to

represent a particular political point of view

2.3.4 Interview

Students work in pairs or in groups of three or four to conduet interviews on a list of

topies based on the theme and coment im the textbook In cach pair/ group, ons student

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is the interviewer and the other(s) will be the intervieweo(s) Their tasks arc to propare questions for the interview and to answer them in a given period of time When time is over, each pair/group will be called on fo present their results to [he class

2.3.5 Problem solving

Students are requested to find out the solutions to a specified problem which might be relatively simple (such as giving directions on a map), modorately complex (such as working out an itinerary from train, plane, bus schedules), or quite complex (such as solving a mystery in a crime story)

2.3.6 Discussions

In group discussions, students should always be encouraged to work into small groups of four or five lo ask questions, paraphrase ideas, express support, check for clarification, and so on This activity is often carried out after students have completed

a content-based lesson under teacher’s control to gain the general knowledge of the

topic

2.4, Benefits and challenges of using pair and group work in a speaking lesson

2.4.1 Benefits of using pair and group work

2

1 To teachers

a Reducing workload

Firstly, teacher’s workload is reduced because he/she does not have to pay attention to

every single student ‘The leader of each group will help the teacher instruct members, coordinate the activities of the group and serve as a required as a link with teacher

(Byme, 1983:76) The teacher now frees “from her usual role of mstructor- correclor-

controller” (Ur, 1981:8) and acts as a guide or consultant Ile/ she can wander around

the class, listening to the language students are producing, assessing each individual

studont’s performance, noting language mistakes for future remedul work, devoting a

little more time to slower leamers

more activitics This will be for sure appreciated by the studonts who will not have time ta get bored because of the variety of activities and thair own participation in the

lesson,

241.2 To students

a Expanding Student Talking Time (STI)

First of all, pair work and group work dramatically “increase the amount of time that learners get to speak in the target language during lesson.” according to Nunan

(2003:54) This idea is shared by many researchers on the same field Long and Porter

(1985) estimated that in a SO minute lesson with 30 students, if the students talked only

to the teacher, they would get 30 seconds of talking time per lesson They calenlate that

this equals “just one hour per student per year” (p 208) On the olhter hand, working mm

pairs and groups, students scomingly take up all the time to interact with others instead

of responding and listening to teachers

b Creating secure and positive classroom almosphere

in a pair or a small group, students can actively participate in the lesson; even anxious

and relicenl students become vocal participants (Brown, 2001:178) because they are

under no pressure of being called on by the teacher to answer a question “on public display” (Brown, 2001:178) Instead, they can get involved in talking to their friends

for practicing the language items and language functions, sharing opinions to come up

with an answer

c Increasing peer working

Studenls have chances to give individual alfention and assistance to one another on the

grounds that they now work one-on-one and share a “we’re all in this together” attitude

(Slavin, 1987) During the discussion, they may help to share ideas, correct each

other’s mistakes, suggest a ncoded word, and teach some knowledge as well

@ Developing social skills

Social skills of students who participate in pair and group work are proven lo Tisc (Slavin, 1991) Working in pair and group, students have the opportunity to find their voice, actively listen to arguments made by peers, work through conflict, and make

compromise This results in the encouragement of students’ broader skills of

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cooperation and negotiation, which are rogarded as indispensable factors for success in

their lives

2.4.2 Challenges in using pair and group work

2421 To teachers

a Background noise

Obviously, pair work and group work in a large class will be noisy (Doff, 1988:141)

When there is a high level of noise, the teacher finds it difficult to get the whole class’

attention Jacobs (1994) suggested some ways far the teacher to keep the whole class

under control Firstly, the noise monitor of each group should be assigned (or pointed out by the group members) in order to help urge the whole team to “collaborate

achvely yel quietly” Moreover, the teacher can have the class’ allenlon by using

signals such as clapping hands, blowing a whistle, ringing a bell, etc

b Studenis’ errors

Tn pairs or groups, students will “simply reinforce cach other's orrors” (Brawn,

2001:181) and the teacher is not always on hand to correct errors and mistakes

However, Brown also staled that “Frrors are a ‘necessary’ manifestation of imler-

language development” Added to this, research done by Long and Porter (1985) reveals that the amount of errors students make in pair and group work is not more than

in normal class Furthermore, other researches on errors prove that levels of accuracy

maintained in unsupervised groups are as high as those in whole class work and that attempts by teachers to correct students’ speech errors have little effect on students’ subsequent, perlonuance Tnstead, students oflen carry onl pecr correction within the small group (Brown, 1994) and they are more inclined to remember them

oc Use of the mother tongue

In pairs/ groups, students are tempted Lo use their native language to express their ideas especially if they get excited In fact, the use of mother tongue is advantageous in such activilies as “grammar explanalion, checking comprehension, giving instructions, discussing, classroom methodology and checking for sense” (Atkinson 1987:242) Nevertheless, in case of an oral fluency activity, “the use of a language other than

English makes the activity essentially pointless” (Harmer 2001:132) Therefore, the teacher should encourage students to insist on the use of oral production activities

242.2, To students

a Awkward pairs/groups

In spite of the teacher's careful planning and management, it is apparent that there is not always satisfactory combination among students Some pairs may find it hard to concentrate on the task and then “veer away from the point of an exercise, talking about something else completely often in their first language” (Harmer 70001:116) In some groups, lazy students may keep silent during the process and defer to the oldest

or best student’s ideas; or quicker and stronger students tend to “blurt out their ideas, overwhelming” the weaker and slower ones (Brown, 2001: 182), which resulls in the shrinking of the weak carers, or talkative students may dominate proceedings; or less extrovert students may not participate fully enough or even their roles may become fossilived When such problems do occur, teacher may need to change the pairs or groups in order that all group members gain the most from the activity For instance, teacher should not stream best friends for pair work; all the high- level figures should

be put in one group so that lower- level students in other groups cannot depend on them Besides, teacher can appoint the group leader for each group or let the students choose their own

b Finishing first

In pair work and group work, there is a problem occurring frequently that some pairs/ groups (finish carlicr than others The teacher needs to be ready for some ways of dealing with such situation Some teachers would tell students to relax while waiting for other pairs/groups to finish This may be helpful for tired students but also make soute students have the fecling of being ignored, Anolher way is lo slop the avtivily for the whole class, which may remove the problem of boredom; on the contrary, may be very do-motivaling for the students who have not yet finished, especially where they are nearly there and have invested some considerable effort in the procedure (Harmer 2001:124) The most appropriate solution to this problem is to prepare a list of spare

activiHos handy for carly finishing pairs’ groups to complete while they arc waiting, This will show that students are still concerned and they are not left to do nothing,

2.5, Empirical studies related to pair and group work

So far a lot of research have been done in the field of teaching and leaming English through pair work and group work and revealed how effective this teaching strategy is

Below is a review of some international and national studies:

The study conducted by Seyed, Morteza, & Soudabeh (2003), the two first from Iran and the third from India, investigated the effect of individual, pair, and team work on the speaking fluency of Iranian elementary ETL learners The results showed that pair work and team work oulperformed individual work Therefore, it is suggested lo teachers that individual work should not be emphasized meanwhile pair work and team work should be highly emphasized where speaking fluency is the facus of study

Syamsuddin from Program Pascasarjana Universitas Hasanuddin carried out an experimental research on the contribution of pair and group work activities to the

improvement of students’ speaking performance and he proved thal there was a

significant difference of the speaking performance between the students who

were taught by using pairwork group activities and those who were taught

through conventional method The students had favorable atitude towards dhe use

of paintwork group activities in learning English to increase their speaking

performance because they could directly practice their Frylish with their (fends

and they had self confidence in speaking English Basod on these conclusions, the researcher recommended Lnglish teachers had better apply pair/group work activilics to develop their students’ spenking performance and encourage students to

speak English frequently both in and out of the class

‘Najma Raja (2012) - a research scholar in Hamdard Institute of Education and Social Scionces, Hamdard University Karachi, Pakistan oxplored the offectivencss of group work and pair work for students of Lnglish at undergraduate level in public and private sector colleges It was concluded that group work and pair wark was best used when it was not the only classroom interaction pattera, but when it was combined with other

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stralcpics Teachers could plan their lessons to include tcachers-centered work, individual work and pair work as well as group work Moreover, the teachers need

cucourage siudents (o participate or give suggestions aboul how sludents right

proceed in an aotivity especially when there was a silence or when they were confused about what to do next The teacher might need to prompt the students with information thoy had forgotten

As in Vietnam, Mi and Thanh (2008) examined the feasibility and the effectiveness of

the implementation of pair work and group work in (cachitys speaking for 10" graders

of Ho Chi Minh’s public high schools ‘The conclusion was drawn that the use of pair work and group work was favored and welcomed by the majority of the 10" form students and teachers for ils merits such as creating a relaxing leaming caviionment, helping students Jeam how to share their responsibilities to solve tasks better and faster Besides, there were some pitfalls as well The study also implied a number of suggestions about how to make the implementation of pair and group work into

teaching speaking successful

Phuong (2010) had an investigation into the effectiveness of using group work to teach

Foglish grammar lessons in the college of Tectnologies and Economies in Trade Tt was pointed out that the use of group work to teach English grammar was effective as

it changed studeris’ altitudes towards grammar learning positively Students no longer

felt bored and frustrated but relaxed and comfortable Additionally, some remarkable

suggestions were stated for teachers ta better the use of group work to teach grammar

Tn conclusion, The rualter pair work and group work in language teaching has recuived great concern and the list of related studies is still going on Ilowever, at Yen Lac high school- the site of this minor thesis, there has never been any research on the use of pair work and group work in English teaching As a result, the study was carried out in the hope that it can be beneficial to the teaching and learning English at the school

1400 students and 9 teachers take part in teaching English, most of whom are highly

responsible for their work

ach class takes three 15- minute Inglish lessons per week, Many of students lack of the background knowledge of English subject: consequently, they show little interest in English it is a hard job for teachers at Yen Lac high school to promote students’ motivation of leaning English

Moreover, the class size is quite large, usually consisting of 40 or 45 students Almost all the classrooms are equipped with only blackboards, only some with projectors

For speaking skills, students usually have to complete four tasks ‘ask 1 and 2 often make an emphasis on language input and language functions, for example, expressing

yreferences, agreements, disagreements, etc Task 3 and 4 give opportumiliss for

students to reflect their opinions on a particular topic or produce a conversation of 2-3

minutes Some tasks are practiced with individuals, some with the whole class, and

anos with parrs or groups.

proficiency, leaming styles, and attimdes to English subject The students, generally

speaking, had a lot of difficulties in mastering speaking skills Thus, it is necessary that Tnglish teachers at Yen Lac high school take effective ways to help enhance students”

speaking skills

2.2 Teachers

Four female teachers were in charge of teaching English for grade-10 classes All of

these teachers were graduates aging [rom 26 lo 38 years old Among them, one had 14

‘years of teaching experience, one with 5 years, one with 4 years, and one with 2 years

The Ieachers shared one thing in common that they all had the experience with pair and

group work when they were still students Nevertheless, when becoming a teacher, each of them had their own preference of teaching methods Younger teachers tend to

be active on applying new teaching techniques with desire of promoting students’

motivation and participation

3 Data collection instruments

Tn regards lo the rescarch’s aims, this study was conducted in the ight of both quantitative and qualitative method in which the data was collected by means of

questionnaire, interviews and classroom observation

3.1 Questionnaires

3.1.1 Reasons of using questionnaires

Survey questionnaire is a wrillen instrument, consisting of a list of questions and (he respondents are to write down the answers or select from the suggested choices (Brown, 2001) This instrument is recommended to be among, the most effective ones

to collect dala in social science By using it, the researcher can lake advantages of

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putting less pressure on respondents, avoiding bias, simplifying the analytic stage (Gillham, 2000), and conducting on a large scale in a short time (Le, 2011) Therefore,

questionnaire is appropriate lor this study which has 110 studonits as saruple size

Among the types of questionnaire administration, the researcher utilized face- to- face

type in the sense that more answers were returned and the questions were ensured to be

fully (illed withoul any misunderstanding As a result, the researcher could gel valuable data for her study

3.1.2 Questionnaire format

‘the questionnaire for students was designed with 11 questions in English and divided

into three parts with their own functions

Part 1 with 8 questions aimed al figuring oul how pair work and group work were

often used to teach speaking skills for grade-10 students

Part 2 consisting of 2 questions investigated the benefits both teachers and students

gained and the challenges they often faced when using pair work and group work for practicing speaking skills

Part 3 conlaimug Iquestion with a view to finding out stuslents’ expectalions of the

solutions their teachers tock in order to overcome the difficulties and improve

the effectiveness of pair work and group work

3.2 Interviews

3.2.1 Reasons of using interviews

According to Kvale (1996.14), mlerview is “an interchange of views between two or

more people on a topic of mutual interest for knowledge production” ‘The benefits

of Ihis istrumert, are reported by Gray (2004:214) as allamung highly personalized

data, taking opportunitics for probing, and getting a good retwn rate Those characteristics are best suitable for the present research to pursue in-depth information

on using pair and group work from four teachers

3.2.2, Interview format for teachers The interview included 10 questions distributed in three parts Zach question had one

fimetion for the aun of he research

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Part 1 containing 7 questions was supposed to reveal the frequency of pair work and

proup work in teaching speaking skills, the ways they formed pairs and groups, the sive of a group, the activities for pair and group work, teachers’ procedures

in carrying out pair and group work, and students’ attitudes towards pair and group work,

Part 2 designed with 2 questions focused on the benefits students gained and the

difficulties they encountered when pair/ group work were used to teach speaking skills

Part 3 was the last question exploring the solutions teachers took to handle these

problems

3.3 Classroom observations Classroom observation is believed to provide a holistic picture of the natural settings and reveal the extemal factors in second language learning Therefore, using it, the researcher can get quite a lot of data in the actual procedures that effectively supplement dala oblained from questionnaires and interviews (Adams, Fujii and Mackey, 2005), in other words, cnhanee the reliability and the validity of the study

Before observing, the researcher created a classroom observation sheet consisting af a list of the observation items to help gel the answers to the research questions Four classes taught by four different teachers are chosen to be observed during their

speaking lessons wilh their teachers’ permission

4, Data collection procedures

In the first phase, questionnaires were launched to 110 students Firstly, students were

explained the purpose of the queshomaires and provided overall guidelines io fill in

After that, they had 10- 15 minutes to complete under the researcher’s observation

Students were also encouraged to raise their voice if they found anything difficult to

understand or had any suggestions Lastly, the completed questionnaires were collected

for data analysis

In the second phasc, the rescarcher contacted 4 teachers for interviews at their convenient time The researcher asked the informants for permission to play the

recorders so that she could myvolve naturally im the discussions and review thern later

All the interviews were in Vietnamese and lasted 10 or 15 minutes, depending, on the informants’ reactions and responses

Besides, classroom observations were conducted to confirm the real procedures and

problems occurring in the classrooms Before the lessons, the researcher met the

teachers to ask for permission anil gel au overview of the lesson plans Dunng the

lessons, teachers’ steps of implementing pair and group work and students’ activities

were observed and noted in the observation checklist prepared in advance Cameras or

recorders were nol laken fo avoid the participants’ distraction:

5 Data analysis procedures

The data of the study were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively

‘the researcher exploited descriptive statistics to quantify the quantitative data

from the questionnaires in form of charts and figures

As for open-ended items in the questionnaires as well as the data from interviews and observations, the researcher analyzed basing on the interpretive

framework incorporated the obyjeclives of the study

Tinally, comparisons between students’ answers and teachers’ were addressed

and conclusions were drawn for research questions

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CHAPTER 3: MAIN FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

It is apparent from Figure 3.Ithat pair work and group work are the most

frequent work organizations used in teaching speaking skills About 36% of the

respondents reported that they always worked in pairs for practicing speaking skills

Another 50% of participants stated that they usually did so As for group work, 11% of

respondents indicated that they always practiced speaking in groups Another 61%

showed that they usually formed groups for practicing speaking Meanwhile whole-

class work and individual work are used less frequently About 47% of respondents

reported that they rarely practiced speaking skills with the whole class and totally 55% stated that they sometimes or rarely practiced individually

The results from both the interviews with teachers and class observations also revealed that pair work and group work were used in every speaking lesson Pair work

was often used for the two first tasks in a speaking lesson in which language input was

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emphasized, whereas group work was utilized for the latter ones to give students

chance to express their opinions

1.1.2 The formation of pairs/ groups

themselves groups groups groups groups

students students students of students of

randomly sitting near similar different

ornextto speaking speakiig eachother abilities abilities

Figure 3.2 Students’ reflections on how teachers form pairs and

As shown in the figure, the most popular way of forming pairs/ groups indicated

by participants is pairing/ grouping students sitting near each other 59 % informed that

their teachers always arranged them to work with students sitting around 27% stated that their teachers usually did Sometimes teachers paired/ grouped students randomly

by counting for example, which was confirmed by 47% of the respondents Students

were given few opportunities to decide their partners or to work with those having similar or different speaking abilities

‘The teachers reported that the most convenient way was to pair/ group students

with the ones sitting nearby for the sake of saving a lot of time and keeping the whole

class under control Some teachers said they sometimes paired/ grouped students randomly or basing on their English speaking abilities to avoid boredom and give

students chance to learn from one another

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In fact, from class observations, the researcher found out that all students tumed

to those sitting around them when asked to work in pairs/ groups These pairs/ groups

seemed to be fixed, thus, the members gathered themselves without teachers’

Figure 3.4 shows that the students were often asked to work in pairs or in small

groups of 3-4 in their speaking lessons with the confirmation of 100% respondents The number of the participants informed that they usually worked in groups of 5-6

accounted for only 15%

According to teachers, there were about 40 students in each class; therefore,

organizing activities for pairs and small groups of 3-4 was common They also

affirmed that letting students work in groups of 2-4 was much convenient for them to control the class The bigger ones of 5-6 or more were only preferred for more

toughing tasks which demanded students’ cooperation and speed

The researcher also observed that teachers often let their students work in pairs

or groups of 3-4 In some classes, there were 1 or 2 students left after groups of 3-4 were formed; hence, there were 1 or 2 groups including Sstudents With this number of

members in a group, students are close enough to discuss and listen to others” ideas

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1.1.4 The activities for pair and group work

As we can see, teachers organized a variety of activities for students to practice

in the speaking lessons Discussions was stated to be the most frequent activity for pair work and group work when up to 52% of the respondents confirmed they always and

41% said they usually carried them out Other popular activities are problem-solving,

interviews, and role play with respectively 419%; 33%; and 28% of the participants

reported they usually practiced them

As for the teachers, all of them affirmed that activities such as discussions,

problem-solving, interviews, role play were often used for pair work and group work in

speaking lessons, Discussions and Problem-solving gave students opportunities to deal

with current social issues in environment, health, education, and so on, whereas

Interviews and Role-play helped them get exposed to real life situations in which

colloquial words were used Sometimes teachers also had students practise

information- gap activities to get familiar to some expressions or question models, In

the teachers’ opinions, Games sounded interesting and motivating to students; however, they were occasionally used for pair and group work Firstly, because this

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