Luận văn a study of instructions for group work in 2nd year non english major classrooms at thai nguyen university

However, many teachers complain that they are facing many challenges in organizing and managing, especially giving instructions for group work, Some teachers A study of teachers’ inst

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Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies

Faculty of Post Graduate Studies

Nguyễn Thị Hiển Hạnh

A STUDY OF INSTRUCTIONS FOR GROUP WORK IN

2*” YEAR NON ENGLISH MAJOR CLASSROOMS AT

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

(Nghiên cứu việc hướng dẫn hoạt động nhóm trong

các lớp không chuyên tiêng Anh năm thứ hai tại

Đại học Thái Nguyên )

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iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

‘LNU: ‘Chai Nguyen University

CUT: Communicative Language Teaching

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Teacher's profiles (Total number of toncher: 9)

Table 2: The organization and content of the teachers’ instructions

‘Table 3-The language used for the instructions

Table 4: Physical expressions for the instructions

Table 5: Students’ opinions on the purpose of using group work in their class Table 6: Students’ opinions on types of group activitics they like most

Table 7: Reasons for offective instructions

Table 8: Favarite ways of forming group work

Table 9 Students’ di fficullics when following icachers’ instructions.

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PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationales of the study

2 Aims and significance of the study

4, Research Questions 5 ose tt HH th HH th nhìn Hư Hào

5 Methods of the study

6, Design of thee Sth soso ses eves oso ssn ot anton nt eevee aes

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT

CTIAPTER Tf: LIFERATURE REVIEW

£1 Communicative tanguage teaching

1.1.1 Au overview of communicative language teaching,

1.1.2 Communicative ac ies

1.2 Group work in communicative language teachÌNg «con veins sen

1.2.1 Cancepf oÏ gr0p W0TK, cà cà sọ nọ HH HH nh Ho khe aves 1.2.2 Advantages of group work

1.2.3 General strategics for a successful group work

1.2.4 Factors affecting the success of group work

1.2.5 Teacher's rofes in group work

13 Teacher's instructions for a successful group work

1.3.1 Teacher’ s instructions and its relation to teacher talk

1.3.2 The definition of teacher’s instructions for group work

1.3.3 The importance of instructions in organizing group work

1.3.4 Principles of giving instructions to group work

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1L.2.1 Quesfionnaires cà SH nen Hee Hoeeeeeoo 2B

11.2.3 Interviews "— " cutsossveearseeesevisaenane sen 4£.3 The current situation of English teaching and learning at TNU 29 CHAPTER IL: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

THỊ1 Resulf adlysls "— " cutsusseceasteessevisaenane

111.1.1.1 The organization and content of the teachers' instructions 31 111.1.1.2 The language used for the imstructions "

1LL.1.1.4 Observation of the nine classraoms in details 36

111.1.2.1 Siudents’ opinions an the purpose af using graup work in thelr dass 49

111.1.2.2 Students’ preference for group activities poe SO 111.1.2.3 Reasons for the effectiveness of teacher's instructions ,1

111.1.2.5 Difficulties students have cxperienced when following

1H.1.3 Teachers' nterviewx sở 60 1LL.1.3.1 Teachers’ satisfaction on the Iessons observed 61 111.1.3.2 Teachers’ views on the success and failure of the instructions

1LL.2.1 10w Instructions are used for group work in 2™ year non-Lnglish

major classrooms at TNU? .0 0 cc0ccccescesseesseeetseeriessseesene "

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11L.2.2 Whaf facilfates and hinders the feachers when giving instructions

for group work

IH.3 Cause analysis for the results of the study

11.3.1 Cultural background

1113.2 Class size

11.3.3 Factors concerned with learners

11.3.4 The limited teaching time

11.3.5 Teacher’ s awareness toward instructions for group work

ILL4 Recommendations

111.4.1 Recommendations to the teachers

1HL4.1.1 Design and select appropriate activities

1LL4.1.2 Snggested group activities with improved instructions

1114.2 Recornmendatiuns to the students

1LL4.2.1 Be attentive in class 117.4.2.2 Be cooperative with the teacher PART THREE: CONCLUSION

1 Summary of the study

2 Limitations and recommendations for further research

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Questionnaires for students

Appendix 2: Classroom checklist for observations

Appendix 3: Post- lesson interview questions for teachers

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PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationales

In recent years, together with the increasing, need for English leaming, great efforts have been made in order Io improve the quality of English leaching, His certain that icaching English is a complex process involving many complex faclors Larsen — Freemum (1991) poinis out: language teaching ca be summarived inlo three fields Janguage leamer/ learning (low to learn); language/culture (What to learn); teacher/

teaching (How to teach) (Johnson, 2002) Since 1960s, the research on classroom

discourse has grown rapidly, Before that, teaching methodology has been explored and

an cffective teaching method is tried to be found Since teaching methods do not play a decisive tots in language classrooms, the focus has shifled fram teaching methods lo

teacher’s talk in classroom process, or teacher’s instructions

Giving instructions is particularly important to language teaching According to pedagogical theory, instructions that the teacher uses in the classroom determine to a jarger degrec whether a class wilt suseced or nol since almost all of the classroom activities and teacher’s help are organized and provided to the students through 1nstrucHons

In Vietnam, English has beconte an intcrnational language of comnrunication as well as

a compulsory subject al mast schools and universities Fnglish proficieney is very necessary for those who want to get a better job or, for the least of it, pass the English

exam at the end of their study course In order to improve the English teaching and leaming quality, teachers at Thai Nguyen University, where I work, have been using different techniques, one of which is group work key features of leamer centered

orientation They boliove thal group work help ta provide their students with more opportunilies ta exchange their ideas make them more confident and crealive in

Jeaming and promote their autonomy by allowing them to make their own decisions in the group However, many teachers complain that they are facing many challenges in

organizing and managing, especially giving instructions for group work, Some teachers

A study of teachers’ instructions for group wark in 2"* yaar non-English major classrooms at

Thai Nguyen University

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do not use English frequently and sometimes not confident in their use of the language Therefore, the effectiveness of their instructions for group work in class may not as high as being expected Along with a possible lack on the part of toachers lo give instractions in English in the classroom, there may also be a reason on the part of class

size Most of the non-Linglish major classes at ‘hai Nenyen Ltniversity are large

Hence, the noise as well as the mixed ability of the students may lead them to an inadequate understanding about the instructions given, Since a better understanding of the teacher’s instructions for group work can undoubtedly help students successfully fulfill their tasks in the group and certainly improve their leaming, it is necessary to do some research om teachers’ instructions for group work from boil theoretical and practical perspective The anthar hopes to make a modest contribution lo an increased understanding of giving instructions for group work in non-Linglish major classrooms

at Thai Nguyen University, Basing on which group work can be organized in a more effective way to create variety, dynamism, and freshness in the classroom

2 Aims and significance of the study

21 Aims of the study

‘The study is conducted with a purpose to investigate how instructions are used for

group work in 2" year non-Hnglish major classrooms ‘Thus, the specific purpose is to

provide reality evidence of the use of instructions for group work in 2" year non-

English major classrooms In this way, the factors that influence to the effectiveness of

an instruction will be clarified so thal suggestions for betler instructions will be discussed in order to help teachers improve their instructions for group work consciously

2.2 Significance of the study

‘The study of teachers* instructions for group work in 2™ year non-English major at

Thai Nguyen University ({NU) is significant in three different ways Kirst to the

teachers, they should realize the fact that instructions play the decisive role to the

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success of group work They are the guiders that provide the students with alll necessary information such as time limitation, group size, and detailed tasks assigned to each sindenl Therefore, a carefully plamed instruction is really nceded when organizing a group activily Similarly, an appropriate procedure is inevitable in giving instructions

In order to help the students fulfill their tasks snicessfiully, the teacher should explain systematically That means the teacher must have good organizational skills In addition to effective instructions, a friendly and co-operative climate should be created

so that students feel encouraging and rewarding 1o study Furthermore, teacher’s eye contact and body lauguage are also crucial, When giving instwuctions, the teacher should bear in mind thal they could use gestures such as using fingers lo select sindens

or to show the number of members in a group, or use eye contacl to warn some noisy students as well as to check their understanding of the instructions In fact, many teachers have neither the habit of using the body language and eye contact nor the skill

to utilize them, so the effectiveness is not high as they expect,

Secondly, the research provides evidence of how instructions are used by teachers al

‘Thai Nguyen University It also reveals the teachers and students’ attitudes toward good instructions Therefore, from the research results, the teacher can decide which techhiques and procedure should be used to make effective group activities

Finally, instructions are indispensable to the students in learning They may make progress after each lesson if the teachers” instructions for the class activities are well

organized

3 Scope of the study

It is a fact that teachers have many ways to divide the class into small groups so that students can work together at the same time in an activity Thus, to limit the scope of the study, the researcher intends to investigate only instructions for activities in which the teacher divides the class into groups of two, three, four or five since they are the

common size of group activities in the classroom at ‘Thai Newyen University

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Moreover, the respondents of this study are limited to 2°! year non-English majors chosen randomly at TNU, therefore, their opinion about teachers’ instructions might not be a representative of all students al TNU in particular and students learning English in general

3 Whal recommendations for improvement are needed to make instructions for

proup work more effective?

5 Methods of the study

In order to examane the situation of the study, the researcher used the following methods; observation checklists for every class of the teachers chosen, post lesson

interviews for the teachers and post lesson questionnaires for the students

The post lesson interview questions are aimed at obtaining information about the teachers’ own judgments on their teaching, particularly on the instructions

After each lesson, a questionnaire will be distributed to the smdents to get information about their evaluation and reasons for their successful or unsuccessful in following the teacher’s instructions, The author uses questionnaires for this stage because of the fact that they are easy to construct and uniquely capable of gathering a large amount of

information quickly in a form that is readily processable (Domyci, 2003)

Observation of the teachers’ classes will be carried out over a period of two months ta

obtain information about their actual teaching practices Specific episodes of events

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observed during the lesson will be used to generate discussion topics during post

Jesson interviews

6 Design of the study

The thesis consists of three main parts

Part 1 is the introduction in which rationales, aims, significance, research questians, scope, methods and design of the study are presented

Dan II, development, consists of three chaplers

Chapter 1 comes to basic concepts and knowledge relevant to the study as corununicative teaching theory, the usc of teacher talk, group work — its advantages and organi zation, the nature of instructions, and principles for giving instructions when organizing group work,

Chapter 2 provides with an overview of the teachers and students chosen, the classroom conditions, tinctable and teachers and students relationship at TNU Data

collection and statistical result are also prosonled in the chapter,

Chapter 3 discusses the findings of the research and suggests recommendations for the

improvement of instruction giving

Part III, the conclusion, summarizes the major findings obtained from the study ‘Then

it deals with the limitations and puts forward some suggestions for further study

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PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER E: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Communicative language teaching

11.1 An overvtew of communicative language teaching

The growth of interest in the utility of Communicative Language Teaching has been shaped in the changes in the Prilish language teaching tradition dating from late 1960s CLT inarks the beginning of a greal imovation within language teaching because of ils superior principles, which are widely accepted nowadays it is claimed fo involve the making of new and different assumptions about the two fundamental questions: what is Jeamt and how is teamed In fact, the communicative approach in language teaching originates from the theory of language as communication It then has been so rapidly

adopted and wid

disseminated that it quickly occupied the status of orthodoxy in British language tcaching circles, and attained support of leading methodologisls,

applied linguists, scholars and publishers as well as -institutions (Richard, 1985)

CLT is offen mentioned as an approuch that comprises Iwo sets of thearies: assumption

of what to teach, and assumption of how to teach

} Assumption of what to teach

‘As regards the first assumption, the theory of language in CLT shows that language is for communication, Al the level of lmguage theory, CIT has characteristics defined by

Richards and Rodgers (2001) as follows

* Langnageis a system of for the expression of meaning

* The primary function of language is to allow interaction and communication

= The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative use

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= The primary units of longuage are not merely its grammatical and structural features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in

discourse

Therefore, the purpose of language teaching is to develop “communicative competence”, a basic concept in CLT

Hymes (1972) defined "communicative competence’ as "what a speaker needs ta know

in order to be communicatively competent in a speech community,."( Hymes, 1972, cited in Richards and Rodgers, 2001) His viewpoint shows that acquizing

communicative compelence means

(Munby 1979: 17) Apart from those definitions, Canale and Swain (1980) also deseribed the concept of

“commrnicative competence" in term of four dimensions They are grammatical competence (grammatical and lexical capacity); sociolinguistic competence (the ability

to understand and produce appropriate language in the social context which the communication happens), discomse competence (the ability to comprehend the message underlying @ coheront and cohesive toxl); and sirategic competence (the

ability to employ communicative strategies to initiate and redirect commmnication)

> Assumption of how to teach

If the first assumption in CL'l is concemed with what should be taught, in this case, that is communicative competence), then the second assumption is related to how the

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teaching should be carried out, In other words, syllabus theory and syllabus models are

the second central point that is mentioned in CLT

One of the linguists devoting great contribution to communicative development is Wilkin D.A who proposed the first syllabus models which was developed into his later

‘ook Notional Syllabus in 1976, This syllabus model, remarked by Richards (2001) as

an tempt to illustrate the functional view of language in syllabus design, specifies the two categorics namely national (c.g., frequency, motion, location) and conumnnicative function (¢.g., vequests, offers, apologies, complaints) Thal is to say, a national

syllabus comprises not only grammatical and lexical elements but also the necessary concepis, notions as well as topics for learners to communicate about (Richards, 2001) Wilkin’ viewpoint of syllabus model is also strongly supported by Bruntit and Roberts (1983: 85)

Syllabus aiming at communicative competence no longer concentrates so much on grammar but looks at the nature of meaning and of interaction, Syllabus of this kind is usually referred to as "Functional" or "Notional" or “Funetional/ Notional."

Brumfit & Roberts (1983: 85)

However, notional syllabus faces the criticisms from other scholars such as Henry Widdowson and Margie Berns Bems, M (1984: 15), argued that the textbooks based

on the functional view might be “sorely inadequate and even misleading, in their presentation of language as interaction." She also wamed that if the context, a rval key 1o ranstnilting meaning lo both form and function, was not seriously paid allention in the textbook, Ieamers’ communicative competence development would be limited Therefore, the notional syllabus deals with the components of discourse, but may not

be concemed with discowse itself, Similarly, Widdowson, H (1979) criticized Wilkin’ notional sytlabus model as the replacement of one kind of list (¢.g., a list of grammar items) with another kind of list (c.g., a list of notions and functions) He meant notional

syllabus focuses on products rather than communicative processes

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It is apparent that there exist varieties of opinions about notional syllabus, However, it

is these arguments that contribute to the further development of CLT, which is the most favorite approach now

Another point to make about CLT is learner- centeredness, Students in a leamer- centered approach are seen as being able to play a more active and participatory role than in laditional approaches Accordingly, teacher roles will be redefined with the change in aclivily organisation because individual learner is though! lo have unique interests styles, needs and goals, which should be reflected in the design of method of instruction (Richards

and Rodgers, 2001), To be more specific, teacher's instruction in leamer- centered approach includes

* jechniques that focus on or account for leamiers’ needa, styles, and goals

= techniques that give some control to the student (group work or strategy training)

™ techniques that inclnde the consultation and input of students and that do nat

presuppose objectives in advanced

= techniques that allow for student’ creativity and innovation

* techniques that enhance a student's sense of competence and self- worth

(Brown, 1994)

In brief, CL is identified with the following characteristics:

= It makes communicative competence the goal af teaching

= It develops procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication

= Theonsiders leamer and his communicalive needs the centre of language teaching process,

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These characteristics will be the principles for teacher to choose appropriate techniques for increasing students’ participation in communicative activities in classroom The concepts communicative activities will be discussed in the nexl section

For some time after the rise of cormmunicalive language teaching, the status of

grammar in the curriculum was rather uncertain Some linguists, like Cross (1995) or

‘Ur (1996), maintained that it was not necessary to teach grammar, that the ability to use second language (knowing ‘how’) would develop automatically if the leamers were required to focus on meaning in the process of using language to communicate In recent years, this view has come under serious challenges, and it now seemed to be

widely accepted thal Ihere is valuc in classroom tasks which tequire learners to focus

on form, This also accepted thal grammar is an essential sonrce in using language communicatively,

In CLT, the types of classroom activities and the way they should be conducted will influence leaming, Good teaching allows both leaming and acquisition, Learning

would include activities while acquisitions presumably takes place duriug activitics

where the focus is on the content or the function of language The acquisition proces

in fact the major theoretical rationale for the communicative approach, and the evidence is quite clear that without a stage of language use for communication, Janguage teaching is not very efficient,

11.2 Communicative activities

Communicative activities, defined by Harmer (1991), are those that give students who

are somehow involved in both the desire to communicate and a purpose involving them

in a varied use of language, Such activitics are ciucially important in a language classroom since the stuslents can do their bost to use the language individually, arriving

at a degree of language autonomy

Nolasco and Athur (1993) characterized communicative activities as follows:

* They involve using language for a purpose

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» They encourage students to be creative and contribute their ideas

* They focus on the message and students concentrate on "what" they are saying rather than "how" hey are saying it,

* The students work independently of the teacher

» the students determine what they want to write and say ‘The activity is not designed to control what the students will

(Notesco and Athur 58) Additionally, Tlarmer (1991) sorled commumicalive activilies into oral and written ones, Oral communicative activities include seven categories: reaching a consensus, discussion relaying instructions, communication games, problem solving, talking about you, simulation, and role-play Written communicative activities also comprise relaying, instructions, writing reports and advertiscment, co-opcrative writing, exchanging lellers and wriling journals By taking part in communicative avtivitics of both oral and writlen form, studsnis can aclually do things with language and make language their own Doing well this action needs active siudents' participation, which

will be discussed in the following section

L2 Group work in Communicative Language Teaching

1.2.1 The definition of graup work

Group work in the second language classroom has been recently recommended by Flander (1970), Adams, McLean and Castanos (1976), especially by Adrian Dotf (1988; 137) which defines it as a process that “the teacher divides the class into small groups la work logether, all the group work af the same time ”

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According to Joe Landsberger (1996), the philosophy of working in groups involves shared and/or leamed values, resources, and ways of doing things However, each group, and cach individual, will only be as cfective if they are willing to ombrace and/or respect differences wilhin the group

The main objective of most group work is the outcome The entire group wants the outcome to be good, however, the whole point of group work is for cveryene in the group to work as a lea to accomplish the outcome of the (ask Tk is important for everyone to work together When one person is not helping with the group effort or working on their part of the project, it causes the whole group to strain, and can also causes detrimental defects to the outcome of the task

2.2 Advantages of group work

Tn fact, all

teaching is oflen undervatued as a method This very valuable in developing a sense of unity and ensuting that nobody is left behind; it also helps Jeamers stay focused on the task if they know they are likely to be asked a question in the open class However, working in pairs or small groups is the best way to ensure that tasks arc discussed thoroughly and that people who might be reluctant to speak in front

of the whote class get a chance to contribute For some subjects such as forcign languages, group work is the only way to make sure that students get the practice they need More generally, group work fosters negotiation and co-operative skills, especially

if the groups are changed regularly They can also help provide motivation; students will often work hard on a group project or performance, which they imow, is going to

‘be scou by the whole class

‘Using group work in the classroom has been recently recommended by Flander (1970); Adams, Me Lean and Castanos (1976), especialy by Long, , Porter, and Patricia (1985) They all have used pedagogical arguments to support group work There arc af beast 5 pedagogical arguments for Ihe use of group work in second language learning Tn order

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‘Yhe teacher-centered classroom, the lock step, limits not only the quantity of talk students can engage in, but also its quality [his is because the teacher — fronted lessons favor a highly conventionalized variety of conversation In such settings, one speaker asks a scrics of known information, or display questions, such as Do you come to class

at 7.00? or Do you live with your parents? The question lo which there is only one correct answer The second speaker responds and ihon in the classroom, typically has

the correctness of the respond confirmed (yes, righl, good) Only rarely does genuine

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communication takes place, Another unfortunate effect of this sort of pseudo

commuuication is that students’ attention tends to wander The reason is that students

are asked Io give # prompt and brie? answer, which requires Hite thought Then, teachers quickly ‘correct’ any errors and students appreciate just as quickly tal what they say is less important than how they say it Group work oan help a great deat in such situations, First, unlike the lockstep with its single, distance initiator of talk (the teacher) and its group interlocutor (the students) face — to - face communication in a small group is a natural setting for conversation, Second, two or three students working together for five minutes at a stretch are uo limited to producing hurried, isolated sentences of ileranges, thereby developing discourse competence, not just a senlonec

grammar Third, as shown by Long, Adams, Me Teun and Castanos, students can take

on roles and adopt positions, which in lockstep work are usually the teacher’s exclusive preserve and can then practice a range of language functions associated with those roles and positions Finally, given appropriate materials to work with and problems to solve, sludeuls can develop at least soine of the varicly of skills that inake up communicative competence in a second language Clewly, group work improves the quality of student

talk

The third argument is that group work helps individualize instruction In a large teacher

—conlered classroom, many individual differences are ignorad because il is impossible for the teacher to give individual attention to the students and to check all their work The individual differences inclnde students” age, cognitive stage, sex, attiinde,

uotivation, aptitude, personality, interest, cognitive style, and prior language leaming

experience, I would be a grcat success if these differences were reflected in the pacing,

of instruction, in ils linguistic and cullure contoni, in the level of intellectual challenge

it poses, in the manner of its presentation and in the kinds of the classroom roles students are assigned Although group work obviously canmot handle all these differences, still it can help That is, small groups of students can work on different sets

of materials suited to their needs Moreover, they can do so simultaneously, thereby

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avoiding the risk of boring other students who do not have the same problem Group work, then, is a first step toward individualization of instruction, which everyone ngreos Ìs a good idea, bul which few icachers or Lextbooks scems to do much about

Furthermore, group work promotes a positive affective climate Ina teacher centered classroom many students, especially shy or linguistically insecure, exparience cousiderable stress when called upon in a public arena, Rescarch (sce, for example, Rowe, 1974 While and Lightbrown, 1983) has shown thal if studnis pause longer (han about one second before beginning to respond or while making a response, or appear

not to know the answer, or make an error, teachers will tend to interrupt, repeat or

rephrase the question She may immediately ask a different one, ‘correct’ and/ or switch to another students, Not all teachers do these things, of course, but most teachers

do so more than they could realize or would want to admit In contrast, working in small groups, students have a relatively intimate setting and, usually, a supportive

environment As far as the small group setting is concerned, Barnes (1973:19) states

‘that an intimate group allows us to be relatively in explicitly and in coherent change the direction in the middle of sentence, to be uncertain and self’ contradictory Moreover, freedom fiom requirement for accuracy at all costs and entry into the richer and more accommodating sct of relationships provided by small group interaction promote a positive affective climatc This in lun allows for the development of the kind of personalized, creative talk for which most aural — oral classes are trying to prepare

Jeamers

Beside the pedagogical arguments for the use of group work as an aid to second Janguage teaching, there is now an independent psycholinguistic evidence for group work utilizing This evidence emerged from recent work on the nature of non native’ non — native conversation It is usefull and necessary for us — Vietnamese teachers and learners of Fnglish — to study this rationale

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Hà

Concerning the psycholinguistic rationale, many linguists like Long (1985), Adams,

Mc Leans and Castanos (1976) examine the quality and the quality of speech in both teachœr — led class discussions and small group discussions The result is that the amounl and variely of student talk were found significanily grealer in small groups than

in the teacher — ted discussions, and group work enabled students to use language of a

‘broader range of social and interpersonal function than does lockstep, teacher — led classroom interaction ‘his finding suggested that, compared with teacher — led instruction, group work could serve as a more effective aid to second language

leaming,

Comparing, the accuracy of student production in teacher fronted discussion and smnall group discussion on decision — making tasks, Pica and Doughty (in press) found thal students perform al the samc level of grammatical accuracy in their sevond Janguage output in unsupervised group work as in ‘public’ lockstep work conducted by the teacher In addition, they found that the individual students talked more in their

teacher fronted discussions

Research into error correction by Fica and Doughty also found that the frequency of

esror correction and completions by students is higher in group work than in lock — step

teaching In a more detailed study, Bruton and Samuda (1980) stated that learners seem

amore apt to repair lexical errors during group work, whereas pay an equal amount of

atlention to errors of synlax and pronunciation

It should be acted that Doughty and Pica (1984) also studied negotiation, the

percentage of conversational adjusiments They found thal more negotiation was

occurred in the small group (66 percent) than in lockstep format (45 percent) The reason, according to them, was that students are reluctant to indicate a lack of understanding in front of their teacher and an entire class of students and so they de not

negotiate as much comprehensible inpul in whoto-class scltings

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Hị

E23 General Strategies for a successful group work

* Plan for each stage of group work

The firsl step thal needs to be taken when isachers intend lo organize a group work is the preparation step When writing the syllabuses for a course, the teachers are to decide which topics, themes, ar projects that might lead themselves to formal proup work Think about how they will divide their students into groups, help groups negotiate among themselves, provide feedback to the groups, and evaluate the products

of group work

% Curefiul and precise explanation

The second step is to explain carefully to the class how the groups will operate and how they will be graded, Group work is more sucessful when students are graded

against a sct standard than when they are graded against cach other (Source: Smith,

1986) The icacher also riceds to explain the objectives of the group tasks and define any relevant concepts, In addition to a well-defined task, every group needs a way of petting started, a way of knowing when its task is done, and same guidance about the participation of members

In order to get a successful group work, it is also necessary to train the students the skills they need, especially the collaborative They must lear to actively and tolerantly listen, help onc another in mastering the content, give and receive constructive

criticism, and manage disagrecmonts,

This is the step where teachers must use their words carefully, precisely and simply enough so that their students can understand and follow properly Without teacher’s

explanations, group work van not be successful as expected

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4 Create group tasl+ thai require interdependence

‘The students in a group must perceive that they “sink or swim" together, that each imember 1s responsible to and dependent on all the others, and that one cannot succeed unless all in the group succeed, Knowing that peers are relying on individuals is a powerful motivator for group work (Kobn, 1986), Strategies for promoting

interdependence include specifying commun rewards for the group, cncouraging

students lo divide up the labor, and formulating t

consensus ( Johnson, Johnson, and Smith, 1991)

s thal compel students to reach a

+ Create assignments that fit the studenis’ skills and abilities

Rarly in the lorm, the teacher should assign relatively casy tasks As students become more knowledgeable and familiar with group work, then he/she can increase the difficulty level For example, in a research methods course the teacher begins by having students simply recognize various research designs and sampling procedures Later, team members generate their own research designs At the end of the tena, each team prepares @ proposal for a research project and submits it to another team for

evaluation (Cooper and Associates, 1990)

Assign group tasks that allow for a fair division of labor

Teachers should try to structure the tasks so that each group member can make an equal conitibution, This task of the teacher in fact is not casy to fulfill if the class is lame with mixed ability students In thìa kind of lass, the cacher usually find bard to keop

an eye on every student, even afler they have as

or take-home exam, cach student receives the seore of the group It is predictable that

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49

groups consistently achieve higher scores than individuals and thus students enjoy collaborative test taking (Hendrickson, 1990; Toppins, 1989)

% Decide how the groups will be formed

Dividing students is one of the most important steps that play a decisive role to the success of proup work ‘There are a number of choices for the teacher to create variety They can randomly assign students to groups to maximize their heterogeneity: a mix of imales and females, verbal and quiet students, the cynical and the optimistic (Fiechtner and Davis, 1992; Smith, 1986) The other way is (o Tol sludnts choose with whom they

want to work, although this runs the risk thai groups will sacialize too much and thal students will self-sepregate (Cooper, 1990), Self-selected groups seem to work best in small classes, for classes of majors who already know one another, or in small residential colleges (Walvoord, 1986) Still teacher may form the groups themselves, taking inlo account sludeats' prior achievement, and their levels of preparation, work habits, ethnicily, and gender (Conmery, 1988) Tn addition, the leacher can also try to sprinkle fhe more able students cvenly among the groups (Welvoord, 1986) A middle

ground is to ask students to express a preference, if they wish, then the teacher makes

the assignments himself” herself

12.4 Factors that affect the success of group work

There are many factors we might considered when deciding how to pul individual students into proup work It is advisable to base such decisions on any of the following

principles proposed by Harmer (1999)

Friendship: When grouping students, il will be better if we are sure thal we are puting friends with friends Otherwise, the result may not as high as our expectation since most students are not willing to speak to the one they find umpleasant

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- Streemring: Grouping students according to their ability or level of participation is

a complicated task for teachers, Thus, this technique is not frequently used in the language classrooms

- Chance: Teachers can put students sitting next or near to each other together to form groups, Some teachers may even give each student a letter trom A to E or a aumnber from 1 to 10, and then ask As to form a group, Bs to form another group and so

on, Sometimes teachers group studenls basing on the colour of the clothes they are

‘wearing

- Changing group: TL is beller [or the students not lo stay in the same group,

working with the same friends from the beginning to the end of the activity A sequence may start with the teacher and the whole class before moving between group work and individual work until it returns to the whole class grouping

In addition to the principtes above, John Lloneyfield (1991) suggests some criteria for

the formation of groups that teachers should follows He offers free prouping where students can make their own decision about who to work with in a group He also suggests groups bascd on level of proficiency The other way to group students is to choose students randonily, which moans students may be grouped ơn the basis of who

is sitting next to whom in the class

Tl can be easily realived that teacher can choose any kind of grouping thal they think is effective and suitable to their students IEowever, as long as teachers use group work in the classroom, instructions for the students so that they know whom to work with and how to work will be of the greatest importance

12.5 Teacher's roles in group work

White organizing group work the teacher has different roles, both in selling and managing it ‘the first role that the teacher must carry ont is the role of a designer who

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21

thas to select activities for groups The teacher must be sure about the students’ level

and that the activities could be done reasonably well with the students’ proficiency

Another important role of the teacher is as a controller The teacher has to control not only what the students do, but also when they speak and what they speak about In order to be a successful controller, the teacher has to decide whether to join in the aclivily as an equal mamber or remaining the background to help or observe If the leacher altends to the activily with the sludenis, the psychological distance belween teachers and students may be reduced Certainly, the teacher should not continually correct the students or use her greater skills in the foreign language to her advantage In

addition, she/he may note common mistakes for revision at a later stage

One of the factors that motivate the leamers to do the activity is that their teacher often encourages them and suggests how they may proceed in an activity when there is silence or when they confuse aboul what to do ucxl Thus, the teacher should also perform the role of a prompter with discretion

Keeping a record of alll the activities done with the class, together with any comments

on the students’ performance is certainly of groat help for a successful group work The teacher should also note down any ideas for further activities or modifications of

existing ones

With the greal effort Lal the teacher puls in 1o group work, il is still a waste of lime if

she/he provides students with confusing instructions or omit some important

information In many cases, the teacher has to use most of the time assigned for group work to re-explain the rules or offer demonstrations, That means she/he cannot be a successfil controller, prompter or organizer Thus, a clear and simple instruction with appropriate examples as demonstrations at the beginning of each activity is a ‘must’ if the teacher wants to ensure the success of group work It is advisable that the teacher thinks oul exactly whal they are going lo say beforehand and checks if the students

have understood their tasks after the instructions

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L3 Teacher’s instructions for a successful group work

L3.1 Teacher's instructions and its relation to teacher talk

Classroom proves roscarch, as Gaics (1983) calls “the sludy of communication in the classroom”, has taken different forms: interaction analysis, teacher talk and discourse analysis (Ellis, 1985: 143) All dimensions of classroom process, from questioning to disciplining students, providing the feedback and especially giving instructions, mvolve

in teacher talk, There is no learmng, without teaching Therefore, as a tool of implementing plans and achieving tcaching goals, lcacher talk plays a vital imporianl role in language leaning, As Nunan (1991) points ont that teacher talk is of crucial importance, not only the organization of the classroom but also for the processes of acquisition It is important for the organization and management of the classroom Decause it is through Ianguage that teachers either succeed or fail in implementing their teaching plans, In Wams of acquisition, teacher lalk is important because il is probably the major source of comprehensible target language input thal the learner is likely lo receive The amount and type of teacher talk is even regarded as a devisive factor of

success or failure in classroom teaching

According to sovomd language acquisition theory, plenty of and high — quelily imput is the necessary element for successful language leaming ‘Ihere is no learning without input “Lf the second language is leamt as a foreign language in a language class in a non-supportve environment, instruction is likely to be the major or even the only source of target language input” (Stem, 1983: 400), Classroom is the chief source for

iangunge learners and teachor talk, particulerly leacher instructions, serves as the major target language input for them Stem proposed a teaching leaming model, which identified two principle factors, the language teacher and the language leamer

“The icacher, like the leamer, brings to language teaching cerlain characteristics which may have bearing on educational Ireament: age, sex, previous education, and personal qualities, Above all, the language teacher brings to it a language backpround and

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experience, professional training as a linguist and teacher, previous language teaching experience, and more or less formulated theoretical presuppositions about language, language learning and leaching” (Stern, 1983: 500) Thesc characteristics of language teacher are reflected in different characteristics and forms of teacher (alk, and certainly

of teacher’s instructions

1.3.2 The definition of teacher's instructions for group work

For most Vietnamese leamers of English, classroom is the main piace where they frequently expose to the targel language In the classroom, the teacher trics to use English whenever il is possible The language used by the teacher ras “two purposes: it serves both as the subject matter of the lesson and a3 the medium of instruction” (Willis 1987: 163) The previous purpose of language used in the classroom is obvious while the later has not been fully defined Oxford Advanced Leamer’s Encyclopedic defines

teacher's instruction as a “process of teaching knawledge or tcuchiug given”

‘The Longman dictionary of Contemporary English provides the following definition for an instruction: a statement/ order telling someone what they must do Another definition of instruction is that: It is “the purposeful dircetion of the teaming process" and is one of the major teacher class activities (atong with planing and managermen!) Professional educators have developed a variety of models of instruction, each designed to produce classroom learning Joyce, Weil, and Calhoun (2003) describe four categories of models of teaching/instruction (behavioral systems, information processing, personal development, and social interaction) that sumunarize the vast mjorily of instructional methods, Fach modal differs in the spacific type or measure of jeaming that is targeted Therefore, as a teacher make decisions about “best instructional practices" she/he must be certain that she/he connect recommended practices with specific desired outcomes ‘This point is often omitted; discussion of best practices then becomes a debate about desired outcomes rather than a discussion of

how to achieve therm:

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Towever, within the small scope of this research, the writer intends to study only instructions which are used for group work Basing on the discussions before, it is

unnecessary to state about the importance of teachers’ instructions in organizing group

work since the effectiveness of a group work is greatly defined by all the steps that the teacher takes as well as her/his language including instructions, and her/his manner who organizing them, As noled by GS Hughes (1981), the teacher almost indifferently uses variety of forms of situation, ranging from commands (Look at page ) to request (Could you open the book at page , please?) and suggestion (Why not open the book at page ?) Thus, it is certain that the instruction for group work is

a wide category of sentences teachers use when organize group works,

In this study, group work is referred to classroom activities, which are in dyads (pairs),

in triads, groups of four or even half the class In other word, within the scope of this

study, the wnter try to do a research on how instructions are used for every group

ackivily œrgamzed in the classroom

1.3.3 The importance af instructions in organizing group werk

Group work can be fiustrating for both students and teachers if instructions are not clear Students may question the teacher’s organizational skills, and they may waste precious time puzzling over directions, Therefore, instructions should clearly delineate the task andVor explain the loacher’s expectations, They should indicate the degree of freedom given io students in strnctuing the task and assigning group roles Clear instructions always include the time involved Students cannot manage their time

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wisely if they cannot plan ahead Numerous studies have identified “time on task” as a factor critical to student achievement In fact, instructions should also include a

“sponge” or extension activily thal leams musi turn to if they complete the initial

assignment This “sponge” typically involves more chaltenging problems to solve or

more complex issues to discuss

1.3.4 Principles of giving instructions to group wark

It is widely believed that the meaningful, situational use of the language in the classroom muy have positive effect on learning because of its communicalive polenliat Tsing the class tanguage nalurally associales the foreign tanguage (o situations where

an information gap does occur, such as: a teacher instructs leamers to an exercise in their books: “Open your book at page , please.” then checks their understanding of something (OK, did you get that?), which is indeed exchange real information with the icamers, Therefore, il is wise thal the lcacher justify the amount of new vocabulary and strucluras used when speaking to the students if she/he does nat wanl to re — explain all this — her words Jim Scrivener (1994) suggested five stops when giving instructions so

as to avoid the problem of quantity and over complexity of language used

~ Become aware of the Icacher`s own instruction giving

- Have a pre-plan instmuetion: collect essential information, use simple and clear language

- In class, create silence beforehand, make eye contact with the students before giving instructions, use authorily tone and gesture lo pace the instructions an clarify their meaning,

~ Use demonstration as much as possible

- Check understanding by getting evidence from the student Teacher may ask the students to show him/her what they are going, to do

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The five steps prepare the teacher with pre - stage, while - stage and post stage when she/he gives instructions for a group activity Basing on the suggested stages, the icacher needs Lo simplify their language and uses nalural language without too many commands, She! he is also encouraged fo use gesture and facial expressions as well as changing intonation properly during instructions in order to achieve the highest

effectiveness

Concerning the question of to use or nol lo use mother longue in instructions for group

works, a common pallern followed by many teachers is the tepetilion of complex

instructions in translation This pattern means an attempi is made in the L2 first to offer

the better pupils an opportunity to try to understand, whereas repetition in the mother

tongue will allow the weaker ones to understand the instructions anyway and maybe to start identifying the function of the foreign language used Students in order to show and check their understanding of what is happening, in the activity or to support their pours’ understanding classroom events also use the mother longue Nevertheless, the task of ruming an aotvily in the foreign language is nol easy Th is nol just the nealter of general language competence, but also of the specific needs of classroom language and

‘the teacher’s sense of measuring his/ her words so as to provide comprehensible input

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CHAPTER I: METHODOLOGY

IL.1 The informants

IL1.1 The teachers

The author intends to carry oul the study with uine teachers (coded as T1, T2, T3, TA,

‘TS, 'T6, 17, 'E8, and 'T9) who were divided into 3 groups All of the teachers were eager

to contribute to the study and did not mind having the author observe their lessons during

one semester Their protiles are described in table 1

‘year at the University, they leam general English with New Headway Elementary by John and Liz Soar (1995)

1.2 Data collection instruments

In the study, the author cmploys both qualitative and quantitative methods to get data for answering the research questions, According to Tarsen Freeman and Long

(1991:14), both qualitative and quantitative paradigms are not competing, but

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complementary, and the choice between the two is unnecessary They also assert that auch can be gained from a combination of the two Within the scope of this study, such a combination of both rescarch paradigms is belioved lo gain more in-depth data for anatysis

Since this study is designed to understand the phenomenon under investigation in a particular context, at Thai Nguyen University, it is a case study in nature According to Gillham (2001: 1), a case study is:

® Aunt of human activity embedded in the real world

* Which exists here and now

® - Thai emerges in wilh ils context so thal precise boundaries are difficult ta draw

Thus, a case study is one that seeks a range of different kinds of evidence which is there in the case setting, and which has to be abstracted and collated to get the best

possible answer to the research question

The study of cases, according to McDonough and McDonough (1997; 204) is not only

a qualitative undertaking, nor docs it present an cither/or perspective in quantitalive/qualilalive lems, Where, for cxample, researchers nood to siuly lược sale rends, cases will usually be sclocted an the basis of random sampling and the data snbnritted to slalistical analysis Besides, classroom is a special and restricted setting, It is not possible to select so many teachers randomly to be in one class or another because of the huge task of detail analysis, and itis impossible to control all the variables that might influence the outcome in a large-scale study It is why the case

study was chosen for the study

IL2.1 Questionnaires

Since the study aims lo investigate the leacher’s instruction - giving procedures, a pos!

— lesson questionnaire was administered to the students in the observed class to get

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information about their evaluation and reasons for their successful or unsuccessful result in following the teacher’s instructions The author uses @ questionnaire for this stage bovause of the fact thal they are casy lo construct and uniquely capable of gathering a large amount of information quickly in a form thal is teadily processable

(Domyei, 2003)

11.2.2 Classroom abservations

Beside questionnaires, classroom observations are the main tools to collect more

information about the procedures used by the teachers,

Observations of the leachors’ classes were carried out over a period of Gwe momihs to obtain information about their actual teaching practices Lach observation consisted of three steps: Before the lesson, during the lesson, and after the lesson In before — the — Jesson step, the author met the teachers to know their aims in teaching the lesson, to read their lesson plan In during the Iesson step, an observation sheet was used to record the instruction procedure, The atter the lesson step was for discussion and exchanging ideas between observers and the leachcrs

IL2.3 Follow — up interview

Tn order to gel information about the teachers’ preparation for their lessons and their beliefs regarding instructions and instruction giving procedures, the pre — lesson interview questions were designed ‘[hen, after the lesson, the post — lesson interview questions were utilized to obtain information about the teachers’ own judgments on

their teaching, particularly on the instructions:

Specific episodes of events observed during the lessons were used to generate discussion topics during post — lesson interviews

TL3 The current situation of English teaching and learning at TNU

The Foreign Languages Faculty, one of the thirteen faculties of Thai Nguyen College

of Education, was founded in 1995, There are 83 teachers in the faculty, of which thirty

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teachers are responsible for teaching English to non English major students in other departments of the college Recently, the quality as well as quantity of students curolling to the university has increased gradually Therefore, the thirly teachers have

‘been loaded with 1,000 students per year, (50 to 60 students in each class on average)

"This situation leads to the reduction of the language teaching effectiveness and creates challenges to teachers of English to deal with such crowded and mix- ability classes The non- English tnajar students al the University arc leaming New Headway — Elementary by Jolm and Liz Soar (1995) which is divided into two semesters wilh five credits each ‘The final test designed after each semester mainly evaluates students” proficiency of reading and writing, ‘This testing system is likely affect students’

Jeaming, strategies and their view to the importance of patticipating to the classroom

activities

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CHAPTER THREE: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

IIL.1 Data analysis

TIL1.1 Classroom observations

THI.1.1.1 The organization and content of the teachers’ instructions

Classroom observation in nine classes with the nine teachers was applied to identify

how instructions were used for group work

1 The sequence of the information is SE | CE

ina sensible order

4 A variety of techniques is utilized to CE | SE

make content concepts clear (e2.,

modeling, visuals, hands-on activities, SE | NE

demonstrations, body language),

A study of teachers’ instructions for group work in 2° year non-English major classrooms at

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‘Content 1 SE | CE

6 Teacher takes into account the

CE | SE

specific knowledge and experience of

the students, adds explanations as

Table 2: The organization and content of the teachers’ instructions (CE: clear evidence

SE: Some evidence _LE: limited evidence _ NE: No evidence)

The observation indicates, overall, that teachers in group 2 (T4 — T6) show the most

positive evidence of a good instruction for group work in which there is only one

limited evidence in maintaining the students’ engagement during the instruction

Together with the two other groups, group 2 has 4/9 periods observed in which the

teacher takes into account the specific knowledge and experience of the students, adds

explanations as necessary and refers to the students” experience

From table 2 we can see that teachers in group 2 have the most appropriate pacing during instructions There is only one period with limited evidence but 4/9 periods containing clear evidence for appropriate pacing Comparing with group 3, it can be recognized that teachers in group 3 are less experienced, in other word, they are not as

successful because they have only 2/9 periods with clear evidence for maintaining students’ engagements by pacing instructions while there are 2/9 lessons having no

evidence Group 1 shows the normal pacing while instructing students with 8/9 lessons

containing some or a lot of evidences of appropriate pacing to maintain students’ engagements

Demonstrations and models are extremely important to the success of an instruction as

well as a group activity Teachers should not assume that all students are attentive to their instructions The fact is that there are certainly some or groups of students having

private talks or thinking of something else instead of listening to the teacher, The result

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teachers in group 1 and 3 sometimes pass the step

IIL.1.1.2 The language used for the instructions

students! proficiency level (e.g, slower

rate, enunciation, and simple sentence CE | SE

structure for beginners),

cffective ways to emphasize the

paraphrasing the instruction

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12 The pronunciation and enunciation | 1 SE | CE

el

Table 3: The language used for the instructions (CE: clear evidence SE: Some evidence

LE: limited evidence NE: No evidence)

Concerning the language the teachers used when they give instructions, table 3 shows that 4/9 lessons of group 1 and 5/9 lessons of group 2 showed clear evidences of the

appropriateness for students’ proficiency level (e.g., slower rate, enunciation, and

simple sentence structure for beginners) The number was totally different from that of group 3, which had 2/9 lessons showing limited evidences and 1/9 lessons containing

no evidences of appropriate use of the language during instructions The ‘old’ teachers (group 1) seemed to find difficult to paraphrase the instructions with 3/9 lessons of

limited evidence and 5/9 lessons of some evidences that showed the flexibility of the

instructions Group 3 dealt with the same difficulty with 2/9 lessons giving limited evidences and 6/9 lessons consisting of some evidences whereas group 2 did not stuck

in paraphrasing instructions during group work They had 3/9 lessons with clear

evidences and 6/9 lessons having some evidences which showed that the teacher were

successful in making the instructions flexible

The authoritative tone used for instructions seemed to be a strength of the experienced teachers in group 1, who used that kind of tone in 7/9 lessons observed Teachers in

group 2 and group 3 did not show their lack of this skill However, group 3 still had

one lesson with limited evidences and one lesson of no evidences showing that they

can use the authoritative tone effectively

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However, teachers in group 1 showed that their pronunciation and enunciation were not

as clear as that of teachers in group 2 and group 3 who in tums had 5/9 and 4/9 lessons

with clear evidences of correct pronunciation and enunciation Two teachers in group 1 were teachers of Russian more than 10 years ago Then they learned English and

changed to teach English because it gradually became a fundamental subject in the

University When changing to English, their pronunciation was still affected by the

Russian accent, Although they had tried their best, their pronunciation was not

successful as they expected Some of them blamed for the old age that prevented them

from pronouncing exactly

III.1.1.3 Physical expressions for the instructions

13 Teacher involves the whole class | 2 SE [SE |e

14, Gestures are used effectively to [1 CE | SE | CE

ace the instructions and clarify their

Table 4: Physical expressions for the instructions (CE: clear evidence SE; Some evidence

LE: limited evidence NE: No evidence)

Relating to the use of eye contact when giving instructions, it can easily be seen from table 4 that teachers in group 1 and 2 were so confident and used their eye contact

properly They all showed necessary evidence of using eye contact to involve the whole class and using gestures to pace the instructions and clarify their meanings

Teaching experience may be the reason for their confidence and they can be proud of

the result On the contrary, teachers in group 3 are young and have only a few years of

Tiêu đề	A study of instructions for group work in 2nd year non english major classrooms at thai nguyen university
Người hướng dẫn	Pham Minh [liộn, M.A.
Trường học	Thai Nguyen University
Chuyên ngành	English Teaching Methodology
Thể loại	Thesis
Năm xuất bản	2010
Thành phố	Thai Nguyen

Định dạng
Số trang	93
Dung lượng	1,44 MB