An investigation into the perceptions and actual behaviors of the teachers and the students at the faculty of Foreign Language of Ho Chi Minh City University of20150227.PDF

Being a teacher of English at Faculty of Foreign Language – Ho Chi Minh University of Industry FFL-HUI, the researcher is well aware of the importance of using group work to help energiz

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

Table of contents

PART I: INTRODUCTION……… ……….… ………… 1

1 Rationale 1

2 The purposes of the study…… 2

3 Research questions 2

4.Methods of the study 2

5 Scopes of the study 3

6 Design of the study 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Communicative language teaching 5

1.2 Group work 6

1.2.1 Definitions of group work 6

1.2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of group work 7

1.2.2.1 Advantages of group work 7

1.2.2.2 Disadvantages of group work 8

1.2.3 Teacher’s roles in carrying out group work 8

1.2.4 How to organize group work in speaking lessons 8

1.2.5 Group formation 10

1.2.6 Group Size .11

1.3 Perception and behavior 11

1.3.1 Definition of perception 11

1.3.2 Definition of behavior………12

1.3.3 Relationship between perception and behavior in teaching and learning language 13

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 15

2.1 Background of the study 15

2.1.1 Description of the students at FFL, HUI 15

2.1.2 Description of the teachers at FFL - HUI.……… …… 15

2.1.3 Description of the physical setting … 16

2.1.4 Description of the subject matter ……….16

2.2 Design and data analysis 16

2.2.1 The student sample 16

2.2.2 The teacher sample 17

2.2.3 Research instruments 17

2.2.4 Procedure……… ……18

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS 3.1 Questionnaire results……… ………19

3.1.1 The teachers’ and students’ perceptions of the best way to teach and learn speaking in class 19

3.1.2 The students’ feelings when they work in groups 20

3.1.3 The teachers’ perceptions of the appropriate time for each group work activity……… …… 21

3.1.4 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of preferred group members 21

3.1.5 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of the most appropriate number of members in each group 22

3.1.6 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of the benefits and the weaknesses of group work for improving speaking skill 23

3.1.7 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of the things should be done by the instructor before activity……… ……… … 25

3.1.8 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of the things should be done by the instructor during activity 25

3.1.9 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of what the teachers should do after activity ……… ……… 26

3.1.10 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of the difficulties when carrying out group work 26

3.2 Class observation 27

CHAPTER 4: MAJOR FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS……… 32

4.1 Major findings ……….32

4.2 Recommendations ……… 36

PART III CONCLUSION ……… 43

References

Apendix A- Teacher questionaire

Apendix B- Student questionaire

Apendix C- Observation sheet

Apendix D- Collected data

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ESL: English as a Second Language

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

FFL: Faculty of Foreign Languages

HUI: Ho Chi Minh University of Industry

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

L1: First language

L2: Second language

PART I INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

English has been widely used in many areas such as politics, economics, tourism, electronics, telecommunication, culture and science and technology English is not only a means but also a key to accessing the latest achievements of science and technology Therefore, it is necessary for many Vietnamese to have a good command of English to satisfy the growing needs in a developing country like Vietnam

Speaking is an essential skill for English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL) For many, speaking is the most important to master With strengthened speaking skills, ESL/EFL speaker will make greater progress and attain greater development in all academic areas

Being a teacher of English at Faculty of Foreign Language – Ho Chi Minh University of Industry (FFL-HUI), the researcher is well aware of the importance of using group work to help energize the speaking class Like many other teachers working here, however, the researcher has also faced many challenges in organizing and managing group work during English speaking lessons For instance, the noise created by students when they work in groups, student‟s laziness, students‟ use of their mother tongue, etc

In fact, there is a close relationship between one‟s perception and his/her behaviors

Yu (2004) stated that teachers' perceptions "construct" their practices, which in turn, lead

to whatever progress both the learners and the teachers achieve Practice and progress in language learning and teaching will re-construct teachers' perceptions of L2 development Teachers need to reflect upon their own ideas and practices to be better informed Dewey (1933) argued that teachers should be reflective-practitioners through questioning the beliefs and methods in their own experimental approach to schooling - psychology and sociology being tools or resources for the construction of new educational hypotheses to be tested against experience

To meet the increased needs of teachers and students, at FFL- HUI, the author of this study is determined to choose this area to do research on This study is intended to make a modest contribution to investigating what the teachers‟ and students‟ points of views about group work activities and what they really do before, during and after this activity The results of the study, hopefully, enhance the flexibility of using group work to create positive, dynamic and effective atmosphere in English speaking (speaking) lessons, and more importantly improve students‟ oral practice of English

For all of the reasons above, it would be necessary to have an investigation into the students‟ and the teachers‟ perceptions of using group work to improve English speaking skill and their classroom practice respectively By doing so, we could recommend some techniques to increase the effectiveness of teaching and learning English speaking by using group work at the FFL-HUI It is hoped that this study will reveal issues concerning teaching speaking by group work and provide classroom English teachers with an in-depth understanding about the procedure of organizing group work to teach speaking effectively

2 The purposes of the study

The first purpose of this study was to examine teachers‟ and students‟ perceptions

of using group work to teach and learn English speaking at the FFL-HUI That is to say, the researcher aimed at finding how the participants at the chosen setting think about the effectiveness of this activity to improve English speaking skill for the learners Moreover, the study also aimed at investigating the actual behaviors of the participants when group working in the real lessons to compare with their perceptions Finally, the results of this study helped to facilitate the application of group work in teaching and learning speaking

to improve the effectiveness of speaking lessons at the FFL-HUI

3 Research Questions

In the study, the following research questions are posed:

1.a What are FFL-HUI teachers‟ perceptions of group work in English speaking class? 1.b What are FFL-HUI students‟ perceptions of group work in English speaking class? 2.a What are the teachers‟ actual behaviors when group working in English speaking class?

2.b What are the students‟ actual behaviors when group working in English speaking class?

3 How to further improve the effectiveness of group work in speaking lessons at HUI?

FFL-4 Methods of the study

To achieve the aims of the study, a mixed method combining both qualitative and quantitative styles was used

The data for the research was collected from the third- year students and the teachers who have experienced in teaching speaking at FFL-HUI by survey questionnaires, oral interviews and classroom observations

Both qualitative and quantitative analysis methods were used to deal with the collected data Data from questionnaires were processed quantitatively for descriptive statistics On the basis of those statistics, the researcher can give comments, recommendation, conclusions about the perceptions of the teachers and the students of group work in speaking lessons at FFL-HUI, thus answering research questions 1.a and 1b To answer research questions 2.a, 2.b, and 3, a qualitative method using an “interpretive model” (Hatch 2002: 179) was employed to analyze data collected from the researcher‟s interviews and observations of the speaking English classes in the setting to find out the participants‟ actual behaviors when they work in groups in the classrooms and recommendations for further improvement

5 Scope of the study

Group work can be applied to improve all of the four skills in learning language, speaking, listening, writing and reading, but the study only focuses on speaking skill Moreover, it is not the researcher‟s intention to investigate the perceptions and behaviors

of all the teachers and the learners in the FFL-HUI about this activity Instead, the researcher only intends to draw a brief overview of the point of view and actual behaviors

of the teachers who have experienced in teaching speaking and of the third-year students in the FLL-HUI about group work The reasons for this choice were that the teachers having experiences in teaching speaking can give clearer opinions about this activity as they have used it to teach speaking, so that they can understand what should be done to improve the effectiveness of group work Meanwhile, only the third- year students were chosen to investigate since these learners have had nearly 3 years at the college so they get used to learning at the higher level Furthermore, the objectives of the training syllabuses for the third-year students are to help the learners improve communicative skills rather than improve pronunciation or vocabulary at all

6 Design of the study

The study consists of three main parts:

Part I, Introduction, presents the rationale, purposes, research questions, scope, methods and the design of the study

Part II, Development, is organized into four chapters

- Chapter 1, Literature review, reviews such basic concepts and knowledge relevant

to the study such as Communicative Language Teaching approach, some basic

factors of group work as well as theory of perception and its importance in language teaching

- Chapter 2, Methodology, provides an overview of the current situation of teaching and learning speaking at FFL-HUI Sampling, Instruments and Procedures for Data collection and analysis are also presented in this chapter

- Chapter 3, Results, presents the research results,

- Chapter 4, Recommendations, discusses the major findings of the research and also suggests some recommendations to further improve the effectiveness of group work

in teaching speaking at FFL-HUI

Part III, Conclusion, summarizes the major findings and suggestions The limitations of the study and recommendations for further studies are also included in this part

References and appendices complete the thesis

PART II DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter consists of 3 sections which review major theoretical background that the researcher based on when carrying out the thesis Section one deals with the issues of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) which is intended to be discussed in terms of CLT charateristics and communicative activities Section 2 concerns some concepts related

to the study of factors that affect the effectiveness of group working such as definition of group work, advantages and disadvantages of using group work in English speaking lessons, students and teachers‟ roles, how to organise groups, form groups The last section

in chapter one focuses on reviewing scholars‟ ideas of perception and behavior as well as their relationship in language teaching and learning

1.1 Communicative language teaching

The Communicative Approach emerged in the early 1970s as a result of the work

of the Council of Europe experts (Al-Mutawa and Kailani, 1989) However, it can be traced back to the work of Chomsky in the 1960s, when he advanced the two notions of 'competence' and 'performance' as a reaction against the prevalent audio-lingual method and its views These two concepts were developed later on by Hymes, into a

„communicative competence' which refers to the psychological, cultural and social rules which discipline the use of speech (Hedge, 2000)

Dimensions of communicative competence which are identified in the literature include: linguistic or grammatical competence, sociolinguistic or pragmatic competence, discourse competence, strategic competence (Richards & Rogers, 1986; and Hedge, 2000), and fluency (Hedge, 2000) Communicative Language Teaching is best considered

as an approach rather than a method (Richards & Rogers, 1986) Within language teaching methodology, a distinction is often made between methods and approaches, in which methods are held to be fixed teaching systems with prescribed techniques and practices, whereas approaches represent language teaching philosophies that can be interpreted and applied in a variety of different ways in the classroom (Rogers, 2001)

Learner-centeredness is a key point of CLT Students in this approach are seen to

be able to play a more active and participatory part than in traditional approaches Therefore, the roles of the teachers will be re-defined with the charge of activity organization because each learner is thought to have unique learning styles, needs and goals, which should be reflected in the design of the method of instruction (Richards and

Rodgers, 2001)

In conclusion, CLT can be characterized by the following features:

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

- The introduction of authentic texts into learning situation

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

on the learning process itself

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

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

(Nunan, cited in Brown 1994a:78)

1.2 Group work

1.2.1 Definitions of group work

According to Doff (1988:137), in group work, the teacher divides the class into small groups working together (usually four to five students in each group) and all the groups work at the same time Nolasco and Arthur (1998) defines that group work is a number of people (usually more than two) assigned a task together and they will work on it cooperatively Richards and Platt (2010; 163 - 164) considers group work in language teaching is a learning activity which involves a small group of learners working together The group may work on a single task, or on different parts of a larger task Richards also discusses that this teaching activity has three characteristics: first, a small number of students (two to twelve) meet together; second, they choose, or are given, a common topic

of problem and a goal or objective; third, they exchange and evaluate information or ideas about the topic

In short, group work is a cooperative learning activity which involves from more than two students up to twelve students The group-members work together to carry out an activity given by the instructor or chosen themselves In a language lesson, the students are more comfortable when sitting in groups; however, they have certain linguistic targets to reach There are a lot of activities for them to get the target More importantly, although they work cooperatively, each member in the groups has their own responsibilities and targets

1.2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of group work

1.2.2.1 Advantages of group work

Martine (2005) states that there are four main advantages of small group work in language classes:

- Group work increases students’ talking time

Long and Porter (1985) estimated that in a 50 minute lesson with 30 students, if the students talked only to the teacher, they would get 30 seconds of talking time per lesson They calculate that this equals “just one hour per student per year” (p 208) Therefore, using group work quite simply substantially increases the opportunities the students get to speak English

- Group work mimics typical ‘real’ English conversations

The language learning classroom can never accurately replicate the experience of using a language in an authentic context Therefore it was with caution that we used the word „real‟ regarding this advantage However, it is important to try to create as genuine a language learning environment in the ESL/EFL classroom as possible The goal of communicative teaching which utilizes activities like these is to establish a truthful exchange of meaningful communication

- Group work creates a more secure and positive classroom atmosphere

Taking risks and making errors is all part of effective language learning However, in a small group or as part of a pair, there is a sense of security because they are working with their classmates to come up with an answer or accomplish a task Group work can create a positive atmosphere in the classroom (McDonough and Shaw, 1993; Martin, 2005) It can also encourage independent learning and motivate learners to

work co-operatively (Johnson, 1995)

- Group work is more fun

Group work gives the students more speaking time and allows them to use a greater variety of English to express what they really want to communicate This type of work usually motivates students because it is quite simply more fun to work and talk with your classmates than it is to do tasks individually By making lessons and activities more fun

we can stimulate students not just to come to class but to also enthusiastically contribute to their own learning

1.2.2.2 Disadvantages of group work

According to Martine (2005), there are three main drawbacks of group work:

- The teacher may feel like they are losing control of the class

When students work in groups, it is possible that they can make a lot of noise that makes the teacher hard to control

- Students will speak only in their L1

Some students may be lazy to speak L2 because they are not afraid of being punished

- Teachers are often concerned that students will pick up incorrect English from other student

In small groups the teacher is not always on hand to correct errors and mistakes Therefore, students will use incorrect or pick up unusual English from other students

Although there are still some weaknesses of using group work in teaching language, the benefits far outweigh them Instead of being dependent on the teacher, students get used to helping and learning from each other in a non-threatening environment Meanwhile, the teacher is left free to discreetly monitor progress and give help, advice and encouragement where and when is needed

1.2.3 Teacher’s roles in carrying out group work

Harmer (1991) says that the teacher plays such different roles in group work as an organizer, a controller, an assessor, a prompter, and a participant According to Kay & Christison (1987), important teacher‟s role in carrying out group work is as an instructor,

a consultant, a supervisor, a co-communicatior, and a controller, giving instructions for the job duties, encouraging them actively to participate in learning process and to interact with each other, helping them with their difficulties in linguistics matters as well as background knowledge The teacher is active, marking, remaining sensitive to the atmosphere and the pace of the groups and noting persistent for remedial teaching If the task is seen to be going drastically wrong, they will stop it and revert to some form of practice before starting group work again

1.2.4 How to organize a group work activity

Ur (1996:234) suggested four main steps to organize group work, namely presentation, process, ending and feedback

- Presentation

Ur (1996) appreciates the role of presentation of group work In his opinion, the instructions given at the beginning are crucial; if the students do not understand exactly

what they have to do, there will be time-wasting and lack of effective practice, possible loss of control

- Process

Teacher‟s job during the activity is to go from group to group and monitor and either contribute or keep out of the way-whichever is likely to be more helpful, therefore, teacher decides to intervene

Harmer (1999) suggests 3 steps to organize a group work activity: before activity, during activity and after activity

- Before activity

Teacher makes students feel enthusiastic about what they are going to do They need

to understand what they are going to do, and they need to be given an idea of when they will have finished the task they are going to get involved in

The important thing about instructions is that students should understand and agree

on what the task is To check what they do, we may ask them to repeat the instructions, or,

in monolingual classes, to translate them into their first language

- After activity

It is vital that constructive feedback on the content of student work can greatly enhance students‟ future motivation The feedback that teachers give on language mistakes

is only one part of that process

1.2.5 Group formation

Optiz (1998) suggests that we can put the learners in equal ability groups since this will be more effective than asking the good and bad learners to work together Groups may also be formed randomly (Dunne & Bennett, 1990) and this is useful when groups are formed regularly and the teacher wants the learners to work with different individuals each time Pollard (2002) suggests that groups can be formed on the basis of age, attainment, interest, and friendship

I-Jung (2004) suggests three major methods to form groups in class namely: random, student – selected and teacher – selected groupings

- Random grouping

Random grouping is often used for in-class activities because of its readiness and convenience Randomly assigned groups ignore the differences among students, such as their language level, learning styles and abilities

- Student – selected grouping

Student – selected grouping is probably the most preferred option by learners Students often cluster with good friends; Students are more likely to participate in activities

if they feel they are among friends When engaging in group work, learners feel more comfortable taking risks, making mistakes, and enjoying themselves

- Teacher – formed grouping

Teacher – formed grouping is acknowledged by most teachers as requiring the most amount of careful planning When forming groups, teachers take into account students‟ prior achievements, level of preparation, work habits, learning preferences and so forth

In another study, John Honeyfield (1991) suggests some criteria for the formation of groups that teachers should follow:

- Free grouping: Students make their own decision about who to work with

- Same proficiency level grouping: students of about the same proficiency level are grouped together

- Mixed proficiency levels grouping: Students are grouped so that each group has a mix

of proficiency levels

- Random grouping: Students are allocated to groups in some random way, e.g on the basis of who is sitting next to whom in the class

- Grouping based on other differences: in a mixed class, students are grouped so that each group has a mix of other characteristics, e.g sex, age, nationality, mother tongue or ethnic origin

1.2.6 Group size

The smaller the group, the more each member talks and the less chance there is that someone will be left out If time is short, smaller groups can usually do an activity more quickly Smaller groups also require few group–arrangement skills Thus, when starting with cooperative learning, groups of two or three may be the best On the other hand, the smaller the groups, the more groups there are, so the teacher has more monitoring to do and the less practical it is to have group reporting back to the class

Four – member group is suggested by Honeyfield (1991), I-Jung (2004) and Ngoh (1991) Four members in a group might lead to more interesting and challenging tasks, with

a wide range of opinions being expressed, and more negotiation required for the group members to reach agreement Six should be the maximum number of participants in most small groups (Honeyfield, 1991; I-Jung, 2004)

1.3 Perception and behavior

is critical because it influences the information that enters working memory Background knowledge in the form of schemas affects perception and subsequent learning

Teacher effectiveness is impeded if the teacher is unfamiliar with the body of knowledge taught and that teachers‟ effectiveness is subject specific The implication of this for teachers is that they must thoroughly understand the content of what they teach The teacher whose understanding of topic is thorough use clearer language, their discourse

is more connected, and they provide better explanation than those whose background is weaker The way the students perceive the teachers in terms of their (teachers) knowledge

of content of subject matter may significantly affect the students‟ academic performance Pedagogical content knowledge depends on an understanding of a particular topic and how

to explain it in away that it will make sense to the students

Pedagogical content knowledge implies, an understanding of ways of representing the subject that make it comprehensive to others and an understanding of what makes the learning of specific topics easy or difficult Eggen and Kauchak (2001) declared that where pedagogical content knowledge is lacking “teachers commonly paraphrase information in learners‟ textbooks or provide abstract explanations that are not meaningful to their students” From evidences available in literatures it is being established why teachers‟ knowledge of subject matter is highly essential for effective teaching Ehindero (1990) confirmed that a teachers‟ teaching is influenced by the level of his pedagogical knowledge, as different from his subject matter knowledge It is to be noted that pedagogical knowledge are not exactly the same thing as knowledge of subject matter, they nevertheless are, intimately linked with it, because teachers‟ mastery and use of them in the classroom will indicate the depth of their knowledge of subject matter

1.3.2 Definitions of behavior

According to Skinner (1974), behavior is the activity of living organisms Human behavior

is the entire gamut of what people do including thinking and feeling Johnston and Pennypacker (1993) discussed that behavior is that portion of an organism's interaction with its environment that is characterized by detectable displacement in space through time of some part of the organism and that results in a measurable change in at least one aspect of the environment Often, the term behavior is used to reference a larger class of responses

that share physical dimensions or function In this instance, the term response indicates a

single instance of that behavior If a group of responses have the same function, this group can be classified as a response class Finally, when discussing a person's collection of behavior, repertoire is used It can either pertain specifically to a set of response classes that are relevant to a particular situation, or it can refer to every behavior that a person can

increasingly recognized as fundamental contributors influencing the way they teach, how they motivate and engage their students Teachers' perceptions of what is meant by L2 learning, and what affects learning will influence everything they do both within and beyond classroom situations In order to make informed decisions in their day-to-day teaching, teachers must be consciously aware of what their beliefs about learning and teaching are They must increase their tolerance and understanding of diverse opinions and viewpoints in order to make the language classroom a more welcoming environment encompassing dignity and respect for both students and teachers alike (Williams & Burden, 1997)

Teachers' perceptions "construct" their practices which in turn lead to whatever progress both the learners and the teachers achieve Practice and progress in language learning and teaching will re-construct teachers' perceptions of L2 development

Figure 1 Inter-relationships among perception, practice and progress (Yu: 2004)

In summary, we have reviewed the theoretical background for the study of neccessarity and techniques to increase the effectiveness of using group work in English speaking classes We also have emphasized the main points in CLT In addition, the theory of perception, behavior and the close relationship between them are also discussed carefully

in this chapter The discussion of various issues related to st in the students‟ participation

as well as factors affecting the effectiveness of group work in English speaking classes are also presesented carefully in the chapter In the next chapter, we will discuss the methodology of the study

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

The previous chapter has reviewed several issues pertaining to the current study that looks into perceptions of teachers and students at FFL-HUI on using group work to teach and learn English speaking This chapter reports the study that seeks answers to the following questions:

1.a What are FFL-HUI teachers’ perceptions of group work in English speaking class? 1.b What are FFL-HUI students’ perceptions of group work in English speaking class? 2.a What are the teachers’ actual behaviors when group working in English speaking class?

2.b What are the students’ actual behaviors when group working in English speaking class?

3 How to further improve the effectiveness of group work in speaking lessons at HUI?

FFL-2.1 Background to the study

The students at FFL - HUI

The students at FFL-HUI come from so many different regions in the country A lot

of them are from the south of Vietnam, others are from the central, even from provinces in the north of the nation This various background creates a variety in the classrooms in terms of cultural features, accents, ways of thinking, habits, and their pronunciation Thanks to these differences, students feel excited about learning new information and knowledge that they may not know from their friends There are about 3000 students at the FFL-HUI whose ages are from 18 to 22 They are following different courses including university level (4 years long); college level (3 years long); and vocational college (3 years long) The different levels require the flexibility in the ways to organize the lessons, teach

as well as evaluate their works

The teachers at FFL - HUI

FFL-HUI consists of over 40 teachers of different ages The female teachers take 80% and the male ones take 20% The youngest teachers are about 23 years old and the oldest are about 55 At present, about 90% of the teachers at the FFL-HUI are the Masters

of Art The rest numbers are still Bachelors or Art They have from 3 to 30 years of teaching experience A lot of them have studied overseas and got the M.A certificates there The teachers at FFL-HUI are from many different areas in the country, thus, their accents and behaviors are quite different

The physical setting

At FFL - HUI, English teaching and learning activities are mostly carried out inside the classrooms which are specially designed for the faculty There are about 12 classrooms with 16 desks in each Every classroom is equipped with a board, a teacher‟s table, an LCD plasma TV which can be easily used as a projector or a TV, a modern system of loudspeakers The desks are about 1.5 meters long and put in two parallel rows In term of class size, the average number of students in each class is from 30 to 35 This number is still large in a language class

The materials for reference and self-study are available for both teachers and students In the school library, there are a number of language books which are quite helpful for teachers and students, it takes quite a long time to find and get the materials though The small library at the faculty office is also available for readers in the department There are not many books here but it is being improved There is a lab room at the faculty which is really modern for the language lessons There are about 35 computers which are connected to Internet The teacher‟s computer and the students‟ ones are linked closely

The subject matter

The subject matter, Advanced Speaking, is designed to be taught in 60 periods in class The main course book is „Mosaic 2‟ for the third – year students The main objectives of the course are to help the students feel more confident to communicate in English in different situations and to help the students practice and develop advanced English as well

as give academic presentations It means that the objectives of the syllabuses for these learners do not focus on teaching a lot of pronunciation, vocabulary or grammar like at the beginning of the course The compulsory condition for the students to take this subject is that they have finished the speaking 1 and speaking 2 There are five chapters which include the topics for teaching and learning speaking These topics are very popular in the real life, easy to be discussed

2.2 Samples and data collection tools

2.2.1 The student sample

60 third-year students at the FFL – HUI (including 10 males and 50 females) took part in the questionnaire survey These students are the ones who consent to participate in the research 10 students were randomly selected among these 60 for interviews to get clearer explanations for the choice in the questionnaire

2.2.2 The teacher sample

The researcher only aimed at finding the perceptions and behaviors of the teachers who have experienced in teaching speaking to English-major students Therefore, the questionnaires were delivered to 10 teachers who have been teaching speaking English for more than 5 years

2.2.3 Research instruments

Two questionnaires, one for teachers and the other for students were developed The former has 12 multiple – choice, open – ended questions; the later has 12 similar questions The questions in the two questionnaires are mainly used to explore the teachers‟ and students‟ perceptions, or the way they think about, of using group work to teach speaking efficiently In order to make sure that the participants give necessary and relevant information as well as not misunderstand the questions, the questionnaires were designed

in Vietnamese and then results translated into English by the researcher

Oral interviews were given after the researcher had analyzed the results of the questionnaires for triangulation The researcher carried out the interviews with 10 students and 5 teachers All of them are the members who did the questionnaires and randomly chosen The purposes of interviewing are to get clearer explanations for the choices in the questionnaires

2.2.4 Procedure

Data were collected and analyzed in the following steps:

- Delivering questionnaires to the 10 teachers and 60 third-year students at the HUI

FFL Analyzing the questionnaires data by looking for and grouping the common and recurrent themes in the data with the use of descriptive statistics

- Interviewing the teachers and the students to get further information for the data in the questionnaires

- Basing on the interviews and the questionnaires, identifying the contents to observe

in the teachers‟ and the students‟ actual classroom practice

- Collecting the data on the teachers‟ and the students‟ practices via class observations Observation of 10 speaking lessons was made according to designed criteria

- Analyzing observation data based on the observation scheme

- Comparing the results of actual class observation with the teachers‟ and the

students‟ perceptions reported in the questionnaires and interviews

In short, necessary issues relating to how to carry out the thesis were illustrated clearly in the chapter 2 We have decribed specifically the real situations of the context, participants

as well as the method of collecting, analyzing the data The following chapter will present the major results of the study

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS 3.1 Questionnaire results

The student questionnaire results show that these students have been studying English for about 7 to 14 years About 60% of them have been learning for 7-9 years, approximately 30% for 5-6 years and about 10% for 10-14 years

From the teacher questionnaires, 100% of these teachers are the Masters of Art in Teaching Methodology Only three of them are males and the rests are females The participants have been teaching for about 7 to 10 years The average number of students in their classes is from 25 to 35 students Five of the 10 teachers are chosen to interview for further explanations for some issues in the questionnaire

3.1.1 The teachers’ and students’ perceptions of the best way to teach and learn speaking in class

The students' perception about the way they learn

speaking English effectively

D with the whole class

Figure 1: The students’ perception of the way they learn speaking effectively

(by percent) The majority of the students (54 %) want to work in groups to learn speaking They want to learn with their friends when practicing speaking They explained that it is very effective for them to work in groups when learning speaking because the better partners can give them good advices to improve this oral skill, especially they do not feel stressed when talking with their classmates Working with a partner is the second interest of the students 38% of the participants like this way of practicing speaking Fewer students (22%) want to practice with the whole class because it makes they feel safer and more secure There are only 7.5% of the students want to practice speaking alone They gave the

reason for this choice is that because they are not very confident and sociable so they are afraid of making mistakes and being stupid Similarly, the investigated teachers share the same perception about the effective ways of teaching speaking

Very effective (%)

Effective (%)

Normal (%)

Not effective (%)

in class

3.1.2 The students’ feelings when they work in groups

The students' feelings when working in groups (by percentage)

There are two types of feelings detected from the questionnaires: positive feelings and negative feelings Relaxed, excited, comfortable belong to the former type, whereas, stressed, bored and safe belong to the later In the first group, the numbers of the students who are excited and comfortable take the highest proportion, 51% and 50% respectively About 22% of the learners feel relaxed when they are in groups with their friends These positive are crucially important for the learners to learn speaking because it makes them easier to be involved into the given activities In contrast, the proportion of students who have negative feelings about the group work is very low That is to say, 8.3% feel stressed, 14% are bored and 4.2% feel safe

3.1.3 The teachers’ perceptions of the appropriate time for each group work activity

Figure 3: The teachers’ perceptions of the appropriate time for each group work

activity (by percent)

Nearly half of the teachers think that each group work activity should take about 15 minutes 33% of the investigated teachers agreed that the teacher should spend about 10 minutes on each group work activity There is a low proportion of the participants think that more than 15 minutes is enough for each activity The lowest percentage of the choices belongs to the idea of 5 minutes for each activity

3.1.4 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of preferred group members

Most of the teachers have the same opinion about putting the students of the same proficiency, different sexes and random groups are the effective ways to do The highest proportion of the teachers‟ agreement (nine out of ten teachers) belongs to the idea that putting the students of the same proficiency level is advisable The second highest choice which takes the agreement of 8 out of the 10 teachers is counting to group students randomly 8 and 7 of the 10 teachers think that grouping the students of different sexes

and the students who sit near or next to each other respectively are good ways to be applied

On the other hand, grouping students of the same sex and ages, as well as the students of different proficiency levels are not considered good choices Especially, most

of the teachers do not think that students‟ interest is an important factor to be concerned before deciding putting the students in groups In short, the teachers highly agree with the ways to put students randomly and the students of the same proficiency, different sexes and the students sitting around each other

Students‟ perception that working with the members who share the same interests is the most preferred choice of the students which takes 78% Students of mix proficiency rank the second position with 58% The other ways such as working with the surrounding partners, with students of different interests, with randomly grouped students and with the students of the same proficiency take mostly the same proportion, 38%, 32%, 32% and 30% respectively Most of the students do not care for the same or different age and gender partners when working in class

3.1.5 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of the most appropriate number of members in each group

As we know that most of the teachers and the students agree with the idea that working with a small group of students is good to improve speaking skill for the students The teachers should care for the number of students in each group in order to design the task appropriately as well as avoid some problems in controlling the groups

Numbers of students in each group

Figure 4: The students’ perception of the numbers of group members in each group (by percent)

2 to 3 3 to 6 6 to 10 More than 10 Others

Numbers of group members

The two charts show the similar perceptions between the students and the teachers

of the most appropriate number of group member in each group 68% of the students agree that from 3 to 6 members in each group is the best choice Similarly, 9 out of 10 teachers agree with that number of group member The other ones think that the number of group members depends on the task That is to say, each group sometimes may include fewer people or more Thus, the teacher must be flexible to organize the size of each group basing on what they are going to do in groups Interestingly, neither the teachers nor the students think that more than 10 members in one group is good In short, depending on the content of the tasks, the size of the group should be carefully chosen; however, the most popular number should be 3 to 6

3.1.6 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of the benefits and the weaknesses

of group work for improving speaking skill

Benefits

68% of students in the sample think that group work activities are useful for them to improve their independence, cooperation, and confidence There is the same percentage of the choice for the benefits of learning from other students 68% of the participants agree that when they are working in small groups, they have more opportunities to learn from their friends

For the teachers, they have similar points of view with the learners They also like to use group work in teaching speaking lessons because all of the 10 investigated teachers think that their students can learn from others 9 of the 10 teachers think that group work is

a good way to help the learners improve their confidence, cooperation and independence 8

of the 10 teachers think group work increases the students‟ talking time 9 of the 10 teachers agree that group work is especially good for shy and passive students to express their opinions There are only a few teachers responding that while their students are group working, they have a little time to relax or even sometimes it is a good chance to kill the time In short, both the teachers and the students agree with the great benefits of group work activities to improve speaking ability for the learners

The weaknesses

Both the teachers and the learners share the same opinions about the drawbacks of the group work in teaching and learning speaking The most obvious weakness of group work for the speaking lessons is that it makes some group members lazier and lazier, with the agreement of 10 of the 10 teachers and 57% of the students However, there are some different perceptions between the teachers and the students here and there For the students, 49% of the participants agreed that the second dominant problem is the disagreement among the group members They share the hard feelings when they can not come to an agreement at the end of the discussion this may affect their friendship On the contrary, only 4 of the 10 teachers agreed with this difficulty

The other difficulties only takes low proportion of the teachers‟ and the students‟ choices In short, there still exist some weaknesses of using group work to teach and learn speaking, however, the advantages of group work for improving speaking skill overweigh the disadvantages That is why this technique should be applied more often in teaching speaking in class

3.1.7 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of the things that should be done by the instructor before activity

Both the teachers and the students agree with the idea that the most necessary thing that a teacher should do before starting the group work is giving clear instructions 60% of the students and 100% of the teachers think that clear instructions make students confident and not confused when they group work It is thought that the students will do better job if they are clear about what they are going to do 47% of the students think that the teacher

should create a competitive atmosphere among the groups, it is even better if there are some bonuses or gifts for the best group

3.1.8 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of the things should be done by the instructor during activity

The data (provided in Appendix D) shows that most of the students expect their teachers to go around and provide helps and take notes for feedback The highest proportion of the students which takes 72% agree that when they are working in groups, their teacher should go around and help them if possible The second most necessary thing that their teacher should do is to take notes the mistakes and then correct them later The teachers also need to give their students feedbacks, praises and encouragement which help them feel more confident and excited about speaking English Most of the students do not think that their teachers should be passive and quiet Similarly, the teachers agree that the most necessary thing to do while their students are working in groups is to go around and provide helps when the students need which takes 100% of the teachers‟ agreement

Another things should be done during activity is to minimize the teachers‟ talking time, to give the students feedback, praise and encouragement Alternatively, 90% of the teachers also think that they should stand at some corners of the classroom and keep an eye

on the groups, they also need to keep close to the quiet students and take notes for feedbacks later Interestingly, all of the teachers have the same opinion that it is not good for the teachers to just stand in front of the class or remain the teachers‟ seat and observe the students‟ behaviors They had better come closer to the students They also disagree with the idea that the teachers keep close to the talkative students Especially, 100% of the teachers think that they should avoid speaking so much and keeping interrupting and reminding students‟ errors during activity In short, the students and the teachers have quite similar ideas of what the instructors should do during the activity However, in the authentic class settings, their behaviors may vary so much

3.1.9 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of what the teachers should do after activity

Most of the teachers and the students share the same perceptions of what should be done by the teachers after finishing the activity All of the teachers agree that giving feedback for the students‟ work is very necessary However, they should only focus on popular errors and not to be so strict with those mistakes Instead, they should encourage the students and try to catch the good points, efforts from the students‟ discussion The

teachers‟ feedback may take the form of having a few groups quickly demonstrate the language they have been using The teachers can then correct it, if and when necessary

3.1.10 The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of the difficulties when carrying out group work

One of the biggest problems that students have is that they do not know to express their own ideas even when they have something to say Shyness, lack of confidence and noise rank the second and the third with 28% and 20% respectively The students who do not understand what to do in group work activities take the lowest proportion 7.6% Other students have other difficulties, though the number of these students is not very high, such

as 18% of the students think they don not have enough time to prepare and speak, 12% of the students are quiet so that their friends do not let them speak Surprisingly, there are 16% of the students think they do not have any troubles in group working In short, the 60 investigated students have different difficulties when they work in group Therefore, the teachers should be well aware about these problems to help their students get better results

3.2 Class observation

The researcher observed 10 classes taught by 10 different teachers in the faculty The classes were of all the third year This part describes the detail behaviors of the teachers and the students in each group work activity

Basing on the classroom observation sheet (see Appendix C), group work takes place

in speaking lessons in the FFL – HUI very often It was applied in all the classes observed (100%) It means that the teachers here usually organized group work in speaking lessons; however, not all of them used it effectively Moreover, different teachers spent the various time and have different techniques in organizing group work

Time for each activity