Co-operative learning as an approach to improving speaking skills for the second-year non-major students of English at Hanoi University of Business and Technolo

Vietnam national university, Hanoi University of language and international studies Department of post graduate studies Co-operative learning as an approach to improving speaking skill

Vietnam national university, Hanoi University of language and international studies

Department of post graduate studies

Co-operative learning as an approach to

improving speaking skills for the second-year

non-major students of English at Hanoi University of business and technology

CÁCH THỨC HỌC TẬP HỢP TÁC NHƯ MỘT ĐƯỜNG HƯỚNG CẢI THIỆN KỸ NĂNG NÓI CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI

KHÔNG CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KINH DOANH VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ HÀ NỘI

M.A THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 601410

By : Vu Thi Bich Thuy Supervisor : Le Van Canh, M.A

Hanoi, 12 – 2008

Vietnam national university, Hanoi University of language and international studies

Department of post graduate studies

Co-operative learning as an approach to

improving speaking skills for the second-year

non-major students of English at Hanoi University of business and technology

CÁCH THỨC HỌC TẬP HỢP TÁC NHƯ MỘT ĐƯỜNG HƯỚNG CẢI THIỆN KỸ NĂNG NÓI CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI

KHÔNG CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KINH DOANH VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ HÀ NỘI

M.A THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 601410

By : Vu Thi Bich Thuy Supervisor : Le Van Canh, M.A

Hanoi, 12 – 2008

2 2 1 Communicative language teaching and the teaching of

2.2.3.4 Previous studies on cooperative learning with reference

2 3 Conclusion 18

3 5.2 3 Implement cooperative learning structured activities

basing on the course book and start the observation

4 1 2 Comparison of the students’ participation 29

4 4 1 What are the effects of cooperative learning on students’

participation on group activities and their progress in

LIST OF REFERENCES

LISTS OF APPENDIXES

Appendix 1: Lists of tables

Appendix 2: Lists of charts

Chart 3: Comparison of the students’ participation – GROUP 3 viii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1 1 Introduction

This chapter is concerned with the rationale behind the researcher‟s decision of choosing the thesis subject, and the way she identified the problem facing her students‟ English speaking skills Besides, the scope, the objectives, and the research questions as well as the methods and design of the study are also stated clearly

Thanks to the efforts of several international projects and organizations, the teaching and learning English in Vietnam has been considerably changing in the past years Various new approaches, methods and techniques on the teaching of English have been introduced and applied in colleges and universities nationwide Generally, English teaching has shifted from the traditional grammar translation approach to the communicative approach To be successful in their real classroom‟s contexts, which are communication-oriented and learner-centered, teachers of English are doing their best to improve their teaching skills

1 3 Identification of the problem

It is undeniable that it is very important for teachers to analyze, to reflect on and to make use of their own situations To some extent, learner-centered teaching is only rhetorical in Vietnam at present Theoretically, learner-centered teaching requires learners to play the role as negotiators and interactors while teachers as facilitators, analysts, counselors and managers In the real classroom, many people, including the researcher herself, have misunderstood this approach before this research When this method was first introduced

to Vietnamese education, most teachers just assigned worksheets to students and then left them to work by themselves without observing, analyzing, and reflecting on them while they participated in the task That is a dangerous idea because some students do not have the maturity to do the task by themselves They may need some help to finish the task If they do not receive help from anybody, especially their teacher, they might develop negative attitudes towards language learning which are very difficult to change If teachers are not clear about this approach, they may create dangerous gaps unconsciously Gradually, if they are concerned about what this approach means exactly, they may promote students‟ confidence in language learning, especially speaking skills

Speaking English is one of the most important skills for students and will help them find a good job in the future For over several years, the researcher herself has found that students would like to speak but they feel they lack confidence in speaking As a result, they think that English is very difficult for them and they become bored with learning the skills The action research study of how to promote students speaking English through co-operative learning is very important because it may also help them to develop other skills Moreover, Richards (2004: 3) states, “Employers too insist their employees have good English language skills and fluency in English is a prerequisite for success and advancement in many fields of employment in today‟s world.”

In order to help English learners make progress in speaking, it is a good idea to focus on their communication skills Edge (1993: 17) identified the importance of communication that communication is at the heart of modern English Language Teaching (ELT), the goal

of language teaching and part of the learning process Luoma (2004: ix) added that “the ability to speak in a foreign language is at the very heart of what it means to be able to use

a foreign language.” Wongsuwana (2006: 44) also stated that speech can be trained and it does not depend on talent

However, one main reason why English speaking learning in Vietnam is not very successful is that most learners lack the opportunity to learn, and to speak English in an English environment; and for interaction in daily life Therefore, it is essential to find out the solution to the problem so that English learners have more opportunities to communicated, as well as to interact with one another in a so-called close-to-real English speaking environment One of the teaching strategies that reflects the principle of learner-centeredness is groupwork, which is designed by Nunan and Lamb (1996: 142) as any classroom activity in which students perform collaborative tasks with one or more partners

It has been considered one of the major changes to the dynamics of classroom interaction wrought by student-centered teaching Groupwork can greatly increase the amount of active speaking and listening undertaken by all the students in the language class

Groupwork has especially received more and more emphasis in language classroom and groupwork activities are used in many aspects of the second language instructions, particularly in encouraging students‟ oral practice Working in groups, students are not passively sitting and listening to the teachers, but joining actively in the learning process However, it is not always true that whenever students are asked to work in groups, the cooperation will occur Generally, there are problems such as some group members dominate the group and impede the participation of others Therefore, how to organize groupwork successfully in the classrooms is the question of great concern for many language researchers as well as language teachers

In learner-centered approach, group work is the most effective way to reach success; and cooperative learning is undeniably the most flexible and powerful grouping strategies as in cooperative learning, learners work together to accomplish a shared goal Therefore, they are motivated to work together for mutual benefit in order to meet their own and each other‟s learning Cooperative learning can create an environment in which students‟ need

of love, belongingness, power, freedom and fun can be met in a way that is beneficial for both academic achievement and the development of the learners‟ social and learning skills Cooperative learning implementing programs have been applied successfully by thousands

of teachers from all over the world However, the application of cooperative learning has not been popular in Vietnam There have been few studies on cooperative learning application in teaching English, particularly in teaching speaking

As teaching English at Hanoi University of Business and Technology, the researcher sometimes failed to organize her second year students, who were non-major students of English, to work successfully in group activities The students came from different regions all over Vietnam, and even though their acquisition of English grammar and vocabulary was quite good, most of them got difficulties in speaking because of many reasons The students mostly had very little chance to use English in communication, so they were very shy to speak Moreover, some students who came from urban areas often had better speaking skills than those who came from rural areas During speaking activities, the strong ones talked a lot, the average spoke some, and the weak students seemed to keep silent all the time The researcher had carried some strategies such as talking to them to find out their problems, choosing the interesting topics, monitoring frequently to help, encouraging the weak ones to speak and asking the strong ones to help their friends by assigning the roles for them and keep asking questions to force them to speak This did not help a lot Therefore, the fundamental reasons causing this problem was really a big question for her She kept on finding the ways to get all her students equally involved in the class speaking activities During the search, the researcher had found some articles and books about implementing cooperative learning strategies to improve group activities in which cooperative learning can be used as a mean to improve students‟ cooperation, participation and even their language proficiency According to these articles and books, the benefit of cooperative learning had been explored in Vietnam and should be taken into account

For all the above reasons, it is strongly desirable for the researcher to propose operative learning as an approach to improving speaking skills for the second-year non- major students of English at Hanoi University of Business and Technology” as the

“Co-subject of this study

1 4 Scopes, objective and research questions for the study

This study was a kind of action research which was designed and conducted by the researcher herself The study was limited to the investigation of students‟ attitudes towards cooperative learning, the level of their participation in groupwork, which was a dimension

of cooperative learning, in classroom speaking activities as well as the effect of cooperative learning on the students‟ speaking performance The study was conducted on the second-year students who were studying English as a minor subject at Hanoi

University of Business and Technology Thus, the first and foremost objective of the study

is for the sake of the students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology, where the researcher worked as a teacher of English Although any generalization of the findings should be made with caution, it is expected that this study will serve as a source of references for teachers of English on the teaching of speaking skills, especially for those who consider cooperative learning as one of the best educational innovations

To be more specific, in realizing this study, the main objective is:

- To investigate the effects of cooperative learning on students‟ participation and achievement in speaking skills

With this objective, the research questions are:

- What are the effects of cooperative learning on students‟ participation on group activities and their progress in speaking skills?

1 5 Methods of the study

This research is realized with both qualitative and quantitative analysis

Quantitative analysis is involved in the process of data collection and analysis, which was carried out at Hanoi University of Business and Technology The instruments for this process included two observation schedules fulfilled by the researcher herself, and the researcher‟s three colleagues and two M.A classmates, who were working as the classroom observers during the research; and the records of the students‟ oral progress test scores

On the other hand, qualitatively analyzed, the research was based on the students‟ attitudes

to cooperative learning through their written journals after each oriented speaking lesson

cooperative-learning-1 6 Design of the study

The study is divided into six main chapters:

Chapter one is the Introduction, which states the rationale, the scope, the objective, and the research questions as well as the methods and design of the study

Chapter two presents all necessary literature review that relates to the study

In chapter three, the study - an action research on the improvement of the non-major, second year students‟ speaking skills at Hanoi University of Business and Technology - is described

One of the main contents of the study, the data analysis is reported in chapter four In this chapter, the researcher analyzes the data collected quantitatively and qualitatively to reach the findings of the study

In chapter five, the discussion of the findings related to the research questions with reference to the literature review is mentioned

Chapter six is the conclusion where the main contents of the study are summarized In addition, the pedagogical implications of the study as well as the limitations of the study and the suggestions for further studies are discussed in this chapter

Besides, the list of references and the appendixes are also parts of this study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

This chapter presents some of the most important issues in theory of cooperative learning

in general and in language teaching in particular The main features are taken into consideration, namely, the concepts related to the study including the communicative language teaching and the teaching of speaking skills, the definitions of cooperative learning, and cooperative learning structures Moreover, this is the study conducted on the second year, non-major student of English at Hanoi University of Business and Technology, where the course book Market Leader (Pre-intermediate) - a book for business English - is exploited, so the speaking skills in General Business English as well

as the task-based learning and how it is exploited in business English are also introduced in this part Before reaching the minor conclusion of the chapter, it is the researcher‟s wish to mention the benefits of cooperative learning and some of the previous studies on

cooperative learning with reference to the enhancement of students‟ speaking skills

2.2 Concepts related to the study

2 2 1 Communicative language teaching and the teaching of speaking skills

The latest influence on language teaching in Vietnam is communicative language teaching Communicative language teaching is a broad approach to teach, which results from a focus

on communication as the organizing principle for the teaching rather than a focus on mastering of grammatical system of the language So far, there have been many definitions

of communicative language teaching, but it is not easy to show which a standard one is According to Byrne (1981: 71), the communicative approach allows a lot of interactive oral activities in the classroom Students learn to use the English language, not English usages, to utter fluently in communication Students works in groups (consisting of two people upwards), take their own roles to communicate with others who also have their roles, so each of them produce intentional utterances that help them reach their goals in shortest time Teachers give students clear targets, create communicative conditions, then

go round to help students by participate themselves in the activities

Nunan (1989: 94) overviews the approach which contains aspects common to many definitions of communicative language teaching:

Communicative language teaching views language as a system for the expression of meaning Activities involve oral communication, carrying out meaning tasks and using language, which is meaningful to the learners Objectives reflect the needs of the learners; they include functional skills as well as linguistic objectives The learner‟s role is as a negotiator and integrator The teacher‟s role is as a facilitator of the communication process Materials promote communicative language use; they are task-based and authentic

The definition above represents a particular view of understanding and explaining language acquisition It is socially constructed, and, as such, must be effective if exploited

to teach language speaking

Speaking plays a vital role in communication Many famous linguists and scholars have discussed to examine the nature of speaking, from the elements of pronunciation to the connected speech, and the pragmatic aspects Brown (1994: 256) points out some of the characteristics that can make oral performance difficult such as the clustering, the reduced forms, the colloquialism, the stress, rhythm and intonation, the interaction, and the affective factors

Brown and Yule (1993) suggest that, in contrast with teaching of written language, teachers concern with teaching the spoken language must confront such the following types of questions as how important pronunciation is, and whether students should be expected to produce the structures in standard grammar when they speak English

Ur (1996) considers speaking intuitively the most important of the four skills: people who knows a language are referred to as „speakers‟ of that language as if speaking included all other kinds knowing, and many if not most foreign language learners are primarily interested in learning to speak As a matter of fact, it is difficult to help learners to express themselves articulately and more importantly, to develop competent speaking skills The different uses of the spoken language, which learners have to master as fluent speakers of English, therefore are necessary to consider She also lists out some problems facing teachers as designing and administering speaking activities that include the inhibition of trying to say something in English in the classroom; the mother-tongue use; the uneven or low participation; and the lack of motivation

All of the above authors support the ideas that the success of oral communication involves

a number of the features such as the ability to articulate phonological ones of the language

comprehensibly; the mastery of stress, rhythm, intonation patterns; the acceptable degree

of fluency; the management of interaction and negotiation; the conversational listening skills, etc of which the interacting and negotiating skills are more important for communication in general Business English

Conclusively, the ability to speak a second language well is a very complex task Speaking

is used for many different purposes and each purpose involves a different skill In general Business English, we may use speaking to describe things, to complain about people‟s behaviour, to make request, to negotiate something in our business, or to entertain people with joke, etc Each of these different purposes for speaking implies knowledge of the rules that account for how spoken language reflects the context or situation in which speech occur, the participants involved and their specific roles relationships, and the kinds of activities the speakers are involved in

2 2 2 Speaking skills in General Business English

Speaking skills in Business English are related to business performance areas Although the purpose of this study is to improve the speaking skills of a particular objective through cooperative learning application, it should be noticed that the students, who severed as the participants of this action research, were pre-experienced in business, and they were

studying General English for business at university (the course book Market Leader Pre –

Intermediate) Therefore, the business General English speaking skills are considered a

matter of discussion in this part According to Dudley-Evans and John (1998), English for General business purposes courses are usually for pre-experience learners or those at the very early stage of their career They are similar to general English as a foreign language courses with the materials set in business context As for Ellis and Johnson (1994), the typical performance areas for General Business English include meetings and discussions, oral presentation, telephoning and socializing

Meetings and discussions is a very broad performance area ranging from small, informal

meetings to large, formal ones, and discussions of all kinds There are three different kinds

of behaviour that can be identified in this area: controlling, participating, and co-operating The languages functions required for each kind is different, too For meetings, it is necessary to acquire the language skills of opening the meeting, nominating the topics for discussion, rejecting topics, asking people to speak, summarizing, restating (or rephrasing), concluding and closing the meeting The language functions relating to participating in

meetings are negotiating, setting out facts and figures, expressing opinions, supporting an argument, agreeing and disagreeing, making suggestions, balancing points of view, interrupting, promising, etc Therefore, it is very important that teachers should provide their students with clear structures for certain skills, then give students chance to co-operatively practice holding meetings inside as well as outside classroom

Oral presentation is built on language and good oral skills, which also relates to

co-operative skills In order to give oral presentations, the language functions required are describing process, expressing possibility and certainty, describing structures, giving reasons, expressing causes and effects, describing trends, comparing and contrasting, expressing conditions, expressing intention, etc Oral presentation work concentrates on the stand-up, prepared talks accompanied by visual aids as well In addition, the confidence factor is worth mentioning as it has an effect on the handling of feedback in teaching oral presentations

Telephoning in English business covers a wide range of situations and types of interaction

The language used in telephone conversations is highly conventional and formalized Telephoning also requires well-developed skills in exchanging information, clarifying, and explaining Pair work is the most popular technique exploited in teaching business telephoning skills in English

Socializing means the spoken interactions that surround the actual discussion of business

matters According to Dudley-Evans and John (1998), in socializing, the social aspect of interaction is just for establishing a good relationship in order to increase the conduct of business Therefore, a large variety of language structures is required here, depending on specific types of situation and behaviour, such as greeting and saying goodbye, complimenting and responding to thanks and complements, modality for expressing possibility or politeness, raising topics, changing topics, accepting or rejecting new topics, conditionals in negotiating, etc

In summary, General Business English courses provide learners a board range of English through business settings, and like General English courses, the design of these courses should be task-based According to Ellis and Johnson (1994), the basic fabric of a Business English course should be tasks that are close to those of students‟ real situations It is important that these tasks should have specific objectives and be clearly instructed at the beginning so that students are able to follow and achieve their overall objectives Practice

tasks may be long or short; and the selection of appropriate tasks should depend on the need of the students in relation to their (future) jobs – what business situations they have to deal with, for instance They may include: asking a student to describe a (or his/her) company‟s products or to compare different products; asking two group members to imagine they are business associates meeting for the first time; setting up a telephone role play or a simulated meeting; getting the student to prepare a short presentation defending a certain point of view, etc It is also essential that students should get helpful and constructive feedback on their performance The students should know whether their mistakes actually affected the success or failure of the task: Did they communicate effectively? Were they easy to understand? Did they manage to clarify misunderstanding? Did they use appropriate politeness form? Only after that feedback has been given is it valuable to draw attention to specific language errors that may have contributed to lack of overall clarity or precision

2 2 3 Cooperative learning

2 2 3 1 Definitions of cooperative learning

Cooperative learning is one of the main factors to promote students‟ communication It is

by no means a new idea Humans, for thousands of years, have recognized the value of cooperation in a broad range of endeavors, including education However, the term

cooperative learning seems to date back to the 1970s when a great deal of research and

practical work began on discovering how best to harness peer power for the benefit of learning Over the past twenty years, different approaches to cooperative learning have been developed by different individuals Thus, cooperative learning takes many forms and definitions

Cooperative learning is defined by Johnson and Johnson (2001) as “a successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety

of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject Each member of a team is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for helping teammates learn, thus creating an atmosphere of achievement Students work through the assignment until all group members successfully understand and complete it” This is one of the most satisfactory and comprehensive definitions about cooperative learning in general situations and contexts

Millis (1999) brings a relatively adequate definition into open that “Cooperative learning refers to the act of various interactive instructional small groups Students who employ cooperative learning approach work in groups of two to five to fulfill specific targets They need to be cooperative, pro-social, and positively interdependent They also need to be responsible for their own work”

Johnson (1991) also gives a definition about cooperative learning as “the instructional use

of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each other‟s

learning” According to the author, class members are organized into small groups after

receiving instructions from the teacher They then work through the assignment until all the group members successfully understand and complete it Cooperative efforts result in participants striving for mutual benefit so that all group members gain from each other‟s efforts, recognizing that all the group members share a common fate, knowing that one‟s performance is mutually caused by oneself and one‟s colleagues, and feeling proud and jointly celebrating when one group member is recognized for achievement, because a group member‟s success depends on both individual effort and the efforts of the other group members who contribute needed knowledge, skills, and resources No one in the group can possess all the information, skills, or resources necessary for the highest possible quality result

It can be clearly seen from these definitions that the key to cooperative learning is the careful structuring of learning groups Generally, cooperative learning methods share the following characteristics:

through group work

learning activities

need each other to accomplish their common tasks or learning activities

2 2 3 2 Cooperative learning structures

The specific cooperative learning strategies that teachers can use to organize interaction between students are called cooperative learning structures Most structures can be used

with almost any academic contents, but some structures are better than others for certain tasks Some structures regulate interactions between pairs, some are better for group work, and others involve the entire class The important thing is that we must choose the most suitable one for a particular instructional purpose According to Dr Spencer Kagan (2003), there are many structures commonly used in a language class, and in this study, some of the most common ones were used to organize students‟ speaking practice in the light of general business English such as round robin, rally table, think-pair-share, team interview, teammate consult, jigsaw

In round robin structure (also called round table), students in teams take turns orally

responding to a question or prompt The question(s) can be written on slips of paper in the middle of the team, or it (they) can be called aloud This structure aimed at giving every team member equal opportunities to say out their ideas For example, the teacher can have team members in a group round robin their suggestions for finding out the best way to

market a company‟s new range of products (a topic in Market Leader Pre- Intermediate) The structure rally table works the same way as round robin, but the students work in pairs

instead of in teams They pass a worksheet back and forth as they discuss, write answers or complete a task This structure is very simple and effective in a speaking lesson In their groups, students are divided to work in pairs, (or the teacher can have two groups work together, each member of a group works with a member of another group to share their ideas, then the group members can gather again after their discussion, etc) The purpose of using this structure is to create more chances for students to speak and enhance their responsibility for the task because as working in pairs, participants have to work in turns,

so if one participant does not work, the task may fail This really helps in organizing telephone conversation practice, one of the performance areas in general business English

The aims to structure students in think-pair-share are similar to what of rally table There

is only a slight difference in the way it is conducted In this structure, students are divided

into pairs The teacher calls out a discussion topic and students think of their own answers Then students pair to discuss their ideas Finally, the teacher asks the students to share their ideas in their groups, and then the teacher can call one student to share their ideas

with the class This works well in discussion to find out how to solve a business problem

In team interview, students take turns standing and being interview by their teams They

can be interviewed about a company or a product they have read about This can be done

after students‟ presentation time as well By using this structure, the teacher can help students feel more confident as presenting in front of many people

Teammate consult also works well in general business English Students have the same

worksheet They discuss the questions, and then silently write down the answers This really helps in a cooperative learning group, as students can exchange their ideas with one another to find out what they themselves think the best answers for the questions given

Students are on „base teams‟ of five in a jigsaw practice Each student is assigned a

different role as an „expert‟ All „experts‟ with the same topic meet in a corner of the classroom to learn about their topics Then they prepare a brief presentation on the material and return to their base teams They tell their base team members about the new material they have learned In a speaking lesson of general business English, the teacher can use this type to create a close-to-everyday-life atmosphere, in which students move around, discuss their topics, try to learn new things, and then exchange the knowledge they have gained with their friends By doing so, students‟ speaking ability can be improved

In summary, there are many strategies used in cooperative learning, all have common characteristics of learning activities that are suitable for group work, and small group based tasks The strategies mentioned above, which were chosen carefully by the researcher of this study, encouraged students‟ cooperative behaviors, positive interdependence, individual accountability and responsibility for task completion, and so on Thus, the application of cooperative learning strategies is very effective in solving the problems of speaking activities

2 2 3 3 Benefits of cooperative learning in language teaching

Since springing to life around the seventeenth century, cooperative learning approach has exposed a lot of its strengths rather than its weak points The source of benefits for cooperative learning can be seen in different fields, including the teaching of English language as a foreign language In the best cooperative learning speaking lesson in a language classroom, the members of a learning group can benefit in several ways Typically, a teacher who chooses to use this method may not only have a learning goal that

is domain-specific for the course, but also hopes that in the process of trying to attain this goal, the students will acquire new strategies and knowledge By dividing the class into groups, a new social context is created whereby students have the opportunity to share individual cognitions with their peers and come to a conclusion based on the sum of these

cognitions A group that contains diverse members has the benefit of exposure to different ideas and the challenge of incorporating these ideas into the cognitive process of the group communicatively The benefits of cooperative learning have been discussed by several famous scholars all over the world

According to Johnson and Johnson (1987), cooperative learning approach is the “ideal” educational target: the “power of self-control” Students‟ ability can be developed and they become confident to do interdependent assignments At first, they try to find out the way to authorize and believe in one another in their own team, then in a larger one such as their class Gradually, they can be confident enough to enter a much larger community where the teacher plays the role as the presenter, supervisor, and supporter This is a very good way of building up students‟ confidence in cooperative learning, so that they are not reluctant to speak out their ideas

Prasongporn (2004: 72) notes the advantages of cooperative learning as promoting members‟ relationships and providing equal opportunity to all members to think, speak and act while working together It also helps members listen to other ideas and to brainstorm to make decisions in doing something, adjust to living and working together and promote communication among members

As for Johnson & Holubec (1991), “Cooperative learning is the most important of the three types of learning situations … what we know about effective instruction indicates that cooperative learning should be used when we want students to learn more Like school better, like themselves better, and learn more effective social skills It is clear that classrooms should be dominated by cooperation among students” This idea about the use

of cooperative learning is worth considering for the trend towards the increasing of cooperative learning application in speaking lessons for Vietnamese students

Millis (1996-2001) points out that students studying cooperatively in oriented groups are strongly believed to be successful He also emphasizes that “Working in well-instructed groups permanently or semi-permanently gives students more opportunities to interact with one another Structural expressions also help a lot in everyday classroom practice Roundtable, for instance, is a technique of brainstorming applied in many kinds of practice for various targets Students choose correct and appropriate structures first, and then use the structures to produce their own meaningful sentences By doing that, they put themselves in a particular practice, but when particular practices are connected, they turn

to be a cooperative lesson or activity” Obviously, it is a beneficial for students to do so, even it may take a plenty of time, and teachers should carefully think of the allocation of time for other language skills, especially in the Vietnamese classroom context, where the traditional approach is still dominated

Dahley (1994) thinks that in cooperative learning, students work interdependently in their groups to fulfill a special target Effective cooperative learning should include five vital elements: positive interdependence, face-to-face interaction, individual accountability, social skills, and group processing Positive interdependence refers to the peer support in groups to reach the goal By face-to-face interacting, students can help one another more easily Students also need to account their work individually, so that they can get rid of being plagiarized by others Acquiring social skills can help students strengthen personal relationships among members of their group Finally, group processing is necessary to

evaluate each member‟s work, their success or problems, their attitudes towards the job

Teachers themselves benefit from collaborative learning According to Bruffee (1993), by applying this approach, they help students form groups or societies in which students get assistance from one another to make progresses, and to overcome problems facing them in their new knowledge environment

In conclusion, the reason why cooperative learning is used is that cooperative learning enhances students‟ learning by:

Cooperative learning small groups also provide a place where:

- learners actively participate,

- teachers become learners at times, and learners sometimes teach,

- respect is given to every member,

- projects and questions interest and challenge students,

- diversity is celebrated, and all contributions are valued,

- students learn skills for resolving conflicts when they arise,

- members draw upon their past experience and knowledge,

- goals are clearly identified and used as a guide,

- research tools such as Internet access are made available,

- students are invested in their own learning

2 2 3 4 Previous studies on cooperative learning with reference to the enhancement

of students’ speaking skills

Cooperative learning is one of the main factors to promote students‟ communication In this study, cooperative development is not only for language teaching but also language learning, particularly the learning of English speaking skills It provided a way of students working together with their friends in order to become a better learner who learned best at his/ her own pace There have been a large amount of studies on cooperative learning, especially with reference to the enhancement of students‟ speaking skills In this part, only some famous ones are noted

In their study, Tavella and Artusi (2006: 11) did research on the application of cooperative learning to enhance speaking skills Their study was carried out with the participation of two groups of secondary school students The study shows that cooperative learning is extremely useful in mixed-ability classes because it takes into account individual learning styles, learning speeds, personality differences, language levels and affective issues The characteristics of cooperative learning were positive interdependence, individual accountability, social skills, especially speaking skills, and there was a need for the monitoring of behavioral criteria for grouping so that students could orally perform better Group compositions and interaction patterns could change with goals They conclude that cooperative learning is more than just an approach to learning a language, or language skills; it is a way of working, behaving and even reflecting society and life itself

Holmes (2003: 254 - 257) conducted an empirical study in a Malaysian university to investigate students‟ language skill development via cooperative learning application The study compared students working in pairs and students working alone He found that students who worked together produced better results and had more positive attitudes Moreover, the data analysis in his study revealed that while working in groups, student‟s speaking skills were improved, especially the ability of expressing their ideas However, there were some shortcomings about conflict manipulation or deception The overall results of the research indicated that most students regarded pair work positively Fifty-five

(80%) of the pairs reported that they had had a good experience working with a partner and

38 (57%) said they enjoyed doing the project

Johnson, Johnson and Holubec (1991: 21) observed that college students, especially freshmen, often feel hopeless and discouraged when facing a difficult class, therefore cooperative learning should be provided After their research, they noted that the most important aspect of college faculty life is empowering students by organizing them into a cooperative team They also had another conclusion that by studying in teams, students‟ language competence became better, namely speaking and listening skills

2 3 Conclusion

In short, the chapter has so far presented the issues and aspects concerning the topic of the study As a learner (learning from students‟ feedback), teacher (providing students materials and activities) and researcher (analyzing and reflecting on data) at the same time, the language teacher should realize that theories and strategies of teaching second language speaking skills need to be understood In the process of developing this study, using theories relating such as the communicative language teaching and the teaching of speaking skills, the speaking skills in General Business English, cooperative learning, and cooperative learning structures, the benefits of cooperative learning, etc as background knowledge to plan the activities and materials were a good way to enhance students to learn most The thorough action research – the most important part of this study – will be presented in the next chapter

CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY

3 1 Introduction

In this section, besides the minor introduction and conclusion, four main categories are addressed The first one is the context of the study, which houses the description of the students‟ learning context and learning materials in their second year at Hanoi University

of Business and Technology In the second category, the methods of data collection are presented carefully The introduction of the action research participants lies in the next part The most important part of the chapter, which is the procedures of the study, describes in details the problem identification and the plan of action

3 2 Context of the study

3 2 1 The learning context

The students were in their first semester of the second university year, with 90 class hours

of English study They studied in a small-sized class of 30 ones; each class has one private room to study They had just finished the elementary level of English and attend 10 class hours of English every week The students, after one year learning English at Hanoi University of Business and Technology, were expected to communicate appropriately in various, simple situations in everyday life as well as in business life

In general, the students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology attend 3 modules

of English in their first year, 4 ones in their second year, and 4 others in their third year At the end of each module, they have to take part in an oral progress test which accounts for 20% of the general module score (The written test takes 10%, the on-going assessments get 10%, and the final on-computer-test takes 60%)

3 2 2 The learning materials

The course book is Market Leader (Pre-intermediate) by David Cotton, David Falvey, and Simon Kent (2000) The book is clearly laid out with plenty of authentic models of spoken language, communicative activities, pair work, and group work to help students practice using the language in the classroom The book is divided into 12 or 14 topic-based units depending on the level The topics have been chosen following research among teachers to establish which areas are of the widest possible interest to the majority of their students Besides speaking, the book provides input in reading, and listening, with guidance for

writing tasks Each unit ends with a motivating case study to allow students to practice language they have worked on during the unit There are also other components such as

Practice File, Audio materials, Test File that consolidate and support the work in the main

units as well as assess students' progress through the course However, there should be some modifications to the group structuring, especially the tasks, so that the problems of speaking activities such as not even participation, students‟ inhibition, nothing to say, use

of mother tongue can be solved, and students can quickly make progress in the process of second language acquisition, as well as meet the course requirement at university

3 3 Methods of data collection

The results of the study were developed based on the data collected via the researchers‟ observation schedules, the language proficiency tests, the students‟ written journals after each speaking lesson The process of collecting data was carried out during the students‟ fourth module of English at university

Quantitatively, the data collected from the observations were used to discover the frequency of students‟ participation and performance in pre- and post- activities In addition, the students‟ scores on the 4 oral tests (three tests of the previous modules as pre-test and the fourth module test as post-test) provided the data for comparing the students‟ performance before and after applying cooperative learning

Qualitatively, the data collected from the students‟ journals and the observation in the students‟ post-activities were useful sources to reflect their feelings, opinions of cooperative learning; and to provide a list of skills that students have participated and improved in cooperative learning

The first instrument for collecting data was the teachers‟ class observations before and during the application of cooperative learning in speaking activities to record students‟ participation The observations, which consisted of a series of interaction categories

including initiating, responding (simply agreement), responding (agreement with

development), responding (simply disagreement), responding (disagreement with reasons), eliciting, evaluating, asking for explanation and clarification, and team building,

targeted at recording the nature of students‟ participation in pre- and post- activities

(adapted from The Postgraduate Research Handbook by Wisker, 2001) The pre-

observation was carried out before the application of cooperative learning in speaking lessons to record the students‟ participation in ordinary instructional activities; and the

post- observation was used to record the students‟ participation during the cooperative learning structured activities Both the pre- and the post- observation were carried out by five teachers of English (as mentioned above) following the observation schedules, which

were adapted from Action research for language teachers by Wallace (2001) The

observers were explained clearly about the focal topic, the purposes of the study as well as the observation forms They were also provided with the lesson plan and the detailed activities before every lesson so that they could prepare well for the observation During both pre- and post- observations, all the observers came to class TC1201 when the speaking lessons were taking place; each of them (including the teacher of the class) observed one group of five students and noted down the students‟ behaviors on the observation sheet Specifically, the students were divided into groups based on their test scores (which were described carefully in the next sections); each of them was coded with

a number (from one upwards, equivalent to the order of their names in the alphabetical list

of names) Each observer then watched one group, made notes if each student carried out any interaction category The observers also recorded how many times each student participated in each speaking activity (the pre- and post- activities were designed with the same length of time) The observation sheets are included in the appendixes

The second instruments were the two sets of oral tests The first one was the oral tests of the three previous modules (pre-test) and the oral test module 4 The oral progress tests were designed with two parts and last 5 - 7 minutes In the first part, after introducing themselves briefly to the examiner, students were asked to read aloud a dialogue in pairs within 2 - 3 minutes This part aimed to create warm atmosphere for the students with a view to helping them feel comfortable in the examination It also aimed to check the student‟ ability to speak fluently with correct stress and intonation In the second part,

students were asked to role-play a situation (mainly adapted from the Skills and Case study

in Market Leader Pre-intermediate), within 4 - 5 minutes This aimed to check the

students‟ ability to manage in discourse and to participate in a conversation in a simple business context In general, the frameworks for the oral tests were well evaluated with their validity, difficulty, reliability, applicability, relevance, interpretability, acceptability, etc The tests were also designed by teachers of English at HUBT who had attended courses of Language Testing at the Department of Post Graduate - Hanoi National University Throughout the test, the students were assessed not in relation to each other but according to the following are the speaking criteria and marking scales which were adapted

from Language testing lectures by Vu Van Phuc M.A.(2007) (included in the appendixes)

Although there were some constraints of this instrument such as it could not adequately show the students‟ participation in big cooperative learning groups (with more than two students), and there was only one examiner for each testing desk, these quantitative data were still valid and reliable because the design of the oral tests closely met with the requirements of the standard speaking test evaluation Moreover, pair work is a kind of small groupwork and in the test, the students had to work together to perform their work in the best way

The last instruments were students‟ written journals after each speaking lessons to reflect their attitude towards the lesson The use of students‟ journals in research into attitudes was supported by Jane (2001) and Peck (1996) The students were instructed to write their journals in Vietnamese and in English (if they were interested) to answer the optional prompts (included in the appendixes), which focused on the research questions (It is worth mentioning that the students had been taught how to write a journal before) Also, the students were informed that their journals would not to be marked but used as the data to help to improve their speaking skills All of these things were carried out to make the students feel totally free to reflect their feelings and opinions of the lessons so that their written journals could provide the researcher with useful information about the students‟ feelings towards language learning, especially speaking skills, in the light of cooperative learning approach

3 4 The participants

3 4 1 The students

This study as an action research was carried out in class TC1201 with 30 second year students, who studied English as a non-major subject, at Hanoi University of Business and Technology The students were at the age of 19 to 20, including 18 girls and 12 boys Their level of proficiency in English was roughly attributed to elementary (after one year studying English at university) Most of the students come from different high schools in different regions all over Vietnam, where traditional methods of teaching English are popularly applied Before studying at university, their English learning had focused on reading and writing but not listening and speaking, thus they had very little chance to speak English However, those coming from towns and cities seemed to be better at speaking skills because they had more chance to come and study at foreign language centres, where they could practice speaking English; while the students coming from provinces and

remote regions seemed to be shy and slow Although the students were dynamic, enthusiastic and hard working in the study, their level of speaking competence was mixed Some students (approximately 5) were really active and „talkative and dominant‟ in pair and group activities Most of the students (about 15) were relatively involved in speaking activities though they were still reluctant as contributing their own ideas The rest (around 10) were quiet and passive, they seemed to keep silent and listen to the other team members most of the time Despite the mentioned difficulties, all of the students were always eager to learn any subjects well, particularly English, as it was necessary for their future jobs

3 4 2 The teachers

As participants of the action research, the teachers who were involved in the study were the researcher herself, who taught class TC1201, three other teachers of English at Hanoi University of Business and Technology; and two students of class 14 MA who worked as teachers of English for non-major students at other Colleges and Universities The teachers

as well as the two students of class 14 MA had graduated from Departments of Foreign Languages in Universities in Vietnam They were from 28 to 38 years of age They all had four to six years of experience of teaching English to non-major students They had all participated in one or more Teacher In-service Education programs (held by Vietnam-Australia Training Organizations, the British Council, and some other non-governed Organizations ) In addition, all of them had attended a course of English teaching methodology at the department of post-graduate studies in Vietnam national university, and they all showed their interest in the lectures on teaching speaking

3 5 The procedures of the study

3 5 1 Problem identification

In her first English class with the students of class TC1201, the researcher found out a problem: students‟ failure and lack of interest in speaking activities, especially the ones requiring pair work and group work

To clarify the problem, the researcher administered and analyzed the oral test scores of the three previous modules of English to discover that the number of students who got good marks (mark 7, 8, and 9) in speaking only covers 17% (five out of thirty students), whereas the average (mark 5, and 6) took about 50% (fifteen students), and the low shared 33% (ten

students) which consistently unchanged during their three modules of English The mean and standard deviation were also taken into account to compare the students‟ proficiency and their progress in the three previous modules In addition, an observation (the pre- observation mentioned above) was also carried out to record students‟ participation in some ordinary instructional activities The data collected from this pre-observation show the inequality of the students‟ participation in term of quantity and the dominant orientation in term of nature The record of students‟ scores in the pre-test (the three end-of-module oral tests) and the pre-observation are demonstrated in the tables in the appendixes

3 5 2 Plan of action

3 5 2 1 Determine the students’ need in continuous classroom interaction

After her failure to monitor students in speaking activities, the teacher-researcher decided

to invite three teachers of English and two students of 14MA class (who work as teachers

of English for non-major students) to come and observe the class‟ speaking lessons The teachers then sat together to elicit the common problems that students usually encounter during their group working (their unequal participation, dominance, inhibition, etc.) After the solutions were suggested and discussed, the teachers decided to apply cooperative learning theory The teacher of the class then discussed the teaching and learning methods

in speaking, especially focusing on group activities, with the students Finally, all of the students agreed with the teacher that co-operative learning should be applied to improve their speaking skills

3 5 2 2 Organize groups

Grouping is a very important part of co-operative learning application, so it is conducted carefully and scientifically The teachers decided to organize student groups so that they could work effectively in speaking activities Firstly, the teacher of the class let the students do a multiple intelligent test to discover their strengths and weakness as well as their personality, diligence, etc The multiple intelligent test, which was designed by Gardner (2007), was retrieved from the internet According to Gardner (2007), the use of the test can help teachers and tutors to discover innovative ways to help their learners succeed as well as their preferable learning styles, based on their learners' intelligences After that, the students were divided into mixed intelligence and ability groups based on their test scores, together with their test scores in the previous semesters Each of the

students was given a card with a code number used for the observation (the students are numbered from one upward, with a number equivalent to the order of their names in the alphabetical list of names)

3 5 2 3 Implement cooperative learning structured activities basing on the course book and start the observation schedule and journals

The teacher designed all the speaking parts in the course book in cooperative learning structures The teacher‟s instructions for the tasks compulsorily consisted of remarks and exemplification on the use of co-operative learning principles The students had been grouped permanently and organized to work together both inside and outside the classroom During the indoor activities, the teacher joined the groups to help and explained to the students how to employ collaborative skills to work successfully in groups (assigning roles, choosing leaders, keeping listening, questioning for clarification, asking and giving reasons, disagreeing and responding politely to disagreement, etc) The teacher also reminded the students of principles of co-operative learning all the time during the activities There was a common goal set for each group to reach; and during the process of cooperatively working, they were marked in groups and the assessments take 10% of the students‟ final scores

The other teachers of English (mentioned above) were invited to observe the lessons and to record the data for the study using the observation schedules in this stage The students were also asked to write journals to reflect on the lessons after each

3 5 2 4 Evaluate students’ speaking proficiency

The students took the oral test of module 4 with the same format and criteria as the previous ones, and with most of the same examiners

However, during the module, the scores of the students (the 10% of the final scores) were counted through an average grade in their groups, with the purpose of encouraging students

to help and be responsible for their fellow group members This means that in a group of four students, students‟ marks were calculated by averaging the score on their test and the average of their three group-mates‟ scores (For example, if a student gets the score of 7, and the three other students get 4, 5, 6 (the average of 5), then the student‟s score will be 6) (This grade averaging is adapted from George Jacobs, ELT Journal Volume 42/2 April

1988, Cooperative goal structure: a way to improve group activities)

3 5 2 5 Analyze the data

Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were applied to analyze the data collected The researcher quantitatively depended on the data collected from the observation schedules, the comparison of the module 4 oral test scores with the scores of the previous oral tests Qualitatively, the students‟ journals and the teachers‟ records were taken into account to identify the students‟ truthful information about their attitude and improvement

in oral communication skill

of cooperative learning groups, the implementation of cooperative learning structured activities, the observations and students‟ written journals It also includes the evaluation of the students‟ speaking proficiency and the analysis of the data as well as the findings The next chapter will provide the thorough process of analyzing data

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS

The previous chapter presents the study which includes the context of study, the methods

of data collection, the participants, and the research procedures This chapter presents the data analysis The chapter begins with the findings related to the impact of cooperative learning on students‟ participation in speaking activities, and the students‟ attitudes towards cooperative learning As presented in the previous chapter, chapter three, data related to students‟ participation under the impact of the experimental cooperative learning were analyzed quantitatively whereas data on students‟ attitudes were analyzed qualitatively The chapter concludes with the discussion of the findings

4 1 The effects on the students’ participation

4 1 1 Frequency of students’ participation in pre- and post- activities

As it was mentioned in the previous sections, the students in each group were arranged in the order of their speaking ability In order to compare the students‟ participation, observation forms of eight activities (four pre- and four post- activities) were collected, the frequency and nature of each students‟ participation in each activity were counted and marked, then all the numbers and features were presented on tables and charts, which show the frequency of the students‟ participation in four pre- and four post- activities All the tables and charts are presented in the appendixes

On analyzing the figures of the first two students in all groups, the best ones, the researcher figured out that the frequency of their participation in pre-activities was almost higher than theirs in post-activities On the contrary, the analysis revealed that the frequency of the last students, the two weak ones in each group, was significantly improved in post-activities In other words, the weak students participated in post-activities much more than they had been in pre-activities The improvement can be seen through analyzing the other students‟ participation in all groups, but a little bit less clearly In general, those who were dominant

in pre-activities talked less and the quiet ones talked more in post-activities

As regard to the frequency of the students‟ participation, in the pre- activity 1, student number 13, who was the best student in group 1, interacted 28 times in the conversation, which took 41.17 % of the whole conversation while this student only participated 28.57%

in the post- activity one On the contrary, student number 24, the worst student of group 1 talked more in the post- activity than she did in pre- activity (ten times - 14.29% in comparison with twice - 2.94%) Generally, the frequency of the students‟ interaction

increased significantly in the post- activity 2, 3, and 4 The difference is clearly described

as following (the first number refers to the quantity of the students‟ participation in the pre- activity, the second number refers to the times the students participated in the post- activity, the lines of numbers show the activities from 1 to 4):

Two good students Two weak students

Two good students Two weak students

4 1 2 Comparison of the students’ participation

The bar charts (which are placed in the appendixes) visually show the students‟ achievement (especially the weak ones) via the comparisons of their participation in speaking activities between pre- and post- activities It is also revealed from the charts that the students seemed to harmonize with one another in producing interaction categories: the most able students talked less (although the oral test results shows that they were making progress) to give the least able students the floor to participate

As it can be seen from the charts, the dark columns, which reflect the students‟ participation in pre - activities vary much more than the light columns, which reflect the students‟ participation in post – activities The highest dark column comes up to 41.17% and the lowest is at 2.94% while the highest light column only goes 32.85% and the lowest one is at 10% Moreover, the disparity in students‟ participation in each group in post-activities is little, in comparison with the big disproportion performed in the pre-activities This proves the advantages of cooperative learning, where students can help each other to achieve certain goals

One more noticeable feature is that the participation of the most of good students went down in almost all post activities, however, no one made a significant decrease This is to say they did not lose interest in the subject The decrease of their participation was just due

to the increase of the weak students‟ participation The following figures show the percentage of the students‟ participation that seems to be more equal in post- activities (The first number refers to the percentage of the students‟ participation in the pre- activity, the second number refers to the percentage that the students participated in the post- activity, and the lines of numbers show the activities from 1 to 4)

Two good students Two weak students

is clearly that cooperative learning structured activities create more equal participation among the students

4 2 The effects on the students’ speaking performance

The improvement of students speaking skills after the implementation of cooperative learning can be seen clearly from the descriptive statistics of the tests (included in the

appendixes) The students in the post test had higher mean, mode, and median The lowest score of the pre-test was 4, while the lowest score in the post test was 6 The improvement

is clearer as looking at the range for the pre-test (5, 4, 4) and the post-test (3) In addition,

as the standard deviation for the post test was smaller than that of the pre-test, it is said that the single marks in the post-test were more tightly grouped around its mean than those in the pre-test Therefore, we can confirm that the post test was more homogeneous than the pre-test

Table 10: The central tendency and dispersion of the test scores

In conclusion, the improvement in speaking test performance was recognized as regards both central tendency and dispersion As the tests had the same format and criteria, and the students were examined by almost the same teachers in all the tests, under official test conditions, the results were completely truthful and proved the strong points of cooperative learning approach

4 3 Students’ attitudes towards cooperative learning

In general, the students‟ attitudes towards cooperative learning were positively reflected in their written journals The journals were mostly written in Vietnamese and were informed not for marking, so the students told truthfully and thoroughly about the classroom atmosphere in cooperative learning activities, their feeling and opinions of working in cooperative learning groups The students also listed out the difficulties facing them as working in groups and gave some suggestions to the teacher The following are some of their typical ideas (some of which have been translated from Vietnamese into English):

- I enjoy working with my group members because we all try our best, help each other a lot work hard to fulfill individual tasks Working in groups, we all have to try our best because

we do not want to affect others in the group

- The friends in my groups are very helpful and supportive, I feel more confident to talk in groups, and then I can talk in front of the class confidently as appointed by the teacher

- I think I have made a great progress in speaking I used to speak little, in speaking lessons, I used to keep silent and listen to other without responding Everything is different now, my friend listen to me, encourage me to speak, correct me when I get wrong pronunciation I myself have to try hard because I do not want my group to have bad mark because of my bad performance

- I like working cooperatively like this way In the speaking lesson today, we interviewed in pairs, and then reported to other members in the group about our partners, so we had to ask a lot of questions as well as to listen to them carefully It was so fun

As working in cooperative learning groups, students can develop not only their academic skills but also social skills, especially the oral communication skills such as questioning and responding, explaining and clarifying Their skills of pronouncing and listening can be improved as well This discovery from the study is quite in harmony with Brown‟s points

of view (1994: 256) Following are some of their reflection which commonly appeared in their journals:

- I usually ask questions for clarification and explanation because if I do not understand, I can not report I also have to keep asking questions to get information I need for my group

I think I have improved my speaking and thinking skills through questioning and responding my friends’ questions

- I improve my explaining and clarifying skills when I share, present or report information

to other people in my group, I think I also understand more through explaining and clarifying information to others

- I think my pronunciation has improved as I have to try to speak clearly with correct pronunciation so that the others can understand me

- I think I can improve my listening skill through cooperative learning, because when the other speak, I have to listen attentively so that I can respond or get the information I need

However, the students also wrote about some difficulties they encountered when working

in cooperative learning groups:

- It takes a lot of time for us to contact, especially the outside classroom activities

- Sometimes we find it difficult to come to a conclusion or solution to a problem

- Sometimes being responsible for others and the group makes me worried

- Sometimes I feel impatient because some members in our group are a bit slow, but in the end, everything goes well

- We sometimes do not have enough time for discussing

Their reveal of the aspects that we had not dealt with in the study is very helpful for our application of cooperative learning in the future

4 4 Discussion of the findings

This action research aims at solving the biggest problems facing the students of class TC1201 in the speaking lessons such as the students‟ unequal participation and their slow improvement in speaking activities It can be recognized through the data analysis that cooperative learning application has brought the significant improvement in students‟ speaking skills This is in agreement with the ideas stated by Johnson and Johnson (2001) Most of the students found satisfied for being able to work in an environment in which they actively participate in learning The weak students were not hesitant to ask for help as their group mates were always willing to help and encourage them to work hard so that they together could reach the goal of the group and could improve their speaking skills by asking questions, responding others, explaining and clarifying their ideas to group mates, etc The same as what Ellis and Johnson (1994) found, the good students found themselves progress through helping friends, they improved their oral communication skills and other academic skills such as critical thinking skill in explaining, clarifying, tutoring, evaluating, eliciting, discussing and debating, formulating ideas, structuring move, etc obviously, the students were more confident, independent, responsible, active, involved in the learning More importantly, students have been able to find out and use suitable learning strategies which help to direct their long-term learning Generally, the most of findings were positive answers to the research questions

4 4 1 What are the effects of cooperative learning on students’ participation on group activities and their progress in speaking skills?

Apparently seen form analyzing the tables and charts in the previous chapter, cooperative learning activities created more equal participation among the students, and had the students‟ speaking performance improved in the post- test

The tables and charts show that cooperative learning carefully structured activities decreased the number of interactive turns of the advanced students and increased that of