Nâng cao các hoạt động nói tiếng Anh của sinh viên năm thứ nhất không chuyên ngữ tại trường Cao đẳng Cộng đồng Hà Nội = Improving English speaking activities of

iii ABSTRACT This thesis is carried out to investigate the use of pair work and group work activities to develop speaking skills for the first year non-English major students at Hanoi C

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES - o0o -

TRẦN MỸ HẠNH

IMPROVING ENGLISH SPEAKING ACTIVITIES OF THE

FIRST-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HA NOI

COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Nâng cao các hoạt động nói tiếng Anh của sinh viên năm thứ nhất không

chuyên ngữ tại trường Cao đẳng Cộng đồng Hà Nội

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

HANOI – 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES - o0o -

TRẦN MỸ HẠNH

IMPROVING ENGLISH SPEAKING ACTIVITIES OF THE

FIRST-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HA NOI

COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Nâng cao các hoạt động nói tiếng Anh của sinh viên năm thứ nhất không

chuyên ngữ tại trường Cao đẳng Cộng đồng Hà Nội

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

i

DECLARATION

I hereby certify that the minor thesis entitled “Improving English speaking activities

of the first-year non-English major students at Ha Noi Community College” is the

result of my own research and that it has not been submitted for any other degree

Hà Nội, August, 2014 Student‟s signature

Trần Mỹ Hạnh

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To accomplish this study, I am indebted to many people for their thoughtful help First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Prof Nguyen Hoa for his patient and enthusiastic guidance, encouragement, and invaluable assistance throughout my research

I am also grateful to the lecturers and all the staff members of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for providing me valuable lessons, support and encouragement in fulfillment of this thesis

My sincere thanks go to all my colleagues and my students at Hanoi Community College Without their enthusiasm and help, I would not have been able to conduct

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ABSTRACT

This thesis is carried out to investigate the use of pair work and group work activities to develop speaking skills for the first year non-English major students at

Hanoi Community College It sought the answer to the question: “How can pair

work and group work contribute to improving speaking skills of the 1 st year English major students at HCC?”

non-The study is carried out in two classes (target class and control class ) which are taught differently by the researcher and another teacher at HCC One class is taught

according to the program of the course book “Lifelines - Pre-intermediate” The

other is designed to use pair/group work activities in speaking lessons

In this study, two data collection instruments are used: pre-test/post-test and questionnaires The results of the research indicate that pair/group work activities motivate the students in their speaking lessons After seven weeks, the students‟ speaking competence improves Besides, the students become more interested in pair work and group work activities These activities help students feel confident to speak English These make them have high motivation in speaking lessons Moreover, they have more opportunities to communicate in the teaching language

in a variety of real life situation

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

HCC: Hanoi Community College

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

TABLES

Table 1: Students‟ opinion about speaking skills

Table 2: Students‟ opportunities to speak English in speaking lessons

Table 3: The frequency of speaking activities in class

Table 4: Students‟ attitudes to the topics of speaking

Table 5: Students‟ participation in speaking lessons

Table 6: Students‟ attitudes to classroom atmosphere

Table 7: Totals (agree% + strongly agree%) measurement: Questionnaire

CHARTS

Chart 1: Results of pre-test of the target class and the control class

Chart 2 : Results of post-test of the target class and the control class

Chart 3: Comparing pre-test and post-test scores of the target class (KT1-K8)

Chart 4: Comparing pre-test and post-test scores of the control class (KT2-K8) Chart 5 : Comparing post-test scores of the target class (KT1-K8) and the control class (KT2-K8)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

List of abbreviations iv

List of figures and tables iv

Table of contents v

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Methods 3

6 Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 The nature of speaking 4

1.2 Types of activities in teaching speaking skills 5

1.2.1 Interview 5

1.2.2 Role - play 5

1.2.3 Games 6

1.2.4 Conversation grid 6

1.2.5 Jigsaws 6

1.2.6 Problem solving 6

1.3 Pair work and group work 7

1.3.1 Definition 7

1.3.2 Advantages and disadvantages of using pair work and group work 8

1.3.2.1 Advantages of using pair work and group work activities 8

1.3.2.2 Disadvantages of using pair work and group work activities 9

1.4 The roles of the teachers and students in pair work and group work activities 10

1.4.1 The roles of the teachers in pair work and group work activities 10

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1.4.2 The roles of the students in pair work and group work activities 11

1.5 Criteria of an effective speaking activity 12

1.6 Procedures for pair work and group work 12

1.6.1 Selecting and organizing activities for pair work and group work 12

1.6.2 Planning pair work and group work activities 13

1.7 Previous research on pair and group work 14

1.8 Concluding remarks 16

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 17

2.1 Research question 17

2.2 The setting of the study 17

2.3 The textbook 18

2.4 The participants 18

2.4.1 The students 18

2.4.2 The teachers 19

2.5 Data collection instruments 19

2.5.1 Questionnaire 19

2.5.1.1 Reasons for choosing questionnaire 19

2.5.1.2 Description of the questionnaire 19

2.5.2 Pre-test 21

2.5.3 Post-test 21

2.6 Data collection procedures 21

2.7 Data analysis procedures: 23

2.8 Concluding remarks 24

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 25

3.1 Findings and discussion from the pre-questionnaire 25

3.1.1 Students’ opinion about speaking skills 25

3.1.2 Students’ opportunities to speak English in speaking lessons 26

3.1.3 The frequency of speaking activities in class 26

3.1.4 Students’ attitudes to the topics of speaking 27

3.1.5 Students’ participation in speaking lessons 27

3.1.6 Students’ attitudes to classroom atmosphere 28

3.2 Findings and discussion from the post questionnaire 29

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3.3 Findings from the pre-test and post-test 31

3.3.1 Results of the pre-test 32

3.3.2 Results of the post-test 32

3.3.3 Comparing pre-test and post-test scores of the target class (KT1-K8 33

3.3.4 Comparing pre-test and post-test scores of the control class (KT2-K8) 34

3.3.5 Comparing post-test scores of the target class (KT1-K8) and the control class (KT2-K8) 34

3.3.6 The correlation between results of post-questionnaire and post-test scores 35

3.4 Concluding remarks 36

PART 3: CONCLUSION 37

1 Recapitulation 37

2 Conclusions 37

3 Implications 38

4 Limitations of the study 39

5 Suggestions for further study 39

REFERENCES 40 APPENDIX I

In Vietnam, English is also a compulsory subject to be taught and learned at schools and universities It plays an instrumental role Understanding the necessity of English in the development of the society in general and of each individual in particular, every learner wants to be competent in English and uses it to communicate with foreigners That‟s why most schools now focus on developing students‟ ability to speak English Among the four skills in learning English, speaking and writing are the productive skills However, speaking is regarded as very important for language teaching and learning Speaking is the bridge to reach other skills Speaking helps learners to read better, to listen more effectively and write more accurately Speaking is surely the most effective means of communication (Ur, 1996) So learners of English should have motivation and positive attitude to learn English speaking

At Hanoi Community College, students seem to have lost interest in learning English and they are not active in participating in speaking activities Teachers tried

at all, they do not pay much attention to their speaking skills, they often keep quiet

in speaking lessons Moreover they apply these activities in speaking lessons unsuccessfully These lead to the underachievement and have a negative effect on students learning English as a foreign language As a teacher of English at Hanoi Community College, I would like to make these activities effective and successful

to help my students to master the language and have an ability to communicate confidently in English

For the above reasons, I choose the topic “Improving English speaking activities of

the first-year non-English major students at Hanoi Community College” I hope that

the research will make a contribution to confirming the advantages of pair work and group work activities in teaching and learning English and it can help other teachers

of English be aware of these advantages and apply pair work and group work activities in their teaching

2 Aims of the study

The aim of the study is to improve English speaking skills and develop communicative skills for the first year non – English major students through using pair work and group work activities

3 Research questions

The study intends to find out the answer to the question: “How can pair work and

group work contribute to improving speaking skills of the 1 st year non-English major students at HCC?”

4 Scope of the study

The study examines how to use pair work and group work to improve the speaking

be analyzed by SPSS version 22

6 Design of the study

The study consists of three main parts:

Part A provides an introduction which includes the rationale, aims, scope, research

questions, methods and design of the study

Part B provides a development which is divided into three chapters

Chapter 1 presents some key theories related to the study such as definition of

speaking, definitions of pair work and group work The chapter also mentions advantages and disadvantages of using pair work and group work as well as the roles of teachers and students in these activities

Chapter 2 presents methodology including the background information of the

context where the study is conducted, the subjects, the instruments used to collect data, and the procedures of data collection Furthermore, a detailed description of data analysis is presented; and some explanations and interpretations of the findings

of the study are given in this chapter

Chapter 3 provides discusses the findings of the study

Part C is the conclusion of the study and makes some recommendations on how

pair work and group work should be used to improve speaking skills for the year non-English major students at HCC It also discusses the limitation of the study and made some suggestions for further research

first-4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter aims to explore the theoretical background for the thesis, focusing on the following points: nature of speaking, types of activities in teaching speaking skills, characteristics of an effective speaking activity, pair work and group work, advantages and disadvantages of using pair work and group work, procedures for pair work and group work, the roles of the teachers and students in pair work and group work activities, and the previous research on pair work and group work

1.1 The nature of speaking

There are many definitions of speaking that have been proposed by some experts in language learning

Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information In this process, speaking form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes

of speaking (Brown, 1994)

According to Chaney and Burk (1998), speaking is "the process of building and

sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts".Bygate (1987) claims that "speaking is a skill which deserves attention as much as the literary skills in both native and foreign languages" When students

speak in a confident and comfortable way, they can interact better in real daily situations Because of this, it is necessary to encourage the development of the students' ability of fluency in spoken English Developing fluency implies taking risks by using language in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere-an atmosphere of trust and support Speaking fluently, of course, involves speaking easily and appropriately with others

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From some definitions above it can be concluded that speaking skill is always related to communication Speaking skill itself can be stated as the skill to use the language accurately to express meanings in order to transfer or to get knowledge and information from other people in the whole life situation

In order to improve their students‟ participation in communicative activities in a language classroom Some communicative activities will be discussed in the next section

1.2 Types of activities in teaching speaking skills

There are many activities which can be applied in communicative English classes through the use of pair work and group work According to Brown (1994), Moss (2005), Tsui (1995), various types of group activities such as interview, role-play, games, conversation grid, jigsaws and problem-solving

1.2.1 Interview

According to Brown (1994), interviews are very structured in terms of both the information sought and the grammatical difficulty and variety Using interviews in pair work and group work students can practice the way of making questions, express personal ideas, learning vocabulary and structures

1.2.2 Role - play

According to Richards (2005, p 20), role-play is an activity in which students are assigned roles and improvise a scene or exchanged based on given information or clues Role-play brings some usefulness to students Firstly, it helps students master fields of language like vocabulary, structure, pronunciation and intonation more easily It also gives students opportunities to practice language in various situations not only in class but also outside classroom Additionally, through role-play, students are trained to deal with the unpredictable nature of language because they act imaginary roles in a lot of situations Moreover, role-play promotes interaction

in the classroom as well as increase motivation

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1.2.3 Games

Games are activities that motivate most students in lessons They always make funs and comfortable atmosphere for the whole class when participating in class activities In the games, learners are free to express in the target As a result, they have opportunity to improve their capacity of speaking, creativity and memory Their grammatical knowledge and speaking fluency and accuracy enhance a lot

1.2.4 Conversation grid

Conversation grid activities provide learners with opportunities to practice gathering and giving the same information over and over again and a chance to negotiate meaning (Moss, 2005) For example, to review asking and answering personal identification questions in a family literacy class, learners can speak to classmates to gather information

1.2.5 Jigsaws

According to Moss (2005), jigsaws are considered to foster interaction between learners because the „highly interactive activities” require learners to pool their information to complete a task by questioning, explaining, requesting for clarification

1.2.6 Problem solving

Problem-solving activities as well as others are utilized in the class to facilitate communicative skills The students are often in groups, then they talk together to find out a solution for a problem or task given The problem solving activities stimulate the students to talk and to listen to the others

Harmer (1999) points out that problem solving is the kind of group activities that encourages learners to talk or even negotiate together to find a solution to a problem

or a task Problem solving is believed to be necessary and suited to students of all levels Because students are put in some situations that are similar to the real life, they actively join in the activities because of the feeling that they are doing with

1.3 Pair work and group work

1.3.1 Definition

* Pair work:

Adrian Doff (1988, p 137) states “In pair work, the teacher divides the whole class

into pairs Every student works with his or her partner in pairs, and all the pairs work at the same time (it is sometimes called “simultaneous pair work”) This is not the same as “public” or “open” pair work, with pairs of students speaking in turn

in front of the class.”

According to Byrne (1986), there are two main types of pair work, fixed pairs and

flexible pairs The first type is when the students work with the same partner in

order to complete task In this kind of pairs, they will deeply understand each other and know the other‟s ability In the second one, students keep changing their partners they like They can lift their chairs freely to talk to any partners they like Therefore, this will make the activity more interesting and the students will feel more comfortable

* Group work:

According to Adrian Doff (1988, p 37) defines group work as a process that “the

teacher divides the class into small groups to work together (usually four or five students in each group), as in pair work, all the groups work at the same time.”

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Brown (1994, p 8) provides a modernized and more comprehensive definition of

group work He states that “group work provides a context in which individuals help

each other; it is a method of helping groups as well as helping individuals; and it can enable individuals and groups to influence and change personal, group,organizational and community problems” He goes on to distinguish

between “relatively small and neighborhood centre” work and “macro, societal and

political approaches” within community work, explaining that only the former may

be properly classified as group work

1.3.2 Advantages and disadvantages of using pair work and group work

1.3.2.1 Advantages of using pair work and group work activities

Generally, students, at first, are so self-conscious that they are reluctant to speak in the target language, especially when being listened or saw closely by a lot of people However, there are a lot of different ways to help students overcome such situation Pair work and group work activities not only provide students with maximum speaking time and opportunity but also provide a safer, less public environment in which the students will fell free to practice speaking in the target language

Brumfit (1984, p 78) says that pair work and group work are the most effective techniques of classroom organization which combine aspects of communication

learning and natural interaction in a stress free environment

Pair work and group work activities help to solve the problem of large classes and give students more opportunities to speak English in classroom Students participate

in the lesson much more actively because they are involved in talking to their friends exchange opinions, practising new structures more than listening to their teacher talking By dividing the class into groups, students get more chances to talk than in full class organization, thus each student can say something Ur (1996, p 232) recommends that teachers working with larger classes should divide them into five groups which is the most effective organization for practising speaking

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Students may feel less anxious when they are working in a group with a small number of people Particularly, timid students find it hard to speak in front of the class and teacher in their eyes seems to be a fear They become silent and cannot open their mouth with an empty mind However, when participating in pairs or

groups, they maybe find easier to share their opinions naturally “It is generally

easier to show that you do not know, or do not understand something, in a smaller group than in a large one.” (Norman, Levihn and Hedenquist, 1986: 6)

Richards & Lockhart (1994, p 152) states that “through interaction with other

students in pairs and groups, students can be given the opportunity to draw on their linguistic resources in a non-threatening situation and use them to complete different kinds of tasks.” He also emphasizes the following advantages of pair work

and group work:

 It reduces the dominance of the teacher over the class

 It increases the amount of student participation in the class

 It increases the opportunities for individual student to practice and use new features of the target language

 It promotes collaboration among learners

 It enables the teacher to work more as a facilitator and consultant

 It can give learners a more active role in learning

1.3.2.2 Disadvantages of using pair work and group work activities

According to Brown (1994) there are also some disadvantages of using pair work and group work activities as follow:

 Learners make noise Some teachers are reluctant to use pair work and group

work being afraid of noise or discipline problems which might occur particularly Indeed students make noise while working on the task; they

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discuss things, check words and communicate with one another However, this is so-called “positive noise” and it does not disturb the students

 Learners use of mother tongue When students get excited working in pairs

or groups they sometimes use their mother tongue to express something they are not able to express in a foreign language In this situation, the teacher should give them a special care and make full use of the role as a facilitator

to help them to participate in the task

 Learners make mistakes Some teachers neglect to use pair work and group

work saying that students make mistakes trying to express their own ideas However, the teachers can reduce the number of mistakes before the students start working by demonstrating the activity to the class first and by asking pairs or groups to perform in front of the class afterwards and discussing what they said and pointing out the most common mistakes

 Difficult to control class When learners work in groups, the teacher may

have difficulties to control the class The teacher can gain more control by giving clear instruction about when to start, what to do and when to stop

 Some learners prefer to work individually There are many students who like

working on their own Therefore, the teacher should help students to see that language learning is for communicating with others and the more they engage in such face to face communication, the more their overall communicative competence will improve

In conclusion, although pair work and group work have some problems, they are still among of the most suitable ways to increase learners‟ participation in classroom speaking activities

1.4 The roles of the teachers and students in pair work and group work activities

1.4.1 The roles of the teachers in pair work and group work activities

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According Harmer (2001, p 58), the teacher is not only at the beginning or the end

of the learning process but from beginning to the end of it The teacher is:

 Organizer: This is “one of the most important roles that teachers have to

perform is that of organizing students to do various activities” (Harmer,

2001).The teachers have to create activities that fit the students‟ skills and abilities and put them into pairs or groups

 Tutor: so that the students will be not misleading

 Observer: while the students are working in pair and group, the teachers go

around and give help if necessary

 Assessor: To have a good result, the teachers have to good comments on

each pair or group‟s performance

1.4.2 The roles of the students in pair work and group work activities

The roles of students have changed since the invention of Communicative Teaching

Approach According to Morrow (1977, p 71), “the learner is now concerned with

using language, not English usage In order to do this, learners take on roles and interact with other learners who also have roles What they say is determined by the roles they play, their communicative intentions and the contribution of the other learners”

Breen and Candlin (1980) claim that the learner serves as a negotiator – between the self, the learning process and the object of learning This role emerges from and interacts with the role of joint negotiator within the group The student should contribute as much as he gains, and thereby he can learn in an independent way This fundamental role is clarified by the following set of particular roles:

 Learners regularly work in groups or pairs to transfer (and, if necessary, negotiate) meaning in situations in which each person plays his own role

 Learners often engage in role play or dramatization to adjust their use of the target language to different social contexts

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 Learners‟ needs, styles and aims are focused on or accounted for

 Learners are given some control; their creativity and innovation are encouraged

To sum up, it can be said that all of these roles help to enhance learners‟ sense of competence and self-worth, a sense of mastery of their learning and thereby add to their intrinsic motivation

1.5 Criteria of an effective speaking activity

According to Ur (1996, p.120) speaking is the most important of the four skills He gives the characteristics of a successful speaking activity as follows:

 Learners talk a lot As much as possible of the period of time allotted to the

activities is in fact occupied by learner talk

 Participation is even Classroom discussion is not dominated by a minority

of talkative students: all get a chance to speak, and contribution is fairly evenly distributed

 Motivation is high Learners are eager to speak, because they are interested

in the topic and have something new to say about it, or because they want to contribute to achieving a task objective

 Language is of an acceptable level Learners express themselves in

utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other and of an acceptable level of language accuracy

1.6 Procedures for pair work and group work

1.6.1 Selecting and organizing activities for pair work and group work

As presented in 1.3, there are many types of activities for pair work and group work such as interview, role-play, games, conversation grid, jigsaws, problem-solving which can be used to stimulate students participate in speaking lessons But when to

is very important to take function, content and situation into consideration

Third, the teacher should modify the kinds of tasks so that they are interesting and relevant to students‟ level of proficiency

1.6.2 Planning pair work and group work activities

In order to make pair work and group work effectively and successfully, Brown (1994, p 183) points out seven stages as follows

 Introduce the activity: The introduction may simply be a brief explanation

which should include a statement of the ultimate purpose so that students can apply all other directions to the objective For example, an introduction may begin with “Now, in group of three, you are going to discuss…”

 Justify the use of small groups for the activity: This stage is to remind

students that using small groups help students who are reluctant to speak up

in front of the whole class have a opportunity to do so in security of a small group

 Model the activity: The teacher have to give as many examples to make sure

the whole class has the idea before the whole class is put into pair work or group work The teacher can model the activity with a learner or two and then let other learners perform until the whole class can begin work on their

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own This ensures that the class understands what to do and how to do it and the teacher does not have to interrupt them to give the instruction again It is very important when we are carrying out a new or difficult task

 Give explicit detailed instructions: To help students do pair work and group

work activities correctly and exactly, the teacher should give students specific instructions including a restatement of the purpose, the rule they are

to follow, roles assigned to students and time limits

 Divide the class into groups: According to Killen (2003), the choice of

arrangements for group work depends of five factors such as purpose of the task, the maturity of the students, the physical facilities, the issues to be discussed and the amount of control the teacher wishes to have over the groups If teacher just tells the learners to “get into pair/group”, it is not enough The teacher must show learners who they must work with many times The teacher can use techniques such as numbering off, giving out cards categorized into related topics, separating learners according to the sex, age, etc

 Check for clarification: This stage ensures that all students fully understand

their task before working their groups by asking question like “What are you doing now?” or “What do you have to do now?”

 Set the task in motion: At this stage, students are asked to get into their

groups and get started right away on the task

1.7 Previous research on pair and group work

In recent years, there has been a lot of research on using pair work and group work activities in teaching speaking Pellowe (1996) modified pair/group work activities

to encourage the use of English and communication strategies The action research was divided into two stages At the first stage, he investigated how much English his students were using during pair work At the second stage, he conducted three

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action research cycles to investigate how he could create condition under which the students would maintain communication in English for the duration of the pair work activity After the action research his students highly motivate in using English and communication strategies and the students‟ fluency much improved so that pair/group work is considered as an effective way in improving students‟ speaking skill

Syamsuddin (2000) conducted an experiment to investigate the contribution of pair/group work activities in improving students‟ speaking performance The subjects of the study were 60 students of SMAN 2 Maros 30 students for control class and 30 students for experimental class, and they were in the same level The data were obtained by giving pre-test, post-test and questionnaire The result of the study showed that the uses of pair/group work activities are successful and useful in improving the students‟ performance compared to conventional method

Bac (2005) conducted an experiment with the use of group work and questioning techniques for increasing students‟ participation in communicative activities in large classes at Thai Nguyen College of Education She concluded that the use of group work strongly increases the students‟ talking time and participation and reduces teacher‟s talking time in language activities

Chung (2008), Linh (2008) carried out their studies on pair and group work activities They shared the same ideas that group work activities are very interesting and often used in their school Pair and group work activities gave the students more opportunities to practice the target language and they can learn from their partners and so on However, both teacher and students in their school have faced a lot of challenges in implementing on managing group work during speaking lesson For instance, the organization of group work is noisy, teachers sometimes lose control

of the class or students tend to switch use mother tongue when not under the teachers‟e yes and so on, from that difficulties, they suggested some

In brief, the studies have firmly asserted the important role of pair/group work activities in improving learners‟ speaking skills Although they explored different aspects of pair/group work, all suggested that the use of pair/group work in language teaching and learning brought about great deal of benefits

1.8 Concluding remarks

This chapter has presented all the theories relating to nature of speaking; definition

of pair work and group work, types of activities in teaching speaking skills, characteristics of an effective speaking activity, pair work and group work, advantages and disadvantages of using pair work and group work, procedures for pair work and group work, the roles of the teachers and students in pair work and group work activities; previous research on pair and group work in improving students‟ speaking skill

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter starts with the research question followed by the participants and setting of the study The data collection instruments and reason why they were chosen for this study were detailed before the data collection procedures This chapter ends with the summary

2.1 Research question

The study is conducted to answer to the research question: “How can pair work and

group work contribute to improving speaking skills of the 1 st year non-English major students at HCC?”

2.2 The setting of the study

The study is conducted at Hanoi Community College which is the college training multi-disciplinary, multi- professional, multi- system, but English is a subject in the curriculum This college does not have English training Department and this is only English Group belong to the Basic Department English Group consists of nine lecturers and teachers They are all under 45 years They teach both English for General Purpose‟s courses (EGP) and English for Specific Purposes courses (ESP) Most of the teachers are trained in Vietnam, at Thai Nguyen College of Education, Viet Nam National University- Hanoi University of languages and International Studies and Hanoi University There are six lecturers who have Master of Arts (M.A) degree, two teachers are training at the English post-graduate, and one teacher has a Bachelor degree The lecturers and teachers can use English communicative fluently The knowledge of students at my college is limited so the teachers used the Vietnamese to teach In addition, the limited class time and large class size, lack of reference books… are big problems for effective teaching and learning However, teachers are aware of the need to apply appropriate teaching methods for students to acquire knowledge and skills the best

All the students in the target class are admitted to the college after the entrance examination to university Almost students are between 19 and 21 years old and

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received formal English education at school for about three to six years During the time at the college, they attended 60 classroom hours of EGP diving into the first semester These students come from different provinces in Viet Nam: some with good learning conditions, and some with not very good learning conditions As a result, most of the students from urban areas of high learning standard are better those from rural areas Only a few from remote areas had not learnt any English at all before they entered the college When being asked, they said they learnt French

or Russian These students are not included in the target group to avoid the difference in background knowledge This greatly affected the teaching and learning activities to students at different levels to be classified in the same class It is therefore important for teachers to apply appropriate methods in teaching them EGP

as well as ESP to help them become more proficient

2.3 The textbook

The current used textbook for Hanoi Community College is Lifelines (2002) by

Tom Hutchinson, which is studied in two semesters (1st and 2nd) There are two books of equal use in the series: student‟s book and workbook for Pre-Intermediate level They present the Basic English four skills that are essential with reference to a variety of community situations The 14 units included are arranged in order of difficulty, from easy to more challenging Emphasis is placed mainly on integrated activities including reading, listening, and writing tasks as well as discussion and role-play However, as the target objectives started above, and due to the limited time, only reading and writing are in concerns, and others skills are reserved as students‟ reference materials at home

2.4 The participants

2.4.1 The students

The subjects for this study are 40 first-year non-English major students in the two classes (KT1- K8 and KT2-K8) at Accounting Department at HCC in the second semester of the academic year 2013-2014 One is as a control class and the other the

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target class The students in these two classes are considered to the same age and English level

2.4.2 The teachers

The teacher of the target class is the researcher herself The control class is taught

by the teacher who has been teaching English at HCC for 5 years

2.5 Data collection instruments

In order to collect information about the effectiveness of pair work and group work activities on teaching and learning speaking skills, two data collection instruments are used: questionnaires and test

2.5.1 Questionnaire

2.5.1.1 Reasons for choosing questionnaire

There are some reasons for using questionnaire for this study First, questionnaire gives students the opportunity to express their opinions and needs Students feel comfortable to answer the questions in the questionnaire sheet without fearing to be embarrassed or punished because they are not required to write their names on the questionnaire sheet Second, it is believed that questionnaire is an inexpensive way

to gather data from a potentially large number of respondents Gillham (2000) stated that questionnaires “can help the researcher save time and easily get quick, focused results from a lot of people” Furthermore, Richard (1994: 10) points out that it is useful in “gathering information about affective in formation of teaching and learning such as beliefs, attitudes, motivation, preferences and enable a teacher to collect a large amount of data in a relatively short time” Finally, it‟s easy to summarize and analyze when using questionnaire

2.5.1.2 Description of the questionnaire

Two sets of questionnaires are used in this study: pre-questionnaire and questionnaire They are written in Vietnamese so that all questionnaire items can

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understand and give reliable responses The data collected from the questionnaires will be analyzed by SPSS version 22

* Pre-questionnaire for students

The pre-questionnaire is conducted to 40 students in the two classes at KT1-K8 and KT2-K8 at Accounting Department The researcher delivers the questionnaire to those students to collect data to investigate their attitude towards speaking skill This questionnaire (Appendix 1) consists of 10 questions

Question 1,2,3 : Students‟ opinion about speaking skills

Question 4: Students‟ opportunities to speak English in speaking lessons

Question 5,6,7: The frequency of speaking activities in class

Question 8: Students‟ attitudes to the topics of speaking

Question 9: Students‟ participation in speaking lessons

Question 10: Students‟ attitudes to classroom atmosphere

* Post-questionnaire for students

This questionnaire includes 12 questions (see Appendix 2) They are onl y delivered to 20 students from the target class (KT1-K8) after applying pair/group work activities to speaking lessons The purpose of this questionnaire is to investigate pair/group work activities are effective or not

Question 1,2,3,4,5: Students‟ opinions about pair/group work activities

Question 6: Students‟ attitudes towards pair/group work activities in class

Question 7,8,910: Students‟ improvements after participating in pair/group work activities in class

Question 11: Students‟ attitudes to classroom atmosphere after applying pair/group work activities in class

2.5.3 Post-test

After seven weeks of the treatment, in order to compare the difference between the two classes and to investigate the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of pair/group work, a post speaking test is given to the students of both classes The format of the post test is similar to that of pre-test, but the topic is the different However, the topic is chose to test with the same level The results are to find the differences between the two classes And whether pair/group activities in the target class motivate students in speaking lessons

2.6 Data collection procedures

This study is carried out within seven weeks of the second semester in two different classes Class KT1-K8 - the target class, and class KT2-K8 - the control class The control group is instructed by the researcher‟s colleague who has the same considerable concern about how to teach speaking activities effectively, and the target group is instructed by the researcher In preparing the teaching process, the

 Design and applying pair work and group work activities

 After designing to use pair work and group activities, a post-test is given to the students in these two classes The results of the test are to identify the improvement in students‟ speaking lessons

 Design and administer the post-questionnaire

 Design and deliver the questionnaire at post-stage in the target to evaluate

the effectiveness of pair work and group work activities

 Collect and analyze all the data for results of study

 Discuss the data findings and draw out conclusion and suggestion for further

study

The detailed teaching plan for both classes was as follows:

Week Control class – KT2-K8 Target class – KT1-K8

The teacher only asked s

students work individually

The teacher asked students to work in groups

Activity: Game

2.7 Data analysis procedures:

The analysis procedures include the following three main steps:

 Step 1: Collecting the results

The entire answers to pre- and post- tests, pre- and post- questionnaires are collected to enable closer, full investigation of the results and the information provided by the respondents This makes the examination of the data more convenient and the researcher easier to find out the theory generated from the data

 Step 2: Classifying the data

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In this step, the data are classified to seek answer for the study Based on the results of the tests and the information expressing students‟ attitudes towards the speaking skills and pair work and group work activities, the researcher can confirm the effectiveness of the pair work and group work activities

 Step 3: Interpreting the data

The data the data are calculated in percent Then the comparison and contrast

are made for evaluating the data more exactly to find the answer for the research question

2.8 Concluding remarks

Chapter 2 has described the research methods, data collection instruments with

reason why they were chosen for this study, data collection procedures and data

analysis procedures Major findings will be presented and discussed in chapter 3