A study on the teacher’s roles in group work in communicative language teaching at phuc tho high school, hanoi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ------ NGUYỄN THỊ THU HUYỀN A STUDY ON THE TEACHER’S ROLES

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

- -

NGUYỄN THỊ THU HUYỀN

A STUDY ON THE TEACHER’S ROLES IN GROUP WORK

IN COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

AT PHUC THO HIGH SCHOOL,HANOI

(Nghiên cứu vai trò của giáo viên trong hoạt động nhóm

ở lớp học giao tiếp ở trường THPT Phúc Thọ, Hà Nội )

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Hanoi - 2016

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

- -

NGUYỄN THỊ THU HUYỀN

A STUDY ON THE TEACHER’S ROLES IN GROUP WORK

IN COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

AT PHUC THO HIGH SCHOOL, HANOI

(Nghiên cứu vai trò của giáo viên trong hoạt động nhóm

ở lớp học giao tiếp ở trường THPT Phúc Thọ, Hà Nội )

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Supervisor: Assoc.Prof Dr Nguyễn Xuân Thơm

Hanoi - 2016

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DECLARATION

I, Nguyen Thi Thu Huyen, declare that this thesis is my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi and that this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or institution

Hanoi,2016

Nguyễn Thi ̣ Thu Huyền

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Assoc.Pro.Dr Nguyễn Xuân Thơm for revising my thesis, for his valuable advice, kind and helpful attitude and considerable assistance that he provided me throughout the study

I am also greatly indebted to all the lecturers at the Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, for their useful lectures which played an important role

in the completion of my thesis

the process of writing this paper

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ABSTRACT

One of the techniques of communicative language teaching is group work, which provides a chance for social interaction Group work is one of the possible solutions of the problem how to get all students to speak in language lessons The teachers sometimes have a tendency to interrupt students when they are speaking together during group work activity The students do not feel comfortable with the interventions This research was carried out to investigate the roles of teacher and the behaviors of the tenth-grade students to these roles in group work activities in communicative language teaching at Phuc Tho high school, Hanoi

The data for this research was collected through the observation of some communicative classes in grade 10 and in the forms of survey questionnaire for the tenth-grade students at Phuc Tho high schoool The findings of the research revealed that the teacher plays most roles in all stages of group work, the students like to work with their friends, arranging weak students and strong students into groups is very helpful, most of the students want to practise speaking English in class without the teacher’s control, the teacher needs to be sensitive when interrupting group work communication and the teacher should always available and only interrupt students’ work when they ask for support

It is hoped that this thesis will help other teachers of English to make use of their roles appropriately in group work activities, to help students learn best in groups and to take all advantages of the group work under their arrangement

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PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

As far as we know, in recent years there have been number of exciting developments in language teaching These developments are sometimes referred to

as communicative language teaching (CLT) According to Nolasco and Arthur (1988) a greater emphasis on activities in which students have chance to determine what they want to say independently on the teacher is among the most important features of CLT The problem of getting students to express themselves freely in the foreign language has come to prominence

One of the techniques of communicative language teaching is group work, which provides a chance for social interaction Group work is a class management strategy and the role of the teacher has to play while teaching is of a facilitator Teacher’s role in group work is very difficult and at the same time it is very important role, too Groups of some students can be formed to solve a problem or pose a question The teacher can organize these groups at any time in a class of any size to check on the students’ understanding of the material, to give students an opportunity to apply what they are learning, or to provide a change of pace

I have chosen the topic of group work for my thesis since it is one of the possible solutions of the problem how to get all students to speak in language lessons I often use this way of interaction in my teaching, but I sometimes have a tendency to interrupt students when they are speaking together during group work activity I have noticed that they do not feel comfortable with my interventions That is why I decide to observe students’ behavior to find out how this is changing with various teacher’s roles My main aim is to find out what teachers actually do in various stages of group work and what are students’ perception and reactions to teacher’s roles I will observe my own classroom to examine how many roles the teacher has during one stage of an activity

2 Aims of the study

The purpose of this research is to find out the roles of teacher in group work activities in class and students’ behaviors to the teacher’s roles in order to obtain

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valid information regarding the effective use of group work under teacher’s

management, so as to bring innovation in class The focus is on group work in

English language classes

The specific purpose of the study was to:

- evaluate the different roles of teacher in group work activities

- find out the behaviors of the students towards the teacher’s roles in some group

work activities

3 Significance of the study

The findings of the study would be much beneficial to teachers of English who are

considering how to make use of their roles appropriately in group work activities,

how to help students learn best in groups and how to take all advantages of the

group work under their arrangement

4 Research questions

The study aims to answer the following research questions:

(i) What are the roles of teacher in group work in grade 10 at Phuc Tho

high school?

toward the teacher’s roles in implementing group work activities?

5 Method of the study

In order to achieve the purpose of the study, both qualitative and quantitative

methods will be used Class observation will be carried out with the detailed notes

about students’ behaviors about the teacher’ roles during the process of

implementing six group work activities In addition, a survey questionnaire will be

delivered to get result from 120 students who are chosen randomly from the

tenth-grade classes at Phuc Tho high school All comments, remarks, recommendations

and conclusion will be carefully considered based on the data analysis

6 Scope of the study

The study is designed to find out the roles of teacher and the tenth-grade students'

behaviors about the roles of teacher in group work in communicative language

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