Using cooperative learning to motivate the 10th form students at mai anh tuan high school to speak english

Many of our students usually find no interest in speaking English eventhey are asked to do and some, in other cases, feel less confident when they useEnglish to interact among class memb

V METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH SCHEDULE

I ABSTRACT

This paper aims at research carried out with 10th graders at Mai Anh TuanHigh School The main objective of the research was to establish strategies tohelp students to improve their oral ability in English Instruments used to collectthe data were: lesson plans, student questionnaire, teacher’s notes and diary andinterviews Considering the data gathered, this research prompted a morecooperative environment among students in the oral process Finally it was a way

to motivate other teachers in the school to work with these kinds of strategies

II AIMS OF THE RESEARCH

1 Research questions

This study is carried out to find the answer to the following questions:

1 Why do my students become unmotivated in oral communication

classroom?

2 What benefits of cooperative learning can my students accomplish?

3 What can we do to improve their motivation in oral communication

classroom?

2 Definition of specific terms

+ Cooperative Learning: The instructional use of small groups so that students

work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning (Johnson &Johnson, 1993)

+ Motivation: Motivation is defined as the impetus to create and sustain

intensions and goal seeking acts (Ames & Ames, 1989)

III RATIONALE AND JUSTIFICATION

Improving teaching methods is seriously considered as an essential part inthe whole process of teaching development strategies There is no doubt thatmotivation is at the heart of successful language learning, but how to motivate alearner to learn a language effectively seems to be a difficult question for allteachers of English A common problem for EFL teachers is to deal with apassive class, where students are unresponsive and avoid interaction with theteacher and even among themselves

During our working time as a teacher of English at Mai Anh Tuan HighSchool , we realized that our students have met difficulty in oral communicationclasses This is, as recognized, due to their little motivation in the English oralclasses Many of our students usually find no interest in speaking English eventhey are asked to do and some, in other cases, feel less confident when they useEnglish to interact among class members because of their language ability.Therefore, we have tried lots of possible teaching methods in oral class so as toprobably change the current situation Among many teaching techniques forspeaking skill we found out that cooperative learning strategy, as group-worklearning, has lots of interesting activities from which our students can benefit inEnglish oral classes, for they will get more confidence and chances as well toexpress their ideas and opinions among group members Our students will feelmore motivated when they have chances to engage in a variety of speakingactivities such as round robin, three-step-interview (Spencer Kagan), team jigsaw(Sikes and Snapp 1978) or group investigation, etc By using teaching method ofthis kind, we hope that our students’ attitude towards English oral class will have

a lot of positive changes They, to large extent, become more activated and ready

to work hard to master their speaking skill in all oral communication classes

Therefore, we decided to apply “Using cooperative learning to motivate the 10 th form students in oral communication classrooms at Mai Anh Tuan High School ” as the topic of our research

IV LITERATURE REVIEW

According to Cohen (1994) and Weidner (2003: 33), Cooperative learningcan be characterized as a social process in which knowledge is acquired throughthe successful interaction between the group members Also, Slavin (1995: 2)said cooperative learning refers to variety of teaching methods in which studentswork in small groups to help one another learn academic content In cooperativeclassrooms, students are expected to help each other, to discuss and argue witheach other, to access each other’s current knowledge and fill in gaps in eachother’s understanding

Learners, on the one hand, can gain such great achievements, socialbenefits and economic benefits through cooperative learning, which is seen askey changes in societies Weidner (2003: 18-25) Obviously, more learners canprobably become the winners by joining in cooperative learning and sharing thesuccess of achievements among them, Slavin (1984) Cooperative learningproduces greater student achievement than traditional learning methodologies(Slavin 1984) Low achieving students when grouped with higher achievingstudents tend to be more hard-working, for there is a competition among groups

in cooperative learning Likewise, one of the essential elements of cooperativelearning is the development of social skills Besides academic benefits, learnerscan retrieve social benefits, which can be understood in a way that those whocollaboratively work can know how to cooperate with others Much has beenlearnt from others’ viewpoints other than from their own Social interactionimproves communication skills that become a necessity to functioning in society.Last but not least, cooperative learning requires fewer materials as learners canshare among other group members Less equipment is necessary so learners cansave money without sacrificing the quality of education

Teachers, as a role of a coach, a facilitator, and sometimes a spectator inthis approach, are also the beneficiaries from the cooperative learning Byapplying cooperative teaching method, teachers can probably save their time fortheir target lessons This is due to the fact that when the classrooms are wellorganized students will work more effectively rather than one that is clutter Withtraditional teaching methodologies, students sit in pre-arranged rows Classmembers may be of oversize Cooperative learning works best when group size is

of smaller clusters of about 3 or 4 students Furthermore, teachers become moreinteractive with each cluster during the class time He/ she can easily managegroup work or monitor group actions and behaviors, for all activities are wellprepared in advance Finally, teachers can no longer be under increasing pressure

to work with each individual, which possibly put them into stress in some way

In summary, cooperative learning approach has far and away proved itself

as an effective way to motivate learners in EFL classroom in comparison withother teaching techniques or approaches Thus, it is the teachers that should knowwhen and how to use it in their classrooms in order that the lessons are bettertaught and the learners will benefit more from the teacher’s teaching.

V METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH SCHEDULE.

1 Independent and dependent variables

Pre School name: Mai Anh Tuan High school

- Frequency count

- Percentage

- Critical discourse analysis of classroom observation

The use of cooperative learning

To motivate students

in oral communication classrooms

Teacher uses the cooperative

learning approach to help

motivate students to speak

English in the class

Students get motivated and more confident in English speaking classes

classroom? questionnaires - Sample

size: 42 students

3 Data collection procedures

The Data collection procedure is indicated in the following chart.

3.1 Selection of the subjects:

Our research is carried out to see how effectively our students interact inEnglish oral classes and how well they speak English when the cooperativelearning approach is applied in the teaching of speaking Our subjects are 10th

graders who are studying in Mai Anh Tuan High School Our teaching isconducted with 80 students from classes 10K, 10C, who are 15-16 years of age.Although those students are best selected from the Entrance Examination, theyseem not to be good at speaking English It is due to the fact that the annualexams are designed to focus on only English grammar, reading and writing butlistening and speaking skills As a result, they are in the state of being timid inoral classes For this reason, we decided to use cooperative learning approach as amethod to motivate our students to learn to speak English effectively in theclassrooms

3.2 Interviews (See APPENDIX)

Interviews are carried out to see how our students feel about the Englishoral classes and to find out what difficulties they are coping with Weinterviewed our colleagues and other 80 students to see their viewpoints fromwhich we probably choose a suitable method for our teaching

Factors that prevent students from taking part in speaking activities

What factors prevents you from participating in speaking activities

(100 Ss)

%

a Speaking activities are difficult because I don’t have

c Speaking activities are not interesting, the topics are

3 3 Lesson plans:

Lesson plans play an important role in the work of teaching Teacher willknow what and how to teach his or her students Hence, it is essential that weneed to collect lesson plans as a data source for our Action Research

Basing on the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” (national English textbook issued

by MOET of Vietnam), we choose some of the speaking periods to design ourtarget lesson plans in a way that the cooperative learning can probably be appliedand easily observed Below are some cooperative learning techniques to beapplied in our teaching of speaking

UNIT 4 Activity 1 T gives out the network below and asks Ss to think of the questions

used to ask about the information in it

- T calls on some students to give their answers

Eg: 1 Which lower –secondary school did you go to?

What is the mane of the secondary school you went to?

2 What were your subjects then?

Can you name the subjects then?

3 What was your timetable?

Did you go to school in the morning or in the afternoon?

4 What about your homework?

Did you have to do a lot of homework?

THE THINGS YOU DON’T LIKE

NAME OF THE SCHOOL

SCHOOL LIFE

What kinds of tests and examinations did you have then?

6 What did you like best about your school then?

What made you like best about your school then?

7 What part of the school life didn’t you like then?

What didn’t you like about your school?

Activity 2 Students work in pairs, one student plays the role of an interviewer to

ask the other the questions about his/ her school life, using the information in the network The interviewer will take notes the information for later reporting

Activity 3 Using the network and the information in activity 2, the student who

plays the role of the interviewer will report what he/she has interviewed his/her friend

Eg: I’ve talked to Nam He went to Truong Han Sieu lower-secondary

school At school, he had to learnt 10 subjects such as: Maths, Literature,

History, English, Geography,… Among these subjects, he like English best because …………

UNIT 5 TECHNOLOGY AND YOU

* Task 1 (Part B: Speaking - English 10)

Teacher makes small changes to the existing material in the textbook to stimulatestudents to talk about the uses of modern inventions freely:

- Teacher asks students to work in group and fill the table:

(Ex: people no long use Radio)

* Task 4 (Part B: Speaking - English 10)

This is a free activity and aims to develop fluency in speaking The proceduremay be:

Divide students into groups of four or five

Read through the instructions and make sure that each group understandswhat to do Choose one “secretary” in each group to write the list but emphasisthat everyone in the groups should agree on what to write

While the activity is going on, move from groups, but do not interruptmore than is necessary

When some groups have finished their discussion, stop the activity, ask oneperson from each group to report on what they decided

Give feedback: - Content

- Popular mistakes

Activity 1 T gives out a real object (A CELL PHONE) and asks student the

question about its use

Can/ Could you tell me what a cell phone is used for?

- Well, it is used to talk to people when you are away from home

 Can/ Could you tell me what a

…… is used for?

- It is used to V.

- On the screen, T shows the pictures of some modern inventions and then

asks students to work in pairs, asking and answering about their uses

UNIT 6

Activity 1 Teacher sets the scene: Imagine our class is going to have a boat trip

on West Lake in Hanoi Please think of the seat you want to take on the boat

Give the reason why you choose to sit on that place.

USEFUL LANGUAGES:

- have a good view

- In turn, students talk about their favorite seat on the boat Other students listen and take note for later reporting

Eg; S1: I don’t want to sit on the sundeck because I don’t want to get sunburn

S2: I often offer from travel sickness, so I’d like the seat where I can get a lot

of fresh air

S3: I want to have a good view on the board, so that I can take photograph

S4: I’d like to be by myself

S5:………

S6:…………

Teacher: ………

Activity 2 Students work in groups of two tables, studying the seat plan and

decide the best seat for each person (Each groups has a copy of the seat plan to fill in the names of the students)

After the groups have finished, T asks one or two groups to present their

discussion in front of the class After that the whole class to have a discussion to make the final decision

Activity 3 T asks students to work in groups of the same table to talk about the

best seat for the six students mentioned in activity 2

* Role-play activity: Applied to Unit 8: THE STORY OF MY VILLAGE

Procedure:

- The class is divided into groups Group size is of smaller clusters of 3 students

- Each member in the group is asked to play a role as a village planner They aregoing to

talk about the advantages and disadvantages of reconstruction plan of their

village

- Each group is given some suggestions for their talks

- Students are required to present in front of the class after their practicing in the

groups

* Information gap activity: Applied to Unit 12: MUSIC

Procedures:

- The class is divided into groups of 4

- Each student is delivered a paper in which teacher designs a table (See

- The class is divided into groups of 5

- Students are required to prepare a presentation on a historical place they wish to

talk about They are allowed to have one week for their preparations

- Groups present their work in front of the class

3.4 Classroom observation

We got our colleagues to observe my speaking lessons and give us

observation notes as well as their feedback/(comments) to see how our teaching

of speaking activities motivates our students so that we can get objective ideas for

our lessons and their reflection on the students’ motivation Also, we asked our

colleagues for observing their teaching speaking lessons

3.5 Teacher’s diaries

Diaries are used to write down special notes and comments after each

speaking lesson to see what has been done effectively and what has not By doing