Techniques for organizing communicative activities in pair work and group work for students of grade 10 at ham rong high school

THANH HOA EDUCATION AND TRAINING DEPARTMENTHAM RONG HIGH SCHOOL TECHNIQUES FOR ORGANIZING COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES IN PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK FOR STUDENTS OF GRADE 10 AT HAM RONG HIG

THANH HOA EDUCATION AND TRAINING DEPARTMENT

HAM RONG HIGH SCHOOL

TECHNIQUES FOR ORGANIZING

COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES

IN PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK

FOR STUDENTS OF GRADE 10 AT HAM RONG

HIGH SCHOOL (Những thủ thuật tổ chức các hoạt động giao tiếp theo cặp, nhóm

cho học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Hàm Rồng )

Conductor: Luu Thi Thanh Tu Teacher of English

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology

THANH HOA, 2019 BOOK MAP

PAGE CONTENTS

1 1.1 Rationale

1 1.2 Aims of the study

1 1.3 Scope and objectives of the study

1 1.4 Methods of the study

2 1.5 Significance of the study

2 2.1 Theoretical Background

3 2.2 The reality of the the study

4 2.2.1 Background of the study

4 2.2.2 Methodology

4 2.2.3 Data analysis

8 2.3 Teachers’ implementation of pair work, group work in current classes as

teaching experience

9 2.4 The effectiveness of the teaching experience

9 2.4.1 How pair work and group work are used in English speaking classes of

the 10 grade students at Ham Rong High School?

12 2.4.2 What are useful techniques of pair work and group work to the 10

grade students in learning speaking English?

17 2.4.3 The use of suggested activities at Ham Rong High School

17 3.1 Conclusions

18 3.2 Limitations of the study

18 3.3 Suggestions for further research

1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

In Vietnam, English is taught not only at all colleges and universities, but also almostevery high school and it is considered as a compulsory subject at secondary school To meetthe demand of learners, the teaching English in Vietnam has been changing By applyingvarious new approaches, methods, and techniques, English teaching has shift from thetraditional grammar translation approach to the communicative approach According toCommunicative Language Teaching (CLT), the purpose of language teaching and learning

is to develop communicative competence in the target language

In learner-centered approach, the choice of teaching methods are often morecomplicated than the construction of many teaching objectives Some authors suggest thatthis type of work can carry out in two periods In the first period, teachers need to find thestudent's experience and learning methods they prefer, and with their existing experience,teachers can select appropriate teaching methods In the second stage, teachers need toengage the active participation of students in planning their academic programs This workcan be done by encouraging students to think, to engage in learning activities organized byteachers in a positive, proactive and creative way Therefore, the organization of learningactivities for students have a special role and it’s very important for teachers to pay attention

in setting teaching program Two common forms of class organization are working in pairs(Pair work) and working in group (Group work)

In the context of Ham Rong High School, English is taught as a compulsory subjectfor the students of Grade 10,11,12 These students have to take the entrance exam to getGSEC Although these students only have to do a written test, all the teachers here havebeen trying their best to help their students in learning communicative skills well Both ofthem are aware of the importance and benefits of using pair work, group work to helpimprove the communicative skills However, they have faced many challenges in organizingthese techniques during lessons, such as large classes; noises; lazy and passive students, etc

For all the above mentioned reasons, I have decided to carry out a research work in:

“Techniques for organizing communicative activities in pair work and group work for the students of grade 10 at Ham Rong High School” This study is intended to make a small

contribution on how to use the pair work, group work effectively and successfully inEnglish teaching and learning practice in Thanh Hoa in general and at Ham Rong HighSchool in particular

1.2 Aims of the study:

This study is aimed at:

- finding out the use of pair work and group work in English speaking classes of thegrade 10 students at Ham Rong High School

- suggesting the useful techniques of pair work and group work to the grade 10students at Ham Rong High School in learning speaking English

1.3 Scope and objectives of the study:

To improve communicative skills for students at Ham Rong Hogh School, theteachers can make use of various techniques and a number of things should be done.However, within the framework of a teaching experience, the author only intends to draw abrief overview of how are the pair work and group work used at Ham Rong High School Also, due to the time constraints, this study only involves a small number of Englishteachers and students at Ham Rong School

1.4 Methods of the study:

In order to find out the answers to the research questions, both quantitative andqualitative methods were employed to carry out the study The data were collected by

means of questionnaires and interviews for English teachers and the the 10 grade students atHam Rong High School.

Besides that, reviewing the related documents from many published books written bydifferent authors and collecting information from others previous studies are methods toestablish the theoretical background of the study

1.5 Significance of the study:

This study is hoped to be used to both teachers and the 10 grade students at HamRong High School This study has been able to contribute to teachers’ knowledge ofcommunicative language teaching, communicative activities in general and pair work,group work in particular Besides that, from the finding of the study, teachers can beprovided with important information which may be valuable for their future lessonplanning On the other hand, the teachers’ transformation in pair work and group workimplementation will be beneficial to the students

2 CONTENTS OF THE TEACHING INITIATIVE

2.1 Theoretical Background

* Interactions in speaking classes

- Definition of Classroom Interaction

Classroom interaction involves two main aspects, which are the negotiation ofmeaning and feedback, if these two elements are not available in the classroom, then wecannot speak of a successful learning through interaction Ellis and Foto (1999:09) say,

“Interaction contributes to acquisition through the provision of negative evidence and through opportunities for modified output.” Interaction then is rich of meaning negotiation

where the learners can receive feedback from their interlocutors

- Speaking skills in language teaching and learning:

Among the four skills in learning English, speaking and writing are the productiveskills However, speaking is regarded as very important for language teaching and learning.Speaking is a bridge to reach other skills Speaking helps learners to read better, to listenmore effectively and write more accurately Speaking is surely the most effective means ofcommunication (Ur, 1996)

Speaking is a basic skill that language learners should master with the other languageskills It is defined as a complex process of sending and receiving messages through the use

of verbal expressions, but it also involves non verbal symbols such as gestures and facial

expressions Hedge (2000: 261) defines speaking as “a skill by which they [people] are

judged while first impressions are being formed.” That is to say speaking is an important

skill which deserves more attention in both first and second language because it reflectspeople’s thoughts and personalities

* Pair work and group work in speaking classes

- Definition of pair work

According to Adrian Doff (1988 :137), the whole class is divided in to pairs by theteacher Every students 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 In fact, a

pair work consists of two students working together at the same time

There are two main types of pair work: fixed pairs and flexible pairs, given by Byrne(1983) In the former, students work with the same partner to practice the target language

In the later, students keep changing their partners they like This may make the activitymore interesting but the class noisier

It can be seen that pair work can get students to practice the target language more andincrease students’ talking time in the class

- Definition of group work

Doff (1988: 137) also 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”.

Like pair work, group work also gives students more opportunities to practice thetarget language in the whole class In addition, students can work independently and freelyunder the teacher’s control without the pressure of the whole class watching what they aredoing

- Advantages of pair work and group work

Pair work and group work gives the students far more chances to speak English inthe classroom According to Michael Long and his colleagues (1985) who investigateddifferences in the quantity and quality of student language in group work versus teachercentered activities the language produced by students working in groups is more varied andgreater in quantity Learners take the initiative to express themselves, they are morespontaneous Asking questions and responding they use more language functions.(Lightbown and Spada, 1993:85)

Working in pairs and groups is less stressful and more effective for students,especially introverts who needn't perform in the front of the whole class They feel moreconfident working with the friend they like and are more likely to accept his/her correction

or criticism There are always more and less gifted pupils in the process of languagelearning and these methods prevent them from not being laughed at by the whole class if

they say something wrong "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, 1986:8)

- Some common activities for pair work and group work

There are a variety of activities which can be applied in communicative Englishclasses through the use of pair work and group work Some common activities are:

- Game: A game could be any activities that formalize a technique into units that can

be score in some way Guessing games are common language classroom activities

- Role-play: Role-play minimally involves giving a role to one or more members of a

group and assigning an objective or purpose that participants must accomplish

- Drama: Drama is a more formalized form of role-play and simulation, with a

pre-planned story line and script Sometimes small groups may prepare their own shortdramatization of some event, writing the script and rehearsing the scene as a group But theyare time consuming and rarely can form part of a typical school curriculum

- Projects: Mainly for young learners who can greatly benefit from hands-on

approaches to language, certain projects can be rewarding indeed

- Interview: A popular activity for pair work, but also suitable for group work,

interviews are useful at all level of proficiency

- Information gap: This technique is one of the easiest and most interesting forms of

communicative activity in the speaking lesson Information-gap activities include atremendous variety of techniques in which the objectives is to convey or to requestinformation

- Problem solving and decision making: Problem-solving techniques focus on the

group’s solution of a specified problem

- Decision-making techniques are simply one kind of problem-solving where the

ultimate goal is for students to make a decision

- Opinion exchange: Opinion exchange is a difficult technique for students to deal

with at the beginning levels of proficiency, but by the intermediate level, certain techniquescan effectively include the exchange of various opinions

2.2 The reality of the the study

2.2.1 Background of the study

Our school has got 10 teachers of English aged from between 35 to 55 Almost ofthem have at least ten years of teaching experience

Our current material of teaching English is the text-book Tieng Anh 10, 11, 12 byEducation Publishing House This text-book is divided into sixteen units, each of them hasbeen divided into five parts in which “listening and speaking” part aims at providingstudents the different topics and structures through listening and reading and requires them

to practice speaking skills In each semester, students have to learn English in 3 periods perweek

It can be seen that communication is the goal of English language learning Itspurpose is to help students develop their communicative competence This makes teachingand learning to improve students’ speaking skills to be an important part in any Englishcourse Like in many other schools, English teachers at Ham Rong High School find out thebenefits of using pair and group work and spend much time to apply these techniques todevelop students’ speaking skills However, we have some problems such as: large classes;noises; lazy and passive students The major concerns of this research are find out the usefultechniques for organizing pair work and group work to help teachers and students inteaching and learning speaking English

2.2.2 Methodology

Participants

The subjects of the study are 4 teachers of English who teach English for the grade

10 students of Ham Rong High School They range from 35 to 45 years of age The grade

10 students were randomly chosen from over 500 students of 12 classes

Research instruments

The instruments used to collect data was questionnaire and interview for the teachersand the students to get information about using pair work, group work in speaking classes.The first are the questionnaires for the students including 10 questions written inVietnamese, was administered to 110 students

2.2.3 Data analysis

The data of the study was analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively As forquantitative analysis, we used descriptive statistics to quantify the data in form of charts andfigures The qualitative data were obtained from the interview

Table 1: Students’ opinions on speaking skill

of students

Percent

%

1

a It’s a compulsory subject in the curriculum 16 14,5

b Learning speaking English is to

c not very interested 10 9,1

The statistics in table 1 shows the students’ opinions on speaking skill It can clearly

be seen that most of the students asked (81,8 %) say that speaking is necessary for theirfuture job and 73,6 % of them are interested in speaking skill while little of them (14,5 %)says they learn Speaking skill because English is compulsory at their school Some studentsfind English really interesting while there are 56 out of 110 students (62,8 %) who want tolearn speaking skill just to communicate About 18,2% of them stated that English is theirinterest It means that speaking English is so important for most of the students

Table 2: Students’ opinions on the way to learn speaking skill

Questions Options/ Numbers of

5.listening and taking notes 45 40,9

As can be seen from the table 2, (83,6%) of the students asked said that they likeworking in pairs and groups, whereas they had very little favor for working individually(20,9%) , only 14,5% of them liked working in whole class 30% of students enjoyedanswering the teacher’ questions and 40,9% liked listening and taking note From this, itcan be understood that most of the students see the importance of working in pair and groupfor the better speaking skill This also means that pair work and group work are surely themost suitable activities for the speaking skill

The pie chart below shows the students’ opinions on the use of pair work, group work

in speaking class

Very often Often Not very often

Not very surprising information from table is that the students (85 %) affirm that theteachers in their school often use the pair work and group work in the speaking lesson veryoften because it is compulsory that the teachers implement this to follow the book activitiesplanned in the teacher’s book and may be for the students’ future language competence.This is of great use in helping the students to communicate with each other

Table 3: Students’ opinions on the impact of pair and group work

Questions

Options Numbers of students Percent %

5 a It increases the students’ speaking

chance of expressing themselves

c It improves students’ motivation 85 77,3

e Students can learn from each other 80 72,7

It was obvious that almost all the students ( more than 70%) found that pair work andgroup work were so beneficial for their speaking skill that they can speak more in English,they can be much more confident and they also have chance to express themselves, theirindependence, cooperation and motivation in speaking were improved Regarding thebenefit of learning from each other of group work, 72,7% (80 out of 110) the students statedthat they learnt each other so much

The chart follow shows the students’ recommendation for the success of pair and group work

Chart 2: Activities students wished teachers to select for pair and group work

solving Discussing Opinion

exchange

As can be seen in Chart 3, all of the students (100%) chose role-playing, games,information gap, discussing, interviewing and opinion exchange to be their favoriteactivities Problem solving was the choice of 75% of the students And Drama and projectsreceived only 10% and 20% of the students respectively

Table 4: Students’ wishes about the partners in pair and group work

About the students they preferred working with in pairs and in groups, most of thestudents wanted to work with the students who were at the same level or higher level ofproficiency Working with the people they really liked was also preferred by 10,9% Also,some of them (11,8%) liked working with the ones at the same table However, few of them(9,1%) liked working with the students who were worse at English

Table 5: Students’ recommendation for the things the teacher should do

d Students sitting next or near to each other 13 11,8

e Students of the same interest 12 10,9

Oneveryimportant thing which helps to improve group work activities is to get the students ideasabout what the teachers should do about that It is quite clear that all of them (100 %)wanted their teachers to minimize his/her talking time, to create a competitive atmosphere,

to give feedback, praise and encouragement and give clear instruction But 60,9% wantedtheir teachers not to interrupt when they made mistakes 40,9 % would like their teacher togive enough necessary vocabulary and functional language for their activities

The bar chart bellow shows the students’ appreciation the improvement of their learning speaking English after the 1 st semester of using pair work and group work.

Chart 3: Students’ response to pair work and group work activities (Question 9)

After the first semester of learning speaking English through pair work and groupwork, the following results were conducted from questionnaires and interview 87 out of

110 students (79.1%) strongly agreed that working in pair and group could help theirinterest and participation in learning increased The reasons are because of many benefits ofpair work and group work, such as they felt more confident to speak, they helped each other

c Go round monitoring students’

performance and help if necessary 34 30,9

d Minimize teacher’s talking time 110 100

e not to interrupt when students’

talking time 67 60,9

f Always provide feedback, praise and encourage the students 110 100

to solve teacher’s problems, or they have more chance to speak… 9.1% of students said thatthose activities were not useful for learning speaking as we can in the result of Question 9.

On the other hand, some of students (11.8%) showed the other opinions that pair work andgroup work were either helpful or unhelpful However, in the summary, it’s true that thepair work and group work are the beneficial techniques in learning speaking English at HamRong High School

For the benefit of pair and group work activities, 100% of them claimed that pair andgroup work were very beneficial and helped students to increase the students’ speakingtime, to promote students’ independence and cooperation, to improves students’ motivation,

to decrease the teacher speaking time and helps shy and passive students have more chance

of expressing themselves and learn from each other They also gave some more benefitssuch as: to creates exciting atmosphere as it lends itself to game-like activities which freesthe teacher from his/her hard role of “an expert who always lectures”, This proved that thesetwo techniques could increase students’ participation and interest in the class

2.3 Teachers’ implementation of pair work, group work in current classes as teaching experience

Regarding the activities the teachers chose for pair and group work, Role playing,Games, Interview, Information gap, Discussing, Opinion exchange are the most frequently

in which discussing helps to elicit the students’ ideas, background knowledge, role playhelps to make the students understand the nature of English and games help them to do thegroup work activities without any pressure and stress The students may think that they areplaying not just learning 75 % of the teachers used Projects, problem- solving and only25% of teachers used drama because they thought that those activities was only suitable forthe high level of English proficiency and took much time to prepare

Question 7 deals with the way the teacher created the students in pair and group Theteachers shared with the students the same opinions which didn’t like to group students oflow proficiency However, they didn’t share the opinions of grouping students sitting next

to or near each other, 100 % of the teachers responded that they always grouped theirstudents sitting next to or near each other into pairs and groups as they explained that it cansave time, while only few of students likes that Most of students liked working with thepartners of the same English proficiency level and higher English proficiency level, but onlyhalf of teachers often grouped their students on that way

Table 7: Things the teachers often do during pair and group work

d Minimize teacher’s talking time 2 50

e not to interrupt when students’

talking time