A study on group discussion and its impacts on speaking ability of the non major students at the post elementary level in military science academy

thạc sỹ, luận văn, ngoại ngữ, tiếng anh, khóa luận, chuyên đề

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNVERSITY, HA NOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

****************

PHAM THANH MAI

A study on group discussion and its impacts on speaking ability of the non-major students at the post-elementary level in Military Science Academy

Nghiên cứu về thảo luận nhóm và ảnh hưởng của nó đến khả năng nói của học sinh không chuyên ngữ trình độ

sau A tại Học viện Khoa học Quân Sự

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Ha noi 7-2007

DECLARATION

To the best of my knowledge and belief, this minor thesis contains no materialwhich has previously been submitted and accepted for any other degree in any university.The thesis is my own work and based on my own research It involves no materialpreviously published or written by any other person, except where due reference isacknowledged in the paper.

Signature: _

The study presents an attempt to investigate group work and its impacts on thesubsequent individual presentations in the EFL classroom-based context Oral data from arange of sources including group planning and individual presentations were collected from 16non-major students at the post elementary level at MSA over a period of ten weeks Thestudents worked in small groups preparing for oral presentations For each topic, two studentsfrom two groups were randomly selected to give presentations Eight group discussions andsixteen individual presentations were selected and analyzed based on language related episodes(LREs) as well as typical features of group interaction and error free clause (EFC) The aims ofthe study were to explore what actually happens in group planning and whether the students inpre-planning groups perform more accurately and better than those in unplanning groups interms of tenses, subject-verb agreement and pronouncing morpheme-s in plurality The resultsshowed that in group discussions students tended to focus on the content of the task, andassisted each other in preparing for the individual presentations The findings also showed thatstudents in pre-planning groups produced better presentations than those in unplanning groups

in terms of tenses, subject-verb agreement and pronouncing morpheme-s in plurality Since thetwo activities, group work and individual presentations, are routine tasks at the college wherethe research had been conducted, the impacts of group planning have important pedagogicalimplications in organizing group and individual activities in the EFL classroom context

I would like to acknowledge the debt of gratitude to my supervisor Duong ThiThuc, M.A for her guiding and indispensable comments on my drafts If it had not been forher supervision, the thesis would not have been completed

My sincere thanks are due to Mr Truong Anh Tuan, M.A, whose generous advicesand materials have encouraged and inspired me during steps of the thesis

I would also like to express my deep sense of gratitude to my dear students ofgroup 21T in Military Science Accademy, whose participation in and dedication to theresearch remain invaluable and have been acknowledged Without their precious support,the thesis would not have taken shaped

I am indebted to my colleagues at the English Department of Military ScienceAcademy for their enthusiastic assistance and co-operation

Finally, the support extended to me by the members of my family has beenimmeasurable I would like to express my thanks to my parents, my husband Do VanTuyen, and my daughters, Do Hai Yen and Do Thu Ha, for their whole heartedencouragement

Ha Noi, July 8th 2007 Pham Thanh Mai

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Principal types of task planning

Table 2: The implementation of the study

Table 3a: Summary of the number of LREs in PTP3 group talksTable 3b: Summary of the number of LREs in PTP4 group talksTable 4a Summary of the number of turns in PTP3 group interaction.Table 4b Summary of the number of turns in PTP4 group interaction.Table 5a Summary of the leadership moves in group PTP3

Table 5b Summary of the leadership moves in group PTP4

Table 6: Summary of EFVC and EFNC

ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS

EFL: English as Foreign Language

F-LREs: Form-Based Language Related Episodes

L1: Mother tongue/ first language

L2: Second language/ Foreign language

L-LREs: Lexis-Based Language Related Episodes

LREs: Language Related Episodes

M-LREs: Mechanic-Based Language Related Episodes

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration ….i

Abstracts ……… ii

Acknowledgements iii

List of tables iv

Abbreviations and conventions ……… v

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE 1

1.2 SCOPE, OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS FOR THE STUDY 3

1.3 METHODS OF THE STUDY 4

1.4 THE DESIGN OF THE STUDY 5

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 GROUP DISCUSSION AND ITS ADVANTAGES 6

2.1.1 Definition of group discussion 6

2.1.2 Group work and its benefits from different points of view 7

2.1.2.1 From the psycho-linguistic point of view 7

2.1.2.2 From the socio-linguistic point of view 8

2.1.2.3 From the pedagogical point of view 10

2.2 TASK-BASED PLANNING AND TASK PERFORMANCE 10

2.2.1 Definition of a task and a frame work of task-based instruction 10

2.2.2 Classification of task-based planning 12

2.3 CRITERIA TO ASSESS ORAL LANGUAGE PRODUCTION 15

2.3.1 Fluency 16

2.3.2 Complexity 17

2.3.3 Accuracy 18

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH DESIGN 20

3.1 SOME INFORMATION ABOUT THE MILITARY SCIENCE ACADEMY 20

3.2 PARTICIPANTS OF THE STUDY 21

3.3 PROCEDURES 22

3.4 INSTRUMENTATION 24

3.5 DATA COLLECTION 25

CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS 27

4.1 GROUP DATA 27

4.2 INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATION DATA 32

4.3 QUESTIONNAIRES 34

CHAPTER FIVE: FINDINGS 35

5.1 GROUP DISCUSSION 35

5.1.1 Language Related Episodes 35

5.1.2 Turns in group talks 36

5.1.3 Leadership moves 37

5.2 INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS 38

5.3 QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS 40

CHAPTER SIX: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 43

6.1 DISCUSSION 43

6.1.1 Research question 1 43

6.1.2 Research question 2 44

6 2 CONCLUSION 45

References …….……… …47

Appendix

Observers’ sheet ………

Questionnaire No 1 ……… …….………

Questionnaire No 2 ……….………

Transcripts of group planning ……… ………

Transcripts of individual presentations ……….………

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

I Background and Rationale

For many years, the traditional teaching method of English language such asGrammar Translation has dominated the teaching and learning environment in Vietnam.This method does not focus on communicative skills, but much on grammar points in order

to help learners pass Grammar Tests at secondary schools and universities As a result,many Vietnamese learners are excellent at grammar, but they can not communicate witheach other in English In classroom, teachers always explain grammatical points such astenses, articles, prepositions and so on, and give students a great deal of exercises topractice in order to master grammar rules Therefore, learners rarely have opportunities tospeak and express their own ideas In the teacher-centered class the teacher tends toexplain and students take notes and practice; they rarely work in pairs or in groups todiscuss a topic with each other This seems to be very absurd for many educators in theworld as the purpose of learning a second language is to communicate with each other insociety This is a reason why the Ministry of Education and Training needs to innovate theway of the second language teaching by applying the communicative approach in teachingEnglish in Vietnamese classrooms In addition, the text books and curriculums for bothschools and universities should be designed for the communication-oriented and learner-centered approach Almost all teachers are required to improve their teaching skills and tryout new methods to be successful in classrooms Group work is one of the most effectivecommunicative approach that teachers often take into practice

A number of researches have been conducted in the field in order to realize theinfluences of group discussion as a frequent class activity on students’ linguisticperformance and communicative competence Participating in group discussion helps

students develop “reproductive thinking” into “productive thinking”; and discussion

method results in effective learning outcomes in terms of : (a) the mastery of generalsubject, (b) the ability of problem-solving, (c) the development of morality, (d) thedevelopment of attitude and (e) the development of communication skills (Wilen, 1990).Alvermann and Hayes (1989) believed that active and thoughtful participation in class

discussion is an “outward sign of learning” Besides, in group participants learn to talk

better, i.e they know how to retrieve ideas, organize them coherently and speak them outfluently, and therefore communicative competence is developed Discussion also shapes

“moral culture” as participants act together in a special way with regard to truthfulness,responsiveness, openness, respect, self-awareness, self-confidence and so on (Bridges,1979) However, Jones (1999) raised a question why a number of non-native Englishspeaking background students, particularly those who come from Asian countries,encounter difficulties in academic group discussion They stay silent and reticent whilsttheir counterparts from Europe, for example, actively participate in the group work In VietNam National University, Ha Noi some studies related to group work have been done, butthey only focus on applying cooperative learning to improve speaking skills (Phan ThiHong Anh, 2003; Vo van Thanh, 2004; Tran Thi Ngoc Bac, 2005; Hoang Thi Lan, 2005;

Le Tuan Ngoc, 2005; Le Thi Bich Thuy, 2006; Nguyen Thu Huong, 2006; To Thi Thanh

Ha, 2006.)

In sum, group discussion is regarded as a fruitful topic for researchers, particularlyfor those who are interested in Second Language Acquisition in the sense that it relates tohow L2 learners approach a new language and how interactions among them contribute tothat process A number of researchers have shed light onto the field and seemed to agree

on the point that group discussion productively promotes interactions among itsparticipants Though many of the researchers did investigate the issue, few have drawn theconclusion about what truly happens during group discussion and whether there are therelationships between group discussion and its influence on the participants’ speaking skill

in terms of accuracy Moreover, the most important reason why I pursue the study ongroupwork is that teachers at the Military Science Academy (MSA) have been using groupdiscussions very so often, however, they do not truly recognize how much their studentsmay benefit from this dynamic activity A minority of them even show doubts on groupdiscussion’s advantages Being inspired by the teaching and learning situation in the MSA,the researcher comes up with the project with clear purposes in mind: to go deeply into theessence of group discussion to explore what the students actually do during groupdiscussion and its impacts on students’ acquisition of communicative competence in terms

of accuracy, to determine if there is any possibility that participating into group discussionfor academic purposes can help students gain better at their interactions within the

classroom, inside the college campus and later on in a learning environment of other highereducational institutions.

II Scope, Objectives and Research Questions for the study

Within the MA thesis, the present study involves in the investigation of what thestudents truly do during academic group discussion and its impacts on the communicativecompetence of 16 post-elementary non- major English students who are in the forth year ofthe Chinese Department Group discussion is experimented as an intensive methodology inspeaking lessons in one class during a ten-week-study

The project is conducted in the hope that it can contribute to the advancement ofteaching and learning quality at the MSA, especially in the course of educationalmodernization of the country The first and foremost, it will help:

 contribute more theory to the current understandings of academic group discussionand exploring the relationships between group discussion within the classroom andthe advancement of communicative skills of 16 post-elementary non-major Englishstudents at the MSA

 realize the essentials and potentials of group discussion as a means to accelerateEFL students’ communicative competence

 legalize group discussion, provide the teachers with the basic framework to conductacademic discussion in speaking lessons at the MSA

 build a stepping-stone toward the generalization of the findings into other classes,with different linguistic level students at the MSA

 provide EFL students with more chances to interact in small groups, developspeaking skill to communicate more effectively within the group, for academicpurposes, and latter on, beyond the fence of the college

Above all, the focal point of the project is to get a better insight into groupdiscussion as a method of improving communicative competence of EFL students for thesake of enhancing teaching and learning quality at the MSA The findings of the study may

be generalized in a broader scale, with higher level students, in larger contexts; students

will enjoy greater chances of being more dynamic and active in group work and theirfurther studies.

The research is going to cast light onto the following questions:

1 What truly happens during group discussion in classroom?

2 Do the students in pre-planning groups perform more accurately and better than those in unplanning groups in terms of tenses, subject-verb agreement and pronouncing morpheme-s in plurality?

III Methods of the study

The research is conducted basing on both qualitative and quantitative methodology

Qualitative approach is utilized to investigate fully the issue during group discussion andparticipants’ performance Each speaking lesson in which group discussion isexperimented will be observed directly by the researcher The researcher may use fieldnotes, carefully note down what happens in groups during the discussion, how studentsinteract to one another, and how, for instance, the so-called silent students accommodatethemselves into the group work, etc The observation forms are based on the modelinitiated by Brilhart and Galanes (1992)

Besides, a questionnaire aiming at investigating students’ experience of learning aforeign language and students’ opinions on the effectiveness of group discussion in terms

of communication advancement is also conducted as the further confirmation of thecollected results from the experiment The questionnaire includes closed questions, ratingscale and free responses This kind of questionnaire is chosen because studentquestionnaires are the most widely used as a method of evaluating teaching and thequickest way to collect information from every student (Bligh, 1986)

Finally, quantitative analysis is also involved in the process of data collection Thedata collected will be coded and analyzed to synthesize what truly happens during thediscussion and to what extent students interact with one another

IV The design of the study

This thesis is organized into six chapters

Chapter One has briefly introduced the general background information, the

scope, objectives and methods dealt with in the study Research questions will also be

raised in this chapter Chapter Two will start with some definitions of group discussion,

then review a number of studies on pre-task strategic individual planning and itsconsequences on task performance in terms of fluency, complexity and accuracy The

chapter ends with the criteria to assess fluency, complexity and accuracy Chapter Three,

the methodology chapter, will make it clear how the present study was implemented,including information about context, participants, and procedures, instrumentation and data

collection Methods of analysis will be addressed in Chapter Four Analysis of a range of

data collected from various sources (oral data from group planning and individualpresentations, questionnaires, teacher’s observation notes) for the study will be clarified in

this chapter Chapter Five will present findings from the present study These results will

be discussed and interpreted in Chapter Six, which is also the concluding chapter of the

study

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is composed of three areas of research related to this study: research

on group/pair work, research on task-based planning and research on criteria of fluency,complexity and accuracy The general review about group discussion and how itadvantages students in the classroom are reviewed first Then, the nature of task-basedplanning and its impacts on subsequent task performance in terms of fluency, complexityand accuracy is discussed The chapter ends with the criteria to assess fluency, complexityand accuracy

2.1 Group discussion and its advantages

2.1.1 Definition of group discussion

First, let us examine the different definitions of group discussion

“Group discussion is an activity in which students usually interact with one another (often face-to-face) with the goal of increasing understanding, and achieving shared solutions to a particular problem” (Brilhart & Galanes, 1992) This definition is similar to Henry’s: “Group work is a number of people interacting in a face-to-face situation” (Henry,W.1997) According to Dillon, group discussion is also defined as “a form of back-and-forth interactions, give-and-take dialogues in which participants enrich, refine and exchange their understandings, facts, opinions, experiences and the like” (Dillon, 1994) Another definition of group work is given by Brown, D: “It [group work]

is a generic term covering a multiplicity of techniques in which two or more students are assigned a task that involves collaboration and self initiated language It implies small group work, that is, students in groups of perhaps six or fewer” (Brown, 2001, p.177).

Thus, three important aspects should be highlighted in these definitions The first one iscollaboration, in other word, cooperation Students have to work together to complete thetask All the members of the group are like the pieces of a machine If one does not workwell, a trouble may occur In group work, of course, all the members discuss together,come out with new ideas, change certain things, but if one does not comply with his/ herrole, the work will be paralized Also, roles are changed within the group every time when

a new task is assigned This is what Kagan (1994) called “interdependency” “The success

of every team member depends on the success of each member (if one fails, all do), then a very strong form of positive interdependency is created and team members are very motivated to make sure each student does well” (p.7) The second and the third aspects are

very related Self initiated language refers to students using what they have known andlearnt to communicate in the classroom In order to do this, the groups have to be small, asBrown (2001) previously suggests six students or fewer In a very big group, shy orpassive students tend to fall in silence and let the most talkative ones do the talking Nunan(1999) also points out that one of the classroom variables that have had a marked effect onstudent participation in oral activities has been group size Students who remain silent ingroups of ten or more will contribute actively to discussions when group size is reducedinto five or three (p.157)

2.1.2 Group work and its benefits from different points of view

For decades, group discussion as a teaching tool has drawn substantial attention fromresearchers Studies of how language is learnt in groups stemmed from differentperspectives Group work has been investigated from the psycho-linguistic theoreticalperspective (e.g Gass and Varonis, 1994; Loschky, 1994; Ellis et al, 1994), with researchersfocusing on the kind of negotiations that group work encourages Research guided by socio-cultural theories of learning (e.g Donato, 1994; Storch, 2001, 2002) has focused on howlanguage knowledge is co-instructed in group or pair interactions However, regardless of thetheoretical perspective adopted, it has been widely agreed that group discussion is aworthwhile and beneficial activity in the classroom, and therefore should be encouraged Inaddition to theoretical arguments, pedagogical arguments for the practice of group work inthe classroom can be found in the work of Long and Porter (1985)

2.1.2.1 From the psycho - linguistic point of view

Researchers (Long, 1985; Gass and Varonis, 1994; Loschky, 1994; Swain and Lapin,1995; Fuente, 2002) have shed more light on the negotiation of meaning and oral L2development from psycho-linguistic perspective The negotiation of meaning refers to theconversational modifications and adjustments between participants when they encounter abreakdown in communicative interactions Long (1985) argues that it is not input norinteraction that is important to the L2, but input that occurs in the interaction where

meaning is negotiated through interactional modifications Following the argument ofLong, investigations of non-native speaker/non-native speaker (NNS/NNS) interactionshave received attention in recent years (Foster, 1998; Lynch & Maclean, 2000) From theresearch findings of NNS/NNS interactions, the use of tasks and group work has beenfound to provide the learners with more opportunities to produce the target language and tomodify interactions, and to expose the learners to more comprehensible input, compared to

a teacher-fronted language lesson (Gass,1997; Mackey,1999) Fuente (2002) investigatedthe effects of negotiated interactions (modifications and adjustments that happen incommunicative interactions between native and non-native speakers (NS/ NNS) and alsobetween NNS/NNS) of Spanish and found that negotiated interactions positively influenceL2 vocabulary comprehension The negotiation process was believed to facilitate learners’productive acquisition of basic meaning of L2 vocabulary The findings supportsuggestions by Ellis et al (1994) and Swain and Lapkin (1995) concerning the benefits ofnegotiation: negotiation makes it easier for L2 learners to comprehend input, which in turnresults in L2 acquisition These researchers suggest that interaction should advantagestudents to use new words if they have chances to use/ repeat the words and receivefeedback from other speakers

2.1.2.2 From the socio-linguistic point of view

Group work has also been examined from a socio-cultural perspective This perspectivestems from Vygotskian theory of cognitive development and learning (1978) Humancognitive development is argued to be socially situated by means of language, a mediatingtool in interaction with other people Knowledge/learning is therefore believed to be co-constructed in and developed through social interactions between people, and only theninternalized within an individual Following Vygotsky’s developmental theory, Donato

(1994) explored “collective” group interaction by learners of French and their language

performance in an open-ended classroom task During one-hour planning session, thesestudents had to prepare for the conclusion of a given scenario; then they were asked topresent their scenario conclusion before the class Donato found that group work can

promote L2 learning by means of collective scaffolding The term “scaffolding”,

originating from socio-cultural theory and L1 research, means the supportive conditionwhereby a more knowledgeable participant assists another less skilled participant to

develop to a higher level of proficiency Collective scaffolding is a “strategic process of problem solving” in which at first an “expert”/experienced individual “guides, supports, and shapes actions” of the novice/less able individual The novice then can internalize the

processes and be able to perform him/herself even when support is no longer available(Donato, 1994: 37) Donato’ s (1994) findings suggested that learners, by means ofcollective scaffolding, could support each other in finding the best solutions to L2problems during collaborative interactions Other researchers (e.g Ohta, 2001) also foundevidence of collective scaffolding in group work among L2 Japanese learners

Furthermore, Donato (1994) found that such collective scaffolding may facilitate L2individual’s linguistic development Students who had engaged in the previous

“collaborative planning”/scaffolding processes were reported to be able to use a relatively

high percentage of scaffolded items (24 out of 32 scaffolded cases) in subsequentindependent performance when supporting conditions were no longer available Thefindings provided convincing evidence to support the role of social interaction inindividual’ linguistic development This is similar to findings reported by Ohta (2001)

Scaffolding during learners’ interactions was believed to build “bridges to proficiency” and

support second language development

In line with Donato’s study, Storch’s (2002) longitudinal classroom-based study in anadult ESL class also found that students could scaffold each other when interacting inpairs However, Storch found that such scaffolding occurred more frequently in certainpatterns of pair interactions (collaborative and expert/novice) There was also evidence of atransfer of language items co-constructed in these patterns of pair work to the subsequentindividual performance The researcher referred to Vygotskian theory to interpret suchfindings That is, interactions in collaborative and expert/novice patterns helped co-construct language items These items were then internalized by individual members of thepairs, and re-produced in subsequent performance The researcher also posited that patterns

of pair/group work might relate to language learning, and therefore the nature of pair/groupwork could not be neglected when studying learners’ interactions This empirical evidencemay therefore have important pedagogical implications for L2 learning in ESL contexts

2.1.2.3 From the pedagogical point of view

For the past several decades, the pedagogical arguments for the practice of groupactivities in second language learning have been mainly about the relationships betweengroup work and learner’s interlanguage improvement Several arguments concerning theadvantages of conducting group work in the language classroom were proposed by Long &Porter (1985) Firstly, they argued that group work created more opportunities for learners

to practice the second language (L2) in the classroom Secondly, that actively engaging ingroup work appeared to help students improve their oral language quality because studentshave wider access to a range of language functions (rhetorical, pedagogic, andinterpersonal) Long and Porter also suggested that group activities could also minimizethe differences between learners (aptitude, personality, interests, cognitive styles, firstlanguage, learning experience, cultural-background); reduce stress among students andpromote a supportive environment in the classroom Group discussion was also considered

a means of bringing about a safe and friendly environment for students to share ideastogether, maximizing timid students’ participation, creating chances of helping each other

in the group, lessening burdens for teachers, and subsequently, developing students’ oralcommunication skills Pringle and Freedman (1990) suggested that small group work haspotentially cognitive and social benefits in the long run (e.g better reasoning strategies,improved collaborative skills, better critical thinking)

2.2 Task- based planning and task performance

2.2.1 Definition of a task and a frame work of task-based instruction

A task is variously defined by many researchers: Prabhu (1987), Nunan (1989),Willis (1996), Skehan (1998), and their definitions for tasks are presented in thechronological order as follows

Prabhu (1987) defines a task as "an activity which required learners to arrive at an outcome from given information through some process of thought, and which allowed teachers to control and regulate that process" (p.24) Beside Prabhu, Nunan (1989) uses the word ‘task’ instead of ‘activity’ He defines a task as “a piece of classroom work which involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target

language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form" (p.10).

He suggests that in all definitions of tasks, one can see communicative language use wherethe learner focuses on meaning instead of linguistic structure

Willis (1996a) defines a task as “a goal-oriented activity in which learners use language to achieve a real outcome.” (p.53) He continues, “tasks are always activities where the target language is used by the learners for a communicative purpose” (Willis,

1996b, p.23) However, Skehan’s (1998, p.268) concept of task is seen to capture theessentials of a task He describes a task as an activity in which

 meaning is primary

 there is a goal which needs to be worked towards

 the activity is outcome-evaluated (the task is assessed in terms of outcome)

 there is a real-world relationship

Skehan (1996a, 1996b) agrees that there are three goals for task-based approacheswhich are fluency, complexity/restructuring and accuracy Skehan (1996b) emphasizes that

it is necessary to pay attention to the balance of the three goals, because too much attention

on one goal can be easily leading to the ignorance of the others They suggest that teachers

should arrange situations in which a balance is made between “syntactic and lexical modes

of communication” on one hand, while maintaining that balance between “conservative and ambitious syntactic use” on the other hand (p 23).

Willis (1996) divides task into three stages: Pre-task, Task Cycle and Language Focus

1 Pre-task: introduces the class to the topic and the task activating topic-related

words and phrases

2 Task Cycle: offers learners the chance to use whatever language they have already

known in order to carry out the task and then to improve their language under the teacher’sguidance while planning their reports on the task Task Cycle offers learners a holisticexperience of language in use There are three components of a Task Cycle:

 Task: Learners use whatever language they can master, working

simultaneously, in pairs or small groups to achieve goals of the task

 Planning: comes after the task and before the report, forming the

central part of the cycle The teacher's role here is that of a language adviser Learners plantheir reports effectively and maximize their learning opportunities

 Report: is the natural condition of the Task Cycle In this stage

learners tell the class about their findings So the report stage gives students a natural stimulus

to upgrade and improve their language It presents a very real linguistic challenge tocommunicate clearly and accurately in language appropriate to the circumstances

3 Language Focus: allows a closer study of some of the specific features naturally

occurring in the language used during the Task Cycle Learners examine the language forms

in the text and look in detail at the use and the meaning of lexical items they have noticed(Willis, 1986, p.75) Language focus has two components:

 Analysis: Analysis activities draw attention to the surface forms,

realizing the meanings learners have already become familiar with during the task cycle and

so help them to systematize their knowledge and broaden their understanding Instead of theteacher presenting language to learners as new analysis activities, learners reflect on thelanguage already experienced

 Practice: Practise activities are based on features of language that

have already occurred in previous texts and transcripts or in features that have just beenstudied in analysis activities

On looking back at these definitions, it is said that using tasks in teaching is a popularmethod and using a variety of tasks in class gives teachers and learners positive results

2.2.2 Classification of task-based planning

In the literature on task-based planning, two principal types of task planning aredistinguished based on the criterion of when the planning happens (Ellis, 2005) They arepre-task planning (before task performance) and within/online planning (during taskperformance) Pre-task planning is further categorized into rehearsal (learners repeatexactly what they planned) and strategic planning (learners prepare what and how to

perform the task) Within task planning can be further classified into pressured andunpressured planning Pressured online planning involves quick decisions made whileperforming the task, while unpressured planning is characterized by more carefully-monitored performance Types of task planning are summarized in table 1 below:

Planning

Pre-task planning Within task planning

Rehearsal Strategic Pressured Unpressured

Table 1: Principal types of task planning (Ellis, 2005)

In addition, planning (pre-/within) can be differentiated according to other criteria

which are of “potential theoretical and practical significance” (Ellis, 2005:5) For

instance, depending on the nature of instructions, learners can plan the task with specificguidance on what to focus on, for example, either meaning, or linguistic form, or bothmeaning and form (guided planning) Learners can also engage in planning without anysuggestions about what and how to attend to (unguided planning)

Particularly, strategic planning can be sub-categorized into individual planning (i.e.learners plan the task performance individually), collaborative/group planning (i.e planning

is undertaken in a small group of learners), or planning with teacher This kind of

classification of strategic planning relies on “participatory structure” which may have a

potential impact on task performance (Batstone, 2005) Ellis (2005) has pointed out thatwhile much research have been conducted on individual strategic planning, little light hasbeen shed on collaborative/group strategic planning and its impact on task performance

Much of the research in group work leading to oral presentation has come from research

on task-based instruction and the use of strategic task planning A number of researchers(Crookes, 1989; Foster and Skehan, 1996; Skehan, 1996, 2003; Wendel, 1997; Wigglesworth,

1997, 2005; Mehnert, 1998; Ortega, 1999, 2005; Iwashita et al, 2001; Ellis and Yuan, 2003;Sangarun, 2005) have manipulated planning (e.g planning conditions, task-performanceconditions, task difficulty, language proficiency levels) in an attempt to investigate what effectdifferent task planning conditions have on subsequent task performance, in particular orallanguage production.

Three dimensions of production (fluency, complexity, and accuracy) have beenused to assess strategic planned and unplanned discourse produced both by languagelearners and language test-takers following planning (Ellis, 2005) Research to dateprovides ample evidence to support the claim that pre-task planning leads to more fluent(Crookes, 1989; Foster and Skehan, 1996; Wendel, 1997) and more complex languageproduction (Crookes, 1989; Foster and Skehan, 1996; Wendel, 1997; Mehnert, 1998;Ortega, 1999; Ellis and Yuan, 2003) One of the earliest studies by Crookes (1989)investigated planned and unplanned monologic language production by Japanese learnersstudying English as a second language He found that speakers with 10 minute-instructedplanning produced more complex interlanguage in terms of number of words per minute,subordinate clauses, and sentence nodes per utterance, though planned oral speeches werenot significantly more accurate than unplanned ones Foster and Skehan (1996) studied theimpact of three different task types (personal information exchange, narrative, and decisionmaking) as well as three conditions of individual planning (unplanned, detailed planning,and undetailed planning) on task performance in terms of fluency, complexity, andaccuracy Their findings showed that pre-task planning greatly influenced fluency(measured by number of pauses and total silence) and had obvious effects on complexity(subordination and past tense usage)

Mehnert (1998) investigated different length of planning time (none, 1 minute, 5minutes and 10 minutes) and found that fluency improved in each increase in planningtime, but greater complexity was only evident in the group given 10 minutes to plan

In contrast, the findings are rather mixed for accuracy Ellis (1987) found thatplanning had a positive effect on the accuracy of regular, but not on accuracy of irregular.However, Crooks (1989) found no effect on the use of articles while Wendel (1997) failed

to find a significant differences in a general measure of linguistic accuracy between

ten-minute planning and no-planning Wigglesworth (1997) was concerned about differentlength of planning time in a language testing context She investigated the impacts ofplanning on performance of different task types (picture description and comparison,phone-messages, discussion question, narrative), and different proficiency levels (low andhigh) She found that planning led to greater accuracy and complexity in high-proficiencycandidates’ performance on most demanding tasks (e.g summary of conversation).However, this was not the case with low-proficiency candidates who were reported not tobenefit from planning time Ortega (1999) in her study of Spanish learners found positiveaccuracy effects for planning on noun-modifiers, but not on articles A number of factorsmight affect accuracy These include type of planning, task difficulty, length of planningtime, and proficiency level of the learners Though it has been widely accepted thatplanned performance is better than unplanned performance (Ellis and Yuan, 2003; Ellis,2005), it has not been made clear what students should do during planning time, bothindividually and collaboratively, to enhance their task performance.

It should be noted that previous task-based planning studies have focused onindividual planning and determined to what extent this type of planning leads to thedifference between planned and unplanned discourse Planning in small groups orcollaboratively, that is, several students being given time to discuss and prepare for asubsequent activity, has been largely neglected in the literature on task-based planning

2.3 Criteria to assess oral language production

In terms of language development, it is generally accepted that we need to distinguishbetween getting to know something and being able to do something with that knowledge.That is, learning a language as a natural human accomplishment involves not onlylanguage knowledge, knowledge about language, but also language skills, knowledge ofhow to use the language (Bygate, 1996; Johnson, 1996) Language as a dynamic resourcefor the creation of meaning is more than simply a system of rules, and we need todistinguish between knowing grammatical rules and being able to use the rulesappropriately in communication It is because knowing a form does not ensure that theform will or can be used in appropriate situations when the circumstances change

On the basis of this two-way distinction of language learning, knowledge andskills, it is proposed that the foreign language learning has three-way goals and these can

be fluency, complexity and accuracy (Foster & Skehan, 1996; Mehnert, 1998; Skehan &Foster, 1999) Moreover, it is argued that these three different aspects of languagedevelopment are assumed to be intrinsic qualities of language performances in all kinds oftasks These three qualities, it is proposed, are always present to varying degrees in alllanguage performances (Bygate, 1999a, 1999b)

However, there is no generally accepted measurement for fluency Various ways ofmeasuring fluency have been devised such as: Speech rate (e.g number of syllables perminute of speech), length of run, pause length, hesitations, silence, false starts, repetitions,replacements and reformulations Among these features, Robinson et al (1995) took thenumber of pauses and Bygate (1996) used amounts of repetitions On the other hand,Mehnert (1998) argued that in addition to the number of pauses and the total pausing time,the mean length of run and the speech rate were also valuable features as a measure offluency Yuan, F and R Ellis (2003) measured fluency in terms of number of syllables per

minutes There were two measures in the study: Rate A (number of syllables per minutes):

the number of syllables within each narrative, divided by the number of seconds used to

complete the task and multiplied by 60 Rate B (number of meaningful syllables per

minutes): as in rate A, but with all syllables, words, phrases, that were repeated,reformulated, or replaced excluded.

Although various features are taken to be used for a fluency measurement, pausing isthe most typical when judged by perceptional impact (Foster & Skehan, 1996; Chambers,1997) The operational definitions of the features for fluency are as follows (Lennon, 1990;Bygate, 1996; Foster & Skehan, 1996; Mehnert, 1998)

 Hesitations: An initial phoneme or syllable is uttered one or more times as a sign of

uncertainty before the complete word is spoken

 Pauses: A break of longer than 1.0 seconds during the speaking.

 Verbatim repetitions: Words, phrases or clauses repeated without any

modifications

2.3.2 Complexity

Complexity is taken to reflect the ambition of the language, i.e learners’ willingness

to engage in restructuring as more complex subsystems of language are developed (Foster

& Skehan, 1996; Foster, Tonkyn, & Wigglesworth, 2000)

In measuring complexity, the calculation of the extent of subordination andsyntactic variety (i.e number of clause per C-unit 1 or T-unit 2 is widely used (Robinson,Ting, & Urwin, 1995; Foster & Skehan, 1996; Mehnert, 1998; Bygate, 1999a, 1999b).Because subordination and syntactic variety reflect learners’ capacity of more challengingforms, they are said to be satisfactory to capture useful variances across task types forlong-term changes in the task-based performances In addition, on the basis of theargument that the AS-unit allows for ellipsis and is thus a more sensitive measure for thespoken language (Foster & Skehan, 1996; Skehan & Foster, 1999; Foster, Tonkyn, &Wigglesworth, 2000), the number of subordinate clauses per AS-unit 3 is calculated As ameasure for syntactic variety, verbs are focused and such areas as tense, aspect, voice, andmodality are examined (Foster & Skehan, 1996; Mehnert, 1998) The operationaldefinitions of the features for complexity are as follows (Foster, Tonkyn, & Wigglesworth,

2000, p 365)

(1) A C-unit is defined as an utterance that consists of a single complete sentence,

phrase or word and that has a clear semantic/ pragmatic meaning in the context inwhich it occurs

(2) A T-unit is the same as C-unit, except that it includes elliptical utterances.

(3) An AS-unit is a single speaker’s utterance consisting of an independent clause,

or a sub-clausal unit, together with any subordinate clause associated with either.The AS-unit as a mainly syntactic unit is argued as a more sensitive measure forspoken language because syntactic units are genuine units of planning in the speechand this definition allows analysis of speech units which are greater than a singleclause

2.3.3 Accuracy

Accuracy concerns the formal features of the language, i.e how well language isproduced in relation to the rule system of the language Accordingly, the focus is onfreedom from errors (Bygate, 1999a, 1999b; Foster & Skehan, 1996)

Researchers have varied in how this is measured Some researchers (e.g Crookes 1989,Wigglesworth 1997) have preferred to examine how accurately specific grammaticalfeatures (e.g article) are used while others (Robinson, Ting, & Urwin, 1995; Foster &Skehan, 1997; Skehan & Foster, 1999) have elected to use a generalized measure such as:

the percentage of error-free clauses (1), error-free verb forms (2) It is because generalized

measure can generate larger and more reliable samples of language, and be more able toreflect smaller differences between the performances produced by different experimentalconditions

(1) Error-free clauses are those in which there are no errors in syntax, morphology, or

word order Errors in lexis are counted when the words used are incontrovertibly

wrong (Foster & Skehan, 1996; Mehnert, 1998; Skehan & Foster, 1999) e.g I was wanting you.

(2) Error-free-verb forms are those in which correct verb form is taken into account

such as: the percentage of accurately used verbs in terms of tense, modality andsubject-verb agreement

According to Skehan (1998), these three aspects of performance (fluency,complexity and accuracy) need to be distinguished because they are differentially affected

by the particular type of processing a learner adopts Skehan suggests that under certainconditions learners will elect to draw on their lexicalized knowledge of language, in whichcase fluency is enhanced, while under others they will be able to refer to their rule-basedsystem, in which case greater complexity or accuracy may be ensured

In sum, it has been recognized that individual strategic planning prior to actualperformance can have an impact on L2 production and development Moreover, threeaspects (fluency, complexity and accuracy) have been used to assess the languageproduction Ample evidence has been found to support the view that individual strategicplanning enables L2 learners to produce more fluent and syntactically more complexlanguage during task performance, but the results are still mixed for accuracy However,what has not been made clear in the literature of task-based planning is what actuallyhappens during strategic group planning and whether pre-task planning in small groupadvantages subsequent oral individual performance and whether students in pre-planninggroup perform better than those in unplanning group in terms of accuracy Thus, this study

is set out to answer those questions

In short, this chapter has mentioned three areas of research: research on group/pair work, research on task-based planning and research on criteria of fluency, complexity and accuracy In next chapter, information about research design will be provided

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH DESIGN

This chapter deals mainly with background information relevant to the present study.There are four parts in this chapter The context in which the study was conducted ispresented first, followed by information about the participants The study implementation

is outlined along with information about data collection instruments used Finally, details

of the nature of the data this study has collected and analyzed are provided

3.1 Some information about the Military Science Academy

Military Science Academy (MSA), an outlet of Military Foreign Language College, isthe only military academy in Vietnam which trains major foreign language students.Students enter Military Science Academy after successfully having passed the NationalEntrance Examination All of the students at the MSA pursue a four-year program offoreign languages There are 4 departments in MSA namely: Russian, French, Chinese andEnglish Department Only students at English Department study English as their majorsubject, but students in other departments study English as a compulsory subject and theybegin to learn it once they enter the third academic year They will study English for 3terms (two terms in the third year and one term, the first term, of the final year) Moreover,when they were at school, the primary concentration was on grammar, language structuresand vocabulary They had almost no or little chances to practise speaking skills Theycould speak foreign language only in classes Most of them learned English for 3 years,some of them learned it for 7 years, and the others studied French, Russian or Chinese.Those who had studied French, Russian or Chinese didn’t know any English at all whenthey entered MSA In short, they are of mixed levels of English

Like many other subjects, English is taught in a formal setting of the classroom.Non-major English students acquire general English and the four language skills Studentshave 6 periods a week and each period lasts 40 minutes Four of them are for reading,writing and grammar, only two of them are for speaking and listening Usually, one or twoteachers are in charge of a class The objectives of teaching English to non-English majorsare to enable them:

 to master basic English, basic grammar and vocabulary, which can help them tofurther study

 to read necessary materials in English for their study in their profession

 to access to materials in English on the Internet or from other sources

 to communicate with English speaking people in everyday situations

 to do their later jobs better in case English is needed

Based on the above objectives, English syllabus for non-English majors aims atdeveloping students’ ability to read, speak, listen and write respectively The curriculum ofEnglish to non- majors is divided into 3 semesters with the total of 300 class-hours only as

it is assigned and controlled by the Board of Training and the Board of the EnglishDepartment Within the restricted length, the English course for non-majors in MSA hasselected the coursebook Lifelines for its appropriateness to the syllabus and its objectives.Lifelines Elementary is applied for the first and the second semester and the first sevenunits of Lifelines Pre-Intermediate is for the third

Lifelines is a general English course which presents the basic structures of English anddevelops them through a variety of different contexts Lifelines also emphasizes ondeveloping students’ knowledge of vocabulary as well as on students’ ability tocommunicate effectively through popular topics or everyday situations such as: family,hobby, sports, holiday, health, fashion, making a plan for future , ordering a meal ormaking suggestions…

3.2 Participants of the study

This study is carried out in a class of 31 forth-year-students who are studying Chinese

in Chinese Department At school, six of them studied French, two students studiedRussian, five of them learned English for 7 years, and the others learned English for 3years Only 16 students who learned English for 3 years at school take part in this study.They are all males, ranging in age from 21 to 24 At the time when the data of the study arecollected, all of them have been studying English for a year in MSA None of them hasever been to an English speaking country and they have had little opportunity to useEnglish for communicative purposes outside the classroom during the experiment because

they have to live in the military barrack all the time On the other hand, all the 16 studentsshare very common background, studying in the same class, the same department of thesame Academy, having very similar age and very similar English learning experiences Tomake it easier for readers to follow, it is necessary to list out their names here Their namesare Cuong, N; Cuong, D; Cuong, H; Huy; Tuyen; Cong; Vinh; Binh; Thanh; Nam ; Giang;Thuc; Vu; Huan; Giap; T.Anh

All the students, who are invited, agree to participate in the study In fact, they respondenthusiastically to the opportunity They are told the tasks they will complete for thepurposes of research, but they are not told the precise purpose They are all assured that theinformation collected will not be used towards their course grades It is important for thembecause a non-threatening atmosphere is established and at that time communications inthe foreign language are more facilitated

The selected students are divided randomly into four groups with four in each The rest

of the students are also divided into groups of five, but they are not conducted in this studybecause they are of mixed levels That is the reason why the researcher has made adecision of choosing only 16 students of the same language level to participate in thisresearch with the aim of making the research study more reliable

3 3 Procedures

The study investigated group planning and the learners’ English oral production interms of accuracy between un-planning and planning group over a period of ten weeks.The project is constructed as follows:

Four groups which consist of 4 students in each are referred to as Group I, II, III, and IV

In the study, planning is operationalized at two levels: No planning (NP) and Pre task planning(PTP) The actual introductions given to the participants in each group are provided to make

sure that all the students understand clearly what they are going to do Group I and II are “no planning” (henceforth referred to as NP1 and NP2) After being given the topic, students will perform without any planning Group III and IV are “pre-planning” ( henceforth referred to as

PTP3 and PTP4) They will work in groups for 5-7 minutes before they make theirpresentations individually They can use paper, pens … to take notes during group discussion,

but when they perform, paper will be taken away It is decided to allow 4 minutes for taskcompletion by learners in both NP and PTP group i.e the maximum time spent by any of theparticipants in the pilot study.

For each topic, group work and individual presentations are audio-recorded on aweekly basis for a period of two-month-study Group III and IV engage in discussion about theeight given topics (see table 2 below), but only one group is recorded in each speaking session

All the topics are based on the theme they have studied in course-book “Lifeline Elementary and Pre-Intermediate” Also, two students (one from NP and one from PTP) will present at a

time Students in the recorded group do not know in advance who are going to makepresentations Before the period of oral data collection, a questionnaire is distributed Theimplementation of the study is presented in table 2 below

Time

recorded Presentations recorded

Week 2 1 Describe your classroom III Cuong, N (NP1), Nam (PTP3)

Week 3 2 Talk about your mother IV Cuong, D (NP1), Cuong, H (PTP4)

Week 4 3 Do you like wearing

uniform? Why?

IV Huy (NP2), Tuyen (PTP4)

Week 6 5 Talk about your ideal

partner

IV Binh (PTP4),Thanh(NP2)

Week 7 6 How to learn English

effectively

III Giang (PTP3), Thuc (NP1)

Week 8 7 Advantages of playing

football

Week 9 8 How to keep fit? III Giap (PTP3), T Anh (NP2)

Table 2: The implementation of the study

As you can see, group III and IV will be recorded four times and all the members of

NP and PTP are recorded, too After that, a comparison is made to find out the differences

in individual performances between NP and PTP groups in terms of accuracy Group

discussions are analyzed to find out what happens during pre-task planning time.Furthermore, the researcher will observe and take notes what and how it happens duringthe discussion At the beginning and at the end of the experimental period, a questionnairewill be delivered among these students to seek for some background information and theiropinions on academic group discussion and its effects on the learning process The resultscollected from audio-record, questionnaire and the field notes will be analyzed andinterpreted to draw the final conclusion on the project.

3.4 Instrumentation

The following means of data collection were used in the study

First, questionnaire was chosen because student questionnaires are the most widelyused as a method of evaluating and the quickest way to collect information from everystudent When teachers use questionnaires, they can have reliable data and they can deriveconclusions from such data Munn and Drever (1990) think that when the participants respond

to the same questions in the same way, the answers become more reliable Nunan, D (1989)states that through using questionnaires, one can inquire into any aspect withinteaching/learning process Also, teachers can find the chances to learn about classroompractices they use in class by analyzing these questionnaires In this study the questionnairewas designed in order to gather participants’ general experience as well as theirbackground information (see Appendix for the copy of Questionnaire No 1) The secondquestionnaire focused specifically on group planning and its possible connection withsubsequent individual presentation The aim of the second questionnaire was to elicit whathappened during group planning and to seek the participants’ opinions and reflections ongroup talks and individual presentations they had engaged in The second questionnairewas administered at the beginning of week 10 (see Appendix for the copy of Questionnaire

No 2)

Second, audio-recording was utilized because of the fact that using video-tape ineach lesson in MSA is infeasible We are not allowed to use camera or any kind of video -tape devices in the military environment The digital recording device was used because(1) it was assumed that using a small recording machine might reduce the participants’

anxiety at being recorded and therefore, they were likely to produce more natural oraldiscourse; and (2) the digital sound quality might be better than that captured by regularcassette recorders Students’ communicative competence would be assessed relying on it.

Along with audio-recording, brief notes about students’ behavior whenparticipating in group discussions were also taken by the researcher Using observationnotes helped us record the frequency, the distribution as well as the nature of students’participation The observation sheet was adapted from Brilhart, J.K & Galanes, G.J 1992.(see Appendix for the copy of observation sheet) Each time a discussant talks, theresearcher would give one mark in his box correspond with specific behavior and functions

in the sheet All the marks would then be transferred into numbers and percentage, whichhelped the researcher realize differences among the groups during each discussion and howstudents consumed group planning time These observation notes would providesupplementary information for the study

3.5 Data collection

The data for the study included transcribed group talks and individualpresentations, questionnaires, and teacher’s notes First, eight group discussions andsixteen individual presentations were selected to be transcribed, coded and analyzed Thegroups’ talks and subsequent individual presentations were the main source of data in thisstudy

In dealing with the questionnaire at the beginning and at the end of theexperimental period, responses for the “open-ended” questions were synthesized as oneapproach to the final results For other questions, students’ answers were transferred andcomputed to make the final percentage Obviously, the higher the percentage would be, themore the group discussions took place

Furthermore, data collected from field notes were coded and analyzed to synthesizewhat truly happened during the discussion and to what extent students interacted with oneanother These results together with findings from the class observation and audio-recording were interpreted and discussed to make sure to what extent group discussionhelped students obtain significant communicative competence

When students’ group and individual presentation data were transcribed, care wastaken to avoid contaminating the data: the unclear sounds which appeared in groupdiscussions were indicated by […] instead of guessing The use of L1 (Vietnameseutterances) and laughter was noted in the data and English translations provided inparentheses ( ) Pauses were noted by three dots “ ”.

In short, this chapter has covered the issues concerning with the context of thestudy, participants, procedures, instrumentation and the ways to collect data Next chapterwill report the methods of the data analysis on group discussion, individual presentationsand other sources

CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS

In this chapter, the methods adopted to analyze the various sources of data aredescribed Methods used to analyze the main source of data, group discussions andindividual presentations, are presented first Then, the researcher explains howsupplementary data, observation notes and questionnaires, are analyzed

4.1 Group data

Eight audio-records of the group discussions were investigated for the current study.They were all carefully transcribed and coded for analysis In this study, group datatranscripts were coded for Language Related Episodes (LREs) A number of researchershave utilized this unit of analysis when working with small group or pair talk data onlanguage tasks (e.g Swain and Lapkin, 1995; Storch, 2001, 2002; Tuan and Storch, 2007)

According to Storch, 2001: “Language related episodes were defined as groups of utterances the emphasis of which was on language form (grammatical choices), language use (lexical choices), or mechanics (spelling)” Three types of LREs were found in the

The following excerpt illustrates F-LREs in the data Excerpt comes from record 06,

Group PTP4 with the topic: your mother/ your father Cuong described his mother’s

normal day He used wrong articles (line 9) and Binh helped him to realize the mistakes bygiving the correct answer (line 12, 13)

Line 8 Cuong: In the morning she often gets up at 5.30… does the morning

9 exercise and then she prepares the breakfast after the breakfast…

10 she often does the housework such as cleaning the floor… washing the

11 dishes er do clothing

12 Binh: Sorry sorry You shouldn’t use ‘ After the breakfast’… I think

13 “after breakfast” is right.

Excerpt 1: Article- Group PTP4 - Topic: Your mother/ your father.

The excerpt below comes from record 31-Group PTP4-topic: Do you like wearing uniform? Why? In this excerpt when Binh used the wrong form of the verb (line 2) and the

wrong form of comparative (line 6), his group-partners, Vu and Tuyen, helped him tocorrect them by repeating the mistake and giving the correct answers (line 3 , line 7) Twodifferent F-LREs are found here

Line 2 Binh: …First I’d like wear uniform.

3 Vu: Wear uniform? No I think “like wearing ”…not “like wear”

4 Binh: Yes I’m sorry… “like doing something”…OK …I like wearing

5 uniform because I feel that it very comfortable to wearing

6 …the second it is good looking and polite and beautifuller.

7 Tuyen: Oh I think more beautiful.

Excerpt 2: Form of verb -Group PTP4 - Topic: Do you like wearing uniform? Why?

The following excerpt also illustrates F-LREs in the data Excerpt 3 comes from group

PTP4 on the topic “Your mother/ your father” When the presenter used the wrong form of

tense (line 43), his groupmate helped him to realise the mistake by giving the correctanswer (line 44)

Line 43 Cuong: …She often watch TV in the evening.

44 Binh: watches

45 Cuong: She often watches TV in the evening.

Excerpt 3: Form of tense - Group PTP4 - Topic “Your mother/ your father”.

In the excerpt below, an F-LRE deals with word order It comes from transcript 03about describing your classroom When Nam described his classroom, he made a mistake

of word order (line 14) He used “fan ceiling”, and his friend, Vinh, corrected it for him by

giving the right word order

Line 14 Nam: On the ceiling I see there are two ceiling… two fan ceiling and there are…

15 Vinh: Oh stop…not fan ceiling but ceiling fan.

Excerpt 4: Word order - Group PTP3 -Topic : Describe your classroom

2 Lexis-Based LREs (L-LREs)

Lexis-Based LREs were identified when discussants focused their attention on wordchoice, word/ phrase meaning or another way of conveying ideas

The excerpts below come from transcript 06, group PTP4 on the topic “your mother/ your father” When Cuong told us about his mother’s day, he used incorrect phrase “doing clothing” (line 15) or “a short relax” (line 23), and Tuyen and Vu, his groupmates, helped

him to correct the mistake by giving the correct answers as well (line 17 and 24)

Line 14 Cuong: Oh yes…after breakfast she often does the housework such as

15 cleaning the floor …washing the dishes…doing clothing

16 Tuyen: Oh you shouldn’t say “doing clothing”…You should say

Excerpt 5: Phrase meaning - Group PTP4 - Topic “your mother/ your father”.

Line 23 Cuong: …After lunch my Mum often has a short relax.

24 Vu: Oh not “short relax” …You should say have a rest…

Excerpt 6: Phrase meaning - Group PTP4 - Topic “your mother/ your father”.

The following excerpt deals with ways of expressing ideas It starts after a short pausesignaling Vinh’s constrain in searching for an appropriate word/ phrase to finish the idea(line 19) Giang, his group mate, helped him to choose the correct phrase (line 30), butNam suggested a better one (line 31)

Line 28 Vinh: You know in this year of June he will go to Viet Nam and have a football

29 match with … with…

30 Giang With Vietnamese Golden Generation […]

31 Nam With Vietnamese Golden Generation Football Team.

Excerpt 7: Ways of expressing ideas - Group PTP3 -Topic: A famous person.

3 Mechanics- Based LREs (M-LREs)

M-LREs (dealing with pronunciation) were recognized when one student haddifficulties in pronouncing/uttering a word or a group of related words, and others helpedwork it out by providing the appropriate pronunciation

The following excerpt comes from the transcript 14-group PTP3 on the topic “How to learn English effectively” Giang mispronounced the word “aim” [eim] He pronounced it

as “arm” [ɑ:m] (line 30) and Vinh appeared to know exactly what his friend meant He

corrected Giang’s pronunciation (line 31)

Line 30 Giang: I think we should clear aim [ɑ:m] to learn English.

31 Vinh: Aim Aim [eim] to learn English

Excerpt 8: Dealing with pronunciation - Group PTP3 - Topic: How to learn English effectively.

Another excerpt dealing with pronunciation comes from transcript 26-Group PTP3 on

the topic: "How to keep fit” Nam mispronounced the word “health” [helθ]θ]] He pronounced

as “hilt” [hilθ]t] and Vinh helped him to pronounce correctly

Line 4 Nam: First talk about the importance of health [hilθ]t]

5 Vinh: Health [helθ]θ]]

Excerpt 9: Dealing with pronunciation - Group PTP3 - Topic: How to keep fit.

In terms of participatory structure, it became clear that in each group one participant took charge of the planning session and acted as the leader Sometimes, more than one shared the leadership role

Leadership move

Group planning in which students discussed with each other a given topic and preparedfor the subsequent individual presentations was also investigated for typical features of groupinteraction When having carefully read the transcripts of group talks, it became apparent thatthere were variations in terms of turns called leadership move between the students in the