The use of cooperative learning to motivate student grade 10 in speaking classes at tinh gia 4 high school

TABLE OF CONTENTSDEPARTMENT OF THANH HOA EDUCATION AND TRAINING TINH GIA 4 HIGH SCHOOL EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE THEME: THE USE OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING TO MOTIVATE STUDENT GRADE 10 IN SPEAKI

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEPARTMENT OF THANH HOA EDUCATION AND TRAINING

TINH GIA 4 HIGH SCHOOL

EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE

THEME:

THE USE OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING TO

MOTIVATE STUDENT GRADE 10 IN SPEAKING

CLASSES AT TINH GIA 4 HIGH SCHOOL

Written by :Phùng Thị Hậu

Position: Teacher Subject:English

THANH HOA 2019

1.4.1 Independent and dependent variables 03

1.1 Rationale of the study

Nowadays, English is very important because it is the only language thattruly links the whole world together.Innovitiating teaching method isconsidered as a vital part in the whole process of teaching developmentstrategies There is no doubt that motivation is at the heart of successfullanguage learning, but how to motivate a learner to learn a language effectivelyseems to be a difficult question for all teachers of English A common problemfor EFL teachers is to deal with a passive class, where students are unresponsiveand avoid interaction with the teacher and even among themselves

During my working time as a teacher of English at Tinh Gia 4 HighSchool, I realized that my students have met difficulty in oral communicationclasses This is, as recognized, due to their little motivation in the English oralclasses Many of my 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 limited languageability Therefore, I have tried lots of possible teaching methods in oral class so

as to probably change the current situation Among many teaching techniquesfor speaking skill I found out that cooperative learning strategy, as group-worklearning, has lots of interesting activities from which my students can benefit inEnglish oral classes, for they will get more confidence and chances as well toexpress their ideas and opinions among group members My students will feelmore motivated when they have chances to engage in a variety of speakingactivities such as round robin, three-step-interview [Spencer Kagan], teamjigsaw [Sikes and Snap 1978] or group investigation, etc By using teachingmethod of this kind, I hope that my students’ attitude towards English oral classwill make a lot of positive changes They, to large extent, become moreactivated and ready to work hard to master their speaking skill in all oral

communication classes Therefore, I decided to apply“The use of cooperative learning to motivate students grade 10 in speaking classes at Tinh Gia 4 High School” as the topic of my research

1.2.Aims of the study

The research was carried out with 10th graders at Tinh Gia 4 High School.The main objective of the research was to establish strategies to help students toimprove their oral ability in English Instruments used to collect the data were:lesson plans, student questionnaire, teacher’s notes , diary and interviews.Considering the data gathered, this research prompted a more cooperativeenvironment among students in the oral process Furthermore ,it was a way tomotivate other teachers in the school to apply these kinds of strategies inspeaking lesson

1.2.1 Research questions

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

1 Why do our students become unmotivated in oral communication classroom?

2 What benefits of cooperative learning can our students get?

3 What can we do to improve their motivation in speaking classes?

1.2.2 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, 1993-1]

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

intensions and goal seeking acts [Ames & Ames, 1989-2]

1.3 Scope of the study

Within this study, I concentrated on investigating and discoveringobstacles or difficulties encountered with students in English speaking lessons

at Tinh Gia 4 high school From these findings, the internal and external causesare analysed to give some suggestions for tackling them in order to motivatestudents and help improve students’ speaking skill

The study was conducted on the students of grade 10 at Tinh Gia 4 highschool with the textbook “Tiếng Anh 10”

1.4.Methodology and research schedule

1.4.1 Independent and dependent variables

The use of cooperative

learning

To motivate students in speaking classes

Operational definition: Operational definition :

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 ?

2 What benefits of

cooperative learning can

our students get ?

1.4.3 Data collection procedures

The Data collection procedure is indicated in the following chart.

2.CONTENTS

2.1 Literature review

According to Cohen 1994 and Weidner 2003[3- page 33], Cooperativelearning can be characterized as a social process in which knowledge is acquiredthrough the successful interaction between the group members Also, Slavin1995[4 - page 2] said cooperative learning refers to variety of teaching methods

in which students work in small groups to help one another learn academiccontent In cooperative classrooms, students are expected to help each other, to

discuss and argue with each other, to access each other’s current knowledge andfill in gaps in each other’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[5 - page 18-25] Obviously, morelearners can probably become the winners by joining in cooperative learning andsharing the success of achievements among them, [Slavin -1984] Cooperativelearning produces greater student achievement than traditional learningmethodologies [Slavin 1984] Low achieving students when grouped with higherachieving students tend to be more hard-working, for there is a competitionamong groups in cooperative learning Likewise, one of the essential elements

of cooperative learning is the development of social skills Besides academicbenefits, learners can retrieve social benefits, which can be understood in a waythat those who collaboratively work can know how to cooperate with others.Much has been learnt from others’ viewpoints other than from their own Socialinteraction improves communication skills that become a necessity tofunctioning in society Last but not least, cooperative learning requires fewermaterials as learners can share among other group members Less equipment isnecessary so learners can save money without sacrificing the quality ofeducation

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.With traditional 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 becomemore interactive with each cluster during the class time He/ she can easilymanage group work or monitor group actions and behaviors, for all activities arewell prepared in advance Finally, teachers can no longer be under increasingpressure to work with each individual, which possibly put them into stress insome 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 shouldknow when and how to use it in their classrooms in order that the lessons arebetter taught and the learners will benefit more from the teacher’s teaching

2.2 Selection of the subjects

The research is carried out to see how effectively my students interact inEnglish speaking classes and how well they speak English when the cooperativelearning approach is applied in the teaching of speaking Our subjects are 10thgraders who are studying in Tinh Gia 4 High School Our teaching is conducted

with 90 students from classes 10C1, 10C4, 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 butnot listening and speaking skills As a consequence, they are in the state of beingtimid in oral classes For this reason, I decided to use cooperative learningapproach as a method to motivate my students to learn how to speak Englisheffectively in the classrooms

2.3.Methods

2.3.1 Interviews (See APPENDIX)

Interviews are carried out to see how my students feel about the Englishoral classes and to find out what difficulties they are coping with I interviewed

my colleagues and other 85 students to see their viewpoints from which Iprobably choose a suitable method for my teaching

Factors that prevent students from taking part in speaking activities

What factors prevents you from participating in speaking activities

Factors

Numbers (90 Ss)

%

a Speaking activities are difficult because I don’t have

b Be shy and fear of mistakes and derision 20 22%

c Speaking activities are not interesting, the topics are

Basing on the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” , we choose some of the speakingperiods to design my target lesson plans in a way that the cooperative learningcan probably be applied and easily observed Below are some cooperativelearning techniques to be applied in my teaching of English speaking

UNIT 4: SPECIAL EDUCATION Period 22: Lesson B.Speaking

Activity 1:Network - Brainstorming

- T gives out the network below and asks Ss to think of the questions used toask 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 name 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?

5 Can you tell me about the tests and examinations at your school then? 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: Role playing

- Students work in pairs,

- One student plays the role of an interviewer to ask the other the questionsabout his/ her school life, using the information in the network

- The interviewer will take notes the information for later reporting

Activity 3: Reporting

-Using the network and the information in activity 2, the student who plays therole of the interviewer will report what he/she has interviewed his/her friend

Eg: I’ve talked to Nam He went to Hai An 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 …………

THETHINGSYOU DON’T

SCHOOL LIFE

UNIT 5: TECHNOLOGY AND YOU Period 27: Lesson B Speaking

 Can/ Could you tell me what

a …… is used for?

-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, askone person from each group to report on what they decided

Give feedback: - Content

- Popular mistakes

UNIT 6: AN EXCURSION Period 33: Lesson B.Speaking

Activity 1: Role playing

-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.

- 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

-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 tomake the final decision

Activity 3: Presenting

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

Unit 8: THE STORY OF MY VILLAGE Period 46 : Lesson B.Speaking

Activity: Role-play and discussion

Procedure:

I Pre-speaking:

- Shows a picture of Ha Xuyen village

- Asks students to look at the pictures and suggestion to

talk about Ha Xuyen village

Road/ narrow

School/ small and poor

+ There/ no bridge/ in Ha Xuyen village.

+ There/ no medical centre/ in Ha Xuyen village.

+ There/ no football ground/ in Ha Xuyen village.

- Raises the question:

- Students do in groups of three or fours

- Each member in the group

is asked to play a role as a village planner They are going 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

- Others look at the screen and correct

What should we do to improve the life in the village?

- Leads in new lesson: Let’s practice talking about the

plans to improve the life in Ha Xuyen village and their

possible results

II While-speaking

Task 1:

The villagers of Ha Xuyen are discussing plans to

improve the life in the village Look at the pictures and

say what they should do.

- Ask sts to practise in pairs before presenting in front of

1 The road is narrow.

2 The school is small and poor.

3 There is no bridge in Ha Xuyen village.

4 There is no medical centre in Ha Xuyen village.

5 There is no football ground in Ha Xuyen village.

- Practise speaking in pairs

- Take turns to talk

They should widen the road.

They should build a new