Applying literature circle technique to group work activities to enhance cooperative learning in english speaking lessons at grade 10 in luong the vinh upper secondary school, quang ninh province

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES VU THI THU HIEN APPLYING LITERATURE CIRCLE TECHNIQUE TO GROUP-WORK ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE COOPERATIVE LEARNING IN ENGLISH SPEAKING

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

VU THI THU HIEN

APPLYING LITERATURE CIRCLE TECHNIQUE

TO GROUP-WORK ACTIVITIES

TO ENHANCE COOPERATIVE LEARNING

IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LESSONS AT GRADE 10

IN LUONG THE VINH UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

QUANG NINH PROVINCE

(Áp dụng kĩ thuật Vòng tròn văn học vào hoạt động nhóm nhằm

thúc đẩy việc học tập hợp tác trong giờ học Nói tiếng Anh lớp 10 tại trường THPT Lương Thế Vinh, tỉnh Quảng Ninh)

M.A THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201

THAI NGUYEN – 2019

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

VU THI THU HIEN

APPLYING LITERATURE CIRCLE TECHNIQUE

TO GROUP-WORK ACTIVITIES

TO ENHANCE COOPERATIVE LEARNING

IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LESSONS AT GRADE 10

IN LUONG THE VINH UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

QUANG NINH PROVINCE

(Áp dụng kĩ thuật Vòng tròn văn học vào hoạt động nhóm nhằm

thúc đẩy việc học tập hợp tác trong giờ học Nói tiếng Anh

lớp 10 tại trường THPT Lương Thế Vinh, tỉnh Quảng Ninh)

THE CANDIDATE'S STATEMENTS

I hereby declare that the minor thesis entitled “Applying literature circle

technique to group-work activities to enhance cooperative learning in English speaking lessons at grade 10 in Luong The Vinh Upper Secondary School, Quang Ninh province” is my own work To the best of my knowledge, it contains no

materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree

or diploma at SFL or any other educational institutions The thesis has not been submitted to any other examining body and has not been published Any contribution made to the research by others is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis

The candidate

Vu Thi Thu Hien

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Dr Dang Thi Thu Huong

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To complete this study, I am indebted to many people for their thoughtful help

I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Dang Thi Thu Huong, for supporting me from the proposal stage to the completion of my thesis She helped

me begin my project and provided guidance and suggestions throughout all of my drafts She spent a great deal of time working with me to help me through the multi-step research process by emails or in person She tirelessly edited my thesis proposals, drafts and final thesis

I would also like to acknowledge a particular debt to Dr Nguyen Trong Du for his valuable advice and patient guidance though he is not my supervisor

I would also like to thank the staff and students at my school, Luong The Vinh Upper Secondary School, Quang Ninh province, for their support They assisted my goals by being flexible, lending resources and engaging in informal discussions about

my challenges over the course of the project

Most importantly, I wish to acknowledge my family, who has patiently allowed

me the time to work on my thesis They were invaluable to the success of this paper and I thank them for believing in my accomplishments

Thai Nguyen, June 2019

Vu Thi Thu Hien

ABSTRACT

Cooperative learning is undeniably helpful to students, especially to those who are studying a foreign language Practice of speaking is considered as one of the most important factors for the acquisition of languages This study is conducted to examine the effectiveness of literature circle technique on cooperative activities inside the classroom in English speaking lessons for students grade 10, Luong The Vinh Upper Secondary School, Quang Ninh province Particularly, the researcher aims at collecting factual evidences about difficulties that teachers face while applying the cooperative learning technique (what difficulties do teachers face in typical

Vietnamese classrooms while applying the cooperative learning technique?) An

action research has been carried out experimenting the application of modified literature circle technique in that context (does the adapted literature circle technique help enhance cooperative learning in Vietnamese classrooms?) The findings indicate

a significantly positive effect of literature circle technique which helps enhance cooperative learning considerably in English lessons Practical exercises and lessons learnt from the study suggest the use of literature circle technique in other places in Vietnam

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF TABLES viii

LIST OF CHARTS ix

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study and research questions 1

3 Scope of the study 2

4 Significance of the study 2

5 Method of the study 2

6 Organization of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Cooperative Learning 4

1.1.1 Definition 4

1.1.2 Characteristics of a cooperative learning group 5

1.1.3 The roles of cooperative learning in language education 5

1.1.4 Challenges in applying cooperative learning group work 6

1.2 Literature circle technique 6

1.2.1 Definition 6

1.2.2 The use of literature circle techniques for cooperative learning group work in improving speaking skills 7

1.2.3 Limitation of using literature circle in real classrooms and the adapted model 8

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 10

2.1 Research context 10

2.2 Research questions 11

2.3 Research approach 11

2.3.1 An overview of action research 11

2.3.2 Rationale for the use of an action research 12

2.4 Description of the research 12

2.4.1 Population 12

2.4.2 Data collection instrument 13

2.4.3 The action procedures 13

2.4.4 Data collection procedures 15

2.4.5 Data analysis procedure 16

2.5 Summary 17

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 19

3.1 Research question 1 19

3.1.1 Pre-questionnaire for teachers 19

3.1.2 Pre-questionnaire for students 24

3.2 Research question 2 30

3.2.1 Observation 30

3.2.2 Post-questionnaire for students 33

3.2.3 KII with teachers 36

PART C: CONCLUSION 39

1 Conclusion 39

2 Implications 40

3 Limitations of the study 40

4 Suggestions for further research 41

REFERENCES 42 APPENDIX I: Pre-questionnaire for teachers I APPENDIX II: Pre-questionnaire for students V APPENDIX III: Post-questionnaire for students VII APPENDIX IV: Questions for KII with teachers IX

APPENDIX V: Instructions for teachers’ using literature circle technique XAPPENDIX VI: Sample lesson plan XIIIAPPENDIX VII: Observations form XIIII

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT : Communicative Language Teaching

EFL : English as a Foreign Language

KII : Key Informant Interview

L1 : first language/mother tongue

L2 : second language

SFL : School of Foreign Languages

STT : Students’ Talking Time

TTT : Teachers’ Talking Time

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: The characteristics of a traditional group 20 Table 2: The benefits of cooperative learning group activities to the students 22 Table 3: Observation table of checklist 31

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 1: Responses from selected teachers selecting characteristics of a traditional

group versus a cooperative learning group 21

Chart 2: The number of responses by teachers about the benefits of cooperative

learning group activities to the students 23

Chart 3: How often teachers organise group activities during speaking lessons 24 Chart 4: How much students like working in groups 25 Chart 5: How much the majority of students spoke during group work 26 Chart 6: Students prefer stay in the same group or move around and join more than

one group during speaking lesson 26

Chart 7: Students’ perception about the importance they have in the group work 27 Chart 8: Students’ feeling of engagement and interaction with other group members

28

Chart 9: Current speaking lessons’ attractiveness to students 29 Chart 10: Observation results after 4 experimental lessons 32 Chart 11: How much the same students like working in group before and after 4

PART A: INTRODUCTION

This is a study on the influence of modified literature circle techniques on cooperative activities inside the classroom in English speaking lessons This chapter starts with the rationale of the study Then, the aims, scope, significance and method of the study will be presented

1 Rationale

Under the draft new curriculum (version May 2018) for comprehensive education reform, secondary students are expected to develop communication and collaboration abilities as one out of ten core competencies (Thao, 2018)

For English as a school subject, communicative language teaching has been taken

as the approach Standard national high school curriculum is designed according to CLT approach which takes speaking, listening, reading and writing competencies as the end products of the teaching and learning process (Van, 2011, p.98)

Therefore, it can be said that a language classroom teaches more than the language itself – students are to be given chance for both communication and collaboration skills improvement

The need is becoming increasingly vital for teachers in Vietnam to apply methods and techniques which enable students to interact, exchange ideas using the language, and develop their collaboration skills

Of numerous techniques, cooperative learning and literature circle technique are assumedly significant as they are suggested by some progressive educators recently In the meantime, they are predicted to cause failures if neglectfully applied in Vietnamese school contexts

From this suggestion and above initial problems, the author decided to do an action research project to examine the effectiveness of literature circle technique on cooperative activities inside the classroom in English speaking lessons for students grade 10, Luong The Vinh Upper Secondary School, Quang Ninh province

2 Aims of the study and research questions

First of all, the research sought for understanding of cooperative learning and literature circle techniques as the theoretical bases The framework shaped after the review of journal articles and books has informed a design of a minor survey into the practice of cooperative learning activities in language classrooms in Quang Ninh, a

typical Vietnamese province The survey first aimed at collecting factual evidences about difficulties facing teachers while applying the cooperative learning technique

Research question 1: What difficulties do teachers face in typical Vietnamese classrooms while applying the cooperative learning technique?

Next, a type of action research has been carried out by experimenting the application

of modified literature circle technique in that context Data gathered was analyzed to decide the level of appropriateness of the technique in enhancing cooperative learning activities

Research question 2: Does the adapted literature circle technique help enhance cooperative learning in Vietnamese classrooms?

All those practical exercises and lessons learnt from the study helped extent the use

of literature circle technique to a larger geographical region for future research

3 Scope of the study

The study was conducted on 84 students from classes 10A9 and 10A10 at Luong The Vinh Upper Secondary School during the second semester and restricted to the second semester of 2018-2019 The study focused on exploring the current state of cooperative learning activities and then experimented the adapted literature circle technique on grade 10 in an average upper secondary school in North Vietnam, especially for the effectiveness on improving students’ speaking skills

4 Significance of the study

On completion, the study provided an insight into the effects of using literature circle techniques on EFL high school students’ interest and acquirements during cooperative learning activities What has been achieved in this research would help teachers consider utilizing literature circle techniques to improve students' oral competences in English speaking lessons Moreover, this study is much beneficial to students who wonder how to develop their speaking skills as well as their collaboration teamwork

5 Method of the study

This study is conducted as an action research because action research is the best choice for the purpose of improving the current state of affairs within educational context

in which the research is carried out In order to get data, a combination of different instruments, namely questionnaires, pre-questionnaire and post questionnaire,

observation, and key informant interview (KII), was used The data collected through the questionnaire has been analyzed by quantitative method, using an MS Excel spreadsheet and calculation The KII and observation inputs have been discussed qualitatively

6 Organization of the study

The study consists of three parts:

Part A Introduction: presents the rationale, aim, scope, significance and method

of the study

Part B Development: comprises three chapters:

- Chapter 1: Theoretical Background and Literature Review covers the overview of

the literature which includes relevant theoretical background and reviews of related studies concerning literature circle techniques and cooperative learning in language teaching

- Chapter 2: Research Method continues with the research method including

participants of the study, the instrumentation, the methods and procedures of data collection and data analysis

- Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion demonstrates the findings accompanied by

data analysis and discussion

Part C Conclusions: recapitulates the major findings of the study and represents

further recommendations for the implementation of literature circle techniques

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

AND LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, a review of literature in theory and practice on literature circle techniques and cooperative learning is provided First, the definition, principles, effectiveness as well as challenges of cooperative learning approach in language teaching are introduced Second, literature circle techniques and their use in EFL classrooms are presented Next, the adapted model of literature circle including members’ roles and steps

in organising are discussed Following this, the implementation of literature circle techniques in cooperative learning is reviewed

Upon initial research into the literature, the researcher has gained some knowledge about literature circle techniques and cooperative learning Literature about both cooperative learning and literature circle is briefly stated as below:

Co-operative learning, in other words, can be understood as closely planned and organized teaching strategies that retain learners in tiny organizations and work together

It is worth noting that participants in the same group are not competing with each other

to win the reward for themselves, but all as a group are doing their utmost to contribute

to the group's ultimate accomplishment Members have to assist each other and promote each other to learn to create the group rewarded This technique therefore enables to boost student motivation to study

Likewise, Williams (2002) defines cooperative learning as a teaching technique that

is supposed to assist learners enhance their learning by interacting in tiny organizations with their colleagues Jacobs, et al (2002, reviewed in Lin, 2009) proposed that

cooperative learning offers students the opportunity not only to work together, but also

to make the most of their peer communication and learning as well as their own teaching Johnson & Johnson (1994), Kagan (1994) and Jacobs (2002) shared the same six fundamental co-operative teaching features:

1.1.2 Characteristics of a cooperative learning group

Jacobs (1998, as cited in Lin, 2009) points out seven characteristics of a cooperative learning group as follows:

 Group formation: teachers (and students) plan group size and composition so as

to maximize the potential of the groups

 Seating arrangements: group members sit in such a way as to see and hear one

another easily, and at the same time, bother other groups as little as possible

 Collaborative skills: collaborative skills are explicitly taught

 Duration of Groups: groups often stay together for more than one activity perhaps

for weeks or months and spend time discussing how they can work together better

 Group solidarity: teachers attempt to build group solidarity

 Individual participation and learning: teachers encourage each group member to

feel responsible for participating and learning

Teachers’ roles: teachers actively monitor groups to see if they are learning and

functioning smoothly

1.1.3 The roles of cooperative learning in language education

In Lin (2009), the technique of cooperative learning was assessed as an efficient teaching method because it offers more possibilities for learners to enhance their communication skills Several advantages can be mentioned below:

 Develop group work skills;

Increase students’ talking time;

 Forster and develop interpersonal relationships and build positive friendships;

 Help students use language creatively and confidently;

Enhance students’ satisfaction with the learning experience;

 Create an environment of active, involved, exploratory learning (p 79)

Matikainen (2009) claims in the same vein that cooperative learning maximizes interactive communication between learners, leading to their language enhancement

1.1.4 Challenges in applying cooperative learning group work

However, there are some challenges to teachers when applying traditional cooperative learning method and these may cause failures in language classrooms, especially for oral activities and in Asian contexts According to Wang (2017), the most emerging limitation of traditional cooperative learning method is that of students’ unequal speaking opportunities within groups The more capable students will get more chances to speak in groups than the lower achievers Zhang (2010, as cited in Wang, 2017) explains that while the less able students need more time to think about teacher’s questions and to arrange their ideas, the others get the answers before them, and they often lose the opportunities to speak in class In addition, it is often suggested that group leaders respond to the teacher's issues and be the representatives to make speeches in front of the school If there is no group leader, the elevated attainders will have the opportunity to talk in school, and students with low oral English skills will not have the opportunity to talk

1.2 Literature circle technique

1.2.1 Definition

Daniels (2006) identified: circles of literature are tiny debates among learners in a group about commonly selected tales Students themselves lead these conversations, and the interactions between the members are essential Each student must play his/her part

in this reading circle in each group, and then the others will offer them some feedback and questions The groups have regular meetings with discussing roles rotating each session When finishing reading the stories, the groups can share their discussions to the whole class Finally, the circles are completed The new circles continue to be formed basing on the books or stories that students choose

Daniels (2002, quoted in Bedee, 2010) proposed 11 key literature circle characteristics:

 Students decide which stories to read;

 Students who choose the same stories form temporary groups;

 Each group has a different story;

 Participants in each group build up regular schedules to meet each other and discuss about what they have read;

 The group discussions are peer-led;

 The groups choose their own topics for the discussions;

 The groups’ meetings should be open, friendly, and favorable;

During the groups’ discussions, the teacher should act as the observer, and facilitator, not a group member or instructor;

Evaluation is based on the teacher’s observation and students’ peer-evaluation;

 The learning environment in the classroom should be exciting and fun;

 When one story is finished reading, the groups have to report to the whole class about the stories they have read, then the groups are broken, and the new ones are formed basing on the new common stories of the group members

1.2.2 The use of literature circle techniques for cooperative learning group work

in improving speaking skills

Cooperative learning difficulties can be overcome by applying literature circle method to educators Each student becomes active learners by working within literature circles (Daniels, 2002, quoted in Bedee, 2010) Different roles are allocated that require individual job, followed by unique sharing, exchange and cooperation By exchanging views, personal experiences and reactions to the same materials, literature circles enable learners to collaborate and learn with each other in a secure learning setting because of their particular characteristics The learners often give their views orally in most of the debates; therefore, their speaking abilities can be significantly created In this manner, the communication skills of learners are significantly enhanced when participating in a literature circle exercise, and most importantly quite similarly among participants In brief, the method of the literature circle can assist address the unequal speaking issue of learners in cooperative learning operations

In addition, according to Long and Gove (2003, quoted in Bedee, 2010), literature circle practices provide learners with possibilities to improve their critical thinking,

"become more reflective, and push themselves outside the box to read, speak, question, feel, and believe." During their debates, students use various abilities: "oral language, making personal connections, and critical thinking” (Carrison, 2005) Both Jacobs (2015) and Carrison (2005) agreed that with the participation in literature circles, students gain the greater sense of responsibilities to their roles in group and to the development of the

group discussions Daniels (2006) pointed out that, with literature circles, students are asked to do the same tasks that adults do in a book club Therefore, literature circles are more interesting for students than the teacher-centered activities in traditional classroom

1.2.3 Limitation of using literature circle in real classrooms and the adapted model

However, Furr (2004) asserted that when educators adapt the literature circle method in EFL schools, all of the 11 above characteristics as listed in Section 1.2.1 of this thesis are not really appropriate He talks about the difference between L1 classrooms and EFL classrooms, so we can't adapt this technique without altering

In this study, the researcher decided to adapt the 11 essential features of a literature

circle to form the modified literature circle technique as below:

Those elements are similar as in Daniels’s (2006) model:

 The group discussions are still peer-led;

 The group working environment is also open, friendly, and favorable;

The teacher’s role during the group discussions is an observer and facilitator;

Marks are given based on both the teacher’s observation and students’ evaluation;

self- The learning inside the classroom should be interesting and fun;

 Once the topic is finished, the groups have to report to the class what they have discussed, then the new circles continue to be run, and the roles in the groups are rotated among the group members;

 All the groups have the same topic;

 Students will work in literature circles inside the classroom (it means that there will be no regular schedules for students to meet apart from the lessons);

Surprisingly, despite all these above stated strengths and the possibility to be adapted, the literature circle was not widely used in Vietnam for unstated purposes Few educators are thought to have applied the methods in reading courses to some extent The

current research is therefore significant in fulfill the gaps with understanding about the application of literature circle techniques in speaking classes

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter provides background information about action research, the current situation of implementing cooperative learning, the states of teaching speaking lessons at Luong The Vinh Upper Secondary School and the description of methodologies employed to collect data for the study

2.1 Research context

It is clear that English language education in Vietnamese high schools has recently changed and got much better results thanks to the adjustment of textbooks and teaching methods Particularly, the textbook series – Tiếng Anh 10, Tiếng Anh 11, Tiếng Anh 12 (English 10, English I1, and English 12)- introduced into schools since 2005 has attracted both teachers and students by introducing a theme-based, task-based, and communicative approaches However, while teaching, the researcher found that many students at Luong The Vinh Upper Secondary School had difficulties in developing their spoken communication abilities When interviewed, the students claimed that speaking lessons seemed to be far from effectiveness for them

The main reason, as investigated, is that teachers failed to overcome the challenges posed from organising students in traditional group work and had difficulties to organise cooperative learning groups They might have to invest too much time preparing lessons following cooperative learning approach while their students still showed less interest in group work in class

One of the researcher’s colleagues has introduced literature circle techniques recently which possibly effective to solve the problems as noticed at the school

A study should have been conducted at Luong The Vinh Upper Secondary School, where all the students have learned English for about nine years and have three English classes per week and half of them have one optional lesson every week The new textbook series English 10 to English 12 is taught and the students have to take the entrance exam including English as a compulsory subject The physical condition of the school can provide a supportive environment for language teaching and learning with favorable facilities such as rooms equipped with overhead projector, screen, loud speakers, CD and

CD player, and especially movable chairs and desks

2.3.1 An overview of action research

The term “action research” refers to two dimensions of activity: the word “research” refers to a systematic approach to carrying out investigations and collecting information that is designed to illuminate an issue or problem and to improve classroom practice, meanwhile the word “action” refers to taking practical action to resolve classroom problems (Richards, 2005) Therefore, action research achieves both action (change or improve) and research (understanding)

According to Cohen and Manion (2007), action research is “small-scale intervention in the functioning of the real world and a close examination of the effects of such intervention”

Kemmis and Mc Taggart (1988) identify three characteristics of an action research, which are “carried out by practitioners”, “cooperative” and “aimed at changing things” Tsui (1993) suggested 5 steps in conducting action research: Identifying problems; Finding causes of the problem; Designing strategies for improvement (plan for action) and writing a proposal for action research; Trying out the strategies (action) and keeping

a diary of what happened in the class; and Evaluating the try-out Whereas, Nunan (1992) defines the framework of a research as consisting of seven steps as follows:

 Step 1: Initiation (Identify the problem)

 Step 2: Preliminary investigation (Collect data through a variety of means)

 Step 3: Hypothesis (Develop research questions)

 Step 4: Intervention (Devise strategies and innovation to be implemented)

 Step 5: Evaluation (Collect data again and analyze it to work out the findings)

 Step 6: Dissemination (Report the result by running workshops or issuing a paper)

 Step 7: Follow-up (Find alternative methods to solve the same problem)

Different from Tsui, Nunan (1992) suggested that teachers should observe and take notes on what their learners said and did in class, and then, based on these observation, identified positive ways to bring about this change

A necessary component of action research is the collaboration among different teachers, their colleagues and students, who should be willing to talk with each other about the problems and find out the solutions together, as well as help each other in implementing classroom-centered action research projects It also needs the cooperative efforts of students who participate in the action research project Students' collaboration plays an important role in the success of the action research project

In this study, the researcher followed Nunan’s action research model

2.3.2 Rationale for the use of an action research

Cohen and Manion (2007) state that the aim of action research is to improve the current state of affairs within educational context in which the research is carried out Koshy (2005) also maintains that action research is a powerful and useful model for practitioner research because research can be set within a specific situation and researchers can be participants - they do not have to context or be distant and detached from the situation Teachers in general and teachers of English in particular actually carry out research for most of their time Whenever s/he identifies a problem which is happening in the class, it is his/her task to find ways to solve that problem Therefore, action research is inevitably a very common practice

2.4 Description of the research

2.4.1 Population

Five English teachers at Luong The Vinh Upper Secondary School participated in the survey as informants as they completed questionnaires and let the researcher observe one lesson each to find out about the difficulties they might have while applying the cooperative learning technique Only two of them was chosen to deliver experiment teaching lessons during the action part of the research

The 84 students of two classes 10A9 and 10A10 at Luong The Vinh Upper Secondary School have been selected to participate in the action part of the research where the researcher conducts speaking lessons applying adapted literature circle technique Basing on initial analysis of the students’ previous test scores and the researcher’s personal experience with them, the two classes are different on certain

aspects Class 10A9 has more male students who are much more active in lessons where games and other creative activities are applied However, their cooperativeness among themselves seem to be looser than that of class 10A10’s

2.4.2 Data collection instrument

Using questionnaires, observation and interviews, the researcher collected raw data for the evaluation of the experiment

Questionnaires: Three questionnaires were employed in the research, one for

teachers and two for students To remove one of the limitations of using questionnaires (respondents must be able to read the questions and respond to them), both of them might

be in Vietnamese The one for teachers was used in the mini-survey to collect information about their awareness of cooperative grouping, their perception of the actual effectiveness

of cooperative learning, as well as the difficulties they might have to face when promoting cooperative learning The other two for students were pre- and post-experiential, so they were administered before and after the lessons to collect feedback on literature circle technique’s enhancement on cooperative learning from students’ points of view in comparison with their own feelings and thought before the experiment

Observation: Before the application of literature circle technique, observation was

employed to verify the researcher’s assumption about difficulties the teachers might have

to face when applying cooperative learning techniques During the experiment teaching lessons, standardised control observation form was used to assess how much the literature circle technique enhances cooperative learning and check if the teachers have to face the same type of difficulties as before or not

Interviews: There has been a KII with teachers after the lessons The KII is

effective in providing useful information that questionnaire or observation alone or even the combination of them fails to provide More specifically, the KII sought for the experiment teachers’ qualitative comments and comparison about the differences they noticed at their students before and after the intervention

2.4.3 The action procedures

The action was conducted during four weeks of the second semester of school year 2018- 2019 from February 12th to March 19th, 2019 Adapting steps in Nunan (1992)’s action research cycle, the action was developed in four main steps as follows:

Step 1: Problem identification

During the teaching process in the school-years 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 for the 10th form students, the researcher and her colleagues discovered that their students were

generally weak at speaking skills They were not keen on joining group activities The researcher discussed her concern with other teachers, and they admitted that their students have the same problems Moreover, the time for in class practice is not enough, which means students have to extend their self-grouping and practicing outside the class time to improve their speaking skills as well as their collaborative competences This urged the teacher to find a better way to work with her new classes in the school-year 2018- 2019 The researcher got interested and decided to collaborate with the teacher and conduct an action research

Step 2: Preliminary investigation

After observing and analyzing the results from many tests, especially the fact that only 12.1% of the students got mark 5+ in the GCSE exam at the end of the 2017-2018 school year, the researcher found that, in general, the students’ English competence is rather low Meanwhile, initial interviews with students showed that almost all of them found speaking lessons not enough interesting and helpful, even when their teachers applied collaborative learning approach

Therefore, the researcher raised two questions for exploration: “What difficulties do teachers face in typical Vietnamese classrooms while applying the cooperative learning technique?” “Does the adapted literature circle technique help enhance cooperative learning in Vietnamese classrooms?”

To answer these questions, a questionnaire for teachers was administered The collected data were analyzed to point out some possible challenges for the teachers, from which the researcher had belief that literature circle technique would be used to raise students’ interest so that the problem would be solved That was the reason why the researcher decided to introduce literature circle technique to her students

Step 3: Intervention

To solve the problem, the teacher decided to use literature circle technique for

cooperative learning activities This step of intervention was carried out as follows:

The researcher asked the Head Master of the school for permission to recruit 84 students from classes 10A9 and 10A10 at the school during the second semester of the school year 2018-2019

Firstly, the students of both groups gave their comments about their experience of speaking lessons by answering seven questions in the pre-questionnaire

Then a series of four lessons were prepared basing on the adapted literature circle technique

The teachers and the students had one experimental lesson every week The researcher conducted the observation along

Finally, after four weeks, the students answered the post-questionnaire so the researcher could see if there were any differences in their feelings and experience The researcher also had KII with the two teachers who taught the lessons

Step 4: Evaluation

In order to see the effects of adapted literature circle technique, data collected from these sources were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively The data analysis results were then used to discuss the research questions

2.4.4 Data collection procedures

2.4.4.1 Planning

The researcher prepared the first draft of data collection instruments which consisted of the questionnaires, observation sheets and KII query frame

2.4.4.2 Pre-questionnaire for teachers

The pre-questionnaire for teachers was administered during the third week of the semester to collect background information about their awareness of cooperative grouping, their perception of the actual effectiveness of cooperative learning, as well as the difficulties they might have to face when promoting cooperative learning

2.4.4.3 Pre-questionnaire for students

The pre-questionnaire was delivered to the population of the research to get the information about their feelings, interest and comments on previous speaking lessons and their expectations of the intended lessons applying literature circle techniques It was conducted in the fourth week of the second semester in the school year 2018-2019 at Luong The Vinh Upper Secondary School

2.4.4.4 Observation

The researcher worked with the selected teachers on the program, explained their main tasks, arranging schedule for all the participants After planning steps with sufficient preparations in terms of materials, expected outcomes, methods and problems predictions, the action was conducted where students took part in the learning activities, played the role of active learners; while the teacher played the role of a guider, a facilitator and an advisor who also observed, gave feedbacks and provided necessary involvement and adjustment The researcher used the observation form to collect data through observation of actual lessons during the second month of the semester

2.4.4.5 Post-questionnaire for students

After the four experimental weeks, the post-questionnaire was administrated to the experimental group the information about their feelings, interest and comments on

lessons applying literature circle technique, their suggestions and expectations for similar future lessons

2.4.4.6 KII with teachers

A discussion was conducted among the researcher and the two teachers who taught the lessons to collect their qualitative comments and comparison about the differences they noticed at their students before and after the intervention

2.4.5 Data analysis procedure

Data was processed using Microsoft Excel application The outputs was presented using descriptive statistic techniques

Microsoft Excel is popular and low-cost, so it is quite practical for a school teacher doing research

Steps of data analysis are as follows

For the teachers’ questionnaire:

 Step 1: Data from completed questionnaires was input on to a Microsoft Excel sheet, question by question

 Step 2: Numbers of options chosen by respondents was automatically counted and converted to percentage and charts or graphs using formula functions from the application

 Step 3: Interpretation from those numbers and percentages was made and illustrated with charts or graphs A list and corresponding level of difficulties teachers might have to face when promoting cooperative learning was made so the researcher was informed for the experiment of speaking lessons applying modified literature circle technique

For observation 1 (before the application of literature circle technique):

 Step 1: Basing on the list of difficulties as identified Basing on the list of difficulties as identified by teachers via questionnaire, the researcher developed an observation form

 Step 2: By observing some actual lessons, the researcher put ticks next to those difficulties being seen The researcher also made notes about those difficulties

 Step 3: Conclusions was made comparing with conclusions drawn from the questionnaires, verifying the actual difficulties the teachers had to face when applying cooperative learning techniques to current practice of teaching

For the students’ questionnaire (post-experiential, being administered after the experimental lessons:

 Step 1: Data from completed questionnaires was input on to a Microsoft Excel sheet, question by question

 Step 2: Numbers of options chosen by respondents was automatically counted and converted to percentage and charts or graphs using formula functions from the application

 Step 3: Interpretation from those numbers and percentages was made and illustrated with charts or graphs Feedback on literature circle technique’s enhancement

on cooperative learning from students’ point of view was discussed accordingly Initial conclusion was then made about level of suitability of literature circle technique in enhancing cooperative learning which in turn leads to the improvement of students’ communication and collaboration skills

For observation 2 (while the application of literature technique):

 Step 1: Basing on the list of difficulties as identified after observation 1, the researcher developed a form for observation 2

 Step 2: By observing the experimental lessons, the researcher put ticks next to statements of fact being seen The researcher also made notes about those related facts

 Step 3: Conclusions was made that if the teachers have to face the same type of difficulties as before or not and how much better the experimental lessons became

 Step 4: Conclusions was also made about how much the literature circle technique enhances cooperative learning comparing with feedback on literature circle technique’s enhancement on cooperative learning from students’ point of view

For the KII (with teachers after the experimental lessons):

 The KII is effective in providing useful information that questionnaire or observation alone or even the combination of them fails to provide It was conducted right after the experimental lessons Therefore, it’s quite flexible by nature It was up to the researcher at that moment of time to decide what questions to make However, basically the researcher sought to know what the teachers and students recommend so the application of the modified literature circle technique may better enhance cooperative learning in the next lessons

The analysing of data from KII is of qualitative type Reasoning will be employed and conclusions will be used for Recommendations in the report

2.5 Summary

This chapter has presented in some detail the methodological framework of the study including the justification for the use of action research design in this study, the

research question, collecting data, the participants of the study, the process of data collection and data analysis applied to seek the answers for the two research questions, the pre-questionnaire and post- questionnaire and KII used as tools of research In the next chapter, there will be a presentation of the findings of the study and a discussion of the two research questions raised in this study

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter provides the findings of the study It also includes the presentation of data gathered, its analysis and interpretation

3.1 Research question 1

The statistical analysis of the pre-questionnaire for teachers and pre-questionnaire for students was aimed to answer the first research question:

“What difficulties do teachers face in typical Vietnamese classrooms while

applying the cooperative learning technique?”

For teachers, there are three questions two of which are closed, checking their awareness of differences between a traditional group and a cooperative learning one, as well as their perception of benefits that cooperative learning group activities bring about

to the students The researcher assumed that her colleagues at Luong The Vinh school are well aware of what cooperative learning means and how good the cooperative learning activities are to the development of their students’ language skills At the same time, the researcher would want to discover more about the difficulties her colleagues have to face while applying the cooperative learning technique That is why the third question is an open one

3.1.1 Pre-questionnaire for teachers

Question 1 Which characteristics do you think belong to a traditional group or a cooperative learning group?

Below is the table indicating 7 characteristics of a traditional group and 7 characteristics of a cooperative learning group mixed up together After asking 5 teachers

at Luong The Vinh school, the number of choices they made has been included in the last two columns to the right of the table

group

Cooperative learning group

1 Students form groups with whoever they want or

whoever is sitting near them

2 Teachers (and students) plan group size and

composition so as to maximize the potential of

the groups

3 Group members sit in such a way as to see and

hear one another easily, and at the same time,

bother other groups as little as possible

4 Students arrange their groups as they see fit 5 0

6 Students are assumed to know how to work

together

8 Groups often stay together for more than one

activity perhaps for weeks or months and spend

time discussing how they can work together

better

10 Students are assumed to feel a common purpose

with their fellow group members and to care

about one another

11 Group members are assumed to be interested in

participating and learning

12 Teachers encourage each group member to feel

responsible for participating and learning

13 Teachers actively monitor groups to see if they

are learning and functioning smoothly

14 Teachers use time while students are in groups to

catch up on grading and other paperwork

Table 1: The characteristics of a traditional group

More visually, the data was represented in the chart form as below:

Chart 1: Responses from selected teachers selecting characteristics of a traditional

group versus a cooperative learning group

Of the 14 characteristics, those of a traditional group are characteristics 1, 4, 5, 7,

9, 11, 14; the rest are of a cooperative learning group

As can be seen, the teachers know quite well what a traditional or a cooperative learning group is However, it was questionable that all the five teachers failed to choose the right characteristics number 13 and 14 Perhaps, they misunderstand about the role of

a teacher when leading the two different types of group: they might have thought that teachers would not have to monitor closely when students work in cooperative learning groups

Question 2 How much do you agree about the benefits of cooperative learning group activities to the students?

0

5

3 2 0

5

0

2 3 5

Teachers' awareness of a traditional vs cooperative leaning group

to specific benefits Again, the data was also represented in the form of a chart after the table

STT Benefits of cooperative

learning group activities

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree

Strongly agree

A Develop group work

Help students use

language creatively and

Chart 2: the number of responses by teachers about the benefits of cooperative learning

group activities to the students

Although there were a number of neutral choices which shows that the teachers were not quite confident about the benefits that cooperative learning group activities could bring about to the students, it is a good thing that none of the teachers chose

“Strongly disagree” and “Disagree” It does mean that all the teachers at Luong The Vinh School know for sure these are the benefits their students can gain from joining cooperative learning group activities organised by their teachers

Question 3 What difficulties have you ever encountered when applying groups activities (even with cooperative learning groups)?

Answering this question, the teachers provide some useful information for the researcher Noticeably, the following three difficulties can be generalised:

- Unequal opportunities to speak among group members (due to unbalanced oral English proficiency of the group members and as a result the less able members lost opportunities because it took them more time to utter)

- Group leaders are often recommended to answer the teacher’s questions and

be the representatives to produce speeches in front of the class

- If there are not the group leaders, the opportunities to speak in class will be belonged to the high achievers, and the students with low oral English proficiency will have no chance to speak

Enhance students’ satisfaction with the learning experience Create an environment of active, involved, exploratory learning

These are very important to the researcher because when adopting the cooperative learning group activities as an advantageous tool in teaching and learning English at school, we have to find ways to overcome the above challenges so we can help teachers

in teaching and students in learning Otherwise, weak students would be left behind

As soon as the researcher decided to apply literature circle technique as an intervention which helps improve the situation, it requires exploration into the current status of students’ experience during speaking lessons at school To do so, a pre-questionnaire was administered to the 84 selected students in the study The questionnaire also aimed to cross check about the difficulties noted by teachers from the students’ perspectives

3.1.2 Pre-questionnaire for students

Question 1 How often do your English teachers organise group work activities during speaking lessons?

Chart 3: How often teachers organise group activities during speaking lessons

Answers to this question revealed potentials that the study can exploit and contribute to the students’ skill development Majority of students admitted their teachers very often organise group activities during speaking lessons With this high frequency, if the group work activities are conducted in a good way then the students benefit a lot Vice versa, it could be a huge waste of time and energy of both teachers and students

Question 1 How often do your English teachers organise group work

activities during speaking lessons?

Question 2 How much do you like working in groups?

Chart 4: How much students like working in groups

At the time when the pre-questionnaire was administered, the 84 students only experienced the normal group activities organised by the teachers who still found themselves stuck with how to make students love group activities Therefore, it is understandable that half of them chose “Neutral” which indicates students’ low interest

in the group activities

Question 2 How much do you like working in groups?

Question 3 How much do you talk in groups?

Chart 5: How much the majority of students spoke during group work

More than a half of the students said they spoke less than 20% of the talking time during group work Data collected through question 3 consolidates the teachers’ opinion that one of the biggest difficulties they face is the unequal opportunities to talk among students; weaker students speak less while more capable students or group leaders are dominated

Question 4 What do you prefer in a lesson?

Chart 6: Students prefer stay in the same group or move around and join more than one

group during speaking lesson

59 11

9 5

Question 4 What do you prefer in a lesson?

A Stay in the same group

B Move around and join more than one group