Using cooperative learning in teaching speaking competence for the 11th form students

Many of my students usually find no interest in speaking English even theyare asked to do and some, in other cases, feel less confident when they use English to interact among class memb

A INTRODUCTION

I RATIONALE OF THE STUDY.

Nowadays English has become more and more important part in Vietnamand it is an international language Therefore, it has been taught in Vietnamfrom primary schools to high schools as a compulsory subject

With many years of experience in teaching English at Nguyen Quan Nhohigh school, I found out that speaking stages are very important in teachingspeaking and it also has significant effects on the students’ speaking performance

If students do not prepare well enough they can not speak well They can not evenspeak anything However, 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 even theyare asked to do and some, in other cases, feel less confident when they use English

to interact among class members because of their language ability Therefore, Ihave tried lots of possible teaching methods in oral class so as to probably changethe current situation Among many teaching techniques for speaking skill I foundout that cooperative learning strategy, as group-work learning, has lots ofinteresting activities from which my students can benefit in English oral classes, forthey will get more confidence and chances as well to express their ideas andopinions among group members My students will feel more motivated when theyhave chances to engage in a variety of speaking activities such as round robin,three-step-interview (Spencer Kagan), team jigsaw (Sikes and Snapp 1978) orgroup investigation, etc By using teaching method of this kind, I hope that mystudents’ attitude towards English oral class will have a lot of positive changes.They, to large extent, become more activated and ready to work hard to mastertheir speaking skill in all oral communication classes Therefore, I decided to apply

“Using

cooperative learning in teaching speaking competence for the 11 th form

students ” as the topic of my research.

II AIMS OF THE STUDY.

This paper aims at research carried out with 11th graders at Nguyen QuanNho High School The main objective of the research was to establish strategies

to help students to improve their oral ability in English Instruments used tocollect the data were: lesson plans, student questionnaire, class observation,teacher’s notes and diary and interviews Considering the data gathered, thisresearch prompted a more cooperative environment among students in the oralprocess Finally it was a way to motivate other teachers in the school to workwith these kinds of strategies

1 Research questions

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

1

1 Why do my students become unmotivated in oral

communication classroom?

2 What benefits of cooperative learning can my students accomplish?

3 What can we do to improve their motivation in oral communicationclassroom?

2 Definition of specific terms

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

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

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

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

III SCOPE OF THE STUDY.

With this study, I put focus on investigating and discovering obstacles ordifficulties encountered by students in English speaking lessons at Nguyen QuanNho high school From these findings, the internal and external causes areanalyzed to give some suggestions for tackling them in order to motivatestudents and help improve students’ speaking competence

The study was conducted on the students of grade 11 at Nguyen QuanNho high school with the textbook “Tiếng Anh 11”

IV METHODS OF THE STUDY.

- Using the text- book to apply to each lesson and section

- Using references to improve

- Pictures and other materials

- Discussing with other teachers,

- Observing and drawing out experiences

B DEVELOPMENT

I LITERATURE REVIEW.

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

Learners, on the one hand, can gain such great achievements, socialbenefits and economic benefits through cooperative learning, which is seen askey changes in societies Weidner(2003: 18-25) Obviously, more learners canprobably become the winners by joining in cooperative learning and sharing thesuccess of achievements among them, Slavin(1984) Cooperative learning

produces greater student achievement than traditional learning methodologies(Slavin 1984) Low achieving students when grouped with higher achievingstudents tend to be more hard-working, for there is a competition among groups

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

Teachers, as a role of a coach, a facilitator, and sometimes a spectator inthis approach, are also the beneficiaries from the cooperative learning Byapplying cooperative teaching method, teachers can probably save their time fortheir target lessons This is due to the fact that when the classrooms are wellorganized students will work more effectively rather than one that is clutter.With traditional teaching methodologies, students sit in pre-arranged rows.Class members may be of oversize Cooperative learning works best whengroup size is of smaller clusters of about 3 or 4 students Furthermore, teachersbecome more interactive with each cluster during the class time He/ she caneasily manage group work or monitor group actions and behaviors, for allactivities are well prepared in advance Finally, teachers can no longer be underincreasing pressure to work with each individual, which possibly put them intostress in some way

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

as an effective way to motivate learners in EFL classroom in comparison withother teaching techniques or approaches Thus, it is the teachers that 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

II METHODOLOGYAND RESEARCH SCHEDULE.

1 Independent and dependent variables

classrooms

Operational definition: Operational definition :

Teacher uses the cooperative

learning approach to help

motivate students to speak

English in the class

Students get motivatedand more confident inEnglish speaking classes

3

2 Research design

1 Why do our students - interviews - Grade 11 - Frequency

oral communication - Teacher’s lesson - Level:

2 What benefits of

cooperative learning - class - School name: - Critical

can my students observations Nguyen Quan discourse

3 What can we do to - teacher’s diaries school classroom

motivation in oral - Student - Sample size:

communication questionnaires 90 students

classroom?

3 Data collection procedures.

The Data collection procedure is indicated in the following chart

My research is carried out to see how effectively my students interact in

English oral classes and how well they speak English when the cooperativelearning approach is applied in the teaching of speaking My subjects are 11thgraders who are studying at Nguyen Quan Nho High School My teaching isconducted with 90 students from classes 11B3, 11B4, they are at the age of 16 or

17 Although my students are best selected from the Entrance Examination, theyseem not to be good at speaking English It is due to the fact that the annualexams are designed to focus on only English grammar, reading and writing butlistening and speaking skills As a result, they are in the state of being timid inoral classes For this reason, I decided to apply cooperative learning approach as

a method to motivate my students to learn to speak English effectively in theclassrooms

3.2 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 interviewedour colleagues and other 90 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

a Speaking activities are difficult because I don’t have 50 55%enough words to speak

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

c Speaking activities are not interesting, the topics are 15 17%boring

d The teacher doesn’t encourage students to speak 5 6%

3 3 Lesson plans:

Lesson plans play an important role in the work of teaching Teachers willknow what and how to teach their students Hence, it is essential that I need tocollect lesson plans as a data source for my Action Research

Basing on the textbook “Tieng Anh 11” (national English textbook issued

by MOET of Vietnam), I choose some of the speaking periods to design mytarget lesson plans in a way that the cooperative learning can probably beapplied and easily observed Below are some cooperative learning techniques to

be applied in my teaching of speaking

5

UNIT 1: FRIENDSHIP

Activity 1 Teacher gives out the network and people below and asks Ss to think

of the questions used to ask about the information in it to describe their physicalcharcteristics

Objectives of activity: Students will be able to describe the physical

characteristics of some people in the picture

(handsome,

beautiful, )brown…)

(straight, small, (thin, full, heart (tall, short,

- T calls on some students to give their answers

Eg: 1 Can you describe the boy in the picture?

2 What does the boy look like?

3 Does he have short hair?

4 Is he tall or short?

5 What colour are his eyes?

6 Does he have a round face?

7 Is he wearing a pair of glasses?

8 Is he handsome?

Activity 2 Students work in groups Discuss and number the following

personalities in order of importance in friendship

Objectives of activity: Students will be able to understand some adjectives in

the book to order of importance in friendship

3 9

8

- Teacher divides the class into 3 groups and asks students to complete the network

Activity 3 Students work in pairs, one student plays the role of a journalist is

going to interview an other student to ask some questions about his/ her friend.Using the network and the information in activity 2

Objectives of activity: Students will be able to ask and answer some questions

to describe the physical characteristics and personalities of their friends

Example:

A: What’s your best friend’s name?

B: Her name is Lan

A: When was she born? (How old is she?)

B: She was born in 2001 (She is 17 years old)

A: What does she look like?

B: She is very beautiful She is tall She has big eyes and long black hair

7

A: What is she like?

B: She is helpful and honest

A: What does she usually do in her free time?

B: She usually reads book in her free time?

A: What are her hobbies?

B: They are reading and swimming

A: What subject does she like best?

B: She likes Maths best

A: How much time does she spend on Maths every day?

B: About an hour a day

UNIT 3: A PARTY

Activity 1: Warm up: Brainstorming: Types of parties.

Objectives of activity: Students will be able to talk about some kinds of parties

and revise the vocabulary on the topic party

Birthday

Wedding

Thanks-givingGraduation

Activity 2: Think of a party you have been to Choose from the list the things

you want to talk about

Objectives of activity: Students will be able to talk about a party.

- Whose party was it?

- What was the occasion?

- Did you take a gift for the host?

- Who did you go with?

- Where was the party?

- Were there any decorations?

- Were there a lot of people there?

- Did you know most of the people there?

- What sort of the drink and food did you have?

- What was the music like?

- Did you dance?

- Did you meet anybody nice there?

- What time did it start?

- What time did it finish?

- Did you stay to the end?

Activity 3: Work in pairs Tell your partner about the party.

Objectives of activity: Students will be able to ask and answer about the

party they have been to

Example:

A: Whose party was it?

B: It was my friend-Lan

A: What was the occasion?

B: It was Lan’s birthday party

A: Who did you go with?

B: I went with some my friends

A: Where was the party?

B: It was held at Lan’s house

A: Were there any decorations?

B: Yes, there was

A: Were there a lot of people there?

B: Yes, there were a lot of her friends at there

A: Did you know most of the people there?

B: Yes, I did Because most of them are my friends

A: What sort of the drink and food did you have?

B: I ate cake and drank orange juice

A: Did you dance?

Activity 4: Work in groups You are going to take part in a competition to

organise the best party Decide on the following

Objectives of activity: Students will be able to negotiate in order to come up

with a plan sor their parties

Food and drink(cook our ororder? vegetarianfood?)Teacher devides the class into small groups of three or four and gets them

to do task 3, which is planning a party in the best way they can for a partycompetution In groups, students will negotiate in order to come up with a plansor their parties

- Work in pairs and discuss about these questions

1 What have you known about Tet holiday? Or What is Tet? Or What time of the year is it?

2 What spesial dishes or foods are prepared on Tet?

3 Tell about Tet’s decoration

4 What activities people usually do during Tet?

*Suggested answers:

A: What have you known about Tet holiday?

B: It’s time when Vienamese people celebrate the beginning of spring It’s also the start of the lunar New Year

A: What spesial dishes or foods are prepared on Tet?

B: Many traditional foods are prepared such as Banh Chung, Mut…so on

A: Can you tell about Tet’s decoration?

B: Homes are often decorated with plants and flowers Peach blossom istraditional at Tet in the North while apricot blossom is in the South.Every family