An Investigation into the Use of Pair Work and Group Work in Speaking Lessons for Grade-10 Students at Yen Lac High School

DECLARATION I hereby state that I – Tạ Thị Dương, being an M.A candidate of the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, ULIS, VNU, certify my authorship of the study entitled An Investigation

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

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

TẠ THỊ DƯƠNG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK IN SPEAKING LESSONS FOR GRADE-10 STUDENTS AT YEN LAC HIGH SCHOOL

(NGHIÊN CỨU THỰC TRẠNG SỬ DỤNG HOA ̣T ĐỘNG ĐÔI VÀ NHÓM

TRONG CÁC GIỜ HỌC NÓI CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG YÊN LẠC)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Hanoi – 2015

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

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

TẠ THỊ DƯƠNG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK IN SPEAKING LESSONS FOR GRADE-10 STUDENTS AT YEN LAC HIGH SCHOOL

(NGHIÊN CỨU THỰC TRẠNG SỬ DỤNG HOA ̣T ĐỘNG ĐÔI VÀ NHÓM

TRONG CÁC GIỜ HỌC NÓI CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG YÊN LẠC )

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Phạm Thị Thanh Thuỷ, Ph.D

Hanoi – 2015

DECLARATION

I hereby state that I – Tạ Thị Dương, being an M.A candidate of the

Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, ULIS, VNU, certify my authorship of the study entitled

An Investigation into the Use of Pair Work and Group Work in Speaking

Lessons for Grade-10 Students at Yen Lac High School

I certify that this thesis is entirely my own work and that all the information in this paper was presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct

As required in the rules, I fully cited all the sources of the results that were not original to this work

Hanoi, December 2014

Tạ Thị Dương

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Pham Thi Thanh Thuy, Ph.D for her guidance, comments, enthusiasm, and especially sympathy throughout the whole research process

Second, my thanks go to all the lecturers and staff of the Faculty of Post- Graduate Studies, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, for their precious knowledge and guidance during my two years of studying at the Faculty

Third, I would like to thank all librarians for their helping me with the reference materials and their efforts to create the atmosphere of reading rooms as convenient as possible

Specially, I wish to express my special thanks to the students and teachers

at Yen Lac high school for their full support in completing the questionnaires and their detailed answers to questions in the interview

I also wish to send my thanks to the teachers who will take their precious time reading and commending on this thesis

And finally, I wish to send my thanks to my family who always cheer me

up and support me at hard time

ABSTRACT

This study aims at investigating how pair and group activities were used to teach English speaking skills by teachers for grade-10 classes at Yen Lac high school; the benefits students gained and the difficulties they encountered when using them; and the solutions teachers took to handle these problems A combination of questionnaires for students, interviews for teachers and class observations was administered to discover the answers The findings of this research revealed that pair work and group work were used frequently and quite effectively in teaching speaking skills Furthermore, the benefits students gained outnumbered the challenges they faced It was found out that teachers adopted a number of strategies to improve the effectiveness of pair work and group work From the findings of the study, some recommendations were given to the students and teachers at Yen Lac high school for enhancing the effectiveness of pair work and group work in speaking lessons

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

ESL: English as a Second Language

STT: Student Talking Time

LISTS OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1 Students' reflections on the frequency of work organizations

Figure 3.2 Students' reflections on how teachers form pairs and groups

Figure 3.3 Students' reflections on the size of a group

Figure 3.4 Students' reflections on the activities for pair/ group work

Figure 3.5.Students' reflections on teachers' activities before pair work and group

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF FIGURES v

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale for the study 1

2 Aims of the study 3

3 Scope of the study 3

4 Significance of the study 3

5 Methods of the study 4

6 Design of the study 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1 Theoretical backgrounds of teaching speaking skills 5

1.1 Principles for Teaching Speaking 5

1.2 Problems in teaching speaking skills 5

2 Theoretical backgrounds of pair and group work 6

2.1 Definitions of pair and group work 6

2.2 The organization of pair and group work 6

2.2.1 The frequency 6

2.2.2 The formation 6

2.2.3 Size 7

2.2.4 Procedures for pair and group work 8

2.3 Pair and group activities in a speaking lesson 8

2.4 Benefits and challenges of using pair and group work in a speaking lesson 10

2.4.1 Benefits of using pair and group work 10

2.4.2 Challenges in using pair and group work 12

2.5 Empirical studies related to pair and group work 14

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 16

1 Background to the study 16

2 The participants 17

3 Data collection instruments 17

3.1 Questionnaires 17

3.2 Interviews 18

3.3 Classroom observations 19

4 Data collection procedures 19

5 Data analysis procedures 20

CHAPTER 3: MAIN FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 21

1 Main findings 21

1.1 The use of pair work and group work in teaching speaking skills for grade-10 students at Yen Lac High School 21

1.2 The benefits and challenges of the practice of speaking skills in pairs and groups at Yen Lac High School 30

1.3 The solutions to improve the effectiveness of the practice of speaking skills in pairs and groups at Yen Lac High School 33

2 Discussion 35

PART C: CONCLUSION 37

1 Conclusion 37

2 Pedagogical Implications of the Study 37

3 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research 40

References 42 Appendices

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

In recent decades, it is undeniable that English has become a primary medium of international communication in commerce, transportation, banking, tourism, technology, aviation, diplomacy, and scientific research As a result, Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training has been adopting English as a compulsory subject at secondary schools, colleges and universities, and even in several primary schools since the 1990s However, most of the students have still been confused with the demand of communicative competence after graduation from the university, which derives basically from the lack of the opportunities to practice, the limited exposure

to the real language, the native language interferences, and especially the lack of suitable teaching and learning methods They are mainly taught with the traditional teaching method- Grammar Translation Method which focuses on academic study of grammar; subsequently, students are discouraged from promoting their overall communicative competence

With regards to this situation, a new approach – Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has been applied instead in order to foster students‟ fluency and accuracy of English in real communications One of the techniques commonly used in CLT is pair and group work, the importance of which has been long emphasized as it can create a comfortable and low-pressure learning environment in the second language classroom It is commonly believed that the less anxious and more relaxed the learner is, the better his language acquisition proceeds Moreover, this technique enables students to maximize their own learning and also offers promising possibilities for promoting active learning and student-reliance in community college classrooms (Foote, 2009) In addition, many studies have reported that, regardless of the subject matter, students working in small groups tend to learn more of what is taught and retain it longer than when the same content is presented in other instructional formats

As can be observed at Yen Lac High school, both teachers and students once did not take speaking skills serious Speaking skills were almost confined to the classroom while the study of grammar was the overriding concern on the grounds that students had to pass the exams In the very rare speaking lessons, speaking skills were taught in the traditional version of teacher- student interaction that is illustrated by the model of teacher initiation, student response, and teacher‟s evaluation Students only demonstrated what they had learnt, not having the adequate frequency of opportunities

to interact in and out of the classroom Consequently, students could not communicate and express in English as the courses expected and they had many difficulties in keeping pace with the requirements of oral English skills at universities and in future jobs This situation has called for a change in the teachers‟ perception of the importance of teaching speaking skills Before carrying out the study, the researcher asked English teachers at this school about the importance of teaching speaking skills All of them agreed that speaking skills are very important and teaching spoken English for their students should become a lifetime endeavor They have adopted less controlled activities in the classroom to give students more opportunities to practice, communicate, and interact in real life situations in the form of pair work and group work These activities not only increase students‟ talking time (STT) but also create an embracing affective classroom atmosphere which motivates students freely express themselves Furthermore, many values can be learnt during the process as solidarity, responsibility, and team spirit For the above benefits, all surveyed teachers say that they use pair and group work in every English speaking lesson Nevertheless, both teachers and students have dealt with some challenges in applying pair and group work

in speaking lessons Teachers, for instance, sometimes lose control of the class or lack time to finish the lesson Students tend to switch to their mother tongue or even talk some outside topics given

Noticing the above mentioned facts, the researcher would like to conduct a study on “An Investigation into the Use of Pair Work and Group Work in Speaking Lessons for Grade-10 Students at Yen Lac High School” in the hope of exploring how pair and group work are used to teach English speaking skills by teachers, what are the

benefits students gain and what challenges they cope with when pair and group work are adopted, and what solutions teachers take to handle these problems

2 Aims of the study

The study is carried out with three aims Firstly, the study is expected to investigate how pair and group activities are used to teach English speaking skills for grade-10 classes by Yen Lac high school teachers Added to this, it aims to explore the benefits students gain and the difficulties they encounter when pair and group work are adopted Finally, the solutions teachers take to handle these problems are also carefully identified In brief, all the aims of this study could be summarized into the following research questions:

(1) How are pair and group work used in teaching speaking skills by English teachers

of grade-10 classes at Yen Lac High School?

(2) What are the benefits and challenges of using pairs and groups in learning speaking skills at Yen Lac High School?

(3) What are some suggestions to improve the effectiveness of using pairs and groups

in teaching speaking skills at Yen Lac High School?

3 Scope of the study

As its title mentions, the study focuses on the teachers‟ use of pair and group work as a means to improve the students‟ speaking skills in their English lessons Therefore, the researcher makes an attempt to investigate how pair and group work are used in teaching English speaking skills, the benefits and challenges students get, and the solutions teachers take to handle these problems in only speaking lessons, not in the other lessons

In terms of participants, the study is carried out on the grade-10 students at Yen Lac high school and the teachers in charge of these classes These students are at pre-intermediate level and have just studied English for five or six years

4 Significance of the study

The study is supposedly beneficial to not only the teachers and students of the surveyed classes but others in the same conditions as well The students are expected to be well aware of the profits of pair and group work in their speaking lessons, which results in

their tight cooperation with their classmates to enhance their communicative competence As for the teachers, this study is meant to provide them with some useful guides to make best uses of this technique in English speaking lessons Moreover, the findings of this study are assumed to be a reliable reference source for those who share the same interest in this matter

5 Methods of the study

Conducting the study, the researcher makes use of both quantitative and qualitative methods with a wish to explore the matter thoroughly The data will be collected from three sources: questionnaires for students, interviews for teachers, and class observations

6 Design of the study

The study is divided into three main parts:

Part A: Introduction- providing the basic information such as rationale, aims,

research question, methods, scope and design of the study

Part B: Development- consisting of four chapters

Chapter 1- Literature Review deals with theoretical background, presenting the

terms and related theories

Chapter 2- Methodology gives an overview of the reality of teaching and learning

English speaking skill for the grade-10 students at Yen Lac High School and discusses the actual procedures of the study: participants, data collection instruments, and data analysis

Chapter 3- Main Findings and Discussion presents the findings of the study and

analyzes the data collected

Part C: Conclusion-giving the conclusion based on the findings of the study,

providing some recommendations for better use of pair and group work in speaking lessons, pointing out the limitations of the study; and giving suggestions for further

studies

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Theoretical backgrounds of teaching speaking skills

1.1 Principles for Teaching Speaking Skills

According to Nunan (2003:54), there are some principles for teaching speaking skills

as described below: (i) Teachers give students the opportunities to practice speaking with both fluency and accuracy so that students can communicate in English with very

few pauses and mistakes;

(ii) Teachers increase student talking time by letting students practice in pair work or group work and limit teacher talking time;

(iii) Teachers design classroom activities that involve transactional and interactional communication The former is for social purposes such as establishing and maintaining social relationships and the latter is for getting something done such as the exchange of goods or services

1.2 Problems in teaching speaking skills

Since the onset of the communicative era, speaking has been perceived as the most fundamental skill to acquire and also the ultimate goal of language training; therefore, its development has become the focus of attention of both teachers and students However, helping students to achieve proficiency in English language speaking in such Vietnamese classroom conditions faces a number of difficulties Firstly, classes are at large size Secondly, most students have low motivation to learn English In terms of the materials, they do not fulfill students‟ need because topics for speaking in a language course do not relate much to students‟ lives and types of spoken discourse hardly ever reflect the varieties of oral communication in real life situations Added to this, students often do not want to talk or say anything They feel really shy about talking in front of the class since they suffer from a fear of saying something wrong or incomprehensible and losing face in front of their teacher and their peers Last but not least, students tend to make an excessive use of mother-tongue when practicing speaking English since they find it easier to express themselves in Vietnamese or lack appropriate English words and structures to fit into the context

2 Theoretical backgrounds of pair and group work

2.1 Definitions of pair and group work

Pair and group work is one of the popular ways of getting students to practice the new language especially speaking skills on the grounds that it gives students more chances

to talk to each other

Pair work is defined by Doff (1988:137) as an activity in which the teacher divides the whole class into pairs, then every student works with his or her partner, and all the pairs work at the same time This setting offers a wide range of games and conversations for students to try and help the lessons be productive and lively

In group work, the teacher divides the class into small groups of four or five students to work together and all the groups work at the same time just as in pair work (Doff 1988:137) In this setting, students are assigned a task that involves “collaboration and self-initiated language” (Brown 2001:177), then students have opportunities to speak and altogether take the responsibility to pursue the common goals

2.2 The organization of pair and group work

2.2.1 The frequency

According to Steven, George, and Ana (2006:31) pair and group work should “take a regular and significant place in teachers‟ repertoires” However, pair and group work should not be the exclusive teaching strategy used in a classroom; instead they should

be combined with teacher- fronted and individual learning for their important roles in instruction In terms of time, Byrne (1983:78) stated that teachers should provide pair and group work at least once a week for perhaps half a class period

2.2.2 The formation

There has been much discussion centering round how to put individual students into pairs and groups

Harmer (2001: 120-2) offers four principles to form pairs and groups: Friendship,

Streaming, Chance, and Changing groups The first one means putting friends with

friends to help students avoid working with those they find unpleasant Whereas the streaming is putting students in the same ability or mixed ability groups so that the

weaker students can benefit from the help of teacher and stronger students The third principle is by far the quickest and it seems fair to students Finally, changing groups supposes students keep changing their groups while an activity continues

Much along in the same line with one of Harmer‟s principles, Steven, George, and Ana

(2006:32) state that pairs or groups can be formed on the basis of some commonality

such as native language (especially in ESL classes with varied native language background), proficiency levels, gender, personality types, cognitive style preferences, interests, prior learning experience, etc In this way, students are likely to feel more comfortable in their groups and possibly to share a similar working style

Byrne (1991: 32-3) also suggests students should work with a neighbor or neighbors with regards to time factor and the frequency of pair work and group work

On the whole, pairing and grouping decisions should not be based on any fixed principle but varied in each specific context For example, if the atmosphere of the whole class is concerned, it is recommended making friendship groups Likewise, if

the activity is for fun, the grouping should be left to chance

2.2.3 Size

According to Byrne (1983:75), “there is no magic number for groups, which should be worked out in relation to the type of task and the total number of students in the class.” While small groups promote students‟ greater participation in more simple tasks, larger groups gather a wide range of skills and opinions to deal with more complex tasks The ideal size stated by Byrne is from five to eight students in each and not more than five to six groups in the class Ur (1996:232) shares this point when recommending that “teachers working with large classes should divide them into five groups which is the most effective organization for practicing speaking.” This optimum size is highly supported by Harmer (1992: 246) when he claims that “groups of more than seven can

be unmanageable” Besides, Richards and Lockhart (1994: 153) also confirm that “If the group is too large, student interaction is affected; only a few students may participate, the other remaining silent or passive”

2.2.4 Procedures for pair and group work

Researchers have suggested various ways of building the procedure for pair work and group work Below are some typical ones:

Harmer (2001: 122) simply states three procedures for pair work and group work as

before, during, and after respectively

Ur (1996:234) shows four main steps for organizing pair work and group work namely

presentation, process, ending, and feedback

Meanwhile, Brown (2001: 182) points out five practical steps to carry out successful

pair and group work in classroom- select activities carefully, work out the instructions,

model the activity, monitor the students’ performance, and debrief

Another way offered by Ngoh (1991) indicates that the procedure of implementing pair

work and group work should consist of seven stages- planning, practice, instruction,

organization, process, presentation, and post small group work

In my view, pair work and group work should be conducted with three main steps Firstly, before pair/ group activities, teachers select activities relevant to the language the students have at their disposal; then work out the instructions and if necessary explain in the mother tongue; and model the activity either by giving plenty of examples or selecting one group to simulate Secondly, while pair/ group activities, teachers monitor the students‟ performance; give consultations or make suggestions here and there to keep students on task; and listen to evaluate the groups‟ progress and individuals‟ language production Finally, after pair/ group activities, teachers ask

students to report and provide feedback after the group task is completed

2.3 Pair and group activities in a speaking lesson

According to Brown (2001: 182), appropriate pair activities include Dialogues,

Question and answer, Drills, Quick Brainstorming Pair work enables teachers to

engage students in interactive communication for a short period of time with minimum

of logistical problems Typical group tasks are Games, Role- play and simulations,

Drama, Projects, Interview, Brainstorming, Information gap, Jigsaw, Problem solving and decision making, and Opinion exchange

Byrne (1991: 36-102) suggests some more activities for pair and group work In his

opinion, pair work can be used for Controlled conversation, Questionnaires and

Quizzes, Find a partner whereas group work for Discussion, Interpretation activities, Planning activities, Invention activities, and Project activities

Moreover, Doff (1988:211) adds Exchanging personal information activity for pair work and Guessing games activity for group work

Perhaps the list of activities for pair work and group work is still lengthened by many other researchers For the limitation of this study‟s page number, the researcher would like to define and characterize some most popular ones

2.3.1 Games

A game could be any activity formalizing a technique into units that can be scored For example, students can practice twenty questions through guessing game in which one member secretly decides he/ she is some famous person; the rest of the group has to find out who, within twenty yes/ no questions, with each member of the group taking turns asking questions The person who is “it” rotates around the group and points are scored

2.3.2 Information gap

In this activity, students are supposed to be working in pairs One student will have the information that other partner does not have and the partners will share their information This activity serves the purposes of solving a problem, collecting information, etc

2.3.3 Role play

Role play involves giving a role to each member of a group and assigning an objective that participants must accomplish In pairs, for example, student A is an employer; student B is a prospective employee; the objective is for A to interview B Or a group role- play might involve a discussion of a political issue, with each person assigned to represent a particular political point of view

2.3.4 Interview

Students work in pairs or in groups of three or four to conduct interviews on a list of topics based on the theme and content in the textbook In each pair/ group, one student

is the interviewer and the other(s) will be the interviewee(s) Their tasks are to prepare questions for the interview and to answer them in a given period of time When time is over, each pair/group will be called on to present their results to the class

2.3.5 Problem solving

Students are requested to find out the solutions to a specified problem which might be relatively simple (such as giving directions on a map), moderately complex (such as working out an itinerary from train, plane, bus schedules), or quite complex (such as solving a mystery in a crime story)

2.3.6 Discussions

In group discussions, students should always be encouraged to work into small groups of four or five to ask questions, paraphrase ideas, express support, check for clarification, and so on This activity is often carried out after students have completed

a content-based lesson under teacher‟s control to gain the general knowledge of the topic

2.4 Benefits and challenges of using pair and group work in a speaking lesson 2.4.1 Benefits of using pair and group work

2.4.1.1 To teachers

a Reducing workload

Firstly, teacher‟s workload is reduced because he/she does not have to pay attention to every single student The leader of each group will help the teacher instruct members, coordinate the activities of the group and serve as a required as a link with teacher (Byrne, 1983:76) The teacher now frees “from her usual role of instructor- corrector- controller” (Ur, 1981:8) and acts as a guide or consultant He/ she can wander around the class, listening to the language students are producing, assessing each individual student‟s performance, noting language mistakes for future remedial work, devoting a little more time to slower learners

more activities This will be for sure appreciated by the students who will not have time to get bored because of the variety of activities and their own participation in the lesson

2.4.1.2 To students

a Expanding Student Talking Time (STT)

First of all, pair work and group work dramatically “increase the amount of time that learners get to speak in the target language during lesson.” according to Nunan (2003:54) This idea is shared by many researchers on the same field Long and Porter (1985) estimated that in a 50 minute lesson with 30 students, if the students talked only

to the teacher, they would get 30 seconds of talking time per lesson They calculate that this equals “just one hour per student per year” (p 208) On the other hand, working in pairs and groups, students seemingly take up all the time to interact with others instead

of responding and listening to teachers

b Creating secure and positive classroom atmosphere

In a pair or a small group, students can actively participate in the lesson; even anxious and reticent students become vocal participants (Brown, 2001:178) because they are under no pressure of being called on by the teacher to answer a question “on public display” (Brown, 2001:178) Instead, they can get involved in talking to their friends for practicing the language items and language functions, sharing opinions to come up with an answer

c Increasing peer working

Students have chances to give individual attention and assistance to one another on the grounds that they now work one-on-one and share a “we‟re all in this together” attitude (Slavin, 1987) During the discussion, they may help to share ideas, correct each other‟s mistakes, suggest a needed word, and teach some knowledge as well

d Developing social skills

Social skills of students who participate in pair and group work are proven to rise (Slavin, 1991) Working in pair and group, students have the opportunity to find their voice, actively listen to arguments made by peers, work through conflict, and make compromise This results in the encouragement of students‟ broader skills of

cooperation and negotiation, which are regarded as indispensable factors for success in their lives

2.4.2 Challenges in using pair and group work

2.4.2.1 To teachers

a Background noise

Obviously, pair work and group work in a large class will be noisy (Doff, 1988:141) When there is a high level of noise, the teacher finds it difficult to get the whole class‟ attention Jacobs (1994) suggested some ways for the teacher to keep the whole class under control Firstly, the noise monitor of each group should be assigned (or pointed out by the group members) in order to help urge the whole team to “collaborate actively yet quietly” Moreover, the teacher can have the class‟ attention by using signals such as clapping hands, blowing a whistle, ringing a bell, etc

b Students’ errors

In pairs or groups, students will “simply reinforce each other‟s errors” (Brown, 2001:181) and the teacher is not always on hand to correct errors and mistakes However, Brown also stated that “Errors are a „necessary‟ manifestation of inter-language development” Added to this, research done by Long and Porter (1985) reveals that the amount of errors students make in pair and group work is not more than

in normal class Furthermore, other researches on errors prove that levels of accuracy maintained in unsupervised groups are as high as those in whole class work and that attempts by teachers to correct students‟ speech errors have little effect on students‟ subsequent performance Instead, students often carry out peer correction within the small group (Brown, 1994) and they are more inclined to remember them

c Use of the mother tongue

In pairs/ groups, students are tempted to use their native language to express their ideas especially if they get excited In fact, the use of mother tongue is advantageous in such activities as “grammar explanation, checking comprehension, giving instructions, discussing classroom methodology and checking for sense” (Atkinson 1987:242) Nevertheless, in case of an oral fluency activity, “the use of a language other than

English makes the activity essentially pointless” (Harmer 2001:132) Therefore, the teacher should encourage students to insist on the use of oral production activities

2.4.2.2 To students

a Awkward pairs/groups

In spite of the teacher‟s careful planning and management, it is apparent that there is not always satisfactory combination among students Some pairs may find it hard to concentrate on the task and then “veer away from the point of an exercise, talking about something else completely, often in their first language” (Harmer 2001:116) In some groups, lazy students may keep silent during the process and defer to the oldest

or best student‟s ideas; or quicker and stronger students tend to “blurt out their ideas, overwhelming” the weaker and slower ones (Brown, 2001: 182), which results in the shrinking of the weak learners; or talkative students may dominate proceedings; or less extrovert students may not participate fully enough or even their roles may become fossilized When such problems do occur, teacher may need to change the pairs or groups in order that all group members gain the most from the activity For instance, teacher should not stream best friends for pair work; all the high- level figures should

be put in one group so that lower- level students in other groups cannot depend on them Besides, teacher can appoint the group leader for each group or let the students choose their own

b Finishing first

In pair work and group work, there is a problem occurring frequently that some pairs/ groups finish earlier than others The teacher needs to be ready for some ways of dealing with such situation Some teachers would tell students to relax while waiting for other pairs/groups to finish This may be helpful for tired students but also make some students have the feeling of being ignored Another way is to stop the activity for the whole class, which may remove the problem of boredom; on the contrary, may be very de-motivating for the students who have not yet finished, especially where they are nearly there and have invested some considerable effort in the procedure (Harmer 2001:124).The most appropriate solution to this problem is to prepare a list of spare

activities handy for early finishing pairs/ groups to complete while they are waiting This will show that students are still concerned and they are not left to do nothing

2.5 Empirical studies related to pair and group work

So far a lot of research have been done in the field of teaching and learning English through pair work and group work and revealed how effective this teaching strategy is Below is a review of some international and national studies:

The study conducted by Seyed, Morteza, & Soudabeh (2003), the two first from Iran and the third from India, investigated the effect of individual, pair, and team work on the speaking fluency of Iranian elementary EFL learners The results showed that pair work and team work outperformed individual work Therefore, it is suggested to teachers that individual work should not be emphasized meanwhile pair work and team work should be highly emphasized where speaking fluency is the focus of study

Syamsuddin from Program Pascasarjana Universitas Hasanuddin carried out an experimental research on the contribution of pair and group work activities to the improvement of students‟ speaking performance and he proved that there was a significant difference of the speaking performance between the students who were taught by using pair/work group activities and those who were taught through conventional method The students had favorable attitude towards the use

of pair/work group activities in learning English to increase their speaking performance because they could directly practice their English with their friends and they had self confidence in speaking English Based on these conclusions, the researcher recommended English teachers had better apply pair/group work activities to develop their students‟ speaking performance and encourage students to speak English frequently both in and out of the class

Najma Raja (2012) - a research scholar in Hamdard Institute of Education and Social Sciences, Hamdard University Karachi, Pakistan explored the effectiveness of group work and pair work for students of English at undergraduate level in public and private sector colleges It was concluded that group work and pair work was best used when it was not the only classroom interaction pattern, but when it was combined with other

strategies Teachers could plan their lessons to include teachers-centered work; individual work and pair work as well as group work Moreover, the teachers need encourage students to participate or give suggestions about how students might proceed in an activity especially when there was a silence or when they were confused about what to do next The teacher might need to prompt the students with information they had forgotten

As in Vietnam, Mi and Thanh (2008) examined the feasibility and the effectiveness of the implementation of pair work and group work in teaching speaking for 10th graders

of Ho Chi Minh‟s public high schools The conclusion was drawn that the use of pair work and group work was favored and welcomed by the majority of the 10th form students and teachers for its merits such as creating a relaxing learning environment, helping students learn how to share their responsibilities to solve tasks better and faster Besides, there were some pitfalls as well The study also implied a number of suggestions about how to make the implementation of pair and group work into teaching speaking successful

Phuong (2010) had an investigation into the effectiveness of using group work to teach English grammar lessons in the college of Technologies and Economics in Trade It was pointed out that the use of group work to teach English grammar was effective as

it changed students‟ attitudes towards grammar learning positively Students no longer felt bored and frustrated but relaxed and comfortable Additionally, some remarkable suggestions were stated for teachers to better the use of group work to teach grammar

In conclusion, the matter pair work and group work in language teaching has received great concern and the list of related studies is still going on However, at Yen Lac high school- the site of this minor thesis, there has never been any research on the use of pair work and group work in English teaching As a result, the study was carried out in the hope that it can be beneficial to the teaching and learning English at the school

1400 students and 9 teachers take part in teaching English, most of whom are highly responsible for their work

Each class takes three 45- minute English lessons per week Many of students lack of the background knowledge of English subject; consequently, they show little interest in English it is a hard job for teachers at Yen Lac high school to promote students‟ motivation of learning English

Moreover, the class size is quite large, usually consisting of 40 or 45 students Almost all the classrooms are equipped with only blackboards, only some with projectors

2.2 Teachers

Four female teachers were in charge of teaching English for grade-10 classes All of these teachers were graduates aging from 26 to 38 years old Among them, one had 14 years of teaching experience, one with 5 years, one with 4 years, and one with 2 years The teachers shared one thing in common that they all had the experience with pair and group work when they were still students Nevertheless, when becoming a teacher, each of them had their own preference of teaching methods Younger teachers tend to

be active on applying new teaching techniques with desire of promoting students‟ motivation and participation

3 Data collection instruments

In regards to the research‟s aims, this study was conducted in the light of both quantitative and qualitative method in which the data was collected by means of questionnaire, interviews and classroom observation

3.1 Questionnaires

3.1.1 Reasons of using questionnaires

Survey questionnaire is a written instrument consisting of a list of questions and the respondents are to write down the answers or select from the suggested choices (Brown, 2001) This instrument is recommended to be among the most effective ones

to collect data in social science By using it, the researcher can take advantages of

putting less pressure on respondents, avoiding bias, simplifying the analytic stage (Gillham, 2000), and conducting on a large scale in a short time (Le, 2011) Therefore, questionnaire is appropriate for this study which has 110 students as sample size Among the types of questionnaire administration, the researcher utilized face- to- face type in the sense that more answers were returned and the questions were ensured to be fully filled without any misunderstanding As a result, the researcher could get valuable data for her study

3.1.2 Questionnaire format

The questionnaire for students was designed with 11 questions in English and divided into three parts with their own functions

Part 1 with 8 questions aimed at figuring out how pair work and group work were

often used to teach speaking skills for grade-10 students

Part 2 consisting of 2 questions investigated the benefits both teachers and students

gained and the challenges they often faced when using pair work and group work for practicing speaking skills

Part 3 containing 1question with a view to finding out students‟ expectations of the

solutions their teachers took in order to overcome the difficulties and improve the effectiveness of pair work and group work

3.2 Interviews

3.2.1 Reasons of using interviews

According to Kvale (1996:14), interview is “an interchange of views between two or more people on a topic of mutual interest… for knowledge production” The benefits

of this instrument are reported by Gray (2004:214) as attaining highly personalized data, taking opportunities for probing, and getting a good return rate These characteristics are best suitable for the present research to pursue in-depth information

on using pair and group work from four teachers

3.2.2 Interview format for teachers

The interview included 10 questions distributed in three parts Each question had one function for the aim of the research

Part 1 containing 7 questions was supposed to reveal the frequency of pair work and

group work in teaching speaking skills, the ways they formed pairs and groups, the size of a group, the activities for pair and group work, teachers‟ procedures

in carrying out pair and group work, and students‟ attitudes towards pair and group work

Part 2 designed with 2 questions focused on the benefits students gained and the

difficulties they encountered when pair/ group work were used to teach speaking skills

Part 3 was the last question exploring the solutions teachers took to handle these

problems

3.3 Classroom observations

Classroom observation is believed to provide a holistic picture of the natural settings and reveal the external factors in second language learning Therefore, using it, the researcher can get quite a lot of data in the actual procedures that effectively supplement data obtained from questionnaires and interviews (Adams, Fujii and Mackey, 2005), in other words, enhance the reliability and the validity of the study Before observing, the researcher created a classroom observation sheet consisting of a list of the observation items to help get the answers to the research questions Four classes taught by four different teachers are chosen to be observed during their speaking lessons with their teachers‟ permission

4 Data collection procedures

In the first phase, questionnaires were launched to 110 students Firstly, students were explained the purpose of the questionnaires and provided overall guidelines to fill in After that, they had 10- 15 minutes to complete under the researcher‟s observation Students were also encouraged to raise their voice if they found anything difficult to understand or had any suggestions Lastly, the completed questionnaires were collected for data analysis

In the second phase, the researcher contacted 4 teachers for interviews at their convenient time The researcher asked the informants for permission to play the recorders so that she could involve naturally in the discussions and review them later All the interviews were in Vietnamese and lasted 10 or 15 minutes, depending on the informants‟ reactions and responses

Besides, classroom observations were conducted to confirm the real procedures and problems occurring in the classrooms Before the lessons, the researcher met the teachers to ask for permission and get an overview of the lesson plans During the lessons, teachers‟ steps of implementing pair and group work and students‟ activities were observed and noted in the observation checklist prepared in advance Cameras or recorders were not taken to avoid the participants‟ distraction

5 Data analysis procedures

The data of the study were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively

The researcher exploited descriptive statistics to quantify the quantitative data from the questionnaires in form of charts and figures

As for open-ended items in the questionnaires as well as the data from interviews and observations, the researcher analyzed basing on the interpretive framework incorporated the objectives of the study

Finally, comparisons between students‟ answers and teachers‟ were addressed and conclusions were drawn for research questions

CHAPTER 3: MAIN FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

1 MAIN FINDINGS

1.1 The use of pair work and group work in teaching speaking skills for grade-10 students at Yen Lac High School

1.1.1 The frequency pair and group work

It is apparent from Figure 3.1that pair work and group work are the most frequent work organizations used in teaching speaking skills About 36% of the respondents reported that they always worked in pairs for practicing speaking skills Another 50% of participants stated that they usually did so As for group work, 11% of respondents indicated that they always practiced speaking in groups Another 61% showed that they usually formed groups for practicing speaking Meanwhile whole-class work and individual work are used less frequently About 47% of respondents reported that they rarely practiced speaking skills with the whole class and totally 55% stated that they sometimes or rarely practiced individually

The results from both the interviews with teachers and class observations also revealed that pair work and group work were used in every speaking lesson Pair work was often used for the two first tasks in a speaking lesson in which language input was

individual work

emphasized, whereas group work was utilized for the latter ones to give students chance to express their opinions

1.1.2 The formation of pairs/ groups

As shown in the figure, the most popular way of forming pairs/ groups indicated

by participants is pairing/ grouping students sitting near each other 59 % informed that their teachers always arranged them to work with students sitting around 27% stated that their teachers usually did Sometimes teachers paired/ grouped students randomly

by counting for example, which was confirmed by 47% of the respondents Students were given few opportunities to decide their partners or to work with those having

similar or different speaking abilities

The teachers reported that the most convenient way was to pair/ group students with the ones sitting nearby for the sake of saving a lot of time and keeping the whole class under control Some teachers said they sometimes paired/ grouped students randomly or basing on their English speaking abilities to avoid boredom and give students chance to learn from one another

Teacher pairs/

groups students randomly

Teacher pairs/

groups students sitting near

or next to each other

Teacher pairs/

groups students of similar speaking abilities

Teacher pairs/

groups students of different speaking abilities

Other opinions

In fact, from class observations, the researcher found out that all students turned

to those sitting around them when asked to work in pairs/ groups These pairs/ groups

seemed to be fixed; thus, the members gathered themselves without teachers‟

adjustment

1.1.3 The size

Figure 3.4 shows that the students were often asked to work in pairs or in small

groups of 3-4 in their speaking lessons with the confirmation of 100% respondents

The number of the participants informed that they usually worked in groups of 5-6

accounted for only 15%

According to teachers, there were about 40 students in each class; therefore,

organizing activities for pairs and small groups of 3-4 was common They also

affirmed that letting students work in groups of 2-4 was much convenient for them to

control the class The bigger ones of 5-6 or more were only preferred for more

toughing tasks which demanded students‟ cooperation and speed

The researcher also observed that teachers often let their students work in pairs

or groups of 3-4 In some classes, there were 1 or 2 students left after groups of 3-4

were formed; hence, there were 1 or 2 groups including 5students With this number of

members in a group, students are close enough to discuss and listen to others‟ ideas

1.1.4 The activities for pair and group work

As we can see, teachers organized a variety of activities for students to practice

in the speaking lessons Discussions was stated to be the most frequent activity for pair work and group work when up to 52% of the respondents confirmed they always and 41% said they usually carried them out Other popular activities are problem-solving, interviews, and role play with respectively 41%; 33%; and 28% of the participants reported they usually practiced them

As for the teachers, all of them affirmed that activities such as discussions, problem-solving, interviews, role play were often used for pair work and group work in speaking lessons Discussions and Problem-solving gave students opportunities to deal with current social issues in environment, health, education, and so on, whereas Interviews and Role-play helped them get exposed to real life situations in which colloquial words were used Sometimes teachers also had students practise information- gap activities to get familiar to some expressions or question models In the teachers‟ opinions, Games sounded interesting and motivating to students; however, they were occasionally used for pair and group work Firstly, because this