A study of instructions for group work in 2nd year non english major classrooms at thai nguyen university

Teacher’s profiles Total number of teacher: 9 Table 2: The organization and content of the teachers’ instructions Table 3:The language used for the instructions Table 4: Physical express

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

TNU: Thai Nguyen University

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Teacher’s profiles (Total number of teacher: 9)

Table 2: The organization and content of the teachers’ instructions

Table 3:The language used for the instructions

Table 4: Physical expressions for the instructions

Table 5: Students’ opinions on the purpose of using group work in their class.Table 6: Students’ opinions on types of group activities they like most

Table 7: Reasons for effective instructions

Table 8: Favorite ways of forming group work

Table 9: Students’ difficulties when following teachers’ instructions

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Candidate’s statement

Acknowledgements

Abstract

List of abbreviations, tables, figures

Table of contents

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION……….…… 1

1.Rationales of the study……… ………1

2.Aims and significance of the study ……… ………2

3.Scope of the study……… …….………3

4.Research questions……… ……….……… 4

5.Methods of the study……….………….……….………4

6.Design of the study……….………….……….……… 5

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT……….………….……….……… 6

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW……….………….……….……… 6

I.1 Communicative language teaching……… …… ………6

I.1.1 An overview of communicative language teaching……… 6

I.1.2 Communicative activities……….…10

I.2 Group work in communicative language teaching ……… 11

I.2.1 Concept of group work……… …… …11

I.2.2 Advantages of group work ……… ….12

I.2.3 General strategies for a successful group work……… 17

I.2.4 Factors affecting the success of group work……….… 19

I.2.5 Teacher’s roles in group work……… ….20

I.3 Teacher’s instructions for a successful group work……… ……22

I.3.1 Teacher’s instructions and its relation to teacher talk……… … 22

I.3.2 The definition of teacher’s instructions for group work……… … 23

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY

II.1 The informants ……… ….…27

II.1.1 The teachers……… ….….27

II.1.2 The students……….27

II.2 Data collection instruments……… … 27

II.2.1 Questionnaires……… ….28

II.2.2 Classroom observations……….……… 29

II.2.3 Interviews ……… ……29

II.3 The current situation of English teaching and learning at TNU……… ……29

CHAPTER III: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS III.1 Result analysis……… 31

III.1.1 Classroom observations ……… ……31

III.1.1.1 The organization and content of the teachers’ instructions… ……31

III.1.1.2 The language used for the instructions……… …….33

III.1.1.3 Physical expressions for the instructions……… … …… 35

III.1.1.4 Observation of the nine classrooms in details……… ….….36

III.1.2 Students’ surveys……… ……… 49

III.1.2.1 Students’ opinions on the purpose of using group work in their class….…49 III.1.2.2 Students’ preference for group activities……….50

III.1.2.3 Reasons for the effectiveness of teacher’s instructions………… ….51

III.1.2.4 Teacher’s most favourite group form……….…… 55

III.1.2.5 Difficulties students have experienced when following teacher’s instructions……….… 56

III.1.3 Teachers’ interviews……….…… 60

III.1.3.1 Teachers’ satisfaction on the lessons observed……….61

III.1.3.2 Teachers’ views on the success and failure of the instructions and their plan for improvement……… ………… …62

III.2 Discussion on the results……… ………64

III.2.2 What facilitates and hinders the teachers when giving instructions

for group work ……… ……… …… 65

III.3 Cause analysis for the results of the study……… ………….66

III.3.1 Cultural background……… ……….66

III.3.2 Class size……… ……….67

III.3.3 Factors concerned with learners……… ……… 68

III.3.4 The limited teaching time……… ……….68

III.3.5 Teacher’s awareness toward instructions for group work……… 69

III.4 Recommendations……… ……… 70

III.4.1 Recommendations to the teachers……… ………… 70

III.4.1.1 Design and select appropriate activities……….70

III.4.1.2 Suggested group activities with improved instructions………71

III.4.1.3 Rehearse instructions before applying in the classrooms………….73

III.4.1.4 Give instructions flexibly……… ……… 74

III.4.1.5 Train students group work skills………74

III.4.1.6 Self train to be effective instruction providers……… 75

III.4.1.7 Improve body language ……… …….75

III.4.2 Recommendations to the students……… 76

III.4.2.1 Be attentive in class……… 76

III.4.2.2 Be cooperative with the teacher……… 77

PART THREE: CONCLUSION………78

1. Summary of the study………78

2. Limitations and recommendations for further research……… 79

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Questionnaires for students

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationales

In recent years, together with the increasing need for English learning, great effortshave been made in order to improve the quality of English teaching It is certain thatteaching English is a complex process involving many complex factors Larsen –Freeman (1991) points out: language teaching can be summarized into three fields:language learner/ learning (How to learn); language/culture (What to learn); teacher/teaching (How to teach) (Johnson, 2002) Since 1960s, the research on classroomdiscourse has grown rapidly Before that, teaching methodology has been explored and

an effective teaching method is tried to be found Since teaching methods do not play adecisive role in language classrooms, the focus has shifted from teaching methods toteacher‟s talk in classroom process, or teacher‟s instructions

Giving instructions is particularly important to language teaching According topedagogical theory, instructions that the teacher uses in the classroom determine to alarger degree whether a class will succeed or not since almost all of the classroomactivities and teacher‟s help are organized and provided to the students throughinstructions

In Vietnam, English has become an international language of communication as well as

a compulsory subject at most schools and universities English proficiency is verynecessary for those who want to get a better job or, for the least of it, pass the Englishexam at the end of their study course In order to improve the English teaching andlearning quality, teachers at Thai Nguyen University, where I work, have been usingdifferent techniques, one of which is group work – key features of learner – centeredorientation They believe that group work help to provide their students with moreopportunities to exchange their ideas make them more confident and creative inlearning and promote their autonomy by allowing them to make their own decisions inthe group However, many teachers complain that they are facing many challenges inorganizing and managing, especially giving instructions for group work Some teachers

do not use English frequently and sometimes not confident in their use of the language.Therefore, the effectiveness of their instructions for group work in class may not ashigh as being expected Along with a possible lack on the part of teachers to giveinstructions in English in the classroom, there may also be a reason on the part of classsize Most of the non-English major classes at Thai Nguyen University are large.Hence, the noise as well as the mixed ability of the students may lead them to aninadequate understanding about the instructions given Since a better understanding ofthe teacher‟s instructions for group work can undoubtedly help students successfullyfulfill their tasks in the group and certainly improve their learning, it is necessary to dosome research on teachers‟ instructions for group work from both theoretical andpractical perspective The author hopes to make a modest contribution to an increasedunderstanding of giving instructions for group work in non-English major classrooms atThai Nguyen University Basing on which group work can be organized in a moreeffective way to create variety, dynamism, and freshness in the classroom.

2 Aims and significance of the study

2.1 Aims of the study

The study is conducted with a purpose to investigate how instructions are used forgroup work in 2nd year non-English major classrooms Thus, the specific purpose is toprovide reality evidence of the use of instructions for group work in 2nd year non-English major classrooms In this way, the factors that influence to the effectiveness of

an instruction will be clarified so that suggestions for better instructions will bediscussed in order to help teachers improve their instructions for group workconsciously

2.2 Significance of the study

The study of teachers‟ instructions for group work in 2nd year non-English major atThai Nguyen University (TNU) is significant in three different ways First to theteachers, they should realize the fact that instructions play the decisive role to the

success of group work They are the guiders that provide the students with all necessaryinformation such as time limitation, group size, and detailed tasks assigned to eachstudent Therefore, a carefully planned instruction is really needed when organizing agroup activity Similarly, an appropriate procedure is inevitable in giving instructions.

In order to help the students fulfill their tasks successfully, the teacher should explainsystematically That means the teacher must have good organizational skills In addition

to effective instructions, a friendly and co-operative climate should be created so thatstudents feel encouraging and rewarding to study Furthermore, teacher‟s eye contactand body language are also crucial When giving instructions, the teacher should bear

in mind that they could use gestures such as using fingers to select students or to showthe number of members in a group, or use eye contact to warn some noisy students aswell as to check their understanding of the instructions In fact, many teachers haveneither the habit of using the body language and eye contact nor the skill to utilizethem, so the effectiveness is not high as they expect

Secondly, the research provides evidence of how instructions are used by teachers atThai Nguyen University It also reveals the teachers and students‟ attitudes towardgood instructions Therefore, from the research results, the teacher can decide whichtechniques and procedure should be used to make effective group activities

Finally, instructions are indispensable to the students in learning They may makeprogress after each lesson if the teachers‟ instructions for the class activities are wellorganized

3 Scope of the study

It is a fact that teachers have many ways to divide the class into small groups so thatstudents can work together at the same time in an activity Thus, to limit the scope ofthe study, the researcher intends to investigate only instructions for activities in whichthe teacher divides the class into groups of two, three, four or five since they are thecommon size of group activities in the classroom at Thai Nguyen University

Moreover, the respondents of this study are limited to 2nd year non-English majorschosen randomly at TNU, therefore, their opinion about teachers‟ instructions mightnot be a representative of all students at TNU in particular and students learningEnglish in general.

5. Methods of the study

In order to examine the situation of the study, the researcher used the followingmethods: observation checklists for every class of the teachers chosen, post – lessoninterviews for the teachers and post lesson questionnaires for the students

The post – lesson interview questions are aimed at obtaining information about theteachers‟ own judgments on their teaching, particularly on the instructions

After each lesson, a questionnaire will be distributed to the students to get informationabout their evaluation and reasons for their successful or unsuccessful in following theteacher‟s instructions The author uses questionnaires for this stage because of the factthat they are easy to construct and uniquely capable of gathering a large amount ofinformation quickly in a form that is readily processable (Dornyei, 2003)

Observation of the teachers‟ classes will be carried out over a period of two months toobtain information about their actual teaching practices Specific episodes of events

observed during the lesson will be used to generate discussion topics during post –lesson interviews.

6 Design of the study

The thesis consists of three main parts

Part I is the introduction in which rationales, aims, significance, research questions,scope, methods and design of the study are presented

Part II, development, consists of three chapters

Chapter 1 comes to basic concepts and knowledge relevant to the study ascommunicative teaching theory, the use of teacher talk, group work – its advantagesand organization, the nature of instructions, and principles for giving instructions whenorganizing group work

Chapter 2 provides with an overview of the teachers and students chosen, theclassroom conditions, timetable and teachers and students relationship at TNU Datacollection and statistical result are also presented in the chapter

Chapter 3 discusses the findings of the research and suggests recommendations for theimprovement of instruction giving

Part III, the conclusion, summarizes the major findings obtained from the study Then itdeals with the limitations and puts forward some suggestions for further study

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

I.1 Communicative language teaching

I.1.1 An overview of communicative language teaching

The growth of interest in the utility of Communicative Language Teaching has beenshaped in the changes in the British language teaching tradition dating from late 1960s.CLT marks the beginning of a great innovation within language teaching because of itssuperior principles, which are widely accepted nowadays It is claimed to involve themaking of new and different assumptions about the two fundamental questions: what islearnt and how is learned In fact, the communicative approach in language teachingoriginates from the theory of language as communication It then has been so rapidlyadopted and widely disseminated that it quickly occupied the status of orthodoxy inBritish language teaching circles, and attained support of leading methodologists,applied linguists, scholars and publishers as well as -institutions (Richard, 1985)

CLT is often mentioned as an approach that comprises two sets of theories: assumption

of what to teach, and assumption of how to teach

 Assumption of what to teach

As regards the first assumption, the theory of language in CLT shows that language isfor communication At the level of language theory, CLT has characteristics defined byRichards and Rodgers (2001) as follows:

 Language is a system of for the expression of meaning

 The primary function of language is to allow interaction and communication

 The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative use

nd

 The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structuralfeatures, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified indiscourse.

Therefore, the purpose of language teaching is to develop "communicativecompetence", a basic concept in CLT

Hymes (1972) defined "communicative competence" as "what a speaker needs to know

in order to be communicatively competent in a speech community,."( Hymes, 1972,

cited in Richards and Rodgers, 2001) His viewpoint shows that acquiringcommunicative competence means acquiring both knowledge and ability for languageuse Sharing the same view of communicative competence with Hymes and Yalden,Munby (1979) stated:

"To communicate effectively, a speaker must know not only how to produce any and allgrammatical utterances of a language but also how to use them effectively The speakermust know what to say, with whom, and when and where."

(Munby 1979: 17)Apart from those definitions, Canale and Swain (1980) also described the concept of

"communicative competence" in term of four dimensions They are grammatical competence (grammatical and lexical capacity); sociolinguistic competence (the ability

to understand and produce appropriate language in the social context which the

communication happens); discourse competence (the ability to comprehend the

message underlying a coherent and cohesive text); and strategic competence (the ability

to employ communicative strategies to initiate and redirect communication)

 Assumption of how to teach

If the first assumption in CLT is concerned with what should be taught, (in this case, that is communicative competence), then the second assumption is related to how the

teaching should be carried out In other words, syllabus theory and syllabus models arethe second central point that is mentioned in CLT.

One of the linguists devoting great contribution to communicative development isWilkin D.A who proposed the first syllabus models which was developed into his laterbook Notional Syllabus in 1976 This syllabus model, remarked by Richards (2001) as

an tempt to illustrate the functional view of language in syllabus design, specifies the

two categories namely notional (e.g., frequency, motion, location) and communicative function (e.g., requests, offers, apologies, complaints) That is to say, a notional

syllabus comprises not only grammatical and lexical elements but also the necessaryconcepts, notions as well as topics for learners to communicate about (Richards, 2001).Wilkin' viewpoint of syllabus model is also strongly supported by Brumfit and Roberts(1983: 85)

Syllabus aiming at communicative competence no longer concentrates so much ongrammar but looks at the nature of meaning and of interaction Syllabus of this kind isusually referred to as "Functional" or "Notional" or "Functional/ Notional."

Brumfit & Roberts (1983: 85)However, notional syllabus faces the criticisms from other scholars such as HenryWiddowson and Margie Berns Berns, M (1984: 15), argued that the textbooks based

on the functional view might be "sorely inadequate and even misleading in theirpresentation of language as interaction." She also warned that if the context, a real key

to transmitting meaning to both form and function, was not seriously paid attention inthe textbook, learners' communicative competence development would be limited.Therefore, the notional syllabus deals with the components of discourse, but may not

be concerned with discourse itself Similarly, Widdowson, H (1979) criticized Wilkin'notional syllabus model as the replacement of one kind of list (e.g., a list of grammaritems) with another kind of list (e.g., a list of notions and functions) He meant notionalsyllabus focuses on products rather than communicative processes

It is apparent that there exist varieties of opinions about notional syllabus However, it

is these arguments that contribute to the further development of CLT, which is the mostfavorite approach now

Another point to make about CLT is centeredness Students in a centered approach are seen as being able to play a more active and participatory rolethan in traditional approaches Accordingly, teacher roles will be redefined with thechange in activity organization because individual learner is thought to have uniqueinterests styles, needs and goals, which should be reflected in the design of method ofinstruction (Richards

learner-and Rodgers, 2001) To be more specific, teacher's instruction in learner- centeredapproach includes:

 techniques that focus on or account for learners' needs, styles, and goals.

 techniques that give some control to the student (group work or strategy training).

 techniques that include the consultation and input of students and that do not

presuppose objectives in advanced

 techniques that allow for student‟ creativity and innovation

 techniques that enhance a student's sense of competence and self- worth.

(Brown, 1994)

In brief, CLT is identified with the following characteristics:

 It makes communicative competence the goal of teaching

 It develops procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that

acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication

 It considers learner and his communicative needs the centre of language teaching process

A study of teachers’ instructions for group work in 2 nd year non-English major classrooms

at Thai Nguyen University

These characteristics will be the principles for teacher to choose appropriate techniquesfor increasing students' participation in communicative activities in classroom Theconcepts communicative activities will be discussed in the next section.

For some time after the rise of communicative language teaching, the status ofgrammar in the curriculum was rather uncertain Some linguists, like Cross (1995) or

Ur (1996), maintained that it was not necessary to teach grammar, that the ability to usesecond language (knowing „how‟) would develop automatically if the learners wererequired to focus on meaning in the process of using language to communicate Inrecent years, this view has come under serious challenges, and it now seemed to bewidely accepted that there is value in classroom tasks which require learners to focus

on form It is also accepted that grammar is an essential source in using languagecommunicatively

In CLT, the types of classroom activities and the way they should be conducted willinfluence learning Good teaching allows both learning and acquisition Learningwould include activities while acquisitions presumably takes place during activitieswhere the focus is on the content or the function of language The acquisition process is

in fact the major theoretical rationale for the communicative approach, and theevidence is quite clear that without a stage of language use for communication,language teaching is not very efficient

I.1.2 Communicative activities

Communicative activities, defined by Harmer (1991), are those that give students whoare somehow involved in both the desire to communicate and a purpose involving them

in a varied use of language Such activities are crucially important in a languageclassroom since the students can do their best to use the language individually, arriving

at a degree of language autonomy

Nolasco and Athur (1993) characterized communicative activities as follows:

 They involve using language for a purpose

 They create a desire to communicate This means there must be some kind of

"gap" which may be information, opinion, affect, or season that students seek tobridge

 They encourage students to be creative and contribute their ideas

 They focus on the message and students concentrate on "what" they are saying rather than "how" they are saying it

 The students work independently of the teacher

 The students determine what they want to write and say The activity is not designed to control what the students will

(Nolasco and Athur: 58)Additionally, Harmer (1991) sorted communicative activities into oral and written ones.Oral communicative activities include seven categories: reaching a consensus,discussion relaying instructions, communication games, problem solving, talking aboutyou, simulation, and role-play Written communicative activities also comprise relayinginstructions, writing reports and advertisement, co-operative writing, exchanging lettersand writing journals By taking part in communicative activities of both oral andwritten form, students can actually do things with language and make language theirown Doing well this action needs active students' participation, which will bediscussed in the following section

I.2 Group work in Communicative Language Teaching

I.2.1 The definition of group work

Group work in the second language classroom has been recently recommended byFlander (1970); Adams, McLean and Castanos (1976), especially by Adrian Doff(1988: 137) which defines it as a process that “the teacher divides the class into smallgroups to work together, all the group work at the same time ”

According to Joe Landsberger (1996), the philosophy of working in groups involvesshared and/or learned values, resources, and ways of doing things However, eachgroup, and each individual, will only be as effective if they are willing to embraceand/or respect differences within the group.

The main objective of most group work is the outcome The entire group wants theoutcome to be good; however, the whole point of group work is for everyone in thegroup to work as a team to accomplish the outcome of the task It is important foreveryone to work together When one person is not helping with the group effort orworking on their part of the project, it causes the whole group to strain, and can alsocauses detrimental defects to the outcome of the task

I.2.2 Advantages of group work

In fact, all-class teaching is often undervalued as a method It is very valuable indeveloping a sense of unity and ensuring that nobody is left behind; it also helpslearners stay focused on the task if they know they are likely to be asked a question inthe open class However, working in pairs or small groups is the best way to ensure thattasks are discussed thoroughly and that people who might be reluctant to speak in front

of the whole class get a chance to contribute For some subjects such as foreignlanguages, group work is the only way to make sure that students get the practice theyneed More generally, group work fosters negotiation and co-operative skills, especially

if the groups are changed regularly They can also help provide motivation; studentswill often work hard on a group project or performance, which they know, is going to

be seen by the whole class

Using group work in the classroom has been recently recommended by Flander (1970);Adams, Mc Lean and Castanos (1976), especially by Long , Porter, and Patricia (1985).They all have used pedagogical arguments to support group work There are at least 5pedagogical arguments for the use of group work in second language learning In order

to have a deeper understanding about group work, to accept and apply it in secondarylanguage classroom, it is essential to begin with a brief review of those arguments.First, Long assumes that group work in creases language practice opportunities In allprobability, one of the main reasons for low achievements by many second languagelearners is simply that they do not have enough time to practise the new language Inthe secondary schools nowadays there is a large number of students in a confinedclassroom This makes learners have a few chance to speak Moreover, most of theclassrooms are teacher – untied ones in which the teacher talks most of the time while amajority of students listen, take notes and sit silently Flander makes it clear that whenlessons are organized in teacher – centered manner, a typical talk for at least half, andoften for as much as two thirds of any class period In these classrooms, only a smallnumber of students speak relatively frequently with the teacher This leads to a smallnumber of successful learners and a relatively large number of failures Group workcertainly helps but it cannot solve this problem entirely To illustrate with the publicschool setting, suppose that just half the time available for individual student talk isdevoted to work in group of three instead of to lockstep practice, in which one studenttalk while other listen (or not, as the case may be) This will change the total individualpractice time available to each student from one hour to five and a half hours It meansthat through group activities in the classroom, every student has much more chance totalk, discuss and find solution to the task given Thus, it is not a surprise if theirlearning result is improved.

The teacher-centered classroom, the lock step, limits not only the quantity of talkstudents can engage in, but also its quality This is because the teacher – fronted lessonsfavor a highly conventionalized variety of conversation In such settings, one speakerasks a series of known information, or display questions, such as Do you come to class

at 7.00? or Do you live with your parents? The question to which there is only onecorrect answer The second speaker responds and then in the classroom, typically hasthe correctness of the respond confirmed (yes, right, good) Only rarely does genuine

communication takes place Another unfortunate effect of this sort of pseudo –communication is that students‟ attention tends to wander The reason is that studentsare asked to give a prompt and brief answer, which requires little thought Then,teachers quickly „correct‟ any errors and students appreciate just as quickly that whatthey say is less important than how they say it Group work can help a great deal insuch situations First, unlike the lockstep with its single, distance initiator of talk (theteacher) and its group interlocutor (the students) face – to - face communication in asmall group is a natural setting for conversation Second, two or three students workingtogether for five minutes at a stretch are no limited to producing hurried, isolatedsentences of utterances, thereby developing discourse competence, not just a sentencegrammar Third, as shown by Long, Adams, Mc Lean and Castanos, students can take

on roles and adopt positions, which in lockstep work are usually the teacher‟s exclusivepreserve and can then practice a range of language functions associated with those rolesand positions Finally, given appropriate materials to work with and problems to solve,students can develop at least some of the variety of skills that make up communicativecompetence in a second language Clearly, group work improves the quality of studenttalk

The third argument is that group work helps individualize instruction In a large teacher– centered classroom, many individual differences are ignored because it is impossiblefor the teacher to give individual attention to the students and to check all their work.The individual differences include students‟ age, cognitive stage, sex, attitude,

motivation, aptitude, personality, interest, cognitive style, and prior language learningexperience I would be a great success if these differences were reflected in the pacing

of instruction, in its linguistic and culture content, in the level of intellectual challenge

it poses, in the manner of its presentation and in the kinds of the classroom rolesstudents are assigned Although group work obviously cannot handle all thesedifferences, still it can help That is, small groups of students can work on different sets

of materials suited to their needs Moreover, they can do so simultaneously, thereby

avoiding the risk of boring other students who do not have the same problem Groupwork, then, is a first step toward individualization of instruction, which everyoneagrees is a good idea, but which few teachers or textbooks seems to do much about.Furthermore, group work promotes a positive affective climate In a teacher – centeredclassroom many students, especially shy or linguistically insecure, experienceconsiderable stress when called upon in a public arena Research (see, for example,Rowe, 1974 White and Lightbrown, 1983) has shown that if students pause longer thanabout one second before beginning to respond or while making a response; or appearnot to know the answer, or make an error, teachers will tend to interrupt, repeat orrephrase the question She may immediately ask a different one, „correct‟ and/ orswitch to another students Not all teachers do these things, of course, but most teachers

do so more than they could realize or would want to admit In contrast, working insmall groups, students have a relatively intimate setting and, usually, a supportiveenvironment As far as the small group setting is concerned, Barnes (1973:19) statesthat an intimate group allows us to be relatively in explicitly and in coherent change thedirection in the middle of sentence, to be uncertain and self – contradictory Moreover,freedom from requirement for accuracy at all costs and entry into the richer and moreaccommodating set of relationships provided by small group interaction promote apositive affective climate This in turn allows for the development of the kind ofpersonalized, creative talk for which most aural – oral classes are trying to preparelearners

Beside the pedagogical arguments for the use of group work as an aid to secondlanguage teaching, there is now an independent psycholinguistic evidence for groupwork utilizing This evidence emerged from recent work on the nature of non – native/non – native conversation It is useful and necessary for us – Vietnamese teachers andlearners of English – to study this rationale

Concerning the psycholinguistic rationale, many linguists like Long (1985), Adams, McLeans and Castanos (1976) examine the quality and the quality of speech in bothteacher – led class discussions and small group discussions The result is that theamount and variety of student talk were found significantly greater in small groups than

in the teacher – led discussions, and group work enabled students to use language of abroader range of social and interpersonal function than does lockstep, teacher – ledclassroom interaction This finding suggested that, compared with teacher – ledinstruction, group work could serve as a more effective aid to second languagelearning

Comparing the accuracy of student production in teacher – fronted discussion and smallgroup discussion on decision – making tasks, Pica and Doughty (in press) found thatstudents perform at the same level of grammatical accuracy in their second languageoutput in unsupervised group work as in „public‟ lockstep work conducted by theteacher In addition, they found that the individual students talked more in their teacher– fronted discussions

Research into error correction by Pica and Doughty also found that the frequency oferror correction and completions by students is higher in group work than in lock – stepteaching In a more detailed study, Bruton and Samuda (1980) stated that learners seemmore apt to repair lexical errors during group work, whereas pay an equal amount ofattention to errors of syntax and pronunciation

It should be noted that Doughty and Pica (1984) also studied negotiation, thepercentage of conversational adjustments They found that more negotiation wasoccurred in the small group (66 percent) than in lockstep format (45 percent) Thereason, according to them, was that students are reluctant to indicate a lack ofunderstanding in front of their teacher and an entire class of students and so they do notnegotiate as much comprehensible input in whole-class settings

I.2.3 General Strategies for a successful group work

 Plan for each stage of group work.

The first step that needs to be taken when teachers intend to organize a group work isthe preparation step When writing the syllabuses for a course, the teachers are todecide which topics, themes, or projects that might lead themselves to formal groupwork Think about how they will divide their students into groups, help groupsnegotiate among themselves, provide feedback to the groups, and evaluate the products

of group work

 Careful and precise explanation

The second step is to explain carefully to the class how the groups will operate and howthey will be graded Group work is more successful when students are graded against aset standard than when they are graded against each other (Source: Smith, 1986) Theteacher also needs to explain the objectives of the group tasks and define any relevantconcepts In addition to a well-defined task, every group needs a way of getting started,

a way of knowing when its task is done, and some guidance about the participation ofmembers

In order to get a successful group work, it is also necessary to train the students theskills they need, especially the collaborative They must learn to actively and tolerantlylisten, help one another in mastering the content, give and receive constructivecriticism, and manage disagreements

This is the step where teachers must use their words carefully, precisely and simplyenough so that their students can understand and follow properly Without teacher‟sexplanations, group work can not be successful as expected

The students in a group must perceive that they "sink or swim" together, that eachmember is responsible to and dependent on all the others, and that one cannot succeedunless all in the group succeed Knowing that peers are relying on individuals is apowerful motivator for group work (Kohn, 1986) Strategies for promotinginterdependence include specifying common rewards for the group, encouragingstudents to divide up the labor, and formulating tasks that compel students to reach aconsensus ( Johnson, Johnson, and Smith, 1991)

 Create assignments that fit the students' skills and abilities

Early in the term, the teacher should assign relatively easy tasks As students becomemore knowledgeable and familiar with group work, then he/she can increase thedifficulty level For example, in a research methods course, the teacher begins byhaving students simply recognize various research designs and sampling procedures.Later, team members generate their own research designs At the end of the term, eachteam prepares a proposal for a research project and submits it to another team forevaluation (Cooper and Associates, 1990)

 Assign group tasks that allow for a fair division of labor

Teachers should try to structure the tasks so that each group member can make an equalcontribution This task of the teacher in fact is not easy to fulfill if the class is largewith mixed ability students In this kind of class, the teacher usually find hard to keep

an eye on every student, even after they have assigned different tasks for differentstudents in each group One of the effective ways to check the students‟ labor division

is to set up "competitions" among groups When there is a prize or punishment, then thestudents will be more excited to do their tasks Apart from holding a competition,offering a group test taking is certainly of great help On a group test, either an in-class

or take-home exam, each student receives the score of the group It is predictable that

groups consistently achieve higher scores than individuals and thus students enjoy collaborative test taking (Hendrickson, 1990; Toppins, 1989).

 Decide how the groups will be formed

Dividing students is one of the most important steps that play a decisive role to thesuccess of group work There are a number of choices for the teacher to create variety.They can randomly assign students to groups to maximize their heterogeneity: a mix ofmales and females, verbal and quiet students, the cynical and the optimistic (Fiechtnerand Davis, 1992; Smith, 1986) The other way is to let students choose with whom theywant to work, although this runs the risk that groups will socialize too much and thatstudents will self-segregate (Cooper, 1990) Self-selected groups seem to work best insmall classes, for classes of majors who already know one another, or in smallresidential colleges (Walvoord, 1986) Still teacher may form the groups themselves,taking into account students' prior achievement, and their levels of preparation, workhabits, ethnicity, and gender (Connery, 1988) In addition, the teacher can also try tosprinkle the more able students evenly among the groups (Walvoord, 1986) A middleground is to ask students to express a preference, if they wish, then the teacher makesthe assignments himself/ herself

I.2.4 Factors that affect the success of group work

There are many factors we might considered when deciding how to put individualstudents into group work It is advisable to base such decisions on any of the followingprinciples proposed by Harmer (1999)

Friendship: When grouping students, it will be better if we are sure that we are puttingfriends with friends Otherwise, the result may not as high as our expectation sincemost students are not willing to speak to the one they find unpleasant

- Streaming: Grouping students according to their ability or level of participation is

a complicated task for teachers Thus, this technique is not frequently used in thelanguage classrooms

- Chance: Teachers can put students sitting next or near to each other together toform groups Some teachers may even give each student a letter from A to E or anumber from 1 to 10, and then ask As to form a group, Bs to form another group and so

on Sometimes teachers group students basing on the colour of the clothes they arewearing

- Changing group: It is better for the students not to stay in the same group,working with the same friends from the beginning to the end of the activity A sequencemay start with the teacher and the whole class before moving between group work andindividual work until it returns to the whole class grouping

In addition to the principles above, John Honeyfield (1991) suggests some criteria forthe formation of groups that teachers should follows He offers free grouping wherestudents can make their own decision about who to work with in a group He alsosuggests groups based on level of proficiency The other way to group students is tochoose students randomly, which means students may be grouped on the basis of who

is sitting next to whom in the class

It can be easily realized that teacher can choose any kind of grouping that they think iseffective and suitable to their students However, as long as teachers use group work inthe classroom, instructions for the students so that they know whom to work with andhow to work will be of the greatest importance

I.2.5 Teacher’s roles in group work

While organizing group work the teacher has different roles, both in setting andmanaging it The first role that the teacher must carry out is the role of a designer who

has to select activities for groups The teacher must be sure about the students‟ leveland that the activities could be done reasonably well with the students‟ proficiency.Another important role of the teacher is as a controller The teacher has to control notonly what the students do, but also when they speak and what they speak about Inorder to be a successful controller, the teacher has to decide whether to join in theactivity as an equal member or remaining the background to help or observe If theteacher attends to the activity with the students, the psychological distance betweenteachers and students may be reduced Certainly, the teacher should not continuallycorrect the students or use her greater skills in the foreign language to her advantage Inaddition, she/he may note common mistakes for revision at a later stage.

One of the factors that motivate the learners to do the activity is that their teacher oftenencourages them and suggests how they may proceed in an activity when there issilence or when they confuse about what to do next Thus, the teacher should alsoperform the role of a prompter with discretion

Keeping a record of all the activities done with the class, together with any comments

on the students‟ performance is certainly of great help for a successful group work Theteacher should also note down any ideas for further activities or modifications ofexisting ones

With the great effort that the teacher puts in to group work, it is still a waste of time ifshe/he provides students with confusing instructions or omit some importantinformation In many cases, the teacher has to use most of the time assigned for groupwork to re-explain the rules or offer demonstrations That means she/he cannot be asuccessful controller, prompter or organizer Thus, a clear and simple instruction withappropriate examples as demonstrations at the beginning of each activity is a „must‟ ifthe teacher wants to ensure the success of group work It is advisable that the teacherthinks out exactly what they are going to say beforehand and checks if the studentshave understood their tasks after the instructions

I.3 Teacher’s instructions for a successful group work

I.3.1 Teacher’s instructions and its relation to teacher talk

Classroom process research, as Gaies (1983) calls “the study of communication in theclassroom”, has taken different forms: interaction analysis, teacher talk and discourseanalysis (Ellis, 1985: 143) All dimensions of classroom process, from questioning todisciplining students, providing the feedback and especially giving instructions, involve

in teacher talk There is no learning without teaching Therefore, as a tool ofimplementing plans and achieving teaching goals, teacher talk plays a vital importantrole in language learning As Nunan (1991) points out that teacher talk is of crucialimportance, not only the organization of the classroom but also for the processes ofacquisition It is important for the organization and management of the classroombecause it is through language that teachers either succeed or fail in implementing theirteaching plans In terms of acquisition, teacher talk is important because it is probablythe major source of comprehensible target language input that the learner is likely toreceive The amount and type of teacher talk is even regarded as a decisive factor ofsuccess or failure in classroom teaching

According to second language acquisition theory, plenty of and high – quality input isthe necessary element for successful language learning There is no learning withoutinput “If the second language is learnt as a foreign language in a language class in anon-supportive environment, instruction is likely to be the major or even the onlysource of target language input” (Stern, 1983: 400) Classroom is the chief source forlanguage learners and teacher talk, particularly teacher instructions, serves as the majortarget language input for them Stern proposed a teaching learning model, whichidentified two principle factors, the language teacher and the language learner

“The teacher, like the learner, brings to language teaching certain characteristics whichmay have bearing on educational treatment: age, sex, previous education, and personalqualities Above all, the language teacher brings to it a language background and

experience, professional training as a linguist and teacher, previous language teachingexperience, and more or less formulated theoretical presuppositions about language,language learning and teaching” (Stern, 1983: 500) These characteristics of languageteacher are reflected in different characteristics and forms of teacher talk, and certainly

of teacher‟s instructions

I.3.2 The definition of teacher’s instructions for group work

For most Vietnamese learners of English, classroom is the main place where theyfrequently expose to the target language In the classroom, the teacher tries to useEnglish whenever it is possible The language used by the teacher has “two purposes: itserves both as the subject matter of the lesson and as the medium of instruction” (Willis1987: 163) The previous purpose of language used in the classroom is obvious whilethe later has not been fully defined Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Encyclopedic definesteacher‟s instruction as a “process of teaching knowledge or teaching given”

The Longman dictionary of Contemporary English provides the following definitionfor an instruction: a statement/ order telling someone what they must do Anotherdefinition of instruction is that: It is "the purposeful direction of the learning process"and is one of the major teacher class activities (along with planning and management).Professional educators have developed a variety of models of instruction, eachdesigned to produce classroom learning Joyce, Weil, and Calhoun (2003) describe fourcategories of models of teaching/instruction (behavioral systems, informationprocessing, personal development, and social interaction) that summarize the vastmajority of instructional methods Each model differs in the specific type or measure oflearning that is targeted Therefore, as a teacher make decisions about "bestinstructional practices" she/he must be certain that she/he connect recommendedpractices with specific desired outcomes This point is often omitted; discussion of bestpractices then becomes a debate about desired outcomes rather than a discussion ofhow to achieve them

As stated before, instruction (the purposeful guidance of the learning process) iscomplex and can take many forms It is a vitally important classroom activity, but must

be considered in the context of such factors as measures of desired student learning(including overlapping objectives taught to objectives tested), controlling studentbehavior (classroom management activities), individualize differences among students,and school processes

However, within the small scope of this research, the writer intends to study onlyinstructions which are used for group work Basing on the discussions before, it isunnecessary to state about the importance of teachers‟ instructions in organizing groupwork since the effectiveness of a group work is greatly defined by all the steps that theteacher takes as well as her/his language including instructions, and her/his mannerwhen organizing them As noted by G.S Hughes (1981), the teacher almostindifferently uses variety of forms of situation, ranging from commands (Look atpage…) to request (Could you open the book at page…, please?) and suggestion (Whynot open the book at page….?) Thus, it is certain that the instruction for group work is

a wide category of sentences teachers use when organize group works

In this study, group work is referred to classroom activities, which are in dyads (pairs),

in triads, groups of four or even half the class In other word, within the scope of thisstudy, the writer try to do a research on how instructions are used for every groupactivity organized in the classroom

I.3.3 The importance of instructions in organizing group work

Group work can be frustrating for both students and teachers if instructions are notclear Students may question the teacher‟s organizational skills, and they may wasteprecious time puzzling over directions Therefore, instructions should clearly delineatethe task and/or explain the teacher‟s expectations They should indicate the degree offreedom given to students in structuring the task and assigning group roles Clearinstructions always include the time involved Students cannot manage their time

wisely if they cannot plan ahead Numerous studies have identified “time on task” as a

factor critical to student achievement In fact, instructions should also include a

“sponge” or extension activity that teams must turn to if they complete the initialassignment This “sponge” typically involves more challenging problems to solve ormore complex issues to discuss

I.3.4 Principles of giving instructions to group work

It is widely believed that the meaningful, situational use of the language in theclassroom may have positive effect on learning because of its communicative potential.Using the class language naturally associates the foreign language to situations where

an information gap does occur, such as: a teacher instructs learners to an exercise intheir books: “Open your book at page…, please.” then checks their understanding ofsomething (OK, did you get that?), which is indeed exchange real information with thelearners Therefore, it is wise that the teacher justify the amount of new vocabulary andstructures used when speaking to the students if she/he does not want to re – explain allhis – her words Jim Scrivener (1994) suggested five steps when giving instructions so

as to avoid the problem of quantity and over complexity of language used

- Become aware of the teacher‟s own instruction giving

- Have a pre-plan instruction: collect essential information, use simple and clear language

- In class, create silence beforehand, make eye contact with the students beforegiving instructions, use authority tone and gesture to pace the instructions an clarifytheir meaning

- Use demonstration as much as possible

- Check understanding by getting evidence from the student Teacher may ask the students to show him/her what they are going to do

The five steps prepare the teacher with pre - stage, while - stage and post –stage whenshe/he gives instructions for a group activity Basing on the suggested stages, theteacher needs to simplify their language and uses natural language without too manycommands She/ he is also encouraged to use gesture and facial expressions as well aschanging intonation properly during instructions in order to achieve the highesteffectiveness.

Concerning the question of to use or not to use mother tongue in instructions for groupworks, a common pattern followed by many teachers is the repetition of complexinstructions in translation This pattern means an attempt is made in the L2 first to offerthe better pupils an opportunity to try to understand, whereas repetition in the mothertongue will allow the weaker ones to understand the instructions anyway and maybe tostart identifying the function of the foreign language used Students in order to showand check their understanding of what is happening in the activity or to support theirpeers‟ understanding classroom events also use the mother tongue Nevertheless, thetask of running an activity in the foreign language is not easy It is not just the matter ofgeneral language competence, but also of the specific needs of classroom language andthe teacher‟s sense of measuring his/ her words so as to provide comprehensible input

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY

II.1 The informants

II.1.1 The teachers

The author intends to carry out the study with nine teachers (coded as T1, T2, T3, T4, T5,T6, T7, T8, and T9) who were divided into 3 groups All of the teachers were eager tocontribute to the study and did not mind having the author observe their lessons duringone semester Their profiles are described in table 1

Group

1 (T1-T3)

2 (T4-T6)

3 (T7-T9)

Table1 Teacher’s profiles (Total number of teacher: 9)

II.1.2 The students

There were about 500 second year non-English majors in nine classes engaged in thestudy They were all from Faculty of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and History.The number of students in each class is about 60 – 70 students with a mixed lever oflanguage proficiency Many of them had 7 years learning English at secondary schoolsbut some others had only 3 years of exposure to the language In their first and secondyear at the University, they learn general English with New Headway – Elementary byJohn and Liz Soar (1995)

II.2 Data collection instruments

In the study, the author employs both qualitative and quantitative methods to get datafor answering the research questions According to Larsen Freeman and Long(1991:14), both qualitative and quantitative paradigms are not competing, but

complementary, and the choice between the two is unnecessary They also assert thatmuch can be gained from a combination of the two Within the scope of this study, such

a combination of both research paradigms is believed to gain more in-depth data foranalysis

Since this study is designed to understand the phenomenon under investigation in aparticular context, at Thai Nguyen University, it is a case study in nature According toGillham (2001: 1), a case study is:

 A unit of human activity embedded in the real world

 Which can only be studied or understood in context

 Which exists here and now

 That emerges in with its context so that precise boundaries are difficult to draw.Thus, a case study is one that seeks a range of different kinds of evidence which isthere in the case setting, and which has to be abstracted and collated to get the bestpossible answer to the research question

The study of cases, according to McDonough and McDonough (1997: 204) is not only

a qualitative undertaking, nor does it present an either/or perspective inquantitative/qualitative terms Where, for example, researchers need to study largescale trends, cases will usually be selected on the basis of random sampling and thedata submitted to statistical analysis Besides, classroom is a special and restrictedsetting It is not possible to select so many teachers randomly to be in one class oranother because of the huge task of detail analysis, and it is impossible to control all thevariables that might influence the outcome in a large-scale study It is why the casestudy was chosen for the study

II.2.1 Questionnaires

Since the study aims to investigate the teacher‟s instruction - giving procedures, a post– lesson questionnaire was administered to the students in the observed class to get

information about their evaluation and reasons for their successful or unsuccessfulresult in following the teacher‟s instructions The author uses a questionnaire for thisstage because of the fact that they are easy to construct and uniquely capable ofgathering a large amount of information quickly in a form that is readily processable(Dornyei, 2003).

II.2.2 Classroom observations

Beside questionnaires, classroom observations are the main tools to collect moreinformation about the procedures used by the teachers

Observations of the teachers‟ classes were carried out over a period of two months toobtain information about their actual teaching practices Each observation consisted ofthree steps: Before the lesson, during the lesson, and after the lesson In before – the –lesson step, the author met the teachers to know their aims in teaching the lesson, toread their lesson plan In during – the lesson step, an observation sheet was used torecord the instruction procedure The after – the – lesson step was for discussion andexchanging ideas between observers and the teachers

II.2.3 Follow – up interview

In order to get information about the teachers‟ preparation for their lessons and theirbeliefs regarding instructions and instruction giving procedures, the pre – lessoninterview questions were designed Then, after the lesson, the post – lesson interviewquestions were utilized to obtain information about the teachers‟ own judgments ontheir teaching, particularly on the instructions

Specific episodes of events observed during the lessons were used to generatediscussion topics during post – lesson interviews

II.3 The current situation of English teaching and learning at TNU

The Foreign Languages Faculty, one of the thirteen faculties of Thai Nguyen College ofEducation, was founded in 1995 There are 83 teachers in the faculty, of which thirty

teachers are responsible for teaching English to non – English major students in otherdepartments of the college Recently, the quality as well as quantity of studentsenrolling to the university has increased gradually Therefore, the thirty teachers havebeen loaded with 1,000 students per year, (50 to 60 students in each class on average).This situation leads to the reduction of the language teaching effectiveness and createschallenges to teachers of English to deal with such crowded and mix- ability classes.The non- English major students at the University are learning New Headway –Elementary by John and Liz Soar (1995) which is divided into two semesters with fivecredits each The final test designed after each semester mainly evaluates students‟proficiency of reading and writing This testing system is likely affect students‟learning strategies and their view to the importance of participating to the classroomactivities.

CHAPTER THREE: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

III.1 Data analysis

III.1.1 Classroom observations

III.1.1.1 The organization and content of the teachers’ instructions

Classroom observation in nine classes with the nine teachers was applied to identifyhow instructions were used for group work

4 A variety of techniques is utilized to

make content concepts

modeling, visuals, hands-on activities,

demonstrations, body language).

5 Scaffolding techniques are applied

consistently.

6 Teacher takes

specific knowledge and experience of

the students, adds

necessary and refers to the students‟

experience.

Table 2 : The organization and content of the teachers’ instructions (CE: clear evidence

SE: Some evidence LE: limited evidence NE: No evidence)

The observation indicates, overall, that teachers in group 2 (T4 – T6) show the mostpositive evidence of a good instruction for group work in which there is only onelimited evidence in maintaining the students‟ engagement during the instruction.Together with the two other groups, group 2 has 4/9 periods observed in which theteacher takes into account the specific knowledge and experience of the students, addsexplanations as necessary and refers to the students‟ experience

From table 2 we can see that teachers in group 2 have the most appropriate pacingduring instructions There is only one period with limited evidence but 4/9 periodscontaining clear evidence for appropriate pacing Comparing with group 3, it can berecognized that teachers in group 3 are less experienced, in other word, they are not assuccessful because they have only 2/9 periods with clear evidence for maintainingstudents‟ engagements by pacing instructions while there are 2/9 lessons having noevidence Group 1 shows the normal pacing while instructing students with 8/9 lessonscontaining some or a lot of evidences of appropriate pacing to maintain students‟engagements

Demonstrations and models are extremely important to the success of an instruction aswell as a group activity Teachers should not assume that all students are attentive totheir instructions The fact is that there are certainly some or groups of students having

is that many students may not be clear about their tasks immediately after theinstruction Therefore, teachers‟ demonstrations or models could be of great help.From table 2 it can be referred that teachers in group 2 rarely forget makingdemonstrations or models with all lessons observed containing evidences whileteachers in group 1 and 3 sometimes pass the step.

III.1.1.2 The language used for the instructions

Criteria

Language

7 The use of speech is appropriate for

students' proficiency level (e.g., slower

rate, enunciation, and simple sentence

structure for beginners).

8 The use of language is in highly

effective ways to emphasize the

purpose and the requirement of the

activity.

9 Teacher shows the flexibility in

paraphrasing the instruction.

Delivery

10 An authoritative tone is used.