Techniques for organizing communicative activities in pải work and group work for the 1st year students at tourism faculty, thanh hoa university of culture, sports and tourism

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIESFACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ---  ---TÀO THỊ THU THẢO TECHNIQUES FOR ORGANIZING COMMUNICATI

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

- 

-TÀO THỊ THU THẢO

TECHNIQUES FOR ORGANIZING COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES

IN PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK FOR THE 1 ST YEAR STUDENTS

AT TOURISM FACULTY, THANH HOA UNIVERSITY

OF CULTURE, SPORTS AND TOURISM

( Những thủ thuật tổ chức các hoạt động giao tiếp theo cặp, nhóm cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất khoa Du Lịch, trường Đại học Văn

hoá, Thể thao, Du lịch Thanh Hoá )

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code:

Hanoi, 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

- 

-TÀO THỊ THU THẢO

TECHNIQUES FOR ORGANIZING COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES

IN PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK FOR THE 1 ST YEAR STUDENTS

AT TOURISM FACULTY, THANH HOA UNIVERSITY

OF CULTURE, SPORTS AND TOURISM

( Những thủ thuật tổ chức các hoạt động giao tiếp theo cặp, nhóm cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất khoa Du Lịch, trường Đại học Văn

hoá, Thể thao, Du lịch Thanh Hoá )

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code:

Supervisor: M.A Nguyễn Thị Minh Tâm

Hanoi, 2013

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Candidate’s statement i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

List of abbreviations iv

List of tables and charts iv

Table of contents v

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

I Rationale 1

II Aims of the study 2

III Scope of the study 2

IV Research questions 2

V Methods of the study 3

VI Significance of the study 3

VII Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

Chapter I: Theoretical Background 4

I.1 Communicative language teaching 4

I.2 Communicative activities 5

I.2.1 Definition of Communicative activities 5

I.2.2 Types of Communicative activities 6

I.3 Interactions in speaking classes 7

I.3.1 Definition of Classroom Interaction 7

I.3.2 Speaking skill in language teaching and learning 7

I.3.3 Types of interactions in speaking class 8

I.4 Pair work and group work in speaking classes 9

I.4.1 Definition of pair work 9

I.4.2 Definition of group work 9

I.4.3 Advantages of pair work and group work 9

I.4.4 Some common activities for pair work and group work 10

I.5 Review of previous studies 12

I.6 Summary 12

Chapter II: Methodology 14

II.1 Background of the study 14

II.1.1 An overview of the research site 14

II.1.2 Descriptions of English teachers, teaching method and teaching material 14 in TUCST

II.1.3 Descriptions of students at TUCST 15

II.1.4 Descriptions of teaching and learning of English speaking skills for the first year students at Tourism Faculty through organizing pair work and group 15 work

II.2 Methodology

II.2.1 Participants

II.2.2 Research instruments

II.2.3 Data analysis

II.3 Presentation of statistical results

II.3.1 The result of language learning survey questionnaires and direct interview

II.3.1.1 Students’ opinions on speaking skill

II.3.1.2 Students’ opinions on the use of pair work, group work in speaking class

II.3.1.3 Students’ recommendation for the success of pair and group work

II.3.1.4 Students’ appreciation on how useful pair work and group work are to improve their learning speaking English after the 1st semester

II.3.2 The result of language teaching survey questionnaires and direct interview

II.3.2.1 Teachers’ opinions on speaking skill

II.3.2.2 Teachers’ appreciation of using pair work, group work

II.3.2.3 Teachers’ implemention of pair work, group work in current speaking classes

II.3.2.4 Teacher’s appreciation on how useful pair work and group work are

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15 15 16 17 17

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II.4 Summary

Chapter III: Finding and Discussion

III.1 Research questions restated

III.2 How pair work and group work are used in English speaking classes of the 1st year students at Tourism Faculty, TUCST?

III.3 What are useful techniques of pair work and group work to the 1st year students in learning speaking English?

III.3.1 The useful techniques of pair work and group work to the 1st year students in learning speaking English

III.3.2 The use of suggested activities at TUOCST

III.3.3 Sample lesson plan

PART C: CONCLUSION

I Conclusions

II Limitations of the study

III Suggestions for further research

REFERENCES

Appendix 1: Questionnaires for students

Appendix 2: Questionnaires for teachers

Appendix 3: Interview questions for students

Appendix 4: Interview questions for teachers

28 29 29

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31

33 34 38 38 39 39 40

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PART A: INTRODUCTION

I Rationale

In Vietnam, English is taught not only at all colleges and universities, but also almostevery high school and it is considered as a compulsory subject at secondary school To meetthe demand of learners, the teaching English in Vietnam has been changing By applyingvarious new approaches, methods, and techniques, English teaching has shift from thetraditional grammar translation approach to the communicative approach According toCommunicative Language Teaching (CLT), the purpose of language teaching and learning is

to develop communicative competence in the target language In the view of this approach,the learner is considered the center of the leaning process; the teacher serves as a facilitator,allowing students to be in change of their own learning

In learner-centered approach, the choice of teaching methods are often morecomplicated than the construction of many teaching objectives Some authors suggest thatthis type of work can carry out in two periods In the first period, teachers need to find thestudent's experience and learning methods they prefer, and with their existing experience,teachers can select appropriate teaching methods In the second stage, teachers need toengage the active participation of students in planning their academic programs This workcan be done by encouraging students to think, to engage in learning activities organized byteachers in a positive, proactive and creative way Therefore, the organization of learningactivities for students have a special role and it’s very important for teachers to pay attention

in setting teaching program Two common forms of class organization are working in pairs(Pair work) and working in group (Group work)

In the context of Thanh Hoa University of Culture, Sports and Tourism, English istaught as a compulsory subject for the 1st year students of Tourism Faculty These studentsare future tour guides who learn English in order to be able to communicate well in theirfuture job All the teachers here have been trying their best to help their students in learningcommunicative skills well Both of them are aware of the importance and benefits of usingpair work, group work to help improve the communicative skills of the first year students inTourism Faculty However, they have faced many challenges in organizing these techniquesduring lessons, such as large classes; noises; lazy and passive students, etc

For all the above mentioned reasons, I have decided to carry out a research work in:

“Techniques for organizing communicative activities in pair work and group work for the 1 st year students at Tourism Faculty, Thanh Hoa University of Culture, Sports, and Tourism”.

This study is intended to make a small contribution on how to use the pair work, group workeffectively and successfully in English teaching and learning practice in Viet Nam

II Aims of the study:

This study is aimed at:

- finding out the use of pair work and group work in English speaking classes of the

1st year students at Tourism Faculty, TUCST

- suggesting the useful techniques of pair work and group work to the 1st year students

at Tourism Faculty in learning speaking English

III Scope of the study:

To improve communicative skills for students at TUCST, the teachers can make use

of various techniques and a number of things should be done However, within theframework of a minor thesis, the researcher only intends to draw a brief overview of how arethe pair work and group work used at TUCST

Among for language skills, namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing, pair workand group work are used frequently in the speaking lessons Therefore, this research tends tofind out the useful pair work and group work techniques in speaking classes

Also, due to the time constraints, this study only involves a small number of Englishteachers and students in their first academic year of Tourism Faculty, TUCST

IV Research question:

This study was aimed to answer the following research questions:

1 How pair work and group work are used in English speaking classes of the 1st year students at Tourism Faculty, TUCST?

2 What are useful techniques of pair work and group work to the 1st year students at Tourism Faculty in learning speaking English?

V Methods of the study:

In order to find out the answers to the research questions, both quantitative andqualitative methods were employed to carry out the study The data were collected by means

of questionnaires and interviews for English teachers and the first year students of TourismFaculty at TUCST

Besides that, reviewing the related documents from many published books written bydifferent authors and collecting information from others previous studies are methods toestablish the theoretical background of the study

VI Significance of the study:

This study is hoped to be used to both teachers and students of Tourism Faculty atTUCST This study has been able to contribute to teachers’ knowledge of communicativelanguage teaching, communicative activities in general and pair work, group work inparticular Besides that, from the finding of the study, teachers can be provided withimportant information which may be valuable for their future lesson planning On the otherhand, the teachers’ transformation in pair work and group work implementation will bebeneficial to the students

VII Design of the study:

This study consists of three parts: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion

The development part comprises four chapters:

+ Chapter I: Theoretical Background

+ Chapter II: Methodology

+ Chapter III: Finding and Discussion

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

In this chapter, a brief description of the theoretical knowledge relating to the study was provided It includes some concepts of CLT, communicative activities, interaction in the speaking class, pair work, group work.

I.1 Communicative language teaching (CLT)

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is the most influential language teachingmethodology in the world Since the introduction of communicative language teaching in thelate 1970s, there have been a variety of definitions and ideas about CLT:

- “CLT views language as a system for the expression of meaning Activities involve

oral communication, carrying out meaningful tasks, and using language, which is meaningful to the learners Objectives reflect the needs of the learners; they include functional skills as well as linguistic objectives The learner‟s role is as a negotiator and an integrator The teacher‟s role is as a facilitator of the communication process Materials promote communicative language use; they are task based and authentic”.

(Nunan 1989:194)Richards and Rodgers (1986) consider CLT as an approach rather than a methodwhich comprises two sets of theories: assumption of what to teach, and assumption of how to

teach In the first assumption, the purpose of language teaching is to develop "communicative

competence" - a basic concept in CLT Hymes (1972) defines “communicative competence” as

“what a speaker needs to know in order to be communicatively competent in a speech

community” According to this, CLT has two following main aims pointed out by Richards

and Rogers (1986:64):

1 To make communicative competence the goal of language teaching

2 To develop procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication

The second assumption shows another point about CLT, that is: “its learner-centered

and experience based view of second language teaching Students in this approach are seen

to be able to play a more active and participatory part than in traditional approaches And therefore, the roles of teacher will be re-defined with the change of activity organization because each leaner is thought to have unique learning styles, needs and goals, which should

be reflected in the design of the method of instruction.” (Richards and Rodgers, 2001:67).

To sum up, CLT is best considered an approach rather than a method It is most oftendefined as a list of general principles or characteristics One of the most recognized of theselists is David Nunan's (1991: 279) five characteristics of CLT:

- The introduction of authentic texts in to the learning situation

- The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also

on the learning process itself.

- An enhancement of the learner‟s own personal experiences as important

contributing elements to classroom learning.

- An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activation outside the classroom.

These characteristics will be the principles for teachers to choose to improve theirstudents’ participation in communicative activities in a language classroom Some ideasabout communicative activities will be discussed in the next section

I.2 Communicative activities

I.2.1 Definition of Communicative activities:

Communicative activities, defined by Littlewood (1981), are those that provide wholetask practice, improve students’ motivation, allow natural learning and create a context

supporting learning as well “In communicative activities the teacher creates a situation and

sets an activity in notion, but it is the learners themselves who are responsible for conducting the interaction to its conclusion” (Littlewood, 1981: 18)

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, or reason that students seek to bridge.

- 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 off 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 1993: 58)

According to Harmer (1991), communicative activities are those that give studentsinvolved desire and a purpose to communicate Such activities are very beneficial for studentsbecause they can do their best to use the target language and arrive at the degree ofproficiency in the end.

I.2.2 Types of Communicative activities:

Harmer (1991) also divides communicative activities into oral and written ones Oralactivities include such categories as communication games, problem-solving, reaching aconsensus, discussion, replaying instructions, role-play, etc Written communicative activitiesconsist of writing reports and advertisements; co-operative writing, exchanging letters,writing journals and so on

In addition, according to Littlewood (1981), there are two main types of communicative

activities which he calls: “functional communication activities and social interaction

activities” These two types of activities aim to prepare students for their first contact with

authentic spoken English

Functional communication activities primarily require students to use their knowledge

of language to solve problems through information–gap and reasoning–gap activities Communicative interaction that encourages cooperative relationships among students isachieved by a series of tasks: learners comparing sets of pictures and noting similarities anddifferences; picture strip stories predicting a likely sequence of events; discovering missingfeatures in a map or on pictures; one learner communicating from behind a screen to anotherlearner and giving instructions on how to draw a picture or shape, or how to complete a map;following directions; and solving problems from shared clues These activities provide thelearner with immediate feedback from the listeners on whether or not he or she hassuccessfully communicated

Social interaction activities require the learner to focus on the context and the roles ofthe people involved Role play and simulation are vital examples of this type of activities.Role play gives students an opportunity to practice communication while playing differentroles Examples of role play are socio-drama, sketches, story dramatization, mock interviews,business meetings and even debates Simulation activities require learners to enact animaginary situation keeping their own identities These two types of activities, role play andsimulation provide students with the opportunity to practice communicating in differentsocial roles and in different social contexts Therefore, students learn how to use languageforms appropriately and realize how context is essential in giving meaning to the utterances.Moreover, they learn grammar and vocabulary through function, situational context and the

roles of interlocutors Further activities are opinion-gap activities such as conversations,discussion sessions and debates (Richards and Rodgers, 2001).

I.3 Interactions in speaking classes

I.3.1 Definition of Classroom Interaction

As mentioned above, the communicative approach is mainly based on the theory ofcommunicative competence In the communicative approach, most researchers agree on theneed for the communicative competence to support learning and make the classroominteraction successful The communicative process involves interaction between at least twopeople who share a list of signs and semiotic rules The concept of interaction is defined as

“reciprocal events that require at least two objects and two actions Interaction occurs when these objects and events naturally influence one another” (Wagner, 1994:8) Therefore,

interactions do not occur only from one side, there must be mutual influence through givingand receiving messages in order to achieve communication Thurmond & Wamback (2004)

defines interaction as “The learners‟ engagement with the course content, other learners, the

instructor and the technological medium used in the course True interactions with other learners, the instructor and technology results in a reciprocal exchange of information The exchange of information intended to enhance knowledge development in the learning environment.”

Classroom interaction involves two main aspects, which are the negotiation ofmeaning and feedback, if these two elements are not available in the classroom, then wecannot speak of a successful learning through interaction Ellis and Foto (1999:09) say,

“Interaction contributes to acquisition through the provision of negative evidence and through opportunities for modified output.” Interaction then is rich of meaning negotiation

where the learners can receive feedback from their interlocutors

I.3.2 Speaking skills in language teaching and learning:

Among the four skills in learning English, speaking and writing are the productiveskills However, speaking is regarded as very important for language teaching and learning.Speaking is a bridge to reach other skills Speaking helps learners to read better, to listenmore effectively and write more accurately Speaking is surely the most effective means ofcommunication (Ur, 1996)

Speaking is a basic skill that language learners should master with the other languageskills It is defined as a complex process of sending and receiving messages through the use

of verbal expressions, but it also involves non verbal symbols such as gestures and facial

expressions Hedge (2000: 261) defines speaking as “a skill by which they [people] are

judged while first impressions are being formed.” That is to say speaking is an important skill

which deserves more attention in both first and second language because it reflects people’sthoughts and personalities

In language teaching and learning, speaking has an important part to play It is amedium through which much language is learnt, and which is particularly useful for learning.According to Kayi, (2006), the ability to communicate in a second language clearly andefficiently contributes to the success of the learner in school and success later in every phase

of life Bygate (1987), who holds the same view, claims that our learners need to have ability

to speak confidently to carry out their most basic transactions More than this, speaking isregarded as the first step to confirm who knows or does not know a language Ur, P (1996)

indicated that people who know a language are referred to as “speakers” of that language as

if speaking included all other kinds of knowing Consequently, a lot of foreign languagelearners are primarily interested in learning to speak

Therefore, having dealt with the importance of oral skills in language teaching andlearning it is essential that language teachers should pay great attention to teaching speakingskills rather than leading students to pure memorization In order to carry out many of themost basic transactions, it is necessary for learners to speak with confidence

I.3.3 Types of interaction in speaking class:

As stated in 1.3.1, it’s obvious that there are four types of interaction: learner - coursecontent interaction, learner - learner interaction, learner - teacher interaction and learner -technology interaction In speaking classes, we shall focus in this research work only on thelearner – learner interaction

Learner-learner interaction occurs among learners In this form of interaction, theteacher plays a role as a monitor and learners are the main participants Learner-learnerinteraction occurs in groups called learner-learner interaction, in pairs called peer interaction.Student-student: the instructional activities give students the opportunity to collaborate withtheir classmates by exchanging and building information together There are many types ofinstructional activities that encourage student collaboration As the rubric states examples ofstudent-to-student interactions may include self-introductions, group discussion postings,small-group projects, peer critiques, etc

From the theory on speaking activities above, teachers should know how to adoptappropriate speaking activities which can help learners develop speaking skill Pair work andgroup work are the useful ways that the teacher can help students practice what they havelearnt, find ways to achieve communicative objectives.

I.4 Pair work and group work in speaking

classes I.4.1 Definition of pair work

According to Adrian Doff (1988 :137), the whole class is divided in to pairs by theteacher Every students works with his or her partner in pairs and all the pairs work at the

same time (It is sometimes called simultaneous pair work) This is not the same as „public‟

or „open‟, pair work, with pairs of students speaking in turn in front of the class In fact, a pair work consists of two students working together at the same time.

There are two main types of pair work: fixed pairs and flexible pairs, given by Byrne(1983) In the former, students work with the same partner to practice the target language Inthe later, students keep changing their partners they like This may make the activity moreinteresting but the class noisier

It can be seen that pair work can get students to practice the target language more andincrease students’ talking time in the class

I.4.2 Definition of group work

Doff (1988: 137) also defines group work as a process that “the teacher divides the

class into small groups to work together usually four or five students in each group, as in pair work, all the groups work at the same time”.

Like pair work, group work also gives students more opportunities to practice thetarget language in the whole class In addition, students can work independently and freelyunder the teacher’s control without the pressure of the whole class watching what they aredoing

I.4.3 Advantages of pair work and group work

Pair work and group work gives the students far more chances to speak English in theclassroom Students participate in the lesson much more actively because they are involved intalking to their friends exchanging opinions, practicing new structures more than listening totheir teacher talking This is important in our schools when English lessons usually take placethree times a week, teachers have to practice, develop all the language skills and it happensthat there is no time left for speaking So if a teacher has ten minutes left during the lesson it

is better to divide the class into groups to give the learners opportunity to really use thelanguage to communicate with each other.

According to Michael Long and his colleagues (1985) who investigated differences inthe quantity and quality of student language in group work versus teacher centered activitiesthe language produced by students working in groups is more varied and greater in quantity.Learners take the initiative to express themselves, they are more spontaneous Askingquestions and responding they use more language functions (Lightbown and Spada, 1993:85)

By dividing the class into groups students get more opportunities to talk than in fullclass organization and each student can say something Penny Ur recommends that teachersworking with large classes should divide them into five groups which is the most effectiveorganization for practicing speaking (Ur, 1996:232)

In the long run group work develops learners' independence At first preparing agroup presentation may be time consuming and requires more effort from the student.However, using this technique regularly students become more efficient and skilled atpracticing the language They become more confident, their motivation also increases andthey can manage without regular teacher's supervision Students learn how to learn andgradually take responsibility for their own learning

Working in pairs and groups is less stressful and more effective for students,especially introverts who needn't perform in the front of the whole class They feel moreconfident working with the friend they like and are more likely to accept his/her correction orcriticism There are always more and less gifted pupils in the process of language learningand these methods prevent them from not being laughed at by the whole class if they say

something wrong "It is generally easier to show that you do not know, or do not understand

something, in a smaller group than in a large one” (Norman, Levihn and Hedenquist,

1986:8)

I.4.4 Some common activities for pair work and group work

There are a variety of activities which can be applied in communicative Englishclasses through the use of pair work and group work Some common activities are:

- Game: A game could be any activities that formalize a technique into units that can

be score in some way Guessing games are common language classroom activities For example,twenty questions are easy adapted to a small group One member secretly decides that he or 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.

- Role-play: Role-play minimally involves giving a role to one or more members of a

group and assigning an objective or purpose that participants must accomplish A group play might involve a discussion of a political issue, with each person assigned to represent aparticular political point of view

role Drama: Drama is a more formalized form of role-play and simulation, with a

pre-planned story line and script Sometimes small groups may prepare their own shortdramatization of some event, writing the script and rehearsing the scene as a group But they aretime consuming and rarely can form part of a typical school curriculum

- Projects: Mainly for young learners who can greatly benefit from hands-on

approaches to language, certain projects can be rewarding indeed

- Interview: A popular activity for pair work, but also suitable for group work,

interviews are useful at all level of proficiency

- Information gap: This technique is one of the easiest and most interesting forms of

communicative activity in the speaking lesson Information-gap activities include a tremendousvariety of techniques in which the objectives is to convey or to request information The twomain characteristics of information-gap techniques are their primary attention to information andnot to language forms and the necessity of communicative interaction in order to reach theobjective The information that students must seek can range from very simple to complex

- Problem solving and decision making: Problem-solving techniques focus on the

group’s solution of a specified problem The problem might be relatively simple (such asgiving directions on a map), moderately complex (such as working out an itinerary fromtrain, plane, and bus schedules), or quite complex (such as solving a mystery in a “crimestory” or dealing with a political or moral dilemma)

Decision-making techniques are simply one kind of problem-solving where the ultimate goal

is for students to make a decision

- Opinion exchange: Opinion exchange is a difficult technique for students to deal

with at the beginning levels of proficiency, but by the intermediate level, certain techniques caneffectively include the exchange of various opinions Sometimes, opinions are appropriate;sometimes they are not In opinion exchanges, the teacher must assure all students in the classthat, while there may be disagreement on issues, all opinions are to be valued, not scorned, andrespected, not ridiculed

11

I.5 Review of previous studies:

The use of pair and group work in speaking lesson is not a totally new area toresearchers Many of researchers invested the effectiveness of using pair and group work inlanguage teaching and learning McDonough (2004) reports that learner-learner interactionthrough group work activities was useful for practicing oral communication skills Thestudies mentioned above have firmly asserted the important roles of group work activities inimproving learners’ speaking skill Phuong (2008) reports that pair and group work helped toincrease students’ participation in communicative activities in large classes Phuong (2008)found out the students’ interest in discussion when applying group work activities in speakinglesson According to Duong (2006), group work helped students to realize that they couldwork independently of the teachers and they could learn from other students and helped eachother In addition, group work created a good atmosphere in the speaking class and it alsohelped to build rapport among class members Most of these studies explored mainly on thebenefits of the techniques, they have not made clear what process teachers and learners wentthrough when implementing pair and group work

There have now been a few researches on the process of implementing group work inspeaking lessons Rob Watkins (2005) suggested that the effectiveness of group workdepends on the types of motivation the teacher use in the class and the way they design groupwork activity Duong (2006) investigated the current situations of teaching and learningEnglish through pair and group work of the first-year students at Hanoi Open University –Faculty of Tourism According to her, the steps of implementing are: setting up (organizingthe pairs and group/ giving instructions), monitoring (listening to the pairs/ groups during theactivity and guiding / giving support/ making notes) and winding down (bring the activity to aclose and providing feedback) Phuong (2008) show that the success of communicative pairsand group work activities is often determined by the work the teacher does before thestudents begins the activities itself These studies have focused on the process of group workimplementation in speaking lesson of non-major English students Understanding of the pairand group work organizing processes would enable teachers to better facilitate learners incommunicative activities

group work implementation The researcher wants to investigate the activities of pair andgroup work are used in speaking class in hope of finding out the useful ones for both teachersand the 1st year students at Tourism Faculty, TUCST.

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY

This chapter starts by describing the situation where the study is conducted It includes an overview of TUOCST, the teachers of English, the students, the textbooks, the current teaching and learning situation The subjects and the method of data collection are also discussed in details The analysis of the data collected from the survey questionnaires and interviews is at the end of the part.

II.1 Background of the study

II.1.1 An overview of the research site

Thanh Hoa University of Culture, Sports and Tourism is newly established on basis ofupgrading Thanh Hoa College of Culture and Arts When the school was the college, its dutywas to train in the fields of Art, Music, Culture Management, Informatics Library, TourGuide English serves as a mean that provides students with basic knowledge about grammarand vocabulary

Since upgrading to the University, every year our university admits about 1,000 newlyenrolled students for a course of 4 years study There are numerous of students in the Faculty

of Culture, and Faculty of Tourism in which train future culture managements and tourguides Therefore, English is considered as the compulsory subject in the course syllabus withthe purpose of helping the students to develop their English communicative skills to meet thedemand for their future employment So General English is chosen for providing basicknowledge and skills to the first year students

II.1.2 Descriptions of English teachers, teaching method and teaching material in TUCST

Our university has got 8 teachers of English aged from between 25 to 40 Almost ofthem have Master Degree and at least four years of teaching experience Both of them loveand enthusiasm with teaching English

In terms of language teaching, teachers are always aware of the importance of the newtrend in teaching method nowadays: learner- centered approach, communicative approachwhen teaching English to the students They try to give their students independence instudying by asking them to work through the text or discussing subject matters in groups,giving them some instructions before asking them to make presentation or role play in front

of the class, students at the time play the key role in the lesson However, only one or twoteachers can sometimes do these and the amount of time spent on such activities is not much

Our current material of teaching General English is the course-book Lifelines –

Elementary written by Tom Hutchinson This course-book is divided into fourteen units, each

of them has been divided into four parts in which “listening and speaking” part aims atproviding students the different topics and structures through listening and requires them to

practice speaking skills After every two units there is an “extension” section accompanied

with two class cassettes The total time of learning is 135 periods within 16 weeks of twosemesters of the first year Each units lasts for 8 periods So in each semester, students have

to learn English in 6-8 periods per week All of teachers agree to spend 2-3 periods each unit

to teach speaking Some teachers teach speaking with others skills, but most of teacher teachspeaking as separated periods

II.1.3 Descriptions of students at TUCST

Most of students at TUCST are those who are low-based knowledge of English andmost of them come from rural areas They are beginners at English when entering the firstyear of university and of different language proficiency levels Some of them have learnedEnglish for 7 years at secondary and high school some have only learned English for 3 yearsand some others have never learned English before, so it is very difficult for the teachersapply new approaches in teaching them

II.1.4 Descriptions of teaching and learning of English speaking skills for the first year students at Tourism Faculty through organizing pair work and group work

It can be seen that communication is the goal of English language learning Itspurpose is to help students develop their communicative competence This makes teachingand learning to improve students’ speaking skills to be an important part in any Englishcourse Like in many other universities in Vietnam, English teachers at TUCST find out thebenefits of using pair and group work and spend much time to apply these techniques todevelop students’ speaking skills However, we have some problems such as: large classes;noises; lazy and passive students The major concerns of this research are find out the usefultechniques for organizing pair work and group work to help teachers and students in teachingand learning speaking English

II.2 Methodology

II.2.1 Participants

The subjects of the study are 6 teachers of English who teach General English forstudents of Tourism Faculty at TUCST They range from 25 to 40 years of age Of the 6teachers, four teachers have more than five years experience in teaching and the other two

have teaching experience ranging from 2 to 5 years All teachers have Master Degree andexperience pair and group work activity when they were students.

The first year, 110 students were randomly chosen from 122 students of 2 classes.Their age varied between 19 and 21 so they belonged to the same psychological age group.Because of entering in Tourism Faculty, most of them have low English background Theirlength of English learning at school (before entering our university) was different Some ofthem who live in the city have learned English for 7 years, others who live in the countrysidehave learnt English for 3 years

II.2.2 Research instruments

The instruments used to collect data was questionnaire and interview for the teachersand the first year students to get information about using pair work, group work in speakingclasses Two sets of questionnaires were designed to investigate the teachers’ and students’opinion about the use of pair work and group work in the speaking classes of the 1st yearstudents of Tourism Department, TUCST

The first are the questionnaires for the students including 10 questions written inVietnamese, was administered to 110 students This is divided into 4 parts:

Part 1: Students’ opinions on speaking skill (Question 1, 2, 3)

Part 2: Students’ opinions on the use of pair work, group work in speaking class(Question 4, 5)

Part 3: Students’ recommendation for organizing of pair and group work (Question 6,

Part 1: Teachers’ opinions on teaching speaking skill (Question 1, 2,3)

Part 2: Teachers’ appreciation of pair, group work in speaking class (Question 4, 5)Part 3: The teachers’ implemention of pair work, group work in their current speakingclass (Question 6, 7, 8)

Part 4: Teacher’s appreciation the improvement of students’ learning speakingEnglish after the 1st semester of using pair work and group work (Question 9,10)

In order to test the validity of the information obtained from the questionnaires, twointerviews with both the teachers and students were carried out Three teachers and fivestudents chosen at random from two classes were invited to the interviews The questions inthe interview were basically based on those in the questionnaire, but they were extended tocover more open-ended questions to get through understanding of the reasons behind eachchoice And the main aim of the interview was to appreciate the improvement of students’speaking skill after the 1st semester learning speaking at our university

II.2.3 Data analysis

The data of the study was analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively As forquantitative analysis, we used descriptive statistics to quantify the data in form of charts andfigures The qualitative data were obtained from the interview

II.3 Presentation of statistical results:

II.3.1 The result of language learning survey questionnaires and direct interview:

II.3.1.1 Students’ opinions on speaking skill

Table 1: Students’ opinions on speaking skill

students %

a It’s a compulsory subject in the curriculum 16 14,5

b Learning speaking English is to pass the oral

1 tests

c Speaking English is necessary fot your future job 90 81,8

d Learning speaking English is your interest 20 18,2

The statistics in table 1 shows the students’ opinions on speaking skill It can clearly

be seen that most of the students asked (81,8 %) say that speaking is necessary for their future

learn Speaking skill because English is compulsory at their university Some students findEnglish really interesting while there are 56 out of 110 students (62,8 %) who want to learn

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speaking skill just to pass the oral test About 18,2% of them stated that English is theirinterest It means that speaking English is so important for most of the students.

Table 2: Students’ opinions on the way to learn speaking skill

be understood that most of the students see the importance of working in pair and group forthe better speaking skill This also means that pair work and group work are surely the mostsuitable activities for the speaking skill In the interview, some students revealed:

“ I feel really comfortable when I work with my partners”

“ I like working in pairs and in groups because I feel free and active”

“I‟m afraid of answering the teacher‟s questions as I have just learnt English, so I am not confident enough”

“My speaking proficiency is not good so I think it‟s good that teacher deliver lecture and I take note”

II.3.1.2 Students’ opinions on the use of pair work, group work in speaking class

Very often

Often

Not very often

Chart 1: Students’ opinions on the teachers’ frequent use of pair and group work

Not very surprising information from table is that the students (85 %) affirm that the teachers

in their university often use the pair work and group work in the speaking lesson very oftenbecause it is compulsory that the teachers implement this to follow the book activities

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planned in the teacher’s book and make the students get used to doing this for any oral testand may be for the students’ future job This is of great use in helping the students tocommunicate with each other.

Table 3: Students’ opinions on the impact of pair and group work

Questions

a It increases the students’ speaking time 82 74,5

b It promotes students’ independence and

chance of expressing themselves

c It improves students’ motivation 85 77,3

e Students can learn from each other 80 72,7

It was obvious that almost all the students ( more than 70%) found that pair work andgroup work were so beneficial for their speaking skill that they can speak more in English,they can be much more confident and they also have chance to express themselves, theirindependence, cooperation and motivation in speaking were improved Regarding the benefit

of learning from each other of group work, 72,7% (80 out of 110) the students stated that theylearnt each other so much Some of them said as follows:

“ I‟m encouraged to speak out with my friends‟ help I don‟t feel shy to express my opinion with them My partners help me a lot with my pronunciation”

“ My friends helps me a lot with my English especially grammar and vocabulary when I work with them”

“When answering my teacher‟s question I really shy, but I am much more confident as speaking to my partners in pairs or in groups”

II.3.1.3 Students’ recommendation for the success of pair and group work

Chart 2: Activities students wished teachers to select for pair and group work (Question 6)

Games Role-play Interviewing Information Drama Projects Problem Discussing Opinion

As can be seen in Chart 3, all of the students (100%) chose role-playing, games,

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Problem solving was the choice of 75% of the students And Drama and projects received only 10% and 20% of the students respectively.

The reasons to explain students’ high appreciation for these selections were given by students

in interviews, such as:

“I like games and interviewing because these activities often create exciting atmosphere.”

“These activities are also not too difficult and time-consuming for us to prepare and make presentation”

“I like work in pair with my partner to exchange my opinions, discussing and problem solving on favorite topics They make me feel confident and comfortable in speaking

“ I don‟t like drama and project activities because they are actually difficult and need much efforts to do.

Table 4: Students’ wishes about the partners in pair and group work

7 c.Students of lower English proficiency level 10 9,1

d Students sitting next or near to each other 13 11,8

e Students of the same interest 12 10,9About the students they preferred working with in pairs and in groups, most of thestudents wanted to work with the students who were at the same level or higher level ofproficiency Working with the people they really liked was also preferred by 10,9% Also,some of them (11,8%) liked working with the ones at the same table However, few of them(9,1%) liked working with the students who were worse at English In the interview somestudents revealed as follows

“I enjoy working with the students who are better than me as I can learn from them”

“If my partners are good, they can help me”.

“Working with the students at lower level of proficiency often makes me lazier”.

“Discussing with the people I like might be more effective”.

Table 5: Students’ recommendation for the things the teacher should do

Questions

students

a Give clear instruction with examples 110 100

b provide necessary vocabulary and

8 functional language

34 30,9performance and help if necessary

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d Minimize teacher’s talking time 110 100

e not to interrupt when students’

One very important thing which helps to improve group work activities is to get the

students ideas about what the teachers should do about that It is quite clear that all of them

(100 %) wanted their teachers to minimize his/her talking time, to create a competitive

atmosphere, to give feedback, praise and encouragement and give clear instruction But

60,9% wanted their teachers not to interrupt when they made mistakes 40,9 % would like

their teacher to give enough necessary vocabulary and functional language for their activities

Some other requirements the teacher should do in pair and group work activities were

revealed in interviews:

“I don‟t like my teacher sit in her chair and do her work during our pair and group

activities”

“It‟s very necessary that the teacher go around the class, answer any our questions,

sometimes she should help to translate some words into English”

“The teachers should give some more interesting topics in our activities, so we can do that

easily”

“I wish the teachers should not give too much homework after the pair and group work

activities”

II.3.1.4 Students’ appreciation the improvement of their learning speaking English

after the 1 st semester of using pair work and group work.

Chart 3: Students’ response to pair work and group work activities (Question 9)

100

60 Percentage

40

20

12 20

6 0

interested

The data from Chart 3 showed that more than half of the students (65.5 %) were

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