An investigation into students’ participation in group work at luu nhan chu high school

- Chart 1: The frequency of teachers organizing group work in an English class - Chart 2: The usual time group work often takes up over the total time of an English lesson - Chart 3: Th

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

-o0o -

VƯƠNG THI ̣ THU HUYỀN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN GROUP WORK AT LUU NHAN CHU HIGH SCHOOL

( NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ SỰ THAM GIA HOẠT ĐỘNG NHÓM CỦA HỌC

SINH TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT LƯU NHÂN CHÚ)

M.A MINOR THESIS

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

STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

-o0o -

VƯƠNG THỊ THU HUYỀN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN GROUP WORK AT LUU NHAN CHU HIGH SCHOOL

( NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ SỰ THAM GIA HOẠT ĐỘNG NHÓM CỦA HỌC

SINH TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT LƯU NHÂN CHÚ)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field : English Language Teaching Methodology Code : 60.14.10

Supervisor: ĐÀO THU TRANG, M.A

Ha Noi, 2012

- Chart 1: The frequency of teachers organizing group work in an English class

- Chart 2: The usual time group work often takes up over the total time of an English lesson

- Chart 3: The benefits of group work

- Chart 4: Skills teachers often use with group work

- Chart 5: The ways teachers often prepare for group work classes

- Chart 6: Skill most suitable with group work

- Chart 7: Do students like taking part in group work in an English lesson?

- Chart 8: Students’ opinion about appropriate time for group work

- Chart 9: Students’ opinion about group work’s benefits

- Chart 10: The frequency of students taking part in group work

- Chart 11: Students’ opinions about difficulties when taking part in group work

- Chart 12: Students’ opinions about what their teachers should to make group work successful

3 Tables:

- Table 1:Ways teachers often use to group students

- Table 2: Problems group work can cause

- Table 3: Factors affecting the success of group work most

- Table 4: What the teacher should do to make group work successful in an English lesson

- Table 5: Characteristics of the students participating in the language learning survey

- Table 6: Students’ opinions about suitable skills for group work

- Table 7: The ways students grouped by their teachers

- Table 8: Students’s preparation for group work

- Table 9: Students’ opinions about factors affecting the success of group work most

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND CHARTS iv

Part A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3.Scope of the study 2

4 Research questions of the study 2

5 Methods of the study 3

6 Design of the study 3

Part B: DEVELOPMENT 5

Chapter 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5

1.1 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) 5

1.1.1.Definitions of CLT 5

1.1.2 Characteristics of CLT 6

1.2 Group work in teaching and learning English 7

1.2.1 Definition of group work 7

1.2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of group work 7

1.2.2.1 The advantages of group work 7

1.2.2.2 The disadvantages of group work 8

1.2.3 How to organize group work 9

1.2.3.1 Preparation for group work 9

1.2.3.2 Steps in classroom 9

1.2.3.3 Steps of organizing group work 11

1.2.4 Difficulties in organizing group work and suggested solutions 12

1.2.4.1.Difficulties : 13

1.2.4.2 Solutions : 13

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1.3 Concepts of students’ participation in group work 14

1.4 Summary 15

Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY 16

2.1 Context of the study 16

2.1.1 Description of English syllabus at Luu Nhan Chu High school 16

2.1.2 Description of the students at Luu Nhan Chu high school 16

2.1.3 Description of the teachers at Luu Nhan Chu school 17

2.2 Methodology and design of the study 17

2.2.1 The participants 17

2.2.2 Research questions 18

2.2.3 Research methods 18

2.2.4 Research instruments 18

2.2.4.1 Survey questionnaire 18

2.2.4.2 Classroom observation 19

2.3 Presentation of statisical results 19

2.3.1 Questionnaires 19

2.3.2 Classroom observation 33

Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS 35

3.1 Findings 35

3.1.1 What are the difficulties in organizing group work at Luu Nhan Chu high school? 35 3.1.1.1 Difficulties from teachers 35

3.1.1.2 Difficulties from students 35

3.1.1.3 Other difficulties 36

3.1.2 How is group work organized in an English class at Luu Nhan Chu high school? How do the students participate in group work? 37

3.1.3 What are attitudes of the students at Luu Nhan Chu high school towards the application of group work in teaching and learning English? 38

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3.1.4 How to organize group work in English class more effectively for improve

fours skills to students at Luu Nhan Chu high school? 38

3.2 Suggestions 39

3.2.1 To teachers: 39

3.2.2 To students: 40

Part C: CONCLUSION 41

1 Summary of the study 41

2 Limitations of the study 41

3 Suggestions for further study 42

REFERENCES: 43

APPENDIXES I

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Part A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Nowadays, English has become one of the most popular languages in the world Because of its popularity, teaching and learning English is paid more attention everywhere, especially Viet Nam One of the reasons is that English is widely used in many fields such as politics, business, international conference, education or just everyday communication

However, the results of the English learning are not very good Vietnamese teachers of English may not have applied the teaching method in effective ways For many years, we taught English in a traditional way in which teacher played the role of the knowledge provider and the students were the passive knowledge receivers However, with the help of the communicative approach in language teaching, we are now paying more attention to the role of students in the class We begin to realize the importance of students‟ interaction We begin to teach English in a more natural way

by putting it in real communicative situations The teachers are now trying to organize communicative activities in English classes, among them, group work, key features of learner- centered orientation- has received more emphasis because of a number of advantages it brings about

Group work creates more opportunities for students to work with each other by exchanging their ideas and, therefore, learning so many things from their partners Participating in group work makes students confident and creative in learning English

It also helps students overcome shyness

Group work brings advantages not only for the learners but also for the teachers First of all, it saves time Instead of asking individual student to practice a structure or answer the questions, the teacher can divide the class into groups and make them do the exercise at the same time

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Being a teacher of English at Luu Nhan Chu High School, the researcher is well aware of the importance of using group work in English classes However, like many school teacher in Viet Nam, we still face with common problems coming from teachers, students, classroom condition when organizing and using group work This

led me to the choice of the study: “ An investigation into students’ participation in group work at Luu Nhan Chu High school.” with the hope of investigating the ways

teachers organize group work and the students‟ participation into group work to find out an effective way to improve four English skills for students at Luu Nhan Chu High School It is also hoped that this study may offer the teachers of English at Luu Nhan Chu High School ways on how to use group work in teaching four English skills more effectively

2 Aims of the study

The aims of the study are:

- to investigate students‟ participation in group work and why they participated

in group work, the ways they did

- to explore some strategies to increase students‟ participation in group work

3.Scope of the study

As mentioned above, the study focuses on ways to organize and use group work

as well as the students‟ participation in group work at Luu Nhan Chu High school The researcher intends to draw a brief overview of group work in classes at Luu Nhan Chu High School and to find out the ways to organize group work more effectively

4 Research questions of the study

This study was aimed to answer the following research questions:

1 What are attitudes of the students at Luu Nhan Chu high school towards group work

in teaching and learning English?

2 How do the students participate in group work?

3 How is group work organized in an English class at Luu Nhan Chu High school?

3

How to organize group work in English class more effectively for students at Luu Nhan Chu high school?

5 Methods of the study

To realize the aims of the study, both qualitative and quantitative methods are used

- By means of qualitative method: the author has to refer to different materials, lectures, former researchers and relevant issues related to group work and teaching and learning English to gain more knowledge of the subject matter and

to come to the final conclusion

- By means of quantitative method: all comments, remarks, recommendation assumption and conclusion provided in the study based on the analysis of the statistics from the survey questionnaires conducted with students and teachers of Luu Nhan Chu High School

In addition, the researcher also used class observations with the hope that two methodologies supplemented each other so that the data could be more reliable

6 Design of the study

This study consists of three parts:

Part A: Introduction: presents rationale, aims, scope, research questions, methods

and design of the study

Part B: Developments: consists of three chapters

Chapter 1: Theoretical background: reviews the theory of CLT, group work and

students‟ participation in group work

Chapter 2: Methodology: provides an analysis on the current situation of using

group work in teaching and learning English at Luu Nhan Chu High school Data collection and analysis are also presented in this chapter

Chapter 3: Findings and suggestions: focuses on how the teachers at Luu Nhan

Chu High School organized group work, difficulties faced by them and their students

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in using these activities and some suggestions for the teachers to organize group work and for the students to learn more effectively

Part C: Conclusion: summarizes all the key issues as well as the limitations of the

study and makes suggestions for further research

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Part B: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter is devoted to building a conceptual framework for the research It consists of three sections Section one deals with the issue of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) which is intended to be discussed in terms of CLT definitions and its characteristics Section two concerns some concepts of group work, the benefits of group work, the ways to organize group work and difficulties when organizing group work Following section two, section three focuses on the concepts of students‟ participation in group work

1.1 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

Another theorist frequently cited for his views on the communicative nature of language is Henry Widdowson In his book Teaching Language as Communication (1978),Widdowson presented a view of the relationship between linguistic systems and their communicative values in text and discourse He focused on the communicative acts underlying the ability to use language for different purposes

Littlewood (1984) consideres an alternative learning theory that he also see as compatible with CLT-a skill-learning model of learning According to this theory, the acquisition of communicative competence in a language is an example of skill

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development This involves both a cognitive and a behavioral aspect

The cognitive aspect involves the internalisation of plans for creating appropriate behaviour For language use, these plans derive mainly from the language system- they include grammatical rules, procedures for selecting vocabulary,and social conventions governing speech

The behavioural aspect involves the automation of these plans so that they can

be converted into fluent performance in real time This occurs mainly through practice

in converting plans into performance (Littiewood 1984: 74) This theory thus encourages an emphasis on practice as a way of developing communicative skills (Richards 1986)

With CLT, students are given the language they need to deal with real situations Less importance is placed on producing grammatically correct English, while more importance is placed on dealing effectively with the situation

In other words, CLT deals with communicative competence - the ability to communicate - rather than grammatical accuracy

1.1.2 Characteristics of CLT

It is no doubt that the characteristics of CLT, if precisely understood, may help teachers translate the theory of CLT into classroom reality and make their classroom “ communicative”

David Nunan (1991:279) lists five basic characteristics of Communicative Language Teaching:

- An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language

- The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation

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

- An enhancement of the learner‟s own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning

1.2 Group work in teaching and learning English

1.2.1 Definition of group work

There are many definitions about group work:

Adrian Doff ( 1988: 137) 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), all the groups work at the same time”

According to Richards ( 1983: 189), group work is an essential activity because the kind of interactions produced in group activities has been shown to be quantitatively as well as qualitatively different from that which goes on in the teacher- dominated lessons

Clearly, group work is a co- operative activity, during which students share aims and responsibilities, moreover, they have chance for greater independence as they take some of their own learning decisions, without the teacher controlling every move And they can work without the pressure of the whole class listening to what they are doing They learn to listen to different opinions They feel free to experiment and use the language, and the most important thing is they have many chances to interact with each other

1.2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of group work

1.2.2.1 The advantages of group work

According to Hubert Skrzynski, group work plays an important role in teaching and learning Engish because of several advantages as follows:

- Increase in the amount of student practice: When students work in group they have

more chances to practise Group work drammatically increases students talking time

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and students‟ participation

- Increase in the students’ confidence: Students who are shy of speaking in front of

the whole class, or to the teacher, often find it much easier to express themselves in front of a small group For teachers, because there are more than two people in a group, there is a greater chance of different opinions and varied contributions than in working individually or in pairs, it frees the teacher from her traditional role of “ an expert who always lectures” and allows her to wander freely round the class, leading and encouraging discussion, giving help where needed ( Harmer, 1999: 116)

- Mutual help: Group work encourages students to share ideas and knowledge In a

class, there are always weak and strong students, so working in groups, students can learn from each other a lot It recognizes the old maxims that “ two heads are better than one”, thus promoting learner cooperation ( Adrian Doff, 1988: 144)

1.2.2.2 The disadvantages of group work

Using group work also has some disadvantages Belows are some common problems:

- Native language interference: One of the disadvantages is that students often speak

in their native language If the class is really big with many students, it is very difficult for the teacher to listen all groups at the same time However, the teacher can change this situation by establishing certain rules at the beginning of the school year

- Noisiness: Clearly, working in group in a large class will be noisy The teachers have

more trouble than the learners have Usually the students themselves are not disturbed

by the noise as much as the teacher is

- Mistake correction: Another problem is incorrectness While students work in group,

the teacher cannot control all the language used, thus, cannot correct every mistake students make

To sum up, in spite of several disadvantages, the advantages of group work far outweighed the disadvantages Instead of being dependent on the teacher, students get used to helping and learning from each other in a non- threatening environment

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Meanwhile, the teacher is left free to discreetly monitor progress and give help, advice and encouragement where and when it is needed

1.2.3 How to organize group work

1.2.3.1 Preparation for group work

In order to prepare for group work, according to Felisa Tibbits, the teacher needs to do the following:

- Select the activity

- Prepare materials

- Anticipate the size and the selection of groups

- Anticipate how students will be organized within the groups (tasks and roles)

- Consider the timing of the group

- Consider how the small group will be shared with the entire class and linked with the overall curriculum

1.2.3.2 Steps in classroom

* Selection of activity

An activity that is best suited for group work may meet the following criteria:

- The activity has multiple tasks that can be shared among group members or a single task, such as generating ideas, that benefit from the participation of all individuals within a group

- The activity involves problem solving and discussion

- Examples of activities that may be suited for group work are investigations of materials (newspapers, scientific specimens) and development of ideas or arguments

* Preparation of materials

The teacher will need to personally collect, or organize students to collect, physical specimens for investigation For example, if the teacher anticipates doing a lesson on the role of the media, she or he might ask the students to bring in to class

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newspapers and magazines There should be materials sufficient for each group

* Size and selection of group

Group size normally ranges between 3-5 students Group size can sometimes go larger although groups larger than 8 do not ensure that everyone will participate

Since groups often report their work back to the whole class, teachers also take into account the total number of groups within the class

Group membership can be determined in different ways A random selection might be done by “counting off” with students (go around the room systematically having students count 1, 2, 3, etc., with each numbers representing a group) or selecting groups on the basis of birth date

In a non random selection, groups will be selected based on the teachers‟ prior knowledge Usually, groups are selected to maximize diversity within the group, since diversity enhances learning Such groups often have a balance of girls and boys, and students with differing ability levels Teachers can also use their best judgement about personality mixes that would enhance the work of the group

Sometimes groups are organized only for one activity Other times, teachers use the same small groups for a series of activities, so that students get used to working with one another

If the tables and chairs cannot be moved for group work, then students can form groups by turning around in seats to face their partners behind

* Organization of students within the group

A laissez- faire approach to group work would be that the teacher gives a general assignment to the group- like organizing a research project on „qualities of good leaders‟- and the students are left to organize themselves

A highly structured approach would be that the teacher assigns a specific role to each group member A semi- structured approach might be that the teacher recommend certain roles, but leaves it to the group to assign roles

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A more structured approach, with rotation of tasks within a group, is often used with younger children A less structured approach can be used with students with experience in group work or for simple tasks that do not require that students take on different roles

* Group work timing

The teacher should anticipate student questions about timing, the task results, sharing with the whole group, and so on After giving clear instructions to the students, the teacher should be available to answer questions, but not interfere with the groups‟ activities

It is common in many classrooms that a small group activity constitutes 20 minutes of a 40 minute- period, with 10 minutes allowed for sharing small group work with the whole class

* Group work sharing with the whole class

Usually the results of the small group work are shared with the class This sharing can be oral (reporting out), visual (written or graphic representation), or both

It is highly interesting to contrast the results of group work

1.2.3.3 Steps of organizing group work

Harmer, J devides it in to 3 steps : before activities, during activities and after activities

* Before : The teacher should make students feel enthusiastic about what they are

going to do They need to understand what they are going to do, and when they have to finish the task they are going to get involved in

Sometimes teacher‟s instructions will involve a demonstration- when, for example, students are going to use a new information- gap activity or use card On other occasions, where an activity is familiar, teacher may simply give them an instruction to practise the language they are to study in groups, or to use their dictionaries to find specific bits of information

The important thing about instructions is that the students should understand and agree on what the task is To check that they do teacher may ask them to repeat the

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instructions, or, in monolingual classes, to translate them in to their first language

* During : While students are working in groups the teachers have a number of

options They could, for instance, stand at their convenience in the classroom and keep

an eye on what is happening, noting who appears to be stuck, disengaged, or about to finish In this position teacher can „tune in‟ to a particular group from some distance away The teachers can then decide whether to go over and help that group

An alternative procedure is to go round the class watching and listening to specific groups The teacher can stay (with their agreement) for a period of time and then intervene if we think it is appropriate or necessary, always bearing in mind the difference between accuracy and fluency work

When students are working in groups the teacher has an ideal opportunity to work with individual students whom they feel would benefit from their teachers‟ attention They also have a great chance to act as observer, picking up information about students‟ progress

* After : When groups stop working together the teacher needs to organise feedback

The teacher wants to let them discuss what occurred during the group session and, where necessary, add their own assessments and make corrections

Where groupwork has formed part of a practice session, our feedback may take the form of having a few groups quickly demonstrate the language they have been using The teachers can then correct it, if and when necessary, and this procedure will give both those students and the rest of the class good information for future learning and action

Finally, it is vital to remember that constructive feedback on the content of student work can greatly enhance students‟ future motivation The feedback the teachers give on language mistakes is only one part of that process

1.2.4 Difficulties in organizing group work and suggested solutions

When teachers organize groupwork, they encounter some difficulties

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1.2.4.1.Difficulties :

According to Andy Hoodith- Saitama University, there are three main difficulties while working in pair and group

* Space : The furniture in the class is fixed, the teachers and students can not change

or have no time to do it Sometimes the class is too crowded (with more than 50 students in a small room), there is no space for them to move Thus group work proves

to be difficult to organize in such situation

* Instruction : It is neccesary for students to know what the teacher wants them to do

This sounds obvious and easy, but in some case, some students don‟t know exactly what they have to do Some teachers try to give instructions in the target language, and, ironically it sometimes appears that understanding the instructions in the target language is much more difficult than doing the task

* Activity Types : Group work is fine in theory, but what type of activity to do with it

is a problem Some group members may sit doing nothing if teacher asks a group of four or five to work with a small dialogue And problem solving activities seem to be difficult for groups when one of them or none of them has no idea about the problem

1.2.4.2 Solutions :

Along with the difficulties, some solutions have been suggested by Andy Hoodith

If the furniture in the class is fixed and it is impossible to change the classroom, then the teacher should plan more carefully, and try to create gaps between the groups and circles of interaction

Drawing a plan of the room and visualizing the arrangements will help to achieve this

For difficulties in giving instructions, Andy Hoodith considers that students should be given instructions in their mother tongue It‟s better to be strict, then ease up, than to allow students too much leeway to use their mother tongue in the first few lessons and then try to stop them overusing it One method is to explain briefly in

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English, then if necessary supply written instructions in their mother tongue If students are still not clear, about what to do, then the written instructions probably weren‟t very good ! The teacher can then allow a couple of minutes for them to clarify the instructions for each other in mother tongue, and one example can be made to make students completely understand the instructions

1.3 Concepts of students’ participation in group work

Students‟ participation can be identified in terms of three kinds of interaction : students to their teacher, students to students, and students to materials

The interaction between students and their teacher includes care, contact, co- operation between them in the class Students who have a good interaction with their teacher always participate in the class discussion, support each other and act as the teacher‟s requirement Thus, participation not only means attending the class regularly and on time but also taking part in the lesson actively or showing desire or being active Students become self- centered in the class activities

The interaction between students and students is set up through their discussion

in small groups They work together, help each other, and learn from each other A good interaction involves their co- operation and contribution to the task given Students feel pleasant and comfortable when they work together, then they will do their best to complete the task

Students‟ participation also includes the interaction between students and materials Clearly, students will be active and pay more attention to the lesson if they are interested in the material or the task given In other words, good and interesting materials can get students involved in the lesson Students will find it difficult to participate in the class activities if they do not understand the tasks or feel bored with them ( Ellis, 1994 : 178)

In short, students‟ participation is concerned with their activeness in the lesson, their success in completing the class activities and their attention to what is happening

in the class

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1.4 Summary

In conclusion, this chapter covered the theories related to CLT, classroom work arrangements including group work, advantages, disadvantages of group work, the way how to organize group work, difficulties when organzing group work, and students‟ participation in group work

To increase the students‟ participation in classroom activities, especially in group work, the teacher should encourage students‟ roles in learning activities The next chapter will present all the information concerning the study : the context of the study at Luu Nhan Chu High School including English syllabus, the students and the teachers, the methodology of the study, the participants, research questions, research instruments and presentation of statistical results

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Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1 Context of the study

2.1.1 Description of English syllabus at Luu Nhan Chu High school

Luu Nhan Chu High School is a newly established school in Dai Tu district, Thai Nguyen province We have 30 classes, 10 classes for each course There are three levels of English: English 10, 11 and English 12 Because English is one of the main subjects and it is now a compulsory one in Luu Nhan Chu High school, students have English lessons during the first term and second term of the school year

The textbook chosen for students at Luu Nhan Chu High school is English 10,

11 and 12 by Hoang Van Van, Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, Do Tuan Minh, Nguyen Thu Phuong, Nguyen Quoc Tuan, Nha Xuat Ban Giao Duc In each textbook, there are 16 units which consist of 5 parts: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing and Language Focus After each four unit, there is a test with the aim of checking students basic knowledge of English and practice four skills This is a new textbook with many pictures and suitable for applying Communicative Language Teaching By using this textbook, students‟ communicative competence can be developed and they can know more real things from daily life Students are required to work in group to practise English everyday Moreover, they have chances to listen to native speakers from the tapes

At the end of the course, students have basic knowledge of English, especially grammar, also they can communicate with foreigners by using many different types of conversations

2.1.2 Description of the students at Luu Nhan Chu high school

To be 10th form students at Luu Nhan Chu High School, all students have to take an entrance exam, like many other students in Viet Nam They are all from different, poor countryside in Dai Tu District They have learnt English for four years

at secondary school However, their English language proficiency is very low And

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their levels are not the same in general At Luu Nhan Chu High School, students have

to spend three years to learn Engish to develop their four skills in order to get general certificate of education Like other main subjects, English is taught three periods and one optional period per week Students have four fifteen minute tests, two forty- five minute tests for each term and two final examinations

2.1.3 Description of the teachers at Luu Nhan Chu school

If students are the most important factor in the learning process, teachers are the most important factor in the teaching process In Luu Nhan Chu High School, there are

9 teachers of English language aged from 25 to 31 All of them are very young and there is only one teacher has ever been to a foreign country Of 9 teachers, 7 have been trained at Thai Nguyen college of Education, one has been trained from Hue university and one has been trained at Ha Noi University of foreign study There are only two teachers are learning to get M.A degree Because of the young age and lacking of experience, all teachers at Luu Nhan Chu High School find difficult to be familiar with new teaching method in which the use of procedures that develop the four language skills through working in groups is problem- solving tasks

2.2 Methodology and design of the study

2.2.1 The participants

There are 120 students and 8 teachers at Luu Nhan Chu High School took part

in this study The researcher chose these 120 students from 10th form, 11th form and

12th form randomly Of all 120 students, there are 70 female and 50 male at the age from 16 to 18 They come from different places in Dai Tu District so they may have different background and living condition All of them have learnt English for at least 4 years at their secondary school However, in term of knowledge and learning environment, they are quite different 8 teachers are very young, aged from 25 to 31

A survey is conducted among students and teachers at Luu Nhan Chu High School to find out the information about the current situation of class activities: group

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work The survey questionaire includes information about group work at school ( see Appendix 1 and 2) The results of the survey is illustrated in the next part The reseacher observed 8 classes and then analyze the data collected from the questionaires and class observation sheets to find information to answer the research questions After analyzing the data, some conclusion must be drawn and some suggestions for further research must be made, too

2.2.2 Research questions

In order to get information about group work and to find out the fact how group work is used at Luu Nhan Chu High School and how effectively it is used, the researcher raised the following research questions:

1 How is group work organized in an English class at Luu Nhan Chu High school?

2 What are attitudes of the students at Luu Nhan Chu high school towards the application of group work in teaching and learning English?

3 How do the students participate in group work?

4 How to organize group work in English class more effectively for improve fours skills to students at Luu Nhan Chu high school?

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types of questionnaires: one for teachers and one for students Each of them has ten questions The questionnaires are mainly used for exploiting teachers‟ and students‟ knowledge, experience, their attitude toward group work

2.2.4.2 Classroom observation

Besides questionnaires, classroom observation is another tool to collect more information about the reality of the application of group work activities in teaching and learning English Observation is carried out in different classes The researcher has to design the Class Observation sheet before observing classes The classes observed must be from grade 10 to 12 and with all 8 teachers of English in Luu Nhan Chu High School and they should not be prepared especially for being observed They must be done in normal way And the researcher must not do anything to interfere the class while observing

2.3 Presentation of statisical results

2.3.1 Questionnaires

Questionnaires were taken in Luu Nhan Chu High School from August 5th to August 10th The questionnaires consist of ten questions and after each question there are options for teachers and students to choose, in some questions more than one options can be chosen The questionnaire was aimed at exploring the understanding, the attitude and the way the teachers used group work in their language classes The questionnaires were delivered and collected before the classes were observed

Here are the results of the questionnaires:

* The results of language teaching survey questionnaires

The results of the language teaching survey

This questionnaire helps the reseacher know the attitude, the knowledge and the understanding of group work of the teachers at Luu Nhan Chu High School

Chart 1: The frequency of teachers organizing group work in an English class

As we can see from the first question, when the teachers were asked about their frequency of using group work, 62,5 % of them answered that they sometimes applied group work in teaching English 37,5 % said that they usually used this activity in teaching while noone said that they always or rarely used

In the next question, about the appropriate time amount for using group work in

an English class, none of them chose 5 minutes, most of them ( 87,5%) considered 10

or more is the suitble time amount for working in group One teacher chose from 5 to

15 minutes We can see it from the following chart:

0 25

25 37.5

12.5

5 ms per period 10ms per period 15ms per period more than 15ms others

Chart 2: The usual time group work often takes up over the total time of an English lesson

37.5 0

37.5

0

To improve students' fluency

To creat a relaxing learning environment

To kill time

To give students more chances to exchange their ideas

Others

Chart 3: The benefits of group work

In question 4, all the teachers were asked about the way to organize group work

in an English class All teachers chose students sitting next to each others (students sitting at the same tables) Teachers paid no attention to differences in abilities of students, they only cared for the students‟ seats The percentage is presented in the following table:

a Students at the same table 8 100

b Students from different table 4 50

c Good students with weak students 1 12,5

d Weak students with the weak ones 0 0

e Good students with the good ones 0 0

Table 1: Ways teachers often use to group students

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The questionnaire showed that all the teachers in this school used group work in teaching four skills: reading, speaking, listening and writing, however speaking skill

was used most This is shown in Chart 4: Skills teachers often use with group work:

In the next question, the researcher wanted to know the factors causing problems when using group work According to teachers, main factors are noise, teacher‟s little control of the whole class, inequality of splitting the responsibilities among members in a group

We can see the result from this table:

Q 6

In your opinion,

which of the

following factors

are the problems

group work can

cause?

b Teacher‟s little control of the whole class 8 100

c Inequality of splitting the responsibilities among members in a group 8 100

Table 2: Problems group work can cause

0

25 37.5 50

100

Others Reading Listening Writing Speaking

Bar 1

23

Chart 5: The ways teachers often prepare for group work classes:

To prepare for group work, most of the teachers ( 75 %) used the information in textbook, 37,5 % of the teachers used the same topics in the textbook but modified it in some ways Some of them took an extract or information from another reference books, designed by themselves, or collaborated with their colleagues or get their opinions

Question 8 showed the factors affecting most the success of group work Half of the teachers thought that the co- operation of the students and the language proficiency

of the students are the main factors Some others considered the hardship of the students, teaching experience and teachers‟ age also important Other factors have little influence on it These are presented in the following table:

0

37.5 12.5

25 25

c Teachers‟ language proficiency 0 0

d The teacher‟s ability of organizing group

e Students‟ hardship 4 50

f Students‟ co- operation 5 62,5

g Students‟ language proficiency 5 62,5

Table 3: Factors affecting the success of group work most

As the same view with question 5, the teachers in this school thought that group work is the most useful for teaching speaking ( 100 %), writing ( 50 %), and then listening, reading

0

100 37.5

50 37.5

Others Speaking Listening Writing Reading

Bar 1

Chart 6: Skill most suitable with group work

25

After answering all the questions above, the teachers were asked to give out the ways to make group work more successful in teaching English Most of them ( 87,5 %) agreed that giving clear instruction with examples was quite important Some (50 %) thought that the role of the teacher in language classes was one of the main factors, the teacher should control the class well and there were other reasons some teachers chose

We can see it from the following table:

3 37,5

c Control the whole class 4 50

d Give clear instruction with examples 7 87,5

Table 4: What the teacher should do to make group work successful in an English lesson

From all the data analysis above, we can see that the teachers in Luu Nhan Chu High School have used group work in teaching English, and they have organized group work by different ways to do many activities All of them see that using group work helps students improve their knowledge, develop four skills, especially speaking skill Each teacher uses different methods, however, from the data, the teachers here have followed the textbook too strictly, they have not got materials from other sources to make the activities more interesting Most of them agree that the role of the teacher in creating successful group work for students was very important

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* The results of language learning survey questionnaires

There were 120 sheets of language learning survey questionnaires delivered to

120 students in all three grades 10, 11 and 12 40 students were chosen for each grade The students came from different classes taught by different teachers They were chosen freely, randomly They consisted of both female and male

Table 5: Characteristics of the students participating in the language learning survey

Grade Number

sex The result of English the previous year

Male Female Excellent Good Fare Bad

The results of the language learning survey

This questionnaire helps the researcher know the frequency, the ways the students took part in group work in English classes in Luu Nhan Chu High School From the table above and the results collected, we had some comments:

do not like much dislike

Chart 7: Do students like taking part in group work in an English lesson?