VINH UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE ------ How to Improve PEER INTERACTION IN the 10 th FORM ENGLISH CLASS in high schools (Làm thế nào để cải thiện sự tơng tác giữa học sinh lớp 10 trong giờ học tiếng anh) summary of Graduation thesis Field: methodology Supervisor: nguyễn thị vân lam, M.A. Student: nguyễn thị bích hạnh Class: 46a-eNGLISH Vinh, 2009 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT For the accomplishment of this study, I have revived a great deal of helpful assistance from many people. First and foremost, I would like to extend my gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Van Lam, M.A. for supporting me and challenging me. With her profound knowledge and teaching experience as well as great enthusiasm, she has given me a lot of advice, comments, and encouragement in order that I could finish my research with the most desired result. I am deeply thankful to all the teachers of the Foreign Language Department of Vinh University whose lectures and guides have helped me much while I carried out this study. I would also express my special thanks to all the English teachers and students at Nguyen Du High School. Thanks to their help, I could finish the survey used for my study. My deepest thanks are for my beloved family and my friends who always support and encourage me during my preparation till the completion of the study. Their love and support mean more to me than they will ever know. I have tried my best; however, as a result of the limitation of knowledge, experience as well as materials, mistakes are unavoidable. Thus, I would like to receive any regard and comment from you on my study. Vinh, May 2009 Nguyen thi bich hanh Table of contents 2 acknowledgements . i TABLE OF CONTENTS ii TABLES AND CHARTS iv ABBREVIATION v DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE .1 Clt : Communicative Language Teaching 7 T : Teacher .7 Ss : Students 7 Part one: Introduction .7 Part two: Investigation .11 CHAPTER 1: Theoretical Background .11 1.1. Interaction 11 1.1.1. Definition of Interaction .11 1.1.2. Role of Interaction in Second Language Learning 11 1.1.2.1. Interactional Modification Theory 12 1.1.2.2. Sociocultural Theory .13 1.2. Peer Interaction 14 1.2.1. Definition of Peer Interaction .14 1.2.2. Peer Interaction in Language Class 15 1.2.2.1. Communicative Language Teaching .15 1.2.2.2. The Students’ Role 16 1.2.2.3. The Teacher’ Role .16 1.2.2.4. Advantages of Peer Interaction in Language Class .18 1.2.2.5. Problems of Peer Interaction in Language Class 20 1.2.3. Types of Peer Interaction 21 Peer interaction can be classified in the basis of the number of participants in it. There are three types of peer interaction as follows: .21 1.2.3.1. Pair Peer Interaction .21 1.2.3.2. Group Peer Interaction .21 1.2.3.3. Whole Class Peer Interaction 23 chapter 2: REAL SITUATION OF USING PEER INTERACTION IN THE 10TH FORM ENGLISH CLASS 24 3 2.1. General Characteristics of the 10th Form Students 24 2.2. Characteristics of the New English Textbook of the 10th Form 26 2.3. The Survey .28 2.3.1. The Informants and Setting 28 2.3.2. Questionnaire Description .29 There are eight questions in the survey questionnaire for the teachers. In each question from 1 to 6, there are 4 options, namely a, b, c and d. For the first question, the teachers have to provide information about how long they have been teaching English. Answering question 2, they tell us whether they meet difficulty with the new English textbook or not. The third question is intended to examine the teachers' perception of peer interaction. The author would like to know how important the teachers find peer interaction in their teaching. The fourth question is concerned with frequency of the teachers' using peer interaction activity in class and question 5 with average number of peer interaction used in each class. For the sixth question, the author wants to know how effective the teachers find using peer interaction activities. For question 7, the teachers have to rank the type of peer interaction they use most or least, with “1” being most, “3” being least. Question 7 is used to examine which type of peer interaction the teachers often use. The last question is about the teachers' own opinion about applying peer interaction in teaching English with 5 levels ranging from 1–strongly disagree to 5–strongly agree .29 2.3.3. The Survey Result from Teachers 30 2.3.4. The Survey Result from Students .32 2.4. Real Situation of Using Peer Interaction in the 10th Form English Class in High Schools .34 chapter 3: 40 Suggested Activities for Peer Interaction Improvement in THE 10th Form English Class .40 3.1. Stages of Organizing a Peer Interaction Activity 40 3.1.1. Preparation 40 3.1.1.1. Peer Interaction or not? 40 3.1.1.2. Selecting Material 41 3.1.1.3. Teaching Specific Communication Skills .42 3.1.2. Organizing the Activity 43 First, the teacher gives instruction to the whole class before dividing the students into pairs or groups. Vietnamese students are accustomed to teacher-directed lectures and do not see classroom discussion or dialogue as part of language learning. When their teachers use dialogue, discussion, and small group work for language learning, they may think that the 4 teachers are being lazy and the activities are a waste of time. Therefore, the teacher needs to explain the rationale for the different types of activities they assign and the ways that these activities can build language skills .43 3.1.3. Evaluation .45 3.2. Suggested Activities for Peer Interaction Improvement .46 3.2.1. Review/ Warmer Activities 47 3.2.2. Presentation Activities 47 3.2.3. Practice Activities .48 3.2.4. Evaluation/Feedback Activities 49 3.3. Examples of Activities for Peer Interaction Improvement Applied within "Tieng Anh 10" .50 Part three: conclusion 55 I. Recapitulation .55 TABLES AND CHARTS Table 2.1. The survey result from teachers for questions 1 to 6 30 Chart 2.1. The survey result form teachers for question 7 31 Chart 2.2. The survey result form teachers for question 8 31 .32 Table 2.2. The survey result from students for questions from 1 to 6 .32 Chart 2.3. The survey result form students for question 7 33 5 Chart 2.4. The survey result form students for question 8 34 Chart 2.5. The survey result form students for question 9 34 ABREVIATION 6 Clt : Communicative Language Teaching T : Teacher Ss : Students Part one: Introduction 1. The Reasons for Choosing the Study English has been widely used all over the world and become the international language. It is, hence, understandable why the demand of English learning is increasing considerably day by day. Furthermore, the goal of the language learners has changed and shifted from obtaining language knowledge to achieving the communicative ability in English. 7 Educationists and linguists have made great efforts to find the most appropriate method with the view to enabling language learners to get the most desired results. To meet the need, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is applied as the dominant method. Unlike other traditional methods, in CLT, the learner’s role is more emphasized. Most of classtime is devoted to student-student interaction, not teacher-student interaction. As a result, students can participate more actively, and they can direct and develop the classroom activities by interacting among themselves while the teacher is a facilitator of the learning process. In other words, peer interaction becomes the primary and powerful technique in modern language teaching. Additionally, it is believed that like other cognitive development, language proficiency can be obtained through interaction, including peer interaction. Peer interaction can provide various learning opportunities. Not only more proficient learners assist their peers but mutual assistance among the learners of similar proficiency also occurs. Consequently, peer interaction can promote the quality of language learning. However, despite its significance, peer interaction in English teaching and learning in high schools has not been exploited to the maximum to improve English learning quality. Therefore, the author has attempted to conduct the study entitled “ How to Improve Peer Interaction in the 10 th Form English Class in High Schools” to promote an interactive process through which the students could learn from each other through the use of a good selection of interactive class activities. 2. The Objectives of the Study The study has been conducted in order to make contributions to the improvement in English teaching and learning in high schools. The author, hopefully, shows the support for using peer interaction as an effective way to promote English teaching and learning. Thus, the study is aimed to: • Provide a more detailed theoretical framework of peer interaction for teaching English. 8 • Briefly point out common characteristics of the 10 th form students and the new textbook "Tieng Anh 10" as well as present some information about the real situation of using peer interaction activities in English teaching and learning in high schools. • Give procedures to organize a peer interaction activity successfully and some suggested activities to increase peer interaction in the English class as well as some examples of peer interaction activities applied within the new English textbook of the 10 th form. 3. The Scope of the Study In this paper, only the most necessary knowledge about peer interaction, one particular type of interaction, which is used in language teaching, is mentioned. Furthermore, due to limitation of time, it is impossible for the author to carry out the study discussing all the levels of students. Thus, this paper only focuses on the students of the 10 th form in high schools. 4. The Methods of the Study This study has been conducted with the following methods: • Collect materials, mostly from books, magazines and the Internet which refer to peer interaction in language teaching and learning. • Conduct a survey to get information about the real situation of English learning and teaching with the new textbook at Nguyen Du High School. • Analyze and synthesize the data collected, suggest some types of activities for peer interaction improvement. 5. The Design of the Study. The study consists of three main parts: 9 Part one entitled “Introduction” outlines the background of the study. In this part, the author presents the reasons for choosing the topic, the objectives, the methods, the scope, and the design of the study. Part two with the title "Investigation" comprises three chapters. In Chapter 1, ‘Theoretical Background’, the role of interaction in language learning and the main aspects of peer interaction are provided. Chapter 2 deals with the investigation of the factual situation of using peer interaction activities in English teaching and learning in high schools. In Chapter 3, the author gives some suggested activities to increase peer interaction in language class applied within the new English textbook of the 10 th form. Part three is the “Conclusion” in which a brief overview on the achievements of the study is presented. The study ends up with “References” providing a list of sources of materials which are used during the process of writing the study and "Appendix" with the survey questionnaires for teachers and students. 10