Using peer interaction activities to teach english speaking skill in the tenth form class = sử dụng các hoạt động tương tác giữa học sinh lớp 10 để dạy kỹ năng nói tiếng anh luận văn tốt nghiệp đại học

Whole Class Peer Interaction Activities...15 CHAPTER 2: REAL SITUATION OF USING PEER INTERACTION ACTIVITIES TO TEACH ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL IN THE TENTH FORM CLASS...17 2.1.. Real Situat

(SỬ DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG TƯƠNG TÁC GIỮA

HỌC SINH LỚP 10 ĐỂ DẠY KỸ NĂNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH)

GRADUATION THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology

VINH 2011

For the completion of the study, I had been fortunate to receive invaluable contributions from many people First of all, I especially would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Mrs Nguyen Thi Van Lam, M.A for her useful instructions, advice and comments, without which the study would not have been completed.

My profound thanks also go to all of my teachers from the Department of Foreign Languages at Vinh University, who have given me expert guidance and favorable conditions for the completion of the work.

I am deeply thankful 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.

I am really in debt to my beloved family, sweetheart and friends for their help and encouragement during the process of writing this research

Though the study has been done with all my attempts, my limitation of ability and knowledge may cause mistakes in the work Therefore, all comments and remarks

on the study would be highly appreciated.

Vinh, May 2011

Nguyen Thi Ha Giang

TABLE OF CONTENTS

P age

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

TABLE OF CONTENTS ii

TABLES AND CHARTS v

PART I INTRODUCTION 1

1 Justification of the Study 1

2 Aims and Objectives of the Study 2

3 Methods of the Study 2

4 Scope of the Study 2

5 Format of the Study 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4

1.1 Speaking Skill in Second Language Learning 4

1.1.1 Speaking Skill 4

1.1.2 Characteristics of a Successful Speaking Activity 5

1.1.3 Problems with Speaking Activities and Solutions 5

1.1.3.1 Problems 5

1.1.3.2 Solutions 6

1.2 Interactionism 7 1.2.1 The Interactionist Position 7 1.2.2 Interaction in Second Language Learning 7

1.2.2.1 Roles of Interaction in Second Language Learning 8

12.2.2 Types of Interaction 9

1.2.2.2.1 Learner-Content Interaction 9

1.2.2.2.2 Learner-Instructor Interaction 10

1.2.2.2.3 Learner-Learner Interaction (or Peer Interaction) 10

1.3 Peer Interaction in English Class 11

1.3.1 Communicative Language Teaching 11

1.3.1.1 Types of Learning and Teaching Activities 12

1.3.2 Roles of Peer Interaction Activities in English Class 12

1.3.3 Three Suggestions for Successful Peer Interactions 14

1.3.4 Types of Peer Interaction Activities 15

1.3.4.1 Pair Peer Interaction Activities 15

1.3.4.2 Group Peer Interaction Activities 15

1.3.4.3 Whole Class Peer Interaction Activities 15

CHAPTER 2: REAL SITUATION OF USING PEER INTERACTION ACTIVITIES TO TEACH ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL IN THE TENTH FORM CLASS 17

2.1 The Survey 17

2.1.1 Objectives of the Survey 17

2.1.2 The Informants and Setting 17

2.1.3 Questionnaire Description 17

2.1.3.1 Questionnaires for Teachers 18

2.1.3.2 Questionnaires for Students 18

2.1.4 The Survey Result 20

2.1.4.1 The Survey Result from Teachers 20

2.1.4.2 The Survey Result from Students 24

2.2 Real Situation of Using Peer Interaction Activities to Teach English Skill in the Tenth Form Class in High School 28

CHAPTER 3: SUGGESTED PEER INTERACTION ACTIVITIES TO TEACH ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL IN THE TENTH FORM CLASS 31

3.1 Procedures in Organizing a Peer Interaction Activity 31

3.1.1 Pre-activity Stage 31

3.1.1.1 Engage-Instruct-Initiate Sequence 31

3.1.1.2 Grouping Students 32

3.1.2 During-Activity Stage 33

3.1.2.1 The Roles of the Teacher 33

3.1.2.2 Providing Feedback 34

3.1.3 Conclusion Stage 34

3.1.3.1 Stopping the Activity 34

3.1.3.2 Feedback after the Activity 35

3.2 Suggested Peer Interaction Activities to teach English speaking skill in the 10th Form Class 36

3.3 The Reality of the Students’ Attitude towards Peer Interaction Activities after Participating in 51

3.3.1 The Extra Survey 51

3.3.1.1 Objectives of the Extra Survey 51

3.3.1.2 The Informants and Setting 51

3.3.1.3 Questionnaire Description 51

3.3.1.4 The Extra Survey Results 52

3.3.2 Findings and Discussions 53

PART III: CONCLUSION 54

1 Recapitulation 54

2 Suggestions for Further Studies 54

REFERENCES 55 APPENDIX

TABLES AND CHARTS

Table 2.1 The Survey Result from Teachers 20

Chart 2.1 The Survey Result from Teachers for Question 7 21

Chart 2.2 The Survey Result from Teachers for Question 10 22

Chart 2.3 The Survey Result from Teachers for Question 11 22

Chart 2.4 The Survey Result from Teachers for Question 13 23

Table 2.2 The Survey Result from Students 24

Chart 2.5 The Survey Result from Students for Question 2 24

Chart 2.6 The Survey Result from Students for Question 8 26

Chart 2.7 The Survey Result from Students for Question 10 27

Chart 2.8 The Survey Result from Students for Question 11 27

Table 3.1 The Survey Result from Students 52

Chart 3.1 The Extra Survey Result from Students for Question 5 52

PART I: INTRODUCTION

I Justification of the Study

English has been widely used all over the world and become an internationallanguage It is, hence, understandable why the demand on English learning isincreasing considerably day by day The goal of the language learners has changed andshifted from obtaining language knowledge to achieving the communicative ability inEnglish

Educationalist and linguists have made great efforts to find the most appropriatemethod with the view to enabling language learners to get the most desired results Tomeet the need, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is applied as the dominantmethod In CLT, the learner's role is more emphasized than in other traditionalmethods Most of the class-time is devoted to student-student interaction, not teacher-student interaction As a result, students can participate more actively and they candirect and develop the classroom activities by interacting among themselves while theteacher is a facilitator of the learning process In other words, peer interaction becomesthe primary and powerful technique in modern language teaching

Additionally, it is believed that like other cognitive development, languageproficiency can be obtained through interaction, including peer interaction Peerinteraction can provide various learning opportunities Not only do more proficientlearners assist their peer but mutual assistance among the learners of similarproficiency also occurs Consequently, peer interaction can promote the quality oflanguage learning

Besides, speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching.Despite its importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued andEnglish language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition ofdrills or memorization of dialogues However, today’s world requires that the goal ofteaching speaking should improve students’ communicative skills, because, only inthat way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social andcultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance

Therefore, the author has attempted to conduct the study entitled "Using Peer Interaction Activities to Teach English Speaking Skill in the tenth Form Class" to

promote an interactive process through which the students could learn from each otherthrough the use of a good selection of interactive class activities.

2 Aims and Objectives of the Study

The study aims to:

 Point out the real situation of using peer interaction activities to teach Englishspeaking skill in the tenth form class in Nguyen Du High School

 Provide some suggested peer interaction activities applied within speakinglesson of the new English textbook of the tenth form

To achieve these aims, the study answers the following questions:

 What is the real situation of using peer interaction activities to teach Englishspeaking skill in the tenth form class?

 How can peer interaction activities be used in teaching English speaking skill tothe tenth form students?

3 Methods of the Study

This study has been conducted with qualitative and quantitative methods Ituses the qualitative for get the in-depth knowledge which refer to peer interaction inEnglish teaching and learning Furthermore, it also uses quantitative method to getinformation about the real situation of English speaking skill teaching and learning inthe tenth form class

Firstly, the study searches and reviews reference documents relating to thetopic Next, it conducts a survey which involves in the tenth form students andteachers at Nguyen Du High School to investigate for their attitude towards speakingskill and their thought about peer interaction in English speaking lessons Finally, thestudy suggests some peer interaction activities applied within speaking lesson of theEnglish textbook of the tenth form

4 Scope of the Study

Due to limitation of time and experience, it is impossible for the author to carryout the study discussing all the matters concerning peer interaction and all the levels ofstudents In this paper, only the most necessary knowledge about peer interaction

which is used in language teaching is mentioned and the study focuses on Englishspeaking skill of students of the tenth form in high schools.

5 Format of the Study

The study consists of three main parts: Part one entitled "Introduction" outlinesthe background of the study In this part, the author presents the reasons for choosingthe topic, the objectives, the methods, the scope and the format of the study

Part two with the title "Development" comprises three chapters In Chapter 1,

"Theoretical Background", general theoretical of speaking and teaching speaking skill;the definition, the roles and some types of interaction in language learning areprovided Moreover, in this chapter, the author focuses on the peer interaction with itsroles in English class and some types of peer interaction activities Chapter 2 dealswith the investigation of the factual situation of using peer interaction activities inteaching and learning English speaking skill in high schools In Chapter 3, the authorgives some suggested peer interaction activities applied within the English textbook ofthe tenth form

Part three is the "Conclusion" in which a brief overview on the achievements ofthe study is presented together with suggestions for further studies

The study ends up with "References" providing a list of sources of materialswhich are used during the process of writing the study and “Appendix” with the surveyquestionnaires for teachers and students

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

to carry out a conversation in the target language In psycholinguistic, speaking is aproductive language skill It is mental process (O’Grady, 2000, p.310) Mental process

is also called as “a process of thinking” We use words, phrases, and sentences to

convey a message to a listener A “word” is the smallest free form (an item that may

be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content) in a language, while aphrase is a syntactic structure that consists of more than one word but lacks thesubject-predicate organization of a clause When we combine these words into onegroup, then it becomes a sentence Many students regard speaking ability as themeasure of knowing a language These students define fluency as the ability toconverse with others, much more than the ability to read, write or comprehend orallanguage They regard speaking as the most important skill they can acquire, and theyassess their progress in terms of their accomplishment in spoken communication(Burnkart, 1998)

Generally, students need to recognize that speaking involves three areas ofknowledge (Burnkart, 1998):

 Mechanics (pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary): the right words are used

in the right order with the correct pronunciation

 Functions (transaction and interaction): when clarity of message is essential(transaction/information exchange) and when precise understanding is not required(interaction/relationship building)•

 Social and cultural rules and norms (turn-taking, rate of speech, length ofpauses between speakers, relative roles of participants): how to take into account who

is speaking to whom, in what circumstances, about what, and for what reason

1.1.2 Characteristics of a Successful Speaking Activity

According to Ur (1996), there are some characteristics that a successfulspeaking activity must have:

 Maximum foreign talk: In successful speaking tasks, the students talk a

lot in the foreign language The teacher tries to avoid students’ talking in the mothertongue, and avoid too much Teacher Talk

 Even participation: Whether the task takes place among the whole class

or in small groups, a successful task should encourage speaking from as manydifferent students as possible The task should be designed in a way so that theoutspoken students do not dominate discussions When necessary, the teacher mayinterfere to guarantee equal opportunities for students of different levels

 High motivation: Motivation is one of the most important variables in

successful language learning Teachers can do a lot to increase and maintain themotivation of students by the types of tasks that they organize in class Students areeager to speak, when the topic is interesting or there is a clear objective that must bereached Again great care should be taken to make sure the task is in line with thestudents’ ability to deal with the task

 Right language level: In a successful speaking task, the language is at the

right level The task must be designed so that students can complete the tasksuccessfully with language that they have If the students lack too much vocabulary thetask will become frustrating and the students are likely to give up or revert back to thenative language

1.1.3 Problems with Speaking Activities and Solutions

1.1.3.1 Problems

In the process of teaching English speaking skill, teachers may meet manyproblems Ur (1996, p.121) mentions four problems with speaking activities thatteachers may encounter in their teaching:

 Inhibition: Unlike reading, writing and listening activities, speaking requires

some degree of real-time exposure to an audience Learners are often inhibited abouttrying to say things in a foreign language in the classroom: worried about makingmistakes, fearful of criticism or losing face, or simple shy of the attention that theirspeech attracts

 Nothing to say: Even if they are not inhibited, some learners complain that they

cannot think of anything to say: They have no motive to express themselves beyondthe guilty feeling that they should be speaking

 Low or universe participation: Only one participant can talk at time if he or

she is to be heard, and in a large group, this means that each one will have only verylittle talking time This problem is compound by the tendency of some learners todominate while others speak very little or not at all

 Mother–tongue use: In class where all or a number of the learners share the

same mother-tongue, they may tend to use it because it is easier, the learners feelunnatural to speak to one another in a foreign language

In many Vietnamese language classes, the situation is also similar Vietnamesestudents often sit quietly and listen rather than act The cultural difference that causesthe students to be non-talkative is that failure is not smiled upon kindly in Vietnam

“Learning from mistakes” is not widely of their peers or teachers

1.1.3.2 Solutions

There are many suggestions in teaching English speaking skill that have beenpresented to help teachers solve these above problems and achieve the best goal attheir teaching In Burns and Joyce (1997), the principles for teaching are stated asfollow:

1 Provide the cultural and social purposes of spoken

2 Provide activities which involve dialogues and functional use of thelanguage In other words, teaching should focus on language use and on meaningrather than usage and form

3 Do not emphasize the significance of mistakes This helps to encouragestudents to speak without fear of correction

4 State the purpose of the activity to the students This provides a context orfocus to help comprehension.

5 Focus and work toward real and spontaneous speech

6 Design activities which encourage natural interaction between speakers

7 Place students in pairs, or small groups Small groups and pairs are goodsources of motivation and surely help to increase the students’ talking time Besides, it

is easy for the teacher to access the students, to give explanations, suggestions,assistance and encouragement to each student

8 Provide topics of interest to the students

9 Use the target language This greatly increases the amount of English spokenand reduces the temptation of students to hide in their native language

1.2 Interactionism

1.2.1 The Interactionist Position

Interaction is a term which is widely used both in daily life and in varioussciences In general, interaction is a kind of action that occurs as two or more objectshave an effect upon one another An instructional interaction is an event that takesplace between a learner and the learner's environment Its purpose is to respond to thelearner in a way intended to change his or her behavior toward and educational goal.Instructional interactions have two purposes: to change learners and to move themtoward achieving their goals

Many Interactionist theorists, typically Hatch, Pica and Long (cited in NguyenThi Van Lam and Ngo Dinh Phuong in 2006), based on observation of interactionsbetween learners and native speakers, have argued that much second languageacquisition takes place through conversational interaction and language which ismodified to suit the capability of the learner is a crucial element in the languageacquisition process

From this point of view, the language learners cannot acquire a language if thenative speaker does not try to modify their talk in some ways In other words, theseinteractionists consider modified interaction as necessary comprehensible input forlanguage acquisition

As indicated by Long (cited in Nguyen Thi Van Lam and Ngo Dinh Phuong in2006), the relationship between language acquisition and interactional modificationcan be summarized as follows:

 Interactional modification makes input comprehensible

 Comprehensible input promotes acquisition

Therefore,

 Interactional modification promotes acquisition

Modified interaction includes linguistic simplification and conversationaladjustments such as elaboration, slower speech rate and gesture Some examples ofthese conversational modifications are:

 Comprehension checks - efforts by the native speaker to ensure that the learner

has understood

 Clarification requests - efforts by the learners to get the native speaker to

clarify something which has been understood

 Self-repetition or paraphrase - the native speaker repeats his or her sentence

either partially or in its entirety

In short, interactional modification, including linguistic simplification andconversational adjustments provides learners with the linguistic raw material whichthey will process internally and visibly, therefore, can facilitate and better languageacquisition

1.2.2 Interaction in Second Language Learning

1.2.2.1 Roles of Interaction in Second Language Learning

Vygotsky's sociocultural theory of human mental processing (cited in NguyenThi Van Lam and Ngo Dinh Phuong in 2006) is a perspective on the role of interaction

in second language learning Vygotsky's theory assumes that all cognitivedevelopment, including language development, arises as a result of social interactionsbetween individuals He concluded that language develops entirely via socialinteraction The learners' knowledge and performance can be advanced thanks toassistance from the more capable speakers of second language in a supportiveinteractive environment He stated that the learners could do in an interaction with the

help from the interlocutor as the zone of proximal development

The zone of proximal development, according to Vygotsky (1978, p.86), is "the

distance between the actual level of development as determined by independent

problem solving (without guided instruction) and the level of potential development

as determined by problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with morecapable peers." In other words, the zone of proximal development is the distancebetween the learner's individual capacity and the capacity to perform with assistance

Extending Vygotskyan theory to second language acquisition, other theoristsclaim that language acquisition entirely takes place in the interaction of the learner andthe interlocutor Second language learners can advance to higher levels of linguisticknowledge when they collaborate and interact with speakers of the second languagewho are more knowledgeable than they are, for example, a teacher or a more advancedlearner More advanced speakers, in an interaction, will try to create supportiveconditions for the second language learner to comprehend and produce language (forexample: repetition, simplification, and modeling)

Some learning programs are solely content-interactive in nature They are way communications with a subject expert (sometimes assisted by an instructionaldesigner), intended to help distant learners in their study of the subject No otherprofessional teaching expertise is provided, and learning is largely self-directed

one-1.2.2.2.2 Learner-Instructor Interaction

The second type is interaction between the learner and the expert who preparesthe subject material, or some other experts acting as instructors It is regarded asessential by many educators, and as highly desirable by many learners In thisinteraction, distance instructors attempt to achieve aims held in common with all othereducators First having planned or been given a curriculum, a program of content to betaught, they seek to stimulate or at least maintain the students’ interest in what is to betaught, to motivate students to learn, to enhance and maintain the learner's interest,including self-direction and self-motivation Then instructors make presentations orcause them to be made These may be presentations of information, demonstrations ofskill, or modelling of certain attitudes and values Next instructors try to organizestudents' application of what is being learned, either the practice of skills that havebeen demonstrated, or manipulation of information and ideas that have been presented.Instructors organize evaluation to ascertain if learners are making progress, and to helpdecide whether to change strategies Finally, instructors provide counsel, support, andencouragement to each learner, though the extent and nature of this support variesaccording to educational level of the learners, the teacher's personality and philosophy,and other factors

The instructor is especially valuable in responding to the learners' application ofnew knowledge Whatever self-directed learners can do alone for self-motivation andinteraction with content presented, they are vulnerable at the point of application They

do not know enough about the subject to be sure that they are applying it correctly, asintensively or extensively as possible or desirable, or aware of all the potential areas ofapplication It is for reality testing and feedback that interaction with an instructor islikely to be most valuable

1.2.2.2.3 Learner-Learner Interaction (or Peer Interaction)

The third form of interaction, a new dimension of distance education that will

be a challenge to our thinking and practice in the 1990s is learner-learner interaction orpeer interaction This is interaction between one learner and other learners, with orwithout the real-time presence of an instructor

Peer interaction among members of a class or a group is an extremely valuableresource for learning This type of interaction, as a way to generate knowledge, is asuccessful learning strategy in which students are divided into small groups Eachgroup has students at different levels of ability They use many different learningactivities to improve their understanding of a subject by sharing with one another.Each group member is responsible for not only learning the material presented, but forensuring that everyone in the group knows the material as well Peer interaction is not

a new concept but it is becoming an increasingly popular strategy

According to Johnson and Roger (1991), peer interaction is described as "theorganization of students into small groups that have varying abilities in which allstudents can participate to achieve a common goal" or as "a teaching strategy thatmotivates students to set higher goals and become intrinsically motivated." Kagan(1994) believes that "peer interaction benefits students in many ways, mainly in theirlevel of confidence, motivation and sense of achievement."

In conclusion, peer interaction can be either a progress of co-constructingknowledge and social relationship through interaction among learners or a learningactivity in which peer interact with each other in a cooperative manner to accomplish alearning task

1.3 Peer Interaction in English Class

According to Richards and Rodgers (2001), there are many methods andapproaches in second language teaching Each of them has contributed new elementsand has attempted to deal with some issues of language learning However, theyderived in different historical context, stressed different social and educational needsand have different theoretical considerations It is no doubt that the communicativemethod developed quite fast, it dominates language teaching in many countriesbecause it not only makes language learning more interesting, but helps learnersdevelop linguistic competence as well as communicative competence

1.3.1 Communicative Language Teaching

Since the late 1960’s, Communicative Language Teaching has been the centre

of language teaching discussions Over the years it has become ever clearer thatmastering grammatical forms and structures does not prepare the learners well enough

to use the language they are learning effectively when communicating with others It isseen as an approach that pursues two main goals The first one is “to makecommunicative competence the goal of language teaching” and the second one, “todevelop procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge theinterdependence of language and communication” (Richards and Rodgers, 2001,p.155)

Basing on Communicative Language Teaching, the teacher sets up a situationthat students are likely to encounter in real-life This approach can leave students insuspense as to the outcome of a class exercise, which will vary according to theirreactions and responses The real-life simulations change from day to day Students'motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate in meaningful ways aboutinteresting topics

1.3.1.1 Types of Learning and Teaching Activities

Littlewood (cited in Nguyen Thi Van Lam and Ngo Dinh Phuong in 2006)states that there are two major activity types in Communicative Language Teaching:

"functional communicative activities" and "social interaction activities"

Functional communicative activities include such tasks as learners comparingsets of pictures and noting similarities and differences, working out a likely sequence

of events in a set of pictures; discovering missing features in a map or picture, onelearner communicating behind a screen to another learner and giving instructions onhow to draw a picture or shape, how to complete a map, following directions, andsolving problems from shared clues

Social interaction activities include conversation and discussion sections,dialogues and role plays, simulations, skits, improvisation, and debates

1.3.2 Roles of Peer Interaction Activities in English Class

In Allwright (1984), it is beneficial in learning and teaching process when usingpeer interaction activities in the language classrooms

First of all, peer interaction is good for all students Thanks to the moreproficient students, the less proficient can learn from their partners, can improve theirlanguage learning The way the better students use language is bound to have positive

effects on others Moreover, the more proficient students can also further their ability

of language use when they help their classmates The more proficient learners canreceive benefits through the monitoring of peers and their own linguistic behavior Bydoing so, more proficient learners might gain more confidence with their proficiency,and become more responsible not only for their own learning but also for their peers

The second role of peer interaction in language teaching is increasing learners'participation In a teacher-dominated class, few students have chance to interact withthe teacher and their peers and the rest of the class seem to do nothing than keep silent

In contrast, in a learner-centered class, most of time is devoted to student-studentinteraction in which students work together and learn from each other by participating

as an important part of interaction Students are often asked to work in a group or apair and make presentation in front of the whole class Furthermore, in an interactiveactivity; each participant has to play a role, which forces the students who are oftenshy of talking in front of the whole class or teacher to speak, because there is no otherway for them to complete their roles besides saying something to exchangeinformation, express their attitude toward the problem and protect their views Itmeans that peer interaction increases the amount of the students' talking time

Another role is that peer interaction increases learners' motivation We cannotdeny the crucial relationship between motivation and language proficiency Peerinteraction can be regarded as a good way to motivate students into communicating inthe target language To some extent, peer interaction may decrease the inhibition andfear of failure in learners because interaction itself is a natural and social activity

One more important benefit is that peer interaction offers free and natural use oflanguage The classroom is a formal and unnatural setting for practicing language.Peer interaction helps learners properly use English more naturally and lessconsciously Their concentration will be on solving the problem posed by their roles,not on the language they use to solve problems Thus, peer interaction provideslearners with opportunities to improve their fluent and natural speech like in normalsocial activities in daily life For instance, in a role play by a group peer interaction,speaking is more than just reading dialogue aloud or answering some controlledquestions It is a spontaneous conversation among students who are imagining they arethe other people or imagining they are in a different situation

Additionally, peer interaction can be considered as a good way to help students

to promote higher level thinking skills and develop good communication and socialskills such as getting used to working in a group, creative problem solving skills andfostering their responsibility and independence

In summary, with a large number of advantages, peer interaction provides moreopportunities for intensive language practice and offers a context in which language isused meaningfully and naturally

1.3.3 Three Suggestions for Successful Peer Interactions

Firstly, the teacher should establish a clear purpose with students When theteacher provides students with a purpose statement and links it to their overall mastery

of the content, they will get on board This is different from giving directions, whichmerely list a sequence of steps Purpose provides students with a model ofmetacognition so that they recognize a path to learning A clear purpose is the mostneglected instructional design element

Secondly, the teacher need to remember that variety is the spice of life,especially for adolescents Variety is especially important when it comes to academicvocabulary development Students satiate quickly on any one particular vocabularyactivity, so we have found it helpful to get into the mindset of offering up a fewdifferent types of peer activities each week Graphic organizers are great, but not ifthey are used five days a week It is a fine balance between establishing habits of workand allowing students to habituate to too few vocabulary activities

Finally, it is beneficial to integrate vocabulary activities into the content flow.The teacher should avoid as much as possible activities that isolate academicvocabulary from the conceptual understandings of the unit of study The goal of anyactivity should center on the necessary use of the vocabulary to complete the task.Choose the activities for peer interaction that rely on the verbal and written use ofvocabulary that is contextually bound

Moreover, these following principles are offered when designing group workfor language learning:

 Clear and explicit instructions are provided

 Talk is necessary for the task (i.e., there is an information gap)

 There is a clear outcome for the group work.

 The task is cognitively appropriate to the learners

 The task is integrated with a broader curriculum topic

 All children in the group are involved

 Students have enough time to complete tasks

 Students know how to work in groups

1.3.4 Types of Peer Interaction Activities

Peer interaction can be classified in the basic of the number of participants in it.There are three types of peer interaction activities as follows:

1.3.4.1 Pair Peer Interaction Activities

Pair peer interaction may be the simplest type of peer interaction In a pair peerinteraction activity, two students interact with each other to practice a language item orcomplete a learning task It is a kind of one-in-one interaction

When forming pair interaction, the teacher should not always put to samestudents together Also, the two partners of a pair should have different level oflanguage proficient so that they can help each other to promote learning What is more,interacting between pairs is often rather simple; too much time for the pair activitymight cause boredom, hence, the teacher ought to provide enough or relevant time forthe pair peer interaction

1.3.4.2 Group Peer Interaction Activities

Group peer interaction may be the most popular type of cooperative learninggenerally and peer interaction particularly In group peer interaction, the teacherdivides the class into small group to work together (usually four or five students ineach group) As in the pair peer interaction, all the group work at the same time.During the activities, the group members interact with each other by using targetlanguage and using problem-solving skills to reach the common goal

1.3.4.3 Whole Class Peer Interaction Activities

Whole class peer interaction is a type of peer interaction in which onestudent/one group of the students interacts with the rest of the class This type of

interaction often follows the two types above After pair or group interaction, it isnecessary for the teacher to ask the representative of some pairs or groups to report,present of perform what they have done The performance of this student may haveeffects upon other students in class The way he or she speaks and pronounces as well

as the way he or she uses the language and answer the questions from the listeners islikely to influence other students

This type of activity can help students become good listeners and develop theirpresenting skills such as the ability to respond quickly in the target language as well asthe ability to protect their view under pressure of many people

CHAPTER 2:

REAL SITUATION OF USING PEER INTERACTION ACTIVITIES TO TEACH ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL IN THE TENTH FORM CLASS

2.1 The Survey

2.1.1 Objectives of the Survey

The survey is carried out with the aims of looking for the faithful facts study onpeer interaction by the tenth form students and teachers at Nguyen Du High School.The objectives of the survey are to investigate for their attitude towards speaking skilland their thought about peer interaction in English speaking lessons This informationwill help the author to give some suggestions and activities to improve Englishspeaking skill for students

2.1.2 The Informants and Setting

The subjects of the survey are the teachers and the tenth form students atNguyen Du High School This school is located in Nghi Xuan district, Ha Tinhprovince where the socioeconomic is growing rapidly Moreover, the citizens herehave a beautiful tradition of caring about the learning of youth Thanks to the livingstandard improvement and care of family and society for learning, the teachers andstudents in Nghi Xuan have a rather good condition for teaching and learning

The survey questionnaire for teachers was conducted among 10 teachers whoare teaching the tenth form at Nguyen Du High School Most of respondent teachersare very young and only some of them have been teaching English for more than 15years The teachers there have made efforts to apply new techniques in their teaching

100 students who are involved in the survey are learning at class 10A12 and10A13 at Nguyen Du High School Most of them have been learning English for 5years; only 7 students began studying English in primary school Some of them havechance to attend the extra courses of English at Foreign Language Centers In general,all the students have good command of English; they want to enrich their knowledge

of English and develop their communicative ability

2.1.3 Questionnaire Description

2.1.3.1 Questionnaires for Teachers

There are thirteen questions in the survey questionnaire for the teachers Theobjectives of these questions are finding out the attitudes of the teachers towardsspeaking skill, peer interaction activities, and their techniques used in speakinglessons

The general information about the teachers’ teaching experience

The teachers’ attitudes towards speaking skill, peer interaction activities

The current situation of teaching speaking skill at high school

The reality of using peer interaction activities in speaking lessons

The teachers’ own opinion about applying peer interaction activities in teachingspeaking skill

For the first question, the teachers have to provide information about how longthey have been teaching English When answering question 2, they tell about theirperception of speaking skill For the third question, the author would like to know howlong these teachers let their students practice speaking skill in a 45-minute-lesson Thefourth and the fifth questions are concerned with the activities which they use whenteaching speaking skill, how many activities in the textbook and how many differentones For question 6, they tell us whether their different activities help students to onlycomplete the tasks or have other purposes The seventh question is used to examinewhich kind of extra activities they use The author would like to know their perception

of peer interaction in speaking lesson by using question 8 The ninth question isconcern with frequency of the teachers’ using peer interaction activities in class withaverage number For question 10, the teachers have to choose the type of peerinteraction they use most Question 11 is concerned with kinds of peer interactionactivities which they use when teaching speaking skill When answering two lastquestions, the teachers tell us their own opinion about applying peer interaction inteaching English

2.1.2.2 Questionnaires for Students

The survey is designed with ten questions which are intended to find outstudents’ attitudes towards English in general and spoken English in particular; theirbehaviors in a speaking lesson

The survey questionnaires focus on:

The students’ attitudes towards the importance of English in general and spokenEnglish in particular

The current situation of learning speaking skill at high school

The students’ behaviors in a speaking lesson

The reality of using peer interaction activities in speaking lessons

The students’ expectations and preferences for using peer interaction activities inspeaking lessons

For the first question, the students have to provide information about how longthey have been learning English When answering question 2, they tell us their thoughtabout the importance of the different parts in the textbook For the third question, theauthor would like to know the frequency of the students’ practicing speaking skill inclass When answering question 4, they tell us whether they do practice speaking skillbesides the lessons or not The fifth and the sixth questions are concerned with theirperception of tasks in textbook: they have various types or not, they are difficult oreasy The seventh question is used to examine their movement in speaking class Theauthor would like to know which kind of activities they participate in speaking lesson

by using question 8 To answer the question 9, the students have to compare theirteachers’ activities and the tasks in the textbook The tenth question is concern withtheir feeling about the teachers’ activities in class For question 11, the author wouldlike to know their preferences for some types of activities

2.1.3 The Survey Result

2.1.3.1 The Survey Result from Teachers

Table 2.1 The Survey Result from Teachers

For the first question, only 30% of teachers have been teaching English from

1-5 years, 1-50% from 6-11-5 years and 20% more than 11-5 years It can be inferred that most

of teachers here may have much teaching experience

Question 2 focuses on the attitudes of teachers towards speaking skill 20%teachers feel that speaking skill is very important, 80% think that it is important orquite important

For the third question, 70% teachers let their students practice speaking fromless than 10-20 minutes, 20% spends from 20-30 minutes and only 10% spends morethan 30 minutes

From the answers for question 4 and question 5, 60% teachers use 2 activities intextbook, 40% use 3 and no teacher uses 1 or no activity All of them use differentactivities in teaching but there are 80% teachers who use only 1-2 activities, 20% use 3different activities It seems that there is not much innovation in their teachingtechniques

For the sixth question, 70% teachers use different activities with only purpose

to help students to complete the tasks Only 30% have other purposes

Chart 2.1 The Survey Result from Teachers for Question 7

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Number of

teacher

Learner Teacher

Learner Content

Learner Learner Interaction

-For question 7, learner-teacher interaction is the most popular type which theteachers use (7 teachers); there are 4 teachers often use learner-content interaction andthe same result with learner-learner interaction

According to the answers of question 8, the majority of the teachers think thatpeer interaction in English Speaking Lesson is important or quite important (90%).Only one teacher finds peer interaction very important

For the ninth question, all teachers use peer interaction in teaching speaking.90% teachers use 1-2 activities, 10% use 3 activities It can be inferred that there arenot many peer interaction activities in speaking lessons

Chart 2.2 The Survey Result from Teachers for Question 10

50%

40%

10%

Pair Group Whole

For question 10, 50% of teachers choose pair peer interaction, the group isranked at the second position (40%) and the whole class peer interaction is least used(10%) It means that the type of peer interaction the teachers use most is pairinteraction

Chart 2.3 The Survey Result from Teachers for Question 11

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

According to the answers of question 11, two activities which the teachers usemost are Interview (6 teachers) and Survey (5 teachers) Language Game and OtherActivities is ranked at the second position (4 teachers) and Discussion is least used (2teachers)

Question 12 shows that: in the teachers’ opinion, there is no student who is notinterested in peer interaction activities Most of them like and interest these activities.Therefore, the creative activities will attach them much

Chart 2.4 The Survey Result from Teachers for Question 13

Disagree Strongly disagree

For question 13, 30% teachers strongly agree with the statement that using peerinteraction activities in English speaking lesson is necessary, 50% agree; whereas 20%disagree It means that most teachers think that it is necessary to use peer interactionactivities in English speaking lesson

2.1.3.2 The Survey Result from Students

Table 2.2 The Survey Result from Students

Chart 2.5 The Survey Result from Students for Question 2

position (41) The third and fourth positions are Writing and Language Focus Theleast ones is Listening (23).

For the third question, no student always speaks English in speaking lesson; thehighest rate is the number of students who sometimes speak English in class (60%).There are 27% usually speaking English and 13% rarely use English in speakinglesson

For question 4, most of students do not practice English speaking skill besidesthe lesson, constitute 88%; whereas only a very small number of students (12%)practice it

According to the answers of question 5, the majority of the students think thattypes of the tasks in Speaking Lessons in textbook are not various 88% students findthere are quite a lot or a few differences between types of the tasks 8 students do not

feel any difference Only 4 students see that there are very many differences.

For question 6, 39% of students find the tasks in textbook difficult and 26%find it very difficult whereas 23% see it easy, 12% find it very easy to complete

Question 7 shows that the students’ movements in speaking class are verylimited Only 6 students say that they are asked to move whereas 94 students do not

Chart 2.6 The Survey Result from Students for Question 8

For question 9, the students show that their teachers’ activities and the tasks inthe textbook are quite similar 72% students find there are quite a lot or a fewsimilarities between their teachers’ activities and the tasks in the textbook 18 students

find very many similarities whereas 10 students see that their teachers’ activities and

the tasks in the textbook are not similar at all

Chart 2.7 The Survey Result from Students for Question 10

For question 10, 31% of students like their teachers’ activities very much, 47%like them quite a lot Only 19% like a little and 3% do not like them at all It seemsthat almost students feel their teachers’ activities interesting and want to participate in

Chart 2.8 The Survey Result from Students for Question 11

Number of students

Individual work Work with teacher Work in pairs Work in groups Work in whole class