The implementation of cooperative learning activities in the fifth grade english speaking classes primary school teachers perceptions and practices

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that this thesis entitled “The Implementation of Cooperative Learning Activities in the Fifth Grade EFL Speaking Classrooms: Primary School Teachers’ P

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that this thesis entitled “The Implementation of Cooperative Learning

Activities in the Fifth Grade EFL Speaking Classrooms: Primary School Teachers’ Perceptions and Classroom Practices” is my own work.

Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma

No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text

of the thesis

This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other

tertiary institution

Ho Chi Minh City, August 2018

TRAN LUU THI HUYEN, MRS

no words are adequate to describe the extent of my gratitude

I am also sincerely grateful to all lecturers of the Open University in Ho Chi Minh City for providing me with invaluable sources of intellectual knowledge during my study there This knowledge was very useful when I conducted this research

Besides, a big thank you goes to my friend TESOL M.A Truong Minh Hoa for his valued friendship and for his assistance, comments, proofreading, and encouragement throughout the study

I owe a great debt of gratitude to the anonymous participants who contributed data to this thesis Without them the data collection for this study could not properly been carried out

ABSTRACT

One of many factors that cause difficulty in developing primary students’ speaking skill

is their low or uneven participation Indeed, children need both to participate in communication and to build up knowledge and skills for participation in order to learn speaking skills Accordingly, Cooperative Learning activities have been proved to be an effective teaching strategy to the primary students By the nature of an exploratory study, this current study aimed at investigating the primary English teachers’ perceptions and classroom practices of implementing these activities to develop the fifth graders’ English oral productions

To achieve this purpose, a body of literature on Cooperative Learning activities including definitions, types, principles, benefits and challenges were reviewed in the theory chapter

to shape the theoretical framework of the study

Based on this conceptual framework, the study was conducted at the eight public primary schools in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City with the sample of 35 teachers Data were collected through the two instruments of a 34-item questionnaire and a semi-structured interview Quantitative results from the questionnaire were analyzed by SPSS 20.0 while qualitative results from the interview were thematically analyzed

The findings of the study indicated that although the participants believed in the effects of Cooperative Learning activities in the development of their students’ EFL speaking skills apropos of two aspects including learning psychology and oral performance, they were reluctant to implement these activities, which was ultimately found by the extent, the principles and the types of Cooperative Learning activities which they employed in reality

Based on the research findings, the paper concluded with some pedagogical implications and a recommendation for further study in the line of research on Cooperative Learning activities

2.2.3 Teachers’ and Learners’ Roles in Cooperative Learning 16

2.2.4 Benefits and Challenges of Cooperative Learning Implementation 17

3.3.1.2 Description of the Questionnaire (see Appendix A) 41

3.3.2.2 Description of the Interview (see Appendix B) 46

3.4.1 Quantitative Analysis for the Questionnaire 48

4.2.1 Teachers’ Perceptions about Teaching Speaking Skills at Primary Level 54 4.2.2 Teachers’ Perceptions about Effects of Cooperative Learning Activities on Primary Students’ Affective States

58

4.2.3 Teachers’ Perceptions about Effects of Cooperative Learning Activities on Primary

Students’ Oral Performance

62

4.2.4 Teachers’ Perceptions about Challenges of Implementing Cooperative Learning

Activities at Primary Schools

66

4.2.5 Frequency Rate of Actually Implementing Cooperative Learning Activities 70 4.2.6 The Types of the Actually Implemented Cooperative Learning Activities 72 4.2.7 The Principles for Implementing Cooperative Learning Activities in Actuality 76

5.1 Teachers’ Perceptions on the Implementation of Cooperative Learning Activities in Fifth Grade EFL Speaking Classes

6.2.1 Strengths 99

APPENDIX B.2: TEACHER INTERVIEW PROMPTS (VIETNAMESE VERSION) 117

APPENDIX C: TEACHER PARTICIPANT CONSENT LETTER (ENGLISH VERSION) 118

LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 3.3 Description of Speaking Section of Family and Friends Special Edition Grade 5 38

Table 3.5 The Link between Research Questions and Instruments 40

Table 3.7 Delivery and Collection Procedure of Questionnaires 45

Table 4.1a Reliability of the Teacher Questionnaire for Total Items (Items 1-34) 53

Table 4.1b Reliability of the Teacher Questionnaire for Perception Group (Items 1-22) 54

Table 4.1c Reliability of the Teacher Questionnaire for Practice Group (Items 23-34) 54

Table 4.2 Teachers’ Perceptions on Teaching English Speaking Skill at Primary Schools 55

Table 4.3 Teachers’ Perceptions about the Effects of Cooperative Learning Activities on

Students’ Affective States

59

Table 4.4 Teachers’ Perceptions about the Effects of Cooperative Learning Activities on

Students’ Oral Performance

62

Table 4.5 Teachers’ Perceptions about Challenges of Implementing Cooperative Learning

Activities at Primary Schools

66

Table 4.6 Teachers’ Implementation Frequency of Cooperative Learning Activities 70

Table 4.7 The Types of the Actually Implemented Cooperative Learning Activities 73

Table 4.8 The Principles for Implementing Cooperative Learning Activities in Actuality 77

LIST OF CHARTS, FIGURES

Page

Chart 4.1 The Teachers’ Implementation Frequency of Cooperative Learning Activities 71

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Speaking in a second language, involving a complicated process of constructing meaning, has been deemed to be the most challenging of four language skills (Celce-Murcia & Olshtain, 2000) It is implied that speaking skill is the most important productive skill to be mastered when people learn English language, covering almost all

of language components Language learners can express their minds, ideas, and thought freely and spontaneously through speaking process In addition, purpose of teaching speaking is to orient both the teachers and students to utilize the target language as a means of communication in teaching-learning process even in their daily life Alternatively saying, speaking involves producing language rather than receiving it We usually speak to communicate with others by expressing all what we have in our mind using different strategies It also comprises producing words to ask and answer questions, ask for information and repetition, self-correction, turn-taking in a conversation, greet people, tell stories, etc (Spratt, Pulverness, & Williams, 2011)

Marcela and Rodrigo (2014) posit that driving students to use the target language orally at an early stage remains one of the biggest issues that English teachers confront

In other words, oral production can be extremely difficult for young learners like primary students It is generally accepted that knowing a language and being able to speak it are not homogeneous because speaking is a productive skill which must be acquired, developed and practiced both inside and outside the language classroom Unfortunately, the majority of students of English have many difficulties to speak it and use it whether inside or outside the classroom and this weak production may be a result of many reasons but the most important one is because of the lack of practice of the language, especially at primary school contexts (Alimi, 2015)

According to Ur (1996), one of many factors that cause difficulty in developing primary students‟ speaking skill is their low or uneven participation In other words, only one participant can talk at a time because of large classes and the tendency of some learners to dominate, while others speak very little or not at all (Hosni, 2014) Besides, this author also points other reasons causing difficulties in primary students‟ oral

production, including Inhibition (i.e., students are worried about making mistakes, fearful

of criticism, or simply shy); and Nothing to say (i.e., students have no motive to express

themselves) Furthermore, while teachers seem to mostly talk and act as the only source

of knowledge to students, their young students become passive receivers of language inputs in their learning process at the primary school context (Ning, 2011) In fact, young learners must learn by practicing not merely listening passively, they must put themselves

in problems and find out their solutions by themselves They should be provided with a supportive environment in order to sharpen and bring to lime light their oral skills (Chickering & Gamson, 1987) The lack of a target language environment for oral practice can be considered another problem, which of course results from a lack of involvement in real-life situations Children need both to participate in communication and to build up knowledge and skills for participation in order to learn speaking skills (Cameron, 2001) The fact that language is best learned when the learners‟ attention is focused on understanding, saying and doing something with language, and not when their attention is focused explicitly on linguistic features (Kumaravadivelu, 2003)

Given the alarming situation above, teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) are in a constant search of what may help their learners increase their level of language proficiency because using the language in class frequently should be through active participation techniques and procedures, by using the appropriate method to enhance the learners level of language fluency, in the same line with what Atma (2010) concluded in his paper Moreover, teaching a foreign language is an interactive process, which involves active participation of both teachers and learners since language is learned best when students interact with each other in groups In doing so, Cooperative

Learning activities have been proved to be an effective teaching strategy to the language learners The implementation of Cooperative Learning activities in teaching speaking has been the subject of extensive research (Liang, 2000; Zhang, 2010; Soraya, 2010; Maldonado, Banoy & Quinche, 2011; Pattanpichet, 2011; Attamimi, 2014; Marcela & Rodrigo, 2014; Alimi, 2015) This big portion of studies indicates that the use of Cooperative Learning activities can lead to positive attitudes towards language learning and increased oral productions Once again, Cooperative Learning activities, which differ from activities under traditional learning methods, have some benefits generating from social interaction among students It has been documented that students could achieve better oral skills in most cases if they interact and speak together frequently than those who always remain their silence and passivity in their classrooms Pair work and group work actually can bring out a lot of benefits to all young learners To give some examples, the young learners learn from and with one another until they actively participate in interactive tasks; they can learn to clarify and revise their thoughts and to work out their ideas by working within groups Alimi (2015) also emphasizes that Cooperative Learning activities help develop students‟ self-confidence and reduce their classroom inhibition and anxiety to make them speak and participate easily without fear

of making mistakes, which are considered as hindrances to students‟ speaking skill development

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Oral language acquisition is a natural process for children The ability to speak grows with age, but it does not entail that such development will automatically lead to perfection To speak in more effective ways requires several decisive factors Ning (2011) avows that speaking remains the most difficult skill to master for almost all young learners, and they are still incompetent in communicating orally in English Therefore, to

be able to communicate in the target language is the main objective of learning process

According to the Circular No 22 of Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), the assessment of fifth grade students focuses on four skills (i.e., listening, speaking, reading and writing) in which speaking skill is much paid attention, corresponding the scrolling wheel of global communication In reality, however, students have not focused on practicing English speaking skill in its so-called classes yet (Bui Thi Hong Minh, 2016) The majority of EFL primary students in Vietnamese context have many difficulties when they communicate in the English language outside classrooms, that is, the lack of practice of the language, and their low or uneven participation, shyness, fear of doing mistakes, and so forth Basically, enhancing the learners‟ speaking performance in English is one of the most important challenges that the EFL primary teachers are making much endeavor to achieve

In another point, Al-Abri (2008) points out that the dearth of genuine oral and interactional activities in textbooks is a rudimental cause for primary students‟ difficulties

in speaking Thus far, he recommends some oral activities in the form of songs, rhymes, and simple stories and more conversational language activities should be incorporated to enable students to have more fun and enjoy learning, and to improve their speaking competence Wherein, teachers are imperative to set up an active atmosphere in the classroom so as to motivate all learners to speak and express their opinions without any hesitation, and the preferable effective activities are also capable of being implemented through Cooperative Learning model that helps students to interact with each other and construct knowledge to communicate effectively when mastering speaking skills

In succinct, by reason of improving the learners‟ speaking ability in English, Cooperative Learning activities have been implemented in speaking classes at primary schools but at a very limited condition Therefore, the present study focuses on how the teachers perceive about the effectiveness of Cooperative Learning activities in the improvement of their primary learners‟ English oral productions and its challenges Then

in term of practical reality, it was in direction of investigating to what extent the teachers

implement Cooperative Learning activities in their 5th grade speaking classes at the participated primary schools

1.3 Aims of the Study

The foremost aim of this study was to seek an understanding of the participating English teachers of the effects of Cooperative Learning activities in the classroom to enhance primary students‟ speaking skills Following that, some difficulties or/and challenges emerging in the implementation of these activities were also probed Finally, how the recruited primary school teachers actually employed Cooperative Learning activities in their fifth grade speaking classrooms was whatever the researcher continually explored

1.4 Research Questions

In order to fulfill the purpose stated above, two research questions were addressed

as follows:

R-Q 1: How do the primary school teachers perceive the effects and challenges of

implementing Cooperative Learning activities in developing their 5th graders‟ speaking performance?

R-Q 2: How do the primary school teachers implement Cooperative Learning

activities in their English fifth grade classrooms?

1.5 Significance of the Study

As mentioned earlier, students in many Vietnamese primary schools have not taught EFL speaking skills in its own right In specific, these students normally imitate and memorize the sample dialogues exposed in the textbooks as the parrots With the hope of enabling the primary school students to manage their speaking skills as much as possible, the researcher would like to probe understandings of teachers‟ perceptions and actual implementation about Cooperative Learning activities in the context of primary

schools in Vietnam to the growing, yet limited literature, and provides an opportunity for teachers, policy makers and the wider community to gain insight into this phenomenon Furthermore, the researcher will try to make teachers more aware of the effectiveness of using Cooperative Learning activities in the context of primary schools to create a successful learning atmosphere in the classroom and improve the students‟ speaking performance Therefore, the findings of the study will point out several strategies to help teachers establish Cooperative Learning activities in speaking classes effectively in order

to achieve the highest results in their teaching profession

1.6 An Overview of the Study

The current chapter, Introduction, depicts the general picture of the study, the

research aims, research questions and significance of the study

The next chapter, Literature Review, provides theoretical background to the study

In specific, the definition, benefits and drawbacks along with common activities of Cooperative Learning model are analytically presented in the very first part Following that, the chapter synthesizes possible principles for applying Cooperative Learning Activities in primary school level This chapter moves on to summarize some related empirical studies which examined the primary teachers‟ belief and their classroom practices in the realm of implementing these activities in the target context At last, some research gaps are provided to situate the study itself, which are inferred from what have already done so far.

In chapter three, Methodology, the research design and relevant issues of

instruments of this study are presented Specifically, this chapter will describe the subject and context, data collection instruments and how they were designed and developed, besides other methodological issues such as the reliability and validity Finally, it clarifies how the data were collected and which tools were used in the analysis procedure

As the name evinces, Data Analysis and Discussion of Findings, Chapter 4 and

Chapter 5 offer a presentation and discussion of the results of the study obtained from the analyses of questionnaires and interviews respectively

In Chapter 6, Conclusion and Recommendations, the main findings of the study

will be briefly summarized More substantially, the ending chapter of this study indicates suggestions for further research

In this section, the researcher is going to get evidence of Cooperative Learning as

an important technique that can be applied in the classroom situation, its different definitions and origins, its theoretical background (foundations), its principles, activities, and its benefits Finally, this chapter provides and synthesizes different previous studies

in the field of using Cooperative Learning for language education, especially building up learners‟ communicative skills, or speaking skills

2.1 Teaching Speaking

2.1.1 Definitions of Speaking Skill

Speaking is perhaps one of the most fundamental skills of human beings People

do it constantly in their lives, such as at schools, offices, families, restaurants, etc Experts have defined the term “speaking skill” in different ways Vilímec (2006) reckoned that in order to achieve speakers‟ communicative goal, they must consider two important aspects: knowledge of the language, and skill in using this knowledge Therefore, speaking, like any other language skills, is more complicated than it seems at first and involves more than just pronouncing words In the most common way, Spratt,

Pulverne and William (2011) described “speaking is one of the four language skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking Speaking and writing are productive skills” (p 48) We can infer that speaking involves producing language rather than receive it Therefore, speaking aims at exchanging information, ideas, opinions, views or feelings 2.1.2 Importance of Speaking Skill

In leaning language, it is rather difficult to come to a conclusion which skill is the most important among four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing However, speaking seems the most important skill which is in the closet association with the basic purpose of language teaching and learning, that is, communicative competence

Ur (1996) stated that of all the four skills, speaking seems intuitively the most important one This is absolutely true because proficiency in each skill is necessary to become a good communicator, but the ability to speak skillfully provides the speaker a favorable condition to establish and maintain relationships, to negotiate, and to influence others Nunan (1991) viewed that to most people, communicative competence or good speaking performance is the most important aspect of learning a second or foreign language, and the ability to carry out a conversation in the target language becomes a symbol of a good language user Therefore, it is crucial to focus on teaching speaking skills to young learners at the very first stage

2.1.3 Principles of Teaching Speaking

According to Kayi (2006), speaking is the process of sharing with others, knowledge, interests, attitudes, opinions or ideas in which the speaker‟s ideas become real to him and his listener It is implied that the primary goal of teaching speaking skill is

to achieve communicative efficiency According to Nunan (2003), to teach speaking means to teach learners to:

1 Produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns;

2 Use word and sentence stress, intonation pattern and the rhythm of the second language;

3 Select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social settings, audiences, situations and subject matters;

4 Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence

Nunan‟s consideration is comprehensive because learners need to develop all linguistic aspects to achieve the purposes of speaking, i.e the ability to use a language in real-life situations, or the ability to communicate Therefore, speaking classrooms provide learners with authentic practices that prepare students for such real-life cases; and teachers help their students develop the ability to produce grammatically and lexically correct and logic sentences that are appropriate to specific contexts, and to use comprehensible pronunciation Nunan (2003) then suggests some principles for teaching speaking based on the nature of English speaking skills as follows:

First, teachers give students practices with both accuracy and fluency since speaking performance is built up from both accuracy and fluency elements Accuracy is the correctness of language elements (e.g grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation) involved

in an utterance performed by speakers Whereas, fluency is pertinent to the speakers‟ ability to speak the language quickly and confidently, with few hesitations or unnatural pauses, false starts, word searches, etc Speakers need to be both accurate and fluent in the way they speak Hence, teachers need to think of an effective strategy for helping learners develop both of them

Second, teachers provide opportunities for students to talk and limit time It is important for language teachers to be aware of how much they are talking in class so that students could be talking in a more sufficient time Pair work and group work can be wonderful ways to increase student-talk-time during lessons; simultaneously, these methods also build up students‟ confidence and speed up interaction among them In the research of Foralová (2007), he found most language learners are primarily interested in learning to speak, but the problem is there are not enough opportunities for students to express themselves, to try out items they have learnt

teacher-talk-in “actions”, i.e teacher-talk-in “communication” Therefore, teachers need to maximize students‟ participation in speaking in pair and group work

Third, teachers design classroom activities that involve guidance and practice in both transactional and interactional speaking While speaking as transaction focuses on what is said or done, speaking as interaction aims to its effects on listeners and the results

of speaking activities But many students sometimes feel awkward and at a loss for words

in situations that require them to talk for interaction According to Nunan and Lamb (1996), interactional speech is much more fluid and unpredictable than transactional speech Thus, speaking activities inside the classroom need to be emphasized both transactional and interactional purposes Shortly, language teachers need to help learners use the structures appropriately and meaningfully

Besides, when in teaching and learning English, especially in speaking classrooms, it is really important to focus on the learners‟ affective states such as motivation and self-confidence Firstly, raising students‟ motivation as well as making them be interested in learning speaking English is not easy and a teacher must have a good teaching technique by giving students activities which both are used to play and learn Furthermore, Eldred, Ward, and Dutton, (2004) agree “development of confidence seems to be one of the keys to the successful development of literacy, language and numeracy skills” (p 87) In particular, students are not able to speak out any words without confidence because of being afraid of making mistakes as well as losing their face in front of other students Therefore, as a teacher of English, helping students to get enough language competence and develop their confidence is the best way to arouse their speaking skill

In conclusion, in order to help students succeed in speaking performance, it is important for the teachers to master the above mentioned principles on purpose so that they can be aware of what to teach and how to teach appropriately Moreover, combining

all above mentioned principles orderly and properly while speaking is the best way to teach and help students overcome their difficulties in performing speaking activities

2.2 Background of Cooperative Learning

2.2.1 Definitions

Cooperative Learning, takes many forms and definitions; each of them embodies a specific aspect, but all definitions focuses on its importance, especially in the area of language acquisition

Gomleksiz (2007) postulates that Cooperative Learning is a learning approach that, they are helping each other learn about academic subjects, creating small mixed groups of students in the classroom with reference to a shared purpose In the same vein, Cooperative Learning is defined as an array of instructional methods through which students are encouraged to work together on academic tasks (Slavin, 1995) In Cooperative Learning, students work in small groups to help one another in learning academic content (Slavin, 1995) Besides, it also refers to an instructional technique where students work in groups so as to facilitate one another‟s learning and to achieve certain goals (Johnson, Johnson, & Smith, 1991) Also, Jolliffie (2007) reckons that we should foremost capture exactly what we mean by Cooperative Learning and this author defines that “cooperative learning requires pupils to work together in small groups to support each other to improve their own learning and that of other” (p 34) In other words, when students work together on group tasks, they will help each other and share the tasks equally in interactional classroom situations; for examples, they explain, discuss ideas, ask questions, and receive different answers for their questions

2.2.2 Typical Activities

In order to increase student‟s communication and make them aware of their language use, teachers cannot achieve that by only providing input to students, but through speaking activities Speaking activities in the classroom are the significant

ingredients of teaching English because they help students to develop their language and fluency during interaction For this, they need to arrange numerous situations where students have opportunities to speak with each other

Based upon several teaching theorists, enhancing speaking skill is through the Cooperative Learning activities which consist of an information gap, a jigsaw puzzle, games, discussion, and role-playing, and so on In addition, Hedge (2000) supports this idea that the activities that can assist better speaking skills are free discussion and role-playing Harmer (2001) posits that the language activities are important ingredients in teaching language for communication purpose Accordingly, the activities should create interactional space among the students in the classroom and also with the teacher Ur (2000) argues that the speaking skill is the most important one since foreign language students are most of all interested in becoming actual speakers of a language Therefore, Cooperative Learning activities that develop students‟ speaking skills are an important part of a language course In the common view, some of those activities can be applied in the primary classrooms as follows:

2.2.2.1 Discussion

At first, the teacher chooses a topic and asks students to start discussing it Practicing discussion on a further topic may cause a mass classroom; thus, teachers should manage the class in order to gain the maximum of benefits To give an example, the teacher divides the class into groups of 4 or 5 students then, writes the following sentences on the board; afterwards, gives chance to students to express the agreement or disagreement orally Through group discussion, students develop cooperative attitudes such as share their ideas, make questions, persuade, clarify their understanding and evaluate, etc (Hedge, 2000) In order to make discussions easier and clearer for students

to concentrate on and also to arouse students‟ interest, the teacher can hold group discussions enclosed some visual materials such as pictures, newspapers, magazines, videos, or a text about the topic beforehand

2.2.2.2 Role-Play

Another way to encourage students to speak is role-play In this activity, students play different roles that allow them to speak; for instances, the teacher asks students to choose a job then try to perform it as they are working it in reality as doctors, nurses, teachers, pilots, taxi drivers and architectures, etc (Ladousse, 1987) According to Hedge (2000), role plays are variety of activities in which students are provided with information presented in role cards that guide them to simulate real world given the freedom to choose the language they use and develop the personalities and the situations

as they wish to make the activity enjoyable and successful as much as possible

2.2.2.3 Storytelling

According to Dujmovic (2006), this activity builds up creative thinking in students and assists them to express their ideas in front of others In fact, the teacher can also divide students into groups than ask them to tell a joke and develop it in a story or try to collect various words, then ask them to combine in an imaginary story, these activities also encourage students to participate and speak because they like such interactive practices It is generally accepted that this activity will train students‟ tongue to be fluent

in English language well (McDargh, 2006)

2.2.2.4 Jigsaw Activities

Jigsaw activities are activities that can be done with many partners By description, in a jigsaw activity, each partner has one or a few pieces of the “puzzle”, and the partners must work out together to arrange all these pieces into a whole picture (Adams, 2013) The puzzle piece may take one of several forms According to this author, it may be one panel from a comic strip or one photo from a set that tells a story; it may be one sentence from a written narrative; or it may be a tape recording of a conversation, in which case no two partners hear exactly the same conversation In short, Adams (2013) posits that the jigsaw strategy is a cooperative learning technique appropriate for students from 3rd to 12th grade

2.2.2.5 Three Steps Interview

Three steps interview is an appropriate activity to stimulate students‟ interaction with the other class members (Kagan, 1992) Three step interviews can be used to as an

“ice breaker” for team members to know one another Citraningsih (2014) describes three steps of this Cooperative Learning-based technique During the first step, students interview their partners by asking clarification questions Moving to the second step, the partners exchange the roles For the final step, members share their partner‟s responses with the team It is implied that this activity can help the students to improve their speaking skill by paraphrasing their pair‟s opinion when they are sharing it with the team‟s member

2.2.2.6 Think Pair Share

Think pair share is useful to encourage the students‟ time on task and listening to each other In study of Vitasari (2017), three steps of this activity are precisely described The first step is that teacher arouses his student‟s thinking with a question or prompt or observation, etc., while the students should think about this question in a few minutes In the second step, these students make a discussion with their partners to find out the best answer And, the last step is generated by the students sharing their opinions with the whole class In recap, Sampsel (2013) believes that think pair share is very useful to create the optimal participation among all class members and raise their confidence in speaking out their ideas

In sum, the six typical types of Cooperative Learning activities alluded above are the ones which most frequently occur in the Vietnamese primary schools regardless of the extent to each type In this study, the researcher deliberately seeks the use frequency rate of these Cooperative Learning activities in the selected primary schools

2.2.3 Teachers‟ and Learners‟ Roles in Cooperative Learning

The notable distinguish between Cooperative Learning and a traditional approach

is the roles played by the teachers and students in language classroom It is crucial for them to get acquainted with the new roles in order to facilitate the implementation of Cooperative Learning, especially to primary classrooms

2.2.3.1 Teachers’ Roles

The teachers‟ role of Cooperative Learning is fundamentally different from the teachers‟ one in traditional teacher-centered classroom (Richards & Rodgers, 2001) In this instructional approach, the teacher is not the person who only assesses the capacity of the students in terms of a final product but process Conversely, this approach requires teachers to create a highly structured and well-organized learning environment in the classrooms such as setting the goals, planning and designing the tasks, establishing the physical arrangement of the classroom, dividing groups, assigning students‟ roles in their groups, and choosing materials (Richards & Rodgers, 2001) To sum up, although Cooperative Learning is a student-centered approach, the teachers‟ role is an extremely important decisive part to the success of this approach In order to well organize the learning environment and achieve the aims of the Cooperative Learning approach in a short period of time in class, teachers are asked to take much time for lesson preparation

2.2.3.2 Students’ Roles

The primary role of the learners when working in Cooperative Learning groups is that each member must work cooperatively on the assigned tasks with other members Learners are also director of their own learning who can plan, monitor and evaluate their language performances (Richards & Rodgers, 2001) In short, this favor of learning draws students to involve and participate actively

2.2.4 Benefits and Challenges of Cooperative Learning Implementation

In the actual implementation of Cooperative Learning, although this approach has its many benefits rather than other traditional approaches, it remains some challenges that language practitioners also confront under a couple of unexpected issues This part presents a review in literature about both the benefits and challenges of the implementation of Cooperative Learning

2.2.4.1 Benefits

The visible benefits of Cooperative Learning have been acknowledged throughout the years Davis (1993) considers that language learners can capture information for longer periods, perform better during testing phases and show their satisfaction towards the course materials Besides, in the communication process, the learners need to negotiate meanings with others, and as a consequence of this, the learners may become more confident and effective speakers and it may create a stress-free atmosphere for language practice and autonomous learning

Cooperative Learning is nowadays the most preferably instructional method adopted at all levels of education, from schools to universities and everywhere, because very simply it is one of the best success stories of both psychology and education (Johnson & Johnson, 2008) In effective classroom group, the learning environment will

be more pleasant (Dörnyei & Murphy, 2003) through which students will be more motivated (Dörnyei, 2001) to help each other and work harder to discover more than they

do when they perform individual tasks, and they need to do their best when they are working in groups, because they cannot reach any academic tasks unless the whole group does and the academic tasks will be earlier finished when the work is equally shared among group mates (Jolliffe, 2007)

Furthermore, McGroarty (1989, cited in Richards & Rodgers, 2001) identifies several learning benefits for ESL students in Cooperative Learning classrooms Firstly, it increases frequency and variety of second language practice through different types of

interaction Secondly, it is possible to develop students‟ use of language in ways that support cognitive development and language skills Next, it provides many opportunities

to involve a greater variety of instructional materials to stimulate language learning among learners Also, this learning environment creates opportunities for students to act

as resources for each other, thus assuming a more active role in their learning It is inferred that if teachers bring numerous Cooperative Learning Activities into English primary classrooms, it is positively believed that the students at this level can have opportunities to practice English as much as possible within various interactional configurations Besides, a combination of topical knowledge and linguistic competence does accordingly emerge More importantly, students become more actively responsible for their learning in the realm of language acquisition

In the same fashion, Lin (2000, cited in Ling, 2015) compared Cooperative Learning with traditional teaching methods and discovered that students showed more confidence, greater active interaction, enthusiasm and high scores in Cooperative Learning classroom than the other students did in the teacher-centered one Cooperative learning can increase the quality of students‟ motivation, activities and language proficiency as well These are psychological benefits In relation to students‟ academic performance, it is generally accepted that Cooperative Learning Activities can provide the chances for students to use language input and produce language output (Zhang, 2010) Also from this author, these activities allow students more frequency of practicing language in a functional manner (i.e., requesting, clarifying, making suggestions, etc.)

From the synthesis of possible benefits of Cooperative Learning in foreign language acquisition, the researcher will adopt these benefits fully into examining how the teachers studied think about the effectiveness of applying Cooperative Learning in the English speaking primary classrooms, which are divided into two main groups, that is,

psychological/ affective effects and speaking performance effects

2.2.4.2 Challenges

Firstly, if teachers do not organize the cooperative groups carefully, cooperative learning may be failed its benefits due to bad performances from students Normally, a team has some members who do not want to work with others and keep silent; or in some cases, a few students would like to control their group mates and talk all the time (Kagan, 1995) Therefore, if learners are put into groups without sufficient instructions on what and how to work in groups, they cannot perform effectively; especially when they are not concentrated on principles of Cooperative Learning such as positive interdependence, the individual accountability or social skills, etc which will be presented in the next section Therefore, it is recommended that in order to implement Cooperative Learning successfully, the teachers need to carefully grasp principles of Cooperative Learning

Secondly, it is reckoned that unavailability of time to teach materials and control class is a big challenge in the implementation of Cooperative Learning (Zhou, 2011) A successful Cooperative Learning lesson requires much time for teachers to prepare the materials and manage classroom rather than traditional approach Thus, teachers can be interested initially but it is much difficult for them to keep their maintenance for a longer time (Phan Nguyen Duy An, 2014)

Class size is another problem that the teachers have to surmount to successfully implement Cooperative Learning (Pham Thi Hong Thanh, 2011) Normally, Vietnamese primary classes consist of 35-50 students In such big class size, there are approximately

10 to 14 groups (of 4 or 5) working concurrently, which makes it difficult for the teachers

to observe, monitor or support to ensure that they are working smoothly

Workload division among group members is the possible obstacle to success of implementing Cooperative Learning Findings in Pham Thi Hong Thanh‟s study show that 80 percent of participants recognized the problem of inequality in the distribution of workload It is a common issue that “some members were not willing to complete the tasks, and became free riders in the process” (p 8) This challenge is also mentioned as a

diffusion of responsibility by Slavin (1995), in which learners have low individual accountability and their teacher does not well instruct them to avoid this situation

To sum up for this part, these challenges mentioned above can be categorized into three main factor groups, namely teacher factor, student factor, and schooling factor 2.2.5 Principles for the Implementation of Cooperative Learning

It is worth noting that it does not totally mean that Cooperative Learning will take place when students are simply asked to sit next to each other at the same table and do their own task (Johnson, Johnson & Smith, 1995; Gillies, 2003) More importantly, it seems uneasy to implement Cooperative Learning activities successfully due to some possible challenges mentioned earlier Therefore, as an approach, Cooperative Learning has been developed under certain principles Olsen and Kagan (1992, cited in Richards & Rodgers, 2001) proposed five principles for the implementation of Cooperative Learning such as positive interdependence, group formation, individual accountability, social skills, and structure In the same vein, according to Johnson and Johnson (2008), social interdependence theory provides a foundation for cooperative learning, on which the success of the cooperative lesson depends on, such as (1) positive interdependence, (2) individual accountability, (3) group formation, (4) simultaneous interaction, and (5) appropriate use of social skills In common, these five principles aforementioned are seen

as the pivotal basements to build a beautiful picture of Cooperative Learning in the classrooms In order to organize Cooperative Learning activities effectively, teachers have to take these principles into the designed activities These five principles will be discussed in detail as follows:

2.2.5.1 Positive Interdependence

This principle occurs when gains of individuals or teams are positively related, created by the structure of Cooperative Learning tasks and by building a spirit of mutual support within the group (Richards & Rodgers, 2001) It is implied that students are imperative to work collaboratively so as to gain common learning objectives In

Cooperative Learning-underpinned classrooms, students are connected to each other for support, explanations, and guidance Without the help of one member, the group will not able to achieve the pre-determined objective Therefore, it is important for the language teachers to prepare lesson plans carefully beforehand as well as give a clear goal for the activities so that they will probably take part in actively and positively more

2.2.5.2 Individual Accountability

Individual accountability is an indispensable principle of Cooperative Learning, occurring when all students in a group are held accountable for doing a share of the work and for mastery of the materials to be learned In other words, each team member should

be responsible for his/her equal share to the group‟s accomplishment It is important that the group knows who needs more assistance, support, and encouragement in completing the task There are some suggested ways to maintain this trait by Kagan (1992, as noted

in Phan Nguyen Duy An, 2014) First of all, teachers should give clear instructions of what and how the group should do to accomplish the shared task; secondly, teachers should randomly ask an individual in the group to present any part of the group work; finally, equally distributing the group members‟ scores is also a good way to keep individual accountability Another important thing is that teachers need to diagnose each student‟s level and some necessary information so as to form them into suitable groups

2.2.5.3 Group Formation

To ensure positive interdependence and individual accountability of Cooperative Learning, it requires the teachers to comply with group formation The first step is teachers‟ decision on the group size such as pairs, triads, etc It is generally reckoned that this decision heavily relies on the tasks, the learners‟ age and the time limit for the lesson that the teachers decide how many students will be formed a group Following that, teachers will have to assign students‟ roles in their groups such as timer, summarizer, presenter, monitors, etc In fact, the teachers should remind the importance of each individual in the group and alternate these roles regularly to give all group members

experience and get them out of tediousness In short, teachers have to reflect their important role here in which they always trace their students‟ acts and justify where necessary

2.2.5.4 Simultaneous Interaction

This principle occurs when class time is precisely designed to allow many student interactions during the period It goes without saying that teachers are encouraged to set

up time points in a very detailed way so that the speaking class will be run smoothly and

on time In other words, teachers need to make lessons precisely and meticulously prior

to they being enacted

2.2.5.5 Appropriate Use of Social Skills

Another important principle of Cooperative Learning is the appropriate use of social skills, which clearly identify how students interact with each other as groups (Richards & Rodgers, 2001) In the case that a student does not know how to interact effectively with his classmates, social skills should be taught and reinforced According

to Johnson and Johnson (2008) interpersonal and small group skills shape the individuals‟ necessary connection As a result, individuals must have the interpersonal and small group skills that are very necessary for effective cooperation and motivation, in order to

be able to work productively and overcoming together any kinds of pressure Social skills are needed to ensure successful interaction, and the necessary individual feedback promoted the highest achievement and productivity in an interactional environment

2.3 Background of Young Learners

2.3.1 Definitions

In accordance with the book “Teaching languages to young learners” written by

Cameron (2001), young learners are defined as children who are from the age of five to twelve Similar, young learners as children aged from seven to twelve years, as Slattery

and Willis (2001) describe In their view, “young learners who are learning to aged and write in their own language, are developing as thinkers, understand the differences between the real and the imaginary” (p 5) According to Helus (2009), “They [young learners] can think logically on an appropriate level too They are able to cooperate with their schoolmates and develop their own learning strategies.” (pp 244-245)

It is generally accepted that young learners are usually adhered to be students between six to eleven years of age, coinciding the same age range of Vietnamese primary students This age group is embodied in the first, second, third, fourth and fifth grades in the Vietnamese primary schooling system It means that the fifth graders in this study are also seen as young learners

2.3.2 Characteristics

Young learners have their own manner of thinking and behaviors Consequently, they behave and learn in a path that is different from adults Therefore, teaching English

to young learners brings several challenges most of which spring from the characteristics

of young learners that are different from those of older learners (Cameron, 2001)

Firstly, young learners are curious, active and interested in exploration from concrete to abstract things (Pinter, 2006) They do not like to stay in a place which forces them to be in stillness They love to move, play and join in exciting and funny activities Similarly, they are very curious about the world around them, they want to discover everything new happening to them That is the reason why they often ask many

questions In his book “The Practice of English Language Teaching”, Harmer (2007)

points out the characteristics of young learners as those who have tendency of learning from everything around them and they learn indirectly rather than directly It means that they understand better what they learn when they can see or hear it and have a chance to touch and interact with

Moreover, because children are placed in a world full of other people (Vygotsky, 1978), they tend to imitate and mime the others‟ actions easily From Vygotsky‟s idea, children learn through social interaction It is assumed that young learners not only learn through interaction with their friends, but through interaction with their teachers and people around them When they join in the activities, they are easy to be tired, but they recover quickly Ur (2012) emphasizes that “children learn best through implicit learning: imitating, memorizing, and acquiring intuitively through repeating exposure and production of enjoyable or interesting activities” (p 258)

However, most of the authors point out that their attention span and concentration level is very short, and they are very active and naughty, they cannot sit in one place for long time and can easily feel bored after 5-10 minutes and it is so difficult that they can understand abstract concepts, they do not fully understand grammatical rules and explanation about language Ur (2012) suggests that using many pictures, stories, games and language activities can make children enjoy and engage into their learning

Likewise, children usually make use of such contextual clues like movements (e.g body language), intonation, mimics and gestures, actions and messages to understand and interpret the language itself (Slattery & Willis, 2001) Therefore, Harmer (2007) suggests that teachers should have a rich knowledge of activities to help young learners receive information from a variety of sources and plan a range of activities for a given period of time

In brief, apropos of the quintessential characteristics of young learners which EFL teachers, the six above-alluded Cooperative Learning activities are practically advantageous to developing speaking performance and positive affective states among young learners To illustrate, storytelling can build up creative thinking in students and assist them to express their ideas in front of others, while jigsaw activities are acknowledged as a collaborative technique appropriate for students from 3rd to 12th grade, and role-play develops the students‟ personalities and the situations as they wish to

make the activity enjoyable and successful as much as possible, and especially encourage the students to speak out their ideas Alike, discussion activities develop cooperative attitudes such as share their ideas, make questions, persuade, clarify their understanding and evaluate, etc.; whereas, three steps interview is an appropriate activity to stimulate students‟ interaction with the other class members, and think pair share is useful to encourage the students‟ time on task and listening to each other, and to create the optimal participation among all class members and raise their confidence in speaking out their ideas The paramount importance needs mentioning here is that teachers must recognize

to plan the lesson appropriately and to choose the best appropriate Cooperative Learning activities to help them learn effectively

2.4 Previous Studies

Since Cooperative Learning activities are considered very effective in foreign language teaching and learning, many researchers have conducted studies to find out how better to use Cooperative Learning activities in developing students‟ speaking skills and teachers‟ perceptions towards its effectiveness The results of these studies almost have shown the benefits that Cooperative Learning activities bring to both teachers and learners

Liang‟s quasi-experimental study (2000) investigated the effects of Cooperative Learning on EFL junior high school learners‟ language learning, motivation towards learning English, and the high-achievers‟ and low-achievers‟ academic achievements in the same language proficiency group, from two classes of the first year junior high school

students in central Taiwan (N=70) During one semester, the experimental group was

taught in Cooperative Learning activities with the techniques including Interview, Learning Together, Talk Pair, Inside-Outside Circle, and Student-Teams-Achievement Division Whereas, the traditional methods like Grammar Translation and Audio-Lingual were strictly applied to the control group The major findings of this study suggested that Cooperative Learning activities significantly enhanced the junior high

Three-Step-school learners‟ oral communicative competence as well as their motivation towards learning English This study only focused on the subject of high school students

Soraya (2010)‟s study aimed to testify the effectiveness of group work on reinforcing university learners‟ oral proficiency and communicative skills The use of pair or small groups to maximize learners‟ oral production became the main concern of this study Self-completed questionnaires were used to collect data and they were delivered to EFL third-year learners and to English teachers at the Department of English, Mentouri University (Constantine) The results indicated that cooperative group work should be exploited to enhance the language learners‟ language use and their classroom oral participation However, the study failed to mention the effects of Cooperative Learning activities on students‟ motivation and other affective conditions

Maldonado, Banoy, and Quinche (2011) carried out their action research study to investigate the role of Cooperative Learning in the development of 5th graders‟ speaking skills at George Washington School (Bogota city) The target population was children of

5th grade among boys and girls within ages ranged between 9 and 11 years old (N=35)

In the first section, the researchers did the application of the first test to check the students‟ level in speaking After that, the researchers started the observation and implementation process in the next stage In specific, one of the researchers always was the teacher applying in the classes the cooperative learning strategies while the other two researchers each class took were the observers Subsequently, the observers took notes in

a journal of all behaviors, issues and problems that students presented in every session to analyze the impact of this strategies in their oral skills (e.g accuracy, fluency, and pronunciation) Finally, after the implementation of these strategies in the ten classes, the researchers chose once again the same groups of 15 students who were assessed at the beginning of this process and they took the same test Fifth graders at George Washington School improved their speaking skills, being able to understand and answer

to different questions related to exchanging personal information, talking about their family, describing characters, describing actions in progress and describing past actions

At any rate, their oral skills consisting of accuracy and fluency were improved Like Soraya‟s (2010) study, this research pushed the students‟ attitude effect aside but concerned their speaking performance effect

Likewise, the experimental study of Pattanpichet (2011) aimed to investigate the effects of using Cooperative Learning to enhance students‟ speaking achievement The participants of the study consisted of undergraduate students at Bangkok University

(N=35) The English oral test was used to measure the participants‟ English speaking

performance The scoring rubric was employed to measure the quality of speaking performance on the five criteria, namely communication, vocabulary and expressions, grammar, pronunciation and content The test was used as a pre-test and a post-test administered before and after the Cooperative Learning treatment After taking the pretest, they received the Cooperative Learning treatment by which they were involved in several pair or group activities Then, they were assigned to take the post-test the following week At the end of the course, the questionnaire to examine the use of Cooperative Learning was distributed to the students The questionnaire consisted of 20 items and the semi-structured interview asking the students to indicate their opinions toward the use of Cooperative Learning The results of the oral test signified that the Cooperative Learning intervention had a positive effect on students‟ English oral performance The results of questionnaire and interview reveal positive outcomes about students‟ perceptions towards the use of Cooperative Learning However, as for negative aspects of the method, two issues, that is, wasting time and difficulty in getting cooperation were pinpointed

Attamimi‟s study (2014) investigated the effectiveness of Cooperative Learning in English classrooms to enhance Yemeni students‟ speaking skills and attitudes The data

of the quasi-experimental study were gathered at multiple points of time before and after the end of the experiment to determine the effectiveness of Cooperative Learning on the sample‟s speaking skills and attitudes In practical terms, the sample‟s speaking skills were first examined through an English oral test before and after intervention Next, a

five-point Likert scale-questionnaire was sent to the sample before and at the end of the course to trace students‟ attitudes towards the use of Cooperative Learning The findings showed a remarkable development in the students‟ speaking skills and positive attitudes within Cooperative Learning approach For the findings, these researchers recommended that teachers should benefit from applying Cooperative Learning in English classes, which may in turn build up students‟ speaking skills and attitudes Yet, the study was ignorant of seeking the difficulties that both the teachers and students resist during such a speaking class

Having the same purpose as the above-mentioned studies, Alimi (2015) conducted

a survey student to investigate the significance of using cooperative group work on improving students‟ speaking production and communicative skills in EFL classes To carry out this research, the author sent the two questionnaire versions of third-year students and EFL teachers in the English Department of Biskra University during the academic year (2014-2015) The findings from this research proved that cooperative group work beneficial to develop their self-confidence and reduce their classroom anxiety and inhibition Scarcely, the current study failed to address the hazards in the Cooperative Learning class

In Vietnam, Phan Nguyen Duy An (2014) conducted her study to identify the advantages and challenges of the implementation of Cooperative Learning in teaching EFL speaking The survey study used two questionnaires, one for full time teachers at

English Department of University of Information Technology (N=8) and one for students (N=135), the teacher interviews and classroom observations The results showed that

Cooperative Learning provides more chances for the students to practice speaking and understand the lessons more deeply, but this implementation also faced some obstacles such as laziness and hesitance to express ideas from some of the students, heavy

curriculum, and big class size

2.5 Research Gaps

In conclusion, the literature revealed that most of the studies indicated positive effects of Cooperative Learning activities on developing the quality of EFL learners‟ speaking skills and increasing their motivation in speaking in English as well as teachers‟ positive perceptions towards this application These research results have strongly supported the must use of this form of interaction in EFL speaking classes However, the body of literature representing the related works has disclosed some adequacies

Firstly, most of the previous studies have been experimental ones in which the effectiveness of Cooperative Learning activities on speaking performance was examined through tests (e.g Liang, 2000; Maldonado, et al., 2011; Pattanpichet; 2011; Attamimi, 2014) Yet, very few studies investigated the teachers‟ perspectives on their implementation of Cooperative Learning activities in speaking classes (e.g Phan Nguyen Duy An, 2014; Alimi, 2015) Therefore, in this research paper, the researcher focuses on how the participating teachers perceive about the effectiveness and possible challenges of implementing Cooperative Learning activities in improving their primary learners‟ oral

productions in English (c.f Research question 1); then to what extent the surveyed

teachers implement Cooperative Learning activities in their 5th grade speaking classes

(c.f Research question 2)

Secondly, very few studies mentioned some different drawbacks or challenges of implementing Cooperative Learning activities, especially in the primary school context (i.e., Pattanpichet, 2011; Phan Nguyen Duy An, 2014) Hence, this issue should be

investigated further in this study (c.f Research question 1) Based the investigated

challenges of implementing Cooperative Learning activities, some recommendations can

be made to make this implementation more effective and valuable

2.6 Conceptual Framework

In accordance with the golden rules of speaking lesson delivery, specific to the primary school context, along with the theoretical grounds on Cooperative Learning inclusive of definitions, activity sorts, merits and perils, maxims for implementation, etc., the researcher intentionally fabricated a conceptual framework of the study This scheme aimed at investigating the primary teachers‟ perceptions and practices of Cooperative Learning in developing the fifth graders‟ speaking performance The figure below elucidates the conceptual framework pillaring the current study:

Figure 2.1: The Conceptual Framework for the Study

Implementation of Cooperative Learning (CL) activities in fifth-grade speaking classes

CL activity types

1 Storytelling

2 Jigsaw activities

3 Role-play

4 Discussion

5 Three step interview

6 Think pair share

Complied maxims for CL

(Before during, after)

1 Positive independence

2 Individual accountability

3 Group formation

4 Simultaneous interaction

5 Use of social skills

Effects of

CL

1 Affective states

(motivation, confidence, anxiety)

2 Oral performance

(Language functions, accuracy, fluency)

Challenges

of CL

1 Teacher factor

2 Student factor

3 Schooling factor

(curriculum, materials)