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ORGANIZING PAIRWORK AND GROUPWORK IN THE CONTEXT OF HIGH SCHOOL CLASSROOMS AT PHAM VAN NGHI UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL, NAM DINH PROVINCE: A CASE STUDY
VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES -----------o0o------------ MAI THỊ HẰNG PHƯƠNG ORGANIZING PAIRWORK AND GROUPWORK IN THE CONTEXT OF HIGH SCHOOL CLASSROOMS AT PHAM VAN NGHI UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL, NAM DINH PROVINCE: A CASE STUDY. (TỔ CHỨC HOẠT ĐỘNG TỔ VÀ HOẠT ĐỘNG NHÓM TRONG LỚP HỌC THPT TẠI TRƯỜNG PTTH PHẠM VĂN NGHỊ TỈNH NAM ĐỊNH: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU CÁ BIỆT) MINOR M.A THESIS Field: English Methodology Code: 601410 Hanoi, July 2008 1 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES -----------o0o------------ MAI THỊ HẰNG PHƯƠNG ORGANIZING PAIRWORK AND GROUPWORK IN THE CONTEXT OF HIGH SCHOOL CLASSROOMS AT PHAM VAN NGHI UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL, NAM DINH PROVINCE: A CASE STUDY. (TỔ CHỨC HOẠT ĐỘNG TỔ VÀ HOẠT ĐỘNG NHÓM TRONG LỚP HỌC THPT TẠI TRƯỜNG PTTH PHẠM VĂN NGHỊ TỈNH NAM ĐỊNH: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU CÁ BIỆT) MINOR M.A THESIS Field: English Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: TRẦN THỊ THANH, M.A. Hanoi, July 2008 2 CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT -----------*****----------- I hereby certify that the thesis entitled ORGANIZING PAIRWORK AND GROUPWORK IN THE CONTEXT OF HIGH SCHOOL CLASSROOMS AT PHAM VAN NGHI UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL, NAM DINH PROVINCE: A CASE STUDY Is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at College of Foreign Languages, Hanoi National University, and that this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other upper secondary schools Signature: Date : 10/10/2008 3 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In completion of my thesis, I have received generous advice and help from many lecturers whose lectures are very practical and useful. Firstly, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor, M.A. TRẦN THỊ THANH from Vietnam National University, Hanoi College of Foreign Language, for her close guidance, criticism, and her generous help in the process of completing my thesis. My special thanks also go to all lecturers and the staff of the Department of Post Graduate Studies at Hanoi College of Foreign Language for their useful materials, guidance and enthusiasm during my course of study. I really wish to thank all my colleagues and my students at my school - PHAM VAN NGHI upper secondary school- for their kind cooperation in giving valuable information. Finally, I owe my deep thanks to my dear family, specially my husband, my little daughter and my friends who always stand for me with their consideration and encouragement. Mai Thị Hằng Phương 4 ii ABSTRACT Learning language well depends on many factors such as personal characteristics, the structure of the native and target languages, opportunities for communicating with other people and with native speakers For students at schools, these factors can only work well with the help of the teachers using different techniques, and approaches in language teaching. In communicative language teaching, students have more chances practicing in the target language through different classroom activities, among them pair work and group work appear to be the most appropriate application. In my school, PHAM VAN NGHI upper secondary school in Y YEN district, NAM DINH province, pairwork and group work are used widely in foreign language classes. However, it seems that the using of these activities in the school is not very effective. This research focuses on pointing out how to organize pair work and groupwork more effectively after investigating how these activities are used in our school by collecting data through class observation, and analyzing the questionanaire data .Some evaluation will be drawn and some suggestions for the future use of these activities will be made. 5 iv iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Candidate’s statement…………………………………………………… .…………… i Acknowledgement……………………………………… …………………………… ii Abstract………………………………………………… .……………….………… .iii Table of contents………………………………………… …………………………… .iv Appendix……………………………………………………… .…………………… vi List of abbreviations and tables………………………………… …………………… vii CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT .3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 4 ABSTRACT 5 Part A: INTRODUCTION 8 1. Rationale .8 2. Aims of study 8 3. Scope of the study .8 4. Research questions of the study .9 5. Methods of study 9 6. Design of study .9 Part B: DEVELOPMENT .11 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 11 1.1. Communicative approach to language teaching 11 1.1.1. What is meant by Communication? .11 1.1.2. Communicative Language Teaching 12 1.1.2.1. Nature of Communicative Language Teaching 12 1.1.2.2. The Techniques of Communicative Language Teaching .12 1.2. Definition of pair and group work 13 1.3. Advantages and disadvantages of pair and group work .14 1.3.2. Disadvantages .14 1.4. How to organize pair and group work : 15 1.4.1. Preparation for group work: 15 1.4.2. Steps of organizing pair and group work: .18 1.5. Difficulties in organizing pair and group work and suggested solutions .19 1.5.1. Difficulties : 19 1.5.2. Solution : 19 CHAPTER 2 : PRACTICAL RESEARCH 20 6 2.1. Background of the study 20 2.1.1. Description of the English syllabus in PVN school .20 2.1.2. Description of the students at PVN school 21 2.1.3. Description of the teachers at the PVN 22 2.1.4. Description of physical setting .22 2.2. Design and methodology .22 2.2.1. The participants 22 2.2.2. Research instruments .23 2.2.3. Data analysis .23 2.3. Presentation of statistical results .24 2.3.1. Questionnaires .24 2.3.2. Classroom observation 31 2.3.3. Examples of pair and group work 32 CHAPTER 3 : FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS 35 3.1. FINDINGS 35 3.1.1. How did teachers at PVN school organize pairwork and groupwork ? 35 3.1.2. Difficulties from teachers .37 3.1.3. Difficulties from students .37 3.1.3. Objective factors 38 3.2. SUGGESTIONS .38 3.2.1. General suggestions .38 3.2.2. Some suggested exercises in working in pair and group .40 Part C : CONCLUSION .43 1. Summary of the study 43 2. Limitations of the study .43 3. Suggestions for further study 44 REFERENCES .45 APPENDIX 1 : 46 APPENDIX 2 : 50 APPENDIX 3 : 55 APPENDIX 4: .58 7 Part A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale English, nowadays, is widely taught from primary school to university, even at English centers through out the country. People learn English for their work or for their higher study. However, the results of the English courses are not very good. Vietnamese teachers of English have not known how to apply the teaching method in effective ways. They are lack of knowledge, teaching aid, time, and money to teach four language skills: listening skill, speaking skill, reading skill and writing skill. Like many teachers in the schools of Vietnam, teachers of English at PVN upper secondary school are faced with a common problem: students’ poor participation in activities in the classroom. In fact, there are a variety of reasons for this poor participation, and therefore finding appropriate techniques and methods for teaching English effectively to students at PVN upper secondary school requires a long serious research. This led me the choice of the study “organizing pair work and groupwork in the context of high school classrooms at PVN upper secondary school” with the hope of investigating into ways to organize pairwork and groupwork more effectively in English classes. My study only focuses on how to organize pairwork and groupwork more effectively for students at PVN upper secondary school in NAM DINH. 2. Aims of study The study is aimed at: + Understanding the theoretical background of classroom activities: pairwork and groupwork to improve students’ language skills. + Investigating the use of pair and group work in PVN upper secondary school- a school located in Y Yen district, Nam Dinh province. + Helping teachers at PVN upper secondary school to find out effective technique to organize pairwork and groupwork with the hope of helping them in teaching English. 3. Scope of the study To improve four skills for students at PVN upper secondary school, the teachers can make use of various techniques and a number of things should be done. However, the 8 researcher only intends to draw a brief overview of pairwork and groupwork in classes at PVN upper secondary school and to find out the ways to organize pairwork and groupwork more effectively. 4. Research questions of the study This study was aimed to answer the following research questions: 1. How do the teachers in PVN high school use pair and group work? And how often? 2. Is that a suitable way of teaching in PVN school? Why? 3.How to organize pairwork and groupwork in English class more effectively for improving four skills to students at PVN upper secondary school? 5. Methods of study To realize the aims of the study, a case study was used.The theoretical background of the study comes from many published books written by different authors on language teaching and language acquisition. The data collected for the study came from two sources: the students and the English teachers at PVN upper secondary school (8 English teachers and 120 students) by making survey questionnaires and observation. In this research, quantitative method is used, too. All comments, remarks, recommendations assumption and conclusion provided in the study based on the analysis of the statistics from the survey questionnaires conducted with students and teachers of PVN upper secondary school. The study is also based on a qualitative method with the author’s own experience and observation during 6 years of teaching English. 6. Design of study This study consists of 3 parts: Part A: Introduction which presents the rationale, the aims, scope, the method and design of the study. The research questions are also mentioned in this part. Part B: Development which consists of 3 chapters: Chapter 1: Literature Review - reviews the theory about CLT, and pairwork and groupwork. Chapter 2: Practical Research –provides an analysis on the current situation of using pairwork and groupwork in teaching and learning English at PVN upper secondary school. Data collection and analysis are also presented in this chapter. Chapter 3: Findings and Suggestions - focuses on how the teachers at PVN upper secondary school organized pairwork and groupwork and difficulties facing them and their 9 students in carrying out these activities and some suggestions for the teachers to organize pair work and groupwork more effectively. Part C: Conclusion summarizes all the key issues as well as the limitations of the study and some suggestions for further study. 10 [...]... organize pairwork or group work, and some factors that make organization of pairwork and groupwork at PVN school less effective 3.1.1 How did teachers at PVN school organize pairwork and groupwork ? After collecting the information by using two kinds of questionnaires and observation sheets, I have an overview of how pair and group work are used in my school 3.1.1.1 Steps of organizing pair and group... problems that teachers and students at PVN encounter during the process of organizing pairwork and groupwork These difficulties have been drawn from the results of the two survey questionnaires and observation.The author’s suggestion which help improve the quality of the organizing pairwork and groupwork are also presented in this chapter 3.1 FINDINGS The results of the two questionnaires and observation... spent the various time on pairwork and groupwork activities, the total for these activities were about 50% of the total time amount, and in average, pair and group work activities took 20 minutes each period The maximum time amount for pairwork and groupwork activities in a class was 30 minutes and the minimum time amount was 10 minutes And the average time amount for pair and group work in a class... 45 to 59 and six young teachers, aged 25 to 35 A survey is conducted among teachers and students at PVN upper secondary school to find out the information about the current situation of classroom activities : pairwork and groupwork The survey questionnaire includes information about pairwork and groupwork at school (see Appendix 1 and 2) The results of the survey is illustrated in Table 1 and 3 The... these activities in making class more interesting and 50% consider pairwork and groupwork helping in motivating students and learning process The teachers seemed not to find the benefits of pair work and group work in teaching process In question 3, all teachers use pairwork and group work for teaching speaking in every lesson Some of them use pair work and group work for another skills depending on the... vocabulary and listening ; 5 for teaching grammar, 5 for teaching reading, 4 for teaching writing, and only 1 for teaching vocabulary, and 2 for teaching listening Each pair and group work organized took at least 5 minutes and at most 15 minutes The teachers usually group students at the same table in pair work and 32 group work (25/30) And the information the teachers used in organizing pair and group... process 1.5 Difficulties in organizing pair and group work and suggested solutions When teachers organize pairwork and groupwork, they encounter some difficulties 1.5.1 Difficulties : According to Andy Hoodith- Saitama University, there are three main difficulties while working in pair and group 1.5.1.1 Space : The furniture in the class is fixed, the teachers and students can not change or have no time... the students also found pair work and group work useful in language classes Most of them (93,4%) considered pair work and group work important and useful activities in language classes However, there were few students (6,7%) did not see the usefulness of pair work and group work in their learning process 31 85,8% of the students said pairwork and groupwork are suitable and appropriate in their school... to work together (usually four or five students in each group), as in pairwork, all the groups work at the same time 1.3 Advantages and disadvantages of pair and group work According to Hubert Skrzynski, pair work and group work have both advantages and disadvantages These are mentioned below : 1.3.1 The advantages of pairwork and groupwork 1.3.1.1 To increase the amount of student practice : When students... knowledge and the understanding of pairwork and groupwork of the teachers in PVN high school For the question about the time amount for pair work and group work in a class, none of them chose 5 minutes, most of the teachers (87,5%) consider 10 minutes or more is suitable time for working in pairs or groups One person chose from 5 to 15 minutes Question 2 is about the benefit of pair work and group . CLT, and pairwork and groupwork. Chapter 2: Practical Research –provides an analysis on the current situation of using pairwork and groupwork. to organize pairwork and groupwork more effectively in English classes. My study only focuses on how to organize pairwork and groupwork more