CAN THO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT  B.A Thesis NGUYEN VIET HONG HIGH-SCHOOL STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS ABOUT COLLABORATIVE LEARNING IN LEARNING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Van Su, M.Ed Student: Le Ngoc Thu Huong Student‟s code: 7086594 Class: NN0852A1 Course: 34 Cantho, May, 2012 Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the effort to complete the task, I have received a great deal of useful and practical support from many teachers, friends and relatives First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Miss Nguyen Thi Van Su, for her scholarly knowledge, encouragement and enthusiastic, insightful invaluable guidance and constructive critical feedback Besides, experiences in the data analysis with the SPSS program was a gift from her helping me so much Secondly, I am also grateful to Ms Le Thi Da Thao at English teachers at Nguyen Viet Hong, who gave me many useful advices and advantaged condition to investigate this thesis during my pedagogy practice stage Thirdly, my special thanks are sent to my beloved high school students in class 10A, class 10B9, class 11B9, class 11B10, class 12B4, and class 12B6 of Nguyen Viet Hong high school for their participation in as well as their valuable information without which my work would have not been completed Also, I would like to thank Ms Ngo Thi Trang Thao and Ms Truong Nguyen Quynh Nhu for their valuable feedbacks which helped my study to be more complete Next, I would like to express my gratitude to my friends and my roommates, Huynh Minh Thu, Vu Thi Thanh Thuy, Dinh Thi Thuy Hang, Nguyen Thi Le Quyen, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Dieu, for their help in collecting the data, data processing, their encouragements and checking my thesis mistakes And, I would also like to thank my boy friend who gave me many help and wrote useful simple software for me to process data Last but not least, I would like to convey my heartfelt thanks to my parents, my younger sisters and who were always by my side and give me spiritual advice, unconditional love and support during the time of work Le Ngoc Thu Huong i Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL ABSTRACT Collaborative learning (CL) is especially useful in Foreign Language and English as a Second Language (ESL) course where interactions involving use of the language are important (Liang, Mohan & Early, 1998) CL has been widely researched and advocated throughout many professional literatures related to students in universities and colleges However, there has been very little research in CL in high school contexts around the world and especially in Vietnam Taking the advantages of collaborative learning, the author of this study attempted to investigate (1) high school students‟ perceptions about CL and (2) the frequency that they apply CL in study English by 210 students of all grade classes at Nguyen Viet Hong high school The instrument used in the study was a questionnaire including parts: high school students‟ perceptions about collaborative learning (using 4-point Likert scale) and high school students‟ frequency of collaborative learning (using 5-point Likert scale) They were adapted from those by Brown (2008) and Pham (2011) The results of this study revealed that high school students are highly aware of CL‟s benefits such as academic benefits (M = 3.2; SD = 38), social benefits (M = 3.11; SD = 42), generic skills (M = 3.06; SD = 37) and also disagree the negative aspects of CL (M = 1.93; SD = 50) The results from the study also indicated that CL was applied frequently in English class in high school educational environment and showed that the participants had applied CL in their English learning both in class time (M = 3.4; SD = 75) and beyond class time (M = 2.56; SD = 51) but in a medium frequency Based on the results, discussions and implications for teaching high school English at the context of Vietnam are suggested ii Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL TÓM LƯỢC “Cộng tác học tập” đặc biệt hữu ích với ngoại ngữ lớp chia sẻ học tiếng Anh nơi mà tương tác ngôn ngữ coi trọng (Liang, Mohan and Early, 1998) Cộng tác học tập nghiên cứu rộng rãi tán thành thông qua nhiều ấn phẩm chuyên liên quan đến sinh viên trường đại học cao đẳng với học sinh trung học phổ thông chưa có nhiều viết Dựa thuận lợi việc “cộng tác học tập”, tác giả nghiên cứu nỗ lực để tìm (1) nhận thức học sinh trung học cộng tác học tập, (2) mức độ áp dụng cộng tác học tập việc học môn tiếng Anh 210 học sinh tất khối lớp trường Trung học phổ thông Nguyễn Việt Hồng Công cụ sử dụng nghiên cứu bảng khảo sát có phần gồm: thông tin người tham gia khảo sát, nhận thức học sinh trung học phổ thông Cộng tác học tập với mức đánh giá Likert mức đo mức độ áp dụng Cộng tác học tập học sinh trung học phổ thông vào việc học tiếng anh mức đánh giá Likert Các câu khảo sát theo nghiên cứu Brown (2008) Phạm (2011) Phần mền SPSS phiên 16.0 sử dụng để phân tích số liệu Kết nghiên cứu học sinh trung học phổ thông nhận thức cao lợi ích cộng tác học tập lợi ích lý thuyết môn học (M = 3.2; SD = 38), lợi ích xã hội (M = 3.11; SD = 42), kĩ chung (M = 3.06; SD = 37) đồng thời không đồng ý với quan điểm phủ nhận lợi ích cộng tác học tập (M = 1.93; SD = 50) Kết nghiên cứu cộng tác học tập áp dụng điều đặn lớp học tiếng Anh trường phổ thông cho thấy đối tượng tham gia nghiên cứu có áp dụng cộng tác học tập thời gian lớp (M = 3.4; SD = 75) thời gian lên lớp (M = 2.56; SD = 51) Dựa kết nghiên cứu, thảo luận gợi ý cho việc giảng dạy tiếng Anh trường phổ thông đề xuất iii Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL CONTENTS Acknowledgments .i Abstract (English version) ii Abstract (Vietnamese version) iii Contents iv List of Tables and Figures .vi Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Rationale 1.2 The Research Aim(s) and Questions 1.3 Research Hypothesis 1.4 Research Significance 1.5 Research Organization Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1 An introduction to Collaborative Learning 2.1.1 Definition of CL 2.1.2 The Collaborative learning versus the Cooperative learning 2.1.3 The Benefits of Collaborative Learning 2.1.4 The Importance of Collaborative Learning in Studying English 2.2 Some Students‟ Perceptions about Collaborative Learning in EFL 2.2.1 Students‟ Perceptions about Academic Benefits 2.2.2 Students‟ Perceptions about Social Benefits 2.2.3 Students‟ Perceptions about Generic Skills 10 2.2.4 Students‟ Perceptions about Negative Aspects of Collaborative Learning 10 2.3 The Frequency that Students Apply CL in EFL 11 2.3.1 CL in Asian Classroom Practice in EFL 11 2.3.2 CL in Vietnamese Classroom Practice in EFL 12 2.4 Justifications of the present study 12 Chapter 3: Research Methodology 14 3.1 Research design 14 3.2 Participants 14 iv Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL 3.3 Instrument 14 3.4 Research procedures 16 Chapter 4: Results and Discussions 17 4.1 Normal distribution of data 17 4.2 Descriptive statistics on high school students‟ perceptions about CL 19 4.3 Descriptive statistics on frequency of applying CL in learning English by clusters 21 Chapter 5: Conclusion, Implications, Limitations, and Recommendations 24 5.1 Conclusions 24 5.2 Implications for teaching high school English in the context of Vietnam 24 5.3 Limitations and further research directions 25 References vii Appendices x Appendix x Appendix xiii Appendix xvi v Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 3.1: Taxonomy on high school students‟ perceptions about CL and the frequency applying CL in learning English 15 Table 4.1a: Descriptive statistics on high school students‟ perceptions about CL 17 Table 4.1b: Descriptive statistics on frequency of applying CL in learning English 18 Descriptive statistics on high school students‟ perceptions about CL by clusters 19 Table 4.2b: Percentage of high school students‟ perceptions about CL by clusters 19 Table 4.2a: Table 4.3a: Descriptive statistics on frequency of applying CL in learning English divided into clusters 22 Table 4.3b: The percentage of Frequency of applying CL in learning English by clusters 23 Figure 1: Figure 2: The mean scores of high school students‟ perceptions about CL 20 The mean scores of frequency of applying CL in learning English 22 vi Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL Chapter INTRODUCTION In the first chapter – Introduction, an over view of the research will be presented This chapter will address the following five sections They are (1) the rationale of the research, (2) the research aim(s) and questions, (3) the research hypothesis, (4) the significance of the research, and (5) the research organization 1.1 Rationale Collaborative learning has been a highly-appreciated learning and teaching method in recent years since this method has provided many advantages in learning It increases interest among the participants, promotes critical thinking and enhances interpersonal skills (Nation, 1989) Also, collaborative learning helps students to study in an active and constructive environment, have an opportunity to engage in discussion, and makes them take responsibility for their own learning (Panitz, 1996) It is more convenient that collaborative learning can be used not only in the classrooms but also in laboratories, or online Nevertheless, it still has not been applied in most of Vietnamese high schools because of some obstacles such as class size, curriculum coverage, etc (Pham, 2011) Since the term “Collaborative Learning” or “CL” becomes more popular, there are many studies which investigate the perceptions of learners about this term Specifically, there are some common perceptions about collaborative learning in existing studies from Brown (2008) & Pham (2011) such as helping them more understanding; fostering exchange of knowledge, information and experience; focusing on collective effort and gave learners greater responsibility for their learning; enhancing communication skills; giving a relaxed atmosphere; actively participating; and making new friends Besides perceptions of collaborative learning‟s advantages has presented in previous studies, there are some negative aspects of CL Class size and noise are the first obstacles that both teachers and students claim when implementing CL In additions, Pham (2011) argued that curriculum coverage is also one of barrier perceptions which strongly focus Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL on the amount of studying but not on the quality of studying Furthermore, according to Hadler (2005), most members working in a group perceive the competitive unconsciously Moreover, there are also some students who not want to perform but reap the benefits from other group members (Davies 2009) However, most of the current researches have just investigated the students‟ perceptions about CL in universities or colleges When taking teaching observation practice for sixweeks at high school, I had a chance to observe some classes in English periods in which the teachers organized collaborative activities like group works and pair works Thus, CL is not only applied in universities and colleges but also in high schools in Vietnam I found that some students were interested in working in pair and in group They not only got collaborative learning in classroom but also organized it outside of class Meanwhile, some other students seem to be passive in learning, afraid to answer teachers‟ questions, and seldom contribute to the lessons The teachers should know what perceptions of their high school students are in both active and passive aspects to adjust and make this method more and more effective in high school classrooms, especially in such a dynamic subject like English For this reason, I decide to carry out this paper In my study, I will explore Nguyen Viet Hong high school students‟ perceptions about collaborative learning and the frequency that they apply CL in learning English 1.2 The Research Aim(s) and Questions This study aims to explore (1) Nguyen Viet Hong high school students‟ perceptions about collaborative learning and (2) the frequency that they apply CL in learning English Specifically, this study is carried out in an attempt to find the answers for the questions: What are Nguyen Viet Hong high school students‟ perceptions about collaborative learning? How frequently Nguyen Viet Hong high school students apply CL in learning English? Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL 1.3 Research Hypothesis Based on the related literature review and the research questions, it is hypothesized that respondents will point out (1) what Nguyen Viet Hong high school students‟ perceptions about collaborative learning are, (2) the frequency that they apply CL in learning English 1.4 Research Significance This study aims to investigate Nguyen Viet Hong high school students‟ perceptions about collaborative learning and to find out the degree of their applying CL in learning English; therefore, it‟s expected that this study can help the teachers know what perceptions of their high school students are in both active and passive aspects to adjust and to make CL pedagogically effective in high school context, especially in such dynamic subject like English It helps reflect how high school students perform CL in class and beyond class time In addition, the teacher trainers can also use this study as a reference They might reflect on how to train future high school teachers regarding teaching methodology, i.e how to use CL effectively in high school classroom 1.5 Research Organization This study consists of five chapters: Chapter 1, Introduction, presents the rationale for carrying out the study, the aim(s) of the research and the research questions, the research hypothesis, the research significance and the research organization Chapter 2, Literature review, provides a theoretical framework for the study concluding the definition of collaborative learning and the importance of CL in studying English Besides, some common perceptions of students about CL are also mentioned Then, the frequency that students apply CL in learning English will be presented at the end of this chapter Chapter 3, Research Methodology, describes the methodology used in the research including research design, participants, and procedures Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL Firstly, because the students‟ perceptions about CL in learning are not stable and some CL‟ negatives perceptions about CL are existing, the teachers should get feedback from the students after class time frequently to track changes so that teaching-learning process could be more effective In fact, “learner feedback is vital to CL” (Brown, 2008) Teachers should get formal and informal feedback from their students and ask them for oral and written feedback during a project, or at the end of a lesson, group work, or project Secondly, the frequency applying CL in learning English between in class times and beyond class times was not equal Therefore, the teachers should design more tasks which acquire the contributions of members in pairs or groups to finish those tasks Thirdly, the teacher trainers can also use this study as a reference They could reflect on how to train future high school teachers regarding teaching methodology, i.e how to use CL effectively in high school classroom Finally, this research confirms previous findings that CL has many benefits, such as improved learning skills, as well as some negative aspects like difficulty in getting some students to participate The negative aspects have been reduced recently due to better improvement in CL teaching methods Although, “there is no „the perfect methodology‟, CL is one instructional method that significantly facilitates the acquisition of academic, social and generic skills” (Brown, 2008) 5.3 Limitations and further research directions Although the research has been rigorously checked, there are some limitations that went beyond the scope of the research Certain limitations to the survey should be considered and areas for possible future research have emerged To take the limitations into consideration, the following issues are worthy of attention Firstly, the participants in this study were just in one high school Therefore, the results might not be generalized to all high school in Vietnam Thus, to make strong generalization should be better, in the future, other researchers would have collected 25 Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL more data from other high schools to ensure the data collected more valid, accurate and reliable with more participants Secondly, due to the limited time, the data for the study presentation were mainly from two questionnaire basing on two existing questionnaires of Brown (2008) and Pham (2011) without being piloted and examined through other sources such as interview, observation, teachers‟ lesson plans These sources are highly valuable in providing more information to ensure more the stableness and accuracy of the results Therefore, further studies should combine more research methods to get more effective results and more valuable information to the research 26 Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL REFERENCES Brooks, C.M., & Ammons, J.L (2003) Free riding in group projects and the effects of timing, 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Situ from knowledge building perspectives Asia-Pacific Education Researcher Retrieved from ejournals.ph/index.php?journal=TAPER&page=article&op=viewArticle&path%5 B%5D=4814 Yaman, Ş (2012) An Investigation of EFL Teachers’ Perception: Task-Based Language Teaching International Journal of Education and Social Sciences, 2(1) Retrieved from www.3kbioxml.com/3k/index.php/IJESS/article/view/278 x Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL APPENDICES APPENDIX ADAPTATION OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE Statements Brown‟s study Adapted statements Working in pairs and groups: helped understanding/comprehension fostered exchange of knowledge, information and experience made problem-solving easier stimulated critical thinking more relaxed atmosphere received useful/helpful feedback got fresh insight focused on collective efforts rather than individual effort greater responsibility – for myself and the group enabled learners to help weaker learners in the group xi Working in pairs and groups helped me understand/comprehend more about the lesson Working in pairs and groups fostered exchange of knowledge, information and experience I could solve problems easier while working in pair and in groups Working in pairs and groups stimulated critical thinking I have more relaxed atmosphere I received useful/helpful feedback from my friends when working in pairs and groups Working in pair and in group makes me get critical insight Working in pair and in group focused on collective efforts rather than individual effort Working in pair and in group gives greater responsibility – for me and the group Working in pair and in group enabled learners to help weaker learners in the group Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL enhanced communication skills improved performance learners actively participated in the teaching/learning process It was fun made new friends Working in pair and in group enhanced my communication skills Working in pair and in group improved our performance I actively participated in the learning process thanks to working in pair and in group I found that working in pair and in group is fun I can make new friends thanks to working in pair and in group fostered team spirit waste of time explaining things to others difficult getting members to actively participate in tasks Pham‟s study How often you have cooperative learning in your class? The teacher announces the topic, assigns students to groups, instructs students to work in groups asks students to evaluate each other, and assess the group product The teacher announces the topic Then, students choose group members to discuss the topic and then report to the class xii In English class, my teacher applies pair work and group work We are inquired to discus English questions in pairs and in groups We are asked to contribute to our pairs/ our groups in English class In English class, the teacher marks our assignments based on pair work and group work In English class, pairs or groups are organized by the teacher We choose my partner/ my group‟ members by ourselves Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE HIGH-SCHOOL STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS ABOUT COLLABORATIVE LEARNING IN LEARNING ENGLISH Student name: Gender: □ Male Class: _ □ Female Part I: High school students’ perceptions about collaborative learning Choose from the scales of “strongly disagree”, “disagree”, “agree”, and “strongly agree” as you respond to each item by putting a tick () into the column that best represents your level of agreement, using follow scale: Strongly disagree Working in pairs and groups helped me understand/comprehend more about the lesson Working in pairs and groups fostered exchange of knowledge, information and experience I could solve problems easier while working in pair and in groups Working in pairs and groups stimulated critical thinking I have more relaxed atmosphere I received useful/helpful feedback from my friends when working in pairs and groups Working in pair and in group makes me xiii Disagree Agree Strongly agree Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL get critical insight Working in pair and in group focused on collective efforts rather than individual effort Working in pair and in group gives greater responsibility – for me and the group 10 Working in pair and in group enabled learners to help weaker learners in the group 11 Working in pair and in group enhanced my communication skills 12 Working in pair and in group improved our performance 13 I actively participated in the learning process thanks to working in pair and in group 14 I found that working in pair and in group is fun 15 I can make new friends thanks to working in pair and in group 16 Working in pair and in group fostered team spirit 17 It is waste of time explaining things to others when working in pair and in group 18 It is difficult to get members to actively participate in tasks when working in pair and in group 19 Working in pair and in group is not a valuable to my education 20 In working in pair or group, it encourages laziness among students Part II: High school students’ frequency of collaborative learning xiv Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL Choose from the scales of “Always”, “usually”, “sometimes”, “rarely” and “never” as you respond to each item by putting a tick () into the column that best represents your frequency, using follow scale: Always Usually Sometimes 21 In English class, my teacher applies pair work and group work 22 We are inquired to discus English questions in pairs and in groups 23 We are asked to contribute to our pairs/ our groups in English class 24 In English class, pairs or groups are organized by the teacher 25 In English class, the teacher marks our assignments based on pair work and group work 26 The teacher asks us to homework in pair or in groups 27 We are asked to group exercise at home 28 We choose my partner/ my group‟ members by ourselves 29 Before class time, we get together to solve English tasks 30 I solve the English tasks with my friends beyond class-time 31 Beyond class time, we choose my partner/ my group‟ members by ourselves THANKS FOR YOUR TIME ! xv Rarely Never Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL APPENDIX BẢNG KHẢO SÁT NHẬN THỨC CỦA HỌC SINH TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG VỀ CỘNG TÁC HỌC TẬP TRONG VIỆC HỌC TIẾNG ANH Tên học sinh: Giới tính:  Nam  Nữ Lớp: _ Phần I: Nhận thức học sinh THPT Cộng tác học tập Hãy chọn theo mức độ “rất không đồng ý”, “không đồng ý”, “đồng ý” “rất đồng ý” cho câu trả lời bạn câu cách đánh dấu chọn () vào cột thể mức độ đồng ý bạn Rất không đồng ý Học theo cặp theo nhóm giúp hiểu nhiều Học theo cặp theo nhóm tăng cường việc trao đổi kiến thức, thông tin kinh nghiệm với Tôi giải vấn đề dễ dàng nhờ vào việc học theo cặp học nhóm Học theo cặp theo nhóm kích thích tư phê phán Tôi có bầu không khí học tập thoải mái xvi Không đồng ý Đồng ý Rất đồng ý Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL Tôi nhận ý kiến đóng góp hữu ích từ bạn lúc học theo cặp theo nhóm Học theo cặp theo nhóm giúp có hiểu biết sâu sắc, sáng suốt Làm việc theo cặp theo nhóm tập trung vào đóng góp chung nỗ lực cá nhân Làm việc theo cặp theo nhóm giúp cho nhóm có trách nhiệm nhiều 10 Làm việc theo cặp theo nhóm cho phép người học giúp đỡ người học yếu nhóm 11 Làm việc theo cặp theo nhóm làm tăng kĩ giao tiếp 12 Làm việc theo cặp theo nhóm cải thiện kết học tập 13 Tôi tham gia trình học cách động nhờ vào học theo cặp theo nhóm 14 Tôi thấy vui làm việc theo cặp theo nhóm 15 Tôi có thêm người bạn nhờ vào làm việc theo cặp theo nhóm 16 Làm việc theo cặp theo nhóm thúc đẩy tinh thần đồng đội 17 Làm việc theo cặp theo nhóm thời gian phải giải thích cho bạn khác hiểu vấn đề 18 Khó làm cho thành viên tham gia làm việc theo cặp theo nhóm cách linh hoạt 19 Làm việc theo cặp theo nhóm xvii Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL ích cho việc học 20 Làm việc theo cặp theo nhóm tạo hội cho học sinh nhóm lười biếng Phần III: Mức độ học sinh THPT áp dụng Cộng tác học tập môn tiếng Anh Hãy chọn theo mức độ “luôn luôn”, “thường xuyên”, “thỉnh thoảng”, “ít khi” “không bao giờ” cho câu trả lời bạn câu cách đánh dấu chọn () vào cột thể mức độ đồng ý bạn Luôn Thường Thỉnh xuyên thoảng 21 Trong học tiếng Anh, giáo viên có áp dụng làm việc theo cặp theo nhóm 22 Chúng yêu cầu thảo luận câu hỏi tiếng Anh cặp trog nhóm 23 Trong học tiếng Anh, bị yêu cầu phải đóng góp vào công việc cặp nhóm 24 Trong học tiếng Anh, cặp nhóm xếp giáo viên 25 Trong học tiếng Anh, giáo viên chấm điểm tập dựa kết chung cặp nhóm 26 Giáo viên yêu cầu làm tập nhà theo cặp theo nhóm 27 Chúng yêu cầu làm tập nhóm nh8à 29 Chúng tự chọn bạn để làm tập theo cặp theo nhóm học tiếng Anh xviii Ít Không Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL lớp 29 Trước đến lớp, giải tập tiếng Anh với bạn 30 Ngoài học lớp, giải tập tiếng Anh với 31 Ngoài học lớp, tự chọn bạn để học theo cặp học theo nhóm CHÂN THÀNH CẢM ƠN THỜI GIAN QUÝ BÁO CỦA BẠN ! xix [...]... research 4 Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL Chapter II LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter consists of 4 parts The first part introduces (1) an introduction to CL, including the definition of collaborative learning, the collaborative learning versus the cooperative learning, the benefits of collaborative learning and the importance of collaborative learning in studying English. .. socially and academically if CL is implemented in the classroom (Seng, 2006) According to Seng, CL can enhance achievement in English language acquisition in a class, and “help maximize the performance of the students in acquiring the English language as well as interpersonal skills needed for success in school and society” 8 Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL 2.2 Some Students ... delivered via rote learning, or „drill and practice‟ modes” 2.3.2 CL in Vietnamese Classroom Practice in EFL CL has been widely accepted and used in international English language classes for years, but in Vietnam, “this approach seems to be a fairly new issue and yet to be applied nationwide” (Nguyen, 2010) According to her, collaborative activities are effective in helping students to change their attitudes,... group and help them improve their performance in learning Moreover, when working in pair and in group, learners actively participate in the learning process 2.2.2 Students Perceptions about Social Benefits of Collaborative Learning Despite of perceptions about academic benefits, perceptions about social benefits are shown in related studies According to Gokhale (1995), CL brings to learners a relaxed atmosphere... and a confrontational exchange of ideas, such as a debate In addition, the traditional Asian classroom had looked down the importance of CL because of wasting precious curriculum time (So, Tan and Tay, 2012) 11 Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL According to the authors, it may reflect a pervasive belief and real concern among teachers that the same content could have... The second part reviews (2) some students perceptions about collaborative learning in EFL such as students perceptions about academic benefits, students perception about social benefits, students perception about generic benefits, and students perception about negative aspects of CL The next part will focus on (3) the frequency that students apply CL in Asian classroom practice and in Vietnamese... method of learning Their preference for CL agreed with findings of prior research which claims that Asians preferred working in groups (Earley, 1994) and Asian learners supported group learning activities (Park, 2002) The enthusiasm to get in group learning can be seen as a good starting point for the integration of CL into the Vietnamese curriculum, lesson design, teaching and learning pattern” However,... the students in the questionnaire revealed that CL has been widely used in Vietnamese classes In addition, the mean score of frequency applying CL beyond class time was also remarkable (M = 2.56) The number showed that the participants had applied CL in their English learning but in medium standard The result is in accordance with the findings of Pham (2011) that they were willing to adopt CL as a new... Students Perceptions about Collaborative Learning in EFL According to Brown (2008), there are some students perceptions about collaborative learning such as helping them more understanding; fostering exchange of knowledge, information and experience; focusing on collective effort and gave learners greater responsibility for their learning; enhancing communication skills; giving a relaxed atmosphere; actively... or her authority 6 Nguyen Viet Hong high school Students' Perceptions about CL in ESL and gives the power to the small groups who are often given more open-ended, complex tasks by using collaborative learning In short, the terms collaborative learning and “cooperative learning are often used interchangeably because they are the same in some features, such as both using groups, both assigning specific