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1 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNVERSITY, HA NOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE POST – GRADUATE STUDIES **************** PHAM THANH MAI A study on group discussion and its impacts on speaking ability of the non-major students at the post-elementary level in Military Science Academy Nghiên cứu thảo luận nhóm ảnh hưởng đến khả nói học sinh khơng chun ngữ trình độ sau A Học viện Khoa học Quân Sự M.A MINOR THESIS Field: Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Ha noi 7-2007 DECLARATION To the best of my knowledge and belief, this minor thesis contains no material which has previously been submitted and accepted for any other degree in any university The thesis is my own work and based on my own research It involves no material previously published or written by any other person, except where due reference is acknowledged in the paper Signature: _ ABSTRACTS The study presents an attempt to investigate group work and its impacts on the subsequent individual presentations in the EFL classroom-based context Oral data from a range of sources including group planning and individual presentations were collected from 16 non-major students at the post elementary level at MSA over a period of ten weeks The students worked in small groups preparing for oral presentations For each topic, two students from two groups were randomly selected to give presentations Eight group discussions and sixteen individual presentations were selected and analyzed based on language related episodes (LREs) as well as typical features of group interaction and error free clause (EFC) The aims of the study were to explore what actually happens in group planning and whether the students in pre-planning groups perform more accurately and better than those in unplanning groups in terms of tenses, subject-verb agreement and pronouncing morpheme-s in plurality The results showed that in group discussions students tended to focus on the content of the task, and assisted each other in preparing for the individual presentations The findings also showed that students in pre-planning groups produced better presentations than those in unplanning groups in terms of tenses, subject-verb agreement and pronouncing morpheme-s in plurality Since the two activities, group work and individual presentations, are routine tasks at the college where the research had been conducted, the impacts of group planning have important pedagogical implications in organizing group and individual activities in the EFL classroom context ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the debt of gratitude to my supervisor Duong Thi Thuc, M.A for her guiding and indispensable comments on my drafts If it had not been for her supervision, the thesis would not have been completed My sincere thanks are due to Mr Truong Anh Tuan, M.A, whose generous advices and materials have encouraged and inspired me during steps of the thesis I would also like to express my deep sense of gratitude to my dear students of group 21T in Military Science Accademy, whose participation in and dedication to the research remain invaluable and have been acknowledged Without their precious support, the thesis would not have taken shaped I am indebted to my colleagues at the English Department of Military Science Academy for their enthusiastic assistance and co-operation Finally, the support extended to me by the members of my family has been immeasurable I would like to express my thanks to my parents, my husband Do Van Tuyen, and my daughters, Do Hai Yen and Do Thu Ha, for their whole hearted encouragement Ha Noi, July 8th 2007 Pham Thanh Mai LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Principal types of task planning Table 2: The implementation of the study Table 3a: Summary of the number of LREs in PTP3 group talks Table 3b: Summary of the number of LREs in PTP4 group talks Table 4a Summary of the number of turns in PTP3 group interaction Table 4b Summary of the number of turns in PTP4 group interaction Table 5a Summary of the leadership moves in group PTP3 Table 5b Summary of the leadership moves in group PTP4 Table 6: Summary of EFVC and EFNC ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS E: English EFL: English as Foreign Language ESL: English as Second Language EFC: Error Free Clause EFNF: Error Free Noun Forms EFVF: Error Free Verb Forms F-LREs: Form-Based Language Related Episodes L1: Mother tongue/ first language L2: Second language/ Foreign language L-LREs: Lexis-Based Language Related Episodes LREs: Language Related Episodes M-LREs: Mechanic-Based Language Related Episodes MSA: Military Science Academy NNS: Non Native Speaker NS: Native Speaker NP: No Planning PTP: Pre Task Planning TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration ….i Abstracts ………………………………………………………………………… ii Acknowledgements iii List of tables iv Abbreviations and conventions …………………………………………………… v CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE 1.2 SCOPE, OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS FOR THE STUDY 1.3 METHODS OF THE STUDY 1.4 THE DESIGN OF THE STUDY .5 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 GROUP DISCUSSION AND ITS ADVANTAGES .6 2.1.1 Definition of group discussion 2.1.2 Group work and its benefits from different points of view 2.1.2.1 From the psycho-linguistic point of view 2.1.2.2 From the socio-linguistic point of view 2.1.2.3 From the pedagogical point of view 10 2.2 TASK-BASED PLANNING AND TASK PERFORMANCE 10 2.2.1 Definition of a task and a frame work of task-based instruction .10 2.2.2 Classification of task-based planning 12 2.3 CRITERIA TO ASSESS ORAL LANGUAGE PRODUCTION 15 2.3.1 Fluency .16 2.3.2 Complexity .17 2.3.3 Accuracy 18 CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH DESIGN .20 3.1 SOME INFORMATION ABOUT THE MILITARY SCIENCE ACADEMY 20 3.2 PARTICIPANTS OF THE STUDY 21 3.3 PROCEDURES 22 3.4 INSTRUMENTATION 24 3.5 DATA COLLECTION 25 CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS 27 4.1 GROUP DATA 27 4.2 INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATION DATA 32 4.3 QUESTIONNAIRES .34 CHAPTER FIVE: FINDINGS 35 5.1 GROUP DISCUSSION 35 5.1.1 Language Related Episodes .35 5.1.2 Turns in group talks 36 5.1.3 Leadership moves 37 5.2 INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS 38 5.3 QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS .40 CHAPTER SIX: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 43 6.1 DISCUSSION .43 6.1.1 Research question 43 6.1.2 Research question 44 CONCLUSION 45 References …….…………………………………………………………… …47 Appendix Observers’ sheet ……………………………………………………………………… Questionnaire No ……………………………………………… …….……………… Questionnaire No ……………………………………………….…………………… Transcripts of group planning ………………………………………… ……………… Transcripts of individual presentations …………….…………………………………… CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION I Background and Rationale For many years, the traditional teaching method of English language such as Grammar Translation has dominated the teaching and learning environment in Vietnam This method does not focus on communicative skills, but much on grammar points in order to help learners pass Grammar Tests at secondary schools and universities As a result, many Vietnamese learners are excellent at grammar, but they can not communicate with each other in English In classroom, teachers always explain grammatical points such as tenses, articles, prepositions and so on, and give students a great deal of exercises to practice in order to master grammar rules Therefore, learners rarely have opportunities to speak and express their own ideas In the teacher-centered class the teacher tends to explain and students take notes and practice; they rarely work in pairs or in groups to discuss a topic with each other This seems to be very absurd for many educators in the world as the purpose of learning a second language is to communicate with each other in society This is a reason why the Ministry of Education and Training needs to innovate the way of the second language teaching by applying the communicative approach in teaching English in Vietnamese classrooms In addition, the text books and curriculums for both schools and universities should be designed for the communication-oriented and learnercentered approach Almost all teachers are required to improve their teaching skills and try out new methods to be successful in classrooms Group work is one of the most effective communicative approach that teachers often take into practice A number of researches have been conducted in the field in order to realize the influences of group discussion as a frequent class activity on students’ linguistic performance and communicative competence Participating in group discussion helps students develop “reproductive thinking” into “productive thinking”; and discussion method results in effective learning outcomes in terms of : (a) the mastery of general subject, (b) the ability of problem-solving, (c) the development of morality, (d) the development of attitude and (e) the development of communication skills (Wilen, 1990) Alvermann and Hayes (1989) believed that active and thoughtful participation in class discussion is an “outward sign of learning” Besides, in group participants learn to talk 10 better, i.e they know how to retrieve ideas, organize them coherently and speak them out fluently, and therefore communicative competence is developed Discussion also shapes “moral culture” as participants act together in a special way with regard to truthfulness, responsiveness, openness, respect, self-awareness, self-confidence and so on (Bridges, 1979) However, Jones (1999) raised a question why a number of non-native English speaking background students, particularly those who come from Asian countries, encounter difficulties in academic group discussion They stay silent and reticent whilst their counterparts from Europe, for example, actively participate in the group work In Viet Nam National University, Ha Noi some studies related to group work have been done, but they only focus on applying cooperative learning to improve speaking skills (Phan Thi Hong Anh, 2003; Vo van Thanh, 2004; Tran Thi Ngoc Bac, 2005; Hoang Thi Lan, 2005; Le Tuan Ngoc, 2005; Le Thi Bich Thuy, 2006; Nguyen Thu Huong, 2006; To Thi Thanh Ha, 2006.) In sum, group discussion is regarded as a fruitful topic for researchers, particularly for those who are interested in Second Language Acquisition in the sense that it relates to how L2 learners approach a new language and how interactions among them contribute to that process A number of researchers have shed light onto the field and seemed to agree on the point that group discussion productively promotes interactions among its participants Though many of the researchers did investigate the issue, few have drawn the conclusion about what truly happens during group discussion and whether there are the relationships between group discussion and its influence on the participants’ speaking skill in terms of accuracy Moreover, the most important reason why I pursue the study on groupwork is that teachers at the Military Science Academy (MSA) have been using group discussions very so often, however, they not truly recognize how much their students may benefit from this dynamic activity A minority of them even show doubts on group discussion’s advantages Being inspired by the teaching and learning situation in the MSA, the researcher comes up with the project with clear purposes in mind: to go deeply into the essence of group discussion to explore what the students actually during group discussion and its impacts on students’ acquisition of communicative competence in terms of accuracy, to determine if there is any possibility that participating into group discussion for academic purposes can help students gain better at their interactions within the ... Background and Rationale For many years, the traditional teaching method of English language such as Grammar Translation has dominated the teaching and learning environment in Vietnam This method... purpose of learning a second language is to communicate with each other in society This is a reason why the Ministry of Education and Training needs to innovate the way of the second language teaching... (modifications and adjustments that happen in communicative interactions between native and non- native speakers (NS/ NNS) and also between NNS/NNS) of Spanish and found that negotiated interactions