Using pair work and group work techniques to increase students' participation and interest in communicative english classes at hanoi university of industry

Candidate’ s statement I certify that the minor thesis entitled “Using pair work and group work techniques to increase students’ participation and interest in communicative English classes at Hanoi University of Industry” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts is the result of my own work, except otherwise acknowledge and this minor thesis or any part of the same has not been submitted for higher degree to any other university or institution. Acknowledgements To accomplish this study, I am indebted to many people for their thoughtful help. First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge and thank my supervisor, Ms. Tran Hien Lan for her valuable guidance, critical feedback and enormous encouragement, without which my thesis would be far from completion. I am also grateful to all the lecturers of the Post-graduate Department, Vietnam national University, Hanoi, College of Foreign Language for their guidance and enthusiasm during my course. My sincere thanks go to all my colleagues and my students at Hanoi University of Industry, Faculties of Economic, Electronic, and Chemistry. Finally, I would like to express my thanks to my friends who were willing to help me during the course. In particular, I find myself indebted to my family especially my husband for their love, care and tolerance when I was in the process of writing this thesis. Abstract This thesis was carried out to investigate the benefits of using pair work and group work techniques in communicative English classes. It sought the answers to the following questions: How often are pair work and group work techniques applied in communicative English classes at HaUI? Does using pair work and group work techniques increase students’ interest in communicative English classes at HaUI? Does using pair work and group work increase students’ participation in communicative English classes at HaUI? Survey questionnaires for teachers and students were employed to find answers to these three questions. The findings of the research revealed that pair work and group work were usually appiled in communicative English classes at HaUI. The reason was that these two techniques strongly increased students’ participation and interest in class activities. The students found working in pairs and in groups intersting, which made them participate more in the lesson. In addition, thanks to pair work and group work, the interaction between students were closer. However, there were some problems the teachers should consider when conducting these activities such as group size, the way of grouping, students’ level of proficiency, and so on. It is hoped that this thesis will help other teachers of English be aware of the usefulness of pair work and group work techniques and apply them in their teaching List of abbreviations HaUI: Hanoi University of Industry CLT: Communicative Language Teaching List of tables and charts Tables Table 1: Teachers’ profiles Table 2: Students’ profiles Table 3: The frequency of pair work and group work activities Table 4: Teachers’ opinion on pair work and group work Table 5: Students’ participation Table 6: The frequency of difficulties Table 7: Things the teachers often do when the students work in pairs and in groups Table 8: Group size organized by teachers Table 9: How to group students Table 10: Students’prference of classroom activities Table 11: The impact of pair work and group work techniques Table 12: Factors causing difficulties Table 13: Students’ recommendation for the things the teacher should do Table 14: Group size preferred by students Table 15: How would students like to be grouped? Charts Chart 1: Techniques used in English classes Chart 2: Students’ attitude to pair work and group work activities Chart 3: Factors causing difficulties Chart 4: The Frequency of pair work and group work activities Chart 5: Students’ attitude to pair work and group work Chart 6: The frequency of difficulties TABLE OF CONTENTS Candidate’s statement i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii List of abbreviations iv List of tables and charts iv Appendixes Appendix 1: Questionnaire for students Appendix 2: Questionnaire for teachers Part I: Introduction Rationale Today, English has become an international language. It is spoken as a second language and an official language in many countries, and millions of people speak English as a foreign language. Besides, English is considered the medium of communication in many fields such as science, technology, aviation, internet, commerce, and so on. Therefore learning and teaching English are getting more and more important to non-native nations of English. Vietnam is not an exception. In Vietnam, English is a compulsory subject at schools and colleges. It plays a key role in getting a good job. The number of Vietnamese people learning English is on the rise. Also, English is no longer taught in a traditional way, in which much attention is paid to grammatical competence. In the view of communicative language teaching (CLT) approach, the goal of learning a foreign language is to communicate in that target language. According to this approach, the learner is considered the center of the learning process; the teacher serves as a facilitator. At Hanoi university of Industry (HaUI), the aim of teaching and learning English is to provide students with communicative competence. That is the reason why we choose the textbooks “New Headway” by Liz & John Soars (1999) and “International express” by Liz Taylor (2004), which focus on teaching communicative competence. Also, all the teachers are encouraged to use pair work and group work activities in their teaching. In my observation, students are more interested and less anxious when they work in groups and in pairs. Moreover, pair work and group work can increase the amount of talking for individual students; encourage boarder skills of participation, cooperation, negotiation and so on. As a result, I decided to do a research entitled “using pair work and group work techniques to increase students’ participation and interest in communicative English classes at HaUI”. I hope that the research will make a contribution to confirming the advantages of pair work and group work techniques in teaching and learning English and it can help other teachers of English be aware of these advantages and apply pair work and group work activities in their teaching. Aims of the study This study is aimed at investigating the use of pair work and group work techniques in communicative English classes at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI). To be specific, the aims of the study are - To clarify the frequency of using pair work and group work activities in communicative English classes at HaUI. - To prove the hypothesis that the two techniques: group work and pair work will help teachers increase students’ participation and interest in communicative English classes at HaUI. Research questions How often are pair work and group work techniques applied in communicative English classes at HaUI? Does using pair work and group work techniques increase students’ interest in communicative English classes at HaUI? Does using pair work and group work increase students’ participation in communicative English classes? Scope of the study There are a variety of techniques to encourage students to participate in communicative English classes. However, it is not my intention to cover all of them because of the time and the length of the study, only two techniques, group work and pair work are investigated in communicative English classes at HaUI. The advantages of these two techniques were found out by interviewing, and surveying teachers of English and non- major students at HaUI. Methods of the study Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to carry out the study. The data were collected by means of questionnaires, and interviews. Design of the study The study includes three chapters not including the introduction (which contains rationale, aims, methods, scope and design of the study) and the conclusion (which reviews the main content and findings of the study and ends with some suggestions for further research) Chapter I: Literature review establishes the basic theoretical background from the literature on communicative classes, students’ participation and interest, teaching techniques especially group work and pair work techniques. Chapter II: Methodology describes the overall picture of how the research was carried out. Chapter III: Data analysis and findings show the results of the research. In this chapter, the author tried to find out the answers to the posed questions. Part II: Development Chapter I: Literature review 1. Communicative language teaching (CLT) 1.1 An overview of communicative language teaching (CLT) CLT appearing between the 1960s and 1970s marks the beginning of major innovation within language teaching and it has been widely accepted nowadays because of it superior principles. According to Nunan (1989:194), ‘CLT views language as a system for the expression of meaning. Activities involve oral communication, carrying out meaningful tasks, and using language, which is meaningful to the learners. Objectives reflect the needs of the learners; they include functional skills as well as linguistic objectives. The learner’s role is as a negotiator and an integrator. The teacher’s role is as a facilitator of the communication process. Materials promote communicative language use; they are task based and authentic”. According to CLT, the purpose of language teaching is to develop “communicative competence”. Hymes (1972) defines “communicative competence” as “what a speaker needs to know in order to be communicatively competent in a speech community”. In other words, CLT has two following main aims pointed out by Richards and Rogers (1986:64) To make communicative competence the goal of language teaching. To develop procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication Richards and Rogers (1986: 69) also shows another point about CLT which is “its learner-centered and experience based view of second language teaching”. In CLT, students are able to play a more active and participatory role than in traditional approaches. Teachers work as facilitators, consultants or supervisors. Also, “activities in CLT are often carried out by students in small groups”. (Larsen -Freeman, 1986: 132). Students are expected to interact with one another, either through pair and group work or in their writings (Brumfit, 1983). Teachers select activities which engage students in meaningful and authentic language use rather than in mechanical practice of language patterns. I.1. 2. Communicative activities Communicative activities, defined by Littlewood (1981), are those that provide whole task practice, improve students’ motivation, allow natural learning and create a context supporting learning as well. “In communicative activities the teacher creates a situation and sets an activity in notion, but it is the learners themselves who are responsible for conducting the interaction to its conclusion (Littlewood, 1981: 18) Harmer (1991) divides communicative activities into oral and written ones. Oral activities include such categories as communication games, problem - solving, reaching a consensus, discussion, replaying instructions, role-play, etc. Written communicative activities consist of writing reports and advertisements; co-operative writing, exchanging letters, writing journals and so on. In addition, according to Littlewood (1981), there are two main types of communicative activities which he calls: “functional communication activities and social interaction activities”. The main purpose of the former is that learners should use the language they know in order to get meanings across as effectively as possible. Functional communication activities include such activities as identifying pictures, discovering identical pairs, discovering missing information, discovering differences, following directions and so on. The later activities are those that emphasize on social as well as functional aspects of communication. Learners, therefore, not only convey meanings effectively, but also, pay greater attention to the social context in which the interaction takes place. Simulation and role-playing are important techniques for creating a variety of social relationships and situations. 2. Students’ participation and interest 2. 1. Concept of students’ participation Students’ participation can be identified in terms of three kinds of interaction: students to their teacher, students to students, and students to material. The interaction between students and their teacher includes care, contact, co-operation between them in the class. Students who have a good interaction with their teacher always participate in the class discussion, support and act as their teacher requires. Moreover, they seem to be involved in what is happening in the class by asking for more information or explanation, volunteering to perform an activity, or sharing personal experience relating to the topics being discussed. Thus, participation not only means attending the lass regularly and on time but also taking part in the lesson actively or showing desire or be active. Students become self- centered in the class activities. The interaction between students and students is set up through their discussion in small groups. They work together, help each other, and learn from each other. A good interaction involves their co-operation and contribution to the task given. Students feel pleasant and comfortable when they work together, then they will do their best to complete the task. Students’ participation also includes the interaction between students and material. Obviously, students will be active and pay more attention to the lesson if they are interested in the material or the task given. In other words, good and interesting materials can get students involved in the lesson. Students will find it difficult to participate in the class activities if they don’t understand the tasks or feel bored with them In short, students’ participation is concerned with their activeness in the lesson, their success in completing the class activities and their attention to what is happening in the class. I.2. 2. Concept of students’ interest Ellis (1994) ( cited in Keller, 1984) states that interest is one of the main elements of motivation and a positive response to stimulate based on existing cognitive structures in such a way that learners’ curiosity is aroused and sustained. In other words, interest shows learners’ desire to learn the target language. It can be seen that students who are given opportunities for communication will be interested in the lesson. Ellis (cited in Dickinson, 1987) also points out that “interest is engendered if learners become self-centered”. This means they are able to determine their learning objectives, choose their own way of achieving these, and evaluate their own progress. I.2. 3. Factors affecting students’ participation and interest in the class. Students’ learning styles Learning style shows how students achieve the target language. Willing (1985) (cited in Nunan, 1988: 93) classifies learning styles into four types as follows: Concrete learners: they prefer learning by games, pictures, films, videos, talking in pairs and learning through the use of cassettes. Communicative learners: they like to learn by observing and listening to native speakers, talking to friends in English and learning English wherever possible. Analytical learners: they like to study grammar, find their own mistakes, and learn through reading newspapers. Authority oriented learners: they want their teacher to explain everything and they prefer writing everything in their notebooks, learning to read, studying grammar, and learning English words by seeing them. Students’ motivation Motivation is a key factor leading students’ success in learning in general, and in learning language in particular. Also, there are many different kinds of motivation such as integrative motivation, instrumental motivation, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, global motivation, situational motivation and so on. Teaching techniques It is obvious that different teaching techniques create different degrees of students’ participation and interest in the lesson. For example, techniques which focus on grammatical and phonological accuracy like choral repetition, drilling substitution, content explanation will result in learners’ passiveness and limit their participation in learning. In contrast, the techniques that involve students in communicative activities such as role-play, problem-solving, pair and group work, discussion, etc can encourage students to participate in the lesson. Teachers’ personal qualities and characteristics In order to involve students in the lesson, teachers should be ones that students trust and respect. In other words, when students feel “safe” in the class, they will be willing to participate in class activities. Barry (1993) points out some characteristics a teacher should have as follows: Being natural: if the teacher behaves naturally, the relationship between him and his students will be closer, which increases students’ participation and interest in the lesson. Being warm: the teacher considers students as his friends. Students therefore will find it easy to express themselves in the lesson. Being pleasant: this characteristic will make the classroom’s atmosphere relaxing and interesting, which of course increases students’ creation and participation Being tolerant: the teacher should be fair and consistent with all students so that he can encourage all his students to participate in the lesson. In addition, so as to interest students a teacher should have some following personal qualities such as sincere, friendly, supportive, well- organized, enthusiastic, flexible and so on. It is pointed out that no teacher has all characteristics and personal qualities listed below. However, these characteristics and qualities can help much in increasing students’ motivation, creating positive learning environment, and enhancing students’ participation in the class activities as well. I. 3. Classroom work arrangements: pair work and group work I. 3.1. Definition of pair work and group work Pair work is a process in which “the teacher divides the whole class in pairs. Every student works with his or her partner in pairs, and all the pairs work at the same time (It is sometimes called “simultaneous pair work”). This is not the same as “public” or “open” pair work, with pairs of students speaking in turn in front of the class” ( Doff, 1988: 137) There are two main types of pair work: fixed pairs and flexible pairs, given by Byrne (1983). In the former, students work with the same partner to practice the target language. In the later, students keep changing their partners they like. This may make the activity more interesting but the class noisier. It can be seen that pair work can get students to practice the target language more and increase students’ talking time in the class. Doff (1988: 137) also defines group work as a process that “the teacher divides the class into small groups to work together (usually four or five students in each group, as in pair work, all the groups work at the same time”. Like pair work, group work also gives students more opportunities to practice the target language in the whole class. In addition, students can work independently and freely under the teacher’s control without the pressure of the whole class watching what they are doing. I. 3. 2. The organization of