Khóa luận A study on groupworks- A technique used in teaching speaking skill for the 2nd–year english major students at HPU

Nội dung text: Khóa luận A study on groupworks- A technique used in teaching speaking skill for the 2nd–year english major students at HPU

1. BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC DÂN LẬP HẢI PHÒNG ISO 9001 : 2008 KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP NGÀNH: NGOẠI NGỮ HẢI PHÒNG - 2010
2. HAI PHONG PRIVATE UNIVESITY FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT GRADUATION PAPER A STUDY ON GROUPWORKS- A TECHNIQUE USED IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL FOR THE 2ND – YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HPU By: Đỗ Thị Huyền Trang Class: Na1003 Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Quỳnh Hoa,M.A HAI PHONG - 2010
3. BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC DÂN LẬP HẢI PHÒNG Nhiệm vụ đề tài tốt nghiệp Sinh viên: Mã số: Lớp Ngành: Tên đề tài:
4. Nhiệm vụ đề tài 1. Nội dung và các yêu cầu cần giải quyết trong nhiệm vụ đề tài tốt nghiệp ( về lý luận, thực tiễn, các số liệu cần tính toán và các bản vẽ). 2. Các số liệu cần thiết để thiết kế, tính toán. 3. Địa điểm thực tập tốt nghiệp.
5. CÁN BỘ HƯỚNG DẪN ĐỀ TÀI Người hướng dẫn thứ nhất: Họ và tên: Học hàm, học vị: Cơ quan công tác: Nội dung hướng dẫn: Người hướng dẫn thứ hai: Họ và tên: Học hàm, học vị: Cơ quan công tác: Nội dung hướng dẫn: Đề tài tốt nghiệp được giao ngày 12 tháng 04 năm 2010 Yêu cầu phải hoàn thành xong trước ngày 10 tháng 07 năm 2010 Đã nhận nhiệm vụ ĐTTN Đã giao nhiệm vụ ĐTTN Sinh viên Người hướng dẫn Hải Phòng, ngày tháng năm 2010 HIỆU TRƯỞNG GS.TS.NGƯT Trần Hữu Nghị
6. PHẦN NHẬN XÉT TÓM TẮT CỦA CÁN BỘ HƯỚNG DẪN 1. Tinh thần thái độ của sinh viên trong quá trình làm đề tài tốt nghiệp: 2. Đánh giá chất lượng của khóa luận (so với nội dung yêu cầu đã đề ra trong nhiệm vụ Đ.T. T.N trên các mặt lý luận, thực tiễn, tính toán số liệu ): 3. Cho điểm của cán bộ hướng dẫn (ghi bằng cả số và chữ): Hải Phòng, ngày tháng năm 2010 Cán bộ hướng dẫn (họ tên và chữ ký)
7. NHẬN XÉT ĐÁNH GIÁ CỦA NGƯỜI CHẤM PHẢN BIỆN ĐỀ TÀI TỐT NGHIỆP 1. Đánh giá chất lượng đề tài tốt nghiệp về các mặt thu thập và phân tích tài liệu, số liệu ban đầu, giá trị lí luận và thực tiễn của đề tài. 2. Cho điểm của người chấm phản biện : (Điểm ghi bằng số và chữ) Ngày tháng năm 2010 Người chấm phản biện
8. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT During the process of fulfilling this graduation paper, I have received many necessary assistances, previous ideas and timely encouragement from my teachers, family and friends. First and foremost, I would like to send my deep gratitude to Miss. Nguyen Thi Quynh Hoa, the supervisor of this graduation paper. Her detailed comments and useful advice have helped me shape my ideas and realize my aims. She has also provided me with many useful materials as well as encouraged and created favorable conditions for me to fulfill this research. Therefore, it is an undeniable fact that this paper would have not been completed without her invaluable support. Secondly, I would like to show my sincere thanks to Dr. Tran Thi Ngoc Lien-The Dean of Hai Phong Private University and leading Board of Department of Foreign Language for giving me a chance to do the thesis. Also, I would like to express my particular thanks to all the lectures of the Department whose lectures have enriched my academic knowledge of English during the past four years. In addition, I warmly thank all my friends for their encouragement and precious assistance throughout the process of writing the thesis. Their material and spiritual support is a great driving-force for me. Especially, I wish to thank 50 second –year students in the Department for their enthusiastic and effective cooperation in the process of completing survey questionnaire. Finally, I am greatly indebted to my parents, who have encouraged and supported me to fulfill this graduation thesis. Hai Phong, June, 2010 Student Do Thi Trang
9. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgement TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 1. Rationales. 1 2. Aims of the study 2 3. Scope of the study 2 4. Methods of the study 2 5. Design of the study 3 PART II: DEVELOPMENT 4 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 4 1. Speaking skill 4 1.1. What is speaking and speaking skill? 4 1.2. Types of speaking 6 1.2.1. Form – focused speaking 6 1.2.2. Meaning – focused speaking 6 1.2.3. Opportunities to improve fluency 6 1.3. Types of speaking activities 7 1.3.1. Types of oral fluency activities 7 1.3.1.1. Topic-based activities. 7 1. 3.1.2.Task-based activities. 7 1. 3.2.Types of spoken discourse 7 1. 3.2.1.International talk. 7 1.3.2.2. Long turns 7 1. 3.2.3.Varied situations, feelings, relationships 8 1.4. Characteristics of a successful speaking activity 8 1.4.1. A friendly and pleasant learning atmosphere 8 1.4.2. Maximum foreign talk 8 1.4.3. Even participation 8 1.4.4. High motivation 9 1.4.5. Acceptable level of language accuracy 9 2. Teaching speaking skill 9 2.1. Relation ship between speaking skill and other skills 9 2.1.1. Relationship with listening 9 2.1.2. Relationship with reading 10 2.1.3. Relationship with writing 10 2.2. The important of teaching speaking 11
10. 2.3. Activities to promote student’s speaking. 11 2.3.1. Why teachers should give students a variety of speaking activities? 11 2.3.2. Simple tips for teachers to have a successful speaking activity. 11 2.3.3. Activities to promote speaking. 12 2. 4.Group Work. 14 2.4.1. Definition of group work. 14 2.4.2. The purpose of group work. 15 2.4.3. The advantages and disadvantage of group work. 15 2.4.4. What group work activities can do to increase students’ participation? 18 2.4.5. Types of small groups. 18 2.4.6. Group Work organization 19 2.4.7. Suggestion on group work organization 20 CHAPTER II: A STUDY ON SPEAKING SKILLS TEACHING FOR 2 nd -YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS IN HPU 23 1. Reality 23 1.1. Teaching staff 23 1.2. The students 23 1.3. English teaching and learning condition at Hai Phong Private University 24 1.4. The design and focus of the book “Discussions A-Z Intermediate” a resource book of speaking activities. 24 1.5. The organization of the course. 25 2. Survey 28 2.1. Introduction 28 2.1.1. The university 28 2.1.2. Class size, time available 28 2.1.3. Participants 28 2.2. Methodology 28 2.2.1. Rationale behind the use of survey questionnaire 28 2.2.2. Purpose of the survey questionnaire 29 2.2.3. The design of the survey questionnaires 29 2.3. Data and analysis 30 2.3.1. Technique of data and analysis 30 2.3.2. Questionnaires for students. 31 2.3.3. Interview for teachers. 37 3. Findings and discussion findings. 40 CHAPTER III: IMPLICATION 43 1. Reasoning. 43
11. 2. Techniques using group work to teach English speaking skills for English majors students in HPU 43 2.1. Ways to arrange group work 44 2.2. Techniques to succeed with group work activities 45 2.3. Implementing group work in the classroom. 45 3. Suggested activities use group work to teach speaking skill for the 2nd – year English majors 49 3.1. Story telling 50 3.1.1. Make a story 50 3.2. Communication activities 53 3.2.1. Role plays 53 3.2.2. Discussion 55 3.3. Picture description 59 3.4. Games. 62 4. Application 63 4.1. General outline of a speaking lesson 63 4.1.1. Preparation 63 4.1.2. Presentation 63 4.1.3. Practice 64 4.1.4. Evaluation 64 4.1.5. Extension 64 4.2. Model lesson 64 PART III: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMEMDATION. 73 References Appendixes Appendix 1: Survey questionnaire for students Appendix2: Interview questions for teachers. Appendix3: Discussion assessment form
12. PART I INTRODUCTION 1. Rationales. When learning a foreign language, it is necessary for learners to learn all four skills: writing, reading, speaking and listening skill. Thanks to it, learners can master and use this foreign language well. In all four skills, speaking can be considered to be a skill which requires learners to spend very much time learning and practicing. Almost students have difficulties in studying speaking at first. In fact, studying speaking well is one of the key which helps learners step by step discover this interesting language. Among speaking activities, group work is one of the effective methods in teaching speaking because of its advantages such as: group work activities give students far more chances to speak the target language and it encourages students to be more involved and concentrate on the task. From that, student fell less anxious when they are working “privately” than they are “on show” in front of the whole class. Moreover, group work provides the opportunities for students to take part in and develop their ability in speaking English. In fact, the focus of teaching speaking, surely, is to improve the oral production of the students. Therefore, language- teaching activities in the classroom should aim at maximizing individual language use. This requires the teacher not only to create a warm and humanistic classroom atmosphere, but also to provide each student with a turn to speak or a role to play. Group works, therefore is often implemented in the oral communication class. Deriving form the above mentioned reasons; “A study on group works- a technique used in teaching speaking skill for the 2nd -year English major students at HPU” is made. The researcher hopes that this research will provide learners a relatively full and detailed view about how to improve speaking skill.
13. 2. Aims of the Study. The objects of this study are: *The first objective is studying the different aspects of speaking skills that serves as overview and the features and characteristics of teaching speaking skill. *The second purpose is to explore the real situation of teaching English speaking skill. *The findings and discussions are acquired from survey questionnaire conducted in HPU and interview with two teachers. It is hopeful that the findings and discussions will help to make the situation of teaching speaking skills in HPU clear as well as common situation in our country. *The next objective is to study group work techniques in teaching speaking skill, to investigate the students and teachers‟ attitude towards speaking lesson and group work as well. *The last also the most important aim is to suggest some effective for using group work which can be applied in speaking lesson. 3. Scope of the Study. The use of group work can be applied to four macro skills of English language. However, it is impracticable to overspread such a large scope in this limitation of the graduation paper. Moreover, there are so many different material resources and researches while my personal experience is terminate. Therefore, in this graduation paper, I would like to focus on: Finding out the situation of teaching skills and the use of group work in particular skill. The population involved in the study is 50 second- year students and teachers in Department of Foreign Language at HPU. 4. Method of the Study. In order to attain the primary aims, the researcher has consulted several ideas from the Supervisor and people who fully master this topic. All the theories have been carefully selected and gathered through reference books and documents in the Internet Websites as well.
14. In addition, A survey was conducted for the second year major English students in HPU about their attitudes , evaluations about their matters and the difficulties that they have to cope with when speaking in the class and doing the speaking activities in group. A survey questionnaire has been designed as the key data collection instrument of the study. Collecting and analyzing data have been used. Interview: two teachers are interviewed to explore their recognition, attitudes, evaluations of the matter and the difficulties .they encounter when teaching speaking activities in group. 5. Design of the Study. The study consists of three main points: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion. Part I: Introduction shows reasons to choose the study, the aims, scope, methods, and design of the study Part II: Development: includes chapters: Chapter 1: Literature review aims to answer the questions related to speaking skill that introduces the teaching speaking skill and its features. Chapter 2: “A study on speaking skills teaching for 2nd year English major students in HPU” referred to the analysis and the findings obtain from survey questionnaires made to 2nd year students and interview for teacher of HPU. This helps examine the real situation of teaching speaking and the use of group work is speaking lessons at university. Chapter 3: “Some suggested techniques using group work to teach English speaking skill” deals with techniques and a sample lesson using group work that can be applicable to improve student‟s speaking skills in speaking lessons. Part III: Conclusion summarizes the discussed parts in the paper and some suggestions for further study. Consequently, Part I has dealt with the content of the study. In the next part, the author will present the focus of the study including her literature review on the understanding of speaking skill and the survey questionnaires for students and interview for teachers of English major in Hai Phong Private University which help examine the real situation of teaching and learning. Besides, this Part II also introduces Some Suggested Techniques Using
15. Group Work to Teach Speaking Skill for The 2nd –year English Major at Hai Phong Private University.
16. PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1. Speaking Skill. 1.1. What are Speaking and Speaking Skills? Speaking is the skill that students will be judged most in real life situation. It is an important part of everyday interaction and most often the first impression of a person is based on his or her ability to speak fluently and comprehensively. However, speaking is in many ways an undervalued skill. This, perhaps, is because we can almost all speak, and so have the low opinion of it. Speaking is often thought of as a popular form of expressions. Speaking, on the contrary, is a skill which deserves attention a bit as much as literacy skill. Our learners often need to speak with confidence in order to carry out many of their basic transactions. There are a number of definitions of speaking which are listed as follows. According to Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (2005), speaking is the activity of using voice to say something. Speaking, as stated by Chaney & Burk (1998), is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts.” Meanwhile, Bygate (1997) defines that “speaking is often thought of as a „popular‟ form of expression which uses the unreligious colloquial register.” However, the research concentrates on analyzing the definition given by Brown (1994) and Burns & Joyce (1997). Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information (Brown. 1994; Burn &Joyce, 1997). Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experience, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking. It is often spontaneous, open- ended, and evolving However, speech is not always unpredictable. Language functions (or patterns) that tend to recur in certain discourse situation (e.g., declining an
17. invitation or requesting time off from work), can be identified and charted (Burns & Joyce, 1997). For example, when a salesperson asks “May I help you?”, the expected discourse sequence includes a statement of need, response to the need, offer of appreciation, acknowledgement of the appreciation, and a leave-talking exchange. Speaking requires that learners not only know how to produce specific points of language (linguistic competence) such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary, but also understand when, why, and in what ways to produce language (sociolinguistic competence). Furthermore, speech has its own skills, structures, and conventions different from written language (Burns &Joyce, 1997; Carter& McCarthy, 1995; Cohen, 1996). A good speaker synthesizes this array of skills consisting of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, speaking is the second one which sometimes called “output” or the process of information production. The relationships among the four skills are represented as follows. Spoken Written Input Listening Reading Output Speaking Writing Traditionally, when people describe speaking skills, they often focus on speaking and listening skills separately in a context of public speaking. Recently, however, Brown (1981) has expanded definitions of speaking skills by giving three trends of oral communication activities. One trend has been to focus on communication activities that reflect a variety of setting one-to-many, small group, one-to-one, and mass media. Another approach has been focus on using communication to achieve specific purposes: to inform, to persuade, and solve problems. A third trend has been to focus on basic competences needed for everyday life, such as giving directions, asking for information, or providing basic information in an emergency situation.
18. It can be said that speaking skills cover a wide range of competences with speaking in public, persuading and influencing others, making a case, chairing a meeting, sharing information. 1.2. Types of Speaking. In speaking class, according to Burn, A & Joyce, H (1997), Students must be exposed to three key items: 1.2.1. Form-focused speaking. Form-focused instruction, that is, attention to detail of pronunciation grammar, vocabulary, and so forth When learners begin speaking in another language, their speaking will need to be based on some form- focused learning. An effective way to start is to base speaking on some useful, simple memorized phrases and sentences. These may be greetings, simple personal description, and simple questions and answers. As their proficiency and experience in the language develop, most of these sentences and phrases may be re-analyzed and incorporated into the learner‟s system of knowledge of the language; language use based on memorization can be the starting point for more creative use of the language. 1.2.2. Meaning-focused speaking. Meaning-focused instruction, that is, opportunities to produce meaningful spoken messages with real communicative purposes. In addition to form-focused speaking, language learners should be exposed to and given chances to practice and use meaning-focused communication, in which they must both produce and listen to meaningful oral communication. 1.2.3. Opportunities to improve fluency. Elements of all these above should be presented throughout a speaking program with emphasis on form-focused instruction at the elementary levels and as the learners‟ progress on meaning-focused instruction at the higher level.
19. 1.3. Types of Speaking Activities. “Speaking as activity in class is much more complex than one might at first think” -Riddell, 2001:116- 1.3.1. Types of oral fluency activities. 1.3.1.1. Topic-based activities. Topic-based activities ask participants to talk about a controversial subject, the main objective being clearly the discussion process itself. A good topic is one to which students can related using ideals form their own experience and knowledge. Some question or suggested lines of thought can help to stimulate discussion, but not too many arguments for and against should be “fed” to the class in advance, leave room for their own initiative and originality. 1.3.1.2 .Task-based activities. Task-based activities ask students to perform something where the discussion process is a means to an end. A task is essentially goal-oriented: it requires the groups, or pairs to achieve an objective that is usually expressed by an observable result, such a brief notes or lists, a rearrangement of jumbled items, a drawing, a spoken summary. Ur (1996:124) pointed out that” the task-based activity scores higher with most groups on all criteria: there is more talk, more it is probably to base most oral activities on tasks. 1.3.2. Types of Spoken Discourse. 1.3.2.1 International talk. According to Penny Ur‟s view, given general language proficiency and knowledge of the more obvious courtesy conventions, most learners of their own cultural knowledge and common sense. Some kinds of role play can give opportunities for practicing it. 1.3.2.2 Long turns. Some activities that help students to practice speaking in long turns are: ☻Telling stories ☻Telling jokes ☻Describing a person or place in detail ☻Recounting the plot of a film, play or book.
20. ☻Giving a shout lecture or talk ☻ Arguing a case for a against or proposal. 1.3.2.3. Varied situation, feelings, and relationships. It is certainly arguable that learners will need to function in a wide variety of contexts, it make sense to give them opportunities to try using the target language in simulation of at least a selection on them. The obvious classroom activities to use are those based on role play 1.4. Characteristic of a Successful Speaking Activity. According to www.iteslj.org/teching speaking and reference from book: a course in language teaching –practice and theory (Ur Penny (1996), a successful speaking activity is characterized as below: 1.4.1 A friendly and pleasant learning atmosphere. The class atmosphere can be fostered by clearly outlining the objectives of the class‟s work at the outset. If students are aware that they are expected to take risk, expose weakness, practice skills and share experiences. That will require an environment with a support and respect to develop co-operation and assistance among the member s in class. The task of each lesson may be collaborative or competitive, in which case atmosphere will differ. Most of students prefer a friendly and pleasant atmosphere because they can understand and require the lecture easily. 1.4.2 Maximum foreign talk: in a successful speaking activity. The students talk a lot in the foreign language. One common problem in a speaking activity is that students often produce one or two simple utterances in the foreign language and spend the rest of time chatting in their mother tongue. Besides, teacher talks too much time, thus talking away valuable practice time from students. Therefore, teachers should notice to avoid students‟ talking in native language and too much teachers‟ talk. 1.4.3 Even participation. Whether the activities take place among the whole class or in small group, a successful speaking task should encourage speaking form as many different students as possible. Classroom discussion is not dominated by a minority of talkative participants: all have chance to speak and contribute to lesson. Teachers should guarantee equal opportunities for students of different levels.
21. 1.4.4 High motivation. Students are highly motivated. They are eager to speak because they are interested in the topic and they have something new to say about or because they want to contribute to achieve a talk objective. Teachers make sure that the task is in line with students‟ activity. 1.4.5 Acceptable level of language accuracy. Learner‟s utterances are “relevant, express themselves in a successful speaking activity In general, classroom activity plays an important role in developing students‟ ability to express them. A successful speaking activity is characterized by students‟ task, high motivation even participation, learning atmosphere and acceptable language. 2. Teaching Speaking Skills. 2. 1. Relationship between speaking skill and other skills. Language has been divided into different skill areas. The first two skills, listening and speaking, are called the oral skills. The last two, reading and writing, are called the literacy skills. They are represented in figure 4.1 (adapted form Forseth ET all. 1994:34) The four language Receptive skills Productive skills skills Oral skills Listening Speaking Literacy skills reading Writing As students grow in their language ability and use, the different skills are most often integrated with each other so that they are being used in coordination with each other. In conversation, when one person is speaking another is listening and understanding, the hearer responds by speaking. 2.1.1. Relationship with listening. Clearly, we have to spend more time in class in developing oral productive skills. However, understanding, or listening, simply can not be left to take care of it. We have to consider what will happen when the students try to use the language for themselves outside classroom, where they no longer have
22. any control over what is said to them. Understanding breaks down almost immediately. Furthermore, poor understanding often makes students nervous and even unable to speak. The first point to be noticed is that it is simply not enough to give the student those samples of spoken language (dialogues or teacher talk). They have been simplified to provide the students with models for oral production. There are two main reasons why these are not enough: a. The students‟ ability to understand needs to be more extensive than their ability to speak (as in the mother tongue), but it is clearly impossible to say how much greater our receptive knowledge needs to be. The diagram below should help to remind us that, in order to be “comfortable” in a foreign language & therefore to be able to communicate effectively- the students need a broad receptive „Base‟ PRODUCTION RECEPTION b. The samples of spoken language in the text book have been carefully designed for oral production, so they do not usually contain enough features of natural speech (e.g. hesitation, false starts ). For developing productive skill, especially at the beginning level, but the students will need much more than this if they are going to be able to cope with real-life language situations. They will need, in short, listening to different models of natural speech. To sum up, the students have to be taught to listen as well as to speak 2.1.2. Relationship with reading. Like listening, a receptive skill, reading also has some relations with speaking in term of developing each other. Normally, a speaking lesson begins by text which students should find some information for their speaking activities. It may be a paragraph, a magazine, a report, and a book this show that, reading supports speaking by providing necessary information. Students must have enough information, then, they can use it in speaking production. Therefore, students should be encouraged to read for not only having more information, knowledge but also improving vocabulary. 2.1.3. Relationship with writing. The relationship between speaking and writing, firstly, will look at factors affecting the choice between speaking or writing and how these factors affect
23. the style and language used. The factors include being face-to-face, saving face, permanence, interactivity in for amativeness, and context dependence in which both speaking and writing can be located , rather than occurring as polar opposites. A spoken and written on the same topic will different in language use relating to grammar, lexis, and style. 2.2. The Importance of Teaching Speaking. Many students equate being able to speak a language as knowing the language and therefore view learning the language as learning how to speak the language , or as Nunan (1991) wrote, “success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language”. Therefore, if students do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunity to speak in the language classroom they may soon get de-motivated and lose interest in learning. On the other hand, if the right activities are taught in the right way, speaking in class can be a lot of fun, raising general learner motivation and making the English language classroom a fun and dynamic place to be. 2.3. Activities to Promote Student’s Speaking. 2.3.1. Why teachers should give students a variety of speaking activities? It is important to provide the students with a variety of speaking activities because: ▪ A variety of speaking activities will enable students to cope with different situations in reality. ▪Variety helps keep motivation high because any kind of activity, if overused, may become less interesting. ▪ Variety may suit students of different learning styles because each student has his own learning style so some kinds of activities may suit some students while others may suit other students. 2.3.2. Simple tips for teachers to have a successful speaking activity. Students will zone out within the first five minutes if teacher dose not catch their interest. Here are six ways you can generate interest in a speaking activity (provided by ♦ Put students in pairs or groups. This will be less stressful for shy students than speaking in front of the class.
24. ♦Make sure students are able to have controlled practice before engaging in fluency activities. ♦Make speaking activities fun, interesting, and purposeful. The students must see a reason to communicate with others. This is why “information gap” activities can work well to encourage speaking. ♦Change the dynamics of the classroom, change the layout or ask the students to move into different groups. ♦Make sure that the activity is carefully planned and clearly explained. If students are unsure what is expected of them, they will be less likely to talk. ♦if needed, give students time to prepare for the activity. Think about it. If you were learning Italian and needed to call a plumber in Rome to come fix your toilet, you‟d be sure to prepare yourself for the conversation. You‟d look up the essential vocabulary in the dictionary. You might write out a script of what you want to say and practice it in the mirror. Give your students time to prepare for the activity, especially if the language is new for them. If you follow these simple tips, you are sure to have a successful speaking activity. 2.3.3. Activities to Promote Speaking. In order to encourage students to speak, teachers need to have various activities. These activities given by Hayriye Kay from web http:///www.iteslj.org can be a suggestion and applicable in a speaking lesson. 2.3.3.1. Information-gap activities. One excellent way to make speaking tasks communicative is to use information-gap activities, in which the students have different information and they need to obtain from each other in order to finish a task. In this activity, students are supposed to be work in pair. Information –gap activities serve many purposes such as solving a problem, or collecting information. These activities are effective because everybody has chance to talk in the target language. 2.3.3.2. Dialogues and role plays. Two problems with most dialogues are presented in textbooks: ☻The lack of natural intonation: the natural speech of native speakers is often phrases or sentence fragments full of pauses, false starts and repetitions.
25. ☻The way most dialogues are taught: teachers ask students to memorize dialogues by heart. Two ways to make dialogues more communicative: ◙Turning dialogues into role plays: students are asked to work in pair: they pretend they are acting as someone else. Then teachers ask a few pairs to perform the dialogue in front of the whole class, speaking in different moods such as happy, irritated, bored, or in different role relationships such as parents and child, husband and wife, two friends or making the dialogue longer by adding more lines. Another point is that teachers should ask students to come to the front of class before telling them the situation then give them few minutes to think about that. Thank to this, students will speak more spontaneously. Factors that affect the success of role-plays (Ur, 1996:133) ▪Teacher‟s enthusiasm ▪Careful instructions ▪Clear situation and roles ▪Making sure that the students have the language they will need to carry out the role-play. ◙Using cue cards: this way, an information gap is formed because each student only sees one cue card so he dose not know what the other person is going to say. 2.3.3.3 Activities using pictures. Pictures are invaluable in speaking activities. Appropriate pictures provide cues, prompts, situations and non-verbal aid for communication. There are many different information-gap activities that can be designed around pictures. ●Kind 1: use two pictures which look identical to each other at first glance but actually have several differences then teachers ask students to find the differences. ●Kind 2: give students just one picture and ask them to describe what is in picture. This activity fosters the creativity and imagination of the learners as well as their public speaking skill.
26. ●Kind 3: give students some pictures which describe a story but they are in incorrect order then ask students to recorder them and tell class about that given story.
27. 2.3.3.4. Problem-solving activities. These types of activity tend to be productive because there is a clear objective to be reached. There are many topics that would be interesting and relevant to the students‟ life. Problem solving activities require a higher level of language proficiency, but the difficulty levels can be controlled somewhat by the topic. Students are given a situation in which there are some problems need solving. Student will have to give their personal decision for each problem. 2.3.3.5. Using games. The benefits of using games in speaking lesson can be summed up in 9 points: (www.teachingenglishgames.com) ☻Learners are the main factors. ☻Promote communicative competence. ☻Create a meaningful context for language use. ☻Increase learning motivation. ☻Reduce learning anxiety. ☻Integrate various linguistic skills. ☻Encourage creative and spontaneous use of language. ☻Construct a cooperative learning environment. ☻Foster participatory attitudes of students. Teachers can divide class into small groups or let the whole class play a game. There are various kinds of game and each kind helps students develop heir skill. Teachers can choose one suitable with students‟ ability. Some games: art master. Bingo, cross-word It can not denied that these techniques are so interesting, so if teachers can apply some of them to make their lesson more attractive, students will eagerly involve in the lesson. 2.4. Group Work. 2.4.1. Definition of group work. What do you think of when you think of a group work? When think of a group work, everyone working together to achieve one goal. However, more and more, a group project is becoming a 1-2 person effort, but the entire group gets credit for the work. It seems that people have lost track of what is
28. important in a group project, and students are becoming dependent upon students who are willing to do most of the work. It knows that when it does a group project, it would never let the project be turned in without me getting to view the finished project first. It seems crazy to me that someone would allow a project to be turned in with their name on it without ever seeing the finished project or for more troubling matters, never even helping or viewing the project at all. According to Joe Landsberger, the philosophy of working in groups involves shared and/or learned values, resources, and ways of doing things. However, each group, and each individual, will only be as effective as they are willing to embrace and/or respect differences within the group. The main objective of any group project is the outcome. The entire group wants the outcome to be good; however, the whole point of group work is for everyone in the group to work as a team to accomplish the outcome of the project. It is important for everyone to work together. When one person is not helping with the group effort or working on their part of the project, it causes the whole group to strain, and can also cause detrimental defects to the outcome of the project. 2.4.2. The purpose of group work. The aim of group work is to produce better (more effective, more detailed, more comprehensive) presentations and reports. This is achieved through the combined talents of group members, contributing knowledge and ideas. One difficulty with group work is that you can't work as quickly as you can by yourself. Patience, communication skills and commitment are all required to make the most of the contributions of all group members. Thus, effective group work requires each member to focus on the process rather than just the product 2.4.3. The advantages and disadvantage of group work. It is obvious that group work brings many advantages in teaching speaking. That is , as Beckman(1990) and Collier(1980),Students learn best when they are active involved in the process. Researchers report that, regardless of the subject matter, students working in group tend to learn more of what is taught and retain it longer than the same content it presented another instructional
29. format. Students who work in group also appear more satisfied with their classes. There are many ways to stimulate students in learning speaking. When you choose “group work”, you might be sure to reduce reckon the advantages and disadvantages indicated below: 2.4.3.1. Advantages of group work. 2.4.3.1.1. Students have more language practice. Group work is one of the effective methods in teaching speaking because of some following advantages: First, Barhara Gross Davis observes that a scene of responsibilities to fellow students in group work can provide good motivation and encouragement. Furthermore, he also denotes that discussing a subject with others can often help students‟ understanding. Second, group work makes students have more chance to practice speaking. They can express the individual ideas. As Swain (1985) wrote “we learn to speak by speaking” and that goes for teachers as well as students. The more student practice, the more students can improve opportunities, which as an individual student are not so readily available. 2.4.3.1.2. Students are more joined. Students gain inside into group dynamics and can develop their interpersonal skill. They can also expose to other points of view. Another is that students can remember what they discussed and learn in the class. According to Haveyetal (2002), one of the advantages which group work brings is that output of the group work is usually more than the sum of individual efforts. In additional, the ideas are also generated so that the solving are more than individual effort. More importantly, working in groups can make some mistakes of students about pronunciation and the ability to solve the conflict ideas between members in groups Working in groups encourages students to be more involved and to concentrate on the task. All the students are involved in the activity. 2.4.3.1.3. Students feel more confident. We can not deny that group work always makes lectures more interesting ,(Prossor and Trigwell, (1998).Group work allows students discuss and reflect
30. on their own experiences, which step by step will help students more self- confident. Obviously, group work, under proper condition, provides the opportunities for students to take part in and develop their abilities in speaking English. Moreover, they can promote their abilities in front of crowed. 2.4.3.1.4. Students help each other. Group work encourages students to share ideals, knowledge and help each other. In a discussion, activity student a give each other new ideas. 2.4.3.2. Disadvantages of group work. 2.4.3.2.1. Student becomes lazier. Good students sometimes feel dragged by poor or lazy students and may find them doing a tremendous amount of task amount of task. This makes lazy students lazier and they do not cooperate with others. 2.4.3.2.2. The class is noisy. The size of each group is also one of the disadvantages of group work if teacher puts students into groups bigger than three students, the students will not get enough chance to speak in such a large group they switch off, start fid getting, get frustrated, let hard-working students do all the work fall asleep. 2.4.3.2.3. The class is uncontrolled. It is rather hard for the teacher to keep control when students work groups. They are very noisy and lack concentration on the lecture. The above disadvantages can be solved if careful thought and planning could be prepared. Of course, in some cases teacher can not know exactly what will occur, but teacher should predict what could be happened. Moreover, the teacher himself must be convinced of the effective use of this technique. If teacher wants to encourage students in learning speaking. 2.4.3.2.4. Students make mistake. During a group work activity, the teacher can not control all the language used, and should not try to do so. When doing controlled language practice in groups, Doff (1988) suggested the number of mistakes could be reduced: By giving enough preparation, The activity can be done with the whole class first By checking afterwards. The teacher can ask some groups what they said And then correct mistake if necessary.
31. The above disadvantages can be solved if careful thought and planning could be prepared. Of course, in some cases teacher can not know exactly what will occur but teacher should predict what could be happened. Moreover, the teacher himself must be convinced of the effective use of these techniques if the teacher wants to encourage students in learning speaking. In general, group work is one pedagogical strategy that promotes participation and interaction. It also fosters a deeper and more active learning process. In addition to exposing students to different approaches and ways of thinking, working with other students in group can promote a sense of belonging to combat anonymity, isolation or even shyness that often accompany a students‟ experience at a large campus. Working together in groups also gives students the opportunity to learn form and teach each other. 2.4.4. What group work activities can do to increase students’ participation? Group work activities give students far more chance to speak the target language. Group work activities encourage students to be more involved and concentrate on the task. Students feel less anxiety when they are working “privately” than when they are “on show” in front of the whole class. Group work activities can help shy students who would never say anything in whole- class activities. When students work in groups, they will be more self-confident to take part in group activities. Students participate speaking without being afraid of making mistakes or being judged by teachers or instructions. 2.4.5. Types of small groups. Groups form to accomplish some objective. The objective may be to complete some kind of task or it may be to promote the interpersonal relationships between the group members. Many groups, however, fulfill both of these functions. Read more about the various types of groups and then complete the interactive activity and the quiz at the end of this unit.
32. Social Groups While all groups will have both social and task dimensions, some groups are predominantly social in their orientation. These groups provide for our safety and solidarity needs and they help us develop self-esteem. Work Groups Work groups function to complete a particular task. In a work group, the task dimension is emphasized. The group members pool their expertise to accomplish the task. Examples: workplaces, campus organizations. There are several types of work groups, based on the work of Ivan Steiner: Additive Work Group: All group members perform the same activity and pool their results at the end. Conjunctive Work Group: Group members perform different, but related, tasks that allow for the completion of a goal. Every group member must complete their task in order for the group task to be completed. Disjunctive Task: Members meet to determine the best alternative for a problem or issue. There are two types of disjunctive tasks: Judgment Task: Group members must choose one correct answer from all alternatives. Decision-Making Task: Group members must choose the best alternative from a set of options. There is no one correct answer for a decision-making group. Contrived or Some groups form spontaneously, such as a group of friends. Emergent Other groups are contrived, that is, they are formed for a Groups specific purpose. Organized clubs, social groups, or committees are contrived groups. 2.4.6. Group -Work Organization. Some guidelines on organizing group work are given below, divided into four sections: presentation, process, ending, feedback. You might like to use the task as a way of studying them.
33. 2.4.6.1. Presentation. The instructions that are given at the beginning are crucial: if the students do not understand exactly what they have to do there will be time-washing, confusion, lack of effective practice, possible loss of control. Select tasks that are simple enough to describe easily; and monolingual classes you may find it cost- effective to explain some or all in the students‟ mother tongue. It is advisable to give the instructions before giving out materials or dividing the class into groups: and a preliminary rehearsal or dry run of a sample of the activity with the full class can help to clarify thing. However, that if your students have already done similar activities you will be able to shorten the process, giving only oriel guidelines; it is mainly the first time of doing something with a class that such care needs to be invested in instructing. 2.4.6.2. Process. Your job during the activity is to go from group to group, monitor, and either contribute or keep out of the way, whichever is likely to be more helpful, if you do decide to intervene, your contribution may take the form of: - Providing general approval and support. - Helping students who are having difficulty - Keeping the students using the target language (in many cases your mere presence will ensure this) 2.4.6.3. Ending. If you have set a time limit, then this will help you draw the activity to a close at a certain point, in principle, try to finish the activity while the students are still enjoying it and interested, or only just beginning to flag. 2.4.6.4. Feedback. A feedback session usually takes place in the context of full-class interaction after the end of the group work. Feedback on the task may take many forms: giving the right solution, if there is one; listening to and evaluating suggestions, pooling ideas on the board, displaying materials the groups have produced. Feedback on language may be integrated into this discussion of the task. 2.4.7. Suggestions on Group Work Organization.
34. From these experiments we see that although group work is a student- centered activity, a teacher plays a very important role in it. The teacher's competence with regard to group work affects students' performance greatly The results of the third experiment suggest that the teacher's clear instructions will bring more language production and more modified interaction. At the same time, the teacher's absence will result in more modified interaction, too. The following are some suggestions for teachers in group work organization. 2.4.7.1. Clear instruction of the task. Clear instruction is of great importance to the success of group work. Before group work begins, the teacher's task is to make all the students know the requirements of the task and help them get ready for it. Some warm-up exercises may be useful. For example, the teacher can give students hints to help them think over the topic from different points of view; or ask them to brainstorm, some relevant words, phrases, and sentence patterns; or the teacher can read one or two short passages on related topics so as to help them generate their own ideas. 2.4.7.2. Specification of each student's role. If the group work is about discussion, each group can have a group leader, a secretary, and a reporter. The group leader hosts the discussion and works as a monitor, making sure that everybody in the group speaks and that English is the only language used during the activity. The secretary takes notes of what each person has said, on the basis of these notes, develops an outline (alone or with the reporter). The reporter is responsible for the presentation to the whole class later on. The other members contribute their ideas to the group. In this way, every member of the group has some responsibility so, they have to speak and take an active part in group work. 2.4.7.3. Teacher's role when group work is under way. According to Harmer (1997) the teacher can act as controller, assessor, organizer, prompter, participant, resource, tutor, and/or investigator in the group work. Some useful don'ts for the teacher's role in group work were given by Brown (1991): Do not sit at your desk and grade papers, do not leave the room and take a break, do not spend an undue amount of time with one group at the expense of others
35. From the results of the experiments, I suggest two more don'ts: Do not go around the classroom and do not stay with the students at the beginning of the group work. Once the group work is under way, it is advisable for the teacher to keep his or her distance for a while, as some students may feel inhibited in front of the teacher. But during the last few minutes of the group work, it may be a good idea for the teacher to circulate to see how things are going with each group, give suggestions and encouragement, and answer questions. To sum up, chapter 1 has provided us with the background knowledge of speaking skill in general and teaching speaking skill in particular. In the chapter 2, we will investigate how to teach speaking skills are dealt with by teachers and students in HPU thanks to survey questionnaire.
36. CHAPTER II: A STUDY ON SPEAKING SKILLS TEACHING FOR 2nd - YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS IN HPU This chapter aims at showing the attitudes and the expectations of the 2nd – year student in HPU towards teaching English speaking skill. The first section in the chapter reveals the reality and the second deals with the results and analysis of the collected data form survey questionnaires. 1. Reality. In terms of the limitation of time, the survey was conducted in HPU and found that its reality. The focus of the survey questionnaires have been put on the characteristics of teacher and student in the university along with the reality of their teaching and learning also, and on the design of the adopted “TOPIC” 1.1. Teaching Staff. HPU has large teaching staff with lots of experience and enthusiasm. All of them are graduated form university, most of them are MA. They are interested in teaching profession and always define clearly the importance of education for human development and get to know student‟s expectations. Therefore, they are all enthusiastic, responsible in their work and try their best to give the most effective lectures to students. 1.2. The Students. The university has more than 6.000 students enrolled in 14 different departments. Currently 54 English majors are studying in their second year at university. Most of them have been learning English about 7 years, some students got acquainted with English form their high school education. Their activeness and eagerness in an English lesson could be easily observed. Besides, they are quit good at learning English even English skill. They know the importance of English languages in their life. However, they seem to pay attention to written or read English form more than speaking form. This is partly due to the fact that all of them have to learn in order to pass the exam. Therefore, during the time I observed at HPU, I found that a new and strange way for teaching English is so necessary. Students enjoy coming English
37. periods with funny activities in order to help them memorize the given words and phrases easily. 1.3. English Teaching and learning Condition at Hai Phong Private University. At Hai Phong Private University, each classroom of the second year English major students is equipped a radio in English lesson. Additionally, the teachers sometimes use projector to make English lessons more interesting and effective. Teachers often organize English contests encourage students to express their abilities. Moreover, there are many useful activities such as organizing some small festivals such as: Christmas, Valentine‟s to play together, exchange knowledge and relax. Sometimes, they have many chances to talk and study with foreigners. This is an outstanding advantage and a good condition to help them improve their English speaking skill. It can be said that, the study conditions are quite enough and convenient for students to study English effectively. These factors have great influence on the results of the students in general and the second year English major students in particular. In fact, they have just graduated form high school to study in a brand new- condition, it is at university. Certainly, their English is very common. they do not have much knowledge about any specific fields, especially the speaking skill with the textbook interact with some funny activities, they are taught according to specific topics in order to practice and improve the speaking skill. Therefore, they have more opportunities to widen and improve English speaking skill. 1.4. The design and focus of the book “Discussions A-Z Intermediate” a resource book of speaking activities. ☻Summary ▪ Structure: there are 10 topic-related for 2 terms units-one for each letter of the alphabet. Topic overlap between units, which means that you can pass form one unit to another giving your students a sense of thematic continuity. ▪ Level and use: „Intermediate‟ covers an incredibly wide spectrum of levels. You may find that you have to skip some exercises (eg. Some of the listening and reading passages) as they may be too difficult for your intermediate class
38. ▪ Discussion groups: most of the discussion exercise work best in pairs or small groups. ▪ Speaking: most exercises on the students‟ page consist of a set of questions to discuss. When these questions are preceded by an introductory reading passage they should not be treated as comprehension questions but as a springboard to discussion ▪Reading: most of texts are authentic and come from a variety of source; some have been condensed or slightly modified. They have been kept deliberately short and are not designed to develop specific reading skills. Encourage students to guess: - Where the texts come from-newspapers, scientific journals, women‟s magazines, letters, interviews, and literary works - Why they were written- to inform, instruct, convince, advice, shock, amuse, deceive. - Who they were written for- age group, sex, nationality, specialist, causal reader. ▪Listening: the listening exercises vary in level to a much greater extent than the reading and speaking exercises and can be used with a good range of classes. These exercises are also designed to provide information and provoke discussion, through some listening can also be used as free-standing exercises to improve listening skills 1.5. The Organization of the course: The content of the course including 9 units which are arranged according to the topic and time sequence is presented in table
39. Content and Form Teaching-Learning Week Unit Pds Content Skills Week 1 1.Ideas 4 Fixed ideas? -Thinking skill: braining Any ideas? storming in English; Strange ideas? discussion in pairs. Sharing opinions -Extending ideas beyond obvious uses of objects. - Discuss the saying “there is only one truth” Week2 2.Jobs 4 What is work? -Giving opinions; Which job? explaining. Expressing Dirty jobs? interest question Industrial tribunal discussion. Honesty at work -Making decisions, expressing opinions and feeling. -Arguing and persuading. Group discussion. Week3 3.Kindne 4 Love thy neighbor ss Are you an altruist? -Giving opinions Mother Teresa of -Sharing and comparing Calcutta ideas The red cross -Paraphrasing the reading text. Group discussion; giving short presentation. discussion Revisio 4 Test 1 Test 1( group n+test1 presentation) Week 5 4.Love 4 The things we do for -Solving problems and love situation- discussion. Marriage contracts -Husband and wife
40. Are you a good lover? relationship: role play card A kiss is just a kiss? list -Analyzing; making questions; problems solving Week6 5.Money 4 Money makes the world -Group discussion: go round. answering question and Will you ever be rich? sharing solutions. Everyone has their price. -Discussing question; Your money discussion on political corruption. -Sharing opinion: spending and saving habits around the world. Week 7 6.Numbe 2 How many? -Sharing opinions. rs Numerology Expressing personal Goin‟ back to my roots. experiences 7.Origin Firsts -Group discussion; s presentation -Imaginary situation solving. Group discussion; short presentation. Week 8 8.Predict 4 In 1,000 years -Giving opinions; ion The year 3000 discussion Fortune-telling rhymes -Exchanging information; opinions -Sharing and comparing. Story telling Week 9 9.Respo 4 Coming of age -Working on the text nsibilitie Criminal responsibilities given: discussing and s Irresponsible? giving suggestion; Heaven‟s gates -Brainstorming and speak directly in English with the topic given in the textbook. Giving a short -Presentation in front of
41. class 2. Survey. 2.1. Introduction. 2.1.1. The University. Hai phong University was founded in 24th, September 1997. It is the youngest non-state owned university in Viet Nam. However, it has but it is reputation through qualified teaching staff and glamorous infrastructure “training is vitality”. It has cooperated with many organization as well as institutions in the world like GAP for teacher exchange program. 2.1.2 Class size, time available. The university has2 classes of 2nd -year students at the moment. Each class has about 30-35 students. Each week, there are 5 periods of speaking lesson in 50 minutes/period. 2.1.3 Participants. 19 survey questionnaires were thoroughly completed by two teachers and 50 students at the second year English majors attending Hai Phong Private University 2.2. Methodology. The objective of the current part is to outline the research methodology used and demonstrate that the researcher has followed recognized procedures in this study. It will explain why the method was chosen and provide a detailed explanation of how the research was conducted. 2.2.1 Rationale behind the use of survey questionnaire. Survey questionnaire is chosen for this study because of four main reasons. First of all, it is believed that survey questionnaire is an inexpensive way to gather data form a potentially large number of respondents. Secondly, it can reach a large number of people in a very short time. As commented by Richards (1994,p.10), it is useful in “gathering information about affective dimensions of teaching and learning such as beliefs, attitudes, motivation, preferences and enables a teacher to collect a large amount of information relatively quickly”. Another advantage of this tool is that the collected data are relatively easy to summarize and report as all the informants answer the same questions. Last
42. but not least, one of the most important reasons to choose this tool is that the survey questionnaire gives the students an opportunity to express their opinions and needs without fear either to be embarrassed or to be punished. Students are not required to write their names when answering questions because traditionally Vietnamese students are afraid of making their names known. 2.2.2 Purpose of the survey questionnaire. With a view to providing a thorough insight into the real situation of teaching speaking, a survey within the scope of the study is conducted in HPU. The major aim of the study is to collect and analyze data regarding the recognition and the utilization of speaking. This chapter is designed for the following purposes: -To find out the belief and attitude of teachers towards the need to improve student‟s ability to speak English. -To concern the English majors‟ awareness of the importance of English speaking skills. -To study how speaking skill is taught in class. The findings are served as the cornerstone for the technique suggestion in the next chapter. 2.2.3 The design of the survey questionnaires. In process of identifying the students‟ speaking learning, a survey questionnaire designed. The survey questionnaires consists of 18 alternative questions in which 9 questions are raised to students and 9 questions are designed for teachers to study the reality of teaching and learning speaking skill in HPU. Students were asked to tick the most suitable answers which correspond with their opinion. In the question, there are 3 or 4options, the informants can choose more than choice one .The questionnaires are designed as below: The survey questionnaires for students: ☻Question 1: English learning time of all students ☻Question 2+3+4+6: studying on students‟ attitude toward English lessons in general and speaking lesson in particular as well as kinds of working in speaking activities. ☻ Question 5: Techniques you often apply to improve your speaking.
43. ☻Question 7: Advantages students encounter when using group work in speaking lesson. ☻Question 8: Disadvantages students have when using group work in speaking lesson. ☻Question 9: Students‟ expectation while taking part in speaking lessons. The questionnaire was designed for 50 second-year students in Department of Foreign Languages at HPU. It is natural that they have been learning speaking as major subject for second years at university. In an attempt to assure the objectiveness, faithfulness and effectiveness, the students were not required to write their names as well as other personal information when answering the questions. Besides, the students were provided with clear and detailed guidance and instructions before completing the questionnaire. The given time for them to complete each question was three to five minutes. In the process of the survey, 50 survey papers were handed out and all of them were collected. The number of papers meeting the primary demand of the researcher was 50 (100%). The interview questions for teachers.  Question 1+2+3: Getting to know teachers‟ attitude about the role of English speaking skills, kinds of working in speaking activities as well as their activities to encourage their students to speak  Question 4: Teachers‟ awareness of improving fluency or accuracy.  Question 5: Kind of interaction.  Question 6: Teachers‟ opinion on mistake correction in speaking.  Question 7+8: Teachers‟ difficulties and advantages when teaching speaking.  Question 9: Finding out teachers‟ opinion on current used these activities in speaking lessons. 2.3. Data and Analysis. 2.3.1. Technique of data analysis. The collecting data that is the researcher get the data from the students especially for 2nd –year English major students at HPU. The researcher attends to the data, which are the result of applying teaching speaking using group work.
44. In the following section, the researcher explains about procedure of teaching speaking using group work. The produces is diving into four stages. They are socializing the group work. Individually or grouping, distributing the group work to students, each students gets one unfinished group and the punch lines sheet. Here reading becomes the preliminary activity before students do oral activities. After giving the treatment, give the some questionnaires then made calculation of result from survey questionnaire. 2.3.1.1. Analysis of the research. There, the analysis of the research uses the descriptive analysis. Based on this method there has some advantages and weakness. Some of the advantages of using teaching speaking using group work are as flows: -The student can be used various activity and interaction between students like small discussions and sharing ideas. -The use of group work improves learning outcomes: it fosters learner responsibility and independence, can improve motivation and contribute to a feeling of cooperation and warmth in the class. However this may bring disadvantages, as follow: -Teacher has to make preparation, he must spend much time to select some suitable group work activities and design them. -Not every student would take. 2.3.2. Questionnaires for students: After the survey was implemented, the statistic were totaled up and indicated through out the following charts. Each chart shows us the number of students who choose the most suitable answer for them in each question. This number is counted in percentage unit and the kind of chart are bar, pie, table The data can be easily seem in the chart and in the right of chart are the explanations. Question 1-Appendix1: Students’ English Learning Time. The following table illustrates their duration of learning English. Number of years 3 years 7 years More than 7 years
45. Percentage of 6% 40% 54% students Table 1: students’ English learning time The table above illustrates the time of 50 the second-year students in English major at HPU. As you can be seem from the table, of all the student, there are only 3 students (6%) have been studying English for 3 years. Whereas, the percentage of students studying English more than 7 years is 9 times higher than those students, students 27 (54%).the rest of these students with 40% have spent 7 years to study. Form the figures, it is clear to see that almost students have been acquired to study English for quit a long time, from the secondary school. Very few students have just been learning English. It is likely that there would be some differences in their proficiency Question 2-Appendix 1: Students’ interest in learning English skills. The most favourite lesson to students' LISTENINGview 7% READING 17% SPEAKING 56% WRITING 20% The pie chart above illustrates the favorite lessons that students are interested in. It can not be denied that, prominent among the four subjects is speaking, with (55%) more than of the students are fond of speaking .Writing seems to attract a certain number of students are 10 (20%) and (17%) of them said that they like reading. On the contrary, listening is only occupies 7% the smallest percentage according to students‟ opinion. In conclusion, it might be possible that, because of studying English for the secondary school, many students
46. concentrated in speaking lesson and it seems to be their favorite subject in class. Question 3-Appendix 1: Students’ opinions toward speaking lessons. From the chart shows that the view of HPU 2nd year students toward speaking lessons. It can seen the high percentage of the students like speaking lesson.38 students (76%) found speaking lesson interesting. This is understandable because in the pie chart in question 2, more than of the students like speaking skills.(15%) is very interesting in it. Therefore, it seems that the students have realized the need of the students and know how to make it interesting for the students through various activities. Anyway, there are still some students don‟t like speaking lesson. Hence, to these students, speaking lesson is not very interesting, 8%, even not interesting. However, the number of students found speaking is not interesting just occupies (2%), a very small percentage rate. It raised a question whether speaking lessons satisfy the entire students‟ need or not. It is because they have not been taught enough grammar, structure as well as their demand to make the lesson more interesting and effective for them? 80% 60% 40% 75% 20% 15% 8% 2% 0% very interes ting inters eting not very not interes ting interes ting Chart 1: Students’ opinions toward speaking lessons. Question 4-Appendix 1: Students’ opinions toward the role of speaking skill. The student‟s favorite lesson and their thought of speaking lesson affect them attitude about the speaking skill. According to chart above, most of them realize that speaking skills were very important, which occupies (98%).meanwhile, 2% of them thought speaking skill is important. None of
47. them think the speaking skill is not very important or even not important. This can reflect that HPU 2nd year students are aware for the essence of this skill to them in their study; it is a good sign for the teacher to find the ways to motivate speaking skill more adorable with this skill. 100% 80% 60% 98% 40% 20% 2% 0% 0% 0% Very Important Not very Not important important important Chart 2: The importance of speaking skill. Question 5-Appendix 1: Which techniques do you often apply to improve your speaking? This question is to find the techniques that the students often apply to learn speaking. Looking at the chart, we can easily see that students mainly learn speaking by using group work only (53%). It is the traditional way of student when studying speaking. The other students (29%) think that using pictures and games is the good technique to apply foe learning speaking. And (18%) for the students choose learning speaking through role-play. Techniques do you often apply to improve your s peaking . Using picture and game, 29% Using group work, 53% Learning through role-play, 18%
48. Question 6-Appendix 1: Kinds of working activities in speaking activities. The pie chart illustrates 3 types of activities in a speaking lesson: individually, in pairs and in groups. Working in group takes up most percentage among 3 activities, (73%) that is more than 3 times in compared with in pair activities,(22%). Meanwhile, working individually only occupies a small percentage, (5%) in a speaking lesson toward the students‟ opinion. It proves that students come to realize that with working in groups, they would have more opportunities and motivation to practice speaking English. In other words, students are likely to think that they will learn better from their friends. Thus, it is no doubt that most students choose working in groups as their favorites. Kind of working in activities Individually 5% In pairs 22% In groups 73% Question 7-Appendix 1: In your opinion, what are the advantages do you have when using group work technique in speaking lesson? We can see, it is necessary to emphasis and account to the advantages the students have when using group work technique in speaking lesson. According to the analysis in question 6. Most students adore working in groups. This gives them effectiveness in speaking, as they feel more language practice. The number of students who considers it as their advantages when using group work in speaking lesson takes account for (35%). Besides that (28%) of them said the students are more involved in the activity. Moreover, (22%) students say that shy students feel more secure and more willing to speaking. Particularly, (15%) says that it encourages students to share ideas.
49. Advantages Students More language practice. 35% Students are more involved 28% Students feel secure. 22% Students help each other. 15% Question 8- Appendix 1: Students’ opinions about students’ disadvantages when using group work technique in speaking lesson. Disadvantages Students The class is noisy 50% The class is uncontrolled 26% Students make mistake 23% Other advantages (lack of word, lazy ) 1% Along with the advantages, many factors affect the students when using group work technique in speaking lesson. It is true that students often have disadvantages in using this technique. Naturally (26%) of the students say that the class is uncontrolled because some students take advantage of this doing outside the activity. The mentioned tips above seem to be useful for them. The other students (23%) asserted that during a group work activity, the teacher can not control all the language used and should not try to do so; therefore, students make mistake. The number the students thought that the class is noisy is not small (51%). Thus, it is necessary for us to find out the methods to reduce this situation. Question 9-Appendix1: Activities students expect teachers to apply more in a speaking lesson. Penny Ur (1981) offers a variety of types of oral activities, including communication games, but also including a wider variety group activities Ur classifies into three main types: brainstorming, organizing, compound activities, basing on her classification, the activities are grouped as following: ☻Brainstorming activities: game, song, discussion, and free talk ☻Organizing activities: picture description, story-telling
50. ☻Compound activities: debate, information-gap, interview, and role-play. As we can from the chart below, (45.2%) students prefer brainstorming activities. This makes us think of the two sides. Firstly, it is understandable that these types of activities (game, song, discussion, and free talk) are very cheerful, funny and interesting. It can motivate their speaking. But in other side, students seem to like to playing more than speaking or learning with a certain given topic. In contrasted, the compound activities, which should be much concentrated, only occupy (35.4%). Perhaps, the students find these activities not attractive or may be they have not practiced them yet like information-gap. A fewer percentage (20.4%) than these two activities above is organizing activities are so boring that students do not pay much attention to. Hence, it is necessary for teacher to vary activity to make it interesting for the students. It should not be used too often, regularly and activity that may lead to overuse that activity, and soon make students bored with it. Brainstorming Compound Organizing 45.2% 35.4% 20.4% Favorite activities brains torming compound Organiz ation 0.00% 5.00% 10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00 30.00 35.00 40.00 45.00 50.00 % % % % % % % % % 2.3.3. Interview for the teachers.
51. The two teachers were interviewed and asked some questions about their English teaching in speaking lessons. The interviews were summarized as below: The two teachers have much experience in teaching English as they have been teaching for 7-15 years. Question1-Appendix 2: Teachers’ attitude towards the role of speaking skill. Talking about the role of speaking skill, both of them are agreeing that speaking skill is very important. It is no doubt that teachers and students are all aware of the importance of speaking skill. According to one teachers‟ subjective view, student likes speaking lesson because they have good opportunities to speak, lean form each other and they are more creative in speaking. In fact, through the survey, most of the students (75%) are interested in speaking lesson. Question 2-Appendix 2: Accuracy and Fluency. As mentioned in teaching speaking skills, accuracy and fluency are too important goals in teaching. Nevertheless, which one should be improved more than the other depends on each teacher‟s view. Therefore, two teachers have difficulties ideals about this. One pays much attention to improve fluency while the other vice verse. It is likely that there is a difference in recognizing the levels of students between them. One seems to think that the second year students are at elementary level so she focused on developing students‟ accuracy. Whereas, the teacher who tend to improve fluency realize that her students are at immediate level or more. Hence, to realize the students‟ level is very important for teachers. Through the survey, we understand that the students demand is fluency. Then why do not we focus fluency to meet their need? However, it is still necessary to improve. Both accuracy and fluency. Question 3-Appendix 2: Work arrangement. Both teachers prefer using group work, nevertheless, the do not think that group work should be used much, it depends on topic. Group work, moreover, has it is own advantages and disadvantages. The advantages is that they can learn form each other, have more ideas, more chance to speak. In contrast, if there is one talkative student in group, he or she will make the others silent.
52. Question 4-Appendix 2: Kind of interaction. The two teachers always give students chance to talk with them. However, it should not be taken so long time. Only if the students have question about topic, then teachers will answer not only for them but also for the whole class. The kind of interaction between teachers and students will make the students close to the teachers. Question 5-Appendix 2: Mistake correction in speaking. Two teachers share the same view that they rarely correct student mistakes while they are speaking, only after they finish their speech .one adds that she ignores grammar mistakes. Both of them concern the serious mistakes that students make leading to misunderstanding. It seems to be that two teachers have same opinion incorrect student‟s mistake. When students mispronounce, they often pronounce that word again and ask students to repeat. In general, mistake correction depends on different circumstance and serious level of mistake. Question 6-Appendix 2: Teaches’ encouragement. This question is only put to teachers to study what teachers often do to encourage their student to speak. Both teachers often ask them some questions about the topic to explore their knowledge about it. They show interest in each student as a person. Of course, they give feedback on each person‟s progress. They always value and respect what student think and say. They never disrupt when students are speaking. When having contest, they often have small gift for the winner. They sometimes give student opportunities to choose what they want to speak. However, it is not like the topic, they choose they will try to make it interesting. Question 7-Appendix 7: Teachers’ disadvantages when teaching speaking. The common difficulty teachers face with when teaching is the noise in class. It is clear that with such a nosy class, teachers have many difficulties in controlling it. In a contrary case, the student keep quite if they do not like the topic or the topic is too difficult for them. One teacher expresses her students sometimes lazy, for example, they did not bring what she asked and even did not do homework. Question 8-Appendix2: Teachers’ advantages when teaching speaking.
53. Both teachers take many activities form many different resources such as: Interest, newspaper, magazines, textbooks and other books they often use discussion activity for group work. While the activity is going on, they often to listen student, help those who need, and take part in the activity. Question 9-Appendix 2: Activities teachers apply more in a speaking lesson. The using of activities of the two teachers is clearly shown in the table below. Both teachers prefer using role play, debate, discussion and free talk. Sometimes, they use game, interview and picture description. For song, information-gap, and story telling they rarely use, even never use. This conveys that the teachers so focus on some activities. This is not a good way in teaching speaking. It should be better to vary the activities to make students more interested in speaking lesson Frequency Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always Activities Role play X √ Game X √ Free-talk X √ Debate √ X Information X √ X √ gap Story-telling √ X Interview X √ Picture √ X description Song X √ 3. Findings and Discussion of Findings. Based on the results of the survey, the aim of the current part is to clarify some major findings which are mainly related speaking skills teaching for 2nd –year English major students at HPU.
54. As the survey and interview are restricted to only a small number of students and teachers, surely the result can not reflect the real situation of teaching speaking skills at HPU. Nevertheless, it is hoped that the findings and discussions following can give useful information to some extends. For students The students soon realize the importance of speaking skill with this positive attitude; they will have effective way to learn English. Because English is not only major subject in their studying but also important in their future jobs. The students also express their good attitudes toward speaking lessons. Most of them finding speaking lessons interesting for them (75%).nevertheless, a small number of the students (2%) think that speaking lessons are not interesting. This means that speaking lessons are not satisfied and meet all the students‟ need. It should be found out their demand to make the speaking lessons more interesting and effective. A majority of students prefers working in group while doing speaking activities. This proves that students can learn better from working with their friends. Them it is clear that working in group is most students‟ favorites. This also leads to their favorite kinds of interaction which is interaction in group. Besides, it should be noted that interaction with teacher is another students‟ choice. According to students, the least frequently used techniques seem to be the most effective ones, to some extents (pictures description, discussion, ). Especially, playing games is the techniques students wish to be applied the whole lessons. Regarding to students‟ disadvantages when using group work in class, it is noticeable that most students lack of vocabulary (70%), shyness (38%) and fear of making mistakes (22%). Psychology barrier (in-confidence, nervous ) is one of the problems that prevent students from expressing their thoughts in English. Actually, their own efforts and the supports of teachers are indispensable to help them overcome those difficulties. For teachers. The teachers also share the same view with students on the importance of speaking skill. However, there are some difference in their awareness of improving fluency and accuracy. One of focuses on improving fluency while
55. the other focuses on accuracy. This is because of their different recognition about their students‟ level. It should be, anyway, concerned to the students‟ need. Mostly, teachers use group work to motivate the students in speaking. However, their lessons, in some extents, do not meet the students‟ needs. It is possible because of poor or boring activities. Teachers should have more various activities again and again. Moreover, teachers should take chances to close to their students by talking to them. Both teachers have the same opinion of mistake correction. They often correct students‟ mistakes after their speech to encourage students to speak. Because if students keep quite, It will lead to their difficulties when teaching speaking. Conversely, the noisy class leading to impossible to control in another common difficultly that Teacher often faces with. It hoped that these findings and discussion will help more people to acknowledge the situation and techniques of teaching English speaking skill in the Foreign Language classroom and stimulate further study in this area. With this chapter 2, through survey questionnaires for the teachers and students, we have an overview on English teaching and learning situation in HPU as well as the fluency of a doped teaching techniques and their effectiveness form teachers‟ and students‟ point of view. Basing on the result of the survey, chapter 3 will provide us with some suggested techniques using group work to teach English speaking skills for the 2nd –year English major students in HPU.
56. CHAPTER III: IMPLICATION 1. Reasoning. Current situation of learning and studying English speaking in Hai Phong Private University has been unfolded. Through the study, it is found that techniques in students‟ favor are frequently used by the teachers such as: using discussion, using picture, using game. Using group work In fact, there are also some interesting techniques for studying English Speaking, for example, studying from talking with foreigners, listening to the news on TV, on interest These are really simple and popular ways to study speaking with a better result. Each of them can be applied many small techniques. For the limitation of this research paper, I only present the applicability of some techniques in studying English speaking. The applicability will concentrate on some suggested techniques using group work to help the 2nd year students have more pleasure and effectiveness in learning English speaking. 2. Techniques using group work to teach speaking skills for English major students in HPU. The goal in teaching speaking is to give the students themselves as much practice as possible in speaking. If a teacher is not careful, he or she will do most of the talking and limit the students‟ practice time. Different class arrangements affect the amount of practice the student gets. So, as often as possible, have students working in small groups so they can have more speaking practice. Whenever possible, the students should have the opportunity to work in small groups. Begin by making sure that teacher understand what group work involve: In group work, the teacher divides the class into small groups to work together (usually four or five students in each group).All the group at the same time, Group work is ways of organizing the class. It can be used for many different kinds of activities than for others.
57. 2.1. Ways to Arrange Group Work. There are a number of ways to form groups. Groups need to be rearranged form time to time to allow students to work with a variety of peers. Small groups or learning teams can be formed in three ways: ◙Randomly: Random group assignments avoid cliques and ensure that students interact with different students throughout the semester Numbering the students (counting off or numbering off):1,2, 3 and 4 students who have the same number will make a group. ●Grouping according to the eat proximity ●Grouping according to the months of birth ●Grouping according to colors of clothes or their favorite colors ●Grouping according to the alphabetical list ◙ Teacher- selected: once teachers know their students fairly well, teacher- selected groups can be useful for pairing weak and strong students, students with common interested or shared learning styles ◙ Student-selected: students choose the partners with whom they think they can work well. Group size can vary as can the length of time that students work together. Groups that work together for 10 to 45 minutes might be 4 to 6 people. Groups can be formal or informal. Informal group”10 minute buzz group”(3-4
58. students discuss reaction to a reading assignment).formal group assignments can serve semester-long group projects. Whether formal or informal, it is useful to assign roles within the group (example: leader, recorder, reporter to the class, time keeper, or facilitator).for choosing group leader, teacher should vary the ways, so each student is a leader at least one time. ● Teacher ask each group to choose their own leaders ● Teacher gives standard of the leader, for instance, the leader is the one who is smallest/tallest/biggest/oldest/youngest/best in English If students are not used to working in groups, establishing some ground rules with the class about respectful interaction before the first activity can foster positive and constructive communication 2.2 Techniques to Succeed With Group Work Activities. Successful group work activities require a highly structured task. Make this task clear to students by writing specific instructions on the board or on a worksheet. Include in the instructions: The specific task: “decide”, “list”, “prioritize”, “solve”, “choose” (“discuss” is too ambiguous) - Structure the task to promote interdependence for creating a group product - Create an activity for which it is truly advantages for students to work together The expected product, for example: reporting to the class, handing in a sheet of paper, a list of questions to distribute to the class. The time allotment: set a time limit; however give more time if necessary The method of “reporting out”, of sharing group results with the class Closure is critical to the learning process. Students need to feel that the group work activity added to their knowledge, skills, abilities, etc. “Reporting out” is useful for accomplishing closure. A mini-lecture form teacher that weaves in the comments, products and ideas of the students in their small groups is also an effective way to close a group work activity. 2. 3.Implementing Group Work in the Classroom. Group work can be an effective method to motivate students, encourage active learning, and develop key critical-thinking, communication, and decision-making skills. But without careful planning and facilitation, group
59. work can frustrate students and instructors and feel like a waste of time. Use these suggestions to help implement group work successfully in your classroom. 2.3.1. Designing the Small Group Activity. ● Specify instructional objectives. You want to achieve through the small group activities, both academically (e.g., knowledge of a topic) and socially (e.g., listening skills). The activity should relate closely to the course objectives and class content and must be designed to help students learn, not simply to occupy their time. ● Make the task challenging. Consider giving a relatively easy task early in the term to arouse students‟ interest in group work and encourage their progress. In most cases, however, collaborative exercises should be stimulating and challenging”. ● Assign group tasks. That encourages involvement, interdependence, and a fair division of labor. All group members should feel a sense of personal responsibility for the success of their team mates and realize that their individual success depends on the group‟s success. so that group members are required to share information (e.g., “Jigsaw” method) or to come up with a consensus; randomly select one person to speak for the group; or assign different roles to the group members so that they are all involved in the process (e.g., recorder, spokesperson, summarizer, checker, skeptic, organizer, observer, timekeeper, conflict resolve, liaison to other groups). ● Decide on group size. The size you choose will depend on the number of students, the size of the classroom, the variety of voices needed within a group, and the task assigned. Groups of 4-5 tend to balance well the needs for diversity, productivity, active participation, and cohesion. ●Decide how you will divide students into groups. Division based on proximity or students‟ choice is quickest, especially for large and cramped classes; however, it means that students end up working together with friends or always with the same people. To vary group composition and increase diversity within groups, randomly assign students to groups by counting off and grouping them according to number; or have them
60. line up according to birthday, height, hair color, etc., before dividing them; another idea is to distribute candy (e.g., Starburst or hard, colored candies) and group students according to the flavor they choose. For some group tasks, the diversity within a group (gender, ethnicity, level of preparation) is especially important, and you might want to assign students to groups yourself before class. Collect a data card from each student on the first day of class to glean important information about their backgrounds, knowledge, and interests. ● Allow sufficient time for group work. You will not be able to cover as much material as you could if you lectured for the whole class period. Cut back on the content you wish to present in order to give groups time to work. Estimate the amount of time that subgroups need to complete the activity. ● Try to predict students’ answers. You won‟t be able to do this perfectly expect the unexpected but by having some idea about what students will come up with, you will be better prepared to answer their questions and tie together the group work during the plenary session. 2.3.2. Introducing the Group Task. ●Demonstrate you are prepared for the group session: Arrive punctually, have a handout prepared that relates specifically to the task, and carry through on tasks that you promised to do when you last use group work in the classroom ●Share your rationale for using group work: Students must understand the benefits of collaborative learning. If they do not see its value, they might conclude that you are using group work merely to get out of course preparation or lecturing. ●Have students form groups before you give them instructions: If you try to give instructions first, students may be too preoccupied with deciding on group membership to listen to you. Or, by the time they have determined their groups, they may have forgotten what they are supposed to do. ●Facilitate some form of group cohesion: Students work best together if they know or trust each other, at least to some extent. Even for brief group activities, have students introduce themselves to their group members before
61. attending to their task. For longer periods of group work, consider introducing an ice breaker or an activity designed specifically to build a sense of teamwork. ●Explain the task clearly: This means both telling students exactly what they have to do and describing what the final product of their group work will look like. Explaining the big picture or final goal is important, especially when the group work will take place in steps (such as in Snowballing or Jigsaw). ●Prepare written instructions for the students: Either post the instructions on an overhead or PowerPoint slide or, if some of the groups will leave the room, distribute a handout. ●Set ground rules for group interaction: Especially for extended periods of group work, establish how group members should interact with one another, mentioning principles such as respect, active listening, and methods for decision making. ●Let students ask questions: if you believe your instructions are crystal- clear, students may very well have legitimate questions about the activity. Give them time to ask questions before they get to work. 2.3. 3.Monitoring the Group Task. ●Monitor the groups but do not hover: As students do their work, circulate among the groups and answer any questions raised. Also listen for trends that are emerging from the discussions, so that you can refer to them during the subsequent plenary discussion. ●Be slow to share what you know: If you come upon a group that is experiencing uncertainty or disagreement, avoid the natural tendency to give the answers or resolve the disagreement. 2.3.4. Ending the Group Task. ●Provide closure to the group activities: Group work can succeed or fail based on how you incorporate it into the rest of the class and the course. Students need to see how their work in small groups was useful to them and/or contributed to the development of the topic. Thus, end with a plenary session in which students do group reporting: ◘Oral reports: Have each group give one idea and rotate through the groups until no new ideas arise. Or have each group give their most surprising or
62. illuminating insights or their most challenging question. Typically, you should record the ideas raised to validate their value, but limit yourself to key words. ◘Written reports: Have each group record their ideas on a transparency and either present them yourself or have a group member do so. One variation on this is to have groups record their conclusions on a section of the blackboard or on newsprint that is then posted on the wall. Students then informally circulate around the room and read each other‟s answers. Alternately, you can ask students to move around the room in small groups, rotating from one set of comments to another. As they rotate, they keep up a discussion, treating the comments written on the newsprint. They can add their own comments in response. Another variation on written reports is to have students write brief comments on Post-it notes or index cards. Collect them, take a few minutes to process them or put them in sequence, and then summarize their contents. ●Model how you want students to participate: When responding to students‟ answers, model the respect and sensitivity that you want the students to display towards their classmates. Also readily acknowledge and value opinions different from your own; don‟t favor clones! And be willing to share your own stories, critique your work, and summarize what has been said. 2.3.5. Conclusion. Successful group work requires not only careful preparation and facilitation but also regular reflection and reassessment afterward. After a class of small group activities, reflect on the group work process and refer back to the notes you made before class. Add comments about what worked especially well and what you would change in the future to make the exercise run more smoothly. Also discuss your use of group work with other instructors, and ask for their suggestions. If you feel that your facilitation skills are weak, work to strengthen them. 3. Suggested activities using group work to teach speaking skills for the 2nd -year English majors. Classroom activities that develop learner‟s ability to express themselves through speech would therefore seem an important component of a language course
63. 3.1. Story telling. The speech abilities needed for story telling are essentially the same ones required for all speaking activities. Story telling encourages students to experiment with voice, tone, eye contact, gestures and facial expressions. It also lots them practice techniques for holding audience attention. Storytelling encourages reading motivation and aids listening comprehension. It can lead directly to story writing 3.1.1. Make story. An exam of group interaction activity is “make a story”. This can be applied for to unit 3, topic “Kindness”, part 3: Mother Teresa of Calcutta, (Discussions A-Z Intermediate, page 50) ☻Students are divided into groups of four (sometimes five and six), each of the members has its role. For example, the four essential roles in a group and two optional roles can be following:
64. 1. English checker whose role is to check that all the member in his group speak English all the time; to remind the participants in his group of the time planned for the activity and to finish the task on times. 2. Secretary who takes notes of discussion that is going on in his/her group. 3. Reporter whose task is to report the activity in class after that activity is finished. 4. Leader who makes sure every member is participating in the discussion, to call on any member to speak out. 5. Clarifier who clarifies assignments with the teacher and other members of the group if necessary (optional). 6. Encourage whose job is to encourage to speak “yes, I agree”; “go on, please”; “what did you say?” ect (optional). ►After that each group is give picture: