Motivating and enhancing students at Lang Chanh High School to learn English by groupworks

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
LANG CHANH UPPER- SECONDARY SCHOOL
EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE
motivating and enhancing students at Lang Chanh High School to learn English by groupworks
The writer: Pham Thi Nghi
Position: Teacher of English
Experience initiative: English
THANH HOA 2017
THANH HOA 2017
THANH HOÁ NĂM 2017
Lang Chánh, tháng 5 năm 2017
THANH HOÁ, NĂM 2017
OUTLINE
CONTENTS
PAGE
I. Introduction
1. Reason for choosing the topic
3
2. Aims of the study
3
3. Scope of the study
4
II. Development
1. Theoretical background
4- 7
2. Practical background
7
3. The solutions
7- 13
4. The discussion
14- 15
III. Conclusion
1. General summary
15 - 16
2. Suggested approaches to solve similar problems
IV. References
1. Websites
16
V. Appendices
1. Surveys
2. Observations
DETAILED OUTLINE
Title: Motivating and enhancing students at Lang Chanh High School to learn English by groupworks.
I. Introduction
1. Reason for choosing the topic 
- Social development and national renewal is urgently required to improve the quality of education and training. 
- The roles of English: playing a vital role in the development of our society.
- The current curriculum of English.
- Problems students face
- What I have done to solve the problems
- effective solutions 
2. Aims of the study
- To introduce how to groupwork and to show the advantages of working in groups.
- To show how to organise pair and groupwork effectively and how to deal withinitial problems that may occur.
- To show how groupwork can be used for various classroom activities
- To give teachers confidence in using groupworks themselves. 
3. Scope of the study 
- The qualitative and quantitave approach
II. Content / Development
1. Theoretical background : The benefits of groupworks
2. Practical background : The reality of quality of English at Lang Chanh High School.
3. The solutions
4. The discussion
III. Conclusion
1. General summary:
2. Suggested approaches to solve similar problems
IV. References
- Websites
V. Appendices
- Surveys
- Observations
THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
LANG CHANH UPPER- SECONDARY SCHOOL
THANH HOA, 2017
EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE
Motivating and enhancing students at Lang Chanh High School to learn English by groupworks
 	The writer: Pham Thi Nghi
	Position: Teacher of English
	Experience initiative: English
I. Introduction
1. Reason for choosing the topic 
English, which is the common language in the world, is an important subject in schools. Being thoroungly awared of the importance of this language in international communication as well as in the development of international integration, Vietnamese educators should use English as the key subject . English is essential for not only the tourism industry, foreign trade, foreign companies, computer users but also the high school graduates. Therefore, each student attending high school must have a certain level of English to prepare for exams and after graduating at least they are able to communicate, read and write some normal texts. To do this, we are constantly innovating teaching methods and curriculum to achieve substantive results for general English courses and forging some basic skills for students.
During English teaching and learning process, finding the way to obtain English knowledge is the most important. Groupwork is one of the most useful one to help students obviously.One of the most important reasons is unsuitable methods in teaching and learning. The teachers of English often meet difficulties in approaching new methods of teaching foreign languages communicatively. How to organise groupwork or pairwork effectively is also the problem which they often meet. Recognizing the importance of groupwork and pairwork, I’ve chosen this topic in the hope of finding out some useful measures in organising groupwork activities in the class.
2. Aims of the study
In this study, my main interests are:
- To introduce how to groupwork and to show the advantages of working in groups.
- To show how to organise a groupwork effectively and how to deal withinitial problems that may occur.
- To show how groupworks can be used for various classroom activities.
- To offer teachers confidence in using groupworks during their lecture by themselves. 
* Scope of the study 
This study is only concerned with ways of organising activities in the class rather than with teaching techniques.
II. Contents
1. Theoretical background: The benifits of groupworks
In pairwork , the teacher devides the whole class into pairs. Every student works with his or her partner, and all the pairs work at the same time ( it is sometimes called “simultaneous pairwork” ) . Point out that this is not the same as public or open pairwork, with pairs of students speaking in turn in front the class. In groupwork, the teacher divides he class into small groups to work together ( usually four or five students in each group ). As in pair group, all te groups work at the same time.
Pointed out that pairwork and groupwork are not reaching methods but ways of organnising the class. They can be used far many different kinds of activities, and are naturally more suitable for some activities than for others
One of the successful ways, if the teacher is resourceful and skilful enough, to motivate his/her students to participate in the lesson is to use “pair work” or “Group work” appropriately.Language is best learned through the close collaboration and communication among students. This type of collaboration results in benefits for all or both learners. In fact, learners can help each other while working on different types of tasks such as writing dialogues, interviews, drawing pictures and making comments about them, play roles, etc
The first advantage groupworks offers is that there is more language practice. Groupworks give students far more chance to speak English. Refer to the request : working in groups, each student makes seven sentences ( either a question or an answer). If the excercise were done “round the class”, students would only say one sentence each, and in a large class many students would say nothing at all.
The second advantage is that students are more involved : Working in groups encourages students to be more involved and to concentrate on the tasks. Refer to the above request : if this discussion were conducted with the whole class together, it would be dominated by a few students and the others would lose the interest.	
An vital profit is that students feel secure . Students feel less anxious when they are working “privately” when they are “on show” in front of the whole class. Obviously, groupworks can help shy students who would never say anything in a whole-class activity to convey their ideas easily.
The last but not least is that groupworks bring students a chance to help each other . Groupworks encourages students to share ideas and knowledge. In a reading activity students can help each other to explore the meaning of the text; in a discussion activity students can give each other new ideas. In language focus lessons, better students can explain the main points to those who are not good enough.
 Moreover, groupwork benefits for students in some other ways:
Students talk: What is more important in the process of language learning than speaking? Not much. Putting ESL students in groups gets them speaking up and practicing the language that they are trying to learn. Speaking is an important skill, and producing out loud language can be intimidating for nonnative speakers at any point in their journey. You can minimize the intimidation by including group work from the very start of your classes. When your students start speaking in their first ESL classes, it becomes a natural part of who they are and how they learn, and it fails to be an intimidating feat to delay until later in their studies.
 Students help each other: When group work happens, whether it is in the work place or the classroom, collaboration is part of the process. Your ESL students are no exception. When they work in groups you will see that students help each other learn. Students can answer language specific questions or clarify confusing points of English in ways that ESL students can understand and you may not be able to explain. When they help each other, it benefits both of the students involved. The student with the question will have it answered, and the student with the answer will remember it better because they have taught it to another
 Students challenge each other:	Students will be intentional about helping each other when they work in groups, but they may not realize that they will challenge each other as well. Studies show that speakers modify their speech to be more like the people to whom they are talking. That means less accomplished students will become better speakers just by talking to others more advanced than them, without help and without pressure.
 Students encourage each other: Encouragement between language learners can happen in many ways. One way encouragement comes is when lower level students see the accomplishments of higher level students. I have found this to be true particularly in mixed level classes. When a first year student from Korea sees a Korean who is nearly fluent in English, he feels good about it. When students share their experiences as well, one student’s story becomes a blueprint for success for the other!
Students grow closer to each other: By working together, your students will also develop relationships with each other. They will share personal opinions and life goals. They will talk about what they have experienced and what they want most out of life all in the name of learning a language. When they do, they become friends. These relationships are important for international students. For students who travel overseas to study English, having a network of friends is extremely important. Daily cultural struggles can become overwhelming, and individuals submerged in a second language need support. Most often, your students do not have family nearby, so their classmates become their family and offer support and encouragement on a daily basis.
 Students use language creatively: Communicative classrooms focus on getting students to use the language they know to get their meaning across. This is when creative language happens. Creative use of language makes communication possible even when speakers may not know the perfect grammar for what they are trying to say, and nothing is more true to life than that. When students work in groups, they have to work together to accomplish a goal. Even when grammar takes a backseat in these collaborations, communication happens, and that will give your students a dry run for when they have to face communication in the English speaking world.
Students develop cultural sensitivity: When teaching a class of international students, I will see just how much culture affects a person’s beliefs, values and expectations. Some ESL students have never known a person from another culture, and your class will be an opportunity to know people from all over the world. That means encountering individuals with different values, expectations and beliefs. When your students can accept and appreciate their classmates, they will be on their way to doing the same for people all over the world.
In particular, groupwork benefits for teachers as well: 
Groupwork activates different learning styles: Part of teaching is reaching as many different learning styles as possible. One of those learning styles is social, also known as interpersonal. Students who learn this way work well with others and benefit from working things out with groups. When you assign group work and give students goals to accomplish during their time together, these students flourish.
Getting authentic performance for assessments: It can be hard for ESL teachers to assess speaking performance in their students. Putting students in groups and unobtrusively listening to them is a perfect way to see how much they are really putting to use. You can hear pronunciation, spoken grammar, and ability to communicate just by listening in on some classroom group work.
Knowing what students are getting and what I need to clarify: When you are teaching grammar in isolation, it’s easy for students to follow a pattern and fill in the blanks. When you have your students working together, talking together, using the right grammar isn’t as predictable as it is in isolated exercises. When you listen to your students’ performance during group work, you can see what concepts they aren’t getting and that you may need to explain again. If you are unsure whether they have really understood a particular language strategy, assign a group task that will elicit it and listen closely.
2. Practical background: The reality of quality of English at Lang Chanh High School.
There are more than 1,000 students coming from various villages in Lang Chanh district. Most of them are ethnic minority students, whose background is not good enough, and they have shy characteristics . That requires teachers to be enthusiastic and patient in order to find out the most suitable and effective teaching methods.
In recent years, the implementation of innovation of teaching method in lang Chanh High school in general, in Foreign Language group particularly has initially gained encouraging results. The majority of teaching lessons are taught using active appropriate teaching methods for each skill lessons and different units, such as: Pair-work, Group work, role-play, centered Learner- ... Choosing teaching methods depends on the topic of the lesson and students. From what I have done, I found the practical methods of using teamwork (Group- work) during the hours of English at high schools Lang Chanh so practical. The quality of school have been gradually raised . Furthermore, English lessons have attracted more and more students. English lessons are no longer a burden to the students those are always sitting and listening to the teacher.During the class, students can discuss with their partners about the content of the lessons. 
In general; however, sometimes organizing group activities is not practical and appropriate enough it. Therefore, I want to talk about how to organiza groupworks in English lessons effectively, with the aim of contributing to improving the effectiveness of teaching and learning English.
3. Solutions
a. Definition of groupwork
A technique within the field of social work wherein various groups (as educational and recreational) are guided by an agency leader to more effective personal adjustment and community participation
Based Learning is a form of teaching method putting students in a positive learning environment in which students are appropriately divided into groups . Cooperation is to help students train and develop working skills, communication skills, and to encourage them to learn from each other. Moreover, working in groups promotes the role and responsibilities, social activities on the basis of work co-operation. Through group activities, students can work together with the work that they can not do it themselves in a certain time. In the method of learning language, group learning is one of the most effective ways to enhance and maximize the ability to expressm their ideas. For a long time, Ther has been a tend to have a fear of failure that is a major obstacle in the communication process of the students. With this program, students can help each other in terms of learning process, students are under no pressure when they join groups or participate in forums. Teachers can also encompass abilities abilities of each student, understand the obstacles which helps students overcome difficulties in the communication process. Although the accuracy of the language in the process of group discussion is not high, in return the students have the confidence to express their opinions more. 
b. Steps for teaching using groupworks
Step 1. Setting clear expectations for group work 
Since group work requires students to draw on a broad range of skills, they benefit from being given time to consider practicalities, and to plan (Gibbs, 1995). Students should be introduced to practices such as developing ground rules (relating to personal and professional conduct), which outline the expectations for participation of group members and consider mechanisms / roles that underpin effective project management. In doing so they could be encouraged to reflect on what they bring to the group (academically and practically), or on past experiences of group work and how they could learn from these. 
Practical pointer: In a taught session introduce students to the different stages of group work, and get them to develop strategies for working through these: familiarisation (with one another / the task), planning and preparation (identify expertise / tasks / build an action plan), implementation (management of the activity / keeping in touch) and completion (working toward the product / deadlines / editing). 
Step 2. Thinking carefully about group size and composition
Careful consideration should be given to group size, particularly in relation to the purpose of the work and the task assigned. Group size influences student engagement and getting this right engenders desired behaviours to minimise issues such as freeloading (Seethamraju & Borman, 2009). The optimal group size is cited as been between four and six people, as this allows students to develop a sense of identity and ownership (Kerr & Bruun, 1983). Determining whether group membership is allocated by a tutor, randomly allocated or self-selected depends on the purpose of the group work. Although research is unclear on the benefit of each approach (Huxham & Land, 2000; Seethamraju & Borman, 2009) with regards to student learning, tutors need to dedicate time for the preparation stages even if group members are known to one another.
Practical pointer: Using a range of approaches to group allocation on different occasions can be beneficial. Membership could be allocated based on: academic achievement / skill set – however, this requires tutors to have prior knowledge of the students; criteria such as age, discipline, or name. In determining the approach taken to allocating group membership consideration should be given to the purpose of the task and the academic stage. 
Step 3. Helping manage the logistics of group work
Students have increasingly busy lives and it is common for them to be balancing a range of commitments alongside their studies, therefore finding time and space to work in can be perceived as challenging. This can lead students to complain about logistical issues that threaten to undermine group work (Hillyard et al., 2010). Tutors should consider how they can mitigate issues relating to communication, meeting up and accessing resources as they plan group work and introduce management strategies to students.
Practical pointer: Tutors could timetable classroom space for students to use; encourage students to set up email distribution lists, schedule a timetable of meeting dates, recommend technology which can be used for communication and conducting their work e.g. google.docs, dropbox, institutional wiki or discussion boards. If appropriate this may feed into the assessment of the group work.
Step 4. Encouraging intercultural group work 
International students embrace group work as an opportunity to interact directly with home students, yet the mixed responses of home students to intercultural groups can be a source of disappointment (Cotton et al., 2013; Volet & Ang, 1998). Students from many countries prefer to work in homogenous groups, but over the longer term intercultural group working has been recognised as more beneficial (Gibbs, 2010). Students may n