Techniques for organizing communicative activities in pair work and group work for students of grade 10 at ham rong high school

 THANH HOA EDUCATION AND TRAINING DEPARTMENT
HAM RONG HIGH SCHOOL
---˜–&—™---
 TEACHING INITIATIVE
TECHNIQUES FOR ORGANIZING COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES
 IN PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK 
FOR STUDENTS OF GRADE 10 AT HAM RONG HIGH SCHOOL
(Những thủ thuật tổ chức các hoạt động giao tiếp theo cặp, nhóm 
cho học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Hàm Rồng )
Conductor: Luu Thi Thanh Tu
Teacher of English
Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
THANH HOA, 2019
BOOK MAP
PAGE
CONTENTS
1
1. INTRODUCTION
1
1.1. Rationale
1
1.2. Aims of the study
1
1.3. Scope and objectives of the study
1
1.4. Methods of the study
2
1.5. Significance of the study
2
2. CONTENTS OF THE TEACHING INITIATIVE
2
2.1. Theoretical Background
3
2.2. The reality of the the study
4
2.2.1. Background of the study
4
2.2.2. Methodology
4
2.2.3. Data analysis
8
2.3. Teachers’ implementation of pair work, group work in current classes as teaching experience
9
2.4. The effectiveness of the teaching experience
9
2.4.1. How pair work and group work are used in English speaking classes of the 10 grade students at Ham Rong High School?
12
2.4.2. What are useful techniques of pair work and group work to the 10 grade students in learning speaking English?
17
2.4.3. The use of suggested activities at Ham Rong High School 
17
3. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
17
3.1. Conclusions
18
3.2. Limitations of the study
18
3.3. Suggestions for further research
19
REFERENCES:
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
In Vietnam, English is taught not only at all colleges and universities, but also almost every high school and it is considered as a compulsory subject at secondary school. To meet the demand of learners, the teaching English in Vietnam has been changing. By applying various new approaches, methods, and techniques, English teaching has shift from the traditional grammar translation approach to the communicative approach. According to Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), the purpose of language teaching and learning is to develop communicative competence in the target language.
In learner-centered approach, the choice of teaching methods are often more complicated than the construction of many teaching objectives. Some authors suggest that this type of work can carry out in two periods. In the first period, teachers need to find the student's experience and learning methods they prefer, and with their existing experience, teachers can select appropriate teaching methods. In the second stage, teachers need to engage the active participation of students in planning their academic programs. This work can be done by encouraging students to think, to engage in learning activities organized by teachers in a positive, proactive and creative way. Therefore, the organization of learning activities for students have a special role and it’s very important for teachers to pay attention in setting teaching program. Two common forms of class organization are working in pairs (Pair work) and working in group (Group work).
In the context of Ham Rong High School, English is taught as a compulsory subject for the students of Grade 10,11,12. These students have to take the entrance exam to get GSEC. Although these students only have to do a written test, all the teachers here have been trying their best to help their students in learning communicative skills well. Both of them are aware of the importance and benefits of using pair work, group work to help improve the communicative skills. However, they have faced many challenges in organizing these techniques during lessons, such as large classes; noises; lazy and passive students, etc.
For all the above mentioned reasons, I have decided to carry out a research work in: “Techniques for organizing communicative activities in pair work and group work for the students of grade 10 at Ham Rong High School”. This study is intended to make a small contribution on how to use the pair work, group work effectively and successfully in English teaching and learning practice in Thanh Hoa in general and at Ham Rong High School in particular.
1.2. Aims of the study:
	This study is aimed at:
	- finding out the use of pair work and group work in English speaking classes of the grade 10 students at Ham Rong High School.
- suggesting the useful techniques of pair work and group work to the grade 10 students at Ham Rong High School in learning speaking English.
1.3. Scope and objectives of the study: 
	To improve communicative skills for students at Ham Rong Hogh School, the teachers can make use of various techniques and a number of things should be done. However, within the framework of a teaching experience, the author only intends to draw a brief overview of how are the pair work and group work used at Ham Rong High School. 
Also, due to the time constraints, this study only involves a small number of English teachers and students at Ham Rong School.
1.4. Methods of the study:
In order to find out the answers to the research questions, both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to carry out the study. The data were collected by means of questionnaires and interviews for English teachers and the the 10 grade students at Ham Rong High School.
Besides that, reviewing the related documents from many published books written by different authors and collecting information from others previous studies are methods to establish the theoretical background of the study.
1.5. Significance of the study:
This study is hoped to be used to both teachers and the 10 grade students at Ham Rong High School. This study has been able to contribute to teachers’ knowledge of communicative language teaching, communicative activities in general and pair work, group work in particular. Besides that, from the finding of the study, teachers can be provided with important information which may be valuable for their future lesson planning. On the other hand, the teachers’ transformation in pair work and group work implementation will be beneficial to the students.
2. CONTENTS OF THE TEACHING INITIATIVE
2.1. Theoretical Background 
* Interactions in speaking classes
- Definition of Classroom Interaction
Classroom interaction involves two main aspects, which are the negotiation of meaning and feedback, if these two elements are not available in the classroom, then we cannot speak of a successful learning through interaction. Ellis and Foto (1999:09) say, “Interaction contributes to acquisition through the provision of negative evidence and through opportunities for modified output.” Interaction then is rich of meaning negotiation where the learners can receive feedback from their interlocutors.
- Speaking skills in language teaching and learning:
Among the four skills in learning English, speaking and writing are the productive skills. However, speaking is regarded as very important for language teaching and learning. Speaking is a bridge to reach other skills. Speaking helps learners to read better, to listen more effectively and write more accurately. Speaking is surely the most effective means of communication. (Ur, 1996)
Speaking is a basic skill that language learners should master with the other language skills. It is defined as a complex process of sending and receiving messages through the use of verbal expressions, but it also involves non verbal symbols such as gestures and facial expressions. Hedge (2000: 261) defines speaking as “a skill by which they [people] are judged while first impressions are being formed.” That is to say speaking is an important skill which deserves more attention in both first and second language because it reflects people’s thoughts and personalities.
* Pair work and group work in speaking classes
- Definition of pair work
According to Adrian Doff (1988 :137), the whole class is divided in to pairs by the teacher. Every students works with his or her partner in pairs and all the pairs work at the same time (It is sometimes called simultaneous pair work). This is not the same as ‘public’ or ‘open’, pair work, with pairs of students speaking in turn in front of the class. In fact, a pair work consists of two students working together at the same time.
There are two main types of pair work: fixed pairs and flexible pairs, given by Byrne (1983). In the former, students work with the same partner to practice the target language. In the later, students keep changing their partners they like. This may make the activity more interesting but the class noisier.
It can be seen that pair work can get students to practice the target language more and increase students’ talking time in the class.
- Definition of group work
Doff (1988: 137) also defines group work as a process that “the teacher divides the class into small groups to work together usually four or five students in each group, as in pair work, all the groups work at the same time”.
	Like pair work, group work also gives students more opportunities to practice the target language in the whole class. In addition, students can work independently and freely under the teacher’s control without the pressure of the whole class watching what they are doing.
- Advantages of pair work and group work
Pair work and group work gives the students far more chances to speak English in the classroom. According to Michael Long and his colleagues (1985) who investigated differences in the quantity and quality of student language in group work versus teacher centered activities the language produced by students working in groups is more varied and greater in quantity. Learners take the initiative to express themselves, they are more spontaneous. Asking questions and responding they use more language functions. (Lightbown and Spada, 1993:85) 
 	Working in pairs and groups is less stressful and more effective for students, especially introverts who needn't perform in the front of the whole class. They feel more confident working with the friend they like and are more likely to accept his/her correction or criticism. There are always more and less gifted pupils in the process of language learning and these methods prevent them from not being laughed at by the whole class if they say something wrong. "It is generally easier to show that you do not know, or do not understand something, in a smaller group than in a large one”. (Norman, Levihn and Hedenquist, 1986:8)
- Some common activities for pair work and group work
There are a variety of activities which can be applied in communicative English classes through the use of pair work and group work. Some common activities are:
- Game: A game could be any activities that formalize a technique into units that can be score in some way. Guessing games are common language classroom activities.
- Role-play: Role-play minimally involves giving a role to one or more members of a group and assigning an objective or purpose that participants must accomplish. 
- Drama: Drama is a more formalized form of role-play and simulation, with a pre-planned story line and script. Sometimes small groups may prepare their own short dramatization of some event, writing the script and rehearsing the scene as a group. But they are time consuming and rarely can form part of a typical school curriculum.
- Projects: Mainly for young learners who can greatly benefit from hands-on approaches to language, certain projects can be rewarding indeed. 
- Interview: A popular activity for pair work, but also suitable for group work, interviews are useful at all level of proficiency.
- Information gap: This technique is one of the easiest and most interesting forms of communicative activity in the speaking lesson. Information-gap activities include a tremendous variety of techniques in which the objectives is to convey or to request information. 
- Problem solving and decision making: Problem-solving techniques focus on the group’s solution of a specified problem. 
	- Decision-making techniques are simply one kind of problem-solving where the ultimate goal is for students to make a decision.
- Opinion exchange: Opinion exchange is a difficult technique for students to deal with at the beginning levels of proficiency, but by the intermediate level, certain techniques can effectively include the exchange of various opinions. 
2.2. The reality of the the study
2.2.1. Background of the study
	Our school has got 10 teachers of English aged from between 35 to 55. Almost of them have at least ten years of teaching experience. 
Our current material of teaching English is the text-book Tieng Anh 10, 11, 12 by Education Publishing House. This text-book is divided into sixteen units, each of them has been divided into five parts in which “listening and speaking” part aims at providing students the different topics and structures through listening and reading and requires them to practice speaking skills. In each semester, students have to learn English in 3 periods per week. 
It can be seen that communication is the goal of English language learning. Its purpose is to help students develop their communicative competence. This makes teaching and learning to improve students’ speaking skills to be an important part in any English course. Like in many other schools, English teachers at Ham Rong High School find out the benefits of using pair and group work and spend much time to apply these techniques to develop students’ speaking skills. However, we have some problems such as: large classes; noises; lazy and passive students. The major concerns of this research are find out the useful techniques for organizing pair work and group work to help teachers and students in teaching and learning speaking English.
2.2.2. Methodology
Participants
The subjects of the study are 4 teachers of English who teach English for the grade 10 students of Ham Rong High School. They range from 35 to 45 years of age. The grade 10 students were randomly chosen from over 500 students of 12 classes. 
Research instruments
The instruments used to collect data was questionnaire and interview for the teachers and the students to get information about using pair work, group work in speaking classes. The first are the questionnaires for the students including 10 questions written in Vietnamese, was administered to 110 students. 
2.2.3. Data analysis
The data of the study was analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. As for quantitative analysis, we used descriptive statistics to quantify the data in form of charts and figures. The qualitative data were obtained from the interview. 
Table 1: Students’ opinions on speaking skill
Questions
Options
Numbers of students
Percent %
1
a. It’s a compulsory subject in the curriculum
16
14,5
b. Learning speaking English is to communicate
56
68,2
c. Speaking English is necessary for your future job
90
81,8
d. Learning speaking English is your interest
20
18,2
2
a. very interested	
19
17,3
b. interested 
81
73,6
c. not very interested
10
9,1
d. no interested
0
0
	The statistics in table 1 shows the students’ opinions on speaking skill. It can clearly be seen that most of the students asked (81,8 %) say that speaking is necessary for their future job and 73,6 % of them are interested in speaking skill while little of them (14,5 %) says they learn Speaking skill because English is compulsory at their school. Some students find English really interesting while there are 56 out of 110 students (62,8 %) who want to learn speaking skill just to communicate. About 18,2% of them stated that English is their interest. It means that speaking English is so important for most of the students.
Table 2: Students’ opinions on the way to learn speaking skill
Questions
Options/
Numbers of students
Percent %
3
1. Individual work
23
20,9
2. Pair work and group work
92
83,6
3. whole class
16
14,5
4. answering the teachers’ questions
33
30
5.listening and taking notes
45
40,9
	As can be seen from the table 2, (83,6%) of the students asked said that they like working in pairs and groups, whereas they had very little favor for working individually (20,9%) , only 14,5% of them liked working in whole class. 30% of students enjoyed answering the teacher’ questions and 40,9% liked listening and taking note . From this, it can be understood that most of the students see the importance of working in pair and group for the better speaking skill. This also means that pair work and group work are surely the most suitable activities for the speaking skill. 
The pie chart below shows the students’ opinions on the use of pair work, group work in speaking class 
Not very surprising information from table is that the students (85 %) affirm that the teachers in their school often use the pair work and group work in the speaking lesson very often because it is compulsory that the teachers implement this to follow the book activities planned in the teacher’s book and may be for the students’ future language competence. This is of great use in helping the students to communicate with each other. 
Table 3: Students’ opinions on the impact of pair and group work 
Questions
Options
Numbers of students
Percent %
5
a. It increases the students’ speaking time. 
82
74,5
b. It promotes students’ independence and cooperation. 
80
72,7
d. Shy and passive students have more chance of expressing themselves
76
69
c. It improves students’ motivation. 
85
77,3
e. Students can learn from each other.
80
72,7
	It was obvious that almost all the students ( more than 70%) found that pair work and group work were so beneficial for their speaking skill that they can speak more in English, they can be much more confident and they also have chance to express themselves, their independence, cooperation and motivation in speaking were improved. Regarding the benefit of learning from each other of group work, 72,7% (80 out of 110) the students stated that they learnt each other so much. 
The chart follow shows the students’ recommendation for the success of pair and group work
Chart 2: Activities students wished teachers to select for pair and group work 
As can be seen in Chart 3, all of the students (100%) chose role-playing, games, information gap, discussing, interviewing and opinion exchange to be their favorite activities. Problem solving was the choice of 75% of the students. And Drama and projects received only 10% and 20% of the students respectively.
Table 4: Students’ wishes about the partners in pair and group work
Questions
Options/
Numbers of students
Percent %
7
a. Students of the same English proficiency level.
35
31,8
b. Students of higher English proficiency level
40
36,4
c. Students of lower English proficiency level. 
10
9,1
d. Students sitting next or near to each other. 
13
11,8
e. Students of the same interest. 
12
10,9
	About the students they preferred working with in pairs and in groups, most of the students wanted to work with the students who were at the same level or higher level of proficiency. Working with the people they really liked was also preferred by 10,9%. Also, some of them (11,8%) liked working with the ones at the same table. However, few of them (9,1%) liked working with the students who were worse at English.
Table 5: Students’ recommendation for the things the teacher should do
Questions
Options/
Numbers of students
Percent %
8
a. Give clear instruction with examples
110
100
b. provide necessary vocabulary and functional language
45
40,9
c. Go round monitoring students’ performance and help if necessary 
34
30,9
d. Minimize teacher’s talking time 
110
100
e. not to interrupt when students’ talking time
67
60,9
f. Always provide feedback, praise and encourage the students. 
110
100
g. Others 
6
5,4
	One very important thing which helps to improve group work activities is to get the students ideas about