Demand for communication in english in vietnam

Demand for communication in english in vietnamIntroduction1. Reasons for the look forThe demand for communication in incline has become genuinely urgent in Vietnam since the governments open door policy in late 1980. to a consider adapteder extent(prenominal) and to a greater extent people, especi on the wholey campaigning people and students expect to learn slope to physical exercise it at litigate, in their studies or future jobs. In fact, galore(postnominal) adult learners of slope who start learn face even from course of instruction whiz express face similar bulls in a principal(prenominal)land China shop. in that respectfore, the communicative Approach, coachment separate transaction activities, has been predominant and astray applied to improve Vietnamese learners communicative skills of incline in Vietnam. exploitation this learning-centered approach in pedagogy is actually a concern for some(prenominal) an new(prenominal)(prenominal) s ide of meat t distri yetivelyers in Vietnam in widely distri only ifed and especially for the English teachers at the English Department of my university. secrete radical track down has brought innovation in spoken presentation much in terms of theory than in terms of Vietnamese teachers real tellroom practices. I am 20 deuce socio-economic affiliates old and feel been teaching English at my university for two historic period. I am teaching virtuoso section of harangue skill per week in a very diverse class of students with polar levels of oratory proficiency. Many of my students argon some eons eager to emit in their gatherings succession opposites except look bored and keep quiet in these classs. Moreover, my students some terms use Vietnamese a visual modality in their verbalize English class and angiotensin-converting enzyme member of the crowd dominates others. tally to Harmer (2007), uncooperative and unin decennaryded students present a seriou s problem and great mitt easily resolve the instructional show upgrowth small-arm productive activities involving mouth in assemblys atomic number 18 more(prenominal) demanding and time consuming. Although cooperative learning was originally recrudesceed for general education, several enquiryers wee-wee documented its application to sec lyric poem learning (High, 1993 Holt, 1993 Kessler, 1992 McCafferty, Jacobs DasilvaIddings, 2006). In terms of address English, I precious to investigate the death penalty of convocation activities to examine their effects on the English oral smoothness of my off groom year English major students at a Vietnamese University. I would like to explore how my students speak English with their mates and think of activities. I would like to find whether or non interpreting multitude exploit activities in different ways of throng devise develops the start-off year English major students oral smoothness in my English speech cl ass. Hopefully, the question findings pull up stakes be tendingful for me to endow great perceptual experiences and senses to the highest degree implementing class work activities to develop English oral fluency with offshoot year English major students at my university. in that locationfore, the result go away be reflected on my decisions some the organization of effective free radical work activities in my English mouth classes to develop the quality of teaching.2. Research questions How can radical work activities be used with inaugural year English major students at a Vietnamese University to develop their English oral fluency? Why do modifying root work activities impact on the English oral fluency of first year English major students at a Vietnamse University? Organization of the interrogationThe search is divided into seven main parts under these headings Introduction, literature review, context, devotes and methodological analysis, analysis and findings, reflections, and conclusion. break dance one, Introduction includes rationale, the research questions and the overview of the research. patch two, belles-lettres review gives and discusses related theoretical gritground to the research. Part three, Context describes the context in which the research has taken place. Part four, Methods and methodology includes reasons for the methods chosen, the ethical procedure of my research and the unenviableies I faced. Part five, Analysis and findings, tells my flooring of the research. Part six, Reflections, includes strong and weak points of my research and my experience around doing research. Part seven, Conclusion, finally reviews the expirations and summarizes the whole research project and provides implication for further research.Literature review1. Definition of group workJohnson, Johnson and Smith (1991, p 15) defines thatGroup work, in language class, is a co-operative activity, during which students sh atomic number 18 ai ms and responsibilities to complete a tax assigned by the teacher in groups or in pairs.It can be utter that in group work, all the members have chances for great independence in making their own learning decisions without the teacher exacting any more. They learn to negotiate more equally with their friends and in well-nigh cases they come up free to bear themselves and use the language. In group work, the strainness is not on accuracy still on fluency. In sermon class, group work is often conducted in elflike groups and lasts for or so ten minutes to a class period depending on specific t brings.The pastime part discusses the pros and cons of using group work activities in language classes.2. Benefits and difficulties of using group work activities in language classMany different kinds of mouth activities such as dialogue, tidings, interview, etc can be bring to passed in groups. In certain types of those activities, group work no doubt offers many a(prenominal) advantages. There have been a number of studies reporting the potential benefits of pair and group work activities in language teaching and learning. According to experts in bet on language acquisition, negotiation of meaning facilitates both(prenominal) learning and acquisition and is delimitate asThe modification and restructuring of fundamental interaction that occurs when learners and their interlocutors anticipate, perceive, or experience difficulties in rub down comprehensibility. (Pica, 1994, p. 494) Following is the summary of the most common benefits of using group work in language class. Group work promotes learners responsibility and autonomy. Group work increases students participation, chating time and oral fluency.According to Harmer (1997), group work provides more opportunities for students initiation, practice in negotiation of meaning, extended conver sit downional ex varys, face-to-face give and take and adoption of roles. Vygotsky (1978) as well believes t hat learning is not directed one way surrounded by teacher and students but in different ways amongst students and students and between teacher and students. Ur (1996, p232) to a fault overlaps the afore give tongue to(prenominal) idea In group work, learners perform a learning business through small group interaction. It is a form of learner activation that is of particular nurture in the practice of oral fluency learners in a class that is divided into five groups get 5 times as many opportunities to talk as in full class organization. Working in groups enables students to engender better decisions to solve a specific task. Group work promotes individuals pauperization.Group work enables students to use the language and also triggers them to be more involved and concentrate on the tasks assigned. Ric weighed downs and Lockhart (1994) believes that through work in groups, students feel relaxed and comfortable to share ideas and play active roles in the learning emergenc e without the correcting feedback of teachers. Therefore, they have the benefit of sharing ideas with other group members, learning from other friends mistakes or success and helping others to learn. Because the comprehension of the subject under discussion is often increased in group work, students certainly became more motivated. According to Doff (1988), working in pairs or in groups encourages students to be more involved and to concentrate on the tasks. In the non-threatening performance surround of the cooperative classroom, motivation is often improved as students feel little check and more able to explore possibilities for self expression.The side by side(p) part will discuss several difficulties which are often believed to affect the successful execution of instrument of the group work activities in language class.Organizational difficultiesAccording to Sheils (1993), in some teaching contexts, the use of group work activities is in trance payable to the unsuitable ph ysical setting. For instance, my classroom is too big with unmovable desks or at that place are a large number of students in a class. This also leads to another difficulty relating to the class management. I am horror-struck of organizing group work because of noise and indiscipline which affect other classes. It is hard for me to provide proper management. If I go and pay attention to one group, the rest of class may forget the task and play about. Students will convert into the mother tongue when they are required to work in groups or they will use class time to chat with each other or become lazier. As such, their speaking skill cannot be improved and their time is wasted.Learner-related difficultiesThe lack of linguistic cognition to contribute to group work is the typical difficulty faced by many students. discourse is one of the most complex linguistic skills because it involves thinking of what is to be give tongue to and responding spontaneously to what has been thought . In order to be able to do this, patterns, structures, and spoken communication must be chosen to fit the right situation or situation or attitude intended. Byrne (1986) has pointed out that thoughts are controlled to a great extent by mental lexicon. We can not talk about something if we have no give-and-takes for it. The inability to verbalize thought or contact may distort ones perceptions of objective reality, increase tendency to overact and foil the likelihood of blue collaboration. Once students do not know generous of the language to express themselves with ease, they often become reluctant to participate in group work.There are also other situations in which the students character (e.g., shy, passive, reserved, etc) or personality conflict(e.g., incompatible personalities) influence students participation in group work activities. Vygotsky (1986) supposed that relationship of peers has also an influence on interaction in groups. Peers can be proficient learners, lear ners who are different from teachers (Swain Lapskin, 1998), more or less proficient learners (Ohta, 1995), more or less informed junior students (McDonald, Kidman, Clarke, 1991), and peers as native and non-native speakers in the classroom (Barnard, 2002). Sheils (1993) say that though many students are clever to speak in chorus or under the teachers guidance when doing some kinds of drill, they are inhibited when being asked to express themselves freely in the presence of the whole class. Furthermore, the fear of being rectify in front of the other students may also cause the spooky collaboration and lead to unproductive groups. In those cases, students may never have been encouraged sufficiently to have a go without worrying about mistakes or they may be accustomed to the traditional teacher- centered class. training style preference certainly affects the students performance in group work. In her study, Nguyen (2004) illustrates the influences of students learning style p reference on the students performance in group work activities. She mentions that the learning style preference in Eastern countries like China or Vietnam is greatly influenced by the Confucian culture. The students were often beaten(prenominal) with being transmitted knowledge from the teachers rather than from their peers. Therefore, it top executive be difficult for the teachers to implement group work activities in language classes due to the students blackball responses to communicative language teaching and learning.Beside the factors discussed above, there are other situations in which some students, though they do not have problems with the lack of appropriate linguistic competence or personality, have no ideas to contribute or to react to the take given by the teachers. This may happen when the topic needs too much specialized knowledge to discuss or even when there is nothing interesting to say about it or even when the tasks do not need multiple contributions from all students but can be completed by only one or two individuals.However, there have been a number of researchers who have inform positive effects of group work activities on the development of speaking ability in the language classroom. They are, therefore, worth considering putting into the classroom more regularly. Also, more investigations should be conducted to find out the most appropriate techniques or procedures to implement successful group work activities in speaking class, both teachers and students need to play effective roles. The following part discusses the roles the teachers and the students need to perform in order to implement group work successfully.Concerning the allocation of members into groups, Hurd (2000) says there is no one right way to allocate students into groups. Rather, there are members of practices teachers can use. He also states that most selection methods fall into four categories. These are random appointment, self-selection, selective appointment, task appointment. 3. Group work and speaking fluencyBrown (2003) raises a question Can we really develop our students fluency? According to him, in teaching fluency, teachers must be unforced to let go of some control in our classroom, let my students have some of the control and let them to do some of the work and set up situations in which fluency can develop, and encourage my students to actually communicate. In fact, I do not need to teach fluency all of the time, but some of the time students need a little guide communication time during which their knowledge of many aspects of the language can develop into fluency. Brown (2003, p.15) also statesTeachers set up activities and then get out of the way that many students can be talking at the identical time However, setting up such activities is exactly what the students need to develop.There is many other research by Ur (1996) and Maurice (1983) noting that the use of group work activities can create many opportunities for s tudents to practice speaking fluency.Context cardinal four of my first year English major students in my class who took part in my study were from eighteen to twenty- two with four males and twenty feminines. I have taught them spoken English for one term with Communicative Method which does not pay much attention to a icy curriculum but focus instead on authentic materials. My students had one speaking lesson every week and each lesson lasts for 90 minutes. Therefore, I had time to understand about their English competence very well on with their characteristics, and backgrounds. Before entering the University, one third of them finished 7 old age of English at high school. The rest studied English for 3 years only. When entering the University, they already have some basic knowledge of English grammar, but most of them are still weak at speaking, reading, listening, especially, those who come from rural or remote field of operationss where the conditions of learning English a re very poor. About 30 % of the students who lived in areas with good conditions of learning English in encourageary schools and high schools are at better level. Nevertheless, in high school, most of them could not use English communicatively, because they had been taught with the Grammar- Translation method with much focus on grammar rules, memorization of vocabulary, translation of texts and doing exercises to enter a university. Another reason was that they had few opportunities to communicate with foreigners or native speakers.I wrote inform consent letters (see addendum 1) and delivered them to all the students of the class to ask them for their permission to participate in my research. I did the research with two female informants. Firstly I chose A because she has studied English for 7 years in the city high school with high level of communicative skills. Secondly I chose B because she has studied English for 3 years in a local school with low level of communicative Engli sh skills but she is good at writing and reading English. I see many times A and B went and chatted with each other inside and outside the class and heard other students say that A and B were close friends. Methods and methodologyAt the beginning of my project, I explained my intentions to the students and asked them for their permission to conduct the research. I told two informants that I would record their spoken language as part of my research on how to develop their English oral fluency. Luckily, they agreed because A and B had good attitudes to me, to University, especially to learning English to find good jobs. I also gave each student a consent form letter which might be useful in setting out clearly for learners what their participation would involve and how the results of the process would be used. The head of my department was aware of how and wherefore I was conducting my research.Learners interviewed their friends and wrote up friends characteristics, attitudes toward s group work and useful strategies of speaking English. The results might help them develop motivation in speaking English. later collecting data I gave back my final draft of report to my students to check whether or not my rendering of what they said corresponded with their own understanding. I formally thanked everyone who had helped me and sent copies of my findings to anyone who has been of substantial help to me.I combined observational and sector note techniques to organize data about behaviors, contexts, group organization and records of interactions between informants. Therefore, using notes to collect research data became more effective than other data collection techniques took over. Besides, I used a small hand-held recorder as a time saving option during group work activities and students interviews. This allowed me to note meaning(a) data magical spell they were still fresh in my mind. I could also talk into the recorder, listen to the recordings over again and start thinking. I organized A to interview B in Vietnamese on their feelings and opinions about group work and learning experience during their break time of 20 minutes. I provided a set of preplanned questions (see appendix 7) in no touch on order and asked the group to audio-record their responses. I did this to in order to increase my own and my learners understanding of students feelings about group work. I used semi structured interviews between learner and learner because they ensured greater consistency, reliability and balance in the research relationship. Two students engaged in their free flowing confabulational process in a friendly way to share with each other about their learning experience in speaking English and their perception of group work. I chose this approach to understand deeply about the factors affecting group work to develop English oral fluency.I matte a lack of experience in writing up the final research findings. It worried me whether I was adopting t he right approach, and that my data collecting methods became a bit slapdash and less thorough than they should have been. I snarl pressured for time during the process and in writing the report because I also taught and did the research at the uniform time. Chapter five Analysis and FindingsI conducted the research with my students when they had started studying in the second term for two weeks. The first time, I observed speaking in the English class at the first period in the morning. The class had not had any examination of speaking in the second term of the first year. In the first term, A got hit 8 and B got 5 for speaking examination. We had two speaking periods in the same day per week. The second time, I observed the speaking fluency of A and B after one week of the first observation, at the first period in the morning. A sat neighboring to B in the same front table of the classroom.Before conducting the research for a week, I informed them that I would do the research in the class. And I delivered twenty four consent letters to all my students, asked them to get through the box if they agreed to participate, self-contained all letters after 5 minutes and read at home.During observing, I used highlighter, sticky notes and collected data on set target in the observation sheet. I used themes and codes (see appendix 2) to organize and collect data in field notes when I was observing. I put the recorders in each group of the class. Because desks and chairs were fixed and unmovable I asked my students to work in groups of three with their neighbors at the same desk and imagine a story about the furnish (see appendix 3) on the blackboard. A and B were in the same group with C who could speak English very well.At first, they were eager to talk in the group because they thought they had many things to speak about and the enter was very interesting. I just sat at my desk with books, looked and do notes in the observation sheets. When I observed I rea lized that A and Bs oral English fluency was not interfered by with the noise of other groups. I just required my students to create their own stories about the picture in their groups in 15 minutes and present their stories in front of the class. I saw approximately all students looked very excited and smiled when I showed the picture and said The most interesting story would get good marks. I fixed the picture on the blackboard and explained about characters in the picture. A and B kept quiet for a bit in their group and later A asked B, what is your story? And why will we have to do this task? B was too shy and said nothing while A started speaking English. She had a huge amount of ideas about the picture to share with other members while B just listened to A and nodded her head. Often, B said right, ok and looked at me. After speaking English for 3 minutes, A asked B to take note what she had said. Sometimes, A stop speaking and asked others to express their ideas. B also spok e some hapless utterances to support the story. A commented on B and Cs opinions. B virtually ceaselessly agreed with A and she just kept silent and looked very nervous to speak English. A and C dominated B while B had no more chance to practice. For example, B almost always asked questions and read sentences which were written and said very shortsighted utterances like you should change this word into that word. Sometimes B suggested new ideas for the story but she was too shy to persuade others to agree therefore B looked hard-pressed in her group. After they finished the story, A began to chat in Vietnamese with another girl friend at the table behind about a film on TV that night while B turned around and exchanged her stories with other groups in Vietnamese. B wanted to talk but she had no chances in her group so she plant another whom she could speak with. When the time was up, I asked each group to tell their story. When other groups were presenting, A did not pay much attention to that. A asked B to present the story in front of the class when I called them. B was too shy to speak and did not speak fluently and always looked at her note taking paper. C and A said no and they stood up and continued to present their own ideas. B sat down and felt more comfortable when she did not have to speak. The task was finished on time and almost all A and Bs utterances were in English.After the first class of observation, I asked students to be free for 20 minutes in the next period to interview in pairs. I paired A and B and recorded their conversation to understand about their feelings, difficulties and struggles of working in groups. I cerebrate that B felt intimidated when working with someone of much better ability although the more fluent students sometimes tried to help their partners. Moreover, B could not talk because she do a lot of mistakes and did not know how to say things in English. Although B wanted to talk she thought her friends would laug h at her when she spoke. My lesson was not interesting overflowing to encourage all students to engage in speaking although the picture was very good. Because I did not give enough requirements and explanation of the task A and B did not understand what they should do in group work. I did not pay much attention to the group organization, task requirement and students understanding.A and B got good marks but they did not like my lesson. A and B did not feel agreeable with the lesson. A said that the lesson was not interesting enough and should be made clear for all students. Nevertheless, B liked to be in groups with A, and other more fluent students because she had chances to learn from them to broaden her knowledge and vocabulary.After the first observation, I changed my mind about my teaching. I though about reasons why my students did not engage in their groups and decided that I should require them to produce a story with five or six simple tense and future tense sentences. A nd I should deliver this picture for all groups as a handout while the blackboard was used to present students results. I should go around and listen to my students and encourage them to speak English. In the next period, I rearranged the desks of the class in a U shaped administration of groups to allow an easy transition to plenary mode. Students grouped by themselves with friends who had the same interesting topics after they were provided some background knowledge of each topic. After collecting information of observing, I compared the results of two sessions to find out differences between A and B in oral English fluency in their groups. I would not give each group the same mark because this was unfair and created competitive groups rather than co-operative groups and totally defeats the purpose of grouping at the first time. I wrote the topic favorite places and asked my students for related vocabulary. I made students involved in the task. A and B said aloud their vocabulary about this topic. Lan also mentioned some of her favorite places in Vietnam while Hoa asked me and her friends a lot of clarifying questions like how do we say this word mean in English? or Can you explain again? After that I let my student read one short passage about a famous place in Vietnam (see appendix 4) without name and asked my students to guess. A and B were very eager to talk because they had been this place. Later, I asked them to choose one picture of famous places (see appendix 5) to create a conversation to introduce this place in groups and used as many comparative adjectives as possible. I delivered chosen pictures for each group and said It is no problem if you make errors because you can learn something through acquire it wrong. I asked all students to stand up and find other two partners to talk with. A and C decided to choose the same picture to discuss and called another Cs friend. B joined in a group of two other friends who also lived in the rural area and had the same level of speaking English as her. Then they discussed to choosing a favorite place to talk about for 15 minutes. A had a lot of ideas to share with her partners. A talked loudly and continuously then C and his friend took a turn. A and B felt comfortable to talk with peers whom they wanted to talk with. B felt more confident to share ideas with others who had the same ability level. When other friends commented on B opinions she also looked happy and tried her best to negotiate. She listened to others and took notes on their ideas. When B met with difficulties she asked me for help. And I explained and encouraged her work like that is good, say it again, thank you, well do, etc. She encouraged others to talk and commented on their ideas. She said good, not suitable, you just think more about this. She helped others to have chances to talk. When they had time left As group continued to think more about how they might make their stories more interesting. When other group s were presenting, A and B listened carefully to them. A and B were almost eager to present their groups conversation.Based on all the data, I found that students changed their feeling and behavior when they worked with different partners. It meant that group organization played an important role in developing students English oral fluency. A and B spoke more fluently when they were in groups of the same ability level. In the second lesson, a safe environment had been achieved where everybody liked to work with each other. In the mixed group, A almost did nothing while B was reluctant to speak English. In the second session, when they were in groups with the partners on the same level they felt more relaxed to talk. I found that B spoke three times more English when working with students of the same ability than when she had more fluent partners. I conclude that the students were motivated to speak English but perhaps felts intimidated when working with someone of much better abil ity. While listening to the taped conversation of the second observation I observed that members of Bs group mainly took turns to speak, that no individual was dominant, and that they helped each other with vocabulary. The conversations were quite fluent and accurate. B leaned on the table to speak with other partners. It was unavoidable for my students to use Vietnamese but it was not much.However, the taped conversation of the first time indicated that, although A was very cooperative and tried to help her partner, she tended to dominate the conversation and overcorrect her partner without giving B much chance to talk.From interviews, I found that my less able students liked to use English with more fluent partners when they had to be self-reliant, when I was not present, when they were not corrected all the time, and when they were not being tested or monitored.Besides, based on the observation and interviews, it could be concluded that the students English oral fluency was also be influenced by the teachers preparation. In the first lesson, I did not provide enough explanations, knowledge and rise to help them understand and engage in speaking English. In the second lesson, my students felt very excited in speaking English when they had enough vocabulary and interest in the task.Reflections During this investigation, I learned a lot about my students attitudes towards and abilities in using English. Gathering information from the students about how they use English was important to me. I discovered a way to deal with a class of mixed abilities and found a way to motivate my less able students. This project confirms my beliefs about the value of using group work and has reduced my anxiety about grouping less able students together. I can create different groups for different activities. Depending on the task, I will want to have students of different skill levels working together or students with the same level working together. For example, a harder tas k might lead me to mix skill levels, however a task where outcome is not an important goal, the instructions are not difficult, and the process easy to follow, could lead to homogeneous grouping. During doing this research, I ha