Áp dụng hoạt động cặp, nhóm trong giảng dạy môn Văn học Anh Mỹ cho người học tiếng Anh tại Học viện Khoa học Quân sự

PHƯƠNG PHÁP GIẢNG DẠY v

ÁP DỤNG HOẠT ĐỘNG CẶP, NHÓM

TRONG GIẢNG DẠY MÔN VĂN HỌC ANH-MỸ

CHO NGƯỜI HỌC TIẾNG ANH
TẠI HỌC VIỆN KHOA HỌC QUÂN SỰ
PHẠM THỊ THÚY*, TRẦN TUẤN ANH*
*
Học viện Khoa học Quân sự, ✉
Ngày nhận: 30/3/2017; Ngày hoàn thiện: 26/4/2017; Ngày duyệt đăng: 10/5/2017

TÓM TẮT
Từ xưa đến nay có nhiều quan điểm và xu hướng khác nhau trong dạy môn văn học. Một trong
những xu hướng tiến bộ và thích ứng hiện nay là đặt trọng tâm vào góc độ tiếp nhận của người
học. Theo xu hướng này, văn học không còn được dạy theo lối truyền đạt kiến thức và chân lý một
chiều nữa và người học không phải là người tiếp nhận đơn thuần mà còn là chủ thể tích cực tham
gia vào quá trình học tập trong thế tương tác với những chủ kiến và cảm quan riêng. Tuy nhiên,
khi nói đến môn Văn học Anh-Mỹ, rất nhiều học viên, sinh viên Khoa tiếng Anh, Học viện Khoa
học Quân sự coi đây là môn học khó, có tính học thuật cao và không thực tế. Do đó, người học
thường tiếp cận môn học với thói quen thụ động, nghe, chép, ghi nhớ máy móc và tái hiện những
gì giáo viên giảng hơn là người tham gia chủ động và tương tác tích cực. Điều đó thực sự là trăn
trở và thách thức đối với giáo viên dạy môn học này. Trong phạm vi bài báo, chúng tôi trình bày
phương pháp áp dụng hoạt động học theo cặp, nhóm nhằm tạo được những giờ học môn Văn học
Anh-Mỹ hứng thú và lôi cuốn người học. Qua đó giúp người học vừa nâng cao khả năng ngôn ngữ
vừa mở mang tri thức, tri nhận, giúp đa dạng hóa cái nhìn của bản thân về con người, văn hóa, đất
nước mà mình đang học tiếng.
Từ khóa: hoạt động cặp - nhóm, Văn học Anh-Mỹ.

1. INTRODUCTION

According to Moody (1983), literature can be
defined as “constructions or artifacts, in language,
which may be designed for any of the whole
range of human communication need, private
or public, oral or written, for which language
is used”. Sharing the same point, Widdowson
(1984) claims that studying literature can be
considered as “the study of communicative

potential of the language concerned and the
manner in which this is realized in literary
and conventional discourse”. On talking about
teaching literature to EFL students, there have
been different models suggested and how the
teacher will use a literary text depends on the
model they choose. Carter and Long (1991)
propose 3 main models: the cultural model
views a literary text as a product, the language
model aims to be more learner-centered, and
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the personal growth model is a process-based
approach which encourages learners to draw
on their own viewpoints, feelings and personal

experiences. However, there are still opinions
regarding literature as a written form, very
much far from everyday communication and
too closely tied to the Grammar-Translation
method. Accordingly, many students tend to
consider literature as a more content-based
course; an academic subject; even not practical
for their English studies and their future jobs.
This inadequate perception leads to students’
lack of interest and motivation in learning
this subject. How to help students overcome
this problem has long been a major concern
and a challenge to teachers of the English
Department’s Division of Literature and
Culture, Military Science Academy (MSA).
The article, therefore, aims at promoting pair
and group work - a combination of the language
approach and the personal growth approach - as
a means to create an interesting and motivating
atmosphere in EFL literature classes. With
the teachers’ thought, effort and laborious
preparation of tasks, it can be legitimately hoped
that the learners will experience instructive,
enjoyable and memorable journeys through
literature lessons.
2. THE BENEFITS OF USING
PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK IN
LANGUAGE TEACHING AND IN EFL
LITERATURE CLASSES
It is widely known among EFL teachers that

pair and group work offer a variety of advantages
in teaching English in general and teaching
English and American literature in particular.
The benefits of using pair and group work
in language teaching
Group work and pair work started getting
attention of educationists in the 70s. It is
strongly argued that students working together is

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worthwhile as “pair and group work immediately
increase the amount of students talking time”
and that group and pair work allows students
to work in a conducing and facilitating
environment (Harmer, 1991). Many researchers
are convinced that the students who take the
initiative in learning learn more things and learn
better than those who sit at the feet of teachers
passively waiting to be taught (Knowles as cited
in Tiberius, 1995). In addition, Brown (1994)
claims that “it is a source of intrinsic motivation
for students as working in groups is fun for
them”. Sharing the same view, Krashen (1981)
is of the view that students are more motivated
to engage in further communication when they

have more opportunities to speak. He also adds
that pair and group work provides the students
with the opportunity to communicate with each
other to share “suggestions, insights, feedback
about successes, and failures”. Moreover, group
activities develop higher levels of thinking than
the traditional lecture approach; help to retain
knowledge; and may even help to inspire active
learning (Tiberius, 1995).
In short, pair and group work claims a number
of advantages as it stimulates the learners’
experience of various types of interaction and
helps to generate a more relaxed and cooperative
classroom atmosphere. Actually, it is during
group and pair work that a lot of real learning
takes place since the students can use language
really to communicate with one another.
Reasons for using pair and group work in
literature classes
Literature, with its special features, when
used with pair and group work stands out a
number of advantages.
One of the striking characteristics of literature
that make it a highly communicative subject is
its ambiguity (Maley, 2000). The ambiguity in
literary texts means a statement, a problem, or a


PHƯƠNG PHÁP GIẢNG DẠY v

text can be interpreted, understood and perceived
in more than one way. Therefore, each student
approaches each literary work from different
angles, depending on his/her own background
knowledge, life experience, and world views.
This is also affirmed by Collie and Slater (1987)
that “Group work and pair work are now well
established as a means both of increasing
learners’ confidence within the foreign language
and also of personalizing their contact with it.”
Furthermore, since there is no single perfect
answer or solution to a problem raised from a
literary work, a group discussion about it will be
genuine communication. In Lazar’s evaluation
(1993), literature aims for interaction among
readers and between the text and the reader
in English, helping make the language more
memorable. Some questions of this kind can be
listed below:
- What do you think of Charles Strickland’s
action of leaving his family for Art?
(The Moon and Sixpence by W.S.Maugham)
- The ending of “The Last Leaf” was meant
to surprise. Think about a different surprising
ending for the story. (Do you think it would end
differently? How do you think it would end? Why
do you think it would end this way? If you knew
it would end as it did, explain how you knew.)
(The Last Leaf by O.Henry)
- Which quality or qualities of Robinson

Crusoe do you admire the most?
(Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe)
Such questions or problems seem so real that
students don’t need to pretend to play roles but
they just simply put themselves in the situations
to express their views as long as they can give
adequate justifications for their opinions.

By nature, literary texts are often rich
in multiple layers of meaning, and can be
effectively mined for discussions and sharing
feelings or opinions. Thus, students are eager
to work with their pairs/groups to express their
own viewpoints, partly they expect to convince
their partners into their world views and at the
same time they wish to understand their partners’
insights as human being. This view is supported
by Ibsen (1995) as he believes that literature can
be considered as a forum for exchange views
and that: “Literature, when published, is the
‘property’of the readers and the EFL learners,
and they should become involved as co-writers
of the text in their imagination, in speech, and
on paper.”
The last but by no mean the least, using pair
and group work in EFL literature classes is of
great benefit for boosting students’ feeling of
self-esteem and cooperation, which can function
as a great source of encouragement for language
learning (Krashen, 1981). When students work

in pairs or groups to discuss or exchange ideas,
they gain a team spirit, solidarity and a sense of
belonging to a place. Simultaneously, it reduces
the element of teacher domination and teacher
talking time (TTT) as often seen in a contentbased subject of literature and that learning
literature encompasses a variety of cooperative
and communicative activities, not just attending
a conventional lecture.
To sum up, the use of pair and group work
in teaching English and American literature
in EFL classes not only creates students’
interest and motivation, which play a key
role in second language learning but also
fits well with many theoretical assumptions
of second language acquisition: openness,
communication, classroom interaction, even
mutual understanding and compassion among
learners. However, in the process of conducting
pair or group work, teachers should bear in mind
that some difficulties or problems are inevitable
and be ready to deal with them.
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3. DIFFICULTIES CONDUCTING PAIR

AND GROUP WORK IN EFL LITERATURE
CLASSES
In the scientific research entitles: “Suggested
solutions to improving the self-study quality
of English and American literature subject for
English majors at MSA”, Pham Thi Thuy (2016)
points out that at MSA, students of English have
to face a number of difficulties in learning EFL
literature as listed here below.
Firstly, the theory taught alongside literature
gives you the power to sense and perceive the
truth, the good, and the beauty. It is, therefore,
strongly argued that the best way ever to test
learners’ ability to appreciate a literary work is
by written form or creative writing rather than
spoken form (Ibsen, 1995). Obviously, most
students are concerned with passing the exams,
which do not test for their communicative
competence. Hence, it is not hard to understand
why students are not fully motivated, unwilling to
communicate, and hesitant to class participation
in literature classes (Pham, 2016).
In addition, rather than learning how to use the
language creatively, students come to literature
classes with the mindset that teachers are the
only information providers - about the historical
background; the author: life and writing career;
the work: setting, plot, characters, themes, and
even moral lessons (Pham, 2016). In other
words, students simply expect to have the ability

to take all this in, make it their own and accept
almost everything without questions, which is a
really constraint in using pair and group work in
literature lessons.
Large classes can be a source of difficulty.
EFL literature classes at MSA are often too
crowded, on the average of up to 100 students in
size. A literature class is often divided in smaller
classes (about 20 - 30 students) for such subjects
as Listening, Speaking or Writing. Obviously,
teaching and managing a class of over 100

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students will never be as easy as teaching one
with 20 or 30 students. With such a big number,
it is difficult for teachers to have efficient control
over what students are doing in pairs or groups.
Once students plunge themselves into pair or
group work, teachers are struggling only to
control the class, let alone to maintain a positive,
relaxed atmosphere or to judge individual’s true
ability. How can teachers make content class
like literature more communicative in such a
challenging situation?
To make the problem worse, large classes

usually have students with differing English
proficiency levels. Most likely, a group is
dominated by stronger students, whereas weaker
students remain reticent due to their insecure or
inferior feelings, along with lack of confidence
to put themselves forward (Pham, 2016).
An other category that causes difficulties for
teachers is the lack of conductive facilities for
pair and group work activities. As is traditional,
students’ desks are arranged with rows after
rows facing the teacher, the teacher’s desk is in
the corner, and there is a blackboard at the front.
Students’ desks and chairs, for some reason, are
unmovable.
In short, teachers of literature, from time to
time, can hardly avoid some of these difficulties
when conducting pair or group work activities.
Obviously, they themselves must play a vital role
in overcoming these difficulties and in helping
to create an engaging, motivating atmosphere
for their students.
4. ROLE OF THE TEACHER IN EFL
LITERATURE CLASSES
Based on the above theoretical background and
my own experiences as an EFL teacher of English
and American literature, I now propose to analyze
the role of the teacher and potential solutions for
using pair and group work in literature classes.

PHƯƠNG PHÁP GIẢNG DẠY v

Varying students’ assessment
First, right at the very beginning of the
course, teachers should provide students with
criteria of marking scales and evaluation based
not only on the end-of-course written exam
(summative assessment) but also on students’
participation and interaction in the class
(formative assessment). Then, teachers, step by
step, familiarize students with pair and group
work by helping them perform easy, short,
simple tasks that do not require a great deal of
knowledge or language skill. The teacher, for
instance, cuts the plot summary of A Farewell
to Arms into separate sentences, each sentence
written on a piece of paper and asks students to
work in pairs/group to rearrange the sentences
into the correct orders of the work. Once
students get used to it, teachers can extend the
range of activities to include more complicated
tasks such as role-plays, simulations, debates,
persuasion, or problem-solving which come
as close to authentic communicative situations
as possible (Kindly look at Sample Activities).
When pair and group work become a norm in
literature classes, students will automatically
accept this way of learning.
Creating supportive and relaxing learning
atmosphere

The term “supportive and relaxing
atmosphere” here is referred to students’ safe
feelings; students’ level of anxiety; and teachers’
compliment and encouragement.
To help students feel excited in pair/group
work, teachers might vary where individual
students are sitting for pair or group work
so that on different days they work with
different partners. By doing so, students will be
stimulated and eager to interact with their new
partners. Sometime, it is better still for students
of the same level to form a pair/group, or even
for students to be allowed to choose their own
partners. With the partners of their choice, they

feel at ease and secure and that positive feeling
helps them become more confident and in turn
stimulates their creativity.
As teachers of foreign languages, we need
to be aware of students’ anxiety levels and take
steps to help them overcome this problem. A
study shows that problems often attributed to
students’ anxiety and hesitation to communicate
are actually caused by students’ low English
proficiency (Maley, 2000). In odder to lower
students’ anxiety, teachers should give students
plenty of time to well-prepare before starting
pair or group since preparation will partly help
them, even the lower-level students, to respond
well and gain a sense of self-confidence.

Besides, teachers need to constantly
give students support, encouragement, and
compliment, which is of great source of
motivation for any EFL learners. It is agreed
that there is no correct solution or answer for
experiencing literary texts, therefore, teachers
should accept, listen, and appreciate every
opinion, even the “abnormal” ones as long as
the communicative purposes are fulfilled. In
this way, even the shy or weak students are also
stimulated to get engaged in the communicative
process so as to express themselves and to show
their unique traits of personality
Applying appropriate pair and group work
techniques
Along with other roles, applying appropriate
techniques and designing various tasks
(activities and exercises) are very important
work for teachers. First, the tasks should
provide opportunities for plenty of use of the
target language and cover a satisfactory range
of language items and skills. Next, teachers
need to decide which types of tasks are most
appropriate, and then diversify the repertoire
of classroom procedures. On the one hand,
this enables the teachers to employ different
techniques for different learning purposes to suit
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different learners’ English levels. On the other
hand, the students will be more involved and
get engaged if they are provided with a variety
of activities and exercises rather than the fixed
already-known ones.
The tasks should include game-like features
or imaginative elements such as:
Rearranging pictures in the orders that the
story happens
Sample Activity: Put the following pictures
in the correct orders of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and
in your pair/group descibe what happen in each
picture. (picture 1)
Role-play (Note: select an interesting and not
very complicated scene in a literary work)
Sample Activity: Teacher asks students to
improvise a role play between two characters,
Della and Jim, in The Gift of the Magi and act
out a part of a selected scene in groups.
Problem-solving (What would you do if you
were in the situation or in somebody’s shoes?)

Sample Activity: Della in The Gift of the
Magi has little money and desperately wants
to find a Christmas gift for her husband. What

would you do if you were Della?
Positive competition
Sample Activity: Teacher provides class
with some key words from a work, preferably
a short story. Next, teacher divides class into 3
or 4 groups to make up their own story. Then,
each group or one representative from each
group takes turn to read out their group’s story
and teacher works as the judge to decide which
story is the best.
Discussion, debate, or persuasion (Note:
assign tasks which give students freedom to
express and explore themselves)
Sample Activity: Which character in Hamlet
by William Shakespeare do you feel sorry for
the most? (Teacher gives students time to choose
the character, then teacher puts those who share
the same idea in one group, gives them more
time to discuss in their group, then they go to
other groups to talk about their group’s opinion).

Picture 1.

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Lessons learned in literary works

References:

Sample Activity: What moral lessons can
you learn in The Pardoner’s Tale by Geoffrey
Chaucer? (students are put into small to discuss
and exchange views. After a brief discussion,
one representative from each group is called on
to talk about their group’s opinion)

1. Brown, H.D. (1994), Teaching by Principles
– An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy,
New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents.

Whatever kinds of tasks, teachers should
create a positive communication atmosphere in
which students are given opportunities to acquire
confidence to develop, express, value their own
responses and assess other perspectives.

3. Collie, J. and Slater, S. (1987), Literature
in the Language Classroom, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.

5. CONCLUSION
This article has considered the use of pair/
group work within the context of EFL literature

classes at MSA. Using pair and group work,
with its repertoire of communication strategies,
in EFL literature classes is one way to make
a positive contribution to students’ language
competence and their personal developments.
Some areas of difficulty have been pointed out
including lack of conductive facilities; large
classes; students’ differing language proficiency;
and students’ lack of motivation and interest.
The recommendations for teacher’s role, which
are mainly based on the theoretical background
and the researcher’s experiences, attempt to
contribute to better learning and teaching
EFL English and American literature at MSA.
In a final word, to stimulate students’ desire
to communicate and share their views, EFL
teachers of English and American literature need
to be highly elaborate in applying appropriate
techniques and designing a variety of tasks to
ensure both effectiveness and learners’ interest.
Besides, teachers should be ready to move
beyond the basics to be flexible and adaptive.
Changes of some sort are inevitable if we wish
to bring about effective and fruitful teaching and
learning. Clearly, the job involves a lot of hard
work and it does take time, thought, and effort
of the teachers but the results are well worth it./.

2. Carter, R. & Long, M. (1991),  Teaching
Literature, London: Longman.

4. Harmer, J. (1991). The Practice of English
Language. London: Longman.
5. Ibsen, E.B. (1995), The Double Role of
Fiction in Foreign Language Learning, Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
6. Krashen, S.D. (1981), Effective
Second Language Acquisition: Insights from
Research, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
7. Lazar, G. (1993),  Literature and
Language Teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
8. Maley, A. (2000), Literature, Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
9. Moody, H.L. (1983), Approaches to the
Study of Literature: A Practical View, Oxford:
Pergamum Press.
10. Pham, T.T. (2016), “Suggested Solutions
to Improving the Self-study Quality of English
– American Literature for English Majors at
Military Science Academy”. The Scientific
Research, Military Science Academy.
11. Tiberius, R. G. (1995). Small Group
Teaching, Toronto: DISE Press.
12. Widdowson, H.D. (1975), Stylistics and
the Teaching of Literature, London: Longman.
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USING PAIR AND GROUP WORK IN TEACHING ENGLISH AND
AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR EFL LEARNERS

PHAM THI THUY
Abstract: Teaching, especially teaching literature is never an easy job as it is a
continuously creative and a problem-solving art or craft. For many scholars, literature
is considered as a highly effective tool for language teaching and learning and also a
forum for exchange views. Those who advocate this view look at the role of literature in
language learning from the perspective of the communicative approach. However, there
are still opinions regarding literature as a written form, very much far from everyday
communication and too closely tied to the grammar-translation method. Accordingly,
many students tend to consider literature as a content-based course; an academic
subject; even not practical for their English studies and their future jobs. This inadequate
perception leads to students’ lack of interest and motivation in learning this subject. How
to help students overcome this problem has long been a major concern and a challenge
to teachers of the English Department’s Division of Literature and Culture at MSA. The
article, therefore, aims at promoting pair and group work as a means to create an interesting
and motivating atmosphere in EFL literature classes. With the teachers’ thought, effort
and laborious preparation of tasks, it can be legitimately hoped that the learners will
experience enjoyable, instructive journeys through literature lessons.
Keywords: EFL learners, English and American literature, pair and group work. 

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