Applying cooperative learning principles to the teaching of english speaking skills in large classes at ba đình high school

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.

32.
33.

TABLE
OF CONTENTS
THANH HOA
PROVINCE
DEPARTMENT OF
PART
I:
INTRODUCTION
EDUCATION AND TRAINING

1
1. Rationale of theBA
Study
1
ĐÌNH HIGH SCHOOL
2. Aims of the Study
2
3. The Participants
2
4. Scope and Significance of the Study
2
5. Method of the Study
2
PART II: CONTENT
2
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
2

EXPERIENCE
INITIATIVE
1. Definitions of listening
comprehension
2
2. Possible problems in listening comprehension
3
II. RESEARCH SETTING
4
1. An overview of Ba Đình High School
4
2. The teachers of English in Ba Đình High School
4
3. The students in Ba Đình High School
4
APPLYING
COOPERATIVE
PRINCIPLES TO
III. RESEARCH
METHODS TOLEARNING
SOLVE THE PROBLEM
5
1.Definition of compensation strategies
5
THE
TEACHING OF ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS IN
2.The importance of compensation strategies in listening
6
LARGE
CLASSES

BA ĐÌNH HIGH SCHOOL, 7
3.
Compensation
strategiesAT
in listening
3.1.Raising awareness of compensation strategy training
7
NGA
SƠN,
THANH
HÓA
3.2.Integrating strategy training into the lessons
8
3.3.Teaching basic grammatical rules and phonological rules
8
3.4. Teaching discourse marker clues
10
3.5. Exploiting background knowledge
11
3.6. Recalling key words and structures
12
3.7. Making full use of visual aids
12
3.8. Providing pairwork and groupwork
12
3.9. Giving encouragement
13
3.10. Providing a variety of listening tasks
13
Implementer:

Nguyễn
Thị
Lan
Anh
PART III: RESULTS (Reached result) AND FINDINGS
14
Job title: Teacher
I. RESULTS
14
School: BaOFĐình
high school – Nga Sơn
II. THE CURRENT SITUATION
APPLYINGCOMPENSATION
15
STRATEGIES IN LISTENING
Experience initiative: English

III. IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
PART IV: CONCLUSION

17
18

THANH HOÁ 2020
1


PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the Study
Entering the 21st century, under the impact of globalization Vietnam is facing a range

of political, social, economic, technological and educational changes. It is widely accepted
that the shift from a central economy to a mixed system with both socialist and market sectors
since the late 1990s has required the Vietnamese education system to carry out remarkable
changes. Today, people insist that education and training must not only be able to equip
students with new scientific and cultural knowledge but also develop their reasoning thought,
creative abilities and team work skills.
Language teaching is a complex process involving many interrelated factors. Besides
suitable and effective methods of teaching language, classroom interaction is considered as
the most vital element in language learning process. The emphasis on individual achievement
and transmission of information has become inadequate in supporting the development of
students’ thinking and learning skills. The best way is to enable students to become actively
involved in their learning processes, which will provide them with more opportunities to
develop important knowledge and skills for today’s labour market.
It is clear that one of the main goals of learning English is to use it effectively in
communication. Speaking skill, more or less, is an important skill that students must acquire
in the learning process. Since the application of the new textbooks, speaking skill has had a
different position at upper secondary schools.
As we know, learning a foreign language is a process in which learners do not have a
natural communication environment like native people. Thus, in order to help students master
a foreign language as a means of communication, the teacher plays an important role in
finding out the ways to make their speaking lessons more interesting and productive.
Accordingly, nowadays, instead of making use of activities that demand accurate repetition
and memorization of sentences and grammar patterns, activities that ask learners to negotiate
meaning and to interact meaningfully are required.
All the reasons mentioned above encouraged the researcher to carry out the study
"Applying cooperative learning principles to the teaching of English speaking
skills in large classes at Ba Đình high school” with the hope to contribute her small part
to improving the teaching and learning of the speaking skill for students at Ba Đình high
school.

2. Aims of the Study
The study aims at answering the following questions:
- What are the difficulties of teaching English speaking skills in large classes at
Ba Đình high school?
- To what extend did the application of cooperative learning principles improve
English speaking skills of students in large classes at Ba Đình high school?

3.The Participants
2


In this individual research, the researcher will only focus on the effectiveness of
applying CL principles in teaching speaking skills to two large classes 11A, 11K at Ba
Đình high school. The speaking activities are selected and adapted the text book. The
data collected from classroom observation, informal interviews and questionnaires are
then analyzed by the researcher

4. Scope and Significance of the Study
The study is divided into three main parts. The contents covered in each part are as
follows:
- Part A is the introduction which gives the rationale of the study, the objectives, the
research questions, the scope, methods and organization of the study.
- Part B is the development of the study which comprises 3 chapters. Chapter 1
presents the literature reviews of the study. Chapter 2 describes the process of
implementation of the study such as data collecting and analyzing, findings and
research discussing questions. Chapter 3 is devoted to pedagogical implications and
suggestions for further study.
- Part C is the conclusion of the study.

5. Method of the Study

The action research employs both quantitative method and qualitative method to
analyze the collected data. During speaking lessons on the basis of CL principles,
classroom observation is made to note down the students’ attitude, participation and
cooperation in groups, discussion and even conflicts,…The students are also
interviewed to clarify their answers in the questionnaires previously done by
themselves. The collected information, thus, is more reliable and straightforward.

3


PART II: CONTENT
I. Theoretical background
1. Speaking skills
Speaking skill is very important as it enables us to express our thoughts and feelings,
gives comments or feedbacks to what we hear orally. As Lawtie, (1992) says that
speaking is fundamental of human communication.
When examining the nature of speaking skill, Littlewood (1992) is more concerned
with the lack of transfer from the practice of motor-perceptive skills to genuine
communicative interactions. He points out that successful oral communication
involves the development of: (a) The ability to articulate phonological features of the
language comprehensibly; (b) Mastery of stress, rhythm, intonation patterns; (c) An
acceptable degree of fluency; (d) Transactional and interpersonal skills; (e) Skills in
taking short and long speaking turns; (f) Skills in management of interaction; (g) Skills
in negotiating meaning; (h) Conventional listening skills; (i) Skills in knowing about
and negotiating purposes for conversations and; (j) Using appropriate conversational
formulae and fillers.
Because speaking the second language constitutes great cognitive load, emotional
load, and linguistic load as Ali has pointed out above, it is really a challenge to the
students. The challenge is far greater when students have to learn English in a large
class. This issue is reviewed in the subsequent section.

2. Large classes
The term of large classes may vary from place to place. In some language school, a
group of 20 students may be considered large. However, in my teaching situation at Ba
Đình high school, a teacher will feel relieved if there are thirty students in a class. This
size is certainly considered as small since the number of students in each class ranges
from 45 to 50.
3. Cooperative learning (CL)
CL has long been introduced and repeatedly shown to be superior to the traditional
teacher-centered approach to instruction. During the past 90 years, more than 600
studies have been conducted by a wide variety of researchers in different decades with
different age subjects, in different subject areas, and in different environments.
There have been many definitions of CL by many scholars and followings are some of
them:
CL is group learning activities organized so that learning is dependent on the socially
structured exchange of information between learners in groups and in which each
learner is held accountable for his or her own learning and is motivated to increase the
learning of others. (Olsen and Kagan, 1992)

4


The fact that CL is a method of instruction that promotes the development of highorder levels of thinking, essential communication skills, improves motivation, positive
self-esteem, social awareness and tolerance for individual differences in group
activities of the learners differentiates CL from traditional group work which may exist
uneven participation when one or two members dominate the work.
Many principles have been proposed for CL. The discussion of some principles is
presented in the next section.

II. RESEARCH SETTING

1. An overview of Ba Đình High School
Ba Đình High School is located in Nga Sơn district. Ba Đình High School
is one of the oldest as well as biggest schools in the area. At present, there are 31
classes with over 1200 students placed into three different grades: grade 10th,
11th and 12th. The teaching staff composes of more than 100 teachers of 12
compulsory subjects, of whom two-thirds are young, creative and well trained
whereas the others are experienced and enthusiastic. With the innovation in
educational policy, Ba Đình High School is one of the schools in Nga Sơn which
has high percentages of high school graduated students
2. The teachers of English in Ba Đình High School
There are 10 teachers of English currently working in Ba Đình High
School. Nearly all of them are female whose age ranks from 28 to 50. Among
them, one half studied at Hanoi Foreign Language Teachers Training College.
Another quarter that was trained from in-service training programs has
experienced teaching for many years. However, their communication ability as
well as new teaching methods should be improved.
Obviously, the age of the English teacher staff reveals the fact that many of
them were trained in the traditional method-the grammar-translation one. Few of
them have taken retraining courses to improve their English and their teaching
methods. This constrains them from teaching writing effectively. Nevertheless,
most of them are severe, enthusiastic in working. Of the 6 teachers, a teacher got
M.A degree. At the present, each teacher has to teach twelve periods divided into
4 classes per week excluding the burden of marking examinations and time for a
lot of different school work. Apparently, the teachers in Ba Đình High School
have to deal with a heavy workload in order to fulfill their task.
3. The students in Ba Đình High School

5

The majority of students in the study at Ba Đình High School are aged
from 15 to 18. Most of them come from urban areas and they have learnt
English since they were at primary schools. Therefore, their English proficiency
is some how better than students from rural parts due to the availability of
opportunities to attend part-time English courses. Among them, there are a large
number of students who are really interested in learning English and want to
develop their ability in using English. In contrast, the other part of students is
lowly motivated. They tend to regard English as less important than other
subjects and they study English only in order to pass the examinations.
4. Current situation of teaching and learning speaking skills at Ba Đình high
school
The teaching and learning of English speaking skills at Ba Đình high school face
common problems that most school with large classes of students do. Within a limited
time and a large size of students in each class which ranges from 40-50, most teachers
find themselves unable to implement efficiently their tasks. Besides, it is impossible to
carry out individual checks which is essential for evaluating and adjusting their
teaching methods and materials. To make matter worse, the levels of proficiency of the
students are mixed while it is extremely difficult for the teacher to carry so many
teaching plans simultaneously. Most students enrolled at Ba Đình high school with
relatively poor knowledge of English since it is neither their major nor a requirement
for university entrance exam. This made them more demotivated and disinterested in
English in general and in improving their speaking skills in particular.

III. RESEARCH METHODS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM
1. Large classes
1.1. Advantages of large classes: For many students, large classes are best places to
meet with other students.Large classes also benefit students by giving them the
opportunity to learn from the interesting ideas and life experiences of a large and
diverse body of classmates (Bradley, Cara & Green, Eric). There is more variety of
people to communicate with, to compare notes, to have fun and to form groups

together.
It is also suggested that “students may work by themselves in the large classroom, as a
large class gives them a feeling of independence so that learning was assisted by
reliant self and having to study and learn themselves.” (Wulf, Nyquist and
Abbot,1987)
The content of the large class provides general information which is easy to digest in
the large classrooms. “It is usually good for any person to learn, as the content is less
detailed, more general and broader” (Wulf, Nyquist and Abbot,1987)

6


Obviously, when there are many students in a class, many different ideas and
experiences are shared. Some students may even be more capable than the teacher in
explaining certain difficult concepts to each other. This stimulates the students and
enlivens some parts of the lessons where they discuss and learn from each other, thus
brings variety and speeds up the work.
1.2. Disadvantages of large classes: The teaching of a large class is truly challenging
and requires more effort and planning. It may distress any teacher due to its negative
influence on teaching and learning quality. Small classes are believed to achieve better
results than large ones do. Most EFL teachers in the world reject teaching in a large
class as it often means heterogeneous ages with many difficulties in learning and
individually giving and getting attention. They also find it difficult to motivate
participation, to make interaction and to give feedback.
Connant (2003) states that teaching large classes is demanding and difficult. Among
other things, as the size of a class increases, the challenges associated with building a
participation-based class culture intensify. In a large class, the students are not
prepared to be called upon by the teacher and this is difficult to keep everyone
involved in the discussion. Students are not motivated to share their thoughts as no
formal incentives exist.

Challenges of teaching a large class includes the difficulties in keeping good class
discipline. It is quite easy to get distracted in a large class. There will always be
latecomers and students chatting or doing something else while the teacher is teaching
and that can be distressing. It is also imperative to ensure that in large classes students
understand the materials well.
Cao Xia (2006) states some major problems in a large class. There is little chance for
teachers to check individual student’s performance and for students to practice and
lack of teacher-student interaction, which is unfavourable for language teaching and
learning. There exists a gap between the theory of teaching methodology and reality of
the teaching situation.
From the students’ perspective the main problem with large classes is the feeling of
anonymity, which makes it harder for them to be motivated. Many feel too intimidated
to ask questions or to participate in class discussion (Islam, 2001).
Because of the above-mentioned disadvantages, it is not surprising that teachers often
find it difficult to carry out their teaching in an effective way which involves full
participation and contribution of all students.
1.3. Teaching speaking skills to large classes: As we speak more than we write in our
daily lives, teachers should maintain a good balance between teaching of reading,
writing and listening, speaking skills. Nunan (1991) wrote, "success is measured in
terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language." Therefore, if
students do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunity to speak in the

7


language classroom, especially in a large class, they may soon get de-motivated and
lose interest in learning. On the other hand, if the right activities are taught in the right
way, speaking in a large class will then develop its advantages and can be a lot of fun,
raising general learner motivation and making the English language classroom a fun
and dynamic place to be.

However, it is certainly not easy to carry out speaking activities in large classes as we
always faces hurdles as mentioned above.
1.4. Key aspects effective for large class management
a. Getting attention and participation : The teachers are advised to use some
attending strategies that are “the ways a teacher acknowledges, through verbal or nonverbal means, the presence, contribution, and needs of individual learners”
(Wajnryb,1992). These attending behaviours may be using students’ names, eye
contact, facial expressions, etc.
Lewis and Hill (1992) stated that having eye contacts with students helps the teacher
know if the class understands or not and if they are bored, confused or interested in the
lectures.
Brown (1994) states that in order to create a positive classroom atmosphere, the
teacher should establish rapport which is built on trust and respect and that leads to
feelings of capable, competent and creative. It is imperative that teachers introduce
themselves and get to know the students. Students will feel more comfortable and
more open as they know more about the teacher. Conversely, the more the teacher
knows about the students and their attitudes, this will assist in preparing more effective
classes.
There are some problems with silent students who are reluctant to take part in any kind
of discussions in English because of lack of confidence, fear of making mistakes,
feeling of having nothing to say on the subjects or lack of appropriate language and
practice of conversational interaction. Mc Keachie (1994) states that one way to deal
with this passiveness and reluctance is to find the root of the problem and start from
there. Opportunities should be given for learners to practice in the target language by
providing them with appropriate environment of collaborative work, authentic
materials and tasks. In tasks such as role-plays and discussions, the language learners
contribute and participate freely using comprehensible expressions. If the teacher is in
control, such as in questioning and answering activities, the learners will only
participate by providing words, phrases or short sentences. He should reduce his
speaking time and step back, observes to give help where necessary.
b. Giving and checking instructions: A teacher’s instructions may be broken down

into organizational and instructional categories. The organizational instructions tell
the students what they are going to do and the instructional ones show them how to do.

8


Cymru (2003) point out that organizational instructions should tell the students how to
perform the activity in a safe and enjoyable environment. They should tell where the
group perform the activity, what are the boundaries, how many people the group will
be working with and how the group should be formed; what, how and when equipment
is needed and who is to collect it, how the activity starts or stops and when students
will know when this is; and what happens if students finish early or have a question.
Cyrus (2003) also states four key guidelines when giving informational instructions.
The first key guideline is one idea at a time which means to tell them everything you
know about the skill then pick out the most relevant point and emphasize it. The
second one is keeping instruction in brief which allows the students to spend greater
time of the lesson doing rather than listening to the teacher. The third is using key
words or phrases which helps to refrain from lengthy explanation to a concise
repeatable form. The last key guideline is making the instruction relevant. The more
refined the observational and assessment skills are, the more pertinent the instructions
become.
c. Managing group work: Students have little opportunity to speak to the teacher in a
large class. Therefore, it is suggested that students work in pairs or small groups.
Nolasco & Arthur (1988) report that grouping is one technique that has been used to
reduce the negative effects of large classes. It is stated that “pair work and group work
have the advantages that learners are working simultaneously and, therefore, not only
language practice time greatly increased, but children are less likely to become bored
and lose interest because they are actively involved.”
On the other hand, the students feel less anxiety in the group than in front of the
whole class, more confident as they are not afraid of making mistakes or being judged

by the teacher.
It is also true that in large classes, student pairs and groups can learn from each other.
Therefore, the teacher should structure them into mixed-ability groups in which the
more able learners can help the others to master the work. They may also be asked to
work in the same-ability groups in which the faster learners groups may get on with
the work on their own. However, the teacher needs to move around to observe their
progress or to see what problems are coming up to give advice, encouragement and
individual help where it is needed.
It is important to monitor time and group size. Time should not be wasted in confusion
and complaining instead of working on the assigned task which must be specific and
concrete. The time allotted must be proportional to the task with a timelimit set to
forge group focus on the task. Group size must also be proportional to participation.
In large classes, group projects work best if they are brief and to the point, something
quick and easy that adds presentational variety. Advance planning and attention to
detailed instructions is essential to ensure group activities work well in large classes.

9


All considered, a large class seems to be a facilitating condition for the application of
cooperative learning (CL) principles. However, little has been researched on the
impact of CL on students’ learning to speaking English as a foreign language.
2. Cooperative learning (CL)
2.1. Definition of CL: CL has long been introduced and repeatedly shown to be
superior to the traditional teacher-centered approach to instruction. During the past 90
years, more than 1600 studies have been conducted by a wide variety of researchers in
different decades with different age subjects, in different subject areas, and in different
environments.
There have been many definitions of CL by many scholars and followings are some of
them:

CL is group learning activities organized so that learning is dependent on the socially
structured exchange of information between learners in groups and in which each
learner is held accountable for his or her own learning and is motivated to increase the
learning of others. (Olsen and Kagan, 1992)
According to Jacob (1997), CL is a body of concepts and techniques for helping to
maximize the benefits of cooperation among students in education. It provides
language teachers with essential concepts of heterogeneous classes, learner
cooperation and mutual help in learning; and equips teachers with effective
instructional techniques to exploit cooperation in language learning classes.
Johnson (2001) considers CL as a general term for an instructional approach that
“emphasizes the conceptual learning and the development of social skills as learners
work together in a small heterogeneous group.”
The fact that CL is a method of instruction that promotes the development of highorder levels of thinking, essential communication skills, improves motivation, positive
self-esteem, social awareness and tolerance for individual differences in group
activities of the learners differentiates CL from traditional group work which may exist
uneven participation when one or two members dominate the work.
Many principles have been proposed for CL. The discussion of some principles is
presented in the next section.
2.2. Principles of Cooperative Learning
a. Heterogeneous grouping: This principle means that the groups in which students
do cooperative learning tasks are mixed on one or more of a number of variables
including sex, ethnicity, social class, religion, personality, age, language proficiency,
and diligence. This kind of grouping outweighs the homogeneous one because of a
variety of benefits such as making peer-tutoring more likely to happen, providing a
variety of perspectives or helping students to get to know and learn tolerance towards
others’ differences.

10

Generally, students prefer working with the peers they like to working with the ones
chosen by the teacher. However, it is the teacher who makes conscious decisions
about such things as how different the levels of students in each group should be,
which students should work together and so on.
Failure in structuring groups suitably may result in ineffective cooperation. Chen
(2004) suggests that groups of three or four likely work best; sometimes larger group,
of five to ten, are expected to give good results in big tasks where enormous human
resources and the variety of people in terms of skills, background knowledge, etc. are
required.
b. Collaborative skills: Collaborative skills, such as giving reasons, are those needed
for students to work with others. Students may lack these skills, the language involved
in using the skills, or the inclination to apply the skills which are supposed to be taught
one at a time. However, which to teach should depend on particular tasks and students
that the skill instruction intends to be combined in.
Some of the many skills important to successful collaboration may be: checking that
others understand, asking for and giving reasons, disagreeing and responding politely,
encouraging others to participate and responding to encouragement to participate.
c. Group autonomy: This principle encourages students to look to themselves for
resources rather than relying solely on the teacher. When student groups are having
difficulty, it is very tempting for teachers to intervene either in a particular group or
with the entire class.
However, Roger Johnson suggests in his article: “Teachers must trust the peer
interaction to do many of the things they have felt responsible for themselves.”
Students should learn to depend on themselves, teacher’s intervention should not
always be the first option.
d. Simultaneous interaction (Kagan, 1994): The normal interaction pattern in a nongroup classroom is like this: first, the teacher speaks then he is followed by sequential
interaction of the students who have no time for their own active participation.
In contrast, when group activities are used, each student in every group is speaking and
negotiating with others. The Simultaneous Interaction principle means that students in
each small group are able to speak at the same time as they are given more

opportunities to learn actively and engage in the group activities.
e. Equal participation (Kagan, 1994): CL offers many ways of promoting more equal
participation among group members.It is recognized that participation will never be
truly equal because students have unequal gifts and so their contributions differ.
However,in CLeach member of the group is given an equal share of responsibility and
input to avoid the problem of dominating the group of one or two members and thus,
impede the participation of others. The teacher cannot control how equal the
contribution of each student will be, but the teacher can control and structure for more

11


equal opportunities for contributions. Group members take turns to do similar tasks in
rotation such as group leader, note taker, speaker,…
f. Individual accountability: It is difficult to maintain equal participation among
group members and so they should be given a particular task each to avoid “hitchhiking” phenomenon in the group. It is advisable that the teacher ask any of them to do
a task at random. Also, they will be checked one by one to verbalize the whole group’s
ideas individually. When getting the students work and encourage individual
accountability in groups, we should make them feel that they have the right to
contribute their knowledge and ideas to the common task of the group. Besides, the
teacher should create a competitive atmosphere among groups so that learners feel
more accountable for their own group’s task.
g. Positive interdependence: Positive interdependence means that team members
need each other to succeed. It is this “All for one, one for all” feeling that leads group
members to want to help each other, to see that they share a common goal.
There are many forms of positive interdependence that can be structured in groups.
One way to ensure that positive independence occurs lies with the face-to-face
promotive interactions between group members.Positive interdependence can also be
built into the group by having some form of shared grades. For example, besides their
individual scores on an exam, students receive a certain number of points if all group

members score at or above a certain grade. Besides, positive interdependence occurs
when one group member must first complete his/her task before the next task can be
completed.
h. Cooperation as a value: This principle means that cooperation is not only a way to
learn but also the content to be learned. This flows naturally from the most crucial
cooperative learning principle, positive interdependence. Cooperation as a value
involves taking the feeling of “All for one, one for all” and expanding it beyond the
small classroom group to encompass the whole class, the whole school, on and on,
bringing in increasingly greater numbers of people and other beings into students’
circle of ones with whom to cooperate.
2.3. Benefits of cooperative learning
a. Greater student achievement: Cooperative learning produces greater student
achievement than traditional learning methodologies (Slavin 1984). Slavin found that
63% of the cooperative learning groups analyzed had an increase in achievement.
Students who work individually must compete against their peers to gain praise or
other forms of rewards and reinforcements. In this type of competition many
individuals attempt to accomplish a goal with only a few winners. The success of these
individuals can mean failures for others. There are more winners in a cooperative team
because all members reap from the success of an achievement. Low achieving students
tend to work harder when grouped with higher achieving students. There is

12


competition among groups in cooperative learning. Some forms of group competition
promote cohesiveness among group members and group spirit.
b. Social benefits: Cooperative learning has social benefits as well as academic. One
of the essential elements of cooperative learning is the development of social skills.
Children learn to take risks and are praise for their contribution. They are able to see
points of view other than their own. Such benefits contribute to the overall satisfaction

of learning and schooling. Students work with classmates who have different learning
skills, cultural background, attitudes, and personalities. Heterogeneous groups promote
student learning. These differences forces them to deal with conflicts and interact with
others. Social interaction improves communication skills that become a necessity to
functioning in society.
c. Economic benefits:Less materials are needed in cooperative learning. One of the
social skill taught in cooperative learning is sharing. Material sharing does not hinder
the educational process but teaches students the value of time and money. They are
also able to gain more skills through computer peer tutoring in a cooperative setting.
Students who work on computers have a natural tendency to help their peers even
without suggestion by the teacher. By using cooperative learning less equipment is
necessary therefore money is saved without sacrificing the quality of education.
3. Cooperative language learning (CLL)
Cooperative learning has been a powerful approach to language learning. It is
beneficial to all students since small group interactions provide meaningful input for
language acquisition through conflicting ideas between group members which is
necessary especially for language learning. When a student is developing English
language skills, this type of learning is particularly useful. For teachers who are
looking for a way to more actively integrate their students into their mainstream
classroom, cooperative learning is clearly a top choice.
3.1. Goals of CLL: Richards and Rodgers (2001) propose five goals of CL in
language teaching: (a) to provide opportunities for naturalistic second language
acquisition through the use of interactive pair and group activities; (b) to provide
teachers with a methodology to enable them to achieve this goal which can be applied
in a variety of curriculum settings; (c) to provide opportunities for learners to develop
successful learning and communication strategies; (d) to enhance learners’ motivation
and reduce learners’ stress and to create a positive affective classroom climate; (e) to
enable focused attention to particular lexical items, language structures, and
communicative functions through the use of interactive task.
3.2. Advantages of CLL:In CL, students work together, discuss topics and learn to

take charge of their own learning. Team spirit is stressed as students learn to work
together in mixed ability groups. Each member is responsible not only for learning
what is taught but also for helping team mates learn.

13


In general, CLL offers six learning advantages for ESL students: (a) Increase
frequency and variety of second language practice through different types of
interaction; (b) Opportunities to integrate language with content-based instruction;(c)
Possibilities for development or use of language in ways that support cognitive
development and increase language skills; (d) Opportunities to include a greater
variety of curricular materials to stimulate language as well as concept learning; (e)
Freedom for teachers to master professional skills, particularly those which emphasize
communication; (f) Opportunities for students to act as resources for each other, thus
assuming a more active role in learning.
Other benefits include improved social skills, higher self-esteem, greater use of higherlevel thinking skills, more positive relationships and better psychological adjustment.
There is less anxiety when students speak in the smaller group as they often feel
anxious to speak in front of the whole class. Moreover, when a student represents the
group and reports to the whole class, he may feel more support because the answer is
from the whole group.
3.3. Disadvantages of CLL:cooperative language learning is not always effective
when applied to those who are shy and lack social skills as they do not know how to
work in groups and this could result in task or social conflicts. Another disadvantage is
the group grades, it is not fair when one student is working in a group and all the
others are just enjoying the grades due to his hard work. Fear of failure is also a
disadvantage since a student who avoids failure might not want to participate in the
group task. Consequently, he may express his worries by blaming the task being
stupid or his group members being dumb.
Besides, in competitions will other teams, the losing team will stop trying. This will

not only lower their grades but also their self-esteem. The dependency on the group
members can make some students not able to work alone. It is also difficult for the
teacher to know when a single group goes off-track from the task when controlling
many groups which means a lot of time has been wasted.
3.4. Main differences between CLL and traditional method
Though having several disadvantages as discussed , CLL is an approach foster
cooperation and develop critical thinking skills as well as communicativecompetence
through socially structured interaction activities. CL, compared with traditional
instruction, tends to promote productivity and achievement and providing more
opportunitiesfor communication. While traditional language teaching refers to the
teacher-centered method in which many ingredients of grammar-translation method
and audio-lingual method are used, CLL highlights the interaction and communication
between students and students and teachers, take teachers’ role as guider, facilitator,
and negotiator, and stress the autonomy and centricity of the students in classroom.

14


When applying CL, there are several differences in the syllabus, the materials, types of
leaning and teaching activities, the roles of the teacher and the learners in comparison
with the traditional ones as discussed below:
a. The syllabus:Activities of a wide variety of curriculum orientations can be taught
via cooperative learning because CLL does not assume any particular form of
language syllabus and can be used in teaching content classes, ESP, the four skills,
grammar, pronunciations, and vocabulary.
b. Roles of the teacher:In CLL the teacher’s role is different from that in a traditional
lesson. He is always ready to render help to students when necessary. The teacher has
to create a well-organized learning environment in the classroom, setting goals and
planning and structuring tasks, establishing physical arrangements of the classroom,
assigning students to groups and roles and selecting materials and time (Johnson et

al.1994).
c. Roles of the learners:CLL requires teamwork skills and active participation and
involvement of all group members which means the maximum amount of time they
spend on learning tasks. Therefore, learners have to cooperate well with others to
fulfill their common goal while managing his own task such as planning, monitoring
and evaluating his work.
d. Types of learning and teaching activities: Johnson et al.,(1994) describes three
types of learning groups as follows:
- Formal cooperative learning groups: these are established for specific tasks and
involve students working together from one period up to several weeks to get the goals
accomplished.
- Informal cooperative learning groups: these are called ad-hoc groups which last for
only several minutes up to a class period used to focus students’ attention or facilitate
direct teaching.
- Cooperative base groups: these are long lasting heterogeneous learning groups with
fixed membership aiming at helping each other to succeed academically.
e. The role of materials:CLL does not require a different type of materials but
variations in the way of using the materials which means specially designed ones. The
materials may be simplified, modified accordingly or borrowed from other disciplines
to suit the cooperative learning tasks.
3.5. Application of CL principles in teaching English speaking skills to large
classes
- Heterogeneous grouping: Students are structured into small groups of four or five.
After giving speaking task, the teacher makes decisions about members in each group
which includes students who are of different levels of proficiency. They should also be
of opposite sex as it is believed that students tend to work better with peers of opposite
sex. In addition, the shy students should be grouped with the more active ones who are

15

more willing to make questions, for instance, in a dialogue. By doing this, when all
students practice speaking, doing role-play, everyone must get involved in the
speaking task and has the opportunity to show their different abilities and more
importantly, help each other especially the low-ability ones.
- Collaborative skills: In speaking task, these skills can first be seen in how the group
share the task: the leader, the note taker, the speaker, and so on. This assignment is
usually based on each individual’s ability. However, it is often the case that someone
in the group always prefers to be the leader or vice versa when no-one wants to be the
speaker. To avoid conflicts among group members, they should take each role in
rotation. They also have to negotiate with each other soon enough when having
different opinions and ideas in order to have sufficient time for checking their work.
Otherwise, they may end up in dispute and thus, ruin the common task.
The collaborative skills in speaking lessons can mainly be found in giving and
receiving feedback from other team members in order to perform the task, sharing
credit for good ideas with others, acknowledging others' skill, experience, creativity,
and contribution; listening to and acknowledge the feelings, concerns, opinions, and
ideas of others.
- Group autonomy: As the teacher plays the role of a facilitator who makes
suggestions when necessary, the students are supposed to brainstorm and make up
their own decision on how to implement the task. They can get a given speaking task
done either by having an interview or an informal talk or whichever form of
communication they may think of using available materials such as a dictionary or
internet access and most important of all, their own abilities.
- Simultaneous interaction: Whenever a question is raised by a member, all the other
members can respond at the same time. With simultaneous interaction among group
members, this CL principle is especially effective and useful when applied to teaching
speaking to large classes. This ensures the equal participation of all members and thus,
is less time-consuming than individual practice. Within a short period of time everyone
is given chance to speak.

- Equal participation: To overcome the inequality participation and social loafing the
teacher should note down in his observation sheets the frequency of speaking of each
group member and assigns the role of group speaker in to each of them in turns.
- Individual accountability: Besides assigning the speaker who will speaks on behalf
of the group, other speaking tasks should be equally divided by other members. This
can be done through calling them at random, one can be the interviewer at one time
and the interviewee at others.
- Positive interdependence: The common task of speaking should be divided among
members in such a way that each individual’s task can not be fulfilled if the others’
tasks remained incomplete. For example, one is in charge of looking up new words in

16


the dictionary, another looks for relating information or topic on the internet, the last
one is the speaker. It is necessary that everyone be aware of his responsibility and how
it affects others’.
- Cooperation as a value: The cooperation among group members is not only
appreciated in the way they all try their best for the common task academically but
also as a value socially. The communication interaction among members for a
speaking task does not only bring about fluency, confidence but it helps build up
friendship, understanding among them which will be developed to a larger circles.
Conclusion
Cooperative learning (CL) has been considered as one of the educational innovations
of our times and represents a research-based best practice for instruction. CL
outweighs competitive and individualistic approaches as it benefits students from
developing critical thinking skills (Brandon & Hollingshead, 1999), enhancing social
skills such as communication, presentation, problem-solving, leadership, delegation
and organization (Cheng & Warrant, 2000).
In a language classroom, CL has become a learning style which is recommended as an

effective method for students to become actively engaged in solving a problem,
discovering new ways of perceiving their world, intensely applying learning strategies
to the next task, developing family-like community among classmates, sharing the
excitement of a special discovery. (Ovando & Collier, 1998).
The application of CL in teaching speaking skills has also been implemented in many
universities, college and schools in Vietnam. Hoang Thi Lan (2005) applied CL to
develop speaking skills for first-year EFL students at Vinh University. Le Thi Bich
Thuy (2006) carried out an action research on application of CL to second-year
students at Gia Lai Teachers’ Training College. Phi Thanh Tra (2006) had a research
on the application of CL at high schools in Vietnam. Quach Thi Tuyet Thanh (2010)
recently applied CL specially in the aspect of enhancing participation in speaking

PART III: RESULTS (Reached result) AND FINDINGS
The findings of this study present common difficulties in teaching English speaking
skills to large classes, the application of cooperative learning as an effective solution to
these problems. The researcher would like to propose several implications that may be
applicable to the teaching context at her own university. In this chapter suggestions are
made for issues related to CL and its activities during speaking lessons.
1. CL implementation plan: It is essential that the teacher clarify possible problems
in group work activities which can be done by informal talks, tests, observation and
analysis of the scores in the previous semester. The teacher then introduces the theory
of CL, its principles and how these principles work in his teaching context, the benefits

17


that CL application brings about as well as difficulties the students may face,
disadvantages of a large class of mixed levels that CL application may overcome.
Before real CL activities, students are explained how to work in a CL group, a list of
questions may be used to see if they have fully understand CL principles. To ensure

successful implementaion, the teacher should consider the following factors :
2. CL group structuring: On the basis of heterogenerous grouping, the students are
organized into group of 4 to emphasize individual responsibility and avoid social
loafing. The levels of proficiency of members should be mixed. The teacher then
decides which students will work together basing on their previous learning
conditions, ages, levels, sex, etc. The tasks are supposed to be assigned equally among
group members. As the assessment will be the same for everyone, each member must
be responsible for his own task. However, all members can get helps from their peers
to fulfill their individual tasks. They take turn to be the group speaker, the moderater,
the notetaker, the leader after each speaking lesson. The group members remain
unchanged until the end of the semester for better understanding and cooperation.
3. Classroom arrangement: The students are arranged knee to knee to have the best
contact with each other as well as to share materials, dictionary, computer, etc.
Besides, groups are organized further apart well enough not to disturb each other and
leaving room for the teacher to walk around to give instructions when necessary. They
are also asked to speak and discuss as softly as they can since with the whole class
speak at the same time they may cause too much noise for the neighboring classes.
4. CL atmosphere: Creating a cooperative atmosphere in the classroom is vital for CL
activities. This can be done by organizing the students in small groups of 4 or 5 which
helps overcome their shyness. The more proficient students will feel more confident to
share while the weak and shy ones will feel safe to express themselves.
5. How to cope with difficulties in CL application: To better cope with these
problems such as in task assigning, disputes during discussion, ect. teachers should
equip themselves with basic knowledge of CL, especially with practical issues. An
easy and simple training CL programme should be conducted before implementation
with CL activities carefully selected and suitably designed for the students in terms of
levels, time assigned, culture, and social demand. Clear and understandable
instructions are given to ensure that the students know what to do. Constant check and
observation should be maintained to keep the students on track and avoid misleading.
6. The teacher’s role in a CL speaking lesson: In a CL speaking lesson, the teacher’s

role swifts from traditional instructor to a guide who gives instructions at the first stage
and then gets the students work on their own. He helps them to solve difficulties while
implementing the tasks without affecting the group autonomy. At the end of each
speaking lesson, the teacher gives assessment to each group as well as makes
suggestions for better performance.Instead of lecturing the lesson, the teacher is

18


supposed to present the main points of the lesson and only gets involved when
students need clarification instructions, or when the teacher feels the need to question
about group’s answers, or to praise students for creative idea or good use of social
skills (Johnson et al., 1994; Lotan, 2004). In general, the teacher should be fully aware
of his role and take the above mentioned issues into consideration to ensure the
success in CL speaking lessons.

PART C: CONCLUSION
1. Conclusion: This action research has been realized to identify the common
problems of teaching speaking skills to large classes at Ba Đình high school. It was
also aimed at finding a solution to these problems with the application of CL
principles.
These problems are shortage of time for practice and checking, low and unequal
participation of students, management of noise and self-discipline.
The researcher then investigated how CL principles worked to solve these problems
and improve the students’ English speaking skills. With the learning materials
designed, classroom seating suitably organized for CL group work, the researcher used
variety of tools which are class observation, informal interviews, questionnaires and
students’ journals and speaking test scores, the discussion in the previous chapters has
made it possible to draw the following conclusions.
The application of CL principles has resulted in greater participation of the students of

different levels who showed more interest in the CL structured speaking lessons and
were more responsible in group work performance. Apart from the teacher’s guidance,
they have learnt great deal from each other and thus improving group autonomy and
interdependence. The nature of participation of the students has changed towards a
more positive way with more confidence and self- accountability.
In general, the improvement made by the participants of this study was far better than
the researcher’s expectation with most of students got involved in CL groups in their
speaking lessons which have obviously built up their skills. More importantly, they
have now suitable learning strategies for long-term learning. The objectives of the
study was accomplished and the questions of the research were answered.
The application of CL principles in teaching English speaking skills to large classes at
Ba Đình high schoool will be more effective if its classrooms are well equipped with
more facilities. Besides, this application should be introduced and discussed in a
workshop among teachers of the English department so as it can be implemented in a
larger scale.
2. Limitations of the study: This action research was implemented with the first-year
students in two large classes of Informatics Technology at Ba Đình high school. As
there are many other departments, the conclusions drawn may not be applicable for all
students at Ba Đình high school. Besides, within the limit of a MA minor thesis, the

19


scope of the application of CL principles was narrowed to the teaching of speaking
skills with a view to overcoming the disadvantages of large classes and enhancing the
students’ participation in speaking lessons.
3. Suggestions for further study: The researcher suggests further studies on students
of other majors, other population of students or students of higher levels at Ba Đình
high school for a longer period. The conclusions on the application of CL principles
will then be more general and comprehensive.

For those who are interested in CL application, studies on related subjects and with
other skills would be beneficial to the teaching and learning of the English language.
The researcher also wishes to carry out a long-term research on teaching and learning
with the application of CL principles at her university on the same population of the
first-year students to see the effects of CL application on long-term learning and
teaching.A full research is also suggested on the design of CL activities, unexpected
effects on CL application. There should be a more thorough study on the correlation
between the nature of students’ participation and their achievement as well.
Hopefully, these suggestions will be of some interest to other teachers of English so as
more researches will be carried out to bring the application of CL principles into full
play.

20


CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT
I hereby certify that the thesis entitled
“Applying cooperative learning principles to the teaching of English speaking
skills in large classes at Ba Đình high school” is the result of my own research in
Ba Đình high school and this experience initiative has not been submitted for
any other reseaches .

Nga Sơn, 25th June 2020
IMPLEMENTER

Nguyễn Thị Lan Anh

21

REFERENCES
Allyn and Bacon. Smith, G. A. (1992). Education and the Environment: Learning
to Live with Limits, New York: State University of New York.
Baloche, L. (1998). The cooperative classroom: Empowering learning. Upper
Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Brown, G. & Yule, G. (1993). Discourse Analysis (1993). Cambrige:
Cambridge University Press
Cao Xia. (2006). How to Manage a Large English Class. ELT Journal, Vol. III, No.
12 (Serial No. 36).
Chen, I. J. (2004), Utilizing Group Work Effectively in the English Language
Classroom, TESL Reporter, 37, pp. 1-7.
Cohen, E. (1994). Designing groupwork: Strategies for the heterogeneous
classroom (2nd ed.), New York: Teachers College Press.
Collier, Virginia P. & Ovando, Carlos J. (1998) Bilingual and ESL
Classrooms: Teaching in Multicultural Contexts, Boston:
McGraw-Hill.
Cuseo, J. (1990), Cooperative Learning and College Instruction:
Effective Use of Student Learning Teams, California: California
State University.
Jacobs, G. M., Power, M. A., Loh, W. I. (2002). The Teacher' Sourcebook for
Cooperative Learning: Practical Techniques, Basic Principles, and Frequently
Asked Question; , California: Corwin Press.
Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T, and Smith, K.A. (1991), Active learning:
Cooperation in the college classroom, Minnesota: Interaction Book Company.
Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (1999). Learning together and alone (5th ed.),
Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Kagan, S. (1994). Cooperative Learning, San Clemente: Kagan
Cooperative Publishing.
Kohn, A. (1992), No contest: the case against competition. (2nd ed.), Boston:
Houghton Miflin.

Littlewood, W.(1992), Teaching Oral Communication, Oxford:
Blackwell.
Lotan, R.A. (2004), Stepping into group work, In E.G. Cohen, C.M.
Brody & M. Sapon-shevin (Eds.), Teaching Cooperative
Learning: The Challenge for Teacher Education, State University
of New York Press, New York.
McBrien, J.L., & Brandt, R.S (1997), The Language of Learning: A
Guide to Education Terms. Alexandria, VA: Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Myers, J. (1991). Cooperative Learning in heterogeneous classes.
Cooperative Learning, 11(4).
Nunan, D. (1992), Research Methods in Language Learning,
Cambrige: Cambridge University Press
Robinson, P. (Ed.). (2002). Individual differences and instructed language
learning, Amsterdam: J. Benjamins.

22


Slavin, R.E (1990, 1995). Cooperative Learning: Theory, Research and Practice,
New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Thousand, J., Villa, A. and Nevin, A. (Eds). (1994), Creativity and Collaborative
Learning, Baltimore: Brookes Press.
Wajnryb, R. (1993). Classroom Observation Tasks: A Resource Book for Language
Teachers and Trainers. Cambridge : Cambridge Universtiy Press.
Wallace, M.J. (1998). Action Research for Language Teachers, Cambridge :
Cambridge Universtiy Press.
Wisker, G. (2001), The Postgraduate Research Handbook, Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Canh, L. V. (2003), Understanding Foreign Language Teaching Methodology,
Hanoi: Vietnam National University, Hanoi Publishing House.

Tran, H.L. (2009), The effectiveness of Using Cooperative Learning structuring to
teach writing skills to the 2nd year English major students at Tay Bac University.
Unpublished M.A Minor Programme Thesis Linguistics, College of Foreign
Languages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
Ha, N.T.M. (2010). Enhancing the third year non-English major students’
participation in speaking lessons through collaborative activities at Hanoi
Univiersity of Business and Technology, M.A. Minor Programme Thesis,
Hanoi: Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
Ali, Z. (2008). Speaking Skills in the ESL Classroom - From Acquisition to
Participation, from
Connant,
J.S.
(2010).
Teaching
large
classes
workshop,
from

Islam, R. (2001). Reflections on large class teaching in the social sciences, from
/>
23


DANH MỤC
CÁC ĐỀ TÀI SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM ĐÃ ĐƯỢC HỘI ĐỒNG ĐÁNH GIÁ
XẾP LOẠI
Họ và tên tác giả: Nguyễn Thị Lan Anh
Chức vụ và đơn vị công tác: Giáo viên tại trường THPT Ba Đình

TT

1

2

3

4

Tên đề tài SKKN
Kinh nghiệm dạy kỹ năng nghe Tiếng
Anh cho học sinh lớp 10 có hiệu quả
Using a model-based approach to teach
English writing to 10th Graders in Ba
Dinh High School, Nga Son, Thanh
Hoa’
The application of communicative
activities to develop speaking skills
for 10th graders at Ba Đình High
School - Nga Sơn – Thanh Hóa
Teachers’ corrective feedback on the
11th form students’ writing at Ba Đình
high school, Nga Sơn, Thanh Hóa

Cấp
đánh giá

Kết
quả

đánh
giá

Năm học

Sở GD

C

2011 - 2012

Sở GD

B

2014 - 2015

Sở GD

C

2016 – 2017

Sở GD

B

2017 – 2018

24