Action research on students inactiveness in pre-writing group discussion of an essay-writing essay practice lesson at hong duc university,thanh hoa

opic, just as a paragraph’. 4.2. Language requirements for learning to write an essay According to Fawcett & Sandberg (1992), Smalley & Ruetten (1986) and Oshima & Hogue (1991) essay writing was for intermediate and advanced students of English as a second language. The reason was that ‘Essays should not be given early in the language learning. It is far better to follow the logical sequence: that is, get sentences right first, then work on short paragraphs, and only later write essays’ (Barry, 1997). An essay is also used to assess an English learners’ writing ability in some international testing systems such as IELTS and TOEFL. As stated by Sharpe (2001) writing essays is an opportunity for a student to demonstrate his/her ability to write in English. This includes the ability to generate and organize ideas, to support those ideas with examples or evidence, and to compose in standard written English in response to an assigned topic. ‘Good writing in English requires good grammar and good organization’ (Oshima and Hogue.1991). That means the essay should be written in correct standard grammar of English and the writer must know how to organize his/her thoughts in writing logically, clearly and effectively. As for ESL students, they must have a vocabulary which is enough for them to express their ideas. Moreover, in my opinion, the writer should have good background knowledge about the topic he/she is going to write about. If he/she has no information or knowledge about the topic he/she can not start to write the essay. Group work is a better way for them to share and get ideas from other students to write their own essays. 4.3. Structure of an essay. According to Oshima and Hogue (1991) and the above - mentioned authors, an essay always has three main parts: an introductory paragraph (or introduction), a body (or developmental paragraphs) and a concluding paragraph (or conclusion). The introductory paragraph consists of two parts: a few general statements about the subject to attract reader’s attention and a thesis statement to state the specific subdivision of the topic. The body consists of one or more paragraphs. Each of them develops a subdivision of the topic. The conclusion is a summary or review of the main points discussed by the body. How many paragraphs an essay should consist of depends entirely on the complexity of the topic. However, the essays written in class or in an exam paper in a school or college should contains from four to six paragraphs, with the most common number of five: one paragraph for introduction, three ones for the body and the last one for the conclusion. The number of words in an essay of this kind (also named short essay) should be ranged from 150 words to 250 words for the time allowance of 45 minutes. 4.4. Types of essays Essays can be classified by their aims. According to Fawcett and Sandberg (1992) there were 8 types of essays: Illustration, Narrative, Descriptive, Process, Definition, Comparison or Contrast, Classification and Persuasive. In Illustration essays the writer used specific examples to support a thesis or to prove a statement. Narrative essays required the writer to retell a meaningful incident, an event or personal experience. The writer had to describe something such as a place, a product, a piece of equipment or cells under a microscope, etc in a Descriptive essay. Describing a process or steps in the procedure of doing something was the aim of a Process essay. In Definition essays students had to define a scientific term such as Disk Operating System in computer studies or DNA in biology etc. When writing a Comparison or Contrast essay, students might be asked to compare to find the similarities and differences between two things or two people. They could also use some criteria to contrast two things or two people to discover which features this person or a thing had but the other one did not have. Differing from the above-mentioned types of essays, Classification essays required the writer to use some criteria to classify some things or people or divide them into groups under some standards. In a Persuasive essay the writer had to take a stand on an issue and tried to convince others to agree with him or her. In the Persuasive essay the writer was often asked a question like this “Do you agree or disagree?” He had to choose to agree or disagree with the given topic. Differing from Fawcett and Sandberg, Smalley and Ruetten (1986) gave out only 5 types of essays with different names: Example Essay, Comparison and Contrast Essay, Classification Essay, Process Analysis Essay, Cause-and-Effect Analysis Essay and Argumentative Essay. Among those, a Cause-and-Effect essay was not mentioned by Fawcett and Sandberg. In Cause-and-Effect essay the writer identified the causes of a phenomenon, a problem or something or predicts its good or bad effects. However, in some cases the writer did both of these actions. These five types of essays given by Smalley and Ruetten (1986) are the most common types of essays which were taught to ESL students as the authors stated in their book. They are also chosen to teach to Major English students in Hong Duc University, Thanh Hoa because of their suitability for ESL students. 4.5. Essay writing process According to Fawcett and Sandberg (1992) there were four main steps in the essay-writing process: writing the thesis statement, gathering ideas for the body, ordering and linking paragraphs in the essay, writing and revising short essays. Step 1: Writing the thesis statement. In this step there are two sub-steps: Narrowing the topic and Writing the thesis statement. These are the first important sub-steps before writing an essay. 1. Narrowing the Topic: The essay writer often starts with a broad subject and then he narrows it to a suitable scale. Due to the limitation of the time for writing in class or the length of the essay, the writer should list possible narrowed subjects (sub-topics) of the given topic on a paper. Any one of these sub-topics is narrow enough and specific enough to be the subject of a short essay. Then he will consider each of them to choose one he could best develop into a good essay. 2. Writing the thesis statement The thesis statement further focuses the subject because it must clearly state, in a full sentence, the writer’s central point: the main idea or opinion that the essay will support and discuss. The thesis statement should be as specific as possible. By writing a specific thesis statement, the writer focuses on his/her subject and give himself/herself and his /her reader a clearer idea of what will follow in the body of the essay. Step 2: Gathering Ideas for the Body This step also consists of two sub-steps: brainstorming ideas and then find paragraph groups and write topic sentences and then plan paragraphs. Now the writer should make a plan that includes the following things: - Two to four main ideas to support the thesis statement - Two to four topic sentences stating these above ideas - A plan for each paragraph in the body - A logical order in which to present these paragraphs 1. Brainstorming ideas and then find paragraph groups. The essay writer should try to jot down any ideas that develop the thesis statement, including main ideas, specific details, and examples, all jumbled together. Only after creating a long list do they go back over it, drop any ideas that do not support the thesis statement, and then plan paragraphs. 2. Write topic sentences and then plan paragraphs Sometimes a writer can compose his/her topic sentences directly from the thesis statement without extensive jotting first if the thesis statement itself shows how the body will be divided or organized. Such a thesis statement makes the work of planning paragraphs easy because the writer has already broken down the subject into supporting ideas or parts. The order of paragraphs should logically follow the order in the thesis statement, discussing first the problem and then the solution. Step 3: Ordering and linking paragraphs in the essay 1. Ordering paragraphs An essay should have coherence. That is, the paragraphs in an essay should be arranged in a clear, logical order and should follow one another like links in a chain. In order to keep the paragraphs in the essay in a logical order the writer has to use his/her common sense and plan ahead. He/she should not order his paragraphs randomly. Types of order such as time order, space order, and order of climax can sometimes be used to arrange paragraphs within an essay. Essays about subjects that can be broken into stages or steps, which each step discussed in one paragraph, should be arranged according to time. Space order is used occasionally in descriptive essays. A writer who wants to save the most important or convincing paragraph for last would use order of climax. 2. Linking paragraphs There are four ways to links paragraphs: - Repeat key words or ideas from the thesis statement. - Refer to words or ideas from the preceding paragraph. - Use transitional expressions. - Use transitional sentences. Step 4: Writing and revising short essays. 1. Writing the first draft The writer should make sure that he/she has a clear plan or an outline from which to write the first draft. This plan should contain his/her thesis statement, two to four topic sentences that support it, details and facts to develop each paragraph, and a logical order. When writing the first draft he should leave room for later corrections. 2. Revising The essay writer reads the first draft slowly and carefully to himself and underlines trouble spots, draws arrows and writes in the margins or corrects directly any kinds of errors in the essay draft on his paper. He may ask a trusted classmate or a friend to read his paper and give feedbacks. 3. Proof reading and writing final draft. The writer should proof read the draft for grammar and spelling errors and try to correct them. Finally, he types or writes the final draft to hand in. 5. TEACHING WRITING ESSAYS IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT AT HONG DUC UNIVERSITY, THANH HOA PROVINCE 5.1. Teaching writing skills to Major English College students. According to the Programme of Training English Teachers for Junior High Schools, writing skills is taught in 5 terms of the whole training course: Table 1: Teaching writing skills to Major English College Students Terms TERM 1 TERM 2 TERM 3 TERM 4 TERM 5 Time 45 periods 60 periods 60 periods 60 periods 30 periods Contents Sentences and writing sentences Authentic-Task Writing Writing paragraphs Writing essays Writing essays (continued) Details + Sentence structures and sentence components + Types of sentences + Sentence building + Writing notes and memos + Writing personal letters + Writing telegrams, personal ads and instructions + Writing reports on incidents and events + Form-filling + How to write a paragraph + Writing paragraph process + Types of paragraphs + Practice assignments + How to write an essay + Writing essay process + Types of paragraphs + Practice lessons + Revision of essay writing + Practice lessons + Writing a long essay as project work in groups My study was carried out in Term 4 of the 5-term writing course. In the early stage of this term students were taught how to write an essay, the process of writing an essay, different types of essays and at the end of this term students mainly wrote their own essays in practice lessons in class. In this term students could reach the intermediate or advanced level of English as required writing essays. 5.2. Teaching writing essays to Major English College students In Hong Duc University, essay writing is taught to the college and university students in last two terms of their academic course because in Term 4 and Term 5 of the Course students are at the levels of intermediate and advanced of English Teaching writing essays in class in the early stages often consists of two steps: Step 1: Students are taught how to write an essay Step 2: Students write essays in practice lessons in class with the help from the teacher. Writing in class is ‘especially helpful in the early stages because you (the teacher or trainer) are available for intermediate consultation. Also, you can work your way around the room checking to make sure that everyone is on the right track’ (Oshima and Hogue, 1991) When students know how to write an essay the teacher can ask them to write an essay of their own in practice lessons in class. The teacher may apply the 8 steps in a two-period lesson (90 minutes) as follows: Step 1. The teacher chooses a suitable topic for each type of essay and writes on the board Step 2. Students brainstorm the topic (3-5 minutes) Step 3. Students discuss the topic in groups to exchange their ideas on the topic (7-10 minutes). Step 4. Students write their short essays (under 300 words) individually (45 minutes). Step 5. Students exchange their essays for peer’s correction (10 minutes) Step 6. Students get their essays back from their peers and read their peer’s comments and discuss about the mistakes and comments given by their peers. (5 minutes) Step 7. Students get consultation from the teacher if necessary (10 minutes or more) Step 8. The teacher collects students’ papers for correcting and/or marking at home (rest of time) In Step 1 in early stages the teacher should choose an interesting, easy and simple topic and make sure that all of his/her students understand and have enough knowledge about the topic. In Step 7 students may disagree with their peer’s comments and corrections so they can ask the teacher for help. Step 8 requires the teacher a lot of time for reading students’ essays and giving comments and correction in details. However, this helps his students write better later. Up to now the model of 8-step practice lesson has been applied in teaching writing to major English students in Foreign Languages Department of Hong Duc University and it has proved its effectiveness. 6. SUMMARY This chapter mentioned the definitions of writing in general and academic writing. Writing was one of the four language skills that a learner should master. Writing was the act of forming graphic symbols which was arranged according to certain conventions to form words, then form sentences and linked these sentences in a certain way to express the writer’s ideas or thoughts. Among the definitions of writing given by Leki (1976), Davies (2000), Hornby (1989) and Byrne (1988), the Byrne’s definition of writing was the most complete. Academic writing was a sort of writing skill students are required to do in colleges or university. According to Oshima and Hogue (1991) the concept of academic writing was different from other kinds of writing by its audience, tone and purpose. We might have two main types of approaches according to two authors: Product Approach (consisted of four approaches such as Controlled-to-Free Approach, Free-Writing Approach, Paragraph-Pattern Approach and Communicative Approach given by Byrne (1988). This approach was so-called because it focused on the product of the writing process) and Process Approach by Raimes (1983) (because it focused on the process of the writing activity). Writing essays was a difficult skill because it required the writer to be at intermediate or advance level of the language. This chapter also gave out the definitions of essays, its structure, its types and the process of writing essays with four main steps: writing thesis statement, gathering ideas for the body, ordering and linking paragraphs in essays and writing and revising short essays. Teaching writing essays was also discussed in this chapter. Essay writing was for intermediate and advanced students of English as a second language. Essays were also used to evaluate language learners’ writing ability in some international test systems such as IELTS or TOEFL in many English-speaking countries. At Hong Duc University writing essays is taught in Term 4 and Term 5 of the 6–Term Training Course for Junior English teachers. Firstly, students are taught how to write essays, types of essays, process of writing an essay and then they write their own essays in practice lesson in class through 8 steps. . CHAPTER 3: GROUPWORK 1.1. GROUPWORK 1.1.1. What is groupwork? Groupwork in its most common meaning is a joint activity of more than two people to do the same task or duty. In language teaching, groupwork is “a learning activity which involves a small group of learners working together. The group may work on a single task or on different parts of a larger task. Tasks for group members are often selected by the members of the group” (Richards, J.C.; Platt, J., H. 1992). 1.1.2. Groupwork in language teaching When the Communicative Language Teaching Approach was applied widely in many countries in teaching foreign languages, groupwork became very important and necessary in developing language skills for learners. Groupwork was used in teaching four language skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing), not just in speaking skill. According to Gower (1995) groupwork had a place in most types of lessons so every opportunity should be taken for students to talk to each other in groups such as when asking about unknown words, comparing their answers to tasks, correcting each other’s work as well as information gap activities, discussions and games; etc. Groupwork in teaching writing When teaching writing a teacher can exploit groupwork whenever he/she wants his/her students to practice speaking skill. ‘… groupwork can involve brainstorming, writing and editing’ (Oshima and Huge, 1991). Students can brainstorming a topic in groups; write their writing assignments in groups or edit their writing assignments in groups. Teaching writing essays in class in three stages (pre-writing, while-writing and post-writing) groupwork is often used in the first and the last stages. The second stage (while-writing) is often carried out individually. During group work students can share their ideas about the given topic. Groupwork also helps them get more information and ideas from others for their own essays in pre-writing stage. In post-writing they also work in groups when they exchange their essays for peer’s correction or comments. Students can learn some new words or grammar items from others in groupwork. 1.2. GROUPWORK AS AN INTERACTIVE ACTIVITY IN CLASS 1.2.1. Advantages and problems of groupwork ‘Groupwork is so much a part of our everyday teaching routine that we hardly pause to think before partitioning the class to tackle some particular communicative task. Groupwork came into the standard EFL teaching repertoire with communicative methodologies in the 1970s. (Simon Andrewes, president of Granada English Teachers' Association). According to Andrewes groupwork brings to the language teacher many advantages: - Groupwork made it possible for the teacher to devote more time to the students' oral production, which perhaps before had not been a priority of the foreign language classroom. - Less confident students get the chance to put their knowledge of the new language into practice in a non-threatening environment, away from the critical eye and ear of the teacher. - Instead of being dependent on the teacher, students get used to helping and learning from each other. - The teacher is left free to discreetly monitor progress and give help, advice and encouragement where and when it is needed. Sharing some similar advantages of groupwork with Andrewes, Gower (1995) also added some more useful points of groupwork (and pairwork also): - Giving the students more valuable talking time. It gives them more of the time they require to practice the language than is possible when the teacher is dealing with the class as a whole. - Encouraging rapport between students. - Enabling students to invest much more of themselves in the lesson - Providing a change in pace. - Adding variety to a lesson. On the other hand, groupwork also had some disadvantages for a foreign language teacher. Michael J. Wallace (1998) pointed out some aspects of groupwork that might bother a language teacher: - composition of group - personality clashes within groups - use of mother tongue in groups - dynamic of group (how the individuals within a groupwork together?) - issue of group leadership - effectiveness of group work - selection of the best materials for groupwork ( or topics for discussion) - effect of different tasks on groupwork. Like any kind of praxis, groupwork can lose its meaning if it is handled in an automatic and unthinking way: - The topic is boring or out of students' knowledge to discuss. - The levels of students are not the same and this leads to the unequal participation in group work, that is, only good students discuss actively. - Some language problems prevent students from groupwork such as: inability to express their own ideas because of poor vocabulary related to the topic, poor grammar knowledge, bad pronunciation,... - Some personal problems such as: shyness (some students do not want to speak in front of others because they are afraid of making mistakes and other students may laugh at him or her), health problems (illnesses, tiredness, stress) , and bad relationship with other group member (conflicts, quarrels). There are many advantages of groupwork but there are some problems that require a teacher to solve. The two main threats to the success of groupwork in language learning are unequal participation and inactive participation. The teacher should find out the best ways to exploit the advantages of groupwork and the solutions to eliminate its problems. Some implications for language teachers. To solve the problem "inactive participation", Alfred, a secondary school English teacher mentioned in the article "Helping teacher to conduct action research in their classroom" written by Tsui (1993), rearranged the seats so that inactive students sat next to an active student, to encourage good pair or groupwork. He tried to give inactive ones the chance to speak but acknowledge the enthusiasm of the volunteers at the same times. He also avoided competition in class since the winner was likely to be an active student. Davies (2000) mentioned the difficulties and risks associated with groupwork (also with pairwork): - the learners may be confused about the tasks and not do it properly. - the noise level may rise (though seldom more than in choral repetition) - the learners may start talking about whatever they like in L1 - the learners may make and repeat many errors - you may not be able to get the learners' attention again and lose control of the class. He said that teachers couldn't avoid these potential problems by careful preparation and organization, and by progressively training the learners to participate fully and effectively. If these things were done, the advantages of groupwork (and pairwork) far outweighed the drawbacks. In his opinion, groupwork (and pair work) provided: - Variety and dynamism - An enormous increase in individual practice - Low-stress private practice - Opportunities to develop learner autonomy - Interaction with peers. Davies (2000) also introduces other techniques and strategies that can make groupwork (and pairwork) trouble-free and profitable: - Give clear instructions followed by a demonstration and a comprehension check. - Monitor the activity: move among the groups (and the pairs) as quickly as possible, listening for major problems and helping the learners when necessary. Your 'ubiquitous presence' will deter the learners from using their L1. - Train the learners to stop talking when you give a certain signal. - Check on the task after groups (and pairs) have completed. - After the groupwork (and pairwork), deal with major errors you noted. "Often it is a good idea to appoint one student in each group as "secretary" - writing out the answers or taking notes to report back to the whole group. Groupwork must always be followed by a general class activity when the results of the groupwork are reported to the whole group, and commented on by the teacher "(Michael, J Wallace, 1985). Gower (1995) also suggested that a teacher should pay more attention to the ways to put the students into groups (or pairs). The teacher needed to decide whether he wanted the groups to be random, ‘streamed’ according to level, or a mixture of weak and strong, talkative and quiet. Did he want to let students choose who to work with? Did he want them to work in the same groups everyday or in different groups each time? All of those were up to the teacher himself. SUMMARY Chapter 3 has reviewed some theoretical issues of using groupwork in language teaching in general and in teaching writing in particular. the definitions of groupwork, the uses of groupwork in language teaching and in teaching writing, its advantages and problems have been elaborated. Also, some implications for language teachers were mentioned. . ACTION RESEARCH PROCEDURE 1. PRE-IMPROVEMENT STAGE STEP 1: IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM 1. IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM The action research was carried out to solve following problem: “Students’ inactiveness in pre-writing group discussion of an essay- writing practice lesson at Hong Duc University” 2. OBSERVING A LESSON THAT ILLUSTRATED THE PROBLEM Three volunteer students from other classes were asked to observe six groups which were formed randomly (students at two or three nearest desks made up a group) in a class. The observers just focused on the turns of speaking of each student in a group. The number of students’ turns of speaking in a group was counted and recorded. The code number of students who did not participate in groupwork or spoke Vietnamese during groupwork was recorded. A. BRIEF DESCRITION OF THE LESSON 1. Topic for writing essay: “Tertiary education is the key to a successful career”. Do you agree or disagree? 2. Time allowance: 10 minutes (3 minutes for brainstorming and 7 minutes for group discussion) The criteria of evaluating each student’s activeness in groupwork based on the number of turns of speaking in groupwork : Active (over 2 times), Inactive ( 1 time or no participation). 3.Total number of students was observed: 36 4. Total number of groups was observed: 06 B. THE RESULTS OF PRE-IMPROVEMENT CLASS OBSERVATION TABLE 02: Students’ turns of speaking in six groups Ordinal number Group Total number of students 0-1 (turns of speaking) Over 2 (turns of speaking) 01 Group 1 06 03 03 02 Group 2 06 04 02 03 Group 3 06 03 03 04 Group 4 06 04 02 05 Group 5 06 04 02 06 Group 6 06 03 03 Total: 06 36 21 15 Table 02 showed that there were 21 inactive students (made up about 58.33%) who spoke once or did not speak anything in group work. The active students who spoke more than twice in groupwork made up only about 41.66 %. The table also showed that the problem of inactiveness in groupwork was true in writing-essays practice lessons in class. The next step is to conduct a survey to find out the initial causes of the inactiveness in groupwork from students. 3. CONDUCTING A SURVEY TO GET INFORMATION FROM STUDENTS 36 students were asked to give their answers to the 4 questions and then handed their papers to the teacher. These were the results of the survey: a. Is today’s topic for the essay too difficult (beyond your knowledge) or too easy (you know everything about it); boring (you do not like it) or interesting (you like it)? - 21 students (≈ 58.33 %) thought that the topic was too difficult to understand and they had no ideas to share with others in groupwork. - 10 students (≈ 27.77 %) liked this topic. - 05 students (≈ 13.88 %) did not like this topic. b. Write down two themes you like your best for writing essays. The two themes that most of students (28 students ≈ 77.77 %) chose were “Entertainment” and “Jobs”. The rest of the students chose the following themes “Medicine”, “Study”, “Culture”, “Tourism”, “Sports” and “Marriage and family” c. Did you participate in groupwork? If “no”, please answer the next questions? 15 students (≈ 41.66%) said “Yes” and 21 students (≈ 58.33 %) said “No” d. Why didn’t you want to work in group? All of 21 students said that they had no ideas to speak in groupwork because the topic was difficult for them to discuss. In short, the topic was considered to be difficult for students to write about. The non-participating students gave out the reasons why they did not join groupwork. According the students’ choices, the topics for the next practice lessons was based on the following themes: “Entertainment” and “Jobs”. STEP 2: FINDING CAUSES OF THE PROBLEM 1. CONSULTING WITH COLLEAGUES In order to get more professional advice, suggestions and ideas about the problem of “Inactiveness in pre-writing group discussion of essay-writing practical lessons” I consulted with 12 English teachers who used to teach writing essays or are teaching writing essays in my department. The following questions were chosen for my colleagues in the Foreign Languages Department in Hong Duc University to answer on a piece of paper: a. Do you usually use groupwork in teaching writing essays? All of 12 English teachers (100 %) usually used groupwork in teaching writing essays. This shows that groupwork is very popular in teaching writing essays in my department. b. Do you agree with the following criteria of evaluating students’ activeness in groupwork: Active (over 2 times); Inactive ( 1 time or no participation)? 10 teachers (about 83.33 %) supported the criteria of evaluating student’s activeness in groupwork and only 2 teachers had no ideas. c. Have you ever met the problem of inactive participation in groupwork? All of the teachers thought they had ever met this problem. d. How did you solve this problem? 9 teachers gave the following solutions to inactiveness in groupwork: 1. Teachers should choose interesting topics 2. Teachers should go to the entire group to ask students to talk and listen to them. 3. Teachers should not interrupt students to correct his or her grammar or pronunciation mistakes because this made them unable to continue to speak any more. The other three teachers wrote that they still did not find any effective ways to eliminate inactiveness in groupwork. 2. READING PROFESSIONAL BOOKS OR JOURNALS FOR IDEAS AND SUGGESTIONS All of information, ideas or suggestions I got from the professional books or journals were mentioned in details in the chapter “Groupwork” in this Minor Thesis Paper (from page 22 to page 26) 2. TRY-OUT STAGE STEP 3: DESIGNING STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVEMENT From the comments, ideas and suggestions from my students, my colleagues, professional books or journals and my own teaching experience I designed the following strategies to improve the problem: 1. Choosing suitable topics for my students’ essays (by using a questionnaire) 2. Allowing students to form a group by themselves 3. Allowing students to choose a student as the head of group 4. Asking the head of the group to do the two duties: encouraging all of his/her members to contribute their ideas equally and making all of the group members follow the rules “No private talks and no speaking Vietnamese” during the groupwork. 5. Moving among the groups as quickly as possible, paying more attention to less – confident or quiet students and encouraging them to speak. 6. Avoiding interrupting students for correcting mistakes. STEP 4: TRYING OUT STRATEGIES AND MAKING NOTES ON WHAT HAPPENED IN THE CLASS The new strategies and changes were tried out in two next practice writing lessons. All of the changes and improvements or even new or bad problems after each lesson were made notes on by the teacher in brief. 4.1. The first try-out lesson: Topic: “Computer games online have both good points and bad points. Do you agree or disagree?” - Pre-writing group discussion lasted for 10 minutes - It took some minutes for students to form a group by themselves and to choose the head of the group. - Students worked more actively in their new groups. - The head of the group showed his/her active roles when asking each of the group members to speak in turn. - The chosen topic was interesting for students to share their ideas on the topic. - Instead of standing to observe students talking as before, I had to move among the groups very quickly to listen to all the group talking, give necessary aids and encourage some less-confident students to speak. - It might be a successful lesson. 4.2. The second try-out lesson: Topic: “Chatting online is a waste of time. Do you agree or disagree?” - Pre-writing group discussion lasted for 10 minutes - Students started their group work very quickly. -The head of the group organized and controlled his/her group’s activities more professionally and effectively. Most of the students followed the rules given by the head of the group. - The topic was suitably chosen. - There were still some students worked less actively in groupwork. - It might be a successful lesson. After two trying-out lessons with some successful changes and improvements it’s time to observe a lesson to collect data for analyzing to evaluate the Try-Out Stage. 3. POST-IMPROVEMENT STAGE STEP 5: EVALUATING THE TRY-OUT - Three volunteer teachers were asked to observe a lesson after the trying-out stage that illustrated the changes that had been made; - The results of class observation was used to reflect on the reasons for those changes (which could include things that were improved or that got worse) - A survey was carried out to get information from students. - Comments and conclusions were made. 5. 1. POST-IMPROVEMENT CLASS OBSERVATION A. BRIEF DESCRITION OF THE LESSON 1. Topic for writing essay: “What should an applicant do for a successful interview for a job?” 2. Time allowance: 10 minutes (3 minutes for brainstorming and 7 minutes for group discussion) The criteria of evaluating each student’s activeness in groupwork: Inactive (0 - 1 time), Active (Over 2 times). 3. Total number of students was observed: 36 4. Total number of groups was observed: 06 B. THE RESULTS OF POST-IMPROVEMENT CLASS OBSERVATION TABLE 03: Students’ turns of speaking in six groups Ordinal number Group Total number of students 0-1 (turns of speaking) Over 2 (turns of speaking) 01 Group 01 06 01 05 02 Group 02 06 00 06 03 Group 03 06 01 05 04 Group 04 06 00 06 05 Group 05 06 00 06 06 Group 06 06 00 06 Total: 06 36 ( 100 %) 02 (≈ 5.55) 34 (≈ 94.44%) In Table 03 there were 02 students (≈ 5.55 %) who worked inactively and there were 34 students, which made up about 94.44 %, worked very actively. In short, in the Post–Improvement Stage the above results proved that my changes and improvements were successful because the number of inactive students was minimized to about 5.55 %. 5.2. POST-IMPROVEMENT QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS Question 1: Multiple-choice: a. too difficult (out of your knowledge) b. too easy (you know everything about it) c. interesting and challenging (you like it but you need groupwork to exchange ideas about it before writing) d. boring (you do not like it) Question Choice Notes a b c d What do you think of today’s topic for writing an essay? 02 (≈5.55 %) 0 (0 %) 34 ( ≈ 94.44 %) 0 (0 %) 02 students (≈5.55 %) considered the topic too difficult and 34 students ( ≈ 94.44%) thought that the topic was interesting and challenging. Question 2: Multiple–choice: a. The teacher let students choose other group members by themselves b. The teacher allowed students select a head for their group c. The teacher moved among the groups quickly to encourage less active students to work and give helps when necessary. d. all of a, b and c Question Choice Notes a b c d Which of the changes made by the teacher were successful? 0 (0 %) 0 (0 %) 0 (0 %) 36 (100 %) All of the students (100 %) agreed that the changes made by the teacher were successful. Question 3: Multiple-choice: a. Groupwork enables students to get used to helping and learning from each other? b. Groupwork gives students more talking time and freedom to express their ideas. c. Groupwork helps students exchange their ideas with others in group. d. all of them Question Choice Notes a b c d What were the good points of groupwork which were proved in today’s lesson? 0 ( 0%) 0 (0 %) 0 ( 0%) 36 (100%) 36 students (100%) agreed with the three good points of groupwork given by the teacher. This also showed that all of the students found out the benefits of groupwork so they worked in groupwork actively. Question 4: Multiple-choice: a. poor vocabulary related to the topic you are discussing b. not enough grammar knowledge or sentence patterns to express your ideas easily c. your pronunciation is not good so you don’t want to speak d. nothing Question Choice Notes a b c d Did you have any of these language problems in group work? 02 (≈ 5.55%) 02 (≈ 5.55) 0 (0 %) 32 (≈ 83.33%) There were 32 students (≈ 83.33%) had no language problems but there were still 04 students (≈11.11%) had language problems. This showed that my changes and improvements about groupwork could not help students solve their language inability completely for a short time. These problems should be further studied in other scientific researches. Question 5: Multiple-choice: a. shyness (not used to speaking in front of others) b. used to have a bad relationship with others in your old group. c. stress d. nothing Question Choice Notes a b c d Did you have any personal problems in group work: 0 (0%) 01 (≈ 2.77 %) 0 (%) 35 (≈ 97.22 %) There was one student who used to have a bad relationship with other members in his old group. He /she could join a new group so his bad relationship did not affect his groupwork any more although it still existed. About 97.22 % of students had no personal problems. Question 6: Multiple-choice: a. encouraging and asking everybody in turns to speak b. giving the rule “No private talks and no speaking Vietnamese” c. putting talkative students next to quiet students and good speakers next to bad speakers d. all of a, b and c Question Choice Notes a b c d Which of these roles of the head of the group were successful? 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 36 (100%) All of the 36 students agreed that all the heads of the groups in class were successful with their responsibilities as the controllers or organizers of all of the activities of their groups. They also helped the teacher eliminate inactiveness in groupwork effectively. 4. SUMMARY My action research was carried out through five steps successfully. The causes of my students’ inactive participation in groupwork were proved by Pre-Improvement class observation and the survey to get information from students. The changes, improvements and some strategies, which were based on from the ideas, comments and suggestions by my students, colleagues and other experts in some professional books or journals, were designed and applied successfully in Try-out stage. They showed initial effects in the next two try-out lessons. Analyzing the data of both post-improvement class observation and the survey for students showed that the problem of inactiveness in groupwork in my class was solved successfully. PART 3: CONCLUSION The validity and reliability of my 5-step action research were ensured because the results of the class observations were in accordance with those of the surveys for students. Firstly, the problem was identified and a lesson was observed to illustrate the problem. Then a survey for students was conducted to get students’ opinions about the problem. The results of analyzing the data of the pre-improvement class observation showed that over 58.33 % of students (21/36) did not participate in group work or spoke only one time group work. There were 15 students (about 41.66%) who worked actively in group work. Answering the question about the reasons why not participating in group work in the survey, 21 students (≈ 58.33 %) said that they did not join their groups because the topic was too difficult and they had no ideas about it. 15 students ( ≈ 41.66%) either liked the topic or disliked the topic. Next, I consulted with my colleagues and read professional books or journals to collect advice, suggestions and opinions from experts or authors. I designed the following strategies to solve the problem in the next stage (try-out): 1. Choosing suitable topics for my students’ essays (by using a questionnaire) 2. Allowing students to form a group by themselves 3. Allowing students to choose a student as the head of group 4. Asking the head of the group to do the two duties: encouraging all of his/her members to contribute their ideas equally and making all of the group members follow the rules “No private talks and no speaking Vietnamese” during the groupwork. 5. Moving among the groups as quickly as possible, paying more attention to less – confident or quiet students and encouraging them to speak. 6. Avoid interrupting students for correcting any kinds of their mistakes. During the try-out stage these strategies worked very well and effectively and the activities of groups became more active than before and students’ participation in groupwork was improved remarkably. After the try-out stage a lesson was observed to illustrate the changes that have been made. Analyzing the data of the class observation proved that the action research was successful. 100 % of groups worked actively. There were only 02 inactive students (≈ 5.55%) in groupwork and 34 students (≈ 94.44%) who worked actively in groupwork. The results of the post-improvement questionnaire for students also confirmed the above-mentioned conclusions. These results explained the reason why 02 inactive students (≈ 5.55%) did not join groupwork because they thought the topic was too difficult for them to talk about. In this questionnaire 100% of students also confirmed the success of the researcher’s changes, improvements and strategies to solve the problem of inactiveness in groupwork. All of 36 students also recognized the good points of groupwork and this encouraged them to work in groupwork effectively. In conclusion, the problem of inactiveness in groupwork was solved successfully. The findings of the action research implicated that: 1. The suitability of the topic is very important 2. Students should be allowed to form their groups and choose their group heads by themselves. 3. The roles of the head of the group is decisive in control of the activities of a group 4. Some group regulations i.e. “No private talks and no speaking Vietnamese” are useful in eliminating inactiveness in groupwork. 5. The teacher should be present at every group to help and encourage students to speak. 6. While students are speaking in groupwork, the teacher should not interrupt them for correcting mistakes because this may make them feel less confident when they continue speaking later. 7. The problem of bad relationship between or among students can be solved temporarily by student’s movement to another group. The post-improvement questionnaire also showed that there were still some problems that this study could not solve absolutely for during the try-out stage: 1. Students’ poor vocabulary related to the topic 2. Students’ insufficiency of grammar knowledge I hope that these above problems should be solved completely in other studies in future. However, the study still has some shortcomings. I would be willing to hear and grateful that the readers could give constructive comments so that it would be improved later. REFERENCES 1. Anders, D. J. 1988. Action research. In The Action Research Reader. Deakin University, pp 121-2. 2. Army, B. M. 1993. Helping Teachers to Conduct AR in Their Classrooms. In Freeman, D. and Cornwall, S. (Eds.). 1993. New Ways in Teacher Education. Tesol Inc. 3. Byrne, D. 1988. Teaching Writing Skills. Longman. 4. Corey, S. M. 1953. Action Research to Improve School Practices. New York: Teacher College Press. 5. Curtis, A. 1988. Action research: What, How and Why. In The Action Research Reader. Deakin University. 6. Davies, P. and Pearse, E. 2000. Success in English Teaching. OUP. 7. David, N. 1989. Research Methods in Language Learning. CUP. 8. Elliott, J. What is Action Research in Schools?. Journal of Curriculum Studies, vol.10, no.4, 1998, pp, 355-7. 9. Fawcett, S and Sandberg, A. Evergreen – A Guide to Writing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 10. Freeman, D. and Cornwall, S. (Eds). 1993. New Ways in Teacher Education. Tesol Inc. 11. Gebhard and Oprandy. 1999. Language Teaching Awareness: A guide to Exploring Beliefs and Practices. CUP. 12. Gower, R. et al (1985). Teaching Practice Handbook (New edition). Heinemann. 13. Hornby, A. S. 1989. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. OUP. 14. Jack C. Richards. 1987. Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms. CUP. 15. Richards, J.C. and Platt, J.,H. 1992. Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics. Longman. 16. Jeremy, H. 1998. How to Teach English. Longman. 17. Kemmis, S. and R. Mc Taggart.1988. The Action Research Planner. Victoria, Australia: Deakin University Press. 18. Leki, I. 1976. Academic Writing, Techniques and Tasks: ST. Martin Press, New York. 19. Nunan, D. 1989. Understanding Language Classroom: A Guide for Teacher Initiated Action. New York: Prentice – Hall. 20. Oshima, A. and Hogue, A. 1991. Writing Academic English. New York: Welsley Publishing Company. 21. Raimes, A. 1983. Techniques in Teaching Writing. OUP. 22. Sagor, R. 1992. How to Conduct Collaborative Action Research. USA: Association Supervision and Curriculum Development. 23. Sharpe, Pamela, J. 2001. How to Prepare for the TOEFL Test. USA: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc. 24. Smalley, L. R and Ruetten , K. M. 1986. Refining Composition Skills. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. 25. Barry, S. 1997. How to Teach English. OUP 26. Tsui, A.B. 1993. Helping Teachers to Conduct Action Research in Their Classrooms. In D. Freeman, with S. Cornwell (Eds). New Ways in Teacher Education. Alexandria. VA: TESOL. 27. Wallace, M.J .1998. Action Research for Language Teacher. CUP. APPENDICES: Appendix 01 GROUP WORK OBSERVATION IN THE CLASSROOM Class: ............................................. Date/time: ................................................ Number of students: ....................... Stage: Pre/ Post-Improvement Lesson content/ topic: ....................................................................................... Observer’s name: …………………………………………………………….. Board Teacher's table Group 01 Group 02 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Group 03 Group 04 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Group 05 Group 06 25 26 27 31 32 33 28 29 30 34 35 36 Notes: - Write NP (non-participating) next to the numbers of the students who don't take part in groupwork. - Count the number of turns of participation of each student in each group and write down next to the student's number. - Record the number of students who speak Vietnamese and have private talks. Appendix 02 QUESTIONNAIRE ON GROUP WORK (For students in Post-Improvement stage) In order to find the ways to use group discussion effectively in topic-based essay-writing practice lessons, the teacher have applied some changes in using groupwork, please complete this questionnaire by putting a tick into the box. 1. What do you think of today’s topic for writing an essay? a. too difficult (out of your knowledge) c b. too easy (you know everything about it) c c. interesting and challenging (you like it but you need groupwork to exchange ideas about it before writing) c d. boring (you do not like it) c 2. Which of the changes made by the teacher were successful? a. The teacher let students choose other group members by themselves c b. The teacher allowed students select a head for their group c c. The teacher moved among the groups quickly to encourage less active students to work and give helps when necessary. c d. all of a, b and c c 3. What were the good points of groupwork which were proved in today’s lesson? a. Groupwork enables students to get used to helping and learning from each other? c b. Groupwork gives students more talking time and freedom to express their ideas. c c. Groupwork helps students exchange their ideas with others in group c d. all of them c 4. Did you have any of these language problems in group work? a. poor vocabulary related to the topic you are discussing c b. not enough grammar knowledge or sentence patterns to express your ideas easily c c. your pronunciation is not good so you don’t want to speak c d. nothing c 5 Did you have any personal problems in group work: a. shyness (not used to speaking in front of others) c b. used to have a bad relationship with others in your old group c c. stress c d. nothing c 6. Which of these roles of the head of the group was successful? a. encouraging and asking everybody in turns to speak c b. giving the rule “No private talks and no speaking Vietnamese” c c. putting talkative students next to quiet students and good speakers next to bad speakers c d. all of a, b and c c Thank you for your support.