ACTION RESEARCH PROPOSAL LETS GET LOUD!

ACTIVITIES TO HELP IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILLS AMONG MH1P2 STUDENTS)

(USING COOPERATIVE LEARNING-BASED

RESEARCHERS : NORLIANA BT HJ. IBRAHIM NORADZLINA BT KAMDANI UNIT : ENGLISH LANGUAGE 2010/ 2011

INTRODUCTION / PREVIOUS TEACHING & LEARNING In Matriculation colleges, English is taught as a compulsory subject, meaning students have to pass the subject in order be able to apply for a university course. However, it is not counted as part of students Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA). In Negeri Sembilan Matriculation College, there are two academic programmes; One-Year Programme / Program Satu Tahun or PST and Two-Year Programme / Program Dua Tahun or PDT. This future study will focus on PDT students, specifically MH1P2 students. Students in PDT are to study for two years, whereby in the first year they will learn English based on a specific syllabus for PDT students and in the second year they will follow PST English syllabus. Each year of studies consists of two semesters. This future study will be carried out in the second semester in the first year of PDT. There are four main skills emphasized in English which are listening, speaking, reading and writing. As observed by the researchers whom with almost 7 years of combined teaching experience, most students are worried when they are required participate in speaking activities. Such instance can be observed in MH1P2 class. Most of the students in MH1P2 are reluctant to speak in English when asked to do so during English lessons. PDT students have many speaking activities which they must carry out such as presenting news report and storytelling. The lecturer who teaches English to these students have tried to persuade them so that they have a sense of urgency to speak up by reprimanding them if they refused to do so. Such instance, if the lecturer poses some questions and the students are required to verbally respond but the students are reluctant to do so, the lecturer would ask all of them to stand. If they want to sit, they have to answer the questions posed by the teacher in English. There are students who responded positively, usually those who have good English proficiency or those who have good confidence level or both. Apart from that, the lecturer believes the students feel the urge to sit first than their classmates and that is why they responded, and not so much because they need to respond due to wanting to improve their speaking skills. Also, there are students who are scared to speak in English because of lack of confidence when asked to speak so in front of other students. However, not much change has taken place in terms of students behavior in being more active during speaking lessons. Instead, it seems a forced move by reprimanding the students in such a way. The lecturer feels obliged to help students be more comfortable and active participating speaking activities carried out in English lessons. Thus, it is vital for both the lecturer and researchers to investigate a more appropriate teaching and learning approach that can help MH1P2 students improve their speaking skills

ISSUES OF THE STUDY / STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM There are many skills in speaking as outlined in the Matriculation syllabus for English which are taught to the students. What many of the students are lacking of are two skills. The

first skill is to express ideas confidently and effectively. The second skill is to speak aloud with fluency and accuracy. In this study, there are two main issues which are of the concern of the researchers. Firstly, as previously mentioned, MH1P2 students with low proficiency in English are reluctant to speak when asked to do so in front of other students in class. Students fear of feeling silly when they make errors in front of their friends. And this has created a sense of awareness and concern for the ELU lecturer to find and implement a treatment on order to help these students. Thus, this brings to the second issue which is to find a better teaching and learning method that does not imply intimidation to students. Instead, it is very important to help students overcome their fear to speak in English in class and create a learning environment which encourages them to be more heartening in making effort to speak in English. An appropriate learning method should be more student-centered and help improve students communicative ability.

FOCUS OF THE STUDY / JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY In order to cater for the issues mentioned earlier on, the researchers narrow down to speaking activities based on a teaching and learning theory called cooperative learning. There have been many studies conducted in the past that proved cooperative learning has generated many benefits in helping students to demonstrate better academic achievement (Slavin, 1980, as cited in Troncale, 2002). Past studies have also shown that cooperative learning is usually effective for all ability levels (Brady and Tsay, 2010). This theory of cooperative learning was developed by the likes of John Dewey, Kurt Lewin, and Morton Deutsh in the 1930s and 1940s (Wikipedia, 2010). Johnson and Johnson (1988) defined cooperative learning as an approach which organizes classroom activities into academic and social learning experiences. Students have to work in groups to complete various tasks. This approach is a success when everyone in the group is successful. There are 5 important elements in cooperative learning which have to be met in order to promote learning. The elements are as stated by Johnson and Johnson (2002): i) Positive Interdependence Students have actively participate and make a lot of effort within their group Each group member has a responsibility for their learning and that of their group ii) Face-to-Face Promotive Interaction Students promote each others success (students in the groups) Students help one another to have a better understanding of what they have learnt iii) Individual Accountability Each student must show proficiency of the content being studied Each student is accountable for their learning and work iv) Social Skills Social skills that must be taught in order for successful cooperative learning to occur

v)

Skills include effective communication, interpersonal and group skills which include leadership, decision-making, trust-building, communication and conflictmanagement skill Group Processing Groups must assess their effectiveness and decide how it can be improved from time to time

There are many cooperative learning-based activities proposed by many proponents and researchers. In accordance to the time frame of this study, the researchers will only utilize two activities. The activities will be adapted from a list of activities proposed by Kagan (1994) (as cited in Dotson, 2001): i) Think-Pair-Share This involves a three step cooperative structure. The lecturer poses a question to the class and the students think about their response. Then students pair with a partner to discuss their ideas. Finally, students share their ideas with the class. ii) Showdown The lecturer poses questions / provide situation for students to respond to. The students are put in groups of 4 to 5 people. At first, each student writes his answer/ response on his individual response board. When everyone in the group is ready, the leader of each group says "Showdown" and team members compare and discuss their answers. The answers are then compiled and presented to the class.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY / RESEARCH QUESTIONS General Objective To explore the use of cooperative learning-based activities in helping MH1P2 students improve their speaking skills Specific Objectives i) To allow students to discuss with a partner and present in response to the questions posed by the lecturer in the Think-Pair-Share activity ii) To enable students to work in groups of 4 to 5 people in comparing and discussing different ideas in response to the questions or situations posed by the lecturer as observed during Showdown activity. Research Questions i) What are the students responses and opinions towards Think-Pair-Share activity? ii) What are the students responses and opinions towards Showdown activity?

TARGET GROUP / PARTICIPANTS The target group of this study is students of MH1P2. There are 18 of them, with 14 females and 4 males. These students are of different backgrounds and proficiency. The students level of proficiency is first observed based on their SPM results, in which four students attained

grade A, in English subject whom the researchers categorized as good students. Seven students attained B grades (intermediate students) and five students got C grades as well as two students who got minimum passing grade are categorized as weak students. These students have 3 lessons of English in a week.

PROPOSED ACTIONS Two cooperative learning-based activities will be utilized in this study. In the first week of study, Think-Pair-Share will be introduced to the students. The researchers will pair the students so the students will have the opportunity to work with partners of different proficiency and help each other as much as they can. In the second week of study, the students will be taught Showdown in which the students are grouped with other students of different level of proficiency. Each group contains low, intermediate and advanced proficiency students. The grouping of groups will be done according to their SPM English and US results. There will be 6 lessons incorporating cooperative learning in the duration of two weeks. Researcher 1 will be the observer while Researcher 2 will teach the students. Field notes will be used to record the behavioral responses that occur during the lessons. After all of the lessons have been completed, all the students/participants involved will be given a journal form for them to write down their thoughts and opinions about the lessons incorporating cooperative learningbased activities. There will also be focus group interview in which three students (low/intermediate/high proficiency) will be interviewed about their experience applying cooperative learning-based activities in speaking lessons. The interview will be transcribed. The raw data recorded in the field notes, journal form and interview transcription will be organised, coded and interpreted The outcome of this proposed study will shed some light on whether cooperative learning-based activities should be incorporated more comprehensively speaking lessons.

STUDY PROCEDURES 14 Dec 16 Dec 2010 17 Dec 2010 27 Jan 2011 28 Jan 2011 29 Jan 20 Feb 2011 21 Feb 4 Mar 2011 7 Mar 29 Mar 2011 Attend Action Research course Prepare proposal Submit proposal Gather and study relevant literatures as well as prepare 6 lesson plans, field notes, journal forms and interview questions Carry out the study by executing the lessons prepared and conducting field observation Distribute and collect journal forms, conduct focus group interview, analyse and synthesise the data obtained from field observation, journal forms and interview. Submit the Research Report

30 Mar 2011

ESTIMATED BUDGET FOR STUDY

Items A4 papers

Stationaries Printing

MP3 Voice Recorder

Purpose Budget To prepare lesson plans, field notes, journal forms and other relevant written / printed materials needed for the study Using college To write necessary materials To print lesson plans, field notes, journal forms supply and other relevant written / printed materials needed for the study To record interview

REFERENCES

Dotson, J.M. (2001). Cooperative Learning Structures Can Increase Student Achievement. Kagan Online Magazine, Winter 2001. Retrieved on January 17, 2011 from: http://www.kaganonline.com/free_articles/research_and_rationale/increase_achievement. php Johnson, R.T. & Johnson, D.W. (1988). Cooperative Learning Two Heads Is Better Than One. Transforming Education, In Context # 18. Retrieved on January 17, 2011 from: http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC18/Johnson.htm Johnson, R.T. & Johnson, D.W. (1994). An Educational Psychology Success Story: Social Interdependence Theory and Cooperative Learning. Social Psychological Applications to Social Issues, 4, pp. 9-35. Tsay, M. & Brady, M. (2010). A Case Study of Cooperative Learning and Communication Pedagogy: Does Working In Teams Make A Difference? Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 10(2), pp. 78 89. Trocale, N. (2002). Content-Based Instruction, Cooperative Learning, and CALP Instruction: Addressing the Whole Education of 7-12 ESL Students. Teachers College,Columbian University Working Papers in TESOL & Applied Linguistics 2(3). Retrieved on January 4, 2011 from: http://journals.tc-library.org/index.php/tesol/article/viewFile/19/24 Wikipedia. (2010). Cooperative Learning. Retrieved on January 2, 2011 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative_learning