TEACHING OF SPEAKING SKILLS THROUGH GROUP WORK IN LARGE CLASSES AT THE PRIMARY LEVEL IN DISTRICT MARDAN

By MOHAMMAD RAFIUDDIN

Department of English Language & Applied Linguistics ALLAMA IQBAL OPEN UNIVERSITY ISLAMABAD

June 2010

TEACHING OF SPEAKING SKILLS THROUGH GROUP WORK IN LARGE CLASSES AT THE PRIMARY LEVEL IN DISTRICT MARDAN

Submitted by Mohammad Rafiuddin Roll No 508212143 Under the supervision of

Mr. Abdul Ali Khan

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the M.A TEFL at Department of English Language & Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Social Sciences, ALLAMA IQBAL OPEN UNIVERSITY ISLAMABAD

Department of English Language & Applied Linguistics ALLAMA IQBAL OPEN UNIVERSITY ISLAMABAD

June 2010

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH THE BENEFICENT AND MOST MERCIFUL

DEDECATED TO
Mr. Mohammad Israruddin my father, who enabled me to reach this stage of life and to whom I owe everything

APPROVAL CERTIFICATE
Thesis entitled TEACHING OF SPEAKING SKILLS THROUGH GROUP WORK IN LARGE CLASSES AT THE PRIMARY LEVEL IN DISTRICT MARDAN submitted by Mohammad Rafiuddin Roll No 508212143 has been accepted by the Department of English Language & Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Social Sciences, ALLAMA IQBAL OPEN UNIVERSITY ISLAMABAD in partial fulfillment of the requirements of M.A TEFL degree.

________________ Chairman

_________________ External Examiner

_________________ Internal Examiner

Dated: ______________

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The researcher wishes to express his sincere appreciation and gratitude for the help and guidance received from the following persons who assisted in the accomplishment of this study. Without their assistance this study could not have been undertaken and brought to successful conclusion. Mr. Abdul Ali the supervisor of the thesis his enlightened and practical suggestions and extreme consideration, He was the only source of constant encouragements and re-assurance to the researcher. What I have achieved is due to his guidance, tremendous positive and constructive contributions. The researcher is extremely thankful to Mohammad Yunas for his valuable guidance and interest in the thesis he provided deep insight in the writing of the draft and technical advice during all the phases of the study. He deserves a lot of appreciation. The researcher is also thankful to the distinguished staff Mr. Umar Farooq ,Ms Iffat Jahan
,Ms Shagufta Siraj , Ms Farzana Ursani and Mr. Ajmal Gulzar Department of English Language

& Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Social Sciences AIOU Islamabad for their co-operation, guidance and selection of topic. Dr. Abdul Hafeez Chairman, Department of English Language & Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Social Sciences AIOU Islamabad deserves thanks and special appreciation for the cooperation, guidance and providing the opportunity to conduct the research. Mr. Akber Ali Khan, Mohammad Salahuddin and Mr.Sardar Ali contributed a lot to the compilation and feeding of the document and helped me in the composition of labels and analysis of the data. He spared many hours. Sometime days and nights, in spite of his

recompilation and other assessments. The writer will not forget his efforts in the completion of this study.

MOHAMMAD RAFIUDDIN

ABSTRACT

The current situation of teaching speaking skill of English language at the primary level in government schools of Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa is improper. The present methodology of teaching skill does not ensure the achievement of linguistic objectives set in the beginning of the session. The four skills are not taught with the help of appropriate techniques.

Specially speaking skill is not given proper attention in any government primary school of Mardan. There are various methodologies, which can be used for teaching of speaking skill but still majority of the teachers are using GTM for teaching verbs. The way in which speaking skill is taught is mostly emphasising reading skill. ELTs at government primary schools of Mardan promote only grammatical competence of the learners.

This paper also aims to explore the problems of speaking at primary level and tends to find out the solutions regarding this issue. Since English is a significant vehicle of communication in this era of globalization, the complications in learning and teaching these skills must be solved. Therefore, through experimental test and questionnaire survey including students and teachers, those conditions have been investigated by some statistical tools and found that the problems lie mainly within the teaching methods and techniques. Moreover, statistical association has been

tested between students satisfaction of language competence in spoken English before instruction and the level of their improvement in speaking skills after instruction.

The data was analysed in statistical manner. The conclusion was that teaching of speaking skills through group work activities can bring positive changes in the learning of speaking skill. But unfortunately the teachers do not separate the four skills. The four skills are taught in the same manner. This shows that English is not taught as a language but as a subject. The main reason for this is that English is not included in the PTC courses.

This research will be especially useful for teachers who are teaching English speaking skill at primary level. It will also help the teachers who are teaching any other subject at any level in large size classes by adopting group work activities.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1.3 SIGNIFICANT/RATIONAL OF THE STUDY 1.4 HYPOTHESIS 1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1.6 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 1.7 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY 1.8 DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY

01
08 08 09 10 11 11 12 12

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 NATURE OF GROUP WORK 2.2 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF GROUP 2.3 INSTRUCTION RELATED TO CO-OPERATIVE LEARNING (CL) IN SMALL GROUP ACTIVITIES 2.4 REVIEW OF THE RELATED STUDIES 25

13
13 14 22

CHAPTER 3 PROCEDURE OF THE STUDY

3.1 POPULATION 3.2 SAMPLING 3.3 INSTRUMENTATION 3.4 DESIGN OF THE STUDY 3.5 METHODOLOGY 3.6 DISCRIPTION OF STATISTICS AND ANALYSIS OF DATA

28
28 28 30 31 35 37

CHAPTER 4 ANALYSIS AND INTERPERTATIONS OF DATA 38

4.1 ANALYSIS OF THE PRE-TEST 4.2 ANALYSIS OF THE POST-TEST 4.3 COMPARISION OF PRE-TEST AND POST-TEST 4.4 ANALYSIS OF ATTITUDE TEST 4.5 ANALYSIS OF TEAHERS RESPONSES 4.6 ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS RESPONSES 4.7 FINDINGS 39 40 41 42 45 55 60

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

5.1 CONCLUSIONS 5.2 SUGGESTIONS

63
63 66

BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDICES

71 76

TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONS USED

A.V Aids : Audio-visual aids CL EFL ELT GTM : Co-operative learning : English as a Foreign Language : English language Teacher/ Teaching : Grammar Translation Method

Large size class: students more than forty in a class SSC HSSC : Secondary School Certificate : Higher Secondary School Certificate

M.A/M.Sc.: Master of Arts/ Master of Science PTC C.T B.Ed. M.Ed. : Primary Teaching Certificate : Certificate in Teaching : Bachelor of Education : Master of Education : Over Head Projector

OHD Projector