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 ALLAHTHE BENEFICENT

ANDMOST 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 co-

operation, 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. ELT’s 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 student’s 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 01

1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 08

1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 08

1.3 SIGNIFICANT/RATIONAL OF THE STUDY 09

1.4 HYPOTHESIS 10

1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 11

1.6 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 11

1.7 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY 12

1.8 DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY 12

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW 13

2.1 NATURE OF GROUP WORK 13

2.2 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF GROUP 14

2.3 INSTRUCTION RELATED TO CO-OPERATIVE 22

LEARNING (CL) IN SMALL GROUP ACTIVITIES

2.4 REVIEW OF THE RELATED STUDIES 25

CHAPTER 3

PROCEDURE OF THE STUDY 28

3.1 POPULATION 28

3.2 SAMPLING 28

3.3 INSTRUMENTATION 30

3.4 DESIGN OF THE STUDY 31

3.5 METHODOLOGY 35

3.6 DISCRIPTION OF STATISTICS 37

AND ANALYSIS OF DATA

CHAPTER 4

ANALYSIS AND INTERPERTATIONS OF DATA 38

4.1 ANALYSIS OF THE PRE-TEST 39

4.2 ANALYSIS OF THE POST-TEST 40

4.3 COMPARISION OF PRE-TEST AND POST-TEST 41

4.4 ANALYSIS OF ATTITUDE TEST 42

4.5 ANALYSIS OF TEAHER’S RESPONSES 45

4.6 ANALYSIS OF STUDENT’S RESPONSES 55

4.7 FINDINGS 60

CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 63

5.1 CONCLUSIONS 63

5.2 SUGGESTIONS 66

BIBLIOGRAPHY 71

APPENDICES 76

TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONS USED

A.V Aids : Audio-visual aids

CL : Co-operative learning

EFL : English as a Foreign Language

ELT : English language Teacher/ Teaching

GTM : Grammar Translation Method

Large size class: students more than forty in a class

SSC : Secondary School Certificate

HSSC : Higher Secondary School Certificate

M.A/M.Sc.: Master of Arts/ Master of Science

PTC : Primary Teaching Certificate

C.T : Certificate in Teaching

B.Ed. : Bachelor of Education

M.Ed. : Master of Education

OHD Projector : Over Head Projector