FACULTY OF EDUCATION

BACHELOR OF EDUCATION (HONS.) TEACHING ENGLISH AS A SECOND

LANGUAGE (TESL)

COURSE CODE :
EDU545 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY FOR EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

The Effectiveness of Group Work during the English Subject to Foster

English Speaking Skills among Upper Secondary School Students

PREPARED FOR :
DR. HAMIMAH HASHIM

GROUP :
ED2415A

SUBMITTED BY :
AIN NASUHA BINTI MOHD YUSOFF (2019256282)
 TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction 3

1.2 Background of the Study 4

1.3 Research Problem 5

1.4 Research Objectives 7

1.5 Research Questions 8

1.6 Significant of The Study 9

1.7 Scope/ Delimitations of Study 10

1.8 Limitations of the Study 11

1.9 Operational Definition of Terms 12

1.9.1 Group Work 12

1.9.2 Speaking Skills 12

1.9.3 Upper Secondary School Students 13

1.10 Conclusion 13

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction 14

2.2 Theoretical Background 15

2.2.1 Vygotsky’s Social Constructivism Theory 15

2.3 General Issues of the Research Topic 17

2.3.1 The Advantages of Group Work to Foster English Speaking Skills 17

2.3.2 Factors that Lead to Group Work’s Failure 18

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2.4 Conceptual Framework 19

2.5 Conclusion 20

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction 21

3.2 Research Design 21

3.3 Population and Sampling 22

3.4 Research Instrumentation 23

3.5 Pilot Study 27

3.6 Research Ethics 28

3.7 Data Collection Procedures 28

3.8 Data Analysis

3.9 Conclusion 29

REFERENCES 30

APPENDICES 34

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 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 INTRODUCTION

The English language has rapidly evolved into being the official language of 53 countries

and spoken by around 400 million people all over the world. As the most common second

language, mastering English could provide you with many advantages especially in connecting

with many people across the globe (Zeeshan, 2021). Since English is widely spoken in the world,

the act of teaching and learning English in Malaysia is also flourishing rapidly day by day.

Furthermore, as written in the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025, one of the six key

attributes needed by every student in this country to be globally competitive is to have bilingual

proficiency. This means that when the student graduates from high school, he or she should be

able to work in both a Bahasa Malaysia and an English-speaking environment. There are four

main skills in English, but the common skill that students and many English as Second Language

(ESL) learners find the hardest one to practice is speaking. There are many obstacles and

challenges people must face when it comes to speaking English with others, and one of them is

the anxiety of making mistakes. According to Horwitz et al. (1986) as cited in Sandra et al.

(2020), “the major causes of language anxiety are communication apprehension, fear of negative

evaluation and test anxiety.” Therefore, teachers have to use different teaching techniques which

would increase the students’ ability to speak English effectively (Marla, 2020).

There are many methods that can be applied and one of them is group work. Learners like

to spend more time doing collaborative work because it allows them to acquire more information

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and improve their social analysis abilities. A flexible style of learners interacting with one

another is a good influence of group work. It is thought to be an important reason for active

communication, which is the motivation for learning a language (Ruben, 2010 as cited in Doa’a,

2017). This research is done after considering there are many factors that can affect the

effectiveness in successfully implementing this technique among the students, as well as

strategies that could be done by the teachers in ensuring this method could be beneficial to polish

their students’ ability in speaking the second language. The students’ point of view on whether

this method is working on them or not is also one of the important reasons why this research is

undertaken.

In addition, this chapter has included the background of the study, research problem,

research objectives, research questions, significance of the study, delimitations of the study,

limitations, operational definition of terms and lastly, conclusion of the chapter.

1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The widespread usage of English as a lingua franca by the majority of people around the

world has essentially characterized global progress in this twenty-first century (Marla, 2020).

Everyone is aware of the fact that this language is used and exists in many settings around the

world, such as in business, marketing, advertisements, education, and so on. Therefore, in

Malaysia context, in order to produce more students who have the ability to be proficient in

English for the purpose of widen their potential to be able to compete globally, English language

subject has been an essential subject that is compulsory to be taught in all educational levels,

from the kindergarten up until the higher education. English consists of four main skills to be

mastered to consider yourself as a fluent English user, which are speaking, reading, writing and

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listening. Among these four, the one that most ESL learners find the hardest to excel in is the

speaking skills. Even though listening, speaking, reading, and writing abilities carry equivalent

importance towards English learners, speaking skill generally takes precedence over the others

since speaking and communication occurs frequently in one’s everyday life, both in formal and

informal contexts (Agatheswari & Maslawati, 2019).

Undeniably, every single thing in this life, if you want to be skillful in it, practice and

exercise that you do consistently could really elevate your level in that particular skill. Just like

speaking English, it takes time and requires a lot of exercise for you to improve the way you

speak in English and to increase the level of your fluency in speaking it (Marla, 2020). As cited

in Marla (2020), Brown (1994: 225) has mentioned in his study that “one of the obstacles in

learning speaking is the anxiety generated over the risks of blurting things out that are wrong,

stupid or incomprehensible”. From Brown’s statement, we can conclude that one of the biggest

factors that stops the potential of Malaysian students to master English speaking skills is the

feeling of shyness and fear of making mistakes while speaking in front of other people.

As we know, there are various strategies teachers could plan and execute during an

English class to enhance the students’ English proficiency as a whole, such as playing games,

guided-note taking, storytelling activities, song rendition during the lesson and many more

methods which could be done either individually or in groups among the students. Therefore, this

study focuses on the implementation of group work during the English subject to really bring

great outcomes needed by the students, which is mastery in English skills, specifically the

speaking skills. Between individual work and group work in the classroom, group work has

become the main subject of this study after considering there are many factors which could

restrain the advantages of this student-centered method to being performed among the students.

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According to Marla (2020), the circumstances that could possibly become the obstacles in

performing group work during a lesson are such as the learners’ motivation, the students’ lack of

interest, different social background among the students, etc. However, based on a study by

Doa’a (2017), as a proposed teaching technique, group work has a favorable impact on students’

speaking performance and motivates them to create effective learning outcomes. Nowadays,

group work has evolved into not just a necessary component of teaching speaking skills, but also

a challenging and exciting nontraditional teaching technique. Based on these statements, the

researcher takes into consideration the group work method as a recommended strategy in order to

improve students’ English speaking skills. Therefore, the focus of this study is directed towards

the research to investigate whether or not using group work during English lessons is effective to

improve ESL learners’ skills and confidence in speaking English.

1.3 RESEARCH PROBLEM

Scholars have been debating the most prevalent strategies used by effective language

learners. Oxford (2016), as cited in Nur et. al, (2018), argues that emotions can influence a

person’s learning process. Aside from their differences, few experts believe that the ability to

utilize the target language in real-life situations is the most important factor for language learners

to succeed (Rubin, 1975; Stern, 1975 as cited in Nur et. al, 2018). Active participation in the task

at hand, perceiving language as a system, viewing language learning as a process of interaction

and communication, effectively managing their emotions and affective skills, and finally,

evaluating their efficiency in the target language are some of the main strategies accomplished

by the successful ESL learners during their second language acquisition (Nur et. al, 2018).

Moving to the perspective of a teacher, it is undeniable that having to teach English

among second language learners is not as easy or as simple as it seems. English teachers have to

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constantly adjust their teaching techniques and apply differentiation strategies in lessons for the

purpose of getting to cater to all students’ needs according to their proficiency. Harris (2003) as

cited in Marla (2020), stated that teachers can use a range of teaching strategies, as well as

knowledge of student levels and execution of which strategies are best for certain students, to

determine which teaching approaches will be most beneficial for their students. On the other

hand, according to Marla (2020) there are many aspects, such as the learners’ differences,

learners’ motivation and teachers’ role that contribute to why one strategy or method utilized by

the teacher was unsuccessful in teaching English effectively.

As being one of the many techniques teachers could execute during English lessons, there

are a few considerations teachers have to put in mind before applying the group work technique

to their teaching and learning session such as the students’ different social background, learners’

motivation along with their interest. According to Harmer (2001) as cited in Marla (2020), a

whole-class grouping has both practical benefits and drawbacks, despite its significant

restrictions. Group work has certain downsides, such as not giving individual students an equal

opportunity to express themselves, which is also not being an effective approach to organize

collaborative language education or explicitly task-based sequences, and so on. Based on a study

done by Nurah (2017) which entitled “Benefits and Difficulties of Learning in Group Work in

EFL Classes in Saudi Arabia”, some students in her study mentioned challenges regarding

working in groups, most of which were related to student behavior and could lead to

uncooperative group work. Her findings demonstrated that students consider group work to be

helpful to their learning, but that some students’ behavior problems may hinder them from

benefiting from it.

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 Another crucial statement made by Nurah (2017) based on the findings of her study is

although group work may assist English language learners in improving their language skills,

working with other students can occasionally be counterproductive to some group members. As

presented in the findings of her study, learners stated that they sometimes considered working in

groups to be a “waste of time.” This was especially true in mixed-ability groups, which required

students of varying levels of ability to cooperate. Some students complained that in these groups,

several students approach their friends for help far too frequently. In their opinion, this behavior

might bother other members of the group, as it would disrupt their focus. Other than that, based

on one of the interview excerpts with a male student named Mohannad, he claimed that different

capabilities in group work might lead to time waste because some learners require longer time to

fully comprehend concepts. When you learn individually, Mohannad feels that this obstacle does

not exist. Another crucial point found in her study is that some students would occasionally ask

others for clarifications in their mother-tongue language which is Arabic if they didn’t

comprehend the English explanation. While it may be easier for some students to explain the

concept in their native language, this could also frustrate more advanced learners, who perceive

this as detracting from their English learning progress.

After going through Nurah’s study, I can totally relate the problems faced with the

Malaysian classroom setting. Since most public high schools in Malaysia consist of Malay

students as the majority of the students in the school, Malay language has become the language

used to communicate in every setting of the school. Therefore, even during the group work or

pair work done during the English lessons, students would feel more comfortable to talk in

Malay language despite it being an English lesson as it would feel awkward to talk in the second

language with the friends that we are close with. However, I believe English teachers can play a

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role here by initiating a rule where the students who work in groups are obligated to only speak

in English or else they will be fined or marks will be deducted, to encourage them to speak in

English even while discussing among them while working in groups.

Given all the problems of group work stated above, this research aims to investigate how

beneficial it really is to work in groups, in terms of enhancing the students’ English speaking

skills and to see whether this learning method brings out more good or bad towards the learners

during the second language acquisition to truly clarify and emphasize its effectiveness.

1.4 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effectiveness of group work during

English subjects to foster English speaking skills among upper secondary school students, by

obtaining the students’ perspectives regarding group work along with the problems they faced

during group work, besides exploring the strategies done by English teachers to improve group

work effectiveness to enhance students’ speaking skills. Additionally, this study would give a

clearer perspective to see and evaluate whether group work does help elevate the students’ ability

to speak English confidently or it is not able to deliver the advantage it is supposed to give in

improving ESL learners’ speaking skills, specifically among the upper secondary school

students. The objectives the researcher has constructed for this study are:

1. To identify the students’ perceptions on the effectiveness of group work to foster their

English speaking skills.

2. To investigate the problems faced by the students during group work activities during the

English subject.

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 3. To explore the English teachers’ strategies to improve group work effectiveness in

fostering students’ English speaking skills.

1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Based on the three research objectives mentioned above, here are the research questions

for this study that the researcher aimed to find the answers to:

1. What are the students’ perceptions on the effectiveness of group work to foster their

English speaking skills?

2. What are the problems faced by the students during group work activities during the

English subject?

3. What are the English teachers’ strategies to improve group work effectiveness in

fostering students’ English speaking skills?

1.6 SIGNIFICANT OF THE STUDY

I have decided to come up with this study as I believe it is very crucial to determine the

effectiveness of executing group work as one of the ways to improve and develop the upper

secondary school students’ proficiency in speaking English. This is because after years of taking

the TESL course for my degree, I have developed and planned so many lesson plans and doing

microteaching which involves the implementation of group work as one of the methods to

improve the students’ social skills while being collaborative with others. However, based on my

own experience and other people’s experiences who have been in group work during the English

lesson ever since primary school, we all know that most of us would speak in our native

language, the Malay language during discussion which hinder us as students from getting the

benefits of being in a group and practice our English speaking skills without having to speak in

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front of many people. This study is also important as it has listed and elaborated on many past

researches regarding the benefits and drawbacks of having group work to improve the students’

English speaking skills. While there are many lists of significant pros and cons for this approach,

there was never one that made a comparison between the good and downsides of this study for

the purpose of improving high school students’ English speaking abilities in Malaysian context.

Therefore, by initiating this research, anyone would be able to see either how much group work

really helps in developing the students’ self-confidence to speak in English or if this method

would not be able to work in implementing its goal within the students due to many factors.

Hopefully, learning institutions and English teachers could obtain benefits from my

research so they would be more aware of the problems that occurred among their students during

group work. By being aware of this issue, then the next step is many effective strategies and

approaches could be done in order to make sure this method is able to bring the benefits it is

supposed to deliver in developing the students’ ability and fluency to speak in English in a safe

space.

1.7 SCOPE/ DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

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 Since the purpose of my study is to investigate the effectiveness of group work during the

English subject to foster English speaking skills among upper secondary school students, I aimed

to do this research among the Form 4 and Form 5 students of SMK Bandar Puchong Jaya (A)

located in Puchong Jaya, Puchong. The methods that I am going to use for this research are

surveys and interviews. There are two classes I have picked to become the sample of my survey,

one class which is 4 Epson from the Form 4 students which consists of 28 students and one class

named as 5 Benq from the Form 5 students which consists of 30 students altogether. Therefore,

there will be 58 surveys that will be evaluated for this research, in hope their perspectives are

enough to represent other students’ perspectives regarding the group work activity.

Next, there will be two English teachers that will be interviewed for this research. Both of

the teachers are from the same school, which is SMK Bandar Puchong Jaya (A). The first

English teacher is Mrs Anuratha A/P Sriramuloo and another one English teacher is Ms Celina

Christian. The school that is chosen to be the researcher’s venue to conduct the study, which is

SMK Bandar Puchong Jaya (A) is the where the practicum of the researcher is done. Therefore,

it would be convenient for the researcher to gather all the data needed while finishing practicum

at this school. Then, both of the teachers are chosen to be interviewed because both of them

plays important parts during the researcher’s practicum. Mrs Anuratha is the Head of Panel for

the English language subject at the school, while Ms Celine is the researcher’s mentor during the

practicum. Hence, the researcher has already formed a bond or familiarity with them both which

makes the interview will be easily conducted. Besides that, the researcher finds it interesting to

interview two English teachers to explore their personal strategies in improving the efficiency of

group work in fostering their students’ English speaking skills. Furthermore, the two classes who

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are the sample for the survey which are 4 Epson And 5 Benq are both the classes that Ms Celina

and Mrs Anuratha are teaching for their English subject.

For the survey, the questionnaires are created in physical form, which will be distributed

during the class that they have with Ms Celina and Mrs Anuratha. The researcher is planning to

take some time from the English period of the class to explain about the purpose of the study and

giving them some time to answer the questionnaire. Then, for the interview, both of the

interviews are held physically by meeting face to face during the school hours at the school

whenever both Ms Celina and Mrs Anuratha will be having free time in between classes or after

school hours. It would be convenient for both the researcher and teachers since both parties will

always be at school and easier for the interview to be conducted anytime. Besides that, the

researcher can use the time remaining during the practicum at the school to enquire both the

teachers regarding any issue with the result of the questionnaire or interviews.

1.8 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

One of the limitations that the researcher found for this study is for the interview, the

research sample is only two English teachers from the same school, which is from SMK Bandar

Puchong Jaya (A). This small number of samples shows that the result that is derived from the

interview session possibly is not able to represent the overall population of English teachers

regarding their strategies to improve group work effectiveness in fostering students’ English

speaking skills. However, it is sufficient enough to answer the last research question of this

research which is to explore the methods they would personally take to make sure group work is

efficient during the English lesson to develop learners’ speaking abilities since it comes from two

different perspectives of teachers from different backgrounds.

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1.9 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS

1.9.1 GROUP WORK

Based on the analysis of plenty of research that is related to this study, there are

many different definitions of group work from the mind of researchers, but generally they

all carry similar meaning. According to Cohen (1994:1) as cited in Alaa & Qasim (2019),

group work is defined as “students working together in a group small enough so that

everyone can participate on a task that has been clearly assigned”. Other than that,

Stenaasen and Sletta (2000:25-26) as cited in Alaa & Qasim (2019) explain group work

as “a group consists of two or more people who have a mutual influence on each other

and are mutually dependent on another in the sense that they have to trust each other to

get their needs satisfied and achieve their goals.” In addition, Johnson, Johnson and

Smith (1991) as found in the research by Doa’a (2017) has defined group work as

students’ participation in a collaborative activity in which they share their tasks and goals

in order to complete and finish the specified assignment. The most effective strategy to

enable learners to become more engaged in the learning process is by providing

opportunities for them to improve their reasoning abilities, which will help them become

more competent at innovating and adapting to new situations. As a result, language

classrooms must be designed in such a way that speaking skills are enhanced to the

greatest extent possible. In this situation, using group work to develop speaking skills

overcomes the problem because it includes both cooperative and collaborative effort from

the students.

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1.9.2 SPEAKING SKILLS

The Oxford Dictionary defines speaking as “the ability or skill to say something

in order to transmit information or express a feeling.” (Doa’a, 2017). In general, speaking

refers to the spoken use of language in which humans need to interact with one another in

everyday settings to express ideas, wants, opinions, and emotions (Doa’a, 2017).

According to Chaney and Burk (1998) as cited in Doa’a (2017), the physical

environment, participation, students’ experience, and the goals of speaking are all

influenced by the context in which they occur. In addition, Thornbury (2005) as cited in

Doa’a (2017), stated that foreign language speaking is different from the first language

speaking in aspects of learners’ lack of vocabulary and grammar understanding. We can

also relate this statement within the Malaysian context, because even though English is

regarded as the second language in the country, it is still seen as a foreign language by

many Malaysian from various races due to the unfamiliarity of using the language in their

daily basis.

1.9.3 UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

The secondary or high school education in Malaysia is divided into two levels,

which are lower and upper secondary levels. The upper secondary school students consist

of Form 4 and Form 5 students with the age of 16 and 17 respectively. For these students,

they are divided into many streams of core subjects according to their own preference

such as science, accounting, arts, religious, and technical or vocational studies.

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1.10 CONCLUSION

As a conclusion for this chapter, this chapter has presented the introduction of the

research which revolves around the importance of English speaking skills and some benefits and

problems of executing group work during the English subject to foster English speaking skills

among upper secondary school students. The research objectives and research questions which

are the two most important guidelines in making sure this research is guided were also presented

in this chapter. This chapter is useful to give a brief insight on how the overall outcome of the

study will be. In the next chapter, which is Chapter 2, we will dig deeper regarding the main

issue of this study, by listing thorough thoughts from past studies and researches which the

researcher believed are suitable to be used as they are related to this study. The next chapter

generally will be focusing on past research regarding this issue, theoretical background and

conceptual framework along with other ideas that complement the overall chapter.

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 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 INTRODUCTION

As we are moving towards a more developmental 21st century, everybody in this country

is aware of how significant it is to have a proper English education to survive the fast-paced

modern world. This is because so far, English is the lingua franca of many countries in the world,

which could make you able to compete with others from the outside of this country. Since

English is the only way, you could communicate with others whose first language is different

from ours, we have no choice but to play along and use the language that both parties have

knowledge in, which is the English language. Therefore, the best way to make sure many citizens

in this country get to be more competent internationally, the first step is to polish their English

proficiency ever since their primary and high school years.

This is where the English teachers play a huge role in, which is to determine the best

possible strategy to get their students to be interested in learning English. Not just learning it, but

also practicing it outside of the classroom on a daily basis. One of the best methods is by having

them work in groups during English lessons to lessen their anxiety or shyness to practice the

language in front of the whole class. This way, the students would feel safe and can talk at their

own pace without worrying much about the barrier they have in speaking English. However, it is

still creating doubts within the researcher’s mind on whether or not group work during English

lessons is able to assist students to be more confident in speaking English. Therefore, this chapter

2 will give more justifications, findings and elaborations that were done by past researchers who

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have studied the similar case as this study. By the end of this chapter, it can be clearly identified

the benefits and drawbacks group work really brings in delivering its intended advantage based

on this study which is fostering their English speaking skills.

2.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.2.1 VYGOTSKY’S SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM THEORY

Lev Vygotsky proposed social constructivism as a learning theory in 1968.

Language and culture, according to the theory, are the foundations by which humans

experience, communicate, and comprehend reality. Language and culture, according to

Vygotsky, are crucial in human intellectual growth as well as how people see the world.

This means that concepts are transferred through language, which is then received and

applied through experience and connections in a sociocultural context. Because cognitive

frameworks are produced by a group of people who share a common language and

culture, knowledge not only is socially constructed but also co-constructed. While the

constructivist views knowledge as something students create on their own based on their

experiences in their surroundings, the social constructivist views knowledge as something

students create in cooperation with other students, educators, and peers. Social

constructivism is a form of cognitive constructivism that stresses collaborative learning,

whether with the help of a facilitator or with the help of other students (Vera et. al, 2020).

According to Vera et. al, (2020), social constructivism is a collaborative learning

approach that emphasizes student involvement, discussion, and knowledge exchange. It is

the teacher’s responsibility to use learner-centered and collaborative teaching approaches.

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The essential element is that students collaborate in groups to share ideas, solve

problems, or just come up with new ideas to add to their existing knowledge. This

learning theory stresses active interaction among learners, the teacher, as well as other

elements of the process of teaching and learning rather than teacher monotony in the

classroom. It also concretizes knowledge and information by causing learners to

remember facts that they uncover and construct themselves rather than those that the

teacher tells them, among other advantages.

According to Lynch (2016), social worlds emerge from people’s engagement with

their society and culture, according to the social constructivism theory. Essentially, every

interaction or meeting involving two or more people offers the possibility of gaining new

knowledge or expanding existing knowledge. Here, the sharing of opinions that comes

with human interaction is at work. Teachers and school administrators must adjust and

modify their viewpoints in order to use social constructivism theories in the classroom.

Both must transition from being “teachers” to “facilitators of learning.” A good

constructivist teacher would question students’ answers, regardless of whether they are

correct or incorrect, to ensure that the student understands the concept. Instructors should

also require their students to clarify their answers and not allow them to utilize terms or

equations without explanation. They also should encourage and motivate students to

think about what they’ve answered (Lynch, 2016). In conclusion, this learning theory is

the most suitable to be related to the aim of this study, since it involves the combination

of social presence and collaborative work with other people in order to create new

knowledge, just like how the students would foster their speaking skills during group

work in English lessons.

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 Figure 1: Social Constructivism Theory

2.3 GENERAL ISSUES OF THE RESEARCH TOPIC

2.3.1 The Advantages of Group Work to Foster English Speaking Skills

Students were asked to sit together, face each other, and freely discuss

various themes during group work sessions. This scenario fosters open

communication, allowing students to freely utilize the language in the classroom

without needing to feel self-conscious (Marla, 2020). Group work activities

normally consist of discussion in groups of up to four students in order to provide

each student with the greatest chance to engage in all speaking activities

(Abdullah, 2016 as cited in Marla, 2020). Blair (2016) as cited in Marla (2020),

claimed there are five pedagogic benefits that can be derived from group work.

Based on her study, group work (1) enhances the number of possibilities for

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 language practise and (2) helps to improve the quality of the students’

conversations in a variety of ways. They can exercise a functionally broader

speech repertoire by engaging in “exploratory” talk. (3) Group work also assists

in the personalization of teaching, potentially allowing learners to practice at their

own pace and with varied materials. (4) It could increase the classroom’s effective

climate, as shy or linguistically anxious students are benefited from the formation

of small groups. Finally, due to the benefits listed in (1) through (4) and the

pedagogic variation it gives to a lesson, group activity can help energize and

motivate students during an English lesson. There are many benefits of

implementing group work methods during English lessons in fostering the

students’ English speaking skills as stated in the study by Marla (2020). As

mentioned in her study, according to La’biran (2017), the group discussion

method enhances students’ speaking abilities and boosts their activity. Arifin, et

al. (2014) also discovered through research that the fluency of students improves

the most when group work is used. This happened because students always

practise speaking and utilize self-correction to control their speaking pace and

correctness.

2.3.2 Factors that Lead to Group Work’s Failure

There are numerous reasons why group work fails. When students work in

groups, they must consider factors such as those listed below (David, 2011 as

cited in Alaa & Qasim, 2019):

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a. Environmental influences - Distance is one of the main reasons why groups fail

to attain success. Due to the separation of each student, the students are unable to

work, causing a delay in accomplishing their goals.

b. Goals - Another primary factor why collaboration teamwork fails is that other

group members do not participate. The group members rely on the brilliant

student to do his/her tasks, causing stress and putting a lot of pressure on that

student, which results in failure.

c. Roles - Another major reason why group work fails is that group members are

unclear of what they are supposed to perform and what their role is in the group.

d. Competition vs. Cooperation- The students fail to play their part as a team

because each student is concentrating on attaining a goal and defeating his or her

group mates, rather than keeping focused and partnering with his or her fellow

members in order to accomplish a group objective and finish the project.

e. Feedback - The lack of feedback provided by the teacher and learners amongst

themselves is the primary reason why group work fails. This concept provides

people an understanding of what they're lacking and fills in the gaps. This strategy

reroutes the student and directs them in the appropriate direction.

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 f. Lack of resources - The group fails because it lacks the necessary resources to

complete the task. This indicates that they lack sufficient information or materials

to complete their project.

2.4 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The students’ perceptions The

of group work to foster effectiveness Students are
speaking skills of group work able to
during the foster their
The problems faced by English subject English
the students during to foster English speaking
group work activities speaking skills skills
among upper through
English teachers’ secondary
strategies to improve group work
school students
group work
effectiveness

Figure 2: Conceptual Framework

Based on the conceptual framework above, there are three factors which can determine

the effectiveness of the group work strategy during the English lesson to foster upper secondary

school students’ speaking skills. These three factors are taken from the objectives of this

research. Firstly, by finding out the students’ perceptions of executing group work to foster

speaking skills among them, the students will state the benefits they obtained from working in a

group, such as group work really does help them to be more confident in speaking English,

decrease their insecurities to speak English among their group members, obtain confidence by

hearing other members speaking English and so on. There could also be possible downsides the

23
students could derive from group work, by the anxiousness they feel by having to express their

ideas using the second language, or they often use Malay during discussion when their teacher is

not observing them, and many more. Secondly, by getting to know the problems faced by the

students during group work, such as unclear instructions by the teacher, limited materials to

complete a task and short period of time given to discuss could give an emphasis which the

obstacles students’ face in order to speak proper English during group discussion is not just due

to the internal factors coming from the students themselves. The last factor is the strategies made

by the English teachers themselves to improve the group work effectiveness in fostering the

students’ English speaking ability. This factor is significant as each teacher has their own method

in teaching which they find best to implement in their lesson especially during group work, to

ensure the students could fully use the opportunity they have during English class to speak and

discuss in English, as they probably won’t practise that language outside of the classroom.

Therefore, all of these three factors combined, influence the effectiveness of group work during

the English subject to foster English speaking skills among upper secondary school students as

seen on the figure of conceptual framework. Lastly, by finding out that group work is actually

beneficial and brings many advantages more than the drawbacks, we can conclude that students

are able to foster their ability to speak in English through group work that is performed during

English classes.

2.5 CONCLUSION

To conclude, Chapter 2 has discussed the theoretical framework related to this study

which is Vygotsky’s Social Constructivism Theory. Other than that, the general issues of the

topics have also been listed and elaborated by using references from past research which the

24
researcher finds relevant and suitable to include in explaining the issues in detail. Lastly, a

demonstration on the conceptual framework made based on the content of this study has also

been presented in this chapter. Then, in the next chapter which is Chapter 3, the topics that will

be explicitly covered are the research design of the study, population and sampling,

instrumentations of the research, pilot study, research ethics, data collection procedures and

research analyses.

25
 CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 INTRODUCTION

The main purpose of this study is to explore the development of upper secondary school

students’ English speaking skills during the implementation of group work as one of the methods

used during English lessons. The content of this chapter is filled with explanations on how the

research for this topic is conducted from the beginning until the final stage. A thoroughly

planned research is important to make sure the research questions of this study are able to be

answered by obtaining reliable results which can be used as references and benefitted other

parties later on. A proper research to conduct this study is also crucial to ensure all of the

objectives constructed for this research can be accomplished, which consists of: (1) To identify

the students’ perceptions on the effectiveness of group work to foster their English speaking

skills, (2) To investigate the problems faced by the students during group work activities during

the English subject, and (3) To explore the English teachers’ strategies to improve group work

effectiveness in fostering students’ English speaking skills.

In this chapter which is Chapter 3, the topics that will be explicitly covered are the

research design of the study, population and sampling, instrumentations of the research, pilot

study, research ethics, data collection procedures and research analyses.

26
3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN

In this research, the researcher has used a mixed method as the research approach which

consists of both quantitative and qualitative approach to gain results from the study’s sample,

which are the Form 4 and Form 5 SMK Bandar Puchong Jaya (A) students and two upper

secondary English teachers. The reason why mixed method approach is the best way to

complement this study is because it can help in finding more detailed data to be used in this

study. For a quantitative approach, the most suitable method to collect the data among the high

school students is through surveys. According to Cherry (2020), a survey is a type of data

gathering tool that is used to collect information about people. In psychology research, surveys

are often used to acquire self-report data from participants in the study. A survey might try to

acquire factual information about an individual or it can try to acquire the survey respondents’

opinions. Other than that, surveys allow researchers to gather a large amount of data in a very

short amount of time. Scientists can quickly obtain a big number of responses, allowing them to

work with a large amount of data. A survey is being used to explore a group of people’s

qualities, actions, or opinions. A survey is also able to pose questions concerning demographic

information like gender, religion, race, and income. Lastly, they can also gather data on personal

experiences, viewpoints, and even hypothetical situations (Cherry, 2020). Based on these

reasons, they have all explained the purpose of the researcher’s choice in using surveys to gain

data from the upper secondary school students, as it involves a large number of people.

Next, for the qualitative approach, the best method to gain data from the English teachers

is through interviews. According to Easwaramoorthy & Zarinpoush (2006), an interview is a

27
session in which information is gathered. An interviewee and an interviewer are involved in a

research interview. The interviewer manages the interaction and asks questions, while the

interviewee reacts to the research question. Interviews are the most successful method for

qualitative research because they allow you to clarify, better comprehend, and examine the

viewpoints, behavior, experiences, and phenomena of your study participants. The majority of

interview questions are open-ended, allowing for the collection of detailed information (Virginia

Tech, 2018).

3.3 POPULATION AND SAMPLING

A research population is a big group of people or items that are the subject of a scientific

question (Explorable.com, 2009). A population is made up of all the things or events of a

particular category about which researchers want to learn more. Also, a population might be

broad or narrow (Allen, 2017). The population of this study for quantitative research is the Form

4 and Form 5 students of SMK Bandar Puchong Jaya (A). This school is chosen to be a part of

this study as this is the school where the researcher’s practicum period is held, which means she

is familiar with the schools and it makes it easier to conduct research on those schools. From this

population, a few samples which are two upper secondary classes consisting of 58 students are

chosen to represent the population. The two classes I have picked to become the sample of my

survey is the first one, a Form 4 class which is 4 Epson which consists of 28 students and one

class named as 5 Benq from the Form 5 students which consists of 30 students altogether.

Next, the population for conducting the qualitative research is the upper secondary

English teachers from SMK Bandar Puchong Jaya (A). The first English teacher is Mrs Anuratha

A/P Sriramuloo and another one English teacher is Ms Celina Christian. Both of the teachers are

chosen to be interviewed because both of them plays important parts during the researcher’s

28
practicum. Mrs Anuratha is the Head of Panel for the English language subject at the school,

while Ms Celine is the researcher’s mentor during the practicum. Hence, the researcher has

already formed a bond or familiarity with them both which makes the interview will be easily

conducted. Besides that, the researcher finds it interesting to interview two English teachers to

explore their personal strategies in improving the efficiency of group work in fostering their

students’ English speaking skills. Furthermore, the two classes who are the sample for the survey

which are 4 Epson And 5 Benq are both the classes that Ms Celina and Mrs Anuratha are

teaching for their English subject.

3.4 RESEARCH INSTRUMENTATION

For the instrumentation, firstly, a list of questionnaires will be created which will be

distributed physically during the school period. The researcher will ask permission from Mrs

Anuratha and Ms Celina to take some of their time during the English period for 4 Epson and 5

Benq in order for the survey to be distributed to the students and giving them some time to

answer it. Before the survey is distributed, the purpose of the study will be explained to the

students besides asking for their permission to use their answers for the purpose of the research.

Then, for the interview, a list of interview questions will be prepared. The data that have

managed to be obtained by the teachers are by verbal responses. Interview is the most suitable

method to answer the third research question which is “What are the English teachers’ strategies

to improve group work effectiveness in fostering students’ English speaking skills?” as the

researcher is aiming to get a well-explained and detailed explanation by the teachers, which is

not practical to be done through surveys. Besides that, other elements such as body language,

tone, emotions and language used by the teacher can also be seen and admitted during the

29
interview session. Both of the interviews are held physically as it is easier to have interviews

with both of Mrs Anuratha and Ms Celina during the school hours whenever they have the free

time. The format of the interview is semi-formal, where there are some follow up questions

based on their answers that can be asked during the interview, besides having a question and

answer session in a casual way without having to use formal language.

Below are the question samples for the questionnaires and interview session that will be

asked to the study’s samples. The questionnaire questions are taken from the study by Prof. Dr.

Qasim Obayes Al-azzawi from the University of Babylon alongside Lect. Alaa Baji Al-Khazali

from the University of Kufa under the research entitled “Group Work Effectiveness in English

Language Teaching” published in 2019. For the questionnaire for my study, it consists of both

structured and unstructured questions. For the structured questionnaire, the students have limited

answers for it and for the unstructured questionnaire, the students can answer the questions

freely. The structured questions consist of likert scale questions, where the students have to

choose from 4 options which are strongly agree, agree, disagree and strongly disagree. For the

original questionnaire, they only consist of likert scale questions, but in order to complement my

research questions, I mixed one unstructured question into one of the questions that require

further elaborations. The first question also has been changed to better fix this research.

Item No. The Questions

1. When working in a group, do you find it to be useful for you?

Edited question: When working in a group, do you find group work is useful to

30
 improve your English speaking ability?

Additional question: If yes, how do you think it is useful to help you speak in

English?

2. Do you face any problems when involved in a group?

3. Does every group member cooperate in completing the assignment?

4. Did every teacher provide your group with a safe working environment?

5. Do you prefer to work in a group?

6. Did the discussions among group members relate to the project?

7. Did the group members listen to each other's ideas?

8. When involved in a group, did the group members manage their time efficiently?

9. Do you think it is a good method for learning?

10. Did you use outside resources rather than the ones your teacher gave you?

Table 1: The Original and Adapted Questionnaire Questions

Meanwhile, for the interview questions, the questions are taken from a study by Farah Zulkefly

and Abu Bakar Razali in a study called “Malaysian Rural Secondary School Students’ Attitudes

towards Learning English as a Second Language” published in 2019. For this interview question,

the researcher was not able to find research that asked questions to English teachers regarding

31
the group work method. Therefore, the researcher will make improvements and adapt from the

questions presented in the study.

Item No. Interview Questions

1. i) Personal Backgrounds

Can you tell me about yourself?

Which class are you from?

Edited question: What are the classes you are currently teaching?

2. ii) Social background

Edited: Teaching Background

Where do you live?

Edited question: Where are you currently teaching?

How long have you been in rural area?

Edited question: How long have you been teaching?

Have you ever lived at any other place? Where?

Edited question: Have you ever taught at any other school? Where?

What is the major race in your residential area?

32
 Edited question: What is the major race in the school you are currently

teaching?

If you talk to your neighbours, what is the language that you would usually use?

Edited question: When you communicate with your students, what is the

language that you would usually use?

Do your parents know how to communicate in English?

Edited question: What are the proficiency of the students you are teaching?

How often do you use English as a medium of communication at home?

Edited question: How often do you use group work as a medium of learning

during your class?

3. iii) Attitude towards English Language Learning

Edited: Attitude towards English Language Teaching

What is your opinion about English learning?

Edited question: What is your opinion about using group work to enhance the

students’ English speaking skills?

Additional question: What are the strategies you would use to ensure your

students will speak in English throughout the whole discussion while working in

33
 groups?

Do you think English is important? Why or why not?

Edited question: Do you think English speaking abilities are important? Why or

why not?

Table 1: The Original and Adapted Interview Questions

3.5 PILOT STUDY

A pilot study is executed to test the validity, reliability and effectiveness of the

instrument used in this study. For the questionnaire questions, pilot study is determined by using

the Cronbach Alpha Values with values more than 0.7. Meanwhile, for the interview, it will be

performed by running an observation towards the samples which are the English teachers, by

giving them samples of the questions before the interview is held. This is to make sure the

teachers understood the questions firsthand before proceeding with the interview sessions. Also,

the time of the interview session will also be recorded to estimate the timing that is practical for

the interview.

3.6 RESEARCH ETHICS

Research ethics encompasses a wide range of beliefs, practices, and institutional

frameworks that help to define and control scientific operations. Research ethics is a practical

codification of scientific morals. The basic standards and ideals of the research community are

specified in research ethics guidelines (Research Ethics Committees, 2019). Since the researcher

34
is using personal data and experiences along with thoughts derived from the respondents, it is

truly crucial to ensure that the respondents are aware of the procedures.

Before the respondents start to ask questions towards the students in the questionnaire, a

brief explanation of the purpose of the study is stated to give awareness towards the students on

how their information will be used for the study. The researcher will also mention that all of the

data given by the respondents in this study are all private and confidential, which are only used

for the purpose of the study. This is to give assurance towards them that the data they have

inserted will always be safe in the hand of the researcher.

Then, for the interview session, the researcher will distribute a consent form to the

respondents which are the English teachers before the interview is being held. This is to create an

agreement whereby they will answer the questions truthfully and they will follow the procedures

of the interview. Other than that, in the form, the respondents will also be informed that all of the

information they have given during the session are recorded and will only be used for the

purpose of the research.

3.7 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURES

Since this study is held physically for both survey and interview approach, the researcher

must firstly approach both Mrs Anuratha and Ms Celina during school hours to ask about their

willingness in participating in the research. Both of them will be informed by the researcher

about their participation for the interview at least one (1) week before the date of the interview

session to ensure their readiness and to make sure everything is well-planned. Then, through Mrs

Anuratha and Ms Celina, the researcher will ask for permission to ask some of their time during

their English subject period to enter class 4 Epson and 5 Benq to execute the distribution of

35
questionnaire. Then, in the class, the researcher will explain briefly regarding her background

information and the purpose of doing the study towards the students. The questionnaire then will

be given to them physically and some time is provided for them to complete the survey

questions.

Regarding the estimated time for the survey to be held, the researcher might need the first

15 minutes of the English period for both of the classes for the researcher to explain about the

survey and for the students to finish answering the survey. Then for the interview, it is estimated

that it may take up to less than 30 minutes per interviewer, to avoid the interviewer and

interviewee becoming fatigued and the data of the interview will be less accurate. Furthermore,

the time for the interview will also be recorded by using a stopwatch to ensure all the questions

for the interview are asked within the time allocated. During the interview, the session will be

recorded through voice recorder of the researcher’s phone for the purpose of future use for the

interviewer during the completion of her research, and this will also be explained towards the

respondents.

3.8 DATA ANALYSIS

In this study, the researchers performed thematic analysis, which entailed compiling all of

the data, reading and annotating all of the data obtained from each instrument (surveys and

interviews) (Yin, 2011). Following that, the researcher began dissecting the data in order to

segment it. This procedure is also known as the data disassembly procedure (Yin, 2011). The

information was then reconstructed into the identified themes. The researcher analysed and drew

conclusions from the overall data after analyzing all of the data separately (Yin, 2011).

36
 The researcher used triangulation to do this. Triangulation was performed in two ways:

method triangulation and source triangulation. Method triangulation is accomplished by

analysing data based on instruments (Farah & Abu Bakar, 2019). This indicates that the

researchers triangulated the data acquired from the various instruments utilised (surveys and

interviews). This is important for researchers to compare data to ensure the consistency of data

provided by various data gathering methods. The variance of these data gave the most findings

for the research (Angen, 2000), as the researcher were able to identify if there was any bias in the

data gathering procedure, whether from participants or the researcher herself.

Meanwhile, triangulation of sources enabled the researcher to examine the data based on

the research source such as the student participants. These findings were triangulated in order to

investigate the consistency of study participants from the same approach. This was done to

compare the data gathered from individuals with various points of view (Angen, 2000).

3.9 CONCLUSION

In summary, Chapter 3 has discussed in detail about research design of the study,

population and sampling, instrumentations of the research, pilot study, research ethics, data

collection procedures and research analyses. The researcher has decided mixed methods are the

best approach for this study, along with having surveys and interviews as the instruments. The

samples for this study are Form 4 Epson and Form 5 Benq from SMK Bandar Puchong Jaya (A),

Bnadar Puchong Jaya, Puchong along with two English teachers the same school which are Mrs

Anuratha and Ms Celina. Overall, the methods of how the research is done and the procedures of

collecting the data has been explained in this chapter. For the next chapter, the research finding

will be explained in a detailed manner.

37
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Alaa, B. J., & Qasim, O. A. (2019). Group Work Effectiveness In English Language Teaching.

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Angen, M.J. (2000). "Evaluating interpretive inquiry: Reviewing the validity debate and

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Cherry, K. (2020, April 8). How Surveys Are Used in Psychology to Collect Data. Verywell

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Doa’a, N. A. A. (2017). The Role of Group Work in Improving Students’ Speaking Skills at the

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41
APPENDICES

Figure 1: Social Constructivism Theory

42
 The
The students’ perceptions
effectiveness
of group work to foster Students are
of group work
speaking skills able to
during the
English subject foster their
The problems faced by
to foster English English
the students during
speaking skills speaking
group work activities
among upper skills
English teachers’ secondary through
strategies to improve school students group work
group work
effectiveness

Figure 2: Conceptual Framework

Item No. The Questions

1. When working in a group, do you find it to be useful for you?

Edited question: When working in a group, do you find group work is useful to

improve your English speaking ability?

Additional question: If yes, how do you think it is useful to help you speak in

English?

2. Do you face any problems when involved in a group?

3. Does every group member cooperate in completing the assignment?

4. Did every teacher provide your group with a safe working environment?

43
 5. Do you prefer to work in a group?

6. Did the discussions among group members relate to the project?

7. Did the group members listen to each other's ideas?

8. When involved in a group, did the group members manage their time efficiently?

9. Do you think it is a good method for learning?

10. Did you use outside resources rather than the ones your teacher gave you?

Table 1: The Original and Adapted Questionnaire Questions

Item No. Interview Questions

1. i) Personal Backgrounds

Can you tell me about yourself?

Which class are you from?

Edited question: What are the classes you are currently teaching?

2. ii) Social background

Edited: Teaching Background

44
Where do you live?

Edited question: Where are you currently teaching?

How long have you been in rural area?

Edited question: How long have you been teaching?

Have you ever lived at any other place? Where?

Edited question: Have you ever taught at any other school? Where?

What is the major race in your residential area?

Edited question: What is the major race in the school you are currently

teaching?

If you talk to your neighbours, what is the language that you would usually use?

Edited question: When you communicate with your students, what is the

language that you would usually use?

Do your parents know how to communicate in English?

Edited question: What are the proficiency of the students you are teaching?

How often do you use English as a medium of communication at home?

Edited question: How often do you use group work as a medium of learning

during your class?

45
3. iii) Attitude towards English Language Learning

Edited: Attitude towards English Language Teaching

What is your opinion about English learning?

Edited question: What is your opinion about using group work to enhance the

students’ English speaking skills?

Additional question: What are the strategies you would use to ensure your

students will speak in English throughout the whole discussion while working in

groups?

Do you think English is important? Why or why not?

Edited question: Do you think English speaking abilities are important? Why or

why not?

Table 2: The Original and Adapted Interview Questions

46