PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study:
Until now, English has been considered very important in every field of each society such
as: diplomacy, business, aviation, education and science and technology. Because of its
globalization, English has become the crucial medium in communication.
In Vietnam, since 1986, English has become very popular because there have been
English-speaking people coming to, visit or work in Viet Nam. They come to Vietnam not
only because they want to do business with the Vietnamese but also they want to get to
know about the people, the cultures and explore the beauty of Vietnam. Specially, with the
open-door policy, many foreigners have been attracted by Vietnam. Thus, English has been
the key to Vietnam’s regional and global integration. English is used not only between the
Vietnamese and foreigners but also between the Vietnamese and the Vietnamese. All this
burns the desire of learning English in Vietnam. The demand for English training is
promoted by an increasing influx of foreign investments from both English-speaking
countries and non-English-speaking countries which needs English as a means of
communication. Vietnamese people need to be able to communicate in English
successfully and effectively. The lack of communicative ability in oral and other language
skills in using English can put Vietnamese regionally and internationally in an inferior
position both in politics and economics.
In FPT University, English is a compulsory subject and certainly, every student knows that
it will be important for their future job. They will use English at work. The students here
opt for English due to their realization that a high proficiency in English will give them
more opportunities for employment, let alone the possibility of going abroad for their
further study in the exchange training program of FPT University and some Universities in
Germany, Japan etc. Among the four languages skills, most students think that speaking is
the most important in the first year of studying in FPT University. During the time of
studying in FPT University, they will have to learn English for 3 semesters (each of which
in university lasts for 13 weeks) include most English lessons. After the second year, they
will learn the subjects almost with the English–speaking teachers and they will have to
present their topic of study in English. Furthermore, after graduation the students will have
to do business, negotiate with the partners in English to sell their products to them. To

st
year students. However, like many other teachers of English here, the researcher has also
faced many challenges in organizing and managing group work during speaking lessons.
Are the students getting out of the control? Aren’t they lapsing into their mother tongue?
Isn’t the organization into group work good for some lazy and passive students? Are they
participating in group work? Being aware of these challenges, the researcher and her
colleagues at FPT University have decided to help the students to learn speaking skill and
this is also the reason why the author of this study chose this area to do her research which
2
is intended to make a modest contribution making speaking class of the 1
st
year students at
FPT University effective and successful.
2. Aims of the study:
This study is aimed at investigating the reality of the use of group work in the speaking
class of the 1
st
year students at FPT University. To be specific, the aims of the study are:
- To clarify how group work is used in the speaking class of the 1
st
year students at
FPT University.
- To find the factors that causes the difficulties for the teachers in their application of
group work in the speaking class of the 1
st
year students at FPT University.
- To recommend practical suggestions for the possibility of group work in the
speaking class of 1
st
year students at FPT University.

PART II: DEVELOPMENT
3
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Speaking skills and its related concept;
1.1.1. The importance of speaking skill in the classroom
Among the four skills in learning English, speaking and writing are the productive skills.
However, speaking is regarded as very important for language teaching and learning.
Speaking is a bridge to reach other skills. Speaking helps learners to read better, to listen
more effectively and write more accurately. Speaking is surely the most effective means of
communication. (Ur, 1996)
There are two most important reasons why speaking should be taught in the classroom.
The first reason is speaking is a good source of motivation for students. Nunan (1991)
points out, “success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the
(target) language”. For the students who have ability to speak English eligibly, they want
to speak English; they know to express themselves in English. Thus, they always speak
when possible. But for those who can not speak English well, they do not want to speak in
group. As a result, they may soon get de-motivated and lose interest in learning English.
In addition to this, in the English speaking class, if the speaking activities are organized in
the suitable way, speaking can have a lot `of fun and therefore can raise motivation in the
learners. If the speaking is practiced successfully, the other skills can also be improved
through speaking.
For the second reason, nowadays, the demand for communication among people is really
important. Without it, the life does not exist. For this, speaking always plays an important
role in people’s lives. Speaking is considered as survival skill in real life (Ur, 1996; p 134)
For the ideas above, speaking skill also plays the key role in foreign language learning and
teaching.
1.1.2. Types of classroom speaking performance
According to Brown (1994), there are six categories relating of oral production:
- Imitative: which accounts for very small portion of speaking time in the speaking
time when learners are practicing an intonation contour trying to pinpoint a certain

It can be clearly seen that group work is a cooperative activity in which the students work
at the same time, sharing ideas and responsibility and independently have their own ideas
which contribute to the group work’s success without every minute observation from the
teacher and other students.
1.2.2. The advantages and disadvantages of using group work in the classroom.
5
1.2.2.1. Advantag
es
Clearly, group work can increase the student talking time, which increases the speaking
skill. In other word, group work helps improved communication. The students who have
little chance to talk to each other now can share ideas, become close in the short time and
above all solve the common problem assigned by the teacher.
Besides, working in groups helps students to produce greater output. Simply because of the
number of people involved, each with different experience, knowledge, points of view and
values, a larger number and variety of ideas can be given. Moreover, the exchange of the
ideas in the group can act as a stimulus which will encourage individuals to give more
ideas, more opinions and therefore contribute more to group work activities.
In addition to this, group work helps to reduce bias. The shared responsibility in a group in
coming to decisions can encourage individuals to explore seemingly realistic ideas and to
challenge accepted ways of doing things. Individual biases and prejudices can be
challenged by the group, forcing the individual to recognize them. Group pressure can also
encourage individuals to accept that change is need.
Finally, students’ group work frees the teacher from the usual role of “an expert who
always lectures” and allows him/her to walk to each group, to guide, to answer questions
from students or to encourage students to work actively.
(Harmer, 1999:116)
1.2.2.2. Disadvantages:
One obvious disadvantage is the noise made by the group who have a big argument on the
problem or by the group who are so excited about working with one another. It is hard for
the teacher to control these kinds of groups. This can distract the other groups.

student-selected and teacher-selected groupings
1.2.3.1. Random
grouping
Random grouping is often used for in-class activities because of its convenience and
readiness that is random grouping is a way including collecting and gathering students
ignoring any differences among students in terms of their language level, learning style,
interests etc.
With the seating arrangement, fixing the numbers, using playing cards, or distributing the
card of different categories, random grouping is established.
For the class of different levels, random group can be used to narrow down the gap
between the students of different levels.
7
1.2.3.2. Student-selected grouping:
Compared to random grouping and teacher-selected grouping, student-selected is
preferred. Knowing well one another or getting on well with each other can help the
students take part in the activities assigned well. They can have more talking, making more
performances and making the group work activities very interesting. However, student-
selected grouping can result in making so much noise because of too much socializing.
This can distract the group activities.
1.2.3.3. Teacher-selected grouping
Compared to random grouping and student-selected grouping, teacher-selected grouping is
a more time-consuming one. The reason is that the teacher has to take students’
preferences into consideration, also the learning style, the activeness etc to help the
students who are at the lower levels to keep up with the better students. This kind of
grouping can help peer tutoring which is really the most effective way of learning from one
another.
1.2.4. Group –size
Group size is very flexible depending on many aspects such as task type, the time
available, the class and how skillful the group members are? How big the group should be?
The smaller the group is, the more chance each member has. The fewer skills of managing

have with the group.
- group evaluator. In the group work, the teacher not only evaluates the whole group work
but also each member of the group. If the teacher has good comments on each group’s
performance, this helps a lot because it is both good for the students and the teacher
himself. It is the ideas for the following activities.
Whether group work is successful or not, it depends much on how and where the teacher
applies these roles.
1.2.6. Common oral activities for group work
There are many activities that can be applied for group work but which one is suitable for
the each class type?
For the most common activities, I have quoted three ones which are being used mainly
among the students in my class. They are: group discussion, debating and cross grouping.
The reason why I made a choice among many other activities is that: the students in my
class and some other classes of the same level have to perform these in the final term
examination which includes two main parts: group discussion and individual response. The
9
first part takes fifty percent of the total speaking mark, which shows the importance of
itself.
1.2.6.1. Group
discussion
Discussion sections create great opportunity for students to use active learning strategies to
make your classroom a more interactive environment. In this kind of activity, the students
have a chance to share their ideas with their friends. Moreover, their individuals’ opinions
are also clearly seen and highly appreciated. In this part, the students have used a lot of
discussion language to show their ideas to their partners. According to Ur, ( 1992: 2),
discussion is the “most natural and effective way for learners to practice talking freely in
English is by thinking out some problem or situation together through verbal interchange
of ideas; or in simpler terms, to discuss”. He also adds some factors to the good (or
successful) discussion, that is, topic, group work and role play.
Sometimes in the group discussion, the group has also to find a solution to a problem of

small groups. After discussing with the partners in the experts groups, the students are
mixed and they will share the opinion with other partners in other cooperative group. For
this, the ideas are exchanged and students can learn form one another.
1.2.7. Problems and solutions in making the group work in class effective
According to Jacobs and Hall, 1994, there are many problems associated with group works
which can be solved with careful preparation, clear instructions and appropriate
facilitations.
1.2.7.1. Some students talk too much or dominate the group
a. Talk to the students privately. Explain that while you are pleased that they have a
lot to contribute, you would like other learners to have more opportunities to think
for themselves. Sometimes, the students just need to be made aware of the
situation.
b. Even if you have not planned to assign roles to group members, do so at an
appropriate point during the group task, either for all groups or for only the one(s)
with a dominant students. Ensure that some roles require significant periods of
silence (e.g. summarizer, detective, recorder, observer, timekeeper, a liaison among
11
the groups.) Alternately, speak privately to the dominant students and give him or
her one of these roles.
c. Ask the entire group to reflect on how it is functioning with questions such as: How
well did you complete the task as a group? Did someone take the lead, and if so,
how did this come about? Whose ideas are most strongly presented in the solution
to the task? Was there anything you thought but didn’t actually say?
d. During long period of group work, call for regulation periods of reflective
silence( e.g., after every fifteen to twenty minutes) in which students think (and
write ) about the points that have been made, contradictions that have surfaced,
omissions that should be added, and where the discussion should go next. When
signaling for the discussion to resume, invite students who have said little to read
out what they have written.
1.2.7.2. Some students speak too little or are “freeloading”

time assist the group by assigning them a task that would give them some sort of
isolation.
b. Explain and ask students to get familiar with active and tolerant listening.
c. Show students the way to give and receive constructive criticism.
d. Tell the students how to negotiate, manage disagreements.
e. Preteach students the way to refuse, disagree, argue……… politely in English.
f. Use pair work and group work frequently so that students will become more
skillful.
1.2.7.5. Students overuse mother-tongue
a. at the beginning of the activity, teachers should emphasize that students must use
the target language in group work
b. During the group work, teachers move around the classroom to remind learners of
this rule and provide them with language assistance.
c. Make the work task oriented.
d. Join the group briefly to encourage and facilitate the learner’s participation.
e. Set rules, agreed to by the class, for disciplining frequent offenders. ‘
f. Limit the time available. It is better to have a shorter time than is strictly necessary
for full practice of the language because students tend to use mother tongue of
spare time at the end of the group.
g. Preteach some words or phrase necessary for group work.
h. Give someone in the group the role of language monitor.
13
14
CHAPTER II: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
2.1 Design and methodology
2.1.1. The setting of the study
My university – FPT University is located at 15B Pham Hung street, Cau Giay District,
Hanoi. This is a new university but rather wanted because we have received four Batches
within two year’s time. For this reason, our university has been opened to meet the demand
of the society when the economy is in need of software engineers. In the 1

discussion, debating and presentation. Speaking skill is not separately taught in this book
but with listening skill. Primary goal is to enable the students to acquire communicative
competence, that is, the ability to communicate in English in a like -real situations.
The activities in these books are pair work, discussion (mostly appear in any small lesson
of each unit) and whole class activities involving information sharing and role-play to
encourage real communication.
Speaking skill at our university is considered to be so important that any student has to take
an oral exam at the end of each semester which includes 2 parts (individual response and
discussion). Discussion part is more emphasized. (60% of the total speaking mark). In this
way, students have the opportunities to personalize the English language they have learnt,
making full use of their own knowledge and experiences to express their own ideas and
opinions.
2.1.2. Data collection instrument
The survey questionnaire is one of the most effective instruments for collecting data in
social science. Advantages of using questionnaire which Gillham (2000) highlights are:
less pressure on respondents, not under pressure of interview bias and analysis of answer is
straightforward. The researcher used the survey questionnaire as the main sources to fulfill
its aims. Two sets of questionnaires were designed to investigate the teachers’ and the
students’ opinion about the use of group work in the speaking classes of the 1
st
year
students at FPT University. Clear instructions were given when the questionnaire was
administered.
The first is the questionnaire for students which includes 14 questions written only in
English, was administered to 60 students (2 classes of the same level in the first year).The
questionnaire was divided into 5 main parts:
Part 1: Students’ opinions on speaking skill. (Question 1, 2, 3)
Part 2: Students’ opinions on learning in group work (4, 5, 6, 7, and 8)
Part 3: The difficulties of the students when working in groups (9, 10, and 11)
Part 4: The students’ wishes in working in groups. (12, 13, 14)

are considered the same because before entering these two classes, they had taken a
placement test to be sorted into these two classes. However, the two class teachers (English
teachers: My friend and I) are not satisfied with the level they are at because some of them
at the right level, but some are not (maybe higher or lower). This is expressed in the
written work as well as spoken one.
2.2. Preliminary results
17
Before giving the concrete result of the survey, the researcher will show the preliminary
result.
2.2.1. Student Survey
2.2.1.1. Students’ opinions on speaking skill
Table 1: Students’ opinions on speaking skill
Options
Questions
a b c d
1 a. English speaking is compulsory at your
university.
b. You just want to pass the oral exam.
c. Speaking is necessary for your future job.
d. You are interested in the speaking skill.
16 10 60 54
2 a. very b. rather
c. little d. Not at all
54 6 0 0
3 a. very b. rather
c. little d. Not at all
54 6 0 0
The statistics in table 1 shows the students’ opinions on speaking skill. It can clearly be
seen that all the students asked (100 %) say that Speaking is necessary for their future job
and 90 % of them are interested in speaking skill while a small amount of them (26 %)

teachers in their university use the group work in the speaking lesson very often because it
is compulsory that the teachers implement this to follow the book activities planned in the
teacher’s book and make the students get used to doing this for any oral test and may be for
the students’ future job. This is of great use in helping the students to communicate with
each other.
Table 4: Student’ appreciation of their participation in group work
Options/Questions a b c d
6 a. Work with great interest
b. Remain silent all the time.
c. Chat with other group members about other
topics
d. Speak in Vietnamese to discuss with others
while others discuss in English
21 3 17 19
From these number in the table 4, just only 35 % of the students asked (21 out of 60)
reported that they had taken part in the group work activities enthusiastically and the
number of the students who did not participate in group work by chatting with other groups
or speaking Vietnamese is so big (29 % and 32 % irrespectively) that it must be looked
into consideration about the group work among these students in these two classes. In
addition to that, the number in the table also implies that the students in these two classes
may have very low proficiency of speaking skill or not enough English background
19
knowledge to communicate with their partners or may be the topic is no interest to them
etc.
When being asked why some of them kept silent in the speaking lesson, they said they did
not know what to speak and how to speak. The teacher asked them to speak English in
group means making them quiet. But when the teacher asked them to contribute their ideas
in Vietnamese, they said that they could not think of anything. Another reason why they
kept silent is that many students could not understand the English–speaking teachers’
instructions. The researcher in this study thought that may be they were the worst students

20
overload work
d. Topics are not interesting.
e. Others
Regarding the group size, 50 % (30 out of 60) think the number of the students in a group
depends on the activities they take part in. Only 25 % (15 out of 60) agree that from three
to five are the best number and 20 % (12 out of 60) like to have as many partners as
possible in their group but just only 0.5 % think that the group should consist of more than
five.
According to the table 6, no students said that they had never had any difficulties in
working in group work. All of them had difficulties, among them, 67 % (40 out of 60), of
the students sometimes had that difficulties, 28% ( 17 out of 60) often had difficulties, and
only 5 % (3 out of 60) rarely had difficulties with group work. It means that almost all of
the students in these two classes had difficulties with group work and they also blamed
their low proficiency and passive learning styles with overload work 75% and 93 % for
their difficulties, just more than 33 % thought it was because of the teacher’s low
proficiency and only 10 % blamed on the boring topics. Besides, they also added more
factors that had caused their difficulties. They are: specially overloaded working every
week, members in the group didn’t understand each other, laziness and the anxiety of
making mistakes.
Regarding this table, one underlying cause but easy to understand is their passive learning
style. This not only appears among the students of the 1
st
year of this university but also in
many other universities even though in this university, administrator has applied the
gradual assessment, that is they have 30% mark for A.P (Assignment and Participation),
30% for the midterm test and 40 % for the final test. This requires the students to learn in
the whole time not just at the end of the semester.
2.2.1.5. Students’ desire for the better group work
Table 7: Students’ desire for the better group work

d. not to interrupt when you
make mistakes.
e. To provide a promoting
lead-in
f. To give clear instruction
g. To provide necessary
vocabulary and functional
language
60 60 60 47 45 60 47 53
22
h. Others
Now and even in the future, choosing the partners to work with is really important because
it makes the group work more effective. And when being asked for their favorite kind of
partners, 87% (52 out 60) of the students preferred to have the partners of the same
interest. Only 1 % of them liked to work with the partners of the same proficiency, and 43
% liked to work with partners of the mixed proficiency. One thing which is very easy to
understand is that, 46 out of 60 (77 %) are interested in talking with the students sitting
next to or near them. This can be easily explained that they did not want to stand up and
move to a new place, maybe this can affect their working results and most of them just
wanted to keep fixed and lazy in one place. However, according to the statistics in the
table 7, most of the students in these two classes also wanted to work with partners with
different levels of English so that they can learn a lot from their friends even though they
knew they were sorted into the class of the same level of English proficiency and they
nearly all did not care for their friends ages. In addition to that, only 25 % of the students
answered that working with partners of the opposite sex is better maybe because they knew
for sure that in these two classes, men outnumber women even in one class, for instance,
there are only 3 female students out of 33 students. One more thing reveals in this table is
that 90 % (54 out of 60) of the students gave more answers for their wishes in group work.
They nearly all had the same ideas with one another for the suitability of the partner with
the partners. They said that any partner was alright as long as he/she matched with them.

Options/
Questions
a b c d
1 a. Very b. rather
c. Little d. Not at all
6 0 0 0
From the table 8, all the teachers liked teaching speaking skill. They claimed that speaking
skill can help the students learn the other skills like reading, writing and listening better.
For one more reason is that speaking skill is the compulsory lesson of all the teachers who
were asked. Speaking skill in the future (in more than 1 year) can help students to work in
groups when doing a big project or doing the presentation on the topics requested.
2.2.2.2. Teachers’ opinions on the use of group work to teaching speaking skill.
Table 9 a:
Options /
questions
a b c d
2 a. Always b. Often
c. Sometimes d. Never
33% 77 % 0 % 0 %
24
3 a. Very b. Rather
c. Little d. Not at all
33 % 77 % 0 % 0 %
4 a. it’s very important
b. It’s quite good
c. It’s both good and bad points
d. It has no use
77 % 33 % 0 % 0 %
Table 9b
Opti