Candidate’ s statement
I certify that the minor thesis entitled “Using pair work and group work techniques
to increase students’ participation and interest in communicative English classes at Hanoi
University of Industry” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
of Master of Arts is the result of my own work, except otherwise acknowledge and this
minor thesis or any part of the same has not been submitted for higher degree to any other
university or institution.
i
Acknowledgements

To accomplish this study, I am indebted to many people for their thoughtful help.
First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge and thank my supervisor, Ms. Tran
Hien Lan for her valuable guidance, critical feedback and enormous encouragement,
without which my thesis would be far from completion.
I am also grateful to all the lecturers of the Post-graduate Department, Vietnam
national University, Hanoi, College of Foreign Language for their guidance and
enthusiasm during my course.
My sincere thanks go to all my colleagues and my students at Hanoi University of
Industry, Faculties of Economic, Electronic, and Chemistry.
Finally, I would like to express my thanks to my friends who were willing to help
me during the course. In particular, I find myself indebted to my family especially my
husband for their love, care and tolerance when I was in the process of writing this thesis.
ii
Abstract
This thesis was carried out to investigate the benefits of using pair work and group
work techniques in communicative English classes. It sought the answers to the following
questions:
1. How often are pair work and group work techniques applied in communicative English
classes at HaUI?
2. Does using pair work and group work techniques increase students’ interest in
communicative English classes at HaUI?

Table 12: Factors causing difficulties
Table 13: Students’ recommendation for the things the teacher should do
Table 14: Group size preferred by students
Table 15: How would students like to be grouped?
Charts
Chart 1: Techniques used in English classes
Chart 2: Students’ attitude to pair work and group work activities
Chart 3: Factors causing difficulties
Chart 4: The Frequency of pair work and group work activities
Chart 5: Students’ attitude to pair work and group work
Chart 6: The frequency of difficulties
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Candidate’s statement i
Acknowledgements ii
Abstract iii
List of abbreviations iv
List of tables and charts iv
Appendixes
Appendix 1: Questionnaire for students
Appendix 2: Questionnaire for teachers
iv
v
Part I: Introduction
I. Rationale
Today, English has become an international language. It is spoken as a second
language and an official language in many countries, and millions of people speak English
as a foreign language. Besides, English is considered the medium of communication in
many fields such as science, technology, aviation, internet, commerce, and so on.
Therefore learning and teaching English are getting more and more important to non-native
nations of English. Vietnam is not an exception.

help teachers increase students’ participation and interest in communicative English classes
at HaUI.
III. Research questions
4. How often are pair work and group work techniques applied in communicative English
classes at HaUI?
5. Does using pair work and group work techniques increase students’ interest in
communicative English classes at HaUI?
6. Does using pair work and group work increase students’ participation in
communicative English classes?
IV. Scope of the study
There are a variety of techniques to encourage students to participate in
communicative English classes. However, it is not my intention to cover all of them
because of the time and the length of the study, only two techniques, group work and pair
work are investigated in communicative English classes at HaUI. The advantages of these
two techniques were found out by interviewing, and surveying teachers of English and
non- major students at HaUI.
V. Methods of the study
Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to carry out the study.
The data were collected by means of questionnaires, and interviews.
VI. Design of the study
The study includes three chapters not including the introduction (which contains
rationale, aims, methods, scope and design of the study) and the conclusion (which reviews
the main content and findings of the study and ends with some suggestions for further
research)
Chapter I: Literature review establishes the basic theoretical background from the
literature on communicative classes, students’ participation and interest, teaching
techniques especially group work and pair work techniques.
Chapter II: Methodology describes the overall picture of how the research was carried
out.
2

pair and group work or in their writings (Brumfit, 1983). Teachers select activities which
engage students in meaningful and authentic language use rather than in mechanical
practice of language patterns.
I.1. 2. Communicative activities
Communicative activities, defined by Littlewood (1981), are those that provide
whole task practice, improve students’ motivation, allow natural learning and create a
context supporting learning as well. “In communicative activities the teacher creates a
situation and sets an activity in notion, but it is the learners themselves who are responsible
for conducting the interaction to its conclusion (Littlewood, 1981: 18)
Harmer (1991) divides communicative activities into oral and written ones. Oral
activities include such categories as communication games, problem - solving, reaching a
consensus, discussion, replaying instructions, role-play, etc. Written communicative
activities consist of writing reports and advertisements; co-operative writing, exchanging
letters, writing journals and so on.
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In addition, according to Littlewood (1981), there are two main types of
communicative activities which he calls: “functional communication activities and social
interaction activities”. The main purpose of the former is that learners should use the
language they know in order to get meanings across as effectively as possible. Functional
communication activities include such activities as identifying pictures, discovering
identical pairs, discovering missing information, discovering differences, following
directions and so on. The later activities are those that emphasize on social as well as
functional aspects of communication. Learners, therefore, not only convey meanings
effectively, but also, pay greater attention to the social context in which the interaction
takes place. Simulation and role-playing are important techniques for creating a variety of
social relationships and situations.
I. 2. Students’ participation and interest
I. 2. 1. Concept of students’ participation
Students’ participation can be identified in terms of three kinds of interaction:
students to their teacher, students to students, and students to material.

objectives, choose their own way of achieving these, and evaluate their own progress.
I.2. 3. Factors affecting students’ participation and interest in the class.
- Students’ learning styles
Learning style shows how students achieve the target language. Willing (1985)
(cited in Nunan, 1988: 93) classifies learning styles into four types as follows:
Concrete learners: they prefer learning by games, pictures, films, videos, talking in
pairs and learning through the use of cassettes.
Communicative learners: they like to learn by observing and listening to native
speakers, talking to friends in English and learning English wherever possible.
Analytical learners: they like to study grammar, find their own mistakes, and learn
through reading newspapers.
Authority oriented learners: they want their teacher to explain everything and they
prefer writing everything in their notebooks, learning to read, studying grammar, and
learning English words by seeing them.
- Students’ motivation
Motivation is a key factor leading students’ success in learning in general, and in
learning language in particular. Also, there are many different kinds of motivation such as
integrative motivation, instrumental motivation, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation,
global motivation, situational motivation and so on.
- Teaching techniques
It is obvious that different teaching techniques create different degrees of students’
participation and interest in the lesson. For example, techniques which focus on
grammatical and phonological accuracy like choral repetition, drilling substitution, content
explanation will result in learners’ passiveness and limit their participation in learning. In
contrast, the techniques that involve students in communicative activities such as role-play,
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problem-solving, pair and group work, discussion, etc can encourage students to participate
in the lesson.
- Teachers’ personal qualities and characteristics
In order to involve students in the lesson, teachers should be ones that students trust

It can be seen that pair work can get students to practice the target language more
and increase students’ talking time in the class.
Doff (1988: 137) also defines group work as a process that “the teacher divides the
class into small groups to work together (usually four or five students in each group, as in
pair work, all the groups work at the same time”.
Like pair work, group work also gives students more opportunities to practice the
target language in the whole class. In addition, students can work independently and freely
under the teacher’s control without the pressure of the whole class watching what they are
doing.
I. 3. 2. The organization of pair work and group work
I. 3. 2. 1. The formation
We have to decide how to put individual students into pairs and groups. There are a
number of factors we might consider when doing this. According to Harmer (1999), we
can base such decision on any of the following principles:
Friendship
A key consideration when putting students in pairs or groups is to make sure that
we put friends with friends rather than risking the possibility of people working with others
whom they find difficult or unpleasant. However, our observation may not always accurate
and friendship can change from time to time.
We can also ask students to get into pairs or groups with whom they like. But
letting students choose their partner(s) in this way may exclude less popular students.
In addition, a sociogram can be used to group students. In this way, students are
asked to write their name, the students they like best in the class on a piece of paper and
the students they don’t like on the other side. The teacher can use this information to make
sociograms. However, sociograms are time consuming and also fail to answer the problem
of what to do with unpopular students.
Streaming: Students can be streamed according to their ability.
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The first suggestion is that pairs and groups should have a mixture of weaker and
stronger students. Therefore, the more able students can help their less able students.

I. 3. 2. 2. Group size
Group size is one thing we need to consider when getting students to form groups.
We may consider the question: “Are smaller groups better for learning than larger ones?”
According to Honeyfield (1991), the smaller group is, the more “talking time” there
is for each participant. If the time available is ten minutes, each member of pair could talk
for five minutes, while each member of a group of four could talk for only two and a half
minutes (provided that the participants share the talking time equally).
However, Honeyfield (1991) also points out that “the smaller groups are, the more
groups there are, so the teacher has more motoring to do and the less practical it is to have
groups report back to the class”.
In addition, group size can be determined by types of tasks. Moreover, for real-
world tasks, “it may be necessary to have the same number of learners in a group as would
occur in real life” (Honeyfield, 1991). Thus group size is determined by the nature of the
task itself.
I.3. 2. 3 Procedures for pair work and group work
Harmer (1999) suggests three stages in carrying out pair work and group work as
follows:
Before: we need to give instructions to let students understand what they are
going to do, give them ideas of when they will have finished the task they are going to get
involved in. Sometimes, we may ask them to repeat the instructions or to translate them
into their first language so as to check that they do understand. In some cases, our
instructions may involve a demonstration.
During: while students are working in pairs or groups we have a number of
options. We could, for instance, stand at the front or the side of the class or anywhere else
in the classroom, and keep an eye on what is happening. Therefore, we can “tune in” to a
particular pair or group from some distance away. We then decide whether to go over or to
help that pair or group.
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Instead, we can also go round the class watching and listening to specific pairs and
groups. Then we may stop and intervene if it is appropriate or necessary. We can give them

control and order.
12
Process stage
Presentation stage
Post small group work
stage
The students are engaged
in oral interaction in
groups in order to achieve
the task assigned.
The group leaders present
the product so that the
other students can hear or
read.
The teacher assigns a
related task to reinforce
learning, and self-
evaluates what has been
done, and makes
amendments to future
group work.
I.3. 3. Some common activities for pair work and group work
A variety of activities can be applied in communicative English classes through the
use of pair work and group work. The list of some common activities is given below.
Role- play: the class is divided into pairs or groups. Then these pairs and groups
are given roles to act out.
Information gap activities: each participant in pairs or groups has information not
shared by any other but require to complete.
Problem- solving: students are given some problems in real-life which need
solving. Then they work in pairs or in groups to find out solutions to these problems.

remain silent or may not listen to the others because of cultural differences or lack of co-
operation among the students in pairs or in groups. He also adds that “students who are
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linguistically deficient tend to resort to their mother tongue when they are engaged in
group work interaction”. Another problem given by Sim Grek Ngoh (1991) is that “the
administration of small group work is a demanding and arduous process, as it is a careful
planning, preparation and constant motoring”.
To sum up, teachers have to deal with a number of problems while conducting
group work and pair work. However, those problems may be overcome if “ teachers
consider various factors at different stages of pair work and group work from planning,
practice, instruction, organization and process stage to the presentation stage” (Sim Grek
Ngoh, 1991). Also, pair work and group work can be conducted successfully if an
appropriate task is selected.
Chapter II: Methodology
II.1. Setting of the study
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The study was conducted at three faculties: Economics, Electronics, and Chemistry
at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI), which train electronic engineers, accountants,
business administrators, and engineers of chemistry.
English is a compulsory subject for students at these faculties as well as others at HaUI.
Here, students have to study English as a means of communication during 4 semesters. By
the end of the course, students are expected to be able to communicate in English at pre-
intermediate level. Therefore, English is taught according to CLT, in which all four
language skills: speaking, reading, listening and writing are focused on.
The materials used during the course are the new headway series (beginner to pre-
intermediate level) (Liz & John Soars, 1999), and international expressions (book 1 to
book 3) ( Liz Taylor, 2004). The equipment mostly applied by teachers is tape recorder.
Also, they are encouraged to use projectors and videos.
II. 2. Methodology
II. 2. 1. Subjects

Male 7 22
Teaching experience 1 – 5 years 21 65.6
More than 5 years 11 34.4
Educational
qualifications
Graduate 23 71.8
Post- graduate 9 18.2
Tanle 2: Teachers’ profiles
The subjects for the interview
The selection of informants for the interview was based on the survey data. 20
students and 5 teachers were interviewed for more information about the impact of pair
work and group work in English classes.
II. 2. 2. Methods of data collection
Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to collect data for the study.
The quantitative data were collected from two questionnaires, and were analyzed by SPSS,
while qualitative data were obtained from the interview.
II. 2. 3. The questionnaire for students
The questionnaire for the students, with 11 questions written in English, including
closed and open ones, was administered to 345 students. It was designed with 5 main parts.
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• Part 1(question 2) was about students’ preference in techniques used in English classes.
• Part 2 (question 3) was designed to find out the frequency of pair work and group work
techniques in English classes.
• Part 3 (question 4, 5, 6) was to investigate the impact of pair work and group work
techniques on students’ interest and participation in English classes.
• Part 4 including 2 questions (question 7, 8) was about the difficulties students often had
when they worked in pairs and groups.
• Part 5 (question 9, 10, 11) was given to collect students’ recommendation for
increasing the effectiveness of pair work and group work techniques.
The questionnaire was constructed in reference to “Questionnaire design” written by

techniques suitable for their teaching. Besides, they used other techniques such as
individual work, giving lectures, and questioning, in which individual work was used the
most. 16 teachers (50%) often used this technique, while only 6 teachers (19%) applied
questioning technique.
2) The frequency of pair work and group work activities
 How often do you use group work and pair work activities in your English
class?
How often do you use group work and pair work activities in your
English class?
Number
of
Percent
(%)
20