VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES HỒ THỊ HIỀN
AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE PERCEPTIONS AND
ACTUAL BEHAVIORS OF THE TEACHERS AND THE
STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE
OF HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY
ABOUT GROUP WORK IN SPEAKING LESSONS

(ĐIỀU TRA QUAN ĐIỂM VÀ HOẠT ĐỘNG THƯC TẾ CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ SINH VIÊN
KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ - TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP TP HCM VÊ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG
HOẠT ĐỘNG NHÓM TRONG GIỜ HỌC NÓI) MINOR M.A THESIS
Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10


(ĐIỀU TRA QUAN ĐIỂM VÀ HOẠT ĐỘNG THƯC TẾ CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ SINH VIÊN
KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ - TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP TP HCM VÊ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG
HOẠT ĐỘNG NHÓM TRONG GIỜ HỌC NÓI) MINOR M.A THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10
Supervisor: Tô Thị Thu Hương, Ph.D.

H NI, 2011

iv TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Table of contents
PART I: INTRODUCTION………………………… ………………….… ………… 1
1. Rationale 1
2. The purposes of the study…… 2
3. Research questions 2

2.2. Design and data analysis 16
2.2.1. The student sample 16
2.2.2. The teacher sample 17
2.2.3 Research instruments 17
2.2.4. Procedure…………………………………………………………… ……18

. CHAPTER 3: RESULTS
3.1. Questionnaire results………………………………………………… ………19
3.1.1. The teachers’ and students’ perceptions of the best way to teach and learn
speaking in class 19
3.1.2. The students’ feelings when they work in groups 20
3.1.3. The teachers’ perceptions of the appropriate time for each group work
activity…………………………………………………………………………… …… 21
3.1.4. The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of preferred group
members 21
3.1.5. The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of the most appropriate number of
members in each group 22
3.1.6. The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of the benefits and the weaknesses
of group work for improving speaking skill 23
3.1.7. The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of the things should be done by the
instructor before activity………………………………… ………………………… … 25
3.1.8. The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of the things should be done by
the instructor during activity 25
3.1.9. The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of what the teachers should do
after activity ………………………………………………………………… ……… 26
3.1.10. The teachers’ and the students’ perceptions of the difficulties when carrying
out group work 26
3.2. Class observation 27
CHAPTER 4: MAJOR FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS…………………… 32
4.1. Major findings …………………………………………………………………….32

development. Teachers need to reflect upon their own ideas and practices to be better
informed. Dewey (1933) argued that teachers should be reflective-practitioners through
questioning the beliefs and methods in their own experimental approach to schooling -
psychology and sociology being tools or resources for the construction of new educational
hypotheses to be tested against experience.
- To meet the increased needs of teachers and students, at FFL- HUI, the author of
this study is determined to choose this area to do research on. This study is intended to
make a modest contribution to investigating what the teachers’ and students’ points of
views about group work activities and what they really do before, during and after this
activity. The results of the study, hopefully, enhance the flexibility of using group work to
create positive, dynamic and effective atmosphere in English speaking (speaking) lessons,
and more importantly improve students’ oral practice of English.

2. Aims of the study
The first purpose of this study was to examine teachers’ and students’ perceptions of using
group work to teach and learn English speaking at the FFL-HUI. That is to say, the
researcher aimed at finding how the participants at the chosen setting think about the

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effectiveness of this activity to improve English speaking skill for the learners. Moreover,
the study also aimed at investigating the actual behaviors of the participants when group
working in the real lessons to compare with their perceptions. Finally, the results of this
study helped to facilitate the application of group work in teaching and learning speaking
to improve the effectiveness of speaking lessons at the FFL-HUI
3. Research questions
a What are FFL-HUI teachers’ perceptions of group work in English speaking class?
1.b What are FFL-HUI students’ perceptions of group work in English speaking class?
2.a What are the teachers’ actual behaviors when group working in English speaking
class?
2.b What are the students’ actual behaviors when group working in English speaking

References and appendices complete the thesis.

PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Communicative language teaching
1.2. Group work
- Definitions of group work
- Advantages and disadvantages of group work
- Advantages of group work
- Disadvantages of group work
- Teacher’s roles in carrying out group work
- How to organize group work in speaking lessons
- Group formation
- Group Size.
1.3. Perception and behavior
- Definition of perception
- Definition of behavior
- Relationship between perception and behavior in teaching and learning language
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
2.1. Background to the study
2.1.1. The students at FFL - HUI
- A lot of them are from the south of Vietnam, others are from the central, even from
provinces in the north of the nation.
- There are about 3000 students at the FFL-HUI whose ages are from 18 to 22. They
are following different courses including university level (4 years long); college
level (3 years long); and vocational college (3 years long).
2.1.2. The teachers at FFL - HUI
FFL-HUI consists of over 40 teachers of different ages. The female teachers take
80% and the male ones take 20%. The youngest teachers are about 23 years old and the


have experienced in teaching speaking to English-major students. Therefore, the
questionnaires were delivered to 10 teachers who have been teaching speaking English for
more than 5 years.
2.2.3. Research instruments

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Two questionnaires, one for teachers and the other for students were developed.
The former has 12 multiple – choice, open – ended questions; the later has 12 similar
questions. The questions in the two questionnaires are mainly used to explore the teachers’
and students’ perceptions, or the way they think about, of using group work to teach
speaking efficiently.
Oral interviews were given after the researcher had analyzed the results of the
questionnaires for triangulation. The researcher carried out the interviews with 10 students
and 5 teachers. All of them are the members who did the questionnaires and randomly
chosen. The purposes of interviewing are to get clearer explanations for the choices in the
questionnaires.
2.2.4. Procedure
Data were collected and analyzed in the following steps:
- Delivering questionnaires to the 10 teachers and 60 third-year students at the FFL-
HUI.
- Analyzing the questionnaires data by looking for and grouping the common and
recurrent themes in the data with the use of descriptive statistics.
- Interviewing the teachers and the students to get further information for the data in
the questionnaires.
- Basing on the interviews and the questionnaires, identifying the contents to observe
in the teachers’ and the students’ actual classroom practice.
- Collecting the data on the teachers’ and the students’ practices via class
observations. Observation of 10 speaking lessons was made according to designed
criteria.
- Analyzing observation data based on the observation scheme.

4.1.1. The organization of groups
- Both the teachers and the students at the FFL – HUI think that a group should contain
from 3 to 6 members. The appropriate number of group members is an influential factor to
the effectiveness of an activity because if the groups are too large, it can reduce the
students’ interest in participating into the task, or it can create opportunities for the lazy
students to do another thing rather than getting involved into the discussion.
- The investigated teachers at the FFL – HUI think that putting students of the same
proficiency, different sexes, random groups and surrounding students is the good ways.
Ages and interests of the students are not important factor to concern before arranging the
learners into groups. In the mean time, the investigated students think that working in
groups with the students of the same interests, mix proficiency levels, surrounding
partners, different interests, randomly grouped really promotes them in completing the task
as well as improves their speaking skill. Most of the students do not care for the same or
different age and gender partners when working in class.
- All of the teachers agree that the most appropriate time for each group activity is about 15
minutes. If the time-limitation is less than 15 minutes, the students can not complete the
task and possibly feel stressed. In contrast, if the task lasts so long, the students may finish
it much earlier than the time given and start chatting or doing something else.

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4.1.2. Before starting group working
Before beginning the activity, the investigated teachers think that they should give
clear instructions and then putting the students into appropriate groups, telling them the
aims of the activity or giving them some time to get ready for the task. In the mean time,
the students think that the most important thing to be done by their teachers before starting
a group work activity is giving clear instructions, then creating competitive atmosphere
among the class. After that, the teacher also needs to provide necessary related vocabulary
and necessary structures which will be helpful for the students to express the ideas while
discussing.
4.1.3. During the group work activity

4.1.5. Difficulties of the teachers and the students in group working
For the students, their main problems are that they do not know to express their
own ideas even when they have something to say.
Other students have other difficulties such as they do not have enough time to
prepare and speak, or the students are quiet so that their friends do not let them speak.
For the teachers, they do not do the same things like the students, thus, their
difficulties in applying group work are quite different from those of the students
The most popular problem of the teachers have is the immovable class setting
arrangement. That is to say, the tables and the chairs are immovable to form group work
activities. They have to ask their students to move from this place to another one to form
the right groups. It may take a lot of time. 100% of the teachers find it hard to organize a
group work activity because of the unsuitable physical setting. The second biggest problem
that all of the 10 teachers agree with is the multi – level class. Although, the students had
mostly the same level of English proficiency at the beginning of the course, in the third –
year, their levels are obviously different. They are not at the same levels any more.
Therefore, it is not simple for the teachers to put the students in the right groups in
accordance of the same proficiency levels. The next problems are that the students overuse
mother tongue in groups, the students’ resistant participation and large class-size.
Interestingly, only a few teachers said the subjective reasons cause troubles for them to
carry out the group work activities. For instance, only 1 of the 10 teachers said that he is
lack of teaching experiences and academic training about group work. One another
teachers said she sometimes does not have enough money to buy materials and develop
teaching aids.
- What are the teachers’ and the students’ behaviors in group working?
In the first step - presentation, they often presented the task by explaining what the students
have to do, what structures they have to practice and whom they have to work with. The
needed vocabulary was also provided in some classes before activity. All of the teachers
gave instructions in English, but some spoke slowly and clearly enough, some did not.
Some teachers gave examples by showing sample products; others made an example with
some students. As a result, in the classes in which the instructions were clearly provided,

communicative approach in language teaching. The communicative approach shows that
not all mistakes need to be corrected; the main aims of the language learning is to receive
and convey meaningful ideas, and correcting should be focused on mistakes that interfere
with this aim, not on inaccuracies of usage (Ur. 1996:244). There were some cases where
the teachers did not give feedback.
4.2. Recommendations

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Basing on the results of the investigations and the analysis of the collected data, the
researcher gives some suggestions to promote the effectiveness of using group work in
speaking lessons. This session also gives the answer for the third research question.
(3). How to futher improve the effectiveness of group work in speaking lessons at EFL-
HUI?
Basing on the investigated data and the real behaviors of the participant and also the
quality of teaching and learning speaking at the FFL-HUI, the researcher gives some
suggestions for the students, the teachers and the staff administration to improve the
effectiveness of improving speaking lessons at the faculty.
PART III CONCLUSION
1. Summary of the study
Above all, the random selection of the participants in the FFL – HUI to carry out the
research of increasing the effetiveness of using group work to teach speaking for the
second – year students is a reliable way to investigate the perceptions of the participants at
the research context. By applying three research instruments namley questionnaires, class
observation and interview for both the students and the terachers at the FFL – HUI, we
have reached the answers to the three research questions.
For the first question, “What is the teachers and the students’ perception about using group
work in English speaking lessons?” most of the participants think that it is crucial to use
group work in English speaking lessons. The teachers and the students agreed that group
working helps the learners study more effectively, have more English speaking time and
learn from their friends. They are also well-aware of what they should do before, during

nothing or did not take part in the group work.
The work was rarely on time in spite of the time limited set before the work has been
started. That was because the difficulty of the work was not accurately accounted. There
was often some noise when the work was too easy and the students easily finished it and
began to chat. There were also some complaints when the students could not finish the task
on time because it was so difficult or too long.
The teachers often did the last step-feedback in different ways. Most of them asked
some groups to stand up and perform their work for the others in class to comment or
correct some mistakes. The teachers often gave some additional explanations and the key if
there was one. Some others gave comments, correct all the mistakes and gave marks. One
things should be emphasize here is that the teacher often tried to correct all the mistake
appeared, both linguistic and grammatical ones. That is not necessary according to
communicative approach in language teaching. The communicative approach shows that
not all mistakes need to be corrected; the main aims of the language learning is to receive
and convey meaningful ideas, and correcting should be focused on mistakes that interfere
with this aim, not on inaccuracies of usage (Ur. 1996:244). There were some cases where
the teachers did not give feedback.

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Last but not least, for the third research question, “How to further improve the
effectiveness of group work in English speaking lessons?”, the reseacher has found that in
order to have a good solution for the problem, it needs the efford and contribution from the
the teachers, the students and the administration. For the teachers, it is necessary for them
to raise the students’ awareness of self-responsibility, use group work effectively. They
also need to train students the group work skill in every lesson. Moreover, it is important
for the teachers to establish good rapport with the students as well as train themselves to be
good teachers. For the atministration, they should reduce the class-sizes, improve
classroom facilities, and it is crucil for them to give more support to the teachers. For the
students, they should be encouraged to cooperate with their teacher, take risks, and solve
their own problems