Vietnam national university, Hanoi
University of language and international studies
Department of post graduate studies Co-operative learning as an approach to
improving speaking skills for the second-year
non-major students of English at
Hanoi University of business and technology

CÁCH THỨC HỌC TẬP HỢP TÁC NHƯ MỘT ĐƯỜNG HƯỚNG
CẢI THIỆN KỸ NĂNG NÓI CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI
KHÔNG CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH TẠI
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KINH DOANH VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ HÀ NỘI

M.A. THESIS
Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 601410 By : Vu Thi Bich Thuy By : Vu Thi Bich Thuy
Supervisor : Le Van Canh, M.A.

Hanoi, 12 – 2008 TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABSTRACT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LISTS OF APPENDIXES
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1
1. 1. Introduction 1
1. 2. Rationale 1
1. 3. Identification of the problem 2
1. 4. Scopes, objective and research questions for the study 4
1. 5. Methods of the study 5
1. 6. Design of the study 5
CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE 7
2.1. Introduction 7
2. 2. Concepts related to the study 7
2. 2. 1. Communicative language teaching and the teaching of
speaking skills 7

3. 5. 2. 6. Findings 26
3. 6. Conclusion 26
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS 27
4. 1. The effects on the students’ participation 27
4. 1. 1. Frequency of students’ participation in pre- and post- activities 27 4. 1. 2. Comparison of the students’ participation 29
4. 2. The effects on the students’ speaking performance 31
4. 3. Students’ attitudes towards cooperative learning 32
4. 4. Discussion of the findings 34
4. 4. 1. What are the effects of cooperative learning on students’
participation on group activities and their progress in
speaking skills? 34
4. 4. 2. What are the students’ attitudes towards cooperative learning? 35
4. 5. Conclusion 36
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 37
5. 1. Summary of the major findings 37
5. 2. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies 38
5. 3. Pedagogical implications of the study 39
5. 4. Conclusion 40
LIST OF REFERENCES
LIST OF APPENDIXES


1. 1. Introduction
This chapter is concerned with the rationale behind the researcher‟s decision of choosing
the thesis subject, and the way she identified the problem facing her students‟ English
speaking skills. Besides, the scope, the objectives, and the research questions as well as the
methods and design of the study are also stated clearly.
1. 2. Rationale
Never before has English become so pervasive as nowadays, and English has formally
been an important subject in our educational system. “Better English, more opportunities”
is the answer given by most Vietnamese university students when asked about their goal of
learning English. English can help students prepare well for their future careers as it can
not only equip them with a useful source of personal, linguistic, social and cultural
knowledge but also provide them with access to modern technology and information
concerning a variety of issues in modern society. Especially, our country‟s recent regional
and global participation has been increasing the demand for English speaking people who
are expected to communicate verbally with the outside world and access modern
technology. Vietnamese students, who are intelligent and hard working, no doubt, have no
difficulties in mastering English grammar and vocabulary. Most of them, however, have
difficulties in English communicating. For these reasons, at the tertiary level where the
source of English teachers for the whole country is provided, English teaching has been
granted special support from educational authorities. However, finding out the most
appropriate English teaching method that can satisfy the need of the society is still a big
problem for generations of teachers in Vietnam.
Thanks to the efforts of several international projects and organizations, the teaching and
learning English in Vietnam has been considerably changing in the past years. Various new
approaches, methods and techniques on the teaching of English have been introduced and
applied in colleges and universities nationwide. Generally, English teaching has shifted
from the traditional grammar translation approach to the communicative approach. To be
successful in their real classroom‟s contexts, which are communication-oriented and
learner-centered, teachers of English are doing their best to improve their teaching skills.
2

ability to speak in a foreign language is at the very heart of what it means to be able to use
a foreign language.” Wongsuwana (2006: 44) also stated that speech can be trained and it
does not depend on talent.
3

However, one main reason why English speaking learning in Vietnam is not very
successful is that most learners lack the opportunity to learn, and to speak English in an
English environment; and for interaction in daily life. Therefore, it is essential to find out
the solution to the problem so that English learners have more opportunities to
communicated, as well as to interact with one another in a so-called close-to-real English
speaking environment. One of the teaching strategies that reflects the principle of learner-
centeredness is groupwork, which is designed by Nunan and Lamb (1996: 142) as any
classroom activity in which students perform collaborative tasks with one or more partners.
It has been considered one of the major changes to the dynamics of classroom interaction
wrought by student-centered teaching. Groupwork can greatly increase the amount of
active speaking and listening undertaken by all the students in the language class.
Groupwork has especially received more and more emphasis in language classroom and
groupwork activities are used in many aspects of the second language instructions,
particularly in encouraging students‟ oral practice. Working in groups, students are not
passively sitting and listening to the teachers, but joining actively in the learning process.
However, it is not always true that whenever students are asked to work in groups, the
cooperation will occur. Generally, there are problems such as some group members
dominate the group and impede the participation of others. Therefore, how to organize
groupwork successfully in the classrooms is the question of great concern for many
language researchers as well as language teachers.
In learner-centered approach, group work is the most effective way to reach success; and
cooperative learning is undeniably the most flexible and powerful grouping strategies as in
cooperative learning, learners work together to accomplish a shared goal. Therefore, they
are motivated to work together for mutual benefit in order to meet their own and each
other‟s learning. Cooperative learning can create an environment in which students‟ need

operative learning as an approach to improving speaking skills for the second-year non-
major students of English at Hanoi University of Business and Technology” as the
subject of this study.
1. 4. Scopes, objective and research questions for the study
This study was a kind of action research which was designed and conducted by the
researcher herself. The study was limited to the investigation of students‟ attitudes towards
cooperative learning, the level of their participation in groupwork, which was a dimension
of cooperative learning, in classroom speaking activities as well as the effect of
cooperative learning on the students‟ speaking performance. The study was conducted on
the second-year students who were studying English as a minor subject at Hanoi
5

University of Business and Technology. Thus, the first and foremost objective of the study
is for the sake of the students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology, where the
researcher worked as a teacher of English. Although any generalization of the findings
should be made with caution, it is expected that this study will serve as a source of
references for teachers of English on the teaching of speaking skills, especially for those
who consider cooperative learning as one of the best educational innovations.
To be more specific, in realizing this study, the main objective is:
- To investigate the effects of cooperative learning on students‟ participation and
achievement in speaking skills.
With this objective, the research questions are:
- What are the students‟ attitudes towards cooperative learning?
- What are the effects of cooperative learning on students‟ participation on group
activities and their progress in speaking skills?
1. 5. Methods of the study
This research is realized with both qualitative and quantitative analysis.
Quantitative analysis is involved in the process of data collection and analysis, which was
carried out at Hanoi University of Business and Technology. The instruments for this
process included two observation schedules fulfilled by the researcher herself, and the


7

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Introduction
This chapter presents some of the most important issues in theory of cooperative learning
in general and in language teaching in particular. The main features are taken into
consideration, namely, the concepts related to the study including the communicative
language teaching and the teaching of speaking skills, the definitions of cooperative
learning, and cooperative learning structures. Moreover, this is the study conducted on the
second year, non-major student of English at Hanoi University of Business and
Technology, where the course book Market Leader (Pre-intermediate) - a book for
business English - is exploited, so the speaking skills in General Business English as well
as the task-based learning and how it is exploited in business English are also introduced in
this part. Before reaching the minor conclusion of the chapter, it is the researcher‟s wish to
mention the benefits of cooperative learning and some of the previous studies on
cooperative learning with reference to the enhancement of students‟ speaking skills.
2.2. Concepts related to the study
2. 2. 1. Communicative language teaching and the teaching of speaking skills
The latest influence on language teaching in Vietnam is communicative language teaching.
Communicative language teaching is a broad approach to teach, which results from a focus

Brown and Yule (1993) suggest that, in contrast with teaching of written language,
teachers concern with teaching the spoken language must confront such the following
types of questions as how important pronunciation is, and whether students should be
expected to produce the structures in standard grammar when they speak English.
Ur (1996) considers speaking intuitively the most important of the four skills: people who
knows a language are referred to as „speakers‟ of that language as if speaking included all
other kinds knowing, and many if not most foreign language learners are primarily
interested in learning to speak. As a matter of fact, it is difficult to help learners to express
themselves articulately and more importantly, to develop competent speaking skills. The
different uses of the spoken language, which learners have to master as fluent speakers of
English, therefore are necessary to consider. She also lists out some problems facing
teachers as designing and administering speaking activities that include the inhibition of
trying to say something in English in the classroom; the mother-tongue use; the uneven or
low participation; and the lack of motivation.
All of the above authors support the ideas that the success of oral communication involves
a number of the features such as the ability to articulate phonological ones of the language
9

comprehensibly; the mastery of stress, rhythm, intonation patterns; the acceptable degree
of fluency; the management of interaction and negotiation; the conversational listening
skills, etc. of which the interacting and negotiating skills are more important for
communication in general Business English.
Conclusively, the ability to speak a second language well is a very complex task. Speaking
is used for many different purposes and each purpose involves a different skill. In general
Business English, we may use speaking to describe things, to complain about people‟s
behaviour, to make request, to negotiate something in our business, or to entertain people
with joke, etc. Each of these different purposes for speaking implies knowledge of the rules
that account for how spoken language reflects the context or situation in which speech
occur, the participants involved and their specific roles relationships, and the kinds of
activities the speakers are involved in.

reasons, expressing causes and effects, describing trends, comparing and contrasting,
expressing conditions, expressing intention, etc. Oral presentation work concentrates on
the stand-up, prepared talks accompanied by visual aids as well. In addition, the confidence
factor is worth mentioning as it has an effect on the handling of feedback in teaching oral
presentations.
Telephoning in English business covers a wide range of situations and types of interaction.
The language used in telephone conversations is highly conventional and formalized.
Telephoning also requires well-developed skills in exchanging information, clarifying, and
explaining. Pair work is the most popular technique exploited in teaching business
telephoning skills in English.
Socializing means the spoken interactions that surround the actual discussion of business
matters. According to Dudley-Evans and John (1998), in socializing, the social aspect of
interaction is just for establishing a good relationship in order to increase the conduct of
business. Therefore, a large variety of language structures is required here, depending on
specific types of situation and behaviour, such as greeting and saying goodbye,
complimenting and responding to thanks and complements, modality for expressing
possibility or politeness, raising topics, changing topics, accepting or rejecting new topics,
conditionals in negotiating, etc.
In summary, General Business English courses provide learners a board range of English
through business settings, and like General English courses, the design of these courses
should be task-based. According to Ellis and Johnson (1994), the basic fabric of a Business
English course should be tasks that are close to those of students‟ real situations. It is
important that these tasks should have specific objectives and be clearly instructed at the
beginning so that students are able to follow and achieve their overall objectives. Practice
11

tasks may be long or short; and the selection of appropriate tasks should depend on the
need of the students in relation to their (future) jobs – what business situations they have to
deal with, for instance. They may include: asking a student to describe a (or his/her)
company‟s products or to compare different products; asking two group members to

refers to the act of various interactive instructional small groups. Students who employ
cooperative learning approach work in groups of two to five to fulfill specific targets. They
need to be cooperative, pro-social, and positively interdependent. They also need to be
responsible for their own work”.
Johnson (1991) also gives a definition about cooperative learning as “the instructional use
of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each other‟s
learning”. According to the author, class members are organized into small groups after
receiving instructions from the teacher. They then work through the assignment until all
the group members successfully understand and complete it. Cooperative efforts result in
participants striving for mutual benefit so that all group members gain from each other‟s
efforts, recognizing that all the group members share a common fate, knowing that one‟s
performance is mutually caused by oneself and one‟s colleagues, and feeling proud and
jointly celebrating when one group member is recognized for achievement, because a
group member‟s success depends on both individual effort and the efforts of the other
group members who contribute needed knowledge, skills, and resources. No one in the
group can possess all the information, skills, or resources necessary for the highest possible
quality result.
It can be clearly seen from these definitions that the key to cooperative learning is the
careful structuring of learning groups. Generally, cooperative learning methods share the
following characteristics:
- Students work together on common tasks or learning activities that are best handled
through group work.
- Students work together in small groups consisting of two to five members.
- Students use cooperative, pro-social behaviors to accomplish their common tasks or
learning activities.
- Students are positively interdependent. Activities are structured so that students
need each other to accomplish their common tasks or learning activities.
- Students are individually accountable, responsible for their work, or learning.
2. 2. 3. 2. Cooperative learning structures
The specific cooperative learning strategies that teachers can use to organize interaction

Then students pair to discuss their ideas. Finally, the teacher asks the students to share
their ideas in their groups, and then the teacher can call one student to share their ideas
with the class. This works well in discussion to find out how to solve a business problem.
In team interview, students take turns standing and being interview by their teams. They
can be interviewed about a company or a product they have read about. This can be done
14

after students‟ presentation time as well. By using this structure, the teacher can help
students feel more confident as presenting in front of many people.
Teammate consult also works well in general business English. Students have the same
worksheet. They discuss the questions, and then silently write down the answers. This
really helps in a cooperative learning group, as students can exchange their ideas with one
another to find out what they themselves think the best answers for the questions given.
Students are on „base teams‟ of five in a jigsaw practice. Each student is assigned a
different role as an „expert‟. All „experts‟ with the same topic meet in a corner of the
classroom to learn about their topics. Then they prepare a brief presentation on the material
and return to their base teams. They tell their base team members about the new material
they have learned. In a speaking lesson of general business English, the teacher can use
this type to create a close-to-everyday-life atmosphere, in which students move around,
discuss their topics, try to learn new things, and then exchange the knowledge they have
gained with their friends. By doing so, students‟ speaking ability can be improved.
In summary, there are many strategies used in cooperative learning, all have common
characteristics of learning activities that are suitable for group work, and small group based
tasks. The strategies mentioned above, which were chosen carefully by the researcher of
this study, encouraged students‟ cooperative behaviors, positive interdependence,
individual accountability and responsibility for task completion, and so on. Thus, the
application of cooperative learning strategies is very effective in solving the problems of
speaking activities.
2. 2. 3. 3. Benefits of cooperative learning in language teaching
Since springing to life around the seventeenth century, cooperative learning approach has

cooperative learning should be used when we want students to learn more. Like school
better, like themselves better, and learn more effective social skills. It is clear that
classrooms should be dominated by cooperation among students”. This idea about the use
of cooperative learning is worth considering for the trend towards the increasing of
cooperative learning application in speaking lessons for Vietnamese students.
Millis (1996-2001) points out that students studying cooperatively in oriented groups are
strongly believed to be successful. He also emphasizes that “Working in well-instructed
groups permanently or semi-permanently gives students more opportunities to interact with
one another. Structural expressions also help a lot in everyday classroom practice.
Roundtable, for instance, is a technique of brainstorming applied in many kinds of practice
for various targets. Students choose correct and appropriate structures first, and then use
the structures to produce their own meaningful sentences. By doing that, they put
themselves in a particular practice, but when particular practices are connected, they turn
16

to be a cooperative lesson or activity”. Obviously, it is a beneficial for students to do so,
even it may take a plenty of time, and teachers should carefully think of the allocation of
time for other language skills, especially in the Vietnamese classroom context, where the
traditional approach is still dominated.
Dahley (1994) thinks that in cooperative learning, students work interdependently in their
groups to fulfill a special target. Effective cooperative learning should include five vital
elements: positive interdependence, face-to-face interaction, individual accountability,
social skills, and group processing. Positive interdependence refers to the peer support in
groups to reach the goal. By face-to-face interacting, students can help one another more
easily. Students also need to account their work individually, so that they can get rid of
being plagiarized by others. Acquiring social skills can help students strengthen personal
relationships among members of their group. Finally, group processing is necessary to
evaluate each member‟s work, their success or problems, their attitudes towards the job.
Teachers themselves benefit from collaborative learning. According to Bruffee (1993), by
applying this approach, they help students form groups or societies in which students get

especially with reference to the enhancement of students‟ speaking skills. In this part, only
some famous ones are noted.
In their study, Tavella and Artusi (2006: 11) did research on the application of cooperative
learning to enhance speaking skills. Their study was carried out with the participation of
two groups of secondary school students. The study shows that cooperative learning is
extremely useful in mixed-ability classes because it takes into account individual learning
styles, learning speeds, personality differences, language levels and affective issues. The
characteristics of cooperative learning were positive interdependence, individual
accountability, social skills, especially speaking skills, and there was a need for the
monitoring of behavioral criteria for grouping so that students could orally perform better.
Group compositions and interaction patterns could change with goals. They conclude that
cooperative learning is more than just an approach to learning a language, or language
skills; it is a way of working, behaving and even reflecting society and life itself.
Holmes (2003: 254 - 257) conducted an empirical study in a Malaysian university to
investigate students‟ language skill development via cooperative learning application. The
study compared students working in pairs and students working alone. He found that
students who worked together produced better results and had more positive attitudes.
Moreover, the data analysis in his study revealed that while working in groups, student‟s
speaking skills were improved, especially the ability of expressing their ideas. However,
there were some shortcomings about conflict manipulation or deception. The overall
results of the research indicated that most students regarded pair work positively. Fifty-five
18

(80%) of the pairs reported that they had had a good experience working with a partner and
38 (57%) said they enjoyed doing the project.
Johnson, Johnson and Holubec (1991: 21) observed that college students, especially
freshmen, often feel hopeless and discouraged when facing a difficult class, therefore
cooperative learning should be provided. After their research, they noted that the most
important aspect of college faculty life is empowering students by organizing them into a
cooperative team. They also had another conclusion that by studying in teams, students‟

theories relating such as the communicative language teaching and the teaching of
speaking skills, the speaking skills in General Business English, cooperative learning, and
cooperative learning structures, the benefits of cooperative learning, etc. as background
knowledge to plan the activities and materials were a good way to enhance students to
learn most. The thorough action research – the most important part of this study – will be
presented in the next chapter. 19

CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY
3. 1. Introduction
In this section, besides the minor introduction and conclusion, four main categories are
addressed. The first one is the context of the study, which houses the description of the
students‟ learning context and learning materials in their second year at Hanoi University
of Business and Technology. In the second category, the methods of data collection are
presented carefully. The introduction of the action research participants lies in the next
part. The most important part of the chapter, which is the procedures of the study,
describes in details the problem identification and the plan of action.
3. 2. Context of the study
3. 2. 1. The learning context
The students were in their first semester of the second university year, with 90 class hours
of English study. They studied in a small-sized class of 30 ones; each class has one private
room to study. They had just finished the elementary level of English and attend 10 class
hours of English every week. The students, after one year learning English at Hanoi
University of Business and Technology, were expected to communicate appropriately in
various, simple situations in everyday life as well as in business life.
In general, the students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology attend 3 modules
of English in their first year, 4 ones in their second year, and 4 others in their third year. At
the end of each module, they have to take part in an oral progress test which accounts for