VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TÀO THỊ THU THẢO TECHNIQUES FOR ORGANIZING COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES
IN PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK FOR THE 1
ST
YEAR STUDENTS AT
TOURISM FACULTY, THANH HOA UNIVERSITY
OF CULTURE, SPORTS AND TOURISM

(Những thủ thuật tổ chức các hoạt động giao tiếp theo cặp, nhóm
cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất khoa Du Lịch,
trường Đại học Văn hoá, Thể thao, Du lịch Thanh Hoá )

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10 Hanoi, 2013
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS Candidate’s statement
i
Acknowledgements
ii
Abstract
iii
List of abbreviations
iv
List of tables and charts
iv
Table of contents
v
PART A: INTRODUCTION
1
I. Rationale
1
II. Aims of the study
2
III. Scope of the study
2
I.3.1. Definition of Classroom Interaction
7 I.3.2. Speaking skill in language teaching and learning
7 I.3.3. Types of interactions in speaking class
8

I.4. Pair work and group work in speaking classes
9 I.4.1. Definition of pair work
9 I.4.2. Definition of group work
9 I.4.3. Advantages of pair work and group work
9
vi
II.1.4. Descriptions of teaching and learning of English speaking skills for the
first year students at Tourism Faculty through organizing pair work and group
work
15

II.2. Methodology
15 II.2.1. Participants
15 II.2.2. Research instruments
16 II.2.3. Data analysis
17

II.3. Presentation of statistical results
17 II.3.1. The result of language learning survey questionnaires and direct
interview
17 II.3.1.1. Students’ opinions on speaking skill

24 II.3.2.3. Teachers’ implemention of pair work, group work in current
speaking classes
25 II.3.2.4. Teacher’s appreciation on how useful pair work and group work are
27
vii

to improve student’s learning speaking English after the 1st semester

II.4. Summary
28

Chapter III: Finding and Discussion
29

III.1. Research questions restated
29

III.2. How pair work and group work are used in English speaking classes of the 1
st

year students at Tourism Faculty, TUCST?
29

III.3. What are useful techniques of pair work and group work to the 1


Appendix 2: Questionnaires for teachers

Appendix 3: Interview questions for students

Appendix 4: Interview questions for teachers 1

PART A: INTRODUCTION
I. Rationale
In Vietnam, English is taught not only at all colleges and universities, but also almost
every high school and it is considered as a compulsory subject at secondary school. To meet
the demand of learners, the teaching English in Vietnam has been changing. By applying
various new approaches, methods, and techniques, English teaching has shift from the
traditional grammar translation approach to the communicative approach. According to
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), the purpose of language teaching and learning is
to develop communicative competence in the target language. In the view of this approach,
the learner is considered the center of the leaning process; the teacher serves as a facilitator,
allowing students to be in change of their own learning.

II. Aims of the study:
This study is aimed at:
- finding out the use of pair work and group work in English speaking classes of the
1
st
year students at Tourism Faculty, TUCST
- suggesting the useful techniques of pair work and group work to the 1
st
year students
at Tourism Faculty in learning speaking English.
III. Scope of the study:
To improve communicative skills for students at TUCST, the teachers can make use
of various techniques and a number of things should be done. However, within the
framework of a minor thesis, the researcher only intends to draw a brief overview of how are
the pair work and group work used at TUCST.
Among for language skills, namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing, pair work
and group work are used frequently in the speaking lessons. Therefore, this research tends to
find out the useful pair work and group work techniques in speaking classes.
Also, due to the time constraints, this study only involves a small number of English
teachers and students in their first academic year of Tourism Faculty, TUCST.
IV. Research question:
This study was aimed to answer the following research questions:
1. How pair work and group work are used in English speaking classes of the 1
st
year
students at Tourism Faculty, TUCST?
2. What are useful techniques of pair work and group work to the 1
st
year students at
Tourism Faculty in learning speaking English?

In this chapter, a brief description of the theoretical knowledge relating to the study
was provided. It includes some concepts of CLT, communicative activities, interaction in the
speaking class, pair work, group work.
I.1. Communicative language teaching (CLT)
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is the most influential language teaching
methodology in the world. Since the introduction of communicative language teaching in the
late 1970s, there have been a variety of definitions and ideas about CLT:
- “CLT views language as a system for the expression of meaning. Activities involve
oral communication, carrying out meaningful tasks, and using language, which is
meaningful to the learners. Objectives reflect the needs of the learners; they include
functional skills as well as linguistic objectives. The learner‟s role is as a negotiator
and an integrator. The teacher‟s role is as a facilitator of the communication process.
Materials promote communicative language use; they are task based and authentic”.
(Nunan 1989:194)
Richards and Rodgers (1986) consider CLT as an approach rather than a method
which comprises two sets of theories: assumption of what to teach, and assumption of how to
teach. In the first assumption, the purpose of language teaching is to develop "communicative
competence" - a basic concept in CLT. Hymes (1972) defines “communicative competence”
as “what a speaker needs to know in order to be communicatively competent in a speech
community”. According to this, CLT has two following main aims pointed out by Richards
and Rogers (1986:64):
1. To make communicative competence the goal of language teaching.
2. To develop procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge
the interdependence of language and communication.
The second assumption shows another point about CLT, that is: “its learner-centered
and experience based view of second language teaching. Students in this approach are seen
to be able to play a more active and participatory part than in traditional approaches. And
therefore, the roles of teacher will be re-defined with the change of activity organization
because each leaner is thought to have unique learning styles, needs and goals, which should
be reflected in the design of the method of instruction.” (Richards and Rodgers, 2001:67).

- The students work independently off the teacher.
- The students determine what they want to write and say. The activity is not designed
to control what the students will.
(Nolasco and Athur 1993: 58)
6

According to Harmer (1991), communicative activities are those that give students
involved desire and a purpose to communicate. Such activities are very beneficial for students
because they can do their best to use the target language and arrive at the degree of
proficiency in the end.
I.2.2. Types of Communicative activities:
Harmer (1991) also 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.
In addition, according to Littlewood (1981), there are two main types of communicative
activities which he calls: “functional communication activities and social interaction
activities”. These two types of activities aim to prepare students for their first contact with
authentic spoken English.
Functional communication activities primarily require students to use their knowledge
of language to solve problems through information–gap and reasoning–gap activities.
Communicative interaction that encourages cooperative relationships among students is
achieved by a series of tasks: learners comparing sets of pictures and noting similarities and
differences; picture strip stories predicting a likely sequence of events; discovering missing
features in a map or on pictures; one learner communicating from behind a screen to another
learner and giving instructions on how to draw a picture or shape, or how to complete a map;
following directions; and solving problems from shared clues. These activities provide the
learner with immediate feedback from the listeners on whether or not he or she has
successfully communicated.

Classroom interaction involves two main aspects, which are the negotiation of
meaning and feedback, if these two elements are not available in the classroom, then we
cannot speak of a successful learning through interaction. Ellis and Foto (1999:09) say,
“Interaction contributes to acquisition through the provision of negative evidence and
through opportunities for modified output.” Interaction then is rich of meaning negotiation
where the learners can receive feedback from their interlocutors.
I.3.2. Speaking skills in language teaching and learning:
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)
Speaking is a basic skill that language learners should master with the other language
skills. It is defined as a complex process of sending and receiving messages through the use
of verbal expressions, but it also involves non verbal symbols such as gestures and facial
expressions. Hedge (2000: 261) defines speaking as “a skill by which they [people] are
8

judged while first impressions are being formed.” That is to say speaking is an important skill
which deserves more attention in both first and second language because it reflects people’s
thoughts and personalities.
In language teaching and learning, speaking has an important part to play. It is a
medium through which much language is learnt, and which is particularly useful for learning.
According to Kayi, (2006), the ability to communicate in a second language clearly and
efficiently contributes to the success of the learner in school and success later in every phase
of life. Bygate (1987), who holds the same view, claims that our learners need to have ability
to speak confidently to carry out their most basic transactions. More than this, speaking is
regarded as the first step to confirm who knows or does not know a language. Ur, P. (1996)
indicated that people who know a language are referred to as “speakers” of that language as
if speaking included all other kinds of knowing. Consequently, a lot of foreign language

„open‟, pair work, with pairs of students speaking in turn in front of the class. In fact, a pair
work consists of two students working together at the same time.
There are two main types of pair work: fixed pairs and flexible pairs, given by Byrne
(1983). In the former, students work with the same partner to practice the target language. In
the later, students keep changing their partners they like. This may make the activity more
interesting but the class noisier.
It can be seen that pair work can get students to practice the target language more and
increase students’ talking time in the class.
I.4.2. Definition of group work
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.4.3. Advantages of pair work and group work
Pair work and group work gives the students far more chances to speak English in the
classroom. Students participate in the lesson much more actively because they are involved in
talking to their friends exchanging opinions, practicing new structures more than listening to
their teacher talking. This is important in our schools when English lessons usually take place
three times a week, teachers have to practice, develop all the language skills and it happens
that there is no time left for speaking. So if a teacher has ten minutes left during the lesson it
10

is better to divide the class into groups to give the learners opportunity to really use the
language to communicate with each other.
According to Michael Long and his colleagues (1985) who investigated differences in
the quantity and quality of student language in group work versus teacher centered activities
the language produced by students working in groups is more varied and greater in quantity.

who is “it” rotates around the group and points are scored.
- Role-play: Role-play minimally involves giving a role to one or more members of a
group and assigning an objective or purpose that participants must accomplish. A group role-
play might involve a discussion of a political issue, with each person assigned to represent a
particular political point of view.
- Drama: Drama is a more formalized form of role-play and simulation, with a pre-
planned story line and script. Sometimes small groups may prepare their own short
dramatization of some event, writing the script and rehearsing the scene as a group. But they
are time consuming and rarely can form part of a typical school curriculum.
- Projects: Mainly for young learners who can greatly benefit from hands-on
approaches to language, certain projects can be rewarding indeed.
- Interview: A popular activity for pair work, but also suitable for group work,
interviews are useful at all level of proficiency.
- Information gap: This technique is one of the easiest and most interesting forms of
communicative activity in the speaking lesson. Information-gap activities include a
tremendous variety of techniques in which the objectives is to convey or to request
information. The two main characteristics of information-gap techniques are their primary
attention to information and not to language forms and the necessity of communicative
interaction in order to reach the objective. The information that students must seek can range
from very simple to complex.
- Problem solving and decision making: Problem-solving techniques focus on the
group’s solution of a specified problem. The problem might be relatively simple (such as
giving directions on a map), moderately complex (such as working out an itinerary from
train, plane, and bus schedules), or quite complex (such as solving a mystery in a “crime
story” or dealing with a political or moral dilemma).
Decision-making techniques are simply one kind of problem-solving where the ultimate goal
is for students to make a decision.
- Opinion exchange: Opinion exchange is a difficult technique for students to deal
with at the beginning levels of proficiency, but by the intermediate level, certain techniques
can effectively include the exchange of various opinions. Sometimes, opinions are

students begins the activities itself. These studies have focused on the process of group work
implementation in speaking lesson of non-major English students. Understanding of the pair
and group work organizing processes would enable teachers to better facilitate learners in
communicative activities.
I.6. Summary
In summary, the previous studies mentioned above considered the use of pair and
group work in language teaching according to the product approach and the process
approach. In this study, both of benefit and implementing of using pair and group work in
speaking classes are concerned. However, the researcher mainly focuses on the pair and
13

group work implementation. The researcher wants to investigate the activities of pair and
group work are used in speaking class in hope of finding out the useful ones for both teachers
and the 1
st
year students at Tourism Faculty, TUCST.
Guide. English serves as a mean that provides students with basic knowledge about grammar
and vocabulary.
Since upgrading to the University, every year our university admits about 1,000 newly
enrolled students for a course of 4 years study. There are numerous of students in the Faculty
of Culture, and Faculty of Tourism in which train future culture managements and tour
guides. Therefore, English is considered as the compulsory subject in the course syllabus
with the purpose of helping the students to develop their English communicative skills to
meet the demand for their future employment. So General English is chosen for providing
basic knowledge and skills to the first year students.
II.1.2. Descriptions of English teachers, teaching method and teaching material in
TUCST
Our university has got 8 teachers of English aged from between 25 to 40. Almost of
them have Master Degree and at least four years of teaching experience. Both of them love
and enthusiasm with teaching English.
In terms of language teaching, teachers are always aware of the importance of the new
trend in teaching method nowadays: learner- centered approach, communicative approach
when teaching English to the students. They try to give their students independence in
studying by asking them to work through the text or discussing subject matters in groups,
giving them some instructions before asking them to make presentation or role play in front
of the class, students at the time play the key role in the lesson. However, only one or two
teachers can sometimes do these and the amount of time spent on such activities is not much.
15

Our current material of teaching General English is the course-book Lifelines –
Elementary written by Tom Hutchinson. This course-book is divided into fourteen units, each
of them has been divided into four parts in which “listening and speaking” part aims at
providing students the different topics and structures through listening and requires them to
practice speaking skills. After every two units there is an “extension” section accompanied
with two class cassettes. The total time of learning is 135 periods within 16 weeks of two
semesters of the first year. Each units lasts for 8 periods. So in each semester, students have

The first year, 110 students were randomly chosen from 122 students of 2 classes.
Their age varied between 19 and 21 so they belonged to the same psychological age group.
Because of entering in Tourism Faculty, most of them have low English background. Their
length of English learning at school (before entering our university) was different. Some of
them who live in the city have learned English for 7 years, others who live in the countryside
have learnt English for 3 years.
II.2.2. Research instruments
The instruments used to collect data was questionnaire and interview for the teachers
and the first year students to get information about using pair work, group work in speaking
classes. Two sets of questionnaires were designed to investigate the teachers’ and students’
opinion about the use of pair work and group work in the speaking classes of the 1
st
year
students of Tourism Department, TUCST.
The first are the questionnaires for the students including 10 questions written in
Vietnamese, was administered to 110 students. This is divided into 4 parts:
Part 1: Students’ opinions on speaking skill (Question 1, 2, 3)
Part 2: Students’ opinions on the use of pair work, group work in speaking class
(Question 4, 5)
Part 3: Students’ recommendation for organizing of pair and group work (Question 6,
7, 8, 9)
Part 4: Students’ appreciation the improvement of their learning speaking English
after the 1
st
semester of using pair work and group work. (Question 10, 11)
The second are the questionnaires for the teachers including 10 questions written in
English, was administered to 6 English teachers of Tourism Faculty. This is divided into 4
parts:
Part 1: Teachers’ opinions on teaching speaking skill (Question 1, 2,3)
Part 2: Teachers’ appreciation of pair, group work in speaking class (Question 4, 5)

%
1
a. It’s a compulsory subject in the curriculum 16
14,5
b. Learning speaking English is to pass the oral
tests
56
68,2
c. Speaking English is necessary fot your future job

90
81,8
d. Learning speaking English is your interest
20
18,2
2
a. very interested
[
19
17,3
b. interested

81
73,6
c. not very interested

10

14,5
4. answering the teachers’ questions
33
30
5.listening and taking notes
45
40,9
As can be seen from the table 2, (83,6%) of the students asked said that they like
working in pairs and groups, whereas they had very little favor for working individually
(20,9%) , only 14,5% of them liked working in whole class. 30% of students enjoyed
answering the teacher’ questions and 40,9% liked listening and taking note . From this, it can
be understood that most of the students see the importance of working in pair and group for
the better speaking skill. This also means that pair work and group work are surely the most
suitable activities for the speaking skill. In the interview, some students revealed:
“ I feel really comfortable when I work with my partners”
“ I like working in pairs and in groups because I feel free and active”
“I‟m afraid of answering the teacher‟s questions as I have just learnt English, so I am not
confident enough”
“My speaking proficiency is not good so I think it‟s good that teacher deliver lecture and I
take note”
II.3.1.2. Students’ opinions on the use of pair work, group work in speaking class
Very often
Often
Not very often

Chart 1: Students’ opinions on the teachers’ frequent use of pair and group work
(Question 4)
Not very surprising information from table is that the students (85 %) affirm that the teachers
in their university often use the pair work and group work in the speaking lesson very often
because it is compulsory that the teachers implement this to follow the book activities

72,7

It was obvious that almost all the students ( more than 70%) found that pair work and
group work were so beneficial for their speaking skill that they can speak more in English,
they can be much more confident and they also have chance to express themselves, their
independence, cooperation and motivation in speaking were improved. Regarding the benefit
of learning from each other of group work, 72,7% (80 out of 110) the students stated that they
learnt each other so much. Some of them said as follows:
“ I‟m encouraged to speak out with my friends‟ help. I don‟t feel shy to express my opinion
with them. My partners help me a lot with my pronunciation”

“ My friends helps me a lot with my English especially grammar and vocabulary when I work
with them”
“When answering my teacher‟s question I really shy, but I am much more confident as
speaking to my partners in pairs or in groups”
II.3.1.3. Students’ recommendation for the success of pair and group work
Chart 2: Activities students wished teachers to select for pair and group work (Question 6)

0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
Games Role-play Interviewing Information
gap
Drama Projects Problem
solving
Discussing Opinion

Questions
Options/
Numbers of
students
Percent
%
7
a. Students of the same English proficiency level.
35
31,8
b.Students of higher English proficiency level
40
36,4
c.Students of lower English proficiency level.
10
9,1
d. Students sitting next or near to each other.

13
11,8
e. Students of the same interest.

12
10,9
Questions
Options/
Numbers of
students
Percent %
8