VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
 PHẠM TUYẾT MINH
TEACHER AND STUDENTS’ FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS’
PARTICIPATION IN PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK
– A CASE STUDY AT LUONG VAN TUY GIFTED HIGH SCHOOL IN NINH BINH
(Yếu tố giáo viên và học sinh ảnh hưởng đến việc tham gia hoạt động cặp và
nhóm của học sinh chuyên Anh - Một nghiên cứu cá biệt tại trường THPT
Chuyên Lương Văn Tuỵ - Ninh Bình)
M.A. MINOR THESIS
Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.14.10

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.14.10
Supervisor: M.A NGUYỄN THU LỆ HẰNG

Hanoi, 2011

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND CHARTS
1. Abbreviations:
PW: Pair work
GW: Group work
CLT: Communicative Language Teaching
T: Teacher
SS: Students
2. Charts:
Chart 1: Students’ opinion when being asked about the advantages of PW and GW
Chart 2: What the students often do when being asked to work in pairs and in groups.
Chart 3: The students’ self – evaluation when taking part in PW and GW.
Chart 4: Teacher’s opinion on the importance of PW and GW
Chart 5: How often the PW and GW are implemented in the speaking class?
Chart 6: The most important factors that come from teachers which affect students’
participation when working in pairs and in groups.
Chart 7: The most important factors came from students that affect students’ participation
in pairs and in groups. (Students’ questionnaire)
Chart 8: Factors from teacher affecting students’ participation in PW and GW
Chart 9: Factors from students affecting their participation in PW and GW
Chart 10: Students’ desire about what teachers should do to facilitate PW and GW

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW ……………………………… …… ………6
I. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) ……………………………….………… 6
I.1. An overview of Communicative Language Teaching………………… … ….6
I. 2. Communicative activities……………………………………………… …… 6
II. Classroom work arrangements: Pair work and Group work…………………………….7
II.1. Definition and description of Pair Work and Group Work………………… 7
II. 2. Advantages and disadvantages of Pair work and Group work……………… 7
II.3. Organization of Pair Work and Group Work………………………………….9
II. 3.1. Formation……………………………………………………… … 9
II. 3.2. Procedures for Pair Work and Group Work………………… …….9
II. 3.3. Seating arrangement in Pair Work and Group Work…………… 10

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III. Students’ participation and factors affecting their participation in Pair Work and Group
work…………………………………………………………………………… …………10
III.1. Concept of students’ participation in PW and GW…… ………………… 10
III. 2. Human factors affecting their participation in Pair work and Group
work……………………………………………………………………………………… 11
III. 2.1. Students’ factors……………………………………… ……………… 11
III. 2.1.1. Students’ learning style…………………………….………… 11
III. 2.1.2. Students’ attitude and motivation………………….……………11
III. 2.1.3. Students’ language level……………………… ………………11
III. 2.1.4. Students’ learning habit…………………………………………12
III. 2.1.5. Gender difference…………………………….…………………12
III. 2.2. Teacher’s factors…………………………………………… ………… 13
III. 2.2.1. Teacher’s teaching methods………………………… ……… 13
III. 2.2.2. Teacher’s knowledge……………………………………………13
III. 2.2.3. Teacher’s characteristics……………………………… …… 13
III. 2.2.4. Teacher’s role in Pair work and Group work………………… 14
IV. Summary…………………………………… ……………………….……………….14

I. Findings: ………………………………………………………………………… ……38
I.1. Research question 1: How are Pair work and Group work used in speaking
lesson at Luong Van Tuy Gifted High School? How do students participate in Pair work
and group work? ………………………………………………………………………… 38
I.2. Research question 2: What are the human factors affecting students’
participation in Pair work and Group work? …………………………………………… 39
I.2.1. Teacher’s factors………………………………………… ……… 39
I.2.2. Students’ factors……………………………………………… ……39
I.3. Research question 3: What are the feasible solutions to improve students’
participation in pair work and in group work, as recommended by the teachers and
students? 40
II. Some main recommendations: …………………………………………………………41
II.1. To teachers……………………………………………………………………41
II.2. To students……………………………………………………………………42
PART C: CONCLUSION…………………………………………………… …………44
I. Conclusions …………………………………………………………… …………… 44
II. Limitation of the study …………………………………………………………………44
III. Suggestions for further studies ……………………………………………………… 44
PART D: REFERENCES………………………………………………… ……………46 viii
APPENDICES………………………………………… ………………………………….I
Appendix 1: Survey questionnaire for students………… …………………………………I
Appendix 2: Survey questionnaire for teacher ………… ……………………………… V
Appendix 3: Class observation sheet 1 - Students’ on – task behavior………… ……….IX
Appendix 4: Class observation sheet 2 - Overall class participation ………… ……….XII
Appendix 5: Class observation sheet 3………… …………………………………… XIV
Factors from teacher which affect students’ participation in Pair work and group work
Appendix 6: Class observation sheet 4………… ……………………………………… XVI

organizing and managing pair work and group work. This lead me the choice of the study
“Teacher and students’ factors affecting students’ participation in pair work and group
work – A case study at Luong Van Tuy Gifted High School” with the hope of
investigating the teacher and students‟ factors which come from teacher and students
themselves affecting the students‟ participation in pair work and group work. With regard
to the factors affecting the students‟ participation in pairs and in groups, the study focused
on the students‟ factors including learning styles, attitudes and motivation, language levels,
learning habits and gender differences; teacher factors including teacher methods,

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knowledge, characteristics and roles in oral activities. This research is also aimed at
discovering the application of pair work and group work during speaking lesson in English
major classes and then some feasible suggestions for both teacher and students to organize
the pair work and group work successfully. Thus, pair work and group work can be used in
flexible way to create variety, freshness in the classroom atmosphere and most importantly,
to enhance students‟ oral practice of English.
II. Aims of the study
The aims of the study are to investigate the factors affecting students‟ participation
in pair work and group work of English major students at Luong Van Tuy Gifted High
School in Ninh Binh. Some mains purposes covering the study are summarized as follows:
- To identify the application of pair work and group work in speaking lesson at
Luong Van Tuy Gifted High School.
- To point out some teacher and students‟ factors affecting students‟ participation in
pair work and group work.
- To give some suggestions for teachers to stimulate students and to improve their
participation when working in pairs and in groups.
III. Scope of the study
Concerning the scope of the study, some of the following things should be taken
into consideration. First, the subjects of the study are the 99 English major students at
Luong Van Tuy Gifted High School. We chose the major students of English because they

VI. Significance of the study
The study is of great values by the following reasons:
First, the information about the self – evaluation of the participation in pair work
and group work of the students is believed to be useful for the teachers of English in
general and teachers of English at Luong Van Tuy Gifted High School in Ninh Binh in
particular.
Second, identifying some human factors affecting students‟ participation of
students in pairs and in groups, pointing out students‟ preferences and demands to
activities and techniques applied by teachers are believed to be helpful for all teachers
when teaching speaking and when designing pairs and groups.
Third, giving some recommendations for teachers to motivate students to
participate in pairs and groups and to overcome obstacles and difficulties in teaching
speaking is expected to be beneficial.

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VII. Design of the study
The study is divided into four parts: The Introduction, the Development, the
Conclusion and the References.
Part A: Introduction
This part deals with the rationale, aims, scope, methods, significance and design of
the study.
Part B: Development
This part consists of the following chapters:
Chapter I: Literature review – is intended to give some theoretical background
related to Communicative language teaching, speaking skills and its related concepts,
classroom work arrangement (pair work and group work) and the concept of students‟
participation in pairs and in groups and factors affecting students‟ participation in pair
work and group work including students‟ factors.
Chapter II: The study – presents the situation analysis, participants, data
collection instruments, data collection procedures and data analysis. The detailed results of


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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I - LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter briefly covers the theories related to the study: Communicative
approach to language teaching, pair work and group work arrangement in language
teaching and learning and human factors affecting the students‟ participation in pair work
and in group work.
I. COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT)
I.1. AN OVERVIEW OF CLT
CLT appearing between the 1960s and 1970s marks the beginning of major
innovation within language teaching and it has been widely accepted nowadays because of
its superior principles.
According to Nunan (1989), 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 for learners. Objectives reflect the needs of the
learners; they include functional skills as well as linguistic objectives. The learners‟ 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”.
According to CLT, the purpose of language teaching is to develop “communicative

make the activity more interesting.
II.1.2. Group work:
Beside pair work, Adrian (1988) 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”.
Clearly, group work is a co – operative activity, during which students share aims
and responsibilities, they have chances for greater independence as they take some of their
own learning decisions, without the teacher controlling every move, and they can work
without the pressure opinions and points of view. They participate more equally and in
most cases, they feel free to experiment and use the language.
II.2. Advantages and disadvantages of pair work and group work:
II.2.1. Pair work:
Pair work plays an indispensable role in teaching and learning speaking skill
because of a good deal of advantages as follow: It dramatically increases the amount on

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speaking time any one student gets in the class, it allows students to work and interact
independently without the necessary guidance of the teacher, thus promoting learner
independence, it allows teachers time to work with one or two pairs while the other
students continue working, it recognizes the old maxims that “two heads are better than
one”, thus promoting learner cooperation, it relatively quick and easy to organize.
(Harmer, 1999)
Pair work also has some disadvantages. Below are their common problems: Pair
work is frequently very noise and some teachers and students dislike this. Teachers in
particular worry that they will lose control of their classes, students in pair can veer away
from the point of an exercise, talking about something else completely, often in their first
language, it is not always popular with all students, many of whom feel they would rather
relate to the teacher as individuals than interact with other learners who may be just
linguistically weak as they are, the actual choice of paired partner can be problematic,
especially if students frequently find themselves working someone they are not keen on.

number of factors we might consider when doing this. According to Harmer (1999:115),
we can base such decision on any of the following principles: Friendship, Streaming,
Chance, Changing groups, Grouping based in other differences, or Types of tasks. In short,
our paring and grouping decision is made based on a variety of factors. We can put
students in pairs or in groups differently according to our own purpose or the class‟s
atmosphere or characteristic.
II.3.2. Procedures for Pair work and Group work:
Harmer (1999) suggests three stages in carrying out pair work and group work as
follow:
* 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 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. Besides this, 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 support and suggestions but it is vital that we bear in mind
the most appropriate way to do so.

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* After: When pairs and groups stop working together we need to organize
feedback. We may have a few pairs or groups quickly demonstrate the language they have
been using. We can then correct it, it can when necessary and this procedure will give both
those students and the rest of the class good information for future learning and action.
Constructive feedback can greatly enhance students‟ future motivation.
II.3.3. Seating arrangement in pair work and group work:

their success in completing the class activities and their attention to what is happening in
the class.
III.2. Human factors affecting students’ participation in Pair work and Group
work:
III.2.1. Students’ factors:
III.2.1.1. Students’ learning style:
Learners may have their own learning styles which help classify them into certain
learner groups. Willing (1987); cited in Harmer (2001) divides learners into the following
groups based on their individual behaviors: Convergers, Conformists, Concrete learners,
Communicative learners
As can be seen from Willing‟s classification, if the majority of students in one class
belong to the two former groups, the degree of participation in oral activities of this class
will be low. More importantly, it can have negative effects on creating a good learning
atmosphere, which may prevent the others from taking part in oral tasks.
III.2.1.2. Students’ attitude and motivation:
No one can deny the importance of motivation towards the success in learning a
foreign language, so how can we initiate and sustain motivation? When starting to learn a
foreign language, students may have in themselves some kind of motivation either
extrinsic or intrinsic motivation which has fired them up. We, teachers, must be
responsible for sustaining their motivation otherwise it may be weak and die (Rogers:
1996: 102; cited in Harmer: 2001).
With a view to helping teacher realize whether a learner is motivated or not ,Penny
Ur (1996) points out typical characteristics of a motivated learner including: Positive task
orientation, Ego – involvement, Need for achievement, High aspiration, Goal orientation,
Tolerance.
In conclusion, we should be aware of the role and the sources of motivation and
then promote it among our students, and when they are motivated they will have in
themselves a force that pushes them to participate more actively in classroom activities in
general and oral activities in particular.
III.2.1.3. Students’ language level:

order to have a deep understanding about the problem, Homes (1986; cited in Das: 1986)
studied sex differences and language use in terms of “Conventional Interaction” and found
out interesting results as follows: The results of the research were quite different compared
to our thought: men talked more and more frequent turns at talk; interrupted more often;

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with held responses to women‟s topics; and with held self disclosure, collaboration,
cooperation and flexible leadership characterize women‟s talk more frequently than men‟s
interaction.
In conclusion, those are the main factors originating from students‟ side that may
affect students‟ participation in classroom activities in general and oral ones in particular.
For each student, the degrees of effect of those five factors may vary and within one factor
the degrees of effect on different students are different. The teacher should identify which
group a student belongs to, then plan to form suitable pairs or groups among them so that
students can avoid having difficulties when involving in oral activities. More importantly,
the teacher often should create an encouraging learning environment.
III.2.2. Teacher’s factors:
III.2.2.1. Teacher’s teaching methods:
Through the history we have experienced the existence and development of many
teaching methods that can be divided into two types: teacher – centered and learner –
centered methods. Stern (1983) listed out some main methods including: Grammar –
translation or traditional method, Direct method, Audio – lingual method, Audiovisual
method. Listing out these methods does not mean that we can choose a method to be
perfectly applied to a certain class to increase students‟ involvement. In order to have a
suitable method, the teacher should take some of the following factors into consideration
including learners, teaching purposes and other available classroom conditions. This
method can be one or a combination of those above mentioned methods. Choosing an
inappropriate or not being flexible in applying methods to a certain class may have
negative effects on students‟ participation.
III.2.2.2. Teachers’ knowledge:

renovate their teaching methods to encourage students‟ roles in speaking activities. At the
same time, teachers should improve their knowledge including both knowledge of
language and knowledge of field expertise. Finally, teacher should be friendly and open –
hearted to create a good rapport with students. The chapter that follows will present all the
information concerning the study: the English learning situation at Luong Van Tuy Gifted
High School including the teachers, the students, the textbook and the using of pair work
and group work in the speaking lesson, the methodology of the study, the research
questions, the research instruments and the data collection procedures. 15
Chapter II – The study
I. Introduction
In the former part, I presented the rational, the aims and objectives, scope and the
setting of this study. I also gave a brief note on the review of literature related to pair work
and group work and factors affecting students‟ participation in pairs and in groups. And the
part that follows presents the English learning situation at Luong Van Tuy Gifted High
School, the research questions, research method and techniques for data collection.
II. English learning situation at Luong Van Tuy Gifted High School
Luong Van Tuy Gifted High School is a newly established school in the system of
specialized schools in Ninh Binh. Every year, we are responsible for forming 40 classes,
33 specialized classes which are divided into 11 specialized groups. English, a compulsory
subject, is considered to be important at Luong Van Tuy Gifted High School. Thus,
English has a good condition to develop. Besides, being well equipped with an
independent learning center, the headmaster requires organizing extra – English classes
one afternoon a week for every specialized classe and three afternoons a week for the
specialized classes of English. And the result of this policy is the noticeable progress of
students in learning English degree. However, a part from the above favorable condition,
the learning of English especially in specialized classes still remains problematic.
II.1. Students:

students are their main teaching material.
II.3. Textbook:
In Upper secondary schools, there are two textbook systems for students: A 7 –
year – course for non major English students and a 7 – year – course for major English
students. For those who are major English students have to learn the three textbook English
10,11,12 of both two systems. These textbooks focus on the four skills: Reading, speaking,
listening, writing and English structures in the Language focus section.
Besides these textbooks, the English major students of Luong Van Tuy Gifted High
school are also learnt other sources of syllabus provided by teachers and the Internet
sources to enlarge their knowledge about English.
II.4. Using pair work and group work in speaking lesson:
Pair work and group work are used frequently in English class, especially in
speaking lesson. Some kinds of speaking activities are carried out in pairs and in groups.
But some confusion, chaos are seen when students discuss in pairs and in groups. In
addition, the advanced students tend to participate in group work enthusiastically and take
over most of the work whereas the weaker ones do only a little because of several factors
including human factors, classroom factors and culture obstacles.

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I do want to change the situation by creating chances for the weaker ones to talk
more during English speaking lessons, and giving all the students the needs skills to
cooperate. To do this, the teacher has to find out what factors affect the students‟
participation in Pair work and in Group work so that he/she can have possible solutions to
motivate them to talk in English.
III. Methodology and design of the study:
III.1. Subjects of the study:
The study is carried out to investigate human factors affecting students‟
participation in Pair work and Group work in speaking lesson. Thus, the subjects of the
study are 99 students of the three English major classes: 10,11,12 and 10 teachers of
English at Luong Van Tuy Gifted High School.

The instrument used in this study consisted of two types of questionnaires: One for
teachers and the other for the students. According to Bill Grillham, using questionnaires
has some advantages can provide suggestive data for testing and hypothesis. Each of them
has four parts: the first section is about the mainly information about the informants, the
second one is about the information concerning the application of pair work and group
work and the students‟ level participation in pair work and group work, the third one is
about the human factors that affect their participation in taking part in pair work and group
work (under the view of teacher, students) and the last one is about the desire of
students/teacher when organizing/ taking part in pair work and group work. All the
questions are closed to avoid time – consuming of students when taking part in the survey.
III.4.2. Class Observation:
Apart form the survey questionnaires for both students and teachers, class
observation were employed to clarify and test the validity of information about the
application of pair work and group work, the human factors affecting students‟
participation in pair work and group work, the teacher and students‟ desire when
organizing/ participating in pair work and group work. The researcher has to design the
classroom observations sheet before observing classes. For each lesson, the researcher
observed in 45 minutes. She designed a checklist for what she wanted to observe and what
to be taken notes. The classes observed from grade 10 to 12 and with all ten teachers of
English must not be prepared especially for being observed.
III.4.3. Interviews:
An interview was conducted after the administration of questionnaire for students
in each class, and after the administration of questionnaire for teacher as well. The
interview was carried out in Vietnamese between the researcher and the students and
teachers. 9 students of 3 English major classes and 3 teachers were randomly selected for