VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
-----O0O----NGUYEN THI TRANG

THE APPLICATION OF GROUP WORK ACTIVITES
TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILLS FOR 10TH GRADE STUDENTS AT
A BAC NINH HIGH SCHOOL

Sử dụng hoạt động nhóm để cải thiện kĩ năng nói của học sinh lớp 10 tại
trường trung học phổ thông tỉnh Bắc Ninh

M.A. MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 8140231.01
Supervisor: Dr. Vu Thi Thanh Nha

Hanoi, 2019


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
-----O0O-----

NGUYEN THI TRANG

THE APPLICATION OF GROUP WORK ACTIVITES
TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILLS FOR 10TH GRADE STUDENTS AT
A BAC NINH HIGH SCHOOL

feedback and encouragement in the writing of this study. Without her guidance and
help, this work would not have been completed.
My sincere thanks go to all the staff at the Department of Post-graduate
Studies, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies for giving me
assistance and the lecturers who conducted the Master's course for providing me
with valuable knowledge.
I would also like to express my deep sense of gratitude to my dear students,
whose participation in and dedication to the research remain invaluable have been
acknowledged. Without their precious support, the thesis would not have taken
shaped.
Finally, the support extended to me by the members of my family has been
immeasurable. I would also like to express my thanks to my parents and my
husband for their wholehearted encouragement.

Bac Ninh, May 29th 2019

Nguyen Thi Trang

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ABSTRACT

The study was carried out with an attempt to investigate the application of
group work towards enhancing grade 10 students’ speaking skill. The subjects
participating in the research were 40 EFL students studying in the same class at a
high school in Bac Ninh province. To achieve the desired aims of the study, an
action research was carried out. Survey questionnaires for students and learning
logs were used as the major instruments to collect data about students’ challenges in
developing their speaking skill and the impacts of group work implementation on

2.2.3. Some problems in using group work. .............................................................13
2.2.4 Group formation ...............................................................................................14

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2.2.5 Teacher’s role in carrying out group work.......................................................16
2.2.6 Steps of organizing group activities .................................................................17
2.3. Previous studies ................................................................................................18
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ......................................................................22
3.1 Participants and context of the study ..............................................................22
3.2 Reasons to choose action research method .....................................................22
3.3 Phases of action research ..................................................................................24
3.4 Weekly schedules and research procedures ...................................................26
3.4.1 Weekly schedules .............................................................................................26
3.4.2 Research procedures.........................................................................................29
3.5 Data collection instruments ..............................................................................31
3.5.1 Questionnaires ..................................................................................................31
3.5.2 Learning logs ....................................................................................................31
CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ..............................................34
4.1 Information collected from the survey questionnaires ..................................34
4.1.1 Students’ opinions on the importance of speaking skill ..................................34
4.1.2 Students’ challenges in developing speaking skill ...........................................34
4.1.3 Students’ preference of group work in speaking lessons .................................35
4.1.4 Reasons for students’ preference of group work .............................................36
4.1.5 Students’ opinions on the effectiveness of group work in speaking lessons ...37
4.1.6 Students’ opinions on the advantages of group work in speaking lessons ......38
4.1.7 Students’ opinions about the impact of group work on their speaking ability 39
4.1.8 Students’ self-evaluation regarding speaking aspects before and after the
application of group work .........................................................................................40

Table 4.6 Use of new lexical items and grammar structures -------------------------- 43
Table 4.6 Use of new lexical items and grammar structures -------------------------- 43
Table 4.7 Students’ report on new lexical items and grammar structures learnt ---- 47
Table 4.8 Types of mistakes and ways to correct --------------------------------------- 47

FIGURES

Figure 4.2. Students’ opinions on the improvement of speaking ability ------------- 39
Figure 4.3. Students’ self-evaluation of the vocabulary aspect ------------------------ 40
Figure 4.4. Students’ self-evaluation of grammar aspect------------------------------- 41
Figure 4.5. Students’ self-evaluation of fluency aspect -------------------------------- 42
Figure 4.6. Students’ self-evaluation of pronunciation aspect ------------------------- 42
Figure 4.7. Students’ changes in styles of answers ------------------------------------- 44
Figure 4.8. Students’ opinions on the level of hesitation ------------------------------- 45

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CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
This chapter mentions the background and rationale to conduct the study, states the
aims, scope, and organization of the graduation thesis.
1.1 Rationale of the study
English has received growing recognition as the preferred foreign language
in Vietnam nowadays (Do, 2006) and is considered an “unquestionable asset”
(Shapiro, 1995: 4) for the Vietnamese people due to its role as a key to Vietnam’s
regional and global integration under the impact of the so-called open-door policy
or Doi Moi since the last decade of the 20th century (Nguyen, N. 2012). This global
integration trend has directly led to a spectacular increase in demand for English
training (Nguyen, N. 2012) in order to facilitate the communication ability, increase
interactions and develop international relations between the local enterprises,

it really hard to express themselves in oral language. Students often show their
passive learning during speaking lessons. Many of them feel extremely nervous
when being called to present orally in front of their classes, some even cannot say
any words when they have to stand up and speak while when I write the questions
or topics for discussion on the board and tell them to write their answers, the
majority of them can perform the task though at different levels of success.
Obviously, their unwillingness and refusal to practice indispensably lead to their
poor speaking performance in all speaking lessons, which is supposed to also reduce
their confidence and demotivate them to speak. Unfortunately, this is not the
problem of students in my classes only but is the shared problems of all other
English teachers in my school. However, little has been done to improve the
situation due to a number of constraints.
For a number of decades, many researchers have investigated the impacts of
group-work on language learning process and reported its various positive effects.
For speaking, group-work is proved to help reduce anxiety, create interaction
among students (Long & Porte, 1985), provide safer language learning environment
(Richard & Rodgers, 2001), increase speaking opportunities, encourage learners to

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share their opinions, enhance cooperation and negotiation skills and promote learner
autonomy (Harmer, 2007). Being aware of the benefits of group work in promoting
speaking skill, English teachers in my school, including me, decided to apply it in
our speaking lessons with a view to helping our students improve their skills. To
formally investigate the application of group work and its impacts on students’
speaking skill, I therefore conduct this study, entitled “The application of group
work activities to improve speaking skills for 10th grade students at a Bac Ninh
High School”.
1.2 Aims of the study

group work and its impacts on students’ speaking ability.
Chapter III- Methodology. This chapter states the subjects of the study, research
instruments, and data collection procedures employed in this research.
Chapter IV- Findings and discussions. This chapter analyzes and discusses the
results collected from survey questionnaire, learning logs. Besides, the limitations
of the study are introduced.
Chapter V- Conclusion. This chapter summarizes the main points discussed in the
previous parts, presents the limitations of the thesis and provides some suggestions
for further research.

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CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter represents theoretical background knowledge related to speaking skill,
and a brief review of the previous studies on group work and its impacts on
students’ speaking ability.
2.1 Theoretical background of speaking
2.1.1 Definitions of speaking skill
Bygate (1987) defines speaking as oral expression that involves the use of
the right sounds in the patterns of rhythm and intonation as well as the word choice
and inflections in the right order to convey the right meaning. According to the
author, it is a means for building social relationships, ranking, a vehicle of
professional advancement and of business, also a medium through which much
language is learned. According to Chaney (1998), speaking is the process of making
and sharing meaning by using verbal and non-verbal symbols in different contexts.
Brown (1994) and Burns and Joyce (1997) defined speaking as an interactive
process of making meaning that includes producing, receiving, and processing
information. Those different authors defined speaking ability in different ways, their
definitions all share one feature which is the ability to use a language as a means to

It is easy to recognize that according to both descriptions, speaking ability is
supposed to involve such aspects as vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and
fluency. Therefore, in this study, the researcher makes plans to investigate the
impacts of group work on these four common aspects.
2.1.3 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity
According to Nunan (1999:39) “success (in speaking) is measured in terms
of the ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language”. A successful
speaking activity is therefore supposed to fulfill a number of characteristics that
helps students achieve this goal. Ur (1996) explains some characteristics of
successful speaking activities which include creating as many opportunities for

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leaners to speak as possible, distributing fairly even chances for participants,
making them feel highly motivated, and assuring that language is of an acceptable
level. More detailed description of these characteristics is presented below.
Learners talk a lot
As much as possible period of time allotted to the activity which is occupied
by learners talk. This is obvious, but often most time is taken up with teacher talks
or pauses. It can be understood that the learners must be active to talk with their
friends as much as possible. It is very clear that the learners are busy, but they
seldom spent their time to talk with their teacher.
Participation is even
Classroom discussion is not dominated by a monitory of talkative
participants. It means that all learners have a chance to speak, and contributions are
fairly evenly distributed. The classroom discussion is not dominated by one
participant only, but all of participants get a same chance to speak.
Motivation is high
Students are eager to speak because they are fascinated by the topic and have

say. In reality, they may feel bored or think that the topic surpasses what they know.
Thus, students often lack confidence about their speaking ability and believe that they
have insufficient language skills to express exactly what they want to express.
Also pointed out by Ur (1996), low or uneven participation is another problem.
He explained that only one participant can talk at a time if he or she is to be heard;
and in large groups, this means each one will have little talking time. This problem is
compounded by the tendency of some learners to dominate, while other speaks very
little. Therefore, in English class, timid students are quite happy to sit back and watch
the lesson unfolding instead of participating.

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Last but not least, “Mother tongue use” (Ur, 1996:121) is also supposed to be
one of problem for speaking classes because students with the same mother tongue
normally prefer to use their first language to exchange information and express their
thoughts rather than using the target language (Tuan & Mai, 2015). This may result
from the lack of topical and language knowledge, as well as motivation (Harmer,
1991). Therefore, most of the students are not disciplined in using the target language
in the learning process even when the task is too easy.
Large class size is also an important affecting factor. If the classroom is
crowded with more than 40 students, it is a fact that the students has fewer chances to
practice the language and it is also much more difficult for students to pay enough
attention to each of them, to keeping good disciplines, as well as to organize dynamic
and creative teaching and learning sessions (Febriyanti, 2011).
To sum up, speaking is believed to be one of the most challenging skills which
require learners’ time and effort to make a success. Therefore, it is necessary that both
teachers and students pay enough attention to the learning and teaching process to
help students overcome these obstacles and make progress in their speaking skill.
2.1.5 Relating categories of oral production

mainly but not limited to responsive, transactional, interpersonal and extensive which
I found suitable for the content planned to teach.
2.1.6 The roles of the teacher in different stages of teaching speaking
Byrne (1986) introduced three stages of teaching speaking: the presentation
stage, the practice stage and the production one. In each stage, the role of the
teacher is different.
At the presentation stage, the teacher is considered an informant role. The
teacher introduces something new to be learned and present it in such a way that the
meaning of the new language is as clear and memorable as possible. The students
listen and try to understand. It means that the teacher is at the centre of the stage.

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Therefore, teacher’s time spending should be sensible so that the students get
enough time to practice themselves.
At the practice stage, it is the students’ role to do most of the talking while
teacher’s main task is to devise and provide the maximum amount of practice,
which must the same time be both meaningful and memorable. The teacher’s role,
then, is completely different from that at the presentation one. The teacher is like
the skillful conductor of an orchestra, giving each of the performers a chance to
participate, observing and monitoring their performance to see that it is satisfactory.
At the final stage- the production one, the teacher takes on the role of
manager and guide. Students are given opportunities to use language freely.
Sometimes students can make mistakes at this stage, but mistakes are unimportant.
What is more important is that students have chance to use language as they wish,
to try to express their own ideas. Moreover, they become aware that they have
learnt something useful to them personally, and are encouraged to go on learning. It
will not be so easy for the teacher to measure students’ performance as it was at the
practice stage, nor is there any easy recipe for success. So, what is needed is

Group work also requires members to work collaboratively with the rest of
the team to create an output, so the mutual understanding also increases. Group
work is a cooperative activity in which the students work at the same time, sharing
ideas and responsibility and independently have their own ideas which contribute to
the group work’s success without every minute observation from the teacher and
other students. Joining groups can also help students develop a host of skills that are
increasingly important in the professional world (Caruso & Woolley, 2008; Mannix
& Neale, 2005). Positive group experiences, moreover, have been shown to
contribute to student learning, retention and overall college success (Astin, 1997;
Tinto, 1998; National Survey of Student Engagement, 2006).
Group work has also been proven to be an effective way of promoting
learning motivation, enhancing performance and lessening learners’ language

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anxiety (Dumas, 2002); Kahle, 1993; Stahl, 1994). It is an effective way to offer an
interactive environment, which is crucial to communicative language learning.
Harmer (1999) also presented a number of advantages of group work, which
include the possibility to increase the student talking time, enhancing problem
solving, teamworking and interpersonal skills. This may be explained by the fact
that in group work, normally a number of people involved, each with different
experience, knowledge, points of view and values, a larger number and variety of
ideas can be given. Moreover, the exchange of the ideas in the group can act as a
stimulus which will encourage individuals to give more ideas, more opinions and
therefore contribute more to group work activities. Thanks to this, students probably
become more active in their learning process.
Also according to Harmer (1999), another advantage of group work is that it
helps reduce bias. This is because the shared responsibility in a group in coming to
decisions can encourage individuals to explore seemingly realistic ideas and to

generation of a destructive behavior and therefore drains the creative energy of the
group
Besides, Harmer (1999) argued that working in group is a relatively slow
process compared to working alone due to the fact that students often have to be
present at an assigned time and need time to negotiate before coming to an
agreement.
Although there are some disadvantages of group work, the advantages still
outweigh. Being aware of the all potential challenges in conducting group work will
help teachers anticipate the problems they might encounter to be able to reduce the
difficulties and make use of its benefits.
2.2.4 Group formation
There are a number of ways to form group work. According to Jung (2004),
groups can be formed randomly (counting off or by their seat proximity), on the
basis of teachers’-selection, or students’ selection. Random group assignments

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avoid cliques and ensure that students interact with different students throughout the
semester. Once teachers know their students fairly well, teacher-selected groups can
be useful for pairing weak and strong students, students with common interests or
shared learning styles, or characteristics. It can be said that teacher can clearly
understand their students’ behavior in class.
Random grouping
Random grouping is often used for in-class activities because of its
convenience and readiness that is random grouping is a way including collecting
and gathering students ignoring any differences among students in terms of their
language level, learning style, interests etc. The number of students in class varies
up to forty or more, so random grouping helps teacher saves time. For the class of
different levels, random grouping is supposed to narrow down the gap between the

all members.
2.2.5 Teacher’s role in carrying out group work
In Communicative Language Teaching, teachers are supposed to take the
roles of a guide, an instructor, an organizer, an assessor, a prompter and a
participant (Hammer, 1991). When carrying out group work, even though the
students are more independent, the teacher still plays an important role in designing,
conducting the tasks and analyzing the need.
According to Cross (1992), the teacher is the manager of an activity who
must plant it, organize it, start it, monitor it, time it and in the end conclude it. The
teacher in the group work activities is not the free one but the one who is active with
assisting, supervising and monitoring the group. The teacher is not only there with
their students only at the beginning or the end of the learning process but from
beginning to the end of the process as they perform a number of roles including
- an activity selector who creates activities that fit the students' skills and
abilities, assigns group tasks that allow a fair division of energy as well as set up
"competitions" among groups.
- an instructor who is there to ensure that the students will be not misleading.

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