VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

---------------------***--------------------

TỐNG THỊ HOÀNG HẠNH

A STUDY ON APPLYING GROUP DISCUSSION APPROACH
TO ENHANCE SPEAKING SKILLS OF ENGLISH FOR
THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT AN DUONG
VOCATIONAL MIDDLE SCHOOL
(Áp dụng đường hướng thảo luận theo nhóm để phát triể n
kỹ năng nói cho sinh viên năm thứ nhấ t tại
Trường Trung cấ p Nghề An Dương)

M.A. Minor Thesis

Field

: English Teaching Methodology

Code

: 60.14.10

HANOI- 2010

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI





iv

TABLE OF CONTENT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………............

LIST OF ABBREVIATION…………………………………………………………........

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iii
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vi

Part I: Introduction
1. Rationale……………………………………...………………………………….....
2. Aim of the study..………..…………………………………………………………
3. Scope of the study………………………………………………………………….
4. Methods of the study …………………………………………………………….
5. Design of the study…………………………………………………………………

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3
3
3
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Part II: Development
Chapter 1: Literature review………………………………………………………..

1.3.7.1. Advantages…………………………………………………………….
1.3.7.2.Disadvantages…………………………………………………………..
Chapter 2: Methodology

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9
9
12
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15
17
17
18
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DECLARATION …………………………………………………………………..........
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………..
TABLE OF CONTENT……………………………………………………………..........


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2.1. Setting of the study……………………………………………………………….
2.2. Current situations of teaching and learning English speaking skills at An Duong Vocational School.
2.3. Methodology……………………………………………………...........................
2.3.1. Subject…………….…………………………………………………………..
2.3.2. Techniques for Collecting Data………………………………………............


3.2.1. Teachers’ opinion on teaching speaking skill………………………………...
3.2.2. Teachers’ opinion on the important role of group discussion in improving speaking skill….
3.2.3. Teachers’ opinion on group discussion in teaching speaking skill…………...
3.2.4. The frequency of difficulties………………………………………………….
3.2.5. Teachers’ current teaching methods in using group discussion in speaking class…………..

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3.3. Reports on the students, teachers and the materials………………………………
3.3.1. Report on the students………………………………………………………..
3.3.2. Report on the teachers………………………………………………………..
3.3.3. Report on materials…………………………………………………………..
3.4. Recommendations………………………………………………………………...
3.4.1. Recommendations for students……………………………………………….
3.4.2. Recommendations for teachers……………………………………………….
3.4.3. Recommendations for materials………………………………………………
3.4.4. Recommendations for administrators………………………………………...
Part III: Conclusion
1. Summary of the study………………………………………………………………
2. Limitation of the study……………………………………………………………..
3. Suggestions for further research……………………………………………………

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English Language Teaching.

CLL:

Cooperative Language Learning.
LIST OF Figures and table

1. Figures:
Figure 1: The importance of English Speaking Skill.
Figure 2: Students’ interest in English speaking skill.
Figure 1: Students’ preference to how they like to practice speaking skill in class.
Figure 4: The frequency of difficulties.
2. Tables:
Table 2 : Students’ Profiles.
Table 3: Teachers' Profiles.
Table 3: Students’ opinion on speaking in group discussion.
Table 4: Students’ opinion on the advantages and disadvantages of group discussion.
Table 5: Students’ preference in group discussion.
Table 6: Factors cause difficulties when speaking in group discussion.
Table 7: Students’ desires in learning speaking through group discussion.
Table 8: Teachers' opinion on teaching speaking skill.
Table 9: Teachers’opinion on the important role of group discussion in improving speaking skill.
Table 10: Teachers’ opinion on group discussion in teaching speaking skill.
Table 11: Teachers’ current teaching methods in using group discussion in speaking class.


1

PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale

2

needed to successfully speak in English. As a result, they become apprehensive when
asked to speak in public. The feeling of apprehension or fear when speaking in English has
become a serious matter because it affects their employability and their self-esteem. Many
students admit that they are unable to secure their dream jobs after they have graduated.
This is likely due to their high levels of apprehension and their lack of confidence when
asked to communicate in English during job interviews. Speaking in a foreign language has
often been considered as the most demanding of the four skills: listening, writing, reading
and speaking. When attempting to speak, learners must muster up their thoughts and
encode those ideas in the vocabulary and syntactic structures of the target language.
Moreover, English Language Teaching (ELT) in Vietnam has affected the
traditional teaching model through which students learn English just to pass exams and
teachers lecture mainly to help students achieve this goal. The result is that students do not
have enough English to communicate effectively with others. Obviously, students‟ overall
skills cannot be enhanced, especially among students at the college and university level.
Being a teacher of English at An Duong Vocational School, I am well aware that
teaching speaking is not an easy job because there are many problems still existing in
teaching speaking skills. For example: the lack of vocabulary will make students unable to
say words during speaking class. In addition, most of students do not feel confident enough
to use English in speaking class. Moreover, students often speak their Vietnamese
language, and so on. Therefore, it is necessary to create conductive and authentic learning
environments for students to be able to practice speaking in order to reduce their
apprehension. A group discussion before a speaking task is one of the very good ways to
create such environments. Group discussions are very important in oral English classes. It
maximizes students‟ speaking time in a specified-time period. Group discussions have a
strong positive effect on the atmosphere in the classroom and the behaviors of the students
as they can get more ideas from their friends. The most important reason for using group
discussions before speaking tasks is to reduce students‟ nervousness of making mistakes.
And this encourages students to be more active in completing their task. Moreover, using

Sewing, Vehicle Repair, Industrial Electricity and Computer Science. To be able to receive
as much valuable information as possible from the interview and the questionnaire, the
researcher took notes of every conversation with each teacher and some specific students.
5. Design of the study
The writer organizes this research paper in order to make the readers easily
understand the paper. Apart from INTRODUCTION that presents the rationale, aims,
scope, methods and design of the study and CONCLUSION that reviews the main content
and findings of the study, summarizes the limitations revealed during the process of


4

completing this research paper and suggests the further research, the paper is divided into
three chapters:
Chapter 1, Literature review, presents the basic concepts relevant to the study as
English speaking skills, the requirements for speaking skills and group discussion in
speaking skills.
Chapter 2, Methodology, provides an overview of the current situation of English
teaching and learning for the non-major intermediate students at An Duong Vocational
School including general introduction of An Duong Vocational School, students, teachers,
classroom condition, the English syllabus of the course training. The detailed statistic
results from the data collection are also presented in this chapter.
Chapter 3, Findings and Recommendations, summaries the data analysis and
discusses the factors that make the students reluctant to speak in the class and suggests
some recommendations for motivating the 1st year-students to speak English in the class.


5

PART B: DEVELOPMENT


oral

mode”

(sil.org/lingualinks/languagelearning). In addition, according to Bygate (1997, p.3),
speaking is often thought of as a popular form of expression which uses the unprestigious
colloquial register”. It means that students must speak so as to carry out many transactions
and speaking skill is a medium of communication which languages are learnt through. To
speak a language, especially a foreign language, learners need to know “not only the
linguistic knowledge” but also “the culturally acceptable ways of interacting with others in
different situations and relationship” (Hymes, 1971). It is assumed that speaking a language
requires more than the language‟s knowledge itself; speakers must learn the way native
speakers use the language to speak fluently and accurately. Nowadays the goal of teaching
speaking is to improve learner‟s communication skill. “Speaking is an interactive process of
constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information”
(Brown, 1994; Burn & Joyce, 1997). Speaking needs that learners not only should know how
to produce specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary but
also understand when, why and in what ways to produce language communicatively.
To sum up, speaking is the most effective way for people to communicate with each
other. That is the reason why speaking skill is an important part of the second language
learning and teaching. This is the working definition which the researcher will put into
consideration during the whole research process.


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1.1.2. The requirements for speaking skills
Byrne (1984, p. 9) stated that “The main goal in teaching the productive skill
of speaking will be oral fluency: the ability to express oneself intelligibly, reasonab ly,


language quickly and confidently with few hesitations or unnatural pauses, false starts,
words searches”.
In the Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (p.141),
fluency is “the ability to produce written and/or spoken language with ease...speak with a
good

but

not

necessarily

perfect

command

of

intonation,

vocabulary

and

grammar...communicate ideas effectively, and produce continuous speech without causing
comprehension difficulties or a breakdown of communication”
Dave Willis pointed out three concepts such as: “Accuracy, fluency and
conformity”. According to Challenge and Change in Language Teaching, J. Willis and D.
Willis, ed.Heinemann, 1996 p. 50: “Learners need opportunities to process language for

classes- particularly the less disciplined or motivated ones- to keep the target language.
These are the problems preventing students‟ speaking ability. It is teachers that
should find out the ways to help students to solve these problems. In fact there have existed
some ways to solve these problems. According to English methodologists, Cooperative
Language Learning (CLL) is the most effective one of all. In the following part the
researcher will deal with some information related to CLL.
1.2. Cooperative Language Learning
1.2.1. The background of CLL
Cooperative Learning is an important concept being dealt with in this research.
According to Johnson & Johnson (1998), Cooperative Learning is grouping students together
to accomplish shared learning goals. Students work in small groups of three or four to get the
most out of their own learning and each other‟s learning. They encourage and support each
other to learn and are responsible for their own as well as for their teammates‟ learning.
Johnson & Johnson (1998) also said that Cooperative Learning is a student- centered
approach that believes that active learning is more effective than passive one where the
teacher becomes a facilitator rather than an instructor. Through Cooperative Learning,
students have to exchange ideas, make plans and propose solutions to accomplish a
collaborative goal. Therefore, it can enhance students‟ social and personal developments.
Kagan (1990) also introduced a Cooperative Learning strategy in his study.
According to Kagan (1990), “Co-op Co-op is structured to maximize the opportunity for
small groups of students to work together to produce a group product and then share this
product with the whole class (p.14).” This will provide opportunities for students to help
each other among teams. It also provides students choices for the content they want to study.
Co-Op Co-Op is designed to foster students‟ self-direction and independence in learning
(Daniel, Barbara, and Diane, 1991).


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1.2.2 Types of Cooperative Language Learning



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creates natural, interactive contexts, where students listen to each other, ask question, and
clarify issues. Group interaction assists learners in negotiating for more comprehensible
input and in modifying their output to make it more comprehensible to others (Crandall,
1999; Kagan, 1995). In cooperative group settings, when communicating in group work,
students need to make them understood so they adjust their language to suit the members
of that group. As a result, there is a much higher proportion of comprehensible input. A
survey of research on pair/group work conducted by Long and Porter (1985, cited in Ellis,
1999), indicates that learners produce more, use longer sentences, and do not speak any
less grammatically in group work than they do in teacher-fronted lessons. Students will
speak in different ways on the same topic, ensuring students to listen to and comprehend
language from various sources and to obtain modeling and feedback from their peers.
There is a principle that interaction drives learners to produce more accurate and
appropriate language, which itself provides input for other students. Therefore, cooperative
language learning is valuable in the oral practice and listening comprehension.
- Creating effective climate: If the language class is meant to be a place where
individuals can practice in communication in the foreign language, it is vital to establish a
social and affective climate in which students are not restricted, aggressive, or feared
(Stern, 1992). Cooperative Learning, like other group work, offers a relaxed climate in the
classroom, while it also increases students‟ motivation (Brown, 1994; Crandall, 1999).
Individuals have the opportunity to rehearse their answers before being asked to offer them
in front of the whole class so their anxiety and fear of failure may reduce. Time to think
and receive feedback form group members, and the greater likelihood of success can
reduce anxiety and result in increased participation in learning language (Crandall, 1999).
Therefore, more participation will inevitably increase learner‟s self-confidence and selfesteem.
Another affective benefit of Cooperative Learning is an increase in students‟
motivation. Clarke (1989, cited in Hedge, 2000) suggested collaborative classroom

somewhat equally. Positive role and goal interdependence help students become more
autonomous and self-controlled and less dependent upon outside authority, and over
time, they will gradually move from interdependence to independence (Johnson &
Johnson, 1991).
There are additional important benefits of Cooperative Language Learning.
Cooperative activities around the curricular content can provide more opportunities for
the use of the new items and lead to the development of both academic language and
social language. In addition, studies indicate that there are beneficial effects of
cooperative learning in more higher level reasoning, more frequent generation of new
ideas and solutions, and greater transfer of what is learned within one situation to
another than did competitive or individualistic learning (Johnson & Johnson, 2000).
In conclusion, Cooperative Language Learning is very useful in language learning
and teaching speaking skill. Therefore, language teachers should put these usefulnesses
into consideration.


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1.3. Group discussion in speaking class
1.3.1. The history of the group discussion
In the 1970s, group work came into the standard EFL teaching repertoire with
communicative approach. At that time, teacher-centered methodology dominated
teaching field. Studies of foreign language classes revealed that 80% of lesson time
was occupied by teachers‟ personal lecturing while learners hardly got a chance to
practice their second language. So Teacher Talking Time (TTT) became taboo and
ways were devised to stamp it out and students were asked to speak as much as
possible in the language they were learning.
Thus, group work was introduced into the EFL repertoire to tackle this
particular problem. Group work, particularly, group discussion made it possible for
the teacher to devote more time to the students‟ oral output, which perhaps had not

teacher, often find it much easier to express themselves in front of a small group of their
peers” (p.7). Another point taken by methodologists concerns the amount of learners´
participation and mutual co-operation among learners during activities carried out in groups.
Richards and Lockhart (1999, p.153) say that group work is likely to increase the
amount of student participation in the class and promote collaboration among learners;
furthermore, learners are given a more active role in learning, teacher´s dominance over the
class decreases, while the opportunities for individual student‟s practice of new features of
the target language increase.
Next area of focus that methodologists consider is a suitable number of learners
within a group. Methodologists have not set a definite number, „magic number‟, but range
the number of learners per group between four and seven (Harmer 2001, p. 75).
To sum it up, when considering the specifics of group work, methodologists discuss
the settlement of students within the groups as flexible or fixed. Ur, for example,
recommends that teachers set up fixed or at least semi-permanent groups that are likely to
prevent some problems connected with their creating and consequent misbehavior. Group
discussion tends to support cooperative learning, and may give confidence and courage to
shy students when handling the target language.
1.3.3. The formation of group discussion
Group discussion is a co-operative activity, during which students can share the
responsibilities and the duties. So how to group students into group discussion is important
job. Some methodologists provide a concrete number of learners that a group should


14

include. According to Byrne (1991, p.75), the number of learners range from four to eight
learners per group. The actual number should consequently depend on the particular
activities. Richards and Lockhart agree that the „optimum size‟ depends on the kind of
activity learners are working on, and add: „If the group is too large, student interaction is
affected; only a few students may participate, the others remaining silent or passive‟

allowing students to move around the classroom in order to form groups or pairs, it
may be rather difficult to draw students‟ concentration back on the activity together
with the time that is likely to be lost. Therefore, the use of the existing arrangement
seems to me to be the best solution.
1.3.4. Seating arrangement in group discussion
There are many different ways to arrange seating in a classroom. Arrangements in
group discussion can be beneficial for promoting positive learning environments for
specific situations.
Whether or not seats are assigned, the layout of the desks or tables is a major
component to classroom management. Different configurations provide different ways for
students to participate in and the teacher to provide instructions. The following are a few of
the more common seating arrangements.
-

Traditional Rows and Columns
Once the arrangement of choice, the traditional row and column style of seat layout

has fallen out of favor with many educators. However, it still has its benefits for teacher
centered instruction. In situations where lectures, board work or projection are being used,
the row and column arrangement puts students facing the instructional area. It is also a
convenient configuration when students need to work independently.

+
0000000000
0000000000
0000000000
0000000000

-


teacher is a collaborator or facilitator. This arrangement can work for any size class, but
might have to be changed to include an inner and outer circle if the room is not large
enough for the number of students.
0
0

0

0

0

0
0

+
0
0

0
0

-

0

Horseshoe

The horseshoe shape has the same benefits as using a circle, whether arranged one or
more desks deep. Additionally, it provides room for the teacher to move easily among

0 0 0
0
0

0
0
0

0

0 0

0
0

0
0
0 0

0

0

0
0

0
0
0


personal experiences. Third, the teacher can function as an observer, put himself into
learners; position to assume and notify their difficulties.
Like Rechards and Rodgers (2001, cited in Johnson, 1994) the teacher has to create
a highly structured and well-organized learning environment in the classroom, setting goals,
planning and structuring tasks, establishing the physical arrangement of the classroom,
assigning students to groups and roles and selecting materials and time.
Harel (1992) also indicated that the teachers provide broad questions to challenge
thinking; they prepare students for the tasks they will carry out; they assist the students
with the learning tasks, and they give few commands, imposing less disciplinary control.
1.3.7. The advantages and disadvantages of using group discussion in the speaking class
1.3.7.1.

Advantages

It is acknowledged that group discussion has recently taken on increased
psycholinguistic significance in the English language classroom because of a range
advantages as follows:
- Firstly, group discussion increases the amount of students‟ participation. It is known
that lessons have limited time - usually only forty five minutes - and there are on average
thirty students in the class, so students get bored very quickly waiting for their classmates'
answers. As a result, instead of practicing English they start doing something different talking, doing homework or even playing cards, for example. In consequence, this leads to
general chaos if the teacher is not quick enough to perceive and prevent it. Needles to say,
the teacher should involve the whole class in an activity. According to Michael H. Long, if
we have five or six groups, then there will be five or six times the amount of talking. When
the teacher divides the learners into groups of four or five, there will be at least ten or eight
students speaking at the same time, providing that the class consists of forty people.
- Secondly, group discussion increases language practice opportunities. In all probability,
one of the main reasons for low achievement by many classroom EL learners is simply that
they do not have enough time to practice the new language. This is especially serious in
large EFL classes in which students need to develop oral skills. Group discussion is a good

Disadvantages

Besides the advantages group discussion brings about, group discussion also has
disadvantages. According to Harmer (1999, p.125), “In some groups, members may defer
to the oldest person there, or to the man in otherwise female group. People with loud voice
can dominate proceedings, less extrovert people may not participate fully enough”. In
addition, he also identified some problems that teachers have to deal with in group discussion:


20

-

Firstly, the teachers may lose control of their class, that there may be too much noise,

due to, all the students speak together.
-

Secondly, some students would prefer to the focus of the teacher‟s attention rather than

working with their peers.
-

Thirdly, individuals may fall into group roles that become fossilized, so that some are

passive whereas others may dominate.
-

Fourthly, students in groups may not focus on the point of their task, but talk about