CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background and rationale
The use of English has been gradually increasing in Vietnam. Also, it has a stable ground in the
Vietnamese education system. English is introduced to the educational curriculum from primary
education (optional) to tertiary education (compulsory). Like many other universities, teachers
and students at VUC were affected by the traditional philosophy of teaching and learning. They
were subject to many influences of Confucianism as well as by French and Soviet education that
focused on academic study of grammar and in-depth knowledge of literary texts. As a result,
many students lack the ability to communicate in oral English after graduation from the
university. This fact gives rise to the need of a more effective method that creates opportunities
for the learners, the subject and the centre of the teaching and learning process to bring full play
their intelligence and creativeness.
Over the past few years, the application of the Communicative Language Teaching method has
been widely adopted. This marked the beginning of a major change in the language teaching and
learning at VUC. And students’ speaking skill as well as communicative ability has been
improved remarkably.
VUC Faculty of English has been newly established for two years. Almost all of the teachers were
trained about CLT approach at the University and they fully understood the important role of speaking
ability among students. Therefore, they made all their effort to apply many kinds of activities in
speaking lesson to encourage students to engage in speaking activities in classroom.
As a teacher of the Faculty of English at Vietnam University of Commerce, from her own
observations and experience, the present researcher has noticed that there are many speaking
activities in the speaking lesson of 1
st
– year students, but group work – key features of learner –
centered orientation – have received more emphasis. The researcher as well as other teachers at
the University was well aware of the importance of using group work to energize the speaking
lesson of the first-year students. Nevertheless, both teachers and students have faced a lot of
challenges in implementing and managing group work during speaking lessons. For instance, the
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organization of group work is noisy, teachers sometimes lose control of the class or students

In order to achieve the set goals, the research seeks to answer the following research questions:
1. What procedures do teachers follow in organizing group work during speaking lessons
for the 1
st
year major students at University of Commerce?
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2. What strategies do teachers use to stimulate and foster English language use by the 1
st
year major students at University of Commerce in group work?
3. What hinders teachers at Faculty of English of the University of Commerce in
implementing group work?
4. What hinders the 1
st
-year major students at University of Commerce in participating in
group work?
1.4. Scope of the study
Though group work is applied in any of the four macro-skills, the present researcher has chosen
to focus on speaking skill for the fact that mastering speaking is so central to language learning
that when we refer to speaking a language, we often mean knowing a language (Karimmkhanlui,
2006). Among four language skills, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing, group work
is used the most frequently in the speaking lesson. Therefore, this research tends to investigate
the use of group work activity in the speaking lesson. Also, due to the time constraints, this
study only involves a small number of VUC teachers and English-major students in their first
academic year.
1.5. Benefits of the research
The research is hoped to be valuable to both teachers and students of Faculty of English at VUC.
Firstly, this study has been able to contribute to teachers’ knowledge of CLT approach in
general and group work activity in particular. Secondly, from the findings of this study, teachers
of English at VCU can be provided with important knowledge and information which may be
very valuable for their future lesson planning. Ultimately, the teachers’ transformation in group

found in the changes in the British language teaching tradition. Communicative Language
Teaching (CLT) marks the beginning of a major innovation within language teaching for its
widely accepted principles. CLT is now regarded as an approach which aims to make
communicative competence the goal of language teaching and to develop procedures for the
teaching of four language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and
communication (Hymes, 1972).
Hymes’s theory of communicative competence was a definition of what a speaker needs to
know in order to be communicatively competent in a speech community. In Hymes’s view, a
person who acquires communicative competence acquires both knowledge and ability for
language use with respect to:
- whether (and to what degree) something is formally possible
- whether (and to what degree) something is feasible in virtue of the means of
implementation available
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- whether (and to what degree) something is appropriate (adequate, happy, successful)
in relation to a context in which it is used and evaluated
- whether (and to what degree) something is in fact done, actually performed, and
what its doing entails
According to Richards and Rodgers (1986:161), at the level of language theory, CLT has a rich
theoretical base and some of the characteristics of the communicative view of language are:
- Language is a system for the expression of meaning
- The primarily function of language is to allow interaction and communication
- The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses
- The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features,
but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse.
Nowadays, language is seen as a dynamic resource for the creation of meaning. Communicative
language teaching makes use of real-life situations that necessitate interaction and
communication. Therefore, the importance of communicative language teaching is to provide
students with as many opportunities as possible to use their communicative purpose. Students
learn not only single grammatical rules but know how to use these rules effectively and

students are expected to carry out in the classroom:
- Imitative: takes a very limited portion of classroom speaking time when learners are practicing
an intonation contour or trying to pinpoint a certain vowel sound, etc.
- Intensive: includes any speaking performance that is designed to practice some phonological
or grammatical aspect of language.
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- Responsive: is short replies to teachers or student initiated questions or comments. These
replies are usually sufficient and do not extend into dialogues.
- Transactional (dialogue): is carried out for the purpose of conveying or exchanging specific
information. Conversations, for instance, may have more of a negotiative nature to them than
merely responsive speech. Such conversations could readily be part of group work activity.
- Interpersonal (dialogue): carries out more for the purpose of maintaining social relationships
than for the transmission of facts and information. These conversations are a little trickier for
learners because they can involve some or all the following factors: a casual register, colloquial
language, emotionally changed language, and slang, etc.
- Extensive (monologue): students at intermediate or advanced levels are called on to give
extended monologues in the form of oral reports, summaries, or perhaps short speeches. Here
the register is more formal and deliberative.
These above six categories of Brown are highly valuable in offering a guide in working out the
types of classroom speaking performance. The teachers should consider these points when
teaching speaking skill.
2.2.3. Speaking activities
Many researchers discuss classroom activities and a lot of activities are designed based on the
theory and characteristics of CLT.
Richards and Rodgers (1986:165) discuss that the range of exercise types and activities with a
communicative approach is unlimited, provided that such exercises and activities enable learners
to attain the communicative objectives of the curriculum, engage learners in communication and
require the use of such communicative processes as information sharing, negotiation of
meaning, and interaction. In their view, classroom activities should be designed to focus on
completing tasks that are mediated through language or involve negotiation of information and

The teacher talk is really dominant for a long time in so-called traditional language classes. The
teacher lecture, explain grammar points, conducts drills and spend a little time for whole-class
discussions in which each student might have a few seconds of class period to talk. With
traditional methods, the teacher tends to be the only person who initiates language in an artificial
setting and the whole-class becomes a “group interlocutor”. Thanks to group work, student’s
opportunities for language practice as well as interaction are increased. In other words, students
have more chances to speak English in the classroom.
2.3.2.2. Group work offers a positive affective climate
The second important benefit offered by group work is to make learners feel secure when
speaking on public. It is a nightmare for many students, especially the shy ones when being
called to speak in front of the class and the teacher. Their mind becomes completely empty and
even they cannot say a word. Nevertheless, a small group of peers provides a relatively intimate
setting and a more supportive environment in which they will find it much easier to share their
points of view in a natural way.
2.3.2.3. Group work promotes learners’ responsibility and autonomy
The whole-class activities often give students a lot of time to relax even in a small class of
fifteen to twenty students. But when they participate in group work which places responsibility
for action and progress upon each of the members of the group equally, it is difficult for them to
“hide” in a small group. In addition, group work allows students to make their own decisions in
the group without being told what to do by the teacher.
2.3.2.4. Group work is a step toward individualizing instruction
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Each student in a classroom has different language needs and ability. Therefore, the teachers
have some difficulties in managing the class with students at different levels of language. But
small groups can help students with varying abilities to accomplish individual goals. In addition
to variability in specific language abilities, another kind of individual difference among students
are their age, sex, attitude, motivation, aptitude, personality, interests and language learning
experience which can also be solved by group work. When organizing the class, the teacher can
recognize and capitalize upon these differences by careful selection of small groups and by
administering different tasks to different groups.

certain projects can be rewarding indeed. For example, the teacher choose a topic on
environment, various small groups could each be doing different things: Group A creates an
environmental bulletin board for the rest of the school; group B develops fact sheets; group C
make a three dimensional display; group D puts out a newsletter for the rest of the school; group
E develop a skit, and so on.
2.3.3.1.5. Interview
A popular activity for pair work, but also suitable for group work, interviews are useful at all
level of proficiency.
2.3.3.1.6. Brainstorming
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Brainstorming is often put to excellent use in preparing students to discuss a complex issue. It is
a technique whose purpose is to initiate some sort of thinking process. Brainstorming involves
students in a rapid-fire, free-association listing of concepts or ideas or facts or feelings relevant
to some topic or context.
2.3.3.1.7. 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.
2.3.3.1.8. Problem solving and decision making
Problem-solving is also popular in speaking lesson of major students. Problem- solving group
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.
2.3.3.1.9. Opinion exchange

restatement of the purpose, rules they are to follow, a time frame (time needed to complete the
task), assignment of roles to students (if necessary).
2.3.3.2.5. Dividing the class into groups
There are many ways to divide the class into groups. If we want to ensure participation and
control, we can pre-assign groups in order to account for one or two of the following:
proficiency levels; age or gender differences; personality types; cognitive preferences; interests;
prior learning experience; target language goals.
2.3.3.2.6. Checking for clarification
Before students start moving into their groups, the teacher should check whether students all
understand their assignment by asking some of them to restate the purpose of this activity.
2.3.3.3 The teacher’s role in group work
After completing the first two steps, the teacher plays the role of facilitator and resource. The
teacher should be willing to be a helper or a guide who always lets students know she will be
available for help and can make some suggestions to keep them on task. When the time for
group discussion is going to be over, it is very important to circulate even the teacher has
nothing to say to a group, the teacher can listen to students and get a sense of the groups’
progress and of individuals’ language production. (Brown, 2001)
According to Brown (2001), the teacher should not do the following:
- Don’t sit at your desk and grade papers
- Don’t leave the room and take a break
- Don’t spend an undue amount of time with one group at the expense of others
- Don’t correct students’ errors unless asked to do so
- Don’t assume a dominating or disruptive role while monitoring groups
2.3.3.4. Debriefing
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Debriefing is the way that the teacher and students sit together to give comments on the task
they have done. It is an excellent time to encourage some whole-class feedback which provides
motivation for further group work and is useful for the teacher’s next group work assignment.
In conclusion, group work is one of the techniques that is now popularly applied to language
teaching and learning, especially, to speaking skill learning for its many advantages. Yet, the