Using group work activities to reduce students' speaking anxiety-an action research = Sử dụng hoạt động nhóm để làm giảm bớt sự lo lắng của học sinh trong giờ h

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






ĐINH THỊ THÚY





USING GROUP WORK ACTIVITIES TO REDUCE
STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ANXIETY- AN ACTION
RESEARCH

Sử dụng hoạt động nhóm để làm giảm bớt sự lo lắng
của học sinh trong giờ học nói





M.A. MINOR THESIS


FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 601410

HANOI - 2012
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES






ĐINH THỊ THÚY




USING GROUP WORK ACTIVITIES TO REDUCE
STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ANXIETY- AN ACTION
RESEARCH

Sử dụng hoạt động nhóm để làm giảm bớt sự lo lắng
của học sinh trong giờ học nói





M.A. MINOR THESIS


FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 601410
SUPERVISOR: PHẠM MINH HIỀN, M.A









HANOI - 2012

4

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i
ABSTRACT ii

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND TABLES iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS v
PART A: INTRODUCTION 1
I. Rationale of the study 1
II. Aims of the study 3
III. Scope of the study 3
IV. Methods of the study 4
V. Design of the study 4
PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5
Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5
1.1 Speaking skills and its related concepts 5
1.1.1 The importance of speaking skills 5
1.1.2 Elements of speaking skills 6
1.2 Group work in a speaking lesson 7
1.2.1 Definition and description of group work 7
1.2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of group work 7
1.2.3 Teacher‟s role in carrying out group work 9
1.3 Definitions of anxiety in Speaking English in classroom (SEC) 9
1.3.1 Definitions of anxiety 9
1.3.2 Anxiety in second language (L2) and in SEC 9
1.4 Main factors causing students’ anxiety in SEC 10
1.5 Effects of anxiety on students of SEC 10
1.6 Teacher’s role to students’ anxiety in SEC 11
1.7 Teaching techniques to reduce students anxiety in SEC 11

5
2 Practical grouping strategies 12
2.1 Group formation 12
2.1.1 Random grouping 12

2.1.2 Student- selected grouping 13
2.1.3 Teacher- formed grouping 13
2.2 Procedures of group work 14
2.3 Common oral activities for group work 15
2.3.1 Opening- circle discussion 15
2.3.2 Role play 15
2.3.3 Information Gap Activity (IGA) 15
2.3.4 Problem- solving 16
2.3.5 Other picture card activities 16
2.4 Problems and solutions in using class group work 17
3. Summary 19
Chapter 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 20
2.1 Research questions 20
2.2 Description of data collection instruments 20
2.2.1. The rationale for using questionnaire 20
2.2.2 Questionnaire 21
2.3 Participants 21
2.3.1 The students 21
2.3.2. The teacher 21
2.4 Research method 22
2.4.1 Overview of action research 22
2.4.2 Procedure of the action research 23
2.4.2.1 Initiation 23
2.4.2.2 Preliminary investigation 23
2.4.2.3 Hypothesis 23
2.4.2.4 Intervention 24
2.4.2.5 Evaluation 25
2.4.2.6 Dissemination 25

6

2.4.2.7 Follow up 25
2.5 Data collecting procedure 26
2.6 Data analysis 26
2.7 Summary 26
Chapter 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 27
3.1 The initial data 27
Results from questionnaire 1 27
3.2 The post data 32
Data collected from questionnaire 2 32
3.4 Discussion 34
3.5 Summary .36
PART C: CONCLUSION 38
1. Summary of main findings 38
2 Limitation and recommendation for further research 40
REFERENCES
APPENDICES
APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE 1
APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE 2
Appendix 3: LESSON PLANS FOR 3 SPEAKING GROUP-WORK
ACTIVITIES OF THE STUDY
Appendix 4: The description of the second lesson during the intervention:
Task 2- Unit 13: FILMS AND CINEMA –(English 10), page 134







7

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Table 2.2 Procedures of group work 14
Table 2.4: Problems and solutions in using class group work 17
Table 1: Students‟ evaluation on their anxiety in SEC 27
Table 2: Students‟ feeling when speaking in group work activities 29
Table 3: Student attitude to group work activities in speaking lessons 29
Table 4: Student‟s attitudes toward grouping strategies 30
Table 5: Students‟ preferences to group work activities in speaking lessons 33
Table 6: Students‟ self- evaluated participation in speaking activities in group 33
Chart 1: Students‟ evaluation on their anxiety in SEC 27
Chart 2: Factors making students anxious in SEC most 28
Chart 3: Students‟ favourite activities 31
Chart 4: Students‟ confident participation in group work activities 32



8
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS


SEC Speaking English in classroom
DHHS Dong Hy High School
AR Action Research
MAM Making a mistake
BCM Being corrected mistakes as soon as they are made
BAS Being asked to speak without preparation
ADT A difficult topic
SFW Speaking in front of the whole class
AO Another one

9
PART A: INTRODUCTION
I. Rationale of the study
In Vietnam for some recent decades, English has taken more and more
important role in almost all aspects such as: politics, economy, culture,
communication, education and information technology, especially since Viet Nam
adopted its open door policy and become a member of WTO. English helps
Vietnamese labours to have access to latest information in the world and take part in
the world labour force with English as an international means of communication in
this modern age.
However, it is the fact that using English for real communication in general,
with limited English speaking ability is a big problem for Vietnamese learners. The
traditional teaching and learning English at high schools in Vietnam leads to the fact
that students are inclined to develop reading and writing skills seem to remain a big
problem to Vietnamese learners, meanwhile speaking and listening skills are
almost ignored. Although students can do some tasks in English, they can‟t use
English as a communicative tool. Since the teaching approach Communicative
Learning Teaching (CLT) was introduced, the teaching and learning of English has
changed its emphasis from “Master of language Structure” to “Master of use”.
According to this theory, teachers teach students how to understand as well as how
to perform. But due to the strong effect of the traditional way of ELT in schools in
Vietnam, the panorama of ELT, particularly including speaking skill remains dull.
Like in most of schools in the north of Vietnam, the majority of the students
in Dong Hy high school (DHHS) where I work, have no ample opportunity to study
the English language because they have few English lessons per week (three
English lessons per week). Though they are encouraged to take few courses in
school in the use of English, the content of these English courses are grossly
inadequate for the students to acquire requisite skills in effective use of language for
communication and for the give and take of social experience. In order to study

English as a foreign language and be successful with it, the students must be helped
by the teacher to acquire skills in the four language art skills, namely: speaking,

10
listening, writing, and reading. Of the four skills mentioned above, speaking is the
skills secondary school students need great support.
Recently, teachers in my school have introduced activities through which
they can help students go beyond the mastery of structures to the points and use
them to communicate more meaningfully in real situations. Also, group work
approach has also been applied in all kinds of lessons and has shown its
effectiveness. It is said that using group work is one of good ways to motivate
students in learning English. By grouping students, teachers enables students to help
one another study. Using group work has many advantages such as more language
practice in classroom, more purposeful communication, more students‟ involvement
and motivation, more chances for students to help each other, more chances for
students to foster responsibility, autonomy and independence. (Underwood, 1987;
Hyland, 1991; Ur, 1996)
Therefore, simply putting students together in a group is no guarantee that it
is beneficial. Without careful planning and facilitation, group work can frustrate
students and instructors and will be a waste of time.
In DHHS during the group work there, the better students contribute a lot
whereas some weaker ones become passive. I realized that there were much more
students who were anxious than those confident in speaking English in class.
Moreover, the anxious students have differently certain manifestations, for example
giving frequent communicative feedback such as (uh- huh) and playing with the
hair, clothes, or other manipulability objects. It seemed that studying on students‟
anxiety was really meaningfully important. As we all see “Anxiety is the rust of life,
destroying its brightness and weakening its power.” said by Tyron Edwards, a
famous American theologian of “New Dictionary of Thoughts”.
The wish to help her students to overcome the obstacles in speaking English

encouraged the researcher to carry out this study, entitled the use of group work to
reduce grade ten students‟ anxiety in speaking lessons at Dong Hy High School.


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II. Aims and objectives of the study
The study aims to:
- gain understanding of factors that cause students‟ anxiety in speaking
English lessons in one tenth form class of Dong Hy high school
- experiementing solutions that can address anxiety-causing factors so as to
help the students to feel less anxious in speaking English in the speaking lessons.
Those aims are specified into the following objectives:
- to find out what students say about factors that make them anxious in
speaking English in the classroom;
- to find out effective classroom techniques that can create a low-anxiety
classroom atmostphere so that students can be more active in speaking English in
the lessons.
Research questions:
In order to achieve the above-mentioned aims and objectives, the study is to
seek answers to the following research questions:
1. What factors do a group of grade 10
th
students in Dong Hy high school
think cause their anxiety in speaking English?
2. What classroom techniques that help to reduce the students‟ stated
anxiety in speaking English?
III. Scope of the study
As an action research project, the study was conducted with the researcher‟s
own students in her own class. The study is, therefore, limited itself to just one
„problem‟ the researcher was encountered with in her teaching, i.e. students‟

speaking anxiety. On the basis of the analysis of the factors the students, who were
in one grade-10
th
form, stated, the researcher experiemented with some
interventions to address the problem.


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IV. Methods of the study
- A quantitative method was used in this study with the questionnaire being
used as the only instrument of data collection. To be more specific, a pre-action
questionnaire and a post-action questionnaire were employed.
V. Design of the study
The thesis consists of three parts:
Part A – INTRODUCTION- presents the rationale, the aim, scope,
significance, methods, design of the study.
Part B – DEVELOPMENT- consists of three chapters.
Chapter one- Literature Review- deals with the theories related to the study:
speaking skill and its related concepts, concept of students‟ participation, group
works in a speaking lesson. definitions of anxiety in speaking English in classroom
(SEC), main factors causing students‟ anxiety in SEC, teacher‟s role to students‟
anxiety in SEC.
Chapter two- Research methodologies- presents the methodology performed
in the study. It provides information about the participants, the instrumentation.
Data collection and findings are also presented in this chapter.
Chapter three- Results and discussion- discuss the data of the study and
propose discussion for using group work activities to reduce grade ten students‟
anxiety in speaking lessons at Dong Hy High School.
Part C: CONCLUSION- summarizes all the key issues as well as the
limitations of the study and suggestions for further study.

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter deals with the theories related to the study: Speaking skill and
its related concepts, concept of group works in a speaking lesson, definitions of
anxiety in Speaking English in classroom (SEC), main factors causing students‟
anxiety in SEC, effect of anxiety on students SEC, teacher‟s role to students‟
anxiety in SEC, teaching techniques to reduce students‟ anxiety in SEC.
1.1 Speaking skills and its related concepts
1.1.1 The importance of speaking skills
Speaking skills are essential in both professional and personal setting, in both
public and private sectors. Speaking helps us communicate with each other more
easily and less misunderstanding. Burn- Joyce (1997: 15) says that speaking is more
than just a way or making conversation. Conversation can be defined as the
informal interchange of thoughts and information by spoken words. Therefore,
speaking skill is always considered as the most effective means of communication.
According to Penny Ur (1995: 120), speaking seems intuitively the most important
and people who know a language are referred to as speakers of that language as if
speaking includes all other kinds of knowing,
Firstly, speaking skills contribute an important part to impose other students‟
skills such as listening, reading and writing as well as makes them better at
communication. It is clear that speaking involves responding to what has been
heard. Good speaking also means that the speakers have a large volume of both

theoretical and social knowledge, which will help them more confident and better at
reading and writing. In other words, when speaking skill is in progress, other skills
also become better.
Secondly, good speaking is said to be a good source of motivation for
students. It helps them use the language appropriately and flexibly an every day
communication.

14
According to Harmer (1998: 8) also says that whatever kind of motivation
students have, it is clear that highly motivated students do better than ones without
any motivation at all. Another reason to say speaking is a huge source of motivation
is that it can help students express their ideas naturally and rapidly. In addition,
through speaking students may realize how much language they have mastered and
how they have used it. From that, they will study harder to improve their language
competence.
Thirdly, thanks to students speaking, teacher can get feedback from students
fast and exactly. Through students‟ speaking activities in class and outside class, the
teacher can know how much students understand the lesson, Therefore, she can
know what their weak and strong points are in language to have suitable solutions
and plans.
In conclusion, speaking skill plays a significant in teaching and learning a
foreign language. That is the reason why speaking skill should be taught and
practiced in the language classroom
1.1.2 Elements of speaking skills
Harmer (1999:269-270), presents three elements for oral production as the
following:
Connected speed: effective speakers of English need to be able not only to
produce the individual phonemes of English but also to use fluent “connected
speed”. In connected speed, sounds are modified (assimilation), omitted (elision),
added (linking), and weakened (through contractions and stress patterning)

Expressive devices: The use of these devices contributes to the ability to
convey meanings. They allow the extra expression of emotion and intensity.
Students should be able to deploy at least some of such suprasegmental features and
devices in the same way if we are to be able fully effective communicators.
Lexis and grammar: spontaneous speech is marked by the use of a number
of common lexical phrases, especially in the performance of certain language

15
functions. Therefore, teachers should apply a variety of phrases for different
functions such as agreeing or disagreeing, expressing surprise, shock, or approval.
Negotiation language: effective speaking benefits from the negotiator
language we use to seek clarification and to show the structure of what we are
saying. We often need to “ask for clarification” when we are listening to someone
else talk.
In conclusion, all this brings up important points that are useful to the
teaching and learning speaking skill
1.2 Group work in a speaking lesson
1.2.1 Definitions and description of group work
One of the main ways in which the teacher can get the students to practice
and develop speaking skill is through the use of group work. It is so much a part our
everyday teaching routine that it has been considered “one of the major changes to
the dynamics of classroom interaction wrought by student-centered teaching.”
(Nunan, 1992:142)
The definition of group work according to Doff (1998: 137) is that “the
teacher divides the class into small groups to work together (usually four or five
students in each group) and all the groups work at the same time.”
Clearly, group work is a co-operative activity, during which students share
aims and responsibilities, moreover; 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 of the whole class listening to

what they are doing. They learn to negotiate, to listen to different opinions and
points of view. They participate more confident and in most cases, they feel free to
experiment and use the language.
1.2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of group work
Using group work in teaching and learning languages has some advantages
as follows:

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To promote interaction among students themselves, teachers of large classes
agree that a good first step is to create smaller groups. Some students are reluctant
to participate in a class of 50 will be ready to interact if the group size reduces to six
or eight. In spite of the fact that teacher has to invest much time and energy in
preparing teaching materials, this technique is likely to bring a positive effect on
teaching and learning process. The strong evidence is that, if teacher‟s talk in
traditional language classes is dominant and each student might get a few second of
class period to talk, then in group work students have greater opportunities to talk,
to practice in negotiation of meaning, to extend conversational exchanges, in
general, to develop communicative competence which is the goal of CLT. That is
the reason why group work is selected among other techniques for increasing
students‟ participation in communicative activities in large classes.
Group work has some disadvantages. Below are their common problems:
Brown (1994:106) foresawsome problems when group work is conducted,
such as: the teacher is no longer in control of the class; students will use their
mother tongue; students‟ errors will be reinforced in small group; teachers cannot
monitor all groups at once; and some learners may prefer to work alone. However,
according to Brown, group work can be conducted successfully if an appropriate
task is selected. Typical group work tasks include: games, role-play and simulation,
drama, project, interview brainstorming, information gap, jig saw, problems
solving, decision making, and opinion exchange. These activities will be more
effective if teachers follow some guidelines on organizing group works, such as

plan for each stage of group work. When teacher is writing his syllabus for the
course, he decides which topics, themes, or projects might lend themselves to
formal group work. He thinks about how he will organize students into groups, help
groups negotiate among themselves, provide feedback to the groups, and evaluate
the products of group work. Carefully explain to his class how the groups will
operate and how students will be graded. As he would when making any
assignment, explain the objectives of the group task and define any relevant
concepts. In addition to a well defined task, every group needs a way of getting
started, a way of knowing when its task is done, and some guidance about the

17
participation of members. Also explain how students will be graded. Keep in mind
that group work is more successful when students are graded against a set standard
than when they are graded against each other (on a curve).
1.2.3 Teacher’s role in carrying out group work
Teachers who have never before got the ideas of relinquishing any of their
total control in class have to adopt new attitudes to the teaching and learning
process in large class. They should get acquaintance to giving the stage to learners,
and letting student self- access and cooperative learning happen in language class.
For this reason, apart from the traditional functions as the main source of
knowledge and the only assessor of correctness and errors in students‟ work, the
teacher plays such different roles in-group work as an organizer, a controller, an
assessor, a prompter, and a participant (Harmer, 1991:124) (Cited in English Now-
The magazine of Vietnam‟s English Teacher and trainer net work. (Issue 15- Winter
9- 2008)
1.3 Definitions of anxiety in Speaking English in classroom (SEC)
1.3.1 Definition anxiety
According to George Ostler, 1994, the litter Oxford Dictionary of Current
English, “anxiety is troubled state of mind; worry”. Additionally, Longman
dictionary of Contemporary English defines anxiety as „the feeling of being very

worried about something” (http:// www. Ldoceonline.com/ dictionary/ anxiety) this
definition is also quite broad. Moreover, as defined by Oxford Dictionary, anxiety is
“a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain
outcome” ( true). The third one gives a
specific and easy to understand definition of anxiety.
1.3.2 Anxiety in second language (L2) and in SEC
At first, Citing Horwitz et al., ElKhafaifi (2005: 207) defined L2 anxiety as
a „a distinct complex of self- perceptions, beliefs, feelings and behaviors related to
classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning
process”. What is more, Tanveer, M. (2007:11) found the centre of L2 anxiety was

18
anxiety (feelings of tension or nervousness) in speaking and listening. That means
studying on reducing students‟ anxiety in SEC is a great idea.
Though there is no definition of anxiety in SEC found, though ones of L2
anxiety, anxiety in SEC can be understood as a felling of worry, nervousness, or
unease in SEC.
1.4 Main factors causing students’ anxiety in SEC
According to Horwitz et al. (1986: 128, cited by Tan veer, M. (2007:11),
“communication apprehension is a type of shyness characterized by fear or anxiety
about communicating with people‟, “test anxiety refers to a type of performance
anxiety stemming from a fear of failure”, and fear of negative evaluation was
defined as “apprehension about other‟ evaluations, avoidance of evaluative
situations, and the expectation that others would evaluate oneself negatively.”
Furthermore, this great author gave more details about these definitions and relation
between them as well. Accordingly, firstly, troubles in speaking the language in
pairs or in groups which were called oral communication anxiety and these in public
which were called stage fright were considered manifestations of communication
apprehension. Secondly, there were quite a lot of clear details about test anxiety.
However, because the present research does not study this type (due to having no

test on SEC in DHHS high school), the researcher does not care much about it.
Thirdly, fear of negative evaluation was explained clearly. Howrwit et al. stated:
“Although similar to test anxiety, fear of negative evaluation is broader in scope
because it is not limited to test- taking situations, rather, it may occur in any social,
evaluative situation such as interviewing for a job or speaking in foreign language
class.” The current researcher find that this type is really real in situations of
speaking the language in classroom.
1.5 Effects of anxiety on students in SEC
Certainly, anxiety has negative effect on speaking English. As generally
stated by Horwitz et al (1986), “There have been a number of studies in a number of
instructional contexts with varying target languages which find a negative
relationship between specific measures of language anxiety and language

19
achievement” However, It was Hyesook Park and Adam R. Lee (2004) who
concluded “learners‟ anxiety level was negatively related to their oral performance”.
Much more specifically, in learning speaking English, learners have a lot of
problems such as pronouncing strange and difficult sounds and using body
language. Therefore, if they lack of confidence, or afraid of being wrong, or shy and
anxious, they will not do it well. To Vietnamese students, anxiety is really a big
problem to learning speaking English. In anxiety has badly negative effect on all
learners‟ quality of speaking English in general and Vietnamese students‟ in
particular. To reach a certain target language, it is a must for teachers to reduce their
learners‟ anxiety.
1.6 Teacher’s role to students’ anxiety in SEC
Kurihara, N. (2006) revealed that “teacher attitudes in EFL classroom effect
student attitudes in the classroom, and teachers play an important role to change
students‟ attitudes and behavior to be more motivated”.
Moreover, Tanveer M. (2007:71) stated in his recommendation that if
students were provided friendly, informal and learning- supportive environments,

they would be active in speaking English and these environments could be done by
teachers friendly, helpful and co- operative behavior, making students feel
comfortable when speaking in the class. Indeed, these are very meaningful
conclusion and recommendation.
1.7 Teaching techniques to reduce students anxiety in SEC
One study which was conducted by Worde (2003) suggests many meaningful
measures as following:
- create a low stress, friendly and supportive learning environment;
- foster a proactive role on the part of the students themselves to create an
atmosphere of group solidarity and support;
- be sensitive to students‟ fears and insecurities and help them to confront
those fears;

20
- use gentle or non-threatening methods of error correction and offer words
of encouragement;
- make judicious use of purposeful group work or collaborative activities;
- use relevant and interesting topics for class discussions and exercises;
- consider ways to layer and reinforce the material in an attempt to aid
acquisition and retention;
- give written directions for homework assignments;
- speak more slowly or consider using English to clarify key points or give
specific directions;
- attend to the learning styles or preferences of the students
- hear and appreciate the voices of students for valuable insights, ideas and
suggestions.
As this is an action research project, the researcher selected just one
intervention recommended in the literature to deal with the problem of students‟
speaking anxiety – the use of group work. This intervention, the researcher
believed, is more appropriate for two reasons. First, the class which she was

teaching was large. Secondly, she hypothesized that the students may feel less
stressful while speaking in groups if grouping strategies are appropriate. The
following section reviews the benefits of group work and some practical grouping
strategies.
2. Practical grouping strategies
2.1 Group formation
According to Jung (2004: 5-7), frequently employed grouping methods
include random, student - selected and teacher- selected groupings.
2.1.1 Random grouping
Random grouping is often used for in-class activities because of its readiness
and convenience. Teachers usually group students by their seating arrangement or
by serial numbers by the school. Depending on the time, available and the types of

21
activities instructors can also use games, competitions, or any other ways that
produce groups and making grouping fun.
2.1.2 Student- selected grouping
Student- selected grouping is probably the most preferred option by learners.
Students often cluster with good friends. Students are more likely to participate in
activities if they feel they are among friends rather than strangers especially when
they have to use a language over which they have limited control. When engaging
in group work, learners feel more comfortable taking risks, making mistakes, and
enjoying themselves while using the target language among friends.
2.1.3 Teacher-formed grouping
Teacher-formed grouping is acknowledged by most teachers as requiring the
most amount of careful planning. When forming groups teachers take into account
students‟ prior achievements, level of preparation, work habits, learning
preferences… and so forth. Teacher- selected groups usually aim to achieve a
heterogeneous mix. Such a mix promotes peer tutoring, helps to break down
barriers among different types of students, and encourages on- task behavior.

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Table 2.2 Procedures of group work


STAGE
EXPLANATION
Preparation
Planning
stage
The teacher maps out the specific objectives of the
lesson, the task used
In the
classroom
Presentation
stage
The teacher introduces new concepts, language items
and equips necessary vocabulary, structures to
achieve the coming task.

Instruction
stage
The teacher gives clear, details instructions for the
task and models them, checks for clarification

Organization
stage
The teacher arranges the students in groups, assigns
roles to makes sure there is control and order

Process stage
The students engage in the interaction cooperatively
to achieve the task, the teacher monitors, strolls
around the class and gives helps when necessary

Reporting
stage
Group representatives report their group product to
the whole class

Post GW
stage
The teacher assigns a related task to reinforce learning
and self- evaluates what have been done in the group
work

Ending stage
The teacher assesses the work of groups, corrects
errors, makes amendments to future group work.

(Ngoh, 2001:22; Brown, 1994: 183, Cross, 1991: 50)

2.3. Common oral activities for group work
2.3.1 Opening-circle discussion:
Students work in small group, do tasks or discuss certain topics, then the
teacher makes a change with group arrangement to give them chance to exchange

23
their group ideas with members from (an)other group(s). Various rearrangements
can be done:

* Three stay- One stray: after a discussion in 4- member groups, one member
of each group moves another group to present their group ideas or decision on the
issue given. The mover is often the group‟s reporter.
* Three stray- One stay: The teacher may count and label each group
member a number, then those who get the same number will work one group and
share his/ her group‟s agreement to the new group.
* Pyramid grouping: Students work in small groups (of 2 or 3) on some
tasks, then two or three groups are combined to make a new communicative setting.
2.3.2 Role play
Put students in life- like situation, they will take roles to make conversations.
It is necessary to model the conversation of the context, assigning roles to students
and give the students time to prepare their roles before the conversation. The
teacher should consider the students‟ competence when assigning roles, easier tasks
with more simple expressions for the weaker, the other roles requiring more creative
and freer language use for more able students. The teacher can support the less
competent students by getting them to write down the questions, responses they will
need.
2.3.3 Information Gap Activity (IGA)
Information sharing is one of the most typical types of group work activities,
it helps to promote individualization of students‟ learning and develop their skills of
using the language and other social skills in cooperative tasks. There are often 2
steps to follow in an IGA: Step 1: Cognitive and comprehensive stage, students,
receiving materials from the teacher, process the input knowledge and information
provided in the materials;
Step 2: Exchanging ideas and information, students work with follow
partners, share the knowledge and information they have just perceived, try their

24
best to make themselves comprehensible to the partners and they then have further
discussion on them.

2.3.4 Problem –solving
According to Burne (1990: 58) (Cited in English Now- The magazine of
Vietnam‟s English Teacher and trainer net work- Issue 11- Winter 2005) problem-
solving has been used to group together a wide range of activities that require
students to find “solutions” to problems of different kinds.
Many of these problems involve processes that we commonly use in real life
as follows: We frequently hypothesize links between two things (events, actions,
people, etc). We detect differences (real or imaginary).We grade things according to
criteria (subjective or objective) Clearly, problem solving is believed to be
necessary and suited to students of all levels.
2.3.5 Picture card activities
The use of the picture cards inevitably involves the use of group work.
Below are some among the activities that are useful for group work:
Kim’s Game: the students in groups look at the items on the table for about
thirty second. Next, the items are covered with a cloth and the groups have to
describe and locate the items. Then the group leaders report to the class what the
group had discussed
What is my line: The students in groups have to ask questions of another
member within a limited time span and discover his /her occupation
Twenty questions: One student is asked to write the name of an object or
select a picture of an object and place it face downwards. The others have to
question this student and try to guess what the item is.
To sum up, the above activities under the category of group are useful for
developing speaking skills among students. They can create out- of- expectation
result in the speaking class.

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2.4 Problems and solutions in using class group work
Many problems associated with in- class group work can be prevented with

careful preparation, specific instructions, and appropriate facilitation. Below are
some problems and solutions to them (Jacobs and Hall, 1994: 32, 2-13)
Table 2.4: Problems and solutions in using class group work
Problem
Solutions
1, Students are
resistant to group
work

Teacher may reiterate the reasons for using this particular
small- group task hold a plenary discussion about small
group tasks and allow students to air concerns developed in
response to experiences in past courses. Then outline how
the tasks are different.
2. Student talks too
much or dominates
the group
Teacher should explain privately that while you are pleased
he or she has a lot to contribute, you would be like other
learners to have more opportunity to think for themselves.
3, Students talk too
little or are
“freeloading”

Teacher should speak to the student privately to determine
the reason for lack of participation,
Teacher should remind students that the content of the group
work will be tested on a quiz or test. The teacher could
design a test question in which students must summarize
their group‟s results.

4, Students are not
listening to fellow
group members.

Teacher can gives comment on the issue in the general class
setting and then tell students that in the plenary session. The
teacher should call a time out, and restructure the activity so
that all students must connect what they say to what the
previous person just said.
5, Students lack the
social skills needed
to work with others.

Teacher should encourage students who prefer to work
alone to stay in-group work and at the same time assist the
group by assigning them a task that would give them some
sort of isolation. The teacher tell students the way to refuse,
disagree, argue… politely in English.

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6, Students overuse
mother- tongue.

The teacher should make them work task oriented. The
teacher joins the group briefly to encourage and facilitate
the learners‟ participation, and then should set rules, agreed
to by the class, for disciplining frequent offenders.

Additionally, the researcher was also interested in the technique devised by
Maurie (1983: 429) named 4/3/2 techniques. According to this technique “ involves

giving the same talk to three different listeners one after the other, but with four
minutes to give the first delivery of the talk, three minutes for the delivery of the
same talk to the second listener, and two minutes for the third” ( as rewritten by
Zhou 2006). In this technique the second feature which is “ the speaker repeats the
same talk” helps the speaker ” develop confidence in her ability to deliver the talk
and will have less difficulty in accessing the language she needs to deliver the talk.”
It can be inferred that the 4/3/2 technique is effective in reducing speakers‟ anxiety
in speaking English.
It is no doubt that the studies reviewed above emphasize teaching techniques
relating to the ways to reduce the anxiety. These are really meaningful to the present
research. Although a lot of measures were recommended, it seem that no researcher
did an experiment on a teaching plot which aimed to use of group work to reduce
students‟ anxiety in speaking lessons. The current researcher is keen on
supplementing this point.
3. Summary
In summary, this chapter is the review of the principal theoretical basis for
the study. The definitions of implementing group work have been introduced with
its possible benefits and challenges facing teachers. In order to be effective, the size,
duration, and composition of the group work must match the task. In addition, the
group work activity must be carefully planned and communicated to the students.
Group must be properly directed and supervised during learning activities. The
main stages in implementing group work activities in language class are presented
in this chapter. In addition, teachers play a vital role in the successful