skkn USING GROUP WORK TO ENHANCE STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING ACTIVITIES

Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

I.

1

Trường THPT Tân Phú

THÔNG TIN CHUNG VỀ CÁ NHÂN

1.

Họ và tên:

Đỗ Duy Dương

2.

Ngày tháng năm sinh:

3.

Nam, nữ:

4.

Địa chỉ:

5.

Điện thoại:

6.

Fax:

7.

Chức vụ:

8.

Nhiệm vụ được giao:

9.

Đơn vị công tác:

II.

TRÌNH ĐỘ ĐÀO TẠO

-

Học vị (hoặc trình độ chuyên môn, nghiệp vụ) cao nhất: Cử nhân

-

Năm nhận bằng: 1999

-

Chuyên ngành đào tạo: Cử nhân Tiếng Anh sư phạm

III.

KINH NGHIỆM KHOA HỌC

-

Lĩnh vực chuyên môn có kinh nghiệm: Sư phạm tiếng anh

-

Số năm có kinh nghiệm:

-

Các sáng kiến kinh nghiệm đã có trong 5 năm gần đây:

01-1-1973

Nam
Trường THPT Tân Phú
0944410696
E-mail:
Giáo viên
Dạy môn Tiếng Anh lớp 10.
Trường THPT Tân Phú

14 năm

*Một số kỹ thuật đọc hiểu giúp học sinh phát triển kỹ năng đọc trong
trường phổ thông.

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ


Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

Trường THPT Tân Phú

2

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐỒNG NAI
TRƯỜNG THPT TAN PHU

BÁO CÁO SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM
AN EVALUATION:
USING GROUP WORK TO ENHANCE STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION
IN SPEAKING ACTIVITIES

Tác giả: DO DUY DUONG
Nghề nghiệp: Giáo viên
Chức vụ:

Ngày 10 tháng 02 năm 2017
1. Tên sáng kiến: Using Group Work to enhance students’ participation in
speaking activities.

4. Nơi công tác: Trường THPT TAN PHU
5. Đơn vị áp dụng sáng kiến: Lớp 10 thuộc Trường THPT
6. Giải pháp:

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ


Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

3

Trường THPT Tân Phú

I. INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale for the innovation
Speaking has always been regarded as the most critical element in the communication
process (Boonkit, 2010). As Nunan (1991) has proved it, success in communication is
measured basing on the ability to conduct a conversation in the target language. This ability,
in this sense, refers to the speaking skill. Furthermore, speaking can function as a bridge to
assist other skills (Ur, 1996). Speaking is said to be able to facilitate learners to become more
proficient readers, more efficient listeners and more accurate writers. Given its significance in
the language teaching and learning, it is advised that speaking be given priority in the
language classroom.
Important as it is, the teaching of speaking skill at many Vietnamese high schools in general
and particularly at Tan Phu high school seems to receive insufficient attention and is
implemented not effectively enough. Reasons are varied. First, the majority of English tests at
Vietnamese high school are currently grammar-oriented. Teachers and students are largely
concerned about the academic results rather than the actual practice and knowledge.

Therefore, lessons, or more specifically language lessons often focus on the theory,
grammatical rules and structures to serve the purpose of taking exams. Communicative skills
such as listening or speaking are sometime neglected by teachers and students also have little
motivation to study such skills as they do not have practical purposes. Second, the
arrangement of language classes in many Vietnamese high schools is unsuitable and
unfavorable to conduct speaking activities. High school students have to study in large
classes with number of learners ranging from 30 to 35 ones. In other theoretical subjects, this
number of students is acceptable; however, for the subject that requires lots of interaction like
English, such large number of students is really an obstacle for teachers if they want to
enhance communication in their classroom. Therefore, speaking lessons are conducted in
such a way that students listen to teachers’ presentation or lecture and only speak when they

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ


Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

4

Trường THPT Tân Phú

are invited. This leads to students’ lack of activeness in speaking activities. The large number
of students also means the few chances of students to speak out as they have to take turn to
speak in class. In addition, no real-life contexts are created in speaking lesson for students to
practice; thus, most students are at a loss in using the target language to express their ideas in
even the simplest situations in speaking. All reasons and problems considered, the teaching
and learning of speaking skill at Tan Phu high school is considered to be ineffective as
students gain very little after each course. Realizing these situations, an innovation on the

effects of implementing group work in speaking lessons at Tan Phu high school has been
carried out with the hope that this technique will help teachers and students overcome the
obstacles in teaching and learning speaking skill.
2. Context of the innovation
The innovation took place at Tan Phu high school, which is situated in the remote area of
Dong Nai province, Vietnam. As most other high schools in Vietnam, English is a
compulsory subject in the curriculum approved by Ministry of Education and Training
(MOET). Students in Vietnam are supposed to study English over their three years at high
school. Students often have three class hours per week. The teaching of English subject must
follow the syllabus and the course book released by MOET. Teachers have to make sure that
all content in the course book is covered so that students can have sufficient knowledge to
take the final examination for the subject. As for the teaching approach or techniques, it is
optional for teachers to adopt the approach that they think is the most effective to students.
Therefore, with the innovation of applying group work to teaching speaking skills to students,
it is teachers’ right to choose any teaching method to implement, provided that the content of
the lessons in the course book is not skipped.
Students at Tan Phu high school mostly come from the rural areas, where the chances to meet
and talk to foreigners are rare. As already mentioned, speaking skill is often neglected during
the teaching of a foreign language at high school as speaking is not tested in the final
examination. In addition, the few chances of communicating with foreigners of students here
result in a variety of problems in teaching speaking to students. Although students in Vietnam

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ


Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

5

Trường THPT Tân Phú

start learning English from grade 3, which means when they enter high school, they have
almost 7 years of learning the language, the ability to use the language in communication is
restricted. Students often learn by heart the grammar structure to do the written tests, but are
incapable of using those structures in expressing their ideas orally. Furthermore, they also
have little motivation in learning speaking skill as the chances for practicing is few. The
application of group work in teaching speaking is expected to find solutions to these
problems.
3. Aims and objectives of the innovation
The innovation on using group work activities to enhance students’ speaking skill in the
context of Tan Phu high school has been carried out with the aim to investigate the benefits
students can gain from the application of group work in speaking lessons, together with
finding out the most appropriate way to conduct the activities. The innovation, thus, aimed to
answer the two following questions:
- What benefit would students at grade 10 in Tan Phu high school gain from group work
activities?
- What is the most appropriate way to carry out group work activities in speaking class at
Tan Phu high school?
II. THE RESEARCH
1. The research participants
The participants in this research were 28 students of grade 10 A12 at Tan Phu high school.
Students of grade 10A12 was selected as they are in their first year at high school; thus, if
group work proves to be an useful method of learning, it is promised that students will form a
habit of using group work in their learning over the next three years at high school. In
addition, when applying the new method in teaching, the freshmen would adopt the new
technique more easily than those who have already form their learning style during some
previous years at high school. Students at grade 10 at Tan Phu high school are supposed to be
of pre-intermediate level as they have had some years of learning English at primary and

secondary school.
2. The research procedure

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ


Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

6

Trường THPT Tân Phú

The research was carried out in 12 weeks from the 5 th of September to the 25th of November
(School year 2016 – 2017). Students were divided into 7 groups, each of which consisted of 4
members. As suggested by I-Jung (2004) and Le (2008), the most appropriate number of
members in a group should be from three to five. That number can ensure the opportunity for
each member to participate in group work and interact with each other. In addition, a large
number of people in the group may reduce the chances of members to express and contribute
their ideas (Le, 2008).
The first and the second week were spent to introduce students with the emphasis on the
changes in the English lessons. Students did not use to have a separate lesson for learning
speaking skills but speaking if often embedded with other skills. Therefore, the practice used
to be very limited. Within this research, one class hour for each unit was spent on learning
speaking skills; the other four class hours were spent on reading, listening, writing and
language focus.
The group work activities were introduced to students from week 3 of the innovation until
week 11. As I-Jung (2004) proposed, there are three most popular grouping strategies namely
random grouping, which is often based on the seating arrangement; student-selected

grouping, in which students can choose their own partners; and instructor-selected grouping,
in which groups are allocated due to the appointment of the teachers basing on students’
language level, habit and preference. The grouping strategies of this research also followed
those proposed by I-Jung (2004) in which each strategy was applied for every two weeks.
Week 12 of the research was spent for the evaluation of the speaking activities.
It is necessary to emphasize that all the content of the speaking lessons were taken from the
course book. The only innovative element of the study was the change in the teaching
method. Instead of whole-class discussion or teacher-oriented approach, students were
divided into groups and all speaking activities or discussion took place within the group
work. For example, unit 2 in week 3 was about a memorable people’s background using past

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ


Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

7

Trường THPT Tân Phú

tense and present simple. Students were divided into 7 groups of 4. It was a random grouping;
thus, students sitting at the same table worked together. They were supposed to work in group
to brainstorm ideas about what questions they could ask when they wanted to know about
somebody’s background, including ideas about : date of birth , place of birth , home, parents ,
brother(s), sister(s), primary school, secondary school, favourite subject(s). experience ….
After the given time, one representative gave their presentation in front of the class. Often in
one group, a group leader was appointed by the teacher to control the group discussion and
make sure every member in the group contributed their ideas and raised their voice. The

group work activities took place in a similar way during the other 9 weeks.
3. The research methodology
A qualitative study was conducted. As suggested by Patton (2002), a qualitative approach can
help the researcher to gather rich and detailed data from various social phenomena, cases and
event that cannot be obtained from a quantitative one. Hinchey (2008) shared a similar
viewpoint when advising that qualitative studies emphasize more on the on-going process
rather than the product with the aims to investigating deeper information and meaning of
social issues. With regard to this research, the aims of the research was to find out the benefit
of the actual process of implementing group work activities to teach speaking skill and find
out the best way to apply group work in speaking lessons; therefore, the focus on the ongoing process was emphasized more than on the final product. All things considered,
adopting a qualitative study is the most appropriate choice to implement this research.
4. The research methods
The research aimed at two purposes, which were examining the benefits of group work
activities on students’ speaking skills and exploring the best way to implement the group
work. Thus, three data collection methods were conducted to gather information for the
research, namely questionnaire, observation and interview.

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ


Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

8

Trường THPT Tân Phú

- Questionnaire: Questionnaire was selected as the first data collection method, which
aimed to gather information about students’ views on the use of group work activities.

Questionnaire was chosen as students when answering the questionnaire were supposed to
have less pressure than in the direct interview; the analysis of questionnaire was also said to
be unbiased (Gillham, 2000; as cited in Le, 2008). As the questionnaire was collected with
anonymous information, which meant students were asked not to write their names on the
paper, students were believed to feel free to express their opinion. In Vietnamese society
where face-saving culture is popular, students do not have the habit of criticizing, especially
criticizing their teachers and peers. Therefore, it is quite popular for Vietnamese researchers
when collecting data from interviews to receive positive comments and praise and very little
constructive feedback. The use of questionnaire, to a certain extent, could ensure the
reliability of the data. In addition, in order to collect data from all the participants, using
questionnaires was a feasible method. Data was not only plentiful but also manageable. The
content of the questionnaire mainly covered some aspects related to students’ viewpoints on
group working, such as their attitudes towards the activities, their self-report of the
participation in the activities and their interaction with other members during the group work.
Questionnaire was written in English with the simplest language and expression. During the
time students did the questionnaire, the teacher was supposed to be present to provide support
or give explanation if necessary. Sample of the Questionnaire can be found in Appendix A.
- Observation: If the questionnaire aimed to gather information from students, the
observation was a data collection tool that provided information from teachers’ perspective.
Observation was said to supply the researchers with an abundant source of information and
feedback directly (Hilmi& Lu, 2010). According to Hilmi& Lu (2010), through observation,
observers can have deep understanding of how their subject matter is conducted, what
teaching techniques are implemented and how the actual process of a lesson takes place in the
classroom. The observation in this research was conducted by the researcher, who was also
the teacher of the speaking class. As the teacher had to deliver the lessons together with

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ

Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

9

Trường THPT Tân Phú

observing, an observation sheet was designed with detailed criteria to observe and evaluate.
The teacher had to take note of the class setting basing on the given criteria (See appendix B).
Similar to the content of the questionnaire, the observation also focused on three aspects of
the lessons, which were students’ participation and interaction in group work, their attitudes
towards the group work activities and the quality of the group work activity implementation.
Observation was conducted in each lesson. Data was coded basing on the given criteria,
analyzed and compared to findings from questionnaires.
- Interview: Interviews served as the last source of data for this research. If questionnaires
were distributed to each individual who participated in the research, interviews were made in
groups. Students worked in groups and discussed the given interview questions. The group
leader spoke on behalf of the group members and presented their ideas. Sensitive questions
that may not receive the frank answers from students were avoided in the interview such as
whether students liked the group work or not, how they felt about the group work activities –
interesting or boring, how they participated in the group work – actively or passively as with
such questions, it was likely that only positive answers were demonstrated. The interview
mainly focused on eliciting students’ evaluation on the group work activities such as what
benefits they gained from group work, what difficulties they faced while working in groups
with other members and finally what they expected the group work activities to be conducted.
As students’ language level was limited, Vietnamese language was used in the interviews.
Students using their mother language felt more confident and comfortable to express their
viewpoints. In addition, using Vietnamese could avoid the ambiguity and confusion of
students when expressing ideas.
The use of three different research methods to collect data helped the researcher gather a

great deal of information for the research. All the three methods aimed at answering the two
research questions of what effects group work activities had on students’ speaking skills and
what the best ways to implement group work activities to students at grade 10 at Tan Phu

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ


Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

10

Trường THPT Tân Phú

high school. The data obtained from the data sources were analyzed and triangulated, which
provided the researcher with the most complete findings for the research.
III.
DATA ANALYSIS
1. Students’ participation and interaction in group work activities
The first aspect of the research involved findings about students’ participation in the group
work activities and their interaction with other group member during the lessons. It was
found out from the observation that students’ overall involvement in group work was good;
however, the extent to which students participated and interacted in the lesson varied from
week to week. It was observed that during three first weeks, some students participated
passively or kept quiet during the lessons. Students also had the tendency to use too much
Vietnamese during their discussion. However, from week 4 on, possibly after students got
more accustomed to working in groups, the number of passive students reduced. Students
showed more involvement and enthusiasm working together. It was noticeable that during
week 5 and 9 when students were allowed to choose their own partners to work with, they

were more enthusiastic and active in group working. With regard to the interaction, similarly
to some first weeks, students also demonstrated limited interaction. However, it was noticed
that in groups where the group leader worked effectively in controlling and actively inviting
their partners to speak, the interaction was much improved. Furthermore, the teacher also
stayed close to each group and reminded the quiet students to raise their voice, which could
also enhance the interaction. Observation also showed that the lack of participation and
interaction was often found in students of low language level or students with introvert
personality. It was also found out that the interaction also varied according to the grouping
techniques. From week 3 to 9, when students were randomly selected (often students sitting
in the same table) and students self-selected partners to work with, the interaction was better.
On the contrary, in week 10 and 11 when group partners were assigned by the teacher, the
interaction was not as good. This was probably because when students worked with the
partners that they knew well or they liked, they would interact more with each other than

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ


Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

11

Trường THPT Tân Phú

when working with those they did not know well. Participation and interaction, accordingly,
depended largely on the grouping technique and students’ language level, together with the
control of a group leader or the teacher.
With regard to the findings from questionnaire and interview about students’ participation and
interaction, from questions 3 to 8 in the questionnaire would reflect this. When asked how

often students spoke in group, 20 out of 28 students said that they sometimes or very often
spoke; 8 out of 28 said they rarely spoke; and how they participated in group work, 18 out of
28 said they participated actively, 4 chose the neutral option and 6 said they were passive and
how other members in their group interact with each other, 24 out of 28 said they all
interacted with other ,4 said some interacted and when asked what benefits you could gain
from group work activities 18 out of 28 said they were encouraged to express ideas or
reduced anxiety while speaking , 10 said they raised confidence, especialy in eight question
most of them preferred to choosing their own partners to work with . The results from the
questionnaire were also equivalent to the finding from the observation. In the questionnaire,
not all students gave reasons for their choice. Those who explained said that their limited
participation or interaction was due to the lack of confident in their English speaking ability
and their lack of interest in the speaking topics. Reasons for this were also found out in the
interview when students claimed the difficulties in doing the group work. Students said that
some topics in the speaking lessons were unfamiliar or unattractive to them; thus they did not
show interest in speaking and consequently did not participate actively. For unfamiliar topics,
some students were lacking in necessary vocabulary to express their ideas. In addition,
sometimes students were assigned to work with other partners who were superior in language
level to them; thus, they did not have chances and also lack of confident to raise their ideas.
Students also explained for their frequent use of Vietnamese language, which was because
they were not immediate used to using English to speak all the time; and they were also
found using Vietnamese gave them the comfort and confidence. Therefore, they often used

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ


Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

Trường THPT Tân Phú

12

Vietnamese to brainstorm ideas first and then trying to find ways to express these ideas in
English.
In short, findings from three data sources showed that students’ participation and interaction
in the group work activities were fairly good and experienced an improvement after time.
Group work, accordingly, can be said to help improve students’ participation and interaction
in speaking lessons. However, the participation and interaction varied from week to week
basing on different factors such as grouping techniques, speaking topics, students’ language
level, the control of group work activities from group leaders or teachers and partly on
students’ personality.
2. Students’ attitudes towards the group work activities
The second aspect of this research was findings about students’ attitudes towards the use of
group work in teaching speaking.
It was found out from the class observation that students had the tendency to show their
interest and enthusiasm in speaking activities towards the end of the innovation. The level of
interest of students was also not equal after each week and might vary according to different
factors. For example, in week 9 of the innovation, the topic of the speaking was about
technology, which was considered a difficult and unappealing topic. In the speaking lesson of
week 11, the group work was organized following the teacher’s assigning group members.
Thus, the level of interest of students in the lesson as well as in the group activities was quite
low. However, in week 8, when students were assigned to talk about education, they had
more ideas, vocabulary and also interest in such familiar topics. In this week, they were also
allowed to choose their own partners; thus, it was observed that they showed high level of
interest. Week 6 also experienced students’ high level of enthusiasm and enjoyment when
their group activity was the role-play. They acted in different role to organize a party for the
whole class. This group work activity brought much interest and involvement to students.

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ


Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

13

Trường THPT Tân Phú

Results from the questionnaires also reflected students’ attitudes towards the use of group
work. When students were asked whether they liked the group work activities or not, 24 out
of 28 students said yes, while 4 others said no. Students who said yes explained that they
found the activities interesting and funny. They also felt encouraged and more confident
when working with their classmates. They had careful preparation with classmates before
they had to speak in front of the whole class, which gave them more confidence. Other
students explained that they enjoyed the interaction among group members. For previous
lessons, they used to sit in one place and listen to teachers and other outstanding students to
speak; they had few chances to raise their voices and felt scared of making mistakes in
speaking aloud. Similar reasons were given in the interview when students compared the
teaching using group work activities with the traditional teaching. Students also claimed that
many of them did not have a chance to raise their voice even once in the traditional teaching
style using whole-class discussion, especially those who had low language level. They were
afraid to make mistakes in speaking and being made jokes of by other classmates.
Furthermore, they did not have enough time to come up with ideas and vocabulary to answer
teachers’ questions before the other students of better level raised their answers. With group
work, opportunities were spared equally to all members. If they did not come up with ideas to
discuss, listening to other raising their ideas first also gave them suggestions to follow up. For
the other 4 students who said that they did not like the group work activities, they explained
that they found grouping took too much time. Students in the groups did not act seriously, but

mainly chatted or spoke Vietnamese all the time. They also complained that when they have
to work with better students, they did not have many chances to speak much. However, in the
interview, when teachers raised questions of the possible problems during group working,
students also admitted that these abovementioned problems could occur. However, if the
group leader and the teacher had good control of how the members in groups worked and
invited group members to speak equally, these problems could possibly be solved.

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ


Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

Trường THPT Tân Phú

14

In a word, it was concluded that the attitudes of students’ towards the use of group work in
speaking lessons were overall positive. Students showed their preferences of the use of group
work over the use of the traditional teaching methods. However, it is worth noticing that the
interest of students in the group work activities, similar to the participation and interaction,
depends largely on some factors such as the topics of speaking, the grouping techniques, the
activities used in group work, etc.
3. Quality of the group work activities
The quality of the group work activities was also judged basing on data from the observation,
questionnaires and interview. It was noticed that group work activities were conducted with
certain success. First of all, group activities used in speaking lessons were diversified,
ranging from group discussion, debate to role-play. The group work, in general, received
good control from the teacher and also the group leader, which assisted the group members

much in contributing and presenting their ideas. The good control also helped overcome some
problems during the group working such as encouraging passive students, eliminating
students’ speaking Vietnamese or providing chances equally for group members to raise
voices. According to the data from the interview and questionnaires, it was reported that most
students agreed that the quality of the group work activities was good and satisfactory.
Evidences could be found from the benefits that students could gain from working in groups.
Students claimed that they could raise their confidence in English speaking and reduce the
anxiety while speaking. They also received much encouragement from teacher and friends in
expressing ideas. Furthermore, they could learn much from listening to their peers’
discussion, self-correct their mistake in pronunciation or get the correction from their friends,
enrich their vocabulary and ideas about the assigned topics.
However, observation also showed that there existed some limitations in the implementation
of group work in speaking lessons. First, the teacher often spent too much time on grouping.
For examples, when students were allowed to select the partners, many students could not

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ


Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

15

Trường THPT Tân Phú

decide who to work with. They even argued while choosing partners, especially when the
group number was restricted to 4 but 5 of them wanted to work together and argued who
would be excluded. As for the grouping techniques when teacher decided the group member,
the teacher basing on some information such as students’ month of birth, students’ height or

students’ hobbies to decide. Often it took quite much time for the teacher to ask for students’
personal information. Spending too much time on grouping meant that time for the main
activities in the lessons were shortened. Therefore, there should be a more appropriate way in
grouping students that could save more time. The second problem existed in the speaking
lessons was the topics used for group work. Some of the topics were attention-catching and
familiar to students, which could raise their interest and participation in the group work.
However, some other topics were out of date and unfamiliar to students, which resulted in
their low interest and involvement. The topics, however, were all taken from the course book
and could not be changed; therefore, the teacher was supposed to think of ways to make use
of interesting topics and assist students in dealing with unfamiliar and difficult topics.
IV.

DISCUSSION

Data was collected from three different sources, which aimed to answer the two research
questions namely what the effects of group work activities on students’ speaking skills at
grade 10 in Tan Phu high school are and what the most appropriate ways to conduct the group
work activities in this context are.
Findings from three data collection instruments pointed out that in general, the use of group
work in teaching speaking to students of grade 10 was beneficial in different aspects.
Firstly, it was reported that the participation of students in speaking lessons was increased
considerably. If students used to sit quietly, wait for teachers to raise questions and wait for
their turn to be invited to speak (many even did not have a single chance to raise their voice
during the lessons), now with group work activities, students could almost participate equally
in the lessons. The chance of raising voices increased to a great extent. The findings were

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ

Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

16

Trường THPT Tân Phú

also supported by previous studies by Temerova (2007) and Meng (2009) when these authors
found out that learner working in groups could get much more practice in speaking and
taking part in conversations more in group work than in teacher-centered class or in a wholeclass discussion. The interaction of students with other group members, in addition, was also
developed. With the whole-class discussion, students often could interact very little and only
with teachers, with group discussion, students could interact more with other partners. Each
week students worked in different groups with different partners, and the chances to interact
with a variety of people in the class were great. The use of group work also proved to raise
students’ interest in the speaking lessons. Students were involved and enjoyed the lessons
more in compared with using the traditional teaching method. The benefits of using group
work in teaching speaking to students at grade 10, Tan Phu high school were also found in the
better quality of the speaking lessons. Students largely agreed that the group work helped
improve the quality of the speaking lessons.
The effects of group work on students’ performance in speaking lessons were also
demonstrated by students’ reducing anxiety while speaking and raising confidence in
expressing their ideas. According to Jiang (2009), working with group partners and without
being observed by teachers, students might feel more comfortable to express their oral
communicative ability. Students also developed collaborative learning in speaking lessons.
Students provided each other with mutual support during the lessons. They learnt from
listening to others and enriched their vocabulary and ideas about the given topic. They also
learnt from other partners’ mistakes and self-corrected theirs. The mutual support that
students got from the group work was also advised by Temerova(2007) when stating that
group work offered students a great source of information which was created to share. They
also had more motivation in learning speaking skills, which they could not find from the

previous teaching method. Last but not least, they were provided with chances to raise their
voice during the lessons.

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ


Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

17

Trường THPT Tân Phú

Obviously, it cannot be denied that the extent to which students’ participation, interaction and
interest as well as other effects from group work were not always the same in every lesson.
These benefits were developed depending largely on a variety of factors such as the grouping
techniques, group work activities, students’ language level, topics used for speaking and
finally students’ personality or habit. It is suggested that teacher should consider these factors
carefully before implementing the group work activities in order to obtain best results. For
example, it was found out in the study that different grouping techniques had unlike impact
on students’ performance. The most preferable technique was probably students’ selfgrouping, in which students could choose their own partners. However, sometimes conflicts
might occur when students could not decide who to work with on their own. Thus, when
assigning students with the right to choose the group members, the teacher should anticipate
some possible problems and prepare to interfere when necessary. Another example, students’
language level was also an important factor that worth considering when implementing group
work activities. There were often two ways of grouping basing on students’ level, which were
students of similar level working together and students of mixed-ability. As students
suggested from the interview, when students of the same level working together, it was easy
for the group with high language level; however, for the group with all members of lower

level, they might feel unconfident and reluctant to give presentation with groups of better
students. In addition, if all members were of low level, no one would provide support to each
other. Therefore, students expressed their preference in working in a group of mixed ability in
which the lower level students could seek for help from the better one.
From the observation and interview, it was also found out that in order to implement the
group work effectively, the role of the group leader and also the teacher of the class was very
important. The group leader help the teacher in controlling the participation of each group
member, assigning tasks to group member and motivating the members to work actively. It
was observed that a group working effectively with few passive students, little time spent on

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ


Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

18

Trường THPT Tân Phú

speaking Vietnamese or chatting was often that with a good leader. Therefore, it is critical for
the teacher to select and assign a group leader with detailed tasks to make sure the group
work run smoothly and effectively.
V. REFLECTIONS ON FUTURE WORK
Although the research was carried out successfully, there is still much room for improvement
if the research is conducted again. The three research methods were utilized so as that data
was triangulated. However, adaption can be made with the use of such research methods to
obtain a more comprehensive result. With the observation, the use of a detailed checklist
helped the teacher much to save time in taking note. The note-taking basing on given criteria

helped the coding and analyzing of data more easily. However, as the researcher also
functioned as the researcher, who had to deliver the lesson together with doing the notetaking during the lessons, the workload was fairly much for one person. The teacher
sometimes concentrated too much on giving lessons that the note-taking in the observation
checklist was not fully filled. If implemented again, it is suggested that the researcher can ask
for help from other teacher in the school to do the observation. Observation from an outsider,
to some extent, can reflect an objective viewpoint towards the lessons’ evaluation.
With regards to the use of interview and questionnaire, it was clear that data from these two
sources of data were detailed and plentiful. It reflected the perspectives of students about the
use of group work in speaking lessons. Findings from the questionnaire and interviews were
double-checked with that from the observation, which reflected the different aspects of the
group work activities use from two different angles, the viewpoints of the teachers and those
of the students. However, as the subjects of the questionnaire and interview were students
participating in this research, some contents were inevitably overlapped. It is suggested that
either questionnaire or interview should be used to gather information from the students.
Instead, diaries or journals can be selected as the third source of data. At that time, the
observation will be conducted by another teacher in the school, data from which will reflect

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ


Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

19

Trường THPT Tân Phú

the perspective of an independent observer. On the contrary, diary and journal will be written
by the teacher herself, finding from which will show the perspectives of an insider.

With the adaptation of research methods used in the research in future, findings will be
gathered from three different perspectives. This will help obtain more thorough results for the
research.
VI.

CONCLUSION

Findings from the research have fully answered the two research questions, which aimed to
investigate the effects that group work activities have on the speaking skills of students at
grade 10 at Tan Phu high school and to identify the most appropriate way to implement the
group work activities in speaking lessons. It was found out that the use of group work in
speaking lesson had positive effects on both students’ speaking performance and their
language competence. Benefits could be listed as the higher rate of participation and
interaction of students throughout the speaking lessons, the raise of interest and motivation of
students in learning speaking skills, the improvement in quality of speaking lesson delivered
to students. Apart from that, group work activities also help students gain more confidence in
speaking, reduce the anxiety during their presentation, increase the chances of students’
raising voice during the lessons, enlarge their vocabulary and ideas about the assigned topic,
etc. Research also found out that when implement group work activities, it is critical for the
teachers to take into consideration a number of factors that may influence the success of the
lessons such as students’ language level, the topic used for speaking, the grouping techniques,
the activities used in speaking as well as students’ preference and personality. The
consideration of these factors will help the teacher find out the most appropriate way to
deliver the speaking lessons and make the most use of the benefits of group work activities.
With the benefits that students at grade 10 at Tan Phu high school received from the use of
group work, it is believed that this teaching technique can be adapted to use widely in Tan
Phu high school to help develop the speaking skill of students all over the school.

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ


Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

20

Trường THPT Tân Phú

REFERENCES
Boonkit, K. (2010). Enhancing the Development of Speaking Skills for Nnon-native Speakers
of English.Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences. 2. 1305-1309.
Hilmi, H. & Lu, E. T. (2010).Teaching speaking skill through group work activities: A case
study in SMK Jayamore. FakultiPendidikan. University Teknologi Malaysia.
Hinchey, H. P. (2008). “Action research primer”.New York, NY 10006: Peter Lang
Publishing, Inc.
I-Jung, C. (2004).Utilizing Group Work Effectively in English Language Classroom.TESL
Reporter, 37(1), 1-7.
Jiang, Y. (2009). Applying Group Work to Improve College Students’ Oral
English.International Education Study, 2(3).
Le, H. M. L (2008).A study on improving speaking skill of the 1st year students of preintermediate level at FPT University through group work.ULIS.
Meng, F. (2009). Encourage learners in the large class to speak English in group work.
English Language Teaching, 3, 219-224.
Nunan , D. (1991). Language Teaching Methodology, UK: prentice-hall International.
Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative research and evaluation methods (3rde.d.). Thousand Oaks,
CA: SAGE Publications.
Temerová, L. (2007). How to improve students’ communicative skills.Bachelor
Thesis.Retrieved March 22nd, 2014 at
/>IVE_SKILLS.doc
Ur, P. (1996). A course in Language Teaching.Practice and Theory: Cambridge University

Press.

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ


Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

21

Trường THPT Tân Phú

APPENDIX A
QUESTIONNAIRE
1.
A.

Do you like speaking English in groups?
Yes
B. No

Reasons (please specify): _______________________
2.
A.

How do you feel when doing the group work speaking?
Exciting
B. Boring
C. Encouraged

D. Confident

Others (please specify): ________________________
3.
A.
4.
A.
5.
A.
6.
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
7.
A.
B.
C.
D.
8.
A.
B.
C.
9.

How often do you speak in groups?
Rarely B. Sometimes
C. Very often
How do you participate in group work?

Actively
B. Passively
C. Normal
How do other members in your group interact with each other?
All interact B. Some interact
D. Very few interact
What benefits can you gain from group work activities?
Raise confidence
Correct mistakes in speaking
Reduce anxiety while speaking
Be encouraged to express ideas
Others (please specify): ____________________
What difficulties do you face when doing group work activities?
Time consuming
Being dominated by better students
Difficult topics
Others (please specify): ___________________
How do you prefer the group speaking to be?
Randomly-selected
Students-selected
Teacher-selected
What suggestions to you have to make group work activities better?

___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION!

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ


Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

Trường THPT Tân Phú

22

APPENDIX B
OBSERVATION
Teacher’s name: ……………..

Observation date: …………….

Number of participants: ……..

Class: …………………………

Observation sheet:
Grouping techniques:
Group

Group

Group

Group

Group Group Group

1

2

3

4

5

1. Students’ participation
and interaction
a. participate enthusiastically
b. participate passively
c. keep quiet
d. speak Vietnamese
e. interact cooperatively with
each other
d. do not interact much with
each other
2. Students’ attitudes
towards the group work
activities (Rank from 1-5)
a. level of interest
b. level of enthusiasm
3. Quality of the lessons
(Rank from 1-5)

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ

6

7


Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

23

Trường THPT Tân Phú

a. evaluation of the topic
b. evaluation of the activities
c. evaluation of the grouping
technique
Overall comments:
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ

Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

24

Trường THPT Tân Phú

APPENDIX C
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (in Vietnamese)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Do you and your group member enjoy the group work activities? Why (not)?
How effectively do you think the group work activities are carried out?
How do you and your group members participate in the group work activities?
What benefits can you gain from the group work speaking?
What difficulties do you encounter during the group work speaking?
What suggestions do you have for teachers to improve the group work speaking?

SAMPLE OF INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION
1.

Do you and your group member enjoy the group work activities? Why (not)?

Well, I think we all enjoy the activities. Working together is a lot of fun. We feel more involved
in the lessons. We can talk, chat sometimes…
2.

How effectively do you think the group work activities are carried out?

We work in different groups each week and some groups are effective, some are not really.
When the topics are interesting and we have ideas to talk, we talk and discuss very much.
Sometimes the topics are boring and we don’t have much vocabulary, for example, talking
about history, we mainly speak Vietnamese, or talk off the topic. The teacher has to ask us to
concentrate.
3.

How do you and your group members participate in the group work activities?

Everybody is very attentive and work effectively. In most groups, everybody has to talk. Often
we take turn to raise our voice. Sometimes if anyone is lack of ideas or vocabulary, we’ll help
him/her. He can explain his ideas in Vietnamese and we help him to find words to express.
The group leader often works more. He has to invite, encourage others to speak, take notes of
people’ ideas and give presentation in the class; so none of us wants to be a group leader,
hihi.
4.

What benefits can you gain from the group work speaking?

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ


Sở Giáo dục & Đào tạo Đồng Nai

25

Trường THPT Tân Phú

Many benefits! The biggest is that we can or have to talk much more than before. Sometimes
we enjoy that but sometimes when we are lazy, we don’t like it. Before, we just sit and listen
to the teacher, we only talk when we like or are invited, so often each of us can only talk once
during the lessons. Now we have to work all the time. However, it’s good for us because we
have the habit of speaking frequently, and we don’t feel anxious or unconfident when we have
to say something in English. Well, we also can listen to our friends more. When we listen to
friends talking, we learn quite a lot, their ideas, their vocabulary and their pronunciation.
5.

What difficulties do you encounter during the group work speaking?

Not much! When we have difficulties, group members can help each other. If we cannot help,
we ask the teacher. Maybe the students of low level have some difficulties. Sometimes they
are too shy to raise their voice, probably being afraid of making mistakes. Sometimes the
good students dominate the group work and don’t give them the chance to talk. However, as
we mostly have to take turn to speak, even the good or the not-as-good students have to
contribute ideas.
Ah, when working in groups, sometimes we cannot concentrate. We sometimes chat about
things in our class or life. We also speak Vietnamese when the teacher does not pay attention
to our group. But when the group leader is strict, no one can speak Vietnamese and be lazy.
6.

What suggestions do you have for teachers to improve the group work speaking?

The group work is already good. However, we would like to have more interesting topics to
discuss. We also like doing the role-play. It’s a lot of fun. Discussing in group all the time is
sometimes boring and sleepy. We also want to choose our own partners to work with because

we’ll feel more relaxed working with people we know well.
Ah, we like to teacher to give presents to us, for example snacks and candies, when we do the
work well. For example, the teacher can vote or select the best group to give presents.

Giáo viên thực hiện: Đỗ Duy Dương

Tổ Ngoại ngữ