A study on the use of group work in speaking lessons of 10th grade students at ben tre high school

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FACULTY

======

DO NGOC ANH

A STUDY ON THE USE OF GROUP WORK IN
SPEAKING LESSONS OF 10TH GRADE STUDENTS
AT BEN TRE HIGH SCHOOL

(SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF REQUIREMENTS OF
THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF PEDAGOGY IN ENGLISH)

SUPERVISOR: DO THI THANH DUNG, M.A

HA NOI, 2018


DECLARATION
I hereby state that I- Do Ngoc Anh, certify my authorship of the study
entitled
A STUDY ON THE USE OF GROUP WORK IN SPEAKING LESSONS
OF 10TH GRADE STUDENTS AT BEN TRE HIGH SCHOOL
The thesis is the study of my own research and that I have not used any
sources other than those listed in reference. I further declare that I have not
submitted this thesis at any other institution in order to obtain a degree.
Ha Noi, May 2018
Student

Do Ngoc Anh

i


ABSTRACT

Group work is not a new language teaching technique and it is used quite
often in speaking lessons. However, implementing this technique in speaking
lessons is not always successful without careful planning and facilitating. The
overall aim of this study was to investigate the reality of implementing group work
in speaking lessons of the 10th-grade students at Ben Tre High School and discuss
some problems teachers and students encountered while implementing this
technique. Data was obtained through teachers’ and students’ questionnaires,
interviews with four language teachers as well as classroom observation. Group
work was not often used in speaking lessons of 10th-grade students at Ben Tre High
School. On the one hand, the finding of the study revealed that using group work in
the speaking lesson of 10th-grade students at Ben Tre High School has brought
about the benefits for students and teachers. For the former, they could maximize
the opportunities to engage in oral activities and communication, get independence
from the teachers and gain confidence before talking or performing in front of
others. As for the latter, group work was a good way to free themselves from being
“experts who always lecture”, had more time with small groups and gave more
attention to students and made speaking lessons varied in the forms of group work
activities. On the other hand, there were some obstacles that teachers have been
facing when using group work to make speaking lessons more engaging such as
excessive teaching time and noise from groups of students, little time to prepare for
group work and mixed- level class. In addition, students also have some problems
(improper talking time and limited vocabulary resource). In order to overcome these
problems and make group-work effective and successful, some recommendations
for students, teachers and the researcher were proposed.

Keywords: group work, Ben Tre High school

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In the process of completing this graduation paper, I was encouraged by a lot
of support, valuable ideas, and encouragement from my teachers, family and
friends.
Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to Mrs. Do Thi Thanh Dung, my
supervisor of this graduation paper. Her detailed ideas and useful tips helped me to
shape my ideas and realize my goals. She also provided me with useful materials as
well as encouraged and facilitated my research. Therefore, this article could not be
completed without her invaluable support.
Secondly, I would like to express my special thanks to all the teachers of Ben
Tre High School for their participation in the interview and giving me lots of

valuable

comments. Particularly, I would like to thank 35 students of 10A5 in Ben Tre High
School for their enthusiastic and effective cooperation in completing the
questionnaire survey. In addition, I warmly thank all my friends for their
encouragement and support during the writing process. Their material and spiritual
support was a great motivation for me.
Finally, I was very grateful to my family, who have encouraged and
supported me to complete this graduation thesis.

Ha Noi, May 2018
Student

Do Ngoc Anh

iii


TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION ............................................................................................................................ i
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................... iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................... iv
FIGURES ........................................................................................................................................ vi

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1. The Rationale of the Study .....................................................................................................1
2. Aims of the Study .....................................................................................................................2
3. The scope of the Study ............................................................................................................2
4. Research questions....................................................................................................................2
5. Design of the Study ..................................................................................................................2

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1. The importance of speaking skills in the classroom ........................................................4
2. Group-work in a speaking lesson .........................................................................................5
3. Other studies on using group work ....................................................................................13

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

1. Participants................................................................................................................................15

2. Data collection instruments ..................................................................................................15
3. Procedures for data collection .............................................................................................17

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS

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1. Students’ survey. .....................................................................................................................18
2. Teachers’ survey .....................................................................................................................21
3. Interview ....................................................................................................................................25
4. Class observation ....................................................................................................................27

CHAPTER 4: DISCUSSION

1. The use of group work in speaking lessons .....................................................................29
2. Group work’s benefits ...........................................................................................................30
3. Obstacles in applying group work ......................................................................................32

CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATIONS

1. For the students ........................................................................................................................34
2. For the teachers ........................................................................................................................34
3. Researcher .................................................................................................................................35

PART 3: CONCLUSION

1. Summary of the Study ...........................................................................................................36
2. Limitations of the study .......................................................................................................37
3. Recommendations for Further Study .................................................................................38

REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................39
APPENDIX ...................................................................................................................................41

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FIGURES
Figure 1: Students’ opinions on learning speaking skills in group work ............... 18
Figure 2: Students’ opinions on group work for the benefit of speaking skills ...... 19
Figure 3: Students’ obstacles while working in group and factors causing
problems........................................................................................................ 20
Figure 4: Students’ opinions on partners ........................................................... 21
Figure 5: Obstacles experienced by the teachers when applying group work in the
speaking class by percent ................................................................................ 23
Figure 6: Solutions to overcome obstacles from the teachers .............................. 24

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PART 1: INTRODUCTION
1. The Rationale of the Study
Among the four language skills (speaking, writing, listening, reading),
speaking can be considered as a skill that requires learners to spend a lot of time
learning and practicing. Vietnamese students have difficulty acquiring this skill
(Truc, 2011). This can result from the situation that schools generally do not focus
on speaking from the beginning, the students focus on grammar and there is no oral
or direct test of speaking ability. As students are carefully prepared with written
tests, focusing on grammar rules, reading text and writing, speaking is often
ignored, as it is one of the keys that help learners to gradually explore this language.
Nowadays, the importance of improving students’ English in general and

speaking skills, in particular, has been recognized by school leaders in Vietnam.
Language teachers are finding out new methods and techniques to motivate students
to raise their voice in class. One of the effective ways to apply much is group work.
Because of positive points that group work brings, group work tends to be used
quite often in speaking lessons. According to Harmer (1999), working in group can
significantly increase the time spent talking to each individual, encourage border
skills to participate, cooperate and negotiate, promote learner autonomy by allowing
students to self- decide on groups that are not instructed by the teacher, and free
teachers from their usual role of the controller-driver-corrector.
As a high school student-teacher and as a tutor at a foreign language center,
the researcher realizes the significance of applying group work to help promote
students’ interest in speaking. However, researchers also face many challenges in
implementing work in speaking lessons. This researcher learned that there are not
many studies on the use of group work in high school in the rural area. Therefore,
the researcher carried out this study to understand this situation with practical
evidence and find out solutions for problems related to using group work in
speaking lessons.
Deriving from the above-mentioned reasons, “A Study on the Use of Group
Work in Speaking Lessons of the 10th-Grade Students at Ben Tre High School”
is carried out. The researcher hopes that this research will contribute a relatively full

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and detailed view about how to use this technique effectively.
2. Aims of the Study
This study was carried with a view to investigating the possibility of using
group work in the speaking class of 10th-grade students at Ben Tre High School. In
detail, the purposes of the study were:
1. To clarify what ways group work is used in the speaking lessons of 10thgrade students at Ben Tre High School.

2. To identify obstacles teachers have experienced in their implementation of
group work in the speaking lessons of one class – 10A5 at Ben Tre High School.
3. To identify obstacles students have experienced in their implementation of
group work in the speaking lessons of one class – 10A5 at Ben Tre High School.
3. The scope of the Study
The researcher investigated the current situation of using group work in the
speaking lessons of class 10A5 students at Ben Tre High School, as well as the
problems that teachers and students encountered, with the participation of 35
students (3 boys and 32 girls) and four language teachers. The study was carried out
in the period of seven weeks with five speaking lessons.
4. Research questions
This study was carried out to find answers to the following research
questions:
1. In what ways is group work implemented in speaking lessons of 10th-grade
students at Ben Tre High School?
2. What obstacles have teachers encountered when implementing group work
in speaking lessons?
3. What obstacles have students encountered when working in the group in
speaking lessons?
5. Design of the Study
The Thesis is divided into three parts: Introduction, Development, and
Conclusion.

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The first part, the Introduction, includes the Rationale of the Study, Aim of
the Study, Scope of the Study, and Research questions and Methodology of the
study.
The second part consists of Literature Review, Research Methodology,

Findings, Discussion and Recommendations for students, teachers, and the
researcher.
The last part is the Conclusion, which summarizes the study and gives out
the limitations and recommendations for further studies.

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PART 2: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1. The importance of speaking skills in the classroom
Obviously, all four skills are very important in learning any language.
Nonetheless, speaking is considered as very significant skill for teaching and
learning any language. Acquiring speaking well is a fundamental step to conquer
other skills. If their speaking skills are good, this can assist learners to read better,
listen more easily and write more properly. Speaking is surely the most effective
means of communication (Ur, 1996).
Speaking skills are very important. The first point is that students are more
motivated by speaking lessons. Nunan (1991) points out that success is measured
in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language. For the
students to speak English correctly, they tend to maximize their chance of using
English to express themselves in daily life. Thus, they always try to speak English
when possible. On the contrary, those who cannot speak English fluently are not
confident to speak even when they are asked to speak in class. Therefore, they
may gradually get depressed and lost their passion for learning English. If
speaking activities are held in the suitable and creative way, students can find
speaking more exciting and motivation in the learners can be raised. The other
skills can also be enhanced thanks to practicing speaking if they have collaborated
in a suitable way. As a result, speaking lessons are successful and inspire students
to learn more.

The second reason, communicating with people in society is vital.
Individuals use language to exchange information, show emotion or to remain
relationship. Without it, the life does not exist. Language is a means that
distinguishes us from animals and other human beings existing on Earth. Speaking
is considered as survival skills in real life (Ur, 1996). Because of all the above
reasons, speaking skills should be considered the main role in learning and teaching
foreign language and to attach special importance to mastering a foreign language.

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2. Group-work in a speaking lesson
2.1. Definition of group work and aspects related to group work
Adrian Doff (1988) states group work as a technique within the field of
social work where various groups are guided by an agency leader to more effective
personal adjustment and community participation. The teacher divides the class into
small groups to work together (usually four or five students in each group), as in
pair work, all the groups work at the same time.
Some common activities often assigned for students are the discussion, role
play, and presentations, to help with successful, diverse and motivational speaking
activities.
Therefore, when working in the group, students work together, share ideas
and responsibilities, and have the ideas themselves contribute to the success of the
work group with less supervision from teachers and other peers.
2.2. Benefits and drawbacks of using group work in the classroom
2.2.1. Benefits
In the book “The practice of ELT”, Harmer (1999), shows benefits of
implementing group work in speaking lessons. Firstly, the group work can raise
students’ speaking time. In other words, group work helps boost communication.
Students who have few opportunities to communicate with each other now can

share ideas, become closer in the short term, and above all address common
problems assigned by the teacher.
In addition, group work helps students produce better outcomes. Simply,
because of the number of participants, each with different experiences, knowledge,
views and values, greater numbers and more ideas can be given. In addition, the
exchange of ideas within a group can be a motivation to encourage individuals to
come up with ideas and contribute more and thus contribute more to group
activities.
In addition, the work of the group can be reduced. The shared responsibility
of a group in decision-making can encourage individuals to discover realistic ideas.
Personal prejudices and prejudices can be challenged by the group, requiring

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individuals to recognize them. Group pressure can also encourage individuals to
accept that change as necessary.
Finally, this technique helps free the teacher from the normal role of "an
expert who always teaches" and allows him/her to walk to each group, instruct,
answer student questions or encourage students to work actively (Harmer, 1999).
2.2.2. Drawbacks
One obvious drawback is that the noise from the group of people having a
discussion on the topic or by the group who are really interested in working with
their group. It is difficult for teachers to monitor these groups. The noise can
confuse other groups.
The negative effect of group work is that many are passive and lazy students, and
often let their peers do all work and still have names in the results of the group.
Working in the group can cause competition. Most students working in a
group consider the situation as a contest. This creates destructive behaviors and
contributes to disagreement among groups. For example, we often feel bad if our

ideas are criticized. The natural reaction is regaining self-esteem, often by trying to
interrupt the ideas of those who disagree with us. Rather than finding ways to
improve our ideas, we choose to destroy them. Desiring to express our own ideas,
we can completely ignore what others have suggested. Power seekers can use tricks
such as highlighting errors in other people's arguments, lean questions, and expert
presentation to show their superiority. These types of behavior create an atmosphere
incompatible with effective problem solving one.
Another disadvantage is that working in groups is a relatively slow process
than working alone. Because this activity requires each person to work together at a
designated time, this can cause organizational problems. It's very time-consuming.
It takes a lot of time not only for students in groups but also for teachers. Teachers
have to spend more time organizing group work and controlling all team members.
To summary, although applying group work in speaking lessons can cause
some problems, the advantages still outweigh. Learning together in small groups is
much more effective than teaching alone (Harmer, 1999).

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2.3. Group formation
There are three ways to form small groups or learning teams: random (near
the seat) groups, teacher-selected groups, or student-selected groups.
According to I-Jung (2004), random, student-selected and teacher-selected
groupings are group formation used regularly. These ways can be explained as
followed:
a. Random groups
Because of its convenience and availability, random grouping is often
applied for classroom activities, which is randomization in a way of grouping
students and ignoring any differences between students on the language level,
learning style, preferences, etc.

With the layout of the seats, the number of cards, the use of cards, or the
distribution of different cards, a random group is set.
For the class with mixed levels, random groups can be used to bridge the gap
between students at all levels.
b. Student-selected groups
Compared to the random grouping and group chosen by the teacher, the
students-selected group is preferred. Knowing their classmates well or knowing
how their friend think can help students participate in assigned activities. They can
talk more, perform more and make the activities of the group very interesting.
However, there is so much noise created because of too much socialization. This
can confuse other groups or and it can be hard for the teacher to manage the class.
c. Teacher-selected groups
Compared to two above types of grouping student, the group selected by
teachers is much more time-consuming. The reason is that teachers have to pay
attention to the student's interests, as well as the learning style, the dynamics to help
lower level students keep up with the better ones. This type of grouping can be an
extremely effective way to learn from one another, this is called by peer tutoring.
2.4. Group size
The smaller the group, the more opportunities each member has, and more

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management skills are needed. However, many small groups are made in the class.
This can be hard for all groups to have the chance to report to the class due to the
limitation of time.
The groups with four-members are proposed by Honeyfield (1991), and IJung (2004), Ngoh (1991). A four member group can be more interesting and do
more challenging tasks, with more ideas expressed, and negotiation among
members is much more before they can reach an agreement. The maximal number
for one group is six. It is clear that four is the optimal size for managing student

learning. It allows a wide range of personal experiences and contributions.
2.5. Teacher’s and students’ roles in group work
2.5.1. Teacher’s role
The roles of the teacher in group work, as mentioned in Communicative
Language Teaching, are a guide, facilitator, organizer, evaluator, promoter, and
participant (Harmer, 1991). When performing group work, although students are
independent, teachers still need to design task, and analyze the needs. Teachers will
help students when the team members interact with each other and help them deal
with difficulties.
Cross (1992) states that as the manager of an activity, the teachers must plan,
organize, start, monitor, time and ultimately conclude the lessons. They are not free
during group work process but are actively engaged in supporting, monitoring and
following-up. The teachers have to observe students’ works from the beginning to
the end of the process. More specifically, they are:
- Activity selector: teachers must create activities appropriate to the student's
abilities, assign tasks to the group, allow for fair distribution and set up "contests"
among the group.
- Instructor: teachers give necessary instruction so that the students will be
not misleading.
- Performance controller: While students are working in groups, it is a time
for teachers to help them understand and be able to solve difficulties they encounter
in the group.
- Group evaluator: during group work, the teachers have to assess the work

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of the whole group and each member of the group as well. If the teachers make a
good assessment of the performance of each group, this will help a lot for students
and teachers. That is the idea for the following activities.

Whether the team is successful or not, it depends a lot on the way teachers
apply for these roles.
2.5.2. Students’ roles
According to Lin (2006), the most common roles for the group of three to
four are described as below:
- Facilitator (leader): make sure the objective is met, monitor group
discussion, clarify work of the group.
- Scribe (secretary): take note group’s result, report writing
- Presenter (spoken person): present result to other group and answer
questions.
- Researcher (resource collector): manage time and plan, follow achievement
of the objective.
2.6. Group work speaking activities
2.6.1. Group discussion
The discussion section provides an excellent chance for students to use good
learning strategies to turn the classroom into an interactive class. In this activity,
students have the opportunity to express what they are thinking to their peers. In
addition, their personal opinions are clearly stated and highly appreciated. In this
section, students use a variety of discussion strategies to present their ideas to their
partners. According to Ur (1992), the discussion is the most natural and effective
way for a learner to practice speaking freely in English by thinking of a number of
issues or situations through exchange words, or in simple terms, to discuss. He also
adds a number of elements to the good (or successful) discussion, namely, the topic,
teamwork and role play. Sometimes in group discussions, the team has found a
different solution to a problem. In groups, students can summarize key points,
consider issues such as checking, comparing and contrasting knowledge, ideas or
theory, problem-solving; or create ideas for you on the progress of the class or on
their level of skills and understanding.

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2.6.2. Debating
Penny Ur, in "Discussion that works”(1992), lists a number of limitations in
the debate, however, he stresses the importance of debate as he asserts that what he
learned in this activity is much better than anything else. Much more interesting is
that when he clearly presents some very useful steps in the design of the debate,
including the number of people in each group, the number of groups, the topics of
debate, the selection of groups, and the time term as well as motivation.
This is also called for and against in “A course in language teaching” (1996) by
Penny Ur which is wholly divided into two major groups. One group is for and one
is against. Type of groupwork consists of two stages. The first is preparation, the
second is the argument. In the first stage, teachers think about the world's arguments
as opposites. In the second stage, the teacher divides the class into two groups. One
should think of the reasons for agreeing with the topics given by the teacher, and the
other group does not agree with that. Then, one or two main speakers present the
case to each group, and then the discussion is then thrown out for free participation.
It is very important that, at the end of the discussion, the teacher has to put the topic
to a vote.
2.6.3. Cross grouping
Cross-group, a new type of activity, can help make progress in speaking
class. Members in different groups make new groups. The change of members
among different groups can make one new environment. This can be called
"Jigsaw". First, teacher divides students into small group to discuss one topic after
that members in each groups (expert groups) are mixed together to make a new
group. New members will share ideas with their new partners in their new group.
Thanks for this, students can change ideas and learn from each other (Richards &
David, 2011)
2.7. Problems and solutions to make the group work in class effective
According to Jacobs and Hall (1994), many issues related to group activities

can be addressed by careful preparation, clear guidance and appropriate means.
Problems and solutions can be listed below:

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2.7.1. Some students talk too much or dominate the group
It is a good idea to meet these students privately and say that you are
satisfied with their contribution to the lessons, you will want other learners to have
more opportunities to express themselves by speaking out their own ideas not
keeping silent during the time of working in group.
The teacher should assign roles to members at an appropriate point during
the group task, for the group or for the person (s) with an elite student. Ensure that
some roles require significant silence (eg, briefings, detective, recording, observer,
attendant, group communication). In other words, talked privately to prominent
students and gave him one of these roles.
The teacher asks the group to think about the following questions: How do
you accomplish tasks as a team? Did someone lead, and if so, how did this happen?
What ideas are presented most strongly to solve the task? Is there anything you
think but do not really say?
For long periods of time work in groups, call for the specified intervals of
rxeflective silence (for example, every 15 to 20 minutes) in which the student thinks
(and writes) about the points that are thinking about. And, the contradictions have
emerged, shortcomings should be added, and tell where the discussion should go
next. As the signal to the discussion continues, invite the students to read what they
have written.
2.7.2. Some students speak too little or keep silent while working in group
Firstly, the teacher should talk to the student privately to identify reasons for
lack of participation, such as lack of integration, fear of looking stupid, feeling
unprepared, fear of being trapped, or feeling unwelcome, experiment in the past, try

to cool, lack of praise.
Secondly, consider using even smaller groups. Silent students may feel
comfortable participating in this situation, and the "freeloading" students will be
less likely to approach the efforts of others.
The third point is to check students’ group notes or their preparation notes
occasionally.When asking students to do group work, the teacher ought to assign
roles to one or all team members. Some roles that involve enthusiastic involvement

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of teens are spokespeople, skeptics, organizers, facilitators, liaisons with other
groups. Besides, the teacher might go round all groups so that each group member
has to work out ideas, remind students that quantity is not quality. There is a place for
silence in discussion.
2.7.3. Students do not concentrate on listening to fellow group members
The teacher should comment on this issue in the generic class context,
remind students that after discussing in the group, they will pick up some one to
summarize their group’s discussion and answers. Besides, the teacher needs to set
time limit and reorganize activities for students to link what they said with what the
person said before.
2.7.4. Students lack the social skills needed to work with others
Firstly, the teacher should promote students interested in working alone to
work in the group and support the group by giving them a job that they feel
comfortable. Then, they might explain and ask students to become familiar with
active and tolerant listening, instruct students how to make and receive constructive
criticism, how to negotiate, manage disputes, refuse, disagree, argue ......... in
English in a polite way. In addition, the teacher can use pair work and group work
regularly for students to get used to using these procedures.
2.7.5. Mother-tongue is overused

Once the activities are carried out, it is very important to stress that target
language has to be exploited during group work. While letting students discuss in
group, teachers should move around the classroom to remind students of this rule
and provide them with language if necessary. The teachers orient students with
tasks so that they do not use mother tongue. Letting students participate in the group
in short time as a group member is an effective way to stimulate and support
learner’s participation. Besides, the teachers can discipline regular offenders
according to the rules agreed by the whole class, and set time to limit their talking
time. As students tend to use mother tongue after discussion, it is better to shorten
the time of practice, and provide students with necessary phrases and structures before
making groups. Giving someone the group the role of language supervisor can be a

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solution.
3. Other studies on using group work
There were several studies on group work in teaching speaking of different
level students, for example, “How group work is used in speaking lesson of the 1styear major students of English at Vietnam University of Commerce” by Chung
(2008). In this study, the author employed interviews (for teachers) and
questionnaires (for teachers and students) to obtain the aims of the study which
were to clarify how group work is used in speaking lessons, identify teacher’s
strategies to encourage students to speak English in group work and identify
obstacles teachers and students here experience while implementing group work of
1st year English majors at Vietnam University of Commerce. The result of this study
revealed that teacher often used group work in speaking lessons. Games and role
play were students’ favorite activities. Most of them chose students near each other
and from mixed levels to make a group. Teachers and students thought that it was
necessary to help students realize the importance of English. Three biggest
problems of students were “students use Vietnamese too much”, “students make

noise” and “classroom condition and learning aids”.
Group work is used very often not only in Vietnamese schools. There were a
lot of studies on this technique of foreign authors. “A study on Kurdish students'
attitudes to group work in the EFL classroom” by

thman 2015) was carried out

to investigate Kurdish students' attitudes concerning group work in EFL classrooms
in Kurdistan region of Iraq, advantages and, disadvantages of implementing group
work in classroom. Othman employed questionnaire for students, interview
questions for students and triangulated to collect data. Their students responded
that group work was of mutual interest. Members could clarify difficult things to
each other and finish a task in group work in short time. As for negative points,
students thought that some members prefer to relax and remained silent or some did
not like to work. Besides, they believed that group work wasted time as students
talk about external things and cannot reach an agreement. As for benefits, working
in the group helped them broaden their mind, keep better communication, make

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them more motivated. It was good to improve their language skills. As for
disadvantages, students might become dependent and lazy. They tended to use
mother tongue. Moreover, it could affect unity between students. Unnecessary
discussions could be raised, and thinking direction can be affected by wrong
opinions from other. The study was conducted on 100 Kurdish university students
who had at least two-year experience of group work at Universities in Kurdistan
(Zakho, Dohuk, Salahaddin, and Sulaimani universities), they stated that their
students (85%) like group work activities and they could get a lot of benefits from
group work. Another study on group work was carried out by Ahmed (2013). His

participants were students of Dhaka University. In his study, Ahmed shown that
packed routine and class work causing boredom for students were students’
problems. Their students had lot of work to do, and activities were repetitive, which
made students feel bored. For teachers’ problems, they did not have enough space
and time for students to do group work. Besides, students were multi-level so that it
was hard for teachers do design activities. In addition, students did not participate in
lessons equally. Some were talkative and some were reticent.
After consulting studies on using group work in speaking lessons of other
authors, the researcher of “the Study on the Use of Group Work in Speaking lessons
of the 10th grade Students at Ben Tre High School” do research on participants who
are high school students because there are a lot of studies on group work for
university students or language learners in general while those for high school
students are limited.

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CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter deals with the instruments which were employed to achieve the
aims and objectives of the study.
1. Participants
1.1. Teachers
Four female teachers took part in the study are teachers and teaching at Ben
Tre High School. They are between 30 to 40 years old with at least four-year
experience in teaching English. Two have taught grade 10 for four years, and the
other for five years and they all have got Bachelor degree of English Language
Teaching. At Ben Tre High School, teachers are asked to teach all four skills
(speaking, reading, writing, and listening). They are trained about new teaching
method and group work in speaking.
1.2. Students

In order to get the data for the study, 35 students (3 boys and 32 girls) from
class 10A5 at Ben Tre High School volunteered to join the study. All of them are at
the age of 16. Their time length of learning English is also the same because they all
started learning English in grade 3. Most of them have the same level (preintermediate) in English and some students are better than others.
2. Data collection instruments
2.1. Questionnaire
The questionnaire is considered as effective tools for collecting data in the
social sciences. The advantage of using the questionnaire that Gillham (2000)
emphasizes is that there is less pressure on the respondent, they are not biased in the
interview, and the answer analysis is simple. The researcher used questionnaires as
the primary source for getting information. Two kinds of questionnaires were
designed to find out the views of teachers and students about the use of group work
in speaking lessons of grade 10 students at Ben Tre High School. Clear instructions
were given when questionnaires were administered. Questionnaires were given to
students and teachers first to collect data.

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The questionnaire for students: (Appendix 1.1&1.2)
The questionnaire for students was based on knowledge in Literature
Review. Questionnaire for students included 12 questions written bilingually with
the English version and Vietnamese version, administered to 35 students of 10A5.
Students were asked to tick the most suitable answers which correspond with their
opinion. In the question, the participants could choose more than one choice. The
questionnaires were designed as listed below:
- Question 1: English learning time of all students
- Question 2-5: students’ attitude toward English lessons in a general, and
speaking lesson in particular.
- Question 6-9: students’ experience of group work.

- Question 10-12: students’ opinion about group work
In an attempt to assure the objectiveness, faithfulness and effectiveness, the
students were not required to write their names as well as other personal
information when answering the questions. Besides, the students were provided
with clear and detailed guidance and instructions before completing the
questionnaire.
The questionnaire for teachers: (Appendix 1.3)
The questionnaire for the teachers included 11 questions written in English,
given to 4 teachers. This was divided into 4 parts:
Part 1: (question 1- 4). Teachers’ opinions on the use of group work in a
speaking lesson.
Part 2: (question 5- 9).The use of group work in the speaking class of teacher.
Part 3: (question 10). Obstacles teachers have experienced when applying for
group work in the speaking class.
Part 4: (question 11).The teachers’ solutions to overcome their obstacles
For options with “other” (specify), the researcher asked teachers to clarify
their options.
2.2. Interview (Appendix 1.4)
The interview questions were based on knowledge in Literature Review,

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given to four English teachers after group activities were conducted in the
classroom and after the questionnaires were completed. The interviews consisted of
seven questions prepared before the interview to ask teachers about their attitude,
evaluation toward the use of group work in speaking lessons. The advantages of
interviewing include the ability to check the teacher's responses, write their idea,
and investigate their feelings about speaking by using group work.
2.3. Class observation (Appendix 1.5)

The class observation was another research tool for examining student
participation in teamwork activities. Observation sheet was based on knowledge in
Literature Review. As different students participate in group activities in different
ways, it is difficult to grasp the situation through questionnaires and interviews.
Consequently, the observations provided immediate information needed in the study
and behavior of the student while engaging in the observed activity and the
researcher took notes during group work activities. Observation sheets were
conducted in which the researcher focused on student communication in English,
teamwork, interaction among team members, enthusiasm and motivation when
working in the group.
3. Procedures for data collection
The study was conducted for seven weeks with students in class10A5. It was
conducted following steps:
1. Design questionnaire for teachers and students, interview for teachers and
class observation sheet.
2. Contact language teacher who are teaching this class to ask for permission
to join the class for seven weeks.
3. Contact other three language teachers who are teaching or used to teach
the 10th-grade students to ask for their agreement to join the interview.
4. Deliver questionnaire for teachers and students.
5. Observer five speaking lessons in which teacher used group work
6. Interview four teachers.

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CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS
This chapter describes findings based on the data taken from the
questionnaires for teachers and students.
1. Students’ survey.

1.1. Students’ opinion on speaking skills
When asked about the favorite English skills, 45.3% students responded that
the skills they like most were reading, while speaking skills occupied less, at 29%.
In terms of the attitude toward speaking skills, there were 14.2% students said that
they were very interested in speaking skills, and 60% students were rather fond of
this skills. The rate of participants who do not like speaking skills was 5.8%.
1.2. Students’ opinion on learning speaking skills in group work.

Students' opinions on working in small
group
11.4%

8.6%
Not at all
31.4%

Little

Rather
Very

48.6%

Figure 1: Students’ opinions on learning speaking skills in group work
As can be seen from the chart that nearly half of the students (48.6%) said
they were rather interested in working in the group, while the rate of students who
were very fond of working in the group was 11.4%. However, the number of
students had less interest or did not like working in the group were 31.4% and 8.6%
respectively.

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