Using group work activities to enhance english speaking skill for grade 5 students at a primary school in nam dinh

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************

VŨ THỊ THANH HUYỀN

USING GROUP WORK ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE
ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL FOR GRADE-5 STUDENTS
AT A PRIMARY SCHOOL IN NAM DINH
Sử dụng hoạt động nhóm để n ng

o

n ng nói Tiếng Anh

cho học sinh lớp 5 tại một trường tiểu học ở tỉnh N m Định

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 8140231.01

Hanoi – 2018


VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************

VŨ THỊ THANH HUYỀN

USING GROUP WORK ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE
ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL FOR GRADE-5 STUDENTS
AT A PRIMARY SCHOOL IN NAM DINH
Sử dụng hoạt động nhóm để n ng

o

n ng nói Tiếng Anh

cho học sinh lớp 5 tại một trường tiểu học ở tỉnh N m Định

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 8140231.01
Supervisor: Dr. Trần Thị Thu Hiền

Hanoi – 2018


DECLARATION
I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “Using group work activities to
enhance English speaking skill for grade-5 students at a primary school in
Nam Dinh” is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master at the
University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University,
and this thesis has not been submitted for any other degrees.

Hanoi, May 2018

Vũ Thị Thanh Huyền

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like primarily to thank Dr. Tran Thị Thu Hien for helping me
complete this study. This paper would not have been possible without her constant
support and encouragement. Her patience and helpful criticism helped me
confidently express my ideas into this paper. I regard myself extremely fortunate in
having her as my dissertation supervisor.
I would also like to express my sincere thanks to all my lecturers at the
Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies
for their valuable lectures which have helped me a great deal in gaining a lot of
theoretical as well as practical knowledge.
My special thanks go to the manager and teachers at Xuan Chau Primary
School, Xuan Truong District, Nam Dinh Province in general and 50 grade-5
students in particular who have helped me enthusiastically in speaking lessons by
applying GW activities to enhance students‟ speaking skills.
Finally, I would also like to express my deep gratitude and love to my
devoted parents, my brother, my husband and my friends who gave me time and
encouraged me to complete this study.

ii


ABSTRACT
Speaking is undoubtedly one of the most essential and important skills which
language learners need to master. However, for the students participated in this
study, speaking in English lessons is a big challenge. They are afraid of speaking in

front of the class, many of them either keep silent or exchange ideas by their mother
tongue. While the students are more confident with written tests, they always feel
reluctant when being asked to speak English and try to give answers as short as
possible. Additionally, they are fed up with speaking lessons. As a result, speaking
is the weakest one among the four language skills. Obviously, it is necessary to find
out an effective way to enhance the students‟ oral skill and attitudes towards
speaking lessons. This study is aimed at describing whether or not and to what
extent GW activities improve speaking skill of the grade-fifth students at a primary
school in Nam Dinh as well as propose some suggestions to increase the
effectiveness of using GW activities to enhance English speaking skill for grade-5
students at a primary school in Nam Dinh. The participants included one English
teacher and 50 grade-5 students at a primary school in Nam Dinh. The data were
collected through the students‟ pre-test and post-test and the teacher‟s interview.
The results showed that GW activities applied created a joyful and exciting
classroom atmosphere which provided the students with more opportunities to
obtain knowledge with pleasure and helped the students enjoy speaking lessons
more. In addition, the study also indicated that most of the students had positive
attitudes toward this new technique. Some pedagogical implications, limitations and
suggestions for further studies were included in this study.

iii


LIST OF ABBRIVIATIONS
ELT: English Language Teaching
ESL: English Second Language
L2: Second language
GR: Group work
CL: Cooperation learning
Q1: Question 1

Q2: Question 2
Q3: Question 3
Q4: Question 4
Q5: Question 5
Q6: Question 6
Q7: Question 7
Q8: Question 8

LISTS OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS
Figure 1: Action research cycle……………………………………………..
Figure 2: Result of the Pre-test ……………………………………………..
Figure 3: Result of the Posttest …………………………………………….
Flow-chart 1: Steps in data collection procedure…………………………...

TABLE OF CONTENTS

iv


DECLARATION ........................................................................................................ i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. iii
LIST OF ABBRIVIATIONS .................................................................................... iv
LISTS OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS .................................................... iiv
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................1
1. Rationale ........................................................................................................... 1
2. Aims of the study ............................................................................................. 2
3. Research questions ........................................................................................... 2
4. Methods of the study ........................................................................................ 2
5. Scope of the study ............................................................................................ 3

6. Significance of the study ................................................................................. 3
7. Design of the study .......................................................................................... 3
PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT ..........................................................................5
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .........................................................5
1.1. Cooperative Learning................................................................................. 5
1.1.1. Definition .................................................................................................... 6
1.1.2. Goals of cooperative learning ................................................................... 6
1.2. Speaking skills ............................................................................................. 6
1.2.1. Definition .................................................................................................... 6
1.2.2. The role of speaking in language teaching and learning ......................... 7
1.2.3. Approaches to teach speaking ................................................................... 9
1.2.4. Elements of speaking ............................................................................... 10
1.2.4.1. Language features ................................................................................. 11
1.2.4.2. Speaking processing skills ................................................................... 11
1.3. Group work ................................................................................................ 12
1.3.1. Definition .................................................................................................. 12
1.3.2.Types of group work activities ................................................................. 13
1.3.2.1. Game ...................................................................................................... 13
1.3.2.2. Role play and simulations .................................................................... 13
1.3.2.3. Drama .................................................................................................... 14

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1.3.2.4. Interview ................................................................................................ 14
1.3.2.5. Brain storming ...................................................................................... 14
1.3.2.6. Information gap ..................................................................................... 14
1.3.2.7. Projects .................................................................................................. 15
1.3.2.8. Problem solving abd decision making ................................................. 15
1.3.2.9. Opinion exchange ................................................................................. 15

1.3.3. Benefits of using group work activities in speaking lesson .................. 15
1.3.4. Group work planning ............................................................................... 17
1.3.5. Techniques for seating arrangement ....................................................... 19
1.3.6. The teacher‟s role in group work ............................................................ 20
1.3.7. Characteristics of effective group work ................................................. 20
1.4. Young learners .......................................................................................... 21
1.4.1. Characteristics of young learners ............................................................ 21
1.4.2. Teaching strategies to young learners .................................................... 23
1.5. Previous studies ......................................................................................... 25
1.6. Summary .................................................................................................... 26
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ..................................................................27
2.1. The research setting .................................................................................. 27
2.1.1. Research site ............................................................................................. 27
2.1.2. English textbooks ..................................................................................... 27
2.1.3. The facilities ............................................................................................. 28
2.2. Participants ................................................................................................ 28
2.2.1. Teacher ..................................................................................................... 28
2.2.2. Students .................................................................................................... 28
2.3. Cambridge English Young learner Tests .............................................. 27
2.4. Methods of the study ................................................................................ 31
2.4.1. Action research ........................................................................................ 32
2.4.2. Action plan ............................................................................................... 34
2.5. Datacollection instruments ...................................................................... 37
2.5.1. Pre-test and post-test ................................................................................ 37
2.5.2. Pre-interview and post-interview ............................................................ 38

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2.5.3. Observation .............................................................................................. 39

2.6. Data collection procedure ........................................................................ 40
2.7. Data analysis procedure ........................................................................... 41
2.8. Summary .................................................................................................... 41
CHAPTER THREE: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ................................42
3.1. Pre-test and post-test Analysis ................................................................ 42
3.1.1. Pre-test ...................................................................................................... 42
3.1.2. Post-test ................................................................................................... 43
3.2. Interview Analysis ..................................................................................... 43
3.2.1. Pre-interview ............................................................................................ 43
3.2.2. Post-interivew .......................................................................................... 40
3.3. Class Observation Analysis ..................................................................... 48
3.4. Summary .................................................................................................... 48
PART THREE: CONCLUSION ........................................................................49
1. Recapitulation ................................................................................................. 50
2. Implications .................................................................................................... 50
3. Limitations of the study ................................................................................. 52
4. Suggestions for further study ........................................................................ 52
REFERENCES ..........................................................................................................53
APPENDICES............................................................................................................. I

vii


PART ONE: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Being born and growing up from studious hometown in Nam Dinh province, the
researcher always feel proud of myself as well as my hometown. As we know, Nam
Dinh‟s educational system is always on the first top all over our country. However,
the result of English has not still kept pace with other main subjects such as Math,
Literature or Physics. Accompanying with other English teachers in Nam Dinh

province, the author of this paper always think about how to improve the quality of
English for my students because English is one of the most important subjects now.
The goal of learning English is that the learners can use it to communicate with
foreigners who also use English all over the world either by speech or written, so
the use of English for the students is compulsory, because mastering English is a
priority for many second or foreign language learners. Richard (1990) says that
“The mastery of speaking skills in English is a priority for many second or foreign
language learners. Learners consequently often evaluate their success in language
learning as well as the effectiveness of English course on the basis of how well they
feel they have improved in their spoken language proficiency”.
As a teacher of English at a primary school in Nam Dinh province, from her own
observation and experience, the researcher herself has noticed that my students
often experience foreign language anxiety especially in speaking skill. When my
English students take part in any speaking contests, they have never gotten high
prizes. Usually, they are afraid of speaking in front of the class, many of them keep
silent or have discussion in Vietnamese. While the students are more confident with
written tests, they always feel reluctant when being asked to speak English and try
to give answers as short as possible. The fact that, the teachers still teach the
students with routine activities without realizing that it would make the students
bored and lost their attention to the teaching and learning process. This is stated by
Douglas, “Routine activities in learning can make the students bored. As the result,
their motivation and participation in learning will decrease” (1987:48). The most
necessary duty is that the teachers should try best to find out the effective way
which makes students go in for discussing the materials actively, so that they will
1


be able to understand what they are learning in the class and also express their own
ideas orally.
To solve the problem in teaching speaking, the writer would like to conduct a

research about “Using GW activities to enhance English speaking skill for grade-5
students at a primary school in Nam Dinh”.
2. Aims of the study
This study is chosen and seriously carried out in order to find out the teaching and
learning speaking skill for grade-5 students at a primary school in Nam Dinh.
Especially, the study aims:
 To improve speaking skill for grade-5 students through GW activities
 To propose some suggestions to increase the effectiveness of using GW
activities to enhance English speaking skill for grade-5 students at a primary school
in Nam Dinh.
3. Research questions
In order to achieve the above-mentioned aims, this study, therefore, focuses on two
research questions:
 Can and to what extent GW activities improve grade-5 students‟ speaking
skill at a primary school in Nam Dinh?
 What should be done to best improve grade-5 students‟ speaking skill at a
primary school in Nam Dinh through GW activities?
4. Methods of the study
To achieve the aims of the study, action research was applied. Six lesson plans were
designed and taught at two grade-5 classes at Xuan Chau primary school so that the
researcher can investigate the effectiveness of teaching speaking. Then, a
quantitative method technique was applied as a pre-interview and post-interview
were administered for only one English teacher there in order to get a more detailed
and comprehensive picture about what is investigated for the research. Other
research instruments were also designed and applied.
A pretest and a posttest were given in order to evaluate the vocabulary use
proficiency improvement. The students‟ scores in the post- test will be compared
with the scores of students in the pre-test to determine the effectiveness of the use of
2

GW activities in teaching speaking. The qualitative research method is involved in
conducting and analyzing the class observation which is needed to find out how
effective this method is. Then, the data were collected, sorted and analyzed
quantitatively and qualitatively to obtain the results.
5. Scope of the study
The study was conducted at a primary school in Nam Dinh province. It attempted to
investigate the issues and problems that arise from grade-5 students in speaking
class. From there, the study focused on investigating how cooperative GW
technique presented via cooperative language learning can be employed in
enhancing speaking skill for grade-5 students at a primary school in Nam Dinh and
how to best improve their speaking skill through GW activities.
6. Significance of the study
This research is severely completed to determine the effectiveness of using GW in
teaching speaking for grade-5 students at a primary school in Nam Dinh province
and how to best improve the students‟ speaking skills through GW activities.Based
on these findings, recommendations to help English primary teachers and grade-5
students determine the suitable methods to improve teaching and learning English
speaking are made. Besides, there is a possibility that its outcome could be a
reference for other teachers who are teaching English at other schools surrounding
my rural area. Last but not least, it would be a primitive for other‟s further studies
and mine in other students with other skills of English.
7. Design of the study
The study is composed of three parts, outlined as follows:
 Part 1: Introduction
This part is a brief description of the research including the rationales for
conducting the research, the aims of the study, research questions, scope of the
study, significance of the study, and outline of the study.
 Part 2: Development
• Chapter 1: Literature review

This chapter introduces some concepts, theoretical frameworks and related
studies.
3


• Chapter 2: Methodology
This chapter introduces the research context and methodology of the study
including the context, the subject, the data collection instruments, data collection
procedure, and data analysis.
• Chapter 3: Findings and discussions
This chapter presents the major findings from the students‟ pre-test and posttest, teacher‟s pre-interview and post-interview and the researcher‟s class
observation.
 Part 3: Conclusion
This part offers a summary of the key findings, implications, limitations, and
future directions for further study.

4


PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
Part 1 presented the overview of the study, its aim and structure. To provide a
background of the study, this part describes a theoretical framework for designing
and analyzing data. This part begins by reviewing theories of GW speaking skill
followed by theories relating to speaking skill and young learners.
1.1. Cooperative Learning
1.1.1. Definition
To begin with, CL is defined as a set of instructional methods through which
students are encouraged to work on academic tasks. CL, students work in small
groups to help one another in learning academic content (Slavin, 1995). It also

refers to a teaching technique where students work in groups on a certain activity in
order to maximize one another‟s learning and to achieve certain goals (Johnson,
Johnson, & Smith, 1998). According to Ravich (2007:60), CL is a teaching method
in which students of differing capacities work together in groups on an assignment
and receive a common grade and each student has a specific responsibility within
the group. Advocates believe that cooperative learning enables students to acquire
both knowledge and social skills and that student try harder because they are
members of a team. They also contend that students have more opportunities to ask
questions and clarify confusions than they do in the whole-class setting.

As for

Olsen and Kagan (1992; as cited in Richard and Rodgers, 2001), CLL is that:
Cooperation is working together to accomplish shared goals. Within cooperative
situations, individuals seek outcomes beneficial to themselves and all other group
members. Cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups through
which students work together to maximize their own and each other‟s learning. It
may be contrasted with competitive learning in which students work against each
other to achieve an academic goal. For Johnson and Johnson (2005), Cooperative
learning is “the instructional use of small groups such that students work together to
maximize their own and each other‟s learning”. That is to say, all members have to
contribute in improving their learning and each others‟ understanding when using
Cooperative Learning.
5


These definitions imply that CL entails learners learn from each other in pairs or
small groups. CL in this context emphasizes learner accountability in which each
member of the group is responsible for his own contribution to activity. Teaching
and learning process using CL techniques is a learner-centered paradigm which has

gained popularity as alternative to the lecture-based paradigm.
1.1.2. Goals of CL
Communicative interaction is the most important goal of cooperative language
learning in second language teaching,. There is a great deal of support for the idea
that interaction among students on learning task will lead to improve student
achievement. Students will learn from each other contribution to classroom
discussions. Richards and Rodgers (2001: 193) believe that CL goals are:
 To provide opportunities for naturalistic second language acquisition
through the use of interactive pairs and group activities.
 To provide teachers with the appropriate to enable them to achieve this
goal and one that can be applied in a variety of curriculum settings.
 To enable focused attention to particular lexical items, language
structures, and communicative functions through the use of interactive tasks.
 To provide opportunities for learners to develop successful learning and
communicative strategies.
 To improve learner motivation and reduce learner stress and to create a
positive affective classroom climate.
1.2. Speaking skills
1.2.1. Definition of speaking
In fact, there are many definitions presented by different scholars all over the world.
Speaking is the one of the four language skills that plays an important role in human
life so that the mastery of speaking is very vital in teaching a language. Speaking is
a highly complex and difficult skill which involving the interaction of multiple
psychological as well as physiological processes. Speaking is the ability to express
oneself or the activity to report acts in precise words; it is also the ability to
converse or to express a sequence of ideas fluently. In his own view, Campbell
(1989:39) has stated that speaking is an activity on the part of one individual to
6

make oneself understood by another, and an activity on the part of the other to
understand what is in the mind of the first. It means that the speaker must use tools
of communication in order to be understood by the listener.
Also, based on Competence Based Curriculum, speaking is one of the four basic
competences that the students should gain well; it plays a significant role in
communication, and is one of the factors used to evaluate your English proficient
competence.
According to Chaney (1998:13), speaking is defined as the process of building and
sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non verbal symbols in a variety of
context. If there is no speaking process happening, it means that we are in difficulty
in conveying our message. Therefore, speaking is a basic skill that language
learners should gain well with other language skills.
As it is stated by Byrne (1976:8), “speaking is a two-way process between the
speaker(s) and the listener(s) involving the productive skill of speaking and the
receptive skill of understanding”. It is considered as development of the relationship
between speaker and listener. Hence, it requires the ability to co-operate in the
management of speaking turns (Thornbury, 2005).
In conclusion, from different perspectives of different authors, we can find that
speaking is a productive skill where the speaker produces and uses language by
expressing a sequence of ideas and at the same time the speaker wants to try, to get
the message across. In this case we can say that there is a process when people
speak, that is the process of conveying and understanding the message. It also
means that we can communicate with others by means of this language skill. People
can also transfer some information, answer the question from others, and ask what
they want to know by speaking.
1.2.2. The role of speaking in language teaching and learning
The principle question often given to EFL learners is “Do you speak English?” but
not “Do you write English?”. From this principle question, we can easily find out
that speaking plays an utmost important role among the four language skills since it
helps to identify who knows or does not know a language. When discussing the role

of speaking, also, Ur (2000) declares that: Of all the four skills [listening, speaking,
7


reading and writing], speaking seems intuitively the most important: people who
know a language are referred to as “speakers” of the language, as if speaking
included all other kinds of knowing (p.12) It can be inferred from Ur‟s view point
that speaking is regarded as the first step to confirm who knows or does not know a
language. The fact that, anyone who also needs to be proficient in each of the four
language skills so as to become a well-rounded communicator but the ability to
speak skillfully, provides the speaker with several distinct advantages. They can
easily express their thoughts, opinions and feelings, in the form of words put
together in a meaningful way. The joy of sharing one‟s ideas with others is
immense. When we speak to others we come to have a better understanding of our
own selves, as Robert Frost once said: „„I am a writer of books in retrospect, I talk
in order to understand, I teach in order to learn.‟‟ Undoubtedly, the clarity in speech
reflects clear thinking.
In language teaching and learning, speaking is a medium through which much
language is learnt, and which is particularly useful for learning. The ability to
communicate in a second language clearly and efficiently contributes to the success
of the learners in school and success later in every phase of life (Kayi, 2006). If the
right speaking activities are taught in the classroom, speaking can raise general
learners‟ motivation and make the English language classroom be a fun and
dynamic place (Nunan, 1999). In addition to, Rivers (1968) says that speaking is
developed from the first context with the language. It means that in teaching
speaking, the teacher should make the student understand what they learn.
Therefore student‟s speaking ability is needed in teaching and learning process.
Moreover, to many EFL/SL learners “mastering the art of speaking is the single
most important aspect of learning a second language or foreign language, and
success is measured in terms of ability to carry out a conversation in the language”.

(Nunan, 1991:39). We can easily realize that recently, many language learners give
more importance to the speaking skill in their learning because if they master or
develop this skill then they will be considered as if they have mastered all of the
other language skills.

8


Although each expert has their own declaration about the role of speaking in
language teaching and learning, in brief, speaking is a very important skill among
the four basic ones. Therefore, having dealt with the importance of oral skills in
language teaching and learning is essential that language teachers should pay more
attention to teaching speaking skills. In order to carry out many of the most basic
transactions, it is necessary for learners to speak with confidence.
1.2.3. Approaches to teach speaking
According to the history of language learning methodology, approaches to teaching
speaking skills have reflected the existing theories of and approaches to language
and language learning that have not always considered speaking a primary goal.
Basing on supporters and antagonists of both theories of language learning during
the process of learning and acquiring the language, Burns (1998) divided
approaches for teaching speaking into two main types in which one focuses directly
on developing isolated speaking skill and those that focus on the production of
speech during communicative activities. She referred to these approaches as
direct/controlled and indirect/transfer respectively:
• A direct/controlled approach relates to a structural accuracywhere the
message is communicated using correct grammar and emphasizes practice of
language form, such as pronunciation of the sounds in English. This approach also
aims at enhancing not only learners‟ awareness about the grammar of the target
language but discourse structures and routines as well.
• An indirect/transfer approach relates to fluency of speech where the

message is communicated coherently with few pauses and hesitations. It engages
learners in functional language use by getting them to talk with other students in
class in order to acquire speaking skills. The last purpose is that learners will
somehow be capable of transferring those skills to real-life situations (Goh &
Burns, 2012:135).
However, there are some limitations in both approaches. While the indirect
approach does not care the development of accuracy, the direct one does not take
into account that the accurate use of language form is developed through face-toface communication (Goh & Burns, 2012:135).
9


Up till now, Thornbury (2005) advocated a general approach to skill development
for the teaching of second language speaking. The approach consists of three stages:
awareness raising, appropriation, and autonomy. Awareness – raising activities aim
at helping learners get familiar with new knowledge about speaking. Appropriation
activities, Thornbury argues, go beyond controlled practice or restructuring of
knowledge. These activities aim to develop “practiced control,” where learners
demonstrate “progressive control” or “self-regulation” of a skill (Thornbury,
2005:p.63). The third stage requires learners to engage in activities that demonstrate
a degree of autonomy in and outside the classroom. This autonomy was partly due
to the increased automaticity of the language production, what he experienced as
feeling fluent.
1.2.4. Elements of speaking
Learners often consider speaking the most demanding skill when learning a
foreign language. The majority of them starts learning a language being motivated
by the ability to speak, get their message across and interact with other speakers of a
target language. They aim for accurate and fluent speech production that is
appropriate to a given situation. Therefore, speaking elements become more
important for most learners to improve and develop the speaking skill. Harmer
(2001) mentions these elements which refer to the language features that learners

should have knowledge about. In addition to the processes of the language and
information in the same time when an interlocutor interacts with them.
1.2.4.1. Language Features
To have an effective speaking EFL Learners should know the following necessary
features:
 Connected Speech
EFL learners need this ability to produce more connected sounds not only
separated phonemes. These sounds may be modified, omitted, added or weakened
in the connected speech.
 Expressive Devices
Native speakers of English employ effectively the phonological rules which
refer to their memories such as the pitch, stress, volume, and speed with the use of
10


non verbal means. These devices help them to convey their intended meaning. The
use of these devices contributes to the ability to convey the meaning. Students, then
need to have this ability of using such devices if they want to be fully effective
communicators.
 Lexis and Grammar
Learners produce some language functions; they often use the same lexical
structures. The teacher‟s role then, is to provide them with different phrases which
carry different functions so that they can use them in the different stages of
communication with others .
 Negotiation Language
EFL learners benefit a lot from the use of negotiation language; they often ask
clarification when they are listening to others talk. So, the teachers have to provide
learners with the important and necessary expression and a variety of phrases for
different function such as agreeing or disagreeing…etc they need when they ask
clarification from other speakers. Also Learners need to perform their utterances

very well if they seek to be comprehended and clear especially when they can see
that the other interlocutors did not understand them.
1.2.4.2. Speaking processing skills
The importance processing skills of speaking are the following:
 Language Processing
This refers to the ability of the learners/ speakers to process the language in their
minds through putting it in a coherent order so that the other interlocutors can
understand it and get the intended meaning of messages ( understand it). Speakers
also should be able to retrieve words and phrases from their memories to use them
when they are interacting with others.
 Interacting with others
Most speaking involves interaction between two or more participants, this means
that effective speaking also involves a good deal of listening, comprehending of
how the other participants are feeling, and knowing how linguistically to take turns
are keep the other to do so.
 Information Processing
11


This relates to the ability of processing the information in the mind rapidly, i.e. the
time speakers get information; they should be ready to response to the others‟ talk.
In sum, speaking skill plays a significant role in teaching and learning a foreign
language. It not only helps students know how to read, to write ad to listen but also
know how to communicate with English speaking people. It is undeniable that the
speaking ability is a good source of motivation for most students. Therefore, in the
speaking lessons, teachers should know how to adopt appropriate speaking
activities which can raise general learner motivation and making the English
language classroom a nice and dynamic place to be. GW is one of the main and
suitable ways that the teachers can help students practice what they have learnt,
finds ways to achieve communicative objectives.

1.3. Group work
1.3.1. Definition
So far, GW has been in favors of a great numbers of researchers all over the world.
Naturally, this topic has been approached in a numbers of different ways.
To begin with, Johnson and Smith (1991:15) states that "group work, in language
class, is a co- operative activity, during which students share aims and
responsibilities to complete a task assigned by the teacher in groups or in pair".
In addition, Nunan and Lamb (1996:142) have observed that GW is designed as any
classroom activity in which learners perform collaborative tasks with one or more
speakers. Participating in group, learners can join actively in the learning process.
They do not have to sit passively and listen to their teachers. Every student has more
chances for opportunities for independence and they can have some learning
decisions. They learn to listen to others‟ ideas, thoughts, learn to practice discussing
and negotiating. Apparently, GW has been considered one of the main changes to the
dynamics of classroom interaction wrought by students-centered teaching.
According to Harmer (2007:166) GW is defined as a generic term covering a
multiplicity of techniques in which two or more students are assigned a task that
involves collaboration and self initiated language. Furthermore, Hybels and Weaver
(2009) claimed that a GW is a small group consisting of three to thirteen members
interacting with one another where each person influences and is influenced by
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others. On the other hand, Harmer (2001) mentioned that a group activity is a small
group of around five students who show greater involvement and participation than
larger groups.
From the above definitions, it can be concluded that GW is a student-centered way
of teaching that emphasizes collaboration, cooperation, and teamwork in groups of
perhaps six or fewer so that learners have more opportunities to construct
knowledge and accomplish tasks through collaborative interaction. During the

learning process in group, learners can share the responsibility of getting the job
done and doing the planning, preparation and presentation of their gathered
information as a team.
1.3.2. Types of GW activities
There are many types of GW activities introduced by different experts in promoting
speaking skills among students. However, those GW activities cannot be done at
one time but teachers must be creative to choose the best activity that is suitable for
any particular time. Brown (2001) also defines and characterize some typical group
tasks as follows:
1.3.2.1. Game
A game can formalize a technique into units that can be scored in some ways. It
helps and encourages many learners to sustain their interest and work.
Moreover, a game also helps the teacher to create contexts in which the language is
useful and meaningful. The learners want to take part and in order to do so must
understand what others are saying or have written, and they must speak or write in
order to express their own point of view or give information. Guessing games are
common language classroom activities. Like who am I? Or what am I? Where every
student thinks of a famous person, an object or an animal and his/her classmates
make guesses until what was thought is found.
1.3.2.2. Role-play and simulations
 Role-play minimally involves giving a role to one or more members of a
group and assigning an objective or purpose that participants must accomplish. It
involves the learners in real life communication and helps them reduce their fears of
performing in front of people. A very popular role play activity is “the soap”. In the
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“soap” learners “plan, rehearse, and perform” a short passage from a soap opera.
The other students, later on, are free to give their opinion about the participants‟
performance and about the message they transmit.

 Simulations involve evaluating learning of curricular content that is based
on an actual situation. Simulations, designed to replicate a real-life situation as
closely as desired, has students assume roles as they analyze data, make decisions
and solve the problems inherent in the situation. As the simulation proceeds,
students respond to the changes within the situation by studying the consequences
of their decisions and subsequent actions and predicting future problems/solutions.
1.3.2.3. Drama
Drama is a more formalized form of role-play and simulation, with a preplanned story line and script. It fosters and maintains students' motivation, by
providing an atmosphere which is full of fun and entertainment. In so doing, it
engages feelings and attention and enriches the learners' experience of the language.
Sometimes small groups can write the script about any events they like and rehearse
them. However, this technique is quite time-consuming and is rarely formed part of
a typical school curriculum.
1.3.2.4. Interview
Interview is the verbal conversation between two people with the object of getting
the story behind a participant‟s experiences. It may be useful as follow-up to certain
respondents. In fact, interview is usually used for pair work, however, it is also
suitable for GW with different level of proficiency.
1.3.2.5. Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a technique which initiates some sort of thinking process. It is
often put to excellent use in preparing students to discuss a complex issue.
Furthermore, it engages students in a rapid-fire, free-association listing of concepts,
ideas, facts or feeling relevant to some topic or context.
1.3.2.6. Information gap
It is a type of activity which makes students accomplish a task through using the
language while concentrating on meaning rather than structure of the language, so
therefore learners learn by doing. The two main characteristics of this technique are
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its primary attention to information and not to language forms and the necessity of
communicative interaction in order to reach the objective. The information that
students must seek can range from easy to difficult.
1.3.2.7. Projects
Almost hands-on approaches to language take great advantages to young learners,
certain projects can be rewarding indeed. For example, the teacher shows a topic on
famous people, of course, different small groups can do and share different things
relate to this topic.
1.3.2.8. Problem solving and decision making
Problem solving is a quite popular activity with learners. It requires small groups to
solve a specified problem. The problem might be relatively simple like giving
directions on a map, moderately complex like arranging a trip, or quite complex
such as dealing with a political or moral dilemma.
Decision making is one kind of problem solving technique where the ultimate goal
is for students to make a decision.
1.3.2.9. Opinion exchange
Opinion exchange is type of technique which involves students in giving their own
ideas or sharing their thoughts, may be agreeable or disagreeable with one given
issue by other student. However, this technique seems quite difficult for beginning
learners to deal with.
In opinion exchange, the teacher must assure all students in the class that, while
there may be disagreement on issues, all opinions are to be valued, not scorned, and
respected, not ridiculed.
1.3.3. Benefits of using GW activities in speaking lesson
The source of benefits of group-work can be seen in many different fields, consists
of improving students speaking skill. In the best group-work activity in a language
classroom, the participants of a learning group can benefit in several ways.
Firstly, Brown (2001) states that students' responsibility and autonomy are
promoted through GW activities. Participating in GW activity, a new social context
in created whereby all students work together, share their ideas, retell the story or

discuss certain topic in English. In addition, one of their main tasks is being in
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charge of their group activities. Every learner is in charge of his own and each other
speaking, so there is a friendly help and high personal interdependence between
them.
Secondly, learners' participation, talking time and oral fluency are improved
through group. With traditional method in teaching speaking, the teacher tends to be
the only person who initiates language in an artificial setting and the whole-class
becomes a “group interlocutor”. According to Richard and Nunan (1987) GW
provides opportunities for children to talk freely, and it is generally accepted that
this improves their language. As for Ur (1996:232), students can have a learning
task during small interaction in GW and it is considered as a kind of their activation
and is very valuable for practicing of fluency in speaking. If there are 5 groups in a
class; students can get 5 times as some chance to speak as in a big class.
Apparently, the more chances learners have to talk and interact, the more progress
they achieve.
Furthermore, Brown (2001) also indicates that GW is a step toward individualizing
instruction. As we know, no one has the same knowledge of language with others,
as each learner has different language needs and ability. Thus, the teachers have
some difficulties in managing the class with students at different levels of language.
GWcan be used for the application of brainstorming, a task which is often too
difficult for individuals to do, but is easy to do successfully in groups where
individual goals can be achieved. Also, Connery (1988:35) states that the best way
to ensure comparable effort amongst all the group members is to design activities in
which there is a clear division of labor and each student must contribute if the group
is to reach its goal.
Finally, the students' motivation is improved through GW activities. In another
word, GW offers a positive affective climate. It can encourage learners to use freely

the language in front of the class and the teacher. Moreover, it is one of the most
effective ways to motivate participants to become more involved. Richards and Loc
Khart (1994) point out that, students not only play more active roles in the learning
process but also get the benefits of sharing ideas with their team member through
taking part in groups. Doff (1988:141) states " students fell less anxiety when they
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